“We’re still here.” Historian Michael Oberg joins Jason Herbert to explore the history of the Onondaga Nation, keepers of the central fire of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, also known as the Iroquois Six Nations.

Drawing on his book The Central Fire of the Iroquois, Oberg traces a community’s enduring commitment to its homeland, sovereignty, and traditions despite centuries of invasion, dispossession, and efforts to erase its identity. We discuss the Peacemaker and Hiawatha, the Great Law of Peace, and how ceremony, diplomacy, and listening have sustained the Onondaga people.

What changes when we place Onondaga alongside Boston and Philadelphia at the center of early American history? How did New York acquire Indigenous lands—and why does Oberg challenge the claim that the Haudenosaunee were conquered during the American Revolution? And what does the Two Row Wampum teach us about sharing space without surrendering independence?

The conversation also connects boarding schools and removal policies to the struggle to restore Onondaga Lake and Creek. Along the way, we consider historians’ responsibilities to living communities and why Indigenous sovereignty and environmental restoration matter to everyone who shares these lands.

Follow Reckoning with Jason Herbert for more conversations about Indigenous history, American history, and the stories that shape our world.