Nourish the Word

This post should be read in conjunction with The Great Peacemaker  post. I believe they go hand in hand. There are two Tuscarora sources published 55 years apart from each other in the 1800s, that have been on my mind lately. The first reason is because they describe an earlier people who destroy themselves on this land. (I apologize in advance for not providing all the page numbers. This is because I only have Kindle versions of these books.) “A blazing star fell into a fort situated on the St. Lawrence and destroyed the people; this event was considered as a warning of their destruction. After a time a war broke out among the northern nations which continued until they had utterly destroyed each other, the island again become in possession of fierce animals. ” David Cusick’s Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations , 1826 “A blazing star fell into their fort, situated on the banks of the St. Lawrence, and destroyed the people. Such a phenomen...

One of the culture heroes that has stood out the most to me is the Great Peacemaker of the Haudensosaunee (or Six Nations). I’ve read through quite a few versions of this story (and there are a lot!). So far, I’ve found the two depicted in The Constitution of the Five Nations , (one committed to writing by Seth Newhouse and the other prepared and agreed upon by a committee of Haudenosaunee chiefs) to be the most similar to the Prince of Peace, Jesus the Christ. These two individuals are born of a virgin mother, are raised from the dead, were healers, and instruct their people in the way and law of peace. In some versions of this story the Peacemaker is identified as Dekanawida, like the ones in this post. In other versions he is identified as Hiawatha (a variation of spellings are used for both). Often, they are described as working together to bring about the confederacy of the Haudenosaunee. An online scan of the book can be read at   this link . Here are some sho...

Today is a venture into the territory of a different tribe, the Seneca. I have been studying  The Code of Handsome Lake . As a brief summary: Handsome Lake is the name of a man belonging to the Seneca tribe, who became known to them as a prophet during the last stage of his life. He was in his sixties when he experienced a long period of sickness attributed to his alcoholism . During his bout with ill health, he experienced a mighty change of heart that cumulated in what he claimed was a visitation of three messengers from the Creator. At the time of this initial vision, he collapsed and appeared as if he was dead to his family . He arose to begin teaching the message that the three messengers taught him (the Gaiwiio), continuing for approximately 15 years until his death on August 10, 1815. His teachings were unique at the time because they honored many things about Christianity without abandoning Seneca wisdom and tradition. As If He Were Dead The first striking thing ...