FSEM 112   Haudenosaunee

Faculty Profile for Professor Vecsey

Students examine the archaeology, culture, history, economics, religion, literature, arts, politics, law, and individual lives of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Indians) -- Colgate’s closest Native American neighbors -- from the period before European contact to the present day. We shall place Haudenosaunee experiences in North American Indian contexts, especially regarding the loss and persistence of tribal sovereignty; and we shall investigate Haudenosaunee relations with New York State and the United States, especially in regard to competing land claims. Students who successfully complete this seminar will receive course credit for CORE C188 and satisfy the Core Communities requirement.

Christopher Vecsey is Harry Emerson Fosdick Professor of the Humanities, Native American Studies, and Religion. Two of his books focus directly on the Haudenosaunee: Iroquois Land Claims (1988), which analyzes the historical, legal and moral claims of the Haudenosaunee to their native territories; and Native Footsteps Along the Path of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha (2012), which examines the life of the seventeenth-century Mohawk convert to Catholicism and the devotions to her by Native American Catholics today.