ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y., Sept. 18, 2025 — Seneca Nation representatives will join university officials at 10 a.m. Friday for the ceremonial raising of the Seneca Nation flag outside the university Administration Building.
The flag was first raised in early May, adjacent to the U.S., state and university flagpoles, but with Commencement and final exams approaching, the ceremony was delayed until the fall semester so students could participate.
Members of the campus community are welcome to attend; the ceremony should take no longer than 15 minutes.
Since the university formed a friendship committee with the Nation in 2023, efforts have been made to more intentionally recognize the ancestral Seneca land upon which the university sits.
Another Seneca Nation flag hangs permanently from the Reilly Center rafters and the university unveiled a Land Acknowledgement statement for the first time publicly at a Bonnies game in February. The statement is read at major university events.
Since 2021, the university has had a minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies; received a $147,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant to bolster its relationship with the Seneca Nation; hosted several Native American cultural events; recognized the student founders of SBU’s Indigenous Student Confederacy at a Bonnies game last November; and gave iconic Seneca Nation artist Carson Waterman an honorary degree at Commencement in May.
