Kayanerenk Wa

Several centuries ago, the five nations that would become the Haudenosaunee — Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca — were locked in generations-long cycles of bloodshed. When they established Kayanerenkó:wa, the Great Law of Peace, they not only resolved intractable coinflicts, but also shaped a system of law and government that would maintain peace for generations to come. This law remains in place today in Haudenosaunee communities: an Indigenous legal system, distinctive, complex, and principled. It is not only a survivor, but a viable alternative to Euro-American systems of law. With its emphasis on lasting relationships, respect for the natural world, building consensus, and on making and maintaining peace, it stands in contrast to legal systems based on property, resource exploitation, and majority rule. Although Kayanerenkó:wa has been studied by anthropologists, linguists, and historians, it has not been the subject of legal scholarship. There are few texts to which judges, lawyers, researchers, or academics may refer for any understanding of specific Indigenous legal systems. Following the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and a growing emphasis on reconciliation, Indigenous legal systems are increasingly relevant to the evolution of law and society. In Kayanerenkó:wa Great Law of Peace Kayanesenh Paul Williams, counsel to Indigenous nations for forty years, with a law practice based in the Grand River Territory of the Six Nations, brings the sum of his experience and expertise to this analysis of Kayanerenkó:wa as a living, principled legal system. In doing so, he puts a powerful tool in the hands of Indigenous and settler communities.

Looks at the customs, family life, history, government, culture, and daily life of the Iroquois nations of New York and Ontario.

Law’s Indigenous Ethics examines the revitalization of Indigenous peoples’ relationship to their own laws and, in so doing, attempts to enrich Canadian constitutional law more generally. Organized around the seven Anishinaabe grandmother and grandfather teachings of love, truth, bravery, humility, wisdom, honesty, and respect, this book explores ethics in relation to Aboriginal issues including title, treaties, legal education, and residential schools. With characteristic depth and sensitivity, John Borrows brings insights drawn from philosophy, law, and political science to bear on some of the most pressing issues that arise in contemplating the interaction between Canadian state law and Indigenous legal traditions. In the course of a wide-ranging but accessible inquiry, he discusses such topics as Indigenous agency, self-determination, legal pluralism, and power. In its use of Anishinaabe stories and methodologies drawn from the emerging field of Indigenous studies, Law’s Indigenous Ethics makes a significant contribution to scholarly debate and is an essential resource for readers seeking a deeper understanding of Indigenous rights, societies, and cultures.

The Iroquois culture and traditional Longhouse spirituality has a universal appeal, a ring of truth to it that resonates not only with other indigenous people, but also with non-Native people searching for their own spiritual roots. Raised in the home of a grandmother who spoke only Mohawk, Sakokweniónkwas (Tom Porter) was asked from a young age, to translate for his elders. After such intensive exposure to his grandparents' generation, he is able to recall in vivid detail, the stories and ceremonies of a culture hovering on the brink of extinction. After devoting most of his adult life to revitalizing the culture and language of his people, Tom finally records here, the teachings of a generation of elders who have been gone for more than twenty years. Beginning with an introduction about why he is only now beginning to write all this down, he works his way chronologically through the major events embedded in Iroquois oral history and ceremony, from the story of creation, to the beginnings of the clan system, to the four most sacred rituals, to the beginnings of democracy, brought to his people by the prophet and statesman his people refer to as the Peacemaker. Interspersed with these teachings, Tom tells us in sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic detail, the effect of colonization on his commitment to those teachings. Like a braid, the book weaves back and forth between these major teachings, and briefer teachings on topics such as pregnancy, child-rearing and Indian tobacco, weaving the political with the spiritual. Through his recollections of "Grandma," and what she said, we also get an inside view of the life of a Mohawk man, and his struggles. Sometimes articulate and at other times inventive with his second language of English, Tom takes us on the journey with him, asking us to trade eyes, by "erasing the blackboard" to see if we "can understand what a Mohawk sees, feels, is happy about and is sad about." Chapter sections and headings include: The Opening Address, Colonialism, Creation Story, Language in 3D, The Clan System, Trading Eyes, Funerals and Contradictions, A Language Dilemma, The Fog, Where We've Settled, The Four Sacred Rituals, Atenaha: the Seed Game, The Four Sacred Beings, Three Souls or Spirits and Ohkí:we, Weddings, Pregnancies, A Spiritual Ladder, Child Rearing Methods, The Great Law of Peace, Some Notes on Tobacco and Other Medicine, The Leadership, Casinos, Prayer?, The Future and The Closing Address. There is also an appendix of interviews with Tom's children, entitled: What Grandma's Great-Grandchildren Learned. Written as it is, by someone raised predominantly by a grandmother, it contains teachings which might otherwise be lost. The Iroquois culture and traditional Longhouse spirituality (of which Mohawk is one of five - and more recently six - nations) has a universal appeal, a ring of truth to it that resonates not only with other indigenous people, but also with non-Native people searching for their own spiritual roots. Due to the suppression of indigenous spirituality and culture, not only in Iroquois country, but across North America, many are searching to recover the remnants of what has been lost. This book makes a significant contribution to doing that, having been written by one of the original leaders of the revitalization movement. During the 1960s and 1970s this Mohawk Bear Clan Elder traveled extensively across North America with a group called the White Roots of Peace, a group which has been credited as the original stimulus for the growing trend to return to traditional ways on this continent.

Excellent for new beginning learners, this comprehensive Mohawk/English - English/Mohawk dictionary includes words, idioms and expressions common in everyday speech.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Iroquois Book of Rites" by Horatio Hale. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

"Here in the Just City you will become your best selves. You will learn and grow and strive to be excellent." Created as an experiment by the time-traveling goddess Pallas Athene, the Just City is a planned community, populated by over ten thousand children and a few hundred adult teachers from all eras of history, along with some handy robots from the far human future—all set down together on a Mediterranean island in the distant past. The student Simmea, born an Egyptian farmer's daughter sometime between 500 and 1000 A.D, is a brilliant child, eager for knowledge, ready to strive to be her best self. The teacher Maia was once Ethel, a young Victorian lady of much learning and few prospects, who prayed to Pallas Athene in an unguarded moment during a trip to Rome—and, in an instant, found herself in the Just City with grey-eyed Athene standing unmistakably before her. Meanwhile, Apollo—stunned by the realization that there are things mortals understand better than he does—has arranged to live a human life, and has come to the City as one of the children. He knows his true identity, and conceals it from his peers. For this lifetime, he is prone to all the troubles of being human. Then, a few years in, Sokrates arrives—the same Sokrates recorded by Plato himself—to ask all the troublesome questions you would expect. What happens next is a tale only the brilliant Jo Walton could tell. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

"This is book XXI of part three of the Alchemy of happiness entitled The Destroyers"--P. 4 of cover.