Ithaca College

Two Anthropology Department faculty members were honored by the Native American community on Monday evening, February 11 on the Syracuse Stage. Brooke Hansen and Jack Rossen were among 50 people recognized for their collaborative work with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), particularly with the Cayuga-SHARE Farm, the Central New York Native American Consortium and through research work validating Native oral histories.

The SHARE Farm in Union Springs was the first land in the Cayuga homeland to be returned to Native hands in 2005, while the consortium is a group that organizes and shares resources for activist projects and Native American Studies among the colleges, universities and Native schools of central New York. The packed house event included a procession and description of the work of the 50 activists, plus speeches by Chief Jake Thomas, Dr. Robert Venables and others.

The evening, hosted by Onondaga Nation and NOON (Neighbors of Onondaga Nation), was the kick-off of the Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign, which is commemorating the 400th anniversary of the first treaty between Native Americans and Euro-American settlers in 1613. The Two Row Wampum Treaty described white settlers and Native Americans traveling side-by-side in friendship and non-interference down the river of life, while caring for the environment. It is a concept that the Haudenosaunee have expressed to their neighbors for centuries and the campaign is an opportunity to re-examine and renew the idea.  The culmination of the year’s events will be a ten day paddle down the Hudson River in July from Albany to New York City, including daily events around the state. Paddlers will arrive in the city on the International Day of Indigenous Peoples and will proceed to the United Nations. For press coverage of this event and more information on the Two Row Wampum Campaign, visit http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/02/spirit_of_two_row_wampum_lives.html

and http://honorthetworow.org/