Visiting the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center

~ Madeline Schmitt

My husband and I first visited the Fadden-family-owned and managed Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center [previously named a “museum”] in the northeastern Adirondacks in Onchiota, NY many years ago.  Onchiota is a blip on the map – a hamlet – that has been the home to the Fadden family for generations.  At the time of our first visit, the museum was a small building containing a wealth of primarily Haudenosaunee indigenous and indigenous history-related artifacts and teaching materials, many gifted to the Museum. Some were created by Ray Fadden himself using Haudenosaunee craft styles, like intricate beading. The museum building, a vision of Ray and his wife, Christine, had been built by Ray and his son, John, and opened in 1954.

A second visit, many years later, after Ray had transitioned, exposed us to an expanded, but packed, cultural center, bursting with art, artifacts, teaching materials, etc. that clearly had outgrown the space available – even ceiling space! It was being managed by John, himself an art teacher in the Saranac schools and a well-known artist and book illustrator. My favorite is Skywoman: Legends of the Iroquois by Joanne Shenandoah and Douglas M. George, with art by John and his son, David, a third generation artist who manages the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center following his father’s transition.

I will always treasure a rocking chair visit at the Cultural Center with John the year before he died-then in his 80’s, when I asked him if he would participate in an indigenous affairs retreat organized by some Quakers happening several months hence at a historic camp nearby. His answer, finally, was to ask him closer to the retreat time. I did and he came. Later, he granted permission to include some of his drawings in our New York Yearly Meeting newsletter in an issue focused on indigenous affairs.

The development of this huge resource of seasonal indigenous knowledge and cultural programs continues under third generation family leadership. Importantly, one of the largest private indigenous land back events in NYS has happened recently involving the Cultural Center under David’s leadership. Through a Paul Smith’s College partnership with The Nature Conservancy, The Cultural Center has acquired 600 acres of wetlands and forest bordering the Cultural Center, which is connected to another 330 acres purchased and transferred to the Center by the Adirondack Land Trust in 2022.  As is noted in this article from North Country Radio, the 900+ acres of land will be managed according to indigenous land stewardship principles.

After centuries, this part of the Adirondacks has been returned to Mohawk inhabitants who originally occupied and shared this mountain territory as Keepers of the Eastern Door.