Fredonia Presbyterian Church, (PCUSA)
Making All Things New
Native American Reconciliation
Inside and outside the sanctuary
Motions for May 2025
Presbytery Meeting
Read 4 motions we are making to not only apologize but to begin the never ending work of repairing the harm the United States has done to Native Americans and specifically with respect to the ancestral homelands of the Haudenosaunee, particularly the Seneca Nations of Indians.
Apology
Click this button to read the full apology. Again, it can't cover everything but a team of dedicated people of the Native American Reconciliation Group, including our own Dr. Susan S., have worked diligently to write a meaningful apology to two Seneca Nations churches within our Presbytery, Jimersontown Presbyterian Church
Wright Memorial Presbyterian Church.
Resources to Know: y'all, these folks, this history, these lessons, these lives, this stuff is right here in WNY. We need to know this.
The National Native American Boardings School Healing Coalition Purpose: to lead in the pursuit of understanding and addressing the ongoing trauma created by the US Indian Boarding School policy. Their current focus is on the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (S.2907, H.R. 5444).
Western New York Indian Schools are listed as follows on the National Native American Boardings School Healing Coalition website:
a. Friends Boarding School for Indian Children (Tunasassa Indian Boarding School)
b. Seneca Mission and School (Buffalo Creek Mission)
c. Thomas Indian School (Gowanda School; Thomas Asylum)
d. Tonawanda Mission School Tuscarora Indian School (Mount Hope Indian School)
e. Western New York Home for Homeless and Dependent Children (Randolph Children’s Home)
2. Arrange a group visit to Ganondagan State Historic site (outside Rochester in Victor NY) which has information about the history of the Seneca people, their culture and traditions.
3. Arrange a visit to the Seneca/Iroquois National Museum (Onöhsagwë:de’ Cultural Center) in Salamanca. It explores the culture of the Seneca People and has a special exhibit about Kinzua Dam.
4. Visit our Seneca Churches
a. Jimersontown Presbyterian Church, 3602 Center Road, P.O. Box 525, Salamanca, NY. Phone: 716-945-1819. Worship and education are held at11:00 a.m.
b. Wright Memorial Presbyterian Church, 12672 NY 438, Irving, NY. Worship is held at 11:00 a.m. Wright Memorial also hosts a community breakfast on the first Saturday of the month, Sept – June from 9-10 a.m.
How can you participate? What would you like to see our church do first?
Movies
1. Unseen Tears explores the issues of Native American Boardings Schools including interviews with alumni of Thomas Indian School. It is available on Prime Video or for free on YouTube
2. Lake of Betrayal tells the story of the Kinzua Dam and the U.S. governments betrayal of its treaty with the Seneca and there is a study guide.
3. Thomas Indian School Alumni Reunion was created by Terry Jones, a Haudenosaunee filmmaker. It can be streamed for free on the website for individual viewing. If you are showing it to a group, you are asked to purchase the DVD. Cynthia Wickwire Lundquist has copies of the DVD for sale or you can order it through the website.
Books
1. Three Plays: The Indolent Boys, Children of the Sun and the Moon in Two Windows. By N. Scott Momoday. 2007.
2. The Thomas Indian School and the “Irredeemable” Children of New York by Keith Burich. Syracuse University Press, 2016. This book contains the history, and damaging effects, of the influx of Europeans upon the culture of the
Haudenosaunee; an introduction to the treaties including the dishonest manipulation by land companies; the positive early work of the Presbyterian missionaries Rev. and Mrs. Wright; and the disastrous history of the Thomas
Indian School upon the death of Laura Wright. The long-term consequences of the boarding school experience are included. (see podcast below as well)
Podcast
There is an interview with Dr. Burich on NPR’s What’s Next about the Thomas Indian School. The podcast is about an hour long.
Relevant General Assembly (of the PCUSA) Reports
1. On Offering an Apology to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians (2016). This link includes the text of the original GA letter of apology.
2. Native American Coordinating Council Report
3. Doctrine of Discovery (2018)
4. Expanded Response to the Doctrine of Discovery (2018)
5. Native American Church Property (2020)
6. Native American Coordinating Council Report (2020)