USA > New York > Livingston County > A history of Livingston County, New York : from its earliest traditions, to its part in the war for our Union : with an account of the Seneca nation of Indians, and biographical sketches of earliest settlers and prominent public men > Part 6
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
ways and gentle wildness of Indian girls; and, were we seeking incidents of a romantic nature in this con- nection, enough might be gathered for an entertaining chapter. Near Scottsburg, also, under a clump of wild plum trees growing near the present grist mill, the Indians were in the habit of encamping, to hunt and fish in the neighborhood ; while at Caledonia spring the whole tribe annually gathered, to renew their friendships and to enjoy the fine fishing afforded by its noted waters. A spot near the head of Conesus lake and many other hunting-seats were also used.
But the day of the hunter in this region is well-nigh passed away. Half a century ago his efforts were richly rewarded. The woods abounded with deer and rabbits, the openings with wood-cock, and the air with pigeons in their season ; while wild-geese, ducks, and other water-fowl, swarmed the shores of the lakes and rivers. Bears, panthers and wolves, as well as foxes and wild cats, were so common that pioneer mer- chants drove a thrifty trade in exchanging goods for scalps of these destructive animais, to be redeemed, in turn, by the authorities, at fixed bounties.
Intercourse between the natives and the white set- ters was marked by good nature. The Indians were generally truthful and honest ; though, after taverns and stores begun to multiply, the younger class, tempted by the novelty, fell into the habit of lounging and were now and then caught in petty thefts. Col- onel Lyman, an early merchant of Moscow, says that while out of his store for a moment one day, Cayuga Tom, an overgrown young Indian, took down a pair of stockings from a cross-pole and stuck them under his belt. The articles being at once missed, Colonel Lyman said, "Tom, you stole those stockings, now you can take a round flogging, or go to jail."- " Well," grunted the native ; and drawing his blanket
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
closely about him, he bent forward his shoulders, in- viting the blows. A rawhide was applied with so much vigor as to bring the blood at every stroke. When the punishment ended, Tom straightened up and remarked, with the utmost good nature, "all set- tled now," and handed back the stockings. In un- loading some potash one afternoon, Colonel Lyman dropped his hat, nearly a new one. His brother, who noticed him going bareheaded, said, "If you can't find your own hat, there lies a first-rate one on the counter inside, which I have just taken of an Indian in pawn." The hat proved to be the Colonel's own, which the cunning native had managed to pick up un- seen and to dispose of. The whites often bartered with the Indians for splint baskets, which were ornamented with high colored paints, splint brooms, willow-ware, moccasins, venison, berries and fish. The native was never wanting in shrewdness when conducting a trade. An Indian fisherman, in offering Deacon Stanley a string of fine brook trout, was asked, "What's your price ?" "One shilling, one fish," was the answer. "But there is a little one ! a shilling for that ?" " Oh yes, just as hard to catch him as big one," was quickly rejoined.
The squaw usually had charge of the luggage, which she carried upon her back, fastened by the burden strap or tump-line, a broad band of finely-braided bark, suspended from the forehead, crossed at the shoulders, and fastened to a little belt behind. The usual small trading parties consisted of an Indian and his family, but sometimes two or three families united and drove a shaggy pony before a wagon on which was piled their wares, the traffickers trudging along on foot. The men commonly wore the native costume, especially the inevitable blanket with its smoky smell. The squaws, always bareheaded, wore cloth petticoats,
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often of fine texture, leggings of the same, and deer- skin moccasins, neatly worked with colored beads and shells. The little pappoose, bound to its light frame, was borne upon the mother's back, its arms pinioned, and its little copper visage often exposed to the sun. This baby-frame of strong, light wood, was a couple of feet in length and about fifteen inches wide at the shoulders, the whole surmounted by a hoop, placed just above the head, upon which a curtain or vail was then placed, to screen the child's face, and from which also hung some jingling ornament to attract the little one. The frame served the infant abroad and at home. While the mother looked after her domestic affairs in the cabin, it hung from a peg so arranged that, on pass- ing, a touch from her hand would set it swinging. In the field, suspended from a limb, it was secure from snakes and other forest dangers, and the wind, by giv- ing it motion, would lull the little occupant to sleep. Schoolcraft says that moss was placed between the heels of female infants, to make them in-toed ; in males the adjustment of the moss was designed to produce a perfectly straight position of the foot.
It was not an uncommon thing for the first settlers to awake far in the night and find their floors covered with Indians who had thus snatched a few hours rest, quitting before morning as quietly as they came. A piece of venison or other article would often be left by these uninvited lodgers in requital. The early settlers profited by the native's knowledge of the forest. The pioneer who had lost his way in the woods, as not un- frequently happened, was fortunate if he chanced to meet an Indian, for the latter's sense of location seemed unerring. It mattered not how far astray the bewildered traveler might be, the native would never leave him with verbal directions merely, but, acting the part of guide, would pilot the traveler safely back into the
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
proper path. Colonel George Smith says the Indians would go to any new and strange location, pitch their wigwams and chase deer in all directions, the weather being ever so stormy or cloudy, and, at the proper time, would steer as direct for their camp as could a survey- or with his compass.
The Indians did not at once learn to curb their pro- pensity to use weapons for settling disputes or for obtaining what they desired, and the pioneers saw many examples of their impatient tempers. When in liquor they were easily exasperated, when the whites sometimes came in for a share of blows, though seldom with fatal results. But a knife or axe would be drawn on small provocation. An Indian, named Yankee John, came to the house of William Fuller- ton, in Sparta, one winter evening, with a deer upon his shoulder .* He was cold and demanded liquor, though he had evidently been drinking. This denied, he became saucy, and at length drew his knife, in a threatening way, upon Fullerton. The latter's Scotch blood was stirred. Stepping to the stairway he took down from its wooden hook, a heavy black horse-whip and gave the Indian a fearful welting. Mrs. Fullerton begged for mercy to the native, who by this time, was quite satisfied to give up the whiskey, and to spend the remainder of the night in quiet, sleeping from choice as he did upon the pioneer's hearth-stone, after partaking of a generous meal, before a well-kept fire of smouldering logs. Colonel Stanley saw much of the Indians while clerk for Allen Ayrault. He relates that a young Indian, who had been drinking, came
* " Yankee John " was a large Indian, who had a halt in his gait. While hunting one day he was pursued by a bear. Attempting escape, he started up a tree but Bruin, too quick for him, pulled the Indian back, crushed his leg, and would have made short work with him had not the redman's long knife speedily settled the bear's accounts.
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into the store one night, picked up a silk handkerchief and placed it under his belt. The act was observed. and the clerk, though alone, demanded the property, which was refused .. A souffle followed, the handker- chief was recovered, and the young thief ordered to quit the store, but he declined. to go. Stanley stepped toward him, when the Indian drew a knife with serious intent. Stanley picked up an axe-helve, knocked the knife from the Indian's hand, and the two clinched. The Indian, though the larger, was slightly intoxicated, and Stanley managed to hustle him to the doorway, elevated fully three feet from the ground, when, exert- ing all his strength, he thrust out his antagonist, who fell upon the frozen earth, with a groan, and lay for sometime quite stunned by the fall. Stanley lost no time in closing the store that night.
Surviving pioneers recollect many ofd customs of the Indians. Colonel George Smith witnessed the fol- lowing ceremony over a young native : He was first made dead drunk. A "shavety-knife " cr razor, was sought for among the neighboring whites, but none being at hand, a hunting knife was sharpened .- Placing a chip under the subject's right ear, a s'it par- allel with the outer edge of that member, was cut all the way around, leaving a rim somewhat thicker than a pipe-stem still attached at each end. The other ear was treated in the same manner, and both were bound up in sheet lead. When the Indian became sobered he sat up, felt of his ears, and finding that all was right, raised his hands in great delight and cried out, "ga-ya'-dos-hah] sha-go-yas-da-ni Geh-sa'-no-wa-rah nuh,"* meaning, "now I am & great name; no longer boy ;" "Big Injun me !"
* The latter Indian word was often pronounced, Shinne-wanna. But I have followed the orthography of Rev. Asher Wright, missionary at Cattar- augus Reservation, who has reduced the Seneca language to & written system.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
The curative means of the Indians consisted of roots and herbs. Dancing and singing were often resorted to; and, in extreme cases, witchcraft was employed ; for the older natives still held to the belief that disease was the result of sorcery. Indian medicine men might often be seen in the woods gathering their stores of simples. Tall Chief and John Jemison were noted for their skill in medicines, especially in applying remedies for the rattle-snake's bite, the ingredients of which they steadily refused to name, though they would go far and near to relieve a white patient. Mr. Horsford witnessed a dance designed to restore an Indian seriously indisposed. Three natives, with false faces, each wearing a deer-skin wrapped around the shoulders and another about the waist, entered the hut. They at once began a slow dance, passing, at each round, between the fire and the patient, who, quite naked, was seated upon the hearth. On step- ping by the fire, two of the dancers would gather up ashes and scatter over the sick man, while the third shook a turtle-shell rattle at him, and then darted to the sides of the room and shock it about the walls and over the bed. The ceremonies continued several minutes, when the dancers took off their masks and, without a word, left the house. The squaw of the household then brought in food, which had been pre- pared for the occasion, and distributed it to the guests.
The Senecas believed in a Great Spirit, whom they feared, and in an evil spirit whom they hated, but whose power they held as scarcely inferior to that of the other. After death, the good were to go directly to pleasant hunting-grounds, where game would bealways abundant ; the bad, to a place of temporary punishment, whence, in due time, they also were to be permitted to enter the happy home. The journey after death was one of considerable length. Hence, a dish of food
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
and a wooden spoon were buried with the corpse, and the gun, tomahawk, and scalping-knife of the warrior were placed by his side in the grave. The Indian's heaven was designed for his race alone, though an ex- ception was made in favor of Washington in reward for his acts of kindness toward the red man.
Aboriginal belief that the soul survives the body rest- ed on traditions like this :* In ancient times a war broke out between two tribes. On one side the forces were jointly led by a great warrior and a noted hunter. The latter had killed much game for the skins, the re- mains being left for beasts and birds of prey .- The battle was going against his side, and he saw that to save his own life he must quit the field. As he turned, the body of a great tree lay across his path. He came up to it when a heavy blow felled him. On recovering, he found, strangely enough, that he could as easily pass through as over the obstruction. Reach- ing home, his friends would not talk with him ; indeed, they seemed quite unaware of his presence. It now occurred to him that he too had been killed and was present in spirit only, human eyes not seeing him. He returned to the place of conflict, and there, sure enough, lay his mortal part quite dead and its scalp gone. A pigeon-hawk, flying by, recognized the dis- embodied hunter and gratefully offered to recover his scalp, so, stretching away in its flight to the retiring victors, he plucked it from the bloody pole. The other birds had meantime prepared a medicine which soon united the scalp to the head, when bears and wolves gathered around and joined in the dance The hunter got well and lived many years, his expe- ' rience strengthening their religious faith and teaching them how to use the remedies so strangely acquired,
* Mr. Horsford had this tradition from the lips of an aged Seneca.
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which, to this day are among the most efficacious known to the Indians.
The Senecas recognized a variety of subordinate spirits. Medicine, water, trees, their three favorite vegetables-corn, beans and squash-and other mate- rial objects, had each its tutelar deity. They observ- ed six periodical festivals : the maple, the planting, the green-corn, the berry, the harvest, and, crowning all, the New Year's jubilee, at which the white dog was sacrificed. The Great Spirit was thus thanked for blessing their labors and thus invoked for future favors. Their thanksgiving did not assume the char- acter of prayer. Indeed, they did not appear to com- prehend the nature and design of prayer, since sins of the heart were not contemplated by their system, which considered only the outward act.
The New Year's festival at Squakie Hill, in 1816, opened on the morning of the 7th of February .* A white dog was brought to the council-house and stran- gled, care being taken not to break its bones or shed its blood, and hanged to a post. Its body was then striped with red paint, and five strings of purple beads were fastened about the neck. A stem of hedge-hog quills was attached to the body, from which hung a clump of feathers, a rag filled with something like fine tobacco being placed under them. To each leg was tied a bunch of feathers with red and yellow rib- bons. The day was spent in short speeches and dream-telling. Near night, two Indians, with black- ened faces, appeared in bear skins, with long braids of corn husks about their ankles and heads. Keeping time to a dolorous song, they begun a tour of the vil-
* Hon. Jerediah Horsford was present at this festival and noted the cere- monies from day to day in his diary. To this I am indebted for data. Gov- ernor Geo. W. Patterson attended the festival three years later, at the same place, in company with several young men of Groveland, and has given me valuable facts.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
lage. Entering a house, they would pound the benches and sides and then proceed to the next, and so on throughout the village.
The discharge of three guns opened the second day's . proceedings, when five Indians appeared with long wooden shovels, and began to scatter fire and ashes until the council-house became filled with dust and smoke. This ceremony was repeated at each house several times during the day, but to a different tune at each round.
Speeches, exciting levity, and dreams, occupied the third morning. About noon the fire-shovelling was repeated with increased vigor. This over, the cloth- ing of the actors and others was changed, their heads were adorned with feathers and their faces with paint. A number of squaws in calico short gowns and blue broadcloth petticoats, ornamented with bead-work and a profusion of silver brooches, joined in the dance, which, beginning at the council-house, was repeated at every hut several times during the day. A species of gambling with a wooden dish and six wooden balls and a like number of white beans, was practiced from house to house. In the evening a party of dancers would enter a dwelling, and soon a person dressed in bear-skin and false face, would come in, when the dan- cers, as if afraid, beat a retreat to the next house.
The fourth day was devoted to ceremonies in which false faces and dancing held the principal place.
The maskers re-appeared on the fifth day. They approached every person for a trifling gift. An apple, a plug of tobacco, or a few pennies, was enough, in default of which the party refusing was often roughly handled. Two Indians, disguised as bears, came next. On their entering a house the inmates would at once quit it, when the mock bears pre- tended a disposition to tear everything in pieces
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
or to overturn whatever fell in their way. A number of Indians followed them, flashing guns, as though forcibly to drive out the simulated bears. Next in order was a game of ball upon the ice, played with great life by a party of seven on each side. Many a hard fall occurred, which always drew forth shouts of laughter. Three Indians then appeared in deer-skins and rags, one of whom, personating the evil one, had his clothing literally torn from his body by his com- panions, who quickly covered him with skins, and then led him from hut to but. In each hut he would lie down and roll along the ground, tumble into the fire, paw out the ashes and scatter it about the room, all the while groaning and making great ado, A dancing group next entered the council-house, with painted faces, attired in skins, with feathers around their heads and with deer's hoofs or pieces of tin fastened about their legs. A large Indian, with bow and arrows, soon came in, bringing three lads. The four enacted a rude drama of hunter and dogs. The boys got down on hands and knees, barking, growling and snapping at whatever came in their way, as they passed from door to door, demanding bread for the final feast, which two girls gathered into baskets.
On the morning of the sixth day, seven lads, one of whom was covered with wolf-skins and used two short sticks for fore-legs, went from house to house. The dwellers brought out corn and placed it in a basket carried by an aged female. Next followed a dance at the council-house. "The female dancers," says an eye witness, "were the most graceful, and, I may add, the most modest. I ever saw tripping the fantastic toe upon the bare ground." An old squaw stepped into the ring with a live pig under her arm. She would strike it upon the head, when the dancers -
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
would spat their hands and sing .* About noon prep- arations were made for burning the white dog, which was taken down and laid upon a small pile of dry wood, ornaments and all. An Indian gave three yells. The wood was then placed around and over the dog. When old and young had gathered quite near Jim Washington, a favorite speaker, he applied the fire, and, as it begun to burn, he walked around inside the cir- cle, occasionally throwing pulverized mint into the flames, all the while talking as if to some invisible being. The spectators appeared quite solemn, and at length joined in singing. When the pile was partly consumed Jim stopped. After a moment's pause, Ire put a question which met with loud response from the circle, and then all dispersed.
A general feast was now prepared at the council- house. Two brass kettles, filled with squash, corn, beans, pumpkins and venison, which had been boiling for hours over fires in the centre of the room, were placed on the ground, and the contents dipped away in calabashes and eaten with spoons, or from wooden sticks. with the bread gathered the day before. The evening was devoted to dancing, in which all joined. At length, one after another withdrew, and by ten o'clock the council-house was empty and silent. The ceremonial part of the festival was over, and though the seventh and last day was to follow, it was mainly spent in petty gambling and feats of strength.
The burning of the dog was designed to appease the Great Spirit's wrath. So were the burnt sacrifices of ancient Hebrews. The ceremonies at the huts were in- tended to scare away bad spirits, which, as was imagined, had become secreted in the crevices. The Jews had professional exorcisers, who also professed to
* "Quis-quis " meaning pigs, swine, was a word constantly repeated.
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drive away evil spirits ; while with the smoke of the burning mint these heathen red men believed their thanksgivings and petitions would ascend to the Source of all good. None but a white dog, the emblem of purity, could be used. The same caution was observed in selecting the sacrificial heifer by the Chosen People. Other parallels might be noted, and the inquirer is tempted to ask why the days of their celebration should correspond with the sacred seven of the Jews. Is it a coincidence simply ? or does it aid, with other facts of a similar nature, in solving the origin of the aborigines ?
Late in the last century a new religion was announced by a native of Canawaugus, the Indian village located near Avon. The prophet of this new faith was a half brother of Cornplanter, named Ga-ne-o-di-yo, or "Handsome Lake." Its effect was greatly to mitigate intemperance, a vice then fatally prevalent among the natives. The early life of the prophet had been one of idleness ; but, in lighting his pipe one day after a debauch, he fell back upon his mat, where, for many hours, he lay as dead. Four beautiful young men from heaven, angels, he called them, appeared, he said, who told him the Great Spirit was angry with the In- dians because of their habits of drunkenness, falsehood and theft. They conducted him to the open gates of Paradise, where, for several hours, he witnessed scenes glorious beyond conception. A command was there given him to proclaim what he had seen and heard. On recovering, he entered upon his mission with the zeal of a crusader .* Ungifted as a speaker, he called four young men possessed of superior parts for mis- sionary work, to whom he committed the heavenly
* I am indebted to Morgan and to Nathaniel T. Strong, Esq., himself a Seneca, for data here. The father of Mr. Strong was one of the four cho- sen missionaries, and. like the son, was a man of superior abilities.
4
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
precepts. Through them, and by his own personal intercourse, he incited young and old to better courses. His labors were crowned with abundant success.
It has been urged that Handsome Lake was inspired to the work by Cornplanter, rather than from a higher source, that crafty chieftain designing thereby to pre- serve for his kinsman the high position in councils so long held by himself. But this is quite improbable, for Cornplanter was at no pains to conceal his doubts as to the truth of the revelation, especially after the following incident. He had a beloved daughter who fell very sick. His anxiety on her account induced him to appeal to the prophet. The latter, in turn, in- quired of the four angels, if the girl would get well. They answered, she would, and continued to give like assurances until she died. Cornplanter then said that the revelation was but a pretense, and Handsome Lake became so incensed that he left the reservation of his half brother and went to Tonawanda. It is certain that Handsome Lake chose a course which quickly checked the sad inroads made by rum among the Iroquois. He was aware from experience of the strength of appetite for fire-water, and knew that, sin- gle-handed, he could accomplish little against the formidable evil ; hence he sought the powerful agency of superstition. His name is justly venerated among his people, who call him the Peace Prophet, in dis- tinction to the noted brother of Tecumseh, who is known as the War Prophet. At his death, in 1815, his grandson, So-se-ha-wa, or Johnson, who was also born near Avon, succeeded him asa teacher and expounder, and, like the uncle, exerted a great and salutary in- fluence among the Indians.
Trails, or foot-paths, connected the Indian villages and distant places. Portions of these forest highways
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HISTORYOF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
can yet be traced at certain points in the county, though the latter were generally cross-trails intersect- ing the great central pathway, which, starting at Albany and following a well-chosen route, terminated on Main street in the modern city of Buffalo. Mor- gan says, "This trail ran through the overhanging forest for almost its entire length. It was usually from twelve to eighteen inches wide, and deeply worn in the ground, varying in this respect from three to six and even twelve inches, depending upon the firmness of the soil. The large trees on each side were fre- quently marked with the hatchet. This well-beaten foot path, which no runner or band of warriors could mistake, had doubtless been trodden by successive generations from century to century." " It proved, on the survey of the country, so judiciously selected, that the great turnpike was laid out mainly on the line of this trail, from one extremity of the State to the other."
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