The Creator

Continued from last week.

While the Haudenosaunee were able to create a strong, stable government which respected its’ people, communities, and nations, we were not perfect. The Good Mind requires work and effort and sometimes we can be lazy or forgetful. The ways of the Great Law of Peace require respect, power, and peace, and sometimes, we are rude, weak, and aggressive. While we are not perfect, we acknowledge our responsibility to try. My grandfather used to say that it was very hard to be Haudenosaunee, because we had to study the natural laws of the world, understand the ways of the Great Law, and fulfill our responsibilities to the Earth and all Creation, all without a written manual. He said it seemed to him that the Creator had given the written manuals to other peoples because they needed and required them, but the Creator gave no manuals to us because we had the ability to remember and learn. As Haudenosaunee, we should be proud of this but not to proud.

In 1492, this all changed. Into our homes came a new people. These people had lived with strife and imbalance for centuries. They did not see or understand their place in Creation and believed that the world was theirs. To our people, we saw them as being sick. They needed to be taught and nurtured, so that they would get better and understand their place in Creation. They brought sickness and diseases, which our people never saw before. These were diseases not only of the body but also of the spirit. They had no concept of place, little concept of family, and very little concepts of Nation or Confederacy. They believed that they could buy or sell Mother Earth as if she was a commodity for sale, and they saw the beauty of the land as goods for their use.

Their diseases devastated our peoples, since our immune systems never had to deal with these kinds of assaults. Thousands of our people died and a great grieving among our people started. Their sicknesses of the mind began to also affect our people, since our belief systems had never been so utterly challenged. Thousands of communities and Nations were destroyed and a great grieving among the communities and Nations began. The Mother Earth was laid waste and the skies were contaminated. Our people, in their grief, turned inward to seek solace and comfort, but the newcomers continued their relentless domination of the Earth. As each new injury was added to the accumulation of sickness and disease suffered by the Earth, our people continued to fight for our own small portion of our former territories.

However, something happened. As the injuries mounted and the diseased environ­ments became manifest, some of the newcomers began to realize that this could not continue. The Mother Earth that had been held in such contempt, was now sick and diseased and the nations of the world could feel the sting of scarcity. They began to look for solutions to their problems. Among the Haudenosaunee, the sickness of greed and irresponsibility began to affect the ability of our people to work in the Good Mind. Our language, knowledge and systems of governance were being forgotten. Our concern for community, Nation, and Confederacy was being replaced with a concern only for self.

Abuses of all types began to appear in our communities. Spouse, child, chemical, and government abuse, taught our people to fear, not only the newcomers, but ourselves as well. These sicknesses lead to chaos in our Nations and harmony seemed but a distant memory.

In the Western world, some of their people remember words that had been spoken many decades ago, words that talked about harmony, balance, and peace. The Earth was our Mother, the environment is like a web of life, and that whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. They began to remember and to search for the speakers of these words. As Haudenosaunee, our people have always been here. We have always spoken about the environment and our responsibility to the Earth and we are happy that we are still here to help. Five-hundred years ago, your peoples needed the knowledge of the food and land to keep your physical bodies whole. The Haudenosaunee were there to help teach you about the land and we offered the hand of friendship in the form of the Two-Row Wampum and the Great Law of Peace. The Creator, in his wisdom, has seen fit that the Haudenosaunee should survive and this may be the greater purpose of our people. We are here to help and teach our brothers the ways of Creation and, by doing so, remind ourselves about our responsibility to the Mother Earth, Creation, and all of its’ people, and maybe, just maybe, we can learn the ways together, brothers and sisters helping each other.

Now our minds are one.

The end.