KAYANERENKÓ:WA
THE GREAT LAW OF PEACE
KAYANERENKÓ:WA
THE GREAT LAW OF PEACE
Kayanerenkó:wa: The Great Law of Peace
© Kayanesenh Paul Williams 2018
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University of Manitoba Press
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Treaty 1 Territory
uofmpress.ca
Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada
ISBN 978-0-88755-821-4 (paper)
ISBN 978-0-88755-193-2 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-88755-556-5 (pdf)
ISBN 978-0-88755-554-1 (epub)
Cover design by Kirk Warren
Cover art by Arnold Jacobs
Interior design by Karen Armstrong
Printed in Canada
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
The University of Manitoba Press acknowledges the financial support for its publication program provided by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Department of Sport, Culture, and Heritage, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Manitoba Book Publishing Tax Credit.
Contents
About Names
Ohe’n:ton Karihwatékwen: Words Before All Else
Introduction
PART I - Context
Creation
The Land
The Longhouse and the Village
The Haudenosaunee
Clans
Personal Names
Ceremonies
The Date of the Creation of the League
PART II - The Nature of the Law: Principles and Processes
Principles, Not Details
Order
Versions
Versions, Names, and Quotations
Language
Oral Tradition and the Rememberers
Speakers
The Power of Song: The Song of Peace
One Family
Helping One Another
The Structure of the Law
Certainty and Constancy
Confrontation Is a Last Resort
PART III - Bringing the Great Peace
Patterns and Principles in the Narrative
The Peacemaker
Why His Name Is Not Spoken
The Peacemaker Meets His Own People First
The White Stone Canoe
The Man Without a Nation, Without a Family
Mindless Warfare
The Peacemaker and the Cannibal
Announcing Peace
Skaniatariio John Arthur Gibson’s 1899 Version
Tsikonsaseh: The Women’s Side
Hiawatha: The Man of Sorrows
The First Condolence
The Three Words: Peace, Power, and Righteousness
From Individuals to Nations
Mohawk: Testing the Peacemaker
Tekarihoken, Hiawatha, and Satekariwate: The First Mohawk Chiefs
Westward
Oneida: Odatsehte
Removing Distractions: Opening the Path and Keeping It Open
Standing and Walking
Onondaga: Thadadaho
Over the Woods: Haii Haii
The Pacification of Thadadaho
Thadadaho’s Political Interests
The Fire
The Power of Unity
Cayuga
Seneca: The Doorkeepers
One Mind: Ska’níkon:ra
Unity Is Power
PART IV - The Constitution
Overview
The Longhouse of One Family
Older and Younger Brothers
Onondaga Longhouse
The Line Down the Middle of the Longhouse
Calling Council
Procedure in Council
Thick Skins
Mentors of the People
The Chiefs: Permanence of Titles
The Cluster: Chief, Clan Mother, Sub-Chief, Faithkeepers, Runner
Clan Mothers
Faithkeepers
Criteria for Becoming a Chief
Raising Up Chiefs
The Women: Landholders and Clanholders
The Circle of Protection of the Law
Leaving the Circle
Calling People Home
Returning
Symbols of the Law
The Tree of Peace
The Great White Wampum
The Eagle
The Dish with One Spoon: Sharing the Hunting Grounds
Linking Arms Together
The Council Fire
The Rod or Staff
The Wing
No Council after Dark
The Birds in the Branches
Considering the Coming Seven Generations
Life Terms
Head Chiefs?
Specific Chiefs Have Specific Duties
When a Chief Dies
Condolence
Removing a Chief
The Right of Revolution
War and Peace
The Weakness of the Council
Dealing with the “Warriors”
The Ceremonies: Spiritual Authority and Obligation
The Mother’s Line
The Names: Continuity
Citizenship and Immigration
The Right of Refuge
Adoption
Nations Leave, Nations Return
Pine Tree Chiefs
Local or Village Chiefs
Maintenance and Renewal
Amendment: Adding to the Rafters
Prophecy: Things Will Go Wrong
And in the End . . .
Closing
Bibliography
Endnotes
Index
About Names
To name something or someone is an act of power. In Genesis, God gave Adam authority to name the animals. The naming confirmed dominion over them. European explorers all over the world renamed places, mountains, and waters after their own people, eclipsing original names and the peoples who gave them. The people who provided the information and inspiration for this book often had several names in the course of their lifetimes. For the Haudenosaunee, people’s personal names have coexisted with their European names for more than three centuries. Today, it is common to refer to “real names” and “English names,” using the former for some purposes and the latter for others.
To use only English names would disrespect people’s identities. To use only their Haudenosaunee names would lead to confusion when it came time to cite their publications or quote from historical accounts of their deeds and words.
My solution has been to adopt the approach taken by the Haudenosaunee Documentation Committee for Haudenosaunee citizenship documents: that is, to place a person’s Haudenosaunee name as that person’s first name. This is consistent with the concept of the name being ón:kwe, first or original. The first reference in this text to any individual would follow this rule: Joagquisho Oren Lyons, for example.
Where a person has only a Haudenosaunee name or only a European name, there is no issue: Tekanissorens and Woodrow Wilson stand as they are.
Where an individual becomes a royá:ner, a Confederacy chief, I deliberately use his title, which replaces his original name. Thus, Hai:wes became Deskahe Steven Jacobs. Using both the English name and the title helps to distinguish individuals and at the same time to acknowledge the continuity of titles: there have also been Deskahe Levi General, Deskahe Alexander General, and Deskahe Harvey Longboat. When referring to people who are no longer living, I have not used the traditional suffix –ken after their names. It would have been correct, but it would have meant further confusing those unfamiliar with Haudenosaunee customs.
I had considered distinguishing between people who had been born Haudenosaunee and people who had received names through adoption. Since the law does not distinguish between them, I will not do so either. Warraghyhagey William Johnson and Dayodekane Seth Newhouse are named in the same way.
Treating Haudenosaunee names as “first names” provides a solution to the issue of citations in footnotes. When an individual is mentioned for the first time, I use his or her full name. Subsequent references to the individual will use only the surname, unless it is necessary to distinguish between several individuals with the same surname.
It’s complicated. It’s important. It’s right. You’ll get used to it.
Ohe’n:ton Karihwatékwen: Words Before All Else
The enduring legal systems of the world are the result of people bringing their minds together to foster order and peace. For the People of the Longhouse, the Haudenosaunee, giving thanks is the first step towards law and the beginning of any meeting of the people.1 Words of thanksgiving, Kanonhweratonhsera, are spoken at the opening (and closing) of every council, whether internal or with other people or nations. Viewed through the lens of Kanonhweratonhsera, the world is an orderly place: every part of the natural world has been given instructions and responsibilities, and each continues to fulfill those instructions as well as it can. This gratitude reminds us, too, that we humans are no more important than the other living parts of the world. Kanonhweratonhsera is not a recitation of a hierarchy. It is not a prayer. Giving thanks as people gathered together is the beginning of being of one mind. As they come together, our minds are “bundled together” into one: entitewahwe’non:ni ne onkwa’nikonikon:ra.2 Kanonhweratonhsera reminds us that order is the natural and intentional condition of creation, and that being of one good mind is the ideal condition of the people.
The Great Power came from up in the sky, and now it is functioning,
the Great Power that we accepted when we reached consensus.
So now our house has become complete.
Now, therefore, we shall give thanks, that is,
we shall thank the Creator of the earth, that is,
he who has planted all the kinds of weeds
and all the varieties of shrubs
and all the kinds of trees;
and springs,
flowing water, such as rivers
and large bodies of water, such as lakes;
and the sun that keeps moving by day,
and by night the moon,
and where the sky is, the stars, which no one is able to count;
moreover, the way it is on earth in relation to which
no one is able to tell the extent to which it is to their benefit, that is,
the people who he created and who will continue to live on earth.
This, then, is the reason we thank him, the one with great power,
the one who is the Creator,
for that which will now move forward,
the Good Message and the Power and the Peace; the Great Law.3
KAYANERENKÓ:WA
THE GREAT LAW OF PEACE