“I will do as you ask,” the Peacemaker said, his voice as calm as ever.

When the sun rose the next day, everyone gathered at the gorge. They watched as the chief and his two assistants and a small group of warriors carrying stone hatchets led the calm stranger to that tree above the rushing water. They continued to watch as the doomed man climbed out to the end of that branch. Using their sharp stone hatchets, the warriors chopped at that branch until it broke off the tree. They still watched as the Peacemaker was swept over the falls and was lost from sight in the foamy water striking the jagged rocks far, far below. They kept watching, but although the branch bobbed up and was carried down the river by the swift current, there was no sign of that foolhardy man who had claimed to be the Creator’s messenger.

Everyone returned to the village and gathered around the war chief.

“You have all seen what happened,” he said. “That man was brave, but now he is gone.”

Everyone agreed, even the second assistant war chief, whose heart was filled with sadness. Although everyone else slept soundly that night, that one man stayed awake, praying to the Creator.

Before daybreak woke the village, he was the first to leave his lodge. He looked toward the direction of the great waterfalls and in the early light before dawn saw a plume of smoke lifting like a raised hand. When he told the great war chief what he had seen, the chief sent two runners to see who was now camping by the river.

As soon as they came in sight of the little hill above the falls, they saw who was there. Sitting in front of his fire and smoking a pipe was the man who had gone over the falls when they cut the branch he’d been sitting upon. Seeing him frightened them. After what they had done, would this man who clearly had great power seek to do them harm?

“Who are you?” the first of the runners asked him.

“I am Skennerahowi. I am the one you saw fall into the gorge,” he said. “Do you need more proof that I have come to bring peace?”

“We believe you,” the men replied. “Come back to our village.”

“Go back and tell your chief to make ready. I will come there soon. But I will not stay long, for I have much more work to do and many more to visit.”

The runners went back to their village and told the great war chief what they had seen.

“We will prepare a special place for him,” the chief said, and he gathered everyone in the village. When the Peacemaker arrived, they made two lines of people for him to walk between on his way to the council house. There he was welcomed and given a seat of honor by the chief’s side.