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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Speaking of history, if it's been 100 years of the Regional Plan Association in New York City, it has been 530 years since Christopher Columbus docked in the Caribbean. For European conquistadores and colonists, this "discovery" was cause for celebration. In their view, the wealth of this "New World" was ripe for the taking. For those Native to the Americas, Columbus's arrival, of course, marked the start of pillaging, exploitation, and extermination.

On this Indigenous Peoples Day, as it's now also known, we're acknowledging the history of this land and its Native peoples. To help us learn more about the people Indigenous to the Northeast, we have invited Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes. She's the founder and director of the North American Indigenous Center of New York and recently has curated some events with our colleagues at the Greene Space, as some of know and maybe some of you have even attended. Iakowi:he'ne, thanks for coming on the radio side of New York Public Radio after being in the Greene Space. Welcome to the show.

Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes: [Iroquoian language] Thank you for having me. I appreciate that.

Brian Lehrer: Could you tell everybody more about your organization first? The North American Indigenous Center of New York, is that a thing that people can go see exhibits at or anything like that?

Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes: Sure. I think first off, I just want to say Happy Indigenous Peoples Day, everybody. I hope you're all enjoying some Native events, wherever you are. For my organization, the North American Indigenous Center, I'll first explain our mission. Our mission is a [unintelligible 00:01:55] mission. The North American Indigenous Center of New York is a Native women-led and centered non-profit organization committed to Indigenous empowerment through cultural continuance, intersectional equity, and advancement of economic justice for Native nations, communities, and peoples living in and beyond the boundaries of New York City, New York State, and the Northeast.

I am Haudenosaunee, I am Mohawk, Kanienʼkehá꞉ka. That means we are the keepers of the Eastern door, we are the people of the Flint within the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. With everything I do, I try to be guided by the lens of the Kariwiio. I try to incorporate basic Mohawk principles of Skennen,  Kariwiio, and Kasastensera, which are the principles of peace, the good mind, and strength.

For the events that we do have, they're mostly pop-ups or virtual or in spaces that are really good partners, are allied partners, from institutions and organizations that we have a land back agreement, to give space for our community to exist and to use in a sovereign way that benefits not only our relationships between that organization but also it helps us as a tool to enhance our bond with the greater society of New York City.

Brian Lehrer: I think people can hear that you're at some event right now for Indigenous Peoples Day so maybe [chuckles] you can use that as an example. It sounds like maybe a lot of kids in the background. Where are you?

Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes: Oh, yes. I'm in a quiet area. I'm at the Brooklyn Children's Museum. It's a beautiful space. I'm a curator here. I'm like a guest curator for the Native events. I've done Earth Day events here and Indigenous Peoples Day last year. Each event gets better and bigger and just more and more beautiful. More and more people are coming out. Today, for example, we have a storytelling that happened with Ty Defoe and we have another storyteller coming in in the afternoon, Perry Ground, the Oneida, Ojibwe, and Onondaga. Those are their nations.

They tell stories that are original to the Northeast, the land that we're on now, the Northeastern portion of the Turtle Island. That's a really beautiful thing to have that connection and that share happen with children, for them to really absorb that in an artistic and animated way through storytelling, which is common for us because we're oral-speaking people. We don't have things written. This is our way and I think it's best to engage with the next generations and this is what we're doing here.

We also have more interactive programming from strawberry drink bacon, which is really important to our creation story. Like when sky woman came down to Turtle Island, she had strawberries in her hand. It's a really celestial element to our culture. We celebrate the strawberries every year in ceremony at our longhouses. That knowledge is also interpreted here to the kids while they're making the strawberry drink, and then they get to drink it and experience it. There are all these points of cultural impressions that these children are leaving with.

Also, we have beading classes going on and pottery making. Then there is a social. We have a group of Onondaga dancers and some Oneida dancers that came here just to facilitate our traditional longhouse social for Natives and non-Natives, and everybody's really participating. The kids are having a good time. Parents are dancing. They're learning our traditional social dances. It's a really rich, beautiful experience.

To me, it's a lot of people's first engagement with Natives. I'm glad they're here with us because I try to make this as in-depth as possible and I try to touch on things from food sovereignty, to our original teachings, to all the visual arts, and to the style and who we are and what we look like and what we do and sharing that and doing that with our guests. It's been a really good day. It's a beautiful day. [chuckles] All week and it's been good.

Brian Lehrer: It sounds like a beautiful day at the Brooklyn Children's Museum, that's for sure. Listeners, if you're just joining us, we can take a few phone calls in our remaining time, for Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes, who is the founder and director of the North American Indigenous Center of New York, here on Indigenous Peoples Day, which depending on who you are, it is now an addition to or instead of Columbus Day, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692 or tweet @Brian LehrerLehrer. You just mentioned the term food sovereignty, what does that mean?

Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes: Oh, yes. Food sovereignty means a lot of things, but here, it's really just reimagining food and the importance of it beyond just consumption. For the strawberry, like I mentioned, that's a really celestial element of our creation story as Haudenosaunee people, as people of the Northeast.

Teaching kids that these things that we look at as commodities or just very passive things in our life just from a consumption point of view going deeper with it. We have stories about the Three Sisters, corn, beans, and squash. For these children to also know that these are original seeds and foods that come from this land and that was basically our diet as the whole for thousands of years and just teaching them deeper stories about food will maybe make them think about how they live on this earth and how they take care of themselves.

For beyond children programming, when I think of food sovereignty and the future, I do a lot of advocacy work and I managed to get some land back, 25 acres of land for the organization as a space for [Iroquoian language] for Native people, from the cities and for all Native nations, and reservations in and around the Northeast to come to one day and to retreat and to reunite, reconnect on the land, land that is ours, land that is sovereign that is run by myself and my good friend, Lisa Latocha, who's from Oneida Nation as well.

We're partners in keeping and stewarding that land and making sure that it's a space for a lot of our urban Native family as well that may not be as connected to their culture to come to learn, to experience social dancing and food making and even growing food and having our own little agricultural project happening where we can also bring our brothers and sisters who our organization has been partnered with for years, the Indigenous folks from south of the border in Mexico like Loreto a Pueblo transnational.

Global Exchange and their network of Native people who are in the city and who are living without access to space or land to grow food, which was something that might have been natural before their journey here, to reignite that in them and to maybe revitalize those teachings that we all lost and don't practice anymore and having a space to really do that in for us all to go as a cooperative and grow food and teach each other about our stories, our recipes, cook together, share food together, and just reconnect, that's really what that land is for. A sacred space for us to reconnect in a sovereign way.

That really means something. If you look at our organization right now, we're a response to the lack of inclusion and erasure and a response to making space and creating our own platforms for ourselves in a sovereign way by us and for us but sharing with you all. That's really our modus operandi is to ultimately share and bond with everybody and hopefully, that peace and peace of mind can just evolve into a good relationship with our peoples and things might get better.

We might all maintain a good mind at all times and understand that we're not just living on top of the land, we're living with it. We're living with the land and the people, those people in that land are in kinship and just really acknowledging that.

Brian Lehrer: What you're describing is the highest form of community building that I think there could be, which is both community building internally among the people of the particular community and externally building bridges, building bonds with people outside that community. Let me take one phone call for you before we run out of time because Sheila and East Brunswick, has a very basic question, I think, on this Indigenous People's Day. Hi, Sheila.

Sheila: Hi, Brian Lehrer. Long-time listener. First-time caller. [chuckles]

Brian Lehrer: Good. What's your question real quick?

Sheila: My question is Indigenous. Why do they call themselves Indigenous people and why don't they just say Native Americans? Where did the name Indigenous?

Brian Lehrer: Thank you. That is something that has changed in fairly recent times that a lot of people who may have maybe older and moved on from Indian to Native American and now Indigenous. Is that your preferred term?

Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes: No, neither of them are, to be quite honest. [chuckles] That's a really great question. Thank you. Thank you for asking that.

Brian Lehrer: We have a minute left in the show so real quick.

Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes: Oh, okay. I would prefer to be called by my nation. I know that my other fellow, [unintelligible 00:13:16], my other fellow Natives from other tribal nations, especially in the Haudenosaunee would prefer to be called by our nation. I'm Mohawk or Kanien'kehá:ka, I would prefer that and that's something that--

Brian Lehrer: Rather than the big catchphrases like Indigenous.

Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes: Yes. They're generalizing us. Generalizing us and--

Brian Lehrer: In our last 30 seconds, I just want everybody to know that you're creating a show at the Greene Space at WNYC tomorrow, Tuesday. Can you tell everybody what to expect if they want to come down?

Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes: Sure. Tomorrow, Kylie White Turner, one of our Wampanoag members of the community here in New York City. She has a play on that we're going to do a stage reading about, and it's called Indian Country. It's going to discuss some of our modern-day contemporary stories and concerns. Through these plays, you can learn a lot about who we are today, which is just as important as knowing who we were in the past.

Brian Lehrer: That is where we have to leave it with Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes, founder, and director of the North American Indigenous Center of New York, come down and see their event in the Greene Space tomorrow. Thanks so much for joining us. Happy Indigenous People's Day.

Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes: Yes, Happy Indigenous People's Day, [Iroquoian language]

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