Produced by Native Self-Sufficiency Canter, Six Nations Indian Museum, Tracking Project, and Tree of Peace Society. These words of thanksgiving come to us from the Native people known as the Haudenosaunee (also Iroquois or Six Nations - Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora) of upstate New York and Canada. The Thanksgiving address has ancient roots, dating back over one thousand years to the formation of the Great Law of Peace by a man called the Peacemaker, and perhaps before that. Today these words are still spoken at the opening and closing of all ceremonial and governmental gatherings held by the Six Nations. The address is based on the belief that the world cannot be taken for granted and that spiritual communication, thankfulness and acknowledgment of all living things must be given to align the minds and hearts of the people with Nature.
