The Gai'wiio', the Good Message, came from Hodianok'doo Hed'iohe', the Creator, and given to the Hadioya'geono, the four messengers. From them it was transmitted to Ganio'dai'io, Handsome Lake the Seneca Prophet and my ancestor. In honor of Native American Heritage month I will write about the near-death vision he had and leave it to the reader to decide if his vision has come true to my people, the Haudenosaunee, the People of the Longhouse, called 'Iroquois' by the strangers who took away our homes.
My great x 4 grandfather was born in 1735 in the Seneca Nation and would later become a war chief. After his involvement in the American Revolution, he took to the white man's whiskey for many years and developed a wasting disease and a great sickness. For 4 years he was gravely ill and it came to pass that in 1799 he lay on his funeral bed, dressed in his finest robe and was being prepared for burial by his daughter. She heard a loud cry from behind, 'Niio'!" or, 'So be it!' As she turned to see her sick father fall and, by her estimation, die. His nephew was sent to gather the kinfolk and when his brother arrived and laid his hand on his chest, he declared he was still warm. Just then Handsome Lake awoke from his coma and began to speak of this vision;

"Now this happened long ago across the great salt sea that stretches to the east. There is a country there with soil like our own and a great queen. One of her servants was a young preacher of the queen's religion. She requested he clean some old books which were hidden in a chest. And while no one was looking he opened the last book and read it. It was a great book that told him many things he had never known. He read about a great man, a prophet who was born on the earth and son of the Great Ruler. The white men to whome he preached killed him but not before he promised to return. Now this troubled the young man because he had discovered his god was not on earth to see. But more than that he was angry that his teachers had deceived him. He went to the chief of the preachers who told him to seek him out because the thought he does live on the earth. Even through his anger, he resolved to seek out this god."
"The next morning he look out the opening in his room and saw out in the river a beautiful island full of trees and among them a castle of gold. As he marvelled at the sight, he presumed this must be the abode of him who he sought. Immediately he arose to tell his teachers who agreed it must be so. So they went together to the river and at the shore they saw it was spanned by a bridge of gold. One of the great preachers fell to his knees and said a long prayer, arose, turned his back on the island and fled, for he was afraid to meet the lord. Then with the young man the other preacher crossed the bridge and knelt on the grass, cried aloud and groaned a prayer, but when he arose he too fled and would not look at the castle of gold."
"The young man was disgusted at the others and strode up to the castle and knocked on the door. A handsome smiling man opened the door and said 'Come in and do no be afraid of me. I have been looking for a young man such as you.. You are wise and afraid of nothing. Those older men were fools and would not listen to me direct, but would have listenend to some one whom I had instructed. Listen to me and you shall be rich. Across this ocean is another world and a great countery and a people you have never seen. Those people are virtuous, and they have no unnatural evil habits. Here are five things that men and women enjoy; take them to these people and make them as the white are. Then you shall be rich and powerful and you may become the cief of all the great preachers here.'"
"So the young man took the bundle and left, and when he turned around the bridge and castle had disappeared. The young man wondered if he had indeed seen his lord fr his mind was so full of business he had forgotten to ask. He opened the bundle of five things and found a flask of rum, a pack of playing cards, a handful of coins, a violin and a decayed leg bone. He thought these were very strange and wondered if his lord would send such gifts to the people across the salt water. But he remembered his promise."
"e searched for a man to tell his secret and found a man named Columbus who hired some giant canoes and raised up their wings and sailed away. He sailed for many days and his men became angry with him and planned to behead him. But Columbus promised that on the morrow they would discover a new country, and in the morning did Columbus discover America. Then the boats did turn around to return home and gather more ships of men who brought many bundles of the five things and spread the gifts to all the peopleof the great earth island."
"Then did the invisible man of the river castle laugh and he did say, 'These cards will make them gamble away their wealth and idle their time; this money will make them dishonest and covetous and tey will forget their old laws; this fiddle will make them dance with their arms about their wives and bring about a time of tattling and idle gossip; this rum will turn their minds to foolishness and they will barter their country for baubles; then will this secret poison eat the life from their blood and crumble their bones.' So said the invisible man and he was Hanisse'ono, the Evil One.'"
"Now when the young man saw the misery and havoc he had caused he said, 'I think I have made an enormous mistake for I did not dream that these people would suffer so.' Then did even the devil himself lament that his evil had been so great."
"So after the swarms of white men came and misery was thrust upon the Ongwe-oweh, the real people, the Creator was sorry for his own people whom he had molded from the soil of the Great Island. And he spoke to his four messengers and many times they tried to tell right men the revelations of the Creator, but none would listen.Then they found our head man sick and heard him speak to the sun and the moon and saw his sickness. Then they knew he suffered because of the cunning evils that Hanisse'ono had given to our people and they knew that he was the one who should hear and tell Gai'wiio'. But when Ganio'dai'io, Handsome Lake spoke, the evil one ceased his lament and sought to obstruct Gai'wiio', for he claimed to be master."

This is the true story of my ancestor Handsome Lake the Seneca Prophet. He spent the last sixteen years of his life ministering to his people and telling them of the evils that were imposed upon our people. He discouraged them from drinking, gambling, believing that wealth and power could save them from the white man's ways, and discouraged them, not from reading the bible, but to use caution and discretion from whose hand they received the teachings of the black book. And since his vision in 1799, my people and all Native Americans, have experienced the devastating effects the five gifts of the bundle given to us by other men who were given it by the Evil One, Hanisse'ono, has had on te whole world. I carry this same message to all people, not only my own. And within the vision we can see the correlation between the teachings of my ancestor and the 4 messengers, and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and his warnings of politics, education, religion and finances, that it will serve mankind no good purpose. It never has, and it never will. Niio'! Nya'weh! (So be it! Thank you!)....God's Peace and Justice....To`na wanagi