See the Allegany River Dancers perform traditional songs and social dances of the Iroquois Nation at a special evening showcasing Native American heritage at the Blasco Library Hirt Auditorium on Friday, May 3, 6 to 9 p.m. The dancers are one of the best known indigenous dance troupes around, having performed throughout the U.S., Canada, and in Europe. Highlights of their performance will include the Iroquois smoke dance, a very fast contest dance, as well as the hoop dance, where hoops are used make designs and shapes representing birds, animals and themes from nature. All performers will be wearing traditional Native American regalia and all music will be performed live.

The evening will also include an engaging presentation by storyteller and longtime educator Perry Ground. He will recount stories and the history of the Onondaga Turtle Clan, of which he is a member, along with stories and lore from other Native American cultures.

Also part of the event, Tonawanda Seneca and ordained aboriginal spritual leader Leon Sam Briggs will give a talk about Chief Cornplanter. Cornplanter was both a warrior chief and a diplomat of the Seneca Wolf Clan who live to be 100 years old (1736-1836). During his lifetime he strove to bring peace between the Iroquois and the newly formed United States government. After his death, a monument was erected on his grave near Bradford, PA. At the dedication, the Honorable James Ross Snowden of Philadelphia spoke of Cornplanter saying, “He was a dauntless warrior and the wisest statesman of his nation, the patriarch of this tribe and the peacemaker of his race…Truth, temperance, justice and humanity, never had a nobler incarnation or more earnest and consistent advocate than he.”

The Native American heritage event on May 3, at the Blasco Library Hirt Auditorium, is free and open to the public. It is being sponsored by the Lake Erie Group of the Pennsylvania Chapter Sierra Club, as part of its commitment to environmental justice and cultural diversity.