Otsitsakenra (Charlie) Patton came to visit from Kahnewake to tell students his (very shortened) version of the Creation Story and the Great Law of Peace. Students had already read a version of the Great Law, but hearing it from him in person made it come alive. The students wrote responses after the talk, and they were really moving. Here are some of their thoughts:

"As suggested by Charlie, there's a web of complex interrelations between the different varieties of life found on Earth (the Creator's chef-d'oeuvre) known as the circle of life and all elements which compose it are deemed equal in value (ex: humans are as important as worms) because they all have a purpose to fulfill (they all contribute to the cycle)."

"I found the talk really different from the text because we had the chance to have a Mohawk Chief in our class, talk about his culture and the Law of Great Peace. The Chief's oral skills were really touching and clearly couldn't be put in a written text. In my opinion, when the Mohawk Chief sang, this was the best way to show the important aspect of oral communication in Mohawk culture. Also, when he started talking about the moment when Europeans arrived in the "New World", I found that this part was really sad and unfortunate for the man's culture; white people's alcohol, diseases or even religion started to destroy Native culture really quick and changed them for ever. Although, I really liked when he spoke about the hope that still exists in their culture. Finally, when he talked about the Law of Great Peace, I understood the importance of nature caring in Native culture and at what point this mentality is the first thing to have before any other action; Mother Earth gave us the great gift of nature and we should respect this spirit by respectfully living in this world."

"Listening to Otsitsakenra Patton was definitely more enlightening than expected, I sincerely thought, at first, that this conference would be similar to a teacher teaching us and other telling us facts, which is usually unexciting but hearing him speak to us about his culture was definitely something entertainment that no teacher could have imitated, keeping the attention of forty student is something extremely hard which he absolutely mastered. I think the great law is still something that I have yet truly understand but in short it is an oral traduction that takes around 10 days to transmit and is about the mind and spirit."

"I found this talk to be very interesting and I love how we got to learn about something we talk about in class from a new, unique point of view that we wouldn't always be able to see. I found multiple rations to a few other things we have talked about in class throughout the year, such as the world of the forms. The speaker told us a story of creation that is believed by his people that talked about a woman knows as "sky woman" who fell from the sky world and created the earth through seeds and song. It is said that they believed that after death, you would return to sky world. The is very similar to the idea of the world of the forms where you begin there, live on the earth and return to this 'paradise' of knowledge. The speaker brought us many more stories of his people and he had a very special way of communicating them, since they meant so much to him, and I really enjoyed being able to have a new light shined on topics that we only cover the general idea of. He was very passionate and it made it so much more captivating to listen to him and learn about the history of his people who came before us, and this opened my mind to many new ideas."

"I really enjoyed having the speaker come talk to our class. The way he spoke was very captivating. At the beginning of the class, he did an opening ceremony which he said was something very spiritual and all about life. Every ceremony that they have is all about giving thanks to life which I think people should do more often because we tend to take the things in our life for granted. We should be grateful for what we have in our life. He spoke about the great law of peace and how their are three parts: peace, a good mind and power of unity. He also said that everything is equal and everything has a purpose which I found to be very inspirational, since there is hate in the world."

"I found that Otsitsakenra was an amazing speaker who's words were wise and grabbed your attention immediately. I wish that he could've had the opportunity to talk for longer because I would've listened the whole time. I really liked what he said about censorship of our own ideas. I related to that because I believe people often censor me when I talk and when I have ideas. The great law is one step closer to repairing our ties with the native people, and I hope if someone in that class had racist or stereotypical views on our native population, then they realized during the talk that their views are wrong. He discussed how the great law is a movement for peace and unity and I think that that's absolutely right. We have too much separation in our societies and need to fix that aspect to obtain a more meaningful life."

"The words of Otsitsakenra were beautiful to hear for different reasons. I understood that the Great Law was based mostly on peace and a good state of mind. Everything that he was refering to was about respect, honour, sharing, caring and most importantly equality. Women equal to men, people to chiefs, humans to animals and nature. It was beautiful to hear that there was a time and until today people thought of these real fundamental bases. The Great Law shows points of view in order to find peace and I totally agree with that. It was a great experience learning about these people who need to be more heard, a lot more."

"Listening to an expert was really great and we learned a lot. The thing that surprised me the most was when he talked about the fact that everybody's equal and there are no humans that worth more than any other species. Plus, Otsitsakenra made us realize how precious the Nature surrounding us is and how ungrateful many of us are. In fact, the earth gives us everything we need to live and we're not enough conscious of all that. During the presentation, I learned a lot about the Great Law and everything related to it. The Great Law has three principles (Peace, Power, and Righteousness) that must be perfectly done because everything connects. Instead of fighting and going to war, we should embrace every different community. We should also be grateful that the sun is rising, that the water is flowing and the vegetation is growing because if one these stop existing, who you are or where you from won't change anything."

"I really enjoyed the talk we had in class. It was calming and it reminded me of my priorities in life. Sometimes, with work and school, we forget to live and spend time with the most important people in our lives. I also loved the beginning when he said that if the Sun doesn't rise today, all we're doing at school doesn't matter. In other words, he means that if the cycle of life is interrupted, going to school and doing what we do almost everyday won't be as important as it used to be. Nature is an amazing gift from our creator, but we take it for granted, because we're used to seeing it everyday. We should be grateful to see the sunrise, the moon, the vegetation and the animals, because if one of these elements of life disappears, it will affect us and maybe make us disappear."

"The presentation by Otsitsakenra about The Great Law was truly an amazing presentation. Growing up around many Natives I’ve always known they had a beautiful culture however, I never knew about The Great Law. Written in stone, The Great Law has three principles. The first is peace, the second is power and the last is righteousness. Originating from the creation story, The Great Law says to always give thanks and be grateful. In the opening ceremony, they give thanks to the animals, the wind, the three sisters - corn, squash and beans, the wind, etc. He explains to us that everything connects. For example, without the flow of water there cannot be fish. Which I thought was such a nice concept. Although Otsitsakenra shares many beautiful values and stories, my favourite part was the way he described the leaders to be. They did not consider themselves above anyone, they were equal with their groups and they truly cared about them, which I think is something many leaders lack. The way he talked throughout the presentation was so beautiful and inspiring. He knew so much and explained everything so well. I believe that many people could learn a lot from these native beliefs."

"This presentation from the Otsitsakenra Patton was very interesting since he described his cultures beliefs and values. The simplicity behind his speech made it easy to follow. One thing that really caught my attention that he repeated multiple times was that his people do not value humans over an animal. For example, a bird is not considered to be lower than one of them. Every animate creature is to be respected and cared for. Another thing that was mention was that the Mohawks social hierarchy views women very highly since without them, we would have no life. But by far the most outstanding thing mentioned was that his culture values stories and passes on everything from word of mouth. They prefer oral lessons than using books."

"This was definitely an attention-catching presentation. From the beginning until the very end, I have learned a lot of new things about the history of his people that I probably would have not learned on my own. I loved how Charles went in depth into the subject with a lot of knowledge and emotion as well. The aspect that I loved the most about his talk is the realness. For example, he would talk about the current issues in our society. Pollution, war, weapons, racism, hate, etc. It was very touching for me to see how his origins and culture would passionate him. Also, it was captivating to hear him talk about many different subjects without being boring. The way he talks really kept me concentrated on the topic and made me want to take more notes about every single detail he would mention. Honestly, this was a riveting talk. Today's class was moving."