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Handsome Lake (Ganyodaiyo') (1735 – 10 August 1815) was a Seneca people religious leader of the Iroquois people. He was a half-brother to Cornplanter (Gayentwahgeh), a Seneca war chief. (1999). 9780892710171, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. ISBN 9780892710171
Handsome Lake, a leader and prophet, played a major role in reviving traditional religion among the Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse), or Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. He preached a message that combined traditional Haudenosaunee religious beliefs with a revised code meant to revive traditional consciousness to the Haudenosaunee after a long period of cultural disintegration following colonization. This message was eventually published as the "Code of Handsome Lake" and is still practiced today.
/ref> Mohawk language: Skaniadario; Tuscarora language: Θkanyatararí•yau•;Rudes, B. Tuscarora English Dictionary Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999 historically recorded also as Ganioda'yo, Encyclopedia Britannica Online
/ref> Ganiodaio, Conudiu, Conudiu,"Penn's Treaty,"
/ref> Ga-Nyah-Di-Yoh, and Kaniatario.
In 1779, Handsome Lake wanted to die after the US military attacked the Haudenosaunee villages, wiping out whole communities and killing many. In his despair, Handsome Lake was said to had envisioned a visit by the Three Sisters-the spirits of the Maize, Bean, and Cucurbita. The Three Sisters' visit prompted Handsome Lake to return to and re-teach his community its traditional agricultural practices.
After the American Revolution, the Haudenosaunee lost most of their land in New York and Pennsylvania and were forced to live on reservations. As part of their compensation for acting as allies to the British during the War, many displaced Haudenosaunee moved to a tract of Land known as the Haldimand Tract which was measured as six miles on either side of the Grand River in southern Ontario. Although these reservations included much of the prime real estate in Western New York, including several of the prominent creek and river valleys, the small and fragmented native lands were separated by wide swaths of land that was eventually earmarked for American settlement in what would be known as the Holland Purchase. This dislocation followed years of social disruption due to epidemics of infectious disease and major wars.
Alcohol was introduced to the tribes in this time frame, a substance to which numerous Haudenosaunee (including Handsome Lake himself) began consuming in excess, exacerbating the erosion of the traditional family unit. This situation was a result of the cultural clash between the fledgling United States and the once equally powerful Six Nations people. The traditional religious rituals were no longer applicable to the environment in which the Haudenosaunee people found themselves.
Handsome Lake abolished societal sins, attempting to cleanse the tribes of all immoral actions. He threatened his people in order to show them the error of their ways. He insisted that Iroquois people must refrain from drinking, marital abuse, abortion, spouse and child abandonment, selling of land, overconsumption, intensive animal farming, and witchcraft.
The rise of Handsome Lake's Way of Life was more successful than most religions during that time because his code combined traditional Iroquois way of life with Quakers values. Despite the clear presence of Christian values in his teachings, it is unclear how much contact with Christianity Handsome Lake had previous to his visions. His way of life stressed survival without the sacrifice of the Iroquois identity, and recognized the need to make adjustments in order to survive in their changing world. Handsome Lake's ideals were eye opening and majority of people agreed with him. Those who opposed the code had reasons to believe that Handsome Lake was giving up on their old ways by altering the character of their way of life. They saw Handsome Lake's new ideals as abandoning their history and forfeiting to Quaker ideals because Handsome Lake did not believe that they could survive with the world evolving around them.
Then-President Thomas Jefferson gave his endorsement to Handsome Lake's code in 1802. With the help of Handsome Lake’s relatives, his visions were written down and published in 1850. The Code of Handsome Lake remains practiced among the Seneca and is considered to be a traditional Indian way of life. Beginning in the 1820s, it became traditional for the Code to be recited every September at Tonawanda in the Seneca Nation.
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