White Pine : The Peace Tree

white pine stands

There is an Iroquois oral tradition called "The Peacemaker" which tells a story of five tribes: The Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca Nations who were all at war with each other.  A peacemaker came and eventually all the tribes consented to end the war.  The peacemaker uprooted a White Pine and the tribes threw all of their weapons into the hole.  The tree was replanted and known as "the tree of peace."  The five tribes, each represented by one of the needles in the clusters, were then joined together as the Iroquois or the Haudenosaunee people (Iroquois Indian Museum).