Handsome Lake / Gananyodiyo (Seneca Prophet & Moral Reformer)

Handsome Lake (Sganyadaí:yoh) was a half-brother of the celebrated Seneca orator Cornplanter. Following the catastrophic devastation of the American Revolutionary War and the illegal loss of ancestral lands, the Seneca people were plunged into despair, poverty, and crippling alcohol dependency; Handsome Lake himself lay bedridden, dying of severe alcoholism.

Visions of the Three Messengers

In June 1799, falling into a death-like coma, Handsome Lake was visited by three celestial messengers dressed in resplendent ceremonial buckskin carrying berry branches. They instructed him that the Creator (Tarachiawagon) was deeply grieved by the degeneration of the Six Nations. He was shown visions of the torment awaiting those who consumed liquor, practiced witchcraft, or abandoned their families.

The Good Word: The Longhouse Religion

Waking completely healed and with his craving for alcohol permanently cured, Handsome Lake spent the remaining sixteen years of his life walking from village to village throughout New York, Pennsylvania, and Ontario. He preached the Gaiwi:io ('The Good Word'), which prohibited whiskey, gambling, and marital infidelity while reaffirming the sacred Great Feather Dance, Thanksgiving rituals, and women's traditional agricultural authority.