“The Sacred White Pine of The Great Law of Peace”
Kyle Joedicke
Painting
Acrylic & Spray paint on Canvas
30 x 15 in.
2024
This piece is a representation of the sacred white pine that is central to the Haudenosaunee oral tradition of The Great Law of Peace. During a time of great conflict, Creator sent a great peacemaker to travel to the five warring nations. Along with his companion Hiawatha, both travelled from nation to nation seeking to convince them to join this union. Once the Clan Mothers and Chiefs of the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca and Onondaga accepted this treaty, the Great Peacemaker planted a single white pine and persuaded the leaders to symbolically bury their weapons and bind their arrows together to mark the founding of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.