‘Our culture is alive:’ Chief of Onondaga Hawk Clan discusses Haudenosaunee elders

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Growing up, Spencer ​​Ohsgoñ:da’ Lyons frequently heard his grandmother speak with her friends in the Onondaga language – conversations that he wanted to be a part of as he got older, prompting him to ask questions to elders in his community.

Lyons, now the chief of the Haudenosaunee Hawk Clan, led a presentation, “Listen to the Elders,” to Syracuse University students Monday night in the Skä•Noñh Great Law of Peace Center. Lyons recounted what he learned from his elders about Haudenosaunee culture and explained the importance of preserving Haudenosaunee knowledge through oral histories.

In Haudenosaunee culture, elders are known as “knowledge holders,” because their role is to pass down traditions to the next generations, Lyons said. Unlike other cultural histories, Haudenosaunee stories are not shared through scripture, he said. Instead, they are passed down orally, leading some to forget or discredit their significance.

“We’re still showing people that our culture is alive, our language is alive and we’re maintaining all the ways that the ones before us have passed down from generation to generation,” Lyons said.

In his presentation, Lyons shared the Haudenosaunee origin story of Skywoman, a woman who fell from the sky and landed on a turtle, which we now know as the land. Nature is an integral element to the Haudenosaunee’s cultural history — it’s seen as equal to humans in Haudenosaunee culture because it has preceded and will outlive humanity, he said.

“We put ourselves smack dab in the middle and understand that we’re actually the smallest part of this natural world,” Lyons said. “We’re the smaller part and we owe gratitude to everything that has sustained.”

Lyon’s presentation emphasized that Haudenosaunee culture is still thriving through language, song, stories, symbols and traditions, all of which are preserved through elders’ knowledge. The Haudenosaunee also practice numerous ceremonies, including four sacred ceremonies that happen during each season of the year, he said.

Diane Schenandoah, a member of the Haudenosaunee Wolf Clan, works at SU’s Counseling Center for Indigenous Students as Honwadiyenawa’sek, which in the Onondaga language means “one who helps them.” She said the center will host a traditional Full Moon Ceremony on Friday evening at Shaw Quadrangle. Schenandoah works with other SU professors to engage with Indigenous students on campus, especially for ceremonial preparations, she said.

Heather Law Pezzarossi, an assistant professor in SU’s Anthropology Department who works with Schenandoah, said there will also be an Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration in downtown Syracuse on Oct. 8.

Through events like these, the Haudenosaunee will continue to inform the surrounding community about its culture and history, Lyons said.

A central tenet of Haudenosaunee culture that Lyons explained in his presentation was the idea of the “seven generations” — that one generation is just borrowed time and what a person chooses to do with their life affects the next generation.

Each generation must ponder and pass on knowledge to following generations, who will in turn interpret the knowledge as they grow older, he said. In his own conversations with elders, Lyons said he’s learned the importance of peace and contentment.

“I’m not an expert in Haudenosaunee — I’ve just had the experience of taking myself to share space with what they call elders who are knowledgeable, and these are the ideas that have been passed down,” Lyons said.

Through the continuation of these traditions, Lyons said he hopes for the Haudenosaunee people to reinforce their relationship with one another and with the earth in order to stay alive in spirit for the coming years.

“This idea of maintaining all of our culture, and fighting for sovereignty, and all of these things and all the other work that I do, (is) that I’m picking up the torch that somebody had carried for a long time before me,” Lyons said. “We’re going to need people to continue to pick up that torch because … it comes down to a really simple idea of recognition, which is we want to be recognized as a people, as conscious beings.”