Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community

SU professor to direct Great Law of Peace Educational Center

Wednesday, November 21, 2012, By Rob Enslin
Share
appointmentsCollege of Arts and SciencesfacultyHaudenosaunee

arnoldPhilip P. Arnold, associate professor of religion and director of the Native Studies Program in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences, has been appointed founding director of the Great Law of Peace Educational Center. The center will be located on the former site of the Sainte Marie Among the Iroquois museum, which commemorates the French-fortified mission that occupied Onondaga Lake from 1656-1658.

The Great Law of Peace Educational Center will tell the Indigenous story of the Haudenosaunee, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy. Arnold hopes the center will educate and inspire primarily non-Haudenosaunee people about the importance of the Great Law of Peace–the oral constitution that has governed the Haudenosaunee for more than 1,000 years–and how it has influenced the unique form of democracy that U.S. citizens cherish today.

The center will be overseen by the Onondaga Historical Association, in collaboration with the Onondaga Nation, Onondaga County, SU and other neighboring educational institutions.

“We are extremely proud of Phil, whose expertise, experience, and professional connections will help turn this concept into a reality,” says James Watts, professor and chair of religion at SU. “The department and college support his appointment to show Syracuse University’s commitment to serving as an anchor institution in the growth and development of our community.”

Arnold’s courses on the subject have grown increasingly popular, due to the rising number of students supported by the Haudenosaunee Promise Scholarship Program. Arnold will be granted administrative leave during 2013 to plan the center, which is scheduled to open the following year.

The idea for the center gained impetus from a letter to the editor that Arnold submitted to the Syracuse Post-Standard newspaper earlier this year. In it, he discussed the importance of a new cultural educational center where people could learn that “being human and understanding peace [involved] a deep relationship with the land.”

By repurposing the Saint Marie museum on the northeastern shore of the lake, Arnold will demonstrate SU’s vision of Scholarship in Action by presenting programming that is affordable, accessible and, most of all, congruent with the history of the area.

“Onondaga Lake is one of the most important places for the Haudenosaunee, or ‘People of the Longhouse,’ because it’s where the Great Law of Peace was established,” says Arnold, adding that the Onondaga, Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Tuscarora and Seneca nations make up the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. “Of these, the Onondaga, Tuscarora and the Tonawanda Seneca [located in Western New York] have retained recognition throughout the world by continuing to use their ancient longhouse form of government based on the clan system.”

Much has been written about the Great Law of Peace—its influence on the development of democracy, women’s rights and the United Nations—but Arnold says most people are still unaware of how significant it is. “It is profound that our American identity can be traced to a strong indigenous culture that took root on the shores of Onondaga Lake,” he says. “Onondaga County bears their name, and is uniquely situated within Onondaga Nation Territory.  It’s time for a dialogue to rectify this gap in American education.”

Instead of relying on the historically written approach, Arnold hopes to tell the Great Law of Peace story through the Haudenosaunee themselves—sparking a kind of oral history project. To make it happen, he is drawing on creative collaborations among the leadership of Onondaga County, the Onondaga Nation and various colleges and universities.

Arnold also plans to tap into the talents of college-educated Haudenosaunee, trained in such areas as art, literature, music, design, science and engineering. “They could make vital contributions to the development of the center,” says Arnold, who has designed many courses, as well as written and lectured extensively about local history and indigenous religions for nearly three decades.

  • Author
  • Faculty Experts

Rob Enslin

  • Philip P. Arnold

  • Recent
  • Most Read
  • Related
  • Message from Steven Barnes, Chairman of the Board of Trustees
    Friday, April 20, 2018, By News Staff
  • What NY Towns Deserve Piece of $10 Million Grant?
    Friday, April 20, 2018, By Sawyer Kamman
  • Predicting the Future by Using the Past
    Friday, April 20, 2018, By Sawyer Kamman
  • Trump Shaking Up Typical Foreign Trade Tactics
    Friday, April 20, 2018, By Sawyer Kamman
  • How Trump May Follow Obama’s Actions
    Friday, April 20, 2018, By Sawyer Kamman
  • Seven Syracuse Alumni Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Lists
    Thursday, January 5, 2017, By John Boccacino
  • First Woman from Syracuse University Heads to Infantry Officer Course, Combat Training
    Monday, February 13, 2017, By Sean Kirst
  • Actor-singer Taye Diggs ’93 Returns to Campus for Coming Back Together Book Signing
    Tuesday, September 12, 2017, By Rob Enslin
  • Vice President Biden Honored with Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction
    Friday, January 13, 2017, By News Staff
  • Syracuse Views Spring 2017
    Monday, July 3, 2017, By Kathleen Haley
  • Maxwell School Ph.D Candidate Authors Time Magazine Story “See the ‘Loose Lips Sink Ships’ Propaganda Posters of World War II’
    Friday, December 9, 2016, By Keith Kobland
  • Ph.D. Candidate Attends Neurochemistry Flagship School with Top Scholars in Austria
    Friday, March 10, 2017, By Kathleen Haley
  • Retired Philosphy Professor Edward McClennen Dies
    Wednesday, November 13, 2013, By News Staff
  • Maisto Gets Five-Year Extension of NIH Senior Scientist Award
    Wednesday, November 6, 2013, By News Staff
  • Maxwell School’s Center for Policy Research names new director
    Tuesday, July 31, 2012, By News Staff

More In Campus & Community

Message from Steven Barnes, Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Dear Members of the Syracuse University Community: Like all of you, my colleagues on the Board of Trustees and I are appalled and deeply troubled by the recent behavior displayed by members of our Orange community. We are saddened for…

End Your Semester with CLASS

Starting Monday, April 23, and running through Thursday, April 26, the Center for Learning and Student Success, in partnership with Syracuse University Libraries and the Office of Health Promotion, will be holding an end-of-semester event to help students relax and…

Message from Chancellor Syverud: Actions Now Underway

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff: The recent video revealing offensive and unacceptable behavior by members of a Syracuse University fraternity is a painful wake-up call. It has prompted, rightfully, much outrage and concern across our campus. In the last 36…

Professors Honored with Prestigious Meredith and Teaching Recognition Awards

Michelle Kaarst-Brown, associate professor in the School of Information Studies, and Tom Perreault, professor of geography in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, have been named the 2018-21 Laura J. and…

Location of Rededication of Shaw Quad Moved Due Inclement Weather

The event will now take place at  at 1:30 p.m. today in the Strasser Legacy Room, located in 220 Eggers Hall.

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2018 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.