Can YOU start a fire without a match or Bic lighter? Each year for the past four years we have held a Elders Gathering at Ganondagan State Historic Site. It is an opportunity to bring together our young people with elders and others who hold traditional knowledge. We invite youth between the ages of 12 and 25 to the Site for the four day event. Elders and other facilitators can include experts in martial arts, dancers, musicians, storytellers, medicine people, and a friend knowledgeable about how to start a fire without matches.
 

Each morning begins at sunrise with a tobacco burning giving thanks to the Creator for the day and all the gifts we human beings enjoy on our Mother the Earth. . . .
 

One of the goals of the Elders Gathering is to strengthen the understanding that young people have of their own traditions and history. We don't hit them over the head with it, but we want them to consider the difficult decisions which lie before them. Alcohol, drugs, sex and other issues face all of our young people. The Elders Gathering is one way to address the young people on the subject of who they are as Haudenosaunee youth and what their responsibilities as young adults are, or will be. It is one forum where we can discuss what our traditional teaching says about how we are to conduct ourselves, how we are to respect ourselves as men, and how we show respect for women.
 

Respect is a big portion of the Elders Gathering - we teach it, and expect it from the people who participate. With as many as 25 young people, it can be difficult to control them if discipline is not established immediately. The ones who are going to be disruptive are identified early on and appropriate action is taken when necessary. The young people help to determine what is appropriate; they decide the punishment for the offender, the adults evaluate the suggestion, and implement their recommendation if it seems appropriate. . . .