Confluence Park

Confluence Park. Celebrating the Native American presence in Binghamton through the park's design. This park capitalizes on the natural beauty of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers, maintaining a strong vista of the river confluence. The hub of a network of Binghamton's riverfront greenways, the park was planned to provide safe public access to the river resource and downtown. An overlook and entry plaza incorporate early American symbolism in pavements and plantings, and provide a venue for outdoor recreation and education. , Iroquois Creation Myth. Designed by Michael Haas, a local landscape architect, and sculpted by Brian Davis, Binghamton University, the metal casting, located at the center of the Overlook Plaza, represents the Iroquois Creation Myth. The great sea Turtle received Sky Woman when she fell. She planted roots and plants, eventually creating the Earth known as Turtle Island. , The phrase "Peace and Friendship Forever" comes from the Guswenta, or Two-Row wampum belt. , Two Peoples...Two Journeys. The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) created the Two-Row (Guswenta) wampum belt to symbolize the separate, but equal, paths followed by Native Americans and the Euro-Americans who arrived in [illegible]. The two strands of colored beads signify the paths of two boats along the same river. One path represents a canoe containing the Haudenosaunee peoples; the other a ship with Euro-Americans. Each boat carries the customs and laws of each nation. , Their paths are parallel, reflecting a journey made together, but as separate nations, with neither side attempting to steer the other's vessel. The paving pattern shown above echoes the design of the Two-Row wampum belt.