Teachings from the Longhouse

Kerry Abel is a professor of history at Carleton University. She is the author of Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History, co-editor of Aboriginal Resource Use in Canada: Historical and Legal Aspects, and co-editor of Northern Visions: New Perspectives on the North in Canadian History.

In June 1799, a Seneca chief named Handsome Lake reported a series of
visions that were to become the basis of a set of teachings that would
endure in Six Nations communities to the present day. They provide
instructions for a good life— pronouncements that cover a range of
subjects, from marriage and child-rearing to alcohol and witchcraft. In
the mid-19th century, a set list of the teachings was agreed on by
Longhouse leaders and transmitted orally to subsequent generations of
followers. There have been several written versions in the 20th century;
this book is Cayuga Chief Jacob Thomas’s translation and rendering of
the famous “Code of Handsome Lake.”

The book includes an introduction by assistant Terry Boyle, a chapter
in which Chief Thomas comments briefly on his people’s history,
illustrations by Randell Hill, and a very short bibliography. For the
most part, the words of the Code are allowed to speak for themselves,
but occasionally footnotes of explanatory detail have been added.

The best-known version of the code is Seneca teacher Edward
Cornplanter’s, published in 1912 by ethnologist A.C. Parker. The two
versions make a very interesting comparison. Chief Thomas’s version is
shorter, of sparer prose, and in several places, of rather different
messages. For example, Thomas is explicit about the Creator’s wish for
women to fulfil their duty to have 10 to 12 children, while the older
version contains no such injunction. In Thomas’s version unruly
children are to be whipped as a last resort, while Cornplanter’s
version rejects corporal punishment. There are also more subtle but
equally intriguing differences. Thomas frequently uses the term
“Mother Earth,” which does not appear in the earlier version. Also,
Thomas’s Code describes a Creator who is clearly knowable and sends
direct messages, while in the earlier version, the Creator’s
messengers do not presume to know fully; instead, they suggest that they
“are of the opinion that” the Creator may take action.

In most of the major messages of the Code, however, the versions are
quite similar. In the case of editorial comment, the versions are rather
too similar. There are many phrases (and indeed, entire sentences)
copied directly from Parker’s comments on the Code. More careful
note-taking should have prevented these unfortunate lapses. Readers also
need to be warned about a number of dubious “facts.” For example, we
are told that the Code helped to unite the Six Nations during the
American Revolution, when Handsome Lake did not experience his visions
until 16 years after the war was over.

Given these caveats, it is useful to have a new version of the Code
available, and doubtless a wide variety of readers will find this to be
an intriguing book.