Legend speaks of a time of great darkness. Many hundreds of years ago, nation fought against nation. Corrupt leaders killed at will; great and evil deeds were committed, domination and even cannibalism; much blood was spilt. Then there was a child born to a young virgin who grew to be a man whom the people called “The Peacemaker”. No, this was not ancient Israel, but right here in upstate New York. The man was named Dekanawida of the Huron Indians in Canada. The legend says he came as a prophet to the warring tribes of our upstate area probably around the mid 1100’s, or possibly as late as the 1400’s. He found Hiawatha, a leader of the Mohawk tribe, or possibly of the Onondaga, wandering in the land of the Mohawks. This is not Longfellow’s warrior “Hiawatha” who was probably quite another Indian altogether with quite a different, less poetic name: Nanabozho. Hiawatha was a sullen wanderer, maybe a cannibal, whose own evil chief had killed his wife and daughters. Dekanawida convinces Hiawatha of his plan for peace, and Hiawatha, who had a gift for oratory, becomes a great asset to Dekanawida who himself had language difficulties with the New York Indians, and a speech impediment. Hiawatha is even able to help The Peacemaker to exorcize and convert his evil chief to the way of peace.
The Mohawks of our area were at first skeptical of the prophet, and so as a test he climbed a great tree that hung over the Mohawk River at the Cohoes Falls. He ordered those on the ground to cut down the tree he was perched on. It fell into the river with the Peacemaker and he disappeared over the falls which even now are spectacular, but were then unrestricted by hydroelectric plants and dams. The Mohawks gave him up for dead, but in the morning saw the smoke of a campfire on the shores of the river. It was Dekanawida.
Dekanawida and Hiawatha took their message of peace to all the five warring tribes and gathered their chiefs around an eastern white pine tree. Legend has it that The Peacemaker uprooted the tree and the chiefs placed their tomahawks in the hole left behind. Dekanawida then replaced the tree and it sprouted four roots growing to the north, south, east and west, to signify that all men were welcome to follow these roots to their source and join in this pact of peace, as the Tuscorora tribe of Kentucky eventually did. The weapons of war were taken by an underground river, never to be recovered. This is where we get the idiom to”bury the hatchet”, and the White Pine envisioned by Dekanawida with a great eagle perched in its top branches with five arrows clutched in its talons would go on to play an important role in the founding of our own republic.
The chiefs of the tribes convened in a long house and hammered out the details of a confederacy based on a union of sovereign affiliated states, without a concentration of centralized authority, but with a collective government to provide for their common defense and to settle disputes between the tribes peacefully. It was a system replete with checks and balances; between tribes, between levels of government, and even between the sexes. Though not, in a literal sense, a truly matriarchal society, it was the women’s duty to cast out bad leaders (not to re-elect them!). And so was born the nation of the Iroquois, as the French called them, or the Haudenosaunee as they called themselves… The People of The Longhouse.
The first Continental Congress was held in the city of Albany New York in 1754, to discuss a union of the colonies primarily in response to the threat of French aggression and to develop strategies for Indian diplomacy. The Haudenosaunee were well represented at the meetings, and the plan for unification proposed by Ben Franklin, labeled The Albany Plan, bore striking similarities to the Iroquois Confederacy. The plan was adopted by the group in Albany, but ultimately rejected by the state legislatures.
Before the Battle at Lexington, before the Boston Tea Party, there was the controversy over the magnificent white pines that stood tall in our part of the new world. Yes, the same kind of trees as where the Iroquois chieftains buried their tomahawks. The tree the Indians used as a symbol of peace and power, the British now declared by law to be under the control of the King of England. The trees, tall and straight, were much to be desired for masts in shipbuilding, and the European supplies were drying up and expensive. England declared that all white pines greater than 24 inches in diameter (later lowered to 12 inches) could only be sold to England, and far below market value. Such trees were marked with the sign of the broad arrow, the designation for government property, and their sale to any but the Crown was forbidden. Other countries would pay nearly double for the trees, and the law was largely ignored. Lest you believe that such tyrannical laws over privately owned natural resources is a thing of the past, take a look at our own laws. Consider New York State’s edict that all silver and gold found anywhere in the state belongs to the state, which is likely observed about as much as the broad arrow mark on the white pines.
The white pine became a symbol of the resistance to England’s tyranny, and was used for the flag of the colonies’ first “Navy”. A white flag with a green pine, and the words “An Appeal to Heaven” stitched across it flew from each of George Washington’s six privately purchased schooners; his “secret navy”.
“An appeal to heaven”; we think of that as a prayer, possibly a request for God’s favor, but borrowed from the writings of John Locke, it had a far more legal implication. In our godless times we envision a stunted universe where our own pathetic governments are the supreme authorities. Locke did not see it so. We see laws, even bad laws, pass through a corrupt Congress, signed gleefully by an inept President, and even approved via constitutional gymnastics by a misguided Supreme Court. We shrug our shoulders as we are dismissively reminded that this is the process, this is the law, it is settled, there are no further appeals. We scratch our heads as we ponder how a Constitution designed to prevent tyranny can be so used to legislate it. The Law can be bent and twisted without technically breaking it; it can at times be broken, and the breaking ignored by the powers that be. In such cases, Locke insisted there was a higher court, the court from which we derive our rights… the court of Heaven. In instances of extreme duress, where the Law itself is plundering our natural rights rather than protecting them, where a significant number of the people are in agreement; they are then within their rights to declare that Law illegitimate, and present a legal appeal to God to intervene. Our forefathers made little pretense that their rebellion could be successful without the direct intervention of Providence. They believed in a reality where right would ultimately triumph not because it was stronger, but because it was right. And so they threw off their government and filed their appeal to heaven. Like the Iroquois matriarchs, they exercised their final option and cast out the defective chiefs, trusting in an ordered creation, and a Creator that would set things right.
IMHO: All that is living tends toward destruction and decay. Yet always from even the decay arises the Phoenix, new life springs forth. Goodness creates, and evil corrupts, but then goodness recreates. History blurs the line between the two and tends to oversimplify and stereo-type. Is our heritage from those who shared the color of our skin, or with like-minded men who shared our values? Tyranny finds a home in men of every color, as does the thirst for liberty. We envision an idyllic world where the “red man” lived in peace and goodness until the evil “white man” came and destroyed it all, using singular nouns so that we can judge men by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character. Truth is always far more complex, and rather than dwelling in misplaced self loathing or racial hatred we would do well to learn the lessons of history, appropriating our heritage from all of our forefathers, not just those who share our skin color. Americans of every color are entitled to reclaim the writings of John Locke, the ideas of Ben Franklin, the words of Fredrick Douglass, the wisdom of Hiawatha and Dekanawida. Always there will be those who would try to cut down the Tree of Peace, dominate, dig up the tomahawks; steal land, lumber and liberty. They are not our fathers, they are not us. We, as our like minded fathers, put aside our desire to control and dominate each other; to enslave and plunder, to perpetually be at war. We, as our like minded fathers, will find peace in forbearance, coexistence, and liberty. We will again seek the strength of a Union without tyranny, a limited confederacy that permits diversity amongst its states, tribes and peoples. We will again stand proud and strong as rebels, patriots, and people of the longhouse.
