Visionary Women: The Haudenosaunee and the U.S. Women's Rights Movement

SyracusePeaceCouncil
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This presentation is the second program in the collaborative Educational Series "Onondaga Land Rights and Our Common Future." Presented on March 7, 2006 at Syracuse Stage, Syracuse, NY, it featured Jeanne Shenandoah and Sally Roesch Wagner speaking about the inspiration which early feminists drew from understanding the power and standing Haudenosaunee women had within their societies.

Sally is the executive director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation and a leading scholar on Gage and the women's suffrage movement. She is the author of Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists. She appeared in the PBS documentary "Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony." Sally is a nationally recognized lecturer and performance interpreter of woman's rights history.

Jeanne Shenandoah, Eel Clan from the Onondaga Nation, has been a traditional home birth midwife and herbalist for twenty-three years. A mother and grandmother, she works at the Onondaga Nation Communications Office, and is "involved with spiritual and political activities of my people and follow the traditional ways." She has spent most of her life being involved with people, helping people obtain knowledge to maintain who they are. Jeanne served on the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force and is former Vice President of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation.

The series was coordinated by Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation and involved major support from Syracuse University, SUNY ESF, and various community organizations to educate the public about the Onondaga Nation and their Land Rights Action.