PROPHECY FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH
IROQUOIS DELEGATION TO THE UNITED NATIONS
,
Chief Leon Shenandoah and Delegation at the UN Cry of the Earth Summit 1973
Chapter 7: The Iroquois Delegation to the United Nations
and Iroquois Address to United Nations on Environment, Chief Shenandoah, in Moscow
United Nations “Cry of the Earth” Summit for First
Peoples Nations November 21, 1993
I attended the United Nations "Cry of the
Earth" Summit in November, 1993. Where, for the first time in history,
First People Nations were invited from the four directions to speak Ancient
Prophecy to the world before the UN General Assembly. Native American delegations of Spiritual
elders from the four directions spoke prophecies in their native language that
was interpreted into English. I was invited as assistant to Chief Shenandoah,
to record the prophecies. When I asked
him if he knew what he would say, he said, "I've held this prophecy for
most of my life to give to the world, but I don't think they are ready to hear
it, I don't think they are ready to change."
Algonquin, Iroquois, Micmac, Hopi, Navajo, were
some of the Nations speaking from East, North, West and South. All different yet each one was strangely
similar bearing the same message: that man was destroying the Earth and that if
he did not change his ways, then trees would begin to die from the top down,
animals would begin to mutate and eventually leave, and the Earth would fight
back, the Earth would shake and shake and a large wind would come from the
east, a wind so strong that it would blow almost everything off the face of the
earth. Only a few would survive. “If we do not change then the Earth will be
destroyed as we know it.” Chief Leon Shenandoah Tadodaho, Iroquois Delegation,
Speaker
Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations
Moscow
Document of the United Nations spoken by the
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Delegation)
Address to the General Assembly of the United
Nations Moscow, by Leon Shenandoah,
Tadodaho, Haudenosaunee
October 25, 1985
On
Environment and Sustainability
Brothers, listen to the words of the Creator
given to the first United Nations -- the Haudenosaunee -- over 1000 years ago.
"The Chiefs of the Haudenosaunee shall be
mentors of the people for all time. The thickness of their skins shall be seven
spans; which is to say that they shall be proof against anger, offensive action
and, criticism. Their hearts shall be full of peace and good will, and their
minds full of a yearning for the welfare of the people. With endless patience,
they shall carry out their duty. Their firmness shall be tempered with a
tenderness for their people. Neither
anger nor fury shall find lodging in their minds, and all their words and
actions shall be marked by calm deliberation."
In every nation there are wise and good men.
These should be appointed Chiefs. They should be the advisors of their people
and work for the good of all the people., and their power comes from the
"Great Peace." A chief must never forget the Creator of mankind,
never forget to ask him for help. The Creator will guide our thoughts and
strengthen us as we work to be faithful to our sacred trust and restore harmony
among all peoples, all living creatures, and Mother Earth...
We were instructed to carry a love for one
another and to show a great respect for all the beings of this earth...
In our ways spiritual consciousness is the
highest form of politics...When people cease to respect and express gratitude
for these many things, then all life will be destroyed, and human life on this
planet will come to an end.
These are our times and responsibilities. Every
human being has a sacred duty to protect the welfare of our Mother Earth, from
whom all life comes. In order to do this, we must recognize the enemy -- the
one within us. we must begin with ourselves.
We must live in harmony with the Natural World
and recognize that excessive exploitation can only lead to our own destruction.
We cannot trade the welfare of our future generations for profit now. We must
abide by the Natural Law or be victim of its ultimate reality.
We must stand together, the four sacred colors of
man, as the one family we are in the interest of peace.
We must abolish nuclear and conventional weapons
of war.
When warriors are leaders, then you will have
war. We must raise leaders of peace.
We must unite the religions of the world as the
spiritual force strong enough to prevail in peace.
It is no longer good enough to cry,
"Peace." We must act peace, live peace, and march in peace in
alliance with the people of the world.
We are the spiritual energy that is thousands
time stronger than nuclear energy. Our energy in the combined will of all
people with the spirit of the Natural World, to be of one body, one heart and
one mind for peace.
We propose, as a resolution for peace, that
October 24th be designated as a Day of Peace, and a world cease-fire take place
in honor of our children and the Seventh Generation to come.
Day nay toh.
Chief Leon Shenandoah
IroquoisDelegation before
the U.N. General Assembly, New York
United Nations Document from the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee)
Delegation; Chief Leon
Shenandoah, speaker, Audrey Shenandoah, interpreter, Clan Mother,
Chief Oren Lyons,
Firekeeper, and Chief Jake Swamp, Mohawk Nation, Iroquois
Delegate also called
Haudenosaunee. This is the
most important document as it eloquently expresses the
Prophecy woven into the words of the Iroquois Thanksgiving Address. Chief
Shenandoah speaks of the destruction of the earth by man, if he
doesn’t change. And,
at the same time he gives Thanksgiving to the nations that they
continue to do their
duties. For example, if we
forget to give thanks,” then the Sun will begin to withdraw
from his duties and instead of being helpful to the people and the
plants, it will become
something that begins to do harm. Chief Shenandoah describes how “
the Earth will end
as we know it if man forgets to be respectful and show gratitude”.
Iroquois Delegation before the U.N. General Assembly, New York
“CRY OF THE EARTH” SUMMIT for First Peoples Nations
Leon Shenandoah, Haudenosaunee, at the U.N.
November 22, 1993
Haudenosaunee, which means “People of the Longhouse”, are known by
European-
Americans as the Iroquois Confederacy’. The Confederacy consists
of the Mohawk,
Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora nations. Leon
Shenandoah,
Onondaga, was the ‘Tadodaho’ or ‘Chief of Chiefs’. He passed to
Spirit on July 22, 1996
at the age of 81.
Delegation: Leon Shenandoah, Tadodaho, Haudenosaune, Audrey
Shenandoah, Oren
Lyons, Jake Swamp
Leon’s statement was delivered in his language and translated into
English by Audrey
Shenandoah: STATEMENT
The following is an excerpt from the United Nations
Document of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Delegation; Chief Leon Shenandoah,
speaker, Audrey Shenandoah, interpreter, Clan Mother, Chief Oren Lyons,
Firekeeper, and Chief Jake Swamp, Mohawk Nation, Iroquois Delegate also called
Haudenosaunee. This is the most
important document as it eloquently expresses the Prophecy woven into the words
of the Iroquois Thanksgiving Address.
Chief Shenandoah speaks of the destruction of the earth by man, if he
doesn’t change. And, at the same time he gives Thanksgiving to the nations that
they continue to do their duties. For
example, if we forget to give thanks,” then the Sun will begin to withdraw from
his duties and instead of being helpful to the people and the plants, it will
become something that begins to do harm. Chief Shenandoah describes how “the
Earth will end as we know it if man forgets to be respectful and show
gratitude”.
Iroquois Delegation before the U.N. General Assembly,
New York
“CRY OF THE EARTH” SUMMIT for First Peoples
Nations, by Leon Shenandoah,
Haudenosaunee
November 22, 1993
Haudenosaunee, which means “People of the
Longhouse”, are known by European-Americans as the Iroquois Confederacy’. The
Confederacy consists of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and
Tuscarora nations. Leon Shenandoah, Onondaga, was the ‘Tadodaho’ or ‘Chief of
Chiefs’. He passed to Spirit on July 22, 1996 at the age of 81.
Delegation: Leon Shenandoah, Tadodaho,
Haudenosaune, Audrey Shenandoah, Oren Lyons, Jake Swamp
Leon’s statement was delivered in his language
and translated into English by Audrey Shenandoah
Figure 15
Iroquois delegation to UN, Clan Mother Audrey Shenandoah, Chief Jake Swamp,
Chief Oren Lyons, Chief Leon Shenandoah
Chief Leon
Shenandoah’s Statement:
As we are all gathered here today, in this place,
it has become my (or our) responsibility to bring a message to the people about
how we should care for our Mother the Earth.
Our Creator has given to us our Mother the Earth,
and upon our Mother the Earth, from our Mother the Earth comes everything that
people need to sustain their life here on Earth. We are given the Waters, the
good, clean Waters, which our life depends upon, and the many fruits and
vegetables, the food that we use to sustain our life we take from our Mother
the Earth.
Our Mother the Earth provides for us the
Medicines that we need in our daily lives as we move about on this Earth. These
Medicines are provided for us to use and we look at them, or think of them not
as something that we use only in times of sickness, but they are there as good
medicine for us to insure that we might have a good Mind, a strong Mind, a
healthy Mind, if we would use them rightly. And they have a principle one, just
as all of the life-giving plants do; everything that sustains our life has a
principle one. Then, also, along with the Medicines growing in the bush, and
growing from the lowest bushes up into the Sky World we have the trees, the
Woodlands, and we are ever thankful for the Woodlands that we have for they – again
– are given to us as a gift that we might benefit from them, and live a good
life. And they have a principle one, this being the Maple tree. And from this
again we get the good Medicine for life:
we have the sweet water to drink when the air, in our part of the
country turns warm again. This is our sign that once again the warm air has
returned that we might have Life.
We have our Grandfathers, the Thundering Voices,
who carry the Waters to the Land that our food will grow – what we depend on
for Life, our sustenance will grow and be plentiful again. And on moving about in the Sky World we have
our Brother the Sun, who brings heat and light to the Earth so that we do not
walk around and move about in darkness.
And so that the plant life will grow, and that life will flourish here
on Earth.
We have also in the Sky World our Grandmother the
Moon, who shines down on us, and who has a direct relationship to the female
life of all the species living on this Earth. She has a direct relationship to
the rise and fall of the Big Waters on this Earth. She is the determiner of
when new life will come, new life will be born here on this Earth. And also in
the Sky World are the beautiful Stars, that we look on in the nighttime. There
was a time when our people were pure enough so that they knew the language of
the Stars, and they could communicate with the Stars. Today, in these times,
there are few people who still have this power, this knowledge, of the Language
of the Stars. But we give thanks that the Moon, and the Sun and the Stars are
there still, moving about in the Sky World, as they were given at the Beginning
of our Time, the Beginning of the Creation. And even if we don’t any longer
know the full language of the Stars, we can look at them and again they are
good Medicine, when you look at their beauty shining in the nighttime sky.
Within our Prophecies we are told that all of
these things, all of these gifts for which we give thanks to our Creator are
the ones who will tell us when a changing of the Earth is coming about.
For they will be – having been abused – they will
be withdrawn from us and we can no longer depend on them. Among them will be
our Grandfathers, the Thunderers, who bring the rain and who dampen the Mother
Earth, giving fresh water to drink to the Earth, refreshing the springs of
water that we drink. And when the time comes, and they will have finished their
duty here on Earth, the People will cry, the children will cry, for there will
be nothing to look forward to that will tend to and care for the Earth and
everything that grows from it: our life support system.
And when the time comes, and our Grandfathers the
Thunderers will no longer carry on their responsibility because people have
lost respect; people have lost the ability to be thankful for the gifts that
are given so freely from our Creator, that the Earth will become dry, and plant
life will not grow anymore when the power of our Thundering Voices, our
Grandfathers is taken from us. Our Brother the Sun, who gives us heat and
light, will also become something that will begin to take life, from the
pollution – in our language of today – the Sun will become affected, and this
Brother of ours who has been a great help in bringing and supporting our Life
so that plant life will grow, and so that Life will go on in the way that we
are accustomed to it, will be begin to decrease – in the instruction that he
has been given. Things will not be right with our Brother the Sun, and human
people here on this Earth will suffer from the heat of the Sun, rather than it
being a benefit to us. Our children will cry, and people will cry because of
this that can happen to the Sun. We do not know if Mankind can change whatever
the change is that is coming about. Our Creator did not tell us this. We are
only told in our instruction that we must be ever be thankful, and respectful,
and use these gifts wisely. And our Brother the Sun is one of these gifts that
are so taken for granted. And so the prophecy says that people will suffer from
the Sun.
And the People, the leadership – the governments,
I’ll say – of this whole Earth, will no longer be able to sit together and talk
in Peace. They will not be able to come to decisions; they will not be able to
come together to talk. And this will begin – we are told – in the land far
across the big ocean, in the land of the white sand. And this will spread and
soon it will hit where our homeland is, and our leaders will begin in time not
to be able to council and not to come to decisions when they sit and talk. And
the People, again, will suffer from this. We are told that there will come a
time when the People will come to the Original Peoples of the Earth asking –and
then begging – for their help in how to deal with all of these things that will
begin happening– or will be happening – to the People of this Earth, and to the
Earth itself.
And we are told that the Peoples of the Earth who
do not have an original way of life to follow will be making for themselves new
ways to believe in; will be creating for themselves new guidelines to live by,
that are not originally from the Creator. And we don’t know the outcome of
this, except that People will suffer, and that they will be searching endlessly
for a true way to believe in, a true way to follow.
The rains, the rainclouds that bring us the rain
that moisturize the Earth and allows for plant life to grow so that we might
have Life will have finished their duty. They will have become something that
we won’t see anymore. But before that happens, we will have rain, and rain, and
rain. And the rain will cause people to suffer. And the rain will cause people
to be crying. And so at that time we do not know – again – what the outcome
will be, except that people will suffer from the rain.
And when the rainclouds will become out of balance,
and then the Earth will have cracks in it from the dry, dry weather – seasons –
and the People will cry from this. And many, many different kinds of upheaval
will happen from the natural phenomena, the weather and people will suffer from
it. For we are told that all of these things that are gifts to us for our
benefit are being misused – abused – and people take them for granted, rather
than being thankful for whatever comes to us in the form of weather.
Within our way of life, we are instructed never
to complain about any kind of weather that we have. When we hear our
Grandfathers thundering –coming with a force of wind – there is surely some
Elder, somewhere in our territory giving thanks, and offering our sacred
tobacco that our Grandfathers the Thunderers are still with us and doing their
duty, and providing for our Life.
And then will come times when the fierce,
hard-blowing winds, along with the Thunderers, the heavy rains will come from
the direction of the setting sun. And will take much land with it, it will take
things that are growing along with it, and lay things flat, and the Earth will
slowly die – I guess you say in English. For things will not grow where this
land has been taken. And after about three
more years of this happening steadily in sequence, one year after another, then
we do not know what our Creator will have in store for us.
And we are told that there will come a time when
our good Medicine from the Earth – which has its own special Thanksgiving
ceremony all by itself – the Strawberry, the principal of all the fruit, the
Fruit Life on this land, will become scarce and then one time will come and we
will not be able to see the Strawberry. For the Strawberry is good medicine to
people. You feel very good when you see the fresh blossoms of the Strawberry
every year. Then when you see the fruit ripen, everyone gets very excited and
it’s a real uplifting of your Spirit to see this come about. But there will
come a time when we will look for the Strawberry and it will not be there. We
have this Thanksgiving for the Strawberry that I mentioned, and we are told
that when that time comes to our people then we may use the red leaves – if
there are only leaves – and give our Thanksgiving still, that the Strawberry
plant is there, although the berry has not appeared. Then this will be
acceptable as a Thanksgiving to our Creator.
The chief of the Woodlands is the Maple, and we
will see the Maple begin to decay and die from the top, from the pollution in
the Earth, and from the disrespect that has been given to the gifts that
Creator has given us so freely.
After some private discussion with the other
Iroquois delegates, Grandfather Shenandoah speaks again in his language and
Audrey Shenandoah again translates:
And there will come a time when you will see the
male – the male portion of humankind –moving in places that we’re not
accustomed to seeing, behaving in a manner that the male person should not be
behaving. For they will be in a
bewildered state. Confusion has set into their mind, and not really knowing how
to make a decision about what to do with whatever problems are at hand. They
will be walking ahead of the leadership, they will be walking ahead of the
leaders and showing great disrespect for the leadership of the Nations.
And there will be a time when babies –infants –
will be born to this Earth and they will stay only for a little while. Their
visit will become shorter and shorter, and there will be much more of this
occurring. And pretty soon there will be no more infants, no more babies.
Leon continues his statement, and Audrey resumes
translating:
There will come a time when we will see the
clouds bearing the rain that will come from the East, rather than the West,
from where we ordinarily see our storms coming from. And it will come with very
fierce, strong force from the direction of the rising sun, and move westward,
to the direction of the setting sun. And this, again, will cause much turmoil
and fear. But to us it will be a sign that the changing of the Earth is near. For this, these clouds will be gone into the
western horizon, and we won’t see them any more bringing the rain. Da Nay Toh.
Audrey continues with a statement of her own:
I myself have a very quick message from the Women
of the Indigenous Peoples, and – I would say – from the Women of this Earth.
Our Mother Earth is crying from abuse and disrespect. And the Mothers of the
Nations of this Earth are also crying. I’m speaking about the Mothers who have
not lost the relationship to our Mother Earth. I’m speaking about the Mothers
and the Women who still are connected to the things of Earth, to the
Life-giving Mother Earth. I’m talking about the Mothers who in spite of all of
the stress in today’s times that are hanging on, and really doing battle, that
our Traditions might live on. That these true ways that were given to our
People will live on. That our Grandchildren, our Great-Grandchildren, our
children seven generations into the future will have clean water, will have
water to drink. Will have clean food to take into their bodies, so that there
will be life.
We are in very, very difficult times. And it
becomes an individual kind of thing for people to change their lifestyle in
order for what is going on this Earth to change. We cannot wait for large, huge
amounts of monies from huge committees or organizations to make the changes for
us. And in our Nation, the Women have a very noble, respectful place in our
societies. And the Women are in the forefront of keeping our traditions. Of
keeping our ways of life that were given to us in the beginning of our time.
And this is the way we are told that it should be.
Our Leadership do not make decisions without
input, without the advice, without consulting with the Women within our
Nations. Because the Mothers, the Women, are Life-givers themselves. So as the
Earth is crying, the Mothers of the Nations are bleeding in their hearts, and
crying also for the future generations of our People.
Oren Lyons has a private discussion with Leon,
then gives a statement which begins with words in his language which he
explains in English:
The Original People of this ‘Turtle Island’ now
called ‘America’, ‘North America’, ‘South America’, ‘Western Hemisphere’. With
the Original People here, the Creator gave us instructions – all of us – each
of us – many Nations, many people. We all have our own stories of Creation and
they’re wonderful stories, they’re beautiful stories and they’re true. And we
all agree with them and we believe them. And for the Haudenosaunee and for all
the people at one time, gave us instructions of how to live and this is what
you have heard. And after he gave these instructions then the leaders were
supposed to carry out among their villages and wherever they were. And then for
the Haudenosaunee in the time of great strife a thousand years ago or more,
when we had forgotten our directions and we were fighting amongst ourselves,
then at that time we received the Great Law, the Great Tree, the Great Tree of
Peace. He gave us a symbol for Peace, he gave us a process for Peace that you
call Democracy. Those we have long before the landfall of Columbus on these
lands. People were free here. They lived free, they were a free people, a free
nation, understood that, independent and sovereign. And so we are, yet.
And after we had a while and our White Brothers
came across the sea not very long ago – some of our people say ‘five days ago’.
Five hundred years is all that you have been here and yet look about and see
what’s happened. And at that time, we were instructed once more on how to
survive, on what we would have to do, to deal with. And we were told way back
in 1799 by one of our chiefs – who had been given instructions in a vision – he
told us at that time that there were four things that you would need to survive
on. One thing, would be you must stay away from the strong drink, from the
whiskey the White Man brought. That will destroy your Nation. He said the
second thing that will destroy Nation is the Bible that he brings with him, the
black book, that he himself cannot agree upon. That will destroy your Nation.
He said the other thing that will destroy your Nation is the fiddle, or the
culture of the People, what they bring. He said that will destroy your Nation.
And the last thing he said was ‘and the playing cards will destroy your
Nation.’ They will come. Any one of the four – together or singly – they will
destroy your Nation. Those were the instructions we were given 1799.
And then we were told at that time that we would
receive no more instructions. We have what we need to survive. They told us we
have our Traditional Ways, our Ceremonies, our Thanksgiving, to carry them out.
And that’s how our people will survive; no other way. That’s how Life will
survive.
Leon Shenandoah speaks privately to Oren Lyons,
who then continues to speak:
My Uncle tells me, and reminds me, that what they
said was that by keeping our Traditional Ways, our Thanksgivings and carrying
this out we are supporting Life. That when we stop, when the Indigenous Nations
stop giving thanks, then things will stop growing also. And the values of food
will go down, the value of money will be nothing, and all of the things that
we’re talking about will come about, and so it’s up to the People. And when he
was given this message, he was in despair, he said ‘well what’s the use?’ ‘Why
should we try?’ And they told him, they said ‘this will happen, to be sure. You
make sure it’s not your generation. That’s all that you can do. It’s up to you,
each generation must strive and do for themselves.’
And so Chief Jake Swamp will talk about the
second message, the great symbol that he just planted in Central Park here in
New York. Da Nay Toh.
Jake Swamps then gives this message in English:
I am going to talk about the symbol of the Tree
of Peace as it relates to what it was prophesied in the time when our Peoples
in those times were destroying one another through the use of weapons and
warfare. When the Peacemaker completed and he saw the leaders, he asked them to
stand in a circle with joined hands, and with the Tree in the center. He told
them that one day, this would happen: somewhere, from some direction, a people
will come. And they will bring with them sharp objects, and then they will
start to chop at the roots of Peace. The Tree will weaken for a time. And then the
Tree will start to fall. It will fall on the joined hands of the leaders. And
he instructed them to be strong when that time arrives. ‘Do not lose your grip’
he told them, ‘For if you do, the Peace will never return. For in those times
when you are burdened by its heaviness and its weight, there will be a great
many children born. And when they observe you in pain, of the burden that you
have carried, they will move forward and ‘they will help you to raise the Tree
of Peace again.’ And at this time, the prophecy is being fulfilled. Our Leaders
are tired, because everything in there has come to our Nations’ territories.
All the elements of this course. But we are fortunate that many people around
the world are now born as those children that were meant to be. So that we can
promote the Peace, and make Humankind understand that Peace must prevail in the
World if we are to survive as a Human race.
The audience responds with applause, then Jake
continues:
It is true that we have many prophecies, maybe
two hundred that I can think of in my mind. Many of these prophecies have
already fulfilled. Many of our children were born deformed as it was predicted
by our Ancestors. And it came to pass. Many other things are in store for our
People. But one thing we should not forget is that we must have hope.
Prophecies are warnings to us so that we must work hard to preserve our future
for the benefit of our Grandchildren in the future.
Jake makes a statement in his language, then
continues in his language:
I give thanks today before we close that all of
you people that came here, and you stayed here all day long and sat in your
positions, and you heard the messages of our Brothers and Sisters from North
and South directions, West and East. It is very important that all of the
children of the World get together now to work towards a Global Peace that we
all desire for our children.
Thank you very much.
