Opening September 2026
Peter B. Jones, Onoñda’gega’ (Onondaga Nation) Beaver Clan, Ode to Caroline Parker, 2013, Clay stoneware, NA2013.10.HOW, Museum Purchase, funded by Mortimer C. Howe.
The Longyear Museum of Anthropology's fall exhibition, Deyothwadáhseh: Return and Renewal, highlights the continuity, creativity, and living traditions of Haudenosaunee art. Curated by Summer Frazier, the exhibition brings together historic and contemporary works in basketry, ceramics, beadwork, twining, and quillwork to explore how artistic practices have endured, adapted, and responded to changing historical circumstances.
Deyothwadáhseh (dey-oh-thwa-DAH-seh) is an Onondaga word that can describe the action of something coming around, including the spiral movement involved in tying a basket, and the act of returning when forming a circle. In this context, the idea of return speaks to the ways knowledge, artistic practices, and cultural traditions are remembered, renewed, and carried forward.
The exhibition brings together works from the Longyear permanent collection with loans from the Oneida Indian Nation's Shako:wi Cultural Center and from the New York State Museum, Albany. It is worth mentioning, the New York State Museum loans include selected works from their historic Arthur C. Parker and Lewis Henry Morgan collections. The exhibition will also feature newly commissioned work by Chief Jamie Jacobs, Turtle Clan, of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, alongside other contemporary works that demonstrate the continued vitality of Haudenosaunee artistic traditions.
The exhibition has been developed through ongoing consultation and relationship-building with Oneida Indian Nation, Member Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the Eastern Band Cherokee Indians. The works on view are being presented with the appropriate permissions and in consultation with the Nations connected to them.