Stephen Henhawk (Gayogohó:nǫˀ/Cayuga)
Research Associate, American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program

Stephen Henhawk is a first-language Gayogohó:nǫˀ (Cayuga) speaker, historian, and faithkeeper who grew up on the Six Nations Reservation in Canada. Many Gayogohó:nǫˀ people settled at Six Nations after being forced out of their ancestral homeland around Cayuga Lake. He now lives in Ithaca, and has been teaching language and culture classes at Cornell and with the Gayogohó:nǫˀ Learning Project. Steve is a Research Associate with Cornell’s Department of Linguistics and American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program.
NEWS ARTICLES
Recent Research
- Co-founder Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ Learning Project
- 2024 Frontier Grant- “Reconceptualizing Haudenosaunee Studies,” John Whitman, professor of linguistics; Kurt Jordan, professor of anthropology; Jolene Rickard, associate professor of history of art and visual studies; and Stephen Henhawk, research associate in linguistics (A&S) and program associate in the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program (AIISP) in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
- NASA New York Space Grant - Coming Home - Telling stories through stars
- Engaged Cornell Grant - David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement - An Endangered and Indigenous Language Curriculum
- 2023 Migrations Initiative Grant - Documentation, Maintenance, and Revitalization of the Indigenous Languages of the Cayuga Lake Basin: Gayogohó:nǫˀ (Cayuga) and Deyodiho:nǫˀ (Tutelo)
Contact Information
121 Reservoir Ave
Office: 472 B Caldwell Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
Stephen in the news

News
Four Cornell-funded projects are expanding efforts to preserve and highlight the Gayogohó:nǫˀ (Cayuga Nation) language and culture, in western New York and throughout the country.
- American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program