{"id":{"repo_id":"buffalo","oai_identifier":"oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/78646"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/buffalo/oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/78646","repository":{"repo_id":"buffalo","name":"Buffalo","base_url":"https://ubir.buffalo.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Looking through the Southern Door: Examining the Eighteenth Century Settlement of Otsiningo in the Context of Historical Signage","abstract":"M.A.","abstract_html":"M.A.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["DePalma, Malcolm"],"institution":"State University of New York at Buffalo","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Mt. Pleasant, Alyssa","Transnational Studies - American Studies","Africana and American Studies","Indigenous Studies"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2018,"date_issued":"2018-10-26T02:57:26Z","date_published":"2018-10-26T02:57:26Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:14Z","subjects":["Native American studies","social sciences"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10477/78646","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Mt. Pleasant, Alyssa","Transnational Studies - American Studies","Africana and American Studies","Indigenous Studies"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["DePalma, Malcolm"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2018-10-26T02:57:26Z","2018","2018-08-13 10:24:17"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["State University of New York at Buffalo"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis","Text"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Native American studies","social sciences"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/78646"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["M.A.","This thesis project investigates two seemingly separate tropes of historic knowledge production in their respective but often related interpretations of American Indian history. Looking at how this interpretation is projected in a public forum, this work examines historic markers as a point of entry into a larger, more nuanced discussion about American Indian history as it is produced academically. In studying issues relating directly to public signage, this paper confronts the construction of local and national American identities that all too often reinforce notions of settler colonial ideology, and in turn, are based in concepts of erasure and primitivism regarding American Indian people. Being that Historical markers are locally oriented by nature, usually representing a specific event, structure or place of historical significance, they provide a perfect intellectual bridge into how this thesis approaches American Indian history in the academic field. Following the more recent academic trajectory of revisionist history, often referred to as the new Indian history, this work focuses on Indigenous history through the lens of community rather than the more generalized tribal oriented studies of the past. Therefore, the focal point for this inquiry will be a case study of the 18th-century settlement of Otsiningo where the present day city of Binghamton, New York, is located. While other examples of signage are discussed, this piece will naturally focus on the representation or misrepresentation of the Binghamton area's Indigenous past through its town and state sponsored historical markers. From there, the study will shift into the specific history of the community at Otsiningo, otherwise known as the metaphorical Southern Door of the Haudenosaunee longhouse. Through the utilization of secondary materials from historians and through first-hand accounts described in missionary journals and other colonial era records, a picture emerges of a rich and complex community. As the term Southern Door indicates, Otsiningo was a place of great importance for larger Haudenosaunee society. However, as a diverse multiethnic and multicultural community, Otsiningo also served as a important location for numerous other Native peoples, particularly as diplomatic hub and a space of spiritual significance. One of the more obscure trajectories that this thesis follows is the presence and role of Susquehannock people who have traditionally been viewed in the context of an extinction narrative. By drawing out that history, this paper functions to challenge that view. As the project returns to the creation of Binghamton's historic markers, a review into the records of the city's early inhabitants and the locally produced histories that ensued, reveal how these constructs contributed to the content that would one day be displayed through public signage. The essence of this process reveals how these productions of cultural shorthand are a reflection of the colonial settler paradigm that is deeply steeped in the mythology of the American Revolution and concepts of origination, to which Native people had little to no place. Ultimately, this thesis is a call to reexamine and update historic markers through academic inquiry and Indigenous participation. It also functions as part of the growing importance of community based studies involving American Indian history that might be expanded not only for Otsiningo but for other settlements as well."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Looking through the Southern Door: Examining the Eighteenth Century Settlement of Otsiningo in the Context of Historical Signage"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Mt. Pleasant, Alyssa","Transnational Studies - American Studies","Africana and American Studies","Indigenous Studies"],"dc:creator":["DePalma, Malcolm"],"dc:date":["2018-10-26T02:57:26Z","2018","2018-08-13 10:24:17"],"dc:description":["M.A.","This thesis project investigates two seemingly separate tropes of historic knowledge production in their respective but often related interpretations of American Indian history. Looking at how this interpretation is projected in a public forum, this work examines historic markers as a point of entry into a larger, more nuanced discussion about American Indian history as it is produced academically. In studying issues relating directly to public signage, this paper confronts the construction of local and national American identities that all too often reinforce notions of settler colonial ideology, and in turn, are based in concepts of erasure and primitivism regarding American Indian people. Being that Historical markers are locally oriented by nature, usually representing a specific event, structure or place of historical significance, they provide a perfect intellectual bridge into how this thesis approaches American Indian history in the academic field. Following the more recent academic trajectory of revisionist history, often referred to as the new Indian history, this work focuses on Indigenous history through the lens of community rather than the more generalized tribal oriented studies of the past. Therefore, the focal point for this inquiry will be a case study of the 18th-century settlement of Otsiningo where the present day city of Binghamton, New York, is located. While other examples of signage are discussed, this piece will naturally focus on the representation or misrepresentation of the Binghamton area's Indigenous past through its town and state sponsored historical markers. From there, the study will shift into the specific history of the community at Otsiningo, otherwise known as the metaphorical Southern Door of the Haudenosaunee longhouse. Through the utilization of secondary materials from historians and through first-hand accounts described in missionary journals and other colonial era records, a picture emerges of a rich and complex community. As the term Southern Door indicates, Otsiningo was a place of great importance for larger Haudenosaunee society. However, as a diverse multiethnic and multicultural community, Otsiningo also served as a important location for numerous other Native peoples, particularly as diplomatic hub and a space of spiritual significance. One of the more obscure trajectories that this thesis follows is the presence and role of Susquehannock people who have traditionally been viewed in the context of an extinction narrative. By drawing out that history, this paper functions to challenge that view. As the project returns to the creation of Binghamton's historic markers, a review into the records of the city's early inhabitants and the locally produced histories that ensued, reveal how these constructs contributed to the content that would one day be displayed through public signage. The essence of this process reveals how these productions of cultural shorthand are a reflection of the colonial settler paradigm that is deeply steeped in the mythology of the American Revolution and concepts of origination, to which Native people had little to no place. Ultimately, this thesis is a call to reexamine and update historic markers through academic inquiry and Indigenous participation. It also functions as part of the growing importance of community based studies involving American Indian history that might be expanded not only for Otsiningo but for other settlements as well."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/78646"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["State University of New York at Buffalo"],"dc:rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"dc:subject":["Native American studies","social sciences"],"dc:title":["Looking through the Southern Door: Examining the Eighteenth Century Settlement of Otsiningo in the Context of Historical Signage"],"dc:type":["Thesis","Text"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:14Z"}