Shapeshifter's Peace

The Great Chief Babiwseso-Ogawinno, known today as “Passaconaway,” was a man whose spirit cannot be contained beneath a moldering stone. To the Penagok (Penacook) people of central New Hampshire he was and is the star that lit their universe and whose spirit will never die. What follows is not meant as veritable gospel but is merely a swirling bear’s eye view of what has been fancied of a great man’s passing along the trail of life in the time before time. Shapeshifter’s Peace is my vision of the Great Chief, Passaconaway…my interpretation of Passaconaway as a fellow human being. From the very onset I have wanted to explore how he as a flesh and blood man might have reacted to the catastrophic events taking place around him. I wanted to explore why a man who commanded the respect and esteem, not to mention awe, of so much of what is now central New England, chose not to engage the English settlers, but instead shapeshifted from a formidable warrior into a peacemaker.