Indian Run

The area on which this courthouse sits was visited frequently 9,000 years ago by archaic Indians in search of stone materials for the manufacture of arrowheads, spear points and scraping tools.  Thousands of these artifacts remain buried below this site.  Indian Creek, which ran across this site at one time, was a stream of many uses for these early inhabitants. 

This small park, designed by Jim Sanborn, draws on the knowledge of these things for its inspiration.  The long stone outcropping with its stream and waterfall recall the original Indian Run and the serpentine walkway, the archaic Indian moundbuilders.  The bronze cylinder at the end of the walkway is perforated with the text of the Iroquois Books of the Great Law.  The text itself is written in Onondaga and was translated from the ancient oral tradition of the five Iroquois nations.  It is believed by many scholars that Benjamin Franklin drew from the manuscript when he was designing the U.S. Constitution.  The following is the English translation of the Onondaga text:

THE DIFFERENT NATIONS, WILL BECOME JUST A SINGLE ONE, AND THE GREAT LAW WILL COME INTO BEING, FOR NOW EVERYONE WILL BE RELATED, AND THERE WILL COME TO BE JUST A SINGLE FAMILY. ~ HE SAID, “EACH NATION SHALL CONTRIBUTE ONE ARROW, THAT IS, FIVE ARROWS, AND WE WILL MAKE A BUNDLE OF THEM, SO THAT THEY WILL BECOME ONE. ~ OBSERVE WHAT I DO TO COMPLETE THE MATTER.”  HE PICKED UP THE ARROWS ONE BY ONE, PUTTING THEM TOGETHER AND MAKING A BUNDLE.  THEN HE USE DEER SINEW TO TIE IT STURDILY. FIVE TIMES HE TIED THE LENGTH OF THE ARROWS, THEN HE SAID, “NOW I HAVE FINISHED, AND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT IS FIVE ARROWS WHICH I HAVE JOINED TO MAKE A SINGLE ONE, AND THIS MEANS THAT NOW WE ARE JOINING TOGETHER IN THE GOOD MESSAGE AND THE POWER AND THE PEACE.”

YOU CHIEFS SHALL SEPARATE INTO FIRESIDES AS ‘FATHERS’ AND ‘SONS’ OR ‘MOIETY BROTHERS’. ~ SIT DOWN ON BOTH SIDES OF THE FIRE, YOU CHIEFS. AS FOR THATOTAH?, THE FIREKEEPERS, HE WILL SIT WHERE THE FIRE ENDS. ~ WHEN YOU ON THE ‘FATHERS’ SIDE RAISE AN ISSUE, YOU, TEKAIHOK?, WILL START OUT BY DISCUSSING IT WITH YOU CHIEFLY COLLEAGUES. AFTER YOUR GROUP HAS REACHED A DECISION, YOU WILL REFER IT TO YOUR MOIETY BROTHERS ON THE SAME SIDE, SKANYATAIO? AND HIS COLLEAGUES. JUST IN CASE YOU MOIETY BROTHERS HAVE REACHED UNANIMITY, APPOINT ONE PERSON TO BE YOUR SPEAKER, AND HE SHALL MOVE THE QUESTION ACROSS THE FIRE TO THE OTHER MOIETY, THAT OF THE ‘SONS’, EXPLAINING YOUR DECISION; FOR ONCE THE MOIETY BROTHERS HAVE REACHED UNANIMITY, IT IS THE TURN OF THOSE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FIRE.

THEREUPON THE ‘SONS’, HO?TATSHEHTE? AND HIS COLLEAGUES, SHALL TAKE UP THE MATTER AND CONSIDER THEIR DECISION, AND THEN THEIR MOIETY BROTHERS HAKA??YUK AND HIS COLLEAGUES. UNTIL A SINGLE OPINION DEVELOPS AMONG THEM. THEN THEIR SPEAKER SHALL REFER THE MATTER BACK ACROSS THE FIRE TELLING THOSE ON THE OTHER SIDE WHETHER THE MOIETY BROTHERS CONFIRMED IT UNANIMOUSLY AND HOW THEY PROCEED WITH RESPECT TO THE ISSUE THE ‘FATHERS’ RAISED. ~ SUBSEQUENTLY, THEIR SPEAKER WILL DIRECT THE DECISION OF THE TWO MOIETIES TO THATOTAHO?, THE FIREKEEPERS, SAYING, “THEY ARE UNANIMOUS, AND NOW THEY ARE PLACING THE MATTER IN FRONT OF YOU.” THE FIREKEEPER WILL TAKE UP THE MATTER PLACED BEFORE HIM, AND CONSIDER IT CAREFULLY. THEN HE DECIDES, THAT IS, HE SHALL CONFIRM THE RESULT OF THEIR DELIVERATIONS. THEREAFTER THE DECISION BECOMES LAW.

NOW WE WILL LIGHT A FIRE WHOSE SMOKE WILL RISE, THE BEAUTIFUL SMOKE PIERCING THE SKY.  MOREOVER, WE WILL PLANT OURSELVES A TREE WE SHALL CALL ‘OUR GREAT TREE’. IT WILL PUT FORTH ROOTS. IT WILL GROW FOUR ROOTS ONE OF WHICH WILL GO TOWARDS THE EAST, THE SECOND TOWARDS THE WEST, THE THIRD ROOT WILL GO TOWARDS THE SOUTH, AND THE FOURTH TOWARDS THE NORTH. ~ NOW THERE IS A SINGLE HOUSE AND A SINGLE FAMILY, WE HAVING UNITED, AND THIS WE SHALL CALL ‘OUR LEAGUE’. WE HAVE COMPLETED OUR HOUSE, AND WE CALL IT ‘OUR LONGHOUSE’. ~ WE WILL KEEP COMING HERE, TO THE PLACE OF THE LEAGUE, THE PLACE OF THE PRINCIPAL–THE GREAT–FIRE, WHERE SMOKE WILL BE RISING, PIERCING THE SKY.