THE COVENANT CHAIN

Continued from last week…

It was not only with the British that the Haudenosaunee had planted trees of peace. When Otrewati of the Onondagas spoke to governor de la Barre (Onontio or “Yonondio”) of Quebec in 1684, he used the image of the tree for a place of peace and trade:

Hear, Yonondio, what I have to say is the Voice of all the Five Nations, hear what they answer, open your ears to what they speak. The Senecas and Mohawks say that when they buried the hatchet at Cadarackui, in the middle of the Fort, they planted the Tree of Peace, in the same place, to be there carefully preserved, that, in a place of a retreat for Soldiers, that Fort might be a rendezvous of merchants; that in place of arms and munitions of war, Bevers and Merchandize should only enter there.

Hear Yonondio, take care for the future that so great a number of soldiers as appear here do not choke the Tree of Peace planted in so small a Fort. It will be a great loss, if after it had so easily taken root, you should stop its growth, and prevent its covering your country and ours with its branches.

(The History of the Five Nations, Cadwallader Colden, 1727, Cornell University Press, 1973, p. 56)

The Tree might fall as a result of “high winds” – often a symbol of war. It is usually not a “Dogge” that would threaten the Covenant Chain. The most important threat to the Chain – as to the Kayanerekowa – is bloodshed, since that threatens the roots of any peace, and eats through the silver chain like acid:

Let it be our common care to preserve it inviolable and free from rust remembering that one drop of innocent blood unjustly spilt will corrode it and if not timely and carefully wiped off will eat through and dissolve this union.

(National Archives of Canada, RG 10, Vol. 1820, p. 2642-46, June 15, 1742) All the metaphors of the Kayanerekowa are transplanted to the Covenant Chain relationship – and so are its values. This concern for peace, for future generations, for the power of unity of mind, for the Good Mind, are all elements of every council between the Confederacy and the British Crown – on both sides of the Council.

Just as nations following the Great White Roots of Peace to their source are invited to come under its protection and shade without losing their internal forms of government, so the Covenant Chain does not affect the internal affairs of any nation within it.

The language of unity that appears throughout the Great Law appears in all the Council references to the Covenant Chain. In the Great Law, five arrows bound tightly together symbolize the unity of the original Five Nations. The longhouse itself, with many families living under a single roof, is a symbol of the Haudenosaunee. In Council discussion of the Covenant Chain, there are references to ropes, which are more powerful than their component strands.

An exchange in council on August 16, 1740 between the British and the Haudenosaunee illustrates the language of unity used on both sides, as well as the open British belief that an alliance with Britain does not create “subjects”, but rather “protects them in their freedom”:

…(the French conduct is) a conduct very different from ours who treat all those nations of Indians who are under the protection of the great King your Father with benevolence, kindness and humanity, studying to protect them in their freedom and wishing you all to increase in number as the stars of heaven, nor do we seek to extirpate nations with whom we have made no alliance. No, on the contrary, we invite them to unite with us…You are when you are united like a strong rope made up of many small threads, which when twisted together resists the greatest Force, but by separating the Threads it is easily bought or broken…

They answered:

Brother:

You also told us, that you compared us to a rope which being twisted together is difficult to be broken but when untwisted & divided into threads, then it is easily broken.

We think not that we divide this rope of which you speak, but on the contrary, strengthen the same, by making Friendship and Alliance with many nations, which has always been commended us by all the Governors of New York. All the Indians that were formerly our enemies are now entered into the Covenant with us, almost as far as the River Mississippi… (NYCD VI: 172-178)

Continued next week