Iroquois Religion

folktales passed down as a centuries-old oral tradition. Through these stories, listeners learn values, laws, and acceptable behaviors in their communities. Haudenosaunee storytelling is entertaining, but also a way of preserving their culture. The stories reflect the Iroquois' perception and understanding of the world communicated through poetry and metaphor. Each Haudenosaunee village had a Hage'ota, or storyteller, who was responsible for learning and memorizing the ganondas'hag, or stories.[7] Traditionally, no stories were told during the summer months in accordance with the law of the mythical dzögä́:ö’ (Little People). Violators of this rule would suffer great evils; being stung on the lips by a bee or being strangled by a snake in their sleep. The Haudenosaunee believed that telling stories in summer would make the animals, plants, trees, and humans lazy, since work ceases when a good story is told. These stories feature spirits and dieties such as Hahgwehdiyu, the Iroquois god of goodness and light, as well as a creator god. He and his twin brother Hahgwehdaetgah, the god of evil, were children of Atahensic (an Iroquois sky goddess, but in some versions the Earth Mother), whom Hahgwehdaetgah killed in childbirth by forcing his way out from under his mother's arm instead of passing through the birth canal. Hahgwehdiyu had uprooted a council tree in heaven and dropped a pregnant Atahensic through a hole created when the tree was removed. She was carried down to a watery world by a flock of birds and placed on the back of a turtle. The water animals worked to bring soil to the surface to form an island. After the death in childbirth of Sky Woman, the island was shrouded in gloom. To remedy this, good Hahgwehdiyu shaped the sky and created the sun from his mother's face. Evil Hahgwehdaetgah, however, set great darkness in the west to drive down the sun. Hahgwehdiyu reacted by creating his sisters, the moon and the stars, from his mother's breast, positioning them to guard the night sky. He gave his mother's body to the earth, the Great Mother of every living being. Hahgwehdiyu created the first people, healed disease, defeated demons, and instituted many of the Iroquois magical and ceremonial rituals. Another one of his gifts was tobacco, which plays a central role in the Iroquois religion. Hah-gweh-di-yu is assisted by a number of subordinate spirits. Iroquois stories also tell of Hé-no, the spirit of thunder who brings rain to nourish the crops. The Iroquois address Hé-no as Tisote (grandfather). He appears as a warrior, wearing upon his head a magic feather that makes him invulnerable to the attacks of evil Hahgwehdaetgah. On his back, he carries a basket filled with rocks which he throws at evil spirits and witches. Hé-no lives in a cave under Niagara Falls. A young girl who lived above the falls was engaged to marry a disagreeable old man. Rather than marry, she boarded a canoe and was carried over the falls. Hé-no and his two assistants caught her in a blanket and took her to his cave. One of the assistants married her. Later, Hé-no rescued her village from a huge serpent by luring it to a spot on Buffalo Creek where he struck it with a thunderbolt. Fatally wounded, the serpent tried to escape to the safety of Lake Erie but died before it cpuld reach safety. The body floated downstream to the head of Niagara Falls, stretched nearly across the river and arched backward to form a dam. The dammed water broke the rocks, and the snake's body fell upon the rocks below. This story explains the formation of Horseshoe Falls. Hé-no's home was destroyed in this process.