A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
Iroquois-German Tree of Peace renewal group, May 5/2015: Rainer Schelb, Alfons Meir, Joanne Shenandoah, Doug George-Kanentiio, Hermann Fuchs, Christina Kopf, Harry Schuler, Hans Mild and local delegation from Dundenheim beneath the 1986 Tree of Peace. Photo by : Harry Schuler
The Tree of Peace planted in 1986, twenty years later.
Twenty nine years ago the Mohawk Nation Council endorsed a delegation of Mohawks to travel to Germany (then West Germany) to establish a formal youth exchange program and to promote universal peace by the planting of an evergreen in that country.
Under the guidance of Beverley Pyke and Elizabeth Maracle the Mohawk students travelled to various communities in Germany conducting classes on the culture, history and then current events among not only the Kaiienkehaka but other Iroquois communities.
At the town of Dundenheim north of the city of Freiburg an evergreen was planted to mark the Mohawk presence and to serve as a permanent reminder of the friendship established between the German people and the Mohawks.
A generation later the tree (a Douglas fir) has grown from two meters to become the tallest in the forest. It now stands at an exceptional 20 meters and has weathered the years in good health. According to the local residents it withstood one of the most powerful storms in that region a few years ago and while other trees fell to the wind the Tree of Peace swayed but did not break.
On May 5 Oneida Nation performer Joanne Shenandoah and Doug George-Kanentiio commemorated the 1986 event when they met the leadership of Dundenheim and renewed our promises of peace. Acting as escort was Rainer Schelb, who was the youth exchange coordinator and now owner of the West Wind travel agency in Freiburg. He was joined by Harry Schuler, the author of the book "Irokesen" and the foremost German scholar on the Iroquois. Educator Hermann Fuchs was also present as he was in 1986 along with his niece Christina Kopf, one of the German teenagers who visited Akwesasne and stayed with the Peter Back family as part of the program.
Shenandoah and Kanentiio praised the efforts of the 1986 Mohawk delegation and assured the German leadership, represented by former and current mayors Alfons Meier and Hans Mild that the Tree would be a beacon for many generations to come and that the Iroquois would return.
Reader Comments(0)