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


The Ground Beneath Your Feet is Sacred:
Haudenosaunee Cultural Resource Protection
Monday, June 14 at 7 pm
Syracuse Stage, 820 East Genesee St., Syracuse map

For centuries the cultural heritage of the Haudenosaunee has been under assault, including everything from excavation of burial grounds for development to the theft of human remains and important cultural artifacts which were stored in museums. Learn about the increasingly successful efforts to reverse this trend and preserve this crucial heritage for the Haudenosaunee and the wider community.

Speakers: Jack Rossen and Peter Jemison


* Check out the Photo Gallery on Flickr
* Watch the Video on Youtube
* Transcript from the Presentation (rtf file)
* Program From the Event (pdf file)

Peter Jemison (Seneca) is the manager of Ganondagan State Historic Site, a re-creation of a 17th-century Seneca village, located in Victor, New York. Jemison represents the Seneca Nation of Indians on repatriation issues; he served on the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation andon the board of directors of the American Association of Museums. He is also an artist whose work has been widely shown for more three decades. His paintings and drawings have shown in solo exhibitions at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo and at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York. He was the founding director of the American Indian Community House Gallery in New York City. Jemison received a BS in art education and an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Buffalo State College in Buffalo, New York. He is the director of the film Hanondagonyes "Town Destroyer (2005) and coeditor of Treaty of Canandaigua 1794: 200 Years of Treaty Relations Between the Iroquois Confederacy and the United States, Clear Light Publishers, 2000.

Jack Rossen is the Chair of the Anthropology Department at Ithaca College. An archaeologist, Jack's recent work has focussed on an early Cayuga village site near Cayuga Lake. He'll report on the preliminary findings of their work finding settlement from the 10th century. Jack was one of the founders of SHARE (Strengthening Haudenosaunee American Relations through Education). He is part of developing a “new vision” for archaeology, one that cooperates with and strives to be a positive force for Native people, studies issues that Native people are interested in, is oriented to site protection, and respects sacred areas and burial grounds. Jack has worked and taught throughout the US and South America as well as taking classes to study on the big island of Hawaii.

The program is free and followed by a reception and the opportunity to participate in small discussion groups.


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