Haudenosaunee

Last November, the Great Law of Peace Center opened on Onondaga Lake, replacing the Ste. Marie Among the Iroquois exhibit.  The new center is focused on and driven by the history and culture of the Haudenosaunee and more specifically, the Onondaga Nation.  This week on the Campbell Conversations, host Grant Reeher is joined by Onondaga Nation Faith-keeper Oren Lyons, and Onondaga Historical Association executive director Gregg Tripoli to discuss the new center, the politics and negotiations involved in making the change, and the history of the Haudenosaunee and the Law of Peace.

Students and faculty at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse are becoming more interested in the Native American approach to the environment. The college is making more of an effort to connect with the Onondaga Nation and the Haudenosaunee people.

The Onondaga Nation occupies a unique place among the many groups making up an increasingly diverse Central New York--it's the oldest and most traditional of all peoples, still governed through processes handed down for centuries.  How does the Nation fit with these other newer groups?  This week on the Campbell Conversations host Grant Reeher talks with Joe Heath, the general counsel of the Nation since 1982.  They discuss that topic, as well as land claims and how the Onondaga fit with the other Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. 

The 2015 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship is being billed as "lacrosse comes home" because it is being hosted by the Onondaga Nation and the sport was invented by indigenous nations in upstate New York. The tournament runs from Sept. 18-27.

Construction of a new cultural center at the old French fort along Onondaga Lake begins this week. The new Skä·noñh Great Law of Peace Center will take the place of the former Sainte Marie Among the Iroquois museum site. The new cultural center will tell the history of the Onondaga Nation, from their perspective.

A 13-day trip down the Hudson River was successful in bringing the message of the Two Row Wampum to some New Yorkers who may not have known about it, according to organizers.  

The idea behind the trip was to make non-native people aware of the agreement between Native Americans and European settlers, and how the ideals embodied in that Two Row Wampum agreement are relevant today. This year is the 400th anniversary of the agreement. Jake Edwards of the Onondaga Council of Chiefs says there were warm welcomes from everyone who watched the paddlers go by.

The Haudenosaunee's Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign has taken to the waterways of New York state. Paddlers have begun a canoe trip that will take them from the Onondaga Nation, through Albany and to the United Nations in New York City, as part of an education and advocacy strategy about this region's Native Americans.

The campaign marks the 400th anniversary of the Two Row Wampum, the first treaty between the Haudenosaunee and Dutch settlers in New York state.

This week begins a year long campaign in New York that focuses on the Two Row Wampum, a treaty between the Haudenosaunee, also known as the Iroquois Nation, and some of the first settlers of New York state. The idea is educate, advocate, and create a better relationship Native Americans and New Yorkers.

The Onondaga Nation is not happy with the breadth of the Honeywell Corporation's plan to dredge and cap polluted sediment at the bottom of Onondaga Lake.

This $451 million plan will dredge an estimated two million cubic yards of toxic material from 185 acres out of the 3,000-acre lake bottom, and cap 14-percent of the lake bottom, to keep toxic chemicals underground.

 Some sacred and cultural objects of the Onondaga Nation and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy are back where they belong, after languishing for years in the Onondaga Historical Association in Syracuse.