WATERTOWN — People gathered in downtown Watertown on Saturday to take part in the Native American Solar Eclipse Festival, and celebrate The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, democracy and the solar eclipse.

The idea for the festival is based on an eclipse from long ago that marked the unification of the five nations. The Mohawks, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca were brought together by a “visionary peacemaker,” and in August 1142, after the moon and sun aligned, the Haudenosaunee were formed.

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Native performances

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To celebrate this event, the Downtown Business Association organized a day full of Native performances on Franklin Street, a Native marketplace in the Paddock Arcade, and Native exhibits and education center in the Franklin Building.

The marketplace was full of booths selling jewelry, crafts, food and beverages, psychic readings and herbal remedies.

Melissa McCann, Syracuse, of the Oneida Nation, Turtle Clan, was selling crafts at her Designs by Melissa stand.

She said she will be heading north to Akwesasne on Monday to watch the eclipse and is excited to see it.

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Different meanings

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McCann said that the event has different meanings for every person.

“There are a few ways that you could look at it. There are your stories of lore. You know, as they say, the Raven took the Sun. Or other Nations would say, you know, how the squirrel ate the sun,” she said.

McCann has her own beliefs about the meaning of the eclipse.

“I was taught that it is grandmother moon.”

The grandmother moon, McCann said, “is there in all the darkness and has all this energy to give out there to all the women. All the young ladies and females. All this energy. In the darkness, in the full moon, she is there shining this light down, every time, all the time.”

Grandmother moon is seldom seen during daylight hours.

“And grandmother moon is at nighttime. Very, very few times grandmother moon comes out full force right smack-dab in the middle of the day. So, there is a reason it comes out,” McCann said.

“And here she is — she has all that energy to give out there, and its grandmother moon and it’s out there for me, so I’m going to take full advantage of it and just see what she has there for me.”

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“Once in a lifetime”

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As McCann continued talking with visitors in the Arcade, the “Along the Water” dance performance was happening just around the corner on Franklin Street.

Brenda Donato and Andrea Sprague, both from Watertown, were impressed by the performance. The show involved several people dancing around a group that was sitting and keeping the rhythm with instruments.

“I couldn’t keep going like that,” said Donato.

For the eclipse, they will be heading to their cottage on Pilar Point to view it.

“It’s very exciting — can’t wait.” Sprague said.

“It’s once in a lifetime,” said Donato.