USA > New York > A history of New York, for schools. Vol. I > Part 11
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Wm. And so have I, Uncle.
Un. Very well. Our business is only with that division of these widely extended nations which is adjacent to our own state; and more particularly those who were inhabitants of the province of New York I would not, if I could, burden your memo- ries with the names of every tribe, or even with the various appellations given by writers to any one portion of this race. We will call the Indians who were scattered over the middle provinces, the Del- awares, (and they are likewise called the Leni-le- nape;) and those of New York, Long Island, and
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the neighbourhood, Mohegans. Now it happened that a distinct portion of the savage race came from the north and west, long before the white people began to settle in the country, who were greater warriours than the Delawares or the Mohegans, and they conquered all the country from Montreal, up · the river St. Lawrence, and about lakes Ontario and Erie, and to the Ohio river; and all that is now the state of New York, almost to the seashore; per- haps quite, for the Indians of Long Island paid them tribute.
John. This people was the Iroquois.
Un. So called by the French ; and by the Eng- lish the Six Nations. As we shall have more to do with them than most others, we must remember the name of each tribe, or nation, and the places occu- pied by them within our state. Five of these na- tions formed a confederacy, and carried on their plans of conquest in conjunction ; which shows an advance in civilization and policy.
John. The names of these five, sir, I remember. They were the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas.
Un. The Mohawk river marks the situation of the first, who extended to Johnstown, where the agent for the English, Sir William Johnson, lived among them; they are now altogether removed from us; but some of them remain in Canada. The name of Oneida county, tells us where that tribe lived. Onondaga-Hollow contains still a portion of the Onondagas; Cayuga lake and river, which you see on the map, informs us who lived there ; and a few Senecas occupy a part of their old sta- tion near Lake Erie. The Five Nations. were in the height of their power and pride about the time that the Dutch built their trading-houses at New York and Albany. It was long after this, perhaps
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in 1712, that another nation were driven from the south, and having some similarity of language with the Five Nations, they were received and incorpo- rated among them as a sixth; therefore we will call the confederacy, the Six Nations. This last- mentioned tribe was the Tuscarora, a few of whom I found twenty years ago on the Niagara near Lew- istown.
Phil. O, Uncle, have you been among the Indians?
Un. Yes, my son, among the remains of this once powerful confederacy, now a poor, despised, dir- ty remnant of outcasts.
i John. It appears surprising to me, sir, that peo- ple in a savage state should have formed a kind of federal republick. Is there any tradition of the causes that led to it ?
Un. When I was among the Indians (as Philip says) I became acquainted with a man named Web- ster, residing near the Onondaga river, who had been in childhood, and long before the American revolution, carried from a settlement on the frontiers, and adopted into an Indian family. He grew up among this people, learned their language, their customs, and was educated in all things as one of them. He said that the happy thought of union for defence originated with an inferiour chief of the Onon- dagas: who perceiving that although the five tribes were alike in language, and had by co-operation conquered a great extent of country, yet that they had frequent quarrels and no head or great council, to reconcile them ; and that while divided, the west- ern Indians attacked and destroyed them; seeing this, he conceived the bright idea of union, and of a great council of the chiefs of the Five Nations : this, he said, and perhaps thought, came to him in a dream ; and it was afterward considered as coming from the Great Spirit. He proposed this plan in
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a council of his tribe, but the principal chief op- posed it. He was a great warriour, and feared to lose his influence as head man of the Orondagas. This was a selfish man. The younger chief, who we will call Oweko, was silenced: but he determin- ed in secret to attempt the great political work. This was a man who loved the welfare of others. To make long journeys and be absent for several days while hunting would cause no suspicion, be- cause it was common. He left home as if to hunt; but taking a circuitous path through the woods, for all this great country was then a wilderness, he made his way to the village or castle of the Mo- hawks. He consulted some of the leaders of that tribe, and they received the scheme favourably : he visited the Oneidas, and gained the assent of their chief; he then returned home. After a time hc made another pretended hunt, and another; thus, by degrees, visiting the Cayugas and Senecas, and gain- ing the assent of all to a great council to be held at Onondaga. With consummate art he then gained over his own chief, by convincing him of the ad- vantages of the confederacy, and agrecing that he should be considered as the author of the plan. The great council met, and the chief of the Onondagas made use of a figurative argument, taught him by Oweko, which was the same that we read of in the fable, where a father teaches his sons the value of union by taking one stick from a bundle, and showing how feeble it was, and easily broken, and that when bound together the bundle resisted his ut- most strength.
Wm. I remember it, sir. But how did the In- dian know the fable.
Un. He did not know it. But this mode of il. lustrating a truth would readily occur to a man of acuteness in a savage state ; and might be suggested
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to various persons who know nothing of the thoughts of each other.
John. Is this the generally received opinion of the origin of this famous confederacy ?
Un. I know not of any generally received opin- ion. Some authors say it existed from time imme- morial; others tell us that the five tribes lived origi- nally about the Grand river in Canada, and were dependants on a greater people, and by forming a confederacy liberated themselves, and became con- querors of nations to the south; but my friend Web- ster's account is as good as any, for any thing I sce. He had it from the people, among whom he lived as one of themselves; it was a tradition, and of the · early history of such people tradition is all we can have.
Wm. Uncle, was Mr. Webster like an Indian ? How was he dressed ?
Un. He had been long restored to his place among white men, and Christians ; and was, in appearance, like other cultivators of the soil. He lived in the Onondaga valley, on his own land, near to the re- mains of that tribe; and was beloved by them. He was their interpreter in all communications with the whites, and they looked up to him as to a father. When his corn was ripe they came and gathered it in: at the time of haymaking they flocked to his meadows to assist; and the women were as eager as the men to aid him and his family in all their agricultural labours.
John. But the women do all the labour among their own people.
Un. . That's true; when they are in the hunter state. I will tell you how Webster apologized .for this. The man is expected to traverse mountain and valley in pursuit of game, and to bring home the spoils of the chase. The woman does the work
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at home ; she plants and gathers the corn, prepares the food, attends to the children and instructs them until a certain age, if boys; if girls, to maturity. The man is a warriour as well as a hunter, and must always be ready to defend his family, or to attack an enemy. " You have noticed," said Webster, "a woman loaded with her child, and per- haps a basket tied to her back almost as big as her- self, and filled with corn or other produce, and a man walking before her unencumbered, bearing nothing but a bow and arrows or a gun and ammunition ; this, remains of their old customs; for though these people about me are no longer hunters or warriours, they appear, on a journey, in the manner of their ancestors; the woman bearing the burden, and the man stalking on before, as her guardian.
Wm. Uncle, I wish you would tell us more of what you learned from Mr. Webster, for he must have known these people better than men who only visited them for a few days.
Un. If I talk about what the Indians now are, how shall we get on with our history of their for- mer wars, and of what happened in our state during the revolution ?
John. As the customs of the people remain in many respects the same, and were very little changed when Webster resided among them, that which he told you will give us a clearer notion of the transactions belonging to our history. What did he say of their religion, sir ?
Un. He represented them as believers in one God; called by them the Great Spirit, from whom all good comes to men. They have no distinct no- tion of any revelation from him except in dreams ; and occasionally some one among them, more artful than the rest, pretends to an intercourse with the Great Spirit by this medium, and gains thereby
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great influence for good and evil. It is said that formerly most of the Indians believed likewise in an evil spirit, and propitiated him by sacrifices. But a native of the Tuscaroras who had been educated among the whites, and has published a book since I saw Mr. Webster, tells us that they have, subsequent to their intercourse with civilized men, in a great measure, abandoned that belief and practice. Web- ster told me that they observed four annual religious meetings, at which they offered burnt sacrifices. One was at the time of planting their corn; one when it was fit for eating in its green, or soft, or milky state-
Wm. The time we have " hot corn" cried in the streets.
Un. Yes; and when we make suckatash, by boil- ing it with beans, which is a delicious dish, that we owe to the Indians. Their third religious celebra- tion, which appears to be, like the last, a meeting for thanksgiving, is when the corn is hard and fit for gathering in as winter food; and the last is in the winter, and if I remember aright, is to ask for success in their hunting. They have a belief in a future state, and in rewards and punishments after death. Some of their ceremonies have induced peo- ple to think that they are the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel.
John. Do you think so, sir ?
Un. As far as I have any definite opinion on so dark a subject, I attribute their origin to the Tar- tars, a people they resemble more than any other.
John. They are celebrated for hospitality.
Un. All nations in a savage state are hospitable.
John. And does refinement, knowledge, civiliza- tion, and riches, make men hard-hearted and inhos- pitable ?
Un. No. The rich and enlightened inhabitant 14
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of New York is in every respect better than the savage. But he cannot receive into his house every stranger that knocks at his door. The state of so- ciety forbids. The stranger that comes to a great city finds a home with a relative or friend; or at a house open and prepared for his reception, called a boarding-house or a hotel. But remove the rich inhabitant of the city to a place distant from society, on a plantation abounding with wealth, and his doors will be as open to the wanderer as those of any Arab of the desert, or Indian of the wilderness.
John. But, sir, are not the poor more disposed to relieve the distresses of others than the rich ?
Un. That is a question distinct from hospitality. Riches are sore temptations. And those who expe- rience poverty may have a fellow-feeling for the poor. Yet poverty may, when united to ignorance, harden the heart; and riches may lead to that know- ledge which teaches to love our neighbour as our- selves; and that our neighbour is every creature endowed with worth or oppressed by misfortune. Both poor and rich may have this salutary know- ledge; without which both are poor.
WVm. But, Uncle, I want to hear more of the Indians.
Un. Ay, boy, let us go òn.
John. You said, sir, that these pretended pro- phets, or impostors, made use of their influence for good and for evil. Can good come from deceit ?
Un. Well questioned, my son. A temporary good we know has been occasionally produced by such base and unworthy means; unworthy of the good cause, and liable to be the forerunner of last- ing evil : for falsehood is sooner or later unveiled, and those who have been deceived into doing good may return with redoubled force to the practice of evil. There is no sure foundation for good, but
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truth. Mr. Webster told me of good produced by the commands of a pretended prophet who said that the Great Spirit forbade the drinking of any intoxicating liquors. You know that the white peo- ple introduced this practice among the Indians; and the Onondagas as well as others had been reduced to the degraded state of drunkards, whenever they could procure the poison that was destroying them. They listened to this man, who with good intent told falsehood to recommend truth. He told them that the use of spirituous liquors was destroying them: that the whites made them drunk to cheat them; this was truth. But he enforced it by pre- tending that the Great Spirit appeared to him and ordered him to speak to his favoured Ononda- gas. They obeyed, and strictly refrained. The consequence was better health, more industry, and a. reputation for truth and honesty, which contrasted with the character of their neighbours the Oneidas, who were so conscious of their own inferiority, that if a stranger asked one of them to what nation he belonged, he would answer " Onondaga."
John. Then it seems, sir, that good proceeded from falsehood.
Un. For a time; yes. But see, children, it was like a good house erected on a foundation of sand. Falsehood is always detected sooner or later. We may suppose that this people, deceived to their ben- efit, should be convinced that their prophet had abused their credulity: they would perhaps again yield to the temptations of their appetites, and those of the mercenary traders around them, and become even worse than before: but if this man had per- suaded them by arguments alone, and convinced their reason by words of truth, then, reformation would have been like the wise man's house you read of, that was founded on a rock; and their good
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conduct would be as steadfast against temptation as that house was immoveable, when the floods and the winds assailed it in vain.
John. But the Indians are noted for deceitfulness.
Un. If they should possess every vice that inen calling themselves Christians practise, they would be more excusable than those who have had better instruction and education.
Wm. Have they any education, sir ?
Un. They are neither taught to read nor to write, but they are taught to run, to swim, to bear pain with fortitude, to shoot with the bow or the rifle, to make their own clothing, ornaments, utensils, and original arms, to be eloquent in council, polite in debate, and to tell the truth. Education of the best kind is given to us in infancy, before we are taught `to read; I mean, children, the education your good mother gave you before you could speak the name of father.
WVm. Polite, sir ? An Indian polite ?
Un. Yes, they are polite. In their councils, (and every tribe is governed by its council like true re- publicans, every man having a voice, and the whole only yielding to the influence of age and wisdom,) and in the great council of the Six Nations, held at Onondaga, they never interrupt each other, and never rudely contradict. This I call politeness in debate, and worthy of imitation.
John. You said they were taught to speak truth; yet they are very treacherous.
Un. War, the curse of mankind, justifies in their eyes, and unhappily in those of men better taught, every species of deceit, falsehood, and treachery, for the destruction of their enemies. It is true that among men calling themselves civilized, there are certain rules or laws of warfare, which in many cases miti- gate the evil. The Indian, who has not been taught
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to love his enemy, and to return good for evil, openly indulges his thirst for revenge, and believes it right to do so. The Christian, so called, when he follows the example, or teaches the lesson, knows that he is doing wrong.
John. There always have been wars, sir. Is all war wrong ?
Un. All, in my opinion, except for defence : and then no further injury should be inflicted than ne- cessity requires. The war of the American revo- lution was a war of defence; for to oppose the de- struction of the laws on which my happiness de- pends is as justifiable as to defend my life against the stroke of the assassin.
John. Had the Indians any laws ?
Un. Certainly. Man cannot exist in society with- out them. Their laws were traditions: the cus- toms of their ancestors, handed down from father to son ; the memory of them preserved in some in- stances by strings of wampum.
Wm. What is wampum, Uncle ?
Un. The Indians called by that name, pieces of clam and oyster, and other shells, which they con- trived to cut out and string together; they used them for ornament, money, and remembrancers of facts or laws. Europeans made them a substitute for money when they first came to this continent. You will perceive, by what I have said, that the Indians had a definite notion of property. Each in- dividual claimed his cabin or wigwam, the arms he possessed or fabricated, the skins or food he procu- red by hunting, and the clothing he made of those skins. For you know until Europeans brought them blankets and cloth, they wore nothing but the skins of the beasts they slew. The blankets and other clothing supplied by the whites served them instead, and the skins were more valuable to the
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Dutch and other traders; so that each gained by the exchange.
John. But, sir, how did the whites get all the In- dian land ?
Un. Because the Indians had not a just notion of the value of the soil, not being an agricultural people. Every nation claimed property in a great portion of wilderness, but it was principally valued as hunting ground. If a man, or family, raised a field of corn or pumpkins, it was considered his while he occupied it, and he enjoyed the produce; but if he removed, it then fell into the common stock. This caused the Indians to set little value on their land compared to what Europeans did; and they sold large tracts of country for what was in their eyes of more value, a few guns, some powder, lead, hatchets, knives, and, unhappily, rum. The same cause operated in the gifts they made to white men. The well known story of the manner in which Sir William Johnson obtained a great tract of land from the Mohawks will elucidate the subject.
Phil. How was it, Uncle ?
Un. John will tell you.
John. This Johnson was an Englishman, who at first settled upon a snug farm in the Mohawk country, and having been appointed Indian agent for the colony of New York, gained great influence over the Six Nations; and in one of the wars with the French he had the good fortune with a party of provincials and Indians to defeat a large detach- ment of the enemy. For this the king of Eng- land made him a knight, called him Sir William, and sent him ribands and stars, and fine coats. The Indians are very fond of finery, and the chief of the Mohawks coveted Sir William's scarlet coat trimmed with gold lace. So he told Johnson that he "dreamed a dream ;" and it was, that the knight
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gave him this fine red coat. Sir William knew it was necessary to his popularity that he should com- ply, and the chief received the garment instantly. But a short time after, Sir William "dreamed a dream."
Wm. Oho !
John. And it was, that the chief and his council gave him a large tract of land, from such a tree to such a rivulet. The chief said "Hoh!" The gift was made by the tribe. But the old chief said, " Sir William, I no dream any more : you dream better than Indian."
Un. There is a story told of the mode in which the first settlers of this island obtained land from the natives, which, if true, evinces something of trickery in the Dutch traders, and shows likewise that the Indians valued their soil very lightly. John, how does Virgil or his commentators say the land was obtained on which Carthage was founded or commenced ?
John. The owners agreed to give or sell to Queen Dido as much as would lie within the compass of a bull's hide; and the cunning lady cut the hide so as to form one long strip with which she encircled land enough for the fortress which was the commence- ment of the city.
Un. It is said that one of the Dutch traders re- membered his Virgil, and gained the same advan- tage over the Indians of Manhattan. They admi- red his ingenuity ; and were only the more pleased with their visiters. I will tell you another, and a less known instance of the case with which this people gave away their soil. On Long Island there long existed two families of the name of Smith, one of which was distinguished for years as being of the "bull-breed," from the manner in which their ancestor gained his farm. He had made himself
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popular with the Mohegans, and for some service done them, they offered him as much land as he could ride round in a given time upon the back of a bull. Smith mounted ; and the bull, not used to such treatment, ran : the Indians shouted-and, by follow- ing, with their clamour urged on the animal. Thus a great circuit was made through wood, marsh, and bramble; and Smith by keeping his seat on the bull's back, in despite of bush or brier, secured a large landed property, and a name to his posterity.
Wm. Why, Uncle, the bull's hide served Mr. Smith without being cut into strips. I like this sto- ry best of the three : the bull kept his hide and the man gained his farm.
Un. I think now we may return to our history, for you must know pretty well all that is necessary of the customs of the Six Nations.
John. I know how they eat the green corn; but how do they manage with that which is hard, as they have no mills to grind it ?
Un. The women pound the grains in a kind of mortar made of the stump of a hard-wood tree. When I was at the Onondaga castle I saw on the ground a piece of wood about four feet long, and taking it up, found that it was solid and heavy, but tapering at one end. I asked its use, and was in- formed by a laughing Indian that it was their grist mill. It was the pestle used with the mortar for breaking their corn either for hominy or bread.
Wm. Uncle, you have not told us any thing of the burial of their dead.
Un. I questioned Mr. Webster on that subject, and he answered that when a death occurred in a fam- ily the women commenced a kind of howling monot- onous lamentation, which called the neighbouring females to the wigwam, who joined in the mournful song. This is continued until the body is buried ;
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and sometimes for days after. The corpse is car- ried to the grave by men ; others following, without apparent distinction or order. The women remain in the wigwam continuing their lament. The body of the deceased is deposited by the side of the last of his tribe who had been buried, and some ornaments are usually thrown into the grave. The relations of the deceased do not follow the corpse to its place of intended rest. In the township of Pompey is a very extensive cemetery where the bones of the aborigi- nes lie in rows, side by side, for acres. The present owners of the soil frequently, when ploughing, turn up parts of the human skeleton, and occasionally some articles of dress, or instruments of war. The head that guided the council, and the arm that wield- ed the tomahawk, are scattered upon the surface with as little ceremony, as is used in our city when levelling a graveyard to make way for a street, or making an excavation for the cellar of a storehouse. It is observed that the wandering Indians assiduous- ly avoid this township. They feel that not only their land has passed from them, but the resting- place and bones of their ancestors.
Wm. I am sorry for the Indians: are not you, sir? Un. I cannot but lament their fate; but I rejoice to see those tracts of country which they devoted to the chase, and to the savage conflicts of extermi- nating war, now teeming with food for thousands and covered with the habitations of civilized men.
John. The Indians found some friends among the whites, sir.
Un. Many. Among those who endeavoured to save them from the arts of the wicked, or their own ignorance, I could speak of many Christian philan- thropists. The best friends of the whites, the men who taught freedom of inquiry, equality of rights both civil and religious, and interchange of good
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