"Longfellow's Poem Mixed Legends"

OHSWEKEN - The All-Ontario Aboriginal Fastball Championship took place in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory on the last weekend in August. Tyendinaga is the Anglicized way of saying Thayendenegea (Ta-yoan-da-nay-gay-uh) - Joseph Brant's Mohawk name. It is a small Mohawk Reserve of 1,000 people near Belleville.

It is a little stranger that this Reserve came to be named after Joseph Brant. Chief Deserontyou, who was the leader of this band in the 1790s was a rival of Joseph Brant and refused to follow him to the Grand River. However, he did not pick just any old place to take his followers. He chose this area because, according to oral tradition, this is where the Peacemaker Dekanawida (Day-gaw-naw-wee-duh) was born and grew up.

The Peacemaker, the Mohawk Chief Ha-yon-wat-ha and a woman leader were the three main founders of the Five Nations Confederacy, according to oral tradition.

The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow got the Peacemaker, Hayonwatha, and the Ojibway hero Nanabozhoo hopelessly mixed up when he wrote "The Song of Hiawatha." The poem depicts Hiawatha (Hayonwatha) as a virile young man who roamed the woods like a North American Tarzan. He even talked to animals and birds.

This sounds like either Nanabozhoo or perhaps the Peacemaker. It does not in the least resemble Hayonwatha who according to oral tradition was an old man.

The Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory lies alongside the Bay of Quinte. A long bridge spans a narrow part of the bay and from this bridge can be seen a hill which I have heard called the Peacemaker's Hill.

This is the hill where the young Peacemaker is said to have taught his young friends before he set off to bring his message of Peace, Power and Righteousness to the Five Nations. They later became the Six Nations.

The local Tyendinaga fastball teams did themselves proud in the All-Ontario Aboriginal Championships. Both their men and women made it to the finals.

The Tyendinaga women had a tough time as they fell to the Six Nations Native Daughters.

However, they came back by beating the Delawares of Moraviantown, the Mississauga Ojibways of Alderbille and in a rematch the next day, they beat the Native Daughters.

In the finals, they fell to the Oshweken Selects from Six Nations.

The Aboriginal championships were played on three fine, new softball diamonds in the centre of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. The name Native was changed to Aboriginal to differentiate between people who are North American natives, and non-natives who say they are natives of Hamilton or natives of Paris because they were born there. The name Indians will not do because we were not born in India, so Aboriginal is coming into use.

Our Town is an Expositor feature which provides a forum for news and views from some of the smaller centres in the region. George Beaver is a freelance writer who lives on the Six Nations reserve.