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Introduction #

Jake Haiwhagai’i Edwards and Dr. Philip P. Arnold discuss the impact of the Erie Canal on the Haudenosaunee. For millennia, waterways in Haudenosaunee territories have been profoundly important. In the Haudenosaunee cosmology, water is sacred as fundamental to all life. Therefore, while waterways were used for transportation, as food resources, and as locations for settlement, it was widely agreed among Indigenous peoples that they also be protected. The Erie Canal disrupted the natural flow of water, essentially damming watersheds so as to flow in an east-west direction. As Laurence Hauptman has discussed in Conspiracy of Interests: Iroquois Dispossession and the Rise of New York State, the creation of the Erie Canal corresponded with the dispossession of the Haudenosaunee. Transformation of the landscape throughout the 19th century had profound environmental effects and traumatic consequences on Haudenosaunee relationships to their lands.

Resources #

• Arnold, Philip P. The Urgency of Indigenous Values, Haudenosaunee and Indigenous Worlds. First edition, Syracuse University Press, 2023.

Credits #

• Music: Onondaga Social Dance songs performed by Orris Edwards and Regis Cook
• Producers: Jordan Loewen-Colón and Adam DJ Brett and Crow Richardson
• Show notes: Adam DJ Brett

Citation #

Philip P. Arnold and Sandra Bigtree, "S06E06: Sacred Waters: Trauma of the Erie Canal with Jake Edwards" Mapping the Doctrine of Discovery (Podcast), 2026-02-12. https://podcast.doctrineofdiscovery.org/season6/episode-06/.