The Turtle (Native American Center for the Living Arts)

With its shell-like geodesic dome roof and projections meant to evoke a head (complete with porthole windows for “eyes”) and four flippers, Dennis Sun Rhodes (Arapaho) and Duffy Wilson’s (Tuscarora) design for the Native American Center for the Living Arts evokes the turtle on whose back the Earth formed in the Haudenosaunee creation story. That story is part of a vibrant culture the building’s creators feared was in need of revival in the 1970s.

Built in Niagara Falls, New York, between 1977 and 1981, the three-story postmodern “Turtle Building” was a hub of Indigenous culture for fifteen years. It hosted powwows, dances, film screenings, and craft fairs, and housed hundreds of artifacts and works of art in its galleries. It was the largest such institution in the United States, even publishing a magazine called Turtle Quarterly.

When funding ran out in 1995 and the center was unable to pay bills and back taxes, the building was sold to a real estate developer and has been empty ever since. Friends of the Niagara Turtle’s “Reawaken the Turtle” campaign seeks to bring the cultural center back to life and prevent it from being torn down and replaced with something like a hotel, the site sits tempting across from Niagara Falls State Park.

In 2025, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named The Turtle one of “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.” Previously, in 2024, it had been deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, though it has not officially received the designation, which would require the building’s owner to be involved.

Whether to support an endangered landmark in the hope it will one day “reawaken” or to see this unique architectural specimen before it disappears forever, a visit to The Turtle is a meaningful way to connect with this country’s past, and potentially its future.