The Legend of The Peacemaker and his Battle Against the Evil Serpent Chiefhas a lot to do with an unlikely hero! Ayonwentah (Hiawatha), or Hai-en-Wat-ha, who became a chief of Iroquois, belonging to the Onondaga & the Mohawk tribes.
Although to Europeans he is known as Hiawatha because of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that tells the story of a Native American hero and his love for Minnehaha the true story of his legend has more to do with the tragic deaths of the hero's daughters. Ayenwatha or more accurately Ayonwentah, was a precolonial Indigenous Native leader and credited with the co-founding of the Iroquois Confederacy that lasted 900 years before the Europeans arrived in the Americas. He was a great leader of the Onondaga people,and the Mohawk people and called the Peacemaker by all who knew of the tragedies of his life and his love for his people that helped him unite five warring tribes and save countless innocents from a deranged bloodthirsty mind! Although, he was born an Onondaga he was adopted into the Mohawks and cherished both peoples as his own.
Although Hiawatha was a real person, he is mostly known through his legend. The events in the legend have been dated to the middle 1100s through the occurrence of an eclipse coincident which corresponds to the time of the founding of the Iroquois Confederacy.According to the Onondaga when the founder of the Confederacy, Dekanawidah, known as The Great Peacemaker, first came to Iroquoia, one of the first people he met was Hiawatha, not yet called by that name.
At that time according to legend, Ayonwentah was known as the wild man like many he had grown up in a society that spent generations at war with each other and although he was a fierce warrior by his own people he was thought to be a cannibal, known as "the man who eats humans." When Dekanawidah came to his cabin, he climbed onto the roof, looked down through the smoke hole, where there was a large kettle of water for cooking a meal of human flesh. When Hiawatha came home, he looked into the water and saw Dekanawidah's face reflected back to him, which he thought was his own. Deganawida did not fear death like other men when he was born to the Hurons of the north Deganawida's mother had a powerful vision. She saw that her newborn son would be responsible for the destruction of the Huron people. A mixture of panic overwhelmed her. She didn't know what to do, so she tried to kill her newborn child by drowning him in the river. She attempted three times, but each time the child survived. She finally gave up and accepted the baby as her son.
"In that face that Ayonwentah saw he was aware of a beauty, a wisdom and strength, which at first filled him with astonishment and then with shame, for it was not the face of one who killed and ate his fellow men." Dekanawidah a great warrior in his own right came down without fear, sat across the fire from him, and passed on to him the Great Law of Peace. Hiawatha recognizing the strength and truth within this man accepted the message, and agreed to stay and work with his own people while Dekanawidah went on to pass the message to other nations that had been at war so long no one could remember when or why it had started.
The principal chief of the Onondaga at that time was a cruel tyrant called Tadodaho, or Atotarho. Tadodaho is described as twisted in both body and mind.He was a believer in Blood sacrifices and his body although strong was malformed his skin said to be scaled and hideous "His hair he adorned with living snakes". It was said that he could see into the realm of the spirits and Snakes' eyes looked out from his finger ends." Dekanawidah charged Hiawatha with converting Tadodaho—to "comb the snakes out of his hair." thus cleansing his diseased brain. Dekanawidah gave him the name Hiawatha,and said the thunderbird spirits would be with him to offer their power to the newly named Hai-en-Wat-ha which means "he who combs."
In the fortuitous month Hai-en-Wat-Ha knew that the moon would be in his favor although the power of the serpent never waned much as the stars of Draco were circumpolar from northern latitudes, meaning that the sky serpent light never sets and can be seen at any time of year. At this time he went to speak to the council to stop the endless wars of revenge and lust for blood. As Dekanawidah had taught him he spoke to the hearts of his people, he started to make them remeber when life was more than endless war and blood! The Great warrior now called Hiawatha presented his proposals to the Onondaga in councils who began to be swayed by this man many of them had feared more than the serpent, but Tadodaho kept frustrating all his efforts and disrupting the councils.Hiawathas daughters were given the power to protect him from harm from the Serpent by embodying the power of a thunderbird spirit After each Council meeting one of Hiawatha's daughters were killed overwhelmed by evil spiritual forces but each in turn continued to protect him! Hiawatha's first daughter died after Tadodaho broke Hiawatha's first attempt to bring together a council, and Hiawatha's second daughter died after Tadodaho foiled the second council. Hiawatha's third daughter and wife died at the council fire of the third meeting, while Tadodaho was present able to proclaim his innocence.
It was claimed that the serpent murdered Hiawatha's three daughters and his wife by magic using them as blood sacrifices to increase his power. Grief-stricken, Hiawatha left his village and wandered, "stringing wampum and seeking someone who should understand the thirteen-string ceremony of condolence and take away his grief by the spell of the wampum." Finally, he came to the territory of the Mohawk, where Dekanawidah had converted the entire nation. When he saw that Hiawatha was full of grief because his daughters and wife were murdered, the Great Peacemaker gifted Hiawatha with whelk shells and told him to put them on his eyes and ears and throat these shells were a sign of healing and purity.Hiawatha at once could feel the presence of his wife and daughters, his spirit heard, saw and spoke and was at peace knowing they had never left his side.
Hiawatha used these shells to create a sense of unity. As per the Iroquois Nation, the Peacemaker was the one who offered them the first wampum belt, later called the Hiawatha Belt. The belt showcases the different nations in a specific order from left to right. The Seneca are placed at the far left, representing their role as the Keepers of the Western Door. Next are the Cayuga, followed by the Onondaga, also known as the Keepers of the Central Fire, positioned at the center of the belt with a unique symbol. Then come the Oneida, and at the far right are the Mohawk, the Keepers of the Eastern Door. The white line connecting all the symbols of each tribe symbolizes the unity of the Iroquois people and represents the Great Law of Peace. Deganawida had a profound vision where he envisioned how the Iroquois tribes could coexist peacefully and, if they did, they could remain strong for a millennium.
"The Great Peacemaker prophesied that his people would be visited by a white serpent that would deceive them. Later, a red snake would engage in battle with the white serpent. During this time, a Native child would appear. He would be chosen as the leader of his people. The leader would remain objective and watch the two serpents fighting each other giving wise council to those who would listen in order to save as many as possible. Then, a black snake would defeat the white and red serpents. The arrival of the black serpent will be a symbol of significant changes."
Dekanawidah chanted the words that have since been part of the Iroquois Requickening Ceremony: "I wipe away tears from thy face, using the white fawn-skin of pity...I make it daylight for thee... I beautify the sky. Now shall thou do thy thinking in peace..." Afterwards, Hiawatha put aside his grief and understood the power of the heart he then joined Dekanawidah in composing the laws of the Great Peace, and the Peace Hymn. Deganawida's prophecy revealed that when his people gathered together under an elm tree, all three "serpents" would be blinded by an extremely bright light, and the fighting would end. According to the prophecy, the light was Deganawida, who brought peace to his people. On August 31st, 1142 during a solar eclipse that passed over Iroquois land the 5 tribes that eventually would become the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the endonym Haudenosaunee an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of Native Americans and First Nations (Aboriginal) peoples in northeast North America.
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