Summer on Tuscarora in Western New York:Entry One: Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. For those of you who might have forgotten who I am allow me to remind you. My name is Fileve Palmer-Stahlman and for the past few months I have been with my husband (Joseph Stahlman) on Tuscarora Indian Nation helping him do his dissertation research. Tuscarora is 20 minutes outside of Niagara Falls, NY. I know my ambassadorial scholarship is supposed to be in South Africa but I am sure you all would be interested to know how we are doing.
So far we have been to the Falls 3 times, been on the Maid of the Mist (the boat company with the monopoly to take tourists into and nearly under the Falls) once, the Seneca Casino twice (only to admire the décor!), and the one and only Starbucks in the Falls countless times because they have free internet and I really liked the Frappes during the hot summer days. Another place we frequent for internet and Joe’s fix for espresso is the Orange Cat, in Lewiston, NY. This is a sleepy little town by Niagara River and a 20 minute bike ride away from the reservation (we only did that once and got a wave J). We also visited the BrickYard BBQ pit a few times for their tasty salads, but decided we were going way too much so stopped lest we overdose and ruin a good thing.
Entry Two: Joe and I try to run daily with our little pup Karly and when we don’t run we try to walk. The puppy is not even a year old and has the muscle development of a year old dog. We are on the road so much so that people we don’t know know us and we’re constantly getting waves from passers-by.
Entry Three: In July Joe and I ran the annual Tuscarora 10K run that takes place the Saturday morning of the Nation’s picnic. We ran the course that started at the school, onto the local state highway running through the rez, up to the reservoir (that covers part of reservation land), and back down the road heading toward the school. It was a long run and despite our training we finished in an hour and seven minutes or so. Joe could’ve finished earlier, but because he vowed to stay with me, sacrificed speed to cheer me on. What a great guy!
Entry Three: In July Joe and I ran the annual Tuscarora 10K run that takes place the Saturday morning of the Nation’s picnic. We ran the course that started at the school, onto the local state highway running through the rez, up to the reservoir (that covers part of reservation land), and back down the road heading toward the school. It was a long run and despite our training we finished in an hour and seven minutes or so. Joe could’ve finished earlier, but because he vowed to stay with me, sacrificed speed to cheer me on. What a great guy!
When we finished the race we got to get some breakfast treats, yogurt, bananas, breakfast bars, and water for recovery. Joe wanted to leave to take a shower but I convinced him he placed. Low and behold he got 3rd place for his age group and gender. I got 2nd place for mine. So despite the pain I suffered, I did better than last year and was happy that Joe got a metal even though he did worse in his time.
After the race recover and shower, we were taken to watch our first box lacrosse game. It was a junior division league and although the boys were still learning there were some really skillful moments, as well as some really rough ones. We learned the rules of the game and the difference between box and field lacrosse.
