Neighbors of Onondaga Nation host Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration to ‘refocus’ on history

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The Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation and Women of Italian and Syracuse Heritage of Central New York celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day with a community festival on Sunday titled “Indigenous Peoples’ Day: Celebrate and Refocus.”

NOON is a local grassroots organization that recognizes and supports the Onondaga Nation’s sovereignty.

“The ‘celebration’ piece is obvious, and ‘refocus’ is both kind of saying that we need to re-understand, re-learn history,” said Andy Mager, an organizer with NOON and the Syracuse Peace Council.

Hosted at the Everson Museum of Art, the festival featured Haudenosaunee singing and dancing, Haudenosaunee and Onondaga vendors, speakers and other local community groups.
Urban Video Project and Syracuse University’s Light Work supported the festival’s five “Refocus” screenings, said Hilary-Anne Coppola. Coppola is a steering committee member of NOON and WISH CNY — an organization whose mission focuses on historical education and outreach.

The festival honored Alfred Jacques, a well-known Onondaga lacrosse stick maker who died in June, and his legacy through Dehoñtjihgwa’és, or lacrosse.

Coppola said that although she is Italian American, she does not support Columbus, who was used as a symbol to help Italian Americans be accepted into the dominant society in the United States.

“Let’s not forget that Indigenous people have always known who Columbus really was,” Coppola said. “For decades now in Syracuse, there has been resistance against the heroization of Columbus, but it’s not until more recently that the city has really taken notice.”

Lawmakers from the United States House of Representatives and Senate reintroduced a bill on Oct. 2 to establish Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a federal holiday in place of the Columbus Day holiday. In 2021, President Joe Biden became the first president to issue a proclamation in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

“It’s an important shift … in our American culture, away from celebration of settler colonialism to respect for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas,” said Philip Arnold, an associate professor in the department of religion and a core faculty member of Native American and Indigenous Studies at SU’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Arnold, who is also the founding director of the Skä·noñh-Great Law of Peace Center and a member of NOON, also said the nationwide conversation is similar to the debate surrounding the Columbus monument in Syracuse, marking real changes that are happening in the U.S.

“Most people have learned a very limited and distorted history about the history of Indigenous peoples, about their cultures, about the ways that their land was stolen from them and efforts were made to destroy them as peoples, and cultures and nations,” Mager said.

Scott Manning Stevens, an associate professor and director of Native American and Indigenous Studies, said he regrets that SU’s fall break will take place during Indigenous Peoples’ Day, as it may impact students’ awareness of the holiday. This year is SU’s first fall break, held Monday to Tuesday.

“We’re on native land and we are in proximity to a federally-recognized Indigenous reservation right down the road — the Onondaga reservation — and students can somehow still remain unaware of that, which always stuns me,” Stevens said.

SU’s Student Association was unable to work on any events for Indigenous communities this year, SA’s Director of Indigenous Student Affairs Katsitsatekanoniahkwa Destiny Lazore Whitebean said. She said SA passed a resolution at its meeting on Monday to officially recognize the holiday, which she said represents a positive step.

Whitebean said that she has experienced marginalization in her higher education experiences, but SU’s Native Student Programs and Indigenous faculty and staff have helped her and others to feel acknowledged.

“There is a shift and it’s not necessarily just Columbus Day,” Whitebean said. “People are starting to acknowledge that we’re here and we’re still thriving.”

Arnold said both groups must recognize their history together. Settler colonial people and Indigenous peoples would have constant interaction and learn from each other in the 18th century, which they must embrace, he said.

“Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I feel, is a signal in that direction and a way that we can begin to mend our fraught relationships in this country,” Arnold said.

NOON will not host any celebrations on Monday to ensure that Indigenous-led organizations are able to attend other events on the actual holiday, Coppola said.