In 2001, Herbert C. Kraft authored a comprehensive history of the Delaware Nation covering a 12,000-year period extending from 10,000 BC to AD 2000. Throughout his ethnohistorical account, Kraft cites tensions and frictions that existed between the neighboring Haudenosaunee Confederacy, also known as the Iroquois, and their Grandfathers, the Delaware Nation. It is well known that the onset of European colonialism in the lands that became known as the United States further exacerbated the discord between these two Indigenous political systems.
However, various Delaware Sachems exercised tremendous efforts to help guide the healing process between particular lines of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Delaware Nation. During the 1960s and 1970s, Sachem James Lone Bear Reevy frequently attended the Central Fire held at the Grand Council of the Onondaga, a Member Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Although his efforts did not fully achieve the unification he sought, seeds of reunification were nurtured as he worked to polish the chains of relations that had become tarnished over centuries.
Through a fortunate and strategic use of social media platforms, Sand Hill Band of Raritan Lenape and Cherokee Indians Red Chief Lance Red Hawk Shauger became acquainted with Sonohse:’s Turtle Clan member Lalol^ks, also known as John Skenandore of the Wisconsin Oneida Nation. Through dialogue regarding the Great Law of Peace, commonly referred to as the Kayanlaˀ Kówa, Red Chief Lance Red Hawk Shauger and Lalol^ks expanded their discussions to include strategies for the reunification of their sovereign systems. These strategies encompassed areas of inter-Nation coordination such as cultural revitalization, educational attainment and development, economic initiatives, and other institutional arrangements designed to simultaneously mend the schisms between their polities while advancing their engagement on global stages.
During this process, two Mohawk Clans also became participants in the accumulation of these shared efforts. As a result of these synchronized labors, Principal Sachem Dr. Ronald Yonaguska Holloway, Minister of International Affairs for the Federation, personally extended official Sponsorship from the Sand Hill Band of Raritan Lenape and Cherokee Indians to the Latiskalaketi, Sonohse:’s Turtle Clan of the Oneida, as well as to Kawenniiosta Jock of the Orenrenhkowa, or Wolf Clan Family, and Kanerahtiio, also known as Roger Jock, of the Rahstawenserontha, or Bear Clan Family, to begin the process of FANA Nation onboarding. These actions help evolve the essence of the Great Law of Peace as the Haudenosaunee contribute toward Wunnandry, or the Federation’s Law, which serves as a foundation for advancing the Laws of Continuity into the future.
Photos from personal files to be used as header for this one?:
