By Alliance Communications Coordinator Amy Durr
During these turbulent times, it’s reassuring to know there are people walking our planet who offer us a glimpse of how we can be human and transform the world by being just who they are. Chief Oren R. Lyons is one of them.
At 95, this world-renowned Native American rights leader, a Haudenosaunee Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of both the Onondaga Nation and the Seneca Nation of the Six Nations of the Grand River, continues to be an inspiration through his Indigenous wisdom and unrelenting, impactful activism. We couldn’t think of a more uplifting person to highlight in celebration of Native American Heritage Month.
The Onondaga Nation is one of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee (“people of the Long House”), formerly known as the Iroquois Confederacy, whose territory once encompassed most of NY and PA and parts of OH, Ontario and Quebec. The Haudenosaunee form of government is based on a more than 1,000-year-old oral constitution called the Great Law of Peace, whose democratic ideals, some historians say, served as inspiration for the framers of the US Constitution.
Long before sustainability became a movement, Lyons was teaching it as a way of being. His words remind us true change begins with remembering our place in the circle of life. From the lacrosse field to the UN, Lyons has lived resilience and reverence.
In a world unraveling, Chief Lyons offers something rare: wisdom rooted in humility, humor, and 1,000 years of democratic tradition. He challenges us to unify — for the Earth, for peace, and for each other.
His Humble Beginnings
Lyons was raised in the culture and practices of the Seneca and Onondaga nations in what is now upstate New York. He was drafted for the Korean War as a paratrooper in the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, an elite group of specialized soldiers. On his final airborne mission he broke both his shins in a parachute jump.
After he left the service, he went on to use his artistic talents to get into Syracuse University, where he studied Art. His iconic paintings, including Tree of Peace: Circa Ninth Century AD, are available from Syracuse Cultural Workers.
He became the first person in his family to go to college and one of the first Native American graduates of Syracuse University, where he was a legendary lacrosse player. He is the founder of the Haudenosaunee lacrosse team and is battling to enable the Haudenosaunee inventors of lacrosse to play under their own flag at the 2028 Olympics.
Chief Oren Lyon’s Impact on the World
Lyons authored or co-authored profoundly influential texts, such as Wilderness in Native American Culture and Exiled in the Land of the Free: Democracy, Indian Nations and the U.S. Constitution. He became a professor of American Studies at University at Buffalo.
One of his greatest accomplishments was helping to establish and become a leading voice for the UN’s Working Group on Indigenous Populations (replaced by the UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2000). It’s the highest-ranking body within the UN system that deals directly with Indigenous peoples’ concerns and its annual gathering is the largest convening of Indigenous peoples globally.
It meets with heads of state to address issues ranging from climate disasters to the effects of critical mineral mining in Indigenous communities. Key achievements include specific recommendations on repatriation of cultural items and promoting culturally appropriate education.
He has received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the National Audubon Society’s Audubon Medal, the Earth Day International Award of the United Nations and the Elder and Wiser Award of the Rosa Parks Institute for Human Rights.
Don’t Give Up – Lyons Calls for Peace, True Democracy and Avoiding the Abyss
In the face of growing assaults on Indigenous lands and people, along with democracy and the environment, Lyons is telling us that we can’t give up. It’s his most timely, crucial and world captivating message.
“Peace is the only answer to the situation we face today. And it was the answer and it was the instruction in the beginning. And so we’re facing a crucial time in two senses, and you’ve covered them both in the titles of your event. You’re talking about democracy, and you’re talking about the earth. It’s melting,” said Lyons in a talk to the Bioneers in 2024.
Lyons continues, “In a very short time, 70 years, we’ve gone from 2.5 billion people in the world to over eight. In my lifetime. Now, if everything was equitable, we would manage. But as you know, it’s not. Not equitable.”
“We have a great many poor people, and very few wealthy people. That’s the reality. But the biggest reality is that we’re like fleas on a dog, and the dog’s getting ready to shake and all of your discussions here amount to nothing. Unless…you unify and unite and stand for the future and the seven generations. Those were our instructions and they’re extremely valid today.”
Bill Moyers Interviews Lyons: Truly Seven Generation Thinking and the Cycles of Life
In a PBS interview in 1991, Bill Moyers sat down with Lyons, “who devoted his life to documenting his peoples’ experiences, and interpreting them for understanding by the dominant American culture. They discuss ancient legends, prophecies, and wisdom that guide the Onondaga tribe, as well as spiritual approaches to environmentalism and the modern challenges of preserving Native American culture.”
At the end of the interview in response to a question from Moyers, Lyons reflects on what we can learn from Native Americans in the context of the climate emergency:
“And so you say, what do they have to offer, indigenous people? I think we may have the long-term thinking required for proper context. Context being life as it functions in the cycles, in the great cycles of life, you know, as we do our cycle of being born and going back to the earth again, as the tree is a sapling and grows to full being and then falls, as it goes back to the earth again, as the spring comes, and the fall and winter, and it comes again.
“It’s endless, the cycle. As long as you protect the cycle, as long as you participate in the cycle, as long as you honor it and respect it, then it will continue. But it doesn’t have to.”
Lyons continues to illuminate a path toward peace, democracy and balance with the Earth. His message is an invitation to transform our values before it’s too late.