Observatory To Host Sky Stories: Star Legends of the Haudenosaunee
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On Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 7:30 p.m., the Martz-Kohl Observatory in Frewsburg will welcome back Ja:no’s Bowen for “Star Legends of the Haudenosaunee,” a presentation on how the stars figure into the oral traditions of the Six Nations.
The talk will be held live at the observatory and streamed simultaneously via Zoom. Details and the Zoom link are posted at martzobservatory.org. The talk is free and continues a partnership between the volunteer-run observatory and a speaker whose work bridges astronomy and Indigenous cultural heritage.
Bowen, a member of the Beaver Clan of the Seneca Nation and a Faith Keeper of the Cold Spring Longhouse, has spent more than two decades working to preserve and teach the Seneca language, beginning as a classroom teacher on the Allegany Territory in 2002 and later directing the Seneca Nation’s Department of Seneca Language Teacher Support and Community Outreach. She holds graduate degrees from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and its Kennedy School of Government, and is completing a doctorate in educational leadership. Her August presentation will trace how constellations such as the Pleiades carry teachings and stories across generations of the Six Nations -- the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora.
This isn’t Ja:no’s Bowen’s first time at the observatory. In 2025, she gave a talk on “Grandmother Moon” in Seneca tradition, a presentation that struck a chord with the observatory’s regular audience and has continued to draw viewers online in the months since.
“I find it important to remind Haudenosaunee people of our star legends,” Bowen has said of that work. “These legends contain cultural values and important reminders.”
Bowen’s talks are part of something larger: the Martz-Kohl Observatory’s Lecture Series, a free, on-demand video library that has quietly grown to more than 50 recorded presentations, all viewable anytime at martzobservatory.org. Featured speakers have included Dr. John Mather, the Nobel Prize-winning senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope; Lee Feinberg, the NASA engineer who led that telescope’s optics design; Stephanie Buskirk Dudley, NASA’s deputy director for Moon to Mars exploration; and NOAA space-weather scientist Jim Spann -- alongside university researchers, working physicists, and skilled local amateurs. Every third-Wednesday talk, including Bowen’s, is offered live at the observatory and via Zoom before eventually joining this online archive.
The observatory hosts a free Open Observatory Night every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., with featured speaker talks typically falling on the third Wednesday of the month -- the same talks that go on to populate the online library. Beyond the lecture series, the all-volunteer, nonprofit observatory runs a Space STEM camp for middle schoolers each July, sends members out to schools and community events with portable telescopes, and partners with a dozen area libraries -- including Frewsburg’s Myers Memorial Library and Jamestown’s Hazeltine Public Library -- to loan out telescopes the same way patrons check out books.
Admission to Bowen’s August 19 talk is free, though donations to support the volunteer-run facility are accepted. A question-and-answer session and guided tours will follow the presentation, and weather permitting, the evening will close with public viewing through the observatory’s telescopes. Visitors are encouraged to dress for outdoor conditions, since the telescope domes are not heated.
The Martz-Kohl Observatory, located at 176 Robbin Hill Rd, Frewsburg, is operated by the Marshal Martz Memorial Astronomical Association Inc., a non-profit organization devoted to observational astronomy, citizen science, and educational outreach. For more information visit martzobservatory.org.