Aacimotaatiiyankwi

This summer, a team of Myaamiaki from the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma’s Cultural Resource Office and the Myaamia Center made a visit to the Indigenous Music & Arts Festival at Ganondagan State Historic Site in Victor, New York. At the festival, Myaamia artists shared knowledge about their artistic practice and the tribe’s story of revitalization with the general public. When not presenting to the general public, Myaamia artists also spent time creating art alongside Haudenosaunee artists. Overall, the festival was a wonderful example of public education and cultural exchange.

Myaamiaki ‘Miami people’ have deep connections to Ganondagan that extend backwards to a terribly dark time of warfare and disruption. In 1687, perhaps as many as 100 Myaamia men joined a French-led campaign against the Haudenosaunee in their homelands in what is today New York. During this campaign, these Myaamiaki participated in an attack that led to the destruction of the Seneca village of Ganondagan.

The Miami Tribe’s current-day connection to Ganondagan resulted from our friendship with Michael Galban (Washoe & Mono Lake Paiute and State Historic Site Manager for Ganondagan) and Jamie Jacobs (Tonawanda Seneca and Managing Curator of the Rock Foundation collections at the RMSC). Myaamiaki first met with Michael and Jamie through the Reclaiming Stories project, in which the Miami Tribe and Peoria Tribe are working together to reclaim the practice of hide painting through reconnecting with the minohsyaki ‘painted hide robes’ cared for by the Musee du quai Branly in Paris, France. Michael and Jamie both attended a workshop and helped our community learn about both iconography and the practice of painting hides. Our friendship with Michael and Jamie has deepened since that first visit, as they have since made many trips to Miami, Oklahoma, and we’ve made trips to visit them at Ganondagan.

In the summer of 2024, Michael asked if the Miami Tribe would be interested in participating in the Indigenous Music & Arts Festival, and our response was an enthusiastic “iihia!” Early that fall, we were put in touch with Jeanette Jemison, Program Director for the Friends of Ganondagan, who arranged our visit.

At the end of July (2025), our group arrived in Victor, New York. The Myaamia delegation included: Kara Strass (ribbonwork and storytelling), Claudia Hedeen (program support), Scott Shoemaker (ribbonwork and storytelling), Jared Nally (fingerweaving and storytelling), Nate Poyfair (historical and contemporary education), Logan York (hide painting and jewelry making), Megan Sekulich (graphic art), Doug Peconge (lacrosse stick making and photography), and myself (stompdance shaker making and storytelling).

The two days of the festival went by quickly as our delegation presented our arts to the general public under a tent that was set up near the beautiful reconstructed bark longhouse that sits on Ganondagan’s site. From 10am to 5pm each day, the public was able to visit the tent on their own and could stop and interact with each of our artists, chat about our art, and learn about who we are as a community today.

Each day, we also gave a public storytelling performance on the festival’s main stage. The goal of our story was to talk about how our language and culture reclamation work impacts our artistic practices as Myaamiaki living in the 21st century. Each performance began with a bilingual recounting of the Coming Out Story. Kara then followed this story with a recounting of how our revitalization work made this storytelling possible. Next, Jared and Scott shared how the revitalization work made their work as artists possible. Our group closed out each performance by sharing a stomp dance. The dance was shared in the spirit of friendship, and members of the general audience were encouraged to join in and dance with us.

The entire Myaamia delegation enjoyed our time visiting Haudenosaunee homelands, visiting with other Indigenous arts, and sharing our stories with the general public at the festival. We are hopeful that we made a positive impression on everyone and that a small part of our story sticks with each of them in some positive way, large or small. 

Mihši neewe ‘a big thank you’ to Michael Galban and Jeanette Jemison for the invitation to attend the festival and for arranging our visit, and to the Friends of Ganondagan and the staff of Ganondagan State Historic Site for welcoming us into such a beautiful event. We’re already looking forward to the next time we can visit Ganondagan ‘ Town of Peace.’