Native American Heritage Month: My Haudenosaunee Roots

November is Native American Heritage Month. Congress first set the month aside in 1990, and every November since, the United States has recognized it. November was chosen because it closes the traditional harvest season, a time of gathering and giving thanks.

So I want to use this month to tell you something about where I come from.

I'm Iroquois. My heritage is Seneca and Mohawk. Our people call the confederacy the Haudenosaunee, which is usually translated as "People of the Longhouse." And almost everything I teach about going from Me to We, I first saw in the way my ancestors learned to live together.

Two doors of the same house

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy is often described as one longhouse that stretches across what is now upstate New York. Each nation has its own fire, its own language and its own council, and all of them live under one roof.

The Mohawk, Kanien'kehá:ka, the People of the Flint, are the Keepers of the Eastern Door. The Seneca, Onöndowa'ga:', the People of the Great Hill, are the Keepers of the Western Door. My two lines come from the two ends of the same house.

The doors are far apart. They face different directions and guard against different dangers. But it's one house. That's the first lesson I take from my heritage: you can be fully yourself and still belong to something larger. In fact, the house only works because each door holds its own ground.

The Great Law of Peace

The story of how that house was built is one of the most important stories I know.

According to Haudenosaunee tradition, the nations were once at war with each other. The violence was so bad that people had stopped believing peace was possible. Then a man the Haudenosaunee call the Peacemaker traveled among the nations with a message of peace, unity and good minds. (Out of respect, I'm using his title here. Many Haudenosaunee people say his name only in the proper ceremonial setting.)

He was joined by Hayo'wetha, the Onondaga leader most people know as Hiawatha. Hiawatha had lost his family in the violence. The Peacemaker helped him through his grief, and then the two of them carried the message together.

There's a teaching from that time I come back to again and again. The Peacemaker took a single arrow and broke it easily. Then he bound five arrows together, and they couldn't be broken. One nation alone is weak. Bound together, they hold.

When the five nations (the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca) accepted the peace, they uprooted a great white pine and threw their weapons of war into the hole beneath it. Then they replanted the tree over the weapons. It's called the Tree of Peace, and its white roots reach out in the four directions so anyone who wants to live under the Great Law can follow them home. Later the Tuscarora joined, and the confederacy became the Six Nations.

The Great Law and the roots of the United States

The Great Law didn't only shape my ancestors. It also caught the attention of the men who founded the United States.

In 1744, at a treaty council in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the Onondaga leader Canasatego told the colonial delegates that their union had made the Five Nations strong, and he urged the colonies to unite the same way. Benjamin Franklin printed the proceedings of that treaty. In a 1751 letter to his printing partner James Parker, Franklin pointed to the Six Nations, whose union had "subsisted Ages," as proof that the colonies could unite too. (He used the insulting language of his time, but he understood the lesson.) In 1754 he brought the Albany Plan of Union, a proposal for one Grand Council of the colonies, to a congress that Haudenosaunee leaders also attended. Thomas Jefferson studied Native governments as well. He wrote about the Iroquois confederacy in his Notes on the State of Virginia, and in 1787, as the Constitution was being drafted, he wrote that "the only condition on earth to be compared with ours is that of the Indians."

Those ideas of union fed into the Articles of Confederation and, later, the U.S. Constitution. In 1988, for the Constitution's 200th anniversary, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution (H.Con.Res.331) stating that the union of the thirteen colonies "was influenced by the political system developed by the Iroquois Confederacy," as were many of the democratic principles in the Constitution itself.

Historians still debate how much the Great Law shaped the founders' plans, and the founders drew on many sources, from English law to the republics of ancient Greece and Rome. But I believe the Great Law of Peace is part of the root of the United States. In a real way, every American lives under the branches of that tree, and that's a reason for all of us, Native or not, to learn it.

What the Great Law teaches about community

I'm not a historian or a spokesperson for any nation, and I won't pretend to explain the Great Law in full. But here's what I've taken from it into my own life and work.

A We needs structure, not just good feelings. The Great Law isn't a mood. It's an agreement with roles, councils and procedures. Leaders are chosen for their character, their positions are unpaid, and the clan mothers have the authority to remove a leader who stops serving the people. That's accountability built into the design, and most modern groups have nothing like it.

Decisions are made for people who aren't born yet. Haudenosaunee leaders are taught to weigh their decisions for the seventh generation to come. Imagine running a family, a business or a community that way. It changes what counts as a good decision.

Gratitude comes before business. Gatherings traditionally open and close with the Thanksgiving Address, the "words before all else." The speaker greets and thanks the people, the Earth, the waters, the plants, the animals, the winds, the sun, the moon, the stars and the Creator. After each part comes the same line: "Now our minds are one." Nobody argues about the agenda until everyone in the room has remembered what they share.

That's the we-tradition I carry. Not a crowd that thinks alike, but sovereign people who choose to bring their minds together.

In my first book I wrote a line I still stand behind: "Leaders must have qualities of intelligence, compassion, and selflessness or they are not fit to lead." I didn't invent that idea. My ancestors built a government around it.

My vision quest

At sixteen I did a traditional vision quest. I was guided by an elder pipe carrier, Jim Eaglewing, who had taught me the ways of the prayer pipe.

He had me prepare for days first: a water-only fast, then a sweat lodge to purify. Then I went into the woods with my pipe and my walking stick until I found my place, drew a circle on the ground, and stayed inside it for four days with no food and no water, praying. Near sunset on the fourth day, when I truly believed I had nothing left to give, the vision came.

What I received wasn't a plan. It was a recognition: we are all related. Creator and creation are one. The separation I'd felt my whole life was never as real as it looked.

I'm not telling you this so you'll go do it. Please don't fast without water because you read a blog post. I'm telling you because that vision is the root of everything I've built since, including Going from Me to We and the New Atlantean Society. The Daily Forge practices in my book are a safer, daily way into the same truth.

How to honor this month

If you're not Native, here are a few simple, respectful ways to mark Native American Heritage Month:

• Learn whose land you're on. Look up the nations who lived where you live, and learn their names as they say them.
• Read Native voices. The National Museum of the American Indian publishes free material on the Haudenosaunee, including the Thanksgiving Address.
• Support Native-owned businesses and artists directly.
• Practice gratitude first. Tomorrow morning, before your phone, give thanks for five things in the natural world. Try my free Daily Forge Starter to build it into a routine.

And if you want to see where you are on your own path from Me to We, take the New Atlantean Quiz, or read more about me here.

Now our minds are one.

Frequently asked questions

When is Native American Heritage Month?

Every November. Congress first designated November 1990 as National American Indian Heritage Month, and it has been recognized every year since.

What does Haudenosaunee mean?

It's usually translated as "People of the Longhouse." It's the name for the confederacy many people know as the Iroquois or the Six Nations: the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora.

What is the Great Law of Peace?

It's the founding law of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, brought by the Peacemaker with the help of Hiawatha. It united warring nations under one council, symbolized by the Tree of Peace.

Did the Great Law of Peace influence the U.S. Constitution?

Many historians say it was one influence among several. Benjamin Franklin held up the Haudenosaunee union as a model for uniting the colonies, and in 1988 Congress passed H.Con.Res.331, acknowledging the Iroquois Confederacy's contribution to the development of the Constitution. Historians still debate how large that influence was.

What is the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address?

It's the "words before all else," spoken to open and close gatherings. It gives thanks to the people and the natural world, and each section ends with "Now our minds are one."

What does this have to do with going from Me to We?

The Great Law shows that strong, distinct nations can choose to live under one agreement without giving up who they are. That's the heart of going from Me to We, and it's what I'm building with the New Atlantean Society.

Sources

• U.S. Congress, H.Con.Res.331 (1988), acknowledging the contribution of the Iroquois Confederacy to the development of the U.S. Constitution
• Benjamin Franklin, letter to James Parker, March 20, 1751 (National Humanities Center)
• Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Albany Plan of Union, 1754
• National Museum of the American Indian, How Indigenous Governing Practices Influenced the US, including Canasatego's 1744 Lancaster treaty speech
• JSTOR Daily, The Native American Roots of the US Constitution, including Jefferson's 1787 letter