Mason Winfield

I got a date on July 24 down in Olean. It's not with any living person, though. It's with a place, and in honor of an old friend. I wouldn't miss it for anything. If any of you are off that night around 7 you might join me and a couple of others there at the Olean Public Library. For Duce Bowen - the culture-keeper of the Allegany Seneca. Below is the press release:

The Olean Public Library will be holding a commemoration honoring the life and writing of Duwayne “Duce” Bowen, the Seneca author and storyteller. The program will take place on Thursday, July 24, at 7:00 P. M. and will include selected readings from his two books of Contemporary Seneca Indian Tales of the Supernatural (Bowman Books), and comments by family and friends. The event, which is free and open to the public, will also invite comments from anybody who knew him, or from those who are familiar with his works.

Among those of special interest in this evening of personal reflection, in addition to Mr. Bowen’s family, will be Grandma Edna Gordon, a Seneca elder and poet, whose last book, Voice of the Hawk Elder, was the winner in the Native American studies category of the 2007 National Best Books Award; Mason Winfield, “The Supernatural Historian,” and author of six published books on the Paranormal and Supernatural; and Virginia Richardson, a freelance writer, who was adopted into the Heron Clan. Her husband, Charles, was a close friend of Mr. Bowen’s and adopted as his brother in the Beaver Clan.

Markus Bowen, one of Mr. Bowen’s grandsons, will also share the platform. He will read one of his Grandfather’s stories.

Born in Salamanca, Duwayne Bowen (1946-2006) was a member of the Seneca Nation of Indians. He attended a one room school on Robinson Run, the Allegany Indian School, the Salamanca Schools, the Vale Technical School, Blairsville, PA, and took courses at Jamestown Community College. A descendant of John O’Bail, the Cornplanter, he was formerly the chairperson of the Cornplanter Descendants’ Association, an organization dedicated to preserving the only Indian Land in Pennsylvania, and to storing historical data. The Cornplanter was a Principal Chief of the Seneca People.

The Bowen family, victims of the Kinzua crisis, lost their land and their home to the waters of the Kinzua. (This was the forced removal of the Seneca People during the 1960’s due to the construction of the Kinzua Dam on the Allegany River). The breaking of the Pickering Treaty had a profound effect on those Senecas who were forced from their homes. According to Mr. Bowen’s widow, Jan, “Kinzua destroyed a way of life. Within a year and a half, we lost practically all of our old people. They died of a broken heart.” She feels much of her husband’s storytelling was deeply motivated by a desire to preserve the memory of this way of life.

This program is made possible through funding from the New York State Council on the Arts. For further information, call Robert Taylor, at the Olean Public Library, (716) 372-0200, or Pamela Bowen, at the Seneca Nation Library, (716) 945-3157.