APPENDIX E 



CERTAIN IROQUOIS TREE MYTHS AND SYMBOLS 1 



A student of Iroquoian folklore, ceremony, or history will note 

 the many striking instances in which sacred or symbolic trees are 

 mentioned. One finds allusions to such trees not only in the myths 

 and traditions that have long been known to literature, and in the 

 speeches of Iroquois chiefs in council with the French and English 

 colonists, but also in the more recently discovered wampum codes 

 and in the rituals of the folk-cults. 



There are many references to the "tree of peace" in the colonial 

 documents on Indian relations. Cadwallader Colden, for example, 

 quotes the reply of the Mohawk chief to Lord Effingham in July 

 1684. The Mohawk agreed to the proposals for peace and their 

 spokesman said : " We now plant a Tree who's tops will reach the 

 sun, and its Branches spread far abroad, so that it shall be seen 

 afar off; and we shall shelter ourselves under it, and live in Peace, 

 without molestation." (Gives two beavers.) 2 



In a footnote Colden says that the Five Nations always express 

 peace under the metaphor of a tree. Indeed, in the speech, a part of 

 which is quoted above, the peace tree is mentioned several times. 



In Garangula's reply to De la Barre, as recorded by Lahontan, 

 are other references to the " tree." In his " harangue " Garangula 

 said: 



"'We fell upon the Illinese and the Oumamis, because they cut 

 down the Trees of Peace. . ." " The Tsonontouans, Gayogouans, 

 Onnotagues, Onnoyoutes and Agnies declare that they interred the 

 Axe at Cataracuoy in the Presence of your Predecessor the very 

 Center of the Fort; and planted the Tree of Peace in the same 

 place ; 'twas then stipulated that the Fort should be used as a Place 

 of Retreat for Merchants, and not as a Refuge for Soldiers. You 

 ought to take care that so great a number of Militial Men as we now 

 see ... do not stifle and choke the Tree of Peace ... it must 

 needs be of pernicious Consequences to stop its Growth and hinder 

 it to shade both your Country and ours with its Leaves." 3 



The examples cited above are only a few of many that might be 

 quoted to show how commonly the Iroquois mentioned the peace 



1 A. C. Parker ; an extract from Amer. Anthropologist, v. 14, No. 4, 1912. 



2 Colden, History of the Five Nations, reprint, p. 58, New York, 1866. 



3 Lahontan, Voyages, v. 1, p. 42. London, 1735. 



