HCR 1 Box 1
Onchiota, N.Y. 12989
| A brief History: |
Ray, Christine, and John Fadden opened the Museum for its first season during the
summer of 1954. The wood that went into the lumber of the initial structure was milled at
a local saw mill from trees felled by Ray Fadden. The museum, originally two rooms
large, expanded to four rooms producing a building approximately 80' x 20'. The
Museum's design reflects the architecture of a traditional Haudenosaunee (Six Iroquois
Nations Confederacy) bark house. The long bark house is a metaphor for the Six
Nations Confederacy, symbolically stretching from East to West across ancestral
territory. The Mohawks are the Keepers of the Eastern Door, the Senecas are the
Keepers of the Western Door, the Onondagas are the Fire Keepers and the Oneidas,
Cayugas, and Tuscaroras (admitted into the Confederation in the early 18th century) are
the Younger Brothers.
| Cultural Items |
The Museum houses a myriad of pre-contact, and post-contact artifacts,
contemporary arts and crafts, diagrammatic charts, posters, and other items of
Haudenosaunee culture. The objects within the Museum are primarily representative of
the Haudenosaunee, but there are representations of other Native American cultures as
well. There are many objects within the museum. The floors are decorated with
Haudenosaunee symbol & motif, and within the rooms are cases exhibiting artifacts.
The walls are laden with informative charts, beaded belts, paintings and other
indigenous items of interest. Up into the peaked ceiling of each room are
representations of Native America as they are covered with artifacts including canoes,
baskets, tools, beadwork, feathered headgear, Native clothing, and posters.
| Visual Feast |
The Museum is open on a regular basis during the summer months , and is staffed
by Fadden family members. Additionally, during the late Spring, and early Fall, the
Museum is open by appointment. Visitors are treated to a visual feast of Native
American material supplemented with a series of lectures geared toward the situation,
and needs of the audience. Pictographic stories are read, descriptions of contributions
of Native Peoples to contemporary society are expressed, and the telling of the epic
story of the formation of the Haudenosaunee form of participatory government occurs.
| Goals |
Our goals in respect to the Museum are multiple. First, we want to educate the
general public about Haudenosaunee culture. Sometimes visitors come from such
continents as Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and the Americas, lending a special
inter-cultural flavor to our exchanges. Visitors to the Adirondack Park often chance
upon our museum as they vacation. We are visited by summer camps, various summer
education programs, and we have even hosted history/anthropology classes from SUNY
Plattsburgh, SUNY Oswego, St. Lawrence University, and Cornell University. The
opening of the Adirondack Visitors Interpretive Center in the Spring of 1989 has
expanded the number of visitors, because the Center is located about nine miles from
the Museum. Another, equally important goal, is to serve Native Peoples. We present
information about Native cultures, and function as a place where traditional values,
philosophies, and sensitivities can be reaffirmed. We vehemently stress the importance
of maintaining oral tradition coupled with written history for cultural continuity. Native
students (and non-students or former students) from such indigenous communities as
Akwesasne, Kahnawake, Kanesatake, Oneida, Onondaga, and points west across New
York State, and into Canada regularly visit us. Another goal of the Museum is directed
toward educating the public about the Land Ethic of the Haudenosaunee, and other
environmental sensitivities.
| Preservation |
The preservation of the trees, plants, waters, birds, animals, and the very soil of the
Earth itself is an objective. The Museum's founder, Ray Fadden, has for years already
done this by feeding the ravens, crows, chickadees, chipmunks, squirrels, coyotes, and
the bears. This process of nutritional assistance will continue, and the reason for this is
that the natural habitat of these animals, and birds has been badly eroded by man-made
realities, ie., acid rain, habitat destruction, ozone depletion, over-hunting, and
over-fishing to name a few.
| Living Museum |
We take pride in our existence as a living museum, embodying the values and
worldview of a vibrant culture. Many museums appear to have the same goals, but in
most cases, they are institutions deeply rooted in western culture, in effect presenting
Native American cultures "under glass." Cultural perspective markedly affects the
manner in which material is presented. The Six Nations Indian Museum presents its
material from a Native American point of view.
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