Handsome Lake

Handsome Lake ( * 1735, † August 10, 1815 ) or Ganioda'yo ( Θkanyatararí • yau • in the language of the Tuscarora ) was an Indian prophet from the tribe of Seneca and religious leader of the Iroquois.

Military Career

Handsome Lake fought during the Pontiac Rebellion against the British and was ambushed by the Seneca in the Battle of Devil's Hole involved in the two British divisions were almost completely wiped out. In 1765 he was involved in an attack by the Seneca against the Cherokee and the Choctaw. During the American Revolutionary War, he fought against the rebellious American colonists, he probably took part in the Battle of Oriskany. As a normal warrior, he fought in the Battle of Wyoming and the Massacre of Cherry Valley. In 1780, he was then in an attack on Canajoharie part joined another group that went against Susquehanna, looted and killed.

Religious Teaching

Handsome Lake shaped the life of the Iroquois in their recent history very strong. He was one of the eight chiefs who represented the Seneca Iroquois at the Council. He was not averse to alcohol and went so far as to him in 1799 a collapse downed the drink. His health was very poor. Later, he told of a vision that had appeared to him during his illness. From the impressions of the vision formulated Handsome Lake, a religious doctrine that it spread among the Iroquois. Especially with the Seneca, Onondaga and Cayuga his new religion fell on fertile ground. The Teachings of the Prophet should influence in the result whose lives greatly. The at that time already heavily Christianized Mohawk and Oneida were the new embassy over but critical.

The Religion of Handsome Lake built a bridge between the traditional Iroquois beliefs and Christianity. Many Iroquois, who were torn from the two cultures, the new religion, and with gratitude. Among other things, Handsome Lake forbade those ceremonies of Medicine frets, which took place at night.

The teachings of Handsome Lakes were known as The Code of Handsome Lake and may have been taken over as part of the Longhouse religion, a religion of people living in longhouses Indians. However, traditionalists reject the teachings from because of Christian influences, and the pacifist conversion, as well as the adoption of the principles of the Great Law of Peace.