Leaders from Circle Legacy Center and Mennonite Life signed a new memorandum of understanding on April 8 at the Lancaster Longhouse, renewing their commitment to partnership. The signing of the memorandum provided an opportunity for the organizations to reflect on their years of partnership and to look forward to future collaboration.

The event followed an evening gathering at the 1719 Museum where representatives of both organizations exchanged stories, gifts, and words of gratitude and intent.

Circle Legacy Center is a nonprofit dedicated to empowering local Native Americans through education and community representation, honoring both enduring traditions of the past and contemporary cultures.

The 1719 Museum - one of Mennonite Life's museums - offers tours of the Lancaster Longhouse and the 1719 Herr House, exploring the interconnected histories of Lancaster County's early Susquehannock-Conestoga and related peoples and Swiss-German Mennonites who immigrated in the 18th century.

The organizations have worked in partnership since 2007. Joint ventures include the annual Maize and Snitz Fest at the 1719 Museum and Lancaster Longhouse and public relations at local indigenous cultural events, such as the Lawilowan American Indian Festival and at Blue Rock Heritage Center events.

The Lancaster Longhouse was an early shared effort, built in 2013 and born from the 2010 Honor and Healing service hosted in Lancaster. The service brought together local religious groups and indigenous communities to acknowledge historic wrongs committed against native peoples. Circle Legacy Center labored alongside Mennonite Life to create the longhouse as a space for education and cultural connection and exchange.

Some of the gifts shared in the Lancaster Longhouse on April 8 - pots of beebalm - symbolized the intertwined history of the land beneath the structure and its cultural communities. The native herb has been used by both indigenous and Swiss-German cultures for a variety of culinary and medicinal purposes.