By Carl Burkart, Director of Student Success and Development

We spoke with Jeffrey Lambe, associate professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, about his scholarship, his teaching, his mentoring, and his work with Native American organizations. Dr. Lambe has a Ph.D. in Indigenous Studies from Trent University.  For over 35 years he has volunteered with nonprofit education and cultural organizations among the communities of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy). 

The interview below has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Why is Native American Heritage Month important?

Jeffrey Lambe: Well, if for no other reason, it's to educate non-Native people because the majority of non-Native people are completely ignorant of the history of the relationships of the Euro Americans, even African Americans, with the Native Americans. The history is often very unflattering, very destructive, and if for nothing else, it's one small step to awareness.  Native people grow up with this history.  You know the corralling on reservations, the boarding schools, the systematic assimilation.  So if for nothing else, I think it's a small step towards educating non-Natives. I think for me that's the significance.

A lot of people think of Native American history as something that happened in the colonial period or maybe up until the late 19th century, and then all of a sudden it goes away.  What is the continued relevance?

Jeffrey Lambe: Well, part of the continued relevance is they're still here, which is quite remarkable.  And you know when you think of contemporary issues in terms of land claims, treaties, repatriation of items in museums, of language loss, and in terms of the fact that most if not all the treaties at some point were violated by the United States,  it's not going away. It might not be the history per se, but the contemporary issues remain. You know most people think about stereotypes: alcoholism, poverty, and casinos, and it's far more complex than that.  And again, unlike most non-Native people, Native people deal with these things every single day.  The effects of colonialism, the current conditions on reservations, the poverty, the overcrowding.  Of course, it depends geographically where you are, which nation you are. But generally speaking, these are a lot of the issues that remain.

 

Tell us a little bit about your current research, especially about the Wiping of the Tears ceremony.

Jeffrey Lambe: That's a ceremony that goes back to the founding of the Iroquois Confederacy, where they say they were fighting for hundreds of years. The five original nations of the Iroquois were fighting each other, up to a point where they were one people, and they were fighting so long that their languages diverged.   In their tradition they say that the Peacemaker came and got them to think about what they were doing. And there was a story of Hiawatha who lost his three daughters and he was so overcome with grief that he goes through the cathartic process of healing his grief because of his losses. And the Peacemaker says, “This is essential.  If we're going to bring these warring people together, we have to address the atrocities.” So anyway, if you look at the treaty record, and I have 472 years of examples going back to the 1600s through the oral tradition today, every single treaty had this “wiping of the tears” ceremony in the protocol prior to negotiating anything.  In order to do business in the Northeast until the 1800s, whether it was the Dutch, the English, or even other Native Amermicans, you had to do it within this very structured Native protocol that involved the wiping of the tears before you spoke.  They say that if a mind is carrying grief from loss, we have to come to terms with the loss.   If the mind is burdened with grief, you can't think clearly and you won't be able to bring your best thoughts to the negotiation.

 

Could you tell us a little about your work with prior learning over the over the years?

Jeffrey Lambe:  I was always intrigued by the PLA Process.  While getting my PhD at Trent University, we had some tenured professors who were Elders.  They didn't have college degrees and they really went out of their way to bring in these alternative forms of knowledge as legitimate in the academy.  So when I saw Empire doing prior learning, I really was intrigued.   I looked into it, researched it, I published articles on it, and it just really intrigued me, and I always thought for a long time that there's knowledge that people bring into the academy.  So why can't a Haudenosaunee, a Mohawk kid on the reservation, who knows social songs, not get college credit for understanding the significance of the song, the meaning of the song, and why can't we hire people on the reservation to evaluate that?  I've worked with one group, particularly women of color, doing prior learning essays and the fact that you can get credit—if you of course demonstrate college level learning, knowledge, and skills—for experiences of racism, for experiences of all these different types of things.   The look in their eyes, that feeling of empowerment was incredible, and it just put wind under their sails with their degree. And I knew Native people have knowledge that's akin to anything in the Western academy.  So that always intrigued me.  That’s why I was really involved with it.

If students are interested in making Native American history and heritage part of their degree program at the college, where would you suggest they start?

Jeffrey Lambe: Well, I would see what their interests were. For example: Is it art? Is it history?  Is there a certain focus or aspect that you want to do?  And I start there. But also, it can be quite tricky.  I've had a lot of students say, “I want to learn about Native spirituality.” And I say, “Look, I can't teach you that.  I'm not Native.”  I'm not going to attempt to teach someone Native spirituality.  It would be disrespectful.  However, I can teach you the role of the Haudenosaunee during the American Revolution, for example.  There are a lot of aspects I could teach.  So, I would specifically ask well, what are your intentions?  What do you want to specifically focus on and see if we can accommodate it within the area of study guidelines.  If not, interdisciplinary might be a way to go.

 

Tell us a little bit about the upcoming Reason and Respect program that you're involved in.

Jeffrey Lambe:  Doug George is a very dear friend of mine.  He's been an activist since he was very, very young.   He was on the forefront of a lot of issues that informed the red power movement of the 1960s.  Doug is a residential school survivor. He's a journalist. He was part of “Akwesasne Notes”, which is one of the first major critical native publications in North America.  He's going to speak about his experiences in the residential school.  I don't know if you've seen the news, but that's a huge, huge topic because they've been finding hundreds and hundreds of bodies in the grounds of these residential schools.  It's absolutely horrific. So anyway, Doug is a survivor. Not only that, he's tenacious, and he's going to be speaking to that.

 

Doug George-Kanentijo will speak on November 15, 2021 from 1 to p.m. as part of the Reason and Respect Series.  http://sunyempire.edu/president/reason-and-respect/