The Seneca Nation of Indians
St. Bonaventure University sits on the historic homeland of the Seneca Nation of Indians and is within 20 miles from the Seneca Nation’s Allegany Territory. The past few years saw a cultural exchange developing between the university and the Seneca Nation in the form of Iroquois dance and song shows on campus and a number of workshops that educated St. Bonaventure faculty on the Iroquois cultural traditions.
The NAIS program is a logical progression of this cultural exchange that comes out of ideas developed during those workshops and is intended to promote the understanding of the history of contact between European settlers and Native Americans, as well as of the way Native Americans live today.