Hiawatha and the Words of Condolence

A story that is also a ceremony

This story belongs to the founding of the Great Law of Peace, and the words at its centre are still spoken when a Confederacy chief dies and a successor is raised. What follows is the outline shared publicly by the Onondaga Nation and recorded in Arthur C. Parker's 1916 edition of the Great Law and, earlier, in Horatio Hale's The Iroquois Book of Rites (1883). It does not reproduce the ceremonial words themselves.

Grief

In a time of constant war, an Onondaga man named Hiawatha loses his daughters, one after another; in the tradition Parker recorded, their deaths are the work of the feared Onondaga leader Tadodaho. Hiawatha's grief is so great that he can no longer stay among his people. He leaves them and wanders alone.

The shell strings

At a lake he gathers shells and strings them. He sets up the strings and says that if he found anyone burdened with grief as he was, he would take these strings and console them, and the strings would become words. But there is no one to console him.

Condolence

The Peacemaker, carrying his message of peace to the nations, finds Hiawatha. Taking up the strings, he speaks words of condolence: he wipes the tears from Hiawatha's eyes so that he can see clearly, clears his ears so that he can hear, and clears his throat so that he can speak. Hiawatha's mind is restored. He becomes the Peacemaker's partner and speaker, and together they carry the Great Law to the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca, and at last to Tadodaho.

Why it matters

The story explains why grief must be answered before any council can do its work: a mind clouded by loss cannot think of peace. The shell strings became wampum, used to carry and confirm words, and the Condolence remains one of the Confederacy's central observances.