Great White Pine

Single strand silver tone chain with silver tone pine cones charms, and green glass tear drop shaped charms. The focal point is two evergreen trees.

Tree of Peace

The Tree of Peace is thought to be a white pine tree.

Over 1,000 years ago, the Five Nations were brought together in peace at Onondaga Lake by the Peacemaker and Hiawatha (Hayenhwátha’).  Together they planted the Great Tree of Peace (Skaęhetsiˀkona) and created the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.  This is where Skä·noñh began anew.

The Tree of Peace is a metaphor for how peace can grow if it is nurtured.  Like a tall tree, peace can provide protection and comfort.  Like a pine tree, peace spreads its protective branches to create a place of peace where we can gather and renew ourselves. Like the White Pine, peace also creates large white roots (tsyoktehækęætaˀkona) that rise out of the ground so people can trace their journey to the source.

If anyone truly desired peace they could follow the sacred white roots of peace to the capital of the Confederacy, here at Onondaga, where they would learn of the words of the Peacemaker.  His message is that we all can nurture the “Tree of Peace.”

The Peacemaker had the warriors uproot a great white pine under which left a gaping hole.  The 50 chiefs and warriors threw their weapons of war under the Great Tree where an underground stream carried the weapons away and it was lifted back upright.  This is the origin of the phrase “bury the hatchet.”  The Peacemaker said that the Chiefs will be standing on the earth like trees, deeply rooted in the land, with strong trunks, all the same height (having equal authority) in front of the their people, to protect them, with the power of the Good Mind–not physical force