Talk:Great Peacemaker

Merger

The Great Law of Peace was written by the Great Peacemaker, and that is pretty much all that the article on it says about the great law of peace. So why not merge them? 12.156.208.3 (talk) 19:52, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Uh, because the Iroquois Constitution is an important and separate topic from this one, and because that's not all the article says, either. So I disagree with the merger. 70.105.5.75 (talk) 19:50, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Agree that the two articles should not be merged. There is doubtless more material on the Great Law of Peace from other sources.--Parkwells (talk) 19:46, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Reverted material

The below material was just deleted after I added it. I can understand and accept the reason given, but I wanted to explain. The reference is definitely encyclopedic and I wanted to add it to Wikipedia, but I was unsure what article would be most appropriate. I was looking at either this article, or Iroquois mythology (which is presently a mess) or possibly even Tuscarora (tribe) - there is no article specifically for Tuscarora legends as yet. I guess I will try to find a way to work it into one of those other articles now. Cheers, Til Eulenspiegel (talk) 16:25, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Virginia surveyor William Byrd II, in his History of the Dividing Line Betwixt North Carolina and Virginia (1728) recorded a similar tradition of a former religious leader, that had been current among the Tuscarora tribe, before they left North Carolina to join the rest of the Iroquois Confederacy in New York. In this version, their tribe, many centuries before, had become so dishonest that no man's property nor wife was considered inviolate;

"...however, their God, being unwilling to root them out for their crimes, did them the honour to send a Messenger from Heaven to instruct them, and set Them a perfect Example of Integrity and kind Behavior towards one another. But this holy Person, with all his Eloquence and Sanctity of Life, was able to make very little Reformation amongst them. Some few Old Men did listen a little to his Wholesome Advice, but all the Young fellows were quite incorrigible. They not only Neglected his Precepts, but derided and Evil Entreated his Person. At last, taking upon him to reprove some Young Rakes of the Conechta Clan very sharply for their impiety, they were so provok'd at the Freedom of his Rebukes, that they tied him to a Tree, and shot him with Arrows through the Heart. But their God took instant vengeance on all who had a hand in that Monstrous Act, by Lightning from Heaven, & has ever since visited their Nation with a continued Train of Calamities, nor will he ever leave off punishing, and wasting their people, till he shall have blotted every living Soul of them out of the World."

Thank you for your courteous handling of this edit. We are both in solid agreement that at present the Iroquois mythology article is an embarrassing mess that badly needs cleaning up through a thorough re-write and reliable referencing. As I point out on that article's talk page, currently the information appears to be derived from a single source, which itself is unsubstantiated. One of my biggest concerns regarding Iroquois articles (actually Native North American articles in general) is that there occasionally appears to be a tendency to 'lump' cultural traits together as one expression; as if somehow similar elements in two separate cultures are automatically identical simply because they happen to be both occurring in North America, an interpretation that would be laughed at if it occurred in other parts of the world. Thanks once again for your care and concern in working with Native North American material. cheers Deconstructhis (talk) 17:51, 14 January 2010 (UTC)