Pathways to Sovereignty

FAIN: PY-263731-19

Seneca Nation of Indians (Salamanca, NY 14779-0231)
David George-Shongo (Project Director: May 2018 to March 2020)
Joe Stahlman (Project Director: March 2020 to March 2025)

Digitization of cultural heritage materials at annual community events, such as the New York State Fair, the Grand River and Akwesasne powwows, and local community gatherings, as well as a public exhibit of the collected images and a lecture on Haudenosaunee history at the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum.  The Haudenosaunee, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy, are a union of six distinct nations across upper New York State: the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora.  The project would build upon a past Common Heritage award  to the Seneca by extending the museum’s reach to affiliated tribes and allowing the staff to share their experience in community documentation efforts with them.  Cornell Professor Jolene Rickard would present the history of Haudenosaunee diplomacy and protection of sovereignty at a museum lecture to complement the photo exhibit of contemporary Haudenosaunee culture.

The Seneca-Iroquois National Museum will focus their collections on the history of resistance and exercise of sovereignty by the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy)