Dear Friends,
In telling and retelling the story of those first Pilgrims
who survived a harsh New England winter, we remember how their second year saw
a crop raised and a community gaining a foothold. We say that those early
settlers learned much from the Native
Americans- about corn, squash, turkey and medicine. But there is more.
The Native Americans
gave witness to the settlers that giving thanks is essential for life.
On our part of the country, the Iroquois Nation had (and has
to this day) a custom called the Thanksgiving Address – an address given to
help the gathered listeners achieve what the Iroquois called one-mindedness. They argued that, from
the basis of that perception, one-mindedness, the human community could work
consentually toward oneness
of life. In this Thanksgiving Address, offered at special times of the
year, Mother Earth was blessed, the cycles of the season were blessed, as the crowd punctuated whatever was
held up for thanks with their “yes.” The people were reminded that what the
Creator wants is for us to remain peaceful, to protect and nourish creation.
Yes!
The Native American worldview impacted the new American
society in other ways as well. Jose Barreiro, one-time editor of the Northeast Indian Quarterly, reported
there of “a memory that has been told and retold among the Iroquois Six Nation
people…that in the formative days of the
American republic, statesmen from the Indian Confederacy informed prominent
colonists, including some of our Founding Fathers, on the Indian concepts of
democracy.”
Research show that, indeed, Washington, Franklin and early
members of our founding congresses, had Native American friends whose ideas
found their way into our Constitution, much to our benefit.
So this
Thanksgiving, as we celebrate our national holy day and tend to focus our thanks
to God for family, friends, faith and the basics of life, let’s enlarge our own
Thanksgiving Day gratitude to include the blessings of liberty, a strong
Constitution and the wisdom of our early leaders who recognized the power for
good contained in the Native American vision of peacemaking and reverence for
life. For those Native Americans of the Iroquois Nation (Mohawk, Oneida,
Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora) whose lands we walk today here in
beautiful Upstate New York, let’s pray
in the words of the Ute People of the West:
I greet the highest in you.
Your goodness walks in front of me.
Your gentleness bids me good day.
Your quietness leads me.
I greet the highest in you.
And while we
are at it, let’s use that same prayer as we gather for our Thanksgiving Day
meal.
Blessings on
your day!
