Perspective from a writer with Native American and Italian heritage
A COLUMN By Kathryn Ross
Monday was Indigenous Peoples Day and or Columbus Day. It doesn’t matter which to me. I’m a little like Elizabeth Warren that way. I was always told as a child that my mother’s family had Indian blood. But don’t call me Pocahontas. You can call me Dehhewanis. That was Mary Jemison’s Iroquois name.
Also, I’m Italian, so I celebrated Columbus Day as an Italian holiday and a day off from school for many years. Now WOKE, I look at Columbus Day and Columbus a little differently than I did as a child.
I celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day, because Indigenous people deserve a holiday and Thanksgiving Day doesn’t quite get it and, well, Custer’s Last Stand Day wouldn’t be exactly appropriate for many reasons. Did you know a survivor of Custer’s Last Stand actually made his home in Wellsville for many years. You would know that if you were a member of the Thelma Rogers Genealogical and History Society and received the organization’s quarterly newsletter.
Maybe instead of Columbus Day we should celebrate Amerigo Vespucci Day, the Italian explorer for whom America is named. He was born in Florence on March 9, 1454 and was an explorer, navigator and popular author who voyaged to the North American continent in 1497,1499 and1501. He published colorful descriptions of the trips that were the best sellers at that time.
Mapmaker Martin Waldseemüller recognized Vespucci’s accomplishments in 1507 by applying the Latinized form “America” to a map showing the New World. Other cartographers followed suit, securing the tradition of marking the name “America” on maps of the newly discovered continents.
Seems to me it might be more ethical to celebrate Vespucci rather than Columbus.
This week I have a luncheon with my classmates from 1968. It’s just a little talk-about. Something the class coordinators like to pull together a couple of times a year. Not special, but then special in a different way.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday are busy days for Wellsville and the county. The SPCA’s annual Basket Auction and the Annual Artisan’s Tour both get underway Friday. The SPCA event takes place on the Wellsville campus of Alfred State College Friday evening and Saturday, while the Tour takes place across the county with a preview in seleced studios Friday and continues on Saturday and Sunday. Maps are available everywhere or at alleganyartisans.com
Nearly four decades have gone by and I’m still writing about this group of artisans who call this area home?
I remember reading a New York Times article before the Artisans our started. A writer had discovered Andover and wrote that it was going to be the next artist enclave, comparing it to New York City and Catskills. Well, it came true with the Artisans Tour. Now everyone across Western New York, northern Pennsylvania, parts of Canada and Ohio know just how artistic Allegany County is. It is something we need to celebrate more and enhance through tourism. In my humble opinion.
With Sunday comes the annual RidgeWalk and Run. Sandwich signs along the Arterial are reporting that more than 1,000 people will be hiking through the woods on Alma Hill or running along its trails.
I wonder if founder Rich Shear ever dreamed it would become so popular when he was running many of those same lonely trails years ago. Did he think his idea of contacting his neighbors for permission to cross their land, opening the out of doors for hundreds to get healthy and revived would become what it is today? Of course, things really took off when Jones Memorial Hospital volunteers and Jim Helms got involved. But let us not forget that the event came from Rich Shear’s heart.
And, let us not forget that on Saturday Wellsville will be taking part in a national event, No Kings Day to respond to the authoritative policies the President has put forth since taking office.
In Wellsville from 10 a.m. to noon attendees will line up on the “skywalk” that spans the four-lane Genesee Parkway (Arterial) connecting Island Park and Tullar Field. Any overflow will line public walkways around the bridge.
Those participating are advised to carry BIG signs so that they will be visible to the cars passing under the bridge and readable through the mesh enclosure.
And don’t worry, I already checked with NYSDOT, who owns the bridge, that the nearly 60-year-old structure is safe to hold that many people and many more. It is estimated that at least 200 will be waving signs and standing in defiance.
And that is just this weekend, there is more to come.
