boundaries in sharing what I have been told, I asked permission to
write about it and how it has influenced my own thinking. Over and
over, I was told that these words are a gift of the Haudenosaunee
to the world. When I asked Onondaga Faithkeeper Oren Lyons
about it, he gave his signature slightly bemused smile and said, “Of
course you should write about it. It’s supposed to be shared,
otherwise how can it work? We’ve been waiting five hundred years
for people to listen. If they’d understood the Thanksgiving then, we
wouldn’t be in this mess.”
The Haudenosaunee have published the Address widely and it
has now been translated into over forty languages and is heard all
around the world. Why not here in this land? I’m trying to imagine
how it would be if schools transformed their mornings to include
something like the Thanksgiving Address. I mean no disrespect for
the whitehaired veterans in my town, who stand with hand on heart
as the flag goes by, whose eyes fill with tears as they recite the
Pledge in raspy voices. I love my country too, and its hopes for
freedom and justice. But the boundaries of what I honor are bigger
than the republic. Let us pledge reciprocity with the living world. The
Thanksgiving Address describes our mutual allegiance as human
delegates to the democracy of species. If what we want for our
people is patriotism, then let us inspire true love of country by
invoking the land herself. If we want to raise good leaders, let us
remind our children of the eagle and the maple. If we want to grow
good citizens, then let us teach reciprocity. If what we aspire to is
justice for all, then let it be justice for all of Creation.
We have now arrived at the place where we end our words. Of
all the things we have named, it is not our intention to leave
anything out. If something was forgotten, we leave it to each