Welcome to the NOON e-newsletter for April 2025. Enjoy, and please share widely!
Onondaga Land Rights and Our Common Future:
The Quest for Justice
View the high quality video from the event
On March 10 about 150 people gathered at Syracuse Stage to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the historic filing of the Onondaga Land Rights Action. Onondaga leaders and educators Jeanne Shenandoah (Onondaga Nation, Eel Clan), Onondaga elder and Tradition Medicine Keeper, and Haiwhagai’i Jake Edwards (Onondaga Nation, Eel Clan) shared important history and reflected on progress made during the past 20 years. Onondaga Nation General Counsel Joe Heath reviewed the legal history, including the case currently before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. All three speakers also spoke about what is needed moving forward to continue the Quest for Justice.
They noted that despite the fact that the US courts rejected the Onondaga Nation’s call for justice and healing, important progress has been made, including the recent return of 1,000 acres of land in the Tully Valley.
On March 11, 2005, the Onondaga petitioned the federal court in Syracuse to declare that New York State violated Treaties, the Constitution and federal laws when it took some 4,000 square miles of Onondaga Land (an area that stretches south past Binghamton and north past Watertown). The State of New York, the City of Syracuse, Onondaga County, and five corporations were sued by the Onondaga Nation for for illegal land takings and inflicting harm on the environment. Learn more here.
The March 10 program was organized by the American Indian Law Alliance, the Indigenous Values Initiative, Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation, and Syracuse Peace Council. Additional programs are being scheduled for September 2025 through April 2026.
Upcoming Events
Listen to the Elders Lecture series with Jamie Jacobs
April 21, 5-7pm
Bird Library, Peter Graham Scholarly Commons Room 114
Jamie Jacobs 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 and is a ceremonial custodian in the longhouse of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation. Free and open to the public. For more information visit the Wellness Portal
Voices & Votes Exhibit Opening Reception
April 24 at 5:30 pm
Liverpool Public Library
Liverpool, NY 13088
Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, a traveling Smithsonian Museum exhibit Skä•noñh Great Law of Peace Center, 6680 Onondaga Lake Pkwy, Liverpool, NY 13088
April 18 – May 30
The opening event will feature a talk from historian of the women’s suffrage movement Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner; a showing of the documentary Without a Whisper, the untold story of the profound influence of Indigenous women on the suffrage movement in the US; songs by the Onondaga Women’s Singing Society; Indigenous food samples from local caterer Tina Hill Thomas; and more! While the opening event is free to the public, registration is required.
Meinig Lecture: Global Geographies of Weather Modification in an Era of Climate Change
April 24, 4:30 – 5:45pm
Syracuse University, Eggers Hall, 220
Emily Yeh of the University of Colorado Boulder will present this year’s Donald W. Meinig Lecture, “Global Geographies of Weather Modification in an Era of Climate Change.”
As climate change impacts intensify, interest in the practice of cloud seeding to induce precipitation and otherwise modify the weather is on the rise around the world. Geography offers powerful analytical tools for understanding the practice of cloud seeding and the controversies it has created — including thinking geographically about the hydrosocial cycle, culture-nature binaries, volumetric geopolitics, and the need to take indigenous world-making practices seriously. The talk compares weather modification in the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and China, showing that their practices and rationales are shaped quite differently by political, economic, institutional and socio-cultural contexts.
Serviceberry Tree Planting at Ganondagan’s White Corn Project
April 27 from 10AM – 2PM
Ganondagan – 7000 County Road 41. Victor, NY 14564 US
Join us for an experience of sharing and reciprocity. We’ll begin by planting Serviceberry trees at Ganondagan, then share readings from Robin Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass & The Serviceberry while enjoying light refreshments. After, friends will be sent on their way with a savory white corn featured tasting in a container they bring. Due to limited space, registration is required.
“Once a Tree: Continuity, Creativity, and Connection”
April 3 – November 30
Iroquois Museum, 324 Caverns Road,Howes Cave, NY 12092
This Iroquois Museum exhibit will explore the multiple ways in which trees are deeply woven into Haudenosaunee/Iroquois culture, tradition, thought, and expression. The project showcases over 80 objects — fancy and utilitarian baskets, cradleboards, snowshoes, lacrosse sticks, toys, instruments, sleds, and more. The objects, largely from the 1980s and 90s, were thoughtfully selected from the Museum’s collection by Haudenosaunee artisans Richard “Terry” Chrisjohn, III and Shelia Ransom from Akwesasne and Preston Jacobs from Kahnawake. Their voices provide the interpretation for each of the objects on exhibit.
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.
Basket Exhibit
Akwesasne Cultural Center Museum & Gift Shop – (click here to see on Facebook)
Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 10am – 6pm.
Our new basket exhibit is officially open! Stop in and look at 100s of Native made baskets from the 1970s to 1980s.
Monthly Events:
NOON Steering Committee Open Meeting. Please contact Lee Cridland, Peace Council Staff, for more info.
Indigenous News and Culture:
Trump directive creates chaos on the Colorado River
Voting rights groups say SAVE Act would disenfranchise voters
The Face of Disruption: Impacts of USDA Funding Cuts on Tribal Food Systems
Supporting Indigenous-Led Environmental Justice
Envisioning Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty – with Amber Starks (aka Melanin Mvskoke). A webinar recording + resources.
A ‘decolonized approach’ to law
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.
