The moment made students shift uncomfortably in their seats. What unfolded on a recent Wednesday morning inside the Dolan Center Theater wasn’t a lesson the way history is often taught — filtered through a textbook — it was a revelation that what shaped the past is still very much alive today.
As part of his daylong visit to Friends Academy, Perry Ground gave an energetic presentation to seventh graders about the Haudenosaunee influence on American democracy. During a Q&A portion at the end, one student asked: “How does it feel to be Native American?”
A member of the Turtle Clan in the Onondaga Nation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, Mr. Ground has spent the past 25 years teaching students of all ages across North America about his heritage as a professor at The Rochester Institute of Technology. At Friends Academy, he shared his wealth of knowledge in an assembly with students in grades 3–8 and held grade-level-appropriate breakout sessions throughout the day about the traditions, culture, history, and oppression of Native Peoples.
Before answering the seventh grader’s question, he paused, took a purposeful breath, and then revealed how the throughlines of history still run through people’s hearts.
“If I took all my cultural attire off, I would look like any other person walking down the street,” he said. “But when I’ve had my attire on, there are restaurants that have not served me or would not let me in. And while some people might not know that I’m Native American based on my skin, my sister’s skin is a little darker than mine and she faces a lot more discrimination and racism just because she is Native American.”
For Mrs. Nikita Desai, a third grade teacher who led the effort to bring Mr. Ground to campus, this moment highlighted the lived experience of others that she says is “critical, not optional” for students to have a robust education that prepares them to become stewards of the world.
“The goal is to have empathy, compassion, and care for others. When we don't have any of that, then ignorance blinds us,” she says. “Children learn in a lot of different ways — reading books, watching videos, listening to teachers, taking notes. But when someone speaks to them and shares who they are, what they’re all about, and what they’ve experienced, it makes the message so powerful.
“We can’t think about teaching as just doing units and checking a box,” she adds. “It’s the personal storytelling that fills in the gaps left by traditional curricula. We’re teaching our students about humanity; about what it means to be a good person; to listen to other people; to understand their journeys.”
In third-grade social studies, Mrs. Desai teaches students about identity, geography, Quaker history, and the history of Indigenous Peoples — four units that are inextricably intertwined throughout the year given that Friends is a Quaker school and the Matinecock Meetinghouse (and surrounding areas) is land that once belonged to Native Peoples.
In late April, third graders visited the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City. They followed the journey from the Revolutionary War until the present day of Native Americans in New York, interacting with displays, graphic‑novel illustrations, and storytelling that covered tribes from from Niagara Falls to Long Island.
When Mr. Ground visited the campus in May, students experienced personal storytelling about the Haudenosaunee tribe, cultural lessons about life in a Longhouse Village for Grade 3, Westward Expansion & Native People for Grade 7, and hands-on experiences. To close out the day, the third graders created their own wampum as Mr. Ground explained its significance (wampum are the beads made from Quahog shells that are weaved into belts, which are sacred living records of laws, treaties, and historical events) and shared examples from his own family.
“What impact did this have on our community and us as human beings?” Mrs. Desai says. “As Mr. Ground shared his lived experience and the experiences of Haudenosaunee people, we had the chance to learn about indigenous perspectives and correct inaccuracies that might be in textbooks and pop culture. There are many voices that can tell the story of American history, but in a lot of spaces it’s told with a narrow perspective and doesn’t include other voices. By listening to Mr. Ground’s lessons, we can include these voices.
“Students had an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of Indigenous contributions to democracy, agriculture, and environmental stewardship — and to realize that Native people are living. They're not just a historical footnote. There’s a strong connection between the past and present, and that connection really comes alive when you’re listening to such an engaging storyteller.”
Photography by Alvin Caal / Friends Academy