Haudenosaunee Essay

The Haudenosaunee, “people of the longhouse,” are a group of six American Indian nations located in New York State. These nations, the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Tuscarora, and Seneca, face many challenges in maintaining their culture and traditional ways. However, they have been able to preserve many aspects and traditions through music and dance, arts and crafts, and sport.
Music and dance are an important aspect of modern Haudenosaunee life. The Haudenosaunee have preserved their traditional music and dances well throughout the years. For example, the flute is a traditional instrument that remains prevalent in Haudenosaunee society today. The traditional Haudenosaunee flute is played vertically compared to the concert flute,

which is played horizontally. Many different kinds of flutes exist, and they differ in materials and shape. Most flutes are made of wood, while others can be made of clay. Each flute makes a different sound. In the words of Dan Hill, a Cayuga flutist and flute maker, “each flute has his own voice.” For example, a particular flute “plays the sound of winter” (Hill, Cayuga). The sound of the wooden flutes could be described as melancholic and wispy. On the contrary, the flute made of clay is higher pitched and slightly crisper. All the flutes have a natural sound to them and remind the listener of being outside in nature. When talking about the how the flutes natural sound, Dan Hill emphasized how important it is to preserve the environment. He mentioned the Haudenosaunee belief that one should think seven generations ahead. He also mentioned that it is the duty of the Haudenosaunee to “speak up for the natural world” (Hill, Cayuga). The flute is one example of the Haudenosaunee preserving their culture through music (Hill, Cayuga).
In addition to music, the Haudenosaunee have maintained many of their traditional dances. The Haudenosaunee Dancers perform several social dances that the Haudenosaunee have used in their ceremonies and gatherings for many years. Before they begin singing and dancing, they give a Thanksgiving Address. The Thanksgiving Address is used to open and close all social and religious meetings. According to the Haudenosaunee Dancers, the Thanksgiving Address begins by being thankful for things on the ground and progresses to things in the Skyworld. In Ted Williams’ Thanksgiving Address, he repeats the phrase, “Three times three times three large, enthusiastic ‘Thank yous’… Now all of us universal family members, in our Urehdeh—life, energy, Divine Consciousness in all things—are as one,” as he thanks many elements of the natural world (Williams 334). While the Thanksgiving Address is an old tradition, many contemporary Haudenosaunee put a modern twist on it. For example, Ted Williams uses the phrases “the same as the picture taken by Apollo 17” and “each producing pure oxygen in photosynthesis with the Day Sun that we may breathe more healthfully” in his Thanksgiving Address (Williams 334). References to “Apollo 17” and “photosynthesis” would obviously not be included in old Thanksgiving Addresses. Additionally, the dress of the Haudenosaunee Singers and Dancers is another example of how they display their culture. The men wear feathered headdresses, baggy shirt, and breechclout over pants. Most of the Haudenosaunee men had long hair. Meanwhile, the women wear what appeared to be a dress over a skirt over pants. Some of the women wear a head band and almost all of them had their hair braided. Both the men and the women wear moccasins. Additionally, both of their outfits are patterned and decorative. Their clothing appeared to be made of cloth instead of deerskin, the traditional Haudenosaunee regalia.
To continue, the Haudenosaunee Singers and Dancers perform a few of their social dances. One of these dances is the Old Moccasin Dance. During this dance, the dancers are in a line and go around in a circle with the dancers switching places periodically throughout the song. Another dance they perform is the Women’s Dance. Only women can participate in this dance. The dance consists of the dancers moving in a circle using shuffling steps. According to the group’s director, Sherri Waterman-Hopper, the dancers’ feet stay close to the ground to symbolize the responsibility one has to take care of the land. The Alligator Dance is one of the other dances that they perform. The Haudenosaunee adopted this dance from the Seminoles. This adoption is an example of how current Haudenosaunee culture has been influenced by other Indian tribes. Compared to the previous two dances, which consist of the dancers forming a line and moving around in a circle, the Alligator Dance has a man and woman pair up and form a circle with the men on the inside. The dancers lock arms with their partner and move around in a circle. Periodically throughout the song, the pairs spin around in a circle. Lastly, the Smoke Dance is a fast-paced, free-style dance. The Smoke Dance is often done as a competition. At the Native American Festival, the Haudenosaunee Singers and Dancers split up by gender. The females went first, followed by the males. The crowd’s applause decided the winner. All the songs have a singer to go along with a drum and rattle. The songs are upbeat and lively. During all their dances, the audience is encouraged to join the dancers. Music and dance remain an important part of current Haudenosaunee life.
Additionally, art and crafts are crucial in Haudenosaunee society. Arts and crafts are often used to preserve and portray their culture. One form of art used by the Haudenosaunee is painting. Aweñheeyoh Powless is a Haudenosaunee painter. She has been painting for about ten years. She mostly paints using oil paints but sometimes will use acrylic. In her paintings, Powless depicts her culture and family. One of her paintings, “Divine Love That Surrounds Me,” uses symbolism to display Haudenosaunee culture. This painting has the head of a woman as its central figure with a row of human figures holding hands on the right-hand border and a glowing pair of cupped hands above her. According to Powless, the human figures represent family and community. Family and community remain of high value in Haudenosaunee culture. The hands at the top of the painting represent the Creator. The Creator is providing strength and guiding the woman. The woman is a symbol of strength and tradition. Women are extremely important in Haudenosaunee. Powless says, “women are the keepers of the Nation” (Powless, Onondaga). In the painting, orangish-yellow dots resonated from the woman outward. These dots are used to symbolize the woman’s energy being sent to her family, community, and the Creator. Besides symbolic paintings, Powless also paints realistic pieces. One of these paintings is of a pair of moccasins. The painting looks almost like a photograph and requires very close inspection to tell that it is a painting. Even in the realistic paintings, Powless portrays Haudenosaunee culture (Powless, Onondaga).
Another example of arts and crafts in present-day Haudenosaunee culture is basket weaving.

Ronnie-Leigh Goeman is a basket weaver from Onondaga who makes fancy baskets. Each basket takes about a month to make. She uses only natural materials like black ash wood, sweet grass, moose hair, porcupine quills, and moose antler. The materials used are an example of how the Haudenosaunee continue to use the environment to create goods. First, she pounds and splits the black ash wood until it is thin and flexible enough to be weaved. Next, she weaves the black ash while braiding in the sweet grass. Then, she adds the porcupine quills and moose hair as embellishments. To finish the basket, she carves a figurine out of the moose antler and attaches it to the top of the lid. The Haudenosaunee have been making black ash baskets for many years. They only began crafting these fancier baskets in the late 1800’s, but now the baskets are considered traditional and valuable to current Haudenosaunee culture (Goeman,

Onondaga).
Furthermore, pottery is another form of arts and crafts that the Haudenosaunee used in both the past and present. Peter Jones, an Onondaga potter, makes traditional pottery. Most of the pottery he makes is modeled on ceramics made by the Haudenosaunee before 1650. Each piece of pottery takes him about a week to make by hand. When painting the pottery, Jones often illustrates aspects of Haudenosaunee culture. One symbol found on many of his works is the Tree of Peace. The Tree of Peace comes from the story about the founding of the League and is a symbol of unity and friendship. Another part of Haudenosaunee culture that Jones portrays on his pottery is the strawberry. Strawberries symbolize the beginning of spring for the Haudenosaunee. The Strawberry Festival is the first Haudenosaunee ceremony of the spring. Like all Haudenosaunee ceremonies, there is giving of thanks, singing, dancing, and feasting. Peter Jones also depicts the symbols of the clans on his pieces. In his nation, the Onondaga, there are nine clans: wolf, turtle, beaver, snipe, heron, deer, eel bear, and hawk. Following Haudenosaunee convention, Haudenosaunee society is matrilineal, meaning that the clan of someone is determined by the clan of one’s mother. Peter Jones uses pottery to preserve and honor Haudenosaunee customs (Jones, Onondaga).
In addition to music and art, athletics, particularly lacrosse, are fundamental to the lives of many Haudenosaunee.

The Haudenosaunee created lacrosse many centuries ago. Alfred Jacques is a lacrosse stick maker from the Onondaga Nation. According the Jacques, lacrosse is viewed as a man’s game in Haudenosaunee society. They believe that the Creator gave them the game of lacrosse. Because of this, they take lacrosse very seriously since not playing hard is dishonorable to the Creator. The Haudenosaunee play games within their communities. These games are played the same way that lacrosse was traditionally played. The game is played on an open field without any out of bounds and without pads. They game is also played without any stoppage of play. Usually, the teams are split up by age with the younger men facing the older men. Moreover, the creation of the sticks holds a special place with the Haudenosaunee. For Alfred Jacques, it takes about ten months to make a stick. First, he hand carves the stick out of a tree and steams the wood. After two months of drying, he begins to bend the head of the stick. After six more months of drying, the head of the stick is bent further. Now that the stick has its shape, he trims the stick down to the right thickness. Afterwards, he drills the holes in the head for the netting and sand the stick down. Lastly, he shellacs the stick and put on the netting. Alfred Jacques showed the ways in which sticks have changed

throughout the years. The original sticks did not have a pocket; instead, the netting was flat. The lacrosse sticks eventually evolved to have a longer neck with a pocket. The last major change was the head of the stick becoming shorter. Lacrosse has always been a crucial part of Haudenosaunee culture (Jacques, Onondaga).
In conclusion, the Haudenosaunee have been able to retain much of their culture in music and dance, arts and crafts, and lacrosse. The Haudenosaunee will have to continue to work hard to keep their culture; however, their culture has always been evolving, so even what is viewed as traditional culture today is probably very different from what life was centuries ago. Seven generations from now Haudenosaunee culture will probably look very different from today.