This department of the inquiry constitutes one of deep and varied
interest. It is found, however, that no little time is required to
study, compare and arrange such parts of the matter as have claims
to be considered historical, whilst those which are symbolical or
fictitious, take so wide a range as hardly to justify, in this report,
the space which they would occupy. Specimens drawn from both classes
of matter are introduced in the following papers, which, together with
those inserted under the first head of “Minutes,” will serve to convey
a proper idea of this species of lore.
[_a._] Ancient Shipwreck of a vessel from the old world on the coast.
Whilst the northern tribes lived under the ancient confederacy before
named, on the banks of the St. Lawrence and its waters, and before
they had yet known white men, it is affirmed that a foreign ship came
on the northern coasts, but being driven by stress of weather, passed
southward, and was wrecked in that quarter. Most of the crew perished,
but a few of them, dressed in leather, reached the shore, and were
saved with some of their implements. They were received by a people
called the Falcons,[79] who conducted them to a mountain, where,
however, they remained but a short time, for their allies, the Falcons,
disclosed an unfriendly and jealous spirit, and threatened them. In
consequence they immediately selected another location, which they
fortified. Here they lived many years, became numerous and extended
their settlements, but in the end, they were destroyed by furious
nations.
[79] One of the totems and clans of the Iroquois, is the hawk, or
falcon.
This tradition is divested of some of the symbolic traits which it
possesses in the original, and by which the narrators may be supposed
to have concealed their own acts of hostility or cruelty, in the
extirpation of the descendants of the Europeans thus cast on their
shores. To this end, they represent in the original, the saving of
the crew to have been done through the instrumentality of carnivorous
birds, and attribute the final destruction of the colony to fierce
animals. It is one of the well known facts of history that none of the
vessels of Columbus, Cabot, Verrizani, Sir Walter Raleigh, or Hudson,
were _wrecked_ on the American coasts: and there is hence a bare
presumption that some _earlier_ voyage or adventure from the old world
is alluded to.
Can we suppose that in this dim tradition there is light cast on
the lost colony of Virginia, which was first left on the island of
Roanoke? The Tuscaroras,[80] who preserve the tradition, came to
western New-York from that quarter. They were a fierce, powerful
and warlike nation, having in 1712 resolved on the massacre, on a
certain day, of all the whites in the Carolinas. What is once done by
natives, barbarous or civilized, is often the reproduction of some
prior national act, and especially if that act had been attended with
success; and it is by no means improbable that in this desperate and
bloody resolve of 1712, the Tuscaroras meant to repeat the prior
tragedy of “Croatan.”[81] Whether, however, the incident be of
ante-Columbian or post-Columbian date, it is worthy preservation, and
may be assigned its place and proper importance when we have gleaned
more facts from the dark abyss of American antiquity.
[80] This tribe have also the clan of the hawk or falcon.
[81] Vide Hackluit.
[_b_.] Forays into the country of the Cherokees and Catawbas.
Nothing is more distinct or better settled in the existing traditions
of the Iroquois, than their wars with some of the southern tribes,
particularly the Cherokees. I found this subject first alluded to among
the Oneidas, who were hotly engaged in this southern war; afterwards
among the Onondagas, the Senecas of Tonawanda, the Tuscaroras, and
with still increasing particularity, among the Senecas of Buffalo,
Cattaraugus, and Teonigono. But I was never able to fix the era of its
commencement, or to find an adequate cause for it. It seems almost
incredible that a war of this kind should have been carried on, at
such a great distance from their central council fire at Onondaga, yet
nothing is better established in their reminiscences.
They first came into contact, as Tetoyoah told me was his opinion, in
the western prairies. The Iroquois are known to have hunted and warred
far and wide in that quarter. The two nations seem to have been deeply
and mutually exasperated. Tetoyoah spoke of an act of horrid treachery,
the breaking of a peace pledge, and the murder of a peace deputation.
The war, however, instead of calling out the banded energies of the
confederacy, appears to have been almost entirely one of a partizan
character. It is memorable rather for partial enterprizes and personal
exploits, than for exhibiting the grander features of the military
policy of the Iroquois. Warriors tested their bravery and heroism by
going against the Cherokees. There were, it seems, no great armies,
no grand battles. All was left to individual energy and courage. The
great object of every young Iroquois, as soon as he was old enough to
take the war path, was to go against the Cherokees. A march from the
Oneida stone, the Kasonda creek, or the Genesee valley, to the southern
Alleghanies, was regarded as a mere excursion or scouting trip. This
long journey was performed without provisions, or any other preparation
than bows, arrows and clubs. The fewer there were in one of these
partizan enterprizes, the greater was their chance of concealment and
success. They relied on the forest for food. Thousands of miles were
not sufficient to dampen their ardor, and no time could blot out their
hatred. They called the Cherokees, by way of derision, WE YAU
DAH, and O YAU DAH, meaning a people who live in caves.
These are the terms I found to be in use for the Cherokee nation, in
1845.
[c.] Exploit of Hi-a-de-o-ni.
The following incident in the verbal annals of Iroquois hardihood and
heroism, was related to me by the intelligent Seneca TETOYOAH,
(William Jones of Cattaraugus) along with other reminiscences of the
ancient Cherokee wars. The Iroquois thought life was well lost, if they
could gain glory by it.
* * * * *
HI-A-DE-O-NI, said he, was the father of the late chief Young
King. He was a Seneca warrior, a man of great prowess, dexterity, and
swiftness of foot, and had established his reputation for courage and
skill, on many occasions. He resolved, while the Senecas were still
living on the Genesee river, to make an incursion alone into the
country of the Cherokees. He plumed himself with the idea, that he
could distinguish himself in this daring adventure, and he prepared for
it, according to the custom of warriors. They never encumber themselves
with baggage. He took nothing but his arms, and the meal of a little
parched and pounded corn.[82] The forest gave him his meat.
* * * * *
[82] One table spoonful of this mixed with sugar and water will sustain
a warrior twenty-four hours without meat.
HI-A-DE-O-NI reached the confines of the Cherokee country in
safety and alone. He waited for evening before he entered the precincts
of a village. He found the people engaged in a dance. He watched his
opportunity, and when one of the dancers went out from the ring into
the bushes, he despatched him with his hatchet. In this way he killed
two men that night, in the skirts of the woods, without exciting alarm,
and took their scalps and retreated. It was late when he came to a
lodge, standing remote from the rest, on his course homeward. Watching
here, he saw a young man come out, and killed him as he had done the
others, and took his scalp. Looking into the lodge cautiously, he saw
it empty, and ventured in with the hope of finding some tobacco and
ammunition, to serve him on his way home.
While thus busied in searching the lodge, he heard footsteps at the
door, and immediately threw himself on the bed from which the young
man had risen, and covered his face, feigning sleep. They proved to be
the footsteps of his last victim’s mother. She, supposing him to be
her son, whom she had a short time before left lying there, said, “My
son, I am going to such a place, and will not be back till morning.”
He made a suitable response, and the old woman went out. Insensibly
he fell asleep, and knew nothing till morning, when the first thing
he heard was the mother’s voice. She, careful for her son, was at the
fireplace very early, pulling some roasted squashes out of the ashes,
and after putting them out, and telling him, she left them for him to
eat; she went away. He sprang up instantly, and fled; but the early
dawn had revealed his inroad, and he was hotly pursued. Light of foot,
and having the start, he succeeded in reaching and concealing himself
in a remote piece of woods, where he laid till night, and then pursued
his way towards the Genesee, which, in due time he reached, bringing
his three Cherokee scalps as trophies of his victory and prowess.
Such are the traditionary facts which are yet repeated by the Iroquois,
to console their national pride in their decline. The incident reminds
one strongly of the class of daring personal deeds of the noted
Adirondack PISKARET, as related by Colden; and it demonstrates
how soon the daring traits of one ruling tribe may be adopted and even
surpassed by another.
The Tonawandas, who are Senecas, appear to have preserved more distinct
recollections of the origin of this war. HOHOEEYUH,[83]
stated to me, as did TETOYOAH, that it originated from the
contact of their hunting parties on the plains of the southwest. But
the latter affirms, that the Cherokees were the original offenders, by
robbing and plundering a Seneca hunting party, and taking away their
skins. Retaliation ensued. Tragic scenes of surprise and treachery soon
followed. The Five Nations took up the matter in all their strength.
They, contrary to what is above intimated, raised large war-parties,
and marched through the country to the Cherokee borders, and brought
away scalps and prisoners. There are now, he added, descendants of the
Cherokees in the third degree living on the Tonawanda reservation. Le
Fort, an Onondaga chief, speaking on the same subject, said that there
was, some years ago, a chief of pure Cherokee blood, by father and
mother, living among them. He had been taken captive when a mere child.
The fact being revealed to him after he had obtained the chieftaincy,
he went to seek his relatives in the south, and to live and die among
them; but after every inquiry, he was unable to find them. The memory
of the event of his loss was forgotten. He lingered a time, and then
came back to the Senecas, and died among them—an example of that
severe principle in the policy of this people, which has been before
referred to, under the term of WE HAIT WA TSHA, _i. e._ flesh
cut in pieces, and scattered amongst the tribes.
[83] J. A. Sandford.
Iroquois tradition on this subject is the same now that it was in 1794.
During this year, the interpreters told Col. Timothy Pickering, who was
a commissioner on the part of the United States, that there were then
living, warriors of the Six Nations, who had marched the whole distance
to the Cherokee county, and attacked the latter. In proof of the former
wars, they showed him a chief, who was a native Cherokee, born in the
Cherokee country, who had been captured when a boy, and invested with
this honor in mature life by the Senecas.[84] While the foregoing
tradition of living Iroquois is strengthened by this coincidence, we
are, at the same time, furnished by the latter with a proof that the
Iroquois policy was favorable to the rise of talent and bravery, and
that whatever be the checks provided by the TOTEMIC SYSTEM, on
the descent of chiefs, the elective feature was ever strongly marked
upon their entire government and policy.
[84] Yates and Moulton, p. 232.
[_d._] Embassy of Peace to the Cherokees, and Daring Feat of a Seneca.
In the course of the long and fierce war between the Six Nations and
the Cherokees, it happened, said Oliver Silverheels, that eight Senecas
determined to go on an embassy of peace. Among them was LITTLE
BEARD, the elder, and Jack Berry. They met some Cherokees on the
confines of the Cherokee territories, to whom they imparted their
object. Intelligence of this interview was sent forward to their
village, where the ambassadors were duly received, and after this
preliminary reception, they were introduced to the ruling chiefs, and
favorably received by the Cherokee council.
All but _one_ of the Cherokee chiefs agreed to the terms of peace. He
also would consent, if, prior to the treaty, the eight Seneca delegates
would first consent to go to war against their enemies, situated south
of them. [Who their enemies were is not mentioned.] They consented,
and set out with a war party. A fight ensued in which the leader of
the Senecas, called AWL, was taken prisoner. The other seven
escaped. The fate of Awl was decided in the enemies camp, where it
was determined that he should be burned at the stake. Preparations
were made for this purpose, but as they were about to bind him, he
claimed the privilege of a warrior, to sing his death song and recite
his exploits by striking the post. Pleased with the spirit of his
request, and his noble air and words, his suit was granted, and they
put a tomahawk into his hands, that he might go through the ceremony.
He began by relating his exploits in the north. He recited his feats
against the western Indians, adding, with the usual particularity,
times and places, and the number of scalps taken. They were pleased and
interested in these recitals, and quite forgot the prisoner, in the
warrior. At last he came to the late battle, in which he was taken. He
told how many of the Catabas, Apalaches, or Muscogees (if these were
the tribes) he had killed. He kindled with redoubled ardor as he struck
the post with his tomahawk, exclaiming, “so many of your own people, I
have killed,” and suiting his actions to his words, “so many I will yet
kill.” With this he struck down two men, bounded through the ring and
ran. Consternation, for a moment, prevented pursuit, which gave him a
start. Being swift of foot he outran his pursuers, eluded them in the
woods, and reached the Cherokee camp, where he found and joined his
seven companions.
They concluded the peace, and returned in safety to the Seneca country.
[_e._] The Graveyard Serpent and Corn Giant.
Seneca tradition states that they formerly lived on the Chippewa river,
near Niagara Falls, Canada. One year, while thus located, they were
visited by a calamitous sickness, and their corn was blighted. Their
prophet dreamt, one night, that a great serpent laid under the village,
with his head to the graveyard, and that it devoured all the bodies
buried. This gave a most offensive breath, which was the cause of the
sickness.
He also dreamt that there was a great giant under the cornfield, who
ate up the corn.
When he revealed these dreams to the chiefs, they determined to abandon
the town, and immediately removed to Buffalo creek. The serpent soon
followed them, and entered the mouth of the creek; but the Great
Spirit, whose especial favorites they ever were, sent lightning to
destroy it. The monster, however, proceeded up the stream, until the
arrows from above fell so thick, that he was obliged to turn. His great
size made him press against the shores, and break off the ground, and
this is the cause of the expanse of the river three miles above its
mouth. Before he reached the mouth of the stream, however, the arrows
had cut him apart and thus they escaped this scourge.
When they went back to visit their old town on the Chippewa river, they
found the giant who had eaten up the corn, hanging by one leg from the
crotch of a high lodge pole, with his body on the ground. He was very
meagre, and had very long and thin legs, with scarcely any flesh on
them. [_W. I. C. Hosmer._]
[If the above is to be regarded, as it clearly must, as an allegory of
sickness and famine, it would have put Greek fancy to the task, to have
concentrated the matter in a smaller compass, or to have exhibited it
in a more striking light.]
[_f._] Allusion to the siege of Fort-Stanwix and the Battle of Oriskany.
Seneca tradition is rife on this subject. Tetayoah says that they lost
thirty-three chiefs in the battle of Oriskany.
Jacob Blacksnake adds, that he has seen a book in which it was stated
that the Senecas had burned eight officers taken at this battle, in
revenge for their losses. This he contradicts, on the authority of his
father, Governor Blacksnake, who was there. The officers had been asked
for after the battle, by the British; but they were refused, on account
of their great losses. They were not, however, burned at the stake. It
was decided that they should run the gauntlet, and they were killed by
clubs, &c. in this ordeal.
[_g._] Defeat of the Kah-Kwahs on Buffalo creek.
Some of the Senecas affirm, that it is ninety years since the battle
with the Kah-Kwahs, on the site of the grave yard, on the Buffalo creek
reservation, was fought. This would place the event in 1755, a date
so modern, and so well known, in our colonial history, as to prove
what a poor figure they make in attempts to adjust chronology. If 190
years [and, perhaps, such should be the tradition,] be taken, the event
(allowing two years for their defence) would assume the precise time
[1655] indicated for it, by one of Le Moyne’s missionary letters, in
which he says, that the war with the Eries had broken out afresh in
1653.
[_h._] Era of the Confederation.
There is a tradition among portions of the Senecas, that the present
confederation took place four years before Hudson sailed up the
river bearing his name. This gives A. D. 1605. This question has
been examined in its general bearings in a prior paper. All other
authorities _indicate an earlier_ date.
[_i._] Some passages of the traditions of their wars with monsters,
giants and supernatural phenomena.
It is proposed to narrate a few passages of their early wars with
monsters and giants, the two prominent objects in the foreground of
their traditions. If it be thought, in perusing them, that mythology
and superstition mingle too freely with real events or actions, to
which the mind makes no exception, that is a matter upon which we
have nothing to offer. Let it rather be considered as a proof of
the authenticity of the narrative; for certainly there could be no
stronger indication of a contrary character, than to find the Indian
narrator relating a clear, consistent chain of indisputable facts and
deductions, to fill up the foreground of his history. What is said of
such creations tallies admirably with their belief, at the present day,
and harmonizes with itself, and with that state of proud heathendom,
adventurous idolatry, and wild and roving independence in which they
lived. Who but an Aonaod? who but an Iroquois? could enact such a
part, or believe that his ancestors ever did? To be great, and admired
and feared, they roved over half America in quest of beasts and men.
Surely, the man should be allowed to tell his own story in his own way,
with all the witchcraft and spirit-craft he has a mind to bring to bear
upon it.
No people in the world have ever, probably, so completely mingled
up and lost their early history, in fictions and allegories, types
and symbols, as the red men of this continent. Making no sort of
distinction themselves, between the symbolic and the historical, they
have left no distinctions to mark the true from the false. Their
notions of a Deity, founded, apparently, upon some dreamy tradition
of original truth, are so subtile and divisible, and establish so
heterogenous a connection, between spirit and matter, of all imaginable
forms, that popular belief seems to have wholly confounded the possible
with the impossible, the natural with the supernatural. Action, so
far as respects cause and effect, takes the widest and wildest range,
through the agency of good or evil influences, which are put in motion
alike for noble or ignoble ends—alike by men, beasts, devils or gods.
Seeing some things mysterious and wonderful, he believes all things
mysterious and wonderful; and he is afloat, without shore or compass,
on the wildest sea of superstition and necromancy. He sees a god in
every phenomenon and fears a sorcerer in every enemy. Life, under
such a system of polytheism and wild belief, is a constant scene of
fears and alarms. Fear is the predominating passion, and he is ready,
wherever he goes, to sacrifice at any altar, be the supposed deity
ever so grotesque. When such a man comes to narrate events, he stops
at nothing, be it ever so gross or puerile. He relates just what he
believes, and unluckily he believes every thing that can possibly be
told. A beast or a bird, or a man, or a god, or a devil, a stone, a
serpent, or a wizzard, a wind or a sound, or a ray of light—these are
so many causes of action, which the meanest and lowest of the series,
may put in motion, but which shall, in his theology and philosophy,
vibrate along the mysterious chain through the uppermost skies; and
life or death may, at any moment, be the reward or the penalty. If
there be truth, mingled in the man’s narrations, as there sometimes is,
it must be judged of by the lights of reason, common sense, science,
sound philosophy and religion. It is a gordian knot for the modern
historian to untie; or it is a mass of traditionary chaff, from which
we may, perhaps, winnow a few grains of wheat. Herodotus had, probably,
just such materials to work upon, and he made the best possible use
of them, by letting the events stand as they were given, without
exercising any inductive faculty upon them, or telling us the why and
the wherefore; or if he ever deviates from the rule, as in the case of
the fishes descending the Nile, it is a species of labor which might as
well have been omitted.[85]
[85] It was designed, when these preliminary remarks were penned, to
add some wilder legends than are here presented, which are, at present,
withheld.
By the figure of a long house, the Iroquois meant to denote the
confederated frame work of the league; by a great tree planted, they
symbolized its deep seated natural power, one in blood and lineage,
and its overshadowing influence and permanency. To assail such a
combination of stout hearts, nature they thought must send forth the
stoutest and most appalling objects of her creation.
The first enemy that appeared to question their power, or disturb their
peace, was the fearful phenomenon of Ko-nea-rau-neh-neh, or the Flying
Heads. These heads were enveloped in a beard and hair, flaming like
fire; they were of monstrous size, and shot through the air with the
velocity of meteors. Human power was not adequate to cope with them.
The priests pronounced them an emanation of some mysterious influence,
and it remained with the priests alone, to exorcise them by their arts.
Drum and rattle and incantation, were deemed more effective, than arrow
or club. One evening, after they had been plagued a long time with
this fearful visitation, the Flying Head came to the door of a lodge
occupied by a single female and her dog. She was sitting composedly
before the fire roasting acorns, which, as they become done, she
deliberately took from the fire and eat. Amazement seized the flying
head, who put out two huge black paws, from beneath his streaming
beard. Supposing the woman to be eating _live_ coals he withdrew, and
from that time he came no more among them.[86]
[86] For a poetic use of this tradition of the Heads and Stonish
Giants, see Hoffman’s Wild Scenes, vol. 1, page 82. New-York edition of
1843.
The withdrawal of the Ko-nea-rau-neh-neh, was followed by the
appearance of the great ONYARE,[87] or Lake Serpent, which
traversed the country, and by coiling himself in leading positions near
the paths, interrupted the communication between the towns. He created
terror wherever he went, and diffused a poisonous breath.
[87] Mohawk.
While this enemy yet remained in the land, and they were counselling
about the best means of killing him, or driving him away, the
country was invaded by a still more fearful enemy, namely: the
OT-NE-YAR-HEH, or Stonish Giants. They were a powerful tribe
from the wilderness, tall, fierce and hostile, and resistance to them
was vain. They defeated and overwhelmed an army which was sent out
against them, and put the whole country in fear. These giants were not
only of prodigious strength, but they were cannibals, devouring men,
women and children in their inroads.
It is said by the Shawnees, that they were descended from a certain
family, which journeyed on the east side of the Mississippi, after the
vine broke, and they went towards the northwest. Abandoned to wandering
and the hardships of the forest, they forgot the rules of humanity, and
began at first, to eat raw flesh, and next men. They practiced rolling
themselves in the sand, and by this means their bodies were covered
with hard skin, so that the arrows of the Iroquois only rattled against
their rough bodies, and fell at their feet. And the consequence was,
that they were obliged to hide in caves, and glens, and were brought
into subjection by these fierce invaders for many winters, (or years.)
At length the Holder of the Heavens, visited his people, and finding
that they were in great distress, he determined to grant them relief,
and rid them entirely of these barbarous invaders. To accomplish this,
he changed himself into one of these giants, and brandishing his heavy
club, led them on, under the pretence of finding the Akonoshioni. When
they had got near to their strong hold at Onondaga, night coming on,
he bid them lie down in a hollow, telling them that he would make the
attack at the customary hour, at day-break. But at day break, having
ascended a height, he overwhelmed them with a vast mass of rocks, where
their forms may yet be seen. Only one escaped to carry the news of
their dreadful fate, and he fled towards the north.
They were thus relieved, and began to live in more security, but the
great ON-YAR-HE, or Lake Serpent, was yet in the country.
Alarmed by what Tarenyawagon had done to relieve his people, and
fearing for himself, he withdrew to the lakes, where he and his brood
were destroyed with thunder bolts, or compelled to retire to deep water.
The Five Families were so much molested with giants and monsters, that
they were compelled to build forts to protect themselves. The manner of
doing it was this: they built fires against trees, and then used their
stone axes to pick off the charred part; in this way, by renewing the
fire, they soon felled them; and the fallen trunks were burned off in
suitable lengths, in the same way, and then set up according to the
size and plan of the fort, a bank of earth being piled outside and
inside. They left two gates, one to get water, and the other as a sally
port. [D.]
For some time after the great ON-YAR-HE had left the country,
they had peace; but in after years a still more terrific enemy came.
It had a man’s head on the body of a great serpent. This terrific foe
took his position on the path between the Onondagas and Cayugas, and
thus cut off all intercourse between their towns, for this was also
the great thoroughfare of the five families, or nations. The bravest
warriors were mustered to attack him with spears, darts and clubs. They
approached him on all sides with yells. A terrible battle ensued; the
monster raged furiously, but he was at last pierced in a vital place,
and finally killed. This triumph was celebrated in songs and dances,
and the people were consoled. They hunted again in peace, but after
a time rumors began to be rife of the appearance of an extraordinary
and ferocious animal in various places, under the name of the great
O-YAL-KHER, or mammoth bear. One morning, while a party of
hunters were in their camp, near the banks of a lake, in the Oneida
country, they were alarmed by a great tumult breaking out from the
lake. Going to see the cause of this extraordinary noise, they saw the
monster on the bank rolling down stones and logs into the water, and
exhibiting the utmost signs of rage. Another great animal of the cat
kind, with great paws, came out of the water, and seized the bear. A
dreadful fight ensued; in the end the bear was worsted and retired,
horribly lamed. The next day the hunters ventured out to the spot,
where they found one of the fore legs of the bear. It was so heavy that
two men were required to lift it, but they found it was palatable food
and made use of it, for their warriors believe that it inspires courage
to eat of fierce and brave animals.
After a while, a great pestiferous and annoying creature of the insect
tribe, appeared about the forts at Onondaga, in the guise of the
GE-NE-UN-DAH SAIS-KE, or huge musquito. It first appeared in
the Onondaga country. It flew about the fort with vast wings, making
a loud noise, with a long stinger, and on whomsoever it lighted, it
sucked out his blood and killed him. Many warriors were killed in
this way, and all attempts made to subdue it were abortive, till
Tarenyawagon, or the Holder of the Heavens, was on a visit one day to
the ruler of the Onondagas. The giant musquito happened to come flying
about the fort, as usual at this time. Tarenyawagon attacked it, but
such was its rapidity of flight that he could scarcely keep in sight
of it. He chased it around the border of the great lakes, towards
sun-setting, and round the great country at large, east and west. At
last he overtook it and killed it near Gen-an-do-a, or the salt lake
of Onondaga. From the blood flowing out on this occasion, the present
species of small musquitoes originated.