Atotarho
Onondaga sorcerer-chief who initially opposed the Great Law of Peace; subsequently the first Tadodaho (central presiding-sachem) of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy after his conversion through the canonical combing-the-snakes-from-his-hair ritual performed by Hayowentha and Tekanawíta (the Great Peacemaker). Traditional dating c. 1142 CE per Iroquois oral tradition; academic-archaeological dating clusters around 1450 CE per Mann & Fields 1997. Per the canonical Iroquois foundation-narrative, Atotarho was a powerful sorcerer-chief whose body was twisted with snakes growing from his hair, his fingers as claws, his form distorted by the corruption of his evil-power; he killed the three daughters of Hayowentha through sorcery to demonstrate his power and prevent unification. The combing-the-snakes ritual restored his physical-form to its pre-corrupted human shape, and he accepted the Great Law of Peace as the first Tadodaho — the central council-fire-keeper of the Onondaga and the foundational presiding-sachem of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The Tadodaho-position has been continuously occupied by the Onondaga since the foundation, with the current Tadodaho (Sid Hill, installed 2002) the latest in the unbroken line of succession; the institutional continuity of the Tadodaho-office is one of the most-distinctive features of the Iroquois Confederacy as the longest-continuously-functioning representative-democratic political institution in the Western Hemisphere. Strict-pass treatment: the snake-hair-and-claw-hands pre-conversion form is treated as acquired-through-sorcery rather than as inherent-spirit-class biology, preserving Atotarho's mortal-class registry-status.
Powers
- a sorcerer whose hair writhes with snakes and whose body is twisted into seven crooks
- Command snakes, wolves, and birds
- Slay enemies by witchcraft
Epithets
- Tadodaho title since borne by the presiding firekeeper-sachem of the Confederacy at OnondagaWikipedia, 'Tadodaho' (secondary)
Relations
- ally: Deganawida
- enemy: HayowenthaPre-conversion enemy of Hayowentha; killed Hayowentha's three daughters through sorcery. Post-conversion Confederacy-co-foundational ally.
Sources
- existence: Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace oral tradition (primary); Arthur C. Parker, The Constitution of the Five Nations (1916) (primary); Anthony F. C. Wallace, The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca (1969) (primary); Haudenosaunee Confederacy Council continuing institutional records (primary)