The conference will provide opportunities for members of the Iroquois — the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora — to exchange ideas about Native traditions and build momentum for future generations.
Lehman “Dar” Dowdy, a founder of Faith Keepers School in Steamburg who is organizing the conference with Stephen Gordon, said the nations need to come together again as a community, as an extended family of caregivers.
“We need to stand one another back up. When we see our children adopting another’s culture as a way to behave, dress and believe, we have taken a giant step toward terminating our Native culture. … I do not recommend a return to the ‘old ways;’ I’m recommending going forward with our language, culture and traditions firmly preserved and rooted in our communities,” said Dowdy.
The conference opens Friday, May 20, with an evening social, followed by a full day of speakers and discussions May 21.
Events May 21 begin with a Thanksgiving address by Tom Porter, a member of the Bear Clan of the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne, followed by messages from Dowdy, a member of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nation of Indians; and Robert Odawi Porter, president of the Seneca Nation of Indians. Opening prayers on Saturday and Sunday will be led by Franciscan friars from Mt. Irenaeus: Br. Joe Kotula, O.F.M., and Br. Robert Struzynski, O.F.M.
Other conference speakers include:
- Dr. Lloyd Elm, a member of the Eel Clan of the Onondaga Nation who has spent his career in education, including at Cornell University, Native American Magnet School in Buffalo, and a magnet school in St. Paul, Minn.
- Ed Gray, who began his career as a medicine man at a young age by observing many of the elders in his community. As early as 9, he began following a local medicine man on walks through the woods, learning what plants are useful and when to harvest them.
- Katsitsawaks Diane Hill, an integrative programs consultant, is a member of the Mohawk Nation, Bear Clan, from the Six Nations of the Grant River Territory in Ontario, Canada. For the past 25 years, she has consulted on various aboriginal education initiatives both nationally and internationally.
- Gerald “Pete” Jemison, a member of the Heron Clan, a Faithkeeper of the Newtown Longhouse and an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation of Indians. He is the site manager of Ganondagan, a village that at one time was the Seneca Capital of the Iroquois Confederacy and once occupied by 5,000 Seneca people in the 17th century.
- Paul Ortega, a medicine man of the Apache Nation. He is also a recording artist and recipient of the Native American Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a host/guide at the Inn of the Gods in New Mexico.
- David Powless, a member of the Turtle Clan of the Oneida Nation (Wisconsin). He is a Native businessman, motivator and co-founder of the Rainbow Way with Paul Ortega. A former professional football player with the New York Giants and Washington Redskins, Powless has experienced many of the healing qualities of Native medicine techniques and rituals.
- Dr. Lori Quigley, a 1981 alumna of St. Bonaventure, is professor and dean of the School of Education at The Sage Colleges. She has a Ph.D. in language, learning and literacy, coupled with 15 years of elementary and secondary classroom experience. Quigley, a member of the Seneca Nation, serves as the associate state coordinator for the American Council on Education’s Office of Women in Higher Education, and was an adviser on the documentary “Unseen Tears.”
This year’s conference is being held in tribute to the late Jake Swamp, one of the most respected and honored Mohawk Iroquois leaders of the past century. He was a member of the Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs for more than three decades, a position in which he served as a counselor, spiritual leader, legislator and ambassador. Swamp founded the Akwesasne Freedom School in 1979 and helped develop a curriculum based on the traditional values of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois).
Raging Wolf Productions has provided the opportunity for The Captured Image to work on this project for (2) years in a row and we look forward to the years to come. We enjoy projects like this and being able to record such a important event is the biggest joy!
T.C.I
