When I was a boy, I went to the Mid-Winter festival on the Tonawanda Indian Reservation, near Buffalo NY. Dan, one of the Boy Scout leaders in town, managed to get an invitation from the religious leader. Dan's adopted son is Seneca. He was too young to spend several days sitting around the longhouse in the middle of winter. Dan successfully claimed that he wanted to learn Iroquois traditions so that he could pass them on to his son. Dan, a 40+ year old scoutmaster and I were interested in native culture and were thrilled at the invitation to observe and participate in the festival.
