[Submitted by Dani Redeye, Secretary – Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h Board of Directors]
Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h continues its work to support Onön:dowa’ga:’ Gawënö’ through education, community, and everyday use.
Every time Onön:dowa’ga:’ Gawënö’ is heard, spoken, read, or shared, it creates one more place for the language to live. That belief is at the heart of Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h.
Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h is a community-based nonprofit organization made up of volunteers and community members dedicated to supporting Seneca language revitalization. From the beginning, the work has been rooted in a simple but far-reaching purpose: to help create more opportunities for Onön:dowa’ga:’ Gawënö’ to be carried forward by future generations.
The organization was not formed because people lacked love for the language. The love was already there. It was formed because love needs somewhere to go. It needs teachers. It needs resources. It needs classrooms, curriculum, training, community support, and people willing to carry tables, write grants, make phone calls, attend meetings, sell soup, organize events, and keep showing up.
In other words, language revitalization needs more than hope. It needs pathways.
Over the years, Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h has worked to help build those pathways by removing barriers wherever it can. Sometimes that has meant supporting students and teachers. Sometimes it has meant helping fund training, educational materials, and community projects. Sometimes it has meant standing beside another organization already doing the work and asking, “What do you need to keep going?”
One of the most significant examples of that work was the Administration for Native Americans grant, a major $1 million investment that helped support the Faithkeepers School in deeply important ways. The grant helped train new teachers, develop resources and curriculum, create evaluation tools for teachers and students, and bring many people together around one shared purpose. It was more than just a grant. It was a gathering point.
For a time, teachers, administrators, Elders, families, board members, and community partners were all pulling in the same direction. The funding strengthened the Faithkeepers School, and it also helped Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h grow as an organization. It showed what becomes possible when a community identifies a need, organizes around it, and works together for the future of the language.
Much of it happens behind the scenes. Budgets. Reports. Meetings. Training. Curriculum planning. Evaluations. Conversations that stretch late into the evening because people care enough to stay.
But those pieces are all so important. They help prepare the people who will stand in front of children and teach. They help create the materials that students will hold in their hands. They help measure what is working and what still needs care. They help turn concern into structure, and structure is one of the ways a language survives.
Still, Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h has always understood that language cannot live only in binders, classrooms, or grant reports. Those things are necessary, but they are not the whole story.
A language lives when people use it.
It lives when someone recognizes a word on a flyer.
When a student is honored for speaking it.
When a family hears it at an event.
When a restaurant menu gives someone a reason to try saying a word out loud.
When a community member sees Seneca in a place they did not expect and thinks, “There it is. It belongs here too.”
That is why the work of Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h has continued to grow beyond education alone. The organization is working to support not only formal language learning, but also the everyday presence of Onön:dowa’ga:’ Gawënö’ in community life.
This includes supporting language achievement, helping create public-facing materials, developing partnerships, participating in community events, and looking for ways to make the language visible in the places where people already gather.
It includes ideas like Seneca-language menus for local restaurants and food vendors.
At first glance, a menu may seem simple, but a menu sits in someone’s hands. It invites a choice. It gives people a word to say while they are already doing something familiar. Ordering food becomes a small language lesson. That is the kind of everyday speaking that matters.
The same is true at community events. When Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h shows up with food, raffles, informational materials, or support for local programs, the purpose is not only fundraising. It is presence. It is visibility. It is another chance to remind people that the language is not separate from community life.
It belongs right in the middle of it.
Recently, the organization has continued building that public presence through community outreach, student recognition, donation support, fundraising, and future event planning. Whether helping support bike raffles for local programs, recognizing students for their achievements in speaking Seneca, selling corn soup at community events, preparing newsletter updates, developing marketing materials, or planning future gatherings, each effort points toward the same larger purpose.
One more place.
One more learner.
One more teacher.
One more conversation.
One more opportunity for the language to breathe.
Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h does not see itself as the center of language revitalization. That place belongs to the language itself, and to the people who speak it, teach it, protect it, and carry it forward.
Elders who still hold the sound.
Teachers who give everything they have to their classrooms.
Students who are brave enough to speak.
Parents and families who encourage them.
Volunteers who give time they do not always have.
Community members who buy a raffle ticket, share a post, attend an event, donate an item, or ask how they can help.
All of it is important because every act makes room for the language to live.
Our language carries our history, our worldview, our humor, our relationships, and our identity. It carries ways of thinking that cannot always be translated neatly into English. It reminds us who we are and how we are connected to one another.
When our language is spoken, we are all strengthened. When our community chooses to make space for it, our future changes a little.
There is still much work ahead. More teachers are needed. More learners are needed. More resources are needed. More places are needed where Onön:dowa’ga:’ Gawënö’ can be seen, heard, spoken, and lived.
Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h will continue working to support those efforts, but this work was never meant to belong to one organization.
It belongs to all of us.
There is a place for everyone in carrying the language forward. Some will teach. Some will learn. Some will volunteer. Some will support events. Some will share skills, resources, or ideas. Some will encourage a young person. Some will speak the words they know, even if they only know a few.
That is how a language continues. Not all at once, not perfectly, but together.
Nya:wëh to every Elder, teacher, student, volunteer, partner, donor, family, and community member who has helped create another place for Onön:dowa’ga:’ Gawënö’ to live.
Every word spoken today is already reaching the generations still to come.
Join Us in Carrying the Language Forward
Language revitalization belongs to all of us.
Whether you’re an Elder, a fluent speaker, a learner, a parent, a teacher, a student, an artist, a business owner, or someone who simply cares about the future of Onön:dowa’ga:’ Gawënö’, there is a place for you in this work.
You don’t have to be fluent to make a difference.
You can encourage a learner, volunteer at an event, share an idea, help with a community project, become a partner, make a donation, or simply create one more opportunity for our language to be seen, heard, and spoken.
If you’d like to follow our work, learn about upcoming events, or see how you can get involved, follow Agwadeyësta’ Do:gë:h on Facebook.
If you’re interested in volunteering, partnering with us, or making a donation to support Seneca language revitalization, we would love to hear from you. Send us a message through our Facebook page and let’s continue building this work together.
Every act of support creates one more place for our language to live.
Nya:wëh.
