Expanding an Indigenous cultural center
The center is planning an ambitious expansion with assistance from the accredited Adirondack Land Trust.
The Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center in Onchiota, New York, contains a rich repository of Haudenosaunee heritage, with walls that display historical wampum belts, beaded pictographs and contemporary Indigenous art. Yet space is running out to showcase the center’s growing collection of artifacts and artwork related to the six nations of the Haudenosaunee, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy — the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora tribes.
To tackle the issue, the center is planning an ambitious expansion with assistance from the accredited Adirondack Land Trust. In 2022, the Adirondack Land Trust purchased 333 adjacent acres of land and transferred it to the cultural center.
Together, the nonprofit organizations are applying Haudenosaunee perspectives on the relationships between people and the land to create a conservation easement that will guide the care of more than 300 acres of forests while also providing a site for the cultural center’s planned expansion.
The project will include a new museum in the form of a traditional longhouse designed by architect Ray Kinoshita Mann, who has helped design other Indigenous museums. This will allow for climate-controlled rooms and larger exhibition spaces.
The partnership emphasizes mutual respect, environmental sustainability and collaborative conservation, with the new site powered by renewable energy sources such as solar and geothermal. Much of the land will remain undeveloped, preserving its wetlands and natural habitat while not interfering with traditional uses.
“The center will get even more attention and be even more powerful at bridging communities and increasing understanding among all people,” said Adirondack Land Trust grants manager Mary Thill.
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This story originally appeared in the Winter 2025 issue of Saving Land magazine.