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The Great Peace Woman of the Wendot
Neutrals
Briefly, in her village of Tonawanda
(TON-A-WAN-DAH), Jikohnsaseh (J'CON-SAH-SEH), the Great Peace Woman of the Wendot
Neutrals was honored by the Yagowaneh
(YAH-GO-WAN'-EH) -- Corn Clan Mother -- for managing peace through
negotiation. When
Dagonoweida visited Tonawanda, he observed agricultural abundance. The
Yagowaneh and her grandmothers there had raised acres of corn,
beans, squash, potatoes, and orchards. This prosperity led to a
relatively stable peace so this Great Peace Woman of the Wendot
was councilor to as many as 14 nations when Dagonoweida made her
the first Jikohnsaseh, the name that has remained for each of her
successors. She became the first to accept
and promote
Dagonoweida's
message of "Peace" and impressed with her record through matriarchal
rule, he made women the proprietors of the Great
Law. Thus the first Jikohnsaseh was also called "Mother of
Nations". From the House of Peace at Ganondagan,
Jikohnsaseh became
the office for all presiding head clan mothers who followed in her
footsteps. Her word was Law. The last known Jikohnsaseh
who would have been at Ganondagan at the time young Smith
came across the plates, was Caroline
Parker. She was a sister of the notable Ely Parker, the
last Grand Sachem of the
Seneca in the early 1800's.
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