“It is true,” he said. “I sent a message with the first men I met, men of the Flint Stone Nation. I asked them to spread the word that I was coming to bring a better way of living than warfare to the People of the Longhouse. It is a way that begins with peace. When our minds are good and we all are of one mind, then peace may begin. Our Creator is sad that our people are killing each other. So many good people have died. I have come to stop the fighting and bring back the peace we were meant to live in. Long ago, our Creator placed us here to live in harmony with each other, to always show kindness and respect each other. But your minds have been twisted by war. What you must do now is give up those weapons of war. New leaders who will always be men of peace must be raised up by the clan mothers. And those men can only remain as leaders as long as they do not go to war. If they do not do their duty, they must give their title back to the clan mothers. The job of those new leaders will always be to keep the peace strong.”

When the Peacemaker sat down, the second war chief was pleased. Perhaps, he thought, the people will now listen to this message and peace will actually come.

But then the great war chief stood up again. “I like this message. However, I am not sure that it is possible. I doubt that it will work.”

The war chief then sat down and his first assistant stood up. He had made fun in recent days of the second assistant war chief for believing such an impossible thing as one man being able to bring an end to all warfare between the different nations.

“I agree with our great leader,” the first assistant war chief said. “I do not trust this stranger.” He looked over at the second assistant war chief and shook his head. “I think he must prove himself. If he is truly a messenger from the Creator, then he must have the Creator’s protection. Let us test him. Does everyone agree?”

He looked around the circle of people gathered. No one spoke against his idea. Then he looked hard at the Peacemaker. “Do you agree to whatever test we choose for you?”

“I agree as long as all the people are there to see what happens.”

“Good,” the chief’s first assistant said. “This is how you will be tested. At the edge of the cliff over the great waterfall there is a big tree. One of its branches reaches out over the falls. Tomorrow we will all go to that tree. You must climb out and sit on that branch and stay there as our warriors cut the branch from the tree. All the people will watch as you fall to your death.”