The effects of colonial wars on the
Haudenosaunee League, the splitting of the confederacy and Oneida's experience as allies of the United States, their loss of land and the fragmenting of the nation into three communities (New York, Wisconsin and London, Ontario), as well as the imposition of a colonial order within Canada are all addressed in order to frame the issues the community faces.
The visas were refused because the players insisted on travelling on
Haudenosaunee passports, issued by the Onondaga Nation.
"Iroquois Art, Power, and History" is a stunning new unveiling of adjusted interpretations of 5,000 years of Iroquois or
Haudenosaunee peoples' legacy of visual art forms, including writing, incising, painting, tree-painting, drawing, tattoo, body painting, photography, videography and digital media, as well as other art media.
The exhibit includes objects from
Haudenosaunee, Anishnaabek, and Shawnee warriors who fought as sovereign allies of the British Crown in the War of 1812, and a suit of clothing worn by an Anishnaabe chief who met the Prince of Wales at the great gathering at Sarnia in 1860.
As Elm (himself a
Haudenosaunee of the Oneida Nation) explains, Gansworth's and Ramirez's works preserve the unique and largely untold stories of Iroquois/Haudeno-saunee peoples, now several generations into a hybridized American experience.
"We join the entire Mohawk community in celebrating the life of a proud
Haudenosaunee scholar, friend, and mother," said Chief Atleo.
"The UK is unable to recognise the
Haudenosaunee passport as a valid document for entry," immigration minister Damian Green confirmed last week.
The Iroquois team represents the
Haudenosaunee - an Iroquois Confederacy of the Oneida, Seneca, Mohawk, Tuscarora, Cayuga and Onondaga nations, whose land stretches from upstate New York into Ontario, Canada.
The protestors allied themselves with the
Haudenosaunee Development Institute, a then newly created branch of the
Haudenosaunee Confederacy Council, a traditional governing body chosen by clan mothers.
Gansworth's opening essay, "Two Rows" (referring to the Two Row Wampum belt that documents an early treaty between the
Haudenosaunee and Europeans), does not shy away from the problems of representation and respect: for him, the Two Row Wampum, with its metaphor of Europeans and Native Americans paddling alongside each other in separate canoes, guides the collection.
Colonialism, so eloquently written of in the
Haudenosaunee text A Basic Call to Consciousness (1) is a system meant to confuse, to mix up our minds, and to control us.