Continued from last week

Forward by Nadine Jennings-Reprinted from Legends of the Iroquois by Tehanetorens

The Great Peace

An Iroquoian nation was comprised of the clans within the nation. For example, the Turtle clan, Wolf clan, and Bear clan were the original clans, which comprised the Mohawk nation. All the clans could be signified by pictographs. Pictographs such as those presented in Legends of the Iroquois are the original writing system used by many Native American and First Nations (Canadian designation) peoples. Pictographs can be symbols of physical objects or of concepts. When the Iroquois Confederacy was established the visual symbols of the Confederacy were designated by the Peacemaker.

The Haudenosaunee League, said Dekanawidah, would be represented by a Longhouse. The easternmost of the Five Nations, the Mohawk Nation was designated the keeper of the eastern door. The central fire of the Confederacy. The center of the Longhouse would be the Onondaga Nation. As the westernmost nation, the Seneca Nation would be the keeper of the western door. Longhouse familial ties then extended from individual women and their families to the clan, from the clan to the nation, and from the nation to the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. Because the intent was to establish peace among nations, the Confederacy intended to offer membership called “extending the rafters” of the Longhouse to other nations willing to live in accordance with Confederacy codes of conduct. Once the Tuscarora Nation accepted the invitation to join the Haudenosaunee in 1715, the Five Nations became the Six Nations. For untold generations the people lived in accordance with the Great Law as it had been given to them by the Peacemaker. The story of the Founding of the League became the Foundation of Haudenosaunee culture, explaining the sacred origin of certain religious beliefs, political organization, and social organization. Other stories told, for example, of the origin of the constellations, the discovery of fire, how birds got their songs, and how humans are to live with one another and the rest of creation. The Haudenosaunee prospered until there came from the east a new people, people very different from any they had known before.