The Great Peacemaker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (December 2008) |
The Great Peacemaker, sometimes referred to as Deganawida or "Dekanawida" (although as a mark of respect some Iroquois avoid referring to him by this name except in special circumstances) was, along with Hiawatha, the traditional founder of the Haudenosaunee (commonly called the Iroquois) Confederacy, a political and cultural union of several Native American tribes residing in the present day state of New York. The effects of the union were far-reaching and included related Iroquoian peoples in Ontario, Quebec, Pennsylvania, Ohio and other places.
The Haudenosaunee name for The Great Peacemaker (Mohawk, Skennenrahawi) means “Two River Currents Flowing Together.”
The legends about The Great Peacemaker are conflicting. It is reported that he was born a Huron and by some accounts it was a virgin birth. Others say he was born an Onondaga and later adopted by the Mohawks. By all accounts he was a prophet who counseled peace among the warring tribes, and he also called for an end to cannibalism. His follower Hiawatha, a Mohawk renowned for his oratory, helped him achieve his vision.
According to archaeologist and Professor Dean R. Snow, The Great Peacemaker first converted Hiawatha in the territory of the Onondagas, then he made a solo journey to visit the Mohawk tribe who lived in the region near what is now Cohoes, New York. Initially, the Mohawks rejected The Great Peacemaker's message, so he decided to perform a feat that would demonstrate his purity and strength. After climbing into a tree high above the Ga-ha-oose, the cataract that is now known as the Cohoes Falls, The Great Peacemaker told the Mohawk braves to chop the tree down. Many onlookers watched as The Great Peacemaker disappeared into the swirling rapids of the Mohawk river. It was assumed that The Great Peacemaker had perished until he was found sitting near a campfire the next morning. The Mohawks were greatly impressed by his miraculous survival and immediately became the founding tribe in the Iroquois Confederacy, circa 1450.[citation needed]
The vision from the Great Maker that peace would come to all nations led him to spend his life working to bring this to fruition. In his prophecy, he referred to a white serpent who would come to their lands and make friends with his people, only to later deceive them. Later on, a red serpent would make war on the white serpent, but an Indian boy would be given a great power and be accepted as a choice leader by the people of "the land of the hilly country." The Indian stays neutral in this fight and he speaks to the people that number as the blades of grass—but he is heard by all. After a season, a black serpent would come and defeat both the white and red serpents and according to the prophecy, when the people gathered under the elm tree become ever so humble, all three serpents would be blinded by a light many times brighter than the sun. Deganawidah said that he would be that light and that his nation would accept the white serpent into their safekeeping like a long-lost brother.[1]
The Great Peacemaker established a council of clan and village chiefs to govern the confederacy. Each of the tribes had a balance of power between the sexes and most decisions were made by consensus to which each representative had an equal voice. Using the system of The Great Peacemaker and Hiawatha, the Iroquois became the dominant Native American group in the northeast woodlands. The oral laws and customs of the Great Law of Peace eventually became the constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy.
[edit] References
Henry, Thomas R. "Wilderness Messiah: the story of Hiawatha and the Iroquois" New York: Bonanza Books, 1955. ISBN 10: 051713019X. Note: This edition is published by Bonanza Books a division of Crown Publishers, Inc. by arrangement with William Sloane Associates, Inc., Publishers
[edit] External links
- Mad Bear's prophecy of Deganawida's return.
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- "Deganawidah" Infoplease, University of Liverpool
- "Great Law of Peace" Sixnations.org
- View Historica’s Heritage Minute "Peacemaker", a mini-docudrama about the legendary founder of the Iroquois Confederacy.
|
||||||||||
