[Traditional Thanksgiving address given in the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ (the Cayuga Nation) language]
What I said was: in the beginning there’s the thanksgiving the words before all else. It’s a really, really short version but it covers everything; it gives thanks for the Mother Earth and everything on her and it goes on to the trees, and the waters, the fish in the waters, the skies, the animals in the skies, the winds, the thunder, sun the moon, stars and those that keep an eye on us. We give thanks for all of those things everyday to remind us that Mother Earth actually is the one who gives us all, supplies us with everything that we need. And then I said thank you, peace and hello to everyone. I understand that there’s some people here that are going to be moving on because they are graduating now and it’s a little different not seeing everybody but I hope that with whatever that you learned that you learn to to be part of the growing of Mother Earth and that everything that you learn will help her to grow a little bit better or stay safe and that you all be safe yourself because I know some of you will probably be going to different countries and we don’t know what’s going to be happening you know with this pandemic came on us and now we’re here facing with screen faces rather than real faces so I hope that you all have a safe journey and that you all enjoy whatever it is that you learned.
Thank you, Nyá:węh.
