Haudenosaunee TraditionHero
The Peacemaker
Also known as The Great Peacemaker
The messenger of the Great Law of Peace, who in Haudenosaunee tradition crossed the lake in a white stone canoe, joined with Hiawatha, and brought the five warring nations together under one law. Many Haudenosaunee people avoid speaking his personal name outside ceremony, so this site uses his title.
About The Peacemaker
Why the title
Haudenosaunee people generally refer to him as the Peacemaker, and many avoid using his personal name outside ceremonial contexts. This site follows that practice, as the Onondaga Nation and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy do in the accounts they publish themselves.
Birth and the stone canoe
Arthur C. Parker's 1916 edition of the Great Law includes a version of the Peacemaker's story recorded from Six Nations chiefs: he is born to a Wendat (Huron) woman north of Lake Ontario, and his grandmother, warned in a dream that he would bring sorrow to their people, tries to drown him, but he returns each time. As a man he builds a canoe of white stone and crosses the lake to the country of the warring nations.
The message
He goes first to a woman whose house fed war parties, Jikonhsaseh, and she becomes the first to accept the message. The Mohawk test him by having him climb a tree over the great falls on the Mohawk River, cut it down, and wait: when he is found alive the next morning, they accept the law. With Hiawatha, whom he condoles in his grief, he carries the message west, and together they persuade the Onondaga leader Tadodaho. At Onondaga Lake the nations bury their weapons beneath the Great Tree of Peace and take up government by fifty chiefs.
Dates
Scholars and the nations date the founding differently, from the 12th to the 15th century; the Haudenosaunee Confederacy describes it as over a thousand years ago. This site does not fix a year.
On parentage: Parker's recorded legend describes a virgin birth; accounts differ in detail, and the nations' own public accounts focus on his message rather than his birth.
Key deeds
- Crossed the lake in a canoe of white stone to bring the message of peace
- Won Jikonhsaseh, the first to accept the Great Peace
- Survived the Mohawk test at the falls on the Mohawk River
- Condoled Hiawatha in his grief, establishing the words of condolence
- Persuaded Tadodaho and planted the Great Tree of Peace at Onondaga
Fate
Having established the Great Law and the council of fifty chiefs, the Peacemaker departs; tradition holds that his name is not to be given to any later chief, and that he may be called on again if the law is ever forgotten.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Arthur C. Parker, The Constitution of the Five Nations, or The Iroquois Book of the Great Law ("The Dekanawida Legend")
- Onondaga Nation, "History" (onondaganation.org)
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Hero legends were retold for centuries, and the sources often disagree on parentage, deeds and death. This entry follows the best-known versions and notes the main alternatives.