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FORWARD
When I first met Jack King in 1988, Spirit told me that he walked in the footsteps of Hiawatha. I thought Hiawatha was this guy in a poem but it was from Jack that I learned Hiawatha was a real person from out of Iroquoian history. I began a study of the Iroquois legend of Hiawatha, or Hayenwentha. I found he was a man who was at one time a cannibal, but through the hand of Creator God, became known as the Prophet of Peace. This began a search for me to learn all I could about this story. I have since come to understand that Hiawatha’s footsteps means to follow the Long House Ways of the Great Law. Jack is Oneida and raised with the Seneca Cayugas of Oklahoma and these are his ways.
In 1998, Jack and I established a museum of our Indian stuff in Wyandotte, Oklahoma. Soon after opening, we received a stick that we were told was very old but no one seemed to remember what it was for. A little after that, we were visited by a psychic. I let her hold it and she told me that “it was the way. It would show us the way. It would guide us, it would lead us.” Jack surmised that it was a condolence cane but in about six weeks, we were visited by Jake Thomas. Jake was the last of the Condoled Hereditary Sachems of the Six Nations and one of the last to know all of the ceremonies. Why he was led to our Museum and gave us a 2 hour dissertation on the message of the condolence cane, I do not know. Strange circumstances. But now, I had the desire to know even more, like somehow this story still was not complete. I understand that the condolence cane story takes some 6 hours in ceremony to recite.
As time went on, I worked on paintings that went into the museum. I thought one day, I would like to do a series of paintings on the Great Law. In the story was a woman that was barely mentioned in the books I read. The story usually mentioned that a woman lived in the wilderness and gave lodging to the warriors and she was the first person to accept the Great Peace. My curiosity of such a woman…. Was she bigger and hairier than the guys… or was she just lucky? or what???? In February of 2001, I learned she had a name….. Jikohnsaseh. Shortly there after, the Miami Tribal Library received the books I had asked for and the journey became even more fascinating.
The little known story became my obsession and still has not been completed. I hope to share this story with the world and especially with women. This is an incredible journey into the past…. some 2000 years, to a civilization that puts our present day “humanity” to shame. A civilization where there were no orphans, there were no jails, there were no poor, AND WOMEN AND MEN GOVERNED TOGETHER with benevolence, fairness, love and righteousness.
There is an incredible lesson to learn here, facets of which can be contemplated for years to come. The Great Law formed the foundation of a perfect democracy that has yet to be exceeded by any civilization.
I got the opportunity to paint my paintings and take them to the Olympics and shared them with the world there, but I still am not satisfied. There is more to the story. I know there is. But we shall have to let it unfold.
All paintings Copyrighted 2002-2005
Note: This presentation is not to be represented as the official story according to oral history but is a compilation of information. Paul Wallace wrote "The White Roots of Peace" in 1946. This is the only attempt that I am aware of that tries to put all the little stories together in English in some linear order. Ironically, both of the two other major writings that I worked from, "Iroquoian Women:The Gantowisas" by Barbara Mann and "The Life of Ely Parker: The Last Grand Sachem of the Iroquois" written by Ely's grandson Arthur James Napoleon Parker, were also authored in 1948, the year of my birth and at the close of WWII. From time to time, I encountered stories written better in my estimation, and borrowed from them to enhance my rendition. I am not a writer. I am a painter. But I found that the story was not well known and if I wanted people to understand what I was painting, I had to come up with a story..... and since I could not find one, I had to put my own together. I took what I did know, created an outline, and then stuck to the original intent ..........
There are many different versions out there in the world.... some that smack against reason, some obviously garbled.. and others pure fantasy. Some that are just different... like whether Hiawatha had 3 or 7 daughters... and that changed the story considerably but in the advent, the teaching behind the story is the same. I wanted my version rooted firmly in possibilities of what could happen, in the reality..... for instance, in the story of Haiwatha, he comes to Lake Tully and the water birds empty the lake so he can walk across on dry land... I encountered two versions, one where the birds drank it and another where the wind from their wings lifted it up. Quite frankly, a bunch of fat birds filled with water that probably could not get off the ground did not make much of a picture where lifting the water with their wings made it possible to do a Moses walking through the Red Sea type of painting. This is the only "super natural" event associated with Hiawatha but if there were enough birds, maybe it could happen. Accounts of a scribbler in the first winter at Yellowstone described the darkening of the sky, and the hordes of animals coming to water..... animals in such number that our eyes will never behold such sights. So enough birds, startled, just might splash, and whip the water out of the lake. In the far reaches of my mind, that became a remote possibility.
A major departure from oral history is the story of the Jikohnsaseh. Ely Parker was a descendant of the Jikohnsaseh and his sister was the last Jikohnsaseh of the Seneca. In only a few words he paints a woman of power, with enough detail to assume this sage who lived in the 1800's knew what he was talking about. some have made light of this man but I would think to bear the title of Grand Sachem as well his lineage,, he would know his stuff. Without his narrative, scarcely anything at all would be reported as no one wrote down the stories of the women's oral keepings. Therefore, I based my story of the Jikohnsaseh upon his narrative and what I learned from the Hurons in Canada.
Imagine my surprise, having been steeped in the power of Iroquoian women, to find that in 1880 she was a sacred woman of honored lineage and in 2004, she is a witch. Some have said that it offered more power to the Peacemaker to have healed Hiawatha, Adodarhohn, and the Jikohnsaseh. "The man had to come along and heal the poor wretched woman, she couldn't be good of her own accord" (Eve?)..... at the expense of half of the most powerful story told...... If she is reduced to witch, then you lose her lineage, you lose that she is cosmic mother, you lose that she took the young Peacemaker under her wing to teach the path of Peace..... you loose important parts of the story in order to give more power to the Peacemaker.....and less power to the Clan Mothers. Throughout the story, he relies on her wisdom..... the Peacemaker honored her. Every story of their encounters speak of love and respect. Having been raised by Grandmother and mother, two women, perhaps the Peacemaker was more sensitive to respect for the feminine gender. But there is no great tale of healing such as with Hiawatha or Adodarhohn. Only that she accepted the word when she heard it. Is that really sufficient healing for a wicked heart, mind and soul? There is only a hint that she reveled in the war stories which encouraged the young men to be fierce which she obligingly changes to exhort the ways of Peace. There is nothing in any of the recorded versions that I have found to date, to suggest she was a witch and did evil.... so just where does this oral tradition in 2004 come from?
I think there are two possibilities why this has happened.
A possibility, is the attitude of many Indians among the populous.. I learned from my Haudenosaunee husband that if you weren't Oneida, you weren't Indian so this relegated his Shawnee and Wendot heritage as non-Indian.... until they became important for blood quantum. This seems to be a common feeling among many Indian peoples. I hear this slighting of the Tuscaroras who were last to join the Confederacy in 1725. And yet the Tuscarora have raised up the most recent prophet, Mad Bear Anderson, whom my husband firmly believed was the boy seer of the prophecies. H. B. Hewitt was also a Tuscarora, who struggled to get on to the talking leaves what he remembered of the Culture before it all faded away. Since the Jikohnsaseh was Huron, it might be simply that they look down on her until she became a Seneca. However this holds little water to me as Faithkeepers of the Sacred Story, would feel their charge and duty to keep the story as faithful as possible. I know that Jake Thomas was such a Faithkeeper. He was careful not to interpret or to change the story one iota from the way it was given to him, so with such faithfuls guarding the keepings, another reason must therefore be
The most likely to me is the advent of White thinking which seems to seep into everything sooner or later. After centuries of persecution of talented and gifted medicine women as witches, where the Church burned some 70,000,000 in the name of witchcraft, the Church forced spiritual gifts underground. This was a mentality brought with the boat people from the Old World, Salem being a perfect example. As they infiltrated the native peoples convincing half the Haudenosaunee to forsake their traditional ways, it would make sense that the powerful women of the Clan were made into witches in order to break them and their power..... in an effort to reduce them to the white man's vision of "Women's Place". The Yagowaneh Jikohnsaseh has fallen victim also just as surely as the Royal woman, Mary Magdalene, also lineage of David, and Abraham, was turned into a prostitute.
And this Euro way of thinking has invaded our Haudenosaunee men's perception of women. More than once, I was told by my Haudenosaunee husband that women were evil, they were trouble, they could not be trusted. Today we deal with many things the old Ongwehowe did not..... spousal abuse, rape, child abuse...... no Haudenosaunee man would have thought to do that 100 years ago. So like it or not.... it is true.... the white way has infected like a deadly virus, the traditional thinking and many of our Haudenosaunee have forgotten who they are....... and lay as if in a coma to the incredible heritage they have,.... the truth, the honor, the respect, they once commanded.
It is not for me to preach to the
Haudenosaunee. That would be most presumptuous of me. I know first hand
of the struggles to keep what they have. I know how quickly the elder
goes to the ground with the knowledge. My husband will take all that he
knows with him and who can replace him? Grand ma Mandy, do none care
what this eldest Elder can share and teach? Grandmother Twila, and
others, that in time will have their voice sent back to the earth.
We may never know the whole story.... we may never know the true
story..... but we have a lot of clues.... and I am not bound by any
Faithkeeper duty but only to tell the truth as I found it. In all of this, I have tried to use the good
mind. I did not have access to original manuscripts and so had to rely
on others interpretations.... and reason. I DO believe that Ely Parker, who
lived 100 years ago with his credentials, portrayed a more accurate
rendition than what has arrived as gospel in the
year 2004 and so my story of the Jikohnsaseh reflects this.
(This project is not finished and new pieces will be added as well as rewrites)
One little known
secret of America’s Founding Fathers is that they did not borrow a
democratic model from the so-called “cradles of civilization” of the
old known world. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George
Washington, and others found the oldest participatory democracies on
earth among Native Americans.
The
Haudenosaunee
Rotinonshon:ni)—known by the French and
English as “Iroquois League,” more commonly known today as “Six
Nations Confederacy”—means “People of the Longhouse.” The five
original nations were Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca.
They lived in territories along the eastern
Great Lakes
in what is today Ontario, Canada and the
Mohawk Valley
in the United States. The five nations were later joined in the
1700s by a sixth, the Tuscaroras, a branch
of the Huron and Cherokee Nations.
This
Haudenosaunee confederacy of
five nations dates at least three centuries before the arrival of
Columbus. Historians using family lineage, and an average tenure for
145 Adodarhonh’s (Head
Faithkeepers), this calculates a date
which coincides with a total eclipse of the sun on August 31, 1142.
This time also coincides with archeological evidence of the rising
interpersonal violence of a cannibal cult and the spreading adoption
of corn as a dietary staple.
However,
Faithkeeper Jake Thomas says, “I don’t
agree. I believe according to oral traditions that our Confederacy
existed for thousands of years even prior to the Birth of Christ.”
The Confederacy
was established through the efforts of three individuals. Most
published accounts of the League’s founding stress roles played by a
Huron who is referred to only as “The Peacemaker”—and Hayenwentha, an
Onondaga who joined the Peacemaker’s quest to quell the murder,
violence and blood feuds and establish Peace.
The third
person—a woman, Jikohnsaseh, the “Great Peace Woman” and “Mother of
Nations”— a Cultivator Huron is greatly understated. Because her
story is a woman’s story, and nineteenth
century male ethnographers simply failed to ask women about women’s
history in the League. Before the Peacemaker’s journey had begun,
Jikohnsaseh was already widely accepted as a woman of peace. She
acted in the capacity of a judge and councilor to people of many
nations. Upon accepting The Great Peace, she was acknowledged as a
leader, representing women as birth givers, proprietors and caretakers
of Mother Earth. She was an invaluable ally, and The Peacemaker
and Hayenwentha needed her support.
The story of how
Jikohnsaseh joined with the Peacemaker and Hayenwentha is a Native
American epic. These three individuals were real,
and not myths although their story has reached mythical proportions.
They established the Five Nations Confederacy—a government that in
it’s day ruled half of North America. This government was based on
“The Good Message of the Good Mind,” whose
goal is to establish universal peace and to make the Iroquois the
arbiters of the Great Turtle Island (North America).
The
Haudenosaunee established
the first United Nations, and only true democracy, and in so doing
created a society with no poor, no orphans, no jails—an achievement
that has yet to be equaled by any civilization.
The story of The
Peacemaker, with its many epoch teachings, is the heart of
Haudenosaunee culture.
The Field of
Plenty
From Jamie Sams,
Seneca
The Field of Plenty is an Iroquois Teaching that
has to do with the understanding of Creation. When Great
Mystery created our world everything that would ever exist was created
as ideas in the Thought or Spirit World. This nonphysical plane of
awareness is eternal and can be drawn upon anytime there is a need.
The thought-forms that provide all that is ever needed on the Good Red
Road of physical life exist in eternal readiness inside the Field of
Plenty. To call these ideas into
manifestation, one need only come to Great Mystery with a
grateful heart
which will bring the needed ideas into physical reality.
In our Seneca Tradition, the Field of Plenty is seen as a spiral that has its smallest revolution out in space and its' largest revolution near the Earth. This shape could be likened to an upside-down tornado. When our Ancestors assisted the Pilgrims in planting Corn and raising crops so they would not starve, we taught them the understanding of the Field of Plenty by bringing the cornucopia baskets full of vegetables. The Iroquois women wove these baskets as a physical reminder that Great Mystery provides through the Field of Plenty. The Pilgrims were taught that giving prayers of gratitude was not just a Christian concept. The Red Race understood thanksgiving on a daily basis.
The Field of Plenty is always full of abundance. The gratitude we show as Children of Earth allows the ideas within the Field of Plenty to manifest on the Good Red Road so we may enjoy these fruits in a physical manner. When the cornucopia was brought to the Pilgrims, the Iroquois People sought to assist these Boat People in destroying their fear of scarcity. The Native understanding is that there is always enough for everyone when abundance is shared and when gratitude is given back to the Original Source. The trick was to explain the concept of the Field of Plenty with few mutually understood words or signs. The misunderstanding that sprang from this lack of common language robbed those who came to Turtle Island of a beautiful teaching. Our "land of the free, home of the brave" has fallen into taking much more than is given back in gratitude by its citizens. Turtle Island has provided for the needs of millions who came from lands that were ruled by the greedy. In our present state of abundance, many of our inhabitants have forgotten that Thanksgiving is a daily way of living, not a holiday that comes once a year.
Since the Vibral Alignment or Harmonic Convergence, in August of 1987, our Elders have seen the Field of Plenty actually touch the Earth Mother and come to rest like a blanket over her body. In so doing, the Field of Plenty is now able to provide instant manifestation for all Earth’s Children who call for their needs with gratitude prior to receiving those blessings.
The Field of Plenty houses all thought forms that supply abundant creativity to the Children of Earth These new ideas are available to every Two legged and can be made manifest through acknowledging the ideas, then acting on them. When there is a need, it is sent by the Field of Plenty, in idea form, to the consciousness of all life-forms. These ideas begin to manifest as they enter the physical realm and are acted upon by humans. Every need in our world can be met when we act upon any good idea that comes into our minds. Every talent and every role in physical life plays a part that assists the whole in manifesting abundant life.
The Field of Plenty always has a way putting the needed item into the hands of the person who needs it. The keys to manifesting what is needed are gratitude and trust, balanced with action. There is no need for scarcity in the Fifth World. Abundance for all the Children of Earth is manifesting Thought always precedes form. If ideas of sharing and equality precede that reality in the hearts of Two-leggeds, the manifestation of physical needs being met will follow.
This is Great Mystery's promise in creating the Field of Plenty
CREATION
STORY
Red Jacket / Seneca
There is a Celestial world above where man-beings dwell—where even animals and all living things today were all once man-beings. There was no sun, but this world was lit by white blossoms on the great Celestial Tree standing in front of the lodge of the presiding chief.
In this world was a young girl who had lost her father. She so grieved for him that they took her to his burial place. Here she was content to stay and visit. Her father began speaking to her from the other side. He taught her many things. When she became of age, he told her that she should marry the Sky Chief and directed her as to how this should happen. She followed her fathers instructions so as not to talk to anyone but the Sky Chief.
This chief had a dream, and according this, he took a young wife. It is said that in time this young wife was soon to become a mother from inhaling the breath of her husband, but this was unknown to him. That from this, he doubted her honesty to him, so much that it caused him so much distress in his mind, that he became ill from his jealousy. He had another dream which called for the Tree of Light to be uprooted creating a great hole in sky world. Into this hole he could push his young and unsuspecting wife..
In olden times, dreams were held in high regard in everyday life, so much that destiny was controlled by dreams to a great degree. So, accordingly, in the morning he called his wife to him. He had her get her burden basket and he began to fill it with nut tree roots and berry bushed and many other things. Then he had this Tree of Light uprooted. The opening made by uprooting the Tree allowed light to shine through the opening. Thus, today, comes the light of the Sun.
This chief managed to deceive his unsuspecting wife to look down through the new opening. In so doing, while she was looking down, he pushed her down into the opening. It is said that in his anger, he also cast down through the opening all man-beings, such as the Deer, the Wolf, the Bear, the Beaver, and all animals and growing things such as the sunflower and red willow. He transformed them into their forms and size as they now appear. And when his anger had cooled down, he had the Tree of Light replaced.
Thus, the great change was brought about. It was the beginning of the present world, and all the living things as they are now.
Sky-Woman—then falling through the hole of the upper world—was seen by the water animals and water fowl of the great sea. These beings are like man-beings who at once took up the task of making ready a place for her to live. All the larger birds flew up to meet her and with their wings interlaced received her and brought her down.
While this was being done, the best divers among the water animals tried to get some earth that had fallen from the Sky World. One animal would swim down but it was so far that its lifeless body floated to the top. Others tried but never came back up. After a while the animals became reluctant to try to get some soil At last, the Muskrat succeeded to bring up a scoop of wet earth from the bottom,. However it was so far and she had exerted herself so that now her lifeless body floated up. The other animals rushed out to help her and discovered the soil on her paws. They took it and they placed on the back of Great Snapping Turtle’s shell, who volunteered to hold up the earth, and who at the time was also a man-being like the rest of them. This wet earth placed on the shell soon expanded in size in all directions, and Sky-Woman was gently placed on it.
At once, the Sky-Woman began to walk about this tiny earth, which by her action began to grow in size. She even took handfuls of earth and cast it in all directions, which also caused it to continue to grow, until she could not see the boundary.
Thus, this is how North America became known as Turtle Island.
SKY WOMAN
Now, Sky Woman was
with child, and soon gave birth to a daughter. The daughter
became known as Fat Face Lynx and grew rapidly. The two of them,
Mother and Daughter became very close. Sky Woman missed the Sky World
and her family. Here on Turtle Island, she had only her daughter for
company. Together they traveled all over the earth organizing it and
giving names to all the creations. They planted the seeds and the
roots that were in Sky Woman’s burden basket when she had
fell from Sky World. Mother and Daughter
worked and played together. The Lynx was Sky Woman’s world and she
doted on the female child.
This relationship of mother and daughter became the most important relationship among the children of Lynx, setting the format for families. The lineage of the children would always follow the mother.
This organizing and creation of the world continued until Sky Woman became very old and no longer could go on such journeys. Now the Lynx traveled by herself but she would hurry home to share with her Mother, Sky Woman, the things that she had seen and done that day. However she encountered problems in trying to tell her mother about the animals. Try as she could, Mother Sky Woman had difficulty to envision the sights that Lynx spoke of and so Sky Woman told Lynx to give the animals names according to their mode of movement. Now here in, Lynx began to give names to all that she beheld.
Lynx grew into a young woman and was lonely for the company of others like herself, people of her own age. She desired to have a family of her own but there was no Sky People here, only the Earth Spirits that her Mother Sky Woman disdained.
An Earth Spirit, North Wind had noticed the beautiful young woman. He was filled with desire for her. Silently, he watched her becoming more and more enamored with her. Being a powerful Earth Elder, he wondered what form the beautiful young woman would find desirable. She seemed to like the little furry creatures. She was always holding and fondling such things. So one day he thought that he would take the form of a squirrel. He scurried before her, taking her a gift of nuts. He asked her to marry him. The Lynx looked at him. He was so cute. Lynx did not really know just what or who she wanted to marry but somehow, this squirrel did not seem right. Lynx thought quickly, and told the squirrel the she must ask her Mother first. Lynx hurried home to tell her Mother. Sky Woman told her she could not marry the squirrel and made Lynx promise that she would not marry at all without getting Sky Woman’s permission.
North Wind was not to be discouraged. So next he decided that he would take the form of a fox and ask the beautiful girl to marry him. The Fox was so beautiful with his black tipped ears, white tuft tail, and luxuriant red coat. He was debonair, and such a sly wit. But again Lynx said that she would have to ask her mother and then reported back that her mother had said no.
Now North Wind still not to be discouraged, took the form of a young brave. He combed and plaited his long black hair then decorated his hair with feathers. He painted his body and wore his finest clothes. As soon as Lynx saw him she was overcome by the sight. She forgot to get permission from her mother, Sky Woman.
Lynx became with child, in fact twins. When it came time for the sons to be born, the good son came into the world in the right way, and become known as Sapling.
The other twin, always impatient and never thinking about the consequences of his actions, decided to take the shortest way out, which was near his mother’s underarm, and this killed his mother. He became known as Flint—always bringing a hard time and sharp edge to the people. These two children were the first of the Sky and Earth coming together and were the first Ongwehowe or Real People on turtle Island.
They buried Lynx and from her body came the corn, squash and beans the sustenance of life and from her head came the tobacco plant. Lynx became the Mother Earth. Lynx was the world to Sky Woman. Now with the Lynx laying in her grave, Sky Woman became bitter, blaming the twins for the death of their Mother. Sky Woman had been in the fields when it came time for the birthing and unaware of Flint’s impatience causing the death of her beloved daughter, now took him to be her favorite of the twins.
Now creation on the Earth fell to the twin boys. When they got old enough they began to travel over the earth. They created many things of the forest.
Where Sapling would create beautiful meadows, Flint would push up Mighty Mountains. Then Sapling, thinking these too difficult for mankind to travel over, would then create passes through the mountains.
Sapling would create beautiful reflective placid ponds. And Flint would come along and throw rocks into them making rushing waters and letting them fall over high cliffs.
At first Sapling created water in the rivers to flow both ways so that it would be easy for mankind. However Sapling thought that man should struggle a bit so he made water to only flow down hill.
As the good brother, Sapling would create something beautiful such as a rose, Flint would then create the thorns. And so these two boys, complemented each other in their endeavors.
Many of the animals took the forest to live. Sapling would create beautiful graceful animals, while most of Flint’s creations came out strange. One day, Flint arrived at his brother’s lodge. Here he noticed many new animals. Their arms were covered with feathers. They were small and many brightly colored. And they could make the most beautiful sound. Flint saw a bird that Sapling had made. So Flint decided that he should try to make a bird. He worked on it and worked on. Somehow his bird did not come out looking anything like Saplings birds. Flint’s bird was small but it squeeked instead of warbling. His bird had no feathers on its arms and ended up with fur on it. Flint was still proud of his bird and could not wait to show it to his brother. When Sapling saw this creation, so as not to hurt his brother’s feelings, he said that the new creation should only come out at night.
But at that time there was no night so that is when Sapling went to the brother of Sky Woman and asked for his help. The uncle became the Sun and when Grandmother Sky Woman died she returned to the Celestial World above, but to remain close to her earth children, she became Grandmother Moon. 13 moons of 28 days in a lunar year, and 13 large scales on Great Turtle’s back
. Now there was day and night. Sapling had the day from midnight to noon when the sun was bringing the light and waking all things up. Flint took the other half of the sky going into darkness.
And so it was with the seasons. Sapling created many things that grew. He had them grow and bloom at different times of the year. One day, Flint needed to build a bridge and so he made everything so cold that the air and water froze making a path for him to follow. However this cold did not do good things to all the beautiful growing things that Sapling had made. So Sapling decided that it should be that he should have part of the year for things to grow and then the other half of the year, he would rest from his labors and let the earth sleep while his brother would make things cold.
It is said that Flint saw the Indian people and thought it would be a fine joke to invent white people. But later, when Flint saw the hard time that was brought upon the Indian people by these white people, he was very sorry but he could not unmake the white people.
One day an argument broke out between the two boys as to whom had made the best man being. Flint was jealous that no matter what he created it was never good enough. Saplings man beings were strong and graceful and smart while Flint’s man beings were too hairy and had too long of arms.
His brother’s creations always worked better and seemed more pleasant and beautiful. He decided that he would kill his brother and then everything would be his. There was only one thing that Flint was afraid of. That was the hard stone with the sharp edges that we today call Flint. That stone was the only thing that could kill Flint and so he took great pains to hide all that he could find. However, Sapling enlisted the help of the animals. The mouse told Sapling where the flint rock could be found and soon Sapling had made arrows of the flint. Then he set a time that they should go get Flint. With the animals help Sapling soon had power over Flint but he did not want to kill his brother and so he set a mountain on top of him and enclosed many of the strange animals with Flint inside a cave.
THE CONTEST
Edited from Story
provided by Jake Thomas,
Last Condoled Hereditary Cayuga Chief
When t
he
Creator created Mother Earth, he also provided all the necessities for
the livelihood of mankind. Before he created man he went on a journey
to inspect and check all his creations making sure nothing would
interfere with his plans for mankind. During his travel he met with an
unknown being which he did not know existed.
The Creator questioned the unknown being, "Where do you come from?"
The unknown being replied, "I have been here ever since the earth was created."
The unknown being questioned the Creator, "Where do you come from?
The Creator replied, "I am traveling and examining my creations because I am about to create man to walk on earth as I wish him to be happy and content."
The unknown being explained why he thought he was the creator: "I have originated from the circulating air which surrounds the earth. Now, we both think we created Mother Earth. This is what shall happen, we shall have a contest to compare who has the most strength and power. We shall command the cliffs of the highest mountain to move up to our backs. Then, we shall know who is the creator of this earth."
The Creator agreed, "This shall happen. Now, we shall turn around with our backs toward the mountain. You shall be first."
The unknown commanded the cliffs of the highest mountain, "Move forward right against our backs. "With a mighty roar, the earth shook. Shortly afterward, the Creator spoke again, "We shall turn ourselves around and face the mountain.” As this was done the Creator saw that the mountain had moved half the distance from where they were standing. The Creator then realized the unknown being had strength and power.
Anxiously and more determined, the unknown being spoke, "It's your turn."
The Creator commanded the mountain to return to its original place. The mountain did return to its original place. The Creator said, "We shall turn ourselves around." He commanded the cliffs of the highest mountain, "Move forward right against our backs."
The unknown being was so healthy and lively, swiftly turned around and bumped his nose against the cliff which had moved so near to their backs. The unknown being then realized the Creator had more strength and power and that the Creator was the creator of this earth.
With much pain, the unknown being spoke, "It is true that you are the 'finisher' of Mother Earth."
The unknown being begged and pleaded, "I would be very grateful if I could stay here on earth and help the people as you have witnessed my extra-ordinary power. As the people stand on earth, I shall guard and protect them with my power. I am able to stop sickness. It shall be my duty to drive away any illness which may come to the people. If a high wind, tornado, or hurricane comes to destroy the earth, I shall stand in front with my extra-ordinary strength and power to protect the people so they will be content and happy and I shall see that this lasts as long as man continues to populate the earth."
The Creator asked, "What shall the people call you?"
The unknown being spoke, "It would only seem right that the people shall call me grandfather, Hatowi` because of my extra-ordinary power.”
The Creator spoke, "I have chosen a place for you, where you shall stay at the cliffs of the highest Mountain. You shall never be seen by the people as you are so ugly and you have such extra-ordinary power. You have mentioned certain things which your grand children shall follow and I agree it shall be that way. We shall combine our strength and power to support the people so they shall be happy and content and this is the way they shall know it for time to come. There shall be other people (not yet born). It will only be right that they cherish and fulfill these promises for time to come. Always remembering, this is the way we have promised one another from the very beginning of time.”
And this is how the Iroquois got their guardian spirit Hatowi, or Crooked Nose.
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Creation
The Peacemaker Jikohnsaseh Hayenwatha  The Confederacy Prophecy |
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