Brenda Duffey

The Peacemaker Brenda Duffey

The year is 1720 and there are rumblings along the 240-mile stretch of the Mohawk Trail (which is today upstate New York) creating fissures that are dividing the five tribes belonging to the Iroquois Confederacy that has dominated the area in peace and prosperity since the arrival of The Peacemaker in the 11th Century. The Confederacy divided the land into five regions under the control of one of the five tribes - the Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida and Onondaga. Each tribe was sovereign but aligned with the other tribes in a system of government based on three principles.

- Land ownership based on stewardship rather than military might.

- Empowerment of women - The members of the Confederacy were matrilineal with material wealth and lands controlled by the Klan mothers. The Klan mothers also appointed the men who represented the tribes at the Grand Council and could remove these men from office if they violated any of the terms of the covenant agreements. The women also had absolute veto over any decision to go to war.

- Diplomacy and settlement of disagreements at the yearly council meetings and settling these agreements in treaties called covenant chains.

The members of the Confederacy had welcomed the "thirteen fires" into their League when the English first arrived at Jamestown and Plymouth, but by 1720 the Confederacy was falling apart. This was due, in part, to the continual violation of treaties made in good faith with the English concerning ownership of land. In addition, the members of the Confederacy were pulled back into competition for control of the beaver trade and ever-growing dependence on manufactured goods. The introduction of firearms and firewater further seduced the men from their commitment to peace. The tribes were also decimated by the disease of small pox which had reduced their numbers in 1720 to about half of what they were before the arrival of the Europeans.

The Peacemaker is a multi-generational saga that tells of the decline of the Iroquois Confederacy and the ultimate establishment of the United States of America built upon its ashes after the American Revolution. The story covers American history from 1720 until September 11, 2001. It is America's story told through the eyes of the generations of women who have struggled to attain the power lost to them in 1789 and have worked through generations to stop the endless cycles of war, poverty, and economic depression and most recently the threat of global warming. It is a call to a powerful country facing its own decline to listen to the message given to Ayowentah (Hiawatha) by the Peacemaker in the 11th Century to bring back those principles that will lead to the establishment of a strong society that will last through the Seventh Generation and beyond.