No one knows for sure when the Haudenosaunee Confederacy was founded, only that it happened a long, long time ago. But there are clues. The traditional narrative carried down through the generations among the original Five Nations that made up what used to be called the Iroquois Confederacy---the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca---mentions a particular day that coincided with a full solar eclipse. Only two dates line up: June 28, 1451, and August 31, 1142. Because totality of the 1142 eclipse fell over Central and Western New York, while that of the 1451 eclipse fell over Pennsylvania, current scholarship leans toward the earlier date.
Which means the events summarized here took place almost 900 years ago.
Way back in the early 12th century C.E., what would eventually become New York State was in a constant state of warfare. The Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca peoples were at one another’s throats, always. One man, a Huron, Onondaga or Mohawk named Deganawida, believed that the warfare should be replaced by peace.
He traveled throughout the lands preaching that message, and in the land of the Onondagas he gained a disciple, an Onondaga warrior named Hiawatha (in some traditions, Hiawatha was a cannibal who was convinced to stop eating human flesh through the intervention of Deganawida). Together, the two men persuaded the nations to forswear violence… first the Mohawks, then the Oneidas and the Cayugas. The Senecas, divided between those who preferred strength and those who preferred peace, were harder to bring into the fold.
The Onondagas, meanwhile, were ruled by a powerful and ruthless chief, Tadodaho. Described as a “misshapen monster” with snakes entangled in his hair, Tadodaho reveled in his power and in the fear he struck into so many around him. He quashed three efforts by Hiawatha to set up peace negotiations… and managed to kill all three of Hiawatha’s daughters after each foiled attempt.
Grief-stricken, Hiawatha rejoined Deganawida, by now called Peacemaker. The prophet gave him whelk shells and told him to put them on his own eyes, ears and throat to heal and assuage his grief. It worked, and Hiawatha later used the shells to make the wampum belt that today is the basis for the Haudenosaunee flag. Next, Peacemaker and Hiawatha traveled with various Mohawk, Oneida and Cayuga chiefs to Canandaigua Lake to meet with the divided Senecas to persuade them to join. Finally, the peace faction among them prevailed, and the Senecas became the fourth nation to sign on.
That left the Onondagas and their fearsome chief, Tadodaho. A wise old Neutral or Erie woman named Jigonhsasee, who lived at Ganondagan (in or near present-day Victor, near Rochester), advised Peacemaker and Hiawatha how to win Tadodaho over when they met him at Onondaga Lake. Use traditional medicines, Jigonhsasee said, to heal his twisted mind and body, and while she massaged him with herbs and wampum shells, Hiawatha would comb the snakes out of Tadodaho’s hair. The clincher: promise to make Tadodaho the keeper of the central council fire, the most important among equals.
Jigonhsasee’s plan worked. Tadodaho agreed to follow the Great Law of Peace proclaimed by the Peacemaker. In a famous ceremony, the chiefs of each of the Five Nations threw all their weapons into a pit beneath a tall white pine, the “Tree of Peace”… literally “burying the hatchet”. Thus was born the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and centuries of peace and prosperity among the Five Nations (and, starting in 1722, a sixth, the Tuscaroras). All the considerable military might of the confederacy was instead turned outward against the Huron, Erie, Neutral, Susquehannock, Delaware and Mahican nations.
Today, Taodaho’s memory lives on every day: the supreme chief of the Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee bears the title Tadodaho (currently, he is Tadodaho Sid Hill). The position is always held by an Onondaga, who are still the Keepers of the Council Fire. Jigonhsasee is remembered as the Mother of Nations, a title reflecting the centrality of women in matrilineal Haudenosaunee society. Hiawatha is remembered mostly through the Henry Wadswort Longfellow poem of 1855, which has literally nothing to do with any of the events surrounding the founding of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. And the Great Peacemaker is remembered today as the founder of the world’s oldest participatory democracy.
The cast for this Heritage Moment was led by the celebrated Indigenous character actor, musician and activist Gary Farmer, who played Tadodaho.
Farmer, a Cayuga and Buffalonian famed for his roles in “Powwow Highway”, “Dead Man”, “Reservation Dogs” and scores of other films and TV series, recorded this Moment while in town to accept a lifetime achievement award at the Buffalo International Film Festival. At the time, the National Indian Education Association convention was also being held in Buffalo, and Farmer spoke there before he accepted his BIFF award.
His speech at the BIFF was punctuated by remarks from the audience, many from Indigenous educators from as far away as Bethel, Alaska… all of them thanking Farmer for his work in films that, the educators said, showed reservation life as it really was being lived. One woman choked up as she told Farmer that watching “Powwow Highway” as a little girl was an important moment in her life.
“For the first time,” she said, fighting back tears, “I felt seen.”
Farmer was joined in this moment by the novelist Eric Gansworth (Cayuga/Tuscarora) as Hiawatha, and the actors Anthony Alcocer (Yucatec) as the Great Peacemaker and Danielle Burning (Mohawk/Tuscarora).
Cast (in order of appearance):
Tadodaho: Gary Farmer
Great Peacemaker: Anthony Alcocer
Hiawatha: Eric Gansworth
Jigonhsasee: Danielle Burning
Narrator: Susan Banks
Script: Jeff Z. Klein
Sound recording: Charles Gilbert
Sound editing: Micheal Peters
Music: “Bean Song” (“Osáeˀdaˀ Oënöˀ”), performed by Oren Lyons and members of the 1990 Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team
Produced by the Niagara Frontier Heritage Project
Associate producer: Karl-Eric Reif
Webpage written by Jeff Z. Klein (Niagara Frontier Heritage Project)
Special thanks to:
Kathryn Larsen, vice president, content distribution, Buffalo Toronto Public Media
S.J. Velasquez, director of audio strategy, Buffalo Toronto Public Media
Jerry Urban, senior radio broadcast engineer, Buffalo Toronto Public Media
Councilmember Mitch Nowakowski and the Buffalo Common Council for their generous support