Oneida Indian Nation

This week, the Oneida Indian Nation is proud to welcome the NAFWS to our Oneida homelands for their Annual National Conference at our award-winning Turning Stone Resort Casino. The work that this organization does is vital to sovereign tribal fish and wildlife management and mirrors the Oneida Indian Nation’s dedication to environmental stewardship of our lands unto the seventh generation.

Sheri Beglen (Wolf Clan) delivered words of thanks and welcome in the Onyota’a:ká: language during the Opening Ceremony, followed by a Keynote Address by Oneida Indian Nation Representative Ray Halbritter.

“Fish and wildlife management, sustainability and environmental stewardship represent a way of doing all things to protect the many gifts of the Creator,” said Halbritter. “The work of caring for the land and water and the management of the wildlife and fish that inhabit them is a shared responsibility, one that Native people continue to carry into the future from the earliest days of our existence.”

Oneida Indian Nation Bear Clan Council Member Brian Patterson, who serves on the National Tribal Water Council, also delivered remarks. The conference runs through Thursday, featuring several presentations, workshops and training sessions as well as American Indian craft vendors.

Happening Saturday, May 9 – the Shako:wi Cultural Center Spring Craft Festival from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

• Oneida and other American Indian crafters and vendors
• Haudenosaunee Social Dance Demonstrations
• Haudenosaunee Smoke Dance Competition @ 4 p.m.
• Free admission and parking

The family-friendly event will take place at the Shako:wi Cultural Center, 1022 Territory Road, Oneida, NY. For more information, call (315) 829-8801.

The Oneida Indian Nation’s Wáhta’ Maple Farm has experienced a record-breaking season that nearly exceeds syrup production for the last three years combined. Yet this , the maple farm is also taking historic steps to honor the Oneida people’s commitment to environmental stewardship with a pledge to plant up 16,000 new trees over the next three years.

During the 2026 sugaring season, the Wáhta’ Maple Farm team tapped 6,700 trees (550 more than the previous year) spanning 75 acres, all of which are maintained without the use of pesticides or other chemicals. Many of these maple trees have ancestral roots on Oneida Indian Nation lands and have been tapped for generations by Nation members, with some trees first tapped more than a century ago.

Wáhta’ Maple Farm will build upon this historic season and the Nation’s long legacy of environmental stewardship with its three-year plan to expand the sugarbush with thousands of new super sweet maple trees.

Read more: https://www.oneidaindiannation.com/wahta-maple-farm-announces-on-earth-day-that-it-will-plant-16000-trees-over-three-years