A Pine Tree
Q: “You have been busy organizing an alliance of environmentally-aware groups along the Susquehanna River. Tell us about this.”
Chief Paul Waterman: “I have wampum from my nation, and from the Grand Council. I wasn't elected for this work. I was selected. And this work is to be Gauyesa Toyentha, or to be 'the messenger.' My role is to bring a message to non-Indian people along the Susquehanna and the rivers that are connected. And my message is to work together to clean and protect these rivers. Then we have a new confederacy.
“My goal is to teach people that the Susquehanna was my people's first highway. It is an actual bloodline of Mother Earth. My message is that the Susquehanna is sacred, and deserves our greatest respect. This is why I tell all environmentalists that it is important that we work together. Again, the Two Row Wampum Belt.”
Sometimes, things come in three's. Today my European son-in-law, who has recently become fascinated with the fall of the Inca empire, asked me about my favorite period of North American history? Since 1965, it has been the Revolutionary War era in the area where I grew up. More, I've been invited to be a guest speaker in one county over from where I was raised at a celebration of our country's 250th anniversary party. I will talk about the influence of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy on the Founding Fathers. One of Chief Waterman's grandfather's grandfathers was among the Sachems meeting to create a unified government at the 1754 meeting at the Albany Congress, as well as in Philadelphia. So I know those stories. And third, the 2026 mid-terms are approaching, and I think a lot about how to get the greatest number possible of Democrats elected at all levels.
I've also had a few people ask me this week about what we should be doing to prepare for the mid-terms? I've been using an example from 2010 that older community members here might remember. The then town supervisor of a community two counties away from where I now live, along with his board member step son, made the national and international news when they attempted to force a tiny Sufi settlement outside a tiny hamlet to destroy their perfectly legal cemetery. I should note that the pair had recently been kicked out of the area's Tea Party for being too extreme. I am convinced that a DNA study would conclude they are the “missing link” between the Tea Party and maga.
The county and town Democratic Party asked me if I would travel there and help run the then upcoming town elections. This town had never had a Democratic Party majority on its board, and if I'm going to do something, I like a challenge. I wouldn't be satisfied in getting one Democrat on the board, though it would tie the record. At this time, well over half the registered voters were republicans, with independent voters second, and Democrats being the minority.
As a young teen, my father – a first generation Irishman from an FDR adoring extended family who thought LBJ would have been even greater but for that war – taught me to follow the patterns of voting in a four-county area our family lived in. My father was a math savant, and remembered everything in his head. But I had to save the region's newspapers that reported on the various results. Dad said that even in places were there was an even split between parties, or with a small majority of Democrats, the republican's frequently won. He showed me how their numbers stayed about the same, election after election ….. proving, Dad said, that republicans had a better system of getting out their voters. We must, he said, come up with a system that is superior to their's.
Perhaps because the town supervisor was an evil man (in a non-religious meaning per forensic psychology), a few more people started coming to this town's Democratic Party meetings. This included a couple of registered independents who recognized that the only path to having their voices heard was to actively support the Democratic Party. Both were friends of mine who once were among the hippies supporting George McGovern, but had left our party decades after the 1972 elections.
Now, the party leaders were good at promoting voter registration, attending board meetings, going door-to-door in the village to hand out fliers, and call registered voters to get them out. Still, even if every registered Democrat got out to vote, their candidates would continue to lose. We had to do more. And there were cracks in the wall we could exploit, starting with simply letting merchants know the town was getting a bad name due to this freak and his step-son. That can do damage to the town's economy.
Long story a tad bit shorter, a few of us who were able to took the same approach as did the Peacemaker and later Hiawatha in ancient times. Interestingly, it was the same approach that Rubin Carter took in Rahway State Prison, at a tense time when prison riots were common. Rubin had helped put down a riot at Trenton previously, saving the life of the warden and two guards. He was a
hermit at Rahway, until I told him to take steps to avoid a riot. So he ran to be the president of the prisoner's council, and by campaigning in a specific way, he unexpectedly won.
Now, some people are comfortable just talking with registered Democrats. That is important work. But with the reality today – that there are more independents than Democrats or republicans – it is obviously essential that some of us do outreach to independents. Not everyone is able to do that for a variety of reasons. Others can. Of course, one must use the basic model of the three groups found in Politics 101.
More, it includes targeting those independents that are influential among their peers. Once you have found common ground with them, and get their support for Democratic Party candidates as our best hope for dealing with today's social-political emergencies, one can be confident they will influence their peers to vote for our candidates.
"I'm not sure everything can be explained. Some things you either understand, or you just don't. Maybe the goal should be to teach respect for other people, even if you don't fully understand them.”
Onondaga Chief Paul Waterman, 2001
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Rec. 
