The Great Peacemaker
Founder Figure of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy
traditional dates vary · Haudenosaunee
Central to the formation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and its Great Law of Peace.
The Full Profile
The Great Peacemaker, Founder Figure of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, was central to the formation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and its Great Law of Peace. In Haudenosaunee oral tradition, the Great Peacemaker helped bring the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca nations into a confederacy governed through councils, consensus, and the Great Law of Peace. The chronology is debated, but the political tradition became one of the most influential Indigenous governance systems in North America. With Hiawatha as his spokesman, he converted even the feared sorcerer Adodarhoh and planted the Tree of Peace beneath which the nations buried their weapons. The Great Law he proclaimed still guides the Haudenosaunee today.