Which way to Strawberry Fields?

Arnie General in his hat of a royaneh.

When I look at these clouds I sometimes think that the life is like them. They appear, they grow, sometimes they are huge and cause a storm and then they are blown apart. It is the same with people, said Arnie General as he sat on the veranda of his house.

Arnie is an Onondaga chief. I first met him nine years ago. He showed me then the reserve of the Iroquois on Grand River in Ontario. He took me in his car here and there, among other things he brought me to the Cayuga Longhouse in Sour Springs. This Longhouse wasn’t especially long, it was just a house built with huge wooden logs. In the middle of the front wall it had a tiny window and a door on the right hand side. I asked then whether I could enter, but Arnie told me that this is a sacred place, open only for ceremonies. I asked if I could be present at a ceremony. Arnie answered that he couldn’t see any objections, but there weren’t any ceremonies in the near future.

Longhouse ceremonies don’t have fixed dates in the European calendar. The Iroquois were an agricultural people and the ceremonies are connected with the gifts of the Earth that appear during the year, but the dates depend on observation of nature and are not fixed in the calendar. Only recently there have been some adjustments made to the calendar, because most of the participants have regular jobs, so the ceremonies nowadays take place on Sundays.

To say that Arnie is a “chief” of the Onondaga is slightly misleading. His real title is royaneh, which should be translated as noble. This title has existed among the Iroquois at least since Deganavidah walked the earth. Deganavidah, or Peacemaker (his name is sacred and should not be pronounced in vain), wasn’t an ordinary man. His mother was a virgin, his father was the Creator himself. He walked the earth long before the arrival of the white man and it was he who persuaded the constantly fighting Iroquois tribes to bury the hatchet and solve their problems by talking. It was agreed that fifty royaneh representing all five Iroquois nations would meet regularly in the Onondaga Longhouse and all the conflicts would be solved peacefully there. If one of those fifty royaneh dies or is revoked, another would be appointed in his place. Only men can be royaneh, but only women can appoint them or revoke them. All this means that a royaneh resembles more a Member of Parliament than a “chief”, who tells warriors what to do. A sign of royaneh's dignity is a hat with horns of a deer.

Iroquois flags.

The five nations mentioned above are Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk. Later another nation – Tuscarora – joined them and nowadays we talk about the Six Nations – this is practically a synonym of the name “Iroquois”. The fifty chiefs meet in the Onondaga Longhouse to this day. The Iroquois claim that as a result of the lost wars they ceded most of their lands, but they never gave up sovereignty. In the wars fought by the British Crown even today they take part as allies, not as British subjects. Their veterans appear in ceremonies in uniforms of Six Nations. They have their own representations at international sporting events; they have their own flag, even their own passports. Those passports are issued in the name of the council of the fifty chiefs. But the Onondaga Longhouse is not only a Parliament building, it is also a house of prayer. The Cayuga Longhouse in Sour Springs is just a prayer house, open only for the ceremonies.

A Longhouse is called thus because the Iroquois once lived in communal houses and these were long indeed. They were covered from top to bottom with tree bark shingle. Many families lived there together. Religious ceremonies were also held there. However, already in the 18^th century the Iroquois had accepted many ways of the white man, such as agriculture or building houses inhabited by just one family. It seemed that the old religion would also vanish, that the Iroquois would accept the religion of the white man. Many of them actually did so, but not all, because just then appeared the prophet who renewed the religious tradition of the Longhouse.

The prophet’s name was Handsome Lake. As a young man he was a brave warrior, but since he was forced to live on the rez – he became depressed. One day he suddenly lost his consciousness and fell to the floor, but when a few days later his relatives wanted to bury him – he suddenly got up and said that he had been to the Strawberry Fields and met the messengers of the Creator. Strawberry Fields is a synonym for Heaven; old Iroquois people say that a dying person is surrounded by the aroma of strawberries. Thus Handsome Lake was in Strawberry Fields, where he received Good News from the Creator and was supposed to pass on this Good News to his people. This Good News supported acceptance of some of the ways of the white man – like the methods of agriculture or of house building – but certain things were strictly banned. According to this prophecy drinking alcohol and abortion are grave sins. Indians had vast knowledge of herbal medicine, they knew herbs that induce abortion; during the time of national tragedy they were used often and the population decreased rapidly. It seems that the Handsome Lake prophecy helped to stop that process. Of course the prophecy insisted on keeping the old ceremonies alive, but they would be performed in a separate house. This is the Longhouse, which does not have to be especially long.

Interior of a longhouse.

When I met Arnie again I asked him whether there would be a ceremony held in the near future and if so could I be present there. Arnie grabbed a phone and for a few minutes talked in a language I didn’t understand. Afterwards he said:

“OK, come on Sunday to Sour Springs Longhouse. But you have to bring a gift, something to eat. At the end of the ceremony there is a meal and everybody shares food.”

I came with Marysia on Sunday slightly ahead of time. The ceremony was to be presided by Cleve General, a Cayuga royaneh (it was with him Arnie talked over the phone), but he wasn’t there yet. A group of women was gathered in front of the open door. Some ladies wore something that looked like traditional dresses, although they had no connection with what we imagine Indian women should wear. Men came in their ordinary clothing, with no Indian accents. Cleve came after a while and there was a short talk about whether it is OK for us to be present at the ceremony. Apparently not everybody liked that idea, although in the end we were invited on the condition that we take no photographs or notes.

The Sour Springs Longhouse has two doors, one (the front one) for the ladies and one (in the back) for men. Inside men and women sit separately on benches around the walls. In the middle there are two iron stoves and benches for the drummers.

What does a prayer in a Longhouse look like? In the beginning there was a longish speech by royaneh Cleve General in the Cayuga language. Of course I didn’t understand anything. But this was just the beginning, after that there were dances, three hours in all.

The Longhouse prayer is a dance. The row of dancers goes around the room anticlockwise. During one of the dances a large pot with some thick red juice was placed in the middle of the floor. Everybody drank from it, I tried it, too. It was strawberry juice.

Is it meant to be foretraste of Strawberry Fields?

Cayuga Longhouse in Sour Springs

You will find this text, 
and many more on the subject, 
in my book "DO THEY STILL LIVE IN WIGWAMS?":