'Words Before All Else:' Indigenous Students Record Thanksgiving Address

ALBANY, N.Y. (March 19, 2024) — The UAlbany Indigenous Student Association has collaborated with University's Digital Media team to record a version of the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address now available on UAlbany’s website.

The address, which the people of the Six Nations of Upstate New York and Canada have used for more than a millennium to reaffirm the interconnectedness of living things, was recorded in Mohawk, with an English translation available immediately below.

In an introduction to the recording, ISA President Savannah Swamp explains the origins and meaning of the address to the Haudenosaunee, among them the Mohawk, whose territory formed the eastern border of the Six Nations and included parts of the Albany area.

“The address is based on the belief that world cannot be taken for granted, that a spiritual communication of thankfulness and acknowledgment of all living things must be given to align the minds and hearts of the people with nature,” Swamp ’26, a criminal justice major, explains. "You are invited, encouraged to share in these words that our concentrated attention might help us to rediscover our balance, respect and oneness with nature."

Swamp recorded the address earlier this semester with fellow ISA members Jillian Benedict, Cayde Lazore and Tehoronhiathe with the assistance of University videographer Scott Freedman. 

While the Thanksgiving Address follows a traditional form, Swamp notes that there is no official text and that it’s customary for those chosen to deliver the address at the opening and closing of Haudenosaunee ceremonial and governmental gatherings to personalize it in their own words.

UAlbany also is located on the traditional lands of Muh-he-con-neok people, otherwise known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans. Despite the similarity of their westernized names, the Mohawk and Mohican were culturally and linguistically distinct.

Last May, the University re-named the campus pond in honor of the Parker family, three siblings from which — Caroline (Ga:hahno), Nicholson (Gye-wah-go-wa) and Isaac Newton (Gane-yo-squa-ga-oh) Parker — were among the first nine Indigenous students to enroll at UAlbany in the mid-19th century. The Parkers were Tonawanda Seneca from Western New York, nearer to the western edge of Haudenosaunee territory.