Paying homage to our native ancestors in celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day
October 13, 2022 at 7:03 a.m.
A group of Aztec dancers enthralls a small assemblage of community leaders and other residents (Rabbi Ben Goldberg of Congregation KTI and Port Chester Trustee Joan Grangenois-Thomas pictured here) at the first-ever local gathering to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day on Saturday, Oct. 8 on the lawn at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Rye Brook. On the drum is Armondo Sedano, originally from Morelos, Mexico and now Queens, in the middle is Xochitl Blanca Gomez of Port Chester and at right is lead dancer Dianna Ferrer, originally from Veracruz and now the Bronx. The dancers are carrying on the traditions of their ancestors, the indigenous people of Mexico.
Inside the church, where displays were set up, Quintard Drive resident Kikki Short, who is on the board of the Port Chester Historical Society, talks about the history of the people native to the area that is now Port Chester, the Wiechquaeskeck, who likely inhabited the land from Norwalk, Conn. to the Hudson River. They were a part of the larger Munsee and the still larger Lenape group that inhabited the land from Western Connecticut to Eastern Pennsylvania, and the Hudson Valley to Delaware, with Manhattan at its center. However, she said, “it is hard to pin down an exact people at an exact place at an exact time.”
Aztec dancer Xochitl Blanca Gomez of Port Chester leads attendees in a dance encircling a tree on the church grounds.
