The Haudenosaunee are a social, cultural, and political grouping that includes six First Nations - the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Tuscarora, and Seneca. Their name means “People of the Longhouse,” envisioning themselves as an extended family with kinship values of mutual responsibility and interdependence. Their homelands are located in upstate New York and southern Ontario and Québec. This course explores Haudenosaunee historic and contemporary lives, lands, and their activism in support of their cultural and political autonomy and sovereignty. We will see how they have maintained their prominence in social justice movements, in national and international settings as recognized Indigenous leaders in protecting lands and resources, and strengthening spiritual and linguistic heritage. We will be listening to the voices of Haudenosaunee citizens in interviews and film clips to better understand their perspective and experience.

Nancy Bonvillain is an anthropologist and linguist (PhD Columbia University) who has done fieldwork with the Navajo Nation and the Akwesasne Mohawk First Nation in Canada. She has written four textbooks in anthropology, language and culture, gender studies, and Native American studies. She is also the author of 20 separate ethnographies of Indigenous societies. And Nancy has worked with Mohawk language programs at Akwesasne. She has taught anthropology and linguistics at SUNY-Stony Brook, Columbia University, and most recently at Bard College at Simon's Rock. 

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