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Aeng-ah-wah-yae, heh, ne-toh-nee-go-deh, neh ten-oh-doh, heh,
dyuh-heh.
“Oh-yen-date, heh, do gaes-ooh-weh swah-eeh-wa-no-onk-goh
eeh, neh-geh, noh-ooh-gwa-yah-do-teh nyah-weh, neh-neh, wea-suh.
“Ease-ko, neh, nee-swah-yeah, aes-wus-syuh-neeh neh dyut-gont,
ae-wun-den-nong-che-yoh-auk. Does-sug-gwun-noh-nyuh-heh, ohs-
gwun-nunk-do-tus. Neh huh
The following is a paraphrase, rather than a literal translation,
of the foregoing. The genius of the Seneca tongue makes it impos-
sible to turn it into English, preserving both the sequence of ex-
pression and the meaning. In the following, the aim has been to pre-
serve the meaning and spirit of Mr. Shongo’s remarks:
“Dear Brothers:
“Again we have assembled here on this sacred spot. Here, un-
der these mounds, rest the remains, all that is left, of our loved ones,
undergoing the change of nature. What is from earth shall return to
earth, and the spiritual shall return to the One who gave life. We
who are yet alive, come together in this place, the place where we
have laid the remains of these friends, to show our respect. We
come together as mourners. A few more suns and we too will join
those who have gone before, and those who are coming after us will
then come to our graves.
“To you who are instrumental in putting up these monuments,
words of praise, the best that we are able to speak, are but a faint
expression to show our appreciation for your kindness, your broth-
erly love and respect. That monument (pointing to the great statue
of Red Jacket) will stand for ages, speaking louder than words,
speaking louder than trumpets, yes, even louder than the voices of
many thunders. These are tokens of our nearness to one another.
This elegant monument (indicating the headstone newly set at Gen.
Parker’s grave), set over the remains of one who so often repre-
sented his people, still fresh in our memories, stands for the same as
the monument of the great orator, which also marks the graves of
many of his associates.
“Today the floating spirits of the unseen are among us. Would
they could give their expressions of appreciation, as they all were,
gifted to speak far more than I. But I will endeavor to speaK for
my people, and to say that we extend to you our most sincere and
heartfelt thanks, for the noble act that you have done for your
brothers, the red men of the forest, the men of nature. The quiet
and undisturbed surrounding of this sacred spot shows that those
who have gone before, although no more seen, are not forgotten.
All this speaks full well for the generous acts of its projectors.”
WRITINGS OF GENERAL PARKER.
EXTRACTS FROM HIS LETTERS, AND AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF
HISTORICAL INTEREST.
Through the courtesy of Mr. Arthur C. Parker of New York
City there have been placed at the service of the Buffalo HistoricalBUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
521
Society a number of letters and addresses written by General Ely S.
Parker. For the most part the letters, though of a certain interest
for their revelation of a fine character, are not, as a whole, of suf-
ficient historical consequence to make their publication in the present
volume advisable. A few of them were written to relatives of the
general, during the Civil War. Others were written, many years
later, to his friend, Mrs. Harriet Maxwell Converse. Of this cor-
respondence Mr. Arthur C. Parker writes:
“More or less has been written of Gen. Ely Spencer Parker, of
his services to his own race, of his services to the republic in which
he lived, of his position among his own people and of his position as
a man among men. However, few have ever heard or read of any-
thing he said or wrote. Gen. Parker never knew or thought much
about himself, perhaps, until he met Mrs. Harriet Maxwell Converse.
This was probably about 1881, when she first began to take an active
interest in Indians. Their acquaintance ripened into a deep friend-
ship that continued without abatement until the general died. In a
letter to her he once wrote that had it not been for her sympathetic
interest in him and his people he should have almost forgotten
his ancestry. True, he had ever been plied with questions regarding
his race and called upon to give his opinion in Indian matters, but
this was simply because he was an authority on such matters as any
man might have been, and did not serve to draw him to himself.
The matter-of-fact world of civilization has a tendency to drive from
the mind the memories, the theories and longings of long ago and it
was in the matter-of-fact world that Gen. Parker lived, toiling day
by day for a livelihood. Constant business pressure left but little
time for reflection and introspection. The mind of the Indian had
been turned in the channels of the white man and the Indian thought
of himself not as such, but simply as a man among a million fellow
toilers struggling for bread and dollars. It was then that the poetic
mind of Mrs. Converse drew back to its old channels the mind of
Gen. Parker. He felt himself an Indian again, he remembered his
boyhood, he endured again the dream fast, he plunged into the deep
forests and brought back pelts of wildcats and bears, he saw the
tall pines sighing iri the forest and saw beneath them the long house
where his red brothers were wont to meet and sing to the Great
Spirit and dance before Him, he thought of the fireside tales of the
old storytellers, of the medicine men, of the secret societies that met
in isolated lodges in the forest’s depths,—the Society of the Bear, the
Society of the Birds and the Society of the Otter. All these things
flashed as in a vision before him and he was in the midst of all. He
was an Indian again. A sympathetic friend had brought it all back
and he was ever grateful. Then were the Poetess and the Indian
friends in truth, confessing and confiding in each other the inner-
most secrets of their souls.
“When Mrs. Converse died, among her papers were found a
number of letters, only a few of many, that Gen. Parker had written
her. These letters reveal the writer, not as the engineer, the archi-
tect, the diplomat, the military commandant, but as the Indian, the
friend and the man. .As I have said, a man might best be known by522
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what he confided in his friends and it is hoped that something of the
true Gen. Parker may be learned from a perusal of what he said,
criticized, lamented, praised and confessed in these letters.”
A few extracts from this correspondence follow. Gen. Parker
usually addresses Mrs. Converse as “Dear Gayaneshaoh,” this being
her Seneca name, or “The Snipe,” in allusion to her clan; while he
signs himself “Donehogawa,” his name as Seneca sachem, or “The
Wolf,” his clan totem. “Donehogawa” is of course identical with
“Do-ne-ho-geh-weh,” the spelling used in preceding pages, the more
closely to indicate Seneca pronunciation; but Gen. Parker always
wrote it “Donehogawa.”
EXTRACTS FROM GEN. PARKER’S LETTERS.
Many thanks for permitting me to read Mrs. Wright’s interest-
ing letter. It is singular that those who know the Indians the best,
either by being one of them or by having close intimate relations
with them, should almost always entertain similar views. Mrs.
Wright says it is greater to Christianize than to civilize a nation,
“especially when they are surrounded by the vices of civilization, and
I had almost said of Christianity, and perhaps I might as well, for is
not nominal Christianity flooded with vices?”
When I read this I was reminded of a sentence I had written to
a lady in Lawrence, Mass., a short time ago, who had plied me with
nearly a score of questions on Indian matters. In answer to one
question I remarked that “the vices peculiar to Christian civilization
are enveloping the remnants of this interesting people and strangling
the life out of them with an Archimedean force.” To this sentiment
she very sweetly replied, “Call it rather a Christless civilization.
The blessed Christ had not where to lay His head; and surely most
dear to His heart those to whom He gives the privilege of entering
into His earthly state through sympathy with like suffering. His
many mansions will infinitely repay all wrongs and losses here.” This
lady is doubtless a good Christian, philanthropic in a useless way,
and evidently impracticable. Mrs. Wright is also a good, philan-
thropic Christian, thoroughly practical, and knows of what she
writes. I prefer her sentiments, and honor her for making a plain
statement of the truth. A few more such equally conscientious mis-
sionaries among the Indians would be of more benefit than all
else. . . .
This matter is interjected here simply to show you what variety
of views may or can be entertained by good people who are working
for the same result. One of these ladies is a member of the “Indian
Aid Association,” the other is a practical, personal aider, and has
given her life thus far to the thankless task of civilizing and Chris-
tianizing the Indians, a result that after many years of labor, now
seems to her an almost hopeless possibility, for she thinks the ten-
dency of the race is downward.
It was my intention to have laid before you a letter from Mr.
Tripp. ... It related to the same matter that has made yourBUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
523
“heart sick,” viz., the Sessions scheme. It was a pathetic appeal to
me to do, or write something, or go to Washington, and help to
break up this infamous plan to sink forevermore the Seneca’s indi-
viduality as well as his nationality. It was almost like the Mace-
donian call to Paul to “come over” and help us.
My sympathies, feelings and every fibre of my soul are for my
people. Yet I do not think Mr. Tripp will like my letter. It was
too practical. The fact is, that the Indian question, in Congress and
with the American people generally, is no longer one of humaniza-
tion, but is now purely political, and all interested persons must treat
and look at it as such. . . .
I beg you not to tell me that because the beautiful snow has
fallen and covered the lovely bosom of Mother Earth, and because
the North Wind howls and screams in every crack and crevice of
man’s shelter, I should be reveling in legendary and forest lore. No.
Dreamland, fairyland and storyland are all good and charming- for
those who have time and talent that way. For me there is but one
world to deal with at present, viz., the world of stern reality, and all
other fancies are pushed aside for life’s actual strifes.
Do you know, or can you believe, that sometimes the idea ob-
trudes itself into my obtuse and lethargic brain, whether it has been
well that I have sought civilization with its bothersome concomitants,
and whether it would not be better, even now, being convinced of
my weakness and failure to continue in the gladiatorial contests of
modern life, to return to the darkest and most secret wilds (if any
such can be found) of our country, and there to vegetate and expire
silently, happily and forgotten, as do the birds of the air and the
beasts of the fields. The thought is a happy one, but perhaps im-
practicable. . . .
I hope that the approaching New Year and the annual recurring
milestone in your life may bring the most pleasant reflections, rem-
iniscences and beneficent resolves to live the life to which an all-wise
Creator has predestined you. . . .
I sometimes envy people who are gifted with birthdays, and who
can proudly point to some day of every year that passes over them,
as the day of all days most consequential to them. For remember, I
am nearly akin in fate to Topsy, who never had a birthday, never
was born, and only “growed up.” My birthday, which occurred-
sometime “in the course of human events,” was never recorded in
any book of man; hence I take the liberty of being neither elated -
nor depressed on any special day of the year, and I know not*
whether I am old or young. I love all the days of the year alike,
and can claim any one or all of them as my birthday. Can any one
be more blessed, and more fortunate? I am afraid if I knew the
day, I should always be dreading its return, or live in fear of its
never returning. . . .
I can never tell whether or not to congratulate one for the return
of a birthday. Life may have been a misery and burden to them so
far; and to congratulate such, and wish them many returns of the
happy day, would only be the most bitter mockery and sarcasm.
Again, with others, the pathway of life may have been strewn with524
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
roses and lighted with the brightest sunshine; congratulations to
such would be an empty superfluity.
Do you know, your use of the word “milestone” struck an un-
canny chamber in my cerebrum. It brought vividly to my mind’s
eye those old-fashioned milestones once so numerous and important
in country districts, and which always remind me of those marble
slabs placed at the head of graves in rural cemeteries or “grave-
yards” as they are called. To some, they marked the buried loves
and hopes of families and sometimes of peoples; to others, whose
fancies run free and unbridled, they mark the entrance gates to a
life of which we know nothing, but which is said to be fraught with
happiness or misery according as one has planted on earth. I won
der if the milestones of life have any philosophic semblance to the
funereal or “grave” ones. . . .
The outpouring of your terrific wrath against certain Christian
practices, beliefs and propositions for the amelioration and improve-
ment of certain unchristian people who live on reservations where
the English language is not spoken, and where “vice and barbarism”
are rampant, was duly received yesterday. The Bishop is right in
his reference to the remnants of the Six Nations being yet “de-
plorably subject to individual disability, disadvantages and wrong
arising from their tribal condition,” in all except the last proposition.
The disabilities, disadvantages and wrongs do not result, however,
either primarily, consequently or ultimately from their tribal condi-
tion and native inheritances, but solely, wholly and absolutely from
the unchristian treatment they have always received from Christian
white people who speak the English language, who read the English
Bible and who are pharisaically divested of all the elements of vice
and barbarism. The tenacity with which the remnants of this people
have adhered to their tribal organizations and religious traditions is
all that has saved them thus far from inevitable extinguishment.
When they abandon their birthright for a mess of Christian pottage
they will then cease to be a distinctive people. It is useless though
to discuss this question, already prejudiced and predetermined by a
granitic Christian hierarchy from whose judgments and decisions
there seems to be no appeal. . . .
One of the letters—a long one—is such a striking revelation of
Gen. Parker’s distaste for sham and pretense, such a disclaimer of
attributes which small men seek to assume, that it is here printed
nearly in full. There are not preserved in literature many docu-
ments of purely Seneca authorship; surely none that bespeaks a
finer quality of manliness and clear-sightedness, than this:
Dear Gayaneshaoh:
On reading your last note I was greatly amused,—and why? Be-
cause what I have written heretofore has been taken literatim et
verbatim and a character given me to which I am no more entitled
than the man in the moon! I am credited or charged with being
“great,” “powerful” and finally crowned as “good”! Oh, my guar-
dian genius, why should I be so burdened with what I am not nowBUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
525
and never expect to be! Oh, indeed, would that I could feel a
“kindling touch from that pure flame” which a fair and ministering
angel would endow me with in the exuberance of prejudiced en-
thusiasm, and which compels me to sit in sackcloth and ashes. . . .
And why all this commotion of the spirit? Because I am an
ideal or a myth and not my real self. I have lost my identity and I
look about me in vain for my original being. I never was “great”
and never expect to be. I never was “powerful” and would not know
how to exercise power were it placed in my hands for use. And
that I am “good” or ever dreamed of attaining that blissful condi-
tion of being is simply absurd. ...
All my life I have occupied a false position. As a youth my
people voted me a genius and loudly proclaimed that Hawenneyo
had destined me to be their saviour and gave public thanksgiving for
the great blessing they believed had been given them, for unfortun-
ately just at this period they were engaged in an almost endless and
nearly hopeless litigated contest for their New York homes and con-
sequently for their very existence.
For many years I was a constant visitor at the State and Federal
capitals either seeking legislative relief or in attendance at State and
Federal courts. Being only a mere lad, the pale-faced officials, with
whom I came in contact, flattered me and declared that one so young
must be extraordinarily endowed to be charged with the conduct of
such weighty affairs. I pleased my people in eventually bringing
their troubles to a successful and satisfactory termination. I pre-
pared and had approved by the proper authorities a code of laws and
rules for the conduct of affairs among themselves and settled them
for all time or for so long as Hawenneyo should let them live.
They saw all this and that it was good. They no longer wanted
me nor gave me credit for what had been done. A generation had
passed and another grown up since I began to work for them. The
young men were confident of their own strength and abilities and
needed not the brawny arm of experience to fight their battles for
them, nor the wisdom brought about by years of training to guide
them any longer. The War of the Rebellion had broken out among
the palefaces, a terrible contest between the slaveholding and non-
slaveholding sections of the United States. I had, through the Hon.
Wm. H. Seward, personally tendered my services for the non-slave-
holding interest. Mr. Seward in a short time said to me that the
struggle in which I wished to assist, was an affair between white
men and one in which the Indian was not called on to act. The fight
must be made and settled by the white men alone. He said, “Go
home, cultivate your farm, and we will settle our own troubles
among ourselves without any Indian aid.”
I did go home and planted crops and myself on the farm, some-
times not leaving it for four and six weeks at a time. But the quar-
rel of the whites was not so easily or quickly settled. It was not a
wrangle of boys, but a struggle of giants and the country was being
racked to its very foundations.
Then came to me in my forest home a paper bearing the great
red seal of the War Department at Washington. It was an officer’s
commission in the army of the United States. The young Indian
community had settled in their untutored minds that because i had
settled quietly, willingly and unconcernedly into the earning of my526
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
living by the sweat of my brow, I was not, therefore, a genius
or a man of mind. That they were in truth correct, they did not
know, jealousy and envy having prompted the idea and utterance.
But now this paper coming from the great Government at Washing-
ton offering to confer honors for which I had not served an appren-
ticeship, nor even asked for, revived among the poor Indians the idea
that I was after all a genius and great and powerful, though to them
not perceptible. They pleaded with me not to leave them, but to re-
main as their counsellor, adviser and chief, and that they would be
powerless and lost without my presence. They tacitly acknowledged
my genius, greatness and power, which I did not. When I explained
that I was going into the war with a splendid prospect of sacrificing
my life, as much for their good as for the maintenance of the prin-
ciples of the Constitution and laws of the United States, and uphold-
ing of the Union flag in its purity, honor and supremacy over this
whole country, they silently and wisely bowed their heads and wept
in assent as to the inevitable. I bade them farewell, commended
them to the care and protection of Hawenneyo and left them, never
expecting to return.
I went from the East to the West, and from the West to the
East again. They heard of tpe in great battles and they heard of my
association with the great commander of all the Union armies, and
how I upheld the right arm of his strength, and they said, “How
great and powerful is our chief!”
The quarrel between the white men ended and the great com
mander with his military family settled in Washington, where the
great council fire of his nation was annually lighted and blazed in
all its glory and fury. As an humble member of this military family
I was the envy of many a pale-faced subordinate embryo general
who said in whispers, “Parker must be a genius, he is sa great and
powerful.”
In a few years my military chieftain was made head and front
of the whole American people, and in his partiality he placed me at
the head of the management of the Indian Affairs of the United
States. I was myself an Indian and presumably understood them,
their wants and the manipulation of their affairs generally. Then,
again went out among the whites and Indians the words, “Parker
must be a genius, he is so great and powerful.” The Indians were
universally pleased, and they all were willing to be quiet and remain
at peace, and were even asking to be taught civilization and Chris-
tianity. I stopped and put an end to all wars either among them-
selves or with their white brothers, and I sent professed Christian
teachers among them. But these things did not suit that class of
whites who waxed rich and fat from the plundering of the poor In-
dians, nor were there teacherships enough to give places to all the
hungry and impecunious Christians. Then was the cry raised by
all who believed themselves injured or unprovided for: “Nay! this
Parker is an Indian genius; he is grown too great and powerful; he
doth injure our business and taketh the bread from the mouths of
our families and the money from out of our pockets, now, therefore,
let us write and put him out of power, so that we may feast as here-
tofore.”
They made their onslaught on my poor innocent head and made
the air foul with their malicious and poisonous accusations. TheyBUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
527
were defeated, but it was no longer a pleasure to discharge patriotic
duties in the face of foul slander and abuse. I gave up a thankless
position to enjoy my declining days in peace and quiet. But my
days are not all peace and quiet. I am pursued by a still small voice
constantly echoing, “Thou art a genius, great and powerful,” and
even my little cousin, the restless Snipe, has with her strong, piping
voice echoed the refrain, “Thou are great, powerful and good/’ . . .
Yours cousin,
Donehogawa, The Wolf.
General Parker was often called upon to address regimental re-
unions and other public gatherings, especially of the Grand Army of
the Republic, and the Loyal Legion, of which he was a . member. At
his death, the notes and memoranda of several speeches were found
in his desk. From these, one only, and that a fragment, is here pub-
lished, because of its personal and historical character. Regarding
it the general’s relative, Mr. Arthur C. Parker, writes:	“It was
evidently intended as an address, though I cannot say where it was
delivered, if it ever was.” However, it is an interesting autobiog-
raphy, in which the general frankly states his feelings. This docu-
ment—perhaps the only autobiography of a Seneca Indian preserved
in literature!—follows :
GENERAL PARKER’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
That I am wholly unknown to you, an entire stranger, is the first
difficulty confronting me in appearing before you. On my part I ex-
pected to meet strangers and hence cannot pretend a disappointment.
But you, perhaps, are entitled to know to whom you are listening.
Not certainly to one who in his native or any other element of the
physical and intellectual worlds has already made a name famous.
This may be a disappointment to you and yet I hope not. Still if it
is, I must then perforce open your eyes as to who and what I am.
I do this because when we read books we always want to know as
much about the authors of them as it is possible to know. Or when
we look upon a new machine, instrument or invention of any kind,
we want to know all about the inventor, and the more we know of
the authors of books and inventions the more or less valuable be-
come their productions in our estimation. I remember that years
ago, the names of certain great men were presented to the people of
the United States for their suffrages for the office of President of
the United States. Among them was one James K. Polk, and as his
name was put forth an almost universal cry was put out, “Who is
James K. Polk?” It appears that the people found out who he was,
for they elected him President of the United States and his adminis-
tration of the affairs of the nation was perhaps more famous and
happier in its ultimate results than that of any President who had
preceded him. He endowed us with a war with a sister republic,
but bequeathed to us the gold and silver fields of the world.
But I am still away from the question. I am presented to you as
General Parker. Well, who is General Parker? He may answer528
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
for himself in a very few words. He may answer because there can
be no other person who has been longer associated with the general
than he who now addresses you, and he thinks and believes that if
anybody can speak with authority he can. That the general is an
Indian you can each see for yourself. Some fifty years ago he was
born of poor, but honest Indian parents in Genesee County, in the
western part of the State of New York. And by the way, Indians
are always poor, though not always honest. Such a thing as a rich
North American Indian I do not think was ever known. These par-
ents I have spoken of were members of the Seneca Nation of In-
dians, one of the group of nations which composed the famous Five
Nations or Confederacy of Iroquois Indians of New York. Begin-
ning at a very early date after the whites had commenced the settle-
ment of this country, persons who were styled missionaries were sent
out among all the Indian tribes that could be reached to Christianize
them and teach them in book learning and the mysteries of land
agriculture. The Iroquois Indians had their share of these Chris-
tian missionaries, whose teachings generally resulted in bloody wars
between the Indians and all the whites they could reach.
One of these mission stations existed near the Indian settlement
where my parents lived. This station was conducted on the manual
labor system, where the boys were taught the rudiments of agricul-
ture and the girls the elementary principles of housewifery. I was
at a very early age sent to this mission. We received board and
clothing free, and also whatever merits and demerits the institution
possessed. I acquired there all the rudiments of reading, geography
and arithmetic; that is to say, I became reasonably familiar with
Webster’s spelling book, Lindley Murray’s grammar, OIney’s geog-
raphy and Daboll’s arithmetic.
Let me here interject that I am not a believer, notwithstanding
all the benefits I may have personally received, in the missionary
system as it has generally been practiced up to the present time. The
Indians have no written language (except the Cherokees of the
Southwest and that is of quite a recent date) and consequently no
literature. The habit of deep and logical or scientific thought was
never cultivated among them. None of them were ever agriculturists
except in a most limited manner, their products being confined to
corn or maize, beans and squashes. Their ideas of religion were of
the crudest, being simply a general belief in a Supreme Being or
Creator without any special attributes, either good or bad. In my
judgment, therefore, all attempts to civilize the Indian races by first
changing their religious beliefs were radically wrong. Religion has
been termed the handmaid of civilization, hence Indian civilization
is dependent first upon their being localized and made to abandon
their roving habits of hunting and fishing, their love for adventure
and the warpath made obnoxious, and they made to feel the enjoy-
ments of localized habitations and the comforts and pleasures re-
sulting from agricultural pursuits even when operated on a small
scale. It is a stale old maxim that “tall oaks from little acorns
grow,” so these Indians from small beginnings could have been made
strong and prosperous agricultural communities. The cultivation of
the soil, the earning of one’s bread by the sweat of the brow, is the
first duty enjoined by Divine command upon all mankind. Other
wants and necessities follow the execution of this primary command.BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
529
All this the Indian would have experienced; more comfortable dwell-
ings, improved agricultural implements, education and a higher and
purer religion. Indian civilization has been a failure then, because in
his case the cart was placed before the horse. He has been required
first to change his religion and then to become civilized, first to walk ~
before he had learned to creep. This system of Indian civilization
has been pursued throughout the whole of the United States ever ~
since the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers at Plymouth ~
Rock.
At this late day, however, I think we may safely assert that the"*
doctrine of the Pilgrim Fathers was peculiar. Themselves leaving_
the old country by reason of religious intolerance, they in turn in,
the new country became intolerant, and attempted the introduction of*
an enforced religion. Because the New England Indian did not at*
once accept the new religion which was spread out before him, he
was doomed to extermination. He was a heathen, an encumberer
in the Lord’s vineyard and was to be dealt with accordingly. Even
the good Quakers did not escape the whip of religious intolerance
which developed in the new world.
Since that time the General Government has attempted to aid
the religious organizations in civilizing the Indians, by placing the
Indians upon reservations of their own choosing. But let me ask,
how long have these poor Indians been permitted to learn the ways
of a civilized life upon these reservations? Only until the avarice
and cupidity of the white man required these reservations for his
own use, then the strong arm of the Government was invoked to
move the poor Indians farther towards the setting sun. If they went
willingly, well and good, if they refused they were crushed as an ob-
struction in the path of progress.
But I was speaking of the error in the methods of Indian civili-
zation. I will add that many young Indian men and women, through
the aid of the missionaries, of philanthropic persons and the General
Government have, at different times, received an excellent education.
Many of the young men were taught useful trades, such as wheel-
wrights, blacksmiths, carpenters and joiners, tailors, shoemakers,
and, perhaps, doctors of medicine. Most of the girls were taught the
rudiments of housewifery and a few were taught the arts of dress-
making and fine needle-work. But also, when these graduates re-
turned to their people, the young men found no wagons or carts to
be made or mended, no horses or cattle to be shod, no houses, re-
quiring skilled labor, to be built, no fashionable clothes to be made,
no shoes to make or mend, as the primitive Indian required but little
more than the traditional figleaf to cover his nakedness; and no sick
to doctor, as every old woman or squaw, and nearly every family had
such an appendage, and all herb doctors could administer every
necessary medicine to all sick. The trade of dressmaking was alike
unprofitable, for the women, like the men, required but little cover-
ing, and that little they could make for themselves without the aid of
skilled artisans; and hence all the time, money and patience ex-
pended upon these people has generally been a dead loss and has had
the effect of retarding their general civilization. And why? Because
these people by the education they received had their susceptibilities
sharpened and their scope of thought widened, and finding no busi-
ness awaiting them, no stock on hand to keep them employed and no580
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
congenial society around them to keep their cultivation bright and
enjoyable, they, by reason of their superior intelligence, usually be-
came the worst of the bad, and the opponents of Indian civilization
have pointed to them as bright or sad examples of the effect of the
white man’s civilization upon them.
I am giving you no exaggerated idea of these things. They are
simple facts, seldom told. I am not telling you that these people are
so highly cultivated that they can read books in the running brooks,
sermons in stones and good in everything. I would rather tell you
the truth and tell you that these people could see stones in the run-
ning brooks and good in everything only so far as ft would conduce
to their physical comfort or convenience. But I have wandered a
long way from my story. I started to tell you of myself.
Having graduated at the mission school, I returned to the woods
to perfect myself in the science of woodcraft, viz., that of hunting
and fishing, and also to forget as fast as possible all that had been
taught me at the mission. I understood very little of the English
language; as the school was composed of purefy Indian pupils, they
all would persist in speaking their native language when among
themselves and the little English they required was not of an ad-
hesive character. It did not, therefore, take long for me to disgorge
all the learning with which I had been crammed. To perfect myself
in woodcraft, I was taken, though only about ten years of age, into
-	the northern wilds of Canada. Here I made good and rapid progress
-	in gunnery and archery, in the use of the fishing spear, the science of
-	decoying the unsuspecting fish by means of the torch-light and of the
-	handling of the light birch-bark canoe. After one or two years, be-
coming surfeited with these heavy pursuits and being still very-
young, I began to yearn for my New York home and the companion-
ship of my own beloved parents, who were not altogether what is
termed wild, for my father had been a United States soldier under
General Scott in the War of 1812. After the war he had settled and
built himself and lived in a square wood house, cultivated some land,
owned good horses, a few cows, and also owned and operated a saw
mill, making lumber on shares whenever any logs were brought to
the mill. But he never lost his love for hunting until many years
after this. He was fond of furnishing his table with juicy bear
steaks and tender venison chops and steaks, together with the plump
quail and dry partridge.
At the age of twelve or thirteen I made, alone, the trip from the
-Canadian wilds to my New York home. At London, in Canada, two
*" or three English officers were taken up at the fort there and brought
on to the city of Hamilton at the head of Lake Ontario. It was
natural that these officers should amuse themselves in some way to
pass the time and tedium of travel. This they did at my expense,
they all the time being under the impression that I did not under-
stand or know the point of their jokes. The fact was that I did
know just enough English to understand and know what they said
and did, but I could not speak it well enough to enjoy their jokes.
It was perhaps just as well that I could not. I was not injured and
they had their fun, for nothing they said or did was laid in malice.
In this solitary ride, I bethought myself that perhaps it might be
good for me did I thoroughly understand and speak the English lan-
guage as well as to be able to read English books. I came to the de-BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
531
termination that I would at least try the experiment, having at the
time no ulterior purpose than that of a personal gratification. Upon
informing my parents of my wishes, which I lost no time in doing,
they readily consented to let me have my way, although they were
unable to help me in the least particular. I once more repaired to
the mission and reviewed all my studies, qualifying myself as well as
possible to enter some advanced school among the whites. This I
was successful in doing, being received as a student, tuition free, in
an academy in Western New York. Here I progressed irregularly
but well, in all my studies, and having no Indian companionship, I
advanced perceptibly and rapidly in the use of the English language.
The school was eminently respectable and the association was, there-
fore, good. It was non-sectarian and permitted freedom of religious
thought and action. It was a mixed school and the association of
the sexes had a refining and elevating tendency. I can recall my stay
here as among the happiest days of my youthful existence. Many of
my associates of those days have since become eminent either as
politicians, lawyers, divines or scientists. Our principal, a graduate
of Williams College, was a most able, competent and conscientious
teacher. You will all recollect, that the late lamented James A.
Garfield was also graduated from this college.
After remaining nearly two years at tnis institution, I changed
my camping ground to Central New York, entering another academy,
then venerable in years, viz., Cayuga Academy at Aurora, near Au-
burn, New York. About this time my people were becoming deeply
involved in trouble with their white neighbors. As had already been
the case, the Indians were in the way of the march of civilization.
The land they occupied was rich and the white man needed it for
his own use. In such matters the real interests of the Indians have
seldom been consulted. They are not and never have been voters,
they consequently had no influence and no friends to protect them
when assailed or danger menaced them. All assistance rendered
them generally came from philanthropists or whatever religious body
had the poor Indians in charge. In this particular case a sentiment
had been created that it would be wise and humane to remove all the
New York Indians to the west of the Mississippi, or, in other words,
to the lands now comprising the states of Kansas and Nebraska.
This policy of removal to the then Far West was not confined to the
New York Indians alone, but was to embrace all the Indian tribes
remaining in any of the states east of the Mississippi river. The
policy was settled during the administration of President Jackson,
and commissions were sent out by the General Government to visit
all the Indian tribes and induce them to accept this beneficent plan.
The argument was plausible. The Indians were to be concentrated
upon lands which were to be patented to them and to be made in-
alienable to them and their children forever. Government was to
build houses for them, provide them with stock and agricultural im-
plements for farming purposes. School houses and churches were
to be built and teachers and missionaries sent among them. The
Government in short was to civilize them and when civilized they
were to be organized into a territory with all the paraphernalia of a
territorial government, with the privilege of seating a Delegate in
Congress.
The bait was certainly a tempting one and many swallowed it to532
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
their everlasting damnation. Behind all this plausibility, this plea of
humanity and Christian feeling for the Indian, stood an army of
land speculators ready to lay greedy hands upon the lands that were
to be vacated. As a rule it was the General Government who asked
for these reservations from the Indians, but not until very lately did
the reservations become public lands, nearly the whole being gen-
erally taken by companies of land speculators. It is also a very
singular thing in the history of Indian affairs in this country, that
Indian reservations have always been considered as embracing the
best agricultural, the best timbered, the best watered and the best
mining lands of the Indian country. If this was good it only showed
the good judgment of the Indians in selecting the lands for their
permanent homes, and was no gopd reason why the white man should
have always coveted their possessions.
However, under the governmental policy of removing all the
Indians to the west of the Mississippi, nearly all the tribes have been
removed from the states east of the Mississippi, except a few in
some of the Northeast states, a few reservation Indians in North
Carolina, New York, Michigan and Wisconsin and some straggling
Seminoles who yet wander about the everglades of Florida. The
great majority of the New York Indians objected strongly to this
migration west. Months and months were spent by the United
States commission and their coadjutors, the land speculators, to en-
lighten the Indians as to the importance, necessity and great benefit
of acceding to so wise a plan. The result was as usual in all Indian
matters. A general treaty was signed by a sufficient number of
chiefs and headmen to warrant the President in laying it before the
United States Senate, the treaty-making power, for their considera-
tion and confirmation. That body considered and confirmed and the
President signed and proclaimed the same to be the supreme law
of the land.
And just here I may mention the absurdity of the United States
Government making treaties with the Indian tribes of the country,
tribes that number all the way from 500 souls to 25,000. They have
all been declared the wards of the Government, and they all live
within its jurisdiction, and yet these dependent people are treated as
though they were independent, sovereign nations. Every contract
or agreement made with them, whether few or many, is subjected to
the same form and ceremony of consideration, ratification and procla-
mation as is a treaty with Great Britain, France or any other great
independent power. I, perhaps, ought to be the last person to find
Jault with such a condition of things. I suppose that I ought to be
—	very proud, I ought to swell out as a turkey-cock, that, with a few
—	hundred ignorant Indians at my back, I can consider myself the head
of a strong, independent sovereignty, and treat with the great United
~ States as if I were Russia, or Germany, or China, or Japan. But I
^ have no such feeling. On the contrary I am humiliated. For I
know too well the great wrecks of violated Indian treaties that are
strewn in the historical pathway of the United States. I know too
well that a violation of a treaty on the part of the Indians means
their forcible expulsion from their homes and their extermination.
These things are like the handle to a jug. The advantages and the
power of execution are all on one side. In the early stages of the
settlement of this country, when the whites were few and the In-BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
533
dians comparatively numerous, the treaty business may have been
just and proper. Still I cannot say that any of them were any better
observed than they have been of late years. It has often been stated
that the only treaty which was faithfully kept and never violated by
the high contracting parties was the one made by William Penn, the
Quaker, under some great elm tree on the banks of the Delaware.
This statement is possibly true. At the same time I may state that
the Indians with whom he treated, had long before been subjugated
by the powerful Indian Confederacy of New York, who had for-
bidden them ever to go again upon the warpath, who had been re-
duced to the condition of women as burden-bearers, and fit only for
servile labor, and who were reprimanded by the Iroquois for making
this treaty, though the Iroquois at the same time compelled them to
keep it to the very letter and spirit. The Iroquois Confederacy was
the most powerful and formidable Indian organization found by the
whites in the early history of the country. We are told that the cry
of a Mohawk always made the New England Indians tremble and
seek their hiding-place. They have been styled by Cadwallader
Col den, an early historian of New York, “the Romans of the West/’
because they were wise in council and successful in war. They car-
ried out fully the theory of “young men for war and old men for —
council.” The early settlers of the States and the Canadas were in-
defatigable in seeking alliances with them. The Dutch, the English
and the French were all bidders for their favor. In the war of the
Revolution they were, the Oneidas excepted, the staunch friends of
the British, and did incalculable mischief to the colonial cause in
New York and Northern Pennsylvania, compelling General Wash-
ington to organize a large force under General Sullivan, to invade
their country and bring these people under subjection. This General
Sullivan most successfully accomplished, burning and devastating
all the Indian villages that came in his pathway, cutting down and
destroying thousands of acres of their growing crops and in other
respects inflicting upon them all the damage possible for being
friendly to the British. It was a stigma upon the British name that
in concluding her treaty of peace with the American colonies, she
never inserted a single clause for the protection of her Indian allies,w
leaving those poor people to take care of themselves after the fight
was over. This was done by the New York Indians who concluded
a preliminary treaty of peace with the Government of the United
States in 1788 and finally and absolutely confirming the same in 1792,
at which time this medal1 was given by direction of General Wash-
ington to one of my ancestors, the celebrated chief and Indian orator,
Red Jacket. It is an American badge of nobility.
The Indians fully accepted and acknowledged the justness of the
punishment meted out to them by order of General Washington; and
appreciating fully the nobility of his character in the manner of his
subsequent treatment of them in confirming to them their ancient
1. This and other allusions that follow indicate that Gen. Parker illustrated
his address by exhibiting a few relics to his audience. The medal here referred
to was given to Red Jacket by Washington, at Philadelphia in 1792. At Red
Jacket’s death it passed to his successor as head sachem, Sosewah or James
Johnson; and at his death in turn to his successor, Gen. Parker. The medal is
now owned by the Buffalo Historical Society.534
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
homes in New York, they have given him a place in the Indians’
heaven. He is the only white man that has been or probably ever
will be admitted to the happy hunting-grounds of the wild sons of
-the forests. General Washington is represented as being just within
the gates _ of the Indians’ paradise where a fort has been built for him
-and within which he is to pace eternally as a soldier sentinel on his
^post. I think it must indeed be very lonely for the poor general to
thus do sentinel’s duty through all eternity with not a soul to speak
to. Yet the Indians have placed him there on account of their belief
and reverence for his high character for goodness and humanity and
as a true and incorruptible patriot. This was their method of testi-
fying to their untutored children, their belief in his greatness and
that to them also he was first in war, first in peace and first in the
hearts of his Indian admirers. From the day of their submission to
the flag of the United States they have remained as true to their
loyalty as the needle to the pole. They fought side by side with your
fathers in the subsequent war with Great Britain in 1812. They
fought under General Scott on the Niagara frontier and would have
gone to Mexico with him in 1847 had their services been needed.
Again in the late internecine contest between the North and South
wherein one side fought to maintain the supremacy of one flag over
an undivided country and the other for the establishment of a govern-
ment with human slavery as the cornerstone, I say, again in this
deadly contest were these people found battling, as many of you were,
for the supremacy of the Constitution and the establishment of lib-
erty and equal rights for all men.
It was in this homicidal contest that I was rewarded for my
labors. by the shoulder-straps of a full colonel and the brevet of a
brigadier general. I was only a staff officer, being an assistant ad-
jutant general and military secretary on the staff of General U. S.
^ Grant. I was at Vicksburg with the chivalric and lamented McPher-
*- son. I was with Grant at Chattanooga, in the Wilderness, at Spott-
—sylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg and at Appomattox, where the
~v rebellion closed its haggard eyes in death never to open them again.
I was present at the meeting of the two generals commanding the
two great contending armies, Grant and Lee, the one quiet, modest
and reticent, the other dignified, but broken. I saw the one write
his terms for surrender and the other his acceptance of the same.
Thus in one short hour and in a very few words was settled a ques-
tion which had cost years of fighting, millions of treasure and rivers
of human blood. I hold in my hand an original of General Grant’s
terms of surrender in his own handwriting, and which I, as military
secretary, transferred into ink before it was passed to Lee.
An apple-tree has often been associated with Lee and his sur-
render. The facts are simply these. General Grant, upon receiving
Lee’s last note asking for a meeting with a view to surrender, sent
General Babcock with a safe conduct into the Confederate lines to
escort General Lee to some convenient point for the interview.
Babcock found Lee dismounted and resting under the branches of an
apple-tree. This was all. The generalsk met and concluded their
business in the parlor of Mr. McLean’s house, between the picket
lines of the two armies and within a stone’s throw of Appomattox
Court House. That apple-tree, however, was taken up by the roots
and cut up into charms and other ornaments. I have one on myLieut. Porter.	Lt. Gen. Grant. Lt. Col. Morgan. Capt. Peter Hudson.
Lt. Col. Comstock.	Lt. Dunn.	Lt. Col. Babcock. Asst. Adjt. Gen. Ely S. Parker.BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
535
watch-chain. General Grant met and conferred with General Pem-
berton at Vicksburg when that city was surrendered in 1863 under
the shade of an oak-tree; that also was taken up and made into canes
and other articles as mementoes or souvenirs. I have a cane here
from that oak.
You have now heard how it is that I am a general and now you
perhaps know as much about General Parker as he knows of himself.
I will only mention a few other points. These relics are about all
that I have left to remind me of the war. Our pay was small for the
risks we ran. As for me, on the one side was life and on the other
a paltry sum of money as pay. I have no money from my pay left.
I was never wounded, consequently I am not a pensioner upon the
bounty of a grateful republic. If I have ever been covered with
glory for the humble part I took in preserving the Union of the
States, I am not conscious that that glory and fame have ever sup-
plied me with a slice of bread or a piece of meat when I was hungry,
or that they have warmed me when I was cold. The ingratitude of**
republics is nearly proverbial, as I believe many a poor and crippled
soldier and many a poor, inconsolable widow and orphan can testify.
“Why should our pride make such a stir to be and be forgot?” Be-
fore the war I was in the successful practice of an honorable pro-
fession, working for rich corporations, for the States and the Fed-
eral Government. My service in the war, on duties entirely foreign -
to my profession and my subsequent civil service for three or foun~
years in the interests of the General Government, broke me entirely^
in my business. While I was soldiering the profession ran away*.,
from me, other and younger men had stepped in and filled the places. ^
Young men were wanted for their activity and the old men were dis- ^
carded. The war, therefore, practically left me a poor man and there-
is no small place or corner in the gift of the Government that I have
been able to secure. Under the first term of General Grant’s presi-
dency I was Commissioner of Indian Affairs for three years and I
am proud to say that during that time all Indian wars were sus-
pended. That is to say, the United States Government was at peace
with all the Indians within her borders, and the Indians generally
expressed themselves as happy.
Such a condition of things was not satisfactory to those who had
always profited in the previous conduct of Indian affairs and those
who stood ready to profit under the new order of things. General
Grant had announced that his Indian policy was to be a peace policy,
and to that end invited the religious element of the country to assist
him in the great undertaking. At first only a few of the religious
bodies responded, and men supposed to possess all the Christian
virtues were named to the President to be appointed and sent out by
him to act in the dual capacity of Indian Agent and missionary. But
religious bigotry, intolerance and jealousies by the various Christian
bodies at home and between the agents sent out, robbed all the ef-
forts made of their benevolent and humane character, the Indians
became dissatisfied, discontented and morose and the most bloody
wars known in the Indian history of this country were and have
been the result. Some of the best men of the army have fallen vic-
tims in these inglorious wars; notably, General Canby, General
Custer and a host of others, not naming many civilians.
It is most sincerely to be regretted that this condition of things536
BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
is allowed to exist. By some the cause has been attributed to a
divided responsibility towards the Indians permitted by the General
Government. First is permitted the management of the Indians by a
force composed exclusively of civilians, then when unpleasant com-
plications arise, and for some real or fancied wrong the Indians grow
unruly and threaten to right themselves, the military are called in as
a last resort. Before all this takes place, the Indians argue and
plead before the local authorities for a redress of their grievances
and obtaining no satisfaction they appeal to or perhaps go themselves
to the authorities at Washington. They make as strong a case as
they know how. If they succeed at all it is at the sacrifice of some
vital and material interest, they must either change their local habi-
tations or surrender more lands. If they fail altogether in accom-
plishing anything they perhaps go home with the sting of disappoint-
ment rankling in their hearts and with a wicked determination to go
on the warpath at the first opportunity. If they do it only hastens
their doom of extinction, for the disparity of numbers between the
two races is so great, that the absolute annihilation of the weaker
race is but a mere question of time. The Indian may struggle
against his doom, but his fate is as irresistible as the waters of Ni-
agara. I have remarked that in Indian complications the military
are generally called in as a last resort. I can safely say that as a
rule this work is not relished by the trained military men. They
claim that if the entire Indian Department were entrusted to their
management there would rarely be occasion for a conflict of arms.
Treaties and agreements they say would be more carefully observed
and besides it is claimed that all Indians have a wholesome dread
and regard for an organized and well-armed body of troops or even
of its representative. The military are regarded as a body of men,
who when they make a promise will keep it and when they make a
threat will execute it. The civilian managers on the contrary, who
though they may disgorge themselves of promises, and though they
«* may talk and bluster in Falstaffian style, having no power whatever
at their backs are only laughed at for their pains and derided as men
of no weight, and when the civilians have eventually succeeded in
making as ridiculous a muss as they well can the poor military are
called in either to fight or patch up a quasi peace. I will now drop
entirely this branch of the subject as it is neither pleasant to my side
of the house to be always found in the wrong nor in my judgment
very creditable to yours to have spent so much treasure and time
— and so many valuable lives to cover this people with an enforced
-- civilization while their existence is gradually and surely melting
*" away like the mists before a morning sun. [Here ends the unfinished
manuscript.]