A Haudenosaunee "Thanksgiving" Prayer

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Seth Itzkan

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Nov 28, 2013, 12:56:31 PM11/28/13
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Happy Thanksgiving all my Soil-Age friends and colleagues.

In searching for a some proper words of the occasion, I came upon this poem / prayer from the firstpeople.us site.


Best to you all,

- Seth

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Seth....@gmail.com
www.hutwithaview.com - Soil Restoration in Africa
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Thomas Goreau

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Nov 28, 2013, 1:06:21 PM11/28/13
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National Genocide Day

Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
President, Global Coral Reef Alliance
President, Biorock Technology Inc.
Coordinator, United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development Small Island Developing States Partnership in New Sustainable Technologies
37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
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Skype: tomgoreau
Tel: (1) 617-864-4226

No one can change the past, everyone can change the future

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Meg Muckenhoupt

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Nov 28, 2013, 1:19:33 PM11/28/13
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Our modern Thanksgiving had its origins in the Civil War. It hasn't always been about celebrating the European conquest of the Americas. See for example Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863:

And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

Would that we would remember the peace activists of past centuries...


Meg Muckenhoupt
Thanksgiving genocide.png

Erich Knight

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Nov 29, 2013, 2:40:14 AM11/29/13
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I have no truck with devotees of Genocide Day.
I'm with Charles Mann, (& Jared Diamond, "Guns,Germs & Steel"), the Colombian Exchange was the reunification of life on earth.
After being separated by the break up of the continents 250 million years ago.
Winners & losers on all sides.
Ask the native empire builders if they would give up the horse. If ya want to talk raw numbers, be sure to count world wide deaths from tobacco over the years. Unintended consequences are rife.

As we accelerate Life's connectedness with our mobile culture, with our new understanding of biology, with forums like this,
I give thanks that we may understand the past more fully in this new light. 
Thanksgiving genocide.png

Seth Itzkan

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Nov 29, 2013, 12:20:07 PM11/29/13
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Hi All,

I hope we'll pause for a moment the discourse about the specifics of the American Thanksgiving, and hear / read the words of the "Thanksgiving" prayer that is linked by the URL provided.

Whenever that was written, and for whatever context, it is titled a "Thanksgiving" prayer and listed as such on the firstpeople.us website, which, I assume, is setup for and by "first people".

I found it's message potent and germane, for all people, for all time, but maybe particularly so, for those who are trying to create (or recreate) ecological balance in the world.

from the prayer:

The Fish

We turn our minds to all the Fish life in the water. They were instructed to cleanse and purify the water. They also give themselves to us as food. We are grateful that we can still find pure water. So, we turn now to the Fish and send our greetings and thanks.


- Seth

-------------------------------
Seth....@gmail.com
www.hutwithaview.com - Soil Restoration in Africa
www.planet-tech.com - Trends  Innovations Opportunities
www.charlesriverweb.com - Websites That Matter

On Nov 29, 2013, at 2:40 AM, Erich Knight wrote:

I have no truck with devotees of Genocide Day.
I'm with Charles Mann, (& Jared Diamond, "Guns,Germs & Steel"), the Colombian Exchange was the reunification of life on earth.
After being separated by the break up of the continents 250 million years ago.
Winners & losers on all sides.
Ask the native empire builders if they would give up the horse. If ya want to talk raw numbers, be sure to count world wide deaths from tobacco over the years. Unintended consequences are rife.

As we accelerate Life's connectedness with our mobile culture, with our new understanding of biology, with forums like this,
I give thanks that we may understand the past more fully in this new light. 



On Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 1:19 PM, Meg Muckenhoupt <meg...@gmail.com> wrote:
Our modern Thanksgiving had its origins in the Civil War. It hasn't always been about celebrating the European conquest of the Americas. See for example Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863:

And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

Would that we would remember the peace activists of past centuries...


Meg Muckenhoupt
On Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 1:06 PM, Thomas Goreau <gor...@bestweb.net> wrote:
<Thanksgiving genocide.png>

David Yarrow

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Nov 29, 2013, 12:44:29 PM11/29/13
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THE FIRST THANKSGIVING

Words That Come Before All Else

The Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen means “Words That Come Before All Else.”  It is also referred to as “The Thanksgiving Address,”  “Giving Greetings to the Natural World,” or “The Opening Address.“  Traditional Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) say these words to begin and end each day, important meetings, ceremonies, and socials.   The Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen is an expression of acknowledgement, greetings, love, and appreciation for every part of the Natural World.  The Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen helps to bring the thoughts of the people together.  It is a way by which the Haudenosaunee remind themselves that human beings are only one strand in the Web of Life and that we are all connected to each other and to the rest of Creation. 

Below is a video presentation featuring Mohawk storyteller Kay Olan's spoken version of the Thanksgiving Address along with images created by Tuscarora graphic artist Melanie Printup Hope (http://www.artinjun.ca/printup_hope/) supplemented with additional photographs.

http://www.iroquoismuseum.org/thanksgiving2.htm


Meg Muckenhoupt

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Nov 29, 2013, 1:03:37 PM11/29/13
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Whenever that was written, and for whatever context, it is titled a "Thanksgiving" prayer and listed as such on the firstpeople.us website, which, I assume, is setup for and by "first people".

I can't assume that.
 
It's impossible to figure out who owns the site from the web pages alone. There isn't any "contact us" or "about us" page, and the home page says:
"Welcome to our web site, dedicated to all First People of North America and Canada, better known as Turtle Island."

"Dedicated to" does not mean "owned by" or "approved by" or "giving credit to the actual author."

There are so many cases where European-Americans have written prayers, poems, and speeches, and attributed them to the tribe-of-the-month to make them seem more "authentic." Chief Seattle's speech is just the tip of the melting iceberg.

In this case, we're lucky. The Museum of the American Indian has actually documented the blessing. As they write, "This translation of the Mohawk version of the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address was developed, published in 1993, and provided, courtesy of: Six Nations Indian Museum and the Tracking Project "

...which is all to say that we need to collaborate with other cultures with respect and care, and be very careful about attributions.


Meg Muckenhoupt

David Yarrow

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Nov 29, 2013, 1:57:46 PM11/29/13
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.....the rest of the story.........

The Thanksgiving Address was an instruction given by a legendary figure remembered as "The Peacemaker."  As a young man, The Peacemaker came down from the north in a white stone boat and landed it at Onondaga Lake, where he announced to hunters that he was a messenger from the Creator sent into the world to end war and killing.

The Peacemaker traveled among the people for a long time teaching the path of peace, gradually convincing each person that peace was to everyone's advantage.  The Peacemaker gathered the five nations together at Onondaga, where he planted at white pine as The Tree of Peace, with the weapons of war buried under it.  The White Pine became a symbol of order between heaven and earth, of justice and peace among humans, and of the government he founded.  The Peacemaker then gave an instruction called The Great Law of Peace, which described how to form a social order and government that could assure that peace would prevail.

in The Great Law of Peace, The Peacemaker instructed the people to always give an address at the beginning of every gathering, whether social, government or ceremony.  this is the origin of what is today called "The Thanksgiving Address."

after all this, The Peacemaker said he would now vanish, but if the Great Peace was ever threatened, they could call his name and he would return.  The Peacemaker then left them and disappeared.



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