Read to Me from… The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address (2019)

On Read to Me, we practice the essential, joyous skill inside great writing — listening. We listen for what we love in the work, and then put words to why it's so, so good

Today, we revisit a 2019 episode on the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address: Greetings to the Natural World, also called, in Mohawk, Ohénten Kariwatékwen: Words Before All Else.

This Address’s legacy is much bigger than the United States Thanksgiving tradition. People of the Haudenosaunee nations recite it before ceremonial and governmental meetings. Their civic life grows again and again from acknowledgment of the natural world, relationship to it, and gratitude for it.

Is it ok for a white reader, which is me, to recite and explore the Address? Yes. There is ample documentation that the Haudenosaunee nations offer it broadly to the world.

Thank you to the bevy of voices who helped me recite the Address in 2019. You remain magical.