Our mission and goals are multiple. First, we want to educate the general public about Haudenosaunee culture specifically, and Native American history in general. We are visited by summer camps, various summer education programs, and we have hosted history/anthropology classes from various schools of higher learning as well as the average Adirondack summer visitors. We wish to create educational experiences so that the visitor, teacher and student may acquire the knowledge needed to better understand the history, culture, contemporary realities, and the potential futures of Native Nations.
The second goal of the Center is directed toward educating the public about the Land Ethic of the Haudenosaunee, and other environmental sensitivities. The preservation of the trees, plants, waters, birds, animals, and the very soil of the Earth itself is an objective. This was demonstrated by Ray Fadden, who had been doing this for years by feeding the ravens, crows, chickadees, chipmunks, squirrels, coyotes, and the bears. This process of nutritional assistance will continue, and the reason for this is that the natural habitat of these animals, and birds has been badly eroded by man-made realities, ie., climate change, habitat destruction, over-hunting, and over-fishing to name a few.
We present information about Native cultures, and function as a place where traditional values, philosophies, and sensitivities can be reaffirmed. We vehemently stress the importance of maintaining oral tradition coupled with written history for cultural continuity. Native students (and non-students or former students) from such indigenous communities as Akwesasne, Kahnawake, Kanesatake, Oneida, Onondaga, and points west across New York State, and into Canada regularly visit us. We serve as a place where culture can be reasserted among Native Peoples.
