TRIBES HILL — The Tribes Hill Heritage Center finally has a full-fledged home of its own, and is now welcoming visitors interested in learning about the rich cultural heritage of Native Americans.
In January 2022, the center purchased the former Tribes Hill Presbyterian Church at 360 Mohawk Drive in Tribes Hill with the aim of relocating from a temporary exhibition space at the Viaport Mall in Rotterdam.
Center Founder Marjorie Dancing Wind Heacock said the center is partially open, with work still ongoing in the site’s basement.
“We were going to open with a grand opening on Columbus Day, but it turns out we had a double gas leak,” she said. “So we decided we had to wait on the grand opening until we got that done. It turned out beautiful but what we went through to put this place together is amazing.”
The church operated for almost two centuries before closing its doors in the summer of 2021, with the property subsequently going on the market.
The heritage center was moving its collection from the mall into storage at the height of the COVID pandemic when a new permanent home at the former church site was found.
Heacock said the entire top floor of the new space contains a Native American cultural exhibit.
“It displays cases from across the country of Native American items that are not even seen in other museums,” she explained. “We have tufting, which is done out of very fine fur, which is only done with moose elk and caribou. We have a whole display case of that. We have probably some of the best quillwork in the country and certainly some of the best silver and turquoise jewelry. We also have a ton of things that were collected over a lifetime that can only be explained when you’re looking at them.”
The basement portion of the center features artifacts from Niska Isle, a peninsula in Niskayuna, that is the former site of an Algonquin tribe village.
“We have a ton of those artifacts, plus my artifacts, which I’ve been collecting my whole life,” Heacock said.
Heacock, who serves as the center’s chairwoman, said the collection includes items such as a porcupine basket, birch bark work and gourds. She noted that the center’s displays exhibit the practicality of how Native American tribes have thrived over the centuries.
“We have some of the best inlay you’ll ever see, done by the Hopi and the Zuni people of the Southwest,” she said. “You’ll see a difference in the display between the Algonquin and the Iroquois.”
