Parker Pond & Parker Pond Lane

University Council Resolution

May 5, 2023

Resolution acknowledging the Parker family’s place in University at Albany history and re-naming Indian Pond as Parker Pond and Indian Pond Lane as Parker Pond Lane

Whereas the University at Albany is committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in all forms;

Whereas in early 2021 the University determined that the continued use of the term “Indian” in connection with locations on campus was at odds with UAlbany’s value of inclusive excellence;

Whereas on March 5, 2021 the University Council voted to change the name of Indian Quad to Indigenous Quad;

Whereas since then the University has worked to identify a worthy new name for the roughly five-acre natural area on the southeast corner of the Uptown Campus, which has been known since the campus’s construction in the 1960s as Indian Pond;
 

Whereas the University also is committed to elevating and amplifying the stories of those whose contributions to society have long been unacknowledged or underappreciated due to racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination and bias;

Whereas this has often been true of Indigenous communities, both in New York and across the United States;

Whereas Indigenous students have been part of UAlbany’s history virtually since its founding as the New York State Normal School in 1844;

Whereas three siblings from the same Tonawanda Seneca family were among the first nine Indigenous students to enroll at the Normal School around 1850;

Whereas Caroline (Ga:hahno), Nicholson (Gye-wah-go-wa) and Isaac Newton (Gane-yo-squa-ga-oh) Parker each distinguished themselves in service to the Seneca people at a time when the Haudenosaunee nations in New York were resisting efforts by the U.S. government to take their land and remove them to western U.S. territories (Note: Conventions for spelling and presentation of Indigenous names have evolved over time. These spellings of Nicholson and Isaac Newton Parker’s Seneca names reflect how they were recorded in the 1851 Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the State Normal School to the New York State Legislature. Nicholson’s name has also been recorded as Gye-Wah-Ho-Wa.);

Whereas Caroline, Nicholson and Isaac Newton were among seven siblings raised on the Tonawanda Reservation located primarily in Genesee County, including brother Ely S. Parker, who served as a brigadier general, senior wartime aide to General Ulysses S. Grant and the first Indigenous Commissioner of Indian Affairs;

Whereas Caroline Parker in particular played a significant and largely unacknowledged role in helping frame American perceptions of Haudenosaunee people, and specifically Haudenosaunee women, through her friendship and correspondence with anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan;

Whereas Caroline Parker’s contributions included producing numerous examples of Haudenosaunee clothing and beadwork commissioned by Morgan that for a time comprised the bulk of the New York State Museum’s collection of these items;