By Kellen M. Quigley | May 8, 2022 | salamancapress.com | Photo credit: Deb Everts, Salamanca Press
Photo above: The Nearly New, Native New store has a vibrant new look as shown by the wall mural.
SALAMANCA — Nearly New Boutique has evolved into something more and keeps growing. Located at 197 Center St. in the Center Street Plaza, Native New has recently been added and occupies half of the shop.
The store is owned by Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h, “We learn together” in Seneca, a nonprofit group of community volunteers dedicated to revitalizing the Seneca language and culture. The majority of proceeds go directly toward the future of the Faith Keeper School and its Montessori Seneca Language Nest.
Officially opening as a nonprofit store in August 2018, Nearly New is a community-based initiative that has been providing a selection of affordable clothing, accessories and home goods that have been generously donated for a cause. The Native New section has enhanced the store’s merchandise with new products created by Native American artists.
Volunteer Flip White said the majority of proceeds from sales on both sides of the store are distributed to the Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h organization to help support the Seneca language and culture projects.
“We always wanted to have a Native section in the store so we recently added Native New. Everything is new on that side of the store,” he said. “We buy this merchandise new. It’s not donated.”
Consultant Emily Cooper of the Allegany Territory works with the nonprofit organization and has been instrumental in the store’s public appeal. She said her main objective is helping to modernize the store and change it around to bring people in, because it’s so much more than a store.
Cooper is the connection between the store and the artists who have their work on display on the Native New side. Through her marketing and advertising skills, she’s been promoting the new section and working to give exposure not only to the artists, but also to the store and the cause.
“I explain what we are, what we do and why we want to bring them onboard,” she said. “I try to convince them to bring their art into our community and to the store.”
As with the Nearly New portion of the store, proceeds from the Native New merchandise also go to the same cause to help fund Seneca language and culture projects, mostly at the Faith Keepers School.
WHITE SAID the Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h group applied for a grant to benefit the Faith Keepers School and they were awarded a large, five-year grant. He said the goal is to provide teacher assistants to take over the classrooms in the afternoon, so the teaching staff can go into an immersion language class to learn more of the Seneca language. The grant allows them to fund two more teachers who have Montessori certification.
“We are trying to increase the amount of time that our language is spoken in the classroom. The goal isn’t to just speak Seneca; we also want the kids to learn subjects like math, science and history in the Seneca language,” he said. “It’s a five-year project, so each year there’s an incremental increase that we have to achieve. We are ending our second year in June.”
Current enrollment at the Faith Keepers School is 18 to 20 students that are age 3 to 6, White said. He said, after the five-year grant, they’ll be able to expand and have classrooms for kids age three to 12 years old.
White said the nonprofit, language program and related projects are much larger than the school itself. He said language nests are being developed to include those at the Cattaraugus Territory that has made remarkable progress.
“There are maybe 35 to 40 people who speak the Seneca language fluently, but that’s where the immersion comes into play,” he said. “We are trying to get more and more people to a proficient level. There are eight stages of language lost and we are in the last stage, next to basically losing it.”
White said the organization recently started a scholarship program. He said people can apply for small, startup scholarships up to $1,000 as long as they have funding. In return, they ask the recipient to volunteer 24 hours of their time at the store over the next year.
To thank the community for their support, White said the Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h members do a soup and biscuits dinner at the store in the fall around Thanksgiving. He said it’s free and they provide about 250 servings of all kinds of soups, biscuits, treats, cookies and candy for the kids. There is also a money give-away.
“We want people to come down and see what we’ve done. We are doing what Salamanca needs,” he said.
The store is open Thursday and Friday from noon to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. To donate items, stop by the store during open hours. All donations should be gently worn or used and fairly priced. Corn soup can be purchased at the store most weeks on Saturdays.
To find out more, call (716) 244-0431. Additional information about Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h can be found online at agwadeyestadogeh.com. Learn more about the Faith Keepers School online at faithkeepermontessori.com.
