Reclaiming Haudenosaunee culture through dance 

Native North Country Traveling College dance troupe teaches Indigenous history through performance art in Adirondack festival

By David Escobar

On what would normally be a quiet evening in North Creek, the sound of traditional Haudenosaunee drum beats and singing echoed inside the auditorium at Tannery Pond Community Center.

More than 30 locals gathered, forming a rhythmic dance line led by Indigenous educators from the Native North American Traveling College (NNATC) in Akwesasne, Ontario. Members of the college’s dance troupe traveled more than three hours to perform in the community center’s summer-long festival honoring Indigenous arts and culture.

Jacob Wataharison Cook, 24, is a member of the NNATC’s dance troupe. He said the traveling college’s dance performances are more than a cultural display — they are a meaningful way to reconnect with their ancestors and educate others about the history of Haudenosaunee communities in the Adirondacks.

“It’s a really big honor to get out to different places in different areas, and share our culture and kind of show people that we are still here,” Cook said. “This is who we are. [These are] our practices. These are our dances.”

Dances throughout the night were interactive, with Cook and his fellow educators teaching attendees the choreography and history behind traditional social dances such as the standing quiver dance and the pigeon dance of the Haudenosaunee. The performance blended storytelling with dance, as NNATC members joined hands with attendees to side-step, shuffle, and stomp in unison to the distinctive beat of a leather drum.

Indigenous ties to the Adirondacks

The Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy — the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora — have existed in the Adirondacks for thousands of years, with tribal lands spanning across the park. In contemporary times, thousands of their descendants live in Akwasasne Mohawk territory on the northwest edge of the park, including members of the NNATC’s dance troupe.

Making the trip from Akwesasne, NNATC museum manager Grace Katsitsiio Point, 23, said her ancestors’ history in the park makes North Creek feel spiritually familiar.

Point explained that reconnecting with her ancestors’ homeland through performances helps to strengthen her ties to her culture and to challenge the misconceptions some non-native people hold about Indigenous communities in the Adirondacks.

“They were told in elementary school or high school that the Mohawk people went extinct. We’re still here,” Point said, alluding to a broader absence of Indigenous perspectives in school curriculum nationwide.

According to an analysis conducted by the Reclaiming Native Truth project, less than half of U.S. states with federally recognized tribes require Native American history to be incorporated into school curriculum. Point said the absence of native perspectives in schools can lead to Indigenous communities feeling invisible.

Correcting these myths is part of the NNATC’s mission, but the college’s broader goal is to build genuine connections between native and non-native Adirondack communities.

“Having these events broadens [Adirondackers’] knowledge base about Indigenous people,” said David Fadden, who curated the artwork at the Tannery Pond Indigenous festival and is Mohawk. “Rather than a painting hanging on the wall, you actually meet people and you hear them. You can speak to them.”

Reclaiming Indigenous cultural losses

While arts and culture centers have demonstrated growing interest in preserving Haudenosaunee traditions, Fadden said centuries of cultural erasure have left deep scars.

Tekaronhiakwas McDonald, a 26-year-old educator from the traveling college, said that her generation needs to work diligently to reclaim Indigenous culture that was nearly lost.

“There was a time when our grandparents didn’t really pass down those cultures and traditions to their kids,” McDonald said. “So a lot of us young people are now getting back to that.”

This disconnection stems largely from the legacy of the residential school system, a government program that forcibly removed Indigenous children from their families between the 1800s and 1900s. In these schools, children were prohibited from practicing their language, culture, and traditions — a deliberate attempt to erase Indigenous identities and force school children to assimilate.

A long path forward

For many Haudenosaunee people today, reclaiming endangered traditions is a personal and communal healing process. Point says that being part of the traveling college has allowed her to rediscover and celebrate her Mohawk identity through dance. She said she enjoyed watching audience members eagerly join in dancing.

“Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and participating and experiencing what the Haudenosaunee enjoy doing — having fun, doing our dances, sharing our experiences, our knowledge and our culture.”

Tannery Pond Community Center executive director Candice Murray said the NNATC’s performance is part of a larger commitment to Indigenous communities at arts and culture hubs she has seen across the park. She said celebrating the diversity of Indigenous art is important to create a more authentic representation of native people.

“I think it would be foolish to assume that [Indigenous people] only have one kind of art,” Murray said. “We wanted it to be a festival where we showcase a lot of the different aspects of the culture, so actual visual arts and dancing or musical part arts.”

As the night progresses, the energy peaks with the traditional smoke dance, performed by a group of young Haudenosaunee dancers. As the final drum beats fade, Cook said NNATC’s mission remains clear.

“We want our kids to grow up and be able to do this and to know our culture,” Cook said. “That way, it stays alive, and people know that we’re still here.”

Cook and his fellow educators said their dancing is about more than just entertainment; it’s a living reminder that Haudenosaunee culture is vibrant and resilient, with deep roots in the Adirondacks.

David Escobar is a Report For America Corps Member. He reports on diversity issues in the Adirondacks through a partnership between North Country Public Radio and Adirondack Explorer.