Early in the 12th century CE, five peoples were in constant conflict in the area that we now know as the Finger Lakes Region to the Hudson River. They were the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas, all locked in an endless cycle of murder and retaliation that would have led to their mutual destruction, if it had been left unchecked. But out of the chaos arose several extraordinary individuals who were able, not only to stop the cycle of violence, but to establish unity and a great peace between them which has lasted almost a millennium.
The story of how the Haudenosaunee (AKA Iroquois) Confederacy was established between bitter enemies is one of the most inspiring I’ve ever encountered. Because it has profound implications for the conflicts that trouble our world, I believe it needs to be made into a musical. Here it is, or at least, the version of it that I have pieced together from a variety of sources. They don’t all agree about some of the details, but the overarching story is pretty consistent.
The legend begins and ends with Tadodaho (or Atotarho), who in the beginning ruled the Onondagas with malice. He was a sorcerer and it is said that his mind was so diseased that snakes grew from his hair and his body had become twisted into seven crooks. He looked more like a monster than a man and he was believed to be able to kill people with a thought. It's not clear whether he actually held a formal position as a high chief, or whether he simply terrified the chiefs so thoroughly that they did what he said. Either way, he was the supreme authority of the Onondagas, and the people he ruled had gone so far as to give themselves over to cannibalism.
During Tadodaho’s rule, a stranger paddled across what we now know as Lake Ontario in a canoe made of white stone. That the canoe was even capable of floating was a wonder and the stranger, who has come to be known as Skennenrahawi (“the Peacemaker”) boldly declared peace, power, unity and righteousness to the dazzled multitudes. At that time, he was known by another name, which is held sacred by some of the Haudenosaunee and only spoken on certain occasions. He would tell people that the time of peace had come, then paddle away to another village.
His first ally was Jigonhsasee, a woman whose home lay on the crossroads between the warring peoples. She would give shelter to warriors from whatever nation, but they had to leave their weapons outside and keep the peace while under her hospitality. Since Skennenrahawi carried no weapons, he was a welcome guest. He shared with her his dream of peace and unity among the five nations, where thinking would replace killing. She rejoiced to be able to support it and the Peacemaker called her Mother of Nations.
Then he carried on his way, eventually coming to the Onondagas, but not to the sorceror. He climbed instead onto the roof of a hut belonging to one of their lesser chiefs, looking down through the hole that served as a chimney into a large cooking pot, filled with water. The chief happened to look into the pot while Skennenrahawi was peering into it from above and was startled by the beauty of what he took to be his own reflection. That, he thought, was not a face that belonged to someone who ate human flesh, and he was stricken with a desire to be better. Skennenrahawi climbed down from the roof and taught him the way of peace, power, unity and righteousness, then charged him to bring the Onondagas to his cause.
The lesser chief was a persuasive orator and many leaders heard his arguments with favor. But Tadodaho was adamantly opposed to such teachings and, one by one, the lesser chief/orator’s wife and three daughters mysteriously died while he was holding councils of peace. Believing that Tadodaho had cursed the orator’s family to punish him, the rest of the people turned away from him and his peace councils, for fear of the sorceror's wrath.
According to the customs of the time, the orator should now have had a blood feud with Tadodaho. It was the custom for the relatives of a murder victim to avenge the death by killing the murderer or, if that wasn’t possible, a member of their family. That would, in turn, give the family of the person who had been killed for vengeance an obligation to avenge that death, and so it would go in an endless cycle. But the orator had no chance of killing Tadodaho, and he was an emissary of the Peacemaker, seeking to persuade his people that the blood feuds were the path to annihilation and that they needed to use reason instead of violence to solve their problems.
Under the weight of his grief and alienation, the orator wandered from village to village, seeking solace and finding none. At last, he came to the lands of the Mohawk, where the Peacemaker had been teaching in the meanwhile and had won that whole nation to peace. Skennenrahawi embraced and consoled the orator and called him to be his mouthpiece because Skennenrahawi had a speech impediment. Together, the two traveled from village to village, calling the Five Nations into a peaceful confederacy. They brought the Oneidas, Cayugas and Senecas on board. But, terrified of Tadodaho, none of the Onondagas dared to listen.
So the Peacemaker called the orator and Jigonhsasee to join him in seeking out the sorceror. They went together to the swamp (or mountain) where Tadodaho dwelled. They sang the songs of peace and Tadodaho rose up from the ground, as terrifying as ever. Undaunted, they continued to sing. Skennerahawi spoke the words of his message, and after some time, Tadodaho looked up and smiled. Then the Peacemaker asked the orator to comb the snakes out of the hair of the man who had murdered his wife and daughters, frightened away his friends, taken away his status, and almost destroyed his sanity. The orator did, and when the snakes were gone, Tadodaho had returned to his right mind and his natural form. The Peacemaker gave the orator the name by which all the legends call him today: Hiawatha, meaning “He who combs.” Tadodah led the Onondagas into a confederacy that was made possible by an unfathomable act of forgiveness and care for an enemy.
Representatives of the Five Nations met at Onondaga Lake and agreed to a plan that included specific roles for each people, mechanisms for conflict resolution, and practices for maintaining the peace between them. They believed these came to them from the Creator. The Clan Mothers, integral to the process, were entrusted with choosing the chiefs and helping them to walk straight. Then the Peacemaker uprooted a pine tree, the people threw their weapons of war into the hole beneath it, and the tree was replaced on top, becoming the Tree of Peace, a key symbol of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
Tadodaho, who had so long been an enemy to all the people, was made presiding chief of the council and Jigonhsasee placed the antlers of authority on his head. When all of this was done, the Peacemaker told the people that if the great peace failed, they should call his name in the bushes and he would return. Then he disappeared. And so began a mighty confederacy, the oldest continuous democracy we know of, which has been credited with inspiring the US Constitution.
Since that time, the presiding chief and spiritual leader of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy has been known by the title Tadodaho. I have not found any explanation for why that, as opposed to Hiawatha, should be the title that is passed on. But I am struck by this sentence in an Onondaga explanation of the history: “The Peacemaker changed 50 evil thinking men to good thinking men (Hoyane/Chiefs) to lead the path toward peace for the people.” It occurs to me that it is impossible to build peace among people who are convinced of their own rightness and the unworthiness of others. By contrast, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy was established by people who were able to recognize their own brokenness, and then to offer grace and forgiveness to even their bitterest of enemies.
There is an important sequel to this story. Because of broken treaties, industrialization, and a soda ash plant built on the shores of Onondaga Lake in the 1880s, the land where the Peacemaker brought five warring nations to live with “one heart and one mind” and the Tree of Peace that was its symbol, became buried under toxic waste. Onondaga Lake, once pristine, became one of the most polluted bodies of water in the USA. This is painful to the Haudenosaunee people, for many reasons including that the Great Law of Peace contemplated not just peace between peoples, but also, peace with all living creatures and with nature.
“We speak in terms of responsibilities with respect to water, not in terms of water rights… From time immemorial, we have held the view that the ‘law of the land' is not man-made law, but a greater natural law, the Great Law of Peace. This law, in our view, is divine. The Haudenosaunee have a deep respect for the waters of the Earth,” wrote Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force director Joyce Tekahnawiiaks King.
In 2005, under today’s Tadodaho Sid Hill, the Onondaga Nation filed a “land rights action” in federal court. They weren’t seeking to “claim” the land in a way that could result in financial compensation or anybody being evicted, but rather to have their stewardship of the land recognized so that they could have a voice in negotiations about how to clean up the lake and surrounding land that they hold sacred. Their claim started with the declaration: “The Onondaga people wish to bring about a healing between themselves and all others who live in this region that has been the homeland of the Onondaga Nation since the dawn of time. The Nation and its people have a unique spiritual, cultural, and historic relationship with the land, which is embodied in Gayanashagowa, the Great Law of Peace. This relationship goes far beyond federal and state legal concerns of ownership, possession, or other legal rights. The people are one with the land and consider themselves stewards of it. It is the duty of the Nation’s leaders to work for a healing of this land, to protect it, and to pass it on to future generations. The Onondaga Nation brings this action on behalf of its people on the hope that it may hasten the process of reconciliation and bring lasting justice, peace, and respect among all who inhabit this area.”
In 2010, the federal court denied the claim. But the Onondaga people have not given up and they are allying with their neighbours to seek healing. They still honor the law that was given to them by the Peacemaker, and they will not rest until the contamination is removed from the lake and the surrounding land, until “the Lake is clean enough to drink the water and eat the fish.”
Can you imagine a musical about the establishment of a lasting peace with forgiveness, care, and enduring common law that brings once-warring peoples to share one heart and one mind? And to see them holding fast to that law, living by ideals of peace, respect and reconciliation, in a day when our cultural trend is toward rejecting, demeaning and giving up on those who disagree with us? How much power might there be in a story like that on our stages?
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