Deer delivers Cornell lecture

The history of The Eastern Door was the topic of the 2024 edition of Cornell University’s prestigious Daniel W. Kops Freedom of the Press Lecture, led by the newspaper’s founder, Kenneth Atsenhaienton Deer.

“I’m always proud to talk about the history of The Eastern Door,” Deer said.

“Newspapers record history. One little story today is tomorrow’s history, and so the newspaper is recording the history of Kahnawake, week by week, for future generations.”

The Daniel W. Kops Freedom of the Press Lecture is an annual lecture series, which was founded in 1990. The program invites a distinguished speaker to deliver a lecture related to media and the freedom of the press through the university’s American Studies program.

Jolene Rickard, an associate professor in Cornell’s department of history of art and visual studies, had previously worked with Deer and put forward his name for participation in this year’s lecture.

The entire faculty considers the nominees and needs to agree on the individual selected.

“It’s a really quite competitive process,” she said. “I was really honoured and touched that the faculty selected him, and I think it really has to do with the importance of Indigenous issues in this period of time, and the role that he played in such an important event.”

Deer’s lecture focused on explaining how The Eastern Door sprung up as a result of poor outside media coverage during the Siege of Kanehsatake.

“It was emotional for me to look at videos of the Oka Crisis. That had an impact on me and brought back memories, and that point was emotional in reminding me of why Kahnawake needs its own newspaper,” Deer said.

“Journalism is important for our Indigenous communities, so that we can tell our stories and educate each other.”

Deer shared the two purposes of The Eastern Door: one, to inform the people of Kahnawake about local news, and two, as an avenue for outsiders to understand the community better.

“It’s also an avenue for the outside people to see who we are. To see that we’re human beings that have birthdays and anniversaries, that we have stories, and sports,” he said. “It’s important to all sides that we have our own media, and we cover things that outside media don’t cover.”

Rickard said that it was particularly informative for attendees to hear about how Deer was motivated to found the paper despite having only a small budget.

“He really clarified the role of a newspaper and its function in a small community,” she said. “He emphasized that though it was actually started on a shoestring budget, it’s endured and continued, and it’s been a really important part of knowledge-building and information sharing in the community.”

Rickard also said the lecture was very well-attended, and that the university was grateful for Deer’s visit.

“He just made himself available to both our faculty and our students, and it was incredibly well received,” she said. “We can’t wait for him to come back.”

This article was originally published in print on September 20 in issue 33.38 of The Eastern Door.

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