G. Peter Jemison collaborated with his son Branden to create this short film that explains the meaning of the 1613 treaty made between the Haudenosaunee Nation and the Dutch. The film moves between a re-creation of the exchange and a discussion of the present day meaning of the terms of the treaty commemorated in a wampum belt known as “Guswenta” in Seneca or “Two Row” in English. The belt serves as a mnemonic device to assist the Haudenosaunee to remember the agreement’s original intent. The pattern indicates two parallel lines that signify the coexistence of two nations: the Haudenosaunee Nation travel in their canoes, the Europeans in their boats-separate boats, separate ways of life, an agreement not to interfere in each other’s affairs. The film makes the important point that a treaty is a living document and its terms need to be reinforced and reinterpreted by each generation.

G. Peter Jemison, a member of the Heron Clan of the Seneca Nation, is the manager of Ganondagan State Historic Site, which replicates a 17th-century Seneca village located in Victor, NY. Jemison represents the Seneca Nation of Indians on repatriation issues; he serves on the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and formerly served on the board of directors of the American Association of Museums. He is also an artist whose work has been widely shown and collected for over two decades. He recently organized the exhibition Our Stories Made Visible, featuring the work by Katsitsionni Fox and Shelley Niro, two Mohawk female artists, at Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY. This year his work was included in two exhibitions at the Berlin Gallery at the Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ. He has had solo exhibitions at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY and at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY. His films were screened at the Native American Film + Video Festival in 2006 at the National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY. He was the founding director of the American Indian Community House Gallery in New York City. Jemison received a BS in art education and an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Buffalo State College, Buffalo, NY.

More information can be found at http://www.amerinda.org/naar/jemison/painter/painter.htm

and www.ganondagan.org.