1794 brought to life

For the past year I have been working on a unique project with historic artist Robert Grffing. He approached me over a year ago concerning the project. He wanted to know if I could help him with a large scale representation of the 1794 Treaty. I encouraged him and was excited about helping bring the event to life. Foremost in my mind was to include the descendants of the people who were in attandance 314 years ago be a big part of the project.

The 1794 Canandaigua Treaty is the lasting agreement between the young United States and the ancient Haudenosaunee which continues to be commemorated each November 11th in the city of Canandaigua.

To this point there has never been an attempt at a faithful recreation of that historic event. It was my responsibility to research the treaty and many of the visual clues which we might use to structure a high quality recreation of what the treaty might have looked like. Tonia and I set up casting calls at Salamanca and Onondaga and solicited participants online as well. In the end, we had just under 30 Haudenosaunee people attend the photo shoot at the Seneca-Iroquois museum this weekend. Here are some glimpses into what will become a very impressive piece in the next two years.




"Niaweh" (thanks) to: The Seneca-Iroquois Museum staff, Jare, Robert, Tonia, Ward, James, Kobuck, Crowder, Don, and ALL the participant models.