One by one, Hiawatha’s daughters became sick. No medicine was able to cure them and one by one they died. The loss of his daughters filled Hiawatha with such grief that he could no longer live among the people. His mind became clouded. He left the Flint Stone People and disappeared into the forest. Many had gone searching for Hiawatha, hoping to bring him back. But Hiawatha had been as elusive as a panther and all they had been able to find were the remains of cold campfires.

•   •   •

What had caused the death of his daughters? It was the work of Atatarho. Word of the Peacemaker had reached the angry great chief. In addition to his own power, Atatarho also had advisors who told him they could see the future. Those men prophesied that his way of war would be ended by two men who would come to him from the direction of the rising sun.

Atatarho had been given this prophecy even before Okwaho’s family and the others had separated themselves from Onondaga. But they knew nothing about the Peacemaker when they left. Atatarho had managed to keep his people ignorant of the fact that a Peacemaker had been sent by the Creator and was coming to them.

After hearing that prophecy, Atatarho had sent spies to the east to find out who those men who would threaten his rule might be. That was how he had found out about the one now named Hiawatha. Hiawatha was, his spies told him, the first of the Peacemaker’s new leaders, the one who would be by his side when he brought that Great Peace.

“NO,” Atatarho had thundered. “This must not be!”

Then he made a plan. The prophecy said that two men would end his way of war. What he needed to do was to eliminate one of them. Then the prophecy could not come true. But which should he get rid of? That one called the Peacemaker seemed to have great power and it might not be possible to do anything to affect him. Hiawatha, though, did not have such power. He would be the one to strike.

Sending warriors to try to kill Hiawatha might not work. The Flint Stone People were powerful and might defend him. Doing that might also result in his Onondaga Nation finding out about the Peacemaker. So his advisors suggested another tactic. Evil medicine could be used to destroy Hiawatha’s family. That would drive him insane and defeat the prophecy by preventing him from ever coming to Onondaga.

Atatarho’s evil plan seemed to work. One by one, Hiawatha’s beloved daughters died. With the death of his third daughter, Hiawatha became so burdened with sorrow that he could not bear the sight of another human being. He left his village and disappeared into the forest.

•   •   •

Carries paused in his story, looking out over the peaceful village below.