The Oneida Indian Nation's Shako:wi Cultural Center has four exciting new exhibits that demonstrate the traditional arts and culture of everyday Oneidas and the tremendous historical contributions of the Nation and its heroic leaders.


"Oneida Industries"

• “Oneida Industries” is one of six panoramic displays created by renowned anthropologist Arthur Parker to depict Iroquois life in Central New York. One display was devoted to each of the Six Nations in the Iroquois Confederacy.
  
• "Oneida Industries” is the most elaborate of these displays, comprised of six lifesized plaster figures (cast from living Iroquois models) in a leafy forest setting.
  
• Each figure is engaged in a different craft: making a basket, shaping a stone arrowhead, carving a wooden bowl, making a moccasin, making a ceramic pot and weaving a tumpline (a broad strap passed across the forehead and over the shoulders for carrying a load on the back). Each of these crafts is a traditional skill developed by ancient Oneida people to survive on their aboriginal homelands.
  
• Parker, who was of Seneca descent and later was adopted into the Seneca Nation, created the Iroquois displays in the 1910s. He was the first to apply the technique of using lifesized natural history scenes to depict human culture.
  
• The six displays were exhibited at the New York State Museum in Albany from about 1918 to 1975.
  
• The “Oneida Industries” exhibit is the only one of the six that was taken out of storage and partially reassembled for public viewing in 1999.
  
• The New York State Museum offered the “Oneida Industries” exhibit to the Oneida Nation on a long-term loan, renewable annually. The museum also transported the display to Shako:wi and helped assemble it here.
  
• This is the first time a major state museum exhibit has ever been offered to an Indian nation in New York State.

“The Oneida Art of Basketry”

• The Nation acquired about 90 baskets earlier this year from the collection of Becky Karst, whose father was an Oneida Nation Member.
  
• This collection dates from the 1800s and early 1900s.
  
• Becky Karst kept detailed records of where she purchased the baskets and other information, making this one of the best-documented basket collections available.
  
• The different styles and decorative work on the baskets reflect the Oneidas' adaptation to changing markets. The Oneidas sold baskets to tourists and settlers in order to make a living after losing their land base. The Oneida style of basketry changed as the market demanded more elaborate decoration and different uses for these baskets, particularly after the Civil War and during the Victorian era.

“Skenandoa's Legacy"

• The centerpiece of this display is the original marble marker from Oneida Chief Skenandoa's gravesite at Hamilton College. Hamilton College returned this marker to the Nation after erecting a new memorial in September 1999, in cooperation with the Oneida Nation.
  
• The display also features an elegant silver pipe, given to Skenandoa by New York Governor Tompkins circa 1807.
  
• Panels and drawings trace Skenandoa's friendship with the American colonists, the difficult decisions he made to ensure the survival of the Oneida Nation in changing times, and his leadership and assistance to the Americans during the Revolutionary War.

“Hanyery And Brant"

• This display uses new biographical information and historical records to explain the contentious history of Oneida Hanyery and Mohawk Joseph Brant.
  
• The two found themselves in opposing camps long before the Revolutionary War, notably in a land dispute near Canajoharie in the 1760s.
  
• The display explains Brant's connections to the British, Hanyery's loyalty to the Americans, each man's role in the British siege of Fort Stanwix and the Battle of Oriskany, and compares how they fared after the Revolutionary War.

All exhibits are on permanent display at Shako:wi, located on Route 46 in Oneida, 2.5 miles south of the intersection of Routes 5 and 46 (left at the flashing yellow light, then to the right through the parking lot). Shako:wi is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except for some holidays. Admission is free, and group tours are available by appointment. Contact the center by calling (315) 363-1424.