Ohi:yo’ Art Market.
“A celebration of Native American resiliency through art and culture” as the organizers, Onöhsagwë:de’ Cultural Center and Visit Seneca Nation, describe it, the First Annual Ohi:yo’ Art Market took place on May 3, 2025.
The market is at the Seneca Allegany Resort and Casino on the Allegany Indian Reservation, one of two reservations of the Seneca Nation of Indians. Ohi:yo’ is the Seneca name for the Allegheny River that runs through Salamanca.
The first annual Ohi:yo’ Art Market, showcased Indigenous artists from the United States and Canada competing for $30,000 in prizes. “The idea was to establish an all-Native art market in the Northeast. We’re trying to bring visitors here to experience all that this area has to offer”, says Hayden Haynes (Seneca Nation/Kiowa/Mvskoke), the director of Onöhsagwë:de’ Cultural Center and Seneca-Iroquois National Museum and an artist himself.
The @OriginalPeoples_Podcast was invited to attend the Ohi:yo’ Art Market to speak with Artists and Community Members, I had the opportunity to sit and speak with Caleb G. Abrams (Seneca Nation, Wolf Clan) filmmaker and multi-media artist. To discuss some of his past projects and the work he is doing in and around the community to spread awareness of contemporary community issues.
Caleb G. Abrams is an Onöndowa’ga:’ (Seneca) father, filmmaker, and multimedia artist based out of present-day Brantford, Ontario and Buffalo, New York. Raised on the Onöndowa'ga:' territory of Ohi:yo', much of his work pushes back against settler-colonial narratives of place and power, while creating space for Indigenous stories of truth, community, and connectedness. Abrams explores these themes through a shifting lens of documentary, magical realism, and surrealist video art. In addition to writing, directing, and producing his own short films, Abrams has also created work in collaboration with the American Museum of Natural History, Vision Maker Media, Toward Castle Films, Skipping Stone Pictures, Buffalo & Toronto Public Media, City Lore, the Aunties Dandelion Collective, Odawi Law PLLC, the Seneca Nation of Indians, and the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum.