Launched in 2009, the Haudenosaunee-Native American Studies Research Group (H-NA) is comprised of Indigenous and non-Indigenous allied faculty and graduate student scholars from across disciplines at UB and provides a forum for discussion of recent academic work in the ever-emerging interdisciplinary field of Indigenous studies. This research group’s Haudenosaunee-specific focus is an assertion of our acknowledgement of the University at Buffalo’s location within the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee people.
The seventh annual UB Haudenosaunee Research Symposium was held on November 3, 2018. The symposium foregrounded the important work that faculty and students are doing at UB in Haudenosaunee/Indigenous studies and drew over 50 attendees and participants from UB and the local Native community. Students from several undergraduate classes and graduate seminars also attended the symposium throughout the day. Presentations were also conducted by students of Deadiwenohsnye’s Gejohgwa Onondowa’ga:’ Immersion Program (Seneca Language Immersion).
An additional Indigenous Inclusion Retreat was held on February 22, 2019. It featured a public presentation titled, Beyond Access: Indigenizing Pathways for Native Student Success by Dr. Shelly Lowe (Diné/Harvard University) and Dr. Stephanie Waterman (Onondaga/OISE/UofT). Drs Lowe and Waterman are co-editors of the award-winning book, Beyond the Asterisks: Native American Students in Higher Education.
The eighth annual UB Haudenosaunee research symposium will take place in November 2019. Since the United Nations has designated 2019 as the year of Indigenous Languages, Haudenosaunee languages will be the theme and the event will be co-sponsored with the Department of Linguistics. The symposium will feature a plenary session with invited Haudenosaunee language speakers, teachers, and linguists. Additional panels will consist of UB faculty, students, and local community members committed to Haudenosaunee language continuity.
In conjunction with the exhibit “Revolution: Civil Rights at UB, 1960-1975” and associated programming sponsored by the UB Office of Inclusive Excellence, the H-NA cosponsored a public lecture on March 25, 2019 by Cherokee/Choctaw/Creek historian Kent Blansett. Blansett’s new book, A Journey to Freedom: Richard Oakes, Alcatraz, and the Red Power Movement (Yale Press, 2018), is the first book-length biography of Mohawk Red Power activist, Richard Oakes, who was a leader in the Alcatraz takeover and the Red Power Indigenous rights movement in the 1960s.
In partnerships with the Office of Inclusive Excellence, the HI Performance Research Workshop and the Department of Theatre and Dance, the H-NA is excited to be bringing internationally renowned dance artist Santee Smith (Six Nations, Mohawk) and her performance “The Mush Hole Project” in the Spring 2020 semester. This major theatre production is to be staged in the Center for the Arts. The Mush Hole Project reflects on the Indigenous experience of Indian Boarding Schools, shedding light on this history and its ongoing consequences for North American Indigenous people today.
Proposed Indigenous studies scholarship reading sessions for 2019-2021 include: Nick Estes’s Our History is Our Future: Standing Rock Versus The Dakota Access Pipeline and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (Verso, 2019), Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Eve Tuck et al, Indigenizing and Decolonizing Studies in Indigenous Education: The Long View (Routledge, 2019), Daniel Heath Justice’s Why Indigenous Literatures Matter (Wilfred Laurier Press, 2018), and Kimberly Tallbear’s Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science (University of Minnesota Press, 2013). Our membership has identified Nick Estes, Assistant Professor, American Studies, University of New Mexico, David A. Chang, Professor, History, University of Minnesota, and Daniel Heath Justice, Professor, English, University of British as potential guest speakers.
Tonawanda Seneca Nation
Seneca Nation of Indians (Cattaraugus, Allegheny)
Tuscarora Nation
Deadiwënöhsnye’s Gëjóhgwa’ Seneca Language Immersion Program
Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa Mohawk Language Immersion Program
NACS (Native American Community Services, Buffalo)
Native American SUNY: Western Consortium
Buffalo Native Resource Center
IWI (Indigenous Women’s Initiative, Buffalo)
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