16 Facts About Handsome Lake

Handsome Lake was a Seneca religious leader of the Iroquois people.

Handsome Lake was a half-brother to Cornplanter, a Seneca war chief.

Handsome Lake 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.

Handsome Lake's name is transcribed differently in the languages of the Six Nations: Cayuga language: ; Oneida language: ; Mohawk language: ; Tuscarora language: ; historically recorded as Ganioda'yo, Ganiodaio, Conudiu, Conudiu, Ga-Nyah-Di-Yoh, and Kaniatario.

Handsome Lake was born as Hadawa'ko around 1735 in the Seneca village of Canawaugus, on the Genesee River near present-day Avon, New York.

Handsome Lake was born into the Wolf clan of his mother, as the Iroquois have a matrilineal kinship system.

In 1779, Handsome Lake wanted to die after the US military attacked the Haudenosaunee villages, wiping out whole communities and killing many.

In 1799, after a period of illness due to many years of excessive alcoholism, Handsome Lake had the visions that gave him the power to become a prophet.

Handsome Lake's message outlined a moral code that was eventually referred to as the Code of Handsome Lake.

Handsome Lake abolished societal sins, attempting to cleanse the tribes of all immoral actions.

Handsome Lake threatened his people in order to show them the error of their ways.

Handsome Lake insisted that Iroquois people must refrain from drinking, marital abuse, abortion, spouse and child abandonment, selling of land, overconsumption, intensive animal farming, and witchcraft.

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.

The Code of Handsome Lake remains practiced among the Seneca and is considered to be a traditional Indian way of life.

How America Was Discovered is a story told by Handsome Lake, and documented by Arthur C Parker, about a young minister who meets the one he perceives to be the Lord, who then asks him to go to a new land and bring with him cards, money, a fiddle, whiskey, and blood corruption.