Brenda Bush (Turtle Clan) remembers Dr. Erl Bates, the Cornell University professor, from her childhood. She said Dr. Bates would show up every spring, bringing seeds and little baby chicks.

“The seeds allowed us to plant a garden to help sustain us,” said Brenda. “And we’d raise chickens and have eggs. I thought it was a nice gesture on Dr. Bates’ part.”

According to the Cornell website, Dr. Bates began visiting Haudenosaunee farmers in the early 1900s. He brought Cornell-developed poultry, piglets and seeds, plus established a revolving loan fund to ensure the continuance of Indian agriculture during the Great Depression.

Cousins Sam (Onondaga) and Liz (Turtle Clan) Babcock remembered Dr. Bates bringing two dozen Rhode Island Red chicks to the families on the Onondaga reservation each year. Upon maturing, many of the chickens would produce double-yoked eggs, recalled Sam. While both he and Liz recalled the chickens fondly, they had less-than-admiring remarks for the roosters.

“They were just plain mean,” said Sam. Liz agreed, saying they always seemed to be lying in wait near the outhouse, waiting to jump on people as they approached the “necessary.”

Due to Bates’ influence in the 1920s, Cornell began an Indian Extension Program that was committed to agricultural and home economics training for Indian people in the state. This eventually grew into Cornell’s American Indian Program.

Dr. Bates is also remembered by the Haudenosaunee for his efforts to find exhibit space for them at the New York State Fair, although it was at a different location from the current Indian Village. The federal government, under the leadership of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, granted reservation status to the present-day site of the Indian Village.

“I remember Dr. Bates from the times I worked at the fair as a kid,” said Keller George, Wolf Clan Member of the Nation’s Council. “We would paint and sweep and clean, preparing the grounds and buildings for the fair.

“I was a kid, so to me he was a little old man. He wore a black hat and tan raincoat, no matter how hot it was. He was always busy scurrying about. He was a skinny guy. It seemed to me everyone at the Agricultural Society liked him.

“And I remember his main focus was making the Iroquois Indian Village run smoothly. Dr. Bates was involved in every aspect of the Indian Village from the soup house on; he ran the village.

“I also remember that he was the one that influenced the agriculture department at Cornell to give us baby chicks, sometimes little ducks and seeds to plant. These were greatly appreciated.”