Peace amongst the Indians.--Celebrations.--Worship. Exercises.--Business
of the Tribes.--Former Happiness of the Indians in time of peace
extolled.--Their Morals; Fidelity; Honesty; Chastity; Temperance.
Indians called to German Flats.--Treaty with Americans.--They are sent
for by the British Commissioners, and go to Oswego.--Promises made by
those Commissioners.--Greatness of the King of England. Reward that was
paid them for joining the British. They make a Treaty.--Bounty offered
for Scalps. Return richly dressed and equipped.--In 1776 they kill a man
at Cautega to provoke the Americans. Prisoners taken at Cherry Valley,
brought to Beard's Town; redeemed, &c.--Battle at Fort Stanwix.--Indians
suffer a great loss.--Mourning at Beard's Town.--Mrs. Jemison's care of
and services rendered to Butler and Brandt.
After the conclusion of the French war, our tribe had nothing to trouble
it till the commencement of the Revolution. For twelve or fifteen years
the use of the implements of war was not known, nor the war-whoop heard,
save on days of festivity, when the achievements of former times
were commemorated in a kind of mimic warfare, in which the chiefs
and warriors displayed their prowess, and illustrated their former
adroitness, by laying the ambuscade, surprizing their enemies, and
performing many accurate manoeuvres with the tomahawk and scalping
knife; thereby preserving and handing to their children, the theory of
Indian warfare. During that period they also pertinaciously observed
the religious rites of their progenitors, by attending with the most
scrupulous exactness and a great degree of enthusiasm to the sacrifices,
at particular times, to appease the anger of the evil deity, or to
excite the commisseration and friendship of the Great Good Spirit,
whom they adored with reverence, as the author, governor, supporter and
disposer of every good thing of which they participated.
They also practised in various athletic games, such as running,
wrestling, leaping, and playing ball, with a view that their bodies
might be more supple, or rather that they might not become enervated,
and that they might be enabled to make a proper selection of Chiefs for
the councils of the nation and leaders for war.
While the Indians were thus engaged in their round of traditionary
performances, with the addition of hunting, their women attended to
agriculture, their families, and a few domestic concerns of small
consequence, and attended with but little labor.
No people can live more happy than the Indians did in times of peace,
before the introduction of spirituous liquors amongst them. Their lives
were a continual round of pleasures. Their wants were few, and easily
satisfied; and their cares were only for to-day; the bounds of their
calculations for future comfort not extending to the incalculable
uncertainties of to-morrow. If peace ever dwelt with men, it was in
former times, in the recesses from war, amongst what are now termed
barbarians. The moral character of the Indians was (if I may be allowed
the expression) uncontaminated. Their fidelity was perfect, and became
proverbial; they were strictly honest; they despised deception and
falsehood; and chastity was held in high veneration, and a violation
of it was considered sacrilege. They were temperate in their desires,
moderate in their passions, and candid and honorable in the expression
of their sentiments on every subject of importance.
Thus, at peace amongst themselves, and with the neighboring whites,
though there were none at that time very near, our Indians lived quietly
and peaceably at home, till a little before the breaking out of the
revolutionary war, when they were sent for, together with the Chiefs and
members of the Six Nations generally, by the people of the States, to go
to the German Flats, and there hold a general council, in order that the
people of the states might ascertain, in good season, who they should
esteem and treat as enemies, and who as friends, in the great war which
was then upon the point of breaking out between them and the King of
England.
Our Indians obeyed the call, and the council was holden, at which the
pipe of peace was smoked, and a treaty made, in which the Six Nations
solemnly agreed that if a war should eventually break out, they would
not take up arms on either side; but that they would observe a strict
neutrality. With that the people of the states were satisfied, as
they had not asked their assistance, nor did not wish it. The Indians
returned to their homes well pleased that they could live on neutral
ground, surrounded by the din of war, without being engaged in it.
About a year passed off, and we, as usual, were enjoying ourselves in
the employments of peaceable times, when a messenger arrived from the
British Commissioners, requesting all the Indians of our tribe to attend
a general council which was soon to be held at Oswego. The council
convened, and being opened, the British Commissioners informed the
Chiefs that the object of calling a council of the Six Nations, was,
to engage their assistance in subduing the rebels, the people of the
states, who had risen up against the good King, their master, and were
about to rob him of a great part of his possessions and wealth, and
added that they would amply reward them for all their services.
The Chiefs then arose, and informed the Commissioners of the nature and
extent of the treaty which they had entered into with the people of the
states, the year before, and that they should not violate it by taking
up the hatchet against them.
The Commissioners continued their entreaties without success, till they
addressed their avarice, by telling our people that the people of the
states were few in number, and easily subdued; and that on the
account of their disobedience to the King, they justly merited all the
punishment that it was possible for white men and Indians to inflict
upon them; and added, that the King was rich and powerful, both in money
and subjects: That his rum was as plenty as the water in lake Ontario:
that his men were as numerous as the sands upon the lake shore:--and
that the Indians, if they would assist in the war, and persevere in
their friendship to the King, till it was closed, should never want for
money or goods. Upon this the Chiefs concluded a treaty with the British
Commissioners, in which they agreed to take up arms against the rebels,
and continue in the service of his Majesty till they were subdued, in
consideration of certain conditions which were stipulated in the treaty
to be performed by the British government and its agents.
As soon as the treaty was finished, the Commissioners made a present to
each Indian of a suit of clothes, a brass kettle, a gun and tomahawk,
a scalping knife, a quantity of powder and lead a piece of gold, and
promised a bounty on every scalp that should be brought in. Thus richly
clad and equipped, they returned home, after an absence of about two
weeks, full of the fire of war, and anxious to encounter their enemies.
Many of the kettles which the Indians received at that time are now in
use on the Genesee Flats.
Hired to commit depredations upon the whites, who had given them no
offence, they waited impatiently to commence their labor, till sometime
in the spring of 1776, when a convenient opportunity offered for them to
make an attack. At that time, a party of our Indians were at Cau-te-ga,
who shot a man that was looking after his horse, for the sole purpose,
as I was informed by my Indian brother, who was present, of commencing
hostilities.
In May following, our Indians were in their first battle with the
Americans; but at what place I am unable to determine. While they were
absent at that time, my daughter Nancy was born.
The same year, at Cherry Valley, our Indians took a woman and her three
daughters prisoners, and brought them on, leaving one at Canandaigua,
one at Honeoy, one at Cattaraugus, and one (the woman) at Little Beard's
Town, where I resided. The woman told me that she and her daughters
might have escaped, but that they expected the British army only, and
therefore made no effort. Her husband and sons got away. Sometime having
elapsed, they were redeemed at Fort Niagara by Col. Butler, who clothed
them well, and sent them home.
In the same expedition, Joseph Smith was taken prisoner at or near
Cherry Valley, brought to Genesee, and detained till after the
revolutionary war. He was then liberated, and the Indians made him a
present, in company with Horatio Jones, of 6000 acres of land lying in
the present town of Leicester, in the county of Livingston.
One of the girls just mentioned, was married to a British officer at
Fort Niagara, by the name of Johnson, who at the time she was taken,
took a gold ring from her finger, without any compliments or ceremonies.
When he saw her at Niagara he recognized her features, restored the ring
that he had so impolitely borrowed, and courted and married her.
Previous to the battle at Fort Stanwix, the British sent for the Indians
to come and see them whip the rebels; and, at the same time stated that
they did not wish to have them fight, but wanted to have them just sit
down smoke their pipes, and look on. Our Indians went, to a man; but
contrary to their expectation, instead of smoking and looking on, they
were obliged to fight for their lives, and in the end of the battle were
completely beaten, with a great loss in killed and wounded. Our Indians
alone had thirty-six killed, and a great number wounded. Our town
exhibited a scene of real sorrow and distress, when our warriors
returned and recounted their misfortunes, and stated the real loss they
had sustained in the engagement. The mourning was excessive, and was
expressed by the most doleful yells, shrieks, and howlings, and by
inimitable gesticulations.
During the revolution, my house was the home of Col's Butler and Brandt,
whenever they chanced to come into our neighborhood as they passed to
and from Fort Niagara, which was the seat of their military operations.
Many and many a night I have pounded samp for them from sun-set till
sun-rise, and furnished them with necessary provision and clean clothing
for their journey.