The Indigenous Studies department at the University at Buffalo is continuing to put research and its forefront. The department, which recently implemented a bachelor’s degree program, re-launched its Haudenosaunee Research Symposium to present the work done by its professors.
The symposium offered the chance for the UB community and public to not only take in that information – but to engage and understand with the Haudenosaunee academics themselves.
“The one thing that all of our faculty hold dear is making our research matter to communities,” said Dr. Mishuana Goeman, UB’s Indigenous Studies chair and a Tonawanda Band of Senecas descendant. “And I think it's that heart in making that matter and having those different methodologies for approaching some of the problems that are in our community, or wanting to understand the past, the present, and also where we're going in the future.”
Presentations covered a wide range of topics, including language, data sovereignty, the environment, Haudenosaunee women leadership, and health in Indigenous communities.
Some of that work – examines past research done on Native people by white academics which Dr. Meredith Alberta-Palmer, Six Nations Tuscarora, says is rooted in colonialism. Particularly, the work of Dr. James V. Neel.
“He did a lot of research on what he hypothesized was the thrifty gene theory, which was his idea that Native American people get diabetes more commonly because we are genetically predisposed to the disease,” said Palmer. “He came up with this theory first in 1962 and he got funding to research it. But since then, it's actually never been born out in any genetic research that the Thrifty Gene theory actually exists in the world.”
Alberta-Palmer says Neel first focused his research on Native tribes on the U.S. west coast. But, according to letters from the mid-1960s to colleagues, they had to be “dirty Indians” to satisfy the needs of his research. He categorized Native people he was looking into researching as “wild Indian” and “tame Indian.”
After visiting Navajo, Seminole, and Akimel O'odham territories and taking blood samples, Palmer said Neel expressed frustration in his thrifty gene research. He blamed it on the three tribes not being truly Indigenous under his genetic criteria.
“There's no other sovereign nations where your genetic identity determines whether you have citizenship and membership,” said Palmer. “It is about being claimed by that community, not by whether or not your genes match. Yet, however, this was his criteria, and so in order to find what he deemed pure or wild, primitive people. He traveled down to Brazil and extracted blood and froze it and flew it back from a group called the Yanomami people.”
Neel’s use of the Brazilian Yanomami in his thrifty gene theory is something U.S. medical circles still promote. Alberta-Palmer argues this assumption leads to inadequate action in helping her people and other tribes in addressing health disparities like diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.
“The fact is that so much more research continues to go into the genetic basis for these kinds of illnesses, especially metabolic illnesses, in our communities. When it's really systemic change that needs to happen.”
Systemic change is something Haudenosaunee women know quite well. Clan mothers play an important role in the continuation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a form of government that dates back long before Europeans stepped foot in North America. Male chiefs didn’t receive their position without the consensus and support from these influential women, and that traditional form of government continues to exist today even with other political entities.
Leadership from women in Haudenosaunee communities still plays a vital role, even outside the bounds of traditional government. That’s the area Associate Professor Theresa McCarthy, Six Nations Onondaga, explored in her research -- which put an emphasis on the role women played in the Caledonia land dispute in Ontario which turned into direct action starting in 2006.
“It was the first time in our 250 year history at Grand River, that we've regained, rather than lost, our lands because of those actions.”
McCarthy is working on putting a book together to serve as an archive of the leadership displayed by Haudenosaunee women during that extended dispute.
“Leadership is something that's thought about very differently in our communities, it's not a hierarchical way,” said McCarthy. “When you ask women, what do we mean by leadership? You know, they often talk about we just act on our responsibilities. That's what we're supposed to do, is we just act on our responsibilities. We are still supposed to be equal with each other. One of the sayings is we're supposed to remain all trees of equal height.”
The Indigenous Studies program not only promotes research and classroom learning, but something called land-based learning.
It’s led by Jason Corwin, a clinical assistant professor, and brings mostly underclass students to learn about the environment and traditional Haudenosaunee ways of living through firsthand experiences. Taking trips to Tonawanda Seneca territory to learn about Haudenosaunee farming techniques, Ganondagan Living History site, and many days in the woods identifying plant species and honing bush crafting skills that Indigenous people have been using for centuries.
The Indigenous Studies department hopes to restart the research symposium as an annual event to showcase the work its professors and students are doing to elevate Haudenosaunee culture and history in a higher education setting.
