NOTES ON THE IROQUOIS: OR, CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATISTICS, ARORiniNAL HISTORY, ANTIQUITIES AND GENERAL ETHNOLOGY OF WESTERN NEW. YORK By henry R. SCHOOLCRAFT, Hon. Mem. of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, Copenhagen; Hon. Mnm of the Royal Geocraphical Society of London; Vice-President of the Americnn Ethnological Scocietyat JN'ew-York; Member of the American Philosophical, of the American Antiquarian, and of the American Geological Societies; Hon. i\[r-ni. of the New-York Historical, of tlie Georgia His- torical, and of the Rhode-Island Historical Societies, &c., &c., &c. NEW-YORK : n A R T L E T T & W E L F R D , ASTOR HOUSE. 1846. <^'^ <^^ 1^-1 SENATE DOCUMENT, TWENTY-FOUR. In jjivine; a more permanent form to the original edition of tiiis docunienl, a more convenient reference title has been prelixed to it. The aboriginal nation, whose statistics and history, past and present, are brought into discussion in the following report, stand out prominently in the fore- ground of our own history. They have sustained themselves, for more than three centuries and a half, against the intruding and progressive races of Europe. During the period of the planting of the colonics, their military exploits gave them a name and a reputation which are coeval with Europe. These events are intermingled, more or less, with the history of each of the colonies, and imjiart to them much of their interest. But while we liave made an extaordinary pro- gress in population and resources, and gone far to build up a nationality, and commenced a national literature, very little, if any, progress has been made in clearing up and narrowing the boundaries of historical mystery, which shroud the Indian period prior to 1492. This forms, indeed, the true period of American Ethnology. It was a desideratum in American statistics, that a complete census of one of these primary stocks, who had lived in our neigliborhood all this time, and still preserved their nationality, should be taken. This task New-York executed in 1845. It appeared desirable to the agent appointed to carry the act of the legis- lature, embracing this feature, into effect, that the opportunity should not be lost of making some notes of the kind here indicated ; and it is in this feature, indeed, if any thing, in the report now presented, that it aspires to the character of research, though it be intended only to shadow forth outlines to be filled up hereafter. New-York, Feb. 7, 1846. MEMORANDUM OF PAPERS. Page. Letter from the Secretary of State, laying the result of the census before the Senate, 1 Statistical report, communicating the census returns, .... 3 Letter transmitting supplemental report on their past and present history, ... 23 I. Historical and Ethnological Mincjtes, . ... 29 a. Sketch of the Iroquois Groups of Aboriginal Tribes, 29 h. Ethnological suggestions, 33 c. Indian Cosmogony, 36 d. Gleams of their ancient general history, 38 II. Origin AND History OF THE Iroquois, as a distinct people, 41 a. Mohawks, 43 b. Oneidas and the Oneida stone, (with three engravings.) 46 c. Onondagas, (with a figure,) 54 d. Cayugas, 57 e. Senecas and their origin , 59 /. Tuscaroras, and their flight from North Carolina, 64 g. Necariages, 69 h. St. Regis colony 70 III. Epoch and Principles of the Iroquois League, 73 a. Considerations, 73 h. Era of the confederacy, 73 c. Principles of their government and Totemic Bond , 76 d. Ancient worship and system of astronomy, 85 e. Witchcraft, its theory and practical evils, 87 /. Wife's right to property — limited nature of marriage contract, 88 IV. Arch.eology, 91 a. Vestiges of an ancient French fori in Lenox, (with n plan,) 93 b. Ancient site of the Onondagas at Kasonda, (with a sketch,) 96 c. Antiquities of Pompey, Camillus, &,c., 103 d. Ancient fort of Osco at Auburn, (with a plan,) 106 c. Vestiges of an ancient elliptical work at Canandaigua, (with an outline,) 109 VI MEMORAXDrM OF PAPERS. /. Fort- Hill, Genesee county, (with a plan,) IJl g. Rock-citadel of Kienuka, in Niagara county, (with apian,) 11(3 h. Circular fort at DeoseowD, Erie county, (with an outline,) 120 V. Ancient State of Indian Art , 125 VI. Relics OF Aboriginai. Art IN Western New- York, 133 Class 1. Nabikoaguna, [medals,] 134 Class 2. MedJieka, [amulets,] 137 Class 3. Attejeguna, [implements of art,] 139 Class 4. Opoaguna, [pipes,] 140 Class 5. Minace, [beads,] 142 Class 6. PeasJi, [wampums,] 143 Class 7, Jludwamina, [jingling dress ornaments,] 143 Class 8. Otoauguna, [ear jewels,] 144 Class 9. ^s, [shells,] 144 Class 10. Ochalis, [nose jewels,] 145 VII. Oral Traditions of the Iroquois, Historical and Symbolic, 147 a. Ancient shipwreck of a vessel on the coast, 147 b. Forays into the Cherokee and Cataba country, 148 c. Exploit of Hiadeoni, 150 d. Seneca embassy of peace to the Cherokees, and exploit of Awl,. . 153 e. Grave- yard serpent and corn giant, 154 /. Allusion to the siege of Fort Stanwix and battle of Oriskany, .... 155 g. Defeat of the Kah-Kwahs, 155 h- Epoch of the confederacy, 156 i. Some passages of their wars with monsters and giants, 156 VIII. Topical Inquiries, 163 a. Who were the Fries? 164 b. Building of the first vessel on the upper lakes, 166 c. Who were the Alleghans ? 16S d. War with the Kah-Kwahs and their retreat down the Allegany,.. 176 IX. Misce'-laneous Traits, JSI a. Infant Atotarho, 181 b. Red Jacket and the Wyandot and Delaware claim to supremacy,. ]S2 c. Brant and the Buffalo church, 183 d. The county clerk and the wolf scalp, 184 e. Specimen of Iroquc is picture writing, 132 X. Moral and Social Condition and Prospects, 185 Abstract of Census Returns 191 Deaf and Dumb, Idiots, Lunatics akv Blind, 201 MKMORANDUM OF PATERS. APPENDIX. Benton, 203 Extracts from author's private journal, » 206 Clark, 233 Cusick, 237 Goodwin, 241 Follett, 243 Dewey, 246 Rockwood, with Tuscarora vocabulary, 250 Bliss, 2til Hall, 263 JMcMurray , with JVIohawk and Cayuga vocabulary, 264 Shearman, with Oneida vocabulary, 278 Walker, 2S2 Morgan, 283 Van Schaack, 284 STATE OF NEW-YORK. No. 24. IN SENATE, January 23, 1846. COMMUNICATION From the Secretary of State, transmitting the report of Mr. Schoolcraft, one of the agents appointed to take the census or enumeration of the Indians, &c. Secretary's Office, ? Albany^ January Ylth^ 1846. ^ Hon. A. Gardiner, President of the Senate : SIR: In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 15th instant, I transmit herewith a report of one of the agents appointed to take the census or enumeration of the Indians residing upon seve- ral of the reservations in the State, and an abstract of all the census returns, taken pursuant to the fifteenth section of the act chapter 140 of the laws of 1845, and of the statistical information required by the act, and also a report relating " to their past and present condi- tion." I am, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, N. S. BENTON. [Senate, No. 24.] 1 [3t & 250j REPORT Of Mr. Schoolcraft, to the Secretary of State, trans- mi ttino^ the census returns in relation to the I[i- dians. CENSUS OF THE IROQUOIS, Mw-York, October 31st, 1845. SIR: In conformity with your instructions of the 25th June last, I proceeded to the several Iroquois reservations therein named, and I have the honor herewith to transmit to you the census returns for each reservation, numbered from I to VIII, and distinguished by the popular name of each tribe, or canton. I. The question of the original generic name, by which these tribes were denoted, the relation they bear to the other aboriginal stocks of America, and the probable era of their arrival, and location within the present boundaries of this State, is one, which was naturally sug- gested, by the statistical inquiries entrusted to me. Difficult and uncertain as anything brought forward on these subjects must neces- sarily be, it was yet desirable, in giving a view of the present and former condition of the people, that the matter should be glanced at. For, although nothing very satisfactory might be stated, it was still conceived to be well to give some answer to the intelligent inquirer, to the end, that it might, at least, be perceived the subject had not escaped notice. A tropical climate, ample means of subsistence, and their conse- quence, a concentrated and fixed population, raised the ancient inha- bitantsof Mexico, and some other leading nations on the continent, 4 [Senate to a state of ease and semi-civilization, which have commanded the surprise and admiration of historians. But it may be said, in truth, that, in their fine physical type, and in their energy of character, and love of independence, no people, among the aboriginal race, have ever exceeded, if any has ever equalled, the Iroquois. Discoveries made in the settlement of New-York, west of the De o w^AiN STA, or Stainwix Summit, have led to the belief, that there has been an ancient period of occupation of that fertile and expand- ed portion of the State, which terminated prior to the arrival of the Iroquois. Evidences have not been wanting to denote, that a higher degree of civilization than any of these tribes possessed, had, at a remote period, begun to develope itself in that quarter. But, hither- to, the notices and examinations of the antiquities referred to, although highly creditable to the observers, and abounding in interest, have served rather to entangle, than reveal, the archceological mystery which envelops them. Some of these antiquarian traits, not appear- ing to the first settlers to be invested wath the importance, as indus- trial or military vestiges, now attached to them, have been nearly or quite obliterated by the plough. The spade of the builder and exca- vator has overturned others ; and at the rate of increase, which has marked our numbers and industry, since the close of the revolution- ary war, little or nothing of this kind will remain, in a perfect state, very long. To gratify the moral interest belonging to the subject, by full and elaborate plans and descriptions, would require time and means, very different from any at my command the past season ; but the topic was one which admitted of incidental attention, while awaiting decisions and obviating objections which some of the tribes urged to the general principles and policy of the census. And while the subject of a full archaeological and ethnological survey of the State is left as the appropriate theme of future research, facts and tradi- tions, bearing on these subjects, were obtained and minuted down, ar various points. In availing myself of the liberty extended to me in this particular, by your instructions, I have, in fact, improved every possible means of information. Notes and sketches were taken down from the lips of both white and red men, wherever the matter itself and the trust- No. 24.] 5 worthiness of the individual appeared to justify them. Many of the ancient forts, barrows and general places of ancient sepulchre were visited, and of some of them, accurate plans, diagrams or sketches made on the spot, or obtained from other hands, A general interest was manifested in the subject by the citizens of western New-York, wherever it was introduced, and a most ready and obliging disposi- tion evinced, on all hands, to promote the inquiry. The result of these examinations, and collectionsmadeby the way- side, it is my intention to report in the form of Historical and Eth- nological Minutes^ which will be engrossed without loss of time from my original notes. These minutes, when properly arranged and copied, will constitute a document supplementary to the report here offered. It is not to be inferred, however, that they will exhibit a compact and full digest of Iroquois history. Attention has rather been given to the lapses in their history, and to the supplying of data for its future construction. Little more has ever been thought of. This part of my investigations will be communicated, there" fore, as a contribution to the historical materials of the State, touch- ing its aborigines. Satisfied that the New-York public regard the subject with decided approbation, and well aware of the munificence which has marked the State policy, with regard to the acquisition of historical documents from abroad, I may, I trust, be permitted to indulge the hope, that the Legislature will likewise extend its countenance to this portion of the labor which, as the State Marshal under the act, I have performed. II. The present being the first time* that a formal and full census ot a nation or tribe of Indians has been called for, with their in- dustrial efforts, by any American or European government exercis- ing authority on this continent, the principles and policy of the measure presented a novel question to the Iroquois, and led to ex- tended discussions. As these discussions, in which the speakers evinced no little aptitude, bring out some characteristic traits of the people, it may be pertinent, and not out of j)lace here, briefly to advert to them. • It forms no contradiction to the precise terms of this remark, that the Legislature of Virginia directed the numbering of the Powhattanic tribes, within its boundaries, in 1788. Vide Jefferson's Notes on Virginia. 6 [Senate As a general fact, the policy of a census, and its beneficial bear- ings on society, were not understood or admitted.* It seemed to these ancient cantons to be an infringement on that independence of condition which they still claim and ardently cherish. In truth? of all subjects upon which these people have been called on to think and act, during our proximity to them of two or three cen- turies, that of political economy is decidedly the most foreign and least known to them, or appreciated by them, and the census move- ment was, consequently, the theme of no small number of suspi- cions and cavils and objections. Without any certain or generally fixed grounds of objection, it was yet the object of a fixed but changing opposition. If I might judge, from the scope of remarks made both in and out of council, they regarded it as the introduc- tion of a Saxon feature into their institutions, which like a lever, by some process not apparent to them, was designed, in its ultimate effects, to uplift and overturn them. And no small degree of pith and irony was put forth against it by the eloquent respondents who stood in the official attitude of their ancient orators. Everywhere, the tribes exalted the question into one of national moment. Grave and dignified sachems assembled in formal councils, and indulged in long and fluent harrangues to their people, as if the very foun- dations of their ancient confederacy were about to be overturned by an innovating spirit of political arithmetic and utilitarianism. When their true views were made known, however, after many days and adjourned councils, I found there was less objection to the mere numbering of their tribes and families, than the [to them] scruti- nizing demand, which the act called for, into their agricultural pro- ducts, and the results of their industry. Pride also had some weight in the matter. " We have but little," said one of the chiefs, in a speech in council, " to exhibit. Those who have yielded their as- sent, have their barns well stored, and need not blush when you call." Another topic mixed itself with the consideration of the census, and made some of the chiefs distrustful of it. I allude to the long disturbed state of their land question, and the treaty of compromise • To thisremaik, tlie Tuscaroras, who met the subject at once, in a frank and confi- dential manner, and the Onondagas, who appeared to be governed therein by tlie coun- sels of a single educated chief, form exceptions. No. 24.] 7 ■which has recently been made with the Ogden Company, by which the reversionary right to the fee simple of two of their reservations has been modified. In this compromise, the Tonewandas, a conside- rable sub-tribe or departmental band of Senecas, did not unite ; yet the reservation which they occupy is one of the tracts lobe given up . They opposed the census, from the mere fear of committing themselves on this prior question, in some way, not very well understood by them, and certainly not well made out by their speakers. It is known that, for many years, the general question of ceding their reservations, under the provisions of an early treaty of the State with the Six Nations, had divided the Senecas into two parties. A discussion which has extended through nearly half s. century, in which Red Jacket had exhibited all his eloquence, hati sharpened the national acumen in negotiation, and produced a peculiar sensitiveness, and suspicion of motive, whenever, in later times, the slightest question of interest or policy has been introduced into their councils. This spirit evinced itself in the very outset of my visit, on announcing to certain bands the requirements of the census act. Some of them were, moreover, strongly disposed to view' it as the preliminary step, on the part of the Legislature, to taxation. To be taxed, is an idea which the Iroquois regard with horror. They had themselves, in ancient days, put nations under tribute, and understood very well the import of a State tax upon their p^•operty. " Why," said the Tonewanda chief, Deonehogawa, (called John Blacksmith,) " why is this census asked for, at this time, when we are in a straitened position with respect to our reservation ? Or if it is important to you or us, why was it not called for before 1 If you do not wish to obtain facts about our lauds and cattle, to tax us, what is the object of the census ? What is to be done with the information after you take it to Governor Wright, at Skenectati 7"* IToeyanehqui, or Sky-carrier, a Buffalo chief, in answer to a ques- tion as to their views of the abstract right of the State to tax the tribes, evaded a direct issue, but assuming the ground of policy, com- • The Aborigines are very tenacious of their geographical names. This ancient name of the seat of government I found to be used, on every occasion, among the Senecas, when it was necessary to allude to Albany, Its transference on the conquest of the pro- vince, in 1664,to the banks of the Mohawk, in lieu of the aboriginal name of Onigara- ivantel, never received, at least, their sanction. 8 [Senate pared the Iroquois to a sick man, and said, " that he did not belieye the State would oppress one thus weak." Kaweaka, a Tuscarora chief of intelligence, speaking the English language very well, in which he is called William Mount-Pleasant, gave a proof, in yielding to the measure promptly^ that he had not failed to profit by the use of letters. " We know our own rights. Should the legislature attempt to tax us, our protection is in the Con- stitution of the United States, which forbids it." This is the first appeal, it is thought, ever made by an Iroquois to this instrument. The clause referred to relates, however, wholly to representation in Congress, [Vide Art. ], Sec. II, 2d. J from the privileges of which it excludes " Indians not taxed," clearly implying that such persons might be represented in that body if " taxed." Civilization and tax- ation appear to be inseparable. III. Having detailed the steps taken in procuring the census, it only remains to subjoin a few remarks, which I beg leave to add, on the general features of the statistics and the results of their agricul- ture upon their condition and prospects. The printed queries baing prepared exclusively for a population in a high state of prosperity and progress, embrace many items for which there was no occasion, among psuedo hunters, herdsmen, or incipient agriculturists. Neither privileged to vote, nor subject to taxation, nor military service, or covered by the common school sys- tem, or bearing any of the charactaristic tests of citizenship, the questions designed to bring out this class of facts remained mere blanks. Others required to institute comparisons between a civilized and quasi savage state, were left by the tenor of your instructions, to my own discretion. I should have been, I am free to confess, happy to have extended these comparative views, much more fully than I have, going further into their vital statistics, their succedaneous modes of employment and subsistence, some parts of their lexicogra- phy, besides that affecting the names of places, and a few kindred topics, had not the legislature omitted to make provision for the ex- penses incidental to such extended labors, and the department to which I applied giving me little encouragement that the oversight would be remedied. I have, however, proceeded to render the com- parative tables effectual, and, I trust, satisfactory, and to this end, I Xo. 24.] 9 have assumed obligations of a very limited pecuniary character, and incuneil others lor travel and some few kindred objects, which I trust the Legislatvirr, with whom nlon^e the subject rests, v.'ill meet. It cannot be said that the Iroquois cantons of New- York have, as yet, any productive commerce, arts or manufactures. They are, to some extent, producers ; furnish a few mechanics, and give employ- ment to, and own a few lumber mills ; but it is believed, while some of the bands, and at least one of the entire catons, namely, the Tustaroras, raise more grain and stock, than is sufTicient for their own full subsistence, the averpge of the agricultural products of the whole people is not more, at the most favorable view, than is neces- sary for their annual subsistence. If so, they add nothing to the pro- ductive industry of the State. But it is gratifying to know that they are at least able to live upon their own means ; and their condition and improvement is (certainly within the era of the temperance move- ment among them,) decidedly progressive and encouraging. They have reached the point in industrial progress, where it is only neces- sary to go forward. Numbers of families are eminently entitled to the epithet of good practical farmers, and are living, year in and year out, in the midst of agricultural aOluence. That the proportion of individuals, thus advanced, is as considerable as the census columns denote it to be, is among the favorable features of the inquiry. There would appear to be no inaptitude for mechanical ingenuity, but hitherto, the proportion of their actual number who have embraced the arts, is, comparatively, very limited, not exceeding, at most, two or three to a tribe, and the effort has hitherto been confined to silver- smiths,* blacksmiths, carpenters and coopers. A single instance of a wheelwright and fancy wagon maker occurs. Viewed in its extremes, society, in the Iroquois cantons, still exhi- bits no unequivocal vestiges of the tie which bound them to the hun- ter state ; and even, among the more advanced classes, there is too much dependence on means of living which mark either the absolute barbaric state, or the first grade of civilization. Hunters they are, indeed, no longer ; yet it was desirable to ascertain how much of • The Iroquois, in adopting our costume, have transferred their ancient love of silver amulets, frontlets, and other barbaric ornaments, to their guns and tomahawks, which are frequently richly inlaid with the shining metal, worked with great skill into the richest devices. They also fashion beautiful car rings of silver for their women. No. 24.] 2 10' [Senate ffeeir present rceans of subsistence was derived from the ebase. This- will be found to be denoted in appropriate columns. It is gratify- ing to observe, that the amount is so small, nor is it less so, to the cause of Indian Givilization, to remark, that the uncertain and scanty reveard of time and labor which the chase affords, is less and less re- lied on, in the precise ratio that the bands and neighborhoods advance in agriculture and the arts. In cases where the cultivation of Eng- lish grains and the raising of stock have thoroughly enlisted atten- tion, the chase has long ceased to attract its ancient votaries, and in these instances, which embrace some entire bands, or chieftaincies, it has become precisely what it is, in civilized communities, where game- yet exists, an amusement^ and not a means of reward. That delusive means of Indian subsistence, which is based on the receipt of money annuities from the government, still calls together annually, and sometimes oftener, the collective male population of these tribes, at an expense of time, and means, -which is wholly dis- proportioned, both to the amount actually received, and the not un- important incidental risques, moral and pkysicalj incurred by the assemblage. I have denoted both the gross sum of these annuities^ and the distributive share to heads of families, obtained from the office of the local government agent at Buffalo. These are believed to be authentic in amount. Estimated at the highest rate which can be taken, the sum, per capita, of these annuities, wall not, on an ave- rage of crops and prices, for a series of years, equal the cash value of seven bushels of wheat — a product, which, as a means of actual subsistence to the Indian family, would be of double or treble value. But this is far from being the worst effect of both the general and per capita cash distribution. Time and health are not only sacrificed to obtain the pittance, but he is fortunate who does not expend the amount in the outward or return journey from the council house, or in the purchase of some showy but valueless articles, while attending there. A still further evil, flowing from these annual gatherings for the payment of Indian annuities, is the stimulus which it produces m assembling at such places traders and speculating dealers of various kinds, who are versed in this species of traffic, and who well know the weak points of the native character, and how best to profit by No. 24.] 11 them. In effect, few of the annuitants reach their liomes with a (lime. Most of them have expended all, and lost their time in addi- tion. Health is not unfrequently sacrificed by livintr on articles, ot an a manner not customary* at home. The intemperate are confirmed in intemperance ; and the idle, foppish and gay, are only more ena- TDoured of idleness, foppishness and pleasure. That such a system, introduced at an early day, when it was policy for governments on this continent, foreign and domesiic^ to throw out a boon before wandering, hostile, and savage tribes, to display their munificence, and effect temporary interests, should have been continued to the present day, is only to be accounted for, from the accumulated duties, perpetually advancing jurisdiction, and still imperfectly organized state of that sub-department of the government, which exercises its, in some respects, anomalous administrative functions, under the name of the Indian Bureau. So far as the Iroquois are affected by the policy adverted to, their interests demand an immediate consideration of the subject on enlarged principles. It behooves them to meditate whether, as a people, now semi-civilized, and exercising, in their in- ternal polity, the powers of an independent government, some more beneficial appropriation of the fund could not be made. Perhaps nothing would better serve to advance and exalt them, as a people, than the application of these annuities to constitute a confederate school fund, under some compact or arrangement with the State, by which the latter should stipulate to extend the frame-work of the common school system over their reservations. Horticulture, to some extent, and in a limited sense, was always an incident to the hunter state among these tribes, so far, at least, as we are acquainted with their history. They brought the zea maize with them, we must concede, on their early migration to the banks of the Mohawk, and the Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga and Se- neca basins ; for this grain is conceded, on ^11 hands, to be a tro- pical, or at least a southern plant, and if so, it reveals the general course of their migration. It is of indigenous origin, and was not known to Europe before the discovery. We learned the mode of cultivation from them, and not they from us. This grain became the basis of their fixity of population, in the 14th or loth centuries, and capacity to undertake military enterprises. It was certainly cul- tivated in large fields, in their chief locations, and gave them a title 12 [Senate io agriculturists ; but it is equally certain that they had a kind of bean, perhaps the same called frijoles by the early Spaniards, and some species of cucurbita. These were cultivated in gardens. The tables will show a general and considerable advance, on any probable assumed basis, of the cultivation of corn. We cannot con- sifJer this species of cultivation, however, as any characteristic evi- dence of advance in agriculture, while the more general introduction of it, and the harvesting of large fields of it, by separate familieSy is undoubtedly to be considered so. Taking the item of corn as the test, another and an important result will be perceived. In propor- tion as the cereales are cultivated, the average quantity of corn is di- minished ; and these are the very cases where, at the same time, the degree of civilization is most apparent in other things. The condition of herdsmen is deemed by theorists and historians to be the first step in the progress from the hunter state. But we are in want of all evidence to show that there ever was, in America, a pastoral state. In the first place, the tribes had tamed no quadru- ped, even in the tropics, but the lama. The bison was never under any subjection, nor a fleece ever gathered, so far as history tells us, from the Big-horn or Rocky Mountain sheep. The horse, the domestic cow, the hog and the common sheep, were brought over after the discovery ; and the Iroquois, like most of their western brethren, have been very slow, all advantages considered, in raising Ihem. They have, in fact, had no pastoral state, and they have only become herdsmen at the time that they took hold of the plough. The number of domestic animals now on their reservations, as shown by the tables, bears a full proportion to their other industrial field labors. It will be seen, that while horses, neat cattle and hogs are generally raised, sheep come in, at more mature periods of advance, and are found only on the largest and best cultivated farms. Sheep, therefore, like the cereales, become a test of their advance. With this stage, we generally find, too, the field esculents, as turneps, peas, &c. and also buckwheat. I have indicated, as a further proof of their advance as herdsmen and graziers, the number of acres of meadow cut. The Iroquois cultivate no flax. They probably raise no rye, from 'the fact that their lands are better adapted to wheat ani] corn. The potato was certainly indigenous. Sir Walter Raleigh^ in his No. 24.J 13 efforts at colonizations, had it brought from "Virginia, uniler the ori- ginal name o^openaiog* But none of the North American tribes are known to have cultivated it. They dug it up, like otlier indigenous edible roots from the forest. But it has long been introduced into their villages and spread over the northern latitudes, far beyond the pre- sent limit of the zea maize. Its cultivation is so easy and so similar to that of their favorite corn, and its yield so great, that it is remark- able it should not have received more general attention from all the tribes. With the Iroquois, the lists will denote that, in most cases, it is a mere item of horticulture, most families not planting over half an acre, often not more than a quarter of an acre, and yet more fre- quently, none at all. The apple is the Iroquois banana. From the earliest introduction of this fruit into New-York and New-France, from the genial plains of Holland and Normandy, these tribes appear to have been capti- vated by its taste, and they lost no time in transferring it, by sowing the seed, to the sites of their ancient castles. No one can read the accounts of the destruction of the extensive orchards of the apple, which were cut down, on (len. Sullivan's inroad into the Genesee country in 1779, without regretting that the purposes of war should have required this barbaric act. The census will show that this taste remains as strong in 1845, as it was 66 years ago. Adverse to agricultural labor, and always confounding it with sla- very, or some form of servitude, at least, deeming it derogatory, ihe first effort of the Iroquois to advance from their original corn-field and garden of beans and vines is connected with the letting out of their spare lands to white men who were cast on the frontiers, to cul- tivate, receiving for it some low remuneration in kind or otlierwise, by way of rent. This system, it is true, increased a little their means of subsistence, but nourished their native pride and indolence. It seems to have been particularly a practice of the Iroquois, and it has been continued and incorporated into their present agricultural system. I have taken pains to indicate, in every family, the amount of land thus let, and the actual or estimated value received for it. These receipts, I was informed, low as they are in amount, are gen- erally paid in kind, or in such manner as often to diminish their value and eflfect, in contributing to the proper sustenance of the family. • By the Algonquins of the present day, this plant is called, in the plural, opineeg. The inflection in ecg denotes the plural. 14 [Senate I have been equally careful to ascertain the number of families who cultivated no lands, and insert them in the tables. The division of real property among this people appears to fall under the ordinary rules of acquisition in other societies. But it is not to be inferred in all cases, that the individual returned as without land has absolutely no right to any, or having this right, has either forfeited or alienated it, although the laws of the tribe respecting property, permit one Iroquois to convey his property in fee to another. It is only to be inferred, in every case, that they are non-cultivators. In a few cases the persons thus marked are mechanics, and rely for support on their skill. In the valley of the Alleghany, some of them are pilots in conducting rafts of lumber or arks down that stream. It would have relieved the industrial means of this band of the Senecas, extended as they are for forty miles along both banks of this river, could the amount received for this species of pilotage have been ascertained, together with the avails derived from several saw-mills owned by them, and from the lumber trade of that river generally. But these questions would have remained a blank in other tribes. Not a few persons amongst the Onondagas andTuscaroras, and the Tonewandas and other bands of Senecas, living in or contiguous to the principal wheat growing counties, labor during the harvest sea- son as reapers and cradlers, for skill and ability in w^hich occupations they bear a high reputation, and receive good wages in cash. There are a few engaged some parts of the year, as mariners on the lakes. It will be sufficient to denote these varied forms of incipient labor and strength of muscle and personal energy among these tribes, which it was, however, impracticable to bring into the tables. Individual character vindicates its claims to w^ealth and distinction among these tribes in as marked a manner as among any people in the world. Industry, capacity and integrity, are strongly marked on the character and manners of numbers in each of the tribes. The art of speaking, and a facility in grasping objects of thought, and in the transaction of business, separate and distinguish persons as fully as physical traits do their faces. And it is to be observed that these intellectual traits run very much in certain families. That there are numbers, on the contrary, who are drones in the political hive, who do not labor, or labor very little ; others who are intemperate ; others who neither work nor own land, or would long remain pro- No. 24. J 15 prietors of them, were new divisions and appropriations made, and all of whom are a burden and draw-back upon the industrious and producing classes, it requires little observation to show. Admitting what reforms teaching and example may accomplish among these, it is yet certain that of this numl)er there are many who do not assimi- late, or appear to constitute material for assimilation, in tastes and habits with the mass, nor appear likely to incorporate with them in any practical shape where they now reside, in their advances in agri- culture, government and morals. The hunter habit in these persons is yet strong, but having nothing to stimulate it, they appear loth to embrace other modes of subsistence. Others stand aloof from labor, or at least all active and efficient labor, from a restless desire of change, or ambition to do something else than plough and raise stock; or from ill-luck, penury, or other motives. The proportion of the population who thus stand still and do not advance in civil polity, are a strong draw-back on the rest. It is conceived to be a pertinent question whether this class of the population would not find a better theatre for their progress and development by migrating to the west, where the general government still possess unappropriated terri- tory at their disposal. It is believed by many that their migration would result in benefit to both parties. The question is one which has been often discussed by them in council, and is not yet, I should judge, fully settled. A point of approach for the Iroquois has already been formed in the Indian territory by the Senecas and Shawnees from Sandusky in Ohio, who, at the last accounts (vide President's Mes- sage to Congress, 1844,) number in the aggregate 336 souls. They are located on the Neosho river, (a branch of the Arkansas.) west of the western boundary of the State of Arkansas, where the reports of the government agents represent them as raising horses, cattle and other stock, and being producers of grain. In any view, the subject of the several classes of persons represented in the accompanying tables, as semi hunters and non-cultivators, or individuals without lands, is one entitled to attention. They should not be permitted to live within the boundaries of the State without lands. The State should cherish all who choose to remain as vestiges of a once pow- erful race, to whose wisdom an 1 bravery we owe the preservation of the domain. It would be unjust to expect the industrious and fore- handed Iroquois to redivide their lands with the poor, and, to some extent, thriftless numbers of the cantons ; while it may, at the same 16 [Senate time be observed, that it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to provide by legislation, suitable guards against their deterioration and depopulation in their present locations without destroying wholly the fabric of their confederation, chieftainships and laws. IV. Whether the Iroquois have advanced in population since they have laid aside the character of warriors and hunters, and adopted agriculture as their only means of support, we have no accurate data for determining. That their ancient population was overrated, and very much overrated, at all periods of our history, there can be little question. We may dismiss many of these rude conjectures, of the elder writers, as entitled to little notice, particularly that of La Hou- ton, who estimates each canton at 14,000 souls. Still, after making every abatement for this tendency in the earlier authors to exagge- rate their actual numbers, it could have been no small population, which, at one time, attacked the island of Montreal with twelve hundred armed warriors, and at another (1683) marched a thousand men against the Ottagamies.* Smith puts the whole number of fighting men, in 1756, with a mo- deration which is remarkable, compared to others who had touched the subject, at about twelve hundred. Giving to each warrior a home population of five^ which is found to hold good, in modern days, in the great area of the west, we should have an aggregate of 6,000 — a result, which is, probably, too low. Douglass, four years afterwards, gives us data for raising this estimate to 7,500. Col. Bouquet, still four years later, raises this latter estimate by 250. It must be evident that their perpetual wars had a tendency to keep down their numbers, notwithstanding their policy of aiding their natural increase by the adoption and incorporation into the cantons, in full independence, of prisoners and captives. Mr. Jefferson estimates the population of the Powhatanic confede racy or group of tribes, at one individual to the square mile.f Gov. Clinton, who ably handled the subject in a discourse in 1811, esti- mates that, if this rule be applied to the domain of the Iroquois in New-York, an aggregate of not less than 30,000 would be produced ;| but he does not pass his opinion upon an estimate made so complete- ly without reliable data. • Colden's Five Nations. t Notes on Virginia. % Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. vol. 2. No. 24.] 17 At a conference with the five cantons at Albany, in 1677, the num« ber of warriors was carefully made out at 2,150, giving, on the pref ceding mode of computation, a population of 10,750, and this wai the strength of the confederacy reported by an agent of the Gover- nor of Virginia, who had been specially despatched to the conference for the purpose of obtaining this fact. Either, then, in the subsequent estimates of 1756, '60, and '64, the population had been underrated, or there had, on the assumption of the truth of the above enumera- tion, which is moderate, been a decline in the population of 3,000 souls in a period of eighty -seven years. That there was a constant tendency to decline, and that the cantons were aware of this, and made eiforts to keep it up, by the policy of their conquests, is appa- rent, and hao before been indicated. During the American revolution, which broke out but eleven years after the expedition and estimate of Bouquet, w^ien he had put the Iroquois at 1,550 fighting men, it is estimated that the British government had in their interest and service 1,580 warriors, of this confederacy. The highest number noticed of the friendly Oneidas and a few others, who sided with us in that contest, is 230 warriors, raising the number of armed men engaged in the war, to 1,810, and the gross population in 1776 to 9,050 souls. This estimate, which appears to have been carefully made, from authentic documents, is the utmost that could w^ell be claimed. It was made at the era when danger prompted the pen of either party in the war to exhibit the military strength of this confederacy, in its utmost power ; and we may rest here, as a safe point of comparison, or, at least, we cannot admit a higher population. By the census returns herewith submitted, the aggregate popula- tion of the three full, and four fragmentary cantons, namely, the Oneidas and Cayugas, &c. still residing within the State, are denoted to be as follows, namely : Senecas, 2,441 Onondagas, 398 Tuscaroras, 281 Oneidas, 210 Cayugas, 123 Mohawks, 20 St. Regis Canton, 360 [Senate, No. 24.] 3 18 [Senate By a statement submitted to Congress, on the 3d of December, 1844,* the number of Oneidas, settled in Wisconsin, is put at 722 ; the number of Senecas, who have removed from Ohio into the Indian territory west of the Mississippi, at 125, and the number of mixed Senecas and Shawnees, at the same general location, at 211. De- ducting one-half of the latter, for Shawnees, and there is to be added to the preceding census, in order to show the natural increase of the Iroquois, 953 souls. The number of the St. Regis tribe, who are based, as a tribe, on the Praying Indians of Golden, — a band of Ca- tholic Mohawks originally located at Caughnawaga is shewn by the present year's census to be 360. There are, at the village of Corn- planter, within the bounds of Pennsylvania, as numbered by me, the present year, 51 Senecas. Supposing that the Mohawks and Cayu- gas who fled to Canada at and after the revolutionary war, and who are now settled at Brantford on Grand river, Canada Westy have merely held their own, in point of numbers, and deducting the number of Cayugas, namely, 144, found among the Senecas of Cat- taragus, and herewith separately returned, and taking Dalton's esti- mate of the Mohawks and Cayugas in 1776, namely, 300 warriors for each tribe, there is to be added, to the census, to accomplish the same comparative view, two thousand eight hundred and fifty souls. From this estimate, there must be deducted, for a manifest error, in the original estimates of Dalton, in putting the Cayugas on the same footing of strength with the Mohawks, not less than 150 warriors or 750 souls, leaving the Canadian Iroquois at 2,106 — say 2,000 souls. Adding these items to the returns of the present census, and the rather extraordinary result will appear, that there is now existing in the United States and Canada a population of 6,942 Iroquois, that is to say, but 2,108 less than the estimated number, and that number placed as high as it well could be, at the era of the revolution in 1776. Of this number, 4,836 inhabit the United States, and 3,843 the State of New-York. I cannot, however, submit this result without expressing the opinion, that the Iroquois population has been lower, between the era of the revolutionary war and the present time, than the census now denotes ; and that for some years past, and since they have been well lodged and clothed and subsisted by their own labor, and been exempted from the diseases and casualties incident to • Vide Doc. No. 2, Ho. of Reps., 28th Congress, 2d Session. No. 24. j 19 savage life, and the empire of the forest, their population has reco- vered and IS NOW ox the increase. I have thus brought to a close, so far as relates to their population and industrial efforts, the inquiry committed to me respecting this nation. It would perhaps have gratified statistical curiosity and phi- losophical theory, to have exhibited fuller data on the subject of their longevity and vital statistics generally, but it may be considered in the light of an achievement to have accomplished thus much. The general result indicates five, with a large fraction, as the average number of the Iroquois family. Throughout each canton, the num- ber of females predominates over the males. This is a fact which has been long known to hold good w^ith respect to wandering, preda- tory and warlike tribes, but w^as not anticipated among peaceful, ag- ricultural communities. But few years, however, have supervened since they dropped the hatchet and took hold of the plough ; and in this time, it is apparent that the proportion of males to females has approached nearer to an equilibrium. The effects on vitality of ag- ricultural labor and a cessation from war, are likewise favorable, so far as w^e can judge, compared with the known results among the sparse, ill fed, warring and errating hunters of the western forests and prairies. The average number of the Iroquois family is not higher than the common average of the hunter state. The number of children borne by each female is a considerable fraction over four. Of a population of 312 Tuscaroras, five have reached to and passed the age of SO, or over H per cent. Among the Senecas and Cayugas of Cattaraugus, the per centage is 1^, with a smaller fraction, 12 persons in SOS having passed that limit. Local causes have dimin- ished this to one per cent nearly on the Buffalo reservation. On the contrary, it is found to be increased in the valley of the Alleghany to full two per cent. The ruling chief of that tribe. Ten won NY AHS, of Teonegono, commonly called Blucksnake, is now in his ninety-sixth year, and is active and hale, and capable of performincr journies to the annual assemblies of his people at Buffalo. 1 should have not fulfdled the principal object in view, without directing some attention to the effects of the labors of past years in the introduction, into the Iroquois cantons, of education, letters and Christianity. So much of this branch of the inquiry as admits of arithmetical notice, will appear, either under the ordinary heads of 20 [Senate the census, or the additional columns which have been prepared under the headings of " statistics of occupation and of morality." The residue, comprising some remarks on the schools and churches, the present slate of Iroquois society and manners, and the general condition and prospects of the cantons, will be included in the sup- plementary report and documents. I shall also defer to the same time, a particular notice of their annuities, and the extent of their ancient domain, and the periods of its cession to the State or general government. In closing this report, it may be w^ell to notice the fact that there are yet remaining in the State, some vestiges of the Algonquin race, who, under various distinctive names, occupied the southern portion of the State at the era of its discovery and colonization. As the language of the census act refers to such Indians only as live on the " reservations," I have not felt it to be within the scope of my ap- pointment to search out and visit these scattered individuals, although I should have been gratified to make this inquiry. It is believed that they are comprised by about twenty of the Shinecock tribe, who yet haunt the inlets and more desolate portions of Long island, and by a very few lingering members of the ancient Mohegans, who under the soubriquet of Stockbridges, yet remain in Oneida county. The bulk of this people, so long the object of missionary care, mi- grated to the banks of Fox river and Winnebago lake, in Wiscon sin, about 1822. They were followed to that portion of the west, about the same time, or soon after, by the small consolidated band of Nanticokes, Narragansetts, and other early coast tribes, who, in concentrating in the Oriskany valley, after the close of the revolu- tionary war, dropped their respective languages, learned the English, and assumed the name of Brothertons. Both these migrated tribes were in an advanced state of semi-civilization, and were good farmers and herdsmen at the era of their removal. I am, sir, With respect. Your obd't servant, HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT, Marshal under the 15th section of the census act, Hon. Nathaniel S. Benton, Secretary of State. SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT Of Henry R. Schoolcraft to the Secretary of State. ANTIQUITIES— HISTORY-ETHNOLOGY . Kew- York, January 1th, 1846. Sir : — I have now the honor to submit a supplementary report, embracing minutes and remarks on the aboriginal history, antiquities and general ethnology of western New-York, made in accordance with an expression permitting the collection of such materials in your general instructions of the 25lh of June last. To these details I have prefixed some general considerations on the early period of the Iroquois history, the affinities of the several tribes, and the era and principles of their confederation ; the anti- quarian remains and general archaeology of the western counties ; the ancient state of Indian art ; some traits of their traditions and religion ; and a few connected topics which, it is hoped, will tend to render the report more acceptable and valuable. I regret, indeed, that time has not permitted me to enter more fully on some of the topics introduced, and that of others, I have been obliged to cut them short or omit them altogether, including the sub- ject of their languages, geographical terminology, and personal names, the latter of which is a very curious inquiry in itself. I confess it would have fallen in with my inclinations, as well as my concep- 22 [Senate tions of the true nature and extent of the inquiries confided to me, to have extended them to other parts of the State, and given a more complete view of our ethnology, had it been practicable to do so before the meeting of the Legislature. I cannot, however, close this note without expressing the hope that the Legislature will authorize you to take further measures for com- pleting the work. There are a large number of the class of antique, circular and elliptical works scattered over the western and south- western part of the State, of an age anterior to the discovery, which it would be important to examine and describe. These chiefly lie west of Cayuga, and upon the sources of the Susquehanna. Inter- spersed amid this system of common ring-forts of the west there are some of a still earlier period, which exhibit squares and parallelo- grams, yet without any defensive work in the nature of bastions. The area of early French occupancy, or attempt at colonization, within the Slate, extends east and west, between the waters of the Cayuga and Oneida lakes, as general boundaries, having the county of Onondaga as its chief and central point. This area will compre- hend the most striking part of the numerous remains of implements of art and other antiquities of European origin, which have hereto- fore excited attention. How far these evidences extend north is not known. But any examination of either the aboriginal or foreign remains would be incomplete which did not extend also along the line of the St. Lawrence and the waters of Lake Champlain. The valley of the Hudson, and the southern part of the State gene- rally, although it has not been explored with this view, is known to have some antiquarian features worthy examination. And were there none others than the artificial shell mounds and beds on the sea coast, and the fossil bones of the valley, so remarkable in themselves, these would alone be entitled to the highest interest in studying the ancient history of the races of man in this area. Geological action subsequent to the period of the habitation of the globe, has not been examined with this view, but is believed to be important in denoting eras of former occupancy ; it is known that various parts of the State have yielded, at considerable depths below the surface, many curious evidences of artificial remains, along with relics of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. No. 24. J 23 There is an apparent extension of the system of works which characterize the fort and mound period of tlu> Ohio valley, reaching from the Alleghany waters in Chautauque and Cattaraugus, along the southern shore of Lake Erie, indefinitely eastward, which it would be interesting to trace. One of the most reliable proofs of eras and races of men is found in the remains of art. There arc some striking coincidences in this respect between the antiquities of New- York and the Mississippi valley, which denote precisely the same state of arts and the same eras of occupancy. Such are the Minace Alleghanic which occurs alike in the Grave Creek mound and the simple places of sepulture in Onondaga, the Nabikoaguna Antique, which has been found at Upper Sandusky and at Onondaga ; and the Medaeka Missouric, from the valley of the Sciota, in Ohio, and the Kasonda, in New-York. Accurate descriptions of the whole class of our antiquarian remains could not, if thoroughly executed, but throw much light on, and introduce precision in, periods of remote history in this State, and indeed the continent, which are now either involved in obscurity, or constitute themes of mere conjecture. I. HISTORICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL MINUTES. HADE ON TAKING THE CENSUS OF THE IROQUOIS OF NEW-YORK, IN COU' FORMITV WITH AN ACT OF THE LEGISLATURE, IN 1845. [a.] A Sketch of the Iroquois Groupe of Aboriginal Tribes. On the fliscovcry of North America, the Iroquois tribes, were found seated chiefly in the -wide and fertile territory of western and northern New-York, reaching west to the sources of the Oiiio ;* north, to the banks of Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence ; and east, to the site of Albany, They had as much nationality of character, then, as any of the populous tribes, who, in the 4th century wandered over central and western Europe. They were^ in a high degree, warlike, handling the bow and arrow with the skill and dexterity of the ancient Thracians and Parthians. They were confederated in peace and war, and had begun to lay the foundations of a power, against which, the surrounding nations, in the Mississippi valley, and along the St. Law- rence, the Hudson, and the Delaware, could not stand. The French, when they eflfectually entered the St. Lawrence in 1608,1 courted their alliance on the north, and the Dutch did the same in 1609, on the Hudson. Virginia had been apprised of their power, at an early day, and the other English colonies, as they arrived, were soon made acquainted with the existence of this native confederacy in the north. • They always denominated the Alleghany river by the name of Ohio. This I found o be the terra constantly used for that river in 1815. They give tho vowel i, in this word, he sound of i, in machine. t They actually discovered this river, in J535. [Senate, No. 24.] 4 ^^ * fSENATZ: Sj pcif tin^ fire-arms into their hands, they doubled the aboriginal power, and became themselves, for more than a century ;r dependant on their caprice or friendship. The word Iroquois, as we are told by Charlevoix, who is a compe- tent and reliable witness on this point, is founded on an exclamation^, or response, made by the sachems and warriors, on the delivery to them, of an address. This response, as heard among the Senecas, it appeared to me, might be written eoh ; perhaps, the Mohawks, and' other harsher dialects of this family, threw in an r, between the vowels. It is recorded in the term Iroquois, on French principles of annotation, with the substantive inflection in ois, which is character- istic of French lexicography. It is a term which has been long, and extensively used, both for the language and the history of this people j and is preferable, on enlarged considerations, to any other. The- term Five Nations, used by Colden, and in popular use during the earlifirr period of the colony, ceased to be appropriate after the Tusca- rora revolt in North Carolina, and the reunion of this tribe with the parent stock, subsequent to 1712. From that period they were call- ed the Six Nations,* and continued to acquire inceased reputation as a confederacy, under this name, until the termination of the American Revolution in 1783, and the flight of the Mohawks and Cayugas to Canada, when this partial separation and breaking up of the confede- racy, rendered it no longer applicable. The term New-York Ijjdians, applied to them in modern daysy by the eminence in their position, is liable to be confounded, by the common reader, with the names of several tribes of the generic Al- gonquin family, who formerly occupied the southern part of the State, down to the Atlantic. Some of these tribes lived in the westj and owned and occupied lands, among the Iroquois, until v/ithin a few years. And, at any rate, it is too vague and imprecise a term to be employed in philology or history. By the people themselves, however, neither the first nor the last of the foregoing terms appear ever to have been adopted, nor are they now used. They have no word to signify " New-York" in a sense more specfiic, than as the territory possessed by themselves — a claim • In 1723, they adopted the Necabiages, a» a Seventh Nation, as will be noticed ander the appropriate head. No. 24.1 ^ which they were certainly justified in makintv, at the era of thre 5rs- •CO very, •when they are adnaitted, on all hands, to have carried their •conquests to the sea. The terra Ongwe Honwe, or a people surpassing all olherS) which Coklen was informed they applied proudly to themselves, may be strictly true, if" limited, as they did, to mean a people surpassing all other red men. This they believed-, and this was the sense in which they boastfully applied it. But it v;as a terra older than the disco- very, and had no reference to European races. The word /iowtuc, as -Aill appear by the vocabulary hereto appended, means man. By the prefixed terra Ongwe, it is qualified according to various interpreta- tions, to mean real, as cx)ntradistinguished from sham men, or cowards; it may also mean strong, wise, or expert men, and, by ellipsis, men excelling others in manliness. But it was in no other sense distinct- tiveof them. It was the common term for the red race of this con- tinent, which they would appear, by the phrase, to acknowledge as a unity, and is, the word as I found it, used at this day, as the equiva- lent for our term " Indian," Each tribe had, at some period of their progress, a distinctive ap- pellation, as Onondaga, Oneida, He warned them against the Evil Spirit, and gave them corn, beans, squashes, potatoes and tobacco, and dogs to hunt their game. He bid them go towards the east, an 1 personally guided them, until they entered a valley called Tenonanatchi, or the Mohawk. They followed this stream to its entrance into the Sanatatea, or, as called by tiie Mohawks, Kohatatea, which they pursued to the sea. • Where the Indians dwelt for a long time, it is customary for them to afTirm in their metaphorical lan^a^e, that they originated, or were created. Wlien tlicy date from such a spot, we find they frame a story, saying that they came out of a hill, Uc. at that spot. In 1791, an extensive work, consisting of ditches, &c. was found about 40 miles south of Oswego, which is not remote from the probable place of origin their traditions refer to; and it may be worthy of examination with this particular view. S.inie account of this old fort appeared in the N. Y. Mag. ITftJ. [Senate, No. 24.] 6 42 [Senate From this point they retraced their steps towards the west, origi- nating as they went, in their order and position, the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayug'is, and the Senecas. They do not omit the Tuscaroras, whom they acknowledged, after a long period of wandering and a considerable change of language, and admitted as the Sixth tribe of the confederacy. The Tuscaroras affirm, that, after reaching the lake waters, they turned southwest, to the Mississippi river, where a f/art of them: crossed on a grape vine, but it broke, leaving the remainder east. Those who went west, have been lost and forgotten from their me- mory.. The remainder, or eastern Tuscaroras, continued their wan- derings, hunting, and wars, until they had crossed the Alleghanies anif reached the sea again, at the mouth of the Cautoh, or Neus river, iri North Carolina. Each tribe was independent uf the others. They increased in numbers, valor and skill, and in all sorts of knowledge necessary ir^ the forest. But they began to fight and quarrel among themselvesy and thus wasted and destroyed each other. They lived a life of per- petual fear and built forts to defend themselves, or to- protect their women and children. Besides this, the country was wide and covered with large forests and lakes, and it gave shelter to many fierce wild animals and monsters, who beset their paths and kept them in dread. The evil spirit also plagued them with monstrous visitations. They were often induced to change their villages, sometimes from the fear of such enemies, and sometimes from sickness or bad luck. In this manner, and owing to their perpetual hostility, their population was often reduced. How long they wandered and warred, they do not know. At length it was proposed by some wise man that they should no longer fight against each other, but unite their strength against their enemies, the Alleghans, the Adiriondacks, the Eries, and other ancient and once powerful tribes, who figure in the foreground of their early history, and who, if accounts be true, once greatly ex- celled them both in war and arts, the skill of making implements, canoes and utensils, &c. To this league, which was formed on the banks of Onondaga lake, they in time, gave the name of the Long House, using the term symbo- jSo. 24.] 43 lically, to denote that they were tied and braced^together by blood and lineage, as well as political bonds. This house, agreeably to the allusion so often made by their speakers, during our colonial history, reached from the banks of the Hudson to the Lakes. At its eastern door stood the Mohawks, at the west the Senecas, wlio guarded it with vigilance. [a.\ The Mohawks. The Mohawks are supposed to be the eldest brother, in the sym- bolical chain of the Six Nations. Their own tradition assigns them this rank, and it appears to be consonant to other traditions. When Tarenyawagon, their liberator from their subterranean con- finement, bid tliein travel east, he gave them his personal conduct and care until they had entered the Mohawk valley. Some of their western brethren call this stream Tenonanatche, or a river flowing through a mountain. In due time, they went on into the valley of the Hudson, and thence, if we credit their annals, to the sea. The seat of their power and growth was, however, in the genial valley where they had at first located. Here they lived when the country was discovered, and here they continued to live and flourish until the events of the American revolution, and tlie determined cruelty -which they exercised, under the authority and influence of the British crown, drove them out of it, and lost them the inheritance. It does not appear, from any thing history or tradition tells us, or from any monumental remains in the valley or its immediate vi- cinity, that it had before been occupied by other nations. They do not speak of having driven out or conquered any other tribe. There are no old forts or earthen walls, or other traces of military or de- fensive occupancy, of which we have heard. Their ramparts were rather their own brawny arms, stout bodies and brave hearts. From the earliest notices of them, they were renowned for wielding the war club and arrow with great dexterity. They raised corn on the rich intervales, and pursued the deer, bear and elk in the subjacent forests. Tlieir dominion extended from the head waters of the Sus- 44 [Senate quehanna and Delaware to Lake Champlain. They had pursued their forays into the territorial area of New-England, as far, at least, as the central portions of the Connecticut, and had made their power felt, as temporary invaders, among the small independent tribes who lived about the region of the present city and harbor of New- York. "Wherever they went, they carried terror. Their very name, as we learn from Golden, was a synonyme for cruelty and dread.* No- tribe, perhaps, on the continent, produced better warriors, or have ever more fully realized, as a nation^ the highest measure of heroisns and military glory to which hunter nations can reach. In passing over the country which they once occupied, there is little to stimulate historical interest, beyond the general idea of their power and military renown. Their history is connected with the rise and influence of one of our most distinguished anti-revolutionary citizens. Sir William Johnson. The influence he obtained over them was never exceeded, if equalled by that of any other man of European lineage. He moulded them to his purposes in peace and war. They followed him in his most perilous expeditions, and sustained him manfully, as. •we know, in the two great contests to whose successful issue he owed his laurels, namely, Lake George and Niagara. So completely iden- tified were they in feeling and policy with this politic and brave man, that after his death, which happened at the crisis of '76, they trans- ferred their attachment to his family, and staking their all on the issue, abandoned their beloved valley and the bones of their fathers, and fled to the less hospitable latitudes of Canada, from which they have never pennanently returned. Some twenty or more persons of this tribe are mingled as residents of the villages of their brethren, the Senecas, Tuscaroras, and Onei- das. A much greater number exist with intermixture of other kin- dred tribes, in the St. Regis canton of St. Lawrence county ; but the greater number of the parent tribe reside on lands appropriated for * The word Mohawk itself, is not a term of Mohawk origin, but one imposed upon them, as is believed, by the Mohegan race, who inhabited the borders of the sea. Among tills race the Dutch and English landed, and tliey would naturally adopt the term most in vogue for so celebrated a tribe. The Dutch, indeed, modified it to Maa- quas — a modification which helps us to decypher its probable origin, in Mauqua (by kin- dred tribes, Mukwa, &c.) a bear. By others, it may be traced to mok, wa, a wolf, and awki, a country. No. 24.] 45 their use by the British government, at Branttord, on the Grand river of Canada West. To this place at the close of the war, they fol- lowed their distinguished leader, Thayendanegea, the Jephtha of his tribe, who, against the custom of birth anil descent, and every other obstacle, after the failure of the line of wise and brave chiefs to lead them to battle, wasmade their Tekarahogea and leader, and displayed a degree of energy and firmness of purpose, which few of the abori- ginal race in America have ever equalled. What light the examination of the old places of burial of this tribe in the valley woulil throw on their ancient history or arts, by entombed articles, cannot be told without examinations which have not been made. Probably the old places of Indian interment about Canajoharie, Dionderoga, and Schenectady, would reveal something on this head, conforzning at least, in age and style of art, with the stone pipes, tomahawks and amulets of the Onondaga and Genesee countries. The valley of the Schoharie and that of the Tawasentha, or Norman's kill, near Albany, might also be expected to reward this species of research. [Vide B.J A human head, rudely carved in stone, apparently aboriginal, was sent to the New-York Historical Society early in 1845, which was represented to have been found in excavating a bank at Schenectady. If this piece of sculpture, which denoted more labor than art, be regarded as of Mohawk origin, it would evince no higher degree of art, in this respect, than was evinced by similar outlines cut in the rock, but not detached, by some of the New-England tribes.* * Rude carvings of this kind are represented to exist on the banks of the Connecticut, at Bellows' Falls, &c. 46 . [Senati [b.] Origin and History of the Oneidas. This canton of the Iroquois nation, deduces its origin in a remote age, from the Onondagas, with the language of which, the Oneida has the closest affinity. According to a tradition which was related to me, and which is believed to be entitled to respect, they are descended from two persons, who, in their obscure ages, and before a confederation had been thought of, went out from the people at Onondaga, and first dwelt at the head of the Oneida river. After increasing in numbers, they removed to the outlet of the Oneida creek, which flows into Oneida lake. Here they fortified themselves, and farther increased in numbers and power. Remains of this fortifi- cation are said still to exist. Their next removal was up the Oneida creek valley, to the storied locality of the Oneida stone, from which, by a figure of speech, they represent themselves to have sprung. This stone is in the town of Stockbridge, Madison county. It lies on a very commanding eminence, from which the entire valley, as far as the Oneida lake, can be seen in a clear atmosphere. The day of my visit being hazy at a distance, the lake could not be seen, although the view down the valley, was both magnificent and picturesque. This eminence was formerly covered with a butternut grove. Old, and partly decayed trees of this species, still remain in a few places. The ancient town extended in a transverse valley, south of this ridge of land, covered as it was, with nut wood trees, and was completely sheltered by it, from the north winds. A copious and clear spring of water issued at the spot selected for their wigwams. Here in seclu- sion from their enemies, the tribe expanded and grew in numbers. When it was necessary to light their pipes, and assemble to discuss their national affairs, they had only to ascend the hill, through its richly wooded grove, to its extreme summit, at the site of the Oneida stone. This stone, represented on the succeeding page, became the national altar. No. 24.] 47 •^^4^^-^.ci^:. Slaiuling at its side, at a probable elevation of 400 or 500 feet above ths Stanwix summit, they could survey the whole valley of the Oneida ; and a beacon fire lighted here, was the signal for assembling- their warriors, from all the surrounding lateral plains and vallies. Time and usage rendered the object sacred, and as. they expanded into nationality and power, while located around it, their sages assert- ed with metaphorical truth, that they sprang from this rock. Stone in this language is Onia. They called themselves, Oniota-aug, peo- ple of, or who sprung from the stone. There is some variety in the pronunciation. The Mohawks call them Oneota. The French wrote it Aneyoute, the English and Dutch, Oneida, which latter has pre- vailed. Neither retained the plural inflection in augj which carries the idea of people. With a knowledge of these traditions, I approached the spot with deep interest. It occupies the extreme summit, as shown in the print. The first feeling, on approaching it, was one of disappoint- ment at its size, but this feeling soon subsided in the interest of its antiquity and national associations. It is a large, but not enormous boulder of syenite,* of the erratic block groupe, and, consequently, geologically foreign to the location. There are no rocks of this species in situ, I believe, nearer to it, in a northerly or easterly di- rection, than the Kayaderosseras or the Adirondach mountains.! The summit upon which, partly embedded, it reposes, is now a cleared field, in grass. A few primitive and secondary boulders, all of lesser size, are strown about the ridge, and several of weight and magni- tude rest upon its flanks, and in the vallies at its base. One of the largest of these is the "White Stone at tlie spring, which has been spoken of, I think, in some early notices of the Oneidas, as the • A specimen of the rock before me, broug;ht (hence, consists of flesh colored feld- spar, quartz anil hornblende. t If the passagrc of the Mohawk throufrh the Astorenga or Aslogan hills, at Little Falls, discloses syenite, I ani not aware of tiie fact. 48 [Senate true Oneida Stone ; but this opinion is erroneous, by the concurrent testimony of red and white men, cognizant of the facts, whom I consulted. This white stone, figured below, has been removed, by the proprietor of the land,* from its ancient position near the spring, to constitute part of a stone fence ; it is a carbonate of lime. TsHEjoANA, one of the Oneidas, who served as my guide in visit- ing this interesting location, took me to see still another stone, of note, lying a mile or more distant, in a southerly direction, on a farm of Gen. Knox. This stone, of which a figure is annexed, • Mr. Job Francis. No. 24.J 49 I found to be a larp^e bonldor of dark, compact limestone, with or- ganic remains. It ^vas observable that the encrinites contained in Ihis mass, were red. My Indian guide would have this color to be the result of the ancient Indian war paint. But the most striking characteristic of this rock, aside from its massy and flattened size and channelled centre, consists in the evidences it affords of the action of water, in rounding and polishing it. In several places, my guide would have this wear- ing elfect to have been produced by the rubbing and sharpening of the Indian war axes ; for he averred that it was customary for war parties who went out south against the Cherokees, to come and sharpen their axes upon this stone, and paint themselves for war. Whatever there w^as in this custom, I think he was probably mis- taken in his locality ; yet it is a question in which others may differ. At any rate, geology had been quite beforehand with the Oneida le- gendary and philosopher, in producing and ac:ounting for these two phenomena, namely, the red color and smoothed and channelled sur- faces. Geology having been mentioned, I may add the following incident. I told Skanawadi, one of my guides, while standing at the Oneida stone, lying on its proud ancient elevation, that there was no stone like this, in place, till we went north to the Adirondachs or Tehawas, or great lakes, and that this block of syenite had been brought here by the ocean, when it covered the whole land, and left on its recession. He replied, after a moment's reflection, that " he believed this." At the time the Oneidas came to fix their location at this stone, the Konoshioni or Iroquois had not confederated. This people, in the early eras of their history, like the Algonquins, sent out indivi- duals and bands, who became powerful, and assumed the character of separate and independent tribes, making war and peace ad libitum. If this mode of multiplication be compared to the lower orders of creation, it had some striking analogies with it. Like the bear and the hawk, the moment the young member was ready to quit the parent lair or nest, it had not only to forage for subsistence, but to defend itself against other bears and hawks, and all other claimants to the food of the forest. To make war is, in fact, the first and the last act of sovereignty of the pettiest of all our aboriginal tribes. [Senate, No. 24. J 7 50 [Senate War is with them the road, and the only road to fame, a-ul the rea- diest way to secure a supply of spontaneous food. They fight to- increase or defend the boundaries of their hunting grounds. Thus, doubtless, arose the first difficulties between the Oneidas and the other branches of the Iroquois. As soon as they we'-e important enough to be noticed, and bold enough to defend themselves, they had to raise barriers around their villages, and when these were carried, as they probably were, or were threatened to be, at two points, on the Oneida waters, they fled to the hill country, at the site of the Oneida stone. How long they abode here, and made it the seat of their council fire, we can only conjecture. They cannot and do not pre- tend to tell. Wisdom, at length, taught the Iroquois sages, that they bad enemies enough, without fighting with each other, and the idea of a confederation was suggested. Tradition has preserved the name of Thaunowaga as the original suggestor : but it has preserved nothing more of his biography. The delegate from the Oneidas was Otats- chechta. That he came from, and lived at., the locality of the stone^ and was renowned for h*is deeds and wisdom, is probable. This com- prises the brief biography of two celebrated aboriginal sages and statesmen. Three periods of transference, of their council fire, have been named, all of which were probably prior to the confederation. Their fourth remove was down the valley to the present site of Onei- da Castle — a place which then, as now, thry called Kunawaloa,, meaning a man's head on a pole. At this place they lived and held their council fire, when the Dutch, in 1609, discovered and ascended the Kohatatea, or, Hudson river. Such are the accounts of their sachems and wise men. It is a general confirmation of them, that the other members call them Younger Brother. By another and older Indian tradition, an earlier date is assigned to the Oneida canton, which is regarded as one of the original subdivisions of the generic stock. It represents this stock as moving from the west to the east, and at another period, returning towards the point of sun-setting, leaving the several separate tribes, or cantons, in their order as they passed. In this migration, the Oneidas are named as the second in geographical position and order of chronology. No. 24. J 51 They located themselves, says the Tuscarora annalist,*" at a stream called Kaw nah taw te ruh, or Pineries, a tributary, of the Susque- hanna, ^vhich originates according to this authority, in Allen's lake, ten miles south of Oneida Castle. They were called Ne haw retahgo,f ■or Big-Tree, a name, it may be remarked, which does not occur as the patronymic for this tribe in other authors, nor has it been retained by them. The distance and course denoted, coincide very nearly with that of the Oneida stone It is not known, however, that any tributary of the Susquehanna exists in that vicinity. The two traditions may indeed be reconciled to truth, by suppos- ing the latter the more ancient one, and that the Onondaga families before mentioned, constituted a subsequent accession to, and union with a band who had seated themselves at a prior era, at the spot denoted ^ or this band may have rernaineil there, on the general pas- sage of the people eastward, and thus been the nucleus of the tribe, on the general return of the people west. In any view, however, they were called and are still called by the Iroquois, " Younger Brother," which must be considered conclusive, that theirnationality is of a period subsequent to that of the Mohawks, Onondagas,Cayu- gas, and Senecas. This fact too, is adverse to the theory, which has too much the aspect of a mere theory, that the re-migration of the Iroquois westward from the Atlantic, proceeded like a marching army, leaving tribes here and there as they went, in a regular chronological order, each of which took a name, and " altered," as his phrase is, the language. The writer seems all along, to have had the Jewish Tribes in his mind. The truth is, ethnologically speaking, no tribe or nation, alters by an authoritative decision, or pre-thought, its language or idoims. Such alterations flow from time and circumstances. Least of all, do wandering savBge tribes gravely determine to " alter" their dialects. Accident, usage, or caprice, little by little, and at long intervals, is the parent of new dialects and languages. A few deductions may be added. By data before introduced, it will have been seen that it is probable the present confederation, whatever bad preceded it, did not take place till about 1539, or seventy years before the arrival of Hudson. It may be considered * Cusick. t In Tuscarora. 52 [Senate as probable, that the Oneidas did not remove from the Oneida stone, into the valley and plains of Oneida Castle, until after the event of the final confederation betv/een the Five Tribes, gave them security against internal enemies. The date of this transfer cf the council fire, is rather remote, but not very ancient. A new forest has grown upon the old cornfields which were once cultivated at their ancient settlement at the Oneida stone. The appearance of corn hills in rows, is still clearly perceptible in some parts of this forest. To an inquiry how such a preservation of the outlines of corn hills could be possi- ble, my informant, who was an Oneida, answered, that in ancient times, the corn hills were made so large, that three clusters of stalks or sub-hills were raised on each circle or hill. There being no ploughs or other general means of turning up the earth, the same hill was used year after year, and thus its outlines became large and well defined. In a black walnut tree, standing on the site of one of these ancient corn-fields, which was partly cut, and partly broken off, I counted on the cut part, one hundred cortical layers, and measuring the broken part, estimated it to have 140 more. Allowing a year for each ring, the commencement of the growth was in 1555, or 16 years after the supposed date of the confederacy, and 290 years from the present date. The remaining history of the Oneidas can only be glanced at, but has some points of peculiar interest. They are the only tribe of the ancient Koncshioni who adhered to us, at least the better part of them, in our life and death struggle of the revolutionary war, saving some portion of the Tuscaroras ; whose aid, however, is justly due to the Oneida influence. It was by the Oneidas that the Tuscaroras were brought off from the south. The Oneidas had long distin- guished themselves in their war excursions against the southern In- dians. Their traditions are replete with accounts of these war par- ties against the Oyada, or Cherokees. They had found allies at the south in the Tuscaroras, who were themselves engaged in desperate wars, at various periods, against the Catabas, and Cherokees, and others. Besides this, Iroquois tradition claims the Tuscaroras as one of their original cantons, or rather as a band of the original Eagwe Heowe, who had, in early times gone south.* And when a crisis happened in their affairs, they nobly went to their relief, and seated * Vide Cusick's pamphlet. No. 24.J 63 them on I heir wtslern conhnes, between themselves and the Ononda- gas, where they remained during the revolution. The Oneidas bore their full share in the long and bloody wars waged by Iroquois for more than two centuries, against the French in the Canadas, and against the distant Algonquins, Ilurons and lilinese. And he who scans the ancient records of treaties and councils, will find that their sachems were represented in the conferences assembled on this conti- nent, by the kings and potentates of Europe, who planted colonies at various times, between the respective Gulphs of Mexico and the St. Lawrence. After the flight of the Mohawks, in 1776, they were in the van of the Konoshioni, and to use their symbolic phraseology, stood in the eastern door of the Long House. When the mixed Saxon population of New-York and New-England began, after the war of 1776, to move westward, the Oneidas first felt the pressure upon their territory. Ey siding with the colonists, they had secured their entire ancient domain, from which they ceded to the State, from time to time, such portions as they did not want for cultivation, taking in lieu money annuities. Nor did they fail to profit, in a mea- sure, by the example of industry set before them in agriculture and the arts. For a \vhile, it is true, they reeled before the march of in- temperance, and sunk in numbers, but many of them learned the art of holding the plough. From the earliest times they were noted, along with their more western brethren, for the cultivation of Indian corn, and the planting of orchards. They also became tolerable herdsmen, and raised in considerable numbers, neat cattle, horses and hogs. To preserve their nationality, their sachems, about the year 1820, sent delegates west to look out a location for their permanent resi- dence. They purchased a suitable territory from the Monomonees of Wisconsin, a wandering and non-idustrious race, seated about Green Bay, and expended a part of their annuities in the payment. This turned out a wise measure. They soon began to remove, and have at this time a very flourishing settlement on Duck river, in that terri- tory. At that location they have established schools, temperance Societies and a church. They bear a good reputation for morals and industry, and are advancing in civilization and the arts. By an oflicial return of the date of 1844, they numbered 722 persons at that settlement. Two hundred and ten are still seated 54 [Senate within the boundaries of New- York, mostly in Oneida county. They are a mild people, of a good stature, and easy manners, and speak a soft dialect of the Iroquois, abounding in the liquid /, which, together with a mild enunciation, imparts a pleasing character to their speech. [c] Onondagas. Onondaga was, from the remotest times, the seat of the Iroquois government. Granting credence to the account of their own origin, on the high grounds or falls of the Oswego, they had not proceeded far up the course of the widely gathered waters of this stream, when a portion of them planted their wigwams in this fertile region. Whatever was the cause of their migrating from their primary coun- cil fire, nothing was more natural than that, by pursuing this stream upward, they should separate into independent tribes, and by further tracing out its far spread forks, gradually expand themselves, as they were found by the discoverers and first settlers, over the entire area of western New-York. On reaching the grand junction of Three River Point, a part w^ent up the Seneca river, who subsequently di- viding, formed the Senecas and Cayugas. The bands who took the eastern fork, or Oneida river, pushed forward over the Deowainsta, or Rome summit, into the first large stream, flowing east, and became the Mohawks. The central or Onondaga fork was chosen by the portion who, from the hill country they first located in, took this name ; and from them, the Oneidas, pursuing in fact the track of the Mohawks, were an off-shoot. That such was the general route, and causes of their separation, appears as evident as strong probabilities, in coincidence with their own traditions and modern discovery, can make it. That the whole of the original number who started from the south banks of Lake Ontario, did not keep together till they reached the valley of the Hudson and the sea, and then go back to the •y^^estj — forjso their general tradition has it, is also both reasonable and probable to suppose. Large bodies of hunters cannot keep long t(^ gether. They must separate to procure food, and would separate from other causes. The first effect of their separation and spread into various rich vallies, abounding in game, nuts and fish, was a No. 24.] 55 rapid increase in population. Tiic next, to become overbearing, quarrel about territory, and fight. They were compelled to build forts to defend their stations, or secure their women and childnn, at night, and by this system, kept down their popuhition to about its firsi; point of increase. It is altogether probable that they did not more than maintain, for ages, a stationary population, which occa- sionally wont down by disease and other calamities, and again re- vived, as we know that natural causes, in the laws of vitality, will revive a people quickly, after the scourge of pestilence. The idea of a confederation was, it is believed, an old one with this people, for the very oldest traditions speak of something of this kind, among the lake and St. Lawrence tribes of older days. When the present league was formed, on the banks of the Onondaga lake, this central tribe had manifestly greatly increased in strength, and distinguished itself in arms, and feats of hunting and daring against giants and monsters, for in such rencontres their traditions abound. Most distinguished, however, above all others, east or west, was a loader of great courage, wisdom and address, called Atotarho ; and when they proposed to form a league, this person, who had inspired dread, and kept himself retired, was anxiously sought. lie was found, by the Mohawk embassy, who were charged with the matter, sitting as he is represented in the annexed cut, composedly in a ^SB^^SS!?! 56 [Senate swamp, smoking his pipe, and rendered completely invulnerable, by living serpents. These animals extended their hissing heads from all parts of his head and body. Every thing about him, and the place of his residence, was such as to inspire the utmost fear and respect. His dishes and spoons were made of the skulls of enemies, whom he had slain in battle. Him, when they had duly approached with pre- sents and burned tobacco in friendship, in their pipes, by way of frankincense, they placed at the head of their league, as its presiding officer. They collected a large quantity of wampum, and invested him with a broad belt of this sacred article. I found the original drawing of this personage, from w'hich the above is reduced, in the summer of 1845, in the house of a Seneca on the Cattaragus reserva- tion. The owner of this curious pictorial relic, on being asked, pro- ceeded to a chest and carefully took it from its envelope, and allow- ed me to make a copy. It represents Atotarho, at the moment of his discovery, by. the Mohawk delegation. The right thus aw^arded to the Onondagas, to furnish a presiding officer for the league, has ever been retained, and is still possessed by that canton. To the Mohawks, at the same time, was awarded the Tekarahogea, or chief war captain — an office, however, of the gene- ral recognition of which, there is a disagreement amongst interpre- tors. A singular tradition may be here added. It is said that the Xlllth Atotarho reigned at Onondaga when America was discovered. [D.] Giving to each Atotarho* a rule of fifteen years, and taking Hud- son's voyage as the period the Indians allude to, w^e should have A. D. 1414, as the era of the present confederacy, in place of 1539, be- fore mentioned on the authority of a general tradition recorded by Pyrlaus. We cannot, however, place much reliance upon Cusick's chronology. • Incidental circumstances have led to the substitution of the above head for the origi- nal fisure. No. 24.1 67 [d.] Cayugas. The history of this canton does not stand out prominently among the Iroquois while it will be found that as one of the inclusive tribes who carried their name and fame so high among the aborigines, they have performed their due part, and produced warriors, sages and speakers of eminence. Were every thing else, indeed, blotted out of their history, the fact of their having produced a Logan* would be sufficient to rescue their memory from oblivion. In their early search after a place to hunt, fish and plant corn, as an independent tribe, they, on the assumption of their own traditions, passed up the Seneca river, into the sylvan and beautiful lake which bears their name. In visiting this lake the present year, in search of their ancient sites, it was not without a melancholy interest, that I surveyed, within the boundaries of Aurora, the remains of one of those apple orchards, which were ruthlessly cut down by a detachment of the army of Gen. Sullivan, in his severe but necessary expedition in 1778. Many vestiges of their ancient residence still remain in Cayuga county, nor has local memory, in its intelligent|and hospitable inhabitants, dropped from its scroll the names of several of its distinguished chiefs, and their places of abode. They point to a spot at Springport, now trenched on by the road, where lie the remains of Karistagea, better known by his English appellative of Steeltrap, one of their noted chiefs and wise men, who extended the hospitalities of his lodge to the first settlers on the " Military Tract." The nation itself, although they had fought strenuously under the Red Cross of St. George in the Revolutionary war, appeared to be composed of mild and peace- able men, of friendly dispositions towards the settlers. They brought venison, fish and wild fruits for sale to the doors of families, whose elder branches yet dwell upon the shores of the Cayuga. Yet their history is a melancholy one, and their decline, on the settlement of Western New- York, was probably one of the most f^ • Logan was the son of Skellelimus, a Cayuga, and went early to the Ohio valley, if he were not born there. [Senate, No. 24. 1 8 58 [Senate Striking instances of the rapid depopulation of a tribe in modern days.. Their first cession of land to the State was in 1789. This was con- firmed at the general treaty of Fort Stanwix in 3790, and s«ch had been the pressure of emigration into that quarter, that in 1795, at a treaty held at Cayuga bridge, they ceded their reserve of one hundred miles square in the valley of the Seneca outlet and the basin of Cay- uga lake, reserving but four miles square. In these treaties they deemed themselves wise to change into large money annuities,* a ter- ritory which was no longer useful for hunting, and which they did not cultivate. Experience has shown, however, throughout America, that Indiam tribes, who live on annuities, and not by agricultural labor, are ins the most dangerous condition of rapid decline. To render the dan- ger eminent, it needs but the close proximity of a European popula- tion, who present the means of indulging selfish gratifications. Among these means, so seductive to the Indian mind, ardent spirits have ever been the most baneful. It proved so at least with the Cayugas, for within sixteen years after the treaty of Fort Stanwix, they had all emigrated west. Some of them had rejoined their bre- thren, who followed Brant and the Mohawks to Canada. Some had migrated to Sandusky, in Ohio, and others found a refuge among the Senecas, near Buflfalo, With the Senecas they have ever been on most intimate terms. Whilst they lived on the Cayuga lake, and the latter on the Seneca, they were separated by a midland range of forest, little more than 16 miles broad. They intermingled freely in their hunting parties, and even in their villages. The inhabitants still point to a large tree near Canoga, on the banks of Cayuga lake,^ •where the celebrated orator Red Jacket was born. In investigating the Indian population of New-York, under the provisions of the census act, I found 114 Cayugas residing in twenty families, on the Cattaragus reservation. These families cultivate 316 acres of land, and during the year 1845, they raised 1,970 bushels of corn, 1,622 of oats, 210 of wheat, 955 of potatoes, and 277 of buck- wheat, besides esculents and small articles. They were found to possess 43 milch cows, 39 horses, 40 sheep, and 109 hogs. Besides A perpetual annuity of $2,300 was secured by one of these treaties. No. 24.] 59 the Cayugas residing on the Cattaragus, there were found, dispersed among the other cantons, S3 persons ; making the whole number within the boundaries oi" New- York, 197. The style of iheir dwell- ings is, generally, that of squareii timber, plainly but comfortably furnished, with glass windows, and plain common furniture. Six- teen of the number are members of Protc-stant churches. The males dress exclusively in the European fashion, and their condition and prospects are, like those of tiie Scnecas, among whom they dwell, in a high degree encouraging to the friends of humanity. Of the num- ber out of the bounds of the Slate, there have been no accurate means of judging. The vocabulary of their language (ride appendix O) will denote its close affinities with other tribes of this family. From a remark made to me, by a daughter of Brant, (the late Mrs. Kerr.) at her house near Wellington square, Canada, in 1S43, I am inclined to think, that in the early wars waged by the Iroquois against the Virginia Indians, the Cayugas defeated and made prisoners tlie remnant of theTuteloes, whom they brought and settled among them, in the Cayuga country. \e.] History and origin of the Senecas, One of the first traits which strikes an observer on entering the territory of this tribe, is the fact that they are called by a name which is not known in their vocabulary, and which they only recog- nize from having long been thus designated by others. Identical as it is in its present orthography, with the name of the Roman moral- ist, it is yet wholly improbable that it liad any such origin ; it must be regarded as an accidental coincidence of sound in some other Indian tongue. That this tongue is the Mohawk, a people who stood first in position east on the Iroquois borders, is probable, but not cer- tain. The earlier authors spelt it with a k, with the a final, which probably had the usual broad sound. It occurs on a map of 1G14, which was brought over from Holland recently, by the historical agent of the State, and has been laid, by that gentleman, be fore the New-York Historical Society, with the proofs of its genu- 6C? [Senate ineness, thus bringing the use of the word within five years of the voyage of Hudson. The term by which they call themselves is Nukdowaga, or the People of the Hill. A name which leads us at once to consider the accounts of their own origin. Various relations of this story have been given, differing in some of their details, but all coinciding in the main events, namely : that they originated and lived on a well known hill, at the bead of Canandaigua lake, where they were put in eminent peril of utter destruction by a monstrous serpent, which circled itself about the fort and lay with its mouth open at the gate. The following is given from a native source, and has some novel de- tails to recommend it. While the tribe had its seat and council fire on this hill, a woman and her son were living near it, when the boy, one day caught a small two-headed serpent, called Kaistowanea, in the bushes. He brought it home as a pet to amuse himself, and put it in a box, where he fed it on bird's flesh and other dainties. After some time it had become SO' large that it rested on the beams of the lodge, and the hunters- were obliged lo feed it with deer ; but it soon w"ent out and made its abode on a neighboring hilly where it maintained itself. It often went out and sported in the lake, and in time became so large and mis- chievous that the tribe were put in dread of it. They consulted on the subject one evening, and determined to fl.y next morning j but with the light of the next morning ihe monster had encircled the hill and lay with its double jaws extended before the gate. Some attempted to pass out, but were driven back ; others tried to climb over its body, but were unable. Hunger at last drove them to des- peration, and they made a rush to pass, but only rushed into the mon- ster's double jaws. All were devoured but a warrior and his sister^ who waited in vain expectancy of relief. At length the warrior had a dream, in which he was showed that if he would fledge his arrows with the hair of his sister, the charm would prevail over their enemy- He was warned not to heed the frightful heads and hissing tongues, but to shoot at the heart. Accordingly, the next morning he armed himself with his keenest weapons, charmed as directed, and boldly shot at the serpent's heart. The instantaneous recoiling of the mon- ster proved that the wound was mortal. He began in great agony to roll down the hill, breaking down trees and uttering horrid noises. No. 24. J 61 until he rolled into the lake. Here he slaked his thirst, and tried by water to mitigate his agony, dashing about in fury. At length he vomited up all the people whom he had eaten, and iminidialely ex- pired and sunk to the bottom.* The fort was immediately deserted, and all who bad escaped went with their deliverer to, and fixed their council fire on, the west shores of Seneca lake, where Geneva now stands. The general course of the migration and conquests of the Senecas has, however, been towards the west. Taking their own general and ancient traditions of the parent stock, to wit, their origin in the val- ley of the Oswego, they may be supposed to have followed the Se- neca branch of tho>;e outspread waters to the banks of the Seneca and Canandaigua lakes, and thence into the rich valley of the Genesee. At an early day they were limited to the region east of this capital stream, which, crossing the country in a transverse direction, formed a natural boundary. There lived west of it, in ancient times, a tribe who are known as Aileghans, Andastes and Eries, or, as the Senecas call them, Kah-Kwas. They had their council fires at or near Buffalo, ex- tending west and also east. The people called by the French the Neuter Nation, had placed themselves, so far as we can learn, on the waters of Oak-Orchard creek, which draws its tributaries in part from the fertile districts of Genesee, Niagara and Orleans counties. From the accounts of the Tuscaroras, [D. | this people were governed in early times by a queen, who ruled over twelve forts in that quarter. North of them, embracing the Niagara ridge and the country below it, dwelt a branch of the Algonquin nation, who are called by the same authority, Twankannah. Other names occur, which are believed to be either synonymcs for these, or minor divisions of the three principal tribes named, of which some further notice will be taken in a subsequent paper on the antiquarian remains of the country. That these Trans-Genesscan people were populous and warlike, not only maintaining their grounds against the Senecas, but often de- • If this be viewed as an allnp^ory, it mny admit of this interpretation. Infernal fcudt created by somebody brought up in their own lodcres, oriqrinated hatred and hot blood. In a long and bloody]war, the nation was nearly exterminated ; at lenpth tiie ailections of a woman prevailed. Harmony was restored, and a new era of prosperity began, by remo- ving the council fire to another place. 62 {Senate feating them and driving them back, is proved not only by the tra- ditions of the Senecas themselves, but by the striking evidences of their military strength and skill, denoted by the remains of forts and intrenchments and cemeteries, yet existing throughout the extensive area, included between the Genesee and the Niagara, extending up the southern shores of Lake Erie to Chautauque and the other prin- cipal known Indian routes to the waters of the Alleghany and Ohio. There is, at least, one authority* for believing that the Eries them- selves were remotely descended from the Senecas, and we have living tradition to prove [VIII,] that, at the time of their final defeat and'so called extermination, some of them fled west, whilst the remainder of them, scattered, cut up and depressed, were incorporated in the Se- neca canton. To the Twankannas, the Neuter Nation, and other tribes and bands, not being Eries, who lived in this portion of the State, the Iroquois applied the general term of Adirondacks,! a bold, warlike, northern race, who spread over many degrees of latitude and longi- tude in former days, covering, by generic affiliation with other tribes, all New-England and the Atlantic coast, to North Carolina, and who are still, in their numerous and subdivided descendants, in the upper lakes and the west, the most numerous of any of the aboriginal stocks yet existing east of the Mississippi and Missouri. So long as the Iroquois remained divided, the Eries and their Algonquin allies kept their ground ; and there is no reason to believe that they began to decline until a considerable period after the era of the Onondaga league. That league was at first but little more than an agreement to stand by each other, and to send delegates and forward news to a central council ; but it put an end to intestine wars, and its popular capacities soon developed themselves, and made it formidable to their neighbors. Thus much by way of prelude to their wars, to be no- ticed hereafter. The Senecas were from the earliest times the most powerful of the Iroquois, nearly doubling, in its best estate, the Mohawks. Their population in past days has been variously estimated, and often ex- aggerated. Perhaps Dalton, who puts it at 400 warriors, or 2,000 souls, during the American war, verges to the opposite extreme, and • Cusick. t Called Algonquins by the French. No. 21. J «3 actually underrates it. Be this as it may, I found the entire Seneca population, within the State, to be 2,383, residing on four reserva- tions in the counties of Niagara and Genesee, Eric, Cliautauque, Cat- taraugus and Alleghany. They were found to be divided into 53S families, who cultivated, in the aggregate, 8,416 acres of land. The produce of this land, as near as it could be obtained, as some declined stating it, was 21,341 bushels of corn, 3,745 of wheat, 20,039 of oats, and 12,469 of potatoes, besides buckwheat, turneps, peas, ami smaller articles. They possess 1,537 neat cattle, 510 milch cows, 626 horses, 335 sheep, and 2,269 hogs. Other details of their ad- vance in agriculture were equally flattering. They cut large quanti- ties of meadow land, possess an adequate supply of farming utensils, carts, wagons, including many tasty buggies and sleighs. Very little of their means of subsistence, even in the most unfavored posi- tions, is derived from the chase. Upwards of 4,000 fruit trees were counted. The style of their buildings, fences and household furni- ture, as well as the dress of the males, is not essentially diflferent, and little, often nothing at all, inferior to that of their white neighbors. Temperance and temperance societies exist in a good state in each canton. Fifteen of their youth have received a collegiate or aca- demic education. A number of these have studied professions. About 350 of the children attend private or missionary schools, and so far as I could obtain returns, some 250 adults are enrolled as members of Protestant churches. Of this number, there are several catechists and intelligent educated translators and interpreters of the language. On the four reservations, there are fifteen native me- chanics and three physicians. Thus it appears that the energies once devoted by their ancestors to war and hunting, are in good earnest now directed to husbandry and the arts ; and there is every encouragement to hope, and reason to believe, that by a continuance in the best measures, they will be wholly reclaimed and added to the number of useful, intelligent and moral citizens. In viewing the condition of such a people, hardy, well formed and active, and pressing forward, as they are, in the great experiment of civilization, humanity consoles itself with the hope, that the energy and firmness of purpose which once carried them, in pursuit of warlike glory, far and wide, will develope itself, as it has already signally commenced to do, in the labors of the field ^"^"^ 64 [Senate and the workshop. Their rude picture-writing upon the bark of trees, has given place to the school. Their prophets' lodges have been converted into churches ; their midnight orgies, at the Indian dancing house, into societies to promote temperance. It is but ap- plying present experience to future results, to predict that these results may become general. The eloquence thrown out by a Red Jacket, in opposition to the further curtailment of their territory,, may shine out, in some of his descendants, to enlighten his people in agriculture, morals and political economy. Nor ought we to doubt that the desk and the forum are yet to resound with Seneca eloquence. [/. ] Tuscaroras. / The traditions of this canton affirm, that they are descendants of the original family of Iroquois, who began their existence, or their nationality, at least at or near the falls of the Oswego. After the migration of the parent tribe towards the sea, and their return west and separation into tribes, this band went on west till they reached Lake Erie. From hence they travelled southwest till they reached the Mississippi. Part of them crossed the river, and they were thus divided. Those who went over, became, in time, the enemies of such as remained on its eastern banks, and were finally lost and for- gotten from their memory. Terenyawagon, the Holder of the Heavens, who was the patron of the home bands, did not fail, in this crisis, to direct their way also. After giving them practical instructions in war and hunting, he guid- ed their footsteps in their journies, south and east, until they had crossed the Alleghanies, and reached the shores of the sea, on the coasts which are now called the Carolinas. They were directed to fix their residence on the banks of the Cau-tan-o, that is, a Pine in the water, now called Neuse river, in North Carolina. By this time their language was altered, but not so much but that they could un- derstand each other. Here Terenyawagon left them to hunt, increase and prosper, whilst he returned to direct the remaining Five Nations to form their confederacy. Thus far the Tuscarora annaKst. His- No 24.] 65 tory picks up the Tuscaroras precisely where trachlion and fable leave them. On the settlement of Virginia and tlie Carolinas, they were found to be the first nation of any stability of purpose, after passing the Powhatannic tribes, in proceeding south. The intcrveninnr coast tribes were petty chieftaindoms, few in numbers and disunited in action or policy. Tliey were essentially ichthiopagi. They soon fell before the two-fold inllucnce of idleness and rura, and have left little or no history, or traits worth preserving. »Such is the history of the Chowanokes,* the Maratocks, and the Mangoacks, who, in one hundred and twenty years from the date of Raleigh's patent, had dwindled from 6,000 to forty-six bowmen. t The Tuscaroras, who lived in the game country, on the skirts of the mountains, showed themselves at the mouths of Cantano or Neuse, Contintny, and Taw rivers. They were, at the time, numerous and warlike, and as inimical to the inhabitants of the Carolinas, as they were numerous. They were at war with the Catabas, the Cowetas and the Cherokees. Numbers, bravery and success, and abundance of animal food, made them haughty, and they evinced the disposition of thtir northern brethren, by trying to subjugate and break down their neighbors. What they had done with red men, very effectual- ly, it must be confessed at least with the Catabas, they thought they might do with the Hugcnots of France, the cavaliers of England, and the protestants of the baronetcy of GrafFenried in Germany. It is not imp.'obable, indeed, that, at a prior era, the Tuscaroras were the very people who had exterminated the colony left on Roanoke island, under the first attempts of Sir Walter Raleigh to colonize Virginia. But, if such were the fact — a mere conjecture at best — they mistook their present neighbors and their own position in attempting to repeat the act. Tliis scheme was, however, deeply laid, although it appeared to be a matter hastily executed. They had long felt a giowing jealousy of the encroaching settlements, and gave vent to it, the first occasion that offered, by seizing Lawson the surveyor-general of the Province, on a trip up the Neuse, and after a kind of trial before a council, putting iiim to death. The Baron Graffcnried, who was with him, • Mr. JeJcrson ihioln (vide Notes, p. 1j2, Loadon ed. of 17S7,) thai this trib* ww connected with the Tuteloa, Nottaways and Meherrins of Virginia, t Williamson. [Senate, No. 24. J 9 66 [Senate and was also condemnedj but saved, on an appeal on the ground of his being a man of rank and not an Englishman ; but they kept him a prisoner, while they proceeded to execute their ill-advised and ne- farious plot, which was nothing less than the massacre of the entire colony in one day. The day fixed for this tragedy was the 22d of September, 1711. Williamson* thinks it was an impulsive move- ment arising from the killing of Lawson, who being a public officer, they felt themselves committed in a war, and resolved to proceed with the bloody work. For this purpose they divided themselves into small bands of six or seven, and entering the settlements at various points, theys truck down with the tomahawk on one day one hundred and thirty persons. To conceal their intentions, they had left their arms, and relied on theirhatchets alone. In this plot, they were assisted by the sea-coast bands of Corees, Mattamuskeets and Bear-river Indians, some three or four tribes, denoting a league and maturity in the attempt. But the plan did not succeed to their wishes, for besides that the colony consisted then of nearly two thousand men, much spread, it must needs have happened that many at the time of attack, would be absent from their homes. The colonists rallied, and prepared to carry the war home to their subtle assailants. They asked the aid of South Carolina, which came gallantly to their rescue. The Legislature of of that Province having granted four thousand pounds, placed Col. Barnwell at the head of a small detachment of armed men, supported by a large body of Cherokees, Creeks and Catabas, the deadly ene- mies of the Tuscaroras. He killed, in various actions, thirty Tusca- roras,and fifty of the sea-coast auxiliaries, and took two hundred women and children of the latter prisoners, and returned. The war thus commenced was continued, with various results for some few years. The aid of Virginia, as well as South Carolina was invoked the next year. The Tuscaroras also made vigorous exertions. They were well provided with arms and ammunition, and despatched run ners to the Senecas for aid. Their auxiliaries, the Mattamuskets, Corees and others killed or made prisoners the next winter, forty in- habitau's of the Island of Roanoke or Croatan. The Tuscaroras };epared to maintain their power by entrenching themselves behind a picketed work on the river Taw. This work, called fort Naharuke, stood on a plain beside a creek, and consisted of a rampart of earth, covering the whole ground occupied, defended with palisades. To * Hist. North Carolina. No. 24.J 67 protect themselves from artillery, they had dug within this wall, square pits of earth, six feet deep, covered with poles, and connected by a wall of earth. They were well provided with corn and ammu- nition, and had the means of standing a siege, had they made a wise provision for water. To obtain this necessary article, they relied on an artificial ditch leading to the stream. To this aboriginal fort Col. Moore of South-Carolina, drove them from the lower country with 40 musketeers and SOO Indians, in the early part of the winter of 1713, after having been detained on his march by a deep snow. He immediately saw the mistake of the water trench, and placed cannon to rake it. He then fortified the only passage or point of land, where the Indians would be likely to escape, and began regular approaches to the work, which he entered on the 26th of March, 1713, taking 800 Tuscaroras prisoners. It is not said how many were killed. He had lost of his army, during the seige, 22 white, and 36 red men killed, and 29 of the former, and 50 of the latter wounded. The Cherokees and their allies claimed the prisoners, who were taken to the south, and sold as slaves, a part, as we are left to infer, being offered by the southern Indians, to appease the spirit of retaliation for prior losses by them. This brought the tribe to terms, and they entered into prelimina- ries of peace, by which they agreed to deliver up twenty men, who were the contrivers of the plot, and who took Lawson and Graffen- ried ; to restore all prisoners, horses and cattle, arms and other pro- perty ; to treat and pursue the Mattamuskeets and their other allies, as enemies ; and finally, to give two hostages for the peaceable con- duct of each of their towns. During the following summer, the chief called " King Blount," brought in thirty scalps from his miserably treated allies ; " but the greater part of the nation," says the historian before quoted, " unable to contend, and unwilling to submit, removed to the northward, and joined the Seneka, and other confederate tribes on the frontiers of New-York.* Those w-ho remained, were to have settled between the Neuse and Taw rivers ; but an Iiulian war having broken out in the southern colonics in 1715, only three months after the peace, with the Corees and their other former allies, the Tuscaroras, now the • Williamson. gg [Senate remains of a broken down tribe, feeble in numbers and power, obtain- ed permission to settle on the north side of the Roanoke river, on a reservation, where some of them were living in 1803. The whole number of Indians living in North Carolina in 1708, estimating their fighting men, were 1,608, of whom, the Tuscaroras constituted 1;200, which would give them, on the ordinary principle of estimating their population, 6,000 souls. Two thirds of the ■whole number of their fighting men were captured at the taking of fort N.\H.\nuKE in 1713. How many were killed on other occa- sions is not certainly known ; but it is probable that in this short w^ar of but three years duration, and owing to the desertion of families, death by sickness, want, and other casualties consequent upon the surrender of Naharuke, they sunk to almost immediate insignificance. Those who fled to their kindred in western New-York, were never counted. They were estimated, perhaps high, at 200 warriors, in 177C. They were located at first, immediately west of, and in juxta- position to the Oneidas, along with whom, they are mentioned as being secured in their rights, by the treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1784. But in fact, they had no independent claim to territory, living merely as guests, although the confederacy had admitted them as an integral member, after their disastrous flight from North Carolina, calling themselves no longer the Five, but the Six Nations. The Sene- cas gave them lands on the Niagara Ridge, after the American revolution ; these w^ere subsequently secured to them in a reservation made by the State, in the present bounds of Niagara county. Here they have continued to dwell, having added to their possessions, by an early purchase from the Holland Land Company, made with the avails of the sale of their reservation north of the Roanoke, in North Carolina. But if the Tuscaroras have erred in policy, and sunk in numbers, with a rapidity and in a ratio imequalled by any other members of the confederacy, if we except the Onondagas and Cayugas, they may be said to have grown wise .by experience. Low^ as their present numbers are, they hold an exalted rank among their brethren for industry, temperance, and their general advance in arts, agriculture and morals. I found, on making the enumeration, 283 persons living in 53 families, of whom 151 were males and 167 females. These families No. 24.] 69 cultivated the past year 2,080 acres of land, on which they raised 4,897 bushels of wheat, 3,515 of corn, 4,085 of oats, 1,1G6 of pota- toes, besides limited quantities of peas, beans, buckwheat and turnips. They possess 336 neat cattle, 98 milch cows, making 7,537 pounds of butter, 153 horses, 215 sheep, and 596 hogs. When it is considered that this enumeration gives an average of six neat cattle, three horses, (nearly) two milch cows, (nearly) 10 hogs, and 92 bushels of wheat, 966 of corn to each family, their capacity to sustain themselves, and their advance as agriculturists will be perceived. Fifty-nine ploughs were found amongst fifty- three families. They cut 195 acres of meadow to sustain their cat- tle. They have over 1,500 fruit trees, and dwell in excellent frame or square-timber houses, well finished, and for the most part well furnished. I noticed one edifice of stone, in the process of building, seated on rising grounds, amidst shade trees, which denotes both •wealth and taste. Other results of civilization are to be already ob- served. Among these there are no slight indications of classes of society, arranging themselves, as rich ami poor, intelligent and igno- rant, industrious and idle, moral and immoral. Of the entire population, 63 are church members, and 231 mem- bers of temperance societies, which is a far higher proportion than is found in any other of the cantons. [g.] Necariages. The Tuscaroras were probably admitted into the confederacy about 1714. Nine years afterwards the Iroquois received the Nicariages. Under this name the long expatriated Quatoghies, or Hurons, then livinjr at Teiodondercshie or Michilimackinac, were taken into the confederacy as the Seventh Tribe, or canton. This act was consum- mutated in the reign of George II., at a public council held at Al- bany on the 30lh May, 1723, on their own desire. A delegation of 80 men, who had their families with them, were present. Of this curious transaction but little is known. For although done in taith, it was not perceived that a tribe so far separated from the main body, 70 [Senate although now reconciled, and officially incorporated, could not effect- ually coalesce and act as one. And accordingly, it does not appear, by the subsequent history of the confederacy, that they ever came to recognize, permanently, the Necariages as a Seventh Nation. The foundation for this act of admission had been laid at a prior period by the dating and adroit policy of Adario, who had so skilfully con- trived to shift the atrocity of his own act, in the capture of the Iro- quois delegates on the St. Lawrence, on the Governor-General of Canada. It has been mentioned, in a preceding page of this report, that the Iroquois recommended their political league as a model to the colo- nies, long before the American revolution was thought of. And it is remarkable that its typical character, in relation to our present union, shouhl have been also sustained, in the feature of the admis- sion, if not " annexation," of new tribes, who became equal partici- pants of all the original rights and privileges of the confederacy. [h.] St. Regis Colony, or Band. This community is an off-shoot of the Iroquois stock, but not a member of the confederacy. It originated in the efforts commenced about the middle of the 17th century, by the Roman Catholic church of France, to draw the Iroquois into communion with that church. It was, however, but a part of the public policy, which originated in the reign of Louis XV., to colonize the Iroquois country, and wrest it from the power of the British crown. When this effort failed, — replete as it was with wars, intrigues and embassies, battles and massacres, which make it the heroic age of our history, the per- sons who had become enlisted in the ritual observances of this church, were induced to withdraw from the body of the tribes, and settle on the banks of the St. Lawrence, in the area of the present county of St. Lawrence. It was, in effect, a missionary colony. Its mem- bers were mostly Mohawks, from Caughnawaga, with some Oneidas, and perhaps a few of the Onondagas, amongst whom there had been Catholic missions and forts established, at early dates. No. 24.] 71 The exertions made to organize this new canton were, poUtically considered, at direct variance with the colonial policy of New-York and were therefore opposed by the persons entrusted by the crown with Indian affairs, and also by the councils of the confederacy. Those persons who composed it assimilated in faith, and almost as a necessary consequence, they soon did so in politics.* They went off in small parties, secretly, and after they had become embodied and located, they were regarded, in effect, as foreign Indians, and were never recognized or admitted to a seat in the confederacy. The feeling caused by this separation, among the tribes themselves, amounted to bitterness, and it is a feeling which, I had occasion to observe on one occasion, is not forgotten by the existing cantons even at this day. The St. Regis colony increased rapidly, but had some extra stim- ulants to promote its growth, its success being equally dear to the political and ecclesiastical policy of France. It became a thorn to the frontier towns and settlements of New-Enjiland, durinfr the whole of the old French war, so called, and of the American revo- lution. Some of the forays of this band into the Connecticut valley were productive of thrilling and heart rending events, as those must have realized who have had their youthful sympathies excited by narrations of the touching captivities of the Hows and the Williams, of that valley. When the 54° parallel came to be drawn, under the provision of the treaty of Ghent, it cut the St. Regis settlement unequally in two, leaving the church and the larger portion of the Indian popula- tion within the bounds of Canada. Those who reside within the limits of New-York, numbered, the past summer, three hundred and sixty souls. • Some exceptions to this existed. The noted chief called Col. Louis, who rrmifrcd the American cause such essential service, during the siege of Fort Stanwix, in 1777, was of the St. Regis tribe, agreeably to information given to me, at Oneida CuU», lh« present year, by Abraham Dennic. No. 24.] 73 [11. EPOCH AND PRINCIPLES OF y\\\] l]{()Qrois LEAGUE. [a.] Something on this head appears desirable, if it be only to mitigate, an some degree, our historical ignorance, and want of accurate or precise information, touching it. The question of the principles of their social and political association, is one of equal interest and ob- scurity, and would justify a more extended inquiry than is here given. [b.] Era of the Confederation. Chronology finds its most difficult tasks in establishing dates among our aboriginal tribes. Pyrlaus, a missionary at the ancient site of Dionderoga or Fort Hunter, writing between 1742 and 1748, states, as the result of the best conjectures he could form, from information derived from the Mohawks, that the alliance took place " one age, or the length of a man's life, before the white people came into the country."* He gives the following as the names of the sachems of the Five Nations, who met and formed the alliance : To GANAWiTA, /or the Mohawks. Otatschechta, _/br the Oneidas. TatotarhOj for the Onondagas. ToGAHAYON,yb?' the Cayugas. Ganiatario, Satagaruyes for the Senecas. The ixame of Thannawage is given as the first proposer of such an alliance. He was an aged Mohawk sachem. It was decided that • Trans. Hist, and Lit. Com. Am. Pliilo. '?oc. vol. 1, p. 3«. [Senate, No. 24.J 10 74 [Senate these names should forever be kept in remembrance by naming a per^^ son in each nation, through succeeding generations, after them. Taking 1609, the era of the Dutch discovery^ and estimating " a man's life" by the patriarchal and scriptural rule, we should not at the utmost have a more remote date than 1539,* as the origin of the confederacy. This would place the event IS years after the taking of Mexico by Cortes, and 47 years after the first voyage of Colum- bus. Cartier, who ascended the St. Lawrence to Hochelaga, the pre- sent site of Montreal, in 1535, demonstrates clearly, by his vocabu- larv of words, that a people who spoke a branch of the Iroquois lan- guage, was then at the place. This people is usually supposed to have been the Wyandots, or Hurons. But he makes no remark on a confederacy. He only denotes the attachment of the people to an; old and paralytic sachem, or head chief, who wore a frontlet of dyed porcupine's skin.f Curious to obtain some clue to this era, or test of the preceding- data, I made it a topic of inquiry. The Onondagas, the Tascaroras,, and the several bands, unite in a general tradition of the event of a confederacy, at the head of which they place Atotarho, (the same doubtless whose name is spelt Tatotarho above,) but amongst neither of these tribes is the era fixed. The dates employed by Cu- sick, theTuscarora legendary, giving an extravagant antiquity to the confederation, are more entitled to the sympathy of the poet than the attention of the historian, although other traditions stated by him debarring the dates, may be regarded as the actual traditions of his tribe. Were the dates moderate, w^hich he generally employs to con- fer antiquity on his nation, they might inspire respect. But like the Chinese astronomers, he loses no little as a native archaeologist, by aspiring after too much. Atotarho, who by these traditions was an Onondaga, is the great embodiment of Iroquois courage, wisdom and heroism, and in their narrations he is invested with allegoric traits, which exalt him to a kind of superhuman character. Unequalled in war and arts, his fame had spread abroad and exalted the Onondaga nation to the high- • For other ilata on this topic, see the subsequent paper, entitled " Onondagas," in ■which an earlier date is assigoed. See also the article "Oral Traditions." f Oncota, p. IS'o. 24.] 75 ^•st pitch. He was placed at the head of the coTifederacv, and his 82 [Senatk was not equally numerous in each tribe. This would depend on ac- cidental circumstances and natural laws ; but it is an argument in favor of the antiquity of the people, or the confederacy, that each of the tribes had organized in each of the respective clans. For we cannot suppose that at first there was a systematic, far less, an equal' division of the clans, or that their original separation into separate tribes, or cantons, was the result of a considerate formal public act. This would be to reverse the ordinary progress of tribes and na- tions who, in early ages, separate from circumstances and causes wholly casual, such as the ambition or feuds of chiefs, the desire of finding better places to live, easier means of subsistence, &c. In the condition of a people, living in a governmeut so purely pa- triarchal, following game for a subsistence, and making wars to en- large or defend their hunting grounds, the oldest and most respected man of his clan or totem, would necessarily be its sachem or political head. We must assume that to be a fixed and settled principle of their simple constitution and verbal laws, which appears, from all we know, to have been so. Letters, they had none, and their traditions on this head are to be gleaned from scattered and broken sources which do not always coincide. If each clan had its leading sachem or chief, there were eight prin- cipal chiefs in each canton. Consequently, when the confederacy consisted of five cantons, there were forty Rakowanas,* or head chiefs. These were the recognizei leaders and magistrates in the vil- lages ; but in effect, in a community thus constituted, each Rakowanr^ or ruling chief of a clan, has a number of aids, Mishinawasf and mi- nor officials, who were also regarded as semi-sachems, or chiefs. This number is always indefinite and fluctuating, but may be supposed to be, in relation to the ruling Rakowana, as at least five to one. This would give to each canton forty inferior chiefs, and to the five cantons, tvi-o hundred, denoting a distribution of power and civil organization, which acting in union must have been very efficacious ; and the more so, when we consider that all their political movements were entirely of a popular cast, and carried with them the voice of every man in the canton. • Mohawk. \ Algonquin. No. 24.] 83 This appears to have been the standing civil orrranization ; but it was entirely independent of the military system. War cliiffs appear ever to have derived their authority from courage and capacity in war, and to have riseii up as they were required in each canton. The Te- karahogea, or war captain, founded his rights and powers in the In- dian camp, on former triumphs and present capacity ; but the oflTice does not aj)peiir to have been a general one recognized by their con- stitution. All males were bound to render military service by cus- tom andopiiiion, but by nothing else. Disgrace and cowardice were the penalties, but they were penalties more binding than oaths or bonds am-ong civilized oommunities, and always kept their ranks full. All war parties were, of course, volunteers. It seems that all able- l)odied males over fourteen were esteemed capable of taking the war path; the early development of martial power being considered of all traits the most honorable. No title was more honored than that of Roskeahragehte,* or Warrior, There was no baggage to encumber the march of an Iroquois army. The decision of Alexander and the policy of Bonaparte were alike unnecessary here. Each Iroquois warrior supplied and carried his own arms and provisions. He joined the war danu', the analogous ievjn for enlistment, for the particular expedition in hand. If it failed, or another force was required, other captains called for other volun- teers, anil sung their war songs to inflame the ardor, of the young. Taunts and irony of the deepest character were, on these occasions, flung at the character of the enemy. The war chief lifted his toma- hawk as if actually engaged in combat, and in imagination he stamped his enemy under foot, while he symbolically tore off his scalp, and uttered his sharp Sasakwon,t or war whoop. If it be inquired why this people, with so comparatively small a population, carried their wars to such an extent, and acquired, pro- bably in no great time, so wide a sway and power over the other tribes of the continent, the reply will appear, in a great measure, in this efficient war organization. It may be said that other tribes bad the same principles. But these eastern and western tribes had feeble or divided counsels. Each tribe was a sovereignty by itself, and their powers were tasked by home wars, without attempts at r.-mote • Mohawk. t AJgonquin. 84 [Senate conquest. There is nothing to denote that the number of war chiefs was ever settled or fixed. Time and chance determined this, as we observe it in the Algonquin and other American stocks. Fixity, in the number of the civil chiefs, was indeed rather a theory than ari actuality, and the number must have been perpetually fluctuating, according to obvious circumstances. But while the theory of the Iroquois government thus distributed its powers between two classes of chiefs, one of which ruled in the council, and the other in the field, there was a third power of con- trolling influence in both, which respected, it is true, this ancient theory, but which annulled, confirmed, originated, or set aside all other power. I allude to the popular will as exercised by the war- riors. Whatever was proposed had to come under the voice of the armed men, who had the free right, at all times, to assemble in coun- cil, and put their approval or veto on every measure. Practically considered, a purer democracy, perhaps, never existed. The chiefs themselves bad no power in advance of public sentiment, or else it was their policy, as we see it at this day, to express no such power, but rather to keep, in abeyance of, or be the mere agents of the popu- lar will. In all negociations such absolute power is disclaimed bj them. Acting on principles of the highest diplomacy, they invaria- bly defer general answers, until a reference can be had to the war- riors or men. They risk nothing by taking grounds in doubtful positions in advance, and the consequence is that the results of most Indian councils are unanimous. There was yet a reserved power in the Iroquois councils which deserves to be mentioned. I allude to the power of the matrons. This was an acknowledged power of a conservative character, which might, at all times, be brought into requisition, whenever policy required it. And it exists to-day as incontestibly as it did centuries ago. They were entrusted with the power to propose a cessation of arms. They were literally peace-makers. A proposition from the matrons to drop the war club could be made without compromitting the character of the tribe for bravery ; and accordingly, we find, in the ancient organization, that there was a male functionary, an ac- knowledged speaker, who was called the representative or messenger of the matrons. These matrons^sat in council, but it must needs No. 24.] 85 have been seldom that a female possessed the kind of eloquence suit- able to public assemblies ; and beyond this there was a sentiment of respect due to the female class, which led the tribes, al their general organization, to create this office. Councils, so organized — so perpetually and truly swayed by popu' lar will, gave the greatest scope for eloqucncL-. Eloquence, in the aborigines, takes the place entirely of books and letters. It is the only means of acting on the multitude, and we find that it was, from the earliest times, strenuously and successfully cultivated by the Iroquois.^ By far the best and most abundant specimens of native eloquence we possess are from this stock. And their liistory is re- plete in proofs that they employed it, not only in ihcir internal affairs and negociations, but in teaching to appreciate their rights and the principles of their government. [d.] Ancient Worship. SACRED FIRE. — THE SUN A SYMBOL OF DIVINE IXTELI.IGENCE . It was a striking peculiarity of the ancient religious system of the Iroquois that, once a year, the priesthood supplied the people with sacred fire. For this purpose, a set time was announced for the ruling priest's visit. The entire village was apprized of this visit, and the master of each lodge was expected to be prepared for this annual rite. Preliminary to the visit, his lodge fire was carefully put out and ashes scattered about it, as a symbolic sign of desolation and want. Deprived of this element, they were also deprived of its symbolic influence, the sustaining aid and countenance of the su- preme power, whose image they recognized in the sun. It w^as to relieve this want, and excite hope and animation in breasts which had throbbed with dread, that the priest visited the lodge. Exhibiting the insignia of the sacerdotal office, he proceeded to invoke the Master of Life in their behalf, and ended his mission by striking fire from the flint, or from percussion, and lighting anew gg [Senate the domestic fire. The lodge was then swept and garnished anew, and a feast succeeded. This sacred service annually performed, had the effect to fix and increase the reverence of the people for the priestly office. It acted as a renewal of their ecclesiastical fealty ; and the consequence was, that the institution of the priesthood among these cantons was deeply and firmly seated. Whether this rite had any connection with the period of the solstices, or with the commencement of the lunar year, is not known, but is highly probable. That men living in the open air, who are regardful of the celestial phenomena, should not have noted the equinoxes, is not probable. They must have necessarily known the equinoxes by the observation of capes and mountains, which cast their shadows from points and describe angles so very diverse at the periods of the sun's greatest recession, or return. Yet we know not that the time of such extreme withdrawal and return marked and completed the circle of the year. Their year was, in all the Algonquin tribes, a lunar year. It consisted of thirteen moons, each of which is distinctly named. Thirteen moons of 28 days each, counting from visible phase to phase, make a year of 364 days, which is the greatest astronomical accuracy reached by the North American tribes. That the close of the lunar series should have been the period of putting out the fire, and the beginning of the next, the time of relu- mination, from new fire, is so consonant to analogy in the tropical tribes, as to be probable. The rite itself offers a striking coincidence, with that solemn per- formance at the close of each year, by the Azteek priests, in the val- ley of Mexico, and may not unreasonably be supposed to denote a common origin for the belief. The northern tribes had, however, dropped from the ritual, if it ever was in it, that of their remote an- cestors, the horrid rite so revolting in the Azteek annals, of human sacrifice. For although prisoners were burned at the stake, this was not an act of the priesthood. It was a purely popular effervescence of revenge for losses of friends in war, or some other acts done by the enemy. Such sacrifices appeased the popular cry — all classes, young and old, rejoiced in them. They were looked on alone as an evidence of their nation's power ; and by it the warriors also shewed No. 24.] 87 their regard for the relations of the bereaved. Tlie widow of the warrior dried her tears. The chihlren rejoiced— they hardly knew why— il was the triumph of the nation. And they wore thus educated to regard the public burning of prisoners as a proper and glorious deed. Women, indeed, rejoiced in it apparently mort- than men. It sceraed a solace for the loss of their progeny. And all authors agree in attri- buting to the older females the most extravagant and n-pulsiv? acU of participation and rejoicing in these warlike ritts. [e.] Witchcraft. The belief in witchcraft prevailed extensively amoned to offer a few contributions to the store of our anti- quities, in the hope that other and abler hands may proceed in the investigation. [a.] Vestiges of an Ancient Fort or Place of Defence in Lenox, Madison county. Some years have elapsed since I visited this work,* and the plouqh and spade may have further obliterated the lines, then more or less • 1812. 94 Senate fully apparent. But in the meantime no notice of it has been pub- lished. The following outlines denote its extent and character. A. indicates the lines of a pickctted work.- B. is an extensive plain, covered with wild grass and some shrubbery, w'hich had once been in cultivation. The northern edge of this plain is traversed by a stream, which has worn its bed down in the unconsolidated strata, so as to create quite a deep gorge, C. This stream is joined from the west, by a small run, having its origin in a spring, D. Its chan- nel, at the point of junction, is as deep below the level of the plain as the other.* The point of junction itself forms a natural horn- • Some few miles below this stream is the site of an iron cupcla or blast furnace, where the red or lenticular oxyd is reduced. No. 24. J 95 work, which covered access to the water. The angle of the plain thus marked, constituteil the point defended. The excavations K. may have once been square. They are now indenlalions, (lisclosing carbonaceous matter, as if from the decay of wood. No wood or coal, however, existed. Their use in this position is not apparent, connected with the designated lines of palisades, unless it be suppos- ed that they were of an older period than the latter, and designate pits, such as the aborigines used in defence. This idea is favored by the ground being a little raised at this point, and so formed that it would have admitted the ancient circular Indian palisade. If such were tiie case, however, it seems evident that the spot had bevn se- lected by the French, at an early period, when, as is known, thev attempted to obtain a footing in the country of the Oneidas. The distance is less than ten miles northwest of Oneida Castle. It pro- bably covered a mission. The site, which my infoiraant, living near, called the Old Fre>xh Field, may be supposed to have been culti- vated by servants or trailers connected with it. The oak and maple trees, which once covered it, as denoted by the existing forest, F. F., are such, in size and number, as to have required expert axmen to fell. With the exception of two points, in the Oneida Creek valley, where there are still vestiges of French occupation, supported by tradi- tion, this work is the most easterly of those known, which remain to testify the adventurous spirit, zeal and perseverance which marked the attempt of the French crown to plant the flag and the cross in western New- York. The bold nature of this scheme to colonize the country, and brinij the Iroquois to acknowledge their dependence upon France, and the importance of the experiment and the issue, cannot he well conceived without reference to the history of those times. Pending the famous expedition of the Chevalier de Vandreiul, 1G96, into the Iroquois country, it is known that the Jesuit Milet was stationed among the the Oneidas, over whom he had so much influence, that soon after the termination of this vain display of power, thirty Oneidas di-.«!iTted to the French, and desired that Milet might be appointed their pastor.* • Colden'8 Five Nations, p. 193. 96 [Senatr [b.] Ancient site of the Onondagas in the valley of the Kasonda, or Butternut creek of Jamesville. The fact that the ruins of asquare fort, with extensive sub-lines in the nature of an enclosure, had existed on the elevated grounds on the right banks of this stream, a mile or two from Jamesville, at the period of its first settlement, led me to visit it. There was the more interest imparted to this well attested tradition of the present inhabi- tants, by the accounts of the Onondagas, that this valley, in its extent above and below Jamesville, was one of their earliest points of set- tlement, prior to the era of their establishing their council fire at Onondaga Hollow. The subjoined sketch, although not ploUcd from actual measurement, will convey an idea of the relative position and former importance of the principal features, geographical and artificial, denoted. .^v/i^::^'- *m >*^,.,s •''/""■.,„r,um:mv^illi|^ c: G ^-ir/,:^^ No. 24. j 97 A. indicates the Fite of the fort, which, at the time of mv visit was covered with a luxuriant fielil of wheat, without a feature to denote that it had ever been held under any other jurisdiction but that of the plough. The fiu-m which embraces it, is owned and oc- cupied by Isaac Keeler, who remarks that, at the time he came to settle here, the site of the old fort was an extensive optnin^^ in the forest, bearing grass, with some clumps of wild j)lumb trees, and a few forest trees. On this opening, the first regiment of militia that ever paraded in Onondaga county, met. It was commanded by Major De Witt, after whom the township is now named. About the year 1810, he felled an oak, near the site of the fort, measuring two feet six inches in diameter. In recutlin*'- it for fire wood, after it had been drawn to his door, a leaden bullet was found, covered by one hundred and forty-three cortical layers. From its position, embedded as it was in the compact wood, it was still some distance to the heart of the tree. He thinks this tree may have been a sapling when the bullet was fired. Whether this conjecture be true or not, one hundred and forty-three years appear to have elapsed since the bullet assumed its position. This would give A. D. 1667 as the era. In 1666, the Governor of Canada conjluded a treaty with the Onondaga Iroquois, as is seen from the " Paris Documents'' obtained by Mr. Broadhead. Colden's history of the Five Nations, which has been the principal source of information heretofore, after a brief summary of traditionary matter,* i;; the first chapter, opens with the transactions in 1665. This matter is more fully and satisfactorily stated by Charlevoix in his history of New France, from whom it is presumable, Colden drew his information of the former power and pre-eminence of the Adirondacks. During: this year De Traci came out us viceroy of New-France, and the same year ^Monsieur Coursel, who is notorious for his perfidy in executing the Iroquois sachem, Agariata, arrived with the commis- sion of Governor-General of Canada. But there is little to be found bearing directly on the subject before us. ■ The States General of Holland surrendered New- York to tbe £iif tiah erowa ia 1664. [Senate, No. 24.] 13 Qc [Senate It would appear from the journal of the Jesuit, Father Le Moyr^e, as River, in the missionary " Relacions - that the country of the Onon- daeas was not discovered and explored until the year 1653. Facts dis^ closed by him in the same letter denote, however, prior negociation. with the French authorities, and we are probably to understand only that as yet, no missionaries frona his or any other order, had visited, or been established amongst this tribe. In this view, and from the inci- dental light which he throws on some other topics, such as the new breaking out of the war with the Fries, the discovery of the salt springs, and the existence of the buffalo in the country, this letter is important to the early Iroquois history, and a translation of it is hereto appended. It is certain that no mission or fort had then been introduced. A footing may, however, have been gained by the French within the next fourteen years, that is, at the time of the apparent date of the existence of the old fort on the right banks of the Ka- sonda.* Where history fails, we may appeal to tradition and to the proofs drawn from antiquarian remains. Isaac Keeler, who is above men- tioned, exhibited to me one-half of the brass circle of a dial plate, three inches (less two-tenths) in diameter, which had been ploughed up by him on the site of the fort, or from that general area. This circle had engraved, in good Roman characters, the numbers II, III, IV V "VI, VII, VIII. He likewise exhibited the box of a small brass pocket compass, with a screw lid one inch and two-tenths in diameter. From this instrument the needle had been removed and its place supplied by vermillion, the highly prized war pigment of the Indians. When plowed up and found at the bottom of a furrow, it wrs encrusted with oxide, but restored by washing and friction to its original color and even surface. On being opened, it was found to contain the pigment, of which I examined a portion. It appeared to me to have been, not the Chinese vermillion of the trade, but the duller red article, which is, I believe, a peroxide of lead prepared by the Dutch. • Fire-arms began to be first introdaceil among the Iroquois in 1609, the very year that Hudson explored the river now bearing his name. In this year, Champlain, heading the Algonquins, with some regular troops, in lake Corlear, (since called Champlain,) defeated the Mohawks by the use of fire-arms. No. 24.] 99 Among the articles wliicli he had preserved wer..- the followiog : 1. A crucifix of brass of two inches in lenjrth, ornamented bv a human figure, and having a metallic loop for suspending it. 2. An octagonal medal, four-tenths of an inch, of the same mate- rial, bearing a figure with tlie name "St, Agatha," and the Latin word •' ora'' — a part of the Gregorian chant 3. A similar medal, five-tenths of an inch in length, with ;i tigure, '■uscribed " St. Lucia," and the same fragment of a chunt. 4. A rude medal of lead, an inch and four-tenths long, ovale, with the figure of the Savior, as is supposed, being that of a person sus- pended by the outstretched hands, however, and tiie figure of a serpent, as if this form of temptation liad been presented duiing his advent. On the reverse, is a sitting figure, which bears most resem- blance to a common and characteristic position of one of the native priests or prophets. Should this conjecture be correct, this figure raa)^ have been intended, adopting the Indian method, to teach the office of the Savior by a symbol. He is thus shown, liowever, to be merely the priest and prophet of men — an idea which does not coin- cide with Catholic theology, and which, if not enlarged and corrected by verbal teaching, would convey no conception of his divint' charac- ter and atonement, and thus leave the Onondaga neophyte as essen- tially in the dark as before. To figure the Savior as the great Jesu- keed of men, as is done in this medal, is indeed the most extraordi- nary and audacious act of which the history of missions among rude nations affords any parallel. The novelty of this feature in this ap- parently home-wrought model, gives it a claim to be hereafter figured. 5. An iron horse-shoe, four and a half inches long nearly, and five inches, lacking two-tenths, broad, with three elongated nail holes in ,€ach side, and a clumsy steel cork, partially worn. The peculiar fabric of this shoe, its clumsiness and spread, and the little mechani- cal skill which it evinces in the hammering and general make, dcncte it to be very clearly the workmanship of a Canadian blacksmith, such as a rude Canadian blacksmith is still to be witnessed, in the lake country, and to have been, at the same time, intended for the unfarriercd hoofs of the Canadian horse. 6. A pair of iron strap hinges, common and coarse. These my informant had turned to account, by employing them to hang the lit- 100 (Senate tie gate which led, through a small flower plat, to his dwelling house. See figure F. These articles have been selected for notice from many of more common occurrence, such as beads of coarse paste, enamel and glasSy of various sizes and colors, which are evidently of European make. My informant further stated that a blacksmith's anvil, vice, horn, and almost every other article of a smith's shop, had been from time to time found on the site or in the vicinity, but there was nothing of this kind in his possession. On the south declivity of the hill, near the present road leading east to Pompey hill, there is a spring still sheltered with shrubbery, which he supposes furnished the fort with water. This fort constitutes but a part of the very marked evidences of former occupancy by man in a civilized state, and in a forgotten age, which occur in this portion of Onondaga, chiefly in the present towns of Pompey, Lafayette, Dewitt, Camillus and Manlius. For such of these evidences as did not pass under ray personal notice, reference is made to letter C in the documentary appendix. Other observed loca- lities and facts derived from other witnesses, illustrating the character of this fort, and of the ancient Indian settlements in the Kasonda valley, are marked H in the annexed sketch. In this plat B denotes the site of an ancient Onondaga town or village, immediately on the banks of the stream, where water could be readily obtained for all purposes. C is the locality of the ceme- tery used at the period, on the ascending grounds on the north banks of the stream. It constitutes a well marked transverse ridge. Im- mediately west of it rises a natural mound, marked D, of large size, jiearly conical in its shape, and terminating in a flat surface or plain, of an ovate border, some twelve by seventeen paces. James Gould, the propietor of the land, who, from his residence, guided me to the spot, remarks that this conical hill, was formerly covered wdth a hard wood forest, similar in its species to those of the surrounding country, with the exception of a spot, some four or five paces diameter on its apex. This spot was, how^ever, completely veiled from sight by the overtopping trees until the arcanum was entered. From the peculiar character of this eminence, and its relative position to the village and burial ground, it may be supposed to have been the site of the seer's lodge, from which he uttered his sacred responses. e cs a No. 24. j lUl Speaking of the old lort of Kasonda, this informant remarked, that when he came into the country, its outlines could still be traced, that it was a square fort, with bastions, and h;id streets witliin it. It had been set round with cedar pickets, which had been burned to the ground. Stumps of these ancient palisades were struck by th plough. It is on this testimony, which at the same time, denot violent destruction of the work, that the geometrical figure of it represented in A, is drawn. He had, I think, been in the revolution- ary army, and drawn his bounty lands, as many of the original set • tiers on the military tract had done. lie kiuw therefore, the import of the military terras he employed. In a collection of aboriginal antiquarian articles at his house, he permitted me to make drawings of any taken from the fort grounds, or disinterred from ancient Indian graves, which appeared to me to merit it. Of these, but a few are pertinent to the present inquiry. These are as follows : Number 1, represents an antique collar or medal, [Nabikoagun,! wrought out of sea shell. It is crossed with two parallel, and two horizontal lines, ornamented with dots, and dividing the surface into four equal parts. An orifice exists for introducing a string to suspend it about the neck. This species of article, is found in Indian graves of the period preceding the discovery of the continent, or not extending more than one or two generations into the new period. It was pro- bably an elegant ornament when bright and new, and exhibiting the natural color and naccr of the shell. Inhumation has so far served to decompose the surface, as to coat it with alimy or chalky exterior, which effervesces in mineral acids. By scraping deep into it, the shelly structure is detected. This kind of ornament, varying much in size, was probably soon replaced by the metallic gorget and medal introduced by the trade, am! has long been unknown both to Indians and traders. I found it first in Indian cemeteries of the west, without, however, for some time suspecting its real nature, supposing it some variety of altered pottery, or enamel paste ; but have since traced it over the entire area of the ancient occupation of western New-York, and, so far as examined, of Canada. No. 2. A stone ring, one inch and two-tenths in diamater, made oi a dark species of somewhat hard steatite or slaty rock. Its character 102 [Senate istic trait is found in its adaptation to the middle finger, (of a male) and its having eleven distinct radiating lines. No. 3. A globular bead or amulet, [Minace,] of sea shell one inch and a half in diameter, solid and massy, having an orifice for suspend- ing it. It is slightly ovate. Its structure from shell, is distinctly marked. Like the flat medal-shaped Nabikoagun (No. 1.) of the same material, it has a limy coating from the effects of partial decomposition. In the remaining features of the sketch, referred to, letters G. G., denote ancient remains of a European character in the contiguous part of the town of Pompey, which are more particu- larly described in the documentary appendix. E. represents the Twin Mounds, two natural formations of fine gravel and other diluvial strata, situated on the south side of the creek, on the farm of Jeremiah Gould. These mounds are conspi- cuous features in the landscape, from their regularity, and position on elevated grounds, as well as from their connection with the ancient Indian history of the valley. These pyramidal heaps of earth are con- nected, by a neck of earth, in the manner represented. They exhibit the appearance of having been cleared of the forest, almost entirely, at an ancient date. The surface exhibits numerous pits or holes, which excite the idea of their having served as a noted locality for the In- dian Assenjigun, or pit for hiding or putting en cache, corn or other articles, to preserve it from enemies, or as a place of deposit during temporary absences from the village. There can, I think, be little question that this was the true use and relation these geological emi- nences bore to the ancient town on the Kasonda, marked B. Suclij too, is the general impression derived from local tradition. Some years ago, a skeleton was exhumed from one of these caches. No. 24.] lO.*^ [c] Antiquities of Pompcy and adjacent parts ol Onon- daga county. No part of western New-York has furnislieil a lar'^'cr numhtT of antiquarian remains, or been more often referred to, ilian the geo- graphical area which constituted thr orit^inal town of Pomp«y. There is, consequently, the less need of devotinir ehiborate attention to the details of this particular locality. It was first visited and de- scribed by De Witt Clinton, in 1810-11,* and the plough has since rendered it a task less easy than it then was, to exumine the lines of its ancient works and its archaeological remains. It is ([uitc evident, from the objects of art discloseil at and about these antique sites of security and defence, that civilized man dwelt here in remote times, and there must be assigned to this part of the State a period of Eu- ropean occupancy prior to the commonly received historical era of discovery and settlement, or, at least, if falling within it, as there is now reason to believe, yet almost wholly unknown, or for- gotten in its annals. Sismondi has will remarked, that only the most important events come down to posterity, and that fame, for a long flight, prepares to forget every thing which she possibly can. That no accounts should remain of obscure events, in a remote part of the country, at an early date, is not surprising. .\s it is, we roust infer both the dates and the people, from such antiquarian remains of works of art and historical comparisons as can be obtained. There appear to have been two or three nations, who supplied very early visitors or residents to ancient Onondaga, namely, the Dutch, French and Spanish, the latter as merely temj)orary visitors or explo- rers. Both the Dutch and the French cirried on an early trade here wuth the Iroquois. It is most probable, that there are no re- mains of European art, or have ever been any disclosed, in this part of the country, one only excepted,t which are not due to the early attempts of the Dutch and French, to establish the fur trade among these populous and powerful tribes. To some extent, missionary • Trans, of Philo. ami Lit. Society of New-York, t Antique stone with .in inscription, Albany Academy. 104 [Senate operations were connected with the efforts of both nations. But whatever was the stress laid on this subject, by Protestants or Catho- lics, neither object could be secured without the exhibition of fire- arms and certain military defences, such as stockades and picketted works, with gates, afforded. No trader could, in the 16th and 17th centuries, securely trust his stock of goods, domestic animals,, (if he had any,) or his own life, in the midst of fierce and powerful tribes, who acknowledged no superior, and who w^ere, besides, subject to the temporary excitement created by the limited use of alcohol. For we can assign absolutely no date to the early European intercourse with these tribes, in which there was no article of this kind, more or less, employed. Probably we should not have been left, as we are, to mere conjectures, on this subject, at least between the important dates of 1609 and 1664, had not the directors of the State paper office in Holland decided, in 1820, to sell the books and records of the Dutch West India company, as waste paper.* In examining the archeology of this part of New-York, w^e are, therefore, to look for decisive proofs of the early existence of this trade in the hands of the two powers named. The Dutch were an eminently commercial people, at the epoch in question, and pursued the fur trade to remote parts of the interior, at an early date. They had scarcely any other object at the time but to make this trade pro- fitable. Settlements and cultivation was a business in the hands of patroons, and was chiefly confined to the rich vallies and intervales of the southern parts of the State. They were, at the same time, too sagacious to let any thing interrupt their good understanding with the natives ; and on this account, probably, had less need of military defences of a formidable kind than the French, who were a foreign power. It was, besides, the policy of New-France, — a policy most perseveringly pursued, — to wrest this trade, and the power of the Indians, from the hands of the Dutch and their successors, the Enor- lish. They sought not only to obtain the trade, but they intrigued for the territory. They also made the most strenuous endeavors to enlist the minds of the Indians, by the ritual observances of the Ro- misii church, and to propagate among the Iroquois its peculiar doc- trines. Tliey united in this early effort the sword, the cross, and the purse. • Vide Jlr. Brodhead's report. No. 24.J , 105 Were all the libraries of Europe and America burned and totally destroyed, there would remain incontestible evidences of each ol the above named efforts, in the metallic implements, f;uns, sword-bladcs hatchets, locks, bells, horse-shoes, hammers, paste and plass beads medals, crucifixes and other remains, which are so frcqutnily turned up by the plough in the fertile wheat and cornfields of Onondaga. Looking beyond this era, but still found in the same geographical area, are the antiquities peculiar to the Ante-Columbian period, and the age of intestine Indian wars. These are found in various parts of the State, in the ancient ring forts, angular treiuhes, moats, bar- rows, or lesser mounds, which constituted the ancient simple Indian system of castramentation. This era is not less strongly marked by the stone hatchets, pestles, fleshing instruments, arrow-heads and javelins of chert and horn- stone ; amulets of stone, bone and sea-shells, wrought and unwrought; needles of bone, coarse pottery, pipes, and various other evidences of antique Indian art. The practice of interring their favorite uten- sils, ornaments and amulets with the dead, renders their ancient grave-yards, barrows and mounds the principal repositories of these arts. They are, in effect, so many museums of antiquity. The field for this species of observation is so large and attractive to the antiquarian, that far more time than was at my command, would be required to cultivate it. Early in the present year, Mr. Joshua V. V. Clark visited some of the principal scenes mentionc.l. Subsequently, at my suggestion and solicitation, he re-visited the same localities and extended his inquiries to others of an interesting character, in the county of Onondaga, descriptions of which arc presented under letter [C] of the documentary appendix. [Senate, No. 24.] M 106 [Senatf. [d.] Ancient fortification of Osco,* at Auburn, Cayuga County. The eminence called " Fort Hill," in the southwestern skirts of the village of Auburn, has attracted notice from the earliest times. Its height is such as to render it a very commanding spot, and crowned, as it was, with a pentagessimal work, earthen ramparts and palisades of entire efficacy against Indian missiles, it must have been an im- pregnable stronghold during the periods of their early intestine wars. The following diagram, drawn by James H. Bostwick, surveyor, and obligingly furnished by S- A. Goodwin, Esq. exhibits its dimensions ; • This ancient name for tlie site of Auburn, was communicated to me by the intelligent Onondaga Taht-kaht-ons, or Abraham Le Fort. It is descriptive of the ford or crossing place, which anciently existed above the falls, near the site of the present turnpike bridge. This was crossed by stepping stones, &c. The barks, which made a part of a rude Indian bridge, were, at the time the name was bestowed, nearly overflowed; the crossing was verj' dangerous, as it was just above the brink of the falls, and it was an act of daring to pass over. The name bestowed at this time became perpetual, although there may havo been but little danger in crossing afterwards. No. 2^L] 107 The site of th.s work .s the highest land .n the v.anuy, and a v.sit to It affords one of the best and most varied views of the valley of the Owasco, and the thriving and be,.utiful inland town of Auburn ^^ith Its public buikhngs, prison,* and other noted public ed.f.ce,' Iho ellipsis enclosed by the embankments, with their intervening spaces, has a circumference of 1200 feet. Its minor dimensions arc as follows, namely : From A. to M., 310 feet. " B. to L-, 416 " Opening at A., 166 " u B., 66 " u C, 78 " (C D., 60 " (( E., 50 " Wall at F-, 275 '' u G., 145 " ii H., 278 " u I-, 52 " a K., 30 " Viewed as a military work, the numerous breaks or openings in the wall, marked from A. to C, constitute rather its characteristic trait. They are of various and irregular widths, and it seems most difiicult to decide why they are so numerous. If designed for egress or regress, they arc destitute of the principle of security, unless they were defended by other works of destructible material, which have wholly disappeared. The widest opening |of 166 feet,] opens tli- rectly north , the next in point of width [78 feet,] directly south ; but in order to give these or any of the other spaces tht- character of entry or sally ports, and, indeed, to render the entire wall de- fensible, it must have had palisadoes. Immediately below the openings at E. D. C, and a part of the embankment F., there are a series of deep ravines, separated by acute ridges, which must have made this part of the work dillicult of ap- proach. In front of the great (north) opening, the ground descends • One of the^most striking' evidrnccs of thai tendencf of the mrface limMtoM rtnlitt* cation of western New-Yoriv to assume a fissured character, markwl t)y the canlioal points, is seen in the banks of the Owasco, a short erved, which appeared worthy of particular description. No 24. J 111 [c] Ancient entrenchments on Fort Hill, near Le Rov, Genesee eountv. The followinc: diagram of this work has been drawn from a pen- sketch, forwarded by the Rev. Mr. Dewey, of Ilochestrr. The work occurs on an elevated p'^int of land formed by the June" tion of a small stream, called Fordham's brook, with Allen's creek, a tributary of the Genesee river. Its position is about three miles north of the village of Le Roy, and some ten or twelve northenst of Batavia. The best view of the hill, as one of the natural features of the country, is obtained a sh^rt distance north of it, on the road from Eergen to Le Roy. To attain a proper conception of its susceptibilities and rapacity, as the site of a work of defence, it is essential to conceive the country, for some (Ii>tance, to have had the level of the cxtrcrtu' plain, form- 112 [Senate ing the highest part of the fort. The geological column of this plain, after passing down through the unconsolidated strata, appears to be composed of various strata of corniferous limestone, Onondaga or hydraulic limestone, and perhaps Medina sandstone. Geological causes, originating, so far as we can immediately perceive, in the two streams named, have cut down this series of stratifications, on the north, east and west, unequally, to the depth of some eighty or nine- ty feet, isolating the original plain, on three sides, by the vallies of Allan's creek and Fordhara brook. Availing themselves of this heavy amount of natural excavation, the ancient occupants of it fur- ther strenghtened its position, by casting up a wall and ditch along the brow of the two vallies, at the points of their junction, from A. to B., GO rods ; from A. to D., 30 rods; and from B. to C. 15 rods. This is as much of the embankment as now remains ; but tradition adds, that, on the earliest occupancy of the county, there were evi- dences that the work had been continued south from the extreme points, C. and D., and connected by an enclosure, parallel to A. B., which would hfve given it a regular quadrangular shape. The en- croachments of the respective vallies, at C. and D., now terminate the trench. And if we concede that geological changes of this kind must have required some time for their production, by the present power of action possessed by the streams named, it is an argument for the antiquity of the work. But, however antique, it was still the effort of a rude, and at best half civilized people, at an epoch when bows and arrows, clubs, spears and stones, and the stone casse- tcte* were the principal weapons of defence. For these are the the chief objects of antiquarian interest dug from the ground. There are also disclosed by the place or its vicinity, the amuletum archffius and other amulets of sea shell, bone and fossile stone, which were so • I finil the French word cassetete more exacUy descriptive of the probable and exclu- sive uses of the antique stone tomaliavvk, than any other which has been met with. The shape of this warlike instrument resembled strongly the ancient crossbill. It presents I he figure of a crescent, tapering gradually to the ends, which are rounded, and proceed to a sharp point. In the concave centre of the crescent is an orifice for a helve. It is an instrument denoting skill, and the possession of some mechanical tool for carving it harder than the ilark silecious slate, from which it is generally made. One of these in- sirunienis, sent to me by Mr. FoUet, of Batavia, and which, from an inscription, was found " in that vicinity by Jerome A. Clark, Esq. on the 16th May, 1844," is worthy the chisel of a sculptor. No. 24.] 113 much prized by the ancient rod races of thisconluitMH, l,y xvhom tlu-y were manufactured, and exclusively used before the i-ra <.f the disco- very. That the spot continued, however, wbclher a ruin or not to be visited or occupied, after this era, is proved by som- remains of art, which were found here and described by Mr. Follct in a letter, which constitutes a valuable part of llic materials em- ployed in this description. [See appendix.] But tbe most re- markable and distinctive trait connected with its arch.-Pology is the discovery of human bones denoting an uncommon stature and development, which are mentioned in the same communiraiion. A humerus or shoulder bone, which is preserved, denotes a stature one-third larger than the present race, and there is also a lower jaw- bone, preserved by a physician at Batavia, from the vicinity, which indicates the same gigantic measure of increase. To supply the fort with water, a trench was continued about fifteen rods, from B at the northeast angle to E, in order to reach a spring below the declivity. In the isolated portion of the hill, marked F, haiks of moderate sized round stones have been found, which were probably one of the ancient means of defence. This spot, from the remains found, appears also to have been an ancient place of burial. Among the articles exhumed, were several curious pipes of stone and earthenware. One of these was formed out of granular limestone; another was of baked clay in the form of a man's head and face, the nose, eyes and other features being depicted in a style resembling some of the figures in Mr. Stephens' plates of the ruins of Central America. The top of the head is surrounded by a fillet ; on the occipital part are also two fillets. The neck has a similar ornament, and there is another on the breast. The orifices of the ears are denoted, and the whole evinces no little degree of art. This is the most curious relic found. Another pipe of reddish baked clay is ornamented with dots ; two rows of which extend round it, and another in festoons, like a -CIENT IV'ORK ON BUFFALO CREEK. Senatk '^^WSfi^ A. denotes the site of the mission house ; B, of the council house ; D, of the battle field, or that portion of it where the result was consummated ; F, the grave yard. At C, there are still the re- mains of a mound, which tradition asserts was raised over the incine- rated bodies of victor and vanquished slain in battle. These bodies were piled together, interspersed with the carcasses of deer and other game, which had been hunted with the special view, that it might be otfered as a sacrifice with the bodies, or to appease their spirits in the land of the dead. In making partial excavations into this mound, which has been frequently plowed over in modern times, I procured No. 24.] 123 several partially charred or blackem-d bones, supposed lo rcprest-i.l parts of the human and brute species ; a prool, it would seem, of the truth of this curious part of the tradition.* Mixed in the funeral pile, there were set vessels of pottery, with drinks olTircd as libationH to the dead. And it is certain, also, that pieces of rt.hlish toarsc pottery were obtained at the same tinu-, in making these partial exa- minations. The dotted lines are designed to show the probable figure antl ex- tent of the work, from the accounts of tlie Indians. That it was a circular work, appears to be denoted by the only parts of the wall yet remaininfT, which are drawn in black. The site itself was eleva ted moderately above the plain. There is no rea.son to suppose that this elevation of the surface was artificial. The relative position of the creek is denoted by G. H marks the position of a stone, which is connected with the history of their domestic arts, before the disco- very of the country. It was not practicable to obtain accurate ad- measurements of distances ; the design being merely to present a pencil sketch. * The Indian name of Bufifalu creek, which gives name to the city, has been irmriontljr written. In the treaty of 1784, at FortStanwix, it is called "Tehotcroron," which ia the Mohawli term, the final ;i. being probably designed to convey a nasal lound. The word, as pronounced to me by the late Mrs. Carr of Wellington S(|uare, Canada, who was a daughter of the celebrated Brandt, I have written Ti.iioskroro, meaning Place of the Linden tree. The letters d and t are interchangeable between the Mohawk* and Seneca*. The latter, who at the same lime do not use tlie letter r, and have some peculiarilie* in the use of the vowels, pronounce it in a manner which I thought should be written Deoseowa, as above. Mr. Wright, inhi3"^^cntal Elevator" and "Seneca Spelling Book,'. makes it a word ot four syllables, and uses the sound of i/ as heard in "yonder," for the vowel c in his second syllable. Every practiseil ear is acute to satisfy its own requisilioas of sound, which is not easy in unwritten languages ; anil there is besides a market! dif- ference in the pronunciation of Inillans from different localities, oruttcreil under dilTerenl circumstances. Mr. Ellicott, on his original plat of liulTalo, writes it " Tu«huway." Others have spelt it still differently. TiiC meaning of the word has exciietl but lillledif. ference of opinion. It denotes a locality of the linden or bx'awood tree, a «pecie* fuuiKl upon the rich bottom landsof this stream, whose bark was highly valuable to the«e tribes for covering their lodges, and for the tough and fibrous inner coat, which at an early Ume served them to make both twine and ropes. Whence then, it may be asked, is the origin of the word nufblo, since it it not foosti in the Indian terra ? Tradition denotes that the range of this animal once exletMletl lu the banks of the great lakes. There w.ts a current opinion among the early lrm*eller» along the shores of Lake Erie, that the bison had been seen and killetl on thi* creek. Whither the impression arose from, or was traceable, in part or wholly, to a deception of certain hunters in bringing in "other flesh," under the denomination of nufblo meat, as has been said, it would be difficult to determine. From whatever eau»e. it i« certain that thejstream acquired the popular name it now bears at an early ilay, whil»: ihc al->rir.ni» name was neglected. No. 24.J 125 V. ANCIENT STATE OF INDIAN AIIT To (lenote the state of art among the aboriginal race, it is neces- sary closely to examine such monuments of it, as exist. The wonl " monument" is used to denote any remains of art. Such are their relics in the form of worked shells and amulets, pottery, carved im- plements and utensils of stone, and other antiquarian remains found in their mounds, graves, fortifications, and other places of ancieot occupancy in our latitudes. Of architectural ruins in stone, which constitute so striking a portion of aboriginal antiquities, in central and South America, particularly in the ruins of their temples and teocalli, (the only form of such architecture indeed, which survives,) we have no remains north of the latitude of the mouth of the Missis- sippi, imlessthey shall be disclosed in some of the large mounds yet unopened, or in portions of the country north of such a line, which yet remains unexplored, west of the extreme sources of the Red river and the Rio Del Norte. From this inquiry, we may peremtorily exclude, all articles and remains of metal (not gold, silver or native copper) and all sculpture and inscriptions (not picture writing) which have been found and commented on, with an air of wonder, in various places, but which are one and all, undoubtedly of European, or to give the grt-alest scope to conjecture, of trans-atlantic origin. Such are,tobepin with the highest object, the Grave creek inscription in apparently Celti- beric characters, the stone with a rude inscription in Roman lellcrs and Arabic figures found in Onondaga county, and now drpositctl in the Albany Academy ; the amulets of coar«e enamel colored pastes and glass, of the imperfect fabric of the 15th and Ifnh centuries, found in Indian graves ; or old village and fort sites, together with theflattened gun barrels, broken locks, artists' tools and other articles 126 [Senate of iron, brass, or semi-vitrified earthenware, which are found over so considerable an extent of country in western New- York. The latter are undoubtedly, evidences of either earlier, or more systematic attempts to settle, if not to found colonies, amongst the Red Race from abroad, than we are yet prepared fully to comprehend. But there need be no question as to the general era and character of art to which they belong ; they are too clearly European in every in- stance to admit of scruple. The introduction of the fabrics of European art, among the tribes of this continent, had the inevitable and speedy effect to destroy the prior Indian arts. It is astonishing to find how soon the aborigines of our latitudes, lost the art of making culinary vessels of clay ; of carvhio- amulets and pipes out of steatites and other fissile mineral bodies ; of perforating, dissecting and forming sea shells into the various shapes of wariipum, gorgets, pendants, necklaces, belt and pouch ornaments, and other ornamental fabrics. They no sooner obtained the light brass, copper, iron, and tin kettle, than they laid aside the more clumsy and frail Akeek, or clay pot ; their women relieved from the labor of selecting and tempering the clays, and forming it into pots and dishes, were advanced one step in the art of housewifery, and took the first lesson in European civilization. ' The maker of arrow and javelin heads, for this was a distinct art, was superceded by the superior efficacy of fire arms ; and his red descendant at this day, as well as the gleaner of antiquities, is alike at a loss to find, where the ancient artist in chert and hornstone procur- ed his materials of so suitable a quality and fracture, and how he obtain- ed the skill to chip and form them into such delicate and appropriate patterns. The small and slender axe of iron, with a steel edge, and pipe-head, at once took the place of the crescent-shaped stone toma- hawk, which had alone been appropriated to war ; while the larger half-axe, so called, supplanted the clumsy stone Agakwut before employed rather as a gouge to detach coal in the process of felling trees by fire, than an axe proper. By the application of the common lathe and turning chisel, those species of thick sea shells, which the natives had, with so much labor, converted into seawan and wampum, were manufactured with such superior skill, expedition and cheapness, (although this is an a: tide which the trader always held comparative- No. 24.] 127 ly high) that the old Indian art of the wnmpum-viaker, sunk, like that of the arrow-maker, never to be revived. But ni all tiie ex changes made between civilized and savage life, the gift of the slecl- trap, in replacing the Indian trap of wood, was the most eaijsrly sought, and highly prized by the hunter, although it hastened the period of the destruction of the whole class of furred animals, antl thus in effect, brought to a speedy close the Indian dnminion. Pottery was an art known universally among all the tribes from Patagonia to the Arctic ocean, but was practised with very ditTercnt degrees of skill. The northern tribes who bordered on the great lakes, and thence reached down to the Atlantic, made a rude article, which just answered the simple purposes of the culinary art. The clay, or argillaceous material used for it, was such as is common to diluvial and tertiary soils. It was tempered with silex, in the form of pounded quartz, or often quartz and feld-spar, as it exists in granite, in quite coarse particles. This mixture prevented shrinkage and cracks in drying, and enabled the mass to withstand the applica- tion of heat — an art which has resulted, and would very soon result, in any given case, from experience. There were no legs to the Indian akeek, or pot. It was designed to be used, to use a chemical phrase, as a sand-bath. Being set on the ashes, a fire was built around it. It might also admit of suspension, by a bark cord lied below the lip, which flared out well, and thus could be attached to the ordinary Indian cooking-tackle, namely ; a long-legged tripod, tied at the top with bark. There is no evidence in the structure of any of this species of pot- tery, at least, in these latitudes, that it had been raised or formed on a potter's wheel. The fact that prepared clay placed on a revolving horizontal circle, would rise, by the centrifugal force, if resisted by the hand, or a potter's stick or former, was not known to these tribes ; although it is admitted to be one of the oldest arts in the world. Some skill was consequently required to form the mass and shape the vessel, without machinery. It was essential to its utility, and to prevent unequal shrinkage in drying, that the body should be of uniform thickness ; and this art was also, if we may judce from fragments, and one or two entire vessels examined, verv u-. 11 :.tt;imfd. 128 [Senate It is believed that this art, in this quarter, was in the hands of females ; but every female or mistress of a lodge, was not adequate to it. It must have been the business of a class of persons in each village, who were professed potters. Tradition says that it was the practice to mingle some blood in wetting and tempering the clay. It was impossible that this art, so rude and laborious, and so ill- suited to perform its offices when done, could survive and continue to be practised for any length of time after the tribes had been made acquainted with the products of the European potteries, rude as these were comparatively speaking, in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- turies. Architecture, as it existed in the north and west, was confined, we may suppose^ to earthen structures, crowned with wood, in the shape of beams and posts. And it is only as it exhibited a knowledge of geometry, in the combination of squares and circles, to constitute a w«rk of defence, that it is deserving of notice. The knowledge of the pyramid and its durability, is one of the most ancient geometrical dis- coveries in the world, and it is quite clear, in viewing the mounds and teocalli of North America, that the aborigines possessed, or had not for- gotten it. In most of the works of defence, in the western country, the circular pyramid, or mound of earth of various sizes, formed a strik_ ing feature ; whilst in relation to the mounds used for religious cere- monies, as we must suppose the larger mounds to have been, its completeness of plan and exact truncation, parallel to the plain or basis, denotes the prevalence among them, of this ancient architectu- ral idea. We detect also, in a survey of the old works, the square, the parallelogram, the circle, and the ellipsis. And these figures were variously employed in the arrangement of masses of earth, to produce a rampart and a moat. The domestic economy required implements to perform the arts which we express by the words sewing and weaving. The awl and needle were made from various species of animal bones of the land and water. The larger awl used to perforate bark, in sewing together the sheething of the northern canoe, made from the rind of the betula, was squared and brought to a tapering point. A very close grain and compact species of bone was employed for the fine lodge awl used for sewing dressed skins for garments. After No. 24.J 12;, this skin had been perforated, a thread of deer's sinew was drawn through, from the eye of a slender bone needle. There was besides this, a species of shuttle of bone, which was passed backwards and forwards, in introducing the bark woof of mats and bags ; two kinds of articles, the work of which was commonly made from the stirpu* Iseustris or larger bulrush. It was only necessary to exhibit the square and round awl, and grose and fine needle of steel, to super- cede these primitive and rude moi\es o{ sea7nstrcss-tDork and toeaving. In an examination of Indian antiquarian articles, taken from the graves and mounds, there is some glimmering of the art of design. There is no other branch of art to which we can refer the numerous class of carved ornaments and amulets, or their skill in symbolical or representative drawing, evinced in their picture writing. Amulets and neck, ear and head ornaments, constituted a very an cient and very important department in the arcanum of the Indian wardrobe. They were not only a part of the personal gear and de- corations which our old British writers sometimes denote " braveries," but they were connected with his superstitions, and were a part of the external system of his religion. The aboriginal man, who had never laid aside his oriental notions of necromancy, and believed firmly in witchcraft, wore them as charms. They were among the most cherished and valued articles he could possibly possess. They were sought with great avidity, at high prices, and, after having served their office of warding otF evil, while he lived, they were deposited in his grave, at death. Bones, shells, carved stones, gems, cla-vs anf:;s, a generic name for a shell — Algonquin. No. 24.] 145 Class Tenth.— OCHALIS.* This class of ornaments were worn as pendants from the inner car tilage of the nose. The material of nose-jewels in modern limes, when worn, is, generally, silver or some metal. Anciently bone or shell were the chief substances. OcHALis Oda-a.j Plate 1, Fig. 3. The material is a part of some massy species of sea shell. The outer coating is' partially de- composed, exhibiting an opaque, limy appearance. Length, eight- tenths of an inch — rounded, heart-shaped. Onondaga. [J. V. V. Clarke.] • From the Shawanoe word Ochali, a nose. \ Heart-»haped, or like. [Senate, No. 24.J 19 No. 24. J 147 VIL ORAL TRADITIONS OF TflE IROQUOIS-IIIS. TORICAL AND SYMBOLICAL. This department of the inquiry constitutes one of deep and varied interest. It is found, however, that no little time is required to study, compare and arrange such parts of the matter as have claims to be considered historical, whilst those which are symbolical or ficti- tious, take so wide a range as hardly to justify, in this report, the space which they would occupy. Specimens drawn from both classes of matter are introduced in the following papers, which, together with those inserted under the first head of " Minutes," will serve to convey a proper idea of this species of lore. [a.] Ancient Shipwreck of a vessel from the old workl on the coast. Whilst the northern tribes lived under the ancient confederacy before named, on the banks of the St. Lawrence and its waters, and before they had yet known white men, it is afHrmed that a fon-ign ship came on the northern coasts, but being driven by stress of weather, passed southward, and was wrecked in that quarter. Most of the crew perished, but a few of them, dressed in leather, reached the shore, and were saved with some of their implements. Tliey were received by a people called the Falcons,* who conducted them to a mountain, where, however, they remained but a short time, for their allies, the Falcons, disclosed an unfriendly and jealous spirit, and threatened them. In consequence they immediately selected another location, which they fortified. Here they lived many years, became • One of the totems and clans of the Iroquois, is the hawk, or &lcon. 148 [Senate numerous and extended their settlements, but in the end, they were destroyed by furious nations. This tradition is divested of some of the symbolic traits which it possesses in the original, and by which the narrators may be supposed to have concealed their own acts of hostility or cruelty, in the extir- pation of the descendants of the Europeans thus cast on their shores. To this end, they represent in the original, the saving of the crew to have been done through the instrumentality of carniverous birds, and attribute the final destruction of the colony to fierce animals. It is one of the well known facts of history that none of the vessels of Columbus, Cabot, Verrizani, Sir Walter Raleigh, or Hudson, were wrecked on the American coasts : and there is hence a bare presump- tion that some earlier voyage or adventure from the old world is alluded to. Can we suppose that in this dim tradition there is light cast on the lost colony of Virginia, which was first left on the island of Roanoke 1 The Tuscaroras,* who preserve the tradition, came to western New- York from that quarter. They were a fierce, powerful and warlike nation, having in 17] 2 resolved on the massacre, on a certain day, of all the whiles in the Carolinas. What is once done by natives, bar- barous or civilized, is often the reproduction of some prior national act, and especially if that act had been attended with success ; and it is by no means improbable that in this desperate and bloody resolve of 1712, the Tuscaroras meant to repeat the prior tragedy of " Croa- tan."* Whether, however, the incident be of ante-Columbian or post-Columbian date, it is worthy preservation, and may be assigned its place and proper importance when we have gleaned more facts from the dark abyss of American antiquity. [b.] Forays into the country of the Cherokees and Ca- tawbas. Nothing is more distinct or better settled in the existing traditions of the Iroquois, than their wars with some of the southern tribes, • This tribe have also the clan of the hawk or falcon. t Vide Hackluit. No. 24.J 149 particularly the Cherokees. I found this subject first alluded to among the Oneidas, who were hotly engaged in this southern war ; after- wards among the Onondagas, the Senecas of Tonawanda, the Tus- caroras, and with still increasing particularity, among the Senecas of Buffalo, Cattaraugus, and Teonigono. But I was never able to fix the era of its commencement, or to find an adequate cause for it. It seems almost incredible that a war of this kind should have been carried on, at such a great distance from their central council fire at Onondaga, yet nothing is better established in their reminiscences. They first came into contact, as Tetoyoah told me was his opinion, in the western prairies. The Iroquois are known to have hunted and warred far and wide in that quarter. The two nations seem to have been deeply and mutually exasperated. Tetoyoah spoke of an act of horrid treachery, the breaking of a peace pledge, and the murder of a peace deputation. The war, ho\vever, instead of calling out the banded energies of the confederacy, appears to have been ahnost entirely one of a par- tizan character. It is memorable rather for partial enterprizes and personal exploits, than for exhibiting the grander features of the military policy of the Iroquois. Warriors tested their bravery and heroism by going against the Cherokees. There were, it seems, no great armies, no grand battles. All was left to individual energy and courage. The great object of every young Iroquois, as soon as he was old enough to take the war path, was to go against the Che- rokees. A march from the Oneida stone, the Kasonda creek, or the Genesee valley, to the southern Allei:hanies, was regarded as a mere excursion or scouting trip. This long journey was performed with- out provisions, or any other preparation than bows, arrows and clubs. The fewer there were in one of these partizan enterprizes, the greater was their chance of concealment and success. They relied on the forest for food. Thousands of miles were not sufficient to dampen their ardor, and no time could blot out their hatred. They called the Cherokees, by way of derision. We vau dah, and O vau DAH, meaning a people who live in caves. These are the terms I found to be in use for the Cherokee nation, in 1845. 150 [Senate [c] Exploit of Hi-a-de-o-ni. The following incident in the verbal annals of Iroquois hardihood and heroism, was related to me by the intelligent Seneca Tetoyoah, (William Jones of Cattaraugus) along with other reminiscences of the ancient Cherokee wars. The Iroquois thought life was well lost, if they could gain glory by it. Hi-A-DE-o-Ni, said he, was the father of the late chief Young Kinf. He was a Seneca warrior, a man of great prowess, dexterity, and swiftness of foot, and had established his reputation for courage and skill, on many occasions. He resolved, while the Senecas were still living on the Genesee river, to make an incursion alone into the country of the Cherokees. He plumed himself with the idea, that he could distinguish himself in this daringadventure, and he prepared for it, according to the custom of warriors. They never encumber themselves with baggage. He took nothing but his arms, and the meal of a little parched and pounded corn.* The forest gave him his meat. Hi-A-DE-o-Ni reached the confines of the Cherokee country in safety and alone. He waited for evening before he entered the pre- cincts of a villrge. He found the people engaged in a dance. He watched his opportunity, and when one of the dancers went out from the ring into the bushes, he despatched him with his hatchet. In this way he killed two men that night, in the skirts of the woods, without exciting alarm, and toolc their scalps and retreated. It was late when he came to a lodge, standing remote from the rest, on his course homeward. Watching here, he saw a young man come out, and killed him as he had done the others, and took his scalp. Look- ing into the lodge cautiously, he saw it empty, and ventured in with the hope of finding some tobacco and ammunition, to serve him on his way home. • One table spoonful of this mixed with sugar and water will sustain a warrior twenty- four hours witliout meat. No. 24.] 151 While thus busied in searching the lodge, he heard footsteps at the door, and immediately threw himself on the bed from which tlic young man had risen, and covered his face, feigning sleep. They proved to be the footsteps of his last victim's mother. She, supposing him to be her son, whom she had a short time before left lyintj there, said, " My son, I am going to such a place, and will not be back till morning." He made a suitable response, and the old woman w«-nt out. Insensibly he fell asleep, and knew nothing till morning, when the first thing he heard was the mother's voice. She, careful for her son, was at the fireplace very early, pulling some roasted squashes out of the ashes, and after putting them out, and telling him, she left them for him to eat ; she went away. He sprang up instantly, and fled ; but the early dawn had revealed his inroad, and he was hotly pursued. Light of foot, and having the start, he succeeded in reach- ing and concealing himself in a remote piece of woods, where he laid till night, and then pursued his way towards the Genesee, which, in due time he reached, bringing his three Cherokee scalps as trophies of his victory and prowess. Such are the traditionary facts which are yet repeated by the Iro- quois, to console their national pride in their decline. Tiie incident reminds one strongly of the class of daring personal deeds of the noted Adirondack Piskaret, as related by Colden ; and it demon- strates how soon the daring traits of one ruling tribe may be adopted and even surpassed by another. The Tonawandas, who are Senecas, appear to have preserved more distinct recollections of the origin of this war. Hohoef.vi-h,* stated to me, as did Tetoyoah, that it originated from the contact of their hunting parties on the plains of the southwest. But the latter affirms, that the Cherokees were the original offenders, by robbing and plundering a Seneca hunting party, and taking away their skins. Retaliation ensued. Tragic scenes of surprise and treachery soon followed. The Five Nations took up the matter in all their strength. They, contrary to wiiat is above intimated, raisc«l large war-parties, and marched through the country to the Che rokee borders, and brought away scalps and prisoners. There are now, he added, descendants of the Cherokees in the third degree J. A. SanJfonl. 152 [Senate living on the Tonawanda reservation. Le Fort, an Onondaga chief, speaking on the same subject, said that there was, some years ago, a chief of pure Cherokee blood, by father and mother, living among them. He had been taken captive when a mere child. The fact being revealed to him after he had obtained the chieftaincy, he went to seek his relatives in the south, and to live and die among them ; but after every inquiry, he was unable to find them. The memory of the event of his loss was forgotten. He lingered a time, and then came back to the Senecas, and died among them — an example of that severe principle in the policy of this people, which has been before referred to, imder the term of We hait wa tsha, i. e. flesh cut in pieces, and scattered amongst the tribes. Iroquois tradition on this subject is the same now that it was in 1794. During this year, the interpreters told Col. Timothy Picker- ing, who was a commissioner on the part of the United States, that there were then living, warriors of the Six Nations, who had marched the whole distance to the Cherokee county, and attacked the latter. In proof of the former wars, they showed him a chief, who was a na- tive Cherokee, born in the Cherokee country, who had been captured when a boy, and invested with this honor in mature life by the Sene- cas.* While the foregoing tradition of living Iroquois is strengthened by this coincidence, we are, at the same time, furnished by the latter with a proof that the Iroquois policy was favorable to the rise of talent and bravery, and that whatever be the checks pro- vided by the Toxemic system, on the descent of chiefs, the elective feature was ever strongly marked upon their entire government and policy. • Yatas and Moulton, p. 232. No. 24.J ,53 t^.] Embassy of Peace to the Cherokees, ami Darin- Feat of a Seneca. ^ In the course of the long and fierce war between the Six Nations and the Cherokees, it happened, said Oliver Siiverhcels, that eight Senecas determined to go on an embassy of peace. Amoni,' them was Little Beard, the elder, an.! Jack Berry. They met some Cherokees on the confines of the Cherokee territories, to whom they imparted their object. Intelligence of this interview was sent for- ward to their village, where the ambassadors were duly received, and after this preliminary reception, they were introduced to the ruling chiefs, and favorably received by the Cherokee council. All but one of the Cherokee chiefs agreed to the terras of pence He also would consent, if, prior to the treaty, the eight Seneca dele- gates would first consent to go to war against their enemies, situate! south of them. [Who their enemies were is not mentioned. | They consented, and set out with a war party. A fight ensued in whi.h the leader of the Senecas, called Awl, was taken prisoner. The other seven escaped. The fate of Awl was decided in the entmies camp, where it was determined that he should be burned at the stake. Preparations were made for this purpose, but as they were about to bind him, he claimed the privilege of a warrior, to sing his death song and recite his exploits by striking the post. Pleased with the spirit of his request, and his noble air and words, his suit was granted and they put a tomahawk into his hands, that he might go through the ceremony. He began by relating his exploits in the north. He recited his feats against the western Indians, adding, with the usual particularity, times and places, and the number of scalps taken. They were pleased and interested in these recitals, and quite forgot the prisoner, in the warrior. At last he came to the late battle, in which he was taken. He told how many of the Catabas, -Apalaches, or Muscogees (if these were the tribes) he had killed. He kindled with redoubled ardor as he struck the jiost with liis tomahawk, ex- claiming, "so many of your own peoj)le, I have killed,'' and suiting his actions to his words, "so many I will yet kill.'' With this he struck down two men, bounded through the ring and ran. Conster- [Senate, No. 24.] 2U 254 [Senatb nation, for a moment, prevented pursuit, whicli gave him a start. Being swift of foot he outran his pursuers, eluded them in the woodsy and reached the Cherokee camp, where he found and joined his seven companions. They concluded the peace, and returned in safety to the Seneca country. [e.] The Graveyard Serpent and Corn Gianf. Seneca tradition states that they formerly lived on the Chippewa river, near Niagara Falls, Canada. One year, while thus located, they were visited by a calamitous sickness, and their corn was blighted. Their prophet dreamt, one night, that a great serpent laid under the village, v.'ith his head to the graveyard, and that it devoured all the bodies buried. This gave a most offensive breath, which was the cause of the sickness. He also dreamt that there was a great giant under the cornfieldy who ate up the corn. When he revealed these dreams to the chiefs, they determined to abandon the town, and immediately removed to Buffalo creek. The serpent soon followed them, and entered the mouth of the creek ; but the Great Spirit, whose especial favorites they ever were, sent lightning to destroy it. The monster, however, proceeded up the stream, until the arrows from above fell so thick, that he was obliged to turn. His great size made him press against the shores, and break off the ground, and this is the cause of the expanse of the river three miles above its mouth. Before he reached the mouth of the stream, however, the arrows had cut him apart and thus they escaped this scourge. When they went back to visit their old town on the Chippewa river, they found the giant who had eaten up the corn, hanging by one leg from the crotch of a high lodge pole, wilh his body on the ground. He was very meagre, and had very long and thin legs, M'ith scarcely any flesh on them. \W. I. C. Hosmer.] No. 24.J 155 [If the above is to be reganled, as it clearly must, as an allegory of sickness and famine, it would have put Creek fancy to the task, to have concentrated the matter in a smaller compass, or to have exhibi- ted it in a more striking light. J If.] Allusion to the siege of Fon-Sluiiwix and tlic Battle of Oriskany. Seneca tradition is rife on this subject. Tetayoah says that they lost thirty-three chiefs in the battle of Oriskany. Jacob Blacksnake adds, that he has seen a book in which it was stated that the Senecas had burned eight ollicers taken at this battle, in revenge for their losses. This he contradicts, on the authority of his father. Governor Blacksnake, who was there. The officers had been asked for after the battle, by the British ; but they were refused, on account of their great losses. They were not, however, burned at the stake. It was decided that they should run the gauntlet, and they were killed by clubs, &c. in this ordeal. [g.] Defeat of the Kah-Kwahs oa Buftalo crcok. Some of the Senecas affirm, that it is ninety years since the battle with the Kah-Kwahs, on the site of the grave yard, on the Buffalo creek reservation, was fought. This would plac e the event in 1755, a date so modern, and so well known, in our colonial history, as to prove what a poor figure they make in attempts to adjust chrono- logy. If 190 years [and, perhaps, such should be the tradition,] be taken, the event (allowing two years for their defence) wouhl as- sume the precise time 1 1655] indicated for it, by one of Le .Moync's missionary letters, in which he says, that the war with the Erics bad broken out afresh in 1653. 156 [Senate [k] Era of the Confederation. There is a tradition among portions of the Senecas, that the pre- sent confetleration took place four years before Hudson sailed up the river bearing his name. This gives A. D. 1605. This question has been examined in its general bearings in a prior paper. All other authorities indicate an earlier dale. [i.] Some passages of the traditions of their wars with monsters, giants and supernatural phenomena. It is proposed to narrate a few passages of their early wars with monsters and giants, the two prominent objects in the foreground of their traditions. If it be thought, in perusing them, that mythology and superstition mingle too freely with real events or actions, to which the mind makes no exception, that is a matter upon which we have nothing to offer. Let it rather be considered as a proof of the authenticity of the narrative ; for certainly there could be no stronger indication of a contrary character, than to find the Indian narrator relating a clear, consistent chain of indisputable facts and deductions, to fill up the foreground of his history. What is said of such crea- tions tallies admirably with their belief, at the present day, and har- monizes with itself, and with that state of proud heathendom, adventur- ous idolatry, and wild and roving independence in which they lived. Who but an Aonaod 1 w^ho but an Iroquois ? could enact such a part, or believe that his ancestors ever did 1 To be great, and admired and feared, they roved over half America in quest of beasts and men. Surely, the man should be allowed to tell his own story in his own way, with all the witchcraft and spirit-craft he has a mind to bring to bear upon it. No people in the world have ever, probably, so completely min- gled up and lost their early history, in fictions and allegories, types and symbols, as the red men of this continent. Making no sort of dis- tinction themselves, between the symbolic and the historical, they have No. 24.J IS-; left no distinctions to mark the true from the false. Their notions of a Deity, founded, apparently, upon some dreamy tradition cf original truth, are so subtile and divisible, and establish so heterogenous a connection, between spirit and matter, of all iuiaginublc forms, that popular belief seems to have wholly confounded the possible with the impossible, the natural with the supernatural. Action, so far as respects cause and effect, takes the widest and wildest ranj^i-, throuph the agency of good or evil inllutnces, wiach are put in motion alike for noble or ignoble ends — alike by men, beasts, devils or gods. Seeing some things mysterious and wonderful, he believes all things mysterious and wonderful ; and he is afloat, without shore or com- pass, on the wildest sea of superstition and necromancy. He sees a god in every phenomenon and fears a sorcerer in every enemy. Life, under such a system of polytheism and wild belief, is a constant scene of fears and alarms. Fear is the predominating passion, and he is ready, wherever he goes, to sacrifice at any altar, be the sup- posed deity ever so grotesque. When such a man comes to narrate events, he stops at nothing, be it ever so gross or puerile. He relates just what he believes, and unluckily he believes every thing that can possibly be told. A beast or a bird, or a man, or a god, or a devil, a stone, a serpent, or a wizzard, a wind or a sound, or a ray of light — these are so many causes of action, which the meanest and lowest of the series, may put in motion, but which shall, in his theology and philosophy, vibrate along the mysterious chain through the upper- most skies ; and life or death may, at any moment, be the reward or the penalty. If there be truth, mingled in the man's narrations, as there sometimes is, it must be judged of by the lights of reason, com- mon sense, science, sound philosophy and religion. It is a gnrdian knot for the modern historian to untie ; or it is a mass of traditionary chaff, from which we may, perhaps, winnow a few grains of wheat. Herodotus had, probably, just such materials to work upon, and he made the best possible use of them, by letting the events stand as they were given, without exercising any inductive faculty upon them, or telling us the why and the wherefore; or if he ever deviatiij from the rule, as in the case of the fishes descending the Nile, it >•> ■ ^"••- cies of labor which might as well have been omitted.* • It was designed, when these prcliininary remarks were penned, to ».1J toia* wilder legends than are here presi-nted, which arc, at prcs<»nf, wiUiheld. 158 [Senate By the figure of a long house, the Iroquois meant to denote the confederated frame work of the league ; by a great tree planted, they symbolized its deep seated natural power, one in blood and lineage, and its overshadowing influence and permanency. To assail such a combination of stout hearts, nature they thought must send forth the stoutest and most appaling objects of her creation. The first enemy that appeared to question their power, or disturb their peace, was the fearful phenomenon of Ko-nea-rau-neh-neh, or the Flying Heads. These heads were enveloped in a beard and hair, flaming like fire ; they were of monstrous size, and shot through the air with the velocity of meteors. Human power was not adequate to cope with them. The priests pronounced them an emanation of some mysterious influence, and it remained with the priests alone, to exorcise them by their arts. Drum and rattle and incantation, were deemed more effective, than arrow or club. One evening, after they had been plagued a long time with this fearful visitation, the Flying Head came to the door of a lodge occupied by a single female and her dog. She was sitting composedly before the fire roasting acorns, which, as they become done, she deliberately took from the fire and eat. Amazement seized the flying head, who put out two huge black paws, from beneath his streaming beard. Supposing the woman to be eat- ing live coals he withdrew, and from that time he came no more among them.* The withdrawal of the Ko-nea-rau-neh-neh, was followed by the appearance of the great Onyare,! or Lake Serpent, which traversed the country, and by coiling himself in leading positions near the paths, interrupted the communication between the towns. He created terror wherever he went, and diffused a poisonous breath. Wliile this enemy yet remained in the land, and they were coun- celling about the best means of killing him, or driving him away, the country was invaded by a still more fearful enemy, namely : the Ot- NE-YAR-HEH, or Stouish Giauts. They were a powerful tribe from the wilderness, tall, fierce and hostile, and resistance to them was vain. They defeated and overwhelmed an army which was sent out •'For a poetic use of this tradition of the Heads and Stonish Giants, see HoflFman's Wilil Scenes, vol. 1, page 82. New-York edition of 1843. t Mohawk. No. 24.] 159 against them, and put the whole country in loar. These giants wore not only of prodigious strength, but they were cannibals, {Icvouring men, women and children in their inroads. It is said by the Shawnees, that they were dcscLniicil Jrom a cer- tain family, which journeyed on the east side of the Mississippi, aAcr the vine broke, and they went towards the northwest. Abandoned to wandering and the hardships of the forest, they forgot the rules of humanity, and began at first, to eat raw flesh, and next men. Tbcy practiced rolling themselves in the sand, and by this means thtir bodies were covered with lianl skin, so that the arrows of the Iroquois only rattled against their rough bodies, and fell at their feet. And the consequence was, that they were obliged to hide in caves, and glens, and were brought into subjection by these fierce invaders for many winters, (or years.) At length the Holder of the Heavens, visited his people, and finding that they were in great distress, be determined to grant them relief, and rid them entirely of these bar- barous invaders. To accomplish this, he changed himself into one of these giants, and brandishing his heavy club, led them on, under the pretence of finding the Akonoshioni. When they had got near to their strong hold at Onondaga, night coming on, he bid them lie down in a hollow, telling them that he would make the attack at the custom- ary hour, at day-break. But at day break, having ascended a height, he overwhelmed them with a vast mass of rocks, where their forms may yet be seen. Only one escaped to carry the news of their dreadful fate, and he fled towards the north. They were thus relieved, and began to live in more security, but the great On-yar-he, or Lake Serpent, was yet in the country. Alarmed by what Tarenyawagon had done to relieve his people, and fearing for himself, he withdrew to the lakes, where he and his brood were destroyed with thunder bolts, or compelled to retire to i!''.;) water. The Five Families were so much molested with giants an«l mon- sters, that they were compelled to build forts to protect themselves. The manner of doing it was this : they built fires against trees, and then used their stone axes to pick off the charred part ; in this way, by renewing the^fire, they soon felled them ; and the fallen trunks were burned off in suitable lengths, in the same way, and theii set up 160 f Senate according to the size and plan of the fort, a banic of earth being piled outside and inside. They left two gates, one to get water, and the other as a sally port. [D.] For some time after the great On-yar-iie had left the country, they had peace ; but in after years a still more terrific enemy came- It had a man's head on the body of a great serpent. This terrific foe took his position on the path between the Onondagas and Cayugas^ and thus cut off all intercourse between their towns, for this was also the great thoroughfare of the five families, or nations. The bravest warriors were mustered to attack him with spears, darts and clubs. They approached him on all sides with yells. A terrible battle en- sued ; the monster raged furiously, but he was at last pierced in a vital place, and finally killed. This triumph was celebrated in songs and dances, and the people were consoled. They hunted again in peace, but after a time rumors began to be rife of the appearance of an extraordinary and ferocious animal in various places, under the name of the great 0-yal-kher, or mammoth bear. One morning, while a party of hunters were in their camp, near the banks of a lake, in the Oneida country, they were alarmed by a great tumult breaking out from the lake. Going to see the cause of this extraor- dinary noise, they saw the monster on the bank rolling down stones and logs into the water, and exhibiting the utmost signs of rage. Another great animal of the cat kind, with great paws, came out of the water, and seized the bear, A dreadful fight ensued ; in the end the bear was worsted and retired, horribly lamed. The next day the hunters ventured out to the spot, where they found one of the fore legs of the bear. It was so heavy that two men were required to lift it, but they found it was palateable food and made use of it, for their warriors believe that it inspires courage to eat of fierce and brave animals. After a while, a great pestiferous and annoying creature of the insect tribe, appeared about the forts at Onondaga, in the guise of the Ge-ne-un-dah sais-ke, or huge musqueto. It first appeared in the Onondaga country. It flew about the fort with vast wings, making a loud noise, with a long stinger, and on whomsoever it lighted, it sucked out his blood and killed him. Many warriors were killed in this way, and all attempts made to subdue it were abortive, till Ta- No. 24.] 161 renyawagon, or the Holder of the Heavens, was on a visit one day to the ruler of the Onondagas. The giant musquito happened to come flying about the fort, as usual at this time. Tarouyuwagon attacked it, but such was its rapidity of flight tliat he could scarcely korp in sight of it. He chased it around the bortler <>{' the great lakcj towards sun-setting, and round the great country at large, cast and west. At last he overtook it and killed it near (u-n-an-iioa, or the salt lake of Onondaga. From the blood ilowing out on this occa- sion, the present species of small musquitoes originated. [Senate, No. 24. J 20 VIII. TOPICAL LNQriUIllS. The state of the book trade, and the importation of books into this country, but a few years ago, were such as to offer but scanty advan- tages to the pursuit of historical letters. There were but few libraries deserving of notice, and these were placed at remote points, spread over a very extensive geographical area, where access became often difficult or impossible. By far the largest number of American libra- ries were limited to a few thousand volumes, often a few hundreds only, and these were chiefly made up of common or elementary works on arts, sciences and general literature. Writers were compelled to consult works at second hand, and could seldom get access to scarce and valuable originals ; and the difficulties of making original inqui- ries into archeology, antiquities, philology, and otia-r mort- asbtruse, or less popular topics, increased at every step, and wrre in fact insur- mountable to men of ordinary means. This state of things will suf- ficiently account for the low state of historical letters up to within a comparatively short period, withouf impugning the judgment or saga- city of early observers, on our local and distinctive history ; find offers also a rational plea why the aboriginal branch of our antiqui- ties, and the just expanding science of ethnology, has been left en- shrouded in so much darkness and historical mystery. We have, in fact, not had the means of making such inquiries. The libraries at Harvard, the public collection set on foot by Franklin at Philadel- phia, the library of Congress, and that of the New-York Historical Society, and perhaps the growing library of the State Capitol at Al- bany, are some of the chief collections yet made in the L'nion ; and these might be conveniently stowed away, en masse, in one corner of the " Bibliotheque Royal '' at Paris, without exciting notice. 164 [Senate [a.] Who were the Eries ? Louis Hennepin, who was a Recollect, remarks in the original Am- sterdam edition of his travels of 1698, that Canada was first disco- vered by the Spanish, alluding doubtless to the voyage of Cortereal and that it received its first missionaries under the French, from the order of Recollects. These pioneers of the cross, according to this author, made themselves very acceptable to the Hurons or Wyandots, who occupied the banks of the St. Lawrence, and who informed them that the Iroquois pushed their war parties beyond Virginia and New- Sweden, and other parts remote from their cantons. They went, he says in these wars, near to a lake, which they called Erige or Erie.* Now if they went " beyond Virginia and New-Sweden," they were very remote from Lake Erie, and the assertion implies a contradiction or some ignorance of the geography of the country. This name in the Huron language, he informs us, signifies the Cat, or Nation of the Cat a name, he says, which it derived from the fact that the Iroquois in returnino- to their cantons, brought the Erige or Erike, captives through it. The Canadians softened this word to Erie. It would appear then, that the Eries either did not occupy the immediate banks of the lake, or else they lived on the upper or more remote parts of it. To be brought captives through it, they must have been embarked at some distance from its lower extremity. This vague mode of ex- pression leaves a doubt as to the actual place of residence of this conquered and, so called, extinct tribe. Whether extinct or not, is not certain. The name is only a Wyandot name. They had others. From inquiries made among the Senecas, they are, some believe, the same people whom this nation call Kah-Kwahs. But we do not advance m\ich by changing one term for another. The inquiry returns, who were the Kah-Kwahs ? Seneca tradition affirms that they lived on the banks of Lake Erie, extending eastward towards the Genesee river, and westward indefinitely ; and that they were finally conquered in a war, which was closed by a disastrous battle, the locality of which is not fixed ; after which they were chased • Vide Appendix. No. 24.] 165 west, and the remnant driven down the Alleghanv nvor. [Sc<. the subsequent paper (/.] Cusick, the Tuscarora archaeologist, who writes the word " Squaw- kihows," intimates that these were an alliliated people, and that the remnant after their defeat, were incorporated with the Sone- cas. [D.J Golden states that after the war with tiie Adirondarks broke out, say at the end of the 16th century, the Iroquois, to try their couracc, went to war against a nation called Satanas,* who lived on the banks of the lakes, whom they defeated and conquered, which raised their spirits so much, that they afterwards renewed the war against the Adirondacks and Huronsf on the St. Lawrence, and finally prevailed against them. [Hist. Five Nations, p. 23, Lond. ed. 1767.] Satanas, it appears from the same author, is a name for the Shaoua- nons, Shawanoes, or Shawnees, as the term is variously written • a tribe, it may be further remarked, who are called Chat by the modem Canadian French. A letter of the missionary Le Moyne, published in the Missionary " Relacions," and hereto appended, proves that the war with the Eries, whatever may have been its origin or former state, had newly broken out in 1653, and there are references of a subsequent date to denote that by the year 1655, this war had terminated in the disas- trous overthrow of this people. They appear to have been then located where the existing traditions of the Scnecas place them, namely, west of Genesee river, and at or near ButTalo. We may suppose that up to this period, the Senecas were limited to the eastern banks of the Genesee. And it was probably the results of this war that transferred their council fire from the present site of Geneva or Canandaigua to the Genesee valley. • This word appears to be an English soubriqua, dcrired from Ihe Dutch lanftac** •■^ is from Satan, a synonyme for Duivel. [Sec Jansen's new Pocket DictioMry, Dortrmciit 1831 .] The plural inflection in a, if this derivation be correct, ii duplicated in itj niMa- ing, by the corresponding English inflection in *, a practice quite conformable to fjifiiak orthoepy, which puts its vernacular plural to loreign plurali, u Cherubim* for Chara- bim, &c. t Called Quatoghies by the Iroquoit. 166 [Senate When La Salle reached the Niagara river in 1679, but twenty-four years after the close of this Erie war, he found the entire country on its eastern or American banks in the possession of the Senecas. [J.] The history and fate of the Eries was then a tradition. We may here drop the inquiry to be resumed at a future period. [b.] Building of the first vessel on the upper lakes. The enterprise of Sa Salle, in constructing a vessel above the falls of Niagara, in 1679, to facilite his voyage to the Illinois and the Mississippi, is well known ; but while the fact of his having thus been the pioneer of naval architecture on the upper lakes, is familliar to historical readers, the particular place of its construction, has been matter of various opinions. Gen. Cass in his historical discourse, places it at Erie ; Mr. Bancroft in his history, designates the mouth of the Tonawanda, Mr. b'parks in the biography of Marquette, decides to place it on the Canadian side of the Niagara. These variances result in a measure from the vague and jarring accounts of the narrators, whose works had been consulted in some instances in abridged or mutilated translations, and not from doubt or ambiguity in the missionary " Letters." Literary associations in America, who aimed to increase the means of reference to standard works, began their labors in feebleness. The New-York Historical Society, which dates its origin in 1804, and has vindicated its claims to be the pioneer of historical letters in America, published Tonti's account of the Chevalier La Salle's enterprise, in one of the volumes of its first series. It is since known, however, that this account was a bookseller's compilation from, it is believed generally correct sources, but it was disclniinod by Tonti. It is at least but an abreviation, and cannot be regarded as an o.iginal work. In 1820, the American Antiquarian Society published in their first volume of collections, an account of Hennepin discoveries, which is known to bibliographers to be a translation of a mere abridgment of No. 24.] 107 the original work, reduced to less than half iis volume of matter. There was also an edition of this author, publi.Mu-d in London in 169S ; but still clipped of some of its matter, or otherwise defi-ctire- the tastes and wants of an English public: beini; constantly consulled in the admission of continental books of this cast. The original work of Hennepin was published in French, at Ainster45. Gentlemen :* My attention has been called by a literary friend, to your notice of Mr. Brantz Mayer's report on the subject of a national name, or dis- tinctive synonyroe for our country. Mr. Mayer having chosen to reflect upon the antiquarian value of the historical research involved in the inquiry, I feel called upon, as a member of the committee of the New-York Historical Society, before whom this question was dis- cuused, to say a few words in reply. " The following quotation from my * Glossary of Anglo-Indian Words,' will best set forth my personal connection with the subjt-rt • Addressed to the Editors of tlie New-York Evening Poitand NationaJ IoUlligtac«r. [Senate, No. 24.] 22 170 [Senate as a member of the society, and a humble laborer in the field of abo- riginal antiquities, who is ready at all suitable times, to give autho- rity for the use of whatever Indian terms he may employ, " Mleghan, an obsolete aboriginal noun proper, applied adjectively both in French and English, to an ancient and long extinct people in North America, and likewise to the most prominent chain of moun- tains within the regions over which they are supposed to have borne sway." Our authorities respecting the ancient Alleghans, are not confined to the very late period, i. e. 1819,* which is alone quoted, and exclu- sively relied on by the learned secretary of the Maryland Historical Society. Nor do they leave us in doubt, that this ancient people^ who occupy the foreground of our remote aboriginal history, were a valiant, noble and populous race, who were advanced in arts and the policy of government, and raised fortifications for their defence. (N. Y. Hist. Col. vol. 2, p. S9, 91.) While they held a high repu- tation as hunters, they cultivated maize extensively, which enabled them to live in large towns; (Davies' Hist. Car. Isds.) and erected those antique fortifications which are extended over the entire Missis- sippi valley, as high as latitude 43°, and the lake country, reaching from Lake St. Clair (Am. Phil. Trans.) to the south side of the Nia- gara ridge (the old shore of Lake Ontario) and the country of the Onondagas and Oneidas (Clinton's Dis. N. Y. Hist. Soc. vol. 2.) Towards the south, they extended as far as the borders of the Chero- kees and Muscogees.f From the traditions of Father Raymond, they were worshippers of the sun, had an order of priesthood, and exer- cised a sovereignty over a very wide area of country. (His. Carib. Isds. Paris, 1658. London ed. of 1666, p. 204, et seq.) At what era the Alleghan confederacy, thus shadowed forth, ex- isted and fell in North America, we do not know. Our Indian nations have no certain chronology, and we must establish data by contempo- raneous tradition of the Mexican nations, or by internal antiquarian evidence. •aXrans. Hist, and Lit. Com. Am. Phil. Soc. Vol. 1, Philadelphia, 1819. t Seneca tradition, N, Y. Hisrt. Col. vol. 2. No. 24.] 171 The '' Old Fort" discovered by Dr. Locke in Highland Co. Oh.o in 1838, denoted a period of GOO years from its abandonment,* that is, 284 years before Christopher Columbus fust sailed boldly into the Western oeean. The trees on Grave Creek mound denote the aban- donment of the trenches and stone look-outs in that vicinity to have been in 1338. (Trans. Am. Ethnological Society, vol. 1, N, Y. 1845.) The ramparts at Marietta had a tree decayed in the heart but the concentric outer circles, which could be counted, were 463. (Clinton's Dis.) The live oaks on the low mounds of Florida, where one of the Algonquin tribes, namely, the Shawnecs, aver that they once lived and had been preceded by a people more advanced in arts (Vid-e Arch, Am. vol. 1.) denote their abandonment about 1145. But even these data do not, probably reach back sufficiently far, to denote the true period. If we fix upon the twelfth century as the era of the fall of the Alleghan race, we shall not probably over estimate the event. They had probably reached the Mississippi valley, a century or two before, having felt, in their original position, west and south of that stream, the great revolutionary movements which preceded the overthrow of the To] lee and the establishment of the AvAec empire in Mexican America. There are but two words left in our geography, supposed to be of the ancient Alleghan language. These are Alleghany, and Yiog- hiogany, the latter, being the name of a stream which falls into the Monongahela, on its right bank, about twenty miles above Pitts- burgh. Tradition, not of the highest character, gives us the words Tal- ligeu, or Talligwee, as the name of this ancient nation, although it is nearly identical in sounds with tlie existing and true name of the Cherokees, which, according to the late Elias IJoudinot, (a Chero- kee,) is TsALLAKEE, Col. Gibson, a plain man, an In(han trader and no philologist, who furnished Mr. Jefferson with Indian vocabu- laries of the dialects of his day, to be used in answer to the inquirieji of Catherine the Great, (vide Trans. Royal Academy, Petersburgh,) expressed an opinion that this ancient people did not use a T before the epithet, but were called Allegewee. Tradition has, however, strictly speaking, preserved neither of these terms, although both • Cincinnati Gazette. 172 [Senate appear to hare strong affinities with them. The word Alleghany has come down to us, from the earliest times, as the name of the great right-band fork of the Ohio, and also as the name, from the same remote period of antiquity, of the chain of mountains of which the stream itself may be said to he the most remote northeasterly tribu- tary. In this form it is evidently a local term, applied geographi- cally, according to the general principles of the Indian languages,, like hanna in the Susquehanna, and hannock in the Rappahannock, which appear to denote, in each ease, a rivf r, or torrent of water- By removing this local inflection, we have Alleghan as the proper term for the people, and I have felt sustained, by this inductive pro- cess, in regarding Alleghan as the original cognomen of the " mound bvilders" of North America. Having thus given my views with respect to the particular word which awakened this discussion, permit me now to turn to the other matters, so confidently brought forward by the secretary of the Ma- ryland Historical Society. The Iroquois affirm that they formerly lived in the area of the Cherokee country. (Clin. Dis. N. Y. H. Soc, vol.) Captain Smith met a war party of this nation, in exploring one of the rivers of Vir- ginia in 1608. So late as the era of the settlement of North Caro- lina, they brought off to the north the last of their cantons, in the tribe of the Tuscaroras. They sold the lands as far south as Ken- tucky river. (Tmlay's Hist. Kent.) They quitclaimed the soil in northern Virginia and Maryland, an 1 they quite forbid all sales of land by the Delawares. All amtborities, indeed, concur in showing the track of their migration, prior to 1600, to have been from the south to the north and northeast. Affiliation of language is also thought to denote their origin in the south. (Vide Gallatin, 2 vol. Archa. Amer.) The Hurons, who are of the same stock, affirm that they were originally the first of all the nations, and call the Lena- pees, who have assumed the same distinction, nephews, denoting inferiority in the chronological and ethnological chain. In this term of nephews, so applied to the Delawares, all the Iroquois tribes con- cur. (Vide Oncota.) Algonquin tradition, recorded by Mr. Heckwelder in the Am. Phi. Trans, in 1819, on the part of the Lenapees, denotes that a confede- No. 24.] 173 ration of these two stocks, namely, the political uncles an«l nrpbcws, ilefeated the Alk-ghans, and drove them from the country. This tra- dition is referred to a time when the IJelawarcs or Lcnnpc.s, wi-n- shorn of all power and consequence, " having het-n dr-r;idf(l " according to their phrase, to assume the petticoat, and found » refuge in a new country, to them, on the Muskingum, where they were taken under the care, as thoy iiad previously been east of the mountaint of the Moravian brethren. In their reminiscences they wouM conse- quently be prone to give prominence to sucii events as would rirtcct the most favorable lights on their history. They are speaking of events which we see by the preceding references, must have transpired 600 or 600 years before, and in a very distant quarter of the I'nion. Yet they add some particulars which written history alone could pre- serve ; and they ascribe to themselves such a degree of foresight, prudence, wisdom, valor and sense of Christian justice, as no Indian tribe in America ever evinced. These traditions are recorded by Mr. Heckewelder ill a spirit of Christian kindness on his part, but he does not vouch for them ; they are to be judged, like other traditions, by their probabilities and their conformity to other and known traditions. It is on this account that I have adduced the preceding data. Kverv Indian nation is prone to exalt itself, and if we would admit fully the claims of each, the rest would be sorry persons indeed. The first thing to be borne in mind is, that the tradition is a very ancient one, and must have come down shorn of many particulars, which ihere appears to have been great carefulness to re-state. The scene also is remote from the place of narration. No such fact as the principal one of the crossing, on which great stress is laid by Mr. Mayer, on the part of the Maryland Historical Society, could have taken place in the Ohio valley, or within one thousand miles of Pilt»- burgh, where alone, it must be remembered, we have any evidence in the existing names of the country of the resilience of the .\lleghans. The Algonquins, (we include the Lenapees in their proper groupe,) attempting to cross the Mississippi, into the territories of a foreign nation, with a large body of men, are defeated and driven hark. They show themselves pacifically, in a moderate numUr, and the foreigners say, come ! but turning out a multitude, are asnilcd. Whether this was an original stratagem, or an afier thought, we are 174 [Senate ]eft to infer, but in either case, it would be quite conformable to Indian j olicy. For the sake of clearness, we will locate this event in the section of this great river, between the Chickasaw bluffs and Natchez, its probable site. On this defeat they form an alliance with their uncles, the Iroquois, who were already east of the Mississippi, and were located north of the Alleghans. A long war begins, in the course of which the latter erect the fortifications which have excited so much curiosity in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, and after pro- vino- themselves valient men, are finally overpowered and driven off. The Lenapees are in 1819 the historians of their enemies, and berate them as faithless. The Maryland Historical Society, twenty-six years later, endorse the whole story, and pronounce the AUeghans pusil- lanimous, not so much it would seem for their heroic struggle and defence, as for the cause of it, namely, not letting the Algonquin hordes march into or through their country, as the superior forecast and judgment of the latter might, on further progress, dictate. Does any sound historian ? does any one acquainted with Indian life, character or history, as it exists, and has always existed in North America, believe that the pacific and Christian request, put forth by Mr. Heckewelder, as the chronicler of his Delaware converts at Gna- denhutton, namely, that they might be allowed to explore a country east of them, to select it out and dwell therein, or that they had pre- viously had the prudence, energy and forecast to send spies, like Moses, to spy it out — as if they were seeking a country for an agri- cultural settlement, with flocks and implements of husbandry — I repeat it, does any one, who reads this detailed part of the tradition as told to and believed by the good old missionary, credit a syllable of it? If he does, his good-natured credulity must be greater than that of the committee of the New-York Historical Society, whose suggestive report on the discussion of a distinctive national niirae has been the theme of so much misconception — may I not add, of so truly Pickwickian a degree of patriotism. The truth is, this suggestion of a peaceful passage for the great Algonquin army, is to be found originally in the 20th chapter of Numbers, in the demand made, by divine direction, by the Jewish leader for a safe passport through the land of Edom, for the faithful No. 24.J 175 performance of which there was a ilivine guaranty. And when the kind father had taught this historical lesson to his peaceable disciples on the banks of the Muskingum, he did not perceive, in afterwards putting down the traditions of his favorite Delawares, how complete- ly they had adapted a sacred event to the exigencies of savage life in a host of lawless invaders in the American wilderness, in the 12th century. But we are not only to take this entire tradition of 1819 of an event happening 600 years before, in extenso, with all its moral ex- actness of motive, in the original actors, without any abatements or corrections required by other traditions or history, but the good father whose moral excellence is pure and unimpeachable, but who was no philologist, aims to make the existing lexicography of the Delaware prove the tradition ; and we have, in a foot note, a forced etymolofry of the name of the river Mississippi, to demonstrate that this is a Delaware name. Now, the name of this river is not " Namaesa Sipu," that is, sturgeon, trout,'[or as he gives it, " fish river,'' but Missi-sippi — a derivative from the adjective great^ in an aboriginal sense, and sippi, a river. Mr. Gallatin (Archa. Am. vol. 2) is inclin- ed to believe that it should be translated " the whole river," or a unity of waters, but neither he nor any other commentator, has been able to make " fish" out of " missi." The merest tyro in the Indian lan- guages, must perceive that the etymology does not bear the meaning of Fish river, and if it did, it would prove, contrary to their repu- tation, that the Indians give the most inappropriate geographical names, of all men in existence. Fish river would be the most nial- appropriate name for the Mississippi. Its turbed waters and rushing channel, surcharged with floating trees, and subject to a thousand physical mutations every season, is absolutely forbidding to the larger number of species, and favorable only to the coarser kinds which are rejected from the table of the epicure. A single remark more. The Delawares have never lived, or held an acre of land on the Mississippi, in its whole course between Itasca lake and the Balize. When Penn came to America, they lived on the Delaware, in central Pennsylvania. They were ordered to quit the sources of the Delaware river by the Iroquois in 1742, and go to 176 [Senate Wyoming or Shamoken.*. They found their way across the Alle- ghanies, in time to burn Col. Crawford at the stake,! and oppose the settlement of the Ohio valley, prior to the revolution ; they settled on the Muskingum, and after some afflictions and mutations, chiefly brought upon themselves, they accepted lands, and began to recross the Mississippi in 18l8t . They are now located on the west banks of the Missouri, on the Konza. Yet the etymology adverted to attributes to this tribe, not only the naming of the river upon which they never lived, and never held any lands, but presupposes, that the Illinois and other Algonquin nations living on its banks, above the influx of the Ohio and the Missouri, to whom, with the influence of the French, the actual name is due, preserved the Delaware term " Namffisa Sepu," although it is neither used by their descendants nor by Europeans. [d.] War with the Kah Kwahs. Some inquiries have been made in a prior paper, on the strong proba- bilities of this people, being identical with the Ererions or Eries. While this question is one that appears to be within the grasp of modern inquiry, and may be resumed at leisure, the war itself, with the peo- ple whom they call Kah-Kwahs, and we Eries is a matter of popular tradition, and is alluded to with so many details, that its termination may be supposed to have been an event of not the most ancient date. Some of these reminiscences having found their way into the newspapers during the summer^ in a shape and literary garniiure, which w'as suited to take them from the custody of sober tradition, and transfer them to that of romance, there was the more interest attached to the subject, which led me to take some pains to ascertain how general or fresh their recollections of this war might be. • CoUlen's Hist. Five Nations, vol. 1. p. 31. \ Metcalf's Indian Wars in the West. X This is tlie first time that this tribe ever by history, or trailition, other than their own, saw this river. § See Buffalo Com. Adv, 12th July, 1845, article " Indian Tradition." No. 24.] 177 My inquiries were answered one evenini; at the mission houw at Buffalo, by the Allep;nny ciiief, H.k-yek-dvoh-K.-nh, or the Woo.l- cutter, better known, by his En^^lish name of Jacob IJlacksnake. Hr stated that the Kah-Kwahs had their chief residence at the time of their final defeat, on the Eighteen-mile creek. The name by which he referred to them, in this last place of their rcsi.lenre, mipht be written perhaps with more exactitude to the native t'.ngue, Gah Gwah-ge-o-nuh— but as this compound word embraces the idia* of locality and existence along with their peculiar name, there is a species of tautology in retaining the two inflections. They arc not necessary in the English, and besides in common use, I found them to be generally dropt, while the sound of G naturally changed in common pronunciation into that of K. Blacksnake commenced by sayi-ig, that while the Senecas lived east of the Gcnessee, they received a challenge from the Kah-Kwalis to try their skill in ball playing and athletic sports. It was accepted, and after due preliminaries, the challengers came, accompanied by their prime young men, who were held in great repute as wrestlers and ball-players. The old men merely came an witnesses, while this trial was made. The first trial consisted of ball playing, in which, after a sharp contest, the young Senecas came off victorious. The next trial con- sisted of a foot race between two, which terminated also in favor of the Senecas. The spirit of the Kah-Kwas was galled by these de- feats. They immediately got up another race on the instant, which was hotly contested by new runners, but it ended in their losing the race. Fired by these defeats, and slill confident of their superior strength, they proposed wrestling, with the sanguinary condition, that each of the seconds should hold a drawn knife, and if his principal was thrown, he should instantly plunge it into his throat, ami cut off his head. Under this terrible penalty, the struggle commenced. The wrestlers were to catch their hold as best they could, but to obserre fair principles of wrestling. At length the Kah-Kwah was thrown, and his head immediately severed and tossed into the air. It fell with a rebound, and loud shouts proclaimec! the Senecas victor* in four trials. This terminated the sports, and the tribes returned to their respective villages. (Senate, No. 24. J 23 178 [Senate Some time after this event, two Seneca hunters went out to hunt west of the Genesee river, and as the custom is, built a hunting lotlg;e of boughs, where they rested at night. One day, one of them went out alone, and having walked a long distance, was belated on his re- turn. He saw, as he cast his eye to a distant ridge, a large body of the Kah-Kwahs marching in the direction of the Seneca towns. He ran to his companion, and they instantly fled and alarmed the Senecas. They sent off a messenger post-haste to inform their confederates towards the east, and immediately prepared to meet their enemies. After about a day's march, they met them. It was near sunset when they descried their camp, and they went and encamped in the vicinity. A conference ensued, in which they settled the terms of the battle. The next morning the Senecas advanced. Their order of battle was this. They concealed their young men, who were called by the narrator burnt-knives,* telling them to lie flat, and not rise and join the battle until they received the war cry, and were ordered forward. With these were left the rolls of peeled bark to tie their prisoners. Having made this arrangement, the old warriors advanced, and began the battle. The contest was fierce and long, and it varied much. Sometimes they were driven back, or faltered in their line — again they advanced, and again faltered. This waving of the lines to and fro, formed a most striking feature in the battle for a long time. At length the Senecas were driven back near to the point where the young men were concealed. The latter were alarmed, and cried out " now, we are killed !" At this moment, the Seneca leader gave the concerted war whoop, and they arose and joined in battle. The effects of this reinforcement, at the time that the enemy were fatigued with the day's fight, were instantaneously felt. The young Senecas pressed on their enemies with resistless energy, and after receiving a shower of arrows beat down their opponents with their war clubs, and took a great many prisoners. The prisoners were immediately bound with their arms behind, and tied to trees. Nothing could resist their im- petuosity. The Kah-Kwah chiefs determined to fly, and leave the Senecas masters of the field. In this hard and disastrous battle, which was • A term lo denote their being quite young, and used here as a cant phrase for prime young warriors. No. 24.] :79 fought by the Senecas alone, and without ai.l Irom their confederates, the Kah-Kwahs lost a very great number of their men, in slain and prisoners. But those who fled were not permitted to escape unpur- sued, and having been reinforced from the east, they followed thrm and attacked them in their residence on the Deoseowa (Buffalo creek) and Eighteen mile creek, which they were obliged to abandon, and fly to the Oheeo, [the Seneca name for the Alleghany.] The Senecas pursued them, in their canoes, in the descent of this stream. They discovered their encampment on an island in numbers superior to their own. To deceive them, the Senecas, on putting ashore, carried their canoes across a narrow peninsula, by means of which they again entered the river above. New parties appeared to the enemy, to be thus conlinuilly arriving, and led them greatly to over-estimate their numbers. This was at the close of day. In the morning not an enemy wa' to be seen. They had fled down the river and have never since appeared. It is supposed they yet exist wt-sl of the Mississippi.* Two characteristic traits of boasting happened in the first great battle above described. The Kah-Kwah women carried along, in the rear of the warriors, packs of moccasins, for the women and children, whom they expected to be made captives in the Seneca vil- lages. The Senecas, on the other hand, said, as they went out to battle, " let us not fisrht them too near for fear of the stench'' — allud- 7 D ing to the anticipated heaps of slain. [22nd August, 1845.] • We may here venture to inquire, whether the Kah-K\vah3 were not a remnant, or at least allies of the ancient Alleghans, who gave name to the river, anti thuttothe moon- tains. The French idea, that the Eries were exterminateil. is exploile.l by tJiit traJilioo of Elacksnake, at least if we concede that Erie and Kah-Kwah, were lynonymt. whkh is questionable. A people who were called Ercrions by the Wyandot*, and Kah-Kwahs by the Iroquios, may have had many other names, from other tribe*. It would eootn- diet all Indian history, if they had not as many names as there were diver** nalioat, to whom they were known. No. 24.i 181 IX. MISCELLANEOUS TRAITS. A few traits are thrown in, under this head, in the thape of anecdote*, which ir« thought to be illustrative of Indian character. [a.] Infant Atotarho of the Onondaga. While I was engasjeJ in taking the census of the Onondagas, at their council house, at the Castle, where a large number of all ages and both sexes were assembled, the interpreter, who spoke English very well, taking advantage of a pause in the business, .said to me, pointing to a fine boy who sat on a bench, near a window, " that is our king !" I had, a short time before, requested that this boy should be sent for. His mother had now, unperceived by mc, brouo'ht him, dressed out in his best clothes, and evinced, by the expression of her eyes and bearing, a conscious pride in bringing him to my notice. And truly, she had every reason to be proud of so finely formed, bright and well-looking a boy. In addition to these advantages, it is to be remembered that descent, amongst the Onondafjas and the other Iroquois, is counted by the female, which constituted a further motive of satisfaction and pride to the mother, in showing her pretty Hux-saha, or boy. She made no remark, however, on my noticing him, but sat with modesty and ease near him, but with an eye beam- ing with too much pride and self-complacence to be conceale«l. The lad was but three years old, but tall for that age, and otTeretl a fine model of form. I could not help noticing, what had often impressed me in similar instances, that the infusion of European blood, derived from his grandfather by the father's side, had served to heighten ;ind improve physical drvrlnnnuTif. ami fulness and beaut v 182 [Senate of muscle. His eyes were full, large, black and sparkling. His dark hair also was a true trait of his race. His countenance was of a bright brown, showing the blood, and rather formed on the Grecian mould, with a good nose and pretty lips. Yet, over all, there was a physiological dash of the muscular expression, hue and air of the true Ko.icshioni. There was nothing peculiar in his dress, which was of good mate- rials and well made, agreeably to the nation's fashion for boys, except it might be the lining of the under brim of a light straw hat, which the mother had carefully decorated with a piece of light figured cotton goods, looking as if it had been cut from a printed handker- chief. I did not think to ask the name of this promising young candidate for the seat and honors of the Atotarho, or chief magistracy of his nation. His father's name is Tso-ha-neeh-sa, which, according to the curious principles of naming persons, and the still more curious rules ol the Indian syntax, means a road, the receding parallel lines of which intermingle by atmospheric refraction. This, apparently to them, mysterious uniting and separating of the lines in such a vista, is the idea described by this compound term. The boy, however, inherits, or has the right of inheritance of the Atotarho, not " a king," through the mother, who was a daughter of the principal Ho-ai- ne, or chief. This daughter was married to Ezekiel Webster, an American, a New-Englander, aVermonter, I think, who either by freak, taste or fortune, wandered off among the Iroquois soon after the close of the American revolution, and finally fixed himself in the Onondaga valley, where he learned the language, established a trade in the gen- sing root, and became a man of note and influence in the tribe. He died in old age, and is buried in this valley, where he has left sons and daughters, all of whom, however, are recognized as members of the ancient Onondaga canton, or People of the Hills. \b.] Red Jacket and the Wyandot claim to supremacy. At a great council of the western tribes, assembled near Detroit, prior to the late war, the celebrated Seneca orator, Red Jacket, wts No. 24.] 183 present, when the question of the right of the Wyandots to liirht the council fire, wfs brought up. Tiiis claim he stpfnuously resist j.I, and administed a rebuke to this nation in the foJlowiriL,' terms : " Have the (iuatoghies forgotten thcraselvos ? Or do they .suppose we have forgotten them ? Who gave you tlie right in the west or east, to light the general council fire ? You must have fallen asleep, and dreamt that the Six Nations were dead ! Who permitted you to escape from the lower country ? Had you any heart left to speak a word for yourselves ? Remember how you hung on by the bushes. You had not even a place to land on. You have not yet done p \r for fear of the Konoshioni. High claim, indeed, for a tribe who had to run away from the Kadarakwa.* "As ior you, my nephews," he continued, turning to the Lcnapces, or Delawares, " it is fit you should let another light your fire. Before Miquon came, we had put out your fire and poured water on it ; it would not burn. Could you hunt or plant without our leave 1 Could you sell a foot of land 1 Did not the voice of the Long House cry, go, and you went ? Had you any power at all ? Fit act indeed for you to give in to our wandering brothers — you, from whom we took the war-club and put on petticoats.f" [c] Anecdote of Brant. When this chief was in London, he received ten pounds sterling, to be given, on his return to America, to any person or persons, among his people, whom he found to be doing most to help them- selves. On coming to the Seneca reservation on BulTalo Creek, they had just finished the church, at an expense of seventeen hundred dol- lars. He gave the money to these Indians to buy stoves to warm it, which are still used for this purpose. He said he had seen no people who were doing so much to help themselves. | • Hon. Albert H. Tracy. f For similar language to this, aiUlresscd to the Delawares, lee Colden'i Fire S*Uo for a speech of an Iroquois chief, in council, at Lancaster. X Rev. A. Wright. 184 {Senate [(!.] The County Clerk and the wolf-scalp. A Seneca hunter killed a \volf ju5t within the bounds of Cattarau- gus county, close to the Pennsylvania line, and took the scalp to Meadville, Pennsylvania, for the bounty. Being questioned where the animal was killed, he honestly told the officer that he had come across it and shot it, as near as he could tell, within the territory of I^e^r.York, very near the state and county lines. On this, the clerk told him that it would be contrary to law to pay him the bounty. " That is a bad law !" replied the red man. " Why 1" said the mao-istrate — " we cannot pay for scalps taken out of the county." " It is bad," replied the hunter, "because you require that the wolf should know the county lines. Had this wolf seen a flock of sheep just within the Pennsylvania lines, I dare say he w^ould not have stopped for the county lines." On this, the magistrate paid him the bounty of five dollars.* • N. T. Stronff, Esq. X. MORAL AND SOCIAL CONDITION AND PiiOSl'KITS. The gospel was preached to the Iroquois as well as to the several tribes of Algonquin origin, who lined the banks of the Hudson and the Delaware, early in the 17th century. The Reformed Church of Holland does not appear to have underrated its duties in this rrspect, while the Holland States, under a hereditary President or Stadlhohler, were extending their civil jurisdiction and commercial enterprise on this continent, notwithstanding the want of any tiircct evidence, that the conversion of the Indians constituted a fixed part of the policy of the servants and governors of the West Imlia Company, to whose lot it fell to introduce the arts and commerce of the mother country. It was the common impression of those times, not only in Holland, the centre of theological discussion, but in the reformed churches generally, that civilization and the arts must precede the introduction of Christianity among barbarous and idolatrous nations, and it wa« under such views, that the gospel was first carried lo India and to Iceland by the pious zeal ol the German reformers. The impulse which had been imparted to the subject through the zeal and devotion of Xavier and Loyola, and the energetic spirit of making proselytes and converts, which characterized the particular order of the Romish church, which they founded, impressed the rulers of Spain, France and Portugal, with a deep sense of the importance of carrying the gospel to the aborigines of the coun- tries which they discovered. Hence it was put forth, and really became one of the cardinal points of attention in their early at- tempts to found new colonics. And while the governors and ser- vants of these countries did not prosecute the objects of trade and [Senate, No. 24.] 24 186 [Senate politics with less determination and success, nay, with a more unscru- pulous disregard of the means, as the history of South America alone testifies, they carried missionaries in every early enterprise, and set forth to the world, the conversion of the native inhabitants as the great object of their aim, as it was indeed often the shield and cover to the reckless avarice and ambition of the Cortezes and thePizarros who carried their flags. It was not consonant to the genius of Christianity, as interpreted by Luther and his successors, to proceed in the work of spiritual con- quest w^ith so noisy and gorgeous a display, or with hand locked arm in arm with the State ; and if the States of Holland did not put forth the object, in their first charters and commissions to the new world, it was, perhaps, because the Church was actui.ted in, and was guided by, the general policy of the Protestant European churches. England and Sweden, who planted colonies here, did the same. It was not, indeed, until the new impulse which arose in the middle of the 17th century, and which brought Oliver Cromwell to the En- glish throne, that different views and a deeper obligation of national duties in this respect began to prevail. And hence, when the English pilorims. W'ho had been sheltered awhile in the tolerant domains of Holland, set their faces towards the New World, it was with a pre-determination not only to carry out the principles of the gospel, in their own settlements, but to extend its benign influences among the aborigines. This was averred, and the well known prominency of the fact stamps the efforts to convert and civilize the North Ame- rican Indians, with a moral force and grandeur, which cannot be claimed for England, in her royal capacity as administrator of patents and honors here, or for any other protestant king or potentate, who sent her poor, bold or enterprising children to the American wilds. This much can be said, without disparagement to the piety of the Netherland church, which had her pastors and teachers at Manhattan, Fort Orange, and various other incipient points of her settlements at an early day. Whatever had been her policy, (and we have paid but little attention to this,) in sending teachers among the Mohegans, the Maquaas and other tribes who resorted to her forts and factories at Albany, and other points of early contact with these simple and warlike men ; the English, after the conquest of 1664, appear to No. 24.] 1S7 have followed in her footsteps, and pursued the same general, j^radutl and persuasive means, attaching high and deserved value at all points to the influence of European arts and the value of fixed industry. Churches were founded at an early day, among the Mohawkti at Caghnawaga, and at Dionderoga at the mouth of Scliol.arii- Creek, better known as Fort Hunter, the latter of which receivt-d a present of a set of plate for the communion service, from Queen Ann. Unfortunately for the conversion and civilization of the Indians, they had not a fixed population — they drew their supplies mainly from the chase, gave^up a large portion of their time and means to war, and besides moving periodically, at least twice a year, from or to their hunting and planting grounds, they were in a general progress of recession before a civilized population. They shrank before the deter- mined spirit of progress of civilized arts and industry, which elicited resources where the Indian had seen none, and made an industrious use of every acre of tillable ground. But while the silent influence of this progressdid much to teach him, by denoting the use of tools and imple- ments of art and agriculture, to improve him in his domicil and its fixtures, and his costume, and to harmonize and fix his mental habits and character, he was not proof against the leading temptation of the times, namely, the free and inordinate use of ardent spirits. From the partial paroxysms of this pernicious indulgence, he rose with less energy to pursue the chase, or follow the war path. The policy of land sales, the distribution of presents as boons from the crown, and the distribution of small sums of coin to the heads of families in the shape of annuities. A system founded in all but the last feature, under James VI, and confirmed under the old confederation, stepped in, as it were, to aid and reinforce him in his means of living, but which in effect, held him away from his hunting grounds, paralyzed his home industry, and supplied him new means of indulging his propensities for liquor and luxuries. That the gospel should not have made a very marked progress under these circumstances, is not surprising. Some years before the breaking out of the American revolution, Mr. Kirkland planted the gospel standard among the Oncidas, at a time when the broad and sylvan fields and glades of Kun-a-\ra- loa, or Oneida Castle, were still bcyomi the pale of European rivili- 188 [Senate zation.* And he is to be regarded as the apostle to the Iroquois. For many years, in perils and dangers, he preached the gospel to the OneidaSj at their once celebrated castle ; and by the purity, firmness and excellence of his character, won the confidence and the heart of their leading sachem. Skenandoah, gave his attention to this new scheme of acceptance with his Maker, admitted it, and became a con- sistent professor and practicer of its precepts, and of him, it can be confidently said, that he lived and died in the faith. To gain the in- fluence of the most powerful man in the canton, was to gain the whole canton ; and when the war broke out, the tribe, wavering, as it did for a time, and assailed wuth all the arts of British intrigue and promise, so profusely put forth, adhered to the colonies. Kirkland, in the inception and progress of these movements, became the prin- cipal agent in disseminating the doctrines of peace and neutrality among the six cantons. Washington and the continental congress, reposed the highest trust in his virtue, judgment, and intelligence. He took from the lips of the father of his country, words of peace and good counsel, which coincided admirably, with the precepts of the gospel. He traversed the then wilderness of Genesee and Niag- ara on this mission, and has left enduring monuments of his faithful- ness and zeal. But the spirit of war prevailed — that spirit which the great body this people had so long served, under the guidance of their native priesthood. All but the Oneidas, some few of the Tuscaroras, who were then settled in their western precincts, and some one or two in- dividuals, from St. Regis, joined the ranks of the mother country, under their bold and politic leader Brant. Seven years of battles, expeditions, ambushes, and murders, terminated not only in their political overthrow as a confederacy, but plunged many of them who had before listened to the voice of Christianity, back into the arms of their native priests and forest habits. The Mohawks, part of the Cayugas, and some Onondagas and TuscaroJas, fled the couniry, and settled chiefly in Canada. The Oneidas, the body of the Onondagas and Senecas, and some parts of the Cayugas and Tusca- roras, remained. But they had fought for a phantom. All the rich promises of glory and conquest, emanating from Johnson Hall and ' Herkimer, the nearest point east, was about 40 miles distant. No. 24.J 189 fort Niagara, and the Canadas had failed ; and their delegate, came to the treaty of Fort Stan^vix in 1784, poor, crest fallen, an.l defeated. And by their first public act, after the drama of the revolution, they put their hands to a treaty, ceding away the larger portion of their ancient domain. Thus they were thrown back an immeasurable distance in the work of civilization and Christianity, and the effort to introduce the gospel was to be commenced almost anew. Time will not permit any notice in detail, of this second period in their history. Kirkland, true to his original purpose, continued his ministry and useful labors, and died in the Oneida country. The Tenerable Skenandoah followed him at some few years later, and re- quested to be buried by his side. New missions were projected and carried into effect, at distinct times, among the remaining cantons. A review of these, it is impossible to make within the period allotted to this report ; and besides, were the time ample, the data furnished to me are not in all respects complete, and in some cases wholly de- ficient. Communications have been received from the Rev. Gilbet^ Rockwood and Rev. James Cusick of Tuscarora ; from the Rev. Asher Bliss at Cattaraugus, and from Rev. William Hall at Alleghany, which are printed in the appendix, and are referred to as giving the latest and most authentic information on the progress of Christianity, letters, and morals among these respective tribes. So far as relates to the progress of this people in agriculture and the arts, the results of the census, hereto prefixed, although it denotes striking depopula- tion, afford the most definite, and at the same time, most favorable view of the remains of these cantons, which has, perhaps, ever been presented, of a whole Indian nation in America. The reluctance, which was felt in some quarters, has rendered it less complete than it might have been made. Still, with every proper abatement and qua- lification, applicable to the reservations as departmental bodies, and to the whole as a mass, there are strong encouragements to the friends of Christianity to persevere. The seeds of industry are well sown ; letters have been generally introduced, and, in some instances, they have produced men of talents and intelligence, who have taken an honorable part in the professional and practical duties of life. Very gratifying evidences exist of the adoption, on a large scale, of the 190 [Senate improved arts and conveniencies of polished life. In manners, cos- tume and address, the Iroquois people offer a high example of the capacities and ready adoptive habits of the race. It only needs a re- ference to the statistical tables mentioned, to show that they are not behindhand in implements of husbandry, vehicles, work cattle, horses and the general features of their agriculture. They are abundantly able to raise sufficient for their own consumption, and some of the communities have a surplus which is added to|the productive resources of the State. From those who have done so well, and who have shown such unequivocal capacities for improvement, we may expect more. From the tree, which has produced blossoms, we may expect fruit j and from the bearing tree which has produced good fruit,we may expect more fruit. Under all circumstances, we may regard the problem of their reclamation as fixed and certain. They have themselves solved it. And whatever an enlightened people and legislature should do to favor thern, ought not to be omitted. Churches and societies, who have granted their peculiar aids, should continue those aids ; and the heart of the philanthropist and the statesman has cause to rejoice, that after all their wars and wanderings, mistakes and besetments, the Iro- quois, made wise by experience, are destined to live. The results of the census, herewith submitted, demonstrate this. The time is indeed propitious for putting tl;ie inquiry, whether the Iroquois are not worthy to be received, under the new Constitution, as Citizens of THE State. 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C '^ L' -- tr » rt -^ C^ CO •^ O '-i l' 2C n 200 [Senate -Hln o o o RJ ett O " o x; ojs •aaisqg — noijnqijjsja; -j^ -j^ c ■1 5 CD© ed 0) w o o o o o •ajBtig 00 00 GO GO C» sis. —uoijnqujsTQ -g -fi • Tt^ "^^ '^ ^^ ^p in H • * w H o . .oo • • C 5 — 0) j3 -^ D a; 2 o . .o o • ; C£ > o • • o o • 1— i ■4 •jjJOA-AiaM CO . . o o . . c^ ) 4 ■ ' • * Cs I ili . . * •^^ ' • lO . . to •c^5 •sams p»;!un l£o • • ci to et *^ • • I— 1 . . . .^^ . . . - « = o. 1 sg,- •non -■Bindod ajBSa.iSSy ■Tt:)-<3'00'— ic^iocM CO - ~ § ° ,x CO c- ^ °2°2 -f- f • °Sr§ •siooqos •-jT*lrHC^i-l I— t * J sal ) • -^?-« lOOO— CO '^ c CO < •saqojnqg r-l rH a ** rJ ^ s_ >.fe ° a ■ ^a J5 4> • . T==> ? ^ ; I| 1 02 • tfi • V ^ £ 5 7! ^ a < 1 cj - ^ J2 bfi - 'n 'c ■5 2 'j: O 'a c^ g 5 . •;; ca • o > tal of the ai ns of the T eservation! hurchof thi ct a fcj " 5 * 7 I b 0) I C - bc-f= o v. a "a C Eh nms are the to k to the lndi:i il Alleghany K lelc, f The c .r; c ort rt p Q/J«55 "' 5 S °> o o ^ ^12 t:: >^^ c o S^=:E CC3DcOre— -O" H " i. a 9. O C H pq O O <1 H CO — ^ m2 O} CO ■^* iC CD o 00 o^ oO No. 24.] 201 DEAF AND DUMB, IDIOTS, LUN.ATICS A.Mi |;i,|\|). I could not learn that there ever was a chilil born blind amon - '' ■ Iroquois. The traditions of the people do not refer to any ins' of the kind. They believe none has occurred. Ii is ctrtain, from inquiries made on the several reservations, that no such person now exists. Yet it is a subject which, from the importance of the fact in aboriginal statistics, deserves to be further investi£r;ited. Among the Oneidas, prior to tlic removal of the principal body of this tribe to Wisconsin, there was one lunatic — a young roan who was kindly taken care of, and who accompanied them on their re- moval to the west. There is also an instance of a deaf and dumb child, among those of the tribe who remain in the State. This person, who is a female, now under 12 years of age, was recently take.n to the Onondaga reservation by her relatives, and is now at that location. There is one idiot among the Onondagas, a young man under 21 years of age. He is supported by his relatives and friends. * I also found one idiot among the Tuscaroras. My inquiries on the several reservations of the Senccas, at Tone- wanda, Buffalo, Cattaraugus and Alleghany, did not result in detect- ing a single person who was either deaf and dumb, an idiot or a lunatic. As the Senecas are seven-fold more numerous than the hio-hest in number among the other cantons, this result, if it nhould be verified by subsequent and fuller inquiries, after more tli explaining the object of the information sought for to ca , would offer a remarkable exemption from the usual laws of populm- tion. Tliere are no means of instruction for this class of persons on the reservations. The care of the three individuals above deiig- [Senate, No.24.1 26 202 [Senate nated, calls for the same disproportionate tax on time, which is else- where necessary, and the admission of these persons to the State Lu- natic Asylum, and the Deaf and Dumb Institute at New- York, free of expense, would seem to be due to them. Among the St, Regis, which is the only tribe I did not visit and take the enumeration of, it is not known whether there be any per- sons of either class. One or two additional facts may be added to the preceding statis- tics in this connection. I found three saw mills, with twenty-one gangs of saws, on the Alleo-hany reservation, and also two council houses and two public schools, constituting public property, belonging exclusively to this reservation, which were valued by the appraisers, under the treaty of 1842, at $8,219.00. On the Cattaraugus reservation, there is the church, council house and farms, connected with the schools, being the property of the In- dians and not the missionary society, which were valued together, by the same appraisers, at $3,214.50. There is on the Buffalo creek reservation, a saw mill, valued at $404.75, a church built originally at an expense of $1,700, valued at $1,200, and a council house, valued at $75 ; making a total amount of public property, including all the preceding, of $13,113.25. The total amount of private valuations on the Buffalo and Tone- wanda reservations, under the treaty of 1842, was not exactly ascer- tained, but it is about $80,000. This is entirely Seneca property and funds. Its payment to individuals, in the sums awarded, is based on their removal to Cattaraugus and Alleghany, agreeably to the terms of the compromise treaty of 1842. The Onondagas possess one saw mill, well built and in good repair, which is of some value to them, and might be rendered more so, under a proper system of management. APPENDIX (A. ) Letter from the Secretary of State to IFcmv K. Schoolcraft, &,c. Secrktarv's Okkick, } .Albany, June 'Joth, 1845. J Henry R. Schoolcraft, Esq. SIR — I have deemed it proper to appoint you to take the enumeration of the Indians residing on the following reservatioos, lo wit : The Oneida, Onondaga, Tuscarora, and the Reservntions of the Senecas, one or more in each of the counties of Allegany, Cattarau- gus and Erie, and also of the Tonewanda Indians in the county of Genesee. Your duties are summarily defined in the fifteenth section of the act of the Legislature, which authorizes me to make this appoint- ment, and to which I invite your attention. On calling at this office you will be furnished with the proper blanks to enable you to perform the duties of liie important trust committed to your hands, which will indicate with sufficient pr«•atu.n^, In dians who were not originally of the tribe or stock to which they now profess, perhaps, to belong. You will, as far as may be in \ '-y.r power, and without exciting the jealousy and distrust of the Iu.i..'.r.v endeavor to ascertain the number of their people, now living at the 204 [Senate different reservations, who are not of the original stock or tribe with whom they are now sojourning. It is important that you do not consolidate or bring into one return any more than the inhabitants of one reservation, and a sufficient number of blank returns will be furnished to enable you to accom- plish this object without any difficulty, and you can use some one of the columns which will otherwise be found useless, to denote or mark the number who derive their subsistence from the chase. It is expected that you will complete the enumeration, and file the several returns in the Secretary's office by the first day of Sep- tember next, that I may be able to prepare abstracts and copies to be submitted to the Legislature at the next session. You will no doubt experience some difficulties in the performance of the duties devolved upon you, owing to the jealousy of the Indians and the novelty of these proceedings ; this, it is believed, being the first effort of the kind ever attempted by the State. You will assure our red brethren, that, in taking this enumeration of them, and mak- ing the inquiries into their present condition and situation, the Le- gislature, the Governor of the Stale, or any of the officers, have no other objects in view but their welfare and happiness. The Indians within our Slate are under its guardian care and pro- tection, and it is a high duty that is now to be performed of sending a competent and well qualified citizen to visit them, and inquire par- ticularly into their situation. We have no connection with the go- vernment of the United States, or any land company, which prompts to these inquiries into their present social condition. You will be at liberty to extend your inquiries to the early history and antiquarian remains of the Indians m the central and western parts of the State, but it is desired that these may be as brief as the nature of these inquiries will allow. With these views of the subject I commit this important trust to your hands, confidently expecting and anticipating a very satisfac- tory result. I have the honor to be, with great respect. Your ob't ser't, N. S. BENTON, Secretary of State. P. S. Please to advise me of your acceptance, and also state when you will probably call heie to receive the blanks and commence your duties. N. S. B. [a.] Fifteenth Section of an Act relative to the Census or Enumeration of the Inhabitants of the State, passed May 7, 1845. § 15. It shall be the duty of the secretary of state to appoint suit- able persons to take the enumeration of the Indians residing on the several reservations in this state, who shall in respect to such reser- No. 24.J 205 vations perform all the duties requireii of marshals bv ihis act ; and shall also return the nuinher of arns of land ruUival'ed hv such In- tlians, and such other statistics as it may be in tlu-ir powrr'lo collect, and as the secretary of state in his instructions shall prescribe ; for which service they shall be paid out of the tr«'asury upon the warrmot of the comptroller such suitable compensation, not txctftjim,' two dollars per day, as the secretary shall certify to be just. All expeniMt incurred by the secretary of state in executint; this act shall be paid by the treasurer upon the warrant of the comptroller. [b.] Attorneys or Agents of liuiians appointed bv the State. Tribe. Attorney or Agknt. Oneiila Indians, Seneca Indians, Ononilaga Indians, . . Spencer H. S:atrord, Atfy... Ceplias R. Leland, do Wm. \V. Teall. A-^nr,. Ri-stntNcn. CofJITT. Vrrnon, | < 'nci.la Hanover ' ('iiiiitJij;';'' Nvrarin.!-, .... t ir.Ti.'.i i [c] Resen'ations Cattaraugus County: Reservation on the Allegany river, Oil Spring reservation. Erie County: Buffalo creek reservation. Part of Cattaraugus reservation. Allegany County: Part of Oil Spring reservation in this county. Genesee County: The Tonawanta reservation is prmcipally in this county. Onondaga County: Onondaga reservation. Niagara County: Tuscarora Indian reservalinn. Oneida County: Oneida reservation. 206 [Senate (B.) Extracts from a Rough Diary of Notes by the way. Such parts only of these notes and memoramlums are retaineil, 3S hnve been referred to, as original materials, of which there is some particular fact or statement, which has not been exhausted. Sometimes the note itself was chiefly of a mnemonic chai-acter, and designed to recall further particulars entrusted to the memory. MEMORANDA, NEW- YORK, JI'LY 1. ANTIQUITIES OF NEW- YORK. Localities to be examined, namely : 1. PoMPEY, Onondaga. Vestiges of a town, 500 acres. Three circular walls, or elliptical forts, 8 miles apart. These formed a triangle, enclosing the town. 2. Camillus, Onondaga. Two forts. One 3 acres on a high hill. East, a gate, west, spring 10 rods off. Shape elliptical. Ditch deep. Wall 10 feet high. Second fort, half a mile distant. Lower ground. Constructed like the other. About half as large. Shells, testaceous animals — plenty. Fragments, pottery. Pieces of brick. " Other signs" of ancient settlement, found by first settJers- [Clinton.] 3. East bank of Seneca River. Six miles south of Cross and Salt lakes. Forty miles south of Oswego. Discovered 1791, New-York Magazine, 1792 with picture writing, on a stone 5 feet by 3i, and 6 inches thick, evidently sepulchral. No. 24.] O07 Two hundred and twenty yards lengtlj. Fifty-five yards breadth. Bank and ditch entire. Two apertures middle of parallelogram, on.- towards the water, other land. Second work, half a mile south. Half-moon. Outwork. Singularity, extremities of the crescent from larger fort. Bank and ditch of both, large old trees. Pottery well burned, red, indented. East, these works traced 18 miles east of Manlius stjuare. 4. Oxford, Chenango county. East banks Chenango river. Great antiquity. North to Sandy creek, 14 miles from Sackett's Harbor, netr one w^hich covers 50 acres. Fragments of pottery. West in great numbers. 5. Onondaga Town. 6. SciPio. 7. Auburn, two forts. 8. Canandaigua, three forts. 9. Between Seneca and Cayuga lakes — several. 10. Ridgeway, Genesee : Several forts and places of burial. 11. Allen's Residence, 1788. Two miles west. Aflat. Deserted Indian village. Junction of Allen's creek with Genesee. Eight miles north of Kanawageas. Five miles north of Magic Spring. Six acres. Six gates. Ditch eight feet wide. Six feet deep. Circular on three sides. Fourth side, a high bank. A covered way, near two huridred years old. Second, half a mile south, on a greater eminence Less dimensions. 208 [Senate But deeper ditch. More lofty and commanding. 12. JOAIKA ; Twenty-six miles west of Kaneawgeas. Six miles further. Te^atainedaghgwe, or double-fortified town. A fort at each end. First about four acres. Two miles distant another. Eight acres. Ditch about first five or six feet deep. Small stream one side. Traces of six gates. Dug way to the water. Large oaks two hundred years old or more. Remains of a funeral pile — bones. Mound six feet by twenty — thirty diameter —(sixty to ninety.) 13. Path to Buffalo Creek : Heights — fortified. 14. West of Tonawanda : Still another. 15. On Branch of the Delaware : A fort one thousand years old, by trees. 16. South side of Erie : Cattaraugus creek to Pennsylvania line, fifty miles. Two to four miles apart — some half a mile. Some contain five acres. Wall and breast- works of earth. Appearance of ancient beds of creeks. [Note the geological change.] Lake Erie retired from two to five miles. 17. Further South : A chain of parallel forts. Two table grounds. Recession of lake. All these vestiges denote long periods of time, and probably differ- ent eras of occupation. Who preceded the Iroquois .'* Who prece- ded their predecessors ] Do these vestiges tell the story 1 How shall we study them ? By antiquities ; by language ; by comparison with other races of America, Asia, Africa, Europe. Albany, Ju/y oth. — Examine the site of ancient Mohawk residence in 1609, on the island and its vicinity at the mouth of Norman's Kill. Look for their ancient burial places. Bones, pieces of pottery, and other objects of art may tell something bearing on their his^tory. No. 24. J 209 Is the Oasis opposite the turnpike gate, the site of their ancifDt burial-ground 1 Is this the spot lU-nottd by their name of Taw;>^. •> tha, or is it to besought iti other phices, at the moulh, or up ihc /.. .\ of this stream ? Utica. — The Mohawk valley appears to have no monumental or other evidences of its having been occupicil hv i;i.-. s ini, r »„ ,i,o Mohawks. Vernon. — Who were the original race that first set fool in Oneida county ? When did the Oneidas come ? Where did they oriyinalc, and how 1 They are said to be the youngest of the Six NatK ns. L. Hitchcock Esq. says that he was presi-nt, when a boy, > forty years ago, when the last executions for wilclicraft amunL; ...i; Oneidas took place. The suspected persons were two females. The executioner was Hon Yost. They were dispatclied unawres, hy the tomahawk. Sachan, a strong wind, or tempest, was the (Oneida name for Col. L. S. The principal tributary to the Oneida creek which traversi-s this rich grazing town, is called alter the noted chief, (to adopt the com- mon pronunciation,) Scanado. It means a deer. The old orthogra- phy, for this word is Skenandoah. Mr. Tracy, of Utica, whose authority on this point is good, gives Tegesoken, as the Indian name of Fish creek. It means, 6■.„,„ ha,^tii,r:\be?Pircro"r.v.^S. '^ '■™'"- " "- ^" -- Adirondak, Jour.lain, pronounces Lod-a-lon-dak, pultinir I's for H. and a., h means a people who eat trees-an expL on romcally used lor those who eat bark of trees. ironicauj For Cherokees, he gives VVe-au-dah. For Delawares, Lu-na-to-sjun. What a mass of fog phiIo'l<..rists are fi^rhii„ir wiih, uho ni.^lakc, ^s the eminent Vater and Adolung have, in some cases done, the dif- ferent 7wme.. of the same tribes of American Indians for ditTeront tribes. Antique Corn Hills. Counted one hundred cortical layers in a black walnut— cwtrr broke so as to prevent countinc: the whole number, but by measurini; estimated one hundred and forty more. If so, the field was deserted in 1605. The present proprietor of the farm comprising the Oneida stone, spring, butternut grove, &c. is Job Francis. He first hired the land of Hendrick's widow ; afterwards he and Gregg were confirmed by the State. The white stone at the spring, a carbonate of lime, Is not the true Oneida stone. The Oneida stone is a syenite — a boulder. Onondaga Castle. Abraham Le Fort says, that Ondiaka was the great chroniclrr of his tribe. He had often heard him speak of the tradilion.s of bis father. On his last journey to Oneida he accompanied him. As they passed south by Jamesville and Pompey, Ondiaka told him thai in ancient times, and before they fixed down at Onondu'ja, thi v li\»'«| nl these spots. That it was before the Five Nations had confe«l«Tatcd ; but while they kept up a separate existence, and fought with i*ach other. They kept fighting and moving their villaiies ofl«n. Thi* reduced their numbers, and kept them poor and in fear. When iht-y had experienced much sickness in a place, they thought it best lo quit it and seek some new spot where it was hoped they si ' ' ' ' "cr luck. At length they confederated, and then the t re no longer necessary, and fell into disuse. This is tht- »tnm»», ht- br- lieves, of these old works, which are not of foreign origin. Ondiaka told Le Fort that the Onondagas were crratnl by Ha-wa- ne-o, in the country where they lived. That he made this cnli'r -Jl'vt [Senate " island" Ha-who-nao, for the red race, and meant it for them alone. He did net allude to, or acknowledge any migrations from foreign lands. Their plan, after the confederation was to adopt prisoners and captives, that fragments of tribes who were paited amongst them and thus lost. They used the term We-hait-wa-tsha^ in a figurative sense, in relation to such tribes. This term means a body cut and quartered and scattered around. So they aimed to scatter their prisoners among the other nations. There is still blood of the Cherokees in Onondaga. A boy of this nation became a chief among the Cherokees. I called Le Fort's attention to the residence of the Moravian mission- ary, Zceiaberger. He said there was no tradition of such residence — that the oldest men remembered no such mission ; that they were ever strongly opposed to all missionaries after the expulsion of the Jesuits,. and he felt confident no such person, or any person in the character of a preacher^ had lived at Onondaga Castle ; that there must be some mistake in the matter. O.voNDAGA. [Jackson's.] Ondiaka told Le Fort that the Onondagas formerly wandered' about, without being long fixed at a place, frequently changing their villagfs from slight causes, such as sickness, &c. They were at war with the other Iroquois bands. They were also at war with other tribes. Hence forts were necessary, but after they confederated, such defensive works fell into disuse. They lived in the present areas of De Witt, Lafayette, Pompey and Manlius, along Butternut creek, &c.. Here the French visited them, and built a fort, after their confedera- tion. Ephraim Webster slated that the Indians were never as numerous as appearances led men to think. This appearance of a heavy popu- lation happened from their frequent removals, leaving their old vil- lages, which soon assumed the appearance of ancient populous set- tlements. He told Jas. Gould, that being once on a visit to Canada, he became acquainted with a very aged Indian, who, one day, beginning to talk of the Onondaga country, told him that he was born near the ok! church, near Jamesville, where there was a very populous village. One evening, he said, he stepped out of his lodge, and immediately sank in the earth, and found himself in a large room, surrounded by three hundred witches and wizzards. Next morning he went to the council, and told the chiefs of this extraordinary fact. They asked him whether he could not identify them. He said he could. They then accompanied him on a visit to all the lodges, when he pointed out this and that one, who were immediately killed. Before this in- quiry ended, and the delusion was stayed, he says that three hundred persons were killed. No. 24.] 213 Notliing is more distinct or bi-tter settled in the existine tr • f the Iroquois, than their wars witii the Cherokees. I fi.und \: i to at Oneida, Ononda-^^a, &c , in tlie loi.rse of their tradm(.n«,bui have not been able to trace a cause for the war. Thi-y wioicl to have been deeply and mutually exasperated by perfidy and horrid treachery in the course of these wars, sucii as the bri;i\ ' e pledge, and murder of deputies, cSce. Their preal 4 soon as young men grew up, In go war atjainst the CI, , long journey was performed without provisions, or lu: . .i. ration than bows, clubs, spears and arrows. Tiuy'rchtd on iht forest for food. Thousands of miles were not suiruicnt to dampen their ardor, and no lime could blot out their hatred. The Om idaa call them We ait dak. Jeremiah Gould went with nu- to view tive twin mounds. Tlicy exhibit numerous pits or holes, which made me at on<-e think of the Assenjigun, or hiding pit of the western Indians, (iouhl, in answer to my inquiry, said that it was a tradition which he did not know how much value it was worth, that the Tusearoras were brouu'ht from the south by the Oneidas, and first settled in this county. They warred against the Onondagas. The latter, to save their corn, buried it in these mounds or hills, then hid by the forest. In one of these exca- tions, dug into forty years a<20, they found a human skull and other bones belonging to the human frame. James Gould w^ent with me over the stream (Butternut) to show me a mound. It is apparently of geological formation, and not arti- ficial. Its sides were covered with larire trees, the stumps of which remain. There was a level space at the top, some four or five paces in diameter, trees and bushes around. The apex, as paced, measures one way 17, the other 12 paces ; is elontjateil. It seemed to have been the site of the prophet's lodge. Near it is the old burying ground, on an elongated ridge, where the graves were ranged in lines. Pottery. — Webster gives the Indian tradition of this ancient art thus. The women made the kettles. They took clay and tempered it with some siliceous or coarse stone. This they first burnt tho- roughly, so as to make it friable, (probably they plunired it while hoi into water,) and then pounded it, and mixed it with blood. Charred corn, Sfc. — In Ellisburgh is found much charred corn ?).•- neath the soil, and numerous remains of occupancy by the n Is this the evidence of Col. Van Schaack's expedition into the ( >r,. n- daga countrv during the revolutionary war I His battle wnh the Indians, tradition here says, took place near Syracuse. I', posed to be of this era, were discovered, in ditching the .s\^ Cortland House. 214 [Senate Kasonda. Mr. I. Keeler says that he cut a large oak tree, near the site of the old fort, two and a half feet through. In re-cutting it, at his door, a bullet was found, covered by 143 cortical layers. It was still some distance to the centre. If this tree was cut in 1810, the bullet was fired in 1667. Consult " Paris Documents," 1666, treaty with the Onondaga Iroquois. The Goulds say that the fort was a square, with bastions, and had streets within it. It was set round with cedar pickets, which had been burnt down to the ground. Stumps of them were found by the plough. Nearly every article [belonging to the iron tools of a blacksmith shop have been ploughed up at various times — an anvil, horn, vice screw, &c. ; Indian axes, a horse shoe, hinges, the strap hinge. A pair of these hangs the wicket gate to his house. A radius of five to six miles around the old fort would cover all the striking remains of ancient occupancy in the towns of De Witt, Lafayette and Pompey. Webster told the Goulds that the French w^ho occupied this fort, and had the nucleus of a colony around it, excited the jealousy and ire of the Onondagas by the hostility of some western tribes in their influence. Against these the Onondaga warriors marched. The French then attacked the red men, &c. This led to their expulsion and massacre. All were killed but a priest who lived between the present towns of Salina and Liverpool. He refused to quit peaceably. They then put a chain around a ploughshare, and heating it, hung it about his neck ; he was thus, with the symbol of agriculture, tortured to death. His hut was standing when the county w^as settled. The attempt to settle western New-York by the French was in the age of chivalry, (the 16th century,) and was truly Quixotic. Tradition. Pompey and its precincts were regarded by the Indians as the o-round of blood, and it brought up to their minds many dark remi- niscences, as they passed it. Some twenty years ago, there lived an aged Onondaga, who said that many moons before his father's days, there came a party of white men from the east in search of silver. From the heights of the Onondaga hills, they descried the white foam of Onondaga lake, and this was all the semblance they ever found of sil- ver. One of the men died, anti was buried on Pompey hill, ami his grave was marked by a stom.* The others built a fort on the noted ground, about a mile east of Jamesville, where they cultivated the land; but at length the Indiana came in the night, and put them all to death. But there was a fearful and bloody strife, in which the Indians fell like leaves before the autumn wind. This spot is the field of blood. L. Birdseye. Aurora : August. See Rev. Mr. Mattoon. Vestiges of the Cayugas — villages — orchards — old forts. Get a vocabulary of their language from Canada. Get diagram of forts. • Query. — Is not this the inscription stone now deposited in the Albany Academy ? No. 24.J 215 F,sh Carrier\s Reserve at the hrid^re. Four miles s<,uare Kec Jacket born on the opposite banks of.the lake ai Canotm Historical reminiscences of Mr. Burnham. Letter siatuK' ihc hr,, settlements on the Military Tract at Aurora ^ '"^^ Address before the G. O. I. Folly of keepinjr the nociotv ^m r.-t Horticultural meetinj;;. Dr. Thompson. Mr. Thomas ' Anniversary of Academy. .Salem Town. Intelligence, moral tone, hospitality of the place. Cars at Cayuga bridge. Logan was the son of a Cayuga. Did the Cayugas conquer the Tuteh.s of Virgini:i, an remnant 1 ' r Cayugas scattered amono- the Senccas, in Canada and west of the Mississippi. How many left ? What annuities. Geneva : Ancient site of the Senecas. Origin of the word Se- neca. Is it Indian or not Indian ] Examine old forts said to exist in this area. Are there any vt-sfigeii of Indian occupancy at the " Old Castle"— at Cashong— Painted Post — Catherinestown — Appletown ? Canandaigua : In visiting Fort-hill on the lake, see what vest i^jc*. Another site bearing this name, exists to the north of Hlossom's. What antiquities '? What traditions ? Ask ohl residents. Knquire of Senecas west. Rochester : Nothing left here of the footprints of the race — all covered deep and high with brick and stone. Whole valley of the Genesee worthy examination, in all its length and branches. Wanit the means of an antiquarian society to do this. Tiuly the Iroquois hare had visited upon them the fate with which they visited others. They destroyed and scattered, and have, in turn, been destroyed and scattered. But their crime was the least. They destroyed as heathens^ but icc as christians. In any view, the anti- quarian interest is the same — the moral interest, the same. The Iroquois had nohle hearts. They sighed tor fame. They took hold of the tomahawk as the only mode of distinction. They hr( ueht up their young men to the war dance. They carefully t. :i the arts of war. We have other avenues to liisiinction. I v direct their manly energies to other channels. The hand " :i bow, can be taught to guide a plough. Civilization has i I attractions. The hunter state had but one. The same skill ooce devoted to war would enable them to shine in the arts of peace. Why can not their bright men be made sachems of the pen, of the press, ot the pulpit, of the lyre \ Batavia, July. — There are still traces of a mound on K '« farm, a mile from Batavia, up the Tonewanda. Bones >•* beads, have been ploughed out of it. Other trace* of former ab 216 [Senate nal occupancy exist in the vicinity, a stone pestle, axes, &c. having been found. The Indian name of Batavia is Ge-ne-un-dah-sais-ka, meaning musquito. This was the name by which they knew the late Mr. Ellicott. The Tonewanda falls 40 feet at a single place, within the Indian reservation. It heads on high ground about 40 miles above Batavia. On the theory of the former elevation of lake Erie, Buffalo itself would be the highest ground, between Batavia and the lake, in a direct line. Attica, is perhaps more elevated in that direction. Tonewanda Res. [Winsor & Richards.] NAME OF SENEGAS. The Senecas call themselves Nun-do-waw-gaw, or people of the hill. The terra Seneca is taken from the lake, on the banks of which they formerly lived, and had their castle. It is not a name of Indian origin. They are called Nun-do-waw-gaw, from the eminence called Fort-Hill, near Canandaguia lake. [Ho-ho-ee-yuh, or J. A. Sanford. | Cherokees. They call the Cherokees 0-yau-dah, which means a people who live in caves. Their enmity against this people, the tradition of which is so strong and clear, is stated to have originated from the con- tact of war and hunting parties, in the plains of the southwest. The Senecas affirm that the Cherokees robbed and plundered a Seneca party and took away their skins. Retaliation ensued. Tragic scenes of treachery and surprise followed. The Five Nations took up the matter in all their strength, and raised large and strong war parties, who marched through the country to the Cherokee borders, and fought and plumlered the vilages, and brought away scalps and prisoners. There are now, (1845) descendants of Cherokees in the third degree, living on the Tonewanda reservation. [Ho-bo-ee-yuh.J Some years ago, a chief of this blood, pure by father and mother, lived among them, who had been carried off cap- tive when a boy. The fact being revealed to him, after he had obtained the chieftaincy, he went south to seek his relations and live and die among them, but he was unable to find them. He came back to the Senecas, and died among them. [Le Fort. J Tonewanda. The most curious trait, of Avhich we know but little, is that respect- ing TOTEIMS. Asked the chief called Blacksmith, his name in Seneca. He re- plied, De-o-ne-hoh-gah-wah, that is, a door perforated, or violently broken through, not opened. Says he was born on the Tonewonda No. 24.] 217 reservation, and wishes to die there ; will he CO vear^ r.ld if 1,.. r,r- till next winter, 1846. Says the Senecas call the Fort Stanwix or Rom. ^. ...,....>. |.<.-o- wain-sta, meaning (he place where canoes are carried airovs \\tv land from stream to stream ; that is, a rarryinc: place. Says, Tc-to-yoah, or VVm. Jones of'('aitaraui,nis, ciin relate vn!u»- ble Seneca traditions. He says there are eic:ht Seneca clans ; thcv are thr Wf.lf, liv^r Turtle, Deer, Plover, Beaver, Hawk and ('ran.-. "lie is of the Wolf clan' This was also Red Jucket's clan. These clans may be supposed to have arisen from persons who had greatly distinguished themselves at an early period as tounders or bene- factors, or they may have held some su( h relation to the' original nation, as the Curatii antl Horatii, in Roman hisiory. It ts noi only the Iroquois, who ascribed this lionor to the clans of the Bear, tl4 Turtle and the Wolf. They are equally honored among most of the Algonquin tribes. OSTEOLOGICAL RcMAINS. In the town of Cambria, six miles west of Lockport, (lS24,)a Mr. Hammon, who was employed with his boy in hoemg corn, observeil some bones of a child, exhumed. No farther thoucrht was bestowe.. 1 ,5 11 Paspatank, 1^ Poteskeeis of Carrituk, 30 Nottoways, 30 Connamox, in 2 towns, 25 Jaupim, ♦•• 2 1,608 Visited James Cusick, the brother of Datid, the Indian archsolo- e;ist, preacher to the Tusks, pictures in the house, old deeds frora Carolina. Sunday. Attended Mr. Rock-t^'ood's meeting, admirable bcbavior cf all, dress well, good singing. W. Chew interprets. Females, however, adhere to their ancient costume. Women more pertinacious in their social habits and customs than men. Tuscaroras raise much wheat, cattle, horses, quite :n advance of the other tribes in agiiculture. They own the fee simple of about 5,000 acres, besides their reser- vation, which they purchased from the Holland Company. Niagara F/.lls. This name is Moliawk. It means, according to Mrs. Kerr, the Neck, the term being first applietl to the portage, or ntck of land, between lakes Erie f.nd Ontario. BuFTALO. Whence this name ? The Indian term is Tt-ho-so-ro-ro in Mo- hrwk, and De-o-se-o-\va in Seneca. Ellicott writes it Tu-she-way. Others, in other forms. In all, it is admitled to mean the place of the linden, or bass-wood tree. There is an old story of buffaloes being killed here. Some say a horse was killed by hungry Freyichmen., and palmed off for butlalo meat at the camp. How came a horse here ? A curious bone needle was dug up this year, in some excavations made in Fort Niagara, which is, clearly, of the age prior to the dis- covery. Bones and relics must stand for the chronology of American anti- quity. America is the tomb of the red man. All the interest of its anti- Columbian history, arises from this fact. Eries. By Father Le Moyne's letter of 1653, [vide Kelacions,] the wnr with the nation of the Cat or Eries was then newly broke out. He thanks the Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugasand Oneidas, for their union in this war. 221 ( Senate On the 9th August, 1G53, we heard a dismal shout, amonif the Iroquois, caused by the news, that three of their men haJ hctn ktlltd by the Eries. He condoles with the Seneca nation, on the capture of their pmt chief, Au-REN-cRA-os, by tliL- Krits. He exhorts them to strengthen their " defences'' or forts, to paint their warriors for battle, to be united in council. He required them never to lay in ambush for the Alennquin or Huron nations, who might be on their way to visit the Kn-Mih. We learn, from this, that the Eries or ('at nation, wi-n- • Wyandot or Huron, nor of the Algoncjuin nations. It v :;, that these Eries were not friends of thi' French, and that by rxnung them to this new war, they were shirlding their fri«-nds, the Aleoni and Hurons, from the Iroquois club and scalpincj knite. That they were the same people calleil tlie " Neuter Nation," who occupinl the banks of the Niagara, there is but little reason to belirve. The Senecas called them Gawgwa or Kah-Kwah. Cusick states that the SenecrS foutjht a»i their traditions of all sorts. Can't separate fiction from fact. They 222 [Senate must go together ; for often, if the fiction or allegory be pulled up, the fact has no roots to sustain itself. Kah-Kwahs, Eries, Alleghans, — who were they 1 Mr. Wright showed me an ancient triturating stone of the Indians, in the circular depressions of which they reduced the siliceous mate- rial of their ancient pottery. The Seneca language has a masculine, feminine and neater gender. It has also an animate and inanimate gender, making five genders. It has a general and dual plural. It abounds in compound descriptive and derivative terms, like the Algonquin. They count by the decimal mode. There are names for the digits to ten. Twenty is a compound of two and ten, and thirty of three and ten, &c. The comparison of adjectives is effected by prefixes, not by inflec- tions, or by changes of the words, as in English. Nouns have adjective inflections as in the Algonquin. Thus o-a- dek is a road, o-a-i-yu a good road. The inflection, in this last word, is from wi-yu, good. Irving, Cattaraugus Creek. It is a maxim with the Iroquois, that a chief's skin should be thicker than that of the thorn locust, that it may not be penetrated by the thorns. Indian speakers never impugn each other's motives when speaking in public council. In this, they off'er an example. Mr. Strong says. Silversmith of Onondaga, has the tradition of the war with the Eries. Indians in Canada. It is observed by a report of the Canadian Parliament, that the number of Indians now in Canada is 12,000. Of these, 3,301 are resiiiing in Lower Canada, and the remainder 8,862, in Canada West. The number of Indians is stated to be on the increase, partly from the access of births over the deaths, and partly from a numerous immigra- tion of tribes from the United States. This report must be taken with allowances. It is, at best, but an estimate, and in this respect, the Canadians, like ourselves, are apt to over estimate. The Indian is a man who has certainly some fine points of charac- ter ; one would think a man of genius could turn him to account. Why then are Indian tales and poems failures ? They fail in exciting deep sympathy. We do not feel that he has a heart. The Indian must be humanized before he can be loved. This is the defect in the attempts of poets and novelists. They do not show the reader that the red man has a feeling, sympathising heart, and feel- ing and sympathies like his own, and consequently he is not interested in the tale. It is a tale of a statue, cold, exact, stiff, but without life. No. 24.J 223 It is not a man with man's ordinary loves and hopfs ,»nd bate* Hence the failure of our Ya7noydens, and Ontwr.s, and Ktccilas miu\ a dozen of poems, %vhicl., although having merits, slumber in .y'pe »nd sheepskin, on the bookseller's shelf. *^ HORTS' CORNKUS, CaTT. One seems here, as if he had suddenly been pitched into iome o( the deep gorges of the Alps, surrounded' with cliffs and rocks and woods, in all imaginable Nvildness. Cold spring, Allegany Rivta. [Sep. 3. J Reached the Indian village on the reservation at this place, at 9 clock in the morning. Indians call the place Te o-ni-gon-o, or De-o-ni-gon-o, which means Cold Spring. Locality of the farmer employed by Quakers, at the mouth of a creek, called Tunasassa ; means a clear stream with a pibbly bid. Allegany river they call Oheo, making no difference between it, and the stream after the inlet of the Monongahela. Gov. Blacksnake absent ; other chiefs, with his son Jacob meet ia council ; business adjusted with readiness. Allegany river low ; very different in its volume of water and appearance from what it was 27 years before, when I descended it, on my way to the West. Lumbering region ; banks lined with shingles, boards, saw logs. Indians act as guides and lumbermen. Not a favorable location for the improvement of the Senecas. Steal their timber ; cheat tiiem in bargains ; sell whiskcv lo thtm. Had the imaginative Greeks lived in AlUgany county, tht-y wculd have pictured the Genesee and Allegany rivers, as two git Is, who having shaken hands, parted, the one to skip and leap and run east- ward to find the St. Lawrence, and the other to laugh through the Ohio valley, until she gradually melted into the ocean in the gulf of Mexico. Napoli Centre. The counties of Cattaraugus, Chautauque and Allegany, and part of Wyoming and Steuben, constitute a kind of Switzerland. The surface of the country resembles a piece of rumpled calico, full of knobs and ridges and vallies, in all possible shapes and directions. It is on the aver- age elevated. Innkeepers and farmers encountered on two trips orrr it, say that there is considerably more moisture in the shape of rain and dews and fogs, than in the Genesee country. It is less valuable for wheat, but good for corn, grass, and raising stock. Nothing can be more picturesque. The hills are often cultivated to their very t<.p<. It is healthy. Such a region is a treasure in a State so level and placid as much of western New- York ; and liad it the means of ready iccm to markets, and to the Atlantic, it would, in a few years, be spot- 224 [Senate ted -with o-entlemens seats from the seaboard. There are some remark- able examples of the east and west, and north and south fissures of rocks (a trait also noted at Anburn,) in these counties. At one place, the fissures are so wide, and the blocks of rock between so large, that the spot is sometimes called city or rocks. The rock here is con- jrlomerate, i. e. the bed of the coal formation ; a fact which denotes the elevation of the country. It is to be hoped, when this country is further subdivided into counties and towns, that some of the charac- teristic and descriptive names of the aborigines will be retained. LoDI. This bright, busy, thriving place, is a curiosity from the fact, that the Cattaraugus creek, (a river it should be called) splits in exactly, or nearly so, in two parts, the one being in Erie, the other in Catta- raugus. Efforts to get a new county, and a county seat, have here- tofore been made. These conflict with similar efforts, to have a coun- ty seat located at Irving, at the mouth of the creek. Irving, Mouth of Cattaraugus. This is a fine natural harbor and port of refuge. Its neglect appears strange, bui it is to be attributed to the influence of capitalists at Silver-Creek, Dunkirk, Barcelona, &c. Eighteen-Mile Creek. Here are vestiges of the Indians old forts, town sites, &c. Time and scrutiny are alone necessary to bring out its antiquities. Buffalo. The Chiefs Capt. Cole. — The noted Onondaga Chief, Capt. Cole, died at his resi(!ence, among his people, a few days since, aged about seventy-five years. This Indian was well known here, having, for many years, made his home upon the reservation adjoining the city. He took tile field, in defence of the country, during the last war, under the late Gen. Porter, who was often heard to speak of his bravery and usefulness, in the various battles along the Niagara frontier. Cole was of the " old school" of his race — a primitive, unadul- terated Indian, equally uncontaminated in mind as in habits, by inter- course with the whites. Probity and justice were the leading fea- tures of his character ; and to direct these he had an intellect which won for him a high control and extended influence among his tribe. Some years since Cole v.^as selected by our townsman, young WiLGUS, as the finest specimen he had ever met, of the race to which he belonged ; and he immediately took means to secure him as a sitter. The result was the half length portrait of the Chief which WiLGLS executed, and which has been so often seen and admired alike by our citizens and by strangers. An incident connected with the history of this piece, seems appro- priate here, as illustrative of its excellence. When Wilgus lett for No. 24. J 0^5 Porto Rico, where he now is, he look the portrait of Cole with him. It \yas seen, upon that island, hy a gentleman fiora Aiustt-r.lara, who declared it the first piece he had seen which gave him ihc sUKhtnH ideas of the peculiar characteristics of the Indian ran- ; and hr br- carae so interested in the picture that he asked an.l ol.iaim-d prrroi*- sion to take it with liim, to Kurope, for the inspt-cHon of hm frirmli. The piece was, by him, carried to Amsterdam, where the admirattoo of it was universal, and where il would have been relamrd, at ■Imott any price, had it been for sale. Hut it was not : the RentU-roan had promised to return the painting safe to BulTalo ; and he has don* w, it having arrived here this spring; and it now stands, uno»trnla- tiously enough, in the bookstore of the artist's father, upon Main- street. IJAr.w lA. The Tonewandas at length consent to have their census taken. Al Ul KN. '7 Go with Mr. Goodwin to visit Oswaco lake — Gov. Tliroop's place — OM Dutch (Hiurch overlooking the lake, &.c. Fort-Hill. — Extensive vestiges of an elliptical work — Curious rec- tangular iisurcs of the limestone rock on the Owasco oullet — notlh an(l south. The Indian name of the place, as told by an Onondai^a chief — Osco ; first called Hardenburgh's Corners, finally ti e- kanifora, Ontiyaka, and their kindred, who made the | '«. Onondaga would have been afar better appellation. 'lh» In-iian* called the lake and its basin of country together Gan-nn-dt-a. Salt Point, or the Saline, sounded to rae as if, abating syllibanls, it mighl be written Ka-ji-ka-do. Utica. There was a ford in the Mohawk here. It was the site nf Fort Schuyler— a fort named after Major Schuyler, a roan of note : tary prowess in the olden time, long before the daysof Generu. I -• ,- [Senate, No. 24. [ 29 226 [Senatk Schuyler. Some philological goose, writing from the Canadas, makes Utica an Indian name ! Mouth or the Norman's Kill, ok Tawasentha, Albany. Mr. Brayton says, that in digging the turnpike road, in ascending Kiddenhook hill, on the road to Bethlehem, many human bones, sup- posed to be Indian, were found. They were so numerous that they were put in a box and buried. This ancient burial ground, which I visited, was at a spot where the soil is light and sandy. On the hill, above his house, is a level field, where arrow-heads have been found in large numbers. Mr. B., who has lived here sixteen years, does not know that the isolated high ground, east of the turnpike gate, contains ancient bones — has not examined it with that view. Says Mr. Russell, in the neighborhood, has lived there fifty years, and will ask him. Nothin"- could be more likely, than that this oasis on the low land should have served as the cemetery for the Mohawks, who inhabited the island, where the Dutch first landed and built a fort in 1614, The occupancy of this island by the Indians could never have been any thing but a summer residence^ for it is subject to be inundated every year by the breaking up of the river. This was probably the cause why the Dutch almosl immediately abandoned it, and went a little higher, to the main land, where Albany now stands. The city^ however, such are the present signs of its wealth and progress, has extended down quite half way to the parallel of the original site of " Het Casteel" under Christians, and should these signs continue, within twenty years South Pearl-street will present lines of compaci dwellinfs and stores to the bridge over the Tawasentha, and Kidden- hook be adorned with country seats. New- York. Whatever else can be done for the red race, it is yet my opinion? that nothing would be as permanently beneficial, in their exaltation and preservation, as their admission to the rights and immunities of citizens. Indian Election. At a council of the Six Nations of Indians, held upon th:^ Tona- wanda Reservation, on Wednesday, Oct. 1st, there were present the Mohawks, Onondagas and Senecas, confederate brothers on the one part, and the Oneidas, Cayugas and Tuscaroras, brothers on the other part. The Masters of the grand ceremonies were Deatgahdos, Hahsant (Onondagas) and Oahgwashah, (Cayuga.) The speakers were Hahsauthat, (Onondaga,) Shosheowaah, (Seneca,) and Oaghwashah, (Cayuga.) After the grand ceremonies were performed, the folllowing were appointed Grand Sachems, Sachems and Chiefs. No. 24. J 227 Desha-£To-gaah-neh was appointed Grand Sachem, in place of 0»- noh-gaith-(la-\vili, (Urcased. Ga-noh-la-dah-laoh was appointed Grand Sachem, in pUceof Oah- no-gaih, deceased. Deyawa-dah-oh was appoinlt-d Grand Sachem in place of Ganyo- daiyuh, deposed. The above arc Seneca Indians. Of tlie Ononil.igns — ()-jili-ja-»lo-|xah was a|)j),.ii in place of Ilononiwcdoh,) Col. Silversmilli, an <' j,.. ..-.„c„; among the Senecas) deposed. So-dyc-a-dolik was ;'ppointed Chief of the Onondagas, in pUc« of Sha-go-ga-eh, (Button George,) deposed. Deyiishahk(hi was appointed Sachem of the Tn Ga-yah-jili-go-wa was appointed a Chief as runnn hahkdc— J5u/r. Pilot. W Sketches of an Indian Council. A grand council of the confedcratp Irocpinis was h«-ld h-\si week, at the Indian Council House on tlie Tonawanda Htscrvation, in the county of Genesee. Its f rocecdings occupied three days — ciosiof; on the 3d instant. It embraced representatives from all tl • " ^ tions — the i\Iohawk, the Onondnga, the Seneca ; .ind the O Cayuga and the Tuscarora. It is the only one of the km.i ui... ii has been held for a number of years, and is, probably, the la*t which will ever be assembled with a full repri^sentation of all the coofede- rate nations. With the expectation that the council wouUI commcoce on Tues- day, two or three of us had left Rochester so as to arrive at t! ' cil House Monday evening ; but owing to some unsettled \ ries, it had been postjioned till Wednesday. The I abroad, however, had arrived at the Council Grounds, < meiliate vicinity, on Monday ; and one of the most in'.' tacles of the occasion, was the entry of the difTerenl nat domain and hospitality of the Senecas, on whose grou; was to be held. The representation of Mohawk^. did, from Canada, was necessarily small. The ()r< acting To(l-o-dah-hoh of the confederacy, and hi.s Ia made an exceedingly creditable aj)pearance. Nor w;i- Tuscaroras, in point of numbers at least, deficient in atiracUvr and imposing features. Monday evening we called upon and were presented to Blacksmilb, the most influential and authoritative of the S. ■ ' H ' about 60 years old — is somewhat portly, is ••. ners, and is well disposed and even kind;\ him that they have no sinister designs in > Jemmy Johnson is the Great High Priest oi the roi. Though now 69 years old, he is yet an erect, fme looking, ..... getic Indian, and is both hospitable and intelligent. He U in 228 [Senate slon of the medal presented by Washington to Red Jacket in 1792, which, among other things of interest, he showed us. It w^oukl be incompatible with the present purpose to describe ail the interesting men who there assembled, among whom were Capt. Frost, Messrs. Le Fort, Hill, John Jacket, Dr. Wilson and others. We spent most of Tuesday, and indeed much of the time during the other days of the week in conversation with the chiefs and most intel- ligent Indians of the different nations, and gleaned from them much information of the highest interest in relation to the organization, government and laws, religion, customs of the people, and character- istics of the great men, of the old and once powerful confederacy. It is a singular fact, that the peculiar government and national cha- racteristics of the Iroquois is a most interesting field for research and inquiry, which has never been very thoroughly, if at all, investiga- ted, although the historic events which marked the proud career of the confederacy, have been perseveringly sought and treasured up in the writings of Stone, Schoolcraft, Hosmer, Yates and others. Many of the Indians speak English readily ; but with the aid and interpretations of Mr. Ely S. Parker, a young Seneca of no ordinary degree of attainment, in both scholarship and general intelligence, and who, with Le Fort, the Onondaga, is well versed in old Iroquois matters, we had no difficulty in conversing with any and all we chose to. About mid-day on Wednesday, the council commenced. The ceremonies with which it was opened and conducted were certainly unique — almost indescribable ; and as its proceedings were in the Seneca tongue, they were in a great measure unintelligible, and in fact profoundly mysterious to the pale faces. One of the chief objects for which the council had been convoked, as has been heretofore edi- torially stated iji the American, was to fill two vacancies in the sa- chemships of the Senecas, which had been made by the death of the former incumbents ; and preceding the installation of the candidates for the succession, there was a general and dolorous lament for the deceased sachems, the utterance of which, together with the repeti- tion of the laws of the confederacy — the installation of the new sachems — the hnpeachment and deposition of three unfaithful sa- chems — the elevation of others in their stead, and the performance of the various ceremonies attendant upon these proceedings, consumed the principal part of the afternoon. At the setting of the sun, a bountiful repast, consisting of an innu- merable number of rather formidable looking chunks of boiled fresh beef, and an abundance of bread and succotash, was brought into the council house. The manner of saying grace on this occasion was indeed peculiar. A kettle being brought, hot and smoking from the fire, and placed in the centre of the council house, there proceeded from a single person, in a high shrill key, a prolonged and monoto- nous sound, resembling that of the syllable ivah or yah. This was immediately followed by a response from the whole multitude, utter- ing in a low and profoundly guttural but protracted tone, the syllable whe or swc^ and this concluded grace. It was impossible not to be No. 24.J 229 somewhat mirthfully affected at the f.rst hearini^ of prace wid in thi. novel manner. It is, however, pleasurable to rc-flrct that the Indian an in iu)ine on recognizes the duty of renderinir thanks to the Div.ne Kcintr tormal way, for the bounties and enjoyments which IK- ' i were an Indian to attend a public feast amoni,' his pale ! he would be affected, perhaps to a greater de^rree of marwi .t wit- nessing a total neglect of this ceremony, than we were at hi^'»,ni:ul*r way oi performing it. After supper, commenced tlie dances. All day Tmsdav and Wednesday, up to the time that the places of the deit-a^ocVwrhc had been filled, every thing like undue joyfulnrss had b. This was required by the respect customarily due to tl.. ; dead. But now, the bereaved sachemships being airain to give utterance to gladness and joy. A short spe. . Frost, introductory to the enjoyments of the evening, was r.-rnvcd with acclamatory approbation ; and soon eighty or ninety of ihr*c sons and daughters of the forest— the old men and the yountj, the maidens and matrons — were engaged in the dance. It was indeed a rare sight. Only two varieties of dancing were introduced the first rvcninjj the trotting dance and the fish dance. The figures of either are ex- ceedingly simple, and but slisjlitly ditferent from each other. In the first named, the dancers all move roui.d a circle, in a single file, and keeping time in a sort of trotting step to an Indian song of yoho-ha, or yo-ho-ha-ha-ho, as sung by the leaders, or occa.sional' '. " joined. In the other, there is the same movement in si: i a circle, but every two persons, a man and a woman, <.r iwu imn, face each other, the one moving forward, the other backward, and all keeping step to the music of the singers, who are now, howerer, aided by a couple of tortoise or turtle shell rattles, or an aboriginal drum. At regular intervals, there is a sort of cadence in the music, during which a change of position by all the couples takes ;>' . . one who had been moving backward taking the place of the ing forward, when all again move onward, one-half of the whulr, of course, being obliged to fo.low on by advancing backwards ! One peculiarity in Indian dancing would probably strongly com- mend itself to that class among pale faced beaux and belles denomi- nated the bashful ; though perhaps it would not suit others as well. The men, or a number of them, usually begin the dance alone ; and the women, or each of them, selecting the one witii whori". «^i«- \*..iild like to dance, presents herself at his side as he appr. ! la immediately received into the circle. Consequently, t; • ^ In- dian beau knows nothing of the tact required to hand.soraely inrite and gallantly lead a lady to the dance; and the young Indian '-". unannoyed by obnoxious offers, at her own convenience, i; presents her personage to the one she designs to favor, and ir.js -, .;• etlv enga frolicsomeness in the youn<^. The social dances of the evening — with occasional sp< < . !.. s from the Sachems and Chiefs, were the final and concluding h of this singular but interesting affair. Saturday morning \'>.\..> -■ .i the separation of the various nations, and the departure of «uch to th«*»r respective homes. The writer would like to have said a word or two In relsti^n f^fh^ present condition and prospects of the Indians, but • in regard to both the topics and brevity of this wri' ^ ^ already greatly transcended, it must be deferred. The once powerful 232 confederacy of the Six Nations, occupying in its palmy days the greater portion of New-York State, now number only a little over 3,000.* Even this remnant will soon be gone. In view of this, as well as of the known fact that the Indian race is every where gradually dimin- ishing in number, the writer cannot close without invoking for this unfortunate people, renewed kindliness and sympathy and benevoleat attention. It is true, that with some few exceptions, they possess habits and characteristics which render them difficult to approach ; but still, they are only what the Creator of us all has made them. And, let it be remembered, it must be a large measure of kindliness and benevolence, that will repay the injustice and wrong that have been inflicted upon them. R. S. G. Rochester^ Oct. 7, 1845. • 3,753, vide preceding census. No. 24.J 233 (C. ) Letter from J. V. IL Clark to Henry K, S.hoolrrafL _. _ ^ Manlius, Oct. CM, 1846. H. R, Schoolcraft, Esq., Dear Sir — Agreeable to your request I have brcn upon the grounds in our vicinity once cccupied as forts ami placi-» of drfrnce. So devastating has been the hand of time and the works of civilized men, that little can now be possibly gleaned by observation. Our main reliance in these matters must depend almost entirelv upnn the recollectionsof early settlers and traditions. Many of i!;. • ti, as you are aware, are dilferenlly related by ditTere'nt in.; nd not unfrequentiy in material points contradiitory. From cartful investigation and inquiry I have been enabled to add a little lo what I had previously gathered and referred you to, in the New-York Spectator. A locality in the town of Cazenovia, Madison co., near the countyMine, and on Lot 33, Township of Pompey, Onondaga CO., called the '■^ Indicm Fort,'^ was not de^cribcd in that p;.pcr. It is about four miles southeasterly from Manlius village, situated r n a slight eminence, which is nearly surrounded by a devp ravine, ibe banks of which are quite steep and somewhat rocky. The ravine is in shape like an ox-bow, made by two streams, which pass nearly around it and unite. Across this bow at the opening, was an lartbro wall running southeast and northwest, and when fust notin-d hy th*" early settlers, was four or five feet high, straight, with ^ a ditch in front, from two to three feet deep. Within t: may be about ten or twelve acres of land. A pari of this ground, when first occupied in these latter times, was called the " iVuim," and is noted now among the old men as the plate where the first battalion training (military) was helil in the county of Onondaga. But that portion near the wall, ami in front of it, hat rrr#«ntly. say five years ago, been cleared of a heavy growth of ' ^er. Many of the trees were large, and were probably i - ; - ats old. Some were standing in the ditch and others on the top oi ibc embankment. There is a considerable burying place icithin the enclosure. The plough has already done much lowartis K vrlinj; the wall and ditch ■ still they can be easily traced the whole extent. A few more ploughings an(l harrowings and no vestige of it will rrmaio. The specimens of dark brown pottery I send with ' locality. I picked them up at this visit. These sp« what numerous upon this ground now. Almost every rariciy oi Indian relic has been found about here, but so fastidious are lh« holders of them, that I have not been able to procure any for you, and cannot, except at a price. However, they lan be of little coos«- quence, as they are described in the article above reU-rred to. Dm fact, will, I think, apply to this locality, that does not belong to toy [Senate, No. 24. 30 234 [Senate other of the kind in this region, that I know of. Two cannon balls, of about 3 lbs. each, were found in the vicinity, showing that light cannon were used, either for defence, or in the reduction of this forti- fication. There is a large rock in the ravine on the south, on which are inscribed the following characters, thus, IIIIIX, cut three-quarters of an inch broad, nine inches long, three-quarters of an inch deep, perfectly regular, lines straight. Whether it was a work of fancy, or had significance, I know not. Perhaps you may determine. On the site of the village of Cazenovia, I am told there was a fort or embankment ; some persons say it was " roundish;''^ others that it was " angular^ with sides at right angles?^ Recollections respect- ing it are very imperfect. Many relics have been found here, indi- cating an earlier occupancy than those usually found in this county. This was on the Oneida's territory. There is a singular coincidence in the location of these fortifications which I have never observed until my recent visit. They are nearly all, if not quite all, situated on land rather elevated above that which is immediately contiguous, and surrounded, or partly so, by deep ravines, so that these form a part of the fortification themselves. At one of these (on the farm of David Williams, in Pompey,) the banks on either side are found to contain bullets of lead, as if shot across at opposing forces. The space between may be about three or four rods, and the natural cut- ting twenty or twenty-five feet deep. This only goes to show the care these architects had in selecting the most favorable situations for defence, and the fear and expectation they were in of attacks. I do not believe any of the fortifications in this neighborhood are more ancient than the period of the French settlement of missionaries among the Onondagas, during the early part of the 17th century. But the more I investigate, the more I am convinced that there were many more of the French established here among the Indians, by far, than has been generally supposed, and their continuance with them longer. The nature of the articles found, utensils of farmers and mechanics, hoes, axes, horseshoes, hammers, &c., go to prove that agriculture was practised somewhat extensively, as well as the mechanic arts. The Indian name by which it was anciently called, and is now^, by the natives, I think goes to substantiate this fact : " Ote-que-sah'-e-eh," an open place with much grass, an opening, or prairie. The timber has a vigorous growth, and although in many places large, there is a uniformity in the size and age, which shows that it has all grown up since the occupancy ; because under the trees are not only found the relics, but among them in many instances, corn hills can be traced in rows at considerable distances. The presentation of medals, I believe to have been a very common custom among the missionaries and traders. Several have been found. A valuable cross of pure gohl, sold for $30, was found on the farm of Mr. David Hinsdale, west part of Pompey. The significant "IHS" was upon it. Brass crosses are frequently found, and so are medals of the same metal. One recently found on the last named farm, about the size of a shilling piece. The figure of a Roman Pontiff in No. 24.J 035 a standing position, in his hand a crosier, surrounded with thi» in- scription, •'^. n>.. sin. P. onpt. con," which I h-re vrnturctl to write out, Beata nrf^o stneperaito oHginali concepta^' or m w« might say in Enijflish, 'nhf blessed vir^rin conceived without origmtl »m.*' On the other side was a representation of the brazen Rrrpt-nt, aod two nearly nakeil figures, looking intently upon it Thj* it hv f»r the most perfect one I have seen. The letters are as perfect ri'if itruck but yestcrd?y. It was undoubtedly compressed bi-twrrn diM. It u oval in shape, and bored that it might be suspendc*! from the neck. A silver medal was found near Kagle vilhiu'i-, two miles nut of Uu», about the size of a tioUar, but a little thinner, with a ring or loop at one edge to admit a cord by which it might be suspindnl. On one side appears in relief, a somewhat rude representation of a fortified town, with several tall s'eeples rising above its buildmgs, and a cita- del, from which the British flag is flying. A river broken by an island or two, occupies the foreground, and :ibove, aloni: llu' upper etigc of the medal, is t!.e name Montreal. 'Ihe initials I). C. F., probably those of the manulacturer, are stamped below. On the opposite itide, which was originally made blank, are engraved the words Canecya, Onondagoes, which are doubtless the name and tribe of the red ruler on whose dusky breast, this ornament was liisplayed. A valuable token of friendship of some British governor of New- Vork, or Canada, to an influential ally among the Six Nations. There is no tlate on this, or any of the medals. But this must be at least older than the revolution, and probably an hundred snows at least, have fallen on the field where the plough disinterred it, since the chief whose name it has preserved, was laid to rest with hi» fathers. I iiave sent with this, such relics and Indian trinkets, as I could prevail upon our people here to part with. They are levi than I ex- pected to obtain. The gun lock, spear head, axe, piece of gun bar- rel, and lead ball, arc all of the size and patterns u.sually found. They are from the farm of Mr. David Hinsdale, in the town of Pom- pey, west part. All the gun barrels, or parts of them, are fouDd flattened similar to this. Not a perfect one has been found. The two parts of the axe, want about two inches between the broken por- tions to make the " ij7 " of the ordinary length. The stone ax«>s, I thought might interest you. I have no doubt they were used intlay- ing animals slain in the chase, as well as in cleaving wood. I did intend to send you a beautiful gouije of hornblend*', but to my sur- prise, it is not to be found ; the like are frequently found here. It proves conclusively, that the natives were at an early d. '. - nted with the virtues of the maple, and possessed the art of i ^ar. I have sent, as you will see, fragments of pipes of many vuruurt. The patterns are as various as the articles are numerou*. The speci- mens of glass are difl"erent from any I have seen from any 'er. I think some of the beads may have been used in ro.s-. > . : .the native proselytes. I have lately seen a fragment of a bell, which, when whole, would have weigheil probably 200 lbs., the metal u rery fine, and from appearance, this article must have been of considerable 236 [Senate value ; time and exposure has not changed it in the least. When found, some 20 years since, it was broken up and the pieces found, enough to make it nearly entire. I am aware, that I am corresponding with one far more experienc- ed in these matters, than myself, and therefore, forbear obtruding my views and opinions further. If you have not a particular desire to place the-e things in your own cabinet, they might perhaps, be pro- fitably disposed of, among the rare things of the New-York Historical Society. Dispose of them as you think best, I am sorry I could not obtain more. I am, with sentiments of high regard. 5 ol J. V. H. CLARK.. Your ob't. No. 24.J 237 (B ) Letter from 3Ir. Cusick to Ilcinv K S( hoolcruli. It appears to rac, very c^reat difllcultics are in tin- way f'i fm.lmg out and becominc; acquainted with the discovery of all ancient lni»li- tions, and what original stock we cqme from. So far as our recol- lections extend according to our traditions of many centuries, the aborigines who inhabited the vast wilderness in this cr«at . now North America, were guided and led hy a crrlain i stood highest in dignity, and next to the Supreme ]'< . i* called TnARONYAWAGO, that is to say, being intcrprrtcd. rof Heavens. He was the great leader of the Red Mm, and he ropilatetl and taught how to divide the country and rivers, and motic of their living, and manners of costume and ceremonies, in many centuries. The Tuscaroras were descended from the Iroquois; thev «; ! from the Five Nations to the Southern Country in North ' and when the Iroquois used to send expeditions and war par' to war with other Indian tribes in that (juarter, these parties w. Tuscarora towns in North Carolina, and found a resting place and refreshment, and they used to be in the habit of intermarriage with each other, they have never been to war a(;ainst each oth^r, and they were always on terms of good friend^' ion. And therefore we considered that the I belonged to the Six Nations from ancient times. Btiuft- ii.' ery by Columbus the Tuscaroras consisted of six town«i, . were a most powerful nation, numbering more than twelve ihnusanti warriors. But many combinations and causes fell upon the Tusca- rora nation, and they became diminished in their number?, by vrars and pestilence, and were poisoned hy ardent spirits. The T ^ had manv years of enjoyment and peaceful possession on tht ' river, until the Colony was planted near the settlement ; •- brought up disturbances, ami their right was dispute*! to ll.. lory. In 1712 the Indians of the Tuscaroras in North Carolina, witii their accustomed secrecy, formed the design of exterminating in one night, the entire white population ; the slaughter on the Koanoke was great, Capt. Barnwell appointed, and sent troops, wh" '" '• at- tacked the Tuscaroras, he killed 300, and took 100 . . the survivors retreated to Tuscarora town, within a wooden brcot-Mork, where at last they sued for peace. The Tuscaroras, soon after abandoned their country, and unileJ themselves with the Iroquois, and became the Sixth N.itjon. When we first came into this country, we lived with the Oneula nation, (now Oneida county,) and we called the Om-idas *' '" ' - Brother, the second is the Cayusras, the youngest Brothf-r 'I When the first missionary was sent to the 'I Eld. Elkanah Holmes, from the New York M.. . 238 [Senate bored several years with success, among them. This Mr. Holmes belonged to the Baptist Missionary Society. Afterwards, when Mr. Holmes was removed, another missionary was sent to the Tuscaroras by tLe American Foreign Mission, namely, the Rev. Mr. Grey, who remained until last war. After his dismissal in 1816, another mis- sionary was sent by the Board of the New York Missionary Society, the Rev. James C. Crane. I will state briefly, those missionaries who afterwards came to the Tuscaroras, Rev. B. Lane, Rev. John Elliot, Rev. Joel Wood, Rev. Mr. Williams, the last who is now missionary, was the Rev. Gilbert Rockwood. In 1836, a portion of the Tusca- rora nation thought expedient to become Baptists, according to the dictates of their own conscience, and free enjoyment of their religion in this republican government. And consequently a Baptist church was built and organized among the Tuscaroras ; and they were called in council with several Baptist churches in this county. In 1838, they were admitted into the Niagara Baptist Association at Shelby. And have now in good standing fifty members of the church. In a ministerial council, June 14th, 1838, Mr.James Cusick was examined touching his Christian experience, and called to preach the gospel by Provi- dence and the council ; they decided on that question, and give him ordination as a native preacher, deciding that he was well qualified by a knowledge of theology. And now he has labored with several tribes among the Six Nations. Under his instrumentality, three Baptist churches have been formed, numbering 200 members, and he established a temperance society in 1830 of more than 100 members. In 1845 he established another temperance society among the In- dians, numbering 50 members. Intemperance is one of the greatest and most destructive evils, and many more begin to be intemperate, especially among the young men. Among the females of the Tusca- rora nation there is more virtue and sobriety and good morals than among the males. I hope the white citizens will try to assist them and promote the melioration of the Indian condition in order to qual- ify him for life and lead him to appreciate its true end, and to encourage intermarriages in their future generations and to advance in civiliza- tion, Christianity, and industry. From your respected friend, JAMES CUSICK. N. B. At the Rev. Mr. Vrooman's, in Queenston, you will find a copy of my late brother David's book on the Indians. The following extracts are made from the curious publication re- ferred to, in the preceding note. It appears to have been first print- ed at Lewiston, in 1825. As the work of a full blooded Indian, of the Tuscarora tribe, it is remarkable. In making these extracts, no correction of the style, or grammar is made, these being deemed a part of the evidence of the authenticity of the traditions recorded. Account of the Settlement of North America. In the ancient days the Great Island appeared upon the big waters, the earth brought forth trees, herbs, vegetables, &c. The creation of .No. 24.] 235) the land animals : the Eairwchocwe people ^('ere too c rcatcl and r«i- ded in the north rep;ions ; and after a time some of the pmpic be- came giants, and committed outrages upon the inhabitant'?, kc Ancient Shipwreck. — After many years a body of Kafjwrhorwr people encamped on the bank of a majestic stream, an. went towards the sunsetting and travelled about two days ar. and come to a creek* which was named Kaw-na-taw-ieruh, i. e. • The creek now branches of the Su»queh»nn« Ri»«r al Iht bttJ fciMnUr «U«d Col. Allen's lake, t«n milei iouth of the Oncidi Casde. 240 [Senate Pineries. The second family was directed to make their residence near the creek, and the family was named Ne-haw-re-tah-go, i. e. Big Tree, now Oneidas, and likewise their language was altered. The company continued to proceed towards the sunsetting under the direction of the Holder of the Heavens. The third family was directed to make their residence on a mountain named Onondaga, (now Onondaga) and the family was named Seuh-now-kah-tah, i. e. carrying the name, and their language was altered. The company continued their journey towards the sunsetting. The fourth family was directed to make their residence near a long lake named Go-yo- goh, i. e. a mountain rising from water, (now Cayuga) and the family ■vvas named Sho-nea-na-w^e-to-wah, i. e. a great pipe, their language was altered. The company continued to proceed towards the sun- setting. The fifth family was directed to make their residence near a high mountain, or rather nole, situated south of the Canandaigua lake, which was named Jenneatowake and the family was named Te- how-nea-nyo-hent, i. e. Possessing a Door, now Seneca, and their language was altered. The sixth family went with the company that journeyed towards the sunsetting, and touched the bank of a great lake, and named Kau-ha-gwa-rah-ka, i. e. A Cap, now Erie, and then went towards between the midday and sunsetting, and travelled considerable distance and came to a large river which was named Ouau-we-yo-ka, i. e. a principal stream, now Mississippi ; the peo- ple discovered a grape vine lying across the river by which a part of the people went over, but while they were engageel, the vine broke and were divided, they became enemies to those that went over the river ; in consequence they were obliged to disperse the journey. The Holder of the Heavens instructs them in the art of bows and arrows in the time of game and danger. Associates were dispersed and each family went to search for residences according to their con- veniences of game. The sixth family went towards the sunrise and touched the bank of the great water. The family was directed to make their residence near Cau-ta-noh, i. e. Pine in water, situated near the mouth of Nuse River, now in North Carolina, and the family w.is named Kau-ta-noh, now Tuscarora and their language was also al- tered j but the six families did not go so far as to loose the understand- ing of each other's language. The Holder of the Heavens returns to the five iamilies and forms the mode of confederacy, which was named Ggo-nea-seab-neh, i. e. A Long House, to which are, 1st. — Tea-kaw- reh-ho-geh, 2d— New-haw-teh-tah-go ; 3d.— Seuh-nau-ka-ta ; 4th— Sho-nea-na-we-to-wah ; 5th. — Te-hoo-nea-nyo-hent. No. 24. j 241 Letter from S. A. ( E. ) (loodwiii to Ilciiry \i. ScliooU cmft. Jlubuni, Oct. 17, iai5. My Dear Sir — I received yours of the 2.1 inst. in liue cnurM* of post, and now send you, lit tlie first practiealjle moment, :i din^^ram and sketch of the " OKI Fort." My en^i\c;enient.s have been stich ax to prevent my going out to Geneva, and making a trip to the old fortification alluded to. As to the other one here referred to by McAuley, it is just back of my house, and as sonn as I liavc timp to make an examination I will drop you a line respcrtini,' it. I ^o to Rochester, to attend supreme court, tn-morrow. I sii;ill try. on mv return, to stop at Geneva anil get a sketch of that one Very truly vour friend, "S. H. (JOODWIN Diagram of an ancient forlification on Fort Hill, Auburn \. V. [Senate, No. 24. 31 242 [Senate This enclosure is situate on the highest point of land in the vici- nity of Auburn, and is in the form of an ellipsis ; and measures in diameter, from east to west, (from the outside of the base of the embankment) four hundred and sixteen feet, and from north to south, three hundred and ten feet ; the circumference, twelve hundred feet ; present height of the highest part of the embankment on the west side from the bottom of the ditch, four feet ; the thickness at the base, fourteen feet ; from the centre of the enclosure the ground has a gentle slope to the north, east and west, and is nearly level towards the south. The openings on the south, one of sixty and the other of seventy-eight feet, are directly opposite or against deep ravines separated by a narrow steep ridge, access through which would be difficult, being on an angle of nearly forty-five degrees. The opening- en the north measures one hundred and sixty-six feet, opposite to which the ground continues to slope to the north for the distance of seventy feet, from which point the descent is very abrupt. The opening on the east measures sixty-six feet, opposite to which the ground continues on a gentle descent to the east for several hundred feet. The opening on the southwest measures fifty feet, and is opposite to a ridge gently descending to the southwest. There are no less than ten deep ravines and as many steep ridges surrounding and leading to this ancient fortification. McAuley, in his history of the State of New-York, Vol. 2d, pages 111 and 112, gives a minute and interesting description of this forti- fication, which, however, contains some inaccuracies ; and also of another fortification situate in the noitheast part of Auburn. The large chesnut stump described by him as standing in the moat on the west side of the enclosure, is still to be seen ; there are still to be seen the remains of two large oak stumps, which seem to have escaped his notice, situate on the southeast side of the enclosure, one of them on the top of the embankment, and the other in tlie ditch some twelve feet distant. There are scarcely any traces remaining of the fortifi- cation described by McAuley as being in the north east part of Auburn, from the fact that the ground upon which it stood has been under cultivation for many years. JAMES H. BOSTWICK, Surveyor. October 16, 1845. No 24.] 343 ( »•■ ) Letter trom Frederick I'ollct to llcnrv K Scliuul- craft. Batnvia, Oct. 2:j, 184.0. Dear Sir — My private and public duties together prevented my makinp: a visit to "Fort Hill," until the 22d inst. and I proceed to give you ray ideas of that formation. The ground known as " Fort HilT' is situated about three niilc« north of the village of Le Roy, and ten or twelve miles northeast from Batavia, the capitol of Genesee county. The belter view of " Fort Hill" is had to the north of it, about a quarter of a mile, on the road leading from Bergen to Le Roy. From this point of obser- vation it needs little aid of the imagination to conceive tl)at it wa* erected as a fortification by a large and powerful army, looking for a permanent and almost inaccessible bulwark of defence. From the centre of the " Hill," in the northwesterly course, the country lies quite flat — immediately north, and inclining to the east, the land is also level ^r one hundred rods, when it rises nearly as high as the " Hill," and continues for several miles quite elevateil. In approach- ing the " Hill" from the north it stands very prominently before you, rising rather abruptly, though not perpendicularly, to the height of eighty or ninety feet, extending about forty rods on a line east and west, the corners being round or truncated, and continuing to the south on the west side for some sixty rods, and on the east side for about half a mile, maintaining about the same elevation at the sides as in front ; beyond which distance the line of the " Hill" is that of the land around. " Fort Hill," however, is not a work of art. The geological cha- racter of it show^s it to be the result of natural causes. Neverthelwa, there are undoubted evidences of its once having been resorted to as a fortification, and of its having constituted a valuable point of de- fence to a rude and half-civilized people. It is probable that at a period of time very far distant, the ground about " Fort Hill" was, for some considerable distance around, entirely of the same level, and that by the action of water, a change took place, which brought about the present condition. The low land immediately in front to the north, is only the remains of a water course, which was made up of a stream coming down the gorge of the west side, and the present " Allen's creek," which flows through a portion of the gorge of the cast side, the stream of the west har- 244 [Senate ing been a branch of that of the east side. Through the west gorge now flows, in the wet season, a moderate stream, coming from the ]ands above the gorge, and having an interrupted fall of some forty or fifty feet ; while " Allen's creek" occupies a portion of the eastern gorge, much broader, at the extremity of which, some half a mile from the " Hill," there is a beautiful fall of eighty feet perpendicu- larly. The structure of the " Hill" bears out this construction ; it being composed of the same rock — with the exception of the upper strata — as the falls. At the falls the upper strata of rock and that which forms the bed of the creek for some two miles or more east, is the corniferous limestone ; underlaying which are hydraulic and Ono?idoga limestones. The two latter are only seen at " Fort Hill," covered by a few feet of soil and several small masses of stone, n part out of place, among which are a few of Medina sandstone. The strata are, therefore continuous from the falls, and at some former periods, extended over the gorges, and formed a regular and nearly level surface, the action of water having removed, which has left the broad and conspicuous point of " Fort Hill," as memorable monu- ments of the earlier condition of the country. When " Fort liill" was used as a fortification the summit was en- trenched. Forty years ago an entrenchment, ten feet deep and some twelve or fifteen wide, extended from the west to the east end, along the north or front part, and continued up each side about twenty rods, where it crossed over and joining, made the circuit of entrench- ment complete. At this day a portion of this entrenchment is easily perceived for fifteen rods along the extreme western half of the north or front part, the cultivation of the soil, with other causes, having nearly obliterated all other portions. It would seem that this forti- fication was arranged more for protection against invasion from the north than from any other quarter, this direction evidently being its most commanding position. Near the northwest corner have, at different times, been found collections of rounded stones of hard con- sistence, which are supposed to have been used as weapons of defence by the besieged against the besiegers. Arrow-heads, made of flint or horn-stone, gouges, pestles, hatchets, and other weapons formeil from stone, have been found about the "Hill" and throughout this section. Of the rarer articles, are pipes and beads, a few of the latter of which I have been able to obtain. The gouges, pestles and hatchets, are, I think, frequently made of compact limestone, probably what is now known in Mr. Hall's State Teport as the one foot limestone at Le Roy, though many of them seem to be formed of primitive rock, and very likely were worked out from boulders scattered about the country. Skeletons found about "Fort Hill" and its vicinity sustain the impression that the former occupants of this " military station" were of a larger and more powerful race of men than ourselves. I learned that the skeletons generally indicated a stouter and larger frame. An humerus or shoulder bone of which preserved may safely be said to be one-third larger or stouter than any now swung by the living. A resident of Batavia, Thomas T. Everett, M. D., has ia his cabinet No. 24.J 245 a portion of a lower jaw bone full one-thinl lari^er thai anv pon sessed by the present race ol" men, which was fouml in u hi'll nrar Le Roy, some two years since. From the sjime hill nrrow-hiatlv and other articles have been removed for many vearj*. The articles I send you are as follows : — No.'l, an Imlinn t»oM«^. made of very hard stone, found at "Fort Hill;" No. : . heads, of flint ; No. -1, beads ; No. 5, a bead, fvidtntly for; a tooth, as the enamel and other distinctive marks indiealc ; Ho. 6 a bead, apparently of bone. No. 2 is a stone tomahawk, presented to mc b5 Jerome A. CiaUK . Esq., of this villap:c. It was found on his premises half a mile ■out. of this place. I iierewith present it to you. These articles I iiave M-nt to-day by a friend, and you will fm«l tlun, by calling at Tammany Hall. 1 have not ytl been able to \i«.it Tonawanda, but am in hoj)es to do so in a day or two. Your ob't serv't, FUEDEKICK FOLLETr. 246 [Senate (G. ) Letter from C. Dewey to Henry R. Schoolcraft. Fort Hill. This is celebrated as being the remains of some ancient work, and was supposed to have been zfort. Though the name is pronounced as \i hill was the name of some individual, yet the place is a fort on a hill, in the loose use of the word. The name designates the place as ForMiill, to distinguish it from the hills which have no fort on them. Neither is it a hill, except as you rise from the swale on the north, for it is lower than the land to which it naturally belongs. As you pass towards Fort-Hill in the road from Le Roy village, which is about three miles to the south, you descend a little most of the distance to this place. The road passes a little west of the middle of the space nearly north and south. The shape is quadrangular, and is shown in the diagram or ground plot. On the right and east side is the deep water course of Mien's Creek, cut down through the rocks for a mile or more, perhaps one hundred and thirty feet deep ; on the north is that of Fordham's Brook, of nearly the same depth, which drains a wide swale from the north and northwest ; and on the west is a short and deep ravine, which is a water course in some seasons of the year, where the waters fall over a precipice a little south of the quadrangular space, or forti- fication. This ravine is not so deep as the water courses on the east and north. The descent is quite steep on these three sides. At the northeast Allen's Creek turns to the east and receives the waters from Fordham's Brook. The quadrangular space, D, A, B, C, was enclosed by a trench, D A, nearly a north line on the east, by A B on the north, and B C on the west. No. 24.J 24' ^^mmKMMH'^ii'fm^ A B is the north trench about sixty rods loncj, and nearly east ami west. A D is about thirty rods, and B C is tifteen rods, and tprroi- nates at the ravine at C. The trench DA, and A B lies on the brow of the descent to the streams below. At D the bend of the ravinr stops the trench. At the northwtst corner B, a trench is continued about 15° to the risrht and down the declivity 15 rods to a spring ; 50 feet perhaps below A B, and B G is the briAV of the desrcnt west of the tiench at B, and G C is the edt^e of the ravine on the wcsl. Q W is Allen's Creek on the east ; H I K is Fordhara's Brook on the north, and L P M is the water course on the west to the preci- pice at M, over which the water falls at some seasons, and the ^urfac« at M is only a few feet lower than the general level of the le. The space F was a burying fjround, as bones, skulls, y. ;», have been plouejhed up iluie The road K N passes thrnuijii thr middle nearly of the space encloseil by the trench, and at N turn* to the right to descend to the flat below ; but formerly the road turne«i to the right at U and passed down at the right of the trench at ?» TO T. The place was pointed out to mc by H. M. Ward, Fl««q., »hi was familiar with it when it was covered with the forest. He states thai the trench must have been eight to ten feet deep and as many wi«lr ; that the earth was thrown either way, but much of it inwards ; that the forest trees were standing in the trench and on the sides of it tm! 248 [Senate of the same apparent age and magnitude as on the ground generally ; that the heart-wood of black cherry trees of large size was scattered over the ground, evidently the remains of a forest anterior to the then jrrowth of maple and beech, and that this black cherry was used by ihe settlers for timber ; that the road, when first made, crossed the trench at N by a bridge ; that the trench at D and A was cut down the bank a few feet, or else in time water had worn a passage from the trench downwards ; that there was no tradition heard of among, the Indians of the country, in respect to the use or design of the w^ork. The underlyino- rock is the hydraulic limestone of this section, which is fully exposed at the falls of Allen's Creek, half a mile south of Fort-Hill. This rock was struck in digging the trench on the north line in some places, and portions of it were thrown out with the earth. Of the pipes found at F one was formed from granular limestone ; one was of baked clay, in the form of the rude outlines of a man's head and face, nose, eyes, &c., and it reminds one of the figures in some of Stephens' Plates of the ruins of Palenque. It has the hol- lows for the ears to be fastened on, and shows no little effort. The top of the head is surrounded by a fillet or wreath, and behind are two more fillets. At the bottom of the neck is a similar ornament, and on the front is another below it. This is the most curious. Another pipe is of reddish baked clay, with some pits or dots for ornament upon it, two rows of dots around it and another below like a chain suspended at several points and curved by its own weight. The forest has been removed. Not a tree remains on the quad- rangle, and only a few on the edge of the ravine on the west. By cultivating the land, the trench is nearly filled in some places, though the line of it is clearly seen. On the north side the trench is con- siderable, and where the road crosses it, is three or four feet deep at the sides of the road. It will take only a few years more to oblite- rate it entirely, as not even a stump remains to mark out its line. From this view it may be seen or inferred, 1. That a real trench bounded three sides of the quadrangle. On the soutli side there \vas not found any trace of trench, palisadoes, blocks, &c. 2. It was formed long before the whites came into the country. The large trees on the ground and in the trench, carry us back to an early era. 3. The workers must have had some convenient tools for excava- tion. 4. The direction of the sides may have had some reference to the four cardinal points, though the situation of the ravines naturally marked out the lines. 5. It cannot have been designed merely to catch wild animals to hv. driven into it from the south. The oblique cut down to the spring is opposed to this supposition, as well as the insufH. iency of such a trench to confine the animals of the forest. 6. The same reasons render it improbable that the quadrangle was designed to confine antl protect domestic animals. No. 24.J 249 7. It was probably a sort of fortified place. There miffht bare been a defenre on the south by a ,ipe. Fort Mill cannot have been formed by the French, as one of their posts to aid in the destruction of the English colonic.**. In 1689, or 156 years ago, the French in Canada made vnrious attempts to destroy the English colony of New-York. If the French had made Fort Hill a post as early as 1660, or 1S5 years ago, and then deserted it, the trees could not have gmwn to the size of the forest generally in ISIO, or in 150 years afterwards. The white n-t- tleinents had extended only "twelve miles west of Avon" in 1798, and some years after 1800, Fort Hill was covercil with a dense forest. A chesnut tree cut down in 1842, at Rochester, showed 254 concen- tric circles of wood, and must have been more than 200 years old in 1800. So opposed is the notion that this was a deserted French post. Must we not refer Fort Hill to that race which peopled this cotin try before the Indians, who raised so many monuments greatly exceeding the power of the Indians, and who lived at a remote craf' H. R. Schoolcraft, Esq. : I forward you the observations nn Fort Hill, for your use. My speculations are adiled for my pleasure, and you will use them as you please. In great haste, I am obliged to close. Your obedient, (' I)KWF:Y [Senate, No. 24.] 32 250 [Senate [H.] Letter from Rev. Gilbert Rockwood to Henry R. Schoolcraft. Tuscarcra Mision^ August 1, i845. Sir : — In the following communication, you can make use of sucb statements as you may deem proper. If all the statements should not be necessary for your official objects, yet they may be interesting to you as an individual. This mission was commenced about fifty years since, under the care of the " New-York Missionary Society," It was transferred to the " United Foreign Mission Society," in 1821, and to the " Ameri- can Board of Com. for Foreign Missions," in 1826. The church was organized in 1805, with five persons. The whole number of native members who have united since its organization is 123. The present number of native members is 53 ; others 5, total 58. Between July 1st, 1844, and July 1st, 1845, there were only three admissions, two by profession and one by letter. About one-third of the population attend meeting on the Sab- bath. Their meeting house was built by themselves, with a little assistance from abroad. They have also a school house, the expense of which was nearly all defrayed by themselves. There is but one school among them, which is kept the year through, with the exception of the vacations. The teacher is appointed by the American Board. The number of scholars the past year, is not far from 50. I have been among these Indians now nearly eight years. I can see that there has been an advance, both in their moral and physical condition. It is within the memory of many now living among them, when drunkenness was almost universal ; now, comparatively, few are in- temperate. A majority of the chiefs, are decide. !ly temperance men, and exert a salutary influence. They have a temperance society, and hold frequent meetings. They utterly forbid the traffic in intoxicat- ing drinks on tl^eir own soil. The marriage relation is being better understood by them, and more appreciated. More of the young men and women, enter into the marriage relation, in the regular christian way, than a few years ago. Four couple have been regularly married the past year. Number of deaths, 8 ; an unusual number since I have been among them. No. 24.] 251 There is besides the church, above referreii to, a Baptist church, organized a few years siiue, the particulars of which, I am unable to give. For any information you may wish respecting it, I would refer you to James Cusick, their minister. On the whole, there is much to encourage the philanthropist and the christian in labors for the good and well being of the Indians here, although we meet with many obstacles and diiTKuilties in the way. They are becoming more and more industrious in tlnir habits, a« the appearance of their farms, and the amouiii of produfc, and their personal appearance will testify. With these brief statements, I subscribe myself, Yours, truly, r.TLMHRT ROCKWOOI). Vocabulary of the Tuscakoua, fkom William Chew, writtcw OUT AND TRANSMITTED BY THE RkV. CilLDERT RoCKWOOD. Note. — In affixing Indian words, to (he following vocabular>-, Mr. Chew, t»ho tpeaki the English very well, has promised to act as your translator and interpreter. The prin- cipal thing to be guarded against, however, is inaccuracy in the deflnitiunt, both la Lof- lish and Imlian. If there is no infinitive to verbs, as I s ppose, insert the limplett exicting form, u lla ioves, &f. Is tliere any participle to Tuscarora verbs! H. R. 8. To Mr. Rockwood. TUSCARORA. 1 God Ya wuhn ne yuh. 2 Devil Oo na sa roo nuh. 3 Man Ehn kweh. 4 Woman Hah wuhn nuh. 5 Boy Kun chu kweh'r. 6 Girl Ya te ah cha yeuh. 7 Child Kats ah. 8 Father (my) E ah kre ehn. 9 Mother (iny) K a nuh. 10 Husband (my) E na yah keah wuhn te kehn rea nuhn. 11 Wife (my) (The same word as for my husl»and.) 12 Son (his) Tr^b wuhn rub, nuh nuhn, a nc hah. 13 Daughter (his) Tra wuhn rub, nuhn, kah-nuhn |nuhn. 14 Brother (my) E ah ke ah t'keuh. 15 Sister (my) Eab keah nuhn nooh'r. IG An Indian Rt'uh kweh hehn weh. 17 Head Vah reh. 18 Hair (his) 'i'rah wuhn rub, rah wch rah wuhn. 19 Face (his)." " rah keuh stub keh 20 Forehead (his) " " kcuh neuh keh. 21 Scalp " " " ""^"'»- 252 [Senate. 22 Ear his Trah wuhn ruh kunh nunh keh. 23 Eye " " " kah reuh keh. 24 Nose " " " cheuh seuh keh. 25 Nostril " " " cheuh kah reuh. 26 Mouth " " " skah reuh. 27 Tongue " " reuh toh neuh keh. 28 Tooth " " " rah tooh tseh. 29 Beard " " " sooh keh reh. 30 Neck '' " "hah tseh. 31 Arm " " " neuhcheuhkeuh 32 Shoukler " " " nunh neh. 33 Back " " " reuh wunh keh. 34 Hand " " " rah eh nunh keh. 35 Finger " - " " rooh kweh. 36 Nail " •• " skeuh kah reh. 37 Breast '' " " ah sunh keh. 38 Body " " " keh s'heuh keh. 39 Leg " " " reuh seuh keh. 40 " " " 41 Navel " " " ne seuh reuh keh 42 Thigh " " " te cheuh keh. 43 Knee " " " reuhkueht'sunh [keh. 44 Foot " " rah rah neuh keh. 45 Toe " " " sooh kweh. 46 Heel " " '' teh heuh cheh. 47 Bone " " " skeuh reh, 48 Heart " " " ra re ah seh. 49 Liver " " " rah t'wunh seh. 50 Windpipe " « " hunh t'seh. 51 Stomach " " " keh'r hah keuh. 52 Bladder " " " te ah neh. 53 Blood " « « t'kwahra. 54 Vein " " " 1 nunh yah 55 Sinew " « " \ t'seh. 56 Flesh my E kwa reh. 57 Skin " Ekanunhkeh. 58 Seat " E ak tak. 59 Thighbone " E k'te chi.nh keh skenh reh. 60 Town " Kah tah nah yeuh. 61 Townsman" Kah koo tah nah keuh' f hah. 62 House Yah keuh nunh. 63 Door Oo chah reh. 64 Lodge Wah k'tah nah yeuh noh'gh. 65 Smoke Oo chah reh. 66 Chief Ya koo wah nunh. 67 Warrior Roo skeuh rah keh reh. 68 Friend Enh nunh rooh. 69 Enemy Yeuh chunh t'seh, 70 Kettle Oo nunh weh. No. 24. j 253 71 Arrow Oo teh. ■72 Bow Nah rhreh. 73 Warclub Oo die kweh. 74 Spear Chu rots. '75 Axe No keuh. 76 Knife On suli keuli nch. 77 Paddle Kah weh t'chra. 78 Canoe Oo n;ili kch. 79 Boat Oo Imnh weh. 80 Ship Oo Imnh weh koo. 81 Shoe Oo che koo ra 82 Leggin Oo re stnh. 83 Coat > ^ , , „ , , S4 Shirt \^ ° *^^" "■ "°° t thrch. 85 Breachcloth Ya hah'r hooh stoh 86 licit or sash Oo che hah tVhra. 87 Head dress Holi toh kweh. 88 Pipe Chali'rs hooh stoh. 89 Tobacco Chah'rs hooh. 90 Pipe stem Oo treh neh. 91 Sky Oo renh } ahVs. 92 Heaven Oo reiih yah keuhf. 93 Sun He teh. 94 Moon Ah t'seuh ye hah. 95 Star .... Oo ne senh reh. 96 Day A wunh neh 97 Night A sunii neh. 98 Cloud Oo roh'ts. 99 Light Yu hooks. 100 Darkness..! Yah weh toah yeuh. 101 Morning ^ . . Tsoo teh'r hunh. 102 Evening Yah tsa t'henh hah. 103 Spring VVah'r wooh slroh'gh. 104 Summer Oo kenh hoh keh. 105 Autumn Roh t'sch keh. 106 Winter Kooli seh r'heuh. 107 Year Ah ooh streh. 108 Wind Oo reh. 109 Lightning Woh n'woh kah reh nah rcfk. 110 Thunder He nunh. 111 Rain Wane too'eh. 112 Snow Oo nects reh. 113 Hail Wah fkah ta he ts'ot. 1 14 Fire Oo che reh. 115 Water Ah wunh. 116 Ice Oo we seh. 117 Earth, land Ah wunh reh. 118 Sea Knhn yah ta reyu. 119 Lake Hahn yah ta reh. 120 River Ke nunh. 254 [Senate. 121 Stream Hah s'nunh yeuh tih. 122 Valley Ah wunh rah stroh kenh. 123 Hill Yu nunh I'heh. 124 Mountain Yu nunh yeuh tih. 125 Plain Wah keuh nah yeuh. 126 Forest Ooh r'hah nah keuhf. 127 Meadow Ya ha re oh toh. 128 Boo- Yu teh'r enh t'sah ne reuh. 129 Island Yuh weh nooh. 130 Stone Oo reuh neh. 131 Rock Oo steuh reh. 132 Silver Kah kwis tah no reuh. 133 Copper Kwa nis nees. 134 Iron Oo wa nunh. 135 Lead Nah wah c'steh. 136 Maize Oo nunh heh. 137 Wheat Oo toos. 138 Oats O'ch. 139 Potatoe Oo nunh tseh. 140 Turnip Oo che kwah. 141 Tree Oo reuh eh. 142 Wood Oo yeuh kwe reh. 143 Pine Hoh teh. 144 Oak Rah rooh. 145 Ash Whoh't. 146 Elm Kah rah t'kwoh. 147 Basswood Oo hoo stroh. 148 Shrub Kwe roh keuh. 149 Leaf Oo euh reh. 150 Bark Skeuh noh reh. 15 1 Grass Yu ha ruh kweh. 152 Nettles Yah koo ha roh roh'r. 153 Thistle Oo ne keh weh. 154 Weed Chu wa kah ha rah ka. 155 Flower Oo che che streh. 156 Bread Oo tah nah reh. 157 Indian meal Oo nuh heh. 158 Flour Oo teh c'hrah. 159 Meat Wah reh. 160 Beaver Chu noh keuh. 161 Deer Ah kweh. 162 Bison or buffalo Chu ta kre yoh keuh. 163 Bear Oo che reuh. 164 Otter Che ah ka we nuh. Grey fox red fox. 165 Fox Che chuh. — Skeuh nahx seuh. 166 Wolf Skwah re nunh. 167 Dog Chee'sr. 168 Squirrel Thah'st. 169 Hare Kwa ruh. No. 24.] 265 170 Lynx (No name. ) 171 Panther T'kcuh na nih. 172 Muskrat Ah nuh kwinh. 173 Polecat (No name.) 174 Hog Kwis kwis. 175 Horse Hah hahts. 176 Cow Oo na rali snlit. 177 Sheep Wa rak seuh. 1 78 Turtle Che koo wa. 179 Toad Roo nunh skwah reuh. 180 Insect Chick euh woh'r. 181 Snake Oo skwah na. 182 Bird Che nunh. 183 Egg Ooh lieuli sch. 184 Feather Oo snoo kre. 185 Claw Oo sheuh kah reh. 186 Beak Tuh cheuh sch. 187 Wing Oo yeuh we ts'neh. 188 Goose Kah tuh'ts euh. 189 Partridge Oo kwa'ts euli. 190 Duck Ts'uh yeuh. 191 Pigeon Oo re neh. 192 Plover (No name.) 193 Turkey Keuh nuh. 194 Crow Ah ah. 195 Eagle Suh kwe ah. 196 Hawk Ne yeuh ne yeuh. 197 Snipe Tah wis ta wis. 198 Owl Oo wah. 199 Woodpecker Nah rah'r. 200 Robin Roo skooh kooh. 201 Fish Keuh chink. 202 Trout Ruh te ohk teuh. 203 Bass Keuh che ah heuh s'che. 204 Pike Koo wahk. 205 Sturgeon Hah rah. 206 Sunfish Nah reh reh. 207 Efl Keuli neli. 208 Fin < >" too neh. 209 Scale ^'^n s'neli. 210 Roe Ta leh. 211 White ^^f^ whali re ah kruii. 212 Black Kah hunh s'ehe. 213 Blue ^" t'l^ heuii re eli. 214 Yellow 'I'ih kah che I'kah nahyeuh. 215 Green ^^<^ l'"'i reh. 216 Great We yu. 217 Small Wast teuh. 218 Strong f>" tc rruli. 219 Old ^^ nunh hah ah. 256 ,« 220 Young Oo't oh. 223 Handsome Yu yah tab yeuh snuh. ^«? ;?••' -K.oh seuh. t?.^^''' Wunhheh. It.f7^ ' Yah wunh ha yeuh. iio i;;,^' ,• JJ^ yah wunh t'kwah. f^trff^ Keuhhayeuh. ^^^.^'Y -•• Aht'huh. ^???ot Yuhnahrehin. Jop 1°^'; Na yuh Che ra noh neh i^? Sweet Yahwakenh. Sslf:"::;:::; Yu Che wah kenh. 235 Thou .*'.''* Ets f^^f' • Trah ya nueh teh. 2oo^' Aya nueh teh. ;,?7' E ah kvvah ya sunh teh. ilorr'^" Thwah ya sinh teh. f4?^;.7 Kahyayehsunhteh. Ly-------- •■■■••■•■•■■ "-"• ?ff ^^1 T'wa'hn. i:t M Wa yu rah kwuhn. ttl ^2^. Yuh neh'r kenh hu hu. 24^^°^^'"- Tsah wunh teh. 1^1 ™° Kohna. '«^"o.-:::::::::;::;:^°-^''- pi&::;:::::::;;S„r^"'''^''-^-''- 202T„„„„„„ Kuh yuh'r heuh. OK . XT ^^'^ heuh. l?t^\ Kwuhs. 25fi ^r>' Ahreuhkwehte. Ujtl'r Strahkwe. -^>J / Under r-,,!^ -^i. i ,,- 25S Within. Euhtohkenh'f 5^^)?'^^^"^ Th'nehteh. Ifi? ?"•;•. Hohheh'n. 262 InThetr"e Sto e keuh. ^DO Un the table TVa l-nrai, v^i. i i i i 9fifi Tr, +u I 1 ^ kwah roh kwab keb. 26-! Nov "' °° >""> ,'-'■ ^'-h keuh'f. 268 Neve;::;:;:;::;:::;:, f;™'>- 269Bya„ it was natural to expect from converts out of heathenish darkness) have apostatized from Christianity, and returned to their former courses. The proportion of these is not probably more than one in ten. Between sixty and seventy are now connected with some of the mission churches. A few only have removed to Allegany, Tus- carora, while the remainder still live on this reservation. The effect ot the gospel in promoting morality and civilization, may be learned in part from the fact that the public worship of (Jod has been steadily maintaineil ever sinci- the organization of the church, with members ranging from fifty to one hundred, and some- times one hundred and fifty and two hundred as regular hearers of the word. A Sabbath school has been sustained a considerable share of the time. Many copies of the Holy Scriptures, and the New Testament, together with tracts, Sabbath school books, temperanr« papers, and religious periodical, have been circulated arnoni; the children and youth. Temperance societies have been patronized by nearly all the chiefs and leading men on the reservation. PIr •- have been circulated and received the signatures of a large maj..i.t\ of the population, of all parties, on the Washingtonian plan. Day schools for teaching the English language have been kept in operation almost without interruption for more than twenty ycar»^ under the patronage of the A. li. C. F. M. During the thirteen years that I have superintended these schools. nearly thirty different persons have engaged for a longer or shorter 262 [Senate lime, as teachers. For the past year there have been four schools under the patronage of the American Board, and one under the Soci- ety of Friends. The whole number who have been instructed in the five schools is probably not far from one hundred and twenty-five. The attendance of a part has been very irregular, sometimes shifting from one school to another, and sometimes attending no school at all. Several of the early pupils in the mission schools are now heads of families, well informed, industrious, temperate and religious, and in good circumstances. Some are interpreters, some teachers of schools, and others engaged in transacting the business of the nation. You ran, sir, best judge of the influence of the gospel in promoting worldly prosperity, when you have fully completed the census which is now being taken. When you count up the framed houses and barns, the horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, the acres of improved land, with the wagons, buggies and sleighs, clocks and watches, and the various productions of agriculture, you can easily conceive the differ- ence between the present, and thirty years ago. I suppose there was not then a framed building of any description, and scarcely a log house, properly so called, no teams, no roads, no ploughed land, and but small patches of corn, beans and squashes. What an astonishing change ! As to the capacity of Indian children for improvement, my own impression is that there is no essential difference between them and white children. The fact that Indian children usually make slow progress in studying English books, can be accounted for in three ways : 1. They generally have little or no assistance from their parents at home. 2. They are irregular in their attendance on schools, for want of order and discipline on the part of parents. 3. Being ignorant of the English language, it is a long time before they comprehend fully the instruction of their teachers. These circumstances operate to make the school room a very dull and uninteresting place to the scholar, and the reflex influence gives the scholar the same appearance. When they can once rise above these circumstances, and overcome these obstacles, they make good proficiency in their studies. Believing that these statements cover the ground of your inquiries, I subscribe myself, dear sir. Respectfully and truly yours, ASHER BLISS. P. S. Should you desire further information on any of these points, or upon others, which have been omitted, please state your questions definitely, in writing. Yours, &c., A. B. ^o. 24.] 263 ( K. ) Letter fromKev. William Hall to Hcmv K .m-IiooI- cnil't. JUlegany Misiion^ Sept. S/A, 1S45. Dear Sir : — Your inquiries in relation to the state of relition, education, &c., among the Indians of this reservation, if I riyhtly understand them, are briefly answered as follows : Christianity very much prospered here during' the four years next precedinsi; the past. The number of church members durinir that period, was nearly tripled, and very encouraging additions were made to their know- ledoe and zeal. But the past year has been one of stupidity and drought. There has, however, been four additions from the Indians, made to the church, by profession of faith, and two whites. The present number of Indian members is about one hundreij and fifteen. Tiie number of whites is eight. Seven of the Indian mem- bers are under censure. I have sustained three schools during the past summer, in which about eighty Indian children have been more or less taui;ht. On*' of these schools, whose whole number is only about thirty, gives an average attendance of nearly twenty-five. In this neii^hborlinod the population is sufficiently compact for a farming community, anil the younger parents arc partially educated. In the other neighborhoods, the population is very sparse, and the parents very ignorant. The consequence is, that the daily attendance falls short of one half the whole number of s«'holars, and cannot be called regular at that. Many do not get to st hool earlier than half past eleven, and very few earlier than ten, and half past ten. Those* who attend regularly, evince a capacity to acquire knowledge, e()ual- ing the whites, and one of our schools will sutler nothing, in » .»nj- parison with common country schools. I am, dear sir, Yours &.C., WILLIAM H \LL 264 [Senate (L.) Letter from Rev. VVm. McMurray to H. H. School- craft. Dundas, JYovemher 11th, 1845. My dear Sir — I have just received the vocabularies, with the In- dian words, frora the Rev. Adam Elliot, of Tuscarora, to whom I sent them for the translation. The cause of the delay was his severe illness, and the difficulty of getting suitable persons to give him the Indian. He says, before you publish, if you will send him, through me, the proof sheets, he will have them corrected for you, and for- warded without delay. He is an amiable and most excellent man. Yours, most faithfully, WILLIAM McMURRAY. Mohawk. 1 God Niyoh 2 Devil Onesohrono 3 Man Rongwe 4 Woman Yongwe 5 Boy Raxaa 6 Girl Kaxaa 7 Child Exaa 8 Infant Owiraa 9 Father (my) Rakeniha 10 Mother " Isteaha 11 Husband " Teyakenitero 12 Wife " Teyakenitero 13 Son " lyeaha 14 Daughter " Keyeaha 15 Brother " Akyatatekeaha 16 Sister " Akyatatoseaha 17 An Indian Ongwehowe 18 Head Onontsi 19 Hair Ononkwis 20 Face Okonsa 2 1 Scalp Onora 22 Ear Ohonta 23 Eye Okara 24 Nose Onyohsa 25 Mouth Jirasakaronte 26 Tongue Aweanaehsa No. 24.] 265 27 Tooth Onawi 28 Beard Okcastcara 29 Neck Onyara 30 Arm Onnnisa 31 Shoulder Oi^rhmahsa 32 Back Oi;;hnagea 33 Hand Osnosa 34 Finger Osnosa 35 Nail Ojiera 36 Breast Aonskwena 37 Body Oyerniita 38 Leg Oghsina 39 Navel Oneritsta 40 Thigh Oghnitsa 41 Knee Okwitsa 42 Foot Oghsita 43 Toe Oghyakwe 44 Heel Orata 45 Bone Ostiea 46 Heart Aweri 47 Liver Otweahsa 48 Windpipe Ratoryehta 49 Stomach Onekcreanta 50 Bladder Oninheaghhata 51 Blood Oncgweasa 52 Vein Oginoliyaghtough 53 Sinew Oginoliyaghtough 54 Flesh Owarough 55 Skin Oghna 66 Seat • Onitskwara 57 Ankle Osinegota 58 Town -Kanala 59 House Kanosa 60 Door Kanhoha 61 Lodge Teyetasta 62 Chief Rakowana 63 Warrior Roskeahragehte 64 Friend Alcatosera 65 Enemy Shagoswease 66 Kettle Onta 67 Arrow Kayonkwere 68 Bow Aeana 69 War club Yeanteriyohta kanyoh 70 Spear ^ Aghsikwe 71 Axe • Atokca 72 Gun Kauhore 73 Knife Asare 74 Flint Kahnhia 75 Boat Kahoweya 76 Ship Kahoweyakowa [Senate, No. 24.J 34 ^66 [S£NATE 77 Shoe 'Aghta 78 Legging Karis 79 Coat Atyatawit 80 Shirt Onyataraa atyatawit 81 Breechcloth Kakare 82 Sash Atyatanha 83 Head dress Onowarori 84 Pipe Kanonawea 85 Wampum Onegorha 86 Tobacco Oyeangwa 87 Sky Otshata 88 Heaven Karonghyage 89 Sun Karaghkwa 90 Moon Eghnita 91 Star Ogistok 92 Day Eghnisera 93 Night Aghseanteane 94 Light Teyoswathe 95 Darkness Tyokaras 96 Morning Ohrhonkene 97 Evening Yokoraskha 98 Spring Keankwetene 99 Summer Akeanhage 100 Autumn Kanonage 101 Winter Koffhserage 102 Wind Owera 103 Lightning Teweanerekarawas 104 Thunder Kaweras 105 Rain Yokeanorough 106 Snow Oniyehte 107 Hail ^ . Yoisontie 108 Fire Yotekha 109 Water Oghnekanos 110 Ice Oise 1 1 1 Earth : land Owhensia 112 Sea Kanyaterakekowa 113 Lake Kanyatare 1 14 River Kaihoghha 115 Spring Yohnawcronte 116 Stream Yohyohonto 117 Valley Teyohrowe 118 Hill Yononte 119 Mountain Yonontekowa 120 Plain Kaheanta 121 Forest Karhago 122 Meadow Yeheantyakta 123 Bog Yonanawea 124 Island Kawenote 125 Stone Oneaya 126 Rock Otsteara No. 24.] 267 127 Silver Karistanoro 128 Copper Oginigwar karistaji 129 Iron Ka^i^•taJi 130 Lead Kawistanawis 131 Maize Oneasti 132 Wheat Eanek.ri 133 Oats Yoiiohonte 134 Potatoe Ot;hneanata 135 Turnep ( )jik\va 136 Tree Kherhite 137 Wood Oyeanle 138 Pine Oahnchta 139 Oak Tokcaha 140 Ash Kirhsa 141 Elm Akaraji 142 Basswood Ohoscra 143 Shrub Nikakwerasa 144 Leaf Oneraghte 145 Bark Owajiste i46 Grass Ohonte 147 Nettle Ohrhes 148 Weed Kahontaxa 149 Flower Ojijia 150 Bread Kanatarok 151 Indian meal Oneasti othesera 152 Flour Othesera 153 Meat Owarough 154 Fat * Yoresea 155 Beaver Jonitough 156 Deer Oskoneantea 157 Bison 158 Bear Oghkwari 159 Otter Tawine 160 Fox Jilsho 161 Wolf Okwaho 162 Dog Ehrhar 163 Squin el : Arosea 164 Hare Tahontanegea 165 Lynx 166 Panther 167 Muskrat Anokyea 168 Polecat Takoskowa 169 Hog Kwiskwis 170 Horse Yagosateas 171 Cow Canonta 172 Sheep Teyotinakarontoha 173 Turtle Anowara 174 Toad Jighnanatak 175 Insect Otsenown 176 Snake Onyare 26S [Sena in ^'J'? Bird , Jiteaha 178 Egg Onhonsa 179 Feather Ostosera 180 Claw „ . . -Otjiera 151 Beak , , Ojikeweyeanta 152 Wing ^Oweya 183 Goose , . Onasakeara 184 Partridge Oghkwesea 185 Duck Sora 186 Pigeon Orite IS? Plover 188 Turkey , . Skawerowane 189 Crow , Jokawe 190 Robin Jiskoko 191 Eagle , Oteanyea 192 Hawk _ Karhalcoha 193 Snipe Tawistawis 194 Owl Ohowa 19o Woodpecker Kwarare 196 Fish Keantsiea III J'""* "• Tyotyaktea 198 Bass Ojikakwara 199 Pike Jikonsis 200 Sturgeon Nikeanjiakowa fj, 5,""fi^h Karaghkwakeanjiea 202 Fin Odare 203 Scale , Oista 204 White ;;;;;. Kearakea 205 Black _ Kahonii f'lf Onegv4ntara 20' Blue Oronya lall'^^'''^ Oginigwur 209 Green Ohonte ^}?^^^^! Kowanea 211 Small jy^i,,.aa ^?? ?,^,^°"g Xashatste l]2n^?^ Yoyatakeaheyea Hi ,™ Oksteaha ' ^J^ XT^ Nityoyeaba ^?^^f ....Yo/a^re l]ll^'^\ Wahetkea ^io Handsome Yorase llllfy .*.'; Wah;tkea 220 Ahve Yonhe III ?.^/^' Yaweahevea 222 Life Yonhe 223 Death Keaheyea 22^ Cold Y.tor/ i^«°* Yotarihea 226 Sour Teyohyojis No. 24.J 269 227 Sweet Yawelo 228 Bitter Yotskara 229 I lih 230 Thou Ise 231 lie KiK.nha 232 She \onha 233 They . Konmiha 234 You, Ye Jiyoha 235 We Onkyoha 236 This Keaikea 237 That Toikia 238 All Auwfgon 239 Part Oiyake 240 Who Oi.'ka 241 Near Niyorea 242 Far off Ino 243 To-day Keawcante 244 Yesterday Teteare 245 To-morrow Eayhorheane 246 By and hy Owagehaseaha 247 Yes Ea 248 No Yahtea 249 Perhaps Tokul 250 Above Enegea 25 1 Under Onagon 252 Within • Onagounonga 253 Without Atstenongali 254 On . Ethogh 255 Something Onheno 256 Nothing Yaghotiieno 257 One Easka 258 Two Tekeni 259 Three Aglisea 260 Four Kieri 261 Five Wisk 262 Six Yayak 263 Seven Jatak 264 Eight Satego 265 Nine Tiyohto 266 Ten Oytri 267 Eleven E.iskayaweare 268 Twelve Tekniyaweare 269 Tiiirteen Aghseayaweare 270 Fourteen Kaiyeriyaweare 271 Fifteen Wiskyaweare 272 Sixteen Yayakyaweare 273 Seventeen Jatakyaweare 274 Eighteen Sategoyaweare 275 Nineteen Tiyohtoyaweare 276 Twenty Tewasea 277 Thirty Aghseaniwaghsea 270 [Senate 278 Forty Kaieriniwaghsea' 279 Fifty Wiskniwaghsea £80 Sixty Yayakniwaghsea 231 Seventy Jatakniwaghsea 282 Eighty Sategoniwaghsea 283 Ninety Tiyohtoniwaghsea 284 One hundred Easkateweanyawe 285 Two hundred Tekeniteweanyawe 286 One thousand Oyeriteweanyawe 287 Two thousand Teweayawe eghtseraghsea 288 One million 289 To eat* Teayontskahou 290 To drink Eayehnekira 29 1 To run Teay oraghtate 292 To walk Eayonteanti 293 To dance Teayenonyakwe 294 To Fly Teankatea 295 To laugh Eayakoyeshough 296 To cry Teayoseanthough 297 To burn Eawatsha 298 To love Eayontatenoronkwe 299 To go Eayonteanti 300 To strike Eayeyeanti 301 To kill Eayontateriyo 302 To sing Eayontereanotea 303 To sleep Eayakotawe 304 To speak Eayontati 305 To die Eayaighheye 306 To see Eayontkaghtho 307 To hear Eayoronkhe 308 To think Eayonontonyeawe 309 War cry Waontskwararonyea 310 Retreat cry Tontatsyatonek 311 To give Eayontatea 312 To carry Eayehhawe 313 To tie Eayenereanke 214 Walking Yagohteantyohatyea 215 Singing Yereanote 216 Dancing Teyakononyakwea 217 Crying Teyoseanthous 218 To be, or exist Eghnoyotea ^ 219 He is Raonhase 3220 I am lighse. If there is no infinitive, insert verbs in their original form, as. He eats, &c. No. 24.J 271 Cayuga. 1 God Niyoh 2 Devil Onesoono 3 Man Najina 4 Woman Konheghtie 5 Boy Aksaa 6 Girl Exaa 7 Child Exaa 8 Infant Onoskwataa 9 Father (my) Hiani 10 Mother " Iknoha 11 Husband " lonkniniago 12 Wile '' longiahisko 13 Son " Ihihawog 14 Daughter " Ikhehawog 15 Brother " Itt-kyatchnonte 16 Sister " Kekeaha 17 An Indian Ongwehowe 18 Head Onowaa 19 Hair Ononkia 20 Face Okonsa 21 Scalp Onoha 22 Ear Honta 23 Eye Okaghha 24 Nose Onyohsia 25 Mouth Sishakaent 26 Tongue Aweanaghsa 27 Tooth Onojia 28 Beard Okosleaa 29 Neck Onyaa 30 Arm Oneantsa 31 Shoulder Oghnesia 32 Back Eshoghne 33 Hand tishoghtage 34 Finger Onia 35 Nail Ojeighta 36 Breast Oahsia 37 Body Oyeonta 38 Leg Oghsena 29 Navel Kotshetot 40 Thigh Onhoska 4 1 Knee Okontsha 42 Foot Oshita 43 Toe Oghyakwea 44 Heel lyatage 45 Bone ()stienda 46 Heart Kawiaghsa 47 Liver Gotwesia 48 Windpipe Ohowa 49 Stomach Onekreanda 2^2 [Senate 50 Bladder Onheha ^1 ^^ood Otgweasa 52 Vein Ojinohyada 53 Sinew Ojinohyada 54 Flesh Owaho 55 Skin Ogoneghwa 56 Seat Ondiadakwa 5^ Ankle Ojihougwa 5S Town Kanatae 59 House Kanosiod 60 Door Kanhoha 61 Lodge Teyetasta II S'^^f. Aghseanewane 63 Warrior Osgeagehta 64 Friend Aterotsera 65 Enemy Ondateswaes 66 Kettle Kanadsia 67 Arrow Ka„oh 68 Bow Adota 69 War Club Kajihwaodriohta '0 ^P^ar Kaghsigwa ■^1 Axe Atokea ''2 Gun Kaota '^3 Knife Kainatra ;? J^i"t AtrFkwenda '» ^oat Kaowa l^ ^J^iP Kaowagowa '' f^o^• Ataghkwa 7b Legging K^isra RO ok! Atyatawitra °? ?,'^^^t Nikaheha 81 Breechcloth Katrotaa °? '^''^- Teatniagwistrista 83 Headdress Tiodnaawonhasta °? f.lP^ Atsiokwaghta 8o Wampum otkoa °? J°^^^^° Oyeangwa f^^y Otshata 11^'''''''' Kaohyage ^^^"" Kaaghkta pV i7°" Soheghkakaaghkwa ^i 5,^" Ojishonda ^?4X C^iisrate ^^,%ht Asohe ^^^.ght Tevohate ^^{l^^k"^^^ Tifotasontage ^^^^'•"/"g Sedetsiha ^ ^^ Evening Okaasa fal^''''^ Kagwetijiha ^^^^^^-^r Kakenhage No. 24.] 273 100 Autumn Kaivmafrcne 101 Winter Kohsrej^lme 102 Wind Kawnondts 103 Lightning Teweanilios 104 Thunder Kaweanotalias 105 Rain Ostaonchon 106 Snow Onieye 107 Hail Oidriondio 108 Fire Ojista 109 Water Onikanos 110 Ice Oitre 111 Earth— Land Otanja 112 Sea Kanyateowaneghno 113 Lake Kanyataeni 114 River Kihade 115 Spring Oghnawaot 116 Stream Oghyeanto 117 Valley Teyostowento 118 Hill Onontae 119 Alountain (^nontowanea 120 Plain Kahearitae 121 Forest Kahago 122 Meadow Ustomhiakla 123 Bog Owcanjanawe 124 Island ... Kawegimnd 125 Stone Kaskwa 126 Rock Osteaha 127 Silver Kawistanoo 128 Copper Ogwenida 129 Iron Kaniawasa 130 Lead Kanikanawis 131 Maize Oneha 132 Wheat Onajia 133 Oats Oats 134 Polatoe On?.ta 135 Turnip Okteha 136 Tree Krael 137 Wood Oyeanda 138 Pine Ostaa 139 Oak Kakata 140 Ash Kalioweya 141 Elm Oshkra ' 142 Basswood Ohotra 143 Shrub Ohond.i 144 Leaf Ourawhta 145 Bark Owajista 146 Grass < )wenoghkra 147 Nettle Owhesra 148 Weed Owenokrasod 149 Flower Oweha [Senate, No. 24. 1 35 274 [Senate 150 Bread Onada 151 Indian Meal Oneha otetra 152 Flour Otetra 153 Meat , Owahon 154 Fat Osea 155 Beaver Akaniago 156 Deer Wahontes 157 Bison 158 Bear Yekwai 159 Otter Jutedro 160 Fox Ishaie 161 Wolf Tahioni 162 Dog Shoas 163 Squirrel Joniskro 164 Hare Toutaend 165 Lynx 166 Panther 167 Muskrat. Te out 168 Polecat Kanewageha 169 Hog Kwiskwis 170 Horse Kaondanenkwi 171 Cow Tidoskwaout 172 Sheep Teyodinekaondoa 173 Turtle Kaniaghtengowa 174 Toad Naskwagaonta 175 Insect Otsinowa 176 Snake Osaista 177 Bird Jiteae 178 Egg Onhosia 179 Feather Ostotra 180 Claw Otsiouhta 181 Beak Kaniantasa 182 Wing Kawaontes 183 Goose Honkak 184 Patridge Kawesea 185 Duck Oheao 286 Pigeon Jakowa 187 Plover 188 Turkey Sohout 180 Crow Kaghka 190 Robin... Jiskoko 191 Eagle Nataongowa 192 Hawk Tekayatakwa 193 Snipe Tawistewi 194 Owl Owa 195 Woodpecker Kwaa 196 Fish Otsionda 197 Trout Tiadatsea 198 Bass Onoksa 199 Pike Jikonsis No- 24.] 275 200 Sturgeon Kajhista 201 Sunfish ( )a^ihk\vaonio 202 Fin Owaia 203 Scale Otsia 204 White Ktaankca 205 Black Swcandaea 206 Roil Oikwcnjia 207 Blue Drinaea 208 Yellow litkwa 209 Creen Drahlaea 210 Great Kowanea 211 Small Niwaa 212 Strong Kashatste 213 Weak Oyatakeahcyo 214 01(1 Ostea 215 Young Ongwelasea 216 Good Oyanri 217 Bad Waetgea 218 Handsome (\yanri 219 Ugly Waetkea 220 Alive Onhe 221 Dead Awealieyea 222 Life Onhe 223 Death Keaheyea 224 Cold Otowi 225 Hot Otaiho 226 Sour Ttyohyojis 227 Sweet Okao 228 Bitter Odjiwagea 229 T I 230 Thou Ise 231 He Aoha 232 She Kaoha 233 They Onoha 234 You Ye Johha 235 We Oukyoha 236 This Neangea 237 That Shigea 238 All Gwegon 239 Part Tewadislo 240 W^ho Sonaoi 241 Near Niyoea 242 Far otr Ino 243 To-dav Wanewanisade 244 Yesterday Tedea 245 To-morow lyohea 246 By and by Swegeha 247 Yes Kghea 248 No Teah 249 Perhaps Tokatgisa 276 (Senate 250 Above Hetgea 251 Under Nagon 252 Within Nagongwadi 253 Without Atstegwadi 254 On Ethogh 255 Something Tikaweaniyoh 256 Nothing Teaskoutea 257 One Skat 258 Two Tekni 259 Three Segh 260 Four Kei 261 Five Wis 262 Six Yei 263 Seven Jatak 264 Eight Tekro 265 Kme Tyohto 266 Ten Waghsea 267 Eleven Skatskaie 268 Twelve Tekniskaie 269 Thiiteen Aghseghskaie 270 Fourteen Keiskaie 271 Fifteen Wiskaie 272 Sixteen Yeiskaie 273 Seventeen , . Jatakskaie 274 Eighteen Tikroskaie 275 Nineteen Tyohtoskaie 276 Twenty Tewaghsea 277 Thirty Seniwaghsea 278 Forty Keiniwaghsea 279 Fifty Wisniwaghsea 280 Sixty >■ . ... Yeiniwaghsea 281 Seventy Jatakniwaghsea 282 Eighty Tekroniwagshea 283 Ninety Tyohtoniwagshea 284 One hundred Skateweaniawe 285 Two hundred Tekniteweaniawe 286 One thousand Waghseanateweaniawe 287 Two thousand Teweaniaweetsaghsea 288 One million 289 To eat Eyondikoni 290 To drink , Eyehnikiha 291 To run Tesental 292 To walk Eyohteanti 293 To dance Teyontkwa 294 To fly Teankate 295 To laugh lyakoyonde 296 To cry Teyoseanthou 297 To burn Ewatsia 298 To love Teyondatnoonk 299 To go Eyonteandi No. 24.] 277 300 To stride Eyegoheg 301 To kill Kyondalri} 302 To sing Eyontreanote 303 To sleep Jakota 304 To speak Tycfjhtaea 305 To die lyaihhe 306 To see lyoiitk.iixhto 307 To hear Ayohoiik 308 To think* Ayonontonio 309 War cry Yontskwaeonio 310 Retreat cry Jatego 311 To give Eayontatea 312 To carry Eyeha 313 To tie Ayeshaondak 314 Walking Goghtcandiahandia 315 Singing Eeanot 316 Dancing Teyagolkwea 317 Crying Teyoseantwas 318 To be, or exist Nelhonanyohtohaag 319 He is Aohase 320 I am li •If there is no infinitive, insert verbs in their simplest concrete form, i. e., indicative moodj present tense, first person, singular, as, he thinks, &c. 278 [Senate (M.) Letter from Mr. Richard U. Shearman to Henry R. Schoolcraft. Vernon, October 4.fk, 3845. Sir : I completed the enumeration of the Oneida Indians some days ago, but delayed sending a return to you to ascertain the Indian names. It doubtless contains all the information you require at this particular time. Several families are included in the marshal's enu- meration of the inhabitants of the town of Vernon. The remainder reside in Madison county. The houses of these Indians are generally much better than the log houses of the whites, being constructed of hewn, even jointed logs, with shingle roofs and good windows. There are three good frame houses belonging to them ; — one of these is a very handsome ont, belonging to Skenado. I noticed in it some tasty fringed window curtains and good carpets. The Indians whom you met at Oneida were the flower of the tribe, being mostly farmers, who raise a sufh- ciency of produce for their comfortable support. There are several heads of families in my list, w^ho cultivate no land of their own, but gain a subsistence by chopping wood and performing farm labor for others. The whole number of families, I make, as you will perceive, 31. The w^hole number of houses I believe is but 2S, but in each of these houses I found two families. The number of persons is 157. The count of last winter, which made 180 souls, was made with reference to retaining a certain amount of missionary funds, and Mr. Stafford, the Indian attorney, tells me it was made too high. Skenado says the tribe in this State numbers just 200 souls, of whom 40 are with the Onondagas. Vernon, December 16?A, 1845. " I have filled up your Indian vocabulary to-day. I wrote down the words as they w'ere given to me by one Johnson, a pretty intelli- gent man, who sometimes acts as interpreter. My orthography may be somewhat at fault, owing to my limited knowledge of the Indian manner of sounding the letters of the English alphabet. In general, I have endeavored to spell the words according to their sound in English, though the letter a is used often as in the English, and often to express the sound of ah ! With this exception, and the use of horiy han and hun, to express a sound of which nothing in the Eng- lish can convey an accurate impression, the spelling accords with the No. 24.] -279 pronunciation. The Indian from whom I obtained tlie information informs me he knows of no words in his language to express such large numbers as thousands and millions. I have, therefore, in the cases of those numbers, filled the blanks with the Indian for ten hun- dred and ten hundred thousand ; tliat is, in the latter case, ten hun- dred ten hundreds. •' I hope the table will be satisfactory, and that it may be of aiil to you in making the comparison between the languages whiih you <^esire. " Believe me, your friend, Sec. "RiciiAKD u. siii:arman." Oneida. 223 224 Alive Loon ha. 225 Dead La wan ha yun. 226 Life Yun ha. 227 Death Ya wu ha yah. 228 Cold Yut ho lah. 229 Hot Yu ta le han. J 30 Sour Ta yo yo gis. 231 Sweet Ya wa gon. 232 Bitter Yut ska^'lot. 233 I Ke. 234 Thou Eesa. He she. 235 He or she f.a oon ha — a oon h;i. 236 We Tat ne jah loo 237 You Eesa. 238 They Lo no hah. 239 This K;di e kah. 240 That To e kuh. 241 All A qua kon. 242 Part Ta kah ha sioun. 243 Many A so. 244 Who Hon ka. 245 Near Ac tah. 246 Far-ofF K non. 247 To-day Ka wan da. 248 Yesterday Ta tan. 249 To-morrow A yul ha na. 250 Yes Ha. 251 No Y;di ten. 252 Perhaps To ga no nab. 253 Above A nah kan. 254 Wonder An ta ka. 255 Within Na gon. £56 Without Ats ta. 257 On Ka ha le. 280 [Senate 258 Something Ot hok no ho ta. 259 Nothing Ya ha ta non. 260 One Ans cot. 261 Two , Da ga nee. 262 Three Ha son. 263 Four Ki ya lee. 264 Five Wisk. 265 Six Yah yak. 266 Seven Ja dak. 267 Eight Ta ka Ion. 268 Nine Wa tlon. 269 Ten O ya lee. 270 Eleven Ans cot ya wa la. 271 Twelve Da ga na ya wa la. 272 Thirteen Ha son ya wa la. 273 Fourteen Ki ya lu ya wa la. 274 Fifteen Wisk ya wa la. 275 Sixteen Ya yah ya wa la. 276 Seventeen Ja dak ya wa la. 277 Eighteen Ta ka Ion ya wa la. 278 Nineteen Wa tlon ya wa la. 279 Twenty Ta was hon. 280 Thirty Ha son ne was hon. 281 Forty Ki ya lu ne was. 282 Fifty Wisk ne was. 283 Sixty Yah yak ne was. 283 Seventy Ja dak ne was. 284 Eighty Ta ka Ion ne was. .285 Ninety .... Wa tlon ne was 286 One hundred Ans cot ta wa ne a wa. 287 Two hundred Da ga na ta wa ne a wa. 288 One thousand O ya lee ta wa ne a wa. 289 Two thousand Ta was ha ta wa ne a wa. 290 Million O ya lu ta wa ne a wa-o ya lee ta wa ne a wa. 291 To eat Yon take hon ne. 29-2 To drink Yah na kee lah. 293 To run Yah dak ha. 294 295 To walk Ee vun. 296 297 To dance Ta yunt qua. 298 To laugh Yah go yas hon. 299 To cry Da yon unt os. 300 To burn TJ dek ha. 301 To love Ee no Ion qua. 302 To go Wa hon ta de. 303 To strike Wa a gon lek. 304 To kill Wa gon wa lew. , No. 24. j 281 305 To sing K;i Ion no ta. 306 To sleep Ya go tas. 307 To die Wa a ee ha ya. 308 To sit Ya (lay Ion. 309 To speak Ya god ha la. 410 To see \Va out kot. 311 To hear Yah got hon day. 312 To think Yonnon ton nion ha. 313 To shout Tay ya go hon let. 314 The war cry At lee yos la tay ya go hon let. 315 To shout Ta ya go hon let. 316 The retreat Wa ha day go. 317 To give Wa han da don. 31S To carry Yay ha we. 319 To tie Ka warn. 320 Walking Ee yen. 321 Singing Ka Ion no ta. 322 Dancing Ta hat qua. 323 Crying Das yon unt os. 324 To exist Ya gon ha. 325 I am E gon ha. The preceding part of this vocabulary, taken by myself, together with the entire vocabularies of the Onondaga and the Seneca, which are necessary to render the comparison complete, are omitted. [Senate, No. 24.] 36 282 [Senate (N.) Letter from Mr. D. E. Walker to Henry R, School- craft. Batavia, July 26?A, 1845. Mr. Schoolcraft : I have visited the mound on Dr. Noltan's farm. Nothing of great importance can be learned from it. I should think it about fifty rods from the creek, and elevated, perhaps, some eight feet above the general level of the ground. A similar one is also found about two miles south of this, and, as is this, it is on liigh ground, of circular form, and with a radius of about one rod. They were discovered about thirtv or thirty-five years since. Nothing has been found in them, save human bones. The first, some nine or ten years since, was nearly all ploughed up and scraped into the road. It is said that "sculls, arms and legs were seen on fences, stumps and the high- way for a long time after they were drawn into the road." On, some t'vo miles bejond the second was discovered a burial- ground. At that place were ploughed up shell, bone, or quill-beads. Near this place was found a brown earthen pot, standing between the roots of a large tree, (maple, they think) and with a small sapling grown in it, to some six inches in diameter. Beads of shell, bone or porcujiine quills have often been found, I would have remarked, that on the first mound stood a hickory-tree some two feet through. There is also a ridge at the termination of high ground ; I say a ridge, it appeared to me to be a regular fortification. It is, I should judge from thirty to forty feet in length. It would appear that the ground was dug down from some (Kstance back, and wheeled to the termina- tion of high ground, until a bank is thrown up to a height of some fifteen or twenty feet. This ridge, some think to be natural ; others, from the fact that a smooth stone, about the size and shape of a pestle, was found in it, think it to be artificial. Perhaps other relics may have been found in it that would show it to be an artificial formation. All I could learn (and I rode about seven miles out of my way to con- verse with an old inhabitant) was, that this pestle was found in the ridge, and within three or four feet of its surface. We may, perhaps, infer something from the size of an underjaw found here, which is said to have been so large as to much more than equal that of the largest face in the country. Respectfully, D. E. WALKER. No. 24. j S8S (O.) Letter from H. C. Van Schaack, Esq. to Henry R. Schoolcraft. Manlius, July ISM, 1845. Dear Sir ; Yours of yesterday from Jamesville is received. Its enclosure is the first intimation I have of having been chosen a cor- responding member of the N. Y. Historical Society. I shall be hap- py to advance tiie objects of the Society. I regret that you have not found it convenint to call, I hope you ■will still conclude to come. In the interim, I am convinced that Mr. C. can advance your objects better than I can ; he has read several addresses on these subjects before the Literary Associations here and at Syracuse within two years past. I have a collection of interesting papers (found among my father's papers at Kinderhook) relating chiefly to Indian affairs during the first half of the last century in the colony of New-York. These I am arranging, at my leisure, for the purpose of presentation to the N. Y. H. Society. I hope also to be able to send some papers of my father's which will advance the object of the society in rescuing the Indian names on the east banks of the Hudson from oblivion, ami which last I had intended to forward to the Society through you. But I must take my time to effect those objects. Excuse the haste with which this letter is written, as I have only this moment received your letter, and I do not wish to lose a mail. Respectfully yours. Manlius, Kov. 22nd^ 1845. Dear Sir : I forwarded to Mr. Gibbs, the librarian, a few days ago a volume containing various MSS. selected from my fathers pa- pers, relating chiefly to our aboriginal history, aiul about which I wrote you some time ago. You will find among them the journal of Conrad Weiser, Indian interpreter, giving an account of a visit to the Six Nations in 1745, at which time he accompanied the Senecas to Oswego, on their way to pay a visit to the Governor of Canada. You will also find among the papers, the original minutes of the Grand Council at Albany, in 1745, at which were present commis- sioners from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New- York, with Governors from several of those States and the Sachems of the Six Nations, I think you will be interestetl in some cf the papers. When I visit Kinderhook again, I hope to be able to make some additions to the contribution I have made to tiie Society. Many of the old pnpers relating to land trials, contain matter throwing light upon Indian names of objects and places. I, however, despair of ever seeing anything like a completeness of that description. Respectfully yours, H. C. VAN SCHAACK. 284 [Senate (P ) Letter from L. T. Morgan, Esq., to H. R. School- craft. Rochester^ October 7, 1845. Sir — You have doubtless seen a notice of the great council of the Six Nations, recently held at Tonawanda. We call it great, because we never saw any thing of the kind before, and perhaps never will again. Three of us started in season, and spent the whole of last week in attendance, and weie also joined by Mr. Hurd, a delegate from Cayuga. We were there before the council opened, and left after the fire was raked up. Our budget of information is large, and overthrows some of our past knowledge, and on the whole, enlarges our ideas of the vastness and complexity of this Indian fabric. We are a great way from the bottom yet ; we may never reach it, but what we do bring up to the surface, remunerates richly for the search. We learn that at the establishment of the confederacy, fifty sachem- ships were founded, and a name assigned to each, which they are still known by, and which names every sachem of the several sachemdoms, from the beginning to the present time, has borne. There were also fifty sub-sacherns, or aids ; that is, to every sachem was given a sub- sachem to stand behind him — in a word, to do his bidding. These sachemships are still confined to the five nations ; the Tuscaroras were never permitted to have any. They are unequally divided among the five nations, the Onondagas having as many as four- teen. The eisht original tribes or families still hokl to be cor- rect, as we had it, but each tribe did not have a sachem. In some of the tribes were two or three, in others none. As the English would say the Howard family had a peerage in it, so would the Indians say that a certain tribe or clan had one or two or no sachemships running in it. The idea seems to be that the sachem did not preside over a tribe, as that would leave some tribes destitute ; but the nine Oneida sachems, for instance, ruled the Oneida nation conjointly, and when the nations met in council, would represent it. The fifty sachems were the only official characters known at the councils of the con- federacy. The sub-sachems and chiefs had nothing to say. And unanimity, as in the Polish diet, was always necessary. Over this council, the Tha-do-da-hoh, or great sachem of the confederacy, pre- sided. He was always taken from the Onondagas, as we heretofore supposed ; but what is very important, it is denied that there was No. 24.] - 285 any such officer as a Tokarihogea, or military chieftain over the con- federacy. They recognize no such office, and deny that Brant wa? any thing but a chief, or an officer of the third and lowest class. I sifted this matter thoroughly, in conversations with Blacksmith, I.a Fort, Capt. Frost, and Dr. Wilson, a Cayuga, and am satisfied that the Tha-do-da-hoh* was the chief ruler of the Iroquois, and that they had no other. We fell into this error by following Stone, who in the Life of Brant, pretends to establish in him the title of war chief- tain or Tokarihogea of the confederacy In relation to the head warriors or military leaders of the nations, there is still some obscu- rity. The Seneca nation has two, but the other nations none. The truth is, the learning, if we may so call it, of the Iroquois is in the hands of a few, and it is very difficult to reach it, as those who are the most learned are the most inveterate Indians, and the least com- municative. Their laws of descent are quite intricate. They follow the female line, and as the children always follov/ the tribe of the mother, and the man never is allowed to marry in his own tribe, it follows that the father and son are never of the same tribe, and hence the son can never succeed the father, because the sachemship runs in the tribe of the father. It really is quite surprising to find such permanent ori- ginal institutions among the Iroquois, and still more surprising that these institutions have never seen the light. If I can construct a table of descents with any approach to accuracy, I will send it down to the Historical Society. The idea at the foundation nf their law of descent, is quite a comment upon human nature. The child must be the son of the mother, though he may not be of his mother's hus- band — quite and absolutely an original code. The object of this council was to " raise up sachems'' in the place of those who had died. It would require more room than twenty letters would furnish to explain what we saw and heard — the mode of election and deposition — the lament for the dead — the wampum — the two sides of the council fire, &,c. &c., and the other ceremonies connected with raising up sachems ; also the dances, the preaching, the feast. We were well received by the Indians, and they seemed disposed to give us whatever information we desired on the religious system of the Iroquois, their marriage and burial rites, &c. Faithfully, L. T. MORGAN. • This is a Seneca pronunciation of the name written Atotarho, by Cusick, ami Ta- totarho, by another ami older authority. For a figure of this noted primary ruler, as it it given in Iroquois picture writing, see page 132. H. R, S. NOTE. In Mr. Cusick's statement of his labors, he slates that he has been instrumental in forming three churches, consisting of two hundred members; but he omits noticing the locality and separate number of these churches. The church over which he presiiles, at Tuscarora, constitutes a part, but I am not able to say what part of the number. He probably includes the Tonevvanila church in the estimate; but, from this uncertainly it was impossible to bring; either definitely into the column of "church members." A reference in the appropriate column of the returns from Buflalo, denotes this church also to be " incomplete,-' as no return from the missionary, Mr. Wright, has been received and the interpreter, Mr. Pierce, who filled up the returns for that station, dropped thi« colnmn, after inserting ^re names, under the belief that the information would be given, and better given, by the missionary himself. Mr, Hall, of Alleghany, returns one more school than appears in the column of schools an error which was not detected till the proof sheets had been returned; nor is it known whether this includes the schools kept by the Society of Frieuils on that reservation no information having been received from their local teacher, who was, however, verbally requested to state the n'.miber of his pupils. In the pamphlet of this Society, on Seneca affairs, issued at Baltimore, in ISlo, the number of pupils under their charge, on the Cattaraugus reservation, is stated at 107, and it is added, that an incipient boarding school for girls had been altempted. It is not known %vhether, in the four schools reported by Mr. Bliss, at this reservation, the teachers and labors of the Society of Friends are included. Mr. Rockwood, of Tuscarora, states that there is but one school on that reservation. In the column of octogenarians, a typographical error gives the Tonewandas twenty - five instead of ten persons who had reached that age. In filling up the column headed "persons who adhere to the native religion," the rule was to deduct from the total population, all who were reported as members of any Christian denomination. Errata in the text, typographical and critical, which it was impossible tc avoid, in th« haste of a legislative publication, made in due course, there has been no opportunity to notice here, and it is hoped the proper consideration will be made. > -' ^. ,^-- L\6 B^^^ o^ COVA' GBtSS \AVA1 MW iiB^ OAO 7AA 28A A #