“Then,” Wolf Woman said, “we greet and thank all of the People, those we know, those we have not yet met. And we thank our Creator, who has brought all of this into being.”

She took a long slow breath and turned her gaze to her son. “Okwaho, because I am only a human being, I may have forgotten some who should be thanked, so I ask you to think of them and add your own thanks.”

“Henh,” Okwaho said.

“It was good to do this, it is still good to this day,” Wolf Woman said. “Hoh?”

“Henh.”

“As I said at the end of those thanks, we humans are weak and forgetful. We are not like our wiser relatives, the animal people who always remember their place in Creation and their proper role. As a result, long ago, a time came when we humans began to forget those words to be spoken. The people back then no longer gave thanks. They began to quarrel and fight with each other. As so many of us are doing now.”

Okwaho nodded. It was painfully true.

His mother lifted her right hand toward the Sky World. “But The One Who Grasps the Sky with Both Hands saw this. So a second messenger was sent. This one brought us ceremonies that would remind us of our place in the world and that we were part of a great Creation.”

She paused, placed her hand on Okwaho’s knee and squeezed it gently.

“You know those ceremonies, for we still have them. There is one each season, the Midwinter Festival, the Thanks to the Maple Festival, the Planting Festival, the Green Corn Festival, and all the others. Our people were also given the Clan system. Turtle, Bear, Wolf, for all of our Five Nations, as well as Snipe, Deer, Eel, Heron, Beaver, and Hawk for our Onondaga people. Each clan would be headed by a clan mother and the people were reminded that the women are the ones from whom all life and all power comes. Each child belongs to the clan of her or his mother. And the clan mothers would be the ones who choose the leaders, who decide if the nation can go to war, who must be consulted in all important matters. Also, the clans linked our Five Nations together. If an Onondaga person is of the Bear Clan, then those in the other four nations who are also Bear Clan are to be seen as your sisters and brothers.”

Wolf Woman paused, looking at Okwaho.

“And then the people forgot again?” he said.