Buck Hill…an obscure place in Linden

Sep 30, 2012 News

---

By Enid Joaquin

No more flying downhill in Kokerite boats! No more Wabanie under the Correa trees. No more bonfires under the big bamboo tree, with story telling of Kanaima, and other spirits- no more pepperpot simmering with every wild meat imaginable, and certainly, and sadly-no more cassava bread making!
‘Today the Amerindians here don’t make cassava bread; they buy cassava bread from other people who make it! It’s a shame!” an Amerindian, from Buck Hill recently said cynically.

Sad but true, that as we celebrated Amerindian Heritage this past month, for many Amerindians especially those living in and around Linden, the aforementioned are just nostalgic recollections, of cultural traditions that have all but disappeared.
There are too many things that our people no longer do, too much of “no more” and too little of carrying on of customs and traditions that have become all but forgotten.
The above scenario graphically illustrates the traditions lost, at what once was considered Linden’s only Amerindian reservation- “Buck Hill” also known as Wismar Hill which, as you might rightly conjecture, got the name because it was first inhabited by Amerindians, who remained the predominant race living there for many years. But things have changed.
Buck Hill, as this relatively small and obscure community is popularly called, has changed.
Curious
I remember vividly, my own curiosity about this place as a little girl, and wondering about the people who lived there. In my childhood mind I conjured up images of people running around, with feathered headdress and arrows and bows at the ready- images of trullie covered benabs with women baking cassava bread, and making pepperpot.
But by the time I was old enough to visit the community on my own; all semblance of Amerindian culture had disappeared.

Back then
There was no benab or trullie house, no cassava bread baking, and definitely- no wabanies!
I was disappointed, but that was short-lived, as I soon grew to love this quaintly beautiful place, with its crystal clear spring water, toe blistering white sand and numerous Coreaa trees. Oh and the view- the view from atop this hill is breathtaking, particularly at nights, when one could admire the lights across the river at Mackenzie.

First inhabitants
The Chappelle’s were one of the first Amerindian families to settle at Buck Hill.
Old Ma and Pa Chappelle had moved from the Rupununi and Pomeroon respectively, to seek a better life at Wismar. Pa Chappele was an Arawak, while his wife, came from the Macusi tribe.  The couple settled on Buck Hill, where the Chappelle clan grew.
Presently only one of the Chappelle offspring- Bridgette, resides on the Hill, with her husband and children. Her other siblings have all moved away.
But Bridgette still remembers the old days, of Kokerite boat skating, and storytelling under the big bamboo tree. The bamboo tree is no longer there, but the memories remain.
One of Buck Hill’s oldest residents Leonard Rodrigues well known as ‘Uncle Lennie” , pointed out that the Amerindians who first occupied the community, most likely chose the area, because of its proximity to the Demerara River and its lush hunting grounds.
“In those days there was a lot of Koreea trees around here, so the people could hunt the labba, deer and so on without having to go very far. You know the animals would graze under these trees, because the seeds are what they eat, so the people would just set up wabanie nearby and shoot them, when they came out to feed.”
Most of the korrea trees were cut down as the population grew, and as they disappeared so did the animals that fed on their seeds, Rodrigues noted.
He added that cutting down the trees has also led to massive erosion over the years, as these trees roots had stabilized the sandy soil.
Rodrigues is of Amerindian and Portuguese heritage. He moved to Buck Hill, from Susannah’s Rust, down the Demerara River, in the early seventies.
He had moved to the area to work with the then Demerara Bauxite Company, he said. “Right away I fall in love with the place- but is a woman (Joyce), that keep me here”, he declared proudly.
He would later marry her, and father eleven children with her.

Buck Hill obscured
But Buck Hill is not the same, as when he first moved there, Uncle Lennie reminisced. Most of the older generation of Amerindians have either died out or moved away.
Their offspring, he noted, could not really be considered Amerindians as most of them are the result of interracial marriages and relationships.
Another resident Hyacinth Isaacs, an Afro Guyanese said that she has been living on Buck Hill for more than forty years, having moved there with her husband Rupert, and their son John in 1970. Isaacs said that she has not regretted the decision to move there, as she has always felt comfortable among the Amerindians.
“When we moved here I felt a little strange, but not for long, because the people were nice to me, and there were already other people living here- like Victorine De Florimonte, Mr Simeon and the Sampsons. And we all lived as one. Some of my relatives even married Amerindian girls, or formed relationships with them and had children; and everybody got along fine. We ain’t got no racism here.
Wismar Hill, more popularly known as “Buck Hill”, is one of the few places in Linden, that people hardly hear anything about now, despite its location on a hill top, almost in the centre of the town. It is home to less than three hundred residents, most of whom are certainly not Amerindians.

---

---