Atotarho, who by tradition was an Onondaga, is the great embodiment of
the Iroquois courage, wisdom and heroism, and he is invested with
allegoric traits which exalt him to a kind of superhuman character.
Unequalled in war and arts his fame spread abroad, and exalted the
Onondaga nation in the highest scale. He was placed at the head of the
confederacy, and his name was used after his death as an examplar of
glory and honor. While like that of Caesar, it became perpetuated as the
official title of the presiding Sachem of the confederacy. He was a man
of energy and renown. And such was the estimation in which he was held in
his life time, and the popular veneration for his character after death,
that, as above denoted, his name became the distinctive title for the
office, and is not yet extinct, although the tribes have no longer war to
prosecute or foreign embassadors to reply to.
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