Six Nations Indian Museum

The Six Nations Indian Museum in Onchiota is a family-run museum of Haudenosaunee history and culture, opened in the summer of 1954 in a wooden building its founder put up from trees cleared on the land. It is about 40 road miles south of the cabins, a little over an hour by County Route 25, NY 30 and the Gabriels–Onchiota Road. Inside are more than 3,000 objects, the beaded story belts Ray Fadden made, the teaching charts he designed and staff on hand to explain them. It opens to the public in July and August, so plan a summer day around it.

The museum and its two names

Many maps and listings still call it the Six Nations Indian Museum, the name the Fadden family used for nearly seventy years. In 2020 the family turned the museum into a nonprofit, the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center, and began looking at ways to expand. The center's own pages describe it as family owned, Mohawk of Akwesasne, and give the address as 1462 County Route 60, Onchiota, NY 12989, with the phone number (518) 891-2299. Its Facebook page gives the house number as 1466, so follow the Onchiota sign and watch for the museum on the road.

Onchiota is a small hamlet in the Town of Franklin, north of Gabriels and Paul Smiths, and the center places itself in the northeastern Adirondack Mountains. The land around it is Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) territory, the Eastern Door of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The museum's purpose since its first season has been twofold: to help clear away the myths and stereotypes visitors carry about Native people, and to teach Onkwehonwe, Native people, their own history and culture.

Ray and Christine Fadden

Ray Fadden was born on August 23, 1910. He taught first on the Tuscarora Reservation and then, from 1938, at Akwesasne, where he was one of the first teachers at the St. Regis Mohawk School in Hogansburg. The Mohawk Nation adopted him into the Wolf Clan, and he carried the name Tehanetorens, which Darren Bonaparte's 2008 tribute to him translates as "He Walks through the Pines." He was also known as Aren Akweks.

Christine Fadden, Skawennati, of the Turtle Clan, was born on July 3, 1912, in her grandparents' farmhouse. As a girl she helped her mother make baskets. She and Ray married on October 30, 1935, set up house on the Tuscarora Reservation where he was teaching, and moved to Akwesasne in 1938. From 1957 they lived in Onchiota. Ray, by then a science teacher, retired from teaching in 1967. He died on November 14, 2008, at 98, and Christine died on April 16, 2014, at 101.

At Akwesasne Ray organized his students as the Akwesasne Mohawk Counselor Organization, a club that traveled the Northeast to Native historic sites, camped out, and shared what it learned with other children. In September 1951 he wrote for the group from Hogansburg to President Truman, expressing the group's gratitude over Sergeant First Class John Rice, a soldier of Winnebago descent whose body had come home from Korea. A cemetery near his widow's home had refused to bury him, and Truman arranged his burial at Arlington National Cemetery. The letter is in the Truman Library of the National Archives.

Building the museum in 1954

Ray, Christine and their teenage son John opened the museum for its first season in the summer of 1954. Ray cleared the land, took the fallen trees to the mill and built the first building practically by himself, after research trips to the New York State Museum in Albany. It had two rooms. Two more were added later, bringing it to about 80 feet by 20, long and narrow in the form of a traditional Haudenosaunee bark house, the longhouse. When the Adirondack Daily Enterprise reported the opening in July 1954, it called the museum another step in the Counselor Organization's work, with Ray as supervisor and birch bark canoes and beaded moccasins on display.

The building has carried the museum through seven decades. In the January 1998 ice storm falling trees destroyed the smaller outbuildings on the grounds, and they were never replaced. In 2020 the museum closed for the first time in its history. It reopened in July 2021 for what the family counted as its 67th summer.

John, David and the family's work since

John Kahionhes Fadden, Ray and Christine's son, was born in Massena on December 26, 1938, earned a fine arts degree at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1961, and taught seventh- and eighth-grade art in the Saranac Central School District until he retired in 1994. His illustrations appeared in more than 90 publications, films and periodicals, and the center counts more than 700 of his black and white drawings of Native culture. Every summer from the museum's opening he was there to tell stories, give talks and answer visitors' questions. He died on August 12, 2022.

John's sons are Donald, David and Daniel. By 2021 David and Don ran the museum with their father. David Kanietakeron Fadden, of the Wolf Clan, is now the executive director. He is a painter who had made more than 400 paintings by 2021, he has written children's books in English and Mohawk, and his first solo exhibit hung at the Strand Center in Plattsburgh in February 2020. The center's staff list also names a collections care manager and two cultural educators, all from Akwesasne.

David grew up in Onchiota, and he sees the work as carrying on his grandfather's legacy. Part of it is answering the common Adirondack story that Native people were never here. That story is not true, he says, and the collection includes objects found by accident a couple of miles down the road.

Ray Fadden's charts, pamphlets and books

Ray was a teacher first, and the museum grew out of his teaching. He wrote and designed pamphlets and a long series of teaching charts, and most of the charts date from the 1940s. John Fadden, Bill Loran and the late Bob Gabor drew some of the graphics. The charts cover the Confederacy, its councils and leaders, the Tree of Great Peace, the region's animals and plants, the uses of wampum, conservation, and the encounters with the colonists. One chart lists the inventions, food plants and medicines that Native nations of the Americas developed, going well past the familiar examples.

The charts outlived their classrooms. St. Lawrence University holds a set in its special collections, and in 2023 its Brush Art Gallery digitized them; with David Fadden's approval they are online through JSTOR. Between 1998 and 2000 three books of Ray's work came out under the name Tehanetorens: Legends of the Iroquois, Wampum Belts of the Iroquois and Roots of the Iroquois. The wampum book, published in 1999 with John's illustrations, presents more than four dozen bead-for-bead replicas of wampum belts and strings made by students of the Indian Way School at Akwesasne under Ray's guidance.

Darren Bonaparte credited Mohawk people who followed Ray's example with founding Akwesasne Notes, the White Roots of Peace, the North American Indian Traveling College, the Akwesasne Museum, the Akwesasne Freedom School and the radio station CKON.

What the collection holds

The center counts more than 3,000 objects, from arrowheads to birch bark canoes. Most relate to the Haudenosaunee; some come from other Native nations. They fill three rooms, and the fourth is the shop. Expect a packed museum: the walls are covered with beaded belts, pictographs, paintings and charts, and David Fadden has said that donations come in every year with nowhere to show them, so some objects hang as high as the sloped wooden ceiling. The floors are decorated with Haudenosaunee symbols and motifs, and the Tree of Peace stenciled on the floor is where the guides explain how the nations came together.

Beaded belts and wampum replicas

Ray Fadden was a prolific beadworker. His pictographic story belts tell histories and legends in rows of beaded images. The longest, 75 feet, shows the founding of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy; the center describes it as the longest belt of its kind in the world. A 1961 newspaper story described one of his record belts of Iroquois history as weighing about five pounds. His belts reached other collections too: the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth holds a 1958 Fadden belt of glass beads that tells the story of the early Haudenosaunee migrations and ends with the Five Nations united, their weapons buried beneath the Tree of Peace and the eagle on top of the Great Tree. Ray made it after hearing the story from a Tuscarora Turtle Clan elder born in the 1800s.

Ray's collection also held more than 50 wampum belt reproductions. The center's website shows other pieces as well, such as a circle wampum replica by Brad Bonaparte whose fifty strings stand for the fifty chieftainship positions of the Haudenosaunee Grand Council, and the rawhide drums Ray made decades ago from round pasteboard containers with metal rims.

Charts and paintings

Ray's charts hang throughout the rooms. The traditional government chart sets out the nations of the Confederacy with drawings and lists the fifty chieftainship titles with their clan and nation. Beside them are John Fadden's drawings and David Fadden's paintings; the center's art pages list titles such as Tree of Peace, Stone Giant, First Grand Council and Peacemaker's Birth by John, and Three Sisters and Lax Player by David.

Objects found close to home

Several pieces were found nearby. A pottery bowl of Haudenosaunee design, found by a hunter near Silver Lake in the middle of the twentieth century, is one of the most prized pre-contact objects in the museum. A dugout canoe was found by scuba divers in Lake Placid. There are pottery sherds from St. Regis Mountain and from Cumberland Head on Lake Champlain, and a stone scraper from True Brook, east of the museum.

Gifts from many hands

Many pieces came as gifts. A 2002 visit by the Adirondack Daily Enterprise listed a late nineteenth-century Iroquois Glengarry hat given in 2001, a bell-shaped pestle given in 2000, a Six Nations clan banner from the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial given in 1997, and the uniform Chief Frank Cogswell wore in the Spanish-American War, given in 1958. From other nations come beaded Lakota moccasins from the hard years of westward expansion and an Abenaki buckskin tunic from the time of Rogers' Rangers.

The Haudenosaunee and the Six Nations

Haudenosaunee means the People of the Longhouse. The Confederacy's own account says a prophet known as the Peacemaker founded it with the help of Aionwatha, more commonly known as Hiawatha. The six nations are the Mohawk (Kanien'kehá:ka), Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora; the Tuscarora were admitted in the early eighteenth century, and the museum's history page gives each nation's name in its own language. The Mohawks keep the Eastern Door and the Senecas the Western Door; the Onondagas are the Fire Keepers, and the Confederacy's main meeting place is on Onondaga territory. The Oneidas, Cayugas and Tuscaroras are the Younger Brothers. Each nation runs its own affairs through its own council, the Grand Council handles what the nations share, and chiefs are chosen by the Clan Mothers.

The symbols on the floors, belts and charts come from that story. The white pine is the Great Tree of Peace, its needles growing in clusters of five for the joining of the nations, its four white roots reaching north, south, east and west. An eagle sits on top to warn of danger. The Peacemaker had the chiefs hold hands to make their circle strong, and the circle stands for unity and strength. The turtle stands for North America; in the creation story it carried Sky Woman on its back.

The Mohawk community most tied to the museum is Akwesasne, on the St. Lawrence River where several smaller rivers meet it. The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe gives the name a rough translation of "Land where the partridge drums." Akwesasne has its own library and museum, the Akwesasne Cultural Center in Hogansburg.

Wampum and what the belts record

Wampum is made mostly from the shell of the quahog, a round clam. In the Confederacy's own description, white beads stand for peace and purple beads carry messages on more serious or political matters. Belts record the nations' history, traditions and laws, and the Onondaga Nation kept the wampum records. Strings work as credentials: chiefs and Clan Mothers hold strings that certify their office, and a runner carrying a message would not be taken seriously without first presenting wampum. Strings also call a council, carry an invitation, or open a condolence. Wampum is still used when a new chief is raised up and in Thanksgiving ceremonies.

The Hiawatha Belt is the best known. It is a broad dark belt of 38 rows with a great tree in the center flanked by white squares, all joined by rows of white beads, and it shows the unity of the five nations. The Two Row Wampum, in David Fadden's words, is "an agreement between two groups of peace and friendship," two peoples traveling parallel paths, a canoe and a ship. The center's conservation easement is drafted on its model, and its 2026 partnership with The Nature Conservancy is modeled on the same belt.

Many of the belts on the museum's walls are replicas made for teaching, hung beside Ray's own beaded record belts, so visitors can see what the belts look like and hear what they mean.

Stories at the museum

Storytelling has been part of a visit since the first summer in 1954. Ray Fadden was the first lecturer and storyteller, and the center still calls him the master storyteller; John and David carried it on. When the number of visitors and the moment allow, the person on duty may use a pictographic story belt to tell the legend it records. The center's legends page features the Monster Bear. Larger groups that book ahead get a longer talk on Haudenosaunee history, including the traditional government.

In past summers the family has also held evening campfire and legend nights on the grounds. David Fadden hosted the last one of the 2019 season in August, with refreshments and guests bringing their own chairs or blankets, and the family has run campfire sessions with The Wild Center in Tupper Lake. Check the center's Facebook page for any evening programs in the summer you visit.

The museum shop

The fourth room is the shop. The center lists Mohawk baskets, beadwork, books, T-shirts, silver jewelry and acrylic paintings; the Lakes to Locks Passage listing adds soapstone carvings and cards. The shop appears in the Interior Department's Indian Arts and Crafts Board directory as the Six Nations Indian Museum Shop, with acrylic paintings of Iroquois culture by John Kahionhes Fadden, Dave Kanietakeron Fadden and Don Tehonatake Fadden. Buying a basket or a painting here supports the center and the people who make the work, and the books on the shelves are a good way to keep reading after the visit.

The season, hours and admission

The museum is a summer museum. Its own hours page, its Facebook page and the Adirondack Land Trust all give the same public season: July and August, Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Mondays. Groups can book visits by appointment in June and September. It is a small family museum, so a phone call or a look at the Facebook page before the drive settles the day.

The center was active through 2026. It completed the 600-acre land purchase announced in March, added new collection posts to its website in May, and on October 1 its Facebook page marked the last group of the season. The center's hours page carries no year, so expect July and August again in 2027 and confirm before you go.

Admission is charged. The center does not post a price online, so ask at the door. Give yourself time inside: the charts alone carry a great deal of history, and staff are on hand to answer questions about Haudenosaunee culture past and present.

Visiting with respect

The museum was built to teach, and the best way to visit is as a student. A few habits make the visit better for you and for the people who keep it.

• Use the names the museum uses. Haudenosaunee is the Confederacy's own name; Iroquois, the older name that came from the French, is on many of the charts and in the center's own name. The museum's history page gives each nation's name in its own language.
• Read the charts and labels first. They answer a lot, and the staff are glad to take the questions that follow.
• Let the story happen. A story belt is told when the number of visitors and the moment allow; if someone offers to tell one, sit down and listen.
• Ask at the desk before you take pictures of people, belts or charts. The family's own artwork is for sale in the shop.
• Treat the objects with care. Many were gifts to the museum, and some, like the Silver Lake pottery bowl, are centuries old.
• Buy from the shop. The Mohawk baskets and the Faddens' paintings are sold there.
• Expect a small family museum. David Fadden or one of the center's cultural educators may be the person at the desk.

The museum suits teenagers and adults who like to read and ask questions. A family with teenagers will get the most from it by reading one of Ray Fadden's legends together the night before.

The new building and the land

The family has outgrown the 1954 building, and a larger center is planned next door. In August 2022 the Adirondack Land Trust bought a 333-acre property beside the museum for its appraised value of $207,500, and that October transferred it to the center for $103,750, a price that reflects a conservation easement on the land. The center plans to use about 30 acres and leave the rest as forest and wetland, and the easement is drafted in two versions on the model of the Two Row Wampum.

The planned museum is a traditional longhouse 60 feet wide and 200 feet long, designed by the architect Ray Kinoshita Mann, who drew the first renderings without charge. It will have climate-controlled rooms to protect the collection, more exhibit space and an art gallery, and it is meant to run on solar and geothermal power. The old building will not be lost: the family plans to move it down the road and set it inside the new one, so that, in David Fadden's words, "The old building will be the heart of the new building." An Adirondack Park Agency review in 2024 described a 12,000-square-foot cultural center; the public comment period closed in July 2024 with an overwhelming majority in favor. The center was awarded a $150,000 Market New York grant toward the second phase of the building.

The cost has grown with the plan. In 2021 the family put it at nearly $5 million; in August 2024 David Fadden put the expansion at $9 million and hoped to finish raising the money within five years. No construction date had been announced by the spring of 2026, so a visitor in 2027 will most likely see the original building.

In March 2026 the center added much more land. With funding from The Nature Conservancy it bought about 600 acres from Paul Smith's College for $1.1 million, one of the largest returns of private land to Indigenous people in the state's history. The new parcel runs from Buck Pond Campground in the north to Big Haystack Mountain in the south, split by County Route 60 and John Thomas Brook, which holds native brook trout; it is mostly northern hardwood forest of red maple, yellow birch and black cherry, with wetlands. Together the center's holdings in Onchiota come to about 900 acres. The plans are an expanded museum, a Haudenosaunee gathering space and an Indigenous youth camp that will be home to the Native Earth Program, which SUNY ESF's Center for Native Peoples and the Environment and the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force run for Indigenous high school students. David Fadden plans a biological survey by Indigenous scientists first, and trails later.

The drive from the cabins

The museum is about 40 road miles from the cabins, a little over an hour each way. Take County Route 25 south to NY 30, then NY 30 south for about 24 miles to Paul Smiths. Turn onto NY 86 for about a mile, take Jones Pond Road (County Route 31) for about 3 miles, and turn onto the Gabriels–Onchiota Road (County Route 60) for the last 5 miles to the museum. The center's own directions use NY 86 to County Route 60 from Saranac Lake or Paul Smiths; from Plattsburgh it is NY 3 west about 35 miles to Route 60. Look for the Onchiota sign.

Paul Smiths is also the turn for the St. Regis Mountain trailhead on Keese Mills Road, so a hiker can climb in the morning and reach the museum by early afternoon. The road notes for the region are in getting to the cabins, and the bug guide has what works on summer trails.

A day with Paul Smiths and Saranac Lake

The museum opens at 10, which makes it a good first stop. From the museum, Paul Smiths is about 9 road miles south and Saranac Lake about 15, roughly half an hour. A summer day from the cabins could run like this:

1. Leave the cabins at about 9 and drive the hour to Onchiota.
2. Spend the late morning in the museum and the shop, and stay for a story if one is offered.
3. Drive the 9 miles to Paul Smiths for lunch and a walk at the Paul Smith's College Visitor Interpretive Center; the Saranac Lake and Paul Smiths guide has the trails and where to eat.
4. Go on to Saranac Lake for the afternoon on Main Street and the lake, or spend it at Lake Kushaqua and Buck Pond Campground, a short way along County Route 60 from the museum; the Debar Mountain Wild Forest guide has the beach, the boat launches and the rail trail there.
5. Drive home on NY 30 in time for the hot tub and the fire pit.

On a rainy day the museum pairs well with The Wild Center in Tupper Lake. For the history of the cabins' own town and county, see the House of History in the Malone history guide. Book the cabins on the cabins page.

Questions

Sources

Facts on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. Hours, fees and schedules change; confirm before you go.

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