Osgoode Hall Law School Library

Corporate Subject:

Six Nations. » Great Law of Peace.

Corporate Subject:

Six Nations » Politics and government.

Subject:

Iroquois law.

Subject:

Indigenous peoples » Canada » Legal status, laws, etc.

Subject:

Indigenous peoples » United States » Legal status, laws, etc.

Title:

Kayanerenkó:wa = the Great Law of Peace / Kayanesenh Paul Williams.

Main Author:

Williams, Kayanesenh Paul, 1949-

Language:

English

Published:

University of Manitoba Press, 2018

Parallel Title:

Great Law of Peace

Summary:

"Several centuries ago, the five nations that would become the Haudenosaunee -- Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca -- were locked in generations-long cycles of bloodshed. When they established Kayanerenkó:wa, the Great Law of Peace, they not only resolved intractable coinflicts, but also shaped a system of law and government that would maintain peace for generations to come. This law remains in place today in Haudenosaunee communities: an Indigenous legal system, distinctive, complex, and principled. It is not only a survivor, but a viable alternative to Euro-American systems of law. With its emphasis on lasting relationships, respect for the natural world, building consensus, and on making and maintaining peace, it stands in contrast to legal systems based on property, resource exploitation, and majority rule. Although KayanerenkoÌ:wa has been studied by anthropologists, linguists, and historians, it has not been the subject of legal scholarship. There are few texts to which judges, lawyers, researchers, or academics may refer for any understanding of specific Indigenous legal systems. Following the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and a growing emphasis on reconciliation, Indigenous legal systems are increasingly relevant to the evolution of law and society. In KayanerenkoÌ:wa Great Law of Peace Kayanesenh Paul Williams, counsel to Indigenous nations for forty years, with a law practice based in the Grand River Territory of the Six Nations, brings the sum of his experience and expertise to this analysis of KayanerenkoÌ:wa as a living, principled legal system. In doing so, he puts a powerful tool in the hands of Indigenous and settler communities."

Physical Description:

xii, 454 pages : illustrations. maps ; 25 cm

Bibliography:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780887551932

9780887558214

0887558216

Publication:

Winnipeg, Manitoba : University of Manitoba Press, 2018.

Copyright Notice Date:

{copy}2018

• Part I. Context. Creation
• The land
• The longhouse and the village
• The Haudenosaunee
• Clans
• Personal names
• Ceremonies
• The date of the creation of the League
• Part Ii. The nature of the law : principles and processes. Principles, not details
• Order
• Versions
• Versions, names, and quotations
• Language
• Oral tradition and the rememberers
• Speakers
• The power of song : the Song of Peace
• One family
• Helping one another
• The structure of the law
• Certainty and constancy
• Confrontation is a last resort
• Part III. Bringing the Great Peace. Patterns and principles in the narrative
• The Peacemaker
• Why his name is not spoken
• The Peacemaker meets his own people first
• The white stone canoe
• The man without a nation, without a family
• Mindless warfare
• The Peacemaker and the Cannibal
• Announcing peace
• Skaniatariio John Arthur Gibson?s 1899 version
• Tsikonsaseh : the women?s side
• Hiawatha : the man of sorrows
• The first Condolence
• The three words : peace, power, and righteousness
• From individuals to nations
• Mohawk : testing the Peacemaker
• Tekarihoken, Hiawatha, Satekariwateh : the first Mohawk chiefs
• Westward
• Oneida : Odatsehte
• Removing distractions : opening the path and keeping it open
• Standing and walking
• Onondaga : Thadadaho
• Over the woods : Haii Haii
• The pacification of Thadadaho
• Thadadaho?s political interests
• The fire
• The power of unity
• Cayuga
• Seneca : the doorkeepers
• One mind : Ska?níkon:ra
• Unity is power
• Part IV. The constitution. Overview
• The longhouse of one family
• Older and younger brothers
• Onondaga longhouse
• The line down the middle of the longhouse
• Calling council
• Procedure in council
• Thick skins
• Mentors of the people
• The chiefs : permanence of titles
• The cluster : chief, clan mother, sub-chief, faithkeepers, runner
• Clan mothers
• Faithkeepers
• Criteria from becoming a chief
• Raising up chiefs
• The women : landholders and clanholders
• The circle of protection of the law
• Leaving the circle
• Calling people home
• Returning
• Symbols of the law
• The tree of peace
• The great white wampum
• The eagle
• The dish with one spoon : sharing the hunting grounds
• Linking arms together
• The council fire
• The rod or staff
• The wing
• No council after dark
• The birds in the branches
• Considering the coming seven generations
• Life terms
• Head chiefs?
• Specific chiefs have specific duties
• When a chief dies
• Condolence
• Removing a chief
• The right of revolution
• War and peace
• The weakness of the council
• Dealing with the ?warriors?
• The ceremonies : spiritual authority and obligation
• The mother?s line
• The names : continuity
• Citizenship and immigration
• The right of refuge
• Adoption
• Nations leave, nations return
• Pine tree chiefs
• Local or village chiefs
• Maintenance and renewal
• Amendment : adding to the rafters
• Prophecy : things will go wrong
• And in the end
• Closing.