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Spencer Ohsgoñ:da’ Lyons, Chief of the Onondaga Hawk Clan, told a “true recollection” of United States history from the perspective of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy at Monday evening’s “Listen to the Elders” speaker event in the Skä•Noñh Great Law of Peace Center.

Lyons presented history from the 17th century to today. He spoke about how structures such as colonialism, imperialism and capitalism have divided Indigenous peoples — and people in general — from themselves, and emphasized the importance of reconnecting with individuals and with the Earth.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions, or a lot of lack of understanding, of Haudenosaunee history and how much history that’s intertwined with American history,” Lyons said. “It’s always the power of the pen — who gets to control the narrative of history or what is taught. A lot of the time for us, we’re handed down these oral traditions … it’s a series of stories untold.”

Lyons currently works with the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force, assists with the Onondaga Language Program and consults with the Haudenosaunee External Relations Committee on behalf of the Onondaga Nation Council, according to Syracuse University’s event calendar. He also announced he was recently nominated to speak at the United Nations about uplifting Indigenous voices globally in regard to climate change.

The history commonly taught in American schools, Lyons said, does not tell the whole story. Separating history into American history, Indigenous history, colonialism and imperialism, Lyons said, perpetuates division and obscures how “interconnected” humans are.

“Sometimes we’re taught and everything is kind of pulled apart, especially in academia, where everything is so hyper-focused … and all of these walls are built up,” he said. “That does a disservice to us as people because, at the end of the day, we’re all the same. We’re all people.”

European colonists carried out a genocide of Native Americans, killing 56 million people, dispossessing them and forcing them off of their lands. From the 17th century to today, policies such as the 1830 Indian Removal Act continue to oppress Indigenous peoples, but they’ve fought for equality by way of treaties and resistance, Lyons said.

“This margin of inequity is still in existence … Why do we have to fight for something that was a treaty? Treaty rights are reserved rights. They’re not just gifts that somebody’s gifted to us. It was something that somebody bled for, something that we have to fight tooth and nail for to reserve the right,” Lyons said.

Lyons said Haudenosaunee values center around their relationship with the Earth. He said that “nobody owns the land,” but rather are only “borrowing this time on land from the future generations.”

The American government broke the Haudenosaunee’s ties to the land by replacing their traditional collectivist values with a government-imposed system of private property that spurred an individualistic mentality, Lyons said. Haudenosaunee values, he said, are not about what people can do for themselves but rather what will be beneficial for all people.

“This idea of capitalism is now starting to be imposed on society in general. It’s so different from the Haudenosaunee people — this is an imposition, this is something that was forced upon them in order to start to break down those Haudenosaunee values of ‘we’ instead of ‘me,’” Lyons said.

Indigenous communities have the highest rates of suicide, Lyons said, adding that Indigneous people worldwide are survivors as traumas from the colonial era continue to manifest today.

Depression, anxiety, internalized racism, low self-esteem, loss of traditional knowledge, violence, feeling numb and unresolved grief are all examples of traumas people experience today, Lyons said. Not just Indigenous people, but all people, he said, suffer from the systems that “severed” human connection to the Earth.

“It was only after the Industrial Revolution — when they started taking people away from the Earth and shoving them in factories — is when people started to change,” Lyons said.

Humans have been “tricked” into building walls between each other, Lyons said, instead of letting people be free to exist as they do naturally. He encouraged the audience to be kind to themselves, to others and to all beings. He emphasized the importance of thinking critically and regrounding with nature to reconnect with themselves, each other and the Earth.

Ciara Young, an SU senior studying international relations, anthropology and linguistic studies, said she enjoyed Lyons’ comment that “people nowadays are afraid to use the word ‘love.’”

“We’re so very isolated and we just need to start breaking those walls down. It can’t just happen immediately, I mean, we live in a society that’s very constructed, but if you just take it day by day, I think you can be more whole as a person,” she said.

Lyons finished his presentation with a slide titled “Haudenosaunee Standing Proud.” He spoke about ongoing efforts to reclaim and revitalize traditional practices, and said the fight for recognition continues.

“Indigenous ideas of justice are not an eye for an eye,” Lyons said. “It’s a balance of give and take, it’s a rebalancing of what we need to get back to peace.”

Published on April 15, 2024 at 11:50 pm

Contact Ahna: arflemin@syr.edu