Community Partners

Grounded in foundational principles of community engagement, AIISP is committed to partnering with Indigenous Nations to strengthen relationships through community empowerment, reciprocity, and community-driven ethical research practices. AIISP adheres to Indigenous place-based methodological practices, where recognition of sovereignty, diplomatic protocols, and specific community needs guide and inform our engagement, projects, and relationship-building priorities.

Collaborations with Haudenosaunee Communities

Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ / Cayuga Nation

Located on the traditional Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ homelands, AIISP maintains a formal relationship with the traditional leadership of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ Nation. Our commitment is expressed through the formal Land Acknowledgement that AIISP is developing in consultation with the Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ leadership. Sachem Samuel George, the Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ Condoled Bear Clan leader, has acted as a spokesperson for his nation and the confederacy and a mentor to the AIISP community.

At the center of our commitment to Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ our support for cultural and community resurgence efforts in their original territories. This commitment is expressed through the Cayuga Language and Culture class, which uses an Indigenous immersive pedagogy, grounded in Haudenosaunee traditional ecological, and place-based, knowledge.

Onoñda’gegá / Onondaga Nation

The Onondaga Nation, the central fire of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, is the closest Indigenous territory to Cornell University.

From 2001-2021 AIISP with generous funding from the Baldwin Family, supported the Onondaga Nation’s youth through its Tutoring Program at Lafayette High School, in Lafayette, NY.

In 2017, AIISP partnered with the Cornell Computer Reuse Association (CCRA) and the Onondaga Nation to set up a computer lab at the Onondaga Nation Arena. The lab is comprised of 5 refurbished computers, two MacBook Pro Laptops, computer desks, 2 whiteboards, a projector and a printer. The helps students from the Onondaga Nation complete homework and research projects, as well as to host workshops and other training sessions for the broader community.

Onyota’a:ká: / Oneida Nation

Cornell returned ancestral remains and funerary objects that had been kept in a University archive for six decades to the Oneida Indian Nation in 2023.

Read the article here.

Canandaigua Treaty Teach-in with Jamie Jacobs (Tonawanda Seneca).

Relationships with other Indigenous Nations

Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe)

Through on-going work of the Cornell University Indigenous Dispossession (CUID) committee since 2020, relationships have been built between committee members, AIIS graduate students, and Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe) communities in Wisconsin, from the lands dispossessed through the 1862 Morrill Act, of which Cornell was the largest beneficiary. This has included Cornell faculty visits to Wisconsin, and visiting lecturers brought to our Ithaca campus.