Polishing the Covenant Chain
Full details at the new site.
Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON) and the Onondaga Nation have partnered to develop a major statewide educational and advocacy campaign to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Two Row Wampum, the first treaty between the Haudenosaunee and European settlers. The agreement outlines a mutual, three-part commitment to friendship, peace between peoples, and living in parallel forever (as long as the grass is green, as long as the rivers flow downhill and as long as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west). Throughout the years, the Haudenosaunee have sought to honor this mutual vision and have increasingly emphasized that ecological stewardship is a fundamental prerequisite for this continuing friendship.
In the spirit of the Two Row Wampum, and as concerned citizens of a Nation bound by it and scores of subsequent treaties signed on our behalf and subsequently betrayed in our names, we are committed to reinvigorating this powerful vision and renewing this mutual commitment beginning next year and continuing throughout 2013. We hope to polish this centuries-old covenant chain of friendship between our peoples, and draw more people into the work of extending Indigenous sovereignty over their lands, protecting our shared environmental inheritance and building support for a just resolution of the several Haudenosaunee Land Rights Actions. The recent Supreme Court refusal to hear the dismissal of the Oneida Land Claim case only reinforces the importance of building a grassroots movement for justice.
Background
Information
Onondaga Chief Irving Powless
on Treaty Making (from the book: Treaty of Canandaigua 1794)
pdf
Bob Venables on the Two Row Treaty
(pdf)