Episode 6: Kateleen - In Conversation with Tehosterihens Deer - The Land You’re On: Acknowledging the Haudenosaunee - Research Guides at Syracuse University Libraries

Kateleen - In Conversation with Tehosterihens Deer

Graduating Syracuse University senior Kateleen provides her perspective on the undergraduate experience at a predominantly white institution. Interviewer Tehosterihens Deer is a senior at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Indigenous Students At Syracuse is a group that serves as an outlet to generate a sense of belonging for Native American students attending Syracuse University. Photo by Regina Jones.

Native Student Program

Native Student Program
Program at Syracuse University that supports the transition to college for students who are members of state and federally recognized Native American tribes. The program serves as a “home-away-from-home” for Native students and a gathering place for those who are interested in exploring Native American culture and history. It was established in 2006 through a collaboration among the Office of Academic Affairs, the Student Experience Division, and Multicultural Affairs.
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Located at 113 Euclid Avenue

Haudenosaunee Promise

Syracuse University Financial Aid - Haudenosaunee Scholarships
"The Haudenosaunee Promise Scholarship Program seeks to make the rich educational experiences of Syracuse University available to admitted, qualified, first-year and transfer Haudenosaunee students. The Promise expresses Syracuse University’s gratitude and appreciation for the historical, political, and cultural legacies of the Haudenosaunee and honors the continually growing relationship between us. Qualified students receive financial assistance equal to the cost of tuition, housing and meals (on campus, up to the amount allotted through our Cost of Attendance), and mandatory fees for each year of full-time undergraduate study."

Indigenous Students at Syracuse (ISAS)

Indigenous Students at Syracuse
ISAS serves as an outlet to generate a sense of belonging for Native American students attending Syracuse University. In addition, ISAS will promote and aid in any way possible to support Native American students. ISAS will create visibility and awareness of Native American cultures, as well as provide education of Native American issues to the Syracuse University community.

Seven Generations

Values
Among the nations of the Haudenosaunee is a core value called the Seventh Generation. While the Haudenosaunee encompass traditional values like sharing labor and maintaining a duty to their family, clan and nation and being thankful to nature and the Creator for their sustenance, the Seventh Generation value takes into consideration those who are not yet born but who will inherit the world.
Introducing The Seventh Generation Principle – to Promote True Sustainability
The Seventh Generation Principle is an Indigenous Concept, to think of the 7th generation coming after you in your words, work and actions, and to remember the seventh generation who came before you.
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This concept is based on an ancient philosophy of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois), which is recognized as the oldest democracy in the world and believed to be the model of the American Constitution, the foundation document of the most powerful and prosperous nation on earth.

Indigenous Knowledge Regarding the Environment

How indigenous knowledge can help prevent environmental crises
"If we allow the Amazon to be destroyed… that affects us as indigenous peoples, but it will also affect everyone because of climate change."
Why protecting Indigenous communities can also help save the Earth
Protecting Indigenous peoples can also help in protecting the Earth's biodiversity from becoming extinct.

Returned Land

1000 acres of land in Tully was returned to the Onondaga on 30 June 2022
One Thousand Acres Returned to Onondaga Nation
On Wednesday, June 29, 1,000 acres of ancestral homeland in the Tully Valley in Central New York was returned to the Onondaga Nation.
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The land return–one of the largest transfers from a state to an Indigenous nation—was part of a 2018 Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration settlement. The settlement is an agreement between the Dept. of the Interior’s trustees U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the landowner, Honeywell International Inc., to transfer the land title back to the Nation.
1,000 acres of forest to be returned to Onondaga Nation in historic lake cleanup agreement
Centuries after losing nearly all of their land to the state of New York, the Onondaga Nation will see the return of a 1,000-acre sliver of their original, 2.5-million-acre territory.
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Land claimed is the Tully area

The Land You’re On: Acknowledging the Haudenosaunee