The Peacemaker and the Great Law of Peace

Unlike the cosmological stories on this site, the Onondaga Nation and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy present the founding of the Great Law of Peace as both sacred narrative and real history, and both nations publish this account on their own websites for a general audience. This retelling follows their published wording closely.

In a time of constant warfare among the nations, a man later known as the Peacemaker, born under unusual circumstances and said to be sent to end the fighting, began traveling among them teaching a message of unity and reason over force. At Onondaga, a man named Hiawatha, who had lost his family to the violence of the Onondaga leader Tadodaho, was persuaded by the Peacemaker's teaching and became his partner in carrying the message onward.

Tadodaho is described, in both the Onondaga Nation's and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy's own published accounts, as a powerful and feared figure whose body was twisted and who had snakes growing from his hair. The Peacemaker and Hiawatha went to him last, after the other nations had agreed to unite, and through the Peacemaker's teaching and the offer of wampum, Tadodaho accepted peace; the snakes were combed from his hair and his body made straight, and he was given the role of Firekeeper, presiding over the confederacy's Grand Council.

At Onondaga Lake, the united nations planted the Great Tree of Peace, its roots reaching toward the four directions to welcome any who wished to follow the Great Law, and an eagle set at its top to watch for danger. The Peacemaker taught the law of "One Dish, One Spoon," meaning the nations would share their resources without bloodshed, and established a government of fifty chiefs, organized in three benches, deciding matters by consensus rather than majority vote.

Sources disagree on the date: some scholars point to an oral reference to a solar eclipse and argue for around 1142 CE; others, working from archaeological evidence, favor a date in the 15th century. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy's own materials describe it simply as "over a thousand years ago." This site does not assert a single year.