Religion


 * Religious Beliefs:**

The supernatural world of the Iroquois included a numerous amount of deities, the most important was Great Spirit. In their beliefs, Great Spirit is the creator of human beings, plants, animals, and the forces of good in nature. They believed that Great Spirit indirectly guided the lives of ordinary people. Other important deities to the Iroquois were Thunderer and the Three Sisters, the spirits of Maize, Beans, and Squash. Opposing the Great Spirit, and other forces of good, were Evil Spirit and lesser spirits responsible for disease and other misfortune. The Iroquois believes that ordinary humans could not communicate directly with Great Spirit. Yet, they could communicate indirectly by burning tobacco. Doing this it carried their prayers to the lesser spirits of good. The Iroquois also regarded their dreams as important supernatural signs. Therefore, serious attention was given to interpreting dreams. It was believed by these people that dreams expressed the desire of the soul. As a result, the fulfillment of a dream was of great importance to the individual.

Around 1800 a Seneca sachem named Handsome Lake received a series of visions which he believed showed the way for the Iroquois to regain their lost cultural integrity. Also, the visions promised supernatural aid to all that followed him. The Handsome Lake religion emphasized many traditional elements of the Iroquoian culture. Yet, it also incorporated Quaker beliefs and aspects of White culture. In the 1960s, at least half of the Iroquoian people had come into an agreement with the Handsome Lake Religion, and accepted it.

There were part-time specialist known as keepers of the faith. They were both male and female and their primary responsibilities were to arrange and conduct the main religious ceremonies. These religious specialist, or Keepers of the faith, were appointed by elders and were accorded considerable prestige.

Ceremonies were tribal affairs concerned primarily with farming, curing illness, and thanksgiving. In the sequence of occurrence, the six major ceremonies were the Maple, Planting, Strawberry, Green Maize, Harvest, and Mid-Winter or New Year's festival. The first five in this sequence involved public confessions followed by group ceremonies. These ceremonies included speeches by keeps of the faith, tobacco offerings, and prayer. The New Year's festival was usually held in early February. It was marked by dream interpretations and sacrifice of a white dog offered to purge the people of evil.

In the Iroquois reservation in the 1970s, a special ceremony took place.When a sachem died he had a successor that had to be nominated and confirmed. The other tribes of the League were informed and the council met to preform a condolence ceremony. In this ceremony, the decreased sachem was mourned and the new sachem was put to action. Condolence ceremonies were also practiced for the common people. Earlier in historic times, the dead were buried in a sitting position facing east. After a burial, a captured bird would be released. This was said to carry out the spirit of the deceased. Earlier times than that, the dead were left exposed on a wooden scaffolding. After a period of time their bones were deposited in a special house of the deceased. The Iroquois believed that after death, the soul embarked on a journey and series of ordeals that ended in the land of the dead. The land of the dead was located in the sky world. Some Iroquois people still believe this today. Mourning for the dead lasted a year. At the end of this year, the soul's journey was believed to be completed. A feast was then held to signify the soul's arrival in the land of the dead.