The True Story of Peacemaker

 

Ayenwatha, Peacemaker and Tododaho

I will be telling the true story of Peacemaker, the teenager who received the vision of the Great Law of Peace from the Great Spirit a thousand years ago — and ended the wars between the 5 nations of the Iroquois.  I learned the tale from Mohawk Peace Chief Jake Swamp and his wife Judy Swamp (who knows the woman’s side of the story).  Every 5 years, Jake tells the story over 4 days at the site of the League’s Grand Council at Lake Onandaga.

My version of the story is considerably shorter.  Here is a picture of Jake:

It is a story of Sky Woman, who fell to Earth and created Turtle Island, of a peace and harmony shredded by generations of war, of the evil Shaman Tododaho, The Crooked One — who tries to stop the burgeoning peace movement started by Peacemaker and his allies Ayanwatha, the great chief and orator and Jinkonsaseh, the Clan Mother who becomes the Great Mother. 

But most of all it is the story of what one change agent, a teenager no less, can do.  Sometime around a thousand years, Peacemaker finally succeeded — and the Grand Council met at Lake Onandaga in New York, agreeing to a peace that lasted a thousand years.  The Good Mind had won out over the evil and greed that lurks in the human heart.

How did Peacemaker do it?  What can we learn from him, Ayenwatha and the powerful Jinkonsaseh?

A lot. 

Great Peace Re-enactment