The Trees

We now turn our thoughts to the Trees. The Earth has many families of Trees who have their own instructions and uses. Some provide us with shelter and shade, others with fruit, beauty, and other useful things. Many peoples of the world use a Tree as a symbol of peace and strength. With one mind, we greet and thank the Tree life.

We are continually reminded that our Creator has made all things with a purpose, a duty and a responsibility; few things carry their responsibility with as much grace and beauty as the Trees. The Trees have many members in their families, which include the Bushes, each with their own instructions and uses, most importantly as medicines, from fuel for our fires, to shelter for our homes. At the time when the air changes again and becomes cold, Trees provide fuel for the warmth of our people and their homes. Our lives revolve around the natural world and Trees are a continual symbol of the great caring of our Creator who has provided us with such great natural beauty and grace. The Trees provide a living example of how we should live our lives and conduct our actions, how we need each other to protect one another and to benefit all life. The leader of all the Trees is the Maple, it provides us with the first medicine food of the Spring, which helps renew our strength and reminds us of our continual responsi­bility... to give thanks to the Creator and to all the many Bushes and Trees. At the time when the air changes and the Spring warmth comes again to bring renewed life to our Mother Earth, the Maple’s sap begins to flow and to come help strengthen our People.

The Great White Pine, which stands above all other Trees, is a symbol of the ever growing Peace. As it remains continually green, it is intended to remind us of how are to have the everlasting Great Peace continually in our minds. Our Creator provided our Mother Earth and Creation with a covering of Trees, and as with all things, they are meant to work together to help provide life for all of Creation. So too as with the Human Beings, they remind us that we must also work together for benefit of all Life. It also provides a medicine to help strengthen and renew our People, as our Creator has intended the human beings to be.

As our Creator made all things... he gave each a special name and purpose. He provided that the Bushes and Trees have many uses for the coming Human Beings and that they would also have the duty of looking after many of the animals, birds and insects and other life forms, who also are dependent upon them. He also gave them a special responsibility to provide a continuance for the forces of the life of our Mother Earth, that the Tree trunks would support the Sky and would remain steadfast in their duty of providing for the continued life and for the rest of Creation.

The Haudenosaunee’s relationship with Trees goes back to well before the Creation of our Mother Earth, back to the Sky World, and to the Original Tree of Light. This was a very special Tree, which provided the first light to the Sky World and helped to dimly illuminate the dark watery abyss which lay below. The Tree of Light provided many of the fruits which we now enjoy today as it was said that all fruits grew on this particular Tree. The Tree also provided the Sky Beings with their fruit foods, as well as medicines from its leaves, bark and roots. It is from the uprooting of this Tree of Light, by the Great Leader who looked after the Tree, as he attempted to provide medicines for his pregnant wife which became the catalyst for the Creation process of Mother Earth below. It is then, from the roots of this first Great Tree which the falling Sky Woman grasped, which started the first growth of Trees on our Mother Earth. Our Creator, wanting to make things as in the Sky World, then continued to make all other manner of Shrubs, Bushes, and Trees. To each, our Creator gave a name which teaches us their special purpose, duty, and responsibility. They provide us with all manners of uses, but they are also intended to provide the human beings with happiness, peace and contentment.

The purpose of the various Shrubs, Bushes, and Trees is to provide help to the human beings. For humans, they provide a host of benefits, some of which we have already mentioned. Many of their other gifts are constantly in our hands and before our eyes. Our homes are built of wood, as is our furniture, from the beds we sleep in to the tables we eat at, and from the morning newspaper to the pages of this book. For many of the world’s Peoples, wood provides fuel for cooking and heating. Wood also provides protection from the first war club to the stock of the latest firearm. It also supports our enjoyment; from the lacrosse stick and baseball bat to the bamboo fishing rod and cedar strip canoe... we continually yearn for the warmth and natural beauty of wood. Our Creator made the Trees to support life. He also intended that they, like the Human Beings, should live a long life. He marked the life lines of the Trees so that we would know their lives from beginning to end. Trees have witnessed human and ecological history. They also have their own stories to tell to people who can understand. They have seen cities built all around them and have witnessed young people become old. They have seen lovers carve their initials into them as a record of lasting love. Children build their houses and swings on the Trees. We seek the Trees for their solace, for shelter, for comfort and peace. For a quiet walk, for thoughts unencum­bered, there is no better place to be then among the Trees. If you can feel these things, then the Trees are still doing their duty as originally instructed by our Creator. Give them your thanks in your own way.

Trees also provide food for all other living things, from the smallest bacteria, necessary for the recycling of nutrients back into the soils, to insects, birds, animals, and human beings. This food comes in the form of cellulose and fiber, to nuts, berries, and many other fruits. Trees also provide habitat for millions of species, from fungi to birds to animals and humans.

The power of Trees is not limited to what we can see, feel, use, or eat. Humans, out of control, use up oxygen in their burning and manufacturing processes. A single Tree acts as a more efficient air scrubber than most machines we can devise, absorbing CO2, air borne metals, contaminants, and other suspended particulates. This is done while consuming only renewable energy through the process of photosynthesis to replenish much of the world’s oxygen supply.

Root systems from Shrub, Bush, and Tree cover holes and enrich the soils, keeping it from washing or blowing away, which can be one of the most serious problems in most developed and developing countries... topsoil depletion through erosion caused most often by human agricultural activity. They also mete out water, retaining it for absorption into the water table to recharge aquifers for fresh drinking water. The Forests modify and moderate the weather. All of these services the Trees render the world in silence and dignity.

We love Trees and Trees love us. It they did not, why would they keep on giving? It is because they are gifts from our Creator. It is the Creator who cares so much for us that he keeps sending us Trees who are instructed to look after us and provide for us. But what have we done in return to express our appreciation for the Trees and our gratitude to our Creator. More than five billion people on the planet, in the past two centuries, have removed most of the Trees from this once green Earth. The rate of deforestation is staggering and continues to increase. The lungs of our Mother Earth are burning and starting to fail. The world’s people are cutting Trees far too quickly and without thoughtful and knowledgeable replanting. We speak of the need for bio­diversity and yet continue to allow mono­cultures for Tree farming.

We lose our Forests to agriculture and cities... thousands of acres per day. But much of the farming is marginal: we would have been better off keeping the forest in its place. We make token efforts to buy pockets of Costa Rican rain forest. And the burning of Brazil consumes trees covering a territory the size of Virginia, every year.

The rain forests, which contain half the known species in the world, are being harvested at increasing rates. One third of the forests of the world are gone; most of the deforestation has been in the last century, and most of that in the last thirty years.

Habitat is now very often destroyed, reduced and/or severely fragmented to the point that many dependent life forms have become endangered and even extinct. The reduction of Tree species is also a serious concern and many now are just being grown for their commercial value, with a total disregard for “marginal or non-economic valued species.” This type of thinking does not support the natural order of things and the concepts of bio-diversity and species enrichment.

As Haudenosaunee, we have been instructed to look toward the natural world for our knowledge. Everything that we need to survive and live a good life has been provided for us by our Creator through the intricacies and lessons learned in nature. This concept is the underlying foundation of our continued existence, it is how a people can live in harmony and balance with nature for countless thousands of years, right back to the time of the creation of human beings and still have an ecologically intact world. Our responsi­bility is to learn from nature, which we have for countless generations, and share that knowledge for the continued benefit of the future generations. Our duty is to continually express our gratitude and appreciation to all of the things that sustain us, and most particularly, to our Creator. Our purpose is to look after and respect all of Creation, which our Creator has entrusted us with, for the continued happiness, peace, and contentment of all life.

So now we will express our gratitude. With one mind, we greet and thank the Tree life. So this is the way it will be in our minds

Oronhiakehwen, Dan Longboat is a Turtle Clan of the Mohawk Nation at Grand River Territory, Ohsweken. He is currently finishing his Ph. D. in Environmental Studies at York University and is a course director in the Department of Native Studies at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.