The New York State University at Albany’s University Council voted Friday, May 5th, to formally change the name of Indian Pond to Parker Pond, and Indian Pond Lane to Parker Pond Lane. The new names acknowledge and honor the contributions of the Parker family, of which three siblings — Caroline (Ga:hahno), Nicholson (Gye-wah-go-wa) and Isaac Newton (Gane-yo-squa-ga-oh) — were among the first nine Indigenous students to enroll at UAlbany around 1850.
The resolution adopted by the Council explains in greater detail who the Parkers were and the important roles they played in service to the Tonawanda Seneca at a time of great political, economic, social and cultural uncertainty for Indigenous people across New York and the nation.
Caroline Parker played a significant and largely unacknowledged role in helping frame American perceptions of Haudenosaunee people, and specifically Haudenosaunee women, through her friendship and correspondence with anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan. Her contributions are explored in detail in the book Shirts Powdered Red: Haudenosaunee Gender, Trade, and Exchange across Three Centuries (Cornell Univ. Press, 2023) by Associate Professor Maeve Kane of UAlbany’s History Department.
Signage is expected to be changed over the summer with a related on-campus programming planned for the fall.
Photo: SUNY Albany’s Indian Pond in 2015, renamed Parker Pond in 2023 (photo by Paul Miller of SUNY Albany).
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