VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: A woven history: Native traditions kept alive through art
Anjana Dasam: Just south of Syracuse – a stretch of Route 11A winds through about 7,000 acres of land. This is Onondaga Nation, a reservation where one Haudenosaunee family keeps Native American traditions alive through baskets.
Ronni-Leigh Goeman: I always had a feel for basket making, and I knew I wanted to be a basket maker.
Dasam: Ronni-Leigh Goeman grew up by her grandmother’s trading post, watching her weave baskets from sweetgrass and black ash trees. Two generations later.
Ronni-Leigh: If you smell this, that’s what they smell like.
Dasam: She still cherishes the same scent.
Ronni-Leigh: So, I would just go in there and smell it and get chased out of there.
Dasam: Ronni-Leigh married a sculptor from the Seneca Reservation. Different nations, but united through art and their ancestral connection, something her husband Stonehorse calls “blood memory”.
Stonehorse Goeman: It lies uninterrupted, and uninterpreted, until it’s called upon, through your art, through your songs, through your dances. Because how did I know this? Why do I feel this way? Blood memory.
Dasam: It’s a connection they keep in their family. Ronni-Leigh teaches her daughters and granddaughters basket-making. Stonehorse finds his inspiration in them.
Stonehorse: I think she inspires a lot of stuff I do, with the energy and just the awe and wonder little kids have of things we take for granted.
Dasam: It’s more than family, their strength and sorrow is embedded in every weave.
Ronni-Leigh: If you look at the red, the red represents the missing and murdered Indigenous women, which is at epidemic proportions. So many women have gone missing and murdered and nobody is talking about it. And then the orange represents the residential schools, the survivors of residential schools. And that’s what this is. So, it’s ‘We’re still here’. It’s called ‘We’re still here’.
Dasam: Ronni-Leigh and Stonehorse’s work is displayed in museums across New York. Most notably, the New York State Museum in Albany.
Stonehorse: We’ve taken it for being a little trinket that you buy beside the road. That you, oh isn’t this clever. It’s important, and it’s not egotistical, it’s important that our work is finally recognized. This isn’t clever anymore; this is fine art.
Dasam: That fine art comes from materials naturally grown on Onondaga land like this black walnut which they use for dye. But with more urban development, artists like the Goemans are losing access to the very materials their work depends on.
Ronni-Leigh: The real problem is the tree. The tree – I don’t even know if there’ll be enough for next year. I don’t know from year to year, if there’s going to be enough.
Dasam: Shipping crates from Asia brought an invasive insect to Upstate New York, killing the black ash trees. Ronni-Leigh says that by teaching her craft to the next generation, she can better advocate for the tree’s safety.
Ronni-Leigh: I feel a sense of responsibility to actually make them to actually teach the basketmaking, so that’s my part.
Dasam: This type of basket-making is centuries old, and Ronni-Leigh says they’ll continue to keep the tradition alive, till the very last tree.
Ronni-Leigh: It’s the power of our people and just knowing that. And that’s where my inspiration comes from, our people.
Dasam: The Goemans say their message is simple: they’re still here. Their ancestry honored through art and storytelling.
Stonehorse: That’s the gift of culture.
Dasam: Turning back towards Route 11A, Stonehorse doesn’t say goodbye rather,
Stonehorse: Ësgö:gë’ ae that means, I’ll see you again.
Dasam: A testament to their long, and enduring, history. In Onondaga Nation, Anjana Dasam, NCC News.
ONONDAGA, N.Y. (NCC News) — Just south of Syracuse lies the Onondaga Nation. It’s home to one Haudenosaunee family keeping Indigenous traditions alive through art.
For basket maker Ronni-Leigh Goeman, the craft is more than a skill; it’s a family legacy. She grew up beside her grandmother’s trading post, watching her weave baskets from sweetgrass and black ash trees.
“I always had a feel for basket making,” Ronni-Leigh said. “I knew I wanted to be a basket maker.”
Today, Goeman carries that tradition forward, teaching her daughters and granddaughters to weave the same materials her ancestors used. Her husband, Stonehorse Goeman, a sculptor from the Seneca Nation, finds inspiration in their family and culture — a bond he calls “blood memory.”
Their shared artistry has been recognized across New York, including at the New York State Museum in Albany.
“We’ve taken it for being a little trinket that you buy beside the road,” Stonehorse said. “It’s important that our work is finally recognized. This isn’t clever anymore; this is fine art.”
Yet, their fine art is under threat. The Goemans use materials that are naturally grown on Onondaga land, and with more urban development, these materials are harder to come by.
“Sweetgrass is even harder to find,” Ronni-Leigh said. “I don’t know every year if I can continue.”
The black ash tree, vital to her baskets, has been decimated by the emerald ash borer, an insect introduced through shipping crates from Asia. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 75% of native-born ash trees in the eastern U.S. and Canada will be killed by 2035.
Despite these challenges, the Goemans continue to create and teach, seeing their work as both resistance and preservation.
“It’s the power of our people,” Ronni-Leigh said. “That’s where I get my inspiration, our people.”
To them, it’s about identity, endurance, and honoring generations past, something the Goemans plan to keep alive.