The Longhouse Religion, refers to the religious movement, founded in 1799, among peoples who formerly lived in longhouses. Prior to the adoption of the single family dwelling, various groups of peoples lived in large, extended-family homes also known as longhouses. During inclement weather these homes served as meeting places, town halls, and theaters

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

. The religious movement known as The Code of Handsome Lake or Gaihwi:io (Good Message in Seneca and Onondaga) was founded by the Seneca

Seneca nation

The Seneca are a group of indigenous people native to North America. They were the nation located farthest to the west within the Six Nations or Iroquois League in New York before the American Revolution. While exact population figures are unknown, approximately 15,000 to 25,000 Seneca live in...

 Chief Handsome Lake

Handsome Lake

Handsome Lake was a Seneca religious leader of the Iroquois people. He was also half-brother to Cornplanter....

 (Ganioda'yo) who designated the longhouse structure as their place of worship

Place of worship

A place of worship or house of worship is an establishment or her location where a group of people comes to perform acts of religious study, honor, or devotion. The form and function of religious architecture has evolved over thousands of years for both changing beliefs and architectural style...

.

At the age of 64, after a lifetime of poverty and alcoholism, Ganioda'yo received his revelations while in a trance, after which he formed the movement. While it has similarities to the Quaker

Religious Society of Friends

The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...

 in practice, this new Seneca religion has elements from both Christianity and traditional beliefs. Ganioda'yo's teachings were encoded in wampum

Wampum

Wampum are traditional, sacred shell beads of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of the indigenous people of North America. Wampum include the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell; and the white and purple beads made from the quahog, or Western North Atlantic...

 and spread through the populations of western New York, Pennsylvania, and Iroquois

Iroquois

The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...

 country, eventually being known as The Code of Handsome Lake. The movement is currently practiced by about 5,000 people.

There is also a movement which rejects the The Code of Handsome Lake as being too influenced by the First and Second Great Awakenings

Great Awakening

The term Great Awakening is used to refer to a period of religious revival in American religious history. Historians and theologians identify three or four waves of increased religious enthusiasm occurring between the early 18th century and the late 19th century...

. These modern traditionalists follow the teachings of Deganawidah, The Great Peacemaker as laid down in the Great Law of Peace

Great Law of Peace

Gayanashagowa or the Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois Six Nations is the oral constitution whereby the Iroquois Confederacy was bound together. The law was written on wampum belts, conceived by Deganwidah, known as The Great Peacemaker, and his spokesman Hiawatha...

, which is the constitution

Constitution

A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...

 of the Six Nations or Haudenosaunee. Although this constitution protects the rights of religious ceremonies which have been in practice prior to ratification and acknowledges the duties of positive role models to the community, this movement contends that some of Handsome Lake's teachings may contradict existing articles in their interpretation of the Great Law of Peace.

This Constitution calls for the appointment of a commander in chief of military sciences

Military science

Military science is the process of translating national defence policy to produce military capability by employing military scientists, including theorists, researchers, experimental scientists, applied scientists, designers, engineers, test technicians, and military personnel responsible for...

 by each of the member nation-state

Nation-state

The nation state is a state that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit. The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity...

s. This appointee is responsible for civil defense

Civil defense

Civil defense, civil defence or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state from military attack. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation, and recovery...

, maintaining a militia

Militia

The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...

, and acting as an advocate

Advocate

An advocate is a term for a professional lawyer used in several different legal systems. These include Scotland, South Africa, India, Scandinavian jurisdictions, Israel, and the British Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man...

 for public grievance

Grievance

A grievance is a wrong or hardship suffered, which is the grounds of a complaint.-History and politics:A grievance may arise from injustice or tyranny, and be cause for rebellion or revolution....

s. These duties, and the responsibilities of this branch of government are commonly referred to as the domain of the Warrior Society.

External links

• Handsome Lake (1735-1815): Iroquois religious leader - From the Encyclopedia of North American Indians
• The Code Of Handsome Lake - An introduction
• The Code Of Handsome Lake, the Seneca Prophet - The foundation of the Longhouse Religion, translated by Arthur C. Parker in 1913.
• Thomas Jefferson's Letter to Brother Handsome Lake - Washington, November 3, 1802