March 30, 2023 | By Elizabeth Egan | Photo credit: Nicolas Gelyon | tapinto.net
ST. BONAVENTURE, NY — When Nicolas Gelyon had the opportunity to make a long-form video production piece, he knew expanding his SBU-TV segment on the Seneca Nation Indigenous People in Salamanca would make for the perfect project.
Gelyon, along with nine other St. Bonaventure University students, is taking a documentary class taught by Aaron Chimbel, dean of the Jandoli School of Communication. The class is split into three groups with each producing a 20-minute documentary over the course of the semester. Gelyon, a junior sports media major, has been making a documentary about the Seneca Nation along with junior video production majors Luis Perez and Jesse Blaszak.
The documentary explores efforts made by community members to preserve the rich Seneca culture. The student also hope their documentary will help to let people know that the reservation is more than just a place to go for gas.
“I hope our documentary can further educate people on the status of Native Americans today,” Blaszak said. “We want to create more awareness to better support these people and assure that their culture is preserved.”
Perez said he is most looking forward to interviewing all the different subjects.
“All of them are so wise and have great outlooks on life,” Perez said. “I have made it my mission to just listen and learn as much as I can from our amazing characters. Their passion for their culture is inspiring.”
Gelyon said he was excited to find a character as amazing as Leeora White, a storyteller whose job is to recount and archive Seneca fables.
“She talked about how disappointing it is that the culture is fading and the efforts she is taking to prevent that from happening,” Gelyon said. “Hearing the emotion in her really told me that there was something there.”
In their research, the documentary group found someone who used to work in Salamanca schools who set up a program to teach the language to children outside the school system.
“She had to give up the life she had,” Gelyon said. “That is how important it is to some people to preserve their culture.” Storylines like this are what the group plans to explore with their documentary.
While the three students are still early in the process, they plan to work with Chimbel to find the best way to provide the Greater Olean Community with access to the completed documentary in early May.
Gelyon considers making access to the documentary to be important because he believes there is a sense of alienation between the communities.
“Some of the misconceptions people have are that the community is poor so that means it is bad,” Gelyon said.
Gelyon also pointed to persons outside the Seneca culture feeling “alienated” by signage in Seneca language.
“People think it is weird to be driving down I-86 and see signs that are not in English, but it is just indicative of their culture,” he said.
Gelyon hopes that his documentary will help people to better understand the Seneca community, and in doing so remove the tendencies of people to “other” those living on the reservation.
“If we can change people’s minds and help them to get a better grasp of the culture that’s literally around them and influencing their lives every single day,” Gelyon said. “That’s a plus.”
