This 400th anniversary campaign, carried out throughout 2013, is finished. The work to honor treaties with Native Nations and protect the Earth continues. Learn more, or join in that work: contact the Onondaga Nation, Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation, Neetopk Keetopk (Hudson Valley), Onondaga Canoe and Kayak Club or Two Row Paddle down the Grand (2016).

Local Support Resolutions

The City of Albany, Town of Bethlehem, Town of Croton, Village of Dryden, City of Ithaca, New York City, Onondaga County, City of Syracuse, Village of Saugerties, Ulster County and Westchester County all passed resolutions of support for the Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign.

The draft resolution we created is below and attached as a pdf file.

Draft Resolution to Renew the Two Row Wampum

      1. WHEREAS the sovereign nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois or “People of the Long House”) lived sustainably in the region which now includes most of New York State for many hundreds of years before the arrival of European colonists; and

      2. WHEREAS in 2013 the Haudenosaunee together with their non-Native allies have chosen to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Two Row Wampum Treaty, the first agreement between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and European settlers; and

      3. WHEREAS as part of this commemoration the Haudenosaunee call on all New Yorkers to act as good environmental stewards; and

      4. WHEREAS the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s constitution, known as the Great Law of Peace, was first created on the shores of Onondaga Lake (in what is now Central New York) and eventually became a model for the Confederation of Colonies and the U.S. Constitution as recognized in the historical record and in Concurrent Congressional Resolution S.76 of 1987; and

      5. WHEREAS New Yorkers and others in the wider region greatly benefit from the many contributions of the Haudenosaunee and other Native peoples in culture, environmental understanding, political philosophy and spiritual awareness; and

      6. WHEREAS the Two Row Wampum Treaty began what was intended to be a Covenant of Friendship, symbolized by a silver chain linking our peoples together through a series of agreements with the Dutch, British, French and the United States of America; and

      7. WHEREAS the Haudenosaunee have consistently and repeatedly sought to uphold the Two Row Wampum as the basis for relations among nations living in peace and friendship; and

      8. WHEREAS on September 13, 2007 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a resolution long-championed by the Onondaga Nation, which recognizes the “urgent need to respect and promote the inherent rights of indigenous peoples which derive from their political, economic and social structures and from their cultures, spiritual traditions, histories and philosophies, especially their rights to their lands, territories and resources.”

      9. WHEREAS, despite the Two Row agreement, for centuries the Haudenosaunee and other Native people have been subjected to laws, activities, and actions to undermine their culture, spirituality, and way of life by ill-advised and intemperate government bodies; and

      10. WHEREAS, such actions are beneficial for neither the Haudenosaunee nor the people whom such government bodies represent; and

      11. WHEREAS the Haudenosaunee and other native people have persistently maintained their spiritual and cultural practices and in some cases their traditional governing structure despite long-term efforts to subvert those practices; and

      12. WHEREAS the Haudenosaunee have consistently sought diplomatic means to resolve problems with neighboring governments and people; and

      13. WHEREAS the enter community name or title and the Haudenosaunee can both benefit from a mutual collaboration and friendship to protect the environment on which we all depend; and

      14. WHEREAS the enter community name or title and the Haudenosaunee can both benefit from a respect for the culture, spirituality, and way of life of the Haudenosaunee and that of enter community name or title while traveling on their own mutual paths through life;

      IT IS HEREBY FURTHER RESOLVED, that enter community name or title :
      1. Expresses support for the year-long Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign to Honor Native Treaties and Protect the Earth;

      2. Joins the Two Row Campaign’s call to keep hydrofracking out of New York State and expand other practices and policies to protect the environment;

      3. Calls on the citizens of enter community name or title to build positive and respectful relations with their Native neighbors and with all Native Peoples;

      4. Calls on the State of New York to renew and polish the Covenant Chain established by the Two Row Wampum Agreement and to work cooperatively with the Haudenosaunee and all Native Nations to redress the injustices which have occurred; and

      5. Calls on the United States government to fully implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,

      AND MOVE ITS ADOPTION.

      Download as a pdf