Dave Fadden’s Mohawk name, Kanietakeron, means “patches of snow.” He was born in March and his maternal grandmother thought it fitting to reflect the Akwesasne landscape during that time of year. Dave is an artist and storyteller, and he directs the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center in Onchiota. Through a land protection partnership in this northern part of the Adirondacks, where the forests have a distinctly boreal feel, our stories are now intertwined.
The way Dave tells it is that the “stars aligned” in multiple ways. First, the pandemic inspired a new vision for the center when it closed in 2020 for the first time in its history. After operating as a family business since Dave’s grandfather, Ray Tehanetorens Fadden, established it in 1954, the center became a nonprofit to further its educational goals. With more than 3,000 artifacts in their collection and a steady increase in visitors, they needed more space than the current site could accommodate.
New friends, new opportunities
Two chance encounters would soon make the dream of a new facility and a suitable new site less daunting. One was being introduced to Ray Kinoshita Mann, an architect and wife of Charles Mann, author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. (Charles met Dave while on an assignment for National Geographic.) Ray Mann drew up pro bono renderings that preserve the current 80-by-20-foot building, modeled after a traditional longhouse, within a new facility.
The other was learning about the Adirondack Land Trust through Mary Thill, a staff member who visited the center in fall 2021. Dave and Mary got to talking about a nearby 333-acre property for sale. That led the land trust to first evaluate the land’s conservation values using a variety of criteria. The forested wetlands, adjacency to Forest Preserve, and climate resilience characteristics made it a priority, as did the prospect of working with a new nonprofit partner.
A conservation partnership forms
In August 2022, the land trust purchased the land for its appraised value of $207,500 and transferred it to the cultural center in October 2022 for $103,750. The lower sales price reflects the value of the conservation easement that will protect the land in perpetuity. The new center and its amenities will occupy 30 acres while the surrounding forests will remain undeveloped, giving the center space to incorporate traditional Haudenosaunee land uses and stewardship practices into its educational programming.
In Dave’s telling, he compares our respective organizational goals to the two row wampum belt that recognizes parallel paths and mutual respect. “The center and the land trust share a common belief and philosophy with regards to preservation, conservation, and stewardship of land,” he says. “The Haudenosaunee, of which the Mohawks are one of six nations, have a notion of looking forward to the seventh generation ahead when thinking about how the decisions and actions we make today impact those who will come after us.”
That’s what land conservation is all about. We are honored to work together to incorporate and respect Native values to conserve the natural integrity of this property, and we have much to learn along the way.
Visit 6nicc.com to learn more about the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center, which is open July through August, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday to Sunday, and by appointment to groups during June and September.