The Human Denonee Confederacy
History
The Origins of the Denonee Confederacy
A long time ago, in Oda territory, people who had once been brothers warred with each other. A violent and brutal chief named Lotah led the Oda into repeated conflicts and battles. Despite his many victories, peace was never obtained, and only fed his appetite for warmongering. The chiefs under his rule lived in fear of him, and suffered Lotah’s wrath being made to only serve and praise him.
Only one stood in opposition, a woman named Watahai. She was struggling with the grief of having lost her family. Raiders took her wife, two daughters lost to incurable disease, and one daughter lost to a tragic accident. Watahai was filled with regret having lived a life of war and loss, adn was convinced that her pain must be the same as so many others who had lost loved ones. To her, war was the worst cause of this grief, as it was avoidable unlike illness or misfortune.
She called a council of the Oda chiefs, including Lotah, to propose a peace. According to stories she had heard, a neighbouring tribe, the Dagan, had embarked on a peaceful way of life and were no longer waging war on anyone. Watahai suggested that by uniting with them they could protect one another, rendering war pointless.
Loath vehemently rejected this idea as war was intrinsic to his identity and foundation of his power. Those that looked up to him did so out of fear of his strength. Loath figured if Watahai valued the ways of Dagan so much, she should leave to live with them. The other chiefs gave no resistance to Loath’s suggestion.
Watahai left Oda, and travelled south to the home of the Dagan seeking the “Peacemaker”, the one person who was at the centre of these stories of peace. She waited outside the city walls until the Peacemaker revealed himself. She gave him a gift of beads, strung together in a pattern to represent a desire for peace to overcome war. The peacemaker was immediately intrigued and invited her in. Upon hearing her story about her proposal to the Oda, he discussed more ambitious plans to unite everyone in peace, and bring an end to war as the Goddess Vandria desired.
To do this, the best strategy would be to first approach the Sawek tribe, as Watahai knew Lotah would not listen to reason. Gaining allies was the first priority, but Watahai was unsure as to how he could make an impression with no former relationship to build upon. He and the Peacemaker needed someone all of the tribes respected, and wouldn’t be attacked on sight. The answer was a woman named Sehgoni.
Sehgoni was a legend among warriors across all three tribes. Her longhouse was located at a crossroads, and many warriors sought refuge with her on their marches. She allowed anyone to stay in her longhouse as long as they agreed to keep her peace. Often, when warriors of different nations came to her on the same day she would feed them dinner from the same soup bowl. Tradition dictated that anybody who shared food became kin and they were forbidden to fight each other. Thus, in her own way, Sehgoni had been forging small alliances across the Three Nations for years.
They visited Sehgoni at her longhouse and the Peacemaker explained that he wanted to build one just like it. One that would bring together all Three Nations under one great law of peace. Women like her would be the backbone of this new peace because such women were keepers of the Earth and leaders of the clans. Clan mothers would be empowered to choose the chiefs, to remove them if they failed in their responsibilities, to call councils and to review new laws. He asked Sehgoni to be his messenger to the women's councils in all the nations and to bring his message of righteousness, health and power. She agreed, noting the goodness of the message and her commitment to take hold and embrace it.
Together, she and Watahai journeyed to the Sawek tribe as envoys of the Peacemaker's message. Those who knew Sehgoni trusted her, and welcomed her and Watahai among them as speakers who relayed the Peacemaker's message.
Then the great debate began. The Sawek had suffered plenty from the war but could they really afford to put aside their weapons and trust peace to protect them? The elders argued that peace had been the way of their people since the land had been given to them. That was the past though, and now they had many warriors who lived to fight, and enemies who wanted to destroy them.
Arguments were levied on both sides and the discussion raged for a full year. But the Peacemaker was insistent. War was an aberration, a betrayal of the wishes of Vandria and of the interests of the people. If they wanted to be strong - truly strong - they would have to lead the way with their own choices. They MUST choose peace. They owed it to all of the casualties of war whose bones lay in the ground whose futures had been cut short. They owed it to themselves to make a new future. They could live without fear if they learned to put hatred aside and unite with a new strength of purpose. Once they embraced peace, others would follow and they would all gather strength like a ball in the snow. His passion impressed most of the Dagan and his arguments were starting to win them over.
Two great nations were now on the verge of joining the great law of peace, but there was still a major issue to address. The Sawek and Dagan faced conflicts on the border. A peace treaty among the three nations would protect the chiefs in the interior, but not them. If outsiders came to threaten the confederacy, they would be the first to fall. The Peacemaker called together all the envoys to discuss what they should do. None of them had participated in a council like this before.
At first, it was chaos. Everybody talked over everybody else and when nobody could be heard they all grew angry. Egos swelled, and they began to hurl insults at each other. They swore that they could never work together, and threatened to return home, call up their warriors, and take to the warpath again. The Peacemaker refused to let his life's mission be torn apart in an afternoon. He sat the envoys down around the longhouse fire, and declared that they must behave like brothers. The elder brothers (Dagan) sat on one side of the fire, and considered new proposals first. If they approved, the issue would then pass to the younger brothers (Sawek), who sat on the other side of the fire. And when they took turns like this, everyone's voice would be heard. In short, he established a bicameral legislature. There was no place yet for the Oda, so Watahai sat with the Dagan. It had been years since she'd left her homeland, and since she had joined the Peacemaker the Dagan had welcomed her as one of their own. Now her place among them allowed her to be one of the first to review new proposals. She quickly helped to resolve the matter of their borders. The Sawek would be honoured as keepers of the southern door, the Dagan became keepers of the northern door. When strangers approached, the keepers would be the first to judge them, and could call up the warriors from all three nations if they thought it was necessary. But their first responsibility would be to offer peace to all who came and to welcome those who accepted it. Only those who refused the offer three times, would be met with war. The chiefs accepted this, and the first treaty of the Great Law of Peace had been formed.
Then Watahai made another proposal, one that she believed would convince Lotah to accept a treaty and join the final nation to their cause. Debate raged around the fire, but Watahai urged them all to keep an open mind. They had secured the northern and southern doors, but there could not be peace among them as long as the Oda who lived in the middle, did not accept it. So the council put its faith in Watahai's plan.
They all returned to the Oda together, and met with Lotah. His temper flared when he saw them, now apparently joining forces against him. Even though he knew he was outnumbered he immediately rose from his bench and threatened to crush them all with war. They explained that they had not come for war, but to make Lotah an offer. They wanted him to be the leader of their council. Lotah sat back down. This was Watahai's suggestion: Lotah would have the seat of honour, and hold a veto over all the laws which the council of nations considered. Including him, the Oda would have 14 representatives at the council, more than any other tribe. In terms of the great longhouse that the Peacemaker wanted to build, The Onondaga would be the keepers of the fire. They would have the last vote on all proposals, and council meetings would always be held on their land. Lotah's mind spun with the possibilities. Through war, he had been able to claim more and more power for himself, but nowhere near as much as he stood to gain for this treaty. The other two nations wanted to stand before him and offer him the ability to decide their laws for them? How powerful would he become?
While these thoughts were swirling through his head, Sehgoni stepped forward. She hadn't believed that Lotah could be reformed. But the Peacemaker did, and she trusted the Peacemaker. Even so, she could see the evil ideas slithering through his mind, and knew that she must put a stop to them. She walked straight up to him, looked him in the eye, and ordered him to strike her. Aghast and confused, Lotah looked around. Who was this woman, to give him orders like this and such orders? He couldn't strike a woman, especially a clan mother, and he told her so.
"Is that not what you do?" Sehgoni challenged. "I have heard many tales of your power, of how you, a powerful man, strike and bully those within your longhouse. How you make men afraid of you by threatening their lives. Why should you now hesitate to do to me what you have done to so many others? Isn't that what your power is for? Will that not be how you lead our people?"
Lotah bowed his head in shame. Suddenly he saw all of his plans for what they were: greedy and cruel. He begged for forgiveness. Sehgoni saw that spark of goodness take light in him, and filled with mercy, she ran her hands through his hair, and soothed him like a mother soothes her child. Now that Lotah who was ready to listen, Watahai explained the rest of her proposal.
All votes of the council would be unanimous. In effect, they all had veto power, and all the nations would be equal, but Lotah would vote last. And as the leader they all looked to, he had a responsibility to use his veto only when he could give a strong reason for his refusal, Lotah agreed, and at last, the Oda joined the great peace.
All three nations now agreed to peace, but it remained for them to finalise the laws of their new confederacy. Sehgoni with her knowledge of every nation, sat with the women's councils and decided which of the former war chiefs would now become council representatives. These men were given antlers to represent their new position,and the women who put them there, received strings of Watahai's beads, signifying the fact that whoever they might choose to sit on the council, the seat itself belongs to the women.
All these representatives gathered for the first time on the shores of Oda lake, where the Peacemaker awaited them. Before the meeting began he asked one of the warriors for an arrow from his quiver, then he held up the arrow and snapped it. "See how easily this breaks?" he told them. Then he asked for a warrior from each of the three nations to give him an arrow. Bundling these three together he bent them with all of his strength, but the arrows together held firm. "When we are united," he explained, "we cannot be broken."
Before they could begin the council however, the Peacemaker insisted that all of them cast away their weapons and commit their minds to peace. He chose a white pine tree, whose needles grew in bunches of three, all the warriors uprooted the tree, buried their weapons under its roots and then replanted it, and became law makers instead. An eagle came to perch on this new tree of peace, and the Peacemaker explained that it would watch over them, and sound a warning if danger approached.
The council began to draft laws forged by the lessons the Peacemaker had taught them. He had always insisted that the government must function for the will of the people. So they decreed that leaders must evaluate how each new law would affect the people for seven full generations. If they failed in their duties, they would be warned, and then removed from office. Only clan mothers like Sehgoni could appoint a new leader, and the Peacemaker believed that the government only functioned if everyone had a role and a voice. The men's and the women's council of each clan, received the power to propose laws. As the constitution took shape, Watahai wove together strings of beads to commemorate the new laws. Holding it would help people remember, she hoped, for the spirit of each law and the council that passed it.
Determined to create something grander than the simple string she had given the Peacemaker at their first meeting, Watahai designed a broad belt that would become the symbol of the confederacy. White lines of peace connected the three nations of confederacy, with the Oda at the centre, represented by the tree of peace. Those lines extended to the edge of the belt, for she hoped that the great peace would extend outwards to other nations.
Lotah followed through on his promise to Sehgoni, and became a leader that the Denonee could be proud of, as well as proof of the Peacemaker's conviction that men forged in war still carried peace in their hearts. Following his untimely death, Watahai was made leader in his stead. For the Peacemaker, he alone had no successor, for he explained that other men could counsel the people, but none could do as he had done in founding the great law of peace. His work here was done.
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