In 1974, Clan Mother Audrey Shenandoah started teaching the Onondaga language to the children of the Onondaga Nation School for the first time. Prior, the Onondaga language was not allowed to be spoken since the school's inception in 1850. Click to watch … [Read more...] about This Side of the River
Language
This Side of the River
In a 1978 film by Monona Wali about the Onondaga Nation, Monona interviews Clan Mother Audrey Shenandoah about the importance of the newly formed Onondaga language classes at the Onondaga Nation School. … [Read more...] about This Side of the River
Language is Identity by Jourdan Bennett-Begaye
4-year-old named Gowennotha sat at the table sorting a puzzle with a 30-year-old Mohawk man in a white two-story house that sits next to the Onondaga Nation School on the Onondaga Nation, 15 minutes south of Syracuse, New York. Just moments before the puzzle sorting, Gowennotha walked into the lavender room talking to her mother, effortlessly flipping between Onondaga and … [Read more...] about Language is Identity by Jourdan Bennett-Begaye
Onondaga Nation’s urgent mission: Saving our language
ONONDAGA NATION -- Jay Meacham can still hear his grandmother speak to him in the Onondaga language. But Evangeline Nancy Meacham was reluctant to teach her grandson the language because she was told not to use it. … [Read more...] about Onondaga Nation’s urgent mission: Saving our language