Peacemaker
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- USD 4.99
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- USD 4.99
Publisher Description
A twelve-year-old Iroquois boy searches for peace in this historical novel based on the creation of the Iroquois Confederacy.
Twelve-year-old Okwaho's life has suddenly changed. While he and his best friend are out hunting, his friend is kidnapped by men from a neighboring tribal nation, and Okwaho barely escapes. Everyone in his village fears more raids and killings: The Five Nations of the Iroquois have been at war with one another for far too long, and no one can remember what it was like to live in peace.
Okwaho is so angry that he wants to seek revenge for his friend, but before he can retaliate, a visitor with a message of peace comes to him in the woods. The Peacemaker shares his lesson tales—stories that make Okwaho believe that this man can convince the leaders of the five fighting nations to set down their weapons. So many others agree with him. Can all of them come together to form the Iroquois Great League of Peace?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Through 12-year-old Okwaho, who loves to make songs, Bruchac (One Real American) brings a fresh point of view to this briskly told fictionalization of the Iroquois Confederacy's beginnings. Okwaho's family is one of 14 who leave the big village of Onontaka and the protection of Atatarho, a powerful warrior chief to avoid "the conflict that never ended": fighting among the five Iroquois Nations. But while trout fishing, Okwaho's best friend Tawis is kidnapped by members of the Oneida, putting the boys' small community at risk of reentering the cycle of violence. When Carries, of the Ganiekehgaono Nation, arrives, he brings with him a message of peace that he hopes to circulate among the nations one that also helps Okwaho navigate his own conflicts. If the pace slows in the book's second half, as Bruchac interweaves Okwaho's narrative with Haudenosaunee stories of the Peace-maker whom the Creator sent to end the warfare the tales bring a depth and resonance to the life and history of the Iroquois Confederacy, as well as to Okwaho's understanding of the world. Ages 9 12.
