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

Sociologist explores impact of Sullivan-Clinton Campaign on Native American, New York history

Monday, April 25, 2011, By Rob Enslin
Share
College of Arts and Sciencesspeakers

The Sullivan-Clinton Campaign, the largest military offensive ever against the Haudenosaunee (“People of the Longhouse”), is the subject of a multimedia presentation by Robert Spiegelman in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences. Spiegelman will discuss “New York’s Missing Link: The Sullivan-Clinton Campaign, Then and Now” on Friday, April 29, at 4 p.m. in Bird Library’s Peter Graham Scholarly Commons. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Philip Arnold, associate professor of religion, at 315-443-3861 or pparnold@syr.edu.

spiegelmanSpiegelman’s visit is sponsored by Speakers in the Humanities, a program of the New York Council for the Humanities. Speakers in the Humanities lectures are made possible by support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Legislature and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

“Although the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign marks one of the darkest hours in Native American history, it is largely forgotten,” says Arnold, an expert in indigenous religions who collaborates with the Onondaga Nation. “Robert Spiegelman’s tour de force combines fresh research, dramatic visuals and unique animated maps to determine why this period is often overlooked.”

In 1779, George Washington, commander in chief of the Continental Army, ordered generals John Sullivan and James Clinton to methodically destroy more than 40 Iroquois villages throughout the Finger Lakes region of Western New York. The offensive was carried out by 6,200 soldiers (roughly 25 percent of the Continental Army), leading to the deaths of both “neutral” Haudenosaunee and American loyalists. Also, hundreds of Haudenosaunee starved or froze to death that winter, while many survivors fled to British-occupied parts of Upstate New York and Southern Canada. The campaign, says Arnold, irrevocably changed American history, paving the way for the Erie Canal and Westward Expansion.

“Famine and displacement demoralized the Haudenosaunee people, and shattered their infrastructure,” he says. “In the 1780s, European Americans began resettling the Finger Lakes, relegating the few remaining Haudenosaunee to isolated towns and villages.”

Arnold goes on to say that despite the devastation, the Haudenosaunee people—often mistakenly referred to as the Iroquois—were surprisingly resilient: “They played a pivotal role in the Canandaigua Treaty of 1794, signed by President Washington and the leadership of the Six Nations Confederacy [Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk and Tuscarora].”

A sociologist, multimedia artist and writer, Spiegelman is an expert on New York, Iroquois, Irish and environmental themes. He is perhaps best known for SullivanClinton.com, part of an ambitious web trilogy that uses history to foster indigenous values of peace, democracy and nature-in-balance. A former college instructor, Spiegelman earned a doctoral degree in sociology from the CUNY Graduate Center.

“Robert Spiegelman examines the campaign’s dark origins, key players, main events, tragic and victorious aftermaths and lasting results. Beyond the military operation, he shows its lasting impact on New York state land, culture and environment, and demonstrates how it continues to affect us today,” says Arnold.

The New York Council for the Humanities is a not-for-profit, independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through statewide collaborations, programs and services that encourage imaginative thinking and critical inquiry, the council works to ensure that the humanities are present in the intellectual and cultural life of every New Yorker.

  • Author

Rob Enslin

  • Recent
  • Sean O’Keefe G’78 Joins Government Hall of Fame
    Tuesday, June 6, 2023, By Jessica Youngman
  • From Academic Advising to Multicultural Affairs: Practicums Help School of Education Students Explore Higher Education Careers
    Tuesday, June 6, 2023, By Martin Walls
  • Ana Caliz Casanova Joins Libraries  as Monograph Cataloging Librarian
    Tuesday, June 6, 2023, By Cristina Hatem
  • Yvonne E. Hyland Joins Libraries Advisory Board
    Tuesday, June 6, 2023, By Cristina Hatem
  • Free Trolley From Campus to Downtown Farmers Market Will Begin June 13
    Tuesday, June 6, 2023, By Jennifer DeMarchi

More In Campus & Community

Ana Caliz Casanova Joins Libraries  as Monograph Cataloging Librarian

Ana Caliz Casanova recently joined Syracuse University Libraries as monograph cataloging librarian in the acquisitions and cataloging department. In this role, she is responsible for maintaining bibliographic and authority records for single subject works in the Libraries’ principal (non-special) collections…

Yvonne E. Hyland Joins Libraries Advisory Board

Syracuse University Libraries is pleased to announce that Yvonne E. Hyland recently joined the Libraries Advisory Board. Hyland is a senior international advisor with corporate, entrepreneurial, intrapreneurial and venture capital experience. She has worked with global organizations including IBM, SAP…

Free Trolley From Campus to Downtown Farmers Market Will Begin June 13

The Syracuse University community is invited to visit the Downtown Farmers Market in Clinton Square this summer, with free transportation provided by Parking and Transportation Services (PTS). The market runs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Tuesday beginning June…

Syracuse Views Summer 2023

We want to know how you experience Syracuse University. Take a photo and share it with us. We select photos from a variety of sources. Submit photos of your University experience using #SyracuseU on social media, fill out a submission…

Providing a Voice for the Systemically Suppressed With Erykah Pasha ’24 on the ‘’Cuse Conversations’ Podcast

From an early age, Erykah Pasha ’24 has been driven to help provide a voice for those who have been systematically oppressed and suppressed in her community. Originally when Pasha enrolled, she felt passionately that becoming a lawyer was the…

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
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.