Permalink: https://doi.org/10.1353/cro.2024.a963634

Abstract

Greetings to you all. I'm Haiwhagai'i, Onondaga Nation, Eel Clan. I have to start off with gratitude for seeing all of your faces here. It is a bit awkward for me to be sitting here on a panel with 3 bishops. It's true there is plenty of sin like was mentioned and more of it has come to the surface. We hear about the promises today and we heard about the confessions. We have to stick with the truth, and the truth of the matter is there is no trust.

INTRODUCTION

The Christian establishments invaded our lands—to this day. We appreciate the work that you guys are mentioning you're doing, but one drop of rain will spoil that promise on paper—one tear drop will spoil that promise and make it unreadable. So, promises mean nothing, nothing in terms of trust. It's almost like "put your land in trust of the United States government." It's the same hard work when there is no trust.

So, in talking about this future to come, we are looking for peace, just as we were in the past when we first met. When we first met the Catholics, the Jesuits, we sent then back the same way they came, with an Onondaga arrow in the back of their knee. The Christians limped out of here, because we found that the mission that they carried was not truthful—so within 16 or 18 months we got them out of here because there was no trust. So, this isn't something new because of your court cases and where Christianity stands today. Your position on our land should be to return the land immediately to help build trust.

When we are talking about these papers and these policies and deeds of property ownership within the churches (and I'm not going to just name one denomination, because Christianity spread on the "ownership" of property). It's a tough thing you know, we've got people coming from Albany and politicians coming here to the Longhouse at Onondaga and we're having a discussion with educators from the Board of Education [End Page 428] who were there talking about "our" Indians. They were talking to us, telling "us" that we are "their" Indians. Patiently we listened to this and their false promises. Then I stood up and I spoke to my people, and said, "My people, these are our white guys."

They are in our house as visitors, and as our elders tell us and how we always learned: Mother Earth is our floor, eastern woodlands are our walls, and sky is our ceiling. Welcome to our house. Now, under our roof, within our walls, and on our Mother Earth—the floor—we share with you all that we have because it appears that you need it, desperately. So, we do that today—we still do that. There have been a lot of battles throughout our times. The war is not over and nobody has won. To claim jurisdiction over someone's land—just claim it, that is mine! Whose bright idea is that? It comes from the Pope, or his workers, of which he has many. These teachings get passed down from generation to generation, within the church, and things don't change for the good of mankind.

Then it's about time to look at your mission as Christians. More people have died in this world over religious wars than from the smallpox that was fed to us. We all have a lot of work to do and we're all survivors, because we are still here, right? Talk about forgiveness and confessions and so forth. Well, healing generational trauma? Christians have done more damage than any Indigenous population throughout the world because they carried that shield, that Almighty shield. Some of the things that were taught about the Almighty was to live by the sword and die by the sword. You didn't follow the principles of whomever was in charge at that time, and how they...