Tutelo Heights Short-Term "Two Row" Lessons Central to Long-Term Mediation in the Grand River Valley

Introduction

In the long history of the Iroquois League of the Five Nations (Wisk Nihonohnwenstiake) extant Indigenous knowledge inheres in families like the Satekariwateron:non. This Turtle clan family is one of the founding families of the League and holds a place among the Rotinohsionni (People of the Long House) Council with a specific function relative to the word satekariwate. The word has been translated literally as "weighing in balance." However, the word conveys a richer meaning.

In the Satekariwate family the name connotes more than simply balance. Implied by sateka- (from the root word for "eight"), there is a sense of balance—four fingers on each hand. In addition, the word orihwa has the sense of a "matter." The suffix -ate designates positioning as "on top," as in on-top-of-the-house or kanohnsate. Taken together the word would literally translate as "balanced-matter-on-top."

The idiomatic use of Satekariwate takes on another form more closely associated with Indigenous governance. I am a member of the Satekariwateron:non and worked since 1988 on affairs related to the League. I worked with elder rotiianisonha such as Jacob Thomas and Murray Henhawk, and elders Reg Henry and Sylvannus General. As a sakotiienewas (one who helps them) I aided the elders with written work and translating Indigenous words into idiomatic English. One key elder was Chief Richard Maracle, from the Mohawk family named Rastewenserontha. We often talked about words. In the case of his family name, the word suggested rattles such as those on the snake's tail. He also said because the word was old it seemed to have something to do with pine pitch. As such, he said his role among the Mohawk chiefs was to raise a warning (shake the rattle) or point out a "sticky issue" (like placing one's hand on pine pitch). These notions provided the basis for advancing the idiomatic expression of Satekariwate.

In many instances elders placed me in the middle of numerous confl icts at the Six Nations Indian Reserve, sixty miles south of Toronto, Canada. I worked closely with Chief Maracle during the so-called Oka Crisis of 1990. I also worked with Chief Thomas in the performance of the recital of the "Great Laws of Peace," our master narrative. With Elder Henry, we discussed how our ceremonies were performances of our Indigenous cultural practices like harvesting fish, growing our crops, and using the maple sap. However, for this paper I focus on the work with Chief Maracle.

Work with Chief Maracle included several major events in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This work included delivering the "Shawanaga Fire" from the hunger strikers north of Toronto who were protesting cutbacks to postsecondary funding that was lit for a week at Six Nations. In addition, Chief Maracle and my clanmother Wilma Hill talked to me frequently during the school lockout of 1989, when a thousand elementary students were pulled from Six Nations' schools because of environmental and health conditions. I arranged meetings between Brantford's mayor, Brantford's Member of Parliament, and Chief Maracle concerning Mohawk claims in the Grand River Valley near Brantford, Ontario.

This work associates more closely with the family name Satekariwate than the simple affectation "weighing in balance." I contend with some confidence based on my discussions with these elders that one who weighs things in balance engages in the act of mediation. That family tradition was invoked on many occasions in work conducted with extant clanship families of the League. In the case of the Turtle clan, Satekariwate sits with Aiionwatha and Tekarihoken, families whose names idiomatically express the humanity of problem solving and seeking solutions to disputes. Aiionwatha (combs the hair) keeps matters straight and untangled. Tekarihoken (uses two minds) seeks to understand disputants' fears, worries, and threats. With Satekariwate's mediation practices added to this governing triumvirate, the Mohawk Turtle clan families possess certain diplomatic authority in navigating conflicts and disputes.

One key sign and symbol of League culture depicts mediated processes between entities imbued with the practices...