Historically imposed borders, current Native land claims will be discussed at Nov. 8 Syracuse Symposium event

Historically imposed borders, current Native land claims will be discussed at Nov. 8 Syracuse Symposium eventNovember 01, 2005Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

The Syracuse Symposium 2005: Borders continues at Syracuse University on Nov. 8 with “Imposed Borders: Haudenosaunee Perspectives: A Provocative Discussion About Historically Imposed Borders and Current Land Claims.”

The discussion will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Grant Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public; parking is available in the Irving Garage. The co-sponsors for the event are SU College of Law’s Center for Indigenous Law, Governance and Citizenship and SU’s Native American Student Association.

A distinguished panel will examine how, prior to the arrival of European colonists, the Haudenosaunee confederacy of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca Nations formed their union with respect to the existing borders among the nations, and the new border between the confederacy and all foreign nations. Given this history, the panel will discuss how borders imposed by non-Haudenosaunee after the formation of the confederacy have influenced current land claims.

Panelists will be Chief Bradley Powless of the Onondaga Nation; Jolene Rickard (Tuscarora), associate professor of art history at the University at Buffalo, a writer and photographer; and Audra Simpson (Mohawk), assistant professor in anthropology and the American Indian Program at Cornell University. The discussion will be facilitated by Robert Odawi Porter (Seneca), professor in SU’s College of Law, Dean’s Research Scholar of Indigenous Nations and director of the Center for Indigenous Law, Governance and Citizenship.

The Syracuse Symposium is a semester-long intellectual and artistic festival-hosted by The College of Arts and Sciences at SU-that celebrates interdisciplinary thinking, imagination and creation. This year’s symposium includes lectures, performances, exhibits and other special events around the theme “Borders.” Throughout the semester, the University community will explore ways that borders-visible and invisible-impact humankind in profound ways socially, politically, culturally, artistically, intellectually and personally. For more information on symposium events,visit http://symposium.syr.edu.