THE IROQUOIS.
The most intelligent and credible Indians of the Lenape stock,
including the Mohicans, have ever asserted, that in the whole country
bounded on the north by the river St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes
(including what is now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick), on the west by
the Mississippi, on the east by the Great Salt-water Lake,[108] and on
the south by the country of the Creeks, Cherokees, and other Florida
Indians, there were but two nations, the Mengwe, and themselves. Theirs
was by far the most numerous and the most extensively settled, for
their tribes extended even beyond the Mississippi. On the other side of
the St. Lawrence, the Algonquins, the Killistenos or Knisteneaux, and
others, speaking dialects of their language, prove their origin from
the same stock. The Mengwe, on the contrary, were comparatively few,
and occupied a much less portion of territory, being almost confined
to the vicinity of the great lakes. But few tribes are known to be
connected with them by descent and language; the principal ones are the
Wyandots, otherwise called Hurons, and the Naudowessies. Almost every
other nation within the boundaries described, is of the Lenape family.
Each of these two great nations, say the Delawares, had an ancient
national name, and a tradition of their respective origin, handed down
to them by their ancestors, and diffused among all the kindred tribes.
By whatsoever names those tribes might be called, and whatever their
numbers were, still they considered themselves, and were considered
by others, as the offspring of the same original stock. All the tribes
who had sprung from the Lenape called the mother nation _grandfather_,
and received, in return, the appellation of _grandchildren_. They were
all united by the strongest ties of friendship and alliance; in their
own expressive language, they made but _one house, one fire, and one
canoe_, that is to say, that they constituted together, one people, one
family. The same thing took place between the Mengwe and the tribes
descended from them. They and the Lenape had no relationship with each
other, though they came over the Mississippi together at the same time.
They considered each other as nations entirely distinct.
The Mengwe or Iroquois were always considered by the Lenape as only one
nation, consisting of several confederated tribes. The name of Five and
afterwards Six Nations, was given to them by the English, whose allies
they were, probably to raise their consequence, and magnify the idea of
their strength; but the Indian nations never did flatter them with that
high sounding appellation, and considered them merely as confederated
_tribes_.
The late Rev. Mr. Pyrlæus, in a large volume of MS. notes which he
wrote between the years 1740 and 1760 (upwards of 70 years ago),
has taken down on this subject the account given by the Iroquois
themselves, as he had it from the mouth of an intelligent Mohawk
chief,[109] whose veracity might be depended upon. After giving some
details respecting the origin of their confederation, the time about
which it took place, the names of the delegates from each of the
confederated tribes, &c., he proceeds thus: “They then gave themselves
the name _Aquanoshioni_, which means _one house_, _one family_, and
consisted of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagoes, Cayugas, and Senecas.
This alliance having been first proposed by a Mohawk chief, the Mohawks
rank in the _family_ as the _eldest brother_, the Oneidas, as the
_eldest son_; the Senecas, who were the last who at that time had
consented to the alliance, were called the _youngest son_; but the
Tuscaroras, who joined the confederacy probably one hundred years
afterwards, assumed that name, and the Senecas ranked in precedence
before them, as being the _next youngest son_, or as we would say, the
youngest son but one.”
The Rev. David Zeisberger also says: “That the Iroquois call themselves
_Aquanoschioni_, which means _united people_, having united for the
purpose of always reminding each other that their safety and power
consist in a mutual and strict adherence to their alliance.”[110] He
adds, that Onondago is the chief town of the Iroquois.
Thus, in the different translations of the name which these people
gave themselves, we find nothing that conveys the ideas of _nations_,
it implies no more than a _family_, an _united people_, a _family
compact_. The different sections take ranks in this family, of which
the _Onondagoes_ are the head, while the others are brothers and sons;
all which tends clearly to prove, that they were originally but tribes,
detached bodies of the same people, who, when brought together in close
union, formed a complete family and became entitled to the name of a
NATION.
We also see that self-preservation was the cause of their uniting, and
that they were compelled by necessity to this measure, on which their
existence depended. And though we have a right to suppose that that
tribe which always takes the lead in the government of an Indian nation
(the _Turtle_ tribe), existed among them, yet it is evident that its
authority at that time was either wholly disregarded, or at least, was
too weak to give complete efficacy to its measures.
If, then, we believe the information given us by both Pyrlæus and
Zeisberger to be correct, we must be fully convinced that the Iroquois
confederacy did not consist of Five or Six Nations, but of as many
tribes or sections of the same people, forming together one nation.
These two Missionaries are known to have been men of the strictest
veracity; they were both, I may say, critically acquainted[111] with
the Mengwe idiom, and they had their information from the most
respectable and intelligent men among that nation, the former from
the Mohawk, the latter from the Onondaga tribe. There is no reason,
therefore, why the truth of their statements should be doubted.
The Lenape and their kindred tribes never have called the Iroquois
“the Five or Six Nations.” In conversation, they call them the Mengwe,
and never make use of any other but this generic name when speaking of
them. In their councils, however, they occasionally distinguished them
by the name _Palenach endchiesktajeet_.[113] These two words, literally
translated mean “the five divisions, sections or parts together,” and
does not in any manner imply the idea of _nations_. Had they meant
to say “the Five Nations,” they would have expressed it by the words
_Palenach ekhokewit_; those which they used, on the contrary, expressly
imply _sectional divisions_, and leave no doubt about their meaning.
The Iroquois themselves, as we have already seen, had adopted a name,
_Aquanoschioni_, merely indicative of their close union. After,
however, they came to be informed of the meaning of the name which the
English had given them, they were willing to let it pass as correct.
The Indians are very fond of high sounding names; I have known myself
chiefs who delighted to be called _Kings_, after they had learned from
us that the rulers of the English and French nations were distinguished
by that title.
Thus the proper name of those six united tribes is in their own
language _Aquanoschioni_. By other nations they are called _Mengwe_,
_Maquas_, _Mingoes_, and _Iroquois_. The Lenape call them by the first,
the Mohicans and Dutch by the second, the English and Americans by the
third, and the French by the fourth. I employ these different names
indiscriminately in the course of this work.
As detached bodies or tribes, their names with the Lenape are the
following:
1. _Sankhícani_, the Mohawks, from _Sankhican_, a gunlock, this people
being the first who were furnished with muskets by the Europeans, the
locks of which, with their effect in striking fire, was a subject of
great astonishment to them; and thus they were named, as it were, _the
fire-striking people_.
2. _W’Tássone_, the Oneidas. This name means the _stone-pipe makers_,
and was given to them on account of their ingenuity in making tobacco
pipes of stone.
3. _Onondágoes_, the Onondagoes. This name signifies in their own
language _on the top of the hill_, their town being so situated.
4. _Queúgue_, Cayugas, thus called after a lake of the same name.
5. _Mæchachtínni_, the Senecas. This name means _Mountaineers_, and was
given them because they inhabited the hilly parts of the country.
6. The _Tuscaroras_, the sixth and last tribe in the league, they call
by the same name, yet I have never heard the Lenape speak of the _six
divisions or tribes_; when they describe them in that manner, it is
always by the number _Five_.