The most famous example of burying the hatchet was during the founding of the Iroquois Confederacy. Under the guidance of the Great Peacemaker, leaders of the five tribes buried war axes under a large white pine tree, symbolizing the resolve of the Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida and Onondaga to live together in perpetual peace. This ceremony seemed to act as a precedent for other Eastern Woodlands people to bury war axes to end disputes, both amongst Natives, and between Natives and Settlers. For example, Samuel Sewell, who gained fame years later as a judge of the Salem Witch Trials, wrote of a dispute between the Mohawk and Settlers in New York which was settled when a Sachem buried two axes, one representing the Mohawk and the other representing the Settlers.
The 1795 Treaty of Hopewell in South Carolina, between the Cherokee and Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins witnessed by Col. Andrew Pickens actually contains the phrase, bury the hatchet. On June 25, 1761, the British and Mi'kmaq ended 75 years of conflict by a ceremonial burying of war axes that is commemorated today in Nova Scotia as the Burying the Hatchet Ceremony. Also during the Seven Years War, the Shawnee let the French know of their intent to switch allegiances and make peace with the British by stating that they would, bury the bloody hatchet, with the British.
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