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.