Repost from newyorkupstate.com
Long before ‘entrepreneurship’ was a cool buzzword, Indigenous communities were innovating, creating, and thriving on their own terms. Today, that spirit lives on in a generation of Indigenous entrepreneurs in Upstate New York, who blend tradition with modern business savvy.
From artisans preserving ancestral crafts to filmmakers spotlighting important community stories, here’s a look at eight trailblazers who are reclaiming narratives and inspiring the next wave of changemakers:
Hayden Haynes
Belonging to the Deer Clan, Seneca Nation, Hayden Haynes is an antler carver who sells his artwork through his website, Hayden’s Antler Creations. He lives and works out of the Seneca-Allegany Territory in the Southern Tier, and also serves as director of the Onöhsagwë:de (pronounced: oh-noh-sa-gwun-denh) Cultural Center (OCC) at the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum.
His journey as an artist started 15 years ago, when he saw the antler carvings on exhibit at the old location of the Seneca Record National Museum. Haynes’ art is inspired by the prehistoric and historic antler carvings of his ancestors.
With no formal training in the field of antler carving due to a lack of teachers, Haynes studied items on display in various museum collections and the forms that they took, like antler combs, antler ladles and antler figurines. He aims to help people be more involved in the practice, and has been teaching his contemporary take on this historic art form for four years now.
“I’m one of a few antler carvers that are Seneca. And I really just hope that my work can inspire others the way other people’s work has inspired me so that there can become more antler carvers,” Haynes said. “It’s an ancient practice and so I’m hoping my work is really about revitalizing carving in our Seneca communities.”
Peter B. Jones
Originally from the Beaver Clan, Onondaga Nation, ceramist Peter B. Jones lives and operates the PBJ Pottery studio and workshop on the Cattaraugus Indian reservation in Western New York.
Jones’ work reflects the issues that have impacted the Haudenosaunee, and is made in traditional, pit-fired style Iroquois pottery. He prefers using a potter’s wheel rather than hand-building, and draws inspiration from past effigies and motifs on similar pottery.
With over 60 years of experience under his belt, Jones now experiments with “using different clays from different areas near different reservations” to test the kind of pottery he can make and how it matches up with museum collections from the bygone eras.
He also conducts pottery workshops, demonstrations and classes for schools and colleges, communities, and various organizations.
“A long range goal is to teach our people how to make pottery, because it was a lost art to us from about the 1600s,” Jones said. “Right now, I’m teaching apprentices to take over and keep this art alive. It started with maybe three of us in New York State. Now we have probably at least 20 people.”
Randee Spruce
Randee Spruce is a multi-medium artist from Heron Clan, Seneca Nation. Based in the Allegheny territory in Western New York, she runs an eponymous online store through which she sells her artwork. She also serves as the curator for the OCC at the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum alongside Haynes.
A graduate in studio arts and museum studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts, Spruce started out designing tattoos. She is now an established artist, working with mediums such as graphite, pen and ink drawings, watercolor, acrylic, gouache, beadwork, quillwork, textiles, and most recently, graphic design. Spruce draws inspiration from and reinterprets traditional Haudenosaunee designs and symbolisms in all forms of her art.
“I like to think I started from when I was first able to hold a pencil,” Spruce said, speaking of her artistic journey. “I remember being like four years old, maybe even younger, and I would create my own paper dolls and draw their clothes. I had all these toys, you know, but I chose to make something instead. Even as a young kid, I could see myself doing this long-term.”
Ansley Jemison
Ansley Jemison belongs to the Wolf Clan, Seneca Nation, and is the host and producer of the Original Peoples Podcast. He is originally from the Seneca-Allegany Territory and now lives in Victor, New York, a 20-minute drive southwest of Rochester. Jemison also serves as the Cultural Liaison at Ganondagan State Historic Site through the Natural Heritage Trust of New York State.
His journey in podcasting started during his time working at Cornell University, through the ‘Engaged Cornell’ grants made available to the university’s faculty- and staff-led projects. On his podcast, Jemison talks to Indigenous community members about what it meant to be a contemporary Indigenous person with complex backgrounds and histories.
“Oftentimes, Indigenous people’s stories tend to be couched in a historical context. And for me, being a contemporary indigenous person, I was like, ‘well, hey, we’re still here’,” Jemison said. “There’s a very much alive and vibrant culture that’s existing despite colonization and all the other things that have happened. I wanted to sit with people and have them, in their own words, explain those stories to claim that identity – the indigenous identity, the native identity.”
Jemison also runs a production company, Original Peoples Productions LLC, through which he produces documentaries and stories about the Indigenous culture.
Jemison’s podcast is available to listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Audible.
Source: https://www.newyorkupstate.com/entertainment/2025/04/8-indigenous-entrepreneurs-from-upstate-new-york-you-should-know-about.html
