in the 18th century AD by
Pehr Kalm. By all accounts, the Great Peacemaker was a
prophet who counseled peace among the warring tribes. According to some legends his first ally was
Jigonhsasee, who became known as the Mother of Nations. The tribes gathered at
Onondaga Lake, where they planted a
Tree of Peace and proclaimed the Great Binding Law of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Mackinac natives record that Hiawatha came to
Mackinaw Island to see Giche Mantitou Rock, also known as "Sugarloaf Rock", where Peacemaker taught as well as references that Peacemaker walked upon Lake Ontario. It is additionally recorded by them that Peacemaker's canoe could fly, including a story where Peacemaker stated to Hiawatha, "this canoe can be rowed across these waters or do you want it to see it fly across". He traveled through the narrow neck of land near Niagara Falls healing the sick and all that he touched.
Dates The dates Dekanawida lived, and thus the founding of the Confederacy, have not been identified with certainty. Historians and archeologists have researched an incident related in the oral history of the founding of the Confederacy. As recorded by later scholars, one account relates there was a violent conflict among the
Seneca, who were the last Iroquois nation to join the confederacy as a founding member. Their violence stopped when the sun darkened and the day seemed to turn to night. Since 1902 scholars have studied the possibility that this event was a solar
eclipse, as William Canfield suggested in his
Legends of the Iroquois; told by "the Cornplanter" . As scholars have learned more about the representation of natural events in oral histories, scholars into the 21st century have noted eclipses that could serve to date the founding of the Confederacy, in addition to the archeological evidence. Scholars referring to an eclipse have included (chronologically):
Paul A. W. Wallace, Elizabeth Tooker,
Bruce E. Johansen, Dean R. Snow, Barbara A. Mann and Jerry L. Fields,
William N. Fenton,
David Henige, Gary Warrick, and
Neta Crawford. Since Canfield's first mention,Whereas the original framers of the Constitution, including, most notably, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, are known to have greatly admired the concepts of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy; Whereas the confederation of the original Thirteen Colonies into one republic was influenced by the political system developed by the Iroquois Confederacy as were many of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the Constitution itself... ==Iroquois dominance==