The Native American Studies Program at Eberly College of Arts and Sciences hosted the Peace Tree Ceremony Monday, along with and a forum that started Monday and continues today with Native leaders.
The events highlight Native Nations’ ancestral, cultural and historical connections to the land now known as West Virginia.
The Native American Studies Program at Eberly College of Arts and Sciences will host events on October 9 and 10 that will highlight Native Nations’ ancestral, cultural and historical connections to the land now known as West Virginia.
The annual Peace Tree Ceremony was held in recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day. WVU’s Peace Tree is between Martin and E. Moore halls on WVU’s downtown campus.
The Peace Tree, per Haudenosaunee (Iroquoian) oral history passed down for hundreds of years, centers on the Creator sending the Peacemaker to unite the warring Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk nations. He planted the original white pine Tree of Peace at Onondaga to symbolize these Five Nations forming the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. With the addition of the Tuscarora, it is now the Six Nations.
WVU’s first peace tree was planted on campus in 1992 by Chief Leon Shenandoah, Tadodaho of the Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. This year, Tadodaho Sidney Hill presided. Other guests of honor included Haudenosaunee Faithkeeper Oren Lyons, Delaware Nation President Deborah Dotson, Delaware Tribe of Indians Chief Brad KillsCrow, Shawnee Tribe Chief Ben Barnes, Eastern Shawnee Tribe Chief Glenna Wallace and Cherokee Nation history and preservation officer Catherine Foreman Gray.
The Peace Tree Ceremony included traditional Native music by singer John Block (Seneca Nation) and flute player Boe Nakakakena Harris (Turtle Mountain Chippewa). Wendy Perrone, executive director of Three Rivers Avian Center in Hinton, presented Regis, a bald eagle, symbolizing the eagle sentry the Peacemaker placed atop the original Peace Tree.
Monday evening featured a keynote presentation, “Truth to Power: History from Indigenous Perspectives” by Traditional Faithkeeper Oren Lyons, Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation, Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
Today, the Native American Studies program will host an all-day public forum with keynote presentations by leaders from Delaware, Shawnee, Haudenosaunee and Cherokee Nations.
The forum, “This Land was Already Loved: Native Leaders Discuss their Nations’ Connection to Place,” will take place from 9 a.m.–6 p.m. in the Mountainlair Blue Ballroom and will offer sessions throughout the day. Native Nation leaders will share important stories, history, perspectives and outlooks for the future.
“This historic gathering of Native leaders at WVU provides an unprecedented opportunity to learn firsthand about the history and culture of the first peoples to live in what is today called West Virginia, said NAS Program Coordinator Bonnie Brown. “Educators, scholars, cultural resource managers, curators and others who want culturally accurate information obtained from Indigenous experts will find this unique event especially valuable.”
The first forum session begins at 9 a.m. and runs until noon. It will include presentations from Delaware Nation President Deborah Dotson, Delaware Tribe of Indians Chief Brad KillsCrow, as well as Cherokee Nation history and preservation officer Catherine Foreman Gray.
A ticketed lunch-and-learn event will follow from noon-1 p.m.
The afternoon session takes place from 1-4:15 p.m. and features Tadodaho Sidney Hill, Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, Eastern Shawnee Tribe Chief Glenna Wallace and Shawnee Tribe Chief Ben Barnes.
Native Nation leaders will convene during the final session from 4:30-6 p.m. to discuss their outlooks for the future and to answer questions from the audience.
The events are supported by the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, WVU Honors College, WVU Humanities Center, WVU Program for Leadership Studies, WVU Libraries, WVU Extension and the Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex and the West Virginia Dept. of Arts, Culture History. Morgantown’s Community Coalition for Social Justice, the West Virginia Conference of the United United Methodist Church Committee on Native American Ministries and the Monongalia Friends Meeting (Quakers) have also contributed support.
This project is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
