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Longyear Museum of Anthropology
The Longyear Museum consists of an exhibition space on the second floor of Alumni Hall and a teaching collection of archaeological and ethnographic materials from Africa, Oceania, Native North America, and the Pre-Columbian cultures of North, Central, and South America.The basis of the Museum collections is archaeological materials deposited in the Museum by former associates of Colgate University. Admission is free and open to the public.
See the Longyear Museum of Anthropology website for more information.
Summer research fellowships
Fellowships are available during the summer months through the auspices of the divisions of humanities, social sciences, and university studies. Native American studies students apply for fellowships in one or more of these divisions, depending on the research topic.
Each fellowship normally supports one student during eight to ten weeks of research on campus, although multi-student projects and travel fellowships are also considered.
Research topics may be generated by faculty members or they may be based on students' individual interests. In either case, faculty sponsorship is necessary, and the awarding of fellowships is a competitive process.
College Bound program for American Indian youths
Native American students and those in the Native American Studies program are eligible for a one-week paid assistantship serving as mentors and guides in this community outreach program.
The program, presently organized with the assistance of the Title IX coordinator in the Syracuse school district and the North American Indian Project (NAIP), is designed to acquaint youths with college life and expand their future goals to include attending college. The program invites Native American students from area middle schools and senior high schools to the Colgate campus for a one-week program of classes taught by Colgate faculty and visiting Iroquois specialists.
The Iroquois study group
Colgate is set among the historic lands of the Iroquois or Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse), one of the most powerful and famous confederacies of American Indians. These peoples -- the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, Mohawks, and Tuscaroras -- live on seven different reservations throughout New York state; several other reservations are located just beyond the borders in Quebec and Ontario.
The Iroquois have a complex history and a vibrant contemporary existence. They constitute a worthy subject within Native American studies. The inherent nature of the study group, with four varied yet complementary courses, allows for a simultaneously broad and intimate study of the Iroquois Nations.
The on-campus study group goes off campus to observe and participate in festivals and social celebrations, and to meet with such prominent figures as clan mothers, artists, museum administrators, environmentalists, NAGPRA commitee members and faithkeepers.
Throughout the semester, Native American studies programming fosters Iroquois presence on campus. The Longyear Museum hosts an exhibition of Iroquois art. Iroquois speakers visit classes and speak in public forums.
Native American Student Association (NASA)
Membership in Colgate's NASA is open to students of Native American heritage, students in the Native American studies program, and all other students with a sincere interest in Native American cultures.
There are no fees or dues. NASA avoids the formal organizational hierarchies of officers, aiming instead to arrive at decisions through group consensus. Committees are established to accomplish both short and long term goals.
In its efforts to foster education about Native American issues, NASA develops cultural programs, invites Native speakers, runs a campus film series, and hosts social nights. Such events may be held throughout the academic year, but NASA is particularly interested in sponsoring meaningful programming to enrich Native American month in November.
For more information, contact CLSI.
ALANA Cultural Center
The ALANA (African, Latin American, Asian, & Native American) Cultural Center serves as a learning center and focal point for students and organizations belonging to those cultures or who wish to learn about them.
The center's facilities -- which include a multi-purpose room able to accommodate up to 150 people, a kitchen for preparing cultural dinners, a small music room and a library -- provide space for NASA program lectures, workshops, meetings, and social events.
See the ALANA website for more information.
Summer archaeology program
Advanced students with a background in archaeology may gain additional experience by assisting in ongoing summer excavations at local Native American sites.
Since June 2007, Professor Jordan Kerber has been supervising Onondaga Nation students at Archaeology Camp run by teachers from Fayetteville-Manlius High School. The project focuses on limited archaeological excavation of the Broadfield site in Manlius, N.Y., which was settled by the Onondaga around 550 years ago.
The students from the Onondaga Nation and Fayetteville-Manlius also made native pottery, stone projectile points, and cordage, and learned how to start a fire using a bow drill and how to throw a spear using an atlatl.
Between 1995 and 2003, Kerber directed an archaeological workshop with the Oneida Indian Nation of New York and involved more than 100 Oneida Iroquois youths in the project. Colgate students worked with the workshop participants who hoped to retrieve information about their Native American past through the excavations at several sites, ranging in age from about 4,000 to 200 years ago.
During several summers, the workshop participants excavated the remains of a seventeenth century Oneida village, called the Wilson site, located nearby in Stockbridge, N.Y.
PAPAC, Copan, Honduras
PAPAC, the Proyecto Arqueologico para la Planificacion de la Antigua Copan, or in English "The Copan Urban Planning Project." We operate in cooperation with the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History and are funded by the Colgate University Research Council, Colgate University Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and the Committee for Research and Exploration at the National Geographic Society. This website is designed for those interested in the ongoing excavations and conservation efforts of PAPAC, whether they be our colleagues, teachers, students of all ages, or thrill-seekers. Its aim is to provide information about the activities of the Project and about different aspects of the research and site protection being conducted at Copan through PAPAC. The Project's Director is Dr. Allan Maca, Research Affiliate in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. Clement Valla is the project's Media Director.
First Nations Seeker
Visit Native American and First Nation communities across North America by going to the Directory of North American Indian portal websites: http://www.firstnationsseeker.ca/
Emily Hutton-Hughes, associate professor in the Colgate libraries, head of collection development in the acquisitions department, and a member of Colgate's Native American studies faculty, has produced a guide to web resources regarding American Indians throughout the Western hemisphere, especially in the United States and Canada.
Click here to peruse numerous sites regarding Native history, arts, archaeology, law, languages, literature, contemporary issues, etc. -- topics taught in Colgate's Native American Studies curriculum and informed by Colgate's considerable library holdings.