Chief Oron Lyons

Chief of the Onondaga Nation

Chief Oron Lyons is a member of the Council of Chiefs of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy and the Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation. He has served as a professor of American Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo and led the university’s Native American Studies program.

Born in 1930, Lyons grew up in a traditional Iroquois lifestyle on the Seneca Reservation in New York. In the 1960s, he participated in the "Red Power Movement" initiated by Native American activists, which aimed to address the rights and struggles of Native Americans across tribal boundaries. In 1970, he returned to the Onondaga Nation and became a prominent advocate for Native American causes.

Lyons is a highly respected spokesperson for Native American traditions, laws, history, human rights, and environmental issues, and has been widely recognized for his cross-faith dialogues. In 1982, he helped establish the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations. In 1990, he coordinated the resolution of the Oka Crisis between the Mohawk people and the Quebec government, earning the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. In 1992, he led a delegation from the Iroquois Confederacy to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, where he was invited to speak.