Transcriber: Tammy Lynn Pertillar Reviewer: Robert Tucker
Thank you for that warm reception and wonderful introduction.
"Thank you." Two simple words we use.
How many times have you used them today, this week, this month?
In your lifetime?
"Thank you."
All those simple words that can hold a great power and perspective
when put together with other teachings that we have as Haudenosaunee People.
I’m an Onondaga of the Haudenosaunee People,
or "People of the Longhouse."
We have a great perspective on giving thanks
in all of our traditional teachings and who we are as a people.
Have you ever had those opportunities, or regrets,
of not being able to thank somebody, or tell them how much you love them,
before it was too late?
Or on the flipside of that:
The euphoria of being with like-minded people
doing amazing things, and being part of something greater than yourself?
Putting it in the perspective of thanks, and of gratitude,
allows us to appreciate much more in life,
allows us to see the simple things.
As Haudenosaunee People, we’re taught that from the moment we’re born.
The foundation of that is the words that come before all else:
what we call our "Ganohę:nyoh", our "Thanksgiving Address."
When we do that - we’re taught to do that when we wake up,
we’re taught to do that when we put ourselves to sleep at night,
and we do it when we gather as people.
When we recite that thanksgiving, we go verse-by-verse,
and the first one we start with is the people.
Because any time we gather as a people is a sacred time.
If you can imagine from the moment you were born,
and all of our life's journeys that brought us to this exact point in time,
it was meant to be.
It's a sacred time, a special time.
Our life's journeys have now crossed.
As we recognize that, we recognize that you got here, we give thanks for that.
Everyday, there’s accidents in this world that could have delayed you,
or put you in haste, or put you in a hospital.
So we’re thankful that you arrived safely.
We recognize there’s those you’ve left behind,
whether at home, or co-workers or classmates that aren't here with you,
that might have been weighing on your mind, causing you concern,
worried about their health or something else in their lives.
So we acknowledge that and we leave that there
so we can appreciate the time we have together.
When we do this, after every verse, we say,
"We now bring our minds together as one,
and give thanks to all of Creation."
And then we continue: we go from-the-ground-up.
We give thanks to our Mother Earth. We give thanks to the waters.
We give thanks to the fishes in the waters.
We give thanks to the the grasses, and the plantlife,
those that give us our sustenance like our
Three Sisters: Corn, Beans and Squash.
Or those that give us our medicines, like strawberries,
or sacred tobacco that we use, to send our words up to the Creator.
We give thanks to the animal world: The two-legged, four-legged and winged;
those of the insect world.
We give thanks to the trees.
When our speakers do this in length, and it can be lengthy,
they'll acknowledge each tree for what its role is
and what it's intended to do.
How it gives us shade, firewood, and shelter for the animals.
They really go through it in great detail.
But there's a lot of trees outside this beautiful campus
and how many of you, as you walked in, stopped to just recognize them?
That without those trees giving us oxygen
without them taking our CO₂ and giving us oxygen back,
we don’t breathe; we don't live.
Yet we walk by them and don't give them any
sign of respect or acknowledgment.
So, as we go through, we'll give thanks
to our Grandfathers: the Thunders; the Rains.
We give thanks to the Four Winds out of the West that bring change.
We give thanks to our Grandmother, the Moon;
our eldest Brother, the Sun;
the celestial beings in the sky.
We give thanks for our Four Spirit Guides and protectors
The Enlightened Teachers that guide us and protect us on our way.
We’ll give thanks to the Creator for all of Creation.
The speaker who does this in the traditional format
will then pause and say,
"For those of you that are gathered with us:
Give thanks for anything important in your life
to be acknowledged and recognized.
That you give thanks to it in your own way."
Then finally, we'll bundle our minds together as one and give thanks
and go about to conduct the business we're intending to do.
Whether that’s a social, or funtime
or a business meeting, if you will:
it puts us in that perspective
and starts the beginning of what we call "creating good minds."
The other aspect of that is in all of our ceremonial cycles.
Our traditional leaders won't say it is a religion;
they talk about it as a way of life, a way of thinking.
A perspective that’s supposed to guide us each and every day.
When we give thanks in our ceremonies,
it might be for things like the strawberry.
We follow the planting cycles.
When the wild strawberries emerge, we pause what we’re doing as a People;
we come together, we gather to give thanks and acknowledgment
that the wild strawberries are still doing
what they're originally intended to do.
There’s a prophecy with our wild strawberries:
Not the ones you get in the store, but the wild strawberries.
When there's no more,
that’s going to be the end of time for us.
When we see them we want to gather and give thanks,
because it means we have another year left on Earth.
When we are really thankful for all of what we have in the world,
it puts us in a perspective of abundance.
It allows us to see that there's enough for everybody.
It allows us to be in this perspective of gratitude
which humbles us, and grounds us, and puts us in that good frame of mind.
When we tie that into our teachings around Seven Generations:
We're taught that every action we take
we have to be mindful Seven Generations up.
That every action and decision we make, has to ensure their well being.
Just as we look back Seven Generations,
we give thanks for those that came before us.
That intergenerational thinking
also plays part in the "good mind."
Because it’s not just about the now; it’s about the legacy that was left us
and that which we have to leave for our future generations.
So, when you put this perspective
in more common terms, I say with my son:
We have to be thankful for the presence,
that they're still there doing what they're intended to do,
and the gifts - the presents - the gifts that they are giving us
and all of what they’re intended to do.
I kind of translate it with him.
I feel kind of bad about saying this sometimes, but I tell him:
When somebody gives him a gift,
whether it's a birthday gift or some other gift,
or does something nice for him, I tell him to say, "Thank you,"
and to appreciate that.
Because that's the only way the person giving that to you can understand
how much you value and appreciate that.
If you’ve got something given to you you really need
and you just sort of disregarded it and took it for granted,
the person giving that you might not see you as appreciating that enough
to give it to you again.
So in all of Creation we’re supposed to honor those gifts that are given to us.
When we go back, we think about not only those Seven Generations -
we tie that into our Great Law of Peace.
Our Peacemaker came to us and gave us the ideas
of Peace, Power and Righteousness.
The Righteousness is seeing good in each other.
The Peace is harmony and balance with every living thing, and with each other.
The Power is the coming together of those good minds,
the gathering of those good minds.
The way the Peacemaker demonstrated that to us is:
He went to the strongest warrior village and he gave them an arrow.
When I do this with schoolkids, I use pencils.
I go to the strongest kids in the class, and say, "Break this pencil."
After a little effort they do, just like the warrior did.
Then that Peacemaker bundled five arrows together,
signifying the original Five Nations of our Haudenosaunee Confederacy:
The Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas and Mohawks.
The Tuscaroras came up in the 1700s
to join and become the Sixth Nation of the Confederacy.
When he bundled those five arrows together,
and gave it to that same warrior, he couldn’t break it.
Of all my demonstrations I did with kids,
there was only one girl in high school that broke it.
It ruined my presentation, (Laughter)
but I was very impressed nonetheless.
When the Peacemaker gave us that simple teaching,
it showed us we’re stronger together when bonded with good minds
than we could be separately,
that we could do more together than we could apart.
When we put our minds together, it's a gathering of good minds.
It’s like drops of water coming together to form a pool, a body of water.
When that pool moves together in a positive direction,
it can be a powerful force of change.
It’s a movement that can do good in the community.
Like the Colorado River flowing through the Grand Canyon.
Or, our mighty Niagara Falls just down the river.
It’s a powerful force of change when we gather with good minds.
I know for us, as Haudenosaunee People,
it puts that perspective of balance in harmony.
It gives us a healthier frame of mind to see the goodness in each other.
My mom always used to tell me,
"You have to have a good mind and a strong heart."
Far too often, we fail to see those opportunities,
to recognize others in our lives.
Those that gave us gifts, just by being with us,
and touching us, or teaching us.
I remember when I had a corporate career.
When I was younger, I worked out in Colorado.
Our group had a training session at one of these resort conferences.
At morning break we went out and got our coffee.
Down the hall there was another group.
They were laughing and having a good time.
We found some people kind of intermixed:
"Where are you from?" "What are you doing?"
But when we came out during lunch, it was kind of chaotic down there.
There were ambulances and a fire truck,
and a lot of chaos going on in their end of the hall.
They said one of their co-workers had a medical emergency.
So, we went back in our session.
And when we came back out for the afternoon break, it was really somber.
They’d just been notified that the co-worker had died of a heart attack.
You heard multiple people say numerous times,
"Gee, what a really good guy he was.
I just wish he knew how much he meant to me."
Yet in everyday life, we don’t always take those opportunities
to let people know their lives here on Earth have purpose and meaning.
If nothing else to ourselves, for what they've given us.
I was so thankful for the opportunity I had with my mom.
I lost her a few years ago.
But the year before, I dropped my son off.
She watched all the grandkids.
I dropped my son off at my sister's house.
She was making breakfast for them.
I had a few moments, so I sat down and talked.
I remember looking at her and reflecting on the wonderful gifts she had given me.
I was able to tell her.
When she passed, I had a great feeling of fulfillment
that I was able to share with her what she meant to me.
Of course that morning she shed some tears,
because we don't share it enough.
We don’t take the time to appreciate the very simple things in life.
This power of coming together with good minds
has a great opportunity to reduce conflict in the world.
Because if we see that there’s enough,
if we can work together, we can even get more.
It puts the perspective of bringing us together with those bundled arrows.
The same concept created the United States of America.
Look at the back of a dollar, you’ll see a U.S. emblem.
On that emblem is an eagle.
In its left talon, you’ll see thirteen arrows bundled.
That’s because Benjamin Franklin and others had sat with our Councils,
and learned these concepts.
When they went back to Philadelphia they forgot
that we're a matrilineal society and women ruled the world.
But eventually, that came to be.
Our perspectives were part of the founding of the United States.
The United States, all the Thirteen Colonies,
could have been different countries like Europe and Africa.
But they became the United States of America
by learning that concept: We're stronger together than we are separately.
You can see the power. I tell my son this, too.
When you surround yourself with good people, good things happen.
He’s a freshman in high school now, and I remind him of that.
Be surrounded by bad people, bad things happen.
Be surrounded by good people, good things happen.
That perspective of gratitude, thinking intergenerationally,
and understanding the power of the collective
can create amazing things, as simple as those concepts are.
Look at leaders like Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr.
They saw the best in everybody,
even though they might have been being beaten themselves.
They saw the goodness at the very basic human level.
Those movements attracted other people to them.
You saw this great change that happened because of that.
A very simple idea of being in a perspective of giving thanks.
There’s an interconnectedness amongst us that we often don't recognize.
When we meet as Native People, often you’ll see us sit in a circle.
That’s so this energy that binds us and connects us together
can flow freely from us to each other; there’s nothing to impede it.
Or people will smudge the air with cedar, sweetgrass or sage.
They cleanse the air so this energy can flow between us.
This energy, you know. You feel it already.
When you walk in a room and somebody doesn't like you,
or isn't listening to you,
you can sense that, you can feel that.
Or when you're in love, or somebody's in love with you,
you can feel that attention, that excitement.
It's like a heat lamp being put on you; you can feel that love and attention.
Or, if they fall out of love with you,
the coldness of that lamp being put away,
and that attention being put somewhere else.
So you can feel this energy.
It’s really just atoms,
atoms that are touching in my heart,
that are touching atoms in my blood,
that touch atoms in my skin,
that touch atoms in the air.
They touch atoms to each and every one of you.
Aligning ourselves with good minds,
we're able to connect at a very basic human level.
We’re able to see the good in each other.
We're able to see the power of the collective.
We’re able to be thankful for the wonderful gifts
and know that we might not have everything we want,
but we have a lot of the things we need.
A challenge to you tonight,
when you put your head to your pillow,
is to really give thought to the things
that you have to be thankful for in your world.
The fact that you got up, that you had another day of life,
that you most likely had a roof over your head,
clothes on your body, and food available for you to eat.
Far too often, many people in our community
don’t have those very basic things.
You might be thankful because on the way in,
or before you left, just seeing the smile of your child.
Or on your way in, hearing a song
that reminded you of someone you loved,
or who was important to you, who may be far away, or has passed on.
Or learning new knowledge, or meeting new friends.
We have a lot to be thankful for.
When we ground ourselves in that perspective,
we can do amazing things.
When you take the time to give those unexpected "thank yous,"
that’s how you get remembered.
I used to be a personal coach, too.
What I used to tell my clients is:
"It’s not what happens to us that defines who we are;
it's what we do after things happen to us
that defines who we are."
If you get kicked down and knocked down
and you curl up like a baby and cry,
it’s not the fact that you got kicked down;
it's that people remember you curling up like a baby and crying.
But if you get yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep going,
that's how people are going to remember you.
Being in a perspective of appreciation and gratitude, and expressing that,
people will remember you, and they'll want to be attached to you.
If we can keep our good minds collectively together,
we could do more than we could apart.
So, with that, I say, "Niawen'kó:wa."
Thank you very much.
(Applause)