Читать книгу The Element Encyclopedia of Native Americans: An A to Z of Tribes, Culture, and History - Adele Nozedar - Страница 81

When we “bury the hatchet,” we let go of irritations we might have with a neighbor or adversary in favor of peace.

The saying has its origins in a small piece of ritual belonging to the Native Americans. When chiefs of tribes met to discuss a problem, as soon as a solution was settled, the pact was sealed, symbolically, by the literal burying of the hatchet, which was a weapon of war. There are records to prove this, too: for example, in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register of 1870 is an account, first written in 1680, from a gentleman named Samuel Sewall:

“ … Meeting wth ye Sachem [the tribal leaders] the[y] came to an agreemt and buried two Axes in ye Ground; which ceremony to them is more significant & binding than all Articles of Peace the Hatchet being a principal weapon wth ym.”