Oren Lyons
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Oren R. Lyons (b.1930) is a Native American Faithkeeper of the turtle clan of the Seneca Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy. Once a college lacrosse player, Lyons is now a recognized advocate of indigenous rights.
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[edit] Biography
Oren Lyons was born in 1930 and raised in the culture and practices of the Iroquois on the Seneca and Onondaga reservations in Upstate New York[citation needed].
After serving in the United States Army, he graduated in 1958 from the College of Fine Arts at Syracuse University[citation needed]. A lifelong lacrosse player, Oren was an All-American at Syracuse[citation needed], where the Orangemen went undefeated during his graduating year[citation needed].
Upon leaving Syracuse, Lyons pursued a career in commercial art in New York City, becoming the art and planning director of Norcross Greeting Cards[citation needed]. Outside of work, Lyons exhibited his own paintings during this time[citation needed]. In 1970, Lyons returned to Onondaga to be closer to his cultural heritage[original research?].
[edit] Activist Work
In 1977, Lyons helped create the Traditional Circle of Indian Elders and Youth at a meeting in Montana. Since then, the Circle has gathered annually at a different site in Indian country[1].
In 1981, he traveled with Stephen Gaskin and Ina May Gaskin to New Zealand to attend festival at Nambassa, where he delivered a number of lectures and workshops. At Nambassa he coordinated with Indigenous Maori land rights activists on questions of indigenous people sharing his Native American experiences[citation needed].
For over fourteen years he has taken part in the meetings in Geneva of Indigenous Peoples of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations, and helped to establish the Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1982[citation needed]. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival, and is a principal figure in the Traditional Circle of Indian Elders. He was a negotiator between the governments of Canada, Quebec, New York State and the Mohawk Indians in the Oka crisis during the summer of 1990[citation needed].
Lyons appeared on a one-hour documentary produced and hosted by Bill Moyers broadcast on PBS, July 3, 1991[citation needed].
In 1992 he addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations where he opened the International Year of the World's Indigenous People[citation needed].
[edit] Publications
Lyons has authored numerous books including Exiled in the Land of the Free; Democracy, Indian Nations, and the U.S. Constitution; and Voice of Indigenous Peoples (1992), and Native People Address the United Nations (1994)[citation needed].
[edit] Recognition
Lyons has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Syracuse University[citation needed].
He has been the recipient of the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor[citation needed], the National Audubon Award[citation needed], the Earth Day International Award of the United Nations[citation needed], and the Elder and Wiser Award of the Rosa Parks Institute for Human Rights[when?][citation needed].
Lyons is also remembered for his time as a lacrosse player. He is Honorary Chairman of the Iroquois Nationals[citation needed]. In 1989 he was named Man of the Year in Lacrosse by the NCAA[citation needed].
