Established: July of 1983
CULTURAL CORNER
This weekly feature was begun due to a request from many Akwesasne Longhouse leaders, elders, and community members that we include more cultural information in the newspaper. The information is not all my own, but a culmination of what I gather from listening or interviewing. Many of the elders I interview do not feel comfortable with their names being mentioned. No one wants to give the impression that they are the top authority on our ways of life. Feel free to comment or add something.
THE FIRST NATION TO ACCEPT THE GREAT LAW
BY: PHIL PRESTON
INDIAN TIME - VOLUME 22 - NUMBER 15 - APRIL 15, 2004 EDITION
The most common estimate for how long the Haudenosaunee Confederacy has existed under the Kaieneraserakowa (Great Law) is about 1,000 years. Some suggest that it could be even older. We know the Great Law is old and that it came from Shonkwaiatison through an enlightened teacher we refer to as the Peacemaker. We have the message of the Great Law still, and people that can recite it and help us to bring it into our daily lives. This is what really matters. The Great Law was given to us in a way that every Onkwehonwe can follow the examples in order to live in peace and a good way. But who were the first people to receive this message? Was it any of the "Six Nations" we have today? The Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, or Tuscarora? No, none of these were the first.
The story of the Great Law tells us how the Peacemaker was born from a Huron mother away from her village on the north shore of Lake Ontario. All through the Peacemaker's early life, he would teach people in his community to live in a good way, by the power of his own example never giving orders. As he matured, he delivered the full message of the Great Law to the Huron Nation and they accepted it. The Huron were the first under the Great Law and continued to live and embrace it for a long time. They even had a wampum system of recording events, agreements, treaties, ceremonies, etc. However, usually the Huron fashioned the white and black porcupine quills as a type of bead instead of shells. They even had condolence ceremonies. When his work was done, the Peacemaker continued on to us, the present Nations of the Haudenosaunee.
But why are the Huron not part of the Confederacy today? They had their own confederacy and lived in a good way. However, with the arrival of the French, English, and other Europeans, soon things changed. The Europeans worked very intensely to Christianize and colonize all the Huron. Through years of aggression into Huron life and through the Fur Trade, as well as many other wars, what Huron were left no longer spoke their language in great enough numbers for the language to survive. The teachings of the Great Law, and all the beauty and ways of Huron life and tradition, were suppressed by Christian Theology and materialistic European ways. Further, European, Canadian, and American educational systems stripped away the final fragments. People live, act, and think according to the language that they speak. Colonizers figured this out long ago.
So now, the Huron are a product and example of what our destiny as Haudenosaunee people could be if we allow the Kaianeraserakowa and Kariwiio to erode. Our Creator through enlightened teachers gave these messages to us so that we may stand as a self-empowered people. Our ability to adapt to changing times is what keeps the Haudenosaunee people alive and successful as human beings. Kariwiio (Handsome Lake Code) was added to the Great Law by our Creator to help us grow with the intense European, American, and Canadian colonization. Our ability to live by our traditional philosophies and methods provides for a balanced life and community. Lots of money is not the same as having a healthy economy. Canadian and American schooling, college degrees, and university degrees are not the same as having well trained and knowledgeable people. The list goes on, but these are all tools we can use if we do not hold their value higher than our own ways. Money, schooling, and materialism are foreign values that have destroyed even great Nations like the Huron. Today, the Huron are approaching many Haudenosaunee Nations throughout our confederacy to relearn the Great Law. They have been able to once again see its worth and necessity. We are privileged to still have our traditions, ceremonies, Kaianeraserakowa, and Kariwiio in whatever numbers there are.
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