Our children must know their heritage,
culture and traditions.

by the late Jacob E. Thomas, Cayuga Chief

The Precolumbian culture to present day has changed so much that Iroquois people have become confused and lost their traditions, heritage and culture. The coming of the Europeans affected the Iroquois people of the Five Nations because of the early Jesuit influence - imposing their belief and their way of life on us. So with this great change natives began to follow the instructions of the Christians. And today most natives have adopted many of the holidays. Before non natives arrived on this Turtle Island natives had no holidays. According to the creation story, we are told that when the creator made mankind, he also created daylight, and he intended that people will rest at the end of the day. The Creator never gave natives any special holidays nor a Sabbath Day. Only the Europeans had these kind of holidays for praying. Native people can take a holiday any time. There were no Sundays for the natives. Each day was the same as another day, including Sundays and holidays.

Holidays originated from Christianity when the natives became converted into Christianity. Then the natives began to be influenced by the faith of the Europeans and that began to change the natives way of thinking. Today, natives have these holidays. Now todays children should be told what is theirs and what is not theirs. There are a few that can be mentioned such as Christmas: Traditional native people celebrate the ending of the cycle in December and the coming of the New Year, "New Year's Day" - it had something to do with the clan system. On this day its called the children's' morning and the older peoples' afternoon. The children go out in the morning to collect their donut dolls which is modern today but in olden days there were gifts of food or maple sugar candy. In the afternoon the older people went out to collect their dolls  the reason for this was because of the family respect they held for each other in their matrilineal bloodline, "the extended family" so that the family will never forget who they are related to on both sides of their family: the maternal and the paternal side of family. They also would meet and sit down in a celebration to eat together in appreciation of one anothers existence for the ending of the cycle.

Native people never had a holiday at Easter or Thanksgiving nor any other holiday. The native people have a Thanksgiving Harvest Festival in the fall but it is not a holiday. This is important for our children and teenagers to know their heritage, culture and traditions.