BE THANKFUL AND BUILD PEACE EVERY DAY: THE HAUDENOSAUNEE THANKSGIVING ADDRESS

The words of The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address are gentle, inspiring, inclusive, and loving. They remind us to be thankful and peaceful every day. 

The words of “The Thanksgiving Address: the Words that Come Before All Else” in gatherings of members of the Haudenosaunee people, including the Onondaga, Iroquois, Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca, open our eyes and hearts to everything around us. 

 

The Haudenosaunee people give thanks every day, not just on Thanksgiving Day

 

1. This lovely 9-minute video version of The Thanksgiving Address, or “The Words that Come Before All Else,” was recorded by Ina Barrón with video produced by Sagehorse, Inc., and is featured on the Peace Alliance website.
 (Skip the commercials in all videos.) https://youtu.be/SfeL2VqL2VQ?si=1SAeRmGW0sxAsESM

2. Learn the background in this 4-minute Q & A video with representatives from the Onondaga Nation: Whatweni⋅neh – elder Frieda Jacques (Turtle Clan) and student Kateri - Riley Thornton (Snipe Clan): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swJs2cGNwIU   

This video explains: “The Thanksgiving Address (the Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen) is the central 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. This video, filmed on location at the Onondaga Nation School in Onondaga Nation, focuses on the purpose and uses of the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address. (This video is part of the New York State Education Department Curriculum.)”

 

3. Matika Wilbur’s Project 562 presents youth from upstate New York’s Akwesasne, a Mohawk Nation, speaking a short (2-minute) version of the Address in Akwesasne.

The engaging high school students giggle and smile as they speak the Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen, understood as the “Words Before All Else,” “The Greetings To The Natural World,” or “The Opening Address.”  https://www.project562.com/blog/363283-a-real-thanksgiving-address-the-words-that-come-before-all-else 

4. This PDF version, from the National Museum of the American Indian would make a wonderful classroom illustration project or classroom or family read-aloud: https://americanindian.si.edu/environment/pdf/01_02_Thanksgiving_Address.pdf

 

5. To broaden students’ understanding of the Mohawk people today and to think about ecological concerns of the Mohawk people in upstate NY, show this 5-minute video that starts with Akwesasne Freedom School’s teacher Maxine Cole’s clear explanation of the daily nature of the Thanksgiving Address and moves to the role of the ash tree in Mohawk culture. This page is from the National Museum of the American Indian, and has many more teaching resources, including interactive quizzes and more.  https://americanindian.si.edu/environment/akwesasne/People.cshtml

 

6. The Haudenosaunee Guide for Educators, produced by the National Museum of the American Indian, introduces many concepts, including the Haudenosaunee’s Great Law of Peace, which influenced Benjamin Franklin and other creators of the United States Constitution. https://americanindian.si.edu/sites/1/files/pdf/education/HaudenosauneeGuide.pdf

 

7. Learn more about the peacebuilding mission of The Peace Alliance, working for peace education, enhancing personal peace practice, to pass HR 1111 to create a U.S. Department of Peacebuilding, and other social justice concerns. https://peacealliance.org

 

May we be thankful and build peace… every day.

 

Susan Gelber Cannon, November 2024

THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE: TEACH FOR PEACE ON MOTHERS DAY AND EVERY DAY

“This kid. He is going to make the world a better place. He came into the world wide-eyed and curious. He has never met a stranger. He doles out smiles without reserve. He is resilient and unafraid.
He is completely full of joy and pure potential.”
–Jen Cannon, Mothers Day 2017

"Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have taught them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs…."
Julia Ward Howe, 1870

Years ago, with other visitors to Colonial Williamsburg, I participated in a historical re-enactment of a militia training session.  As we stood shoulder to shoulder, harangued by “officers,” “shot” by musket, and rushed by bayonets, a shudder went through the line of adults and children.  We were to be turned into killing machines.  

I thought of my father, a World War II infantryman, and the trauma, fear, and injury he suffered as he endured basic training to turn him from a loving son, brother, husband and neighbor to a weapon of war.  For decades, my mother was also a survivor of war, holding my father as he screamed in the night.  She brought him back to a loving life, and she refocused his thousand-mile stare.  As their daughter, I work for a peaceful future for our children and ourselves. 

Remember the Origin of Mothers Day: A Call for Peace

As mother and grandmother, I love the Mothers Day video chats, cards, and calls, and I smile reading the loving posts of friends and family.  Yet I also encourage all mothers—and teachers—to remember the original sentiments of the Mothers Day holiday. 

Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910) was an abolitionist, suffragist, and peace activist, often remembered as the author of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” in 1861.  Her 1870 proclamation of peace to the women of the world led to the creation of Mothers Day. 

Anna Jarvis carried on the initiative, and eventually fought the ensuing commercialization.  Unfortunately, card companies don’t reference the sentiments for global peace at the heart of the holiday.

The Proclamation

In her proclamation, Howe called for an international congress of women to gather together to work for peace.  She decried the militarization of society and the carnage she had observed first hand as she visited Civil War battlefields.  Read her words:

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or tears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have taught them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated earth, a voice goes up with our own. It says, "Disarm, Disarm!"

The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail & commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesars but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.

Rock the World: Teach for Peace

William Ross Wallace’s 1861 poem inspired the saying, “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.”  Mothers, fathers, guardians, grandparents, friends, and teachers: let’s rock the world for peace! 

Today my daughter-in-law offered a heart-felt salutation to our beautiful grandson.  I offer the resources below to help us make her words true for every child in the world:  

“This kid. He is going to make the world a better place. He came into the world wide-eyed and curious. He has never met a stranger. He doles out smiles without reserve. He is resilient and unafraid. He is completely full of joy and pure potential.”

Happy Mothers Day.

--Susan Gelber Cannon, May 2017

RESOURCES:

• Learn more about Julia Ward Howe: https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/julia-ward-howe/
  
• Link to Waging Peace: "Mother's Day Proclamation" and a brief biography of Julia Ward Howe:  https://www.wagingpeace.org/mothers-day-proclamation/
  
• Use Peace and Justice Studies Association list of films for teaching peace:  https://www.peacejusticestudies.org/resources/films-teaching-peace
  
• Read my summary of Michele Borba’s UNSELFIE, Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World, with resources for teaching empathy to our children: http://thinkcareact.blogspot.com/2016/08/teaching-empathy-book-review-of.html
  
• Read my summary of BLINDSPOT, Hidden Biases of Good People, by Mahzahrin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald, with resources for antibias teaching: http://thinkcareact.blogspot.com/2017/02/diversity-book-club-2-blindspot-hidden.html
  
• Read Barnes and Noble blog and use these great books with younger children: 8 Lovely Children’s Books About Peace https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/kids/8-lovely-childrens-books-about-peace/
  
• Read my rationales for teaching peace at all grade levels: http://www.teachforpeace.org/rationales-curricula
  

• Peruse TeachforPeace critical thinking resources: http://www.teachforpeace.org/think

• Peruse TeachforPeace compassion and caring resources, including human rights, antibias, and antibullying links: http://www.teachforpeace.org/care

• Peruse TeachforPeace social action resources: http://www.teachforpeace.org/act/Youth-resources-for-Art-Poetry-and-Community-Action-Projects

• Learn about Crista Tinari’s PeacePraxis work teaching peace and kindness.  Great classroom and home resources are here and in her book: Create a Culture of Kindness: http://www.peacepraxis.com/

• Have fun viewing “Motherese” videos in various languages: http://motherese.weebly.com/motherese-around-the-world.html 

• Learn more about the convoluted path of the Mothers Day holiday and the work of the Peace Alliance: http://peacealliance.org/history-of-mothers-day-as-a-day-of-peace-julia-ward-howe/

• Learn about the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom [WILPF] and its ongoing work for disarmament, peace, and the advancement of civil society: http://wilpfus.org/story/history

• Read William Ross Wallace’s 1861 poem, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle: http://www.potw.org/archive/potw391.html

MOTHER’S DAY IS A PLEA FOR PEACE!

"We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice…."
Julia Ward Howe, 1870

Recently, with other visitors to Colonial Williamsburg, I participated in a historical re-enactment of a militia training session.  As we stood shoulder to shoulder, harangued by “officers,” “shot” by musket, and rushed by bayonets, a shudder went through the line of adults and children.  We were to be turned into killing machines.  

I thought of my father, a World War II infantryman, and the fear and injury he suffered as he endured basic training to turn him from a loving son, brother, husband and neighbor to a weapon of war.  As his daughter, I have tried to work for a peaceful future for our children and ourselves.  As Mother’s Day approaches, I find strength in Julia Ward Howe’s proclamation, printed below.

Want to do something special for Mother's Day?  Join the Peace Alliance’s Peace Wants a Piece of the Pie Mother’s Day Campaign to include peacebuilding in the national budget.  Information at this link: http://www.thepeacealliance.org/take-action/campaigns/mothers-day-2012.html

Mother's Day Proclamation
by Julia Ward Howe, 1870

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or tears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have taught them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated earth, a voice goes up with our own. It says, "Disarm, Disarm!"

The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail & commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesars but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.

[This text can be found in numerous sources.  This version is from http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/0000/1870_howe_mothers-day_print.htm ]

Biography of Julia Ward Howe (from Waging Peace.org)

US feminist, reformer, and writer Julia Ward Howe was born May 27, 1819 in New York City. She married Samuel Gridley Howe of Boston, a physician and social reformer. After the Civil War, she campaigned for women rights, anti-slavery, equality, and for world peace. She published several volumes of poetry, travel books, and a play. She became the first woman to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1908. She was an ardent antislavery activist who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic in 1862, sung to the tune of John Brown's Body. She wrote a biography in 1883 of Margaret Fuller, who was a prominent literary figure and a member of Ralph Waldo Emerson's Transcendentalists. She died in 1910.