By madis senner

Join us on shores on Onondaga Lake in Syracuse New York in praying for peace. Come when it suits you or join us for one of our upcoming group prayers.

Living in North America we are not accustomed to thinking that within it there are naturally sacred spaces. Not ones specifically constructed for religious purposes such as churches, synagogues or mosques, but space that are naturally conducive to prayer. Places meant to fuse us more with the spiritual. Places where the I becomes the we. Places were great souls once traversed. Places where people once lived in harmony and balance. There are many sacred places in North America. But for those dedicated to the United States of America ideal of democracy, one is especially sacred--the shores of Onondaga Lake in Syracuse New York--which some would call the cradle of democracy in the United States of America.

The sacredness of Onondaga Lake is evidenced in the topography and geology of the Onondaga Lake area. Naturally occurring salt springs dot the lakeside. Syracuse is nicknamed the 'Salt City'. Salt is a powerful life force. Consider the words of David Yarrow in The Dragon and the Ice Castle--Rediscovery of Sacred Space in the Finger Lakes,(Click to see book), 1989 Solstice Publications in speaking about the sacredness of Onondaga Lake;

'Onondaga Lake is naturally salty. Salt springs around and under the lake make it as salty as the ocean. There are very few such naturally occurring salty lakes on Earth, and each is special.' Page 91

'[P]erhaps we can learn the elusive secret to worldwide peace from [the Iroquois]' Matthew W. Stirling, Congressional testimony, (Source Washington Post February 7, 1950)

'The major features of the plateau region of south Onondaga County are shaped by Onondaga Limestone...Limestone is uniquely fascinating rock. It's no mere mineral like quartz, granite and sandstone, or shale. Rather, it's the compressed and fossilized shells of ancient sea life… ...Limestone occurs in remarkable consistency at sacred sites throughout the Earth, often in association with caves and mineral springs. From pyramids to Jerusalem to Delphi to the Parthenon to great European cathedrals to Mayan and Inca ruins in the New World--limestone is there. Its pale white crowns the Grand Canyon in the Found Corners of America.' Pages 88-89

'Dragon is an ancient symbol for the power of the Earth, for the collective unconscious mind or biological life, and for intuitive wisdom of our common sense as creatures of the planet. It's the dowser's mind. Onondaga Dragon is but one expression of the deeper power that's the very Life of the Earth.' Page 45

As much as we are not accustomed to thinking of sacred places residing in North America we are similarly not accustomed to thinking that Native American government profoundly influenced the founders of the USA. Bruce E. Johansen notes such in Forgotten Fathers: How the American Indian Helped Shape Democracy, The Harvard Common Press, 1982;

'Franklin's attention to Indian affairs grew in tandem with his advocacy of a federal union of the colonies, and idea that was advanced by Canassatego and other chiefs in treaty accounts published by Franklin press as early as 1744. Franklin's writings indicate that as he became more deeply involved with the Iroquois and other Indians peoples, he picked up ideas from them concerning not only federalism, but concepts of natural rights, the nature of society and man's place in it all, the role of property in society, and other intellectual constructs that would be called into service by Franklin and other American revolutionaries shaped an official ideology for the new United States. (Page 54)

'It would be a very strange thing if Six Nations of Ignorant Savages should be capable of forming a Scheme for such an Union and be able to execute it in such a manner, as that it has subsisted Ages, and appears indissoluble, and yet a like Union should be impracticable for ten or a dozen English colonies.' Benjamin Franklin to James Parker, 1751

Bruce Barton, Chair of English at Castleton College in September of 1987 speaking at Cornell University conference 'The Iroquois Great Law of Peace and the U.S. Constitution reiterated the same;

'Modern democracy was first established here, and is not the evolutionary result of European political theories. The modern age of democracy had its origin in the vast recesses of this continent, and from here it spread throughout the world. American democracy owes its distinctive character of debate and compromise to the principles and structure of American Indian civil government.'

"Nirvana" is synonomous with "Peace".

Donald A. Grinde, Jr. in 'Iroquois Political Theory and the Roots of American Democracy' in Exiled in the Land of the Free--Democracy and Indian Nations, and The U. S. Constitution; Clear Light publishers, Santa Fe, 1992 details the influence of the Iroquois Law of Great Peace upon the founders and the USA;

'At the beginning of the Twentieth century, the "Six Nations" article in the Encyclopedia Americana (vol. 4 1896) would state that the Founding Fathers

"in framing a Constitution for the United States honored these people by the adoption of their general constitutional system."

Polluted Democracy Given that special interests, the wealthy and powerful have usurped and corrupted democracy in the United States of America it is not surprising that Onondaga Lake--Cradle of American Democracy--is one of the most polluted lakes in the USA.

The list of scholars and students of the Iroquois roots of the United States Constitution does note end there. In 1937, Matthew W. Stirling. Chief and later director of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1928 to 1958), stated in an article in the National Geographic ('America's First Settlers', Vol. 62, no. 5, November 1937) that the Albany Plan of Union was greatly influenced by the League of the Iroquois, and that the Iroquois had a profound impact on the formation of the American state. Stirling reiterated his respect for American Indian ways in when he stated in congressional testimony in the 1950's "that perhaps we can learn the elusive secret to worldwide peace from [the Iroquois] (Washington Post, February 7, 1950).

The Wisdom of Jesus When you fast do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting'. Matthew 6:16 We ask that when you come to pray for peace that you come and go quietly. Should miracles or transformations transpire--thank God and reinvigorate your prayers for peace with renewed vitality.

In the 1950's, the distinguished American legal scholar Felix Cohen argued that

"It is out of a rich Indian democratic tradition that the distinctive political ideals of American life emerged. Universal suffrage for women as for men, the pattern of states that we call federalism, the habit of treating chiefs as servants of the people instead of their masters, the insistence that the community must respect the diversity of men and the diversity of their dreams--all of these things were part of the American way of life before Columbus landed." ('Americanizing the White Man', The American Scholar 21, no. 2 (1952), 179-180)

Cohen was professor of law at CUNY and Yale, and he wrote the Handbook of American Indian Law (1942) when he worked for the Department of Interior as associate solicitor.' Page 274

The influence of the Iroquois Great Law of Peace begins with the story of the Peacemaker. Once upon a time there was a people, the Haudenosaunee, or people of the Longhouse that lived in peace, a peace that most of us can only envisage as being a fairy tale. But before there was peace there was violence and war and little hope that it would ever be different.

Sacred Sites Are MAGNETS to that Which GUIDES US! Where once were naturally occurring salt springs, earth mounds and people living in harmony at the mouth of Onondaga Lake there came the Industrial Age. Soon the Onondaga creek was rerouted, Oil City, a mass of oil tanks became the new community, a junkyard containing toxic chemicals and a sewage treatment plant joined in. Then came the consumer society and the branding of Americans by corporations. The junkyard along with Oil City was scrapped and in 1988 the Carousel mall was built. Now begins the building of 'Destiny USA' the mall of malls with 'genuine' replications of what it was once like.

The transformation from war to peace is the story of the Peacemaker and the Great Law of Peace Born a Huron he preached of peace to his people but his words fell upon deaf ears. So he paddled his stone canoe across Lake Ontario to the area known as central New York or the Finger Lakes Region.

There again he encountered warfare but this time his words were received. Early on the Peacemaker met with Hiawatha an Onondagan living by himself and full of sorrow. The peacemaker turned Hiawatha's heart and he became his spokesperson because it was said that the peacemaker had a speech impediment and stuttered. It took many years for the two to traverse the land preaching the Great law of Peace but eventually the Peacemaker was able to convince the Senecas, Cayugas, Oniedas and Mohawks to join in union but the Onondagans remained allusive. The sorcerer Tadohaho stood in the way. To convince the sorcerer the Peacemaker gathered all the leaders of the new nation in a song of peace that they sang as they canoed across Onondaga Lake. The power of the group overwhelmed the sorcerer and the crooks of his hair were straightened and the snakes were combed out. To keep him in the fold and use his influence the peacemaker made him the spokes person of peace and made the Onondagans the keepers of the peace. Later the Tuscarora joined in and five became six.

PEACE shalom: (shah-lohm'; Hebrew, "Peace"). In Judaism, the ideal state of human life and society, the realization of total harmony in all spheres. So central is the idea of peace that it is one of the Hebrew names for God. The standard Jewish greeting is "Peace be with You". salamu alaykum, al (as-sa-la'moo a-lay'koom; Arabic, "peace be upon you"), universal greeting among Muslims, to which the reply is" Wa alaykum alsalam" ("and upon you be peace). Source, The Harper Collins Dictionary of Religion, 1995

All gathered around Onondaga Lake where the Peacemaker uprooted a white pine tree, its five needles clasped at one end became the symbol of the confederacy. Underneath the uprooted tree was a deep cavern below, which a river flowed. The peacemaker told all warriors to throw their weapons down the cavern so that they may be taken deep within the earth. The peacemaker called this burying the hatchet.

The Peacemaker replanted the Tree of Peace and the Onondagans were entrusted as keepers of the council fire. In the 'Council of the Great Peace' The Great Binding Law, Gayanashowa begins;

'I am the Peacemaker and with the Five Nations' confederate lords I plant the great tree of peace. I plant it in your territory, Adordarhoh, and the Onondaga Nation, in the territory of you who are fire keepers...
Roots have spread out from the Tree of the Great Peace, one to the north, one to the east, one to the south and one to the west. The name of these roots is The Great White Roots and their nature is Peace and Strength, If any man or any nation outside the Five nations shall obey the laws of the Great peace and make known their disposition to the Lords of the confederacy, they may trace the Roots to the Tree and if their minds are clean and they are obedient and promise to obey the wishes of the Confederate Council, they shall be welcomed to take shelter beneath the Tree of Long Leaves.' We place at the top of the Tree of the Long Leaves an eagle who is able to see afar. If he sees in the distance any evil approaching or any danger threatening he will at once warn the people of the Confederacy, (The Constitution of the Five Nations or The Iroquois Book of the Great Law of Peace, A. C. Parker, New York State Museum Bulletin No. 184)

Make Me An Instrument of Your Peace By St. Francis of Assisi Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.

Scholars, theologians and lawyers may debate the influence and authenticity of the Great Law of Peace and its influence upon the founders, but to those of spirit a walk around the lake will reveal the truth. We hope that you will join us as a Pilgrim of Peace on the shores of Onondaga Lake!