Many of us know the Sa Sa Na Loft story. It has been shared many times in newspaper articles, news clips, books, and by storytellers. Our most notable sources of the the Sa Sa Na story include LeRoy Kingman’s “Early Owego,” C.P. Avery’s “Yours Truly,” Marilyn Searles’ “Sa Sa Na Loft: Owego’s Indian Maiden,” and the Hosmer poem printed at the end of the article. For those who have never heard this story, here it is again in an abbreviated form.
The Lofts were a family of Mohawk Native Americans who in the early 1800’s were living on the Mohawk River in Canajoharie, N.Y. They are believed to be direct descendants of the great Mohawk leader Joseph Brant / Thayendanegea.
The Loft family was displaced during the Revolutionary War, they moved to the Mohawk Woods reservation on the north side of the Bay of Quinte on the Salmon River in Ontario. Sa Sa Na was born in 1830. Her two older siblings were formally educated at the area mission; they in turn home schooled Sa Sa Na. In addition, she took music lessons from a local pastor’s wife (Searles).
She was one four children raised by a widowed mother. Either through exceptional gifting, hard work, or both, Sa Sa Na developed a beautiful sweet singing voice, poise, and a command of the English language.
Realizing her blessings, she dedicated her life to her Mohawk people, she sought to educate and share her faith with them. This desire to serve was manifested by her and her siblings traveling to various New York state communities, singing, storytelling, and sharing with others their Christian faith in order to receive donations for their work. The donations would and did pay for translated Holy Bibles and books of learning in their Mohawk community.
One of those ministering occasions happened in February of 1852 in Owego, N.Y. Three Loft siblings had been invited there by the prominent Owegan, Judge Charles P. Avery. Judge Avery was also a student of Native American history.
For two days, Feb. 15 and 16, the Loft troupe ministered at the Avery home, brightening the minds, and warming the hearts of all in attendance. Their next engagement was an appearance in Deposit, N.Y.
The following day, Feb. 18, and as the Lofts were boarding a train in Deposit, they were alerted to a runaway train fast approaching. Sa Sa Na was unable to disembark the train car in time and suffered a horrific death as the runaway train slammed into the train in the station. Owegans, including Judge Avery, were truly heartbroken at this tragic loss. Avery convinced the Loft family to have her funeral at St. Paul’s in Owego, and her interment in the Avery vault in the First Presbyterian Church of Owego’s graveyard.
The Loft family had planned to bring Sa Sa Na back to Canada the following year for her permanent burial. Again, Judge Avery, and a variety of affected Owegans, including several ladies’ groups, successfully appealed to the Loft family to have Sa Sa Na reinterred to Owego’s relatively new Evergreen Cemetery and have a monument made in her honor.
Donations received from Owegans, and other communities where the Lofts had ministered, were collected and used to purchase an extraordinary and expensive 17-foot tall obelisk and the plot at Evergreen Cemetery. In May of 1855 and through great effort by the Owego community, the monument was completed and Sa Sa Na was reinterred to the scenic top of the hill resting on the east side of the obelisk, overlooking beautiful Owego. The inscription on one side of the obelisk reads, “By birth a daughter of the forest, by adoption a child of God.”
In 2020 we will recognize the 168th year of Sa Sa Na’s passing and the 165th year of Owego’s admiring and loving monument to her and what she represented.
What is the Sa Sa Na Monument all about? Well, it is a true story that depicts several qualities of our human nature that should be endorsed, taught, learned, and practiced over and over again. From our Owego community? Open hearts, open minds, and generosity, that demonstrated love by recognizing and memorializing someone not of great power, wealth or worldly importance, but one who possessed many fine qualities.
From Sa Sa Na? A wonderfully engaged life, faithfulness, innocence, kindness, a sweet demeanor and selfless determination in the face of a changing world. From both? Continued relevance for our world today.
I don’t know for certain that Sa Sa Na’s monument has been visited by someone everyday for the last 165 years, but I can tell you every time I have visited her, winter or summer, someone was there, and I am sure that you can say the same. So many of us are drawn there; dreamers, seekers, romantics, altruists, lovers of God, lovers of nature, people of all faiths, and people of no faith have come to Evergreen to visit her. We come to see what we can see, to feel what we can feel, and to hear what we can hear.
Do you hear that? Is she singing sweetly to us? Long live the memory of Sweet Sa Sa Na.
Look for some breaking news about Sa Sa Na’s monument in an upcoming article.
The following is an excerpt from William H. C. Hosmer’s poem, “Lament for SA-SA-NA” — 1852:
While the features kindle with a glow
More bright than Painting will ever know…
Her large black eye was ever bright
With flashing of electric light…
The shade of woods was in her hair
The blue bell’s grace in her queenly air
Oh! How I loved her voice to hear
Her teachers were the singing rills
And airy voices from the hills
And the heart of willing homage paid
To the matchless charms of the Mohawk maid
Hello,my name is Rope Loft of the Mohawk Nation in Upper Canada, along the Grand River Valley.
I embarked on my own personal journey of self discovery, unearthing a missing link to a long forgotten ancestor, Sa-sa-na, whom come to realize was indeed a great great great aunt
Hi Rope, It’s Curtis Schweiger jr I have always wanted to do some kind of a Tribute to Your Great, Great Aunt so I wrote a little something,I hope you Like It, SA,SA,NA,Loft ( Tribute ) Your Beautiful Voice Inspired Thousands, From Canada to Upstate New York, To This Mountain on High, to the Valley and River Below, Your Beautiful Spirit Flows Like a Feather Through the trees on the Breeze, Your Owego’s Indian Maiden, on Owego’s Highest Hill, Rest In Peace, SA,SA,NA, Loft Daughter of the Forest, Rest In Peace.