Philip P. Arnold

Philip P. Arnold is an Associate Professor of the Department of Religion at Syracuse University, as well as a core faculty member of Native American and Indigenous Studies. He is the Founding Director of the Skä·noñh—Great Law of Peace Center, which repurposes the site that formerly celebrated the Jesuits coming to Onondaga Nation Territory in 1656-58. The new Center now tells the ancient story of the formation of the Longhouse tradition known as the Great Law of Peace at Onondaga Lake and its influences on American culture. The Skä·noñh—Great Law of Peace Center is a collaborative enterprise between the Onondaga Nation, Onondaga County, the Onondaga Historical Association, Syracuse University and 4 other educational institutions in the Syracuse area.

His books are Eating Landscape: Aztec and European Occupation of Tlalocan (1999); Sacred Landscapes and Cultural Politics: Planting a Tree (2001); The Gift of Sports: Indigenous Ceremonial Dimensions of the Games We Love (2012) and Urgency of Indigenous Religions (University of New Mexico Press, forthcoming). He is a member of NOON (Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation), an organization of the Syracuse Peace Council. In 2007 he organized the Doctrine of Discovery Study Group to discuss the legacy of Christianity in the destruction of Indigenous peoples. He is the President of the Indigenous Values Initiative, which is a non-profit organization to support the work of the Skä·noñh—Great Law of Peace Center and other organizations and initiatives to educate the general public about the indigenous values of the Haudenosaunee.