The Haudenosaunee and the Erie Canal

For millennia, waterways in indigenous Haudenosaunee territories have been profoundly important. In the Haudenosaunee cosmology, water is sacred as fundamental to all life. On Thursday, May 17, Syracuse University Professor Philip P. Arnold and Onondaga Nation Chief Jake Edwards will discuss the important role waterways play in the cosmology of the Haudenosaunee people of New York State, and the Erie Canal’s profound environmental effects and traumatic consequences on the Haudenosaunee relationships to their lands. The talk is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. in the Weighlock Gallery of the Erie Canal Museum in downtown Syracuse. Admission is free for Museum members (call to reserve your spot) and just $5 for non-members (purchase online here). Free parking is in Museum-designated spots across the street under routes 81 and 690.

Jake Edwards is a citizen of the Onondaga Nation and sits on its Council of Chiefs. He has extensive knowledge of Haudenosaunee environmental history and values. Philip P. Arnold is chair of Syracuse University’s religion department and is core faculty in Native American and Indigenous Studies. He is the founding director of the Skä·noñh—Great Law of Peace Center. His books include Eating Landscape: Aztec and European Occupation of Tlalocan (1999); Sacred Landscapes and Cultural Politics: Planting a Tree (2001); The Gift of Sports: Indigenous Ceremonial Dimensions of the Games We Love (2012), and other titles.  He is a founding member of Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON).

We hope you will join us for this fascinating talk.