Earlier this year, a handful of local organizations came together to create a place of peace and reflection for our community – for all of us from the various walks of life that have brought us to this place. We looked for a good location, a quiet spot, a place to be surrounded by the sounds of nature, an easily accessible site not far from the regular loops people already enjoy. We found that location in the lower meadow of FT Proctor Park, alongside the babbling creek, where a forgotten cistern waited to be restored. Yet something else was already there that made it the perfect location for a peace garden – the towering presence of a lone eastern white pine, known to the Haudenosaunee people as the Great Tree of Peace.
The eastern white pine stands in the meadow at FT Proctor Park before the Peace Garden was created
Coming down around the bend from the Lily Pond plateau you can’t help but notice the tree, how it stands straight and tall in front of you. The surrounding meadow grasses sway in the breeze, providing food and habitat for migrating birds. The birds fly in and out, seeking shelter in the branches of the tree. Squirrels, rabbits, and woodchucks scurry to collect the tree’s cones and bark and drink from the nearby streams. People young and old stroll by breathing in the clean air and refreshing their spirits. The new Peace Garden is now thriving nearby. And the Great Tree of Peace seems to be watching over it all.
For the people of the Haudenosaunee Confederation, the eastern white pine is a symbol of strength, protection, and longevity. It was under the shelter of the branches of a white pine that the 5 original nations of the confederation, the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, agreed to form an alliance, which became known as the Great Law of Peace. Imagery of the tree, its branches, needles, and roots are invoked throughout the agreement, binding the nations together in unity and calling for them to work together for the good of the whole.
Eastern white pine in the Adirondacks. Photo courtesy of wildadirondacks.org
The Great Tree of Peace comes by this designation rightly. The eastern white pine, Pinus strobus, is the tallest of our native trees, often reaching 130 feet tall and 40 feet wide. Its branches reach out horizontally and hold long bluish-green, feathery needles in clusters of 5 that are said to whisper in the breeze. This tree is also one of our most important plants for wildlife. Numerous insects and mammals eat the seed, bark, and needles while a variety of birds nest in its branches. The eastern white pine grows abundantly throughout the Adirondacks, but also grows in every county in New York State, making it an invaluable piece of our local ecosystems.
Volunteers creating the Peace Garden in the presence of the Great Tree of Peace, May 2022
I wish we had recognized the significance of this tree from the beginning. We imagined a place where people would pause, sit for a minute, and look out over the meadow. We designed a garden filled with blue, a peaceful color, and the soft swishing of tall grasses in the breeze. We hoped passersby would stop to marvel at the butterflies as they drank from the flowers of the lobelia, coneflower, and wild indigo. And all along, the tree was already there, an obvious marker for this new place of peace.
The Peace Garden Today, Winter 2022
To learn more about Pinus strobus, visit wildadirondacks.org
To learn about the Great Tree of Peace, visit indigenousvalues.org and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy website at https://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/confederacys-creation/
Here’s a short clip of drone footage of the peace garden and surrounding landscape that by coincidence, showcases the white pine (we are practicing our drone skills!)
And here is an interesting article about white pine conservation in Michigan https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/11/22/bringing-back-the-white-pine-a-foundational-american-tree
