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...

I have gathered here some examples of various tribes’ traditions that involve a promise from their respective culture hero to return. Micmac The first example comes from the last chapter of On the Trail of Elder Brother: Glous’gap Stories of the Micmac Indians , by Michael B. Running Wolf & Patricia Clark Smith. Below are selected quotes from the prophecy I find particularly relevant to us today. The full prophecy can be read in the book and is worth a read. “‘By now, I have taught you all you need to know in order to live well in this world,’ he replied. ‘You may fear that this is not the case, but it is so. And when the time comes, I promise you I will return. Only one thing remains to be given to you, and that is a knowledge of things that will come to pass before I come back to walk among you once more. I’m going to give you that knowledge now.’” “‘Far off is another invasion,’ Glous’gap continued. ‘In enormous canoes bearded men are coming from a...