Event ‘helps to heal the old wounds of the relationship between the Oneida and Onondaga Nations’
By Ashley Wolf
Contributing writer
When Neal Powless and Michelle Schenandoah first met as young teenagers, they did not know they would fall in love or that, 27 years later, the deep historical connections between the Oneida and Onondaga Nations would be tied to their love affair.
The children of prominent families of two different Iroquois tribes, their story is reminiscent of other star-crossed lovers from nearly 200 years ago from the same tribes, who died in the lake trying to run away together, and whose death has been the basis of legend ever since.
The Powless-Schenandoah wedding and attendant ceremonies consecrated this past weekend on the shores of Cazenovia Lake have bridged this centuries-old tribal rift.
Powless, of the Eel Clan and Onondaga Nation, is the son of the eldest living Onondaga Chief, Irving Powless, Jr., and the grandson of Onondaga Chief Irving Powless, Sr.
Shenandoah, of the Wolf Clan and Oneida Nation, is the daughter of Oneida Faithkeeper Diane Schenandoah and granddaughter of Oneida Clan Mother Maisie Shenandoah.
Faithkeepers make the decisions for the clan mothers, chiefs and communities, prepare the longhouse for events and gatherings, are responsible for the well-being of the people and carry out what the chiefs and clan mothers say, according to the Oneida Nation. Chiefs are responsible for making the decisions that are in the community’s best interests and are the representatives of and advisors of the people.
Powless and Schenandoah first saw each other as young teenagers in the Onondaga longhouse, Powless said. The two met again years later at the Fayetteville YMCA and through business ventures, Schenandoah said. When the two reconnected, Schenandoah was a single mother barely out of law school. She was not looking for love, she said; she wanted to focus on work and raising her son.
Fate, however, seemed to have a different plan in mind, Schenandoah said.
A year and a half before she reconnected with Powless, Schenandoah wrote a list of more 100 characteristics of what she wanted in a partner, complete with columns, margins and addendums, she said. While asking herself who she wanted to be with and who she wanted to have as a companion for life, Neal Powless came into her mind.
“After we’d been dating for a couple of weeks, I was like, ‘Oh, my God. This is so clear. It’s him,’” Schenandoah said. “I gave [the list] to him. I said, ‘Here, I wrote this a long time ago. I don’t need this anymore because you’ve manifested in my life.’ He read it very quietly. After he was done reading it, he sat there for a while and then he said, ‘Michelle, this is me,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I know.’”
Soon, Schenandoah and Powless fell in love. In Native American culture, the women make the majority of the decisions, Powless said. So, when the couple wanted to marry, Powless went to Michelle’s mother to ask for Michelle’s hand in marriage. When he asked, Diane cried tears of joy, she said.
“It was beautiful,” Diane said. “He came and asked me if he could marry Michelle … and I said, ‘Absolutely!’ It made me cry. It was very proper and very wonderful. They make a beautiful match and their love was almost instantaneous when they started dating and it’s just been beautiful ever since.”
Historic love story connection
While dating, Schenandoah and Powless started to research a piece of history that took place between the Oneida and Onondaga Nations during the late 1770s that had a special resonance for them, Powless said. At that time, the middle of the American Revolution, the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign was mounted — the largest expedition ever before undertaken against the native North Americans, and one that specifically targeted the Iroquois Six Nations Confederacy to push them out of their lands, Michelle Schenandoah said.
During the war, the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, had declared themselves neutral, but the Oneidas, part of the confederation, sided with the Americans.
“It was sort of like the Oneidas had turned their backs on their brothers,” Schenandoah said. “Shortly after that, there was no food left. Part of that whole campaign was to scorch and burn the earth and to get rid of all the food supplies for the Haudenosaunee people.”
According to legend, a man from a prominent Oneida family and a woman from a prominent Onondaga family were married during the time of the tensions between the Oneida and Onondaga Nations, Schenandoah said. Since the Onondaga Nation had felt betrayed by the Oneida Nation, the marriage caused great controversy and many people were angry about their relationship, she said. The couple had to flee into Cazenovia Lake in a wooden canoe, but the canoe capsized and the couple died, Schenandoahsaid. The canoe was left in the lake.
The history of this story connects to the relationship between Schenandoah and Powless, not only because their family members in past generations were involved but because Schenandoa his from a prominent Oneida family and Powless is from a prominent Onondaga family, she said.
“What we’ve learned along the way is that there’s so much history between our coming together. It’s definitely destiny,” she said. “When we learned about the story, we were looking for places to get married. We met Richard Hubbard here [at The Brewster Inn] and Neal said, ‘Wow, we could create a healing through our marriage for that couple that lost their lives, and I said ‘That’s great.’”
A few years ago, the canoe was rediscovered in the lake and set to be removed, but the Onondaga tribes protested, saying it was a burial site and should stay in the water, Powless said. The canoe was re-sunk and is still in the lake today.
Lake healing ceremony
The marriage between Schenandoah and Powless had two ceremonies, but before either of them, the family gathered Saturday morning, June 6, at Cazenovia Lake for a healing ceremony of the historical canoe event. At the event, the family was dressed in full ceremonial regalia and gave an offering of tobacco, Schenandoah said.
“The tobacco burning [is] giving thanks in general for life and for all of creation, and then we [did] a tobacco offering to the water for the couple that had lost their lives and to create a healing and for our nations and all Haudenosaunee people, and then between all people here on Turtle Island and for all people in the world,” Schenandoah said.
At the healing ceremony, Neal’s eldest child, Natasha, age 16, began the ceremony by speaking in the Onondaga language, Schenandoah and Powless also spoke.
Oneida Faithkeeper Diane Schenandoah said the healing ceremony is important now, at a time when peace is more hidden than chaos.
“The whole Indian confederacy is based on the principles of peace, and this is a time on our earth that we need peace and this is a promotion of this peace,” Diane said. “This is a step of this peace that we all need to work for and making that step is huge.”
The words spoken at the ceremony signify the cleansing of the people and the families that lost relatives in the historic event, Powless said.
“In the healing process, we say, ‘We’ll wipe the tears away from your eyes so that you can see. We’ll work out the lump in your throat so that you can speak. We’ll clear the grief from your ears so that you can hear and then you can move forward and celebrate life again,’” he said.
The words travel through the smoke to the creators of all creations and all of the people so they can hear it, Powless said.
“When we burn [the tobacco], we’re burning it for all spirits that are alive on Mother Earth,” he said. The prayers also travel through the water into and around Mother Earth, he said. “It’s really an internal healing process that goes along with this thought process, connecting it to the water and healing the entire world, whether it be through water or by land through this ceremony.”
Wedding ceremonies
After the healing ceremony was the traditional Native American wedding ceremony in the Onondaga longhouse, where Powless and Schenandoah first met.
The ceremony took longer than an hour. The family was in full regalia. The members of the family sat in the middle of the longhouse while attendees of the open ceremony surrounded them. In the audience, Native American, Indian and American cultures were represented.
“The ceremony was at Onondaga between the Oneida and Onondaga, performed by a Mohawk,” Powless said. “Traditionally, you just open it up to the public. We do the ceremony, it’s very similar, they tell the family what their roles are, the mothers what their roles are and us what our roles are it’s all in the language. We agree to all the things that were spoken to us.”
The traditional Native American wedding contains more vows than the traditional American wedding. These vows were on the topics such as gossip, faithfulness, children and respect.
Instead of exchanging rings during the Native American wedding ceremony, the couple exchanged baskets. Schenandoah gave Powless a basket containing handmade clothing items; Powless gave Schenandoah a basket containing strawberry cornbread. After the ceremony, the couple’s first task as husband and wife was to hand out the bread from the basket Schenandoah had received to every person in attendance, Powless said.
“There’s nobody that can go unfed,” he said. “We have to cut up the bread and count pieces so that we make sure we cut enough pieces to feed everybody that’s in attendance. That’s our first duty as a married couple. Our marriage isn’t verified until we feed everyone.”
The ceremony was followed by a large meal prepared with foods including buffalo, fry bread, multiple different types of salads, a cake with the symbolic baskets iced on for decoration and a corn and beans cold soup.
Before and after the meal, the couple danced together.
“We have to do a certain number of dances together,” Powless said. “We’ll do one dance, then we’ll go eat, then we’ll do another dance and finish up. We have to lead every dance as a married couple.”
On Sunday, June 7, Schenandoah and Powless had a traditional American wedding at The Brewster Inn. Joanne Shenandoah, Michelle’s aunt and internationally recognized singer/songwriter and Grammy Award winner, officiated the ceremony and sang a love song for the newlyweds that she and a friend had written.
“I’ve never closed for brunch to do a wedding for someone in 31 years,” said Richard Hubbard, owner of The Brewster Inn, who personally organized the wedding for the couple. “I thought this was such an incredible piece of history, the legend of the canoe, it’s been there for hundreds of years. This is something that, 200 years from now, people will be talking about how they did it. To me, I think it’s an incredible thing. I couldn’t be more honored than to have it happen here.”
Members of both the Oneida and Onondaga tribes were in attendance, as well as many non-native friends of both Schenandoah and Powless. During the ring ceremony, Doug George, an author and international lecturer, told the story about the couple that lost their lives in the lake 130 years ago and explained the healing ceremony that took place the morning before.
The Sunday wedding ceremony was short, as the couple had already been married Saturday. Powless’ son Augustus, 10, and Shenandoah’s son Shakowi, 6, presented the couple with the rings, while Powless’ other children Maximus, 14, and Natasha, 16, were also at front with their family.
After the ceremony, a reception was held at The Brewster Inn with music, dancing and food. The couple shared their first dance to Beyonce’s cover of Etta James’ “At Last” and after, fed one another small cakes.
Diane Schenandoah said the marriage between her daughter and her new son-in-law is incredible because it not only brings together one happy family, it also brings together many different parts of history and helps to heal the old wounds of the relationship between the Oneida and Onondaga Nations.
“It’s not only two large families coming together, it’s Oneida and Onondaga coming together as well and the significance in Cazenovia is [that] the lake runs between the two territories of the nation.”
