Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force

HETF creates newsletters, pamphlets, flyers and cultural environmental educational materials in the Haudenosaunee languages in Onondaga, Seneca, Cayuga, Mohawk and Tuscarora to teach our students in the schools about our own traditional teachings in dealing with the environment. The Tuscarora Environment Program designed the Tuscarora Elementary Sc... hool Lunch Composting Project: Compost instruction and solid waste education was provided to the students and teachers. As a result, composting and recycling efforts continue to this day. Currently, as part of a three-year project, HETF is developing a model for a culturally based environmental protection process. The standards deriving from the model will be based on Haudenosaunee protocols, doctrines, and teachings. The model will focus on a the concept behind a protocol termed "The Dish with One Spoon". This environmental ideology was presented to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy as a teaching of the Great Law of Peace. The model also incorporates the instructions the Creator gave to the Haudenosaunee: To Give Thanks, as remarked in the Seneca version of the Ohenton Kariwatehkwen (The Thanksgiving Address). HETF is working with a Technical Working Group delegated by the Haudenosaunee Councils. Once approved by the Haudenosaunee Nations, two more years will be designed to negotiate this process with E.P.A. This model will serve as future models for an indigenous strategy for Human Sustainability. What is the environmental message the Haudenosaunee would like to release to the world when it comes to protecting our Mother the Earth? And to the Beings that exist within our Sky Dome? That message is created within Haudenosaunee Envirolunental Philosophy as recited in the Ohen:ton Kariwatehkwen, in Mohawk, (Words That Come Before All Else) or Gahnoyok, in Seneca. A second book was produced by HETF called "The Words That Come Before All Else" written by Haudenosaunee role models in the environment. It took each part of the Thanksgiving Address, starting with the People, ...Read More