GIVING THANKS

Continued from last week (Issue 27#40)

We are the indigenous people to this land. We are like a conscience. We are small, but we are not a minority. We are the landholders; we are the landkeepers; we are not a minority. For our brothers are all the natural world, and by that we are far the majority.

[Joagquisho (Oren Lyons), Faithkeeper, Wolf Clan, Onondaga, May 24, 1978; Parabola Vol. 6, No. 1,1981]

The “separation of church and state” has become a cornerstone of European and Euro-American governmental systems. Temporal powers and spiritual beliefs are not allowed to interfere with each other. For the Haudenosaunee, there is no such separation. The Chiefs, the Rotiianeson, are obliged by the law to participate in and maintain the ceremonies. The Haudenosaunee conduct their legal obligations and proceedings in a sacred manner.

Everything is together—spiritual and political—because when the Creator...made this world, he touched the world all together, and it automatically became spiritual and everything come from the world is spiritual and so that’s what leaders are, they are both the spiritual mentors and the political mentors of the people.

[Men Who Are of the Good, Sakorarewate (Tom Porter), Northeast Indian Quarterly, 1988, pp. 8-12]

Ohenton karihwateh’kwen also brings the minds together in a sacred way. A gathering of the people begins with their agreement on their place in the world and their duties to the world. The momentum of agreement carries over to the council that follows. Where two peoples may have arrived at the meeting as adversaries, giving thanks together reminds the participants of their place as humans together, and also of their transitory nature.

So again we bring our minds together and we give a thanksgiving to the stars, for they still continue in the ways that were given to them, in the order that was given to them to bring our minds together and give a thanksgiving. So be it in our minds.

We also give a thanksgiving to the Thunder-makers who come from the setting sun. They bring rains to quench the earth, for all the things to make life possible.

We have been given a great responsibility. They say there were huge animals at one time on this earth, that roamed this earth, and we, our people, asked the grandfathers to put them down into the earth, and so they did. There will come a time when we will not be able to give a thanksgiving to the thunder-makers, and they say that the earth will open up and those huge animals will surface again. And the dangers that we talk about today in the world that we live in are nothing compared to what will come. So there is a reason why we exist today. Wt have never forgotten that, we still carry out the ceremonies, and we still give a thanksgiving to the first thunders that we hear. So we bring all our minds together and give thanksgiving. So be it in our minds.

We asked the four beings who come from the Creator’s land—who say they come to us at this level—they do not touch the earth—where we see. where we hear, where we speak from, where our minds are. They come to us in our dreams. They tell us of the things that need to be done, what needs to be said...concerns that we have for our people. So we give a thanksgiving for those that are still carried out to this day. Our ceremonies are still being conducted, in ways as far back as we can go in our language.

So at this time we would like to thank those four beings, because we asked them when we left our homes that we get here safely, to protect us, and that we go back to our families, back to our homes safely. So we giv( a thanksgiving, bring our minds together as one, give a thanksgiving for those. So be it in our minds.

Then we come to the Creator himself. He has put himself in a place where we say that we do not know his face. We will never know his face, but all those things of what is possible for us, he gave us a responsibility to look after.

So to this day we carry that out to the best of our ability. So we bring all our minds together as one, giving thanks to the Creator for making all these things possible. So be it in our minds.

[Venus Walker, Royaner, Wolf Clan, Oneida,translated by Kariwakeron (Bruce Elijah), Faithkeeper, Wolf Clan, Oneida,to the House of Commons of Canada Special Committee on Indian Serf-Government, June 31, 1983]

Then the animals. They say that they are our brothers and our sisters— the animal world, thefour-leggeds—and they say that they are put here for a purpose and we are supposed to look after them; we are supposed to live in harmony with our brothers and sisters of the animal world, the four-leggeds. So at this time again, we bring all our minds together and give a thanksgiving for all those animals that still exist, and we know that there are some that have gone, that have become extinct. We still mention them and we still give a thanksgiving. So we bring all our minds together and give a thanksgiving for all the animals of the world.

We mention the bird life. They say that the eagle is the most important to our people; it is a symbol, the tree of peace that was given to us...a Great Law of how we are supposed to conduct ourselves with one another. The eagle at the top of that tree is supposed to look far into the distance and he will give a cry when he sees danger approaching our people. So again at this time, we put all our minds together and give a thanksgiving for all the bird life of the world. We know too that some birds have become extinct, but we still mention them in our ceremonies. We have never forgotten them. So we give a thanksgiving for that. So be it in our minds.

Then we say that there will be two suns in the heavens, the first one is wasekwatiha; that is the man, the male, the sun. He is given a purpose never to remove himself or be late at any time. He still functions in the way that was given to him for us to see on the horizon and around us all the beautiful things the Creator has given us. At this time we put our minds together and give a thanksgiving for the most beautiful thing, which was put there for a reason, and we still acknowledge it and give a thanksgiving to our eldest brother, the sun.

At night we give a thanksgiving to our grandmother the moon. In every thing that we have mentioned there is a male and a female: in plant life, in the animal world, in the tree life, even in the fish life. Grandmother Moon was given a purpose, that she would control all that, the female life in the world, what we look at and how we understand what surrounds us. She is in control of the future generations of all these species, and so are women. That is how we look at the months, as to when to conceive, to give birth, to give life, to continue. So it is time to bring all our minds together and give a thanksgiving to our grandmother the moon.

And at this time we also mention the stars in the heavens, for there is our history written, in the stars in the heavens. Our old people say that if we look at the stars they will tell us when to conduct our ceremonies, when it is time. And still to this day our people carry this on. Still to this day we have people who can tell you what that means and what it says. Our history is recorded there; it is given to us in that way.

As humans, we are a small and humble part of a larger natural (and spiritual) world, but we are also part of a continuum of humanity. What we know, we have learned largely from our ancestors. What we do, we do for the generations who will come after us. From the opening of any gathering of the Haudenosaunee, we are reminded of our place in time as well as our place in the world.

This is Ohenton karihwateh’kwen:

...We bring our minds together and give a thanksgiving.

Then we mention the ground we walk on, our sacred Mother Earth, the importance of what the Creator has given to our people, to acknowledge the very basic things here—-and we have been given a mandate to look after these things. So we look to the earth as a sacred mother who holds everything in the palm of her hand to give us things so that every day and every night our families are in good health. So at this time we will bring our minds together and give a thanksgiving to our mother, the earth.

Then we mention the strawberries, the first berries to give fruit when the warm winds come. We were told of the importance of that; that there will come a day when we will not see strawberries any more and all the rest of the foods will die away. We are told what to do at that time. So come spring, almost at the time that we see the strawberries bloom again and give berries, we put our minds together and give a thanksgiving to all the berries of the world that came to us from the Creator’s land. We put our minds together and give a thanksgiving for that.

Then we mention all the medicines. When we come out of our homes, when we come out of that door, the medicines are there; they start from there. There are people amongst us who are given the right to have the ability to help our people with medicines. It is in the grass, it is in the shrubs, it is in the trees; it is all around us. Only a chosen few know what that is and how it is supposed to be used. So at this time we bring our minds together and give a thanksgiving for those things that are still being carried out to this day. So be it in our minds.

We mention all the trees that are around us; and again we see the leaves coming forth. We say that the head one of those trees is the maple tree, because it gives us sugar at a certain time when the sap runs, and we set a day aside and there are ceremonies that we do in thanksgiving. Those things are still carried on. All the other trees in the world-—we put our minds together and we give a thanksgiving for all those things that are still alive to this day; all the trees.