Water

[H2O Man]

2. 1798

In 1794, the half-brother of the Seneca leader Corn Planter named Handsome Lake had been among the leaders of the Iroquois who went to DC to sign the Pickering Treaty. There, e was introduced to alcohol. Over the next few years, he became a drunk, overcome with despair by his people's fate. In 1798, he went into an alcohol-induced coma. His daughters believed that he was dead, and prepared his body for burial. However, after three days, he came to.

During those three days, he said that three spirits took him on a journey into the future. Their lessons became known as the Code of Handsome Lake. This includes much of the Iroquois' belief system, with some influence by the Quakers that he and his brother knew. And it also included environmental prophecy. The Code is long, but I will limit myself to a few of his environmental predictions.

The spirits showed him trees beginning to die from the top-down, rather than from the lower branches up, as is natural. This was from air pollution, with the extreme examples being acid rain killing forests in Europe. Then they showed him that the water was warming up, and oily, something I need not explain. Then they took him to a garden, where the crops were not growing well. They had him take a handful of the once rich soil, which was now dry and depleted.

I could go on and on. But I think these three examples from 1798 should do.