These traditional Native American words of thanksgiving come from the people of the Six Nations — the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora — also known as the Iroquois or Haudenosaunee, who live in upstate New York, Wisconsin and Canada. Spoken as a spiritual address to the powers of the natural world, these words are used to open gatherings in order to bring the minds of the people together as one and align the gathered minds with Nature. The roots of these words reach back thousands of years to the very origins of the Haudenosaunee as a people.