96-02-09:  ONONDAGA HOLY MAN OREN LYONS URGES MAKING DECISIONS ON
BEHALF OF THE SEVENTH GENERATION

     The concept of the seventh generation _ that people should
base their decisions on behalf of the seven generations who
will come after them _ originated with the Native Americans
known as the Iroquois or Six Nations, Oren Lyons, faith keeper
of the Onondaga from upstate New York, told over 100 students
and visitors to architecture school dean William McDonough's
interdisciplinary class, "Environmental Choices" Jan. 31.

Mr. Lyons, who is a diplomat for his people as well as an artist
and champion lacrosse player, discussed the difference
between voting and consensus decision making, the fate of the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Human Genome Diversity
Project and the problem his people are having with New York
Gov. George E. Pataki, as well as recounting the epic of the
Great Peacemaker who brought democratic principles to his
people, the Hodenoshaunee, 1,000 years ago.

After the six tribes, the Onondaga, Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga,
Oneida and Tuscaroras, had been engaged in terrible warfare
the Great Peacemaker came among them. As they sat on the
shore of Onondaga Lake (near Syracuse, NY), he laid down the
concepts of democracy that govern the united tribes whom the
French called the Iroquois and the English the Six Nations, Mr.
Lyons said. "We don't know how long this took. Some say it took
100 years," he said. The U.S. founding fathers used many of the
democratic principles of the Iroquois, including exercising
peace, justice and the powers of good minds, when formulating
those of this country, he noted.

The people of the Six Nations were to use free consent, rather
than only certain groups voting, to arrive at solutions and
make decisions. The nation would be matrilineal and the clan
mother would select the chief, a choice that had to be ratified
by everyone else. The chiefs, subchiefs and faith keepers (one
man and one woman) were to work together for the welfare of
the people. The Great Peacemaker told them, "Make your
decisions on behalf of the seventh generation so they will have
a life equal to yours that sustains them." He said not better
than, but equal to their own life, Mr. Lyons pointed out. "You
should protect, defend and be satisfied with what you have."

"Your generation has been given a responsibility that others
have not taken," he said. "It's good to have a discussion on
environmental choices while we're still able to. The options
are running out. There is going to come a time when you won't
have a choice. You and your children and your children's
children are going to be the ones to deal with the history of
the world, whether you like it or not."

The future of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one
example, he noted. "How many of you have heard of the Gwich'in
people [the oldest existing group in North America]?"he asked.
Their way of life, which depends on the caribou that inhabit
the refuge, will be destroyed, along with the wildlife, if oil
companies and others have their way and take some of the land
for drilling, according to Mr. Lyons. "It's a prime target for
development. In American culture that is a positive term. For
Native Americans, however, it has meant death and
destruction," he said.

When Europeans began exploring the New World in earnest
during Columbus' time, there were possibly 16 million Native
Americans, but by 1900 their numbers had dwindled to about
250,000, said Mr. Lyons, adding, "What happened to them? What
happened to 70 million buffalo, 2 billion passenger pigeons?"

The Onondaga are one of 740 groups around the world listed as
headed for extinction, he said, by the Human Genome Diversity
Project, led by Stanford scientists and anthropologists from
Penn State. Distinct from the Human Genome Project, which is
mapping all the chromosomes in the human body, the project on
human diversity is gathering and studying the DNA of
indigenous peoples. "The next step will be to patent it so
someone can own it," Mr. Lyons warned.

Another threat to the Onondaga is coming from New York Gov.
George Pataki, whose administration has proposed military
maneuvers against the Seneca, Mohawk and Onondaga to collect
taxes on the sale of cigarettes, according to Mr. Lyons, who
said that a delegation is supposed to meet with the governor
this week. "It would be an act of war. Since 1784 we've had a
peace treaty with the United States."

"We stand somewhere between a mountain and an ant," Mr.
Lyons wrote in a United Nations speech. "But in the context of
natural law, we're not here very long." Mr. Lyons urged the
audience to make ethics and morality a well-used part of their
lexicon "if you're going to have a future." 

The Iroquois constitution can be found on the Internet at:
ftp://ftp.cit.cornell.edu/pub/special/NativeProfs/general/Iroquois-Constitution. The Iroquois artwork (above) is on line
at
http://www.cluster.com/hrg/gallery/ethnographic/northamerica/north.html

WRITTEN BY ANNE BROMLEY