The elders recently told me that language is the souldof the nation. Language provides the foundation forour identity, land and place, and the sense of family secitity. Hence, language is the storehouse of indigenous knowledge. Our Nations are steeped in oral tradition; ceremonies and speeches: songs: medicines and medicine societies; laws; histories; and stories: --Gayanesha'go;nah and Gaiwiio--these are our instructions and the foundations of our great confederacy. These instructions were oral, thus we are always a generation or two away from losing our langauges right way, We use it as often as possible since the key for language survuval is continuos usage.Our elders are considered the libraries of our Nation. But they, too, are no more invinciple as our languages and there is an urgency stirring among all the people as we begin to lose the last vestiges of what it means to Indian. This dynamic creates great energy and the drive to learn by the younger generation, and creates the same energy and drive to teach by the elders.When the great peacemaker completed his instructions of the Gayanesha'go;na (The Great Law of Peace0, after he had installed the leaders of the five nations--Mohawk, Oneida, Onandoga, Cayuga, and Seneca--after he planted the Great Tree of Peace with the four white roots of truth, after he had set the the eagle on top of the tree as the guardian and watchman of our new league of peace, after he had laid down the constitution of this great confederacy, and on the shores of Onondaga Lake, a thousand or more years ago...a woman approached him and asked, "Now that you have done all of this,how long will it last" and he answered, "That's up yo you." So far, our will to be who we are has lasted into the twenty-first century." Turtle woman is the main protagonist of the myth which makes up the Haudeeosaunee Creation Story and, like our culture, our spirituality is embedded in our language. It is said that, without language, we would cease to exist.
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