Longhouse Religion

The Longhouse Religion is the popular name of the religious movement known as The Code of Handsome Lake or Gaihwi:io (Good Message), founded in 1799 by the Seneca prophet Handsome Lake (Sganyodaiyoˀ). This movement combines and reinterprets elements of traditional Iroquois religious beliefs with elements adopted from Christianity, primarily from the Quakers. Gaihwi:io currently has about 5,000 practicing members. Originally the Gaihwi:io was known as the "new religion" in opposition to the prevailing animistic beliefs, but has since become known as the "old religion" in opposition to Christianity.

Prior to the adoption of the single-family dwelling, Iroquois lived in large, extended-family homes also known as longhouses which also served as meeting places, town halls, theaters, and sites for religious ceremonies. Gaihwi:io keeps the longhouses for ceremonial purposes, and the movement was therefore termed the "Longhouse Religion."

The movement has occasionally been called a cult, but in his 1989 book Popular Religion in America: Symbolic Change and the Modernization Process in Historical Perspective Miami University professor Peter W. Williams stated that over time the movement became more routinized and more resembles "such 'cultic' religions on the borderline of traditional Christianity such as Mormonism."

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. Ganioda'yo's teachings were encoded in wampum and spread through the populations of western New York, Pennsylvania, and Iroquois country, eventually being known as The Code of Handsome Lake.

Handsome Lake vested responsibility for preaching the Gaihwi:io in a number of "holders of the Gaihwi:io", as of 1912 six in number. Since the transmission was oral the versions began to diverge. In the 1860s the holders of the Gaihwi:io met at Cold Spring at the former home of Handsome Lake. They compared versions and, when differences were found, Seneca Chief John Jacket adjudicated the correct version and wrote it down in the Seneca language on letter paper. When he was done the group reassembled at Cattaraugus and memorized the corrected version. Chief Jacket gave the written copy to Chief Henry Stevens who in turn passed it on to Chief Edward Cornplanter, who somehow lost it. In 1903, afraid that oral transmission would again lead to errors, Chief Cornplanter rewrote it from memory and passed it on to the New York State Archives for preservation. William Bluesky, a lay Baptist preacher, translated it into English.

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