Ohenton Karihwatehkwen

Hi Group
>
> Several people asked me for a translation of the Iroquois Opening Address
> to Creation, Ohenton Karihwatehkwen (The Words that Come Before All Else)
> that Frances had asked me to do last Friday.
>
> To learn the Opening was one of my learning objectives, and I was happy to
> do it; it was good practice.
>
> As I mentioned, the Opening has a frozen form, but free words. Everyone
> says it differently, even the same speaker on different occasions.
>
> That being said, I prefer to provide a variety of samples, all of which
> can be found on the internet as follows:
>
> Very short version
> http://www.tyendinaga.net/ohenton/
>
> Super short version
> http://dream-turtle.blogspot.com/2007/08/tyendinaga-powwow-ohenton.html
>
> Very Short version with graphics
> http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/arts/hoi5/page1.html
>
> Short version
> http://www.peace4turtleisland.org/pages/thanksgiving.htm
>
> The version I did was slightly longer than the longest above; however, it
> was still a short version.
>
> For several longer versions see "From the earth to beyond the sky : an
> ethnographic approach to four Longhouse Iroquois speech events" by Michael
> K Foster (1974). It's in the Webster Library. Note however these versions
> are quite Christianized, reflecting the times (19th and 20th centuries)
> and place (Ontario).
>
> For a discussion about the Opening, see "Spoken here : travels among
> threatened languages" written by Mark Abley (2003), the Montreal Gazette
> reporter. This book contains a chapter on the Mohawk language entitled
> "The words that come before all else." This chapter reveals a significant
> number of interviews and explains some of the difficulties translating
> Mohawk into English.
>
> Another source that explains this difficulty is the film series
> "Milennium" which Jonathon has in his possession at the moment.
>
> My favorite source is my old classmate Jimmy Gilbert who describes the
> difference as that between color TV and black & white. He also compares
> listening to Mohawk being like eating three-flavored ice-cream, while
> listening to English is like eating vanilla.
>
> At a later time, should the occasion arise, I would like to take the risk
> of saying a few words about the last Friday's version.