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Monday Ménage: First Nations Edition

Memorial Ode. Since Time Immemorial. Truth Telling.

MEMORIAL ODE / The HAUDENOSAUNEE (The Iroquois Confederacy – The Great League)

CHANT

Now, listen, Ye who established the Great League,

Now it has become old,

Now there is nothing but wilderness.

Ye are in your grave who established it,

Ye have taken it with you and placed it under you,

And there is nothing left but desert.

There you have taken your great minds.

That which you established, you have taken with you

Ye have placed under your heads what ye have established,

the Great League.

REFRAIN

Woe, Woe! Hearken ye!

We are diminished

Woe, woe!

The land has become a thicket.

Woe, woe!

The clear places are deserted

They are in their graves who established it.

Woe, the Great League!

Yet they declared it should endure.

The Great League, Woe!

Their work has grown old

We are become wretched. Woe!

Chief John Buck, hereditary Keeper of the Wampum, 1884.

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THE HAUDENOSAUNEE. A NATION SINCE TIME IMMEMORIAL

The Haudenosaunee, more commonly known as the Iroquois Confederacy, are an ancient people of North America. Our tradition states that our people originated in the northeastern woodlands of North America. There are no stories within that tradition concerning migration across frozen lands to the area we occupy. We have been and continue to be the original inhabitants of these lands.

Our existence in these lands has not been one of absolute peace and tranquility. We have had to work hard to develop the civilisation we enjoy. There was a time when our lands were torn by conflict and death. There were times when certain individuals attempted to establish themselves as the rulers of the people through exploitation and repression.

We emerged from those times to establish a strong democratic and spiritual Way of Life. The confederate state of the Haudenosaunee became the embodiment of democratic principles which continue to guide our peoples today. The Haudenosaunee became the first “United Nations” established on a firm foundation of peace, harmony and respect.

Akwesasne Notes, Mohawk Nation. 1978.