Syracuse.com by Anne Hayes Lafayette, N.Y. – On Thursday afternoon, Okwaho Patterson, an eighth-grader, was sitting in his technology class at LaFayette Junior-Senior High School working with scissors to help build a model bridge. All of a sudden, Okwaho, 12, turned around and saw his friend clutching a fistful of Okwako’s hair in one hand and scissors in the other. The … [Read more...] about When a CNY kid forcibly cuts a Native American student’s hair, it’s a teaching moment for a school district
News
First Phase Complete of New Onondaga Art Installation on the Quad
Syracuse University News By Jen Maser Those strolling through the Kenneth A. Shaw Quadrangle may notice a new addition to the landscape this week, as the first phase of a new Onondaga Art Installation—led by the Indigenous Students at Syracuse (ISAS), Native Student Program, Ongwehonwe Alumni Association and Haudenosaunee/Indigenous alumni representatives—is complete and … [Read more...] about First Phase Complete of New Onondaga Art Installation on the Quad
Superintendents advocate for Native Schools
Onondaga Nation- On Tuesday, August 31, 2021, representatives from three school districts and the Onondaga Nation Council met to highlight the need for the State to increase funding for native schools. Superintendents Jeremy Belfield of the LaFayette School District, Dan Ljiljanich of the Niagara Wheatfield School District, and Dr. Stanley Harper of the Salmon River School … [Read more...] about Superintendents advocate for Native Schools
Syracuse University visits Onondaga Nation
On Wednesday August 4, 2021 Chancellor Kent Syverud led a delegation which included Rev. Brian E. Konkol, Dean of Hendricks Chapel and Jeff Stoecker Chief Communications officer, to rekindle our relationship between the Onondaga Nation and Syracuse University. Chancellor Syverud shared with the Onondaga Council the status of many factors the University has faced since … [Read more...] about Syracuse University visits Onondaga Nation
Onondaga Nation School to reopen for in-person learning in the fall
Onondaga Nation- On Wednesday, August 4,2021, the Onondaga Nation Council met with Onondaga Nation School (ONS) Principal Simone Gonyea to delineate the safeguards to reopen in-person learning at ONS in the fall of 2021. “The safety of our community is paramount,” said Chief Sid Hill. “We have multigenerational homes so we must be watchful of the pandemic.” The document … [Read more...] about Onondaga Nation School to reopen for in-person learning in the fall
A Haudenosaunee Softball Legacy
Oñgwaweñna' By: Diohgwine Softball is certainly a family affair for Jan Moses. After all, she is the second in line to a five-generation lineage of Native women softball players. Jan began playing on the all-Native Syracuse Red Jackets softball team with her mother, Eulalie Green Moses, when she was 15. “We used to practice in a field by Tom Huff’s old house,” said Jan. … [Read more...] about A Haudenosaunee Softball Legacy
They took his name, but they could not take his heritage: Onondagas remember boarding school abuse
By Marnie Eisenstadt Syracuse, N.Y. -- The six year old boy did not have a name. He was only a number: 266. “Immediately the nun tells me, ‘Remember this number, don’t ever forget this number. This is who you are’,” Virgil Brave Rock said. “They stripped you of everything that you were going in.” The moment he entered the St. Mary’s Residential School on the Blood Reserve in … [Read more...] about They took his name, but they could not take his heritage: Onondagas remember boarding school abuse