Of course, Okwaho thought. Of all the birds, it is always blue jay who first calls out to alert all to danger approaching.

Carries looked down at his hands as if they were holding something—even though they looked to be empty.

“That is not the only story you have to tell us, is it?” Okwaho’s mother, Wolf Woman, said.

Everyone turned to look at her. Although Atatarho no longer listened to the wise words of women, words that had always guided all the Longhouse Nations in the past, everyone in their small breakaway village not only remembered that time but always honored the words of their women. In fact, it was the women who headed each of their families who made the final decision to leave the big village among the hills.

“No,” the tattooed man said. “I have another story to tell about the Peacemaker if you want to hear it.”

“We do,” Wolf Woman replied.

Carries reached into the larger of the two pouches that hung at his belt. The shape of a tree in red dyed porcupine quills had been sewn onto it with sinew. He opened his pouch, reached in, and took from it a stone. He touched the stone to his chest and then his lips before holding it up for everyone to see.

“This stone is one I took from the River of Rapids, from the place called Cohoes where there is a great waterfall. It is not far from the River Beyond the Openings, Skanehtateh Kahuntah. Our Flint Stone People tell an old story about that waterfall. They say that long ago a great monster was defeated there, thrown over that waterfall to its death. It was a beast as big as a hill, covered with long hair. It had two great teeth that stuck out like spears and a long lip that it could use to grab people. Have you heard of that creature?”

People nodded, Okwaho among them. His mother had told him about that beast, the Walking Hill. It lived long ago and attacked villages, crushing people under its feet. Finally the Holder Up of the Heavens came to earth and destroyed it.

Carries smiled. “I am not going to say more about that. I only mention it so that you may have in your mind the image of the place where something great happened. I am going to tell you the story of the Peacemaker at Cohoes Falls.”

•   •   •

One morning, the people of the Flint Stone village near the great waterfalls woke as they always did to greet the first light of the sun and give thanks for the new day. That was when they saw a thin feather of smoke rising from the direction of the falls. They knew it meant that someone was announcing his presence and asking through that smoke permission to enter their village.