Wakerakats:te, Condoled Iakoia:ne of Rotiskarewake Louise (Mcdonald) Herne Repsonse to Recent Press Release

DECEMBER 19, 2024 - “I share this response and clarification with the utmost respect and concerning love for all our people especially to the younger generation. To be an example, of what an apology looks like, please read.

I Wakerakats:te, condoled Iakoia:ne of Rotiskarewake in the Mohawk Nation Longhouse, I am not beyond fault and if my recent actions has broken the peace of our Nationhood I am truly sorry and accept full responsibility for listening to those who felt unheard. I clarify and am fully aware as a Iakoiane I cannot remove another clans leader.

However, I did share a unified statement, that I did not write, but stand behind, so the people of the longhouse could be represented and informed regarding a document that will impact them forever. I am deeply rooted in servitude to the people of our clans and to the Rotianeson that have been the voice of our clans for the last twenty years. I stand united with my Roia:ne Tehanakarine and Roia:ne Sahrihowane in their assertion of the Kaienerakowa. The Kaienerakowa was brought to us because of conflict. At that time, we didn’t know anything else existed except for conflict.

In our story of the peace maker. He paddled his white stone canoe to a place of great turmoil. To the land of the Kaniekehaka. People were killing each other in brutal ways. He believed in peace. He believed in something, that no one could have imagined other than war. It wasn’t something that anyone could conceive in their minds. It wasn’t on anyone’s mind by any means. It came through spirit. And each encounter he had, the individual was MOVED through emotion to accept this foreign concept called peace. He got there through connecting to their hearts. And, one by one, their belief became so strong that the energy they shared amongst themselves was so great that it tipped the scale in rehabilitating the evilest man of that time. Their belief in peace and the strength of their hearts was the collective energy that was powerful enough to HEAL a wounded and deformed man. Their personal pain, agendas, and fear were set aside because they believed in the possibility of a future that did not yet exist. They didn’t know what it would look like, when it would happen, or how it would take place. They just believed and trusted in the feelings they felt upon meeting the peace maker, that something better was possible. It was a wisdom beyond anyone’s thinking.

If we believe that something else exits besides a “YES” or “NO” than it will appear. There always is another option that no one has thought of yet. More important than the current discourse that we are all feeling.

Focus, on how good it will feel because we got there together.

Everyone will be happy, filled with pride. There is another potential future out there that we don’t yet know exists. It is something we haven’t thought of yet, it’s something we haven’t seen, yet, and it isn’t yet, on our radar.

Instead of focusing on what we have directly in front of us, focus beyond this point in time and beyond this marker in history.

Focus on a future where this issue no longer exists?

What would it look like and feel like to be in that future?

In that future, we are all in one big canoe. All our relatives are there, and we are paddling in unison. There is a leader at the front, two in the middle, and two at the back. The water moving rapidly below our canoe, and we feel energized and full of life. We feel so good, and we are in love with our lives. We are not bothered by what is in the ship, what is on the outside, or anything around us because we have everything we need right here in our canoe. We are singing our songs, speaking our language, and we are whole and complete. The more we pull on our paddles and cut through the river, the more our breath exhales in united purpose. Paddling together to a place we don’t know exists yet. Our canoe is expanding to include everyone, Skanikonra, the one mind, is the only fuel to propel the enormity of our purpose. Our canoe is so powerful because we are all equal in belief. We navigate the rapids with ease, because we believe that we are one. Soon we see our ancestors in a fleet of canoes as far as the eye can see paddling alongside of us. They carry us above the rapids and there on a distant shore we see the 7th generation waving at us, waiting for us and the feeling is so great, the pride we feel is so beautiful; we anchor our hearts in the moment when we will meet them and they say nia:wen for thinking of them.

Experiencing this future doesn’t depend on our capacity to think, it depends on our capacity to feel. We don’t need our best thinkers; we need our best feelers. We don’t need to know when or how it will happen. We just need to know how it will feel once we arrive. We are the eastern door keepers; nothing will enter to break our focus. United in a common good. The canoe is our life, and the river is a metaphor for the passage of time. Ready or not the future is coming toward us all and it’s not that far away.

I stand in my responsibility, entrenched with the voices of the people, and it is them I serve. If I have faulted in the landscape of my responsibility, I ask for your kind grace and please come sit with me and let me listen with open heart to your concerns and I will do my best to bring a peaceful resolve.

*Nia:wen Taiwentonti, for your words of wisdom.”