Tadodaho

Tadodaho is a powerful Onondaga figure in Haudenosaunee tradition who initially resisted the Great Peacemaker and Hiawatha. After being healed and persuaded to accept the Great Law of Peace, he became guardian of the council fire; Tadodaho remains the title of the Confederacy’s principal Onondaga chief.

In Haudenosaunee tradition Tadodaho begins as a feared and obstructive Onondaga figure whose body and mind are symbolically healed when he accepts the Great Law of Peace. After reconciliation he becomes keeper of the council fire, and the title Tadodaho remains associated with the leading Onondaga role in the Confederacy.

Tadodaho appears in W. Michael Gear’s Blood Lightning, Eclipse Dancer, People of the Black Sun and The Broken Land, where the feared Onondaga figure is woven into a fictionalised account of warfare, reconciliation and the traditions surrounding the formation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.