Learn to pronounce Sga:t ędwatahí:ne

Launched in fall 2022, the Sga:t ędwatahí:ne Fellows Program seeks to build relationships between the university and regional community changemakers. Each year the Einhorn Center invites three people from Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) nations to serve as fellows.

At a time when Cornell is reckoning with its role in North American Indigenous land dispossession, the university community benefits from hosting and convening with principled, responsible, people-centered leaders equipped to affect change. Guiding these university-community relationships is the Two Row Wampum or Gaswéñdah (see below).

The fellows program expands community-engaged learning opportunities for Cornell students through their engagement with community-driven hands-on projects. Fellows aren’t asked to create new projects; rather, the Einhorn Center connects student interest with existing projects and activities led by fellows – or others in their communities – that would benefit from student participation.

The program seeks to:

• Build relationships between the university and community changemakers
• Connect students with community-driven projects on Haudenosaunee territories across New York state
• Follow the principles set out in the Two Row Wampum of friendship, good minds and peace, continuously strengthening the Covenant Chain of Friendship that connects us

The Sga:t ędwatahí:ne Fellows Program is a reimagining of the Civic Leader Fellows program that, during its nearly 20 years, supported Tompkins County–based community leaders in their action projects. The Einhorn Center developed this program in dialogue with Cornell’s American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program (AIISP) and the West Campus House System.

The Two Row Wampum or Gaswéñdah guides our relationships with the Sga:t ędwatahí:ne Fellows. As the website of the Onondaga Nation explains, “The Haudenosaunee see the Two Row Wampum as a living treaty.” The nation’s Indigenous Values Initiative notes:

The Two Row Wampum belt is a metaphor for how the European newcomers and the Haudenosaunee mutually agreed to live in peace as brothers while pursuing parallel but separate paths of culture, belief, and law. This was symbolized as a ship and a canoe floating side by side on the River of Life, indicated in the wampum belt by the two dark rows. The vessels were bound together by a symbolic three-link chain, representing Friendship, Good Minds and Peace.

For questions or more information, contact us at einhorncenter@cornell.edu.