Why this solar eclipse has meaning for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy
During next Monday's solar eclipse, the Hau‐ denosaunee Confederacy will celebrate the once in a lifetime event as the an‐ niversary of its founding.
The Haudenosaunee Con‐ federacy, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy, is com‐ posed of the Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, Mohawk and Tuscarora nations. A to‐ tal solar eclipse played an im‐ portant role in its history.
On the afternoon of April 8, a total eclipse will occur where another eclipse dark‐ ened the skies over Seneca territory nearly 1,000 years ago.
"It's amplifying the peace and the messages of peace that were given to our peo‐ ple," said Michelle Schenan‐ doah, a member of the Onei‐ da Nation, Wolf Clan, in up‐ state New York, and founder of the nonprofit Rematria‐ tion.
"Each year we have been gathering at Ganondagan, and leading up to this eclipse when we also received guid‐ ance from within our com‐ munities to gather again at this eclipse."
The gathering at Ganondagan, a state historic site of a 17th century Seneca village in Victor, N.Y., near Rochester, will include speak‐ ers, singing and traditional teachings.
According to oral history, the Haudenosaunee Confed‐ eracy was founded by the prophet known as the Peace‐ maker.
Perry Ground, an Onondaga storyteller and cultural educator, says at that time the nations were at war. Ground said that Peace‐ maker was known to have had supernatural abilities and was tested by each na‐ tion before they would ac‐ cept his message, known as the Great Law of Peace.
The Seneca were the last nation to ratify the constitu‐ tion of the confederacy.
"The Peacemaker comes to the Senecas and they see the sun disappearing," he said.
"They take this as the sig‐ nal that he told them, 'Look to the sky for a signal, you know that it's time to stop fighting and to accept the idea of peace.'"
Astronomy plus oral his‐ tory
Barbara Alice Mann, a professor emerita at the Uni‐ versity of Toledo in Ohio and a member of the Seneca na‐ tion, wrote a 1997 paper with astronomer Jerry L. Fields on when this event took place.
In an emailed statement, Mann told CBC Indigenous that Haudenosaunee oral histories indicated the ratifi‐ cation took place much earli‐ er than the mid-16th-century date Western scholars had posited.
The paper cites oral testi‐ mony transmitted through Haudenosaunee knowledge keepers that as the Seneca were deliberating joining the confederacy, the sun went black for several minutes. Oral tradition said this occur‐ red either when Second Hoeing (early July) was ac‐ knowledged or Green Corn (late August to early Septem‐ ber).
Mann and Fields looked for a total solar eclipse path that would include Ganonda‐ gan between July and Sep‐ tember, in mid-afternoon, between AD 500 and AD 1700.
"It is rare enough when archeology and oral tradition agree. But when archeology, oral tradition, historical records, and astronomical science all point to the same date, Aug. 31, 1142, a signifi‐ cant mass of evidence is be‐ fore us," Mann wrote in the paper.
Mann told CBC Indige‐ nous that she's going to watch Monday's eclipse but won't be attending a gather‐ ing as she's recovering from illness.
"I'll leave the festivities to youngsters, with my bless‐ ing," she wrote in an email.
Schenandoah said reliving and retelling their traditions as they've always done keeps them alive, and is different from knowledge that is stored in a book until some‐ one needs that information.
"In many ways, it's like the oral history actually has more weight because it's con‐ stantly relived in families and within nations over and over again versus sitting on a shelf and being forgotten," she said.