In conformity with your instructions of the 25th June last, I proceeded
to the several Iroquois reservations therein named, and I have
the honor herewith to transmit to you the census returns for each
reservation, numbered from I to VIII, and distinguished by the popular
name of each tribe, or canton.
I. The question of the original generic name, by which these tribes
were denoted, the relation they bear to the other aboriginal stocks of
America, and the probable era of their arrival, and location within the
present boundaries of this State, is one, which was naturally suggested
by the statistical inquiries entrusted to me. Difficult and uncertain
as any thing brought forward on these subjects must necessarily be, it
was yet desirable, in giving a view of the present and former condition
of the people, that the matter should be glanced at. For, although
nothing very satisfactory might be stated, it was still conceived to be
well to give some answer to the intelligent inquirer, to the end, that
it might, at least, be perceived the subject had not escaped notice.
A tropical climate, ample means of subsistence, and their consequence,
a concentrated and fixed population, raised the ancient inhabitants of
Mexico, and some other leading nations on the continent, to a state
of ease and semi-civilization, which have commanded the surprise and
admiration of historians. But it may be said, in truth, that, in their
fine physical type, and in their energy of character, and love of
independence, no people, among the aboriginal race, have ever exceeded,
if any has ever equalled, the Iroquois.
Discoveries made in the settlement of New-York, west of the DE O
WAIN STA, or Stanwix Summit, have led to the belief, that there
has been an ancient period of occupation of that fertile and expanded
portion of the State, which terminated prior to the arrival of the
Iroquois. Evidences have not been wanting to denote, that a higher
degree of civilization than any of these tribes possessed, had, at a
remote period, begun to develope itself in that quarter. But, hitherto,
the notices and examinations of the antiquities referred to, although
highly creditable to the observers, and abounding in interest, have
served rather to entangle, than reveal, the archæological mystery which
envelopes them. Some of these antiquarian traits, not appearing to
the first settlers to be invested with the importance, as industrial
or military vestiges, now attached to them, have been nearly or quite
obliterated by the plough. The spade of the builder and excavator has
overturned others; and at the rate of increase, which has marked our
numbers and industry, since the close of the revolutionary war, little
or nothing of this kind will remain, in a perfect state, very long.
To gratify the moral interest belonging to the subject, by full and
elaborate plans and descriptions, would require time and means, very
different from any at my command the past season; but the topic was
one which admitted of incidental attention, while awaiting decisions
and obviating objections which some of the tribes urged to the general
principles and policy of the census. And while the subject of a full
archæological and ethnological survey of the State is left as the
appropriate theme of future research, facts and traditions, bearing on
these subjects, were obtained and minuted down, at various points.
In availing myself of the liberty extended to me in this particular, by
your instructions, I have, in fact, improved every possible means of
information. Notes and sketches were taken down from the lips of both
white and red men, wherever the matter itself and the trustworthiness
of the individual appeared to justify them. Many of the ancient forts,
barrows and general places of ancient sepulchre were visited, and of
some of them, accurate plans, diagrams or sketches made on the spot,
or obtained from other hands. A general interest was manifested in
the subject by the citizens of western New-York, wherever it was
introduced, and a most ready and obliging disposition evinced, on all
hands, to promote the inquiry.
The result of these examinations, and collections made by the
wayside, it is my intention to report in the form of _Historical and
Ethnological Minutes_, which will be engrossed without loss of time
from my original notes. These minutes, when properly arranged and
copied, will constitute a document supplementary to the report here
offered. It is not to be inferred, however, that they will exhibit
a compact and full digest of Iroquois history. Attention has rather
been given to the lapses in their history, and to the supplying of
data for its future construction. Little more has ever been thought
of. This part of my investigations will be communicated, therefore,
as a contribution to the historical materials of the State, touching
its aborigines. Satisfied that the New-York public regard the subject
with decided approbation, and well aware of the munificence which has
marked the State policy, with regard to the acquisition of historical
documents from abroad, I may, I trust, be permitted to indulge the
hope, that the Legislature will likewise extend its countenance to this
portion of the labor which, as the State Marshal under the act, I have
performed.
II. The present being the first time[1] that a formal and full census
of a nation or tribe of Indians has been called for, with their
industrial efforts, by any American or European government exercising
authority on this continent, the principles and policy of the measure
presented a novel question to the Iroquois, and led to extended
discussions. As these discussions, in which the speakers evinced no
little aptitude, bring out some characteristic traits of the people, it
may be pertinent, and not out of place here, briefly to advert to them.
[1] It forms no contradiction to the precise terms of this remark, that
the Legislature of Virginia directed the numbering of the Powhatanic
tribes, within its boundaries, in 1788. Vide Jefferson’s Notes on
Virginia.
As a general fact, the policy of a census, and its beneficial bearings
on society, were not understood or admitted.[2] It seemed to these
ancient cantons to be an infringement on that independence of condition
which they still claim and ardently cherish. In truth, of all subjects
upon which these people have been called on to think and act, during
our proximity to them of two or three centuries, that of political
economy is decidedly the most foreign and least known to them, or
appreciated by them, and the census movement was, consequently, the
theme of no small number of suspicions and cavils and objections.
Without any certain or generally fixed grounds of objection, it was yet
the object of a fixed but changing opposition. If I might judge, from
the scope of remarks made both in and out of council, they regarded it
as the introduction of a Saxon feature into their institutions, which,
like a lever, by some process not apparent to them, was designed, in
its ultimate effects, to uplift and overturn them. And no small degree
of pith and irony was put forth against it by the eloquent respondents
who stood in the official attitude of their ancient orators.
Everywhere, the tribes exalted the question into one of national
moment. Grave and dignified sachems assembled in formal councils, and
indulged in long and fluent harangues to their people, as if the very
foundations of their ancient confederacy were about to be overturned
by an innovating spirit of political arithmetic and utilitarianism.
When their true views were made known, however, after many days and
adjourned councils, I found there was less objection to the mere
numbering of their tribes and families, than the [to them] scrutinizing
demand, which the act called for, into their agricultural products,
and the results of their industry. Pride also had some weight in the
matter. “We have but little,” said one of the chiefs, in a speech in
council, “to exhibit. Those who have yielded their assent, have their
barns well stored, and need not blush when you call.”
[2] To this remark, the Tuscaroras, who met the subject at once, in
a frank and confidential manner, and the Onondagas, who appeared to
be governed therein by the counsels of a single educated chief, form
exceptions.
Another topic mixed itself with the consideration of the census,
and made some of the chiefs distrustful of it. I allude to the long
disturbed state of their land question, and the treaty of compromise
which has recently been made with the Ogden Company, by which the
reversionary right to the fee simple of two of their reservations has
been modified. In this compromise, the Tonewandas, a considerable
sub-tribe or departmental band of Senecas, did not unite; yet the
reservation which they occupy is one of the tracts to be given up.
They opposed the census, from the mere fear of committing themselves
on this prior question, in some way, not very well understood by them,
and certainly not well made out by their speakers. It is known that
for many years, the general question of ceding their reservations,
under the provisions of an early treaty of the State with the Six
Nations, had divided the Senecas into two parties. A discussion which
has extended through nearly half a century, in which Red Jacket had
exhibited all his eloquence, had sharpened the national acumen in
negotiation, and produced a peculiar sensitiveness and, suspicion of
motive, whenever, in latter times, the slightest question of interest
or policy has been introduced into their councils. This spirit evinced
itself in the very outset of my visit, on announcing to certain bands
the requirements of the census act. Some of them were, moreover,
strongly disposed to view it as the preliminary step, on the part
of the Legislature, to taxation. To be taxed, is an idea which the
Iroquois regard with horror. They had themselves, in ancient days, put
nations under tribute, and understood very well the import of a State
tax upon their property.
“Why,” said the Tonewanda chief, Deonehogawa, (called John Blacksmith,)
“why is this census asked for, at this time, when we are in a
straitened position with respect to our reservation? Or if it is
important to you or us, why was it not called for before? If you do not
wish to obtain facts about our lands and cattle, to tax us, what is the
object of the census? What is to be done with the information after you
take it to Governor Wright, at Skenectati?”[3]
[3] The aborigines are very tenacious of their geographical names. This
ancient name of the seat of government I found to be used, on every
occasion, among the Senecas, when it was necessary to allude to Albany.
Its transference on the conquest of the province, in 1664, to the banks
of the Mohawk, in lieu of the aboriginal name of _Onigarawantel_, never
received, at least, their sanction.
Hoeyanehqui, or Sky-carrier, a Buffalo chief, in answer to a question
as to their views of the abstract right of the State to tax the tribes,
evaded a direct issue, but assuming the ground of policy, compared the
Iroquois to a sick man, and said, “that he did not believe the State
would oppress one thus weak.”
Kaweaka, a Tuscarora chief of intelligence, speaking the English
language very well, in which he is called William Mount-Pleasant, gave
a proof, in yielding to the measure promptly, that he had not failed
to profit by the use of letters. “We know our own rights. Should the
Legislature attempt to tax us, our protection is in the Constitution
of the United States, which forbids it.” This is the first appeal, it
is thought, ever made by an Iroquois to this instrument. The clause
referred to, relates however, wholly to representation in Congress,
[Vide Art. 1, Sec. II, 2d.] from the privileges of which it excludes
“Indians not taxed,” clearly implying that such persons might be
represented in that body if “taxed.” Civilization and taxation appear
to be inseparable.
III. Having detailed the steps taken in procuring the census, it only
remains to subjoin a few remarks, which I beg leave to add, on the
general features of the statistics and the results of their agriculture
upon their condition and prospects.
The printed queries being prepared exclusively for a population in a
high state of prosperity and progress, embrace many items for which
there was no occasion, among pseudo hunters, herdsmen, or incipient
agriculturists. Neither privileged to vote, nor subject to taxation,
nor military service, or covered by the common school system, or
bearing any of the characteristic tests of citizenship, the questions
designed to bring out this class of facts remained mere blanks. Others
required to institute comparisons between a civilized and quasi
savage state, were left by the tenor of your instructions, to my own
discretion. I should have been, I am free to confess, happy to have
extended these comparative views, much more fully than I have, going
further into their vital statistics, their succedaneous modes of
employment and subsistence, some parts of their lexicography, besides
that affecting the names of places, and a few kindred topics, had not
the Legislature omitted to make provision for the expenses incidental
to such extended labors, and the department to which I applied giving
me little encouragement that the oversight would be remedied. I have,
however, proceeded to render the comparative tables effectual, and,
I trust, satisfactory, and to this end, I have assumed obligations
of a very limited pecuniary character, and incurred others for travel
and some few kindred objects, which I trust the Legislature, with whom
alone the subject rests, will meet.
It cannot be said that the Iroquois cantons of New-York have as yet,
any productive commerce, arts and manufactures. They are, to some
extent, producers; furnish a few mechanics, and give employment to,
and own a few lumber mills; but it is believed, while some of the
bands, and at least one of the entire cantons, namely, the Tuscaroras,
raise more grain and stock, than is sufficient for their own full
subsistence, the average of the agricultural products of the whole
people is not more, at the most favorable view, than is necessary for
their annual subsistence. If so, they add nothing to the productive
industry of the State. But it is gratifying to know that they are
at least able to live upon their own means; and their condition and
improvement is (certainly within the era of the temperance movement
among them,) decidedly progressive and encouraging. They have reached
the point in industrial progress, where it is only necessary to go
forward. Numbers of families are eminently entitled to the epithet of
good practical farmers, and are living, year in and year out, in the
midst of agricultural affluence. That the proportion of individuals,
thus advanced, is as considerable as the census columns denote it
to be, is among the favorable features of the enquiry. There would
appear to be no inaptitude for mechanical ingenuity, but hitherto,
the proportion of their actual number who have embraced the arts, is,
comparatively, very limited, not exceeding, at most, two or three to a
tribe, and the effort has hitherto been confined to silversmiths,[4]
blacksmiths, carpenters and coopers. A single instance of a wheelwright
and fancy wagon maker occurs.
[4] The Iroquois, in adopting our costume, have transferred their
ancient love of silver amulets, frontlets, and other barbaric
ornaments, to their guns and tomahawks, which are frequently richly
inlaid with the shining metal, worked with great skill into the richest
devices. They also fashion beautiful ear rings of silver for their
women.
Viewed in its extremes, society, in the Iroquois cantons, still
exhibits no unequivocal vestiges of the tie which bound them to the
hunter state; and even, among the more advanced classes, there is too
much dependence on means of living which mark either the absolute
barbaric state, or the first grade of civilization. Hunters they are,
indeed, no longer; yet it was desirable to ascertain how much of their
present means of subsistence was derived from the chase. This will
be found to be denoted in appropriate columns. It is gratifying to
observe, that the amount is so small, nor is it less so, to the cause
of Indian civilization, to remark, that the uncertain and scanty reward
of time and labor which the chase affords, is less and less relied
on, in the precise ratio that the bands and neighborhoods advance in
agriculture and the arts. In cases where the cultivation of English
grains and the raising of stock have thoroughly enlisted attention, the
chase has long ceased to attract its ancient votaries, and in these
instances, which embrace some entire bands, or chieftaincies, it has
become precisely what it is, in civilized communities, where game yet
exists, _an amusement_, and not a means of reward.
That delusive means of Indian subsistence, which is based on the
receipt of money annuities from the government, still calls together
annually, and sometimes oftener, the collective male population of
these tribes, at an expense of time, and means, which is wholly
disproportioned, both to the amount actually received, and the not
unimportant incidental risques, _moral_ and _physical_, incurred by the
assemblage. I have denoted both the gross sum of these annuities, and
the distributive share to heads of families, obtained from the office
of the local government agent at Buffalo. These are believed to be
authentic in amount. Estimated at the highest rate which can be taken,
the sum, per capita, of these annuities, will not, on an average of
crops and prices, for a series of years, equal the cash value of seven
bushels of wheat—a product, which, as a means of actual subsistence
to the Indian family, would be of double or treble value. But this is
far from being the worst effect of both the general and _per capita_
cash distribution. Time and health are not only sacrificed to obtain
the pittance, but he is fortunate who does not expend the amount in the
outward or return journey from the council house, or in the purchase of
some showy but valueless articles, while attending there.
A still further evil, flowing from these annual gatherings for the
payment of Indian annuities, is the stimulus which it produces in
assembling at such places traders and speculating dealers of various
kinds, who are versed in this species of traffic, and who well know
the weak points of the native character, and how best to profit by
them. In effect, few of the annuitants reach their homes with a dime.
Most of them have expended all, and lost their time in addition.
Health is not unfrequently sacrificed by living on articles, or in
a manner not customary at home. The intemperate are confirmed in
intemperance; and the idle, foppish and gay, are only more enamoured of
idleness, foppishness and pleasure. That such a system, introduced at
any early day, when it was policy for governments on this continent,
_foreign_ and _domestic_, to throw out a boon before wandering,
hostile, and savage tribes, to display their munificence, and effect
temporary interests, should have been continued to the present day,
is only to be accounted for, from the accumulated duties, perpetually
advancing jurisdiction, and still imperfectly organized state of
that sub-department of the government, which exercises its, in some
respects, anomalous administrative functions, under the name of the
Indian Bureau. So far as the Iroquois are affected by the policy
adverted to, their interests demand an immediate consideration of
the subject on enlarged principles. It behooves them to meditate
whether, as a people, now semi-civilized, and exercising, in their
internal polity, the powers of an independent government, some more
beneficial appropriation of the fund could not be made. Perhaps nothing
would better serve to advance and exalt them, as a people, than the
application of these annuities to constitute a confederate school fund,
under some compact or arrangement with the State, by which the latter
should stipulate to extend the frame-work of the common school system
over their reservations.
Horticulture, to some extent, and in a limited sense, was always an
incident to the hunter state among these tribes, so far, at least,
as we are acquainted with their history. They brought the zea maize
with them, we must concede, on their early migration to the banks of
the Mohawk, and the Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga and Seneca basins; for
this grain is conceded, on all hands, to be a tropical, or at least
a southern plant, and if so, it reveals the general course of their
migration. It is of indigenous origin, and was not known to Europe
before the discovery. We learned the mode of cultivation from them,
and not they from us. This grain became the basis of their fixity of
population, in the 14th or 15th centuries, and capacity to undertake
military enterprises. It was certainly cultivated in large fields,
in their chief locations, and gave them a title to agriculturists;
but it is equally certain that they had a kind of bean, perhaps the
same called _frijoles_ by the early Spaniards, and some species of
_cucurbita_. These were cultivated in gardens.
The tables will show a general and considerable advance, or any
probable assumed basis, of the cultivation of corn. We cannot consider
this species of cultivation, however, as any characteristic evidence
of advance in agriculture, while the more general introduction of it,
and the harvesting of large fields of it, by separate families, is
undoubtedly to be considered so. Taking the item of corn as the test,
another and an important result will be perceived. In proportion as the
cereales are cultivated, the average quantity of corn is diminished;
and these are the very cases where, at the same time, the degree of
civilization is most apparent in other things.
The condition of herdsmen is deemed by theorists and historians to
be the first step in the progress from the hunter state. But we are
in want of all evidence to show that there ever was, in America, a
pastoral state. In the first place, the tribes had tamed no quadruped,
even in the tropics, but the lama. The bison was never under any
subjection, nor a fleece ever gathered, so far as history tells us,
from the Big-horn or Rocky Mountain sheep. The horse, the domestic cow,
the hog and the common sheep, were brought over after the discovery;
and the Iroquois, like most of their western brethren, have been very
slow, all advantages considered, in raising them. They have, in fact,
had no pastoral state, and they have only become herdsmen at the time
that they took hold of the plough. The number of domestic animals now
on their reservations, as shown by the tables, bears a full proportion
to their other industrial field labors. It will be seen, that while
horses, neat cattle and hogs are generally raised, sheep come in, at
more mature periods of advance, and are found only on the largest and
best cultivated farms. Sheep, therefore, like the cereales, become
a test of their advance. With this stage, we generally find, too,
the field esculents, as turnips, peas, &c. and also buckwheat. I
have indicated, as a further proof of their advance as herdsmen and
graziers, the number of acres of meadow cut. The Iroquois cultivate no
flax. They probably raise no rye, from the fact that their lands are
better adapted to wheat and corn.
The potato was certainly indigenous. Sir Walter Raleigh, in his
efforts at colonizations, had it brought from Virginia, under the
original name of _openawg_.[5] But none of the North American tribes
are known to have cultivated it. They dug it up, like other indigenous
edible roots from the forest. But it has long been introduced into
their villages and spread over the northern latitudes, far beyond the
present limit of the zea maize. Its cultivation is so easy and so
similar to that of their favorite corn, and its yield so great, that it
is remarkable it should not have received more general attention from
all the tribes. With the Iroquois, the lists will denote that, in most
cases, it is a mere item of horticulture, most families not planting
over half an acre, often not more than a quarter of an acre, and yet
more frequently, none at all.
[5] By the Algonquins of the present day, this plant is called, in the
plural, _opineeg_. The inflection in _eeg_ denotes the plural.
The apple is the Iroquois banana. From the earliest introduction of
this fruit into New-York and New-France, from the genial plains of
Holland and Normandy, these tribes appear to have been captivated
by its taste, and they lost no time in transferring it, by sowing
the seed, to the sites of their ancient castles. No one can read the
accounts of the destruction of the extensive orchards of the apple,
which were cut down, on Gen. Sullivan’s inroad into the Genesee
country in 1779, without regretting that the purposes of war should
have required this barbaric act. The census will show that this taste
remains as strong in 1845, as it was 66 years ago.
Adverse to agricultural labor, and always confounding it with slavery,
or some form of servitude, at least, deeming it derogatory, the first
effort of the Iroquois to advance from their original corn-field and
garden of beans and vines is connected with the letting out of their
spare lands to white men who were cast on the frontiers, to cultivate,
receiving for it some low remuneration in kind or otherwise, by way
of rent. This system, it is true, increased a little their means of
subsistence, but nourished their native pride and indolence. It seems
to have been particularly a practice of the Iroquois, and it has been
continued and incorporated into their present agricultural system. I
have taken pains to indicate, in every family, the amount of land thus
let, and the actual or estimated value received for it. These receipts,
I was informed, low as they are in amount, are generally paid in kind,
or in such manner as often to diminish their value and effect, in
contributing to the proper sustenance of the family.
I have been equally careful to ascertain the number of families who
cultivated no lands, and insert them in the tables. The division of
real property among this people appears to fall under the ordinary
rules of acquisition in other societies. But it is not to be inferred
in all cases, that the individual returned as without land has
absolutely no right to any, or having this right, has either forfeited
or alienated it, although the laws of the tribes respecting property,
permit one Iroquois to convey his property in fee to another. It is
only to be inferred, in every case, that they are non-cultivators. In a
few cases the persons thus marked are mechanics, and rely for support
on their skill. In the valley of the Allegheny, some of them are pilots
in conducting rafts of lumber or arks down that stream. It would have
relieved the industrial means of this band of the Senecas, extended
as they are for forty miles along both banks of this river, could the
amount received for this species of pilotage have been ascertained,
together with the avails derived from several saw-mills owned by them,
and from the lumber trade of that river generally. But these questions
would have remained a blank in other tribes.
Not a few persons amongst the Onondagas and Tuscaroras, and the
Tonewandas and other bands of Senecas, living in or contiguous to the
principal wheat growing counties, labor during the harvest season as
reapers and cradlers, for skill and ability in which occupations they
bear a high reputation, and receive good wages in cash. There are a
few engaged some parts of the year, as mariners on the lakes. It will
be sufficient to denote these varied forms of incipient labor and
strength of muscle and personal energy among these tribes, which it
was, however, impracticable to bring into the tables.
Individual character vindicates its claims to wealth and distinction
among these tribes in as marked a manner as among any people in the
world. Industry, capacity and integrity, are strongly marked on the
character and manners of numbers in each of the tribes. The art of
speaking, and a facility in grasping objects of thought, and in the
transaction of business, separate and distinguish persons as fully as
physical traits do their faces. And it is to be observed that these
intellectual traits run very much in certain families. That there are
numbers, on the contrary, who are drones in the political hive, who do
not labor, or labor very little; others who are intemperate; others
who neither work nor own land, or would long remain proprietors of
them, were new divisions and appropriations made, and all of whom are
a burden and drawback upon the industrious and producing classes, it
requires little observation to show. Admitting what reforms teaching
and example may accomplish among these, it is yet certain that of this
number there are many who do not assimilate, or appear to constitute
material for assimilation, in tastes and habits with the mass, nor
appear likely to incorporate with them in any practical shape where
they now reside, in their advances in agriculture, government and
morals. The hunter habit in these persons is yet strong, but having
nothing to stimulate it, they appear loth to embrace other modes of
subsistence. Others stand aloof from labor, or at least all active
and efficient labor, from a restless desire of change, or ambition
to do something else than plough and raise stock; or from ill-luck,
penury, or other motives. The proportion of the population who thus
stand still and do not advance in civil polity, are a strong draw-back
on the rest. It is conceived to be a pertinent question whether this
class of the population would not find a better theatre for their
progress and development by migrating to the west, where the general
government still possess unappropriated territory at their disposal.
It is believed by many that their migration would result in benefit
to both parties. The question is one which has been often discussed
by them in council, and is not yet, I should judge, fully settled.
A point of approach for the Iroquois has already been formed in the
Indian territory by the Senecas and Shawnees from Sandusky in Ohio,
who, at the last accounts (vide President’s Message to Congress,
1844,) number in the aggregate 336 souls. They are located on the
Neosho river, (a branch of the Arkansas,) west of the western boundary
of the State of Arkansas, where the reports of the government agents
represent them as raising horses, cattle and other stock, and being
producers of grain. In any view, the subject of the several classes
of persons represented in the accompanying tables, as semi-hunters
and non-cultivators, or individuals without lands, is one entitled to
attention. They should not be permitted to live within the boundaries
of the State without lands. The State should cherish all who choose to
remain as vestiges of a once powerful race, to whose wisdom and bravery
we owe the preservation of the domain. It would be unjust to expect the
industrious and forehanded Iroquois to redivide their lands with the
poor, and, to some extent, thriftless numbers of the cantons; while it
may, at the same time be observed, that it would be very difficult,
if not impossible, to provide by legislation, suitable guards against
their deterioration and depopulation in their present locations without
destroying wholly the fabric of their confederation, chieftainships and
laws.
IV. Whether the Iroquois have advanced in population since they
have laid aside the character of warriors and hunters, and adopted
agriculture as their only means of support, we have no accurate data
for determining. That their ancient population was overrated, and _very
much_ overrated, at all periods of our history, there can be little
question. We may dismiss many of these rude conjectures, of the elder
writers, as entitled to little notice, particularly that of La Houton,
who estimates each canton at 14,000 souls. Still, after making every
abatement for this tendency in the earlier authors to exaggerate their
actual numbers, it could have been no small population, which, at
one time, attacked the island of Montreal with twelve hundred armed
warriors, and at another (1683) marched a thousand men against the
Ottagamies.[6]
[6] Colden’s Five Nations.
Smith puts the whole number of fighting men, in 1756, with a moderation
which is remarkable, compared to others who had touched the subject,
at about twelve hundred. Giving to each warrior a home population of
_five_, which is found to hold good, in modern days, in the great
area of the west, we should have an aggregate of 6,000—a result,
which is, probably, too low. Douglass, four years afterwards, gives
us data for raising this estimate to 7,500. Col. Bouquet, still four
years later, raises this latter estimate by 250. It must be evident
that their perpetual wars had a tendency to keep down their numbers,
notwithstanding their policy of aiding their natural increase by the
adoption and incorporation into the cantons, in full independence, of
prisoners and captives.
Mr. Jefferson estimates the population of the Powhatanic confederacy or
group of tribes, at one individual to the square mile.[7] Gov. Clinton,
who ably handled the subject in a discourse in 1811, estimates that,
if this rule be applied to the domain of the Iroquois in New-York, an
aggregate of not less than 30,000 would be produced;[8] but he does not
pass his opinion upon an estimate made so completely without reliable
data.
[7] Notes on Virginia.
[8] Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. vol. 2.
At a conference with the five cantons at Albany, in 1677, the number
of warriors was carefully made out at 2,150, giving, on the preceding
mode of computation, a population of 10,750, and this was the strength
of the confederacy reported by an agent of the Governor of Virginia,
who had been specially despatched to the conference for the purpose
of obtaining this fact. Either, then, in the subsequent estimates of
1756, ’60, and ’64, the population had been underrated, or there had,
on the assumption of the truth of the above enumeration, which is
moderate, been a decline in the population of 3,000 souls in a period
of eighty-seven years. That there was a constant tendency to decline,
and that the cantons were aware of this, and made efforts to keep it
up, by the policy of their conquests, is apparent, and has before been
indicated.
During the American revolution, which broke out but eleven years after
the expedition and estimate of Bouquet, when he had put the Iroquois
at 1,550 fighting men, it is estimated that the British government had
in their interest and service 1,580 warriors of this confederacy. The
highest number noticed of the friendly Oneidas and a few others, who
sided with us in that contest, is 230 warriors, raising the number
of armed men engaged in the war, to 1,810, and the gross population
in 1776 to 9,050 souls. This estimate, which appears to have been
carefully made, from authentic documents, is the utmost that could
well be claimed. It was made at the era when danger prompted the pen
of either party in the war to exhibit the military strength of this
confederacy, in its utmost power; and we may rest here, as a safe point
of comparison, or, at least, we cannot admit a higher population.
By the census returns herewith submitted, the aggregate population of
the three full, and four fragmentary cantons, namely, the Oneidas and
Cayugas, &c. still residing within the State, are denoted to be as
follows, namely:
Senecas, 2,441
Onondaga, 398
Tuscaroras, 281
Oneidas, 210
Cayugas, 123
Mohawks, 20
St. Regis Canton, 360
By a statement submitted to Congress, on the 3d of December, 1844,[9]
the number of Oneidas, settled in Wisconsin, is put at 722; the number
of Senecas, who have removed from Ohio into the Indian territory
west of the Mississippi, at 125, and the number of mixed Senecas and
Shawnees, at the same general location, at 211. Deducting one-half of
the latter, for Shawnees, and there is to be added to the preceding
census, in order to show the natural increase of the Iroquois, 953
souls. The number of the St. Regis tribe, who are based, as a tribe, on
the Praying Indians of Colden,—a band of Catholic Mohawks originally
located at Caughnawaga is shewn by the present year’s census to be
360. There are, at the village of Cornplanter, within the bounds
of Pennsylvania, as numbered by me, the present year, 51 Senecas.
Supposing that the Mohawks and Cayugas who fled to Canada _at_ and
_after_ the revolutionary war, and who are now settled at Brantford
on Grand river, Canada West, have merely held their own, in point of
numbers, and deducting the number of Cayugas, namely, 144, found among
the Senecas of Cattaraugus, and herewith separately returned, and
taking Dalton’s estimate of the Mohawks and Cayugas in 1776, namely,
300 warriors for each tribe, there is to be added, to the census, to
accomplish the same comparative view, two thousand eight hundred and
fifty souls. From this estimate, there must be deducted, for a manifest
error, in the original estimates of Dalton, in putting the Cayugas
on the same footing of strength with the Mohawks, not less than 150
warriors or 750 souls, leaving the Canadian Iroquois at 2,106—say
2,000 souls.
[9] Vide Doc. No. 2, Ho. of Reps., 28th Congress, 2d Session.
Adding these items to the returns of the present census, and the rather
extraordinary result will appear, that there is now existing in the
United States and Canada a population of 6,942 Iroquois, that is to
say, but 2,108 less than the estimated number, and that number placed
as high as it well could be, at the era of the revolution in 1776. Of
this number, 4,836 inhabit the United States, and 3,843 the State of
New-York. I cannot, however, submit this result without expressing the
opinion, that the Iroquois population has been _lower_, between the
era of the revolutionary war and the present time, than the census now
denotes; and that for some years past, and since they have been well
lodged and clothed and subsisted by their own labor, and been exempted
from the diseases and casualties incident to savage life, and the
empire of the forest, their population has recovered and IS NOW ON
THE INCREASE.
I have thus brought to a close, so far as relates to their population
and industrial efforts, the inquiry committed to me respecting this
nation. It would perhaps have gratified statistical curiosity and
philosophical theory, to have exhibited fuller data on the subject
of their longevity and vital statistics generally, but it may be
considered in the light of an achievement to have accomplished thus
much. The general result indicates five, with a large fraction, as the
average number of the Iroquois family. Throughout each canton, the
number of females predominates over the males. This is a fact which has
been long known to hold good with respect to wandering, predatory and
warlike tribes, but was not anticipated among peaceful, agricultural
communities. But few years, however, have supervened since they dropped
the hatchet and took hold of the plough; and in this time, it is
apparent that the proportion of males to females has approached nearer
to an equilibrium. The effects on vitality of agricultural labor and
a cessation from war, are likewise favorable, so far as we can judge,
compared with the known results among the sparse, ill fed, warring
and errating hunters of the western forests and prairies. The average
number of the Iroquois family is not higher than the common average
of the hunter state. The number of children borne by each female is a
considerable fraction over four. Of a population of 312 Tuscaroras,
five have reached to and passed the age of 80, or over 1-3/4 per cent.
Among the Senecas and Cayugas of Cattaraugus, the per centage is 1-1/2,
with a smaller fraction, 12 persons in 808 having passed that limit.
Local causes have diminished this to one per cent nearly on the Buffalo
reservation. On the contrary, it is found to be increased in the valley
of the Alleghany to full two per cent. The ruling chief of that tribe,
TEN WON NY AHS, of Teonegono, commonly called _Blacksnake_, is
now in his ninety-sixth year, and is active and hale, and capable of
performing journies to the annual assemblies of his people at Buffalo.
I should not have fulfilled the principal object in view, without
directing some attention to the effects of the labors of past years
in the introduction, into the Iroquois cantons, of education, letters
and Christianity. So much of this branch of the inquiry as admits of
arithmetical notice, will appear, either under the ordinary heads
of the census, or the additional columns which have been prepared
under the headings of “statistics of occupation and of morality.”
The residue, comprising some remarks on the schools and churches,
the present state of Iroquois society and manners, and the general
condition and prospects of the cantons, will be included in the
supplementary report and documents. I shall also defer to the same
time, a particular notice of their annuities, and the extent of their
ancient domain, and the periods of its cession to the State or general
government.
In closing this report, it may be well to notice the fact that there
are yet remaining in the State, some vestiges of the Algonquin race,
who, under various distinctive names, occupied the southern portion
of the State at the era of its discovery and colonization. As the
language of the census act refers to such Indians only as live on
the “reservations,” I have not felt it to be within the scope of my
appointment to search out and visit these scattered individuals,
although I should have been gratified to make this inquiry. It is
believed that they are comprised by about twenty of the Shinecock
tribe, who yet haunt the inlets and more desolate portions of Long
island, and by a very few lingering members of the ancient Mohegans,
who, under the soubriquet of Stockbridges, yet remain in Oneida county.
The bulk of this people, so long the object of missionary care,
migrated to the banks of Fox river and Winnebago lake, in Wisconsin,
about 1822. They were followed to that portion of the west, about the
same time, or soon after, by the small consolidated band of Nanticokes,
Narragansetts, and other early coast tribes, who, in concentrating in
the Oriskany valley, after the close of the revolutionary war, dropped
their respective languages, learned the English, and assumed the name
of Brothertons. Both these migrated tribes were in an advanced state
of semi-civilization, and were good farmers and herdsmen at the era of
their removal.
I am, sir,
With respect,
Your ob’t servant,
HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT,
_Marshal under the 15th section of the census act_.
Hon. NATHANIEL S. BENTON,
_Secretary of State_.