Artifacts from Upstate Indigenous Towns Digitized, Repatriated
This article originally appeared on the Cornell University website.
Unearthed, digitized and soon to be repatriated, artifacts from two Native American towns are beginning to share their rich stories online thanks to a collaborative project by anthropologists, librarians and Indigenous community members.
The recently launched digital collection – Onöndowa'ga:' (Seneca) Haudenosaunee Archaeological Materials, circa 1688-1754 – features two historical locations – White Springs and Townley-Read, both near Geneva, New York – which were inhabited consecutively by members of the Onöndowa’ga:’ (Seneca) Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois) after they fled the French military destruction of the town of Ganondagan in 1687.
“There’s a misconception common among scholars until recently that, as soon as Europeans arrived, Native people went on a long, slow slide into disappearing and irrelevance,” he said. “But you can really see that there is a ton of Native technology and local plant and animal species that were being used alongside European imports.” Read more...