Atatarho lowered his head. “I cannot,” he said, his voice even smaller than before.

The Peacemaker looked to Hiawatha, who stood by Tsakonsase.

“Hear this,” Hiawatha said. “Tsakonsase stands for the women who are the mothers of all our future generations. From this day on, she and all the women of our nations will always be respected and heard.”

Hiawatha moved to the side and Tsakonsase stepped forward. She reached out to Atatarho and took both his hands.

“I now take from you all of the aggression that you have held for so long,” Tsakonsase said.

Okwaho saw that Atatarho’s hands were trembling as she held them. The look on the giant man’s face was changing, from uncertainty to something like . . . what was it?

It’s relief, Okwaho suddenly realized, remembering how much of a burden his own anger had placed on him. Atatarho has carried his thirst for revenge for so long that being freed of its weight must be a relief.

Hiawatha came forward. He placed his hands on the huge chief’s shoulders.

“I will clear your mind from anger and violence,” he said. He reached up and began, one by one, to untie the snakes from Atatarho’s matted hair, releasing them to crawl away and disappear into cracks beneath the great stone. Then, with a bone comb that he took from a pouch at his side, he combed straight the war chief’s tangled locks.

“Now,” the Peacemaker said, “do you accept the Great Peace?”

Atatarho was standing straighter than he had ever stood before. His eyes no longer seemed dark and troubled.

“I accept it,” he said, his voice growing clearer and surer as he spoke. “I accept the Great Peace.”

chapter eighteen

OF ONE FAMILY

Okwaho listened as the Peacemaker continued to speak, his words repeated by Hiawatha in that loud clear voice everyone could hear.

It was obvious that much planning and much thought had gone into what the Peacemaker said as he laid out the plans for the future of the Great Peace. He explained how there would be fifty men, each chosen by the women of their clans, to be royaners, ones who would represent their nations in council. Those councils would always be held at Onondaga, and Atatarho himself would head those council meetings where nothing would be decided until everyone agreed, until all their minds were as one.