Invoking Gratitude the Haudenosaunee Way
The most beautiful expression of gratitude I’ve ever encountered isn’t a prayer or a poem—it’s the Thanksgiving Address of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. I discovered it in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.
It offers something our world desperately needs: a ritual that honors all of creation.
The six tribes of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, Confederacy—Onondaga, Mohawk, Oneida, and others—speak the Thanksgiving Address before tribal meetings, school days, and gatherings of all kinds. For them, it’s not like praying or saying a pledge, it’s a way to bring minds together before any other work begins.
In a practical sense, resolving disagreements and gaining consensus is much easier once people have spent time agreeing they are all thankful for food, air, and water. I’ve read that the address is often spoken for half an hour before meetings start.
Individuals, whether adults or children, read each stanza and then the entire group recites, “Now our minds are one.”
I’ve only included a portion, because the address is quite long. It goes on to greet plants, herbs, trees, fish, birds, water, sun, moon, stars, and any other beings the speakers choose.
Thanksgiving Address
Today we have gathered and when we look upon the faces around us we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now let us bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as People.
Now our minds are one.
We are thankful to our Mother the Earth, for she gives us everything that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she still continues to care for us, just as she has from the beginning of time. To our Mother, we send thanksgiving, love, and respect.
Now our minds are one.
We give thanks to all of the waters of the world for quenching our thirst, for providing strength and nurturing life for all beings. We know its power in many forms—waterfalls and rain, mists and streams, rivers and oceans, snow and ice. We are grateful that the waters are still here and meeting their responsibility to the rest of Creation. Can we agree that water is important to our lives and bring our minds together as one to send greetings and thanks to the Water?
Now our minds are one.
We gather our minds together to send our greetings and thanks to all the beautiful animal life of the world, who walk about with us. They have many things to teach us as people. We are grateful that they continue to share their lives with us and hope that it will always be so. Let us put our minds together as one and send our thanks to the Animals.
Now our minds are one.
We are all thankful for the powers we know as the Four Winds. We hear their voices in the moving air as they refresh us and purify the air we breathe. They help to bring the change of seasons. From the four directions they come, bringing us messages and giving us strength. With one mind we send our greetings and thanks to the Four Winds.
Now our minds are one.
We have now arrived at the place where we end our words. Of all the things we have named, it is not our intention to leave anything out. If something was forgotten, we leave it to each individual to send such greetings and thanks in their own way.
And now our minds are one.
What if we started every gathering by offering greetings and thanks to the natural world? How different might our days be?
**The wording of the address varies with the speaker. This version is a translation by John Stokes and can be found in full here.