Letter to the Editor

In the May 23, 2013, issue of Indian Time, the “Moving of the Fire” in 1994 story was reprinted. I thought about whether I should respond to this reprint again as I have had to do many times before.

The story brings back such pain and hurt from that period of time that it could be left untold. The movement of a portion of the Longhouse Followers was not the movement of the “Fire”, but a split in theological beliefs of the People of Longhouse. The move was a culmination of activity that for many, many years, fermented and is unrelated to anything other than the change proposed by some Longhouse People to divert from the beliefs and practices that many of us believe was given to us by the Peacemaker and the Creator.

As a youth growing up in the traditional circle of the Great Law of Peace, the Great Law/ Gaianerekowah, I remember when the elders of our Kanonsesneh talked about the influence some of our People had on the rest of us by bringing the teachings of the Code of Handsome Lake into our Longhouse. They felt that the younger and newer Longhouse People who had come from the religious church upbringings, band councils and tribal governments were finding the code easier to live with than the Great Law, the Gaianerekowah. The Code of Handsome Lake had religious influenced practices that some people were familiar and comfortable with.

I remember the Elders, Condoled Chiefs and Clanmothers at our longhouse, objecting, many times in tears, begging not to change our way of life and our traditional teachings. They believed that Handsome Lake never made it to the Land of the Kanienkehaka because it wasn’t meant to come here. The things that Handsome Lake had seen through his vision when he was in a coma were directing the People to go back to the Great Law and never to abandon it. The younger religious-influenced theories were unacceptable and rejected by many of the Elders, Condoled Chiefs and Clanmothers. The strong and loud words of the younger “Longhouse People” would bury the desperate pleas to keep the teaching of the Great Law, the Gaianerekowah, in place. These pleas were answered by harsh verbal criticism of the “Old Ones” and their thinking.

Our fight for survival at this time was the worse war I have ever observed in my lifetime.

I’ll tell of two of the new practices that were being introduced and rejected by the Great Law People at the Akwesasne Longhouse. They were the most deciding factors of the split at Akwesasne Longhouse..

The practice of public repenting was new and unheard of and the Elders objected. Prior to the Code, People knew the Great Law and the code of behavior among all living things and were bound to this Law. If a person went “off the path”, the return to the “Law” came from words between the person and tsionkwaiateson (the Creator). Many refused to now go to the middle of the floor or even stand to be observed as repenting for wrongdoing.

The Ohenton tekariwatekwon (Thanksgiving Address) was also changed at this time. The objections and arguments were so loud. In the Great Law, the Ohenton tekariwatekwon, our teachings are that the thanksgiving address is complete; nothing to be added and nothing to be removed. The followers of the Code of Handsome Lake inserted his name to the Thanksgiving Address and this was never accepted by the Gaianerekowah(Great Law) People.

To end this part of our history, the split of the Longhouse People in Akwesasne was inevitable. It was a split on theological differences similar to the differences in the beliefs of the great religions of the World; the Roman Catholic church, the Presbyterians, the Mormons, the Baptists and probably many more splits to come because of gay and lesbian marriages. The representatives that came and “moved the fire” were all representative of the Code of Handsome Lake and followers of those beliefs and practices.

The Longhouse at the old site will always remain. The “Fire” that exists there is the fire of each and every ongwehhonweh. The otsireh of each creates the gawastireh and that’s what comes together at our Longhouse. This “Fire” can never be removed in a pail or container. We are protected by the Gaianerehkowah and the traditional circle that we remain in. No foreign government or religion will change us and we will continue to fight the war that our Elders, Condoled Chiefs and Clan mothers started to save the Great Law of Peace and our beliefs based on respect and our way of life. The survival of our Nation lies within the Great Law that teaches we must remain in our own circle. These beliefs can never be moved in a pail.

Minnie Garrow

Wolf Clan

Daughter of Mary Tebo, fighter to Save the Great Law

And John Tebo, War Chief of the Mohawk Nation