On this eve of Thanksgiving Day, 2016, thinking of where we are ecologically with our country and planet, I want to read again the words of the Haudenosaune people delivered to the United Nations in 1977. Given that the history of Thanksgiving is for Native Americans one of betrayal and bloodshed, I wish to hear them say what they bring to current efforts of all who work to keep Earth livable. The following is excerpted from my forthcoming book (available February 14, 2017), From Egos to Eden.

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In 1977, at the United Nations Conference on Indigenous Peoples, the Haudenosaune presented “A Basic Call to Consciousness, the Hau de no sau nee Address to the Western World.” The Haudenosaune, also called Iroquois, gave their assessment of what has happened in the Western Hemisphere and offered themselves as partners and guides in the changes necessary to keep Earth livable. Their emphasis on “spiritualism” as “the highest form of political consciousness” includes them, as they importantly claim, “among the world’s surviving pro- prietors of that kind of consciousness.” The sense of the sacred in their consciousness guides us into the greater topography of consciousness able to keep Earth livable.

We feel that the Native peoples of the Western Hemisphere can continue to contribute to the survival potential of the human species. The majority of our peo- ples still live in accordance with the traditions which find their roots in the Mother Earth. But the Native peo- ples have need of a forum in which our voice can be heard. And we need alliances with the other peoples of the world to assist in our struggle to regain and maintain our ancestral lands and to protect the Way of Life we follow.

We know that this is a very difficult task. Many nation states may feel threatened by the position that the protection and liberation of Natural World peoples and cultures represents, a progressive direction which must be integrated into the political strategies of people who seek to uphold the dignity of Man. But that posi- tion is growing in strength, and it represents a necessary strategy in the evolution of progressive thought.

The traditional Native peoples hold the key to the reversal of the processes in Western Civilization which hold the promise of unimaginable future suffering and destruction. Spiritualism is the highest form of political consciousness. And we, the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere, are among the world’s surviving proprietors of that kind of consciousness. We are here to impart that message.