Interested in Iroquoian Bible translations?

[Mingo Bible Believer]

Does anyone share with me an interest in the Bible or hymns in Iroquoian languages?

 

[Messerve]

Hmmm... Their native lands were the area in which I grew up, so the Iroquois indians have always made me curious. We find the arrow heads once in a while and often wonder where local villages might have been located. It's very possible there was one on a hill not too far away, because of the abundance of artifacts they have found there.

Anyway, that's a very interesting pastime of yours. I'm always interested in music. What are some hymns you've discovered?

Have you heard the Christmas hymn "The Huron Carol"? That's not Iriquois of course, but that's all I know at the moment!

 

[Mingo Bible Believer]

Great to hear from you, Messerve! Huron is an Iroquoian language, but of course the Hurons were at one time enemies of the people of the Iroquois League, so you are right about not calling them Iroquois. I have heard that carol and find it lovely.
I met a man years ago who had an Oneida hymnal and could sing from it. I have a Seneca hymnal and know a lot of hymns from it, but it is so far from spoken Seneca today that the Seneca teacher at the university in Buffalo thought it might be Cayuga.
I have worked through the Seneca Gospels from the 1800s and turned them all into singable, rhymed verse that fits tunes of the 10.10.10.10 pattern, such as Abide with Me, Break thou the Bread of Life, and God of our Fathers whose Almighty Hand. The language is the extinct Buffalo Creek dialect, which is a bit different from modern Seneca and different again from the West Virginia Mingo that I grew up speaking in the 1950s. I have already put the book of Acts and most of the book of Genesis and some other parts of the Bible into the same format for singing.
I am just wondering if there is anyone in the world besides myself who would like to sing the Bible in an Iroquoian language. I would be happy to share my own or those from the Seneca hymnal I have.

 

[Messerve]

Great to hear from you, Messerve! Huron is an Iroquoian language, but of course the Hurons were at one time enemies of the people of the Iroquois League, so you are right about not calling them Iroquois. I have heard that carol and find it lovely.
I met a man years ago who had an Oneida hymnal and could sing from it. I have a Seneca hymnal and know a lot of hymns from it, but it is so far from spoken Seneca today that the Seneca teacher at the university in Buffalo thought it might be Cayuga.
I have worked through the Seneca Gospels from the 1800s and turned them all into singable, rhymed verse that fits tunes of the 10.10.10.10 pattern, such as Abide with Me, Break thou the Bread of Life, and God of our Fathers whose Almighty Hand. The language is the extinct Buffalo Creek dialect, which is a bit different from modern Seneca and different again from the West Virginia Mingo that I grew up speaking in the 1950s. I have already put the book of Acts and most of the book of Genesis and some other parts of the Bible into the same format for singing.
I am just wondering if there is anyone in the world besides myself who would like to sing the Bible in an Iroquoian language. I would be happy to share my own or those from the Seneca hymnal I have.

I wish I spoke the language... At one point I considered learning an endangered language just to help keep it going for the next generation.

I wrote an audio drama about an elderly woman whose home is discovered to have been built over an Oneida gravesite and the ensuing cultural clash, unwanted attention and upheaveal that brings to her small town. I have most of the voice acting recorded, but I needed two more people and never got around to finding them. So it's been collecting dust in my files for awhile. But I really need to finish it. My mom acted the main character and got so into it at one point, that she was actually crying as she read her lines during an emotional scene.

 

[Mingo Bible Believer]

Fantastic! I hope you finish that project. It must be great, if it got your mom emotional.
The Mingos were outlying communities who took care of Iroquois League interests on the borders of their area. You find a lot of their descendants in West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, and when I was growing up a lot of people still spoke the language. Not much anymore. When I was just a young squirt the Seneca Nation in New York hired me to collect language-learning materials because I knew the language. I used to hang out with an old couple on the Cattaraugus Reservation, and they had a copy of the Seneca Gospels that we used to read together.
I would love to see someone start a Sunday school class or even a community church based on singing the Bible and hymns, or even just use them in home devotions. That is one way to use the language while learning it. If you are interested, I'd be glad to help with materials.

 

[Messerve]

Fantastic! I hope you finish that project. It must be great, if it got your mom emotional.
The Mingos were outlying communities who took care of Iroquois League interests on the borders of their area. You find a lot of their descendants in West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, and when I was growing up a lot of people still spoke the language. Not much anymore. When I was just a young squirt the Seneca Nation in New York hired me to collect language-learning materials because I knew the language. I used to hang out with an old couple on the Cattaraugus Reservation, and they had a copy of the Seneca Gospels that we used to read together.
I would love to see someone start a Sunday school class or even a community church based on singing the Bible and hymns, or even just use them in home devotions. That is one way to use the language while learning it. If you are interested, I'd be glad to help with materials.

Well the internet is always a great place to start. That way speakers across a wide area can still gather in one place to share ideas and add to the effort until you have the ability to do something in a physical location. Unless you already know enough people in your area, that is. But seeing as you appear to be in Finland, probably not?

I would definitely like to learn some hymns if you have some to share. I write worshipful music and post it online, so if I manage to pronounce the words good enough, I could even rework some for others to download and listen to.

 

[Messerve]

Fantastic! I hope you finish that project. It must be great, if it got your mom emotional.
The Mingos were outlying communities who took care of Iroquois League interests on the borders of their area. You find a lot of their descendants in West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, and when I was growing up a lot of people still spoke the language. Not much anymore. When I was just a young squirt the Seneca Nation in New York hired me to collect language-learning materials because I knew the language. I used to hang out with an old couple on the Cattaraugus Reservation, and they had a copy of the Seneca Gospels that we used to read together.
I would love to see someone start a Sunday school class or even a community church based on singing the Bible and hymns, or even just use them in home devotions. That is one way to use the language while learning it. If you are interested, I'd be glad to help with materials.

I post my music here, if you'd like examples. A lot of what I do is obscure hymns that I've re-arranged and updated.

 

[Mingo Bible Believer]

I post my music here, if you'd like examples. A lot of what I do is obscure hymns that I've re-arranged and updated.

 

[Mingo Bible Believer]

May God bless your musical efforts.

 

[Messerve]

May God bless your musical efforts.

Thank you!