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Article: HIS LIFE'S WORK ON THE IROQUOIS IS TOTAL RECALL.(CAPITAL REGION)
- Article from:
- Albany Times Union (Albany, NY)
- Article date:
- September 18, 1996
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Albany Times Union. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: CHRISTOPHER RINGWALD Staff writer
Guilderland William N. Fenton, the 88-year old dean of Iroquois studies who has been instrumental in recording and preserving the culture's ancient traditions, gestured with empty hands when asked for a prop to spice up a photographic profile.
``I don't have any artifacts, they're all in my head,'' said Fenton. Clear-eyed and genial, Fenton resonates with a lifetime of interest, study and field research. His reliance on memory, rather than objects, evokes the oral traditions that form the backbone of the Iroquois.
The confederacy, founded centuries before the Europeans arrived, began with five tribes ...