THE IROQUOIS CHARACTER.
The popular opinion of the Indian, and more especially of the Iroquois,
who, as Mr. Parkman well observes, is an "Indian of the Indians,"
represents him as a sanguinary, treacherous and vindictive being,
somewhat cold in his affections, haughty and reserved toward his
friends, merciless to his enemies, fond of strife, and averse to
industry and the pursuits of peace. Some magnanimous traits are
occasionally allowed to him; and poetry and romance have sometimes
thrown a glamour about his character, which popular opinion, not without
reason, energetically repudiates and resents. The truth is that the
circumstances under which the red and white races have encountered in
North America have been such as necessarily to give rise to a wholly
false impression in regard to the character of the aborigines. The
European colonists, superior in civilization and in the arts of war,
landed on the coast with the deliberate intention of taking possession
of the country and displacing the natives. The Indians were at once
thrown on the defensive. From the very beginning they fought, not merely
for their land, but for their lives; for it was from their land that
they drew the means of living. All wars between the whites and the
Indians, whatever the color or pretence on either side, have been on
both sides wars of extermination. They have been carried on as such wars
always have been and always will be carried on. On the side of the
stronger there have been constant encroachments, effected now by menace
and now by cajolery, but always prefaced by the display and the
insolence of superior power. On the side of the weaker there have been
alternations of sullen acquiescence and of fierce and fruitless
resistance. It is not surprising that under such circumstances the
character of each party has been presented to the other in the most
forbidding light.
The Indians must be judged, like every other people, not by the traits
which they display in the fury of a desperate warfare, but by their
ordinary demeanor in time of peace, and especially by the character of
their social and domestic life. On this point the testimony of
missionaries and of other competent observers who have lived among them
is uniform. At home the Indians are the most kindly and generous of men.
Constant good humor, unfailing courtesy, ready sympathy with distress,
and a truly lavish liberality, mark their intercourse with one another.
The Jesuit missionaries among the Hurons knew them before intercourse
with the whites and the use of ardent spirits had embittered and debased
them. The testimony which they have left on record is very remarkable.
The missionary Brebeuf, protesting against the ignorant prejudice which
would place the Indians on a level with the brutes, gives the result of
his observation in emphatic terms. "In my opinion," he writes, "it is no
small matter to say of them that they live united in towns, sometimes of
fifty, sixty, or a hundred dwellings, that is, of three or four hundred
households; that they cultivate the fields, from which they derive their
food for the whole year; and that they maintain peace and friendship
with one another." He doubts "if there is another nation under heaven
more commendable in this respect" than the Huron "nation of the Bear,"
among whom he resided. "They have," he declares, "a gentleness and an
affability almost incredible for barbarians." They keep up "this perfect
goodwill," as he terms it, "by frequent visits, by the aid which they
give one another in sickness, and by their festivals and social
gatherings, whenever they are not occupied by their fields and
fisheries, or in hunting or trade." "They are," he continues, "less in
their own cabins than in those of their friends. If any one falls sick,
and wants something which may benefit him, everybody is eager to furnish
it. Whenever one of them has something specially good to eat, he invites
his friends and makes a feast. Indeed, they hardly ever eat alone."
[Footnote: _Relation_ for 1636, p. 117.]
The Iroquois, who had seemed little better than demons to the
missionaries while they knew them only as enemies to the French or their
Huron allies, astonished them, on a nearer acquaintance, by the
development of similar traits of natural goodness. "You will find in
them," declares one of these fair-minded and cultivated observers,
"virtues which might well put to blush the majority of Christians. There
is no need of hospitals among them, because there are no beggars among
them, and indeed, none who are poor, so long as any of them are rich.
Their kindness, humanity and courtesy not merely make them liberal in
giving, but almost lead them to live as though everything they possess
were held in common. No one can want food while there is corn anywhere
in the town." It is true that the missionaries often accuse the Iroquois
of cruelty and perfidy; but the narrative shows that these qualities
were only displayed in their wars, and apparently only against enemies
whose cruelty and perfidy they had experienced.
We can now see that the plan of universal federation and general peace
which Hiawatha devised had nothing in itself so surprising as to excite
our incredulity. It was, indeed, entirely in accordance with the genius
of his people. Its essence was the extension to all nations of the
methods of social and civil life which prevailed in his own nation. If
the people of a town of four hundred families could live in constant
"peace and friendship," why should not all the tribes of men dwell
together in the same manner? The idea is one which might readily have
occurred to any man of benevolent feelings and thoughtful temperament.
The project in itself is not so remarkable as the energy and skill with
which it was carried into effect. It is deserving of notice, however,
that according to the Indian tradition, Hiawatha was impelled to action
mainly by experience of the mischiefs which were caused in his own
nation through a departure from their ordinary system of social life.
The missionaries, in describing the general harmony which prevailed
among the Hurons, admit that it was sometimes disturbed. There were "bad
spirits" among them, as everywhere else, who could not always be
controlled. [Footnote: _Relation of 1636_, p. 118: "Ostez quelques
mauvais esprits, qui se rencontrent quasi partout," etc.] Atotarho,
among the Onondagas, was one of these bad spirits; and in his case,
unfortunately, an evil disposition was reinforced by a keen intellect
and a powerful will. His history for a time offered a rare instance of
something approaching to despotism, or the Greek "tyranny," exercised in
an Indian tribe. A fact so strange, and conduct so extraordinary, seemed
in after-times to require explanation. A legend is preserved among the
Onondagas, which was apparently devised to account for a prodigy so far
out of the common order of events. I give it in the words in which it is
recorded in my journal. [Footnote: This story was related to me in
March, 1882, by my intelligent friend, Chief John Buck, who was inclined
to give it credence,--sharing in this, as in other things, the
sentiments of the best among his people.]
"Another legend, of which I have not before heard, professed to give the
origin both of the abnormal ferocity and of the preterhuman powers of
Atotarho. He was already noted as a chief and a warrior, when he had the
misfortune to kill a peculiar bird, resembling a sea-gull, which is
reputed to possess poisonous qualities of singular virulence. By his
contact with the dead bird his mind was affected. He became morose and
cruel, and at the same time obtained the power of destroying men and
other creatures at a distance. Three sons of Hiawatha were among his
victims. He attended the Councils which were held, and made confusion in
them, and brought all the people into disturbance and terror. His bodily
appearance was changed at the same time, and his aspect became so
terrible that the story spread, and was believed, that his head was
encircled by living snakes."
The only importance of this story is in the evidence it affords that
conduct so anti-social as that of Atotarho was deemed to be the result
of a disordered mind. In his case, as in that of the Scottish tyrant and
murderer, "the insane root that took the reason prisoner," was doubtless
an unbridled ambition. It is interesting to remark that even his fierce
temper and determined will were forced to yield at last to the pressure
of public opinion, which compelled him to range himself on the side of
peace and union. In the whimsical imagery of the narrative, which some
of the story-tellers, after their usual fashion, have converted from a
metaphor to a fact, Hiawatha "combed the snakes out of the head" of his
great antagonist, and presented him to the Council changed and restored
to his right mind.