This project focuses on the development of public presentations on Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ history and archaeology that will be developed into peer-reviewed publications. Cornell archaeologist Kurt Jordan and Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language teacher, faithkeeper, and oral historian Steve Henhawk have developed a good working method for coupling academic and community perspectives on historical and archaeological issues. They presented two co-authored presentations during Fall 2024, one on the long-term history of Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih house forms, and a second reanalyzing archaeological deposits at the Carpenter Brook site in Onondaga County. In the Carpenter Brook project, they used a multivocal presentation where each spoke/wrote in their own voice to make the source of the knowledge evident to the listener/reader.
Henhawk and Jordan will use Rural Humanities funding to further develop this work into formal publications, and also to pursue other projects. They use “voices” in the title of the project because Henhawk acts as a conduit for the knowledge and perspectives of many others, both living and passed on, from the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ community at Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. He insists that these knowledge holders be recognized for their contributions, and for their dedication to preserving community knowledge in a colonialist setting that has been dead-set on erasing this knowledge and even the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language itself.
Collaborators:
Kurt Jordan, Anthropology
Steven Henhawk, American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program
