Arnold Aron Jacobs
Onondaga Nation, Turtle Clan
Skywoman Descending Great Turtle Island,
1997 (after 1981 painting)
Lithograph, 23 3/4" x 33 7/8"
Iroquois Indian Museum 98:124
Skywoman: Haudenosaunee Art and the Creation of a New World, an exhibition at Colgate’s Longyear Museum of Anthropology
last fall, included contemporary work in various styles and media by 15 artists. In Haudenosaunee society, women are keepers of
the culture, so the Skywoman is seen as a primordial mother, pioneer, and cultural heroine.
Legacies
Local
By Rebecca Costello
Long, long ago, there was no land, only water. Powerful beings lived in a place called the
Sky World. One day, a woman who was expecting a baby fell through a hole in the sky at
the base of the Tree of Life. She grabbed a handful of seeds at the tree’s roots as she fell.
A flock of geese saw this Skywoman falling. They caught her and placed her on the back
of a giant turtle. With the handful of soil and seeds, she danced the earth into being.
How Turtle Island, or North America, came to be is the creation story of the peoples who
settled the region surrounding Colgate more than 10,000 years ago: the Iroquois*,
or as they call themselves today, the Haudenosaunee (“People of the Longhouse”).
*The name Iroquois originated with French colonists who transliterated a pejorative Algonquin term.
32
scene: Winter 2013
Art & Craft
Comb, Antler, late 16th century
ONEIDA, Cameron site, Stockbridge Camp B
Iroquois comb designs illustrate artistic
qualities such as interesting positive
and negative space, symmetry, and the
frequent doubling of figures. The two
human figures may refer to the good and
evil twins of the Iroquois Creation Story.
Many Iroquois combs served also as
pendant ornaments. — Lizey Burkly ’13
CAYUGA: Gayogoho:no, “People of the Great Swamp”
ONONDAGA: Onöñda’gega’, “People of the Hills”
ONEIDA: Onyota'a:ka, “People of the Standing Stone”
MOHAWK: Kanienkehaka, “People of the Flint”
TUSCARORA: Ka'te'nu'a'ka', “People of the Submerged Pine-tree”
z SENECA
z CAYUGA
z ONONDAGA
Beaded Medal Pouch, c. 1810–1830
SENECA (Funded by the Mortimer C. Howe Fund)
The Haudenosaunee tradition of decorating bags predates contact with
Europeans, but trade with Europeans triggered the replacement of local
materials such as porcupine quills with glass beads manufactured in Europe.
This pouch might have held a peace medal of a type given to Indians by the
American government as a sign of friendship. — Alyson Chu ’13
z ONEIDA
z MOHAWK
z TUSCARORA
NY State Museum
6 NATIONS
SENECA: Onöndowágah, “People of the Great Hill”
Many Haudenosaunee items can be found among the more than 10,000 Native American
pieces in Colgate’s Longyear Museum of Anthropology’s collection of art and artifacts.
Thanks to its extensive holdings, “We are an important resource for other institutions,” said
the museum’s curator, Carol Ann Lorenz.
Just this year, items from the Longyear are on loan to three institutions: beadwork for
shows at the Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave, N.Y., and the Corning Museum of Glass,
as well as a modern sculpture by acclaimed Onondaga artist Peter B. Jones that is traveling
internationally in a major exhibition organized by the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.
Last fall, students in Lorenz’s Native Art of North America course curated an exhibition
of ancient and modern Haudenosaunee art and craft drawn from the collection. The show,
which opened Family Weekend, was set up in an Alumni Hall classroom, where other related
courses could benefit from the project. Professor Michael Taylor brought his Core: Iroquois
class there for a lecture about the shifting definitions and distinctions between art and craft.
“We’ve been studying Iroquois material culture at a historical level. With this exhibition, I could
show them modern pieces produced in much the same way as they would have been hundreds
of years ago, so there is that connection between tradition and modernism.”
The “People of the Longhouse” not only refers to
their traditional bark-and-log dwellings, but is also
a metaphor for their confederacy, with the eastern
door guarded by the Mohawk, the Senecas watching
to the west, and the Onondagas keeping the central
fire. In the mid-1400s, five previously warring
nations formed the Haudenosaunee union. Their
system of self-rule was guided by moral principles,
holding in view the present and future generations.
(The Tuscarora Nation joined them in 1722.)
Benjamin Franklin was inspired by the Iroquois’ model of unity
through one law in proposing the colonies of the United States. In
1988, on the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution,
the U.S. Congress acknowledged the historical debt owed to the
Iroquois confederacy “for their demonstration of enlightened,
democratic principles of government and their example of a free
association of independent Indian Nations.”
ANNABELLE OAKES, Mohawk
Fancy Strawberry basket, 1976
The Strawberry Thanksgiving
ceremony celebrates the first
fruit to ripen in spring.
BEVERLY DOXTATER (MILLER), Mohawk
Cornhusk Figure
Cornhusks, cloth, leather, feathers, glass beads, wood, yarn, metal
Hands-on, in person
Cornhusk dolls were once traditional toys for children and ceremonial objects, but have
now reached the level of art. According to tradition, the dolls are faceless because a
child and the Creator would determine the individuality of the doll. Doxtater’s figures
are more detailed than play dolls and are mounted on wooden bases. This male figure is
posed as if playing lacrosse, which is the Creator’s Game and has a ceremonial aspect
for men and boys. He wears a gustoweh cap with one feather pointing up, indicating
that he is Seneca. He also wears a circular silver brooch that has been a typical Iroquois
ornament since the 16th century. — Bennett King ’15
Archaeology is not just about digging up priceless statues and ancient tools.
Sometimes, you have to pay attention to the refuse.
Professor Jordan Kerber’s students have been learning that lesson since 1991,
while excavating sites in the homelands of the Oneidas for his Field Methods
and Interpretation in Archaeology course.
“We aren’t making earth-shattering discoveries,” said Kerber. “This course
is all about giving students an opportunity to do archaeology at an authentic
site, and to get a realistic sense of what it’s like to do archaeology. They start
by formulating questions and doing background research, and continue
right through lab work, analysis, interpretation, and results. They
end up writing a paper that becomes a permanent record about the
research.”
Many of his classes’ finds — stone chip debris, projectile points,
scrapers and knives, fish and animal bone, pipe stems, pottery sherds,
and more — have ended up in Colgate’s archaeology lab collection.
Other students get to handle those artifacts in courses
like Amy Groleau’s Intro to Archaeology. “When I say, ‘These
are 4,000 years old and they’re from right down the road,’
No-face dolls also serve as a caution
against vanity.
“The Longyear has, I would say, the best and most
comprehensive collection of Iroquois materials,
especially Oneida, in the region. It has been a
tremendous resource not just for the community,
but also for Colgate students. Every course I teach
includes some aspect of that collection.”
— Jordan Kerber, professor of anthropology and Native
In recent years, excavation by Kerber’s field methods classes
has taken place at the Brunk site, an ancient Oneida village
in northern Madison County. The site was occupied by
Native Americans for 15 to 20 years between the late 1400s
and mid-1500s. The landowners run a farm/agritourism
destination with an educational bent called Wolf Oak Acres;
they plan to add an exhibit of the artifacts unearthed by
Kerber’s students to their programming.
American studies
In keeping with the Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act, institutions receiving federal funding must publish
an inventory of its Native American holdings so that federally
recognized tribes with an affiliation to specific objects — for
example, funerary and sacred objects — may request repatriation.
Colgate has repatriated several objects to their affiliated tribes, and
in other cases, the tribes have allowed the university to retain the
objects, as long as they are not displayed.
Vessel
ONEIDA, Vaillancourt site
“‘A new, human-like figure is first
visible in Oneida ceramic art,’
making Vaillancourt one of the
more widely studied sites in Oneida
country as well as extremely
culturally significant.”
— Jeanie Arnold ’13, quoting
historian Anthony Wonderley in
her SOAN 353: Field Methods in
Archaeology final paper
Courtesy New York State Museum, Albany, N.Y.
This 16th-century Oneida vessel has a large
collar, rounded bottom, and two castellations
or points on the rim. Hatched areas on the
collar were associated with fields of corn,
and the faces on the castellations represent a
personified corn plant. — Holland Reynolds ’16
Excavating Oneida artifacts at the Brunk site
“I couldn’t imagine what it was like until I tried it myself. I had pictured the
dart going a lot faster,” said Alex Jurado ’15, “but it’s more of a lob up toward a
certain point and then it falls.”
The fact that people like Tarbell who can “bring technology like this to life” are
so close to Colgate is a rare opportunity, said Groleau.
“What I found really interesting was that they used
compound spears with a main fixed shaft and a dart at
the end so that when you stab the animal and then pull
back, the dart would stay in the animal and then you can
reload; it really showed how advanced this culture was.”
— Alex Jurado ’15
A lesson in spear throwing from Mike Tarbell
Back at the lab, Scott Brayden ’13 and his
classmates sort and catalogue items they
found at the Brunk site. “In their reports,
they interpret the results in an attempt
to reconstruct the activities that may
have occurred at the site,” said Professor
Kerber. “In the final part of their paper, they
compare what we know from this site with
what we know of at least one other Oneida
site to look at similarities and differences.”
Andrew Daddio (4)
their eyes get big and they see the landscape in a little bit different way,” she
said. “Their understanding of this place changes as they think about deep time.”
Objects can only show so much on their own; with decomposition of wood
and sinew, artifacts are often incomplete. So, in teaching about stone tools and
methods for knowing about them, for example, there’s nothing better than
bringing in an expert.
Perched on the edge of the glacial terrace forming the front lawn of Merrill
House, Mike Tarbell sets a wooden, arrow-like spear into the cupped end of a
j-shaped handle. He plants his feet and deftly launches the spear across the
descending hillside.
“Who wants to try it?” asks Tarbell, of the Mohawk Nation Turtle Clan. Groleau
invited him to give a demonstration of native tools for her archaeology students
and Michael Taylor’s Core: Iroquois class. A professor at SUNY Cobleskill and
recently retired educator at the Iroquois Indian Museum, Tarbell has dedicated
his life to studying the material culture of pre-contact Iroquois people. Along
the way, he became an expert in traditional flintknapping and toolmaking,
replicating bows, arrows, knives, war clubs, and other items such as the spear
thrower, which predates the bow and arrow and was used in group hunting on
terrain just like the Merrill House lawn.
News and views for the Colgate community
35
From ancient to
contemporary
When the Hamilton Historical Commission asked Professor Jordan Kerber last
spring if Colgate could organize an exhibition of local American Indian objects for
the Hamilton Public Library, he turned the project over to the capable hands of
two students. Lily Jones ’13 and Gillian Weaver ’14 both have museum experience
working for Carol Ann Lorenz, curator of the Longyear Museum of Anthropology.
The project, which became a semester-long independent study, required Jones
and Weaver to sort through thousands of artifacts in the Longyear collection.
“We have things that go from 10,000 BC to the present,” said Jones, a double
major in sociology/anthropology and Native American studies, of the resulting
exhibition, Local Legacies: A Look at the Material Culture of Indigenous Peoples
in the Hamilton, N.Y., Area, which inspired the title of this article.
The objects chosen by the pair revealed a local history of Native Americans
from long before European contact, with early stone tools, to contemporary
Haudenosaunee art.
Jones, who is Seneca and grew up on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation
near Buffalo, N.Y., has a special connection to at least one item in the exhibition.
A statue titled Indian with Fan (shown at right) was made by her father, Peter
B. Jones, an internationally acclaimed Onondaga artist. The statue is just one of
several of his works in the Longyear Museum’s holdings. “With my dad being an
artist, I’ve been interested in that idea of communicating through museums for a
long time,” Jones said.
Weaver, who is from Milwaukee, Wis., said the exhibition was unique in that
all of the objects are from Hamilton and surrounding townships. Assembling the
exhibition gave Jones and Weaver an appreciation of the painstaking detail that is
required for museum curatorial work.
“It’s not just finding objects, it’s writing text, figuring out how to hang things
and display them, and making signage,” said Weaver.
The exhibition will remain open for viewing through the summer at 13 Broad
Street, according to Joan Prindle, chair of the historical commission.
“It’s a perfect fit for the students, and it helps us out,” Prindle said.
Gabriela Bezerra ’13
— Daniel DeVries
Peter B. Jones, Onondaga
Indian with Fan, 2000, clay sculpture
34
36
scene: Winter 2013
“When I say, ‘These are 4,000 years old and they’re from right
down the road,’ their eyes get big and they see the landscape in a
little bit different way. Their understanding of this place changes
as they think about deep time.”
— Amy Groleau, visiting assistant professor of sociology and anthropology
Portrait by Father Claude Chauchetière,
late 1600s
Native Footsteps: Along the Path of
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
(Marquette University Press)
Known as the “Lily of the Mohawks,”
Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680) became
the first Native American Catholic
saint last year. Her canonization in
October 2012 is celebrated through a
compilation of documents, interviews,
and illustrations (most of them color
photographs), co-edited by Christopher
Vecsey, Harry Emerson Fosdick
Professor of the humanities, Native
American studies, and religion.
Potsherd with Human Figure
ONEIDA, Cameron site, Vernon Township
These two artifacts date
to the contact period,
beginning around 1560.
Regional resources
Antler Spoon
ONEIDA
Sullivan site, Stockbridge Township
Michael Newberg ’11 made a documentary,
Rising from the Subsoil, about the
high-level amateur archaeologists
of the Chenango Chapter of the NYS
Archaeological Association who are
responsible for some of the most
important and meaningful archaeological
research in the region. One member,
Monte Bennett, an Earlville resident who
has amassed an enormous collection of
American Indian artifacts over 50 years of
digging, adds a rich dimension to Professor
Jordan Kerber’s Field Methods course.
Over the years, Bennett has flagged
several productive sites for Kerber, often
visits the class digs, and occasionally helps
interpret findings.
“The expertise of an avocational
archaeologist is that, if you have spent
many years excavating a certain time
period, you get very professional at
what you are doing,” said Bennett. At the
end of the semester, the students give
a presentation of their findings at the
chapter meeting, bringing the sharing full
circle.
Watch the video on YouTube: tinyurl.
com/risingsubsoil.
Just 20 miles north of Colgate, the Shako:wi Cultural Center brings to life the history
and culture of the Oneida Indian Nation. One of their own, Kandice Watson, who serves
as the nation’s education outreach director, earned her master’s in teaching at Colgate
in 2003. Now she’s taking her turn with the next generation of students.
Many of the center’s regional school visitors are fourth-graders, the year in the
New York State curriculum when children learn about the Haudenosaunee. “They are
so impressionable, you have to be clear with them,” said Watson. “I quit wearing my
regalia when I do presentations. I used to wear it, but it made the kids think that is what
we always dress like. I’ll be talking to them, and one will raise his hand and ask, ‘Are
there any Indians left?’ We try to make sure they understand that we are here and how
different all the tribes are.”
Ganondagan State Historical Site, Victor, N.Y.
Iroquois Indian Museum, Howes Cave, N.Y.
Longyear Museum of Anthropology, Alumni Hall, Colgate University
New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, N.Y.
New York State Museum, Albany, N.Y.
Shako:wi Cultural Center, Oneida, N.Y.
News and views for the Colgate community
37