Handsome Lake

Seneca political and religious leader, half-brother of Cornplanter, born near present-day Avon, New York, USA. After experiencing a series of visions (1799), he began preaching the traditional values of sobriety, family, and community. His gaiwiio or Old Religion blended Christian and Indian themes, and was a response to Indian defeat during the American Revolution. Elected a tribal leader in 1801, he convinced the USA to guarantee Iroquois land boundaries and to stop liquor sales on the reservation. He also urged his people to take up farming. His principles, subsequently influenced by Quakers, were published in 1850.

Before his emergence as a prophet, Handsome Lake fought in Pontiac's Rebellion (against the British) and the American Revolutionary War (against the Americans).

Handsome Lake's teachings were both a revival of traditional religious practices as well as a program of cultural adaptation to the realities of reservation life in the United States. While he encouraged the adoption of certain customs of white Americans, such as European-style farming and housing, Handsome Lake also urged his followers to continue to practice traditional American Indian ceremonies. President Jefferson's approval of Handsome Lake's teachings was an important early endorsement of the prophet's religious movement.

Handsome Lake had a good relationship with the Quakers who lived among the Seneca and encouraged them to become farmers, since the Quakers were religious pluralists who agreed with a number of Handsome Lake's teachings, especially his stance against alcohol. Christian missionaries among the Seneca after Handsome Lake's lifetime, who (unlike the Quakers) actively sought to convert the Indians to Christianity, were less tolerant of the religion of Handsome Lake's followers.

Handsome Lake gained a wide following, aided by the prominence of his half-brother Cornplanter, an influential Seneca leader. several of these women were executed by Handsome Lake's followers. When an accused witch was killed in 1809, Handsome Lake fell out of favor with Cornplanter and the Quakers, although he still retained a circle of loyal followers.

In the last years of his life, Handsome Lake advised against Iroquois involvement in the War of 1812.

Handsome Lake's teachings, known as The Code of Handsome Lake, eventually were incorporated into the Longhouse religion, which is still followed today.