Last weekend I traveled to the Adirondacks for the Catholic Ecology retreat with the St. Kateri Conservation Center. I am currently serving as a board member for the organization, and with the retreat within driving distance I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to attend. I was excited to meet Catholic friends I only knew online, learn some ecological tools I could implement in my home, and, honestly, have a quiet weekend away from the busyness (and volume level) of home and work. The experience was all that and so, so much more.
The Albany, NY region and points north is the ancestral homeland of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk), the tribal nation from which I descend through my father. I grew up near Buffalo, NY, and our tribal community is Six Nations of the Grand River, located near Toronto, Canada. The Mohawks were gradually, and eventually suddenly, dispersed due to the introduction of Christianity and the start of the Revolutionary War. Our community has been located in Canada for nearly 250 years, and all of our family stories are from there. I didn’t often think of our traditional homelands, to be honest. I grew up in New York State, so it all just sort of felt the same to me.
The instant I arrived in Ticonderoga, NY, on the shores of Lake Champlain, I was absolutely walloped with awe and emotion. I couldn’t stop staring at it as we drove over the bridge from Vermont into New York. This. This is where my people are from, and I could feel it in my bones. The landscape felt familiar and yet so new to me as we finished our drive and arrived on the banks of a different lake in northern New York. That night I began reading a new-to-me book, and it referenced one of the first moments of contact between the Mohawks and European settlers. On Lake Champlain in Ticonderoga, NY. OK, St. Kateri, I’m listening.
The rest of the weekend was full of these Holy Spirit moments of discovery, alongside open and thoughtful conversation with an incredible group of conservation-minded Catholics that love the Earth and its earliest North American inhabitants. Pyramid Life Center, where the retreat took place, put on an absolute clinic of natural beauty and hospitality. It is such a special place, and everyone felt it. Each time I walked outside I had to stop and stare at the lake in front of us. This is where my people are from. This is why they fought so hard and for so long to protect it from outsiders. It was like gazing upon an old friend I’ve had my entire life but never realized they were there.
My friend Kirby and I stopped in Ticonderoga on our way back. I wasn’t ready to leave. I wanted to savor every moment beside Lake Champlain. Memorize every wildflower growing in the ruins of the Revolutionary War-era British fort there. I had just discovered this ancient friend and now I already had to leave it behind. In my heart is a promise to return someday soon, this time with my family. I want my children to see this special place that is so important to the culture and history of our family. I want to take them to the St. Kateri Tekakwitha shrine two hours to the south, where she spent the formative years of her life. I pray the land speaks to them the way it spoke to me.
This is home.