The Haudenosaunee Imperium: Tagnaguya

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Haudenosaunee Imperium: Tagnaguya
Part: One


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447 Great Peace, Ganana' ge Hagwadi, Dijutu' weha
(October, 1768 A.D.)​


Tagnaguya of the Wordmaker Clan of the Onondaga, one of the five nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy sat in the back of his mother's trading cart reading over a binding he had taken with him from home. It was the story of Deganawida the Great Peace Maker, and his evil brother, the creature called Flint.

"Tagnaguya!" His mother's voice called out. "Help your sister to unload the maze. Then fill the cart with hide." Genesse of the Wordmaker Clan was one of the most trusted traders of the Confederacy. She was personal friends with a Cree Chief she had known much of her life. Many Cree near by would only do business with her. Tagnuaguy folded his binding placing it on his seat. His long black hair was tide into a bun reaching the nape of his neck, clad in thick leather with a fur pelt around his neck for extra warmth and high-moccasins and came up near his knees he was ready for the cold of the prairies.

His twin sister Onatah was dressed much the same. But her hair hung down freely. She gave him a look as she approached the cart. She stopped to a moment to scratch the nose of Kella the tuttu that pulled the cart. She had been pawing at her nose but always had a hard time reaching her snout.

"You could help with the trade you know." She said as the siblings reached for the first large pot filled with maze. "Chief Kiche-Menashen likes you. Just being there could help us get more."

"What do you know? You just stand there and look at their cloths. Or dissapear into the village for hours at a time. You're the one mother wants to have take over." Tagnaguya snapped back. They both grunted as they moved the pottery over to the Cree settlement's boarders.

"Please, I'm not going to do that. And it's not my fault if I find the Cree interesting. They have so many stories. One of their elders has been all over the Cree lands. He and his wife tell me stories of the miles and miles of nothing but flat land and skies. And far off to the west where the earth bulges so high that it blocks the clouds and holds winter at its top even in the hottest days of the year." Onatah let out a sigh, she had a strange far off dreamy look on her face. After a moment she came back, just as they turned to bring the second pot. "At least I'm interested in things. All you ever do is read your bindings."

"I do more than that." Tagnaguya spat.

"Oh yeah... when you sneak out each moon. I know you don't have a girl you're going to. I've asked every girl in Buckaloon. You could have some of them if you want. Osha likes you, she watches you practice with the other warriors. So-"

"Stop talking about this." Tagnaguya said quietly as he reached to the maze.

"But I just-" Onatah started.

"I said stop." Taganaguya locked eyes with his sister. She looked down and away from him. A moment of sadness on her face.

"I'm sorry."

They didn't speak for the rest of the day, not even on the long trip back home as they held the ropes to guide Kella along the paths. Onatah had been right, he wasn't going to met a girl. He also wasn't going to meet a man. What he and the others who met were meeting for was far more important than anything like that. Far more important that his sister thought of even in her deepest fantasies of far off lands.

Each moon, when the night's light bathed the earth they would meet. Men and women from all five nations, six if you include the Algonquin. They bounded or pained their faces to not give away their identities. Not until time was right. Not until they had their chance to correct the mistakes of the past.

To make things right again.
 
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447 Great Peace, Gu sa' A Gi, Djutuwegu' Na
(November, 1768 A.D.)​

As the moon hung full and bright in the night sky Tagnaguya wrapped himles in furs and darkened his face with ash. He walked out into the cold winter night, the earth was covered in a layer of snow. He broke a branch from a near by tree to help cover his prints.

He walked for miles guided only by the moons light. A shape, covered in thick layers of skins and fur emerged from the trees to the west. Their face was darkened with ash, just as Tagnaguya's.

"Brother." The man's voice was familiar too Tagnaguya. But he did not know his name. And the man did not know his. That is how things were to be until it was needed.

"Brother." Tagnaguya replied. The two men neared one another. Raising an arm and pressing their hands together. "Has the night been good to you?"

"It has. And too you?" The man asked as the two started walking forwards again.

"It has." They met here mos Moons. Tagnaguya could not help but feel a sense of friendship with this man. Very quickly the trees fell away opening to a clearing. There were shapes of people's all clad in furs, their faces darkened or wrapped in skins or furs revealing only their eyes.

"Sister." Tagnaguya said to the woman to his right. She raised her arm and she and Tagnaguya repeated their greeting.

"Brother." But to Tagnaguya's disappointment their conversation was cut short. A larger man, the man who called the meetings stepped forward. He was Kanien'gehaga, and even with the furs covering him one knew him as a great warrior.

"This meeting of the Clan of the Medicine Wheel has begun. Karahkwa Thayendanegea is very ill, and will not see the next moon. His son Anniruddha will then be named as the new Karahkwa." Mermers broke out between the people gathered in the clearing. The Kanien'gehaga man raised his hands bringing quite back to the clearing. "Our time is coming. Anniruddha is slow, and weak. He is not a warrior as his grandfather, or brilliant as his father. If we are to return freedom to our peoples. And restore our confederation, we must be ready to act. Be strong brothers and sisters. Be ready."

He fell back as a woman, a Seneca, walked forward. She spoke about the Seneca ideals for the confederacy after the rule of the Karahkwas. Tagnaguya hung on to every word she spoke.

But he was afraid. Afraid of what may happen when they learned who he was. The name of the Wordmaker Clan was cursed by these men and women. And by the Onondaga in masses. Tagnaguya's grandfather, Deganawatha had helped to ruin the confederacy. Helped to ruin the Onondaga. He got what he deserved though, in the last Wyndont war.
 
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