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2004-2021. 35mm and Digital Still Images.
Casconchiagon Northstar Valley
The Title of this project is RiverRat; a hyper local colloquial term for people from the neighborhood who frequent the riverside likened to the Muskrat, Ondatra zibethicus.
All research for this project was done at Rochester Central Public Library. This photographic project began when I was 14 over 20 years ago as a record of the local ecology and surroundings I would find in my neighborhood river valley with my brother Jonathan. Fortunately a biodiverse space occurring and preserved largely out of happenstance. Influenced by nature books our mother and grandmother's photo albums and scrapbooks we wanted to make a field guide for our family and friends. It has since evolved through research taking into context local history and contemporary matters facing residents including the effects of institutionalized racism and colonialism on the people and natural environment and the connections that bind each. The area photographed is Casconchiagon, a village of the Seneca known as the Onondowahgah among members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and after settlement in the area it became known as two adjacent settlements on either side of the Genesee river Carthage and Kelseys Landing. The project is focused on the adjoining neighborhoods and 1.8 mile stretch of river valley of largely limestone and shale gorge wall split by glaciers and later erosion from the north flowing Genesee river.
Tucked away within the post industrial inner city landscape of Rochester NY northern crescent neighborhood residents take heed of a natural resource in their backyard. There they catch their limit of trophy sized salmon in an area long ago settled by multiple groups throughout history.
Once an expansive network of longhouses territory of the Seneca of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy members of the original Five Nations, the northern crescent was a biologically diverse space, the soil so rich the area was referred to as the fertile crescent. Soon after the Phelps and Gorham purchase and later settlement in the area many species began to disappear from the area. Old growth woods were cleared as the population increased. Two adjacent settlements on either side of the Genesee river Carthage and Kelseys Landing were built experiencing a moment of economic prosperity to later be dissolved into the growing settlement upstream (Rochester) after bankruptcy derivative of roads and railroads circumventing once popular use of steamships and a crippling fire destroying much of Carthage. Rochester, once a boomtown with much of its contemporary infrastructure directed by major industrial complexes Kodak and Xerox is now in moment of economic and population decline. However, simultaneously some native species including black bear, beavers, coyotes, mink, cormorants and sturgeon aided by environmental conservationists efforts are experiencing a population rebound. Though migratory atlantic salmon once finding their way by homing signal to the Genesee river from the far away atlantic ocean are now blocked by hydroelectric dams owned by a privately owned overseas firm who controls the area's utilities. There is a local effort to transition to public utility. There is an expansive northwest coho salmon and trout stocking program yielding such voracious populations it has sustained populations of a non-native atlantic species of sea lamprey. Every fall the area is swarmed by fisherman from around the world to catch their take. There are many invasive plants, trees and insects in the area decimating the soil and local ecology. You are now hard pressed to find native species of trees and plants as well as many invertebrate insects.
Remnants and bricks of the original structures of Carthage and Kelseys Landing still lay at the waters edge and are used today in improvised riverside barbecues. Many northern crescent residents came to Rochester from southern states and Puerto Rico as early as the 1960s in search of opportunity. Often they found closed doors at opportune industries in town or at best took entry level agricultural and menial labor jobs with little or no upward mobility. Illegal segratory housing practices restricted newcomers to old housing stock in the north east quadrant of Rochester(Northern Crescent). Barred from the social economic resources of the south and east sides of the city the legacy lasts today in de-facto school segregation, blatant inequalities, demographics, attitudes, and opportunities. Out of happenstance the neighborhood sits beside this largely left alone natural resource.
After the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act enacted by congress enabled the capture and return of runaway slaves within the territory of the U.S imposing penalties on anyone who aided in their flight, citizens at the port at Kelsey's Landing harbored escaped slaves who would board cargo steam ships bound for Canada. A historical marker at the location reads, "Freedom was assured for escaping slaves who boarded Canadian vessels here at the end of the Underground Railroad"
This project is a document of a people's reclamation of access to nature. Much has change since this project began over 20 years ago, my intentions focused on the preservation of the space, its history, and the natural environment contingent on the preservation of the cultural and socioeconomic class background of these neighborhoods and adjoined natural space highlighting the importance of their immediate access to this natural space forever. A visage of that 40 acres.
Sources/Resources
https://roccitylibrary.org/
https://ganondagan.org/
https://www.senecamuseum.org/
http://www.downtowndubiously.com/
http://houseofmercyrochester.org/
https://rochestermennonite.org/
LROC - Library Resource Outreach Center LROC
https://www.esf.edu/restorewildflowers
https://www.esf.edu/restorewildflowers/NYS%20Wildflower%20Identification%20Guide.pdf
https://unitedplantsavers.org/
www.lowerfallsfdn.com
geneseelandtrust.org