Handsome lake biography of michael

Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. August Learn how and when to remove this message. Drawing by Jesse Cornplanter.

Handsome lake biography of michael: Michael Keene. Director: The Code of

Basic concepts. Case studies. Related articles. Major theorists. Augustin Calmet Akbar S. Name [ edit ]. Early life [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. Tribe [ edit ].

Handsome lake biography of michael: Michael T. Keene Presents -

Brings a Message of Gaihwi:io "Good Word" [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. Footnotes [ edit ]. Indians in Pennsylvania. ISBN Cornplanter: Chief Warrior of the Allegany Senecas. Further reading [ edit ]. The Seneca were hungry because floods and frost had damaged their corn harvest. At the time when the Strawberry festival was about to be held inHandsome Lake, who had become a notorious drunkard, was very ill.

He was a babbling invalid who has wasted away to a mere skeleton. His relatives viewed him as a victim of malaria and, more importantly, of its cure, rum. His daughter Yewenot and her husband Hatgwiyot carried the limp figure back to his bed. Thinking that he was dead or dying, they sent for his closest relatives, Cornplanter and Blacksnake.

When Blacksnake arrived he found that Handsome Lake had no breath or heartbeat, but detected a warm spot on his chest. After a couple of hours, Handsome Lake returned to this world and told of meeting three men sent by the Creator. This was the beginning of a new religion. Handsome Lake then described his vision in council. His words were translated for the benefit of the Quaker schoolmaster who wrote it down.

Describing visions in council was a traditional activity and thus was not unusual. During a second trance which lasted about seven hours, Handsome Lake had a sky journey during which he was told the moral plan of the cosmos. Jesus told him:. While some Native religious revivals died out after their leaders did or revolts in their name were crushed, the Code of Handsome Lake survives today.

Cornplanter was his half-brother. Along with them, he was a signatory to the Treaty of Canandaiga inand accompanied Cornplanter on a delegation to Washington in The Revolution had been cruel to the Iroquois, who had lost most of their land. Deaths from combat, disease and conflict with Settlers had eroded families and destroyed morale.

Traders sold liquor to the Natives as their biggest-ticket item, not caring the devastation it brought through addiction. At the same time, he warned against the private ownership of property as destructive of traditional Iroquois values, and he encouraged cooperative farming and other communal activities.

Handsome lake biography of michael: In the late s,

He also condemned the cruelty to farm animals evident among many whites. Fearful of the corrosive effects of white education on Iroquois traditions, he said that only a few Iroquois children should be educated, and those for the express purpose of enabling the Iroquois to deal with the whites in legal and political matters. As a prophet, Handsome Lake differed from the Native American cultic and nativistic prophets.

The cultic prophets claimed that renewal would occur only when the people returned to the sacrifices and rituals they had neglected. The divine would then send forth its power and restore them. The nativistic prophets proclaimed that the whites would be destroyed if the people rejected all white influences and returned to the old ways. In contrast, Handsome Lake was an ethical-eschatological prophet.

He spoke in the name of a transcendent moral being who was seriously displeased with the sins of his people and would either reward them or punish them after death depending on whether they reformed themselves. The Creator did not promise that the whites would be destroyed or driven away but rather said that personal and social reforms would enable the Iroquois to be strong enough to maintain their own independence and to survive in a world increasingly controlled by whites.

Rejecting both the assimilationism of the Mohawk Joseph Grant and the nativism of the Seneca Red JacketHandsome Lake presented the Iroquois with the will of the Creator: They must either accept the gaiwiio "good word"that is, the revelations and injunctions received by Handsome Lake, by repenting their deeds and embracing personal and social reform, or be lost in both a personal-eschatological and a sociohistorical sense.

Unlike the biblical prophets, Handsome Lake's concern with ethical behavior and eschatology was not accompanied by a desacralization of nature. Although he rejected any cultic prescription for the ills of his people, Handsome Lake affirmed as integral to the Iroquois tradition the necessity of maintaining correct relationships with the spirit forces through ceremonial life.

Only by enacting the moral and socioeconomic reforms enjoined by the gaiwiio could the Indian tradition be fully effective. Corresponding to Handsome Lake's integration of eschatological and cosmic elements was his idea of the holy as both a transcendent moral being and an immanent presence and power. The present-day Longhouse religion, or Handsome Lake religion, while basing itself on the prophet's teachings, incorporates them into a religious structure that includes shamanic institutions and practices, agricultural and gathering ceremonies, and organizational meetings such as the Six Nations Conference.

Fenton, William N. Parker on the Iroquois. Syracuse, N. Contains a short life of Handsome Lake along with an English translation of the gaiwiio as recited by Edward Cornplanter. John, Donald P. Places Handsome Lake's dream-visions and their impact within an Iroquois religious history largely influenced by dreams. Examines his shamanic and prophetic roles and the implications of the acceptance of his message as normative revelation.

Tooker, Elisabeth. Explains the success of Handsome Lake and his choice of values in terms of the economic and social changes in moving from a mixed hunting-gathering-agricultural way of life to a heavily agricultural one. Questions Wallace's revitalization model. Wallace, Anthony F. Fenton and John Gulick. Washington, D. Examines the themes and values found in the teachings of Handsome Lake and relates his activities to the founding of the Handsome Lake religion.