THE FUTURE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN.
Every historian and prophet who has preceded me, has reiterated the
prediction that “the doom of the Indian is extinction!” I shall not
contradict it; but I fearlessly say, this ought not so to be. Is it not
a libel upon Christianity, that it is not fitted for all the people of
the earth? Is it not a libel upon Him, “who made of one blood all
nations;” who made the heavens and the earth; that He contemplated the
happiness of only one portion, and instituted a system of religion
fitted only for a few?
He does not tell us that Christ came into the world, to be crucified
and slain for the Saxon and the Norman alone! He died to redeem a
world; and He said, “Go and preach the Gospel to all nations.” If He
created a people incapable of receiving the Gospel and profiting by it,
how strange the command that it should be preached to them. We look
upon the instances of degeneracy among Indian youth who have been
educated, and exclaim, “How fruitless are all our efforts!” without
taking into consideration the true causes of this degeneracy, or the
inefficacy of any means yet employed for the accomplishment of our
ostensible object. Yet it is stated, that as far back as 1846, there
were more Cherokees who could read the English or their own tongue,
than could be found among the white people, in proportion to the whole
number, in any State of the Union!
In 1818, a plan was conceived for educating the Indians of the whole
country, by the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, which, though in
operation but a few years, proved conclusively that the Indian was
capable of any degree of cultivation. He obtained from Congress an
appropriation of ten thousand dollars, annually, for his purpose; and
with the cordial approbation and co-operation of various missionary and
religious societies, established schools among the Indians all along
upon our western borders, from Lake Superior to Chattahoochee,—in which
were gathered eighteen hundred children, “deriving instruction, and
making as rapid advances in the various incipient branches of learning,
in agriculture and the mechanic arts, as are made in any part of the
United States by the children of white people.” Then arose a new power;
the demons of avarice and selfishness ruled in the councils of our
nation. These Indians, who had become a Christian people, with the
religion of Christ for their religion—occupying lands, rich with the
products of their industry—must be thrust forth, because they were a
people of a darker hue than ourselves. So these flourishing schools
were broken up; these happy children were deprived of all their means
of improvement, and thousands of innocent people were compelled to
leave their homes and firesides, and wend their way to the
wilderness—leaving the pathway drenched with their tears, and stained
with their blood.
And even now, what has the Indian youth to awaken hope, and excite
ambition? Not even yet, in the State of New York, is he granted the
privileges of citizenship, though his claims, as native American, are
prior to those of every Saxon on her soil. He is a land-owner, an
agriculturist, an educated, a Christian man—but still treated as if he
were an idiot or a brute.
The story of young James McDonald, in whom Colonel McKenney and Philip
Thomas took so great an interest, illustrates the feelings of every red
man, when he thinks of becoming like his white brethren. This young man
was adopted into the family of Colonel McKenney, and being the age of
his own son, enjoyed every privilege which he enjoyed. In the family
and in the social circle they were equals, and were afforded the same
advantages of education. The Indian youth was endowed with all the
personal beauty of the noblest of his race, “with a manner the most
gracious and winning,” said his adopted parent, “and a morality I never
saw invaded.” Of his progress in study, when he had been only a little
while at school, his teacher remarked, that “he came with his lessons
better digested, and more Greek and Latin and mathematics in one of
them, than the class to which he was attached could get through in a
week,—so he was obliged to place him in a class by himself.”
When he had finished his academical studies, his benefactor chose for
him the profession of the law. But he had begun to think of the
difference between the treatment he was then receiving, and that which
awaited him when he should go forth in the world, and he exclaimed,
“Wherefore! wherefore! Of what use to me will be my present or future
attainments? Oh, sir,” pressing his hand against his forehead as he
continued, “it will be all lost on me. I am an Indian, and being an
Indian, I am marked with a mark as deep and abiding as that which Cain
bore. My race is degraded—trodden upon—despised.” He then took from his
bosom a letter from his brother, who was a lieutenant in the navy, and
whose bitter experience had wrung from him the following words: “There
is only one of two things to do: either throw away all that belongs to
the white race and turn Indian, or quit being Indian and turn white
man. The first you can do—the latter it is not in your power to do. The
white man hates the Indian, and will never permit him to come into
close fellowship with him, or to be a participator in any of his high
prerogatives or distinguished advantages.”
When young James was asked if any thing in his experience in the family
in which he lived, would justly lead him to such a conclusion, he
answered: “No, sir; oh, no; no indeed. But this is an exception, and
only serves to prove the rule. You are to me a father. My gratitude to
you and your family can never die. I know I am treated with the
greatest attention, even to tenderness.” The tears came to his eyes; he
sat down and pressed his handkerchief to his face, until it was
literally wet with weeping.
After awhile he spoke, saying, “Yes, sir; I will go to Ohio and read
law with Mr. McLean. I will do any thing that it may be your pleasure
for me to do. I should indeed be an ingrate to thwart your kind designs
towards me in any thing. But the seal is upon my destiny!”
When the time was fixed for him to go, day after day he still lingered,
so great was his reluctance to leave home, and father, and mother, and
sisters and friends, to become, as he believed, an alien evermore. But
he went, and in about half the time usually occupied in acquiring this
profession, he was ready for the bar.
He was a Choctaw, and when he had finished his studies he returned to
his people, on a visit to his mother. Whilst there he was chosen one of
a company of delegates to come to Washington on business, and Mr.
Calhoun and others, who were engaged with him in transacting it, were
astonished at his powers and his acquisitions. But his adopted parent
saw with the deepest anguish that he was endeavoring to blunt his keen
sensibilities, and stifle the conflict in his bosom by the intoxicating
draught. He could not endure that one so gifted and so beautiful should
be thus destroyed, and sought many opportunities of remonstrating with
him. At one time he reminded him of the days he had spent under his
roof—those days of innocence, and honor, and bliss. He sprang to his
feet and exclaimed, “Spare me! oh, spare me! It is that thought which
makes me so miserable. I have lost that sweet home and its endearments;
the veil which was so kindly placed between me and my Indian caste has
since been torn away. I have been made to see since that I cannot,
whilst such anomalous relations exist, as do exist between the red and
the white race, be other than a degraded outcast.”
He was invited to go back to that loved spot, and assured that the same
welcome awaited him there that he had always experienced; but he said,
“Oh, name it not to me, sir; I can never go there again! The very
thought of those haunts where I was once so happy, and of the kindness
shown me there, being met, as they are, and crushed by the
consciousness of what I now am, distracts me.”
But he recovered, in some measure, his former self-reliance and
cheerfulness, and returned to open a law office in Jackson,
Mississippi, where his prospects were very flattering. Then came
disappointed love, to ring again in his ears the doom of the red man,
“You are an Indian—you belong to a degraded race.” Hope fled and
despair took possession of him; he mounted a high bluff, overhanging
the river, and precipitated himself into the water to rise no more.
“Wherefore! wherefore!” He might toil and earn money—riches might be
within the reach, even of an Indian; but gold cannot satisfy a noble
heart. He must not dream of honors, he must not dream of domestic
happiness; and what is gold, aye, what is life, when all this is
denied?
Let it suddenly be revealed to all the youth in our colleges, as an
unalterable destiny, that they are evermore debarred from distinction,
and the hope of one day forming for themselves a home, and being
surrounded by a circle of loved ones, and what would there be to allure
them up the hill of science? Would not every energy be paralyzed, and
should we not with certainty expect to see them go down to perdition?
The love of knowledge merely, is a little better than the love of
money; but both are very ignoble motives to inspire immortal minds, and
support them on the pilgrimage through this world. The desire of the
approbation of heaven and of being useful on earth may be good, and
perhaps should be sufficient motives; but how many among the most
cultivated and Christian would falter, with only these to sustain them?
With a majority of people the idea is entertained that the nature of
the Indian is so entirely different from the nature of the Saxon. This
is true only in one sense—that education, and centuries of indulgence
in peculiar habits, tend to make them second nature. The Indian is not
alone in loving a wild roving life, free from care and toil.
So late as 1826, restoration to home and kindred was offered to several
women who had been made captive and carried beyond Lake Superior, and
they rejected the boon. They had become entirely released from the
trammels of society, and cared not to be encumbered with them again.
Chateaubriand relates, that when travelling through the wilds of
America, he heard that he had a countryman who had become a resident of
the forest. He visited him, not so much with a desire to see his
countryman, as of philosophizing upon his condition. After several
hours’ conversation, he put his last grand question:
“‘Phillip, are you happy?’
“He knew not, at first, how to reply. ‘Happy?’ said he,
reflecting—‘happy?—yes;—but happy only since I became a savage.’
“‘And how do you pass your life?’ asked I. He laughed.
“‘I understand you,’ continued I. ‘You think such a question unworthy
of an answer; but should you not like to resume your former mode of
living, and return to your country?’
“‘My country—France? If I were not so old I should like to see it
again.’
“‘And you would not remain there?’ The motion of Phillip’s head
answered my question sufficiently. ‘But what induced you,’ continued I,
‘to become what you call a savage?’
“‘I don’t know,’ said he—‘instinct.’
“This expression put an end to my doubts and questions. I remained ten
days with Phillip, in order to observe him, and never saw him swerve
for a single moment from the assertion he had made. His soul, free from
the conflict of the social passions, appeared, in the language of the
Indian, calm as the field of battle, after the warriors had smoked
together their calumet of peace.”
How many a trapper has become wed to a forest life. I never yet heard
of one who voluntarily returned to the plough and the anvil. Why, then,
should we expect an Indian to seek them? The same necessity must be
laid upon him as upon us, ere he will toil, and he must be inspired
with the same motives, ere he will prefer knowledge to ignorance.
If there had been no wars in our country, except between the colonists
and the Indians, Christianity might have been taught by example as well
as precept. But three times since the settlement of America, the red
man has been obliged to witness, and take part in bloody conflicts,
between the very nations who professed to come to him with the religion
which condemned war; and these nations were fighting about the very
lands which they were constantly telling the Indian it was wrong for
him to defend at the expense of life, though they were his birthright,
and dear to him, as the inheritance of his fathers. Their invaders
fought to defend what was not their own; why should not he defend what
was his all?
It is strange that there have been so many, rather than that there have
been so few, who were willing to receive Christianity, and the arts of
civilization, from their oppressors. The proud lord of the forest never
consented to become subject or slave. When he yielded, it was to stern
necessity; and when we remember what he had to give up, and that when
we had taken from him his possessions, and all he held most dear,
giving him nothing in return, but the privilege of living as best he
could, never calling him, or treating him as brother, or freeman; we
cannot fail to see that he has done exactly as we should have done in
the same circumstances.
As it was, the labors of Eliot and Mayhew, of Kirkland and Brainard,
and many more in modern times, have not been without their reward.
Mayhew wrote the lives of between one and two hundred “Christian men
and women, and godly ministers,” and there is exhibited no difference
between Indian Christians, and Christians of other nations.
What a beautiful illustration of Christian principle was the famous
Oneida Chief, Shenandoah. For sixty years he had been the terror of all
who heard his name, when he listened to the gospel message from Mr.
Kirkland, and immediately became a little child, in meekness and every
Christian grace. He lived more than a hundred years; and when, a little
while before he died, a friend called and asked concerning his health,
he said, “I am an aged hemlock; the winds of a hundred winters have
whistled through my branches. I am dead at the top (referring to his
blindness). Why I yet live, the Great Good Spirit only knows. When I am
dead, bury me by the side of my good minister and friend, that I may go
up with him at the great resurrection.”
Kusick was a Tuscarora Chief, and where shall we look for a nobler
instance of friendship than his towards Lafayette, or for Christian
principle more firm and true than he evinced concerning his pension.
In the war of the Revolution he was under Lafayette’s command. Many
years after peace was concluded, as he was passing through Washington,
he accidentally heard the name of his old commander spoken in the
office where he stopped for business. The moment his ear caught the
sound, with eyes lighted and full of earnestness, he asked:
“Is he yet alive?”
“Yes,” was the reply, “he is alive, and looking well and hearty.”
With deep emphasis he said, “I am glad to hear it.”
“Then you knew Lafayette, Kusick?”
“Oh yes,” he answered, “I knew him well; and many a time in the
battles, I threw myself between him and the bullets, for I loved him!”
On being asked if he had a commission, he said “Yes, General Washington
gave him one, and he was lieutenant.” This suggested to his friends
that he was entitled to a pension, and on looking over the records, the
truth of what he said was confirmed, and he received one for several
years.
Afterwards, Congress passed a law making it necessary that each
recipient should swear that he could not live without the pension. When
the old chief was called upon to do this, he said, “Now here is my
little log cabin, and it’s my own; here’s my patch where I can raise
corn, and beans, and pumpkins; and there is Lake Oneida, where I can
catch fish; with these I can make out to live without the pension, and
to say I could not, would be to lie to the Great Spirit.” This was the
honor of an Indian Chief; how many among those of our own people who
receive pensions would have done likewise for conscience’ sake? Kusick
could speak the English language very well, but when he made an audible
prayer or said grace at table, he used his native Tuscarora, “because,”
said he, “when I speak English I am often at a loss for a word; when
therefore I speak to the Great Spirit, I do not like to be perplexed,
or have my mind distracted to look after a word. When I use my own
language, it is like my breath; I am composed.” In this is exemplified
that he fully understood the reverence which was due to the Great
Ruler.
Instances might be multiplied a hundred fold, to prove that the
religion of Christ can soften and renew the heart of the fiercest
warrior of the wilderness, as well as the heart of the child of
civilization. The records of missions numbers forty thousand Indian
converts; and, if only half these have become genuine followers of the
cross of Christ, the patient and faithful missionary has not labored in
vain.
There is a little remnant still left among us; and if these are
permitted to perish, it will not be the fault of our fathers, and the
dark age in which they lived. We know their wants and their capacities,
and have abundant means for all the good we please to accomplish.
Of the Iroquois there are three thousand; of Indians within our
jurisdiction, three hundred thousand. They should be citizens of our
republic; their oaths should be respected in our courts of justice; and
their representatives should be in our national councils; then we
should see hope dawn in their bosoms, and ambition revive their
energies.
One who had the means of making the estimate, and no motive for stating
it incorrectly, says we have become possessed of all these fair domains
at the paltry price of two cents and three quarters an acre! By robbery
we have grown rich.
It was suggested in Congress, not long since, that “a person be
employed to collect and arrange the treaties, and other authentic
documents, tending to illustrate the history of the relinquishment of
land titles by native Indian tribes, and to prepare such means of
illustration as may be necessary for a full knowledge of the
acquirement of the States of the title to their lands.” To which it was
answered: “Let us do no such thing. Let us rather gather up and
destroy—commit to the flames all that records the progress of our
acquisitions. Leave only to tradition, or forget entirely, the infamy
which we acquired with the titles we enjoy—for who can look unmoved
upon the parchment that tells how many miles square were bought with a
few strings of paltry beads—how the council fires that had burned for
ages were put out, and the bands that gathered round them for ages were
scattered—their birthrights, their wigwams, and their hunting grounds
bartered away for a score of worthless rifles, or a bundle of useless
trinkets,—how we first debased, and then defrauded, the children of the
forest out of all their hills and valleys, their lakes and rivers, over
which are scattered the millions whose representatives are asked to
perpetuate the records of wrongs inflicted by their ancestors.
Doubtless there was necessity for the wrong—for the extermination of
one race, for the increase of another. But there exists no necessity
that we should make a parade of the means by which that extermination
was effected. They may be forgiven; we may, at least, forget them.”
[10]
It is too late to blot out these dark records; but it is not yet too
late to prove that we
“Are wiser than our ‘Fathers’ were,
And better know the Lord.”
It is confidently predicted that we are on the verge of another Indian
war, more terrible than our country ever experienced; and yet with our
rich, powerful, and consolidated government, it is perfectly possible
to prevent this war. The Indian of the West is the same as the Indian
of the East; and it is a thousand times better to soften his heart by
kindness than to pierce it by a bullet.
A traveller describes the following Sabbath morning scene, far beyond
the confines of civilization, among the Chippewas, Menomonies, and
Winnebagoes, where only the trader and the missionary had been.
“The dawn of this Sabbath morning was peculiarly beautiful; ‘rosy
fingers’ did seem ‘to unbar the gates of light.’ Violet and purple with
a wide and widening circle of ‘orient pearl,’ all met my eye with their
charming and chastening influences—and then there was such silence! Not
a leaf rustled, and the waves broke in softer murmur on the shore. Yet,
all this silence was broken in upon this morning—for, just between the
time when the eastern sky was made mellow with the sun’s light, and the
light began to tip the tops of tree and mountain, and all was so quiet,
my ears were greeted by sweet sounds of music! They came from a lodge
of Christian Indians, which was hard by in the woods. They had risen
with the day ‘to worship God!’ They sang in three parts, base, tenor,
and treble, and with a time so true, and with voices so sweet, as to
add harmony even to nature itself. Notes of thrush and nightingale
sound sweeter when poured forth amidst the grove; so sounded those of
these forest warblers in the midst of the green foliage and in the
stillness of the woods. I attended their worship, and was present with
them again in the evening; and as I listened to their songs of praise,
and their prayers, I felt humbled and ashamed of my country, in view of
the wrongs it had inflicted, and still continues to inflict, upon these
desolate and destitute children of the forest. There were flowers and
gems there, which needed only to be cultivated and polished, to insure
from the one the emission of as sweet odors as ever regaled the circles
of the civilized; and from the other, a brilliance as dazzling as ever
sparkled in the diadem of queenly beauty. And yet they were, and are,
neglected, trodden down, and treated as outcasts!”
But no missionary society has the means of accomplishing the work of
carrying the gospel and education, to such a multitude of roving
people, over such a wide extent of country. This is the duty of the
government, and if wisely planned, would not be so difficult of
execution. It would not cost so much as a war, and would save us from
the retribution which must certainly come upon those who make cruelty
and treachery the purchase money with which to gain territory, and
enrich it with the blood of the innocent and helpless.
Extinction may be the doom of the Indian, but it does not require a
prophet’s authority to enable us to say, “Woe unto those by whom this
offence cometh.”
APPENDIX.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE IROQUOIS.
If the Indian should be entirely banished from our borders, the memory
of him cannot die. For, as I have elsewhere quoted,
“Their names are on our waters,
We cannot wash them out.”
The dialects of the Six Nations bore a strong resemblance to each
other, though there were still differences which marked them as
distinct. Those who understood one were able to converse in each of the
others, and in council the representatives of each nation had no
difficulty in interpreting what was said by all. The Mohawk and Oneida
strongly resembled each other, and the Seneca and Cayuga were the same.
The Onondaga “was considered by the Iroquois as the most finished and
majestic,” while to our ears it is the most harsh, and the Oneida the
most musical.
They used nineteen letters, having no labials or liquids, except
occasionally is heard among the Mohawks the sound of L and among the
Tuscaroras the sound of F. The Senecas and Cayugas talk all day without
shutting their lips, and there are no oaths in their language. Before
an Indian can be profane he must learn French or English, and his
language is so constructed too, that evasion is almost impossible.
Metaphors are in constant requisition in Indian speeches and
conversation. If one comes in when the weather is very cold, he says,
“It is a nose-cutting morning.” If he wishes to reflect upon a
proposition before deciding, he says, “I will put the matter under my
pillow, and let you know.” He says of an emaciated person, “He has dry
bones.” A steamboat is called “The ship impelled by fire.” A horse is a
“log carrier,” a cow a “cud chewer,” and a goat a “scented animal.”
In ancient times when the hunters encamped in the woods, they kept warm
by covering themselves with boughs of hemlock, and now if an Indian is
about to repair his cabin, he says, “I will surround it with hemlock
boughs,” meaning I will make it warm and comfortable. When a chief has
made a speech at the opening of a Council, he finishes with saying,
“the doors are now open, you can proceed.” The messenger of the Six
Nations to the Senecas was called “the man who carries the fire or
smoke,” meaning that he had charge of the Council-fire and kept it
bright.
The Iroquois call themselves the real people; and in speeches or
conversation, if allusion is made to white people, they say invariably
“our younger brethren.” The President of the United States is called
“the city-eater,” and Washington, “the residence of the city-eater.”
The Iroquois had the masculine, and feminine, and neuter genders. The
masculine and feminine were denoted, sometimes by giving the same
animal different names, in the way we say buck and doe, and sometimes
by prefixing words which signify male and female. All inanimate objects
were placed in the neuter gender. They had not the indefinite article a
or an, but used the, and the usual varieties of adjective and adverb.
They abounded in interjections, but had no participles. As a substitute
for the infinitive mood they used the word that. Instead of saying,
“Direct He-mo to come and give us rain,” they said, “Direct that He-mo
come and give us rain.”
They could count by one, two, three, nearly to a hundred, and used the
numerals, firstly, secondly, thirdly, &c.
The following are specimens of names, with the Lord’s prayer and a hymn
in Seneca.
O-hee-yu, The beautiful river.
Os-we-go, Flowing out.
On-yit-hah, Bird of the strong wing.
Ga-no-so-te A house.
O-on-do-te A tree.
O-ya Fruit.
Je-da-do A bird.
O-ya-han Apples split open.
Ga-no-geh Oil on the water.
Ga-osé-ha Baby frame.
THE LORD’S PRAYER.
Gwä-nee′ gā̆-o-yä′-geh che-de-oh′; sä-sa-no-do′-geh-teek; gä-o′ ne-dwa
na′ sa-nunk-tä; na-huk′ ne-yä-weh′ na yo-an′-jä-geh ha′-ne-sä-ne-go′-dā̆
ha ne-de-o′-dā̆ na′ gā̆-o-yä′-geh. Dun-dä-gwä-e′-wä-sā̆-gwus na′
ong-wi-wä-na-ark-seh′ na′ da-yä-ke′-wä-sā̆-gwä′-seh na′
onk-ke-wä-na′-ä-ge. Dä-ge-o′-na-geh′-wen-nis′-heh-da na′ ong-wä-quä′.
Sā̆-nuk′ na-huh′ heh′-squä-ä ha′ gä-yeh na′ wä-ate-keh′ na-gwä′ na′
dä-gwä-yä-duh′-nuh-onk ha′ gä-yeh na′ wä-ate-keh′; na′ seh-eh′ na ese′
sä-wā̆ na′ o-nuk-ta′ kuh′ na′ gā̆-hus-ta-seh′ kuk′ na′ da-gä-ā̆-sä-uh′.
Na-huh′-ne-yä-weh. [11]
(Specimen of Indian Hymn.)
GAA NAH 8. L. M.
O gwe nyoo′ gā̆h′, a ga deā̆h′seek
Heh syah daa deh, lis′ ne Je sus;
Tā̆h′ā̆h; tā̆h ā̆h deh o gwe nyooh′,
Neh huh′ noo′wak ni gooh′da aak.
Iis, sā̆h ā̆h, ji sa′yah daa gwā̆h′,
Na gat hwa is hā̆h; aa′gā̆ noh,
Gih shā̆h′, deh sa′yah da geh hā̆h,
A yò dā̆s′theh oh, naeh, ne neh.
Deh oi′wa yā̆s doh na′ga deā̆h,
Iis ne gā̆h sa dyā̆ nohk′dah oh
He yoan jadeh, kuh, he goh heh;
Iis, kuh, des gā̆h′nya doh dyòt gont.
Deī oi wah′gĕh na ga deā̆h seek;
Tā̆h ā̆h, waeh, Nais, heh sa deā̆h oh,
Oi wa neā̆′gwat ni ya′wah oh,
Sgie′yah seeh heh, de ga yah sont.
Da gyah′da geh′hā̆ aak′, dih′ sho,
Ne′ dyòt gont neh ā̆ ges′ nyet haak′,
He ni sah′sanno′nā̆ ā̆ gwat,
Kuh′ he ni sa da ni daā̆ oh.
The number of Senecas at the last census was 2,449.
The three Reservations which now remain to the Indian in Western New
York, are called Tonawanda, Cattaraugus, Alleghany, containing in all
about sixty-six thousand acres. No white family is allowed to settle
upon these lands, and the law forbids the trusting of an Indian or the
selling him intoxicating drinks.
There are at present 14 Schools, 16 Teachers, 480 Scholars, one
Boarding School with 50 scholars, 8 Missionaries, 47 Church members.
NO. II.
During the winter of 1855 a bill was passed by the Legislature of New
York, incorporating an Orphan Asylum, and appropriating two thousand
dollars ($2000) for a building, and ten dollars a year for each child
received and retained under the care of the managers. This is one of
the most important benefits conferred upon the Indians. By it a home
will be provided for the destitute little ones of this scattered
people. And by beginning early, an opportunity will be afforded of
securing to them a proper course of moral and physical training, and
more surely than by any other way preserve them from destruction.
The experiment was first tried by taking a few into the family of a
benevolent lady residing on the Reservation, which, proving successful,
an earnest appeal for aid was made to the State.
The institution is incorporated under the name of the “Thomas Asylum
for orphan and destitute Indian Children,” as a tribute of
acknowledgment to the individual whose name it bears, for his long and
earnest efforts to assist and benefit the Seneca nation.
It is located upon the Cattaraugus Reservation, but is intended to
receive children from all the Reservations in the State of New York. As
the appropriation of ten dollars a year for the support and education
of each child, is quite insufficient for the purpose, it is hoped that
if the attempt to preserve from destruction this noble race should
promise success, that the State of New York—the only State on the
Atlantic borders of this Confederation, in which an organized body of
the once numerous aborigines of our country has been permitted to
remain—will hereafter further extend towards this institution its
fostering care and aid.
NO. III.
The following documents from the Indian State Department, will show the
advance which has been made in the science of government, and the art
of diplomacy:
The nation has recently undergone quite a revolution, and the people
have substituted a popular Representative Government, for the
government of the Chiefs, which has heretofore existed. At a
Convention, held at Cattaraugus on the 4th of December, 1848, the
delegates, in a very formal manner, abrogated the old government, and
proclaimed the new order of things, very much after the manner of the
founders of our government. Their Declaration is not quite as long as
the Mecklenburgh meeting, while its style is not unlike Mr.
Jefferson’s. The Constitution, defining the duties and powers of the
officers of government, is quite detailed. The Supreme Judiciary is
composed of three judges, who are designated Peace-Makers. The
legislative powers of the nation are vested in a Council of eighteen,
chosen by the universal suffrages of the nation; but no treaty is to be
binding, until it is ratified by three fourths of all the voters, and
three fourths of all the mothers in the nation! This may be considered
an advance, even beyond the legislative theory of the French Assembly.
One provision of this Constitution exhibits a degree of national
frugality, well worthy of imitation by those gentlemen in our own
Congress, who spend so much of the “dear people’s” money in talking
about their rights and interests. The Seneca Constitution declares that
the compensation of members of the Council, shall be one dollar each
per day, while in session; “but no member shall receive more than
twenty-six dollars during any one year.” With such a provision, they
will need no one-hour rule, and there will be no danger of their
Council becoming “en permanence.”
Among the acts of the Convention, was the re-naming an estimable
citizen of Baltimore—Philip E. Thomas; a gentleman whom the Senecas
recognize as an old and true friend. In acknowledgment of the many
kindnesses which they had received at his hands, they had on a former
occasion made Mr. Thomas a Chief, giving him the name of Sagaoh
(Benevolent). But now it became necessary to give him a new title, and
he was accordingly named Hai-wa-noh, which signifies the Ambassador.
The minutes of the Convention state that this ceremony was performed
amidst “great sensation, and applause of approbation!”
Declaration of the Seneca Nation of Indians—Changing their form of
Government, and adopting a Constitutional Charter:
We, the people of the Seneca Nation of Indians, by virtue of the right
inherent in every people, trusting in the justice and necessity of our
undertaking, and humbly invoking the blessing of the God of Nations
upon our efforts to improve our civil condition, and to secure to our
nation the administration of equitable, wholesome laws, do hereby
abolish, abrogate and annul our form of government by Chiefs, because
it has failed to answer the purposes for which all governments should
be created.
It affords no security in the enjoyment of property.
It provides no laws regulating the institution of marriage, but
tolerates polygamy.
It makes no provision for the poor, but leaves the destitute to perish.
It leaves the people dependent on foreign aid for the means of
education.
It has no judiciary, nor executive departments.
It is an irresponsible, self-created aristocracy.
Its powers are absolute and unlimited in assigning away the people’s
rights; but indefinite and not exercised in making municipal
regulations for their benefit or protection.
We cannot enumerate the evils growing out of a system so defective, nor
calculate its overpowering weight on the progress of improvement.
But to remedy these defects, we proclaim and establish the following
Constitution, or Charter, and implore the Government of the United
States, and the State of New York, to aid in providing us with laws,
under which progress shall be possible.
Sec. 1. Our Government shall have a Legislative, Executive, and
Judiciary Departments.
Sec. 2. The legislative power shall be vested in a Council of eighteen
members, who shall be termed the Councillors of the Seneca Nation, and
who shall be elected annually on the first Tuesday in May in each year;
and who shall be apportioned to each Reservation, according to its
population—two thirds of whom assembled in regular session, and duly
organized, shall constitute a quorum, and be competent for the
transaction of business; but to all bills for the appropriation of
public moneys, the assent of two thirds of the members elected shall be
necessary, in order that the bill should become a law.
Sec. 3. The executive power shall be vested in a President, whose duty
it shall be to preside at all meetings of the Council—having only a
casting vote therein—and to see that all laws are duly executed; and to
communicate to the Council, at every session, a statement of the
condition of the national business, and to recommend for the action of
the Council such matters as he may deem expedient. In the absence of
the President, the Council may choose a presiding officer pro tempore.
Sec. 4. The judiciary power shall be vested in three Peace-Makers on
each Reservation; and two of whom shall have power to hold courts,
subject to an appeal to the Council, and to such courts of the State of
New York as the Legislature thereof shall permit. The jurisdiction,
forms of process, and proceeding in the Peace-Makers’ courts, shall be
the same as the courts of the justices of the peace of the State of New
York, except in the proof of wills, and the settlement of deceased
persons’ estates—in which cases the Peace-Makers shall have such power
as shall be conferred by law.
Sec. 5. All causes over which the Peace-Makers have not jurisdiction,
may be heard before the Council, or such courts of the State of New
York as the Legislature thereof shall permit.
Sec. 6. The power of making treaties shall be vested in the Council;
but no treaty shall be binding upon the nation until the same shall be
submitted to the people, and be approved by three fourths of all the
legal voters, and also by three fourths of all the mothers in the
nation.
Sec. 7. There shall be a clerk and treasurer, and superintendent of
schools, and overseers of the poor, and assessors, and overseers of
highways, whose duties shall be regulated by law.
Sec. 8. Every officer who shall be authorized to receive public money,
shall be required to give such security as the President and the
attorney for the Seneca nation shall approve.
Sec. 9. There shall be a marshal, and two deputies, on each Reservation
(Cattaraugus and Allegany), who shall execute all processes issued by
the courts, and do such other duties as shall be prescribed by law.
Sec. 10. All officers named in this Constitution, or Charter, shall be
chosen at the same time, in the same manner, and for the same time, as
members of the Council, and vacancies occurring in any office shall be
filled in the manner to be prescribed by law; and every male Indian of
the age of twenty-one years and upwards, either residing on one of the
Reservations (the Cattaraugus, Allegany, or Oil Spring), or owning,
possessing, and occupying any lands upon either of said Reservations,
and which lands may have been taxed for highways, or other purposes,
shall be entitled to vote at all elections.
Sec. 11. Any legal voter shall be eligible to any office named in this
Constitution or Charter; and all officers elect shall be inducted into
office, and if necessary shall be impeached by the use of such forms
and regulations as shall be prescribed by law.
Sec. 12. The compensation of members of the Council shall be one dollar
per day while in session; but no member shall receive more than
twenty-six dollars in any one year. The compensation of all the
officers shall be prescribed by law.
Sec. 13. The Council shall meet annually on the first Tuesday in June,
and extra sessions may be convened by the President at any time he
shall think proper.
Sec. 14. The Council shall have power to make any laws not inconsistent
with the Constitution of the United States, or of the State of New
York.
Sec. 15. All offences which shall be punishable by the laws of the
United States, or of the State of New York, shall be tried and punished
in the Peace-Makers’ Court, or before the Council, as shall be
prescribed by law.
Sec. 16. The right of any member of the ancient confederacy of the
Iroquois to the occupancy of our lands, and other privileges, shall be
respected as heretofore; and the Council shall pass laws for the
admission of any Indian of other tribes or nations to citizenship and
adoption into the Seneca nation of Indians by his or her application,
for his, or herself, or family.
Sec. 17. This Charter may be altered or amended by a Council of the
people, convened for that purpose, on three months’ previous notice, by
a vote of two thirds of the legal voters present at such convention.
Sec. 18. The saw-mills on the different Reservations, now in operation,
are hereby declared to be national property, and the funds accruing
therefrom shall be by the Council appropriated to national purposes.
But nothing in this Charter shall be construed as prohibiting the
erection of mills and other works for manufacturing or other purposes,
by any private individual, upon his own premises, provided that in so
doing he do not trespass upon the rights of any other individual; and
all such erections by individuals shall be respected as strictly
private property.
Sec. 19. The laws passed by the Legislature of the State of New York
for the protection and improvement of the Seneca nation of Indians, and
also all laws and regulations heretofore adopted by the Chiefs, in
legal council assembled, shall continue in full force and effect as
heretofore, except so far as they are inconsistent with the provisions
of this Constitution or Charter.
I hereby certify that the above copy has been examined and compared
with the original, now on file in the Archives of the Seneca nation of
Indians, by me, and is a correct transcript of the same and of the
whole of said Declaration, Constitution, and Charter.
William Jemerson,
Clerk of the Seneca nation of Indians,
Cattaraugus Reservation, Erie County.
New York, December 5, 1848.
RESOLUTIONS,
Adopted by the Convention of the Seneca Nation of Indians, December
4th, 1848.
Resolved,—That this Convention feel grateful for the religious and
scientific instruction which benevolent societies and individuals have
bestowed upon us, as well as for the introduction of proper means among
us for our improvement; and particularly do we desire to express our
gratitude to the Society of Friends; they were the first to introduce
the means for our culture and improvement, and laid the foundation of
our education and civilization, by which means we have become wiser and
enlightened, and been enabled to see and understand our rights; they
also befriended and aided us when friendless, and without means to
sustain ourselves in time of peril—always zealous and unremitting in
their labors for our welfare. Also to the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions, in sending us missionaries and
teachers to enlighten our minds, and direct us to the true light, and
teach us the plan of salvation: and also the State of New York, for
their benevolent efforts in enacting laws for our protection and
improvement, as well as for the large and generous appropriations made
by them for the erection of school-houses, and the payment of school
teachers among our people, and we desire that these kind offices may be
continued.
Resolved,—That inasmuch as we have abolished our former Government;
that by so doing all appointments have now become annulled; therefore
Resolved,—That the Seneca nation of Indians in this General Convention
assembled, do hereby express their thanks to their friend and brother
Sagaoh (Philip E. Thomas), of the city of Baltimore and State of
Maryland, for the faithful discharge of his duties as representative of
our nation (under our late Government) to the United States Government
at Washington, and having undiminished confidence in his integrity and
ability, we do hereby constitute and appoint him our ambassador, under
our new form of Government, to represent us, and to have charge of all
the interests and affairs of the Seneca nation of Indians to the United
States Government at Washington.
Resolved,—That as it is customary among our people, that whenever any
important event occurs in the history of our nation, either by the
natural transition from childhood to manhood, from Warrior to
Chieftain, or from Chieftain to Sachem; therefore we declare, that in
consequence of this change in our Government of his re-appointment
under the new, and with the consent of the relatives of our friend
Sagaoh, that the name Sagaoh shall cease to be his name, by which he
was called and known among us, and that hereafter his name shall be
Hai-wa-noh (Ambassador, Representative or Chargé d’Affaires) because he
is to represent our nation and people, by which appellation he is
henceforth to be known among us, and that the ceremony of christening
him be immediately performed. Whereupon the ceremony of changing the
former Indian name and christening Philip E. Thomas of Baltimore, was
performed according to our customs and usages, by Sa-dye-na-wa (John
Hudson), and declared that the said Thomas may hereafter be known by
the name of Hai-wa-noh. (Great sensation and applause of approbation.)
Resolved,—That the clerk and President are hereby authorized and
empowered to prepare the credentials of Hai-wa-noh (Philip E. Thomas),
our Ambassador, whom we have hereby constituted and appointed; and
forward the same to him as soon as practicable, together with the
Declaration, and Constitutional Charter, and request him immediately to
repair to the seat of the United States Government, and present them to
the proper authorities, and also to notify him of the change of his
name, and his appointment as an officer of the Government of the Seneca
nation of Indians.
Resolved,—That copies of the Declaration, Constitutional Charter, and
resolutions of this convention, be forwarded by the clerk to the joint
committee of the Society of Friends on Indian concerns; and to the
Governors of the States of New York and Massachusetts, with the request
that the same be put on file in the proper offices; and that our
Representative be requested to present copies of the same to the
Congress of the United States, now convened at Washington, and to the
Secretary at War, with the request that the same be put on file in
their respective departments.
Resolved,—That we have unabated and undiminished confidence in the
abilities and qualifications of the United States interpreter (Peter
Wilson) for this agency, having always discharged his duty faithfully,
and that inasmuch as the late chiefs under our former Government have
petitioned for his removal, without just and reasonable cause, we
hereby request our representative to protest and remonstrate against
his removal.
Resolved,—That the clerk be hereby instructed to prepare and forward
copies of the doings and proceedings of this Convention, to the
publishers of the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, and the New York
Tribune, with the request that the same be printed in their respective
papers.
I do hereby certify that the above copy has been examined and compared
with the original now on file in the archives of the Seneca nation of
Indians, by me, and is a correct copy of the same, and of the whole of
said resolutions passed by the General Convention.
William Jemerson,
Clerk of the Seneca nation of Indians.
Cattaraugus Reservation, }
Erie County, N. Y. }
December 5, 1848. }
Sir:—You are hereby nominated, constituted, and appointed an
Ambassador, Envoy Extraordinary, and Minister Plenipotentiary to the
seat of Government of the United States of America, by the
Constitutional Convention and Government of the Seneca nation of
Indians, residing in the State of New York, to represent them in their
names and behalf, with full powers and privileges of said office to
take charge of the interests and affairs of your Government and nation:
and whatever you may do in our names and behalf will be binding upon
us, and of the same effect as if we had been present and consenting
thereto; and you are hereby authorized and empowered to proceed with
the business of your nation as they shall from time to time direct, and
as you may deem just and proper.
You are also hereby authorized and requested to proceed immediately to
the seat of the United States Government, and present this, your
credentials, to the proper authorities.
You are also informed that your official duties commence with the date
of this commission and appointment as an officer of the Seneca nation
of Indians.
By order of the Convention and Government of the Seneca nation of
Indians.
S. W. McLane, President.
William Jemerson, Clerk.
Cattaraugus Reservation, Erie County, N. Y.,
December 5th, 1848.
To HAI-WA-NOH, (Philip E. Thomas,)
Ambassador, &c., &c.,
Baltimore, Maryland.
NO. IV.
The following extracts from the proceedings of the yearly meetings of
the Friends of Baltimore, in the year 1850, will give some idea of the
present condition of the women, and the understanding they have of
governmental as well as domestic affairs:
“Thus we see the Seneca nation with a government ‘calculated,’ to use
their own language, ‘to answer the purpose for which all governments
should be created.’ We find their women mostly withdrawn from the
field, and occupying their proper station in their families,—their
children suitably cared for at home, and at school, having the benefit
of literary and scientific learning. We have, for several years past,
had among them an Institution for the instruction of their daughters in
the duties of housewifery, and other appropriate domestic employments.
They are provided with good dwelling-houses and barns—are the
undisputed owners of a fertile, productive soil, of ample extent for
all their purposes, yielding more than the nation can consume; and in
addition to these advantages, they are in receipt of annuities more
than sufficient to defray all the expenses of their government.
“When the present joint committees first visited the Reservations, in
the years 1839 and 1840, a very large portion of the Indians lived in
wigwams, or poor log huts—covered with bark, boards, or other
materials, hardly sufficient to shield them from the weather. Many of
them had earth floors, on which they slept in buffalo skins and
blankets. They set no table, had no regular meals—used no plates, nor
knives and forks. An iron pot was generally found placed over the fire,
into which they put beans and hominy, and a piece of some sort of
meat—either pork or venison. When any one of the family was hungry, he
helped himself to what he wanted, putting it in a small wooden vessel,
and feeding himself with a wooden or iron spoon. The interior of the
dwellings generally presented to the eye a spectacle by no means
calculated to warm the imagination in favor of Indian life. The truth
is, that woman had been driven from her proper sphere, and no domestic
happiness could enter the dwelling in her absence.
“The Manual-labor School was established as one of the means of
restoring woman to the station evidently designed for her, in the
benevolent order of her Creator, an order which cannot be broken with
impunity. This school was held in the dwelling erected for the use of
Friends at Cattaraugus. The average number of pupils was about
twenty-eight, generally under twenty years of age. They were boarded in
the family, at the expense of the committee, and were taught to card
and spin wool, knit stockings, cut out and make garments, &c. A part of
their number was daily admitted into the family of the Superintendent,
where they were taught to wash and iron clothes, &c., make bread, do
plain cooking, and every other branch of good housewifery, pertaining
to a country life. In this department all were admitted by turns,
generally four at a time, and continued until the necessary proficiency
was attained. As such left the school, others took their places, by
which arrangement, a large number of young women became qualified to
take charge of families, and extend to succeeding generations the
comforts and blessings of domestic life.”
Memorial of the Seneca Women to P. E. Thomas.
[Original sent to the Indian Bureau.]
Cattaraugus Reservation, Oct. 13, 1848.
To our Respected Friend, Philip E. Thomas:
The women of Cattaraugus Reservation wish to address to you a few
words, in this time of our trouble, and we do so the more cheerfully,
because the Friends are always laboring to promote the welfare of the
females among the Indians, and to improve their condition. We would
also request you to secure the influence of the Society of Friends, so
that our words may be strengthened, and become sufficiently powerful to
be heard by the Secretary of War, that we women have an equal right to
our annuities, with the men, and with the chiefs. We are all on the
same footing as to the amount we are entitled to receive—chiefs and
warriors, men, women and children. We were glad when we heard that the
Secretary had instructed our new Agent, to pay the annuities for this
year to the heads of families. We see no other way by which our rights
can be secured to us, and justice done alike to all. We hope you will
urge the Secretary to confirm his former instructions, for we were
greatly perplexed and troubled, when the Agent was induced to delay the
payment, on the ground that the chiefs insisted on the observance of
the old custom in regard to it. We ask for our just rights and nothing
more; but we repeat it, that we do not feel that our rights will be
safe, if these instructions to the Agent shall be reversed. We regret
that the Agent should have thought it necessary to delay a strict
compliance with his instructions, but we do not yet feel disheartened,
for we have confidence that the Secretary will manifest a due regard to
our rights. Only we beg leave to repeat our request, that you will
bring all the weight of your influence, and that of your Society, to
bear upon this question, that he may be willing to confirm his former
decision, and give every Indian woman, and child, no less than others,
the apportionment which of right belongs to each.
And we would desire to add, that we have already suffered greatly from
the proceedings of the chiefs, through whose instrumentality our
poverty has been increasing upon us, and we wish to entreat that we may
never again, hereafter, be exposed to be deprived by them of our
rights, but that we and our children, from time to time, may be
permitted to receive the full and proper share which rightfully belongs
to us. We are fully sensible that it is a hard case to have a
difficulty with the chiefs, but we feel that we have been wronged by
them, and our children have suffered already, and for a long time past,
through their avarice and pride, and we believe the things they have
said in justification of themselves are not true. It is by our pain and
sorrow that children are brought into the world, and we are, therefore,
interested in whatever concerns the welfare of our children. We have
examined this subject, and we are satisfied that the party who are
laboring to bring about an equal division of the whole of our
annuities, are the party really striving for the best interests of our
children.
We have taken the same view of the matter which was taken by the old
men long since dead, who first entered into these arrangements. They
decided that every individual man, woman, and child, had an equal right
to our moneys, and to our lands—in short, to all our national property;
that it was so from the beginning, and that it always should be so. We
have taken the liberty to express our views, because we believe this to
be the real truth, and we would earnestly desire the President and
Secretary of War to secure to us now, and to our posterity in all time
to come, the fulfilment of the original stipulations, that as long as
wood should grow, or water run, or a Seneca live to behold the light of
the sun, these annuities should be faithfully paid and righteously
distributed.
With great respect, your friends,
Their
Betsey + Snow. }
Julia + Ann Snow. }
Jane + Scott. } On behalf of the Seneca women.
Ganna + Hoh. }
Polly + Johnson. }
Martha + Phillips. }
marks.
Done in the presence of
Joseph S. Walton,
Asher Wright.
Memorial of the Seneca Women to the President.
To his Excellency General Zachary Taylor, President of the United
States of America:
The undersigned, mothers, heads of families, wives, and grown up
daughters of the Seneca nation of Indians, residing in Western New
York, respectfully represent to our Father the President, that we have
heard with extreme regret that an educated young man from among our
sons and brothers is at Washington, importuning the President to undo
the good which has been done for our people by his predecessors, and to
destroy the effect, as far as the Senecas are concerned, of the wise
regulation, that a portion of all the Indian annuities should be
distributed just at seedtime, every spring, in order to facilitate and
encourage agriculture. We wish our sons to be industrious—to be in the
field, stirring the soil betimes, procuring a bountiful harvest as the
fruits of God’s blessing upon their own honest exertions: not leaving
it for the women to raise corn, as did their hunting, fishing, and
fighting forefathers. The days of hunting and fishing, and we trust,
also, of Indian fighting, are gone by for ever, and it pains us
exceedingly that an educated son of ours, and one, too, who, if he
would consult the well-being of his people, might be so smart and
useful, should now be trying, either of his own will, or under the
direction of those whom, if they had sought the public good, we should
have rejoiced to call our chiefs, to thwart the wishes of this people,
check the pursuits of agriculture, and bring embarrassing and
perplexing want upon the destitute, who have been relying upon the
stability of the counsels of the United States Government for the
relief of their necessities. We have many and to us weighty reasons why
our Father, the President, should not heed the petition of our son,
whom we did not send to speak for us to the President; but lest it
should be thought that Indian women have tongues that never tire, we
only add that it is the earnest prayer of the undersigned, in their own
behalf, and in behalf of a large majority of the mothers, wives, and
daughters of the Seneca nation, that the recognition of the new
Government may be permitted to stand; and that we may be paid our
annuities according to the rule adopted in 1847, for the payment of all
the tribes receiving annuities from the government, i.e., during the
current month; and your memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
Signed, Gua-na-ea, and
Nineteen other females.
April 4, 1849.
Reply of Philip E. Thomas to these Women.
Baltimore, 4 mo., 8th, 1849.
My Respected Sisters:—Your address to the President of the United
States has reached me, and has received my careful attention. I am glad
to inform you that all you ask in regard to the manner of paying your
annuities, and the acknowledgment of your new Government, has been
decided as you wish. The annuities hereafter will be paid by the United
States Agent to the heads of families—to the women as to the men, and
none will again be paid to the chiefs except their own respective
portions.
By the acknowledgment of your new Constitution, the Government of the
United States recognizes that excellent article in it, which provides
that no sale of Land can hereafter be made without the consent of three
fourths of all the mothers in the nation. This wise provision assures
to you the security of your homes; for I have too much confidence in my
Indian Sisters to believe they will ever be prevailed on to take the
land from their children, and send them away to perish in the
wilderness.
It gave me pleasure to read your address to the President. It proved to
me that you were beginning to understand your rights, and were disposed
to exercise them. I hope you will remember the good advice the
committee gave you in the year 1845, and as some of you may not have
heard it then, I now send you a copy of it under care of my brother
Joseph S. Walton.
Bear this advice in your minds; it is good counsel, and endeavor to
practise it.
Whenever you may desire to make any communication to me, you are at
liberty to do it.—You will find me your faithful friend and brother,
P. E. Thomas.
NOTES
[1] Irving.
[2] Everett.
[3] Street.
[4] Street.
[5] Street.
[6] Stone.
[7] Prescott.
[8] This has since been refunded by the Government.
[9] Onas is the Indian word for quill, and by this name they always
spoke of William Penn.
[10] Daily Times, February 12th, 1855.
[11] If an attempt should be made to give a literal translation of each
word, or phrase, it would render transposition necessary, and change
the formation of the words in some respects, as the following will
exhibit.
Gwä-nee′, che-de-oh′ gă-o′-ya-geh, gä-sa-nuh′, ese′
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy
sä-nuk-tä′ gä-oh′ ese′ sne′-go-eh ne-ya-weh′ yo an-jä′-geh ha′
kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as
ne-de-o′-deh gă-o′-yä-geh. Dun-dä-gwä-e′-wä-să-gwus
it is in heaven. Forgive us our
ong-wä-yeh′-his-heh′ da-yä-ke′-a-wä-să-gwus-seh′ ho-yeh′his.
debts as we forgive our debtors.
Dä-ge-oh′ ne′ na-geh′ wen-nis′-heh-deh e′ na-hä-da-wen-nis′-heh-geh
Give us this day our daily
o-ä′-qwa. Hă-squä′-ah e′ să-no′ ha′ wä-ate-keh′, na-gwä′
bread. Lead us not into temptation, but
dä-gwä-yä-dan′-nake ne′ wä-ate-keh′, na-seh′-eh nees′ o-nuk′-tä
deliver from us evil, for thine is the kingdom,
na-kuh′ na gä-hus′tes-heh, na-kuh′ da-gä-ă-sä-oh′.
and the power, and the glory.
Na-huh′-se-yä-weh.