Onondaga Land Rights & Our Common Future Part II

A Collaborative Educational Series
bringing together the Central New York community, Syracuse University, SUNY ESF, Le Moyne College, Empire State College and others

Help Publicize the series: 8.5 x 11 color flier, 8.5 x 14 bw flier (pdf files)
Back to Full Series Schedule


The Influence of Haudenosaunee Women
Monday, May 24, 2010

Watch the video online
Check out the Photo Gallery
Read the Transcript (rtf file)
Download the program (pdf file)

Download the flier (pdf)

Jeanne Shenandoah and Sally Roesch Wagner discussed the broad influence of Haudenosaunee Women on the development of the women's movement and other efforts to create greater equality among the people who came to these shores.

Sally Roesch Wagner will explore how the woman’s rights movement took form in the territory of the Haudenosaunee, along with all the other “radical reform” movements of the 19th century. What was the influence of the six nations of the Iroquois confederacy, where women have always lived with far greater status and authority than in the non-native world, peace is the foundation of the government and a healthy lifestyle based on living in harmony with all life prevails. Based on her most recent book, Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists, Dr. Wagner will share her research on how contact with the Haudenosaunee fired the revolutionary vision of early feminists and radical reformers by providing a model of freedom for all based on a balance of responsibilities in an egalitarian system.

Jeanne Shenandoah describes the world she inhabits as a Haudenosaunee woman. The democratic governmental system, established long before Columbus and based on peace, provides equality for everyone with a balance of responsibilities between women and men based on a matrilineal clan system. Together the women explore the impact that the Haudenosaunee, living in absolute equality, had on Euroamericans, who came from a tradition of power from above, rather than power with.


Series Co-Sponsors
Syracuse University: Chancellor’s Office, Religion, Anthropology, Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Geography, History, Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Native American Students at Syracuse, Native American Student Program, Native American Studies Program, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Program in the Analysis and Resolution of Conflict, Program on Latin America and the Caribbean, School of Education, Student Environmental Action Coalition, Students for a Democratic Society, University College, College of Visual and Performing Arts, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, and the Future of Minority Studies @ SU and the Writing Program

SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry: President's Office, Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, Environmental Studies Department, Kincentric

Other Educational Institutions: Le Moyne College, Center for Urban and Regional Applied Research (CURAR), Empire State College, Colgate University Native American Studies Program, Hamilton College Department of Religious Studies, Imagining America, Ithaca College Department of Anthropology & Native American Studies Program, Onondaga Community College, St. Lawrence University Native American Studies Program, SUNY Cortland, Upstate Medical University Office of Diversity & Affirmative Action and Multicultural Events Planning Committee and Wells College

Community co-sponsors: Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation, Indigenous Values Initiative, InterFaith Works and Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation and Syracuse Center of Excellence

For more information:
Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation, (315) 472-5478, noon@peacecouncil.net