Oyate
11-21-2009, 05:30 AM
Onandaga and The Tree Of Peace story as told by Oyate which means it's gonna be all screwed up.
So practically most of my life I been hearing about this tree of peace, the 6 Houses, how we used to fear them, how we better not disprespect them unless we take a particular notion to die that very same day,
but here i grew up hearing these prophecies like the Great Onondaga took the blood that was spillled in war and gathered of all the tomohawks and buried them in the ground and from this seed grew the Tree Of Peace and this was the prophecy:
On this ground we lay down the ways of war and forge a new Peace.
And Onandaga said "from this wampum will come a new peace and this tree will grow and it's roots will grow out to all four directions".
And Onandaga said "all people in all places who desire peace will be able to find the roots of this tree and trace them back to their origin".
I might not have got the words exactly right but I seen the wampum belts.
Stupid me, I'm 43 years old and call me a fundamentalist or something but until pretty recent I was still looking for a tree, like a physical tree. Literally I believed that by some process of divine transiguration, the great Onandaga made a tree grow out of bloody tomahawks.
When I finally met the elders they were like "no you stupid fool, the true location of the Tree Of peace is in our hearts".
But I wasn't quite satisfied with that answer so I walked until I found The Tree Of Peace. And it is a physical tree. And when I approach this tree, I see you. All of you. I see our children running and cavorting like little colts and I hear the most wonderful music I have ever heard in my life and you are the ones who are making it.
That is maybe as close as I can come to tellling you how it was when the Tree Of Peace was planted and how Iriquios became established. It wasn't an easy path. A lot of blood got spilled to plant this tree and come to think of it, the peace only lasted like 5 years and then John Wanye came along and America became what you know it as today with all the financial problems.
The real truth is us natives have been holding out the true location of The Tree Of Peace on you because we thought you would pee on it and it's one of the last things we have.
I'm betting that you will take care of the Tree Of Peace in your hearts and seek to know it's true location and that you will preserve and protect it and pass it on as we have. And i am betting that you will find the roots of the tree and I believe that we will smoke tobacco or whatever kind of tree it be because prophecy states that "'the leaves of this tree will be a healing to the nations".
For a while there we thought it was tobacco. Or maybe mint. Crap did we get it wrong? Oh yeah:
you are the leaves of this tree. You are the healing to many nations. You are the ones who followed the roots.
So practically most of my life I been hearing about this tree of peace, the 6 Houses, how we used to fear them, how we better not disprespect them unless we take a particular notion to die that very same day,
but here i grew up hearing these prophecies like the Great Onondaga took the blood that was spillled in war and gathered of all the tomohawks and buried them in the ground and from this seed grew the Tree Of Peace and this was the prophecy:
On this ground we lay down the ways of war and forge a new Peace.
And Onandaga said "from this wampum will come a new peace and this tree will grow and it's roots will grow out to all four directions".
And Onandaga said "all people in all places who desire peace will be able to find the roots of this tree and trace them back to their origin".
I might not have got the words exactly right but I seen the wampum belts.
Stupid me, I'm 43 years old and call me a fundamentalist or something but until pretty recent I was still looking for a tree, like a physical tree. Literally I believed that by some process of divine transiguration, the great Onandaga made a tree grow out of bloody tomahawks.
When I finally met the elders they were like "no you stupid fool, the true location of the Tree Of peace is in our hearts".
But I wasn't quite satisfied with that answer so I walked until I found The Tree Of Peace. And it is a physical tree. And when I approach this tree, I see you. All of you. I see our children running and cavorting like little colts and I hear the most wonderful music I have ever heard in my life and you are the ones who are making it.
That is maybe as close as I can come to tellling you how it was when the Tree Of Peace was planted and how Iriquios became established. It wasn't an easy path. A lot of blood got spilled to plant this tree and come to think of it, the peace only lasted like 5 years and then John Wanye came along and America became what you know it as today with all the financial problems.
The real truth is us natives have been holding out the true location of The Tree Of Peace on you because we thought you would pee on it and it's one of the last things we have.
I'm betting that you will take care of the Tree Of Peace in your hearts and seek to know it's true location and that you will preserve and protect it and pass it on as we have. And i am betting that you will find the roots of the tree and I believe that we will smoke tobacco or whatever kind of tree it be because prophecy states that "'the leaves of this tree will be a healing to the nations".
For a while there we thought it was tobacco. Or maybe mint. Crap did we get it wrong? Oh yeah:
you are the leaves of this tree. You are the healing to many nations. You are the ones who followed the roots.