As a child raised by his grandparents in the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve near Hamilton, Ontario during the 1970s and 1980s, Stephen Henhawk heard Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ — a Haudenosaunee language also known as Cayuga that is spoken in Upstate New York, Ontario and Oklahoma — everywhere he went.
“We went to the post office. The lady at the post office — she spoke Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ. We went to the local corner store. The lady that worked there — they spoke Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ,” Mr. Henhawk said. “I went with my gramps to buy new tires at this garage. The guy that was there — he spoke Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ. Everyone did.”
However, in part due to the lasting impact of residential schools in Canada — institutions with extensive records of abuse that attempted to forcibly assimilate indigenous children into white Canadian society from the 1880s through the 1990s — the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language now faces an uncertain future.
In 2010, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization denoted the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language as “critically endangered.” In 2016, The Canadian Census reported that 55 people spoke Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ as their first language. Mr. Henhawk — who learned the language from his grandmother, Irwina Henhawk — said that at age 48, he is now one of the youngest of the few remaining first-language Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ speakers.
Mr. Henhawk, who now resides in Ithaca, has been teaching Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ for about 15 years. He said that he decided to begin teaching the language when he saw dwindling numbers of teachers in a Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ immersion program in which he enrolled his three sons.
“As [my sons] were going through school, I started to notice … [that] the number of teachers was dropping really dramatically,” Mr. Henhawk said. “There wasn’t anybody that was younger that was taking initiative at the time to do anything.”
Since then, Mr. Henhawk has worked closely with speakers in Six Nations of the Grand River and the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma to not only revitalize Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language in their communities but also share their knowledge of the language with Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ people living in their ancestral homeland — the Finger Lakes region — who had largely lost touch with the language.
“Most of our people have no reference to our language,” Mr. Henhawk said. “A lot of our people had never even heard Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ spoken before, especially in New York State before I came here.”
Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ Learning Project
In 2021, Mr. Henhawk co-founded the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ Learning Project, a collaboration of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people promoting awareness of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language and lifestyle. The project offers Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language courses catering to all levels of learners and video recordings of Ithaca-based classes taught by Mr. Henhawk. It also hosts culturally significant events, including a two-day maple sugaring workshop led by Mr. Henhawk in 2023 that explored lost cultural connections to natural resources.
“[I started the project] out of necessity,” Mr. Henhawk said. “When I moved to Ithaca, … I noticed that no one was teaching classes and doing different things culturally.”
Mr. Henhawk hopes that the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ Learning Project will foster a deeper connection between the language and the ancestral homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ people.
“We teach a lot of students [at Cornell],” Mr. Henhawk said, referencing AIIS 3324: Cayuga Language and Culture which is currently taught by Prof. Jessica Martin, American Indian and Indigenous studies. “But those teachings leave every four years [as students] go back to their communities, so I see a need for cultural understanding within the community itself here.”
Despite the Project’s outreach, Mr. Henhawk feels a sense of “worried optimism” regarding the future of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language.
“[I’m worried] that we’re not learning [enough] because the idea of teaching Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ in this manner is relatively new,” Mr. Henhawk said. “But with optimism, I look at what we’ve been able to do in New York State [given that] for so long, there were only two places in the world where you could go to hear Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ, in Six Nations or Oklahoma.”
Ceremonial Importance
Sachem Sam George, who lives in Union Springs, said that he did not know Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ until Mr. Henhawk began efforts to revitalize the language there in 2014.
“When we started coming out [to Union Springs] in 2014 — when we got a teacher out here — then that’s when I started learning more,” George said.
Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ and other Haudenosaunee people open each community gathering with a recitation of the Thanksgiving Address, also referred to as Words Before All Else. This address is an expression of gratitude for the natural world.
“It was given to us by a creator because he made all of this — the trees, the animals, the water — all of that,” George said. “And now he asks us that we give thanks for that.”
George, who as a chief often gives this address, said that typically it is given in the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language and that he initially started learning the language for its delivery.
Mr. Henhawk lamented the limited understanding Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ people had in the words spoken at their ceremonies, such as the Thanksgiving Address, comparing its usage to the status of Latin within the Catholic faith.
“It reminds me of Latin, how nobody really speaks it, but there’s all these prayers that can be recited in it, where it’s just memorized … and that’s where our language has become a lot of times within ceremonialism,” Henhawk said.
However, after learning some of the language, George said that he is better able to listen to, consider and discuss the meaning of of what is said at Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ ceremonies.
“When I go to [a] ceremony, I listen to them speak. In my mind I’m saying ‘I wonder why they put that part in there,’ so I ask them later on why and they share it with me all the time,” George said.
Cornell’s Role in Language Education
As an academic institution on the ancestral homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ people, faculty and Indigenous Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ have long considered the role that the University should play in fostering Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ initiatives and teaching Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language and culture to its students.
“[Cornell] has made a lot of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ programming possible,” Mr. Henhawk said.
Cornell currently funds four projects that aim to preserve Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language, including efforts to teach Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ astronomy and oral history in New York State public schools; Zoom-based language classes taught twice weekly by Mr. Henhawk; a project to add Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ names to public-facing information at the Cornell Botanic Gardens and Ornithology Center and offering LING 2224: Introduction to Language Endangerment and Revitalization through Cornell’s Linguistics Department.
However, Mr. Henhawk feels that “there’s more to be done,” as do several University faculty specializing in Indigenous studies, including Prof. Kurt Jordan ’88, anthropology, who previously taught courses on Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ history and language at Cornell.
“Cornell as an institution needs to put more resources into doing things that the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ community wants because Cornell is one of the institutions benefiting from the taking and continued use of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ land,” Jordan said. “So, I think there really is a responsibility [to support the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ community]. Obviously, there’s a land acknowledgment, but [Cornell] has to put material resources behind that.”
Jordan noted that finding ways to promote the exposure and exploration of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language to Cornell students is one way in which the University could improve.
“Right now in [the College of Arts and Sciences], if you take the two Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language classes, it doesn’t count for your language requirement. You have to have 11 credits or a 2000-level course, and we don’t have that sequence yet. So, that’s certainly one thing that I think would be really important to build up,” Jordan said.
Prof. Sarah Murray, linguistics, also advocated for more Indigenous-related coursework and programs.
“We’re working to develop a [American Indian and Indigenous Studies] major,” Murray said. “There really ought to be a major, and there isn’t. There’s [only] an undergraduate minor and a graduate minor.”
Additionally, Murray hopes that increasing exposure to Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ will help change the way that it is perceived.
“People phrase [Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ] in terms of endangerment, but there’s been a lot of work within the field of linguistics to shift the focus away from thinking about languages as dying, or saving languages, which is a very outsider-centered perspective,” Murray said. “Linguists have been trying to turn [this] into thinking about language [through] Indigenous ways. I think that it’s really important in the education of linguistics to acknowledge these issues and think about how we can improve them going forward.”
Currently, Cornell students interested in learning more about Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language can get involved through the American Indian and Indigenous Studies minor. Cornell permits students to minor in any subject regardless of their college affiliation, allowing any student to declare the minor.
Looking to the Future
Though Mr. Henhawk notes that the diaspora of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ people has led to different perspectives on and motivation to learn the language, he finds that the commonality of “cultural grounding” among Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language learners prevails.
“A lot of [the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ people] have been separated. But the one commonality I’ve found — because I’ve taught in every little corner community — is reconnection. I’ve found it always leads to more. A lot of times it’s a deeper understanding [that motivates people to learn],” Henhawk said.
The current status and future of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ language shapes Mr. Henhawk’s goals for the future of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ people.
“When I first came [to Ithaca], everybody wanted to talk to me about 1779, about the destruction and how we moved to Canada,” Mr. Henhawk said. “Everything was historic, in historic terms. Every time we’re referenced, we’re always put in the past tense. Looking at signs in the area, they say ‘were here,’ ‘was.’ It’s always in the past tense.”
Mr. Henhawk wants to change this narrative.
“We’re here. We’re not gone. What I [am trying] to do is to make something today, to give us a presence today for all Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ people,” Mr. Henhawk said. “A tomorrow. A future, here in our homelands, for our Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ people.”
Skylar Kleinman is a Sun Contributor and can be reached at [email protected].