Iroquois

New Exhibit Highlights Contemporary Iroquois Concerns

March 24, 2014 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave, NY has announced its new exhibition, Standing in Two Worlds: Iroquois in 2014, which will open on April 1st and remain at the Museum through November 30.

The exhibit features over 30 Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) artists and focuses upon contemporary concerns that warrant their attention and creative comment. Exhibition works (artwork and poetry) include those that explore boundaries and borders, environment, hydro-fracking, economy, gaming, the digital/disposable age, sports mascots, the impact of national/international events and decisions, the role of tradition and community, and the state of the arts. [Read more…] about New Exhibit Highlights Contemporary Iroquois Concerns

New York History and the Birth of the Nation

January 2, 2014 by Peter Feinman 1 Comment

Scholars divide time into periods in an effort to make history comprehensible, but when to draw the diving line can be problematical and historians often disagree where one period ends and another begins.

For the birth of the nation, I am using the end of the colonial period, roughly from the French and Indian War to the end of the War of 1812. The colonial era for me was the time of the settlement of the 13 colonies which would become the United States. That process began in Jamestown and ended approximately 130 years later in Georgia. Up until then individual colonies, notably New York, Massachusetts / New England, and Virginia, dominate the curriculum, scholarship, and tourism, with only passing references to the Quakers in Pennsylvania and the Dutch in New York. [Read more…] about New York History and the Birth of the Nation

The Mixed Multitudes of the Mohawk Valley

December 30, 2013 by Peter Feinman 2 Comments

Peacefully sharing a space-time continuum does not come easily to our species. The challenge of doing so was played out in colonial New Amsterdam/New York in the 17th and 18th centuries especially from Albany and Schenectady westward throughout the Mohawk Valley.

There, and north to the Champlain Valley and Canada, multiple peoples who had not yet become two-dimensional cliches struggled to dominate, share, and survive in what became increasingly contentious terrain. Battles were fought, settlements were burned, and captives were taken, again and again.

By the 19th century, much of that world had vanished save for the novels of James Fenimore Cooper. By the 20th century, that world existed in state historic sites, historical societies and local museums, Hollywood, and at times in the state’s social studies curriculum. [Read more…] about The Mixed Multitudes of the Mohawk Valley

Oral Tradition in Historical Scholarship:
The Dutch, The Iroquois, and The Two Row Wampum

December 20, 2013 by Peter Feinman 1 Comment

The challenge of contact in the 17th century between the Dutch and the Iroquois was brought to life in the 21st century with a symbolic summer journey from western New York to the United Nations to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Two Row Wampum and its message.

That event was the subject of several posts on The New York History Blog. I wrote about the scholarly challenges posed by the Two Row Wampum; Naj Wikoff, an artist active in the Lake Placid region, also wrote about the the Two Row Wampum, acknowledging that there is not a written record of the treaty, nor does the physical object exist, but the oral tradition of the event is valid and its message remains relevant. [Read more…] about Oral Tradition in Historical Scholarship:
The Dutch, The Iroquois, and The Two Row Wampum

William Starna’s New History of the Mahican

November 23, 2013 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

The University of Nebraska Press has published From Homeland to New Land: A History of the Mahican Indians, 1600-1830, by William A. Starna, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the State University of New York College at Oneonta.

This history of the Mahicans begins with the appearance of Europeans on the Hudson River in 1609 and ends with the removal of these Native peoples to Wisconsin in the 1830s. Marshaling the methods of history, ethnology, and archaeology, William A. Starna describes as comprehensively as the sources allow the Mahicans while in their Hudson and Housatonic Valley homeland; after their consolidation at the praying town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts; and following their move to Oneida country in central New York at the end of the Revolution and their migration west. [Read more…] about William Starna’s New History of the Mahican

Iroquois Indian Museum Seeks New Director

September 12, 2013 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Board of the Trustees of the Iroquois Indian Museum has announced a search for an Executive Director. Located in Howes Cave, NY, the Museum is a non-profit educational institution dedicated to fostering understanding of Iroquois culture by using the arts of the Iroquois from the past to the present to tell their unique story. [Read more…] about Iroquois Indian Museum Seeks New Director

Journal Features Two Row Wampum Treaty Debate

August 22, 2013 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

The Journal of Early American History (JEAH) has published a special free issue that focuses on the Two Row Wampum treaty, a historical agreement between the Dutch and the Iroquois that purportedly took place on April 21, 1613 – a date that is based on an allegedly forged document. The treaty has been the subject of most discussion in recent months.

During the month of July and the first week of August supporters of the Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign paddled from Onondaga Lake, and down the Mohawk and Hudson rivers to New York City to draw attention to environmental concerns and native sovereignty rights on Two Row Wampum treaty anniversary date. [Read more…] about Journal Features Two Row Wampum Treaty Debate

Two Row Wampum: The Triumph of Truthiness

August 16, 2013 by Peter Feinman 3 Comments

The historic journey of Two Row Wampum is in the news. The journey by water from Albany to the United Nations has been recorded and chronicled each step of the way.

The culminating activity at the conclusion of the journey is to honor the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. The paddlers consist of roughly equal numbers of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, paddling side-by-side in two lines to honor and bring to life the imagery of the Two Row Wampum.
[Read more…] about Two Row Wampum: The Triumph of Truthiness

Iroquois Festival Set For Iroquois Indian Museum

August 6, 2013 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The 32nd Iroquois Indian Festival — a celebration of Iroquois creativity and self expression — takes place Saturday, Aug 31, and Sunday, Sept. 1, at the Iroquois Indian Museum, 324 Caverns Road, Howe’s Caverns, NY. The festival is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. with admission of $10 for adults and $5 for children.

In conjunction with the Museum’s new 2013 exhibit, IndianInk: Iroquois & the Art of Tattoos, there will be tattoo contest at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Everyone is invited to show off their tattoos with winners chosen by audience feedback. There are three contest categories: Best Male, Best Female and Best of Show. [Read more…] about Iroquois Festival Set For Iroquois Indian Museum

Cayuga Museum Returns Iroquois Sacred Objects

December 18, 2012 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Cayuga Museum of History and Art, in Auburn, New York, has announced the return of 21 objects of spiritual significance to the custody of the Onondaga Nation. Nineteen masks and two wampum articles associated with burials were transferred from the Museum collection to the Onondaga Nation.

The 1990 Federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) mandates that federally funded museums return Native American “cultural items” to the lineal descendants or culturally-affiliated groups of the people who created them. The cultural objects covered include human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and items of cultural patrimony. [Read more…] about Cayuga Museum Returns Iroquois Sacred Objects