MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia University welcomed students and members of the community to celebrate the 32nd annual Peace Tree Ceremony.
The Native American Studies Program in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences hosted the ceremony inside the Mountainlair’s Gluck Theatre on Wednesday, where seasoned American Indian cultural and historical interpreter Kody Grant was on hand as the guest of honor. The ceremony, which celebrated the planting of the tree by members of the Tadodaho of the Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy back in 1995, was attended by Native Americans from across the Mountain State as well as members of the WVU community.
“It was great to have the opportunity to come out here and share community with folks,” said Grant after the ceremony. “And it’s more important for me to be able to have the opportunity to recognize the Haudenosaunee and the impact that it’s had on my work in creating those different levels of understanding,” he said.
Grant addressed attendees in the middle of several Native American ceremonial presentations included in the 32nd annual Peace Tree Ceremony. This included a ceremonial display of a broad winged hawk by the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia, which symbolized the Peacemaker eagle placed on the original tree included in the Haudenosaunee oral tradition. Representatives from the Curator of Indigenous History and Culture at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation also spoke before Grant addressed the attendees, where he expressed gratitude for being a part of the ceremony.
“The caliber of folks they brought in to have these discussions, I really felt like I was punching above my weight class when they had me out here, so I was a little surprised, but very humbled and very thankful to have the opportunity to join the past speakers,” said Grant.
The WVU Peace Tree located between Martin Hall and Elizabeth Moore Hall is aimed to symbolize the Haudenosaunee oral tradition that originated in the year 1000 A.D. The original tree, according to tradition, marked the unification of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy, ending a long-term conflict between the nations. Grant, who serves as the Tribal Liaison for the University of Virginia, was excited to see over two dozen WVU students and staff take part in song ceremonies dedicated to the Haudenosaunee as well as learn about the over thousand-year history of the tribe.
“I think it’s wonderful to have the opportunity for folks to come together and recognize those things that bring us together and the similarities that we carry across cultures and communities,” Grant said.
The ceremony itself included a placement of prayer ties on the Peace Tree, followed by a presentation by Grant later that afternoon. During his day in West Virginia, he discussed the importance and impact of working to understand different cultures, which also presented the historical adaptation of Native Americans into modern cultures, particularly in the United States. With cultural presentations that represented over a thousand years of Native American culture, Grant was happy to be a part of a ceremony aimed at bringing people together of different cultures.
“It’s really that notion that there is an idea and things to learn from historic tribal nations and also how they’ve continued into the present day,” said Grant. “Very much that resiliency and finding those commonalities that unite and bring people together,” he said.