The Tree of Peace is a symbolic representation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and its oral constitution, the Great Law of Peace. The tree, an eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), bears bundles of five needles which symbolize the decision of the five Haudenosaunee nations to reject war and unify into a single confederation.
Tradition Haudenosaunee oral history describes a man named the Great Peacemaker, or Dekanawida, as a messenger of the Creator who united the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas into the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. At a council of the five nations by Onondaga Lake, the symbol chosen for the League of the Five Nations was the great white pine tree, "the tree of the Great Long Leaves". Its characteristic bundles of five needles became the symbol of the Five Nations joined as one. Together, the five nations planted a white pine and buried their weapons beneath the tree.
This tree of peace became the symbol of solitude among the chiefs. The creation of the tree of peace figuratively gave the chiefs the ability never to die, "because their chiefly titles would be passed down to their successors forever. In this way, the League of Nations would always be kept alive".
A. C. Parker states:
Barbara Graymont states:
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