USA > New York > Livingston County > Nunda > Centennial history of the town of Nunda : with a preliminary recital of the winning of western New York, from the fort builders age to the last conquest by our Revolutionary forefathers > Part 3
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The supreme power was vested in a congress of sachems, fifty in number. The Mohawks were entitled to nine members, the Oneidas to nine, the Onondagas to fourteen. the Cayugas to ten, the Senecas to eight. The office of Sachem was hereditary in tribes. They were "raised up," not by their respective nations, but by a council of all the Sachems. They formed the "Council of the League" and in them resided the executive, legislative and judicial authority.
At their respective homes these Sachems governed, forming five independent local sovereignties, modeled after the General Congress of the Sachems. They were five distinct local Republics within one general Republic. It is as if our Con- gressmen, when they returned from the general seat of government, formed at home a council for local government. It was far more, however, than in our government, "the rule of the few" filling up the ranks as vacancies occurred-a power of self creation, liable to abuse, but so far as known did not prevent the general well working of their system. Though all were equal in power, a Sachem from the Onondagas ( the central fire ) had at least a nominal superiority. He was the head of the Confederacy and was the one Great Wise Counsellor or, as our Presidents are, Ruler in Chief. His position was hereditary, not from birth, but from locality .. The first Onondaga, or Chief Sachem of the League, was variously called Ta-do-da-hoh or, according to Cusisk, the At-ta-tar-ho, who was con- temporary with the formation of the "Leage." To this first great warrior Sachem, whose dishes and spoons were made of the skulls of his enemies, and whose name terrorized all aliens, we may read between the lines a demand for superiority and of a compromise giving perpetual rights and privileges and additional representa- tion to the O-nonda-gas or "Great Mountain Race." The word king was often applied to these Chief Sachems, who ruled with much arbitrary power, in their own nations, by Europeans, but "Counselor of the People" was the extent of power they claimed as rulers. The colonists called all the lesser chiefs John.
There were in the Five Nations the same number of War Chiefs as Sachems The maxim "Old men for counsel and young men for war," may have had its origin in this wise arrangement. In Council the War Chief stood behind the Counselor ready to execute the commands of his superior. However, if the two " went out with a war party, the Sachem became the subordinate, supreme in Coun-
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cil but not in war. The supreme command of the war forces and the general con- duct of the wars of the Confederacy, all this was entrusted to two military chiefs, with hereditary rights. These were in all cases to be of the Seneca Nation. Such were Hohskesio of Nunda and Little Beard of Leicester his successor. The home advisers and counsellors, after the advent of the Europeans, were called chiefs. Some of them became almost equal in rank and authority to the Sachems. In each nation there were eight tribes which were arranged in two divisions and named as follows :
Wolf
Bear
Beaver
Turtle
Deer
Snipe
Heron
Hawk
This division of men into tribes became the means of effecting the most per- fect union (says Turner ) of separate nations ever devised by the wit of man. In effect, the Wolf Tribe was divided into five parts, and one-fifth of it placed in each of the five nations. The other tribes were similarly divided and distributed, thus giving to each nation eight tribes and making in their separated state forty tribes in the Confederacy. Between those of the same name, i. e., between the separated parts of each tribe there existed a tie of brotherhood which linked the nations to- gether with indissoluble bonds. The Mohawk of the Beaver Tribe recognized the Seneca of the Beaver Tribe as his brother, and they were bound to each other. Likewise, all the five tribes of the Turtle were brothers. They gave to each other always a fraternal welcome. This cross relationship between the tribes of the same name was stronger, if possible, than the chain of brotherhood between the eight tribes of the same nation. It is still preserved in all its original strength. This explains the tenacity with which the fragments of the old Confederacy still cling together. For one nation to cast off its alliance would have been the sever- ing of the bonds of brotherhood. Had the nations come into warfare it would have turned Hawk against Hawk, Heron against Heron; that is, brother against brother.
Originally, with reference to marriage, the Wolf, Bear, Beaver and Turtle Tribes were brothers to each other and cousins to the other tribes. They were not allowed to intermarry. The other four tribes were brothers to each other and cousins to the first four tribes, and these could not intermarry. Either of the first four tribes could intermarry with either of the last four. The Hawk could choose his wife from the tribes Bear, Beaver, Heron or Turtle. They can now marry into any tribe but their own. The children always belong to the tribe of the mother. The canons of descent of the Iroquois are the very reverse of that of the civilized world. If the Deer Tribe of the Cayugas received a Sachemship at the original distribution of these offices it must always remain with that tribe. The Sachem's son belongs to his mother's tribe and is therefore disinherited. He cannot even inherit from his father his medal or even his tomahawk much less succeed him as Sachem. The brothers, or his sister's children; or some individual of his tribe not a relative follows the succession.
In the case of the death of a Sachem or War Chief his successor would first be selected by the home council of the tribe, from the brothers of the deceased or the sons of his sisters unless there were physical or other objections, or it was obvious some member of the tribe by reason of his prowess or wisdom was evi- dently better fitted for the position when the tribal decision was made, then the
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nation summoned a council, in the name of the deceased, of all the Sachems of the league, and the new Sachem was raised up by such council and invested with his office.
We close this perhaps too lengthy description of the greatest of Indian at- tempts at a Republic-a form of government of which they had never heard, by a quotation from Dr. Peter Wilson, an educated Cayuga Chief, who addressed by invitation on one occasion the New York Historical Society.
"The land Ga-nun-no. or the Empire State, as you love to call it, was once laced by our trails from Albany to Buffalo; trails that we had trod for centuries ; trails worn so deep by the feet of the Iroquois that they became your roads of travels as your possessions gradually eat into those of my people. Your roads still traverse those same lines of communication which bound one part of the Long House to the other. Have we. the first holders, of this prosperous region no longer a share in your history? Glad were your fathers to sit down upon the threshold of the Long House. Rich did they hold themselves in getting the mere sweepings . from its door. Had our forefathers spurned you when the French were thunder- ing on the other side to get a passage through and drive you into the sea, what- ever has been the fate of other Indians we might still have had a nation and I -- I instead of pleading here for the privilege of lingering within your borders I-I might have had a country."
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To this eloquent half blood we are not only indebted for this choice specimen of Indian eloquence but also for the Indian name of our own great state, Ga- nun-no. Its meaning has not been greatly changed when we call it the Empire State. To the Nunda-wa-o-no nation, whose prowess extended its dominion from the Genesee to the Niagara, it meant the vast domain of the Hill-Born-Race.
CHAPTER V.
THE INVINCIBLE IROQUOIS -- THEIR SUBJUGATION OF THE HURONS AND OTHER INDIAN NATIONS -- THE NEUTRALS AND THEIR HOUSE OF PEACE.
"By the far Mississippi the Illinois shrank When the trail of the Tortoise was seen at the bank. On the hills of New England the Pequot turned pale, When the howl of the Wolf swelled at night on the gale And the Cherokee shook in his green smiling bowers When the foot of the Bear stamped his carpet of flowers."
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EVER for a moment since the Hurons caused the flight of the Senecas from Canada had there been peace between these Indian nations; and the barbarity of France in making galley slaves of some of the Iroquois and of arming with guns their Indian allies in order to annihilate the Senecas, who held them from possession of that part of New York they claimed as a por- tion of New France, these acts had made France no less a mortal enemy. The common hatred of England and of themselves against France made them allies and led to extinction of the claims of France to Western New York. From 1648 it became evident that certain allies of the French, the Hurons, must be destroyed.
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In 1648 the Iroquois were again in force on the warpath waging aggressive war on the Hurons. Father Antoine Daniel. a zealous Jesuit, had a mission station at St. Joseph, and while the Hurons were absent on the chase their inveterate enemies, the Senecas, came upon their old men, women and children, including the missionary and they massacred them all, Father Antoine being the first of his calling to find a martyr's fate. In his attempt to bless the heathen he became the first of many others to fall a victim to pagan and savage hatred. The saving of the souls of their enemies was an offense that admitted of no palliation to these savages who scalped their enemies to keep them from Paradise.
In the early part of 1649 a thousand Iroquois fell on two villages of the Hurons and nearly exterminated the whole population. The missionaries of both villages shared the common fate. In the latter part of the same year the Huron village of St. Johns with nearly 3.000 population, with its missionary, perished. A dire disease, beyond the skill of the Indian, aided the war club in decimating their ranks. The remnant saw annihilation before them unless in humble submis- . sion they threw themselves on the clemency of their conquerors. They knew they would accept additional warriors for greatness of numbers increases safety and ensures subsequent victories ; so they presented themselves to their conquerors, pledged allegiance. and were accepted as kinsmen, and the few who did not come willingly but wandered away were hunted down like wolves and exterminated.
·THE MASSAWOMEKES
Before discussing the origin, peculiarities and fate that awaited alike the "Great Wild Cat race." the sable Kah Kwas or their kinsmen and neighbors. the Eries, known by the French as the Cat nation, because they used certain furs in their clothing, we must go back a little farther to the time of John Smith of the Jamestown Colony days for the information he gives concerning a race of con- querors that triumphed previous to his coming, whose conquests were as complete as those of the Iroquois of later days, that many have hastily supposed that they must have been the same. Writers. enthused by the belligerent spirit of the "Five Nations," of whom they were writing, have eagerly jumped at this conclusion, ignoring the fact that stupendous conquests and victories over former possessors had swept away the Mound-builders, the Fort-builders, the Allegewi or Ohio River (once called the Allegany River ) Indians before the Iroquois had won any great victories save in the East. John Smith, while making one of his exploring expedi- tions along Chesapeake Bay, reported that the tribes he met lived in perpetual fear of a nation far away that they called Massawomekes, by the direction they came from and by the fact that intervening tribes represented them as hostile, some of whom were closely connected with the Iroquois, it seems evident that they were the Eries, so-called by the Hurons, by the Five Nations, Rique and by the French Chat or Cat. so-called by Segur in his History of Canada, published in 1836. There is also a belief that at this early date the Eries and Kah Kwas were allies and went to war together, and when united were invincible.
THE KAH KWAS OR NEUTRALS
Very little is known or told of this giant race of grand physique and sable coppery complexion. As they lived along the Niagara and in the Huron country
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we naturally conclude they were Hurons. But the visit of the missionary fathers. Jean De Brebeuf and Joseph Marie Chaumonot, in 1840, describe the difference between these savages and the Hurons and also distinguish them from their near neighbors, the Cats or Eries. Most authorities class them together or fail to men- tion the Kah Kwas at all. No doubt at one time they were allies. Their neutrality for a long period had given them great numerical strength and as hunters and fishermen their location was an ideal Indian Paradise.
As the writer believes, the Kah Kwas had villages in this vicinity, as well as a Nunda chief at a later day, he turns to the Jesuits of two and a half centuries ago for information to refute or confirm his opinions.
Father Jean de Brebeut, a skilled linguist familiar with the Huron dialect. leaves his mission at St. Marie November 2, 1640, to establish a mission among the Neuters. He visits 18 of their 40 villages and finds he has been preceded there by Father De la Roch Daillon, a Recollect. who passed the winter there in 1626. To quote the oft quoted letter to this Jesuit missionary: "The nation is very popu- ' lous, there being estimated about forty villages. He gives the distance traveled from St. Marie on Lake Huron to the first Kah Kwas village 40 leagues, due South. From this it is four days' travel to the place where the celebrated river of the nation ( Niagara ) empties into Lake Ontario or 'St. Louis." On the west side of the river are the most numerous of the villages of the Neuter nation. There are three or four on the east, extending from east to west toward the Eries or C'at nation." He gives the name of the Niagara and of their eastermost villages as Onguiaahra (an imitation or allusion to the roar of the cataract) and he sug- gests that if they-the French-could get control of the side of the lake nearest the residence of the Iroquois "we could ascend by the river St. Lawrence without danger, even to the Neuter nation, and much beyond with great saving of time and labor. The Neuter Nation comprises 12.000 souls which enables them to fur- nish 4.000 warriors notwithstanding that war pestilence and famine have pre- vailed among them for three years in an extraordinary manner. *
"Our French who first discovered this people, named them the Neuter Nation. and not without reason for their country being the passage by land by some of the Iroquois (the Senecas ) and the Hurons who are sworn enemies they remained at peace with both so that in times past the Hurons and Iroquois meeting in the same wigwam or village were at peace and in safety while they were there.
"Recently, their enmity against each other is so great that there is no safety for either party in any place. particularly for the Hurons, for whom the Neuter Nation entertained the least good will." He surmises that all these nations. Hurons, Neuters and Iroquois, were one nation but have separated. become alien- ated. Some became enemies, some became Neutral and others ( the Five Nations) friends.
"The food and the clothing of the Neuter Nation seem very different from that of the Hurons. They ( the Neuters ) have Indian corn, beans and gourds (a Frenchman's name for pumpkins and squashes ) in equal abundance. Also plenty of fish, some kinds of which abound in particular places only. They are much employed in hunting deer, buffalo, wild cats (they were sometimes called wild cats, while the Eries, once a part of them, were called Cats because they dressed in skins of an animal of the cat kind that abounded in Ohio) wolves, wild boars, beaver and other animals. Meat is very abundant this year because of deep snow
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which has aided the hunters. It is rare to see snow here more than a foot deep; this year it is three feet deep. Wild turkeys abound which go in flocks in the fields and woods. Their fruits are the same as with the Huron except chestnuts which are more abundant and crabapples which are larger."
He states that the Senecas, whom he calls Sonontonheronons, is a day's jour- ney distant from the village of Niagara and is the most dreaded by the Hurons.
He also reports one village that lie calls Khe-o-e-to-a, or "St. Michael," which gave them a kind reception, and says: "In this village a certain foreign nation. which lived beyond the lake of Erie, named A-ouen-re-no-son, has taken refuge here for many years."
Chaleroux says that in the year 1642 a people larger, stronger and better formed than any other savages, who lived south of the Huron country, were visited by the Jesuits, who preached to them the "Kingdom of God." They were the Neuters and tried in vain to be neutral. To avoid the fury of the Iroquois they finally joined them against the Hurons but gained nothing by the union. "The Iro- · quois, like lions that have tasted blood, cannot be satiated, destroyed indiscrimi- nately all that came in their way and at this day there remains no trace of the Neuter Nation." In another place he says the Neuter Nation was destroyed in 1643. A writer in the Buffalo Commercial in 1846 says this singular tribe whose institution of neutrality has been likened by an eloquent writer to a calm and peaceful island looking out upon a world of waves and tempests, in whose wig- wams the fierce Hurons and relentless Iroquois met on neutral ground. fell victims near the city of Buffalo to the insatiable ferocity of the latter. They were the first proprietors as far as we can learn of the soil we now occupy.
But were they? Who built the earthworks at Ti-u-en-ta ( Lewiston) ? The Fort-builders. Who subdued them? Not the "Romans of the New World," the Iroquois. Who were these foreigners in this village of the Kah Kwas? Possibly the Allegewi or Ohio Indians. Who occupied some of these forts? Who con- quered them? Possibly the Messowomekes, once the terror of the eastern and southern tribes. Where did these come from? From Lake Erie County. Where did these Kah Kwas, cousins of the Senecas and Eries and Tuscaroras, get their superior physique and darker color? From amalgamation with some conquered race.
The names given by the French to all the villages where they made converts are exceedingly confusing and so this foreign nation and its village loses a con- necting link in the chain of pre-occupants of the predecessors of the pioneers.
Again, it is of especial interest to record that when the French missionaries and traders first reached the southern shores of Lake Ontario and the Niagara River the Neuter Nation was in possession of the region west of the Genesee. The Senecas' domain extended only to the Genesee River. After the conquest of the Eries, said to be in 1653, there is no possible reason to suppose that the Senecas would not have at least small villages on both sides of the Genesee River, unless their wars of extermination of some of the greatest Indian nations of the continent had decimated their own numbers till it was policy to concentrate in their four villages, where they were at the time of De Nonville's invasion a few years after- ward. We do not hear of any Eries saved for adoption, but the Kah Kwas were to be found at Onondao and at Squakie Hill and at other villages. This system of making good the numbers of the slain by adopting captives into families that had
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sustained losses, and of whites as future interpreters, shows the superiority of the Senecas over the Kha Kwas or other antagonists. At least three generations with Kha Kwas blood lived at Onondao. Of these we are fortunate in being able to furnish the likeness when a century old of Kenjockity, whose father was a chief. and whose grand sire was a captive youth, a captive of 1643.
CHAPTER VI.
THE NEUTRALS BECOME WARRIORS-QUEEN YA-GO-WA-NE-O: A MODERN SEMI- RAMIS-A BATTLE AT THE MOUTH OF THE KESHEQUA-A NATION OF 12,000 CEASE TO BE-TRADITIONAL DESTRUCTION OF THE KAH KWAS ABOUT 1643.
T HIS Indian tradition, as told by Cusick, a Tuscarora Chief, though cer- tainly incorrect as far as dates are concerned, is still of interest. Cusick. being a Tuscarora, could not have known this save by tradition for the Tuscaroras were not in New York until after 1713. He said: "A thousand years before the arrival of Columbus (probably a hundred years after his arrival) the Senecas were at war with the Kah Kwas. Battle succeeded battle and the Senecas were repulsed with great slaughter. Tidings of their disaster having reached the great Atotarho ( King or Chief Counselor of the Iroquois) at Onondaga (the place of the central fire or congress ) he sent an army to their relief. Thus strengthened they assumed the offensive and drove the enemy into their forts, which after a long siege were surrendered and the principal chief put to death. The remnant of the tribe became incorporated with their conquerors.
Chief David Cusick seems to have condensed the history of years into a single battle, and left out the very interesting story of a Kha Kwa Queen who ruled her nation of Neutrals to please herself and the young warriors, who had become proud of their unused strength. Great in physical force and numerical strength they doubtless were anxious to conquer the boastful conquerors of that age. the Senecas. They would show their prowess. They would be a nation of warriors and not simply hunters and fishermen. The ambitious Queen, Ya-go-wa-ne-o, at her fortified castle at Kienuca ( Lewiston ) would show the "Great Mountain Peo- ple" that the Queen at the Great Cataract had no fear of the great A-ta-tar-ho if his Long House was hundreds of miles in length. She would crush the long cabin race before the A-ta-tar-ho could come to their assistance. She would crush one village at a time. With this in view she had not long to wait for an opportunity to prove her courage, pride, passion and vaulting ambition. What Shorihowane. Queen Ya-go-wa-ne-o, would be a conqueror of nations, to the giant Kah Kwas. Queen Ya-go-wa-ne-o. a conqueror of nations, would be to the giant Kah Kwas. In her keeping was the symbolic "house of peace." She received chiefs of other tribes, made alliances with them, and formed treaties. There could be no conten- tion in her presence, the fiercest strife of words was hushed at her approach. na- tional chiefs at feud were bound to stay their quarrel while under her roof. Tradi- tion attributes to her much wisdom as a pacifier, and for a long time she enjoyed peculiar power and influence. All this, however, in a moment of unbridled pas- sion, jealousy and ambition she imperiled and ultimately forfeited.
Two Seneca ambassadors had been received at her castle, and while smoking the pipe of peace were, contrary to Indian usage, murdered for an alleged outrage
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in a distant village. With 12,000 people and forty villages, some of them no doubt in the Keshaqua valley, she had reason to rely on her strength.
It was only too evident that this royal Se-mi-ra-mis desired an excuse to meas- ure her power with her arrogant neighbor at Chennissio ( then the west door of the Long House ). Had he slighted her in some way that made the woman nature within her forget her duty as peace keeper? She acted with promptness, that Napoleon, in after years, would have applauded. Her warriors must cross the Genesee and follow some lonely trail and fall upon the village of the chief and conquer their strong hold and kill their chief ere news of her rash act could reach a single Seneca ear elsehere.
Alas! the best made schemes "gang aft agley." What one woman planned in hate another thwarted because of love. A Kah Kwa maid, with a lover at Canan- daigua, fled by the direct Canawagas trail to Kaneandahgua and told her lover of the assassination and the intended assault at Chennissio. The chieftain acted with promptitude and 1.500 men from nearby towns soon set out in two divisions, de- · termined to ambush and surprise the surprisers and foil and frustrate the invading host. The war party of the Senecas, it is said, reached Kanaugsaws ( Conesus) and there the squaws, old men and boys brought up their supplies. From here they arranged near the Canaseraga where all the trails cross an ambush and sent out a scout dressed as a bear to allure the invaders into securing needed provisions. This adroit strategy succeeded as planned for the Kah Kwa hunters, more famous as skilled hunters than as warriors, suspecting nothing, saw and pursued the false bear into the midst of the ambuscade. The Senecas now fell upon the invaders like a whirlwind. Their terrific war whoop, mingled with the din of crashing war clubs, clashing spears and whiz of tomahawk. The Kah Kwas, however, after a while recovered from the disorder caused by the unexpected onslaught, pushed one division of the Senecas back against the other, when, it is said, the Senecas inspired by the impending danger, were seized by a war frenzy, and hurling them- selves with irresistible force. resolved to conquer or die, drove the enemy from the field. The latter fled across the Genesee leaving 600 of their dead behind. The Seneca Chief declined to pursue, for few Indian battles up to this time could equal this in numbers of the slain. To follow an enemy superior in numbers and fall in turn into a Kah Kwa ambush would mean annihilation. Seneca runners already had been sent to the great Onondaga Chief. The Central Fire was not burning in vain. Sho-ri-to-wane, the great chief of the league, with a force added to theirs would give the advantage of numbers to those who had already conquered without it. In due time came this chieftain, and not content with the great victory achieved. determined to punish the ambitious Queen and extinguish forever her council fire. With a force of 5,000 warriors they crossed the Genesee and were soon attacking the fort of the enemy with energy and courage borr of their recent victory. . cloud of arrows from the well manned fort were received by the beseigers, one of them striking their mighty chieftain, causing his death. Enfolded in panther skins his body was borne back across the Genesee for future burial with befitting honors. A Jesuit missionary has recorded his burial. The siege of Kan-quet-kay fort went on, however, until the proud Queen sued for peace, which was granted. But Sen- eca rage grew greater as the months sped away. Nothing would satisfy them for the loss of their great chief but the death of the greatest Kah Kwa war chief, and in a few months or years the "Romans of the West" were again at the fortress
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