Jigonhsasee

Jigonhsasee (aka Jikonsase or Jikonhsaseh) was a Native American and is described as a "powerful woman" of the Haudenosaunee nation, the "people of the longhouse".^[1] Jigonhsasee has been called the Mother of Nations ^[2] as referenced by the anthropologist John Brown Childs, a professor emeritus at University of California at Santa Cruz.^[3] She has also been called the Great Peacewoman by Jean Houston on page 57 of her book "Manual for the Peacemaker".^[4] Jigonhasasee was a name given to the single woman who with three other men formed the Iroquois Confederacy in C.E. 1142 ^[1] or as late as 1570-1600,^[5] and some date it to before the landing of Columbus.^[6] Reliable sources believe that the constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy became a basis for the U.S. Constitution, as the founding fathers otherwise lacked an example of a document to define and cement a democracy in the modern world.^[7] The men with whom Jigonhsasee formed the Iroquois Confederacy were Hiawatha,^[5] Dekanawidah,^[5] and Tadadaho.^[8]

Jigonhsasee means "she who lives on the road to war." ^[9] In another interpretation of the same legend, Jacon Needleman claims that Jigonhsasee means "New Face." He writes that the Great Peacemaker (the otherwise unnamed person who brings Hiawatha and Jigonhsasee together to create the Iroquois confederacy) called her New Face because "It is in your countenance that a New Mind is manifest" and that out of the "womb of the new mind" new nations will be born.^[10]

Legend

Jigonhsasee was known for housing warriors as they traveled to and from battlegrounds and homes.^[11] Her hearth became what amounted to a United Nations, where the warriors of the various factions could come, eat her food, and she acted as council to resolve their disputes.^[11] It is this context that Deganawidah came to her and described his vision for a peace built upon a confederacy of the currently warring nations.^[11] Because she interacted with the various tribes, Deganawidah gave her the task of appointing which men should sit at the peace gathering. For becoming the first ally in his peace movement, Deganawidah called her Mother of Nations.^[11]

References