Adirondack Daily Enterprise, July 22, 1957
A display room in the museum featuring a scale model of a hoganThe Six Nations Indian Museum in Onchiota was founded in 1954 by Ray Fadden.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, July 20, 1954
Museum At Onchiota Displays Indian Lore
To enlighten the public towards a better understanding of the Indian race, of its great history and of its contributions to world culture, a new museum devoted to the Iroquois Indians, the “people of the longhouse” has just been opened at Onchiota.
Known as the “Six Nations Museum,” it is another step of the Akwesasne Mohawk Counselor organization of the St. Regis Mohawk reservation at Hogansburg to promote the advancement of the Indian.
The building is of knotty pine housing a host of Indian relics. From the collection it is possible to trace the history of the Iroquois confederacy from the time it was founded by Deganawidah and Hiawatha. Deganawidah is said to have given his people the great Peace Law, which “unites them to this day.”
Exterior of the museum entranceThere are many types of Indian regalia from elaborate headdresses to beaded moccasins. On exhibit are birch bark canoes made by Indians, tom toms crafted from animal hides and variety of handicrafts for which these peoples have remained noted through the years.
Authentic atmosphere is added as Indian youths sing and dance to the rhythmic beat of tom toms. Across from the museum is a monument erected by the Akwesesne Mohawk Counsellor organization on which is imprinted an Indian Prayer by Tom White Cloud.
Visitors are guided by Ray Fadden, Hogansburg St. Regis Mohawk Indian school teacher, museum supervisor. Mr. Fadden is associated with the National Congress of American Indians, League of Nations of North American Indians, Indian Defense League of America, Six Nations Association and the Society for the Preservation of Indian Lore.
Additional aims of the museum include making it possible to erect at least one monument each year to noted Iroquois leaders, past or present; to make it possible for our young people to visit scenic and historical places in the near and distant regions surrounding the St. Regis country and to enable us to help put through college those of our Indian young people who show special talent but who, through circumstances, lack the necessary funds to attain that goal.
A large beaded belt on display at the Indian MuseumAdirondack Daily Enterprise, September 2, 1961
Perhaps the most famous belt in the history of the Mohawks is the one above, being held by Kahonehes (The Long River). The beaded treasure is used to teach the young Mohawks their own history in a way to remember it. It is the only one of its kind and therefore has a peculiar value. It depicts the entire history of the Iroquois people, the Five Nations and it’s branches. The colorful seed beads, literally thousands of them, are woven into a mosaic of beauty in six colors.
The beads are sewn on a moose- hide strip and to appreciate the legend some scholar must translate the symbols. When this is done properly, the story unfolds from the point of origin on the Mississippi River until the coming of the white man.
The belt weighs about 5 pounds and is on exhibition at the Six Nation Indian Museum at Onchiota. Raymond Fadden its curator is an expert at telling the story of the Akwesasne (Mohawks) and can run through a quick translation of the record belt in ten minutes though to appreciate the branching symbols and to absorb the complete picture, it requires considerably more time.
Mr. Fadden will tell you that the Indian Nation boasted some extremely great truths in the matter of civilized living and his convincing approach to the Mohawk mores and customs is enlightening in these troubled and warlike times.
There are other Indian belts which portray various legends of the tribes but this particular belt is the only one carrying the complete history of the Mohawks.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, July 13, 2002
Indian museum is a family tradition
Fadden family closes in on golden anniversary
Native Americans may look to their forefathers for guidance,, but the Faddens of Onchiota are looking to the next generation to keep the Six Nations Indian Museum open for many years to come.
Both in their 30s, Don and Dave Fadden are helping their father, John, operate the museum, which will soon celebrate its golden anniversary.
John's father, Ray, opened the Six Nations Indian Museum in 1954. Living across the road, Ray doesn't visit too often any more. He will turn 92 years old in August. His wife, Christine, turned 90 on July 4.
The Faddens are proud members of the Mohawk Nation, which shares the Iroquois Confederacy with the Seneca, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga and Tuscarora nations. Ray Fadden opened the museum at a time when political correctness was just as foreign to the American public as the Three Sisters -corn, beans and squash (No, they aren't three showgirls from Las Vegas )
“We're not in it for the money at all” said 32-year-old Dave Kanietakeron Fadden.
Admission is $2 for one adult and $1 for a child. That's practically nothing compared to other museums and attractions in the Olympic Region.
Ray Fadden created the Six Nations Indian Museum to educate Mohawk children and the public about the Native American history and culture in New York state, namely that of the Iroquois Confederacy. At the same time, he was passionately trying to dispel some of the stereotypes people have about Native Americans.
“And show people that we're still here,” Dave Fadden said. “We're not just in the history books.”
In the 1950s, when many schools still practiced segregation, the educational system treated Native Americans as though their time had come and gone.
“What they were trying to do was take the Indian out of the Indian,” Dave Fadden said. Ray knew all too well what was going on in the educational system. He was a science teacher. After graduating from the Fredonia Normal School in 1934, his profession led him to the classrooms of Iroquois communities throughout New York state and southern Ontario. He included lessons relating to Iroquois culture, history and traditions in his instruction.
The teaching profession gave Ray the summers off and allowed him to open the Six Nations Indian Museum during the busy Adirondack tourist months of July and August.
Logging the trees by himself with the assistance of a borrowed horse, Ray had the timber milled in Onchiota, and he constructed the original two-room; building practically by himself. He collected Indian artifacts, and many were donated by friends and strangers: Ray made trips to the New York State Museum in Albany to research the history of the Six Nations for the museum. He and his family created outdoor interpretation, and he made indoor exhibits.
One indoor panel is a large painted map of the 16,640-acre Akwesasne Mohawk Reservation near Massena. The panel is located on the ceiling in one of the back rooms and includes paintings of Akwesasne buildings and the faces and names of 51 school children. It is signed “Aren Akweks,” Ray's pen name.
Ray built the museum in this remote neck of the woods because this is his true home.
Ray Tehanetorens Fadden was born on Aug. 23, 1910 in Onchiota. He is a member of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Nation. While his family relocated to many places throughout eastern New York during his childhood, his summers were spent enjoying the Adirondack woods with his grandfather, Henry Fadden. who lived in Onchiota. While visiting the Akwesasne Mohawk community, he met Christine Chubb, and they were married in 1935. In 1938, their son, John Kahionhes Fadden, was born. He is a member of his mother's Turtle Clan.
Like his father, who retired in .1967, John chose education as his profession, becoming an art teacher. This gave him summers off to help his father run the Six Nations Indian Museum. John, who is part of the Turtle Clan, doesn't speak Mohawk, but his wife is one of 3,000 people who are fluent.
“I only know enough to get myself in trouble,” John Fadden said.
Now that John is retired, two of his three sons are helping him operate the family business, Don, who works as a custodian at the Lake Colby School, lives up the road from the museum, and Dan, an artist and storyteller, currently lives in the Akwesasne community of Hogansburg.
Dave, Don and their other brother, Dan, are members of their mother's Wolf Clan.
The future of this museum lies in their hands.
For these Generation Xers, the motivation for keeping the Six Nations Indian Museum open is similar to their grandfather's reason for creating it in the first place. Dave, himself, has heard racial slurs in school and in the workplace, and while feelings of anger come natural, he practices what he was taught as a child -- to respect others. So instead of physically fighting back he has chosen to keep Ray Fadden's legacy of education alive and teach the public about the Six Nations. He hopes to burst the stereotype bubble while he teaches people to understand Native Americans, instead of making off-the-cuff racial remarks about them, After all, most public schools still don't give comprehensive lessons on Indian history.
“When I went to school in Saranac Lake, we learned a little about Indian people, but we didn't get the full picture,” Dave Fadden said.
Running a family business is a double-edged sword. Dave is torn between the honor and the burden of keeping the Six Nations Indian Museum in operation. It doesn't make a lot of money, and there are expensive capital improvements to be made. In his heart, the choice to remain in the area and help out the family was simple.
“This is home,” Dave Fadden said, adding that he would like to move back to the Adirondacks some day. “I'm lucky to have this museum.”
Chock full of stuff
Since its opening 48 years ago, two rooms have been added to the museum, and Native American artifacts continue to arrive. Pictures, displays, drawings and examples of Iroquois life can be found in every corner of the building. To say the Faddens are running out of room is an understatement.
“I think we're due for a couple of new rooms,” Dave Fadden said. There are hundreds of items to read — picture captions, artifact descriptions and interpretive panels on all the walls and the ceiling. A few years ago, one man spent three days reading everything in the museum.
“He came back day after day after day, and on the fourth day he asked questions,” Dave Fadden said. “The man even lied down on the floor to read the panels on the ceiling. It is a little rough on the neck.”
Improvements are planned for the outdoor portion of the property. Some of the smaller buildings were destroyed by failing trees in the January 1998 ice storm and were never replaced. The Faddens hope to build a roof over the outdoor fire ring, which is surrounded by benches, so they can host storytelling sessions. For a more hands-on approach to learning, they also hope to add an interpretive trail in the back featuring medicinal plants and a small Indian village site. The expense of such undertakings is. beyond their reach now, but they are saving money to expand.
Artifact highlights
The newest artifact in the Six Nations Indian Museum collection is a late 19th century Glengary Iroquois Hat, which was worn by the woman who crafted the beadwork.
“That's my heritage,” Dave Fadden said. “I'm both Scottish and Mohawk, hence the word Fadden. It used to be MacFadden.”
The hat was donated in 2001 by Patricia Rudy-Baese, of Santa Fe, N.M.
In the far room are two small collections of artwork, a set of ink drawings John made for a calendar and a set of acrylic paintings by Dave. In the same room, under a glass case, is a bell-shaped pestle found by John Lewis in Cattaragus County in western New York. It was donated by his son, Mike, in 2000.
“My father went to school with John Lewis,” John Fadden said, “and I was named after him.”
Also in the same room is a well-traveled Six Nations Clan Banner used by the Iroquois Nation during centennial celebrations in Philadelphia in 1876. Lori Wood, originally from Lake Placid currently a resident of Ireland, donated the banner to the museum in 1997. She acquired it from an antique dealer in St. Louis, who purchased it from a shop in London. The owners of the London antique store are originally from Oklahoma, and they had bought the banner in New York state.
In another room is a uniform, worn by Chief Frank Cogswell during the Spanish-American War. He was a Schaghticoke Indian from Kent, Conn, It was donated by a Connecticut woman in 1958.
No matter how many times you visit, there always seems to be something new to learn at the Six Nations Indian Museum.
The Six Nations Indian Museum is in a remote part of the Adirondacks, Onchiota, which is as close to nature as it can be. Yet it seems to be one of the most popular and powerful centers of Iroquois history in New York state. That is due to the hard work and dedication of one man, according to Dave Fadden. He credits his grandfather, Ray, for maintaining the Mohawk culture, in a time when most people are ready to throw it away.
“A lot of the traditions are still here because of him,” Dave Fadden said.
The Six Nations Indian Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday-Sunday through Labor Day. It is located 14 miles north of Saranac Lake and one mile from Onchiota's Irrational Airport. For more information call 891-2299.
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