Denise “Weetahmoe” Silva-Dennis (Shinnecock/Hassanamisco-Nipmuc) is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator living on the Shinnecock Nation in Southampton, New York. Denise retired from the Southampton School District in 2016 after a 21-year teaching career, K-12, as...
Tonia Loran-Galban (Mohawk, Bear Clan) resides in Farmington, New York and is a Haudenosaunee Culture Bearer. She is a native traditional basket maker who has worked at Ganondagan State Historic Site (site of a 17thcentury Seneca Town) in Victor, NY as a Senior...
Hayden Haynes is an antler carving artist working deeply in cultural arts revitalization and teaching. Born in Claremore, OK, Hayden grew up on the Seneca-Cattaraugus Territory in Western New York. It is from here where he draws inspiration related to land, history,...
The Hudson Valley Quadricentennial
in 2009 spurred all kinds of
special celebrations in cities along the
Hudson River, from flotilla parades and
festivals to art fairs, music performances,
and exhibitions…For its part in the Quadricentennial celebrations,
the New York Folklore Society commemorated these still-thriving cultural
traditions with “North by Northeast: Baskets
and Beadwork from the Akwesasne
Mohawk and Tuscarora.”
Studying the dangerous water spirits of European folklore makes me think about Niagara Falls, New York’s most famous waterfall. How much, if at all, do water spirits matter there? If we look at descriptions of the Falls in tourist brochures and online, we find legends of sudden death, with emphasis on Native American folklore. There are, of course, mentions of various people who foolishly went over the Falls in barrels and other doomed receptacles, but the most dramatic legends tell of Native American struggle and sacrifice.
Writer, storyteller, healer, athlete,
and crane operator—in many ways, Ted
Williams was an original. In other ways,
he was also the inheritor of more than
one tradition from his Tuscarora people.
Born in 1930, on the Tuscarora Reservation
near Niagara Falls, New York,
Ted’s father Eleazar Williams was a Turtle
Clan sachem and an Indian doctor whose
reputation as a healer was widely known.
His mother, Amelia Chew, served as the
Clan Mother of Ted’s own Wolf Clan.
We saw the Strawberry Moon rise over
Eldridge Swamp two nights ago. Just south
of our home in Shushan, New York. At a
place we had never visited. Nor knew of its
existence. No interfering lights. No one else
nearby. No other sounds. Only the chorus of
frogs encouraging the moon’s performance.
Have you ever heard of Peter Paul
Wz8khalain? Probably not. But over the last
several years, as I’ve become more familiar
with his life story, the journeys he took, and
the work he did during that complex span
of some 90 years, I’ve come to consider
him one of indigenous America’s most
fascinating early writers and publishers.
He also was a true Native son of New
York State, born in the Adirondacks on the
Raquette River around 1800.
It was Arthur C. Parker
who, through his extensive writing, his
professional career as a museologist (his
own description of his work), and as an
activist, did much to dispel the stereotypes
about Indians that characterized his time
and make visible to the wider world the
history and the contributions of the
Haudenosaunee.
The Haudenosaunee Creation Story retains value and relevance as the versions transmit “elaborate lessons unknwon” outside of their contexts and communities. Each version makes a valuable contribution to understanding the lifeways of Haudenosaunee communities.
Bruchac chronicles the biography of Joanne Shenandoah, an Oneida singer-songwriter born in 1957 on the Oneida Territory, Syracuse, NY.
This is the transcript from a panel discussion with Indigenous artists about community based teaching and learning that took place during the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society (AFS).
Joseph Alfred Elie Joubert is an important teacher of the Abenaki language who has contributed to the preservation of the language.