Since 1984, Chief Jake Swamp of the Mohawk Nation and his Tree of Peace Society have ceremoniously planted trees in significant public places. In November 1993, one day prior to the Cry of the Earth conference at the UN, Crescentera organized for him to gather with indigenous elders from all over North America to plant a Tree of Peace in Central Park.
Iroquois Legend
“Over a thousand years ago, the Peacemaker brought the Great Law of Peace to the warring Indian nations of what is now New York State. The message of Peace, Power, and the Good Mind resulted in the forming of the Haudenosaunee Iroquois Confederacy. The league of nations consisted of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, and later the Tuscarora. These nations were instructed to bury their weapons of war under the Great Tree of Peace, and to unite as one to uphold the Great Law of Peace by joining “arms” so that the Tree of Peace would never fall.”
Cry of the Earth
Chief Jake Swamp referred to this tree planting the following day at the UN:
“When the Peacemaker completed and he saw the leaders, he asked them to stand in a circle with joined hands, and with the Tree in the center. He told them that one day, this would happen: somewhere, from some direction, a people will come. And they will bring with them sharp objects, and then they will start to chop at the roots of Peace. The Tree will weaken for a time. And then the Tree will start to fall. It will fall on the joined hands of the leaders. And he instructed them to be strong when that time arrives. ‘Do not lose your grip’ he told them, ‘For if you do, the Peace will never return. For in those times when you are burdened by its heaviness and its weight, there will be a great many children born. And when they observe you in pain, of the burden that you have carried, they will move forward and they will help you to raise the Tree of Peace again.’ And at this time, the prophecy is being fulfilled. Our Leaders are tired, because everything in there has come to our Nations’ territories. All the elements of this course. But we are fortunate that many people around the world are now born as those children that were meant to be. So that we can promote the Peace, and make Humankind understand that Peace must prevail in the World if we are to survive as a Human race.”