day 22 -"The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address”

Day 22 - The "Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address," and a plug for "The Great Thanksgiving Listen"
On this Thanksgiving Day in the United States, our post comes from the "Dance for All People" website, sponsored by the Naraya Cultural Preservation Council.
 
"The Thanksgiving Address (the Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen) is the central prayer and invocation for the Haudenosaunee (also known as the Iroquois Confederacy or Six Nations — Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora). It reflects their relationship of giving thanks for life and the world around them. The Haudenosaunee open and close every social and religious meeting with the Thanksgiving Address."   
 
The address begins with these lines,
 
"The People
Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now, we bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as people. Now our minds are one."
 
The full text of the "Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address" may be found on the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, here. 

The address set to musical accompaniment can be found on the "Dance for All People" website here: 

​As a follow-up to this week's earlier posts with the voices of immigrants to the United States from Story Corps, the national nonprofit, we encourage people to visit the Story Corp website.  Story Corps sponsors “The Great Thanksgiving Listen” encouraging people of all ages to record an interview with an elder using the Free StoryCorps App.  Each interview will become part of the StoryCorps Archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.  Learn more here.