Welcome to the NOON e-newsletter for January 2025. Enjoy, and please share widely!
Given the chaos, division and hate being fostered by the new administration in Washington, we thought this historic piece by Onondaga Clanmother Freida Jacques would be helpful.
Discipline of the Good Mind
©Freida J. Jacques – revised 1/25/2025
Thousands of years ago, at a time when our people were in the midst of wars and pervasive violence the Peacemaker came and brought us a message of love and peace. One of the gifts he brought to us at that time was the concept of the Good Mind (Ga’nigoñhi•yóh). As children grow up in our Nation they hear the words “use a good mind” many times. I felt that a deeper explanation of what using the Good Mind means would be beneficial and this is how I explain it.
I refer to the Good Mind as a discipline, rather than just a description of a person’s state of mind. First of all, Ga’nigoñhi•yóh recognizes that we have access to a loving source of good thoughts. Each and every one of us has many, many thoughts each day. We can become aware of each thought, see its substance, realize its intent, and then determine if you should follow and build on that thought. This realization that you have a will over your thinking is important. You have a choice to follow your thoughts based on a loving purpose (the Good Mind) or let go of thoughts and certainly not build upon thoughts steeped in anger and judgment. In most cases, it takes thousands of thoughts to get to a point where you are harboring hate for someone and capable of violence. This effort of being aware of our thoughts, helps us redirect our thinking to more constructive, kind and loving thoughts. Since our actions follow our thoughts, what we are doing with our lives will be kinder and gentler. Since the words we speak follow our thoughts, we also have a way of affecting the world around us with words that will reflect the Good Mind.
By observing our thoughts, we may begin to identify areas in our lives that may need to be reflected upon and healed. Watch out for over-reactions to your experiences and also under-reactions for they may help identify places that need healing. Consider being more willing to look at these parts of yourself and seek out people who can safely help you work through old hurts and anger. Stifled anger, like all strong emotions, never goes away, it lingers in the background ready to show up to add to your next angry moment. Strong emotions like grief and shame can also be unexpressed and can resurface to make for more dramatic moments that may surprise you. Finding a safe situation to release these strong feelings will make it easier for you to carry a Good Mind.
While we actively become aware of our thoughts, and follow those that have a kind and loving intent, what we do and what we say will naturally has a positive effect on the world around us. This is also how those who carry a Good Mind can affect those around them to be more peaceful. Like ripples on water, the effects of the Good Mind can be amplified, allowing peace to grow.
As Haudenosaunee, we give thanks to all the parts of Creation that make life possible here on Earth (The Ganoñhañnyoñ’). This keeps us connected with the very vital purpose of all living things. Our respect and love includes all parts of Creation. This understanding helps us use the Good Mind in our interactions with the natural world around us.
It has been said many times that change begins with the individual. If you want change to happen, begin by changing yourself. The discipline of the Good Mind is a process anyone can use to help him or herself change. Much can be accomplished with love and patience.
New and Ongoing Actions
No Data Centers at STAMP. Protect Our Woods and Waters!
Today, we’re coming to you with a time sensitive ask to submit comments to WNY STAMP developer GCEDC on their plan to site a nasty, noisy data center right next to the Tonawanda Seneca Nation’s Big Woods and on ecologically sensitive wetlands. Take action TODAY! Here’s what you can do:
- Come speak at the public hearing! RSVP here and get all the logistical details here. Read your own comment, or read a comment for someone who can’t be there. Check out our guidance document to get all the talking points you need.
- Submit a written comment! Can’t be at the hearing but want your comment read out loud? Let us know here. If you can’t submit by GCEDC’s deadline of January 31 at 12pm, no worries. Send it to us – we’ll print and hand deliver it to GCEDC at the hearing.
- Don’t have time to write your own comment and can’t come to the hearing? Use our one-click tools to send emails to GCEDC about Project Potentia, Project Rampart, and Project Double Reed (note that you need to click each one separately). Customize your email with our talking points.
- Can’t be at the hearing but want GCEDC to know you’re watching? Tune in to their livestream on Monday, February 3 at 2pm.
- Check out our campaign @NoSTAMPDataCenters and forward this to 5 friends!
Return Maple Bay to the Onondaga Nation
The Onondaga Nation has pushed for the return of land along sacred Onondaga Lake for many decades. The American Indian Law Alliance recently initiated a campaign to push for some measure of justice.
Please take a few minutes to send a postcard to
Onondaga County Executive, J. Ryan McMahon
Postcard Sample Language (Feel free to adapt)
Dear County Executive McMahon:
I urge you to deliver on Onondaga County’s 2011 commitment to return land on the shore of Onondaga Lake to the Onondaga Nation. The lake needs serious attention and care, and the Onondaga Nation has a rightful role in caring for this land that has been their ancestral home for thousands of years.
Please do the right thing, by the lake, and by the people, and return Maple Bay.
Respectfully,
Your name
Address to: County Executive J. Ryan McMahon, II
421 Montgomery St 14th Fl.
Syracuse, NY 13202
If you’re unable to send a postcard, you can send an online message here.
Upcoming Events:
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
An Evening with Robin Wall Kimmerer
Wednesday, January 29 @ 7pm
May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society, 3800 E. Genesee St. Syracuse, NY 13214. Also livestreamed on the Syracuse Cultural Workers Facebook Page
Robin will read excerpts from her new book, The Serviceberry,and share reflections on the current moment. After the program, Robin will be available to sign copies of her books, which will be available for sale from Syracuse Cultural Workers.
We expect a capacity crowd, but are not using tickets. The doors will open at 6pm. May Memorial is wheelchair accessible.
There is no fee for the event, but donations are encouraged to support the Onondaga Nation Volunteer Fire Department (https://givebutter.com/ONVFD-benefit) which has significantly increased needs to care for the lands in the Tully Valley recently returned to the Onondaga Nation.
In order to create a safe and welcome event, we ask anyone who is feeling sick to stay home, and encourage attendees to wear N95 masks at the program, in order to protect us all.
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. She is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of EnvironmentalBiology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at SUNY ESF.
Listen to the Elders Speaker Series: Jamie Jacobs
February 13, 2025 at 6:30pm – 8:30pm EST
Bird Library, Peter Graham Scholarly Commons (Room 114) – Syracuse University
Sponsored by the on-campus collective Not in the Books, the Listen to the Elders Speaker Series showcases Indigenous knowledge keepers presenting history that is not traditionally found in textbooks. This is the third year of programming and the first held on campus.
Jamie Jacobs (Seneca, Turtle Clan) will be speaking on the importance of oral tradition, his experience working with elders over the years and work as managing curator of the Rock Foundation collections at the Rochester Museum and Science Center.
As a ceremonial custodian in the longhouse of the Tonawanda Seneca, Jamie works to officiate traditional funerals, weddings and ceremonies. He practices the traditional art of working with porcupine quills, including research of ancestral-made pieces to study construction techniques and design. He is one of the last Seneca language speakers in his community and helped to establish the Tonawanda Adult Cohort Language program to ensure preservation of the language.
Onondaga Land Rights and Our Common Future:
The Quest for Justice
Monday, March 10, 6:30-8:30 pm
Syracuse Stage, 820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse, NY
Come celebrate the 20th anniversary of the historic filing of the Onondaga Land Rights Action. Onondaga leaders and educators, including Jake Edwards will reflect on progress made since they went to court. Onondaga Nation General Counsel Joe Heath will review the legal history, including the case currently before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Despite the fact that the US courts rejected the Onondaga Nation’s call for justice, reconciliation and healing, important progress has been made, including the recent return of 1,000 acres of land in the Tully Valley. The treaties upon which the Onondaga Land Right Action is based, remain in effect and all people have a responsibility to uphold them.
On March 11, 2005, the Onondaga petitioned the federal court in Syracuse to declare that New York violated federal law when it took some 4,000 square miles of Onondaga Land (an area that stretches south past Binghamton and north past Watertown). They sued the State of New York, the City of Syracuse, Onondaga County, and five corporations for illegal land takings and damage inflicted on Central New York’s environment. Learn more here: https://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/
The program is organized by the American Indian Law Alliance, the Indigenous Values Initiative and Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation.
Hodinöšyö:nih Continuity | Innovation | Resilience
Rochester Museum and Science Center, 657 East Ave, Rochester NY 14607
This new permanent exhibit was curated by Jamie Jacobs (Tonawanda Seneca, Turtle Clan) and includes seven Haudenosaunee artists: Kyle Dowdy Jr. (Tuscarora, Bear Clan), Katsitsionni Fox (Akwesasne Mohawk, Bear Clan), Hayden Haynes (Seneca Nation, Deer Clan), Kenith “Nek” Jonathan (Tonawanda Seneca, Wolf Clan), Tonia Loran- Galban (Akwesasne Mohawk, Bear Clan), Natasha Smoke Santiago (Akwesasne Mohawk, Turtle Clan), and Coreen Thompson (Tonawanda Seneca, Bear Clan). “Hodinöšyö:nih Continuity | Innovation | Resilience was a years-long collaboration aimed at supporting the rights of people to tell their own stories (narrative sovereignty), sharing Hodinöšyö:nih perspectives, and creating a space that helps Hodinöšyö:nih people reconnect with traditional material culture and knowledge (rematriation).”
Carson Waterman: Art Saved My Life
Burchfield Penny Art Center, 1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York 14222
This new permanent exhibit on Seneca artist Carson Waterman features vibrant and thought-provoking works that explore themes of identity, culture, and heritage. View Waterman’s remarkable series of large-scale paintings honoring eight Haudenosaunee Clan Mothers of the Seneca Nation, on loan from the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum, alongside works that highlight the breadth of the artist’s career.
Monthly Events:
NOON Steering Committee Open Meeting. Please contact Lee Cridland, Peace Council Staff, for more info.
Indigenous News and Culture:
First Nations Development Institute Short Films (scroll down)
Leonard Peltier granted clemency as President Biden leaves office
‘Tears of joy’: Indian Country reacts to Leonard Peltier clemency
Deb Haaland’s enduring legacy lives on at Interior Department
Trump’s impact on Indian Country over four years
‘This is about power’: Indigenous immigrants face a second Trump administration
Places to Visit:
Skä•noñh – Great Law of Peace Center, 6680 Onondaga Lake Pkwy. Liverpool, NY 13088. Skä•noñh is a Haudenosaunee Cultural Center focused on telling the story of the native peoples of central New York. Now open from 10am-4pm Wednesday-Friday, and 11am-4pm on Saturday.
Kanatsiohareke Mohawk Community, 4934 State Highway 5. Fonda, NY.
Ganondagan State Historic Site, 7000 County Road 41 (Boughton Hill Road) Victor, NY 14564. Bark Longhouse open May-October.
Seneca Iroquois National Museum, 82 W Hetzel St. Salamanca, NY 14779.
Iroquois Museum, 324 Caverns Road. Howes Cave, NY 12092.
About Us:
Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON) is a grassroots organization of Central New Yorkers which recognizes and supports the sovereignty of the traditional government of the Onondaga Nation. A program of the Syracuse Peace Council, NOON supports the right of Indigenous Peoples to reclaim land, and advocates for fair settlement of any claims which are filed. We are always looking for more folks to join our work in Central New York. Learn more here.
NOON works on the territory of the Onondaga Nation,
Firekeepers of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
We express our deep gratitude to the Onondaga Nation for caring for these lands, waters, and all our fellow beings since time immemorial.
We offer heartfelt apologies for the terrible violence that colonizers have carried out against the Onondaga People and Nation, including theft of land and attempted genocide. We are thankful for their perseverance and survival. We commit ourselves to working in solidarity with the Onondaga Nation to protect their sovereignty and create a shared, sustainable future for all life.
