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Peace Tree Ceremony

2022 Peace Tree Ceremony

Danny Trejos stands in front of a podium with native american leaders in the background. He wears a white shirt, and has a white beard with his grey hair pulled back in a bun.
Danny Trejo, Director of the Morgantown Area Youth Services Project and an Indigenous member of the Morgantown Human Rights Commission, was among the honored guests at our 2022 30th Anniversary WVU Peace Tree Ceremony.

Celebrating the 30th Anniversary Peace Tree Ceremony with Guest of Honor Marie Watt 

Maria Watt stands with her thumbs in her pockets. She wears black pants and a black t-shirt, black plastic rimmed glasses and native american earrings.

Marie Watt, an American artist and citizen of the Seneca Nation with German-Scot ancestry, is the guest of honor. Watt is a nationally renowned contemporary artist whose work is collected by major institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. She is welcomed by the Native American Studies Program in collaboration with the Art Museum of WVU.

This year’s ceremony marks the 30th anniversary of the planting of WVU’s first peace tree by Chief Leon Shenandoah, Tadodaho of the Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy.

John Block, a traditional singer from the Seneca Nation will participate in the ceremony. Katie Fallon, director of the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia, Inc., will present Canaan, a red-tailed hawk, to symbolize the eagle the Peacemaker placed as a sentry at the top of the original tree ca. 1,000 years ago. Guests will also be invited to add a prayer tie, with any good intention they choose, to the Peace Tree.

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