The first period of Indian history having thus terminated in discords,
wars, and the mutual destruction of each other, tradition does not
denote how long the depopulation of the country continued. It begins
a second period by recollections of the Konoshioni, or Iroquois.
They do not indicate what relation they bear to the ancient, broken
down confederacy glanced at, in the preceding paper; but leave us to
suppose that they may have been fragmentary descendants of it. That
such a conclusion should not be formed, however, and in order to prove
themselves an original people in the land, they frame a new myth, to
begin their national existence. They boldly assert, that they were,
through some means, confined in a mountain, from whose subterraneous
bowels they were extricated by Taryenyawagon, the Holder of the
Heavens. They point to a place at or near the falls of the Oswego
river, where this deliverance happened, and they look to this divine
messenger, who could assume various shapes, as the friend and patron of
their nation.[24]
[24] Where the Indians dwelt for a long time, it is customary for them
to affirm in their metaphorical language, that they originated, or
were created. When they date from such a spot, we find they frame a
story, saying that they came out of a hill, &c. at that spot. In 1791,
an extensive work, consisting of ditches, &c. was found about 40 miles
south of Oswego, which is not remote from the probable place of origin
their traditions refer to; and it may be worthy of examination with
this particular view. Some account of this old fort appeared in the N.
Y. Mag. 1792.
As soon as they were released, he gave them instructions respecting the
mode of hunting, matrimony, worship, and other points. He warned them
against the Evil Spirit, and gave them corn, beans, squashes, potatoes
and tobacco, and dogs to hunt their game. He bid them go towards the
east, and personally guided them, until they entered a valley called
Tenonanatchi, or the Mohawk. They followed this stream to its entrance
into the Sanatatea, or, as called by the Mohawks, Kohatatea, which they
pursued to the sea.
From this point they retraced their steps towards the west, originating
as they went, in their order and position, the Mohawks, the Oneidas,
the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas. They do not omit the
Tuscaroras, whom they acknowledged, after a long period of wandering
and a considerable change of language, and admitted as the Sixth tribe
of the confederacy.
The Tuscaroras affirm, that, after reaching the lake waters, they
turned southwest, to the Mississippi river, where a part of them
crossed on a grape vine, but it broke, leaving the remainder east.
Those who went west, have been lost and forgotten from their memory.
The remainder, or eastern Tuscaroras, continued their wanderings,
hunting, and wars, until they had crossed the Alleghanies and reached
the sea again, at the mouth of the Cautoh, or Neuse river, in North
Carolina.
Each tribe was independent of the others. They increased in numbers,
valor and skill, and in all sorts of knowledge necessary in the forest.
But they began to fight and quarrel among themselves, and thus wasted
and destroyed each other. They lived a life of perpetual fear and built
forts to defend themselves, or to protect their women and children.
Besides this, the country was wide and covered with large forests and
lakes, and it gave shelter to many fierce wild animals and monsters,
who beset their paths and kept them in dread. The evil spirit also
plagued them with monstrous visitations. They were often induced to
change their villages, sometimes from the fear of such enemies, and
sometimes from sickness or bad luck. In this manner, and owing to their
perpetual hostility, their population was often reduced. How long they
wandered and warred, they do not know. At length it was proposed by
some wise man that they should no longer fight against each other,
but unite their strength against their enemies, the Alleghans, the
Adirondacks, the Eries, and other ancient and once powerful tribes, who
figure in the foreground of their early history, and who, if accounts
be true, once greatly excelled them both in war and arts, the skill of
making implements, canoes and utensils, &c.
To this league, which was formed on the banks of Onondaga lake, they in
time, gave the name of the Long House, using the term symbolically, to
denote that they were tied and braced together by blood and lineage,
as well as political bonds. This house, agreeably to the allusion so
often made by their speakers, during our colonial history, reached from
the banks of the Hudson to the Lakes. At its eastern door stood the
Mohawks, at the west the Senecas, who guarded it with vigilance.
[_a._] The Mohawks.
The Mohawks are supposed to be the eldest brother, in the symbolical
chain of the Six Nations. Their own tradition assigns them this rank,
and it appears to be consonant to other traditions.
When Tarenyawagon, their liberator from their subterranean confinement,
bid them travel east, he gave them his personal conduct and care until
they had entered the Mohawk valley. Some of their western brethren
call this stream Tenonanatche, or a river flowing through a mountain.
In due time, they went on into the valley of the Hudson, and thence,
if we credit their annals, to the sea. The seat of their power and
growth was, however, in the genial valley where they had at first
located. Here they lived when the country was discovered, and here
they continued to live and flourish until the events of the American
revolution, and the determined cruelty which they exercised, under the
authority and influence of the British crown, drove them out of it, and
lost them the inheritance.
It does not appear, from any thing history or tradition tells us, or
from any monumental remains in the valley or its immediate vicinity,
that it had before been occupied by other nations. They do not speak
of having driven out or conquered any other tribe. There are no old
forts or earthen walls, or other traces of military or defensive
occupancy, of which we have heard. Their ramparts were rather their
own brawny arms, stout bodies and brave hearts. From the earliest
notices of them, they were renowned for wielding the war club and
arrow with great dexterity. They raised corn on the rich intervales,
and pursued the deer, bear and elk in the subjacent forests. Their
dominion extended from the head waters of the Susquehanna and Delaware
to Lake Champlain. They had pursued their forays into the territorial
area of New-England, as far, at least, as the central portions of the
Connecticut, and had made their power felt, as temporary invaders,
among the small independent tribes who lived about the region of the
present city and harbor of New-York. Wherever they went, they carried
terror. Their very name, as we learn from Colden, was a synonyme for
cruelty and dread.[25] No tribe, perhaps, on the continent, produced
better warriors, or have ever more fully realized, as a nation, the
highest measure of heroism and military glory to which hunter nations
can reach.
[25] The word Mohawk itself, is not a term of Mohawk origin, but one
imposed upon them, as is believed, by the Mohegan race, who inhabited
the borders of the sea. Among this race the Dutch and English landed,
and they would naturally adopt the term most in vogue for so celebrated
a tribe. The Dutch, indeed, modified it to Maaquas—a modification
which helps us to decypher its probable origin, in Mauqua (by kindred
tribes, Mukwa, &c.) a bear. By others, it may be traced to mok, wa, a
wolf, and awki, a country.
In passing over the country which they once occupied, there is little
to stimulate historical interest, beyond the general idea of their
power and military renown. Their history is connected with the rise and
influence of one of our most distinguished anti-revolutionary citizens,
Sir William Johnson. The influence he obtained over them was never
exceeded, if equalled by that of any other man of European lineage.
He moulded them to his purposes in peace and war. They followed him
in his most perilous expeditions, and sustained him manfully, as we
know, in the two great contests to whose successful issue he owed his
laurels, namely, Lake George and Niagara. So completely identified
were they in feeling and policy with this politic and brave man, that
after his death, which happened at the crisis of ’76, they transferred
their attachment to his family, and staking their all on the issue,
abandoned their beloved valley and the bones of their fathers, and fled
to the less hospitable latitudes of Canada, from which they have never
permanently returned.
Some twenty or more persons of this tribe are mingled as residents of
the villages of their brethren, the Senecas, Tuscaroras, and Oneidas.
A much greater number exist with intermixture of other kindred tribes,
in the St. Regis canton of St. Lawrence county; but the greater number
of the parent tribe reside on lands appropriated for their use by the
British government, at Brantford, on the Grand river of Canada West. To
this place at the close of the war, they followed their distinguished
leader, Thayendanegea, the Jephtha of his tribe, who, against the
custom of birth and descent, and every other obstacle, after the
failure of the line of wise and brave chiefs to lead them to battle,
was made their Tekarahogea and leader, and displayed a degree of energy
and firmness of purpose, which few of the aboriginal race in America
have ever equalled.
What light the examination of the old places of burial of this tribe in
the valley would throw on their ancient history or arts, by entombed
articles, cannot be told without examinations which have not been
made. Probably the old places of Indian interment about Canajoharie,
Dionderoga, and Schenectady, would reveal something on this head,
conforming at least, in age and style of art, with the stone pipes,
tomahawks and amulets of the Onondaga and Genesee countries. The valley
of the Schoharie and that of the Tawasentha, or Norman’s kill, near
Albany, might also be expected to reward this species of research.
[Vide B.] A human head, rudely carved in stone, apparently aboriginal,
was sent to the New-York Historical Society early in 1845, which was
represented to have been found in excavating a bank at Schenectady. If
this piece of sculpture, which denoted more labor than art, be regarded
as of Mohawk origin, it would evince no higher degree of art, in this
respect, than was evinced by similar outlines cut in the rock, but not
detached, by some of the New-England tribes.[26]
[26] Rude carvings of this kind are represented to exist on the banks
of the Connecticut, at Bellows’ Falls, &c.
[_b._] Origin and History of the Oneidas.
This canton of the Iroquois nation, deduces its origin in a remote age,
from the Onondagas, with the language of which, the Oneida has the
closest affinity. According to a tradition which was related to me, and
which is believed to be entitled to respect, they are descended from
two persons, who, in their obscure ages, and before a confederation
had been thought of, went out from the people at Onondaga, and first
dwelt at the head of the Oneida river. After increasing in numbers,
they removed to the outlet of the Oneida creek, which flows into Oneida
lake. Here they fortified themselves, and farther increased in numbers
and power. Remains of this fortification are said still to exist.
Their next removal was up the Oneida creek valley, to the storied
locality of the Oneida stone, from which, by a figure of speech, they
represent themselves to have sprung. This stone is in the town of
Stockbridge, Madison county. It lies on a very commanding eminence,
from which the entire valley, as far as the Oneida lake, can be seen
in a clear atmosphere. The day of my visit being hazy at a distance,
the lake could not be seen, although the view down the valley, was
both magnificent and picturesque. This eminence was formerly covered
with a butternut grove. Old, and partly decayed trees of this species,
still remain in a few places. The ancient town extended in a transverse
valley, south of this ridge of land, covered as it was, with nut wood
trees, and was completely sheltered by it, from the north winds. A
copious and clear spring of water issued at the spot selected for their
wigwams. Here in seclusion from their enemies, the tribe expanded
and grew in numbers. When it was necessary to light their pipes, and
assemble to discuss their national affairs, they had only to ascend the
hill, through its richly wooded grove, to its extreme summit, at the
site of the Oneida stone. This stone, represented on the succeeding
page, became the national altar.
[Illustration]
Standing at its side, at a probable elevation of 400 or 500 feet
above the Stanwix summit, they could survey the whole valley of the
Oneida; and a beacon fire lighted here, was the signal for assembling
their warriors, from all the surrounding lateral plains and vallies.
Time and usage rendered the object sacred, and as they expanded into
nationality and power, while located around it, their sages asserted
with metaphorical truth, that they sprang from this rock. Stone in this
language is Onia. They called themselves, Oniota-aug, people of, or who
sprung from the stone. There is some variety in the pronunciation. The
Mohawks call them Onéota. The French wrote it Aneyoute, the English and
Dutch, Oneida, which latter has prevailed. Neither retained the plural
inflection in _aug_, which carries the idea of people.
With a knowledge of these traditions, I approached the spot with deep
interest. It occupies the extreme summit, as shown in the print. The
first feeling, on approaching it, was one of disappointment at its
size, but this feeling soon subsided in the interest of its antiquity
and national associations. It is a large, but not enormous boulder
of syenite,[27] of the erratic block groupe, and, consequently,
geologically foreign to the location. There are no rocks of this
species in situ, I believe, nearer to it, in a northerly or easterly
direction, than the Kayaderosseras or the Adirondack mountains.[28] The
summit upon which, partly embedded, it reposes, is now a cleared field,
in grass. A few primitive and secondary boulders, all of lesser size,
are strown about the ridge, and several of weight and magnitude rest
upon its flanks, and in the vallies at its base. One of the largest of
these is the White Stone at the spring, which has been spoken of, I
think, in some early notices of the Oneidas, as the true Oneida Stone;
but this opinion is erroneous, by the concurrent testimony of red and
white men, cognizant of the facts, whom I consulted. This white stone,
figured below, has been removed, by the proprietor of the land,[29]
from its ancient position near the spring, to constitute part of a
stone fence; it is a carbonate of lime.
[27] A specimen of the rock before me, brought thence, consists of
flesh colored feldspar, quartz and hornblende.
[28] If the passage of the Mohawk through the Astorenga or Astogan
hills, at Little Falls, discloses syenite, I am not aware of the fact.
[29] Mr. Job Francis.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
* * * * *
TSHEJOANA, one of the Oneidas, who served as my guide in
visiting this interesting location, took me to see still another stone,
of note, lying a mile or more distant, in a southerly direction, on a
farm of Gen. Knox. This stone, of which a figure is annexed, I found
to be a large boulder of dark, compact limestone, with organic remains.
It was observable that the encrinites contained in this mass, were red.
My Indian guide would have this color to be the result of the ancient
Indian war paint. But the most striking characteristic of this rock,
aside from its massy and flattened size and channelled centre, consists
in the evidences it affords of the action of water, in rounding and
polishing it. In several places, my guide would have this wearing
effect to have been produced by the rubbing and sharpening of the
Indian war axes; for he averred that it was customary for war parties
who went out south against the Cherokees, to come and sharpen their
axes upon this stone, and paint themselves for war. Whatever there
was in this custom, I think he was probably mistaken in his locality;
yet it is a question in which others may differ. At any rate, geology
had been quite beforehand with the Oneida legendary and philosopher,
in producing and accounting for these two phenomena, namely, the
red color and smoothed and channelled surfaces. Geology having been
mentioned, I may add the following incident. I told Skanawadi, one
of my guides, while standing at the Oneida stone, lying on its proud
ancient elevation, that there was no stone like this, in place, till we
went north to the Adirondacks or Tehawas, or great lakes, and that this
block of syenite had been brought here by the ocean, when it covered
the whole land, and left on its recession. He replied, after a moment’s
reflection, that “he believed this.”
At the time the Oneidas came to fix their location at this stone, the
Konoshioni or Iroquois had not confederated. This people, in the early
eras of their history, like the Algonquins, sent out individuals and
bands, who became powerful, and assumed the character of separate and
independent tribes, making war and peace ad libitum. If this mode of
multiplication be compared to the lower orders of creation, it had some
striking analogies with it. Like the bear and the hawk, the moment the
young member was ready to quit the parent lair or nest, it had not
only to forage for subsistence, but to defend itself against other
bears and hawks, and all other claimants to the food of the forest.
To make war is, in fact, the first and the last act of sovereignty of
the pettiest of all our aboriginal tribes. War is with them the road,
and the only road to fame, and the readiest way to secure a supply of
spontaneous food. They fight to increase or defend the boundaries of
their hunting grounds. Thus, doubtless, arose the first difficulties
between the Oneidas and the other branches of the Iroquois. As soon as
they were important enough to be noticed, and bold enough to defend
themselves, they had to raise barriers around their villages, and when
these were carried, as they probably were, or were threatened to be,
at two points, on the Oneida waters, they fled to the hill country, at
the site of the Oneida stone. How long they abode here, and made it the
seat of their council fire, we can only conjecture. They cannot and
do not pretend to tell. Wisdom, at length, taught the Iroquois sages,
that they had enemies enough, without fighting with each other, and the
idea of a confederation was suggested. Tradition has preserved the name
of Thaunowaga as the original suggester: but it has preserved nothing
more of his biography. The delegate from the Oneidas was Otatschechta.
That he came from, and lived at, the locality of the stone, and was
renowned for his deeds and wisdom, is probable. This comprises the
brief biography of two celebrated aboriginal sages and statesmen. Three
periods of transference, of their council fire, have been named, all
of which were probably prior to the confederation. Their fourth remove
was down the valley to the present site of Oneida Castle—a place which
then, as now, they called KUNAWALOA, meaning a man’s head on a pole.
At this place they lived and held their council fire, when the Dutch,
in 1609, discovered and ascended the Kohatatea, or, Hudson river.
Such are the accounts of their sachems and wise men. It is a general
confirmation of them, that the other members call them Younger Brother.
By another and older Indian tradition, an earlier date is assigned
to the Oneida canton, which is regarded as one of the original
subdivisions of the generic stock. It represents this stock as moving
from the west to the east, and at another period, returning towards the
point of sun-setting, leaving the several separate tribes, or cantons,
in their order as they passed. In this migration, the Oneidas are named
as the second in geographical position and order of chronology.
They located themselves, says the Tuscarora annalist,[30] at a
stream called Kaw nah taw te ruh, or Pineries, a tributary, of the
Susquehanna, which originates according to this authority, in Allen’s
lake, ten miles south of Oneida Castle. They were called Ne haw
retahgo,[31] or Big-Tree, a name, it may be remarked, which does not
occur as the patronymic for this tribe in other authors, nor has it
been retained by them. The distance and course denoted, coincide very
nearly with that of the Oneida stone. It is not known, however, that
any tributary of the Susquehanna exists in that vicinity.
[30] Cusick.
[31] In Tuscarora.
The two traditions may indeed be reconciled to truth, by supposing the
latter the more ancient one, and that the Onondaga families before
mentioned, constituted a subsequent accession to, and union with a
band who had seated themselves at a prior era, at the spot denoted;
or this band may have remained there, on the general passage of the
people eastward, and thus been the nucleus of the tribe, on the general
return of the people west. In any view, however, they were called and
are still called by the Iroquois, “Younger Brother,” which must be
considered conclusive, that their nationality is of a period subsequent
to that of the Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. This fact
too, is adverse to the theory, which has too much the aspect of a
mere theory, that the re-migration of the Iroquois westward from the
Atlantic, proceeded like a marching army, leaving tribes here and there
as they went, in a regular chronological order, each of which took a
name, and “altered,” as his phrase is, the language. The writer seems
all along, to have had the Jewish Tribes in his mind. The truth is,
ethnologically speaking, no tribe or nation, alters by an authoritative
decision, or pre-thought, its language or idioms. Such alterations
flow from time and circumstances. Least of all, do wandering savage
tribes gravely determine to “alter” their dialects. Accident, usage, or
caprice, little by little, and at long intervals, is the parent of new
dialects and languages.
A few deductions may be added. By data before introduced, it will have
been seen that it is probable the present confederation, whatever had
preceded it, did not take place till about 1539, or seventy years
before the arrival of Hudson. It may be considered as probable, that
the Oneidas did not remove from the Oneida stone, into the valley
and plains of Oneida Castle, until after the event of the final
confederation between the Five Tribes, gave them security against
internal enemies. The date of this transfer of the council fire, is
rather remote, but not very ancient. A new forest has grown upon the
old cornfields which were once cultivated at their ancient settlement
at the Oneida stone. The appearance of corn hills in rows, is still
clearly perceptible in some parts of this forest. To an inquiry how
such a preservation of the outlines of corn hills could be possible,
my informant, who was an Oneida, answered, that in ancient times,
the corn hills were made so large, that three clusters of stalks or
sub-hills were raised on each circle or hill. There being no ploughs
or other general means of turning up the earth, the same hill was used
year after year, and thus its outlines became large and well defined.
In a black walnut tree, standing on the site of one of these ancient
corn-fields, which was partly cut, and partly broken off, I counted on
the cut part, one hundred cortical layers, and measuring the broken
part, estimated it to have 140 more. Allowing a year for each ring, the
commencement of the growth was in 1555, or 16 years after the supposed
date of the confederacy, and 290 years from the present date.
The remaining history of the Oneidas can only be glanced at, but has
some points of peculiar interest. They are the only tribe of the
ancient Konoshioni who adhered to us, at least the better part of
them, in our life and death struggle of the revolutionary war, saving
some portion of the Tuscaroras; whose aid, however, is justly due
to the Oneida influence. It was by the Oneidas that the Tuscaroras
were brought off from the south. The Oneidas had long distinguished
themselves in their war excursions against the southern Indians. Their
traditions are replete with accounts of these war parties against
the Oyada, or Cherokees. They had found allies at the south in the
Tuscaroras, who were themselves engaged in desperate wars, at various
periods, against the Catabas, and Cherokees, and others. Besides this,
Iroquois tradition claims the Tuscaroras as one of their original
cantons, or rather as a band of the original Eagwe Heowe, who had,
in early times gone south.[32] And when a crisis happened in their
affairs, they nobly went to their relief, and seated them on their
western confines, between themselves and the Onondagas, where they
remained during the revolution. The Oneidas bore their full share in
the long and bloody wars waged by Iroquois for more than two centuries,
against the French in the Canadas, and against the distant Algonquins,
Hurons and Illinese. And he who scans the ancient records of treaties
and councils, will find that their sachems were represented in the
conferences assembled on this continent, by the kings and potentates of
Europe, who planted colonies at various times, between the respective
Gulphs of Mexico and the St. Lawrence. After the flight of the Mohawks,
in 1776, they were in the van of the Konoshioni, and to use their
symbolic phraseology, stood in the eastern door of the Long House. When
the mixed Saxon population of New-York and New-England began, after the
war of 1776, to move westward, the Oneidas first felt the pressure upon
their territory. By siding with the colonists, they had secured their
entire ancient domain, from which they ceded to the State, from time
to time, such portions as they did not want for cultivation, taking in
lieu money annuities. Nor did they fail to profit, in a measure, by
the example of industry set before them in agriculture and the arts.
For a while, it is true, they reeled before the march of intemperance,
and sunk in numbers, but many of them learned the art of holding the
plough. From the earliest times they were noted, along with their
more western brethren, for the cultivation of Indian corn, and the
planting of orchards. They also became tolerable herdsmen, and raised
in considerable numbers, neat cattle, horses and hogs.
[32] Vide Cusick’s pamphlet.
To preserve their nationality, their sachems, about the year 1820, sent
delegates west to look out a location for their permanent residence.
They purchased a suitable territory from the Monomonees of Wisconsin,
a wandering and non-industrious race, seated about Green Bay, and
expended a part of their annuities in the payment. This turned out
a wise measure. They soon began to remove, and have at this time a
very flourishing settlement on Duck river, in that territory. At that
location they have established schools, temperance societies and a
church. They bear a good reputation for morals and industry, and are
advancing in civilization and the arts.
By an official return of the date of 1844, they numbered 722 persons
at that settlement. Two hundred and ten are still seated within the
boundaries of New-York, mostly in Oneida county. They are a mild
people, of a good stature, and easy manners, and speak a soft dialect
of the Iroquois, abounding in the liquid _l_, which, together with a
mild enunciation, imparts a pleasing character to their speech.
[_c._] Onondagas.
Onondaga was, from the remotest times, the seat of the Iroquois
government. Granting credence to the account of their own origin, on
the high grounds or falls of the Oswego, they had not proceeded far up
the course of the widely gathered waters of this stream, when a portion
of them planted their wigwams in this fertile region. Whatever was the
cause of their migrating from their primary council fire, nothing was
more natural than that, by pursuing this stream upward, they should
separate into independent tribes, and by further tracing out its far
spread forks, gradually expand themselves, as they were found by
the discoverers and first settlers, over the entire area of western
New-York. On reaching the grand junction of Three River Point, a part
went up the Seneca river, who subsequently dividing, formed the Senecas
and Cayugas. The bands who took the eastern fork, or Oneida river,
pushed forward over the Deowainsta, or Rome summit, into the first
large stream, flowing east, and became the Mohawks. The central or
Onondaga fork was chosen by the portion who, from the hill country they
first located in, took this name; and from them, the Oneidas, pursuing
in fact the track of the Mohawks, were an off-shoot. That such was
the general route, and causes of their separation, appears as evident
as strong probabilities, in coincidence with their own traditions and
modern discovery, can make it. That the whole of the original number
who started from the south banks of Lake Ontario, did not keep together
till they reached the valley of the Hudson and the sea, and then go
back to the west,—for so their general tradition has it, is also both
reasonable and probable to suppose. Large bodies of hunters cannot keep
long together. They must separate to procure food, and would separate
from other causes. The first effect of their separation and spread into
various rich vallies, abounding in game, nuts and fish, was a rapid
increase in population. The next, to become overbearing, quarrel about
territory, and fight. They were compelled to build forts to defend
their stations, or secure their women and children, at night, and
by this system, kept down their population to about its first point
of increase. It is altogether probable that they did not more than
maintain, for ages, a stationary population, which occasionally went
down by disease and other calamities, and again revived, as we know
that natural causes, in the laws of vitality, will revive a people
quickly, after the scourge of pestilence.
The idea of a confederation was, it is believed, an old one with this
people, for the very oldest traditions speak of something of this kind,
among the lake and St. Lawrence tribes of older days. When the present
league was formed, on the banks of the Onondaga lake, this central
tribe had manifestly greatly increased in strength, and distinguished
itself in arms, and feats of hunting and daring against giants and
monsters, for in such rencontres their traditions abound.
[Illustration]
Most distinguished, however, above all others, east or west, was a
leader of great courage, wisdom and address, called Atotarho; and
when they proposed to form a league, this person, who had inspired
dread, and kept himself retired, was anxiously sought. He was found,
by the Mohawk embassy, who were charged with the matter, sitting as
he is represented in the annexed cut, composedly in a swamp, smoking
his pipe, and rendered completely invulnerable, by living serpents.
These animals extended their hissing heads from all parts of his head
and body. Every thing about him, and the place of his residence, was
such as to inspire the utmost fear and respect. His dishes and spoons
were made of the skulls of enemies, whom he had slain in battle. Him,
when they had duly approached with presents and burned tobacco in
friendship, in their pipes, by way of frankincense, they placed at the
head of their league, as its presiding officer. They collected a large
quantity of wampum, and invested him with a broad belt of this sacred
article. I found the original drawing of this personage, from which the
above is reduced, in the summer of 1845, in the house of a Seneca on
the Cattaragus reservation. The owner of this curious pictorial relic,
on being asked, proceeded to a chest and carefully took it from its
envelope, and allowed me to make a copy. It represents Atotarho, at the
moment of his discovery, by the Mohawk delegation.
The right thus awarded to the Onondagas, to furnish a presiding officer
for the league, has ever been retained, and is still possessed by that
canton. To the Mohawks, at the same time, was awarded the Tekarahogea,
or chief war captain—an office, however, of the general recognition of
which, there is a disagreement amongst interpreters.
A singular tradition may be here added. It is said that the XIIIth
Atotarho reigned at Onondaga when America was discovered. [D.]
Giving to each Atotarho[33] a rule of fifteen years, and taking
Hudson’s voyage as the period the Indians allude to, we should have
A. D. 1414, as the era of the present confederacy, in place of 1539,
before mentioned on the authority of a general tradition recorded
by Pyrlaus. We cannot, however, place much reliance upon Cusick’s
chronology.
[33] Incidental circumstances have led to the substitution of the above
head for the original figure.
[_d._] Cayugas.
The history of this canton does not stand out prominently among the
Iroquois while it will be found that as one of the inclusive tribes who
carried their name and fame so high among the aborigines, they have
performed their due part, and produced warriors, sages and speakers of
eminence. Were every thing else, indeed, blotted out of their history,
the fact of their having produced a Logan[34] would be sufficient to
rescue their memory from oblivion. In their early search after a place
to hunt, fish and plant corn, as an independent tribe, they, on the
assumption of their own traditions, passed up the Seneca river, into
the sylvan and beautiful lake which bears their name. In visiting this
lake the present year, in search of their ancient sites, it was not
without a melancholy interest, that I surveyed, within the boundaries
of Aurora, the remains of one of those apple orchards, which were
ruthlessly cut down by a detachment of the army of Gen. Sullivan, in
his severe but necessary expedition in 1778. Many vestiges of their
ancient residence still remain in Cayuga county, nor has local memory,
in its intelligent and hospitable inhabitants, dropped from its scroll
the names of several of its distinguished chiefs, and their places
of abode. They point to a spot at Springport, now trenched on by the
road, where lie the remains of Karistagea, better known by his English
appellative of Steeltrap, one of their noted chiefs and wise men,
who extended the hospitalities of his lodge to the first settlers on
the “Military Tract.” The nation itself, although they had fought
strenuously under the Red Cross of St. George in the Revolutionary
war, appeared to be composed of mild and peaceable men, of friendly
dispositions towards the settlers. They brought venison, fish and wild
fruits for sale to the doors of families, whose elder branches yet
dwell upon the shores of the Cayuga.
[34] Logan was the son of Skellelimus, a Cayuga, and went early to the
Ohio valley, if he were not born there.
Yet their history is a melancholy one, and their decline, on the
settlement of Western New-York, was probably one of the most striking
instances of the rapid depopulation of a tribe in modern days. Their
first cession of land to the State was in 1789. This was confirmed
at the general treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1790, and such had been the
pressure of emigration into that quarter, that in 1795, at a treaty
held at Cayuga bridge, they ceded their reserve of one hundred miles
square in the valley of the Seneca outlet and the basin of Cayuga
lake, reserving but four miles square. In these treaties they deemed
themselves wise to change into large money annuities,[35] a territory
which was no longer useful for hunting, and which they did not
cultivate.
[35] A perpetual annuity of $2,300 was secured by one of these treaties.
Experience has shown, however, throughout America, that Indian tribes,
who live on annuities, and not by agricultural labor, are in the most
dangerous condition of rapid decline. To render the danger eminent, it
needs but the close proximity of a European population, who present
the means of indulging selfish gratifications. Among these means, so
seductive to the Indian mind, ardent spirits have ever been the most
baneful. It proved so at least with the Cayugas, for within sixteen
years after the treaty of Fort Stanwix, they had all emigrated west.
Some of them had rejoined their brethren, who followed Brant and the
Mohawks to Canada. Some had migrated to Sandusky, in Ohio, and others
found a refuge among the Senecas, near Buffalo. With the Senecas they
have ever been on most intimate terms. Whilst they lived on the Cayuga
lake, and the latter on the Seneca, they were separated by a midland
range of forest, little more than 16 miles broad. They intermingled
freely in their hunting parties, and even in their villages. The
inhabitants still point to a large tree near Canoga, on the banks of
Cayuga lake, where the celebrated orator Red Jacket was born.
In investigating the Indian population of New-York, under the
provisions of the census act, I found 114 Cayugas residing in twenty
families, on the Cattaragus reservation. These families cultivate 316
acres of land, and during the year 1845, they raised 1,970 bushels
of corn, 1,622 of oats, 210 of wheat, 955 of potatoes, and 277 of
buckwheat, besides esculents and small articles. They were found to
possess 43 milch cows, 39 horses, 40 sheep, and 109 hogs. Besides
the Cayugas residing on the Cattaragus, there were found, dispersed
among the other cantons, 83 persons; making the whole number within
the boundaries of New-York, 197. The style of their dwellings is,
generally, that of squared timber, plainly but comfortably furnished,
with glass windows, and plain common furniture. Sixteen of the number
are members of Protestant churches. The males dress exclusively in the
European fashion, and their condition and prospects are, like those of
the Senecas, among whom they dwell, in a high degree encouraging to
the friends of humanity. Of the number out of the bounds of the State,
there have been no accurate means of judging. The vocabulary of their
language (vide appendix O) will denote its close affinities with other
tribes of this family.
From a remark made to me, by a daughter of Brant, (the late Mrs. Kerr,)
at her house near Wellington square, Canada, in 1843, I am inclined
to think, that in the early wars waged by the Iroquois against the
Virginia Indians, the Cayugas defeated and made prisoners the remnant
of the Tuteloes, whom they brought and settled among them, in the
Cayuga country.
[_e._] History and origin of the Senecas.
One of the first traits which strikes an observer on entering the
territory of this tribe, is the fact that they are called by a name
which is not known in their vocabulary, and which they only recognize
from having long been thus designated by others. Identical as it is in
its present orthography, with the name of the Roman moralist, it is yet
wholly improbable that it had any such origin; it must be regarded as
an accidental coincidence of sound in some other Indian tongue. That
this tongue is the Mohawk, a people who stood first in position east
on the Iroquois borders, is probable, but not certain. The earlier
authors spelt it with a _k_, with the _a_ final, which probably had the
usual broad sound. It occurs on a map of 1614, which was brought over
from Holland recently, by the historical agent of the State, and has
been laid, by that gentleman, before the New-York Historical Society,
with the proofs of its genuineness, thus bringing the use of the word
within five years of the voyage of Hudson.
The term by which they call themselves is NUNDOWAGA, or the
People of the Hill. A name which leads us at once to consider the
accounts of their own origin. Various relations of this story have been
given, differing in some of their details, but all coinciding in the
main events, namely: that they originated and lived on a well known
hill, at the head of Canandaigua lake, where they were put in eminent
peril of utter destruction by a monstrous serpent, which circled itself
about the fort and lay with its mouth open at the gate. The following
is given from a native source, and has some novel details to recommend
it.
While the tribe had its seat and council fire on this hill, a woman
and her son were living near it, when the boy, one day caught a small
two-headed serpent, called Kaistowanea, in the bushes. He brought it
home as a pet to amuse himself, and put it in a box, where he fed it
on bird’s flesh and other dainties. After some time it had become so
large that it rested on the beams of the lodge, and the hunters were
obliged to feed it with deer; but it soon went out and made its abode
on a neighboring hill, where it maintained itself. It often went out
and sported in the lake, and in time became so large and mischievous
that the tribe were put in dread of it. They consulted on the subject
one evening, and determined to fly next morning; but with the light of
the next morning the monster had encircled the hill and lay with its
double jaws extended before the gate. Some attempted to pass out, but
were driven back; others tried to climb over its body, but were unable.
Hunger at last drove them to desperation, and they made a rush to pass,
but only rushed into the monster’s double jaws. All were devoured but
a warrior and his sister, who waited in vain expectancy of relief.
At length the warrior had a dream, in which he was showed that if he
would fledge his arrows with the hair of his sister, the charm would
prevail over their enemy. He was warned not to heed the frightful heads
and hissing tongues, but to shoot at the heart. Accordingly, the next
morning he armed himself with his keenest weapons, charmed as directed,
and boldly shot at the serpent’s heart. The instantaneous recoiling of
the monster proved that the wound was mortal. He began in great agony
to roll down the hill, breaking down trees and uttering horrid noises,
until he rolled into the lake. Here he slaked his thirst, and tried
by water to mitigate his agony, dashing about in fury. At length he
vomited up all the people whom he had eaten, and immediately expired
and sunk to the bottom.[36]
[36] If this be viewed as an allegory, it may admit of this
interpretation. Internal feuds created by somebody brought up in their
own lodges, originated hatred and hot blood. In a long and bloody war,
the nation was nearly exterminated; at length the affections of a woman
prevailed. Harmony was restored, and a new era of prosperity began, by
removing the council fire to another place.
The fort was immediately deserted, and all who had escaped went with
their deliverer to, and fixed their council fire on, the west shores of
Seneca lake, where Geneva now stands.
The general course of the migration and conquests of the Senecas has,
however, been towards the west. Taking their own general and ancient
traditions of the parent stock, to wit, their origin in the valley of
the Oswego, they may be supposed to have followed the Seneca branch
of those outspread waters to the banks of the Seneca and Canandaigua
lakes, and thence into the rich valley of the Genesee. At an early day
they were limited to the region east of this capital stream, which,
crossing the country in a transverse direction, formed a natural
boundary. There lived west of it, in ancient times, a tribe who are
known as Alleghans, Andastes and Eries, or, as the Senecas call them,
Kah-Kwahs. They had their council fires at or near Buffalo, extending
west and also east. The people called by the French the Neuter
Nation, had placed themselves, so far as we can learn, on the waters
of Oak-Orchard creek, which draws its tributaries in part from the
fertile districts of Genesee, Niagara and Orleans counties. From the
accounts of the Tuscaroras, [D.] this people were governed in early
times by a queen, who ruled over twelve forts in that quarter. North
of them, embracing the Niagara ridge and the country below it, dwelt a
branch of the Algonquin nation, who are called by the same authority,
TWANKANNAH. Other names occur, which are believed to be either
synonymes for these, or minor divisions of the three principal tribes
named, of which some further notice will be taken in a subsequent paper
on the antiquarian remains of the country.
That these Trans-Genesean people were populous and warlike, not only
maintaining their grounds against the Senecas, but often defeating
them and driving them back, is proved not only by the traditions
of the Senecas themselves, but by the striking evidences of their
military strength and skill, denoted by the remains of forts and
intrenchments and cemeteries, yet existing throughout the extensive
area, included between the Genesee and the Niagara, extending up the
southern shores of Lake Erie to Chautauque and the other principal
known Indian routes to the waters of the Alleghany and Ohio. There is,
at least, one authority[37] for believing that the Eries themselves
were remotely descended from the Senecas, and we have living tradition
to prove [VIII.] that, at the time of their final defeat and so called
extermination, some of them fled west, whilst the remainder of them,
scattered, cut up and depressed, were incorporated in the Seneca canton.
[37] Cusick.
To the Twankannas, the Neuter Nation, and other tribes and bands, not
being Eries, who lived in this portion of the State, the Iroquois
applied the general term of Adirondacks,[38] a bold, warlike, northern
race, who spread over many degrees of latitude and longitude in
former days, covering, by generic affiliation with other tribes, all
New-England and the Atlantic coast, to North Carolina, and who are
still, in their numerous and subdivided descendants, in the upper lakes
and the west, the most numerous of any of the aboriginal stocks yet
existing east of the Mississippi and Missouri. So long as the Iroquois
remained divided, the Eries and their Algonquin allies kept their
ground; and there is no reason to believe that they began to decline
until a considerable period after the era of the Onondaga league. That
league was at first but little more than an agreement to stand by each
other, and to send delegates and forward news to a central council;
but it put an end to intestine wars, and its popular capacities soon
developed themselves, and made it formidable to their neighbors. Thus
much by way of prelude to their wars, to be noticed hereafter.
[38] Called Algonquins by the French.
The Senecas were from the earliest times the most powerful of the
Iroquois, nearly doubling, in its best estate, the Mohawks. Their
population in past days has been variously estimated, and often
exaggerated. Perhaps Dalton, who puts it at 400 warriors, or 2,000
souls, during the American war, verges to the opposite extreme,
and actually underrates it. Be this as it may, I found the entire
Seneca population, within the State, to be 2,383, residing on four
reservations in the counties of Niagara and Genesee, Erie, Chautauque,
Cattaraugus and Alleghany. They were found to be divided into 538
families, who cultivated, in the aggregate, 8,416 acres of land. The
produce of this land, as near as it could be obtained, as some declined
stating it, was 21,341 bushels of corn, 3,745 of wheat, 20,039 of
oats, and 12,469 of potatoes, besides buckwheat, turneps, peas, and
smaller articles. They possess 1,537 neat cattle, 510 milch cows, 626
horses, 335 sheep, and 2,269 hogs. Other details of their advance in
agriculture were equally flattering. They cut large quantities of
meadow land, possess an adequate supply of farming utensils, carts,
wagons, including many tasty buggies and sleighs. Very little of their
means of subsistence, even in the most unfavored positions, is derived
from the chase. Upwards of 4,000 fruit trees were counted. The style of
their buildings, fences and household furniture, as well as the dress
of the males, is not essentially different, and little, often nothing
at all, inferior to that of their white neighbors. Temperance and
temperance societies exist in a good state in each canton. Fifteen of
their youth have received a collegiate or academic education. A number
of these have studied professions. About 350 of the children attend
private or missionary schools, and so far as I could obtain returns,
some 250 adults are enrolled as members of Protestant churches. Of
this number, there are several catechists and intelligent educated
translators and interpreters of the language. On the four reservations,
there are fifteen native mechanics and three physicians.
Thus it appears that the energies once devoted by their ancestors to
war and hunting, are in good earnest now directed to husbandry and
the arts; and there is every encouragement to hope, and reason to
believe, that by a continuance in the best measures, they will be
wholly reclaimed and added to the number of useful, intelligent and
moral citizens. In viewing the condition of such a people, hardy, well
formed and active, and pressing forward, as they are, in the great
experiment of civilization, humanity consoles itself with the hope,
that the energy and firmness of purpose which once carried them, in
pursuit of warlike glory, far and wide, will develope itself, as it
has already signally commenced to do, in the labors of the field and
the workshop. Their rude picture-writing upon the bark of trees, has
given place to the school. Their prophets’ lodges have been converted
into churches; their midnight orgies, at the Indian dancing house,
into societies to promote temperance. It is but applying present
experience to future results, to predict that these results may become
general. The eloquence thrown out by a Red Jacket, in opposition to
the further curtailment of their territory may shine out, in some of
his descendants, to enlighten his people in agriculture, morals and
political economy. Nor ought we to doubt that the desk and the forum
are yet to resound with Seneca eloquence.
[_f._] Tuscaroras.
The traditions of this canton affirm, that they are descendants of
the original family of Iroquois, who began their existence, or their
nationality, at least at or near the falls of the Oswego. After the
migration of the parent tribe towards the sea, and their return west
and separation into tribes, this band went on west till they reached
Lake Erie. From hence they travelled southwest till they reached
the Mississippi. Part of them crossed the river, and they were thus
divided. Those who went over, became, in time, the enemies of such as
remained on its eastern banks, and were finally lost and forgotten from
their memory.
Terenyawagon, the Holder of the Heavens, who was the patron of the
home bands, did not fail, in this crisis, to direct their way also.
After giving them practical instructions in war and hunting, he guided
their footsteps in their journies, south and east, until they had
crossed the Alleghanies, and reached the shores of the sea, on the
coasts which are now called the Carolinas. They were directed to fix
their residence on the banks of the Cau-tan-o, that is, a Pine in the
water, now called Neuse river, in North Carolina. By this time their
language was altered, but not so much but that they could understand
each other. Here Terenyawagon left them to hunt, increase and prosper,
whilst he returned to direct the remaining Five Nations to form their
confederacy. Thus far the Tuscarora annalist. History picks up the
Tuscaroras precisely where tradition and fable leave them. On the
settlement of Virginia and the Carolinas, they were found to be the
first nation of any stability of purpose, after passing the Powhatanic
tribes, in proceeding south. The intervening coast tribes were petty
chieftaindoms, few in numbers and disunited in action or policy. They
were essentially ichthyophagi. They soon fell before the two-fold
influence of idleness and rum, and have left little or no history, or
traits worth preserving. Such is the history of the Chowanokes,[39]
the Maratocks, and the Mangoacks, who, in one hundred and twenty years
from the date of Raleigh’s patent, had dwindled from 6,000 to forty-six
bowmen.[40]
[39] Mr. Jefferson thinks (vide Notes, p. 152, London ed. of 1787,)
that this tribe was connected with the Tutelos, Nottaways and Meherrins
of Virginia.
[40] Williamson.
The Tuscaroras, who lived in the game country, on the skirts of the
mountains, showed themselves at the mouths of Cantano or Neuse,
Contentny, and Taw rivers. They were, at the time, numerous and
warlike, and as inimical to the inhabitants of the Carolinas, as they
were numerous. They were at war with the Catabas, the Cowetas and the
Cherokees. Numbers, bravery and success, and abundance of animal food,
made them haughty, and they evinced the disposition of their northern
brethren, by trying to subjugate and break down their neighbors. What
they had done with red men, very effectually, it must be confessed at
least with the Catabas, they thought they might do with the Hugenots of
France, the cavaliers of England, and the protestants of the baronetcy
of Graffenried in Germany. It is not improbable, indeed, that, at a
prior era, the Tuscaroras were the very people who had exterminated
the colony left on Roanoke island, under the first attempts of Sir
Walter Raleigh to colonize Virginia. But, if such were the fact—a mere
conjecture at best—they mistook their present neighbors and their own
position in attempting to repeat the act.
This scheme was, however, deeply laid, although it appeared to be a
matter hastily executed. They had long felt a growing jealousy of
the encroaching settlements, and gave vent to it, the first occasion
that offered, by seizing Lawson the surveyor-general of the Province,
on a trip up the Neuse, and after a kind of trial before a council,
putting him to death. The Baron Graffenried, who was with him, and
was also condemned, but saved, on an appeal on the ground of his being
a man of rank and not an Englishman; but they kept him a prisoner,
while they proceeded to execute their ill-advised and nefarious plot,
which was nothing less than the massacre of the entire colony in one
day. The day fixed for this tragedy was the 22d of September, 1711.
Williamson[41] thinks it was an impulsive movement arising from the
killing of Lawson, who being a public officer, they felt themselves
committed in a war, and resolved to proceed with the bloody work.
For this purpose they divided themselves into small bands of six or
seven, and entering the settlements at various points, they struck
down with the tomahawk on one day one hundred and thirty persons. To
conceal their intentions, they had left their arms, and relied on their
hatchets alone. In this plot, they were assisted by the sea-coast
bands of Corees, Mattamuskeets and Bear-river Indians, some three or
four tribes, denoting a league and maturity in the attempt. But the
plan did not succeed to their wishes, for besides that the colony
consisted then of nearly two thousand men, much spread, it must needs
have happened that many at the time of attack, would be absent from
their homes. The colonists rallied, and prepared to carry the war home
to their subtle assailants. They asked the aid of South Carolina,
which came gallantly to their rescue. The Legislature of that Province
having granted four thousand pounds, placed Col. Barnwell at the head
of a small detachment of armed men, supported by a large body of
Cherokees, Creeks and Catabas, the deadly enemies of the Tuscaroras.
He killed, in various actions, thirty Tuscaroras, and fifty of the
sea-coast auxiliaries, and took two hundred women and children of the
latter prisoners, and returned. The war thus commenced was continued,
with various results for some few years. The aid of Virginia, as well
as South Carolina was invoked the next year. The Tuscaroras also made
vigorous exertions. They were well provided with arms and ammunition,
and despatched runners to the Senecas for aid. Their auxiliaries, the
Mattamuskeets, Corees and others killed or made prisoners the next
winter, forty inhabitants of the Island of Roanoke or Croatan. The
Tuscaroras prepared to maintain their power by entrenching themselves
behind a picketed work on the river Taw. This work, called fort
NAHARUKE, stood on a plain beside a creek, and consisted of
a rampart of earth, covering the whole ground occupied, defended with
palisades. To protect themselves from artillery, they had dug within
this wall, square pits of earth, six feet deep, covered with poles, and
connected by a wall of earth. They were well provided with corn and
ammunition, and had the means of standing a siege, had they made a wise
provision for water. To obtain this necessary article, they relied on
an artificial ditch leading to the stream.
[41] Hist. North Carolina.
To this aboriginal fort Col. Moore of South-Carolina, drove them from
the lower country with 40 musketeers and 800 Indians, in the early
part of the winter of 1713, after having been detained on his march
by a deep snow. He immediately saw the mistake of the water trench,
and placed cannon to rake it. He then fortified the only passage or
point of land, where the Indians would be likely to escape, and began
regular approaches to the work, which he entered on the 26th of March,
1713, taking 800 Tuscaroras prisoners. It is not said how many were
killed. He had lost of his army, during the siege, 22 white, and 36 red
men killed, and 29 of the former, and 50 of the latter wounded. The
Cherokees and their allies claimed the prisoners, who were taken to
the south, and sold as slaves, a part, as we are left to infer, being
offered by the southern Indians, to appease the spirit of retaliation
for prior losses by them.
This brought the tribe to terms, and they entered into preliminaries
of peace, by which they agreed to deliver up twenty men, who were the
contrivers of the plot, and who took Lawson and Graffenried; to restore
all prisoners, horses and cattle, arms and other property; to treat
and pursue the Mattamuskeets and their other allies, as enemies; and
finally, to give two hostages for the peaceable conduct of each of
their towns.
During the following summer, the chief called “King Blount,” brought in
thirty scalps from his miserably treated allies; “but the greater part
of the nation,” says the historian before quoted, “unable to contend,
and unwilling to submit, removed to the northward, and joined the
Seneca, and other confederate tribes on the frontiers of New-York.[42]
Those who remained, were to have settled between the Neuse and Taw
rivers; but an Indian war having broken out in the southern colonies
in 1715, only three months after the peace, with the Corees and their
other former allies, the Tuscaroras, now the remains of a broken down
tribe, feeble in numbers and power, obtained permission to settle on
the _north_ side of the Roanoke river, on a reservation, where some of
them were living in 1803.
[42] Williamson.
The whole number of Indians living in North Carolina in 1708,
estimating their fighting men, were 1,608, of whom, the Tuscaroras
constituted 1,200, which would give them, on the ordinary principle
of estimating their population, 6,000 souls. Two thirds of the whole
number of their fighting men were captured at the taking of fort
NAHARUKE in 1713. How many were killed on other occasions is
not certainly known; but it is probable that in this short war of but
three years duration, and owing to the desertion of families, death by
sickness, want, and other casualties consequent upon the surrender of
Naharuke, they sunk to almost immediate insignificance. Those who fled
to their kindred in western New-York, were never counted. They were
estimated, perhaps high, at 200 warriors, in 1776. They were located at
first, immediately west of, and in juxtaposition to the Oneidas, along
with whom, they are mentioned as being secured in their rights, by the
treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1784. But in fact, they had no independent
claim to territory, living merely as guests, although the confederacy
had admitted them as an integral member, after their disastrous flight
from North Carolina, calling themselves no longer the FIVE,
but the SIX NATIONS. The Senecas gave them lands on the
Niagara Ridge, after the American revolution; these were subsequently
secured to them in a reservation made by the State, in the present
bounds of Niagara county. Here they have continued to dwell, having
added to their possessions, by an early purchase from the Holland Land
Company, made with the avails of the sale of their reservation north of
the Roanoke, in North Carolina.
But if the Tuscaroras have erred in policy, and sunk in numbers,
with a rapidity and in a ratio unequalled by any other members of
the confederacy, if we except the Onondagas and Cayugas, they may be
said to have grown wise by experience. Low as their present numbers
are, they hold an exalted rank among their brethren for industry,
temperance, and their general advance in arts, agriculture and morals.
I found, on making the enumeration, 283 persons living in 53 families,
of whom 151 were males and 167 females. These families cultivated the
past year 2,080 acres of land, on which they raised 4,897 bushels of
wheat, 3,515 of corn, 4,085 of oats, 1,166 of potatoes, besides limited
quantities of peas, beans, buckwheat and turnips. They possess 336 neat
cattle, 98 milch cows, making 7,537 pounds of butter, 153 horses, 215
sheep, and 596 hogs.
When it is considered that this enumeration gives an average of six
neat cattle, three horses, (nearly) two milch cows, (nearly) 10 hogs,
and 92 bushels of wheat, 966 of corn to each family, their capacity
to sustain themselves, and their advance as agriculturists will be
perceived. Fifty-nine ploughs were found amongst fifty-three families.
They cut 195 acres of meadow to sustain their cattle. They have over
1,500 fruit trees, and dwell in excellent frame or square-timber
houses, well finished, and for the most part well furnished. I noticed
one edifice of stone, in the process of building, seated on rising
grounds, amidst shade trees, which denotes both wealth and taste. Other
results of civilization are to be already observed. Among these there
are no slight indications of classes of society, arranging themselves,
as rich and poor, intelligent and ignorant, industrious and idle, moral
and immoral.
Of the entire population, 63 are church members, and 231 members of
temperance societies, which is a far higher proportion than is found in
any other of the cantons.
[_g._] Necariages.
The Tuscaroras were probably admitted into the confederacy about 1714.
Nine years afterwards the Iroquois received the Nicariages. Under
this name the long expatriated Quatoghies, or Hurons, then living at
Teiodonderoghie or Michilimackinac, were taken into the confederacy as
the Seventh Tribe, or canton. This act was consummated in the reign of
George II., at a public council held at Albany on the 30th May, 1723,
on their own desire. A delegation of 80 men, who had their families
with them, were present. Of this curious transaction but little is
known. For although done in faith, it was not perceived that a tribe
so far separated from the main body, although now reconciled, and
officially incorporated, could not effectually coalesce and act as
one. And accordingly, it does not appear, by the subsequent history
of the confederacy, that they ever came to recognize, permanently,
the Necariages as a Seventh Nation. The foundation for this act of
admission had been laid at a prior period by the daring and adroit
policy of Adario, who had so skilfully contrived to shift the atrocity
of his own act, in the capture of the Iroquois delegates on the St.
Lawrence, on the Governor-General of Canada.
It has been mentioned, in a preceding page of this report, that
the Iroquois recommended their political league as a model to the
colonies, long before the American revolution was thought of. And
it is remarkable that its typical character, in relation to our
present union, should have been also sustained, in the feature
of the admission, if not “annexation,” of new tribes, who became
equal participants of all the original rights and privileges of the
confederacy.
[_h._] St. Regis Colony, or Band.
This community is an off-shoot of the Iroquois stock, but not a member
of the confederacy. It originated in the efforts commenced about the
middle of the 17th century, by the Roman Catholic church of France, to
draw the Iroquois into communion with that church. It was, however, but
a part of the public policy, which originated in the reign of Louis
XV., to colonize the Iroquois country, and wrest it from the power of
the British crown. When this effort failed,—replete as it was with
wars, intrigues and embassies, battles and massacres, which make it the
heroic age of our history, the persons who had become enlisted in the
ritual observances of this church, were induced to withdraw from the
body of the tribes, and settle on the banks of the St. Lawrence, in
the area of the present county of St. Lawrence. It was, in effect, a
missionary colony. Its members were mostly Mohawks, from Caughnawaga,
with some Oneidas, and perhaps a few of the Onondagas, amongst whom
there had been Catholic missions and forts established, at early dates.
The exertions made to organize this new canton were, politically
considered, at direct variance with the colonial policy of New-York,
and were therefore opposed by the persons entrusted by the crown with
Indian affairs, and also by the councils of the confederacy.
Those persons who composed it assimilated in faith, and almost as a
necessary consequence, they soon did so in politics.[43] They went off
in small parties, secretly, and after they had become embodied and
located, they were regarded, in effect, as foreign Indians, and were
never recognized or admitted to a seat in the confederacy. The feeling
caused by this separation, among the tribes themselves, amounted to
bitterness, and it is a feeling which, I had occasion to observe on one
occasion, is not forgotten by the existing cantons even at this day.
[43] Some exceptions to this existed. The noted chief called Col.
Louis, who rendered the American cause such essential service, during
the siege of Fort Stanwix, in 1777, was of the St. Regis tribe,
agreeably to information given to me, at Oneida Castle, the present
year, by Abraham Dennie.
The St. Regis colony increased rapidly, but had some extra stimulants
to promote its growth, its success being equally dear to the political
and ecclesiastical policy of France. It became a thorn to the frontier
towns and settlements of New-England, during the whole of the old
French war, so called, and of the American revolution. Some of the
forays of this band into the Connecticut valley were productive of
thrilling and heart rending events, as those must have realized who
have had their youthful sympathies excited by narrations of the
touching captivities of the Hows and the Williams, of that valley.
When the 54° parallel came to be drawn, under the provision of the
treaty of Ghent, it cut the St. Regis settlement unequally in two,
leaving the church and the larger portion of the Indian population
within the bounds of Canada. Those who reside within the limits of
New-York, numbered, the past summer, three hundred and sixty souls.