History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches, Part 5

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen
Number of Pages: 1422

USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 5

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But the day of the hunter in this region is well nigh passed away. A century ago his efforts were richly rewarded. The woods abounded with deer and rabbits, the openings with woodcock, 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 merchants drove a thrifty trade in exchanging goods for scalps of these destructive animals, to be redeemed, in turn, by the authorities at fixed bounties.

Intercourse between the natives and the white settlers was marked

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

by good nature. The Indians were generally truthful and honest ; though, after taverns and stores began to multiply, the younger class, tempted by the novelty, fell into the habit of lounging and were now and then caught in petty thefts. Colonel Lyman, an early mer- chant 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 arti- cles 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 closely about him, he bent forward his shoulders, inviting 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 settled now," and handed back the stockings. In unloading some potash one afternoon, Colonel Lyman dropped his hat, 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 man- aged to pick up unseen and dispose of. The whites often bartered with the Indians for splint baskets, which were ornamented with high colored paints, splint brooms, willowware, moccasins, venison, berries and fish. The native was never wanting in shrewdness when conduct- ing 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, him just as hard to catch 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, often of fine texture, leggins of the same and deer

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

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 httle 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 cur- tain 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 passing, 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 giving 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 those 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 unfrequently 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 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 surveyor with his compass.

The Indians did not at once learn to curb their propensity 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; then the whites sometimes came in for a share of the blows, though seldom with fatal results.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

But a knife or axe would be drawn on small provocation. An Indian named Yankee John came to the house of William Fullerton, in Sparta. one winter evening. with a deer upon his shoulder.1 He was cold and demanded liquor, though he evidently had been drinking. This denied, he became saucy, and at length drew his knife, in a threaten- ing way, upon Fullerton. The latter's Scotch blood was stirred. Stepping to the stairway, he took down from its wooden hook a heavy black horsewhip and gave the Indian a fearful welting. Mrs. Fuller- ton begged for mercy to the native, who by this time was quite satis- fied 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 hearthstone, after partaking of a generous meal, before a well kept fire of smoulder- ing logs. Colonel Stanley saw much of the Indians while clerk for Allen Ayrault. He relates that a young Indian, who had been drink- ing, came 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 scuffle followed, the handkerchief 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, exerting all his strength, he thrust out his antago- nist, who fell upon the frozen earth with a groan, and lay for some time quite stunned by the fall. Stanley lost no time in closing the store that night.

Surviving pioneers recollect many odd customs of the Indians. Col- onel George Smith witnessed the following ceremony over a young native: He was first made dead drunk. A " shavety knife," or 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 slit parallel 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 man-

1. Yankee John was a large Indian, who had a halt in his gait. While hunting one day he was pursued by a bear, Attempting to 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 of him had not the redman's long kuife speedily settled the bear's accounts.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

ner, 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-hab sha-go-yas- da-ni Geh-sa'-no-wa-nah-nuh, "1 meaning "Now I am a great name; no longer boy; big Injun me!"'

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, espec- ially in applying remedies for the rattlesnake's bite, the ingredients of which they steadily refused to reveal, 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 shoul- ders 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 stepping 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 shook 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 prepared for the occa- sion, 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 be always 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 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.

1. The latter Indian word was often pronounced shinne-wauna. But the orthography of Rev. Asher Wright, a missionary at Cattaraugus Reservation, who reduced the Seneca language to a written system, is followed.

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Reprodneed from Proceedings of Buttalo Historical Society, Vol. VI., by permission.

The Earliest Known Buffalo Picture : Talk with the Indians at Buffalo Creek, 1793.

1. Cul. Timothy Pickering. 2. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln. 3. Beverly Randolph. 4. Gen. Israel Chapin. 5. The Figure in the Center with Hands Ex- tended is the Interpreter, presumably Horatio Jones. 6. Indian Orator. 7. , 9. British Oficers. 10, Qnakers.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

The Indian's leaven was designed for his race alone, though an excep- tion was made in favor of Washington, in reward for his acts of kind- ness toward the red man.

Aboriginal belief that the soul survives the body rested on traditions like this:1 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 remains 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. Reaching 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 disembodied hunter and generously 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 experience strengthening their rehgious faith and teaching them how to use the remedies so strangely acquired, 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 material objects, had each its tutelar deity. They observed 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 invoked for future favors. Their thanksgiv- ing did not assume the character of prayer. Indeed, they did not appear to comprehend the nature and design of prayer, since sins of the heart were not contemplated by their system, which considered only the outward act.

I. Mr. Horsford had this tradition from the lips of an aged Seneca.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

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 strangled, 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 hedgehog 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 ribbons. The day was spent in short speeches and dream telling. Near night, two Indians, with blackened faces, appeared in bear skins, with long braids of corn husks about their ankles and heads. Keeping time to a dolorous song, they began a tour of the village. 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 clothing of the actors and others was changed, their heads were adorned with feathers and their faces with paint. A num- ber 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 dancers, 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 reappeared on the fifth day. They approached every

I. Hon. Jerediah Horsford was present at this festival and noted the ceremonies from day to day in his diary. Lieut. Governor George W. Patterson attended the festival three years later, at the same place, in company with several young men of Groveland, and in a similar way described the ceremonies herein mentioned.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

person for a trifling gift. An apple, a plug of tobacco or a few pen- nies 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 pretended a disposition to tear everything in pieces or to overturn whatever fell in their way. A number of Indians followed them, flashing guus, as though forcibly to drive out the simulated bears. Next in order was a game of ball upon the ice, played with great energy 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, personat- ing the evil one, had his clothing literally torn from his body by his companions, who quickly covered him with skins, and then led him from hut to hut. 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 their final feast, which two girls gathered into baskets.

On the morning of the sixth day, seven lads, one of whom was cov- ered 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 would spat their hands and sing. 1 About noon preparations 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 Wash-

1. Quis-quis, meaning pigs or swine, was a word constantly repeated.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

ington, a favorite speaker, he applied the fire, and, as it began to burn, he walked around inside the circle, 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, he 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 center 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. Finally, 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 cere- monies at the huts were intended to scare away bad spirits, which, as was imagined, had become secreted in the crevices. The Jews had professional exorcisers, who also professed to 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 cantion 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 cor- respond with the sacred seven of the Jews. Is it a coincidence simply ? or does it aidfwith 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 Canawangus, the Indian village located near Avon. The prophet of this new taith was a half brother of Cornplanter, named Ga-nyu'-da- i-yuh, or Handsome Lake. Its effect was greatly to mitigate intem- perance, 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

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

hours, he lay as dead. Four beautiful young men from heaven, angels he called them, appeared, he said, and told him the Great Spirit was angry with the Indians because of their habits of drunkenness, false- hood and theft. They conducted him to the open gates of Paradise, where, for several hours, he witnessed scenes glorious beyond concep- tion. 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. 1 Ungifted as a speaker, he called four young men pos- sessed of superior parts for missionary work, to whom he committed the heavenly precepts. Through them, and by his own personal inter- course, 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 preserve 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, inquired 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 lro- quois. He was aware from experience of the strength of appetite for fire-water, and knew that, single 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, as distinguished from the noted brother of Tecumseh, who is known as the War Prophet. At his death, August 10. 1815, his grandson, So-se-ha-wa, or Johnson, who was also born near Avon, succeeded him as a teacher and expounder, and, like the uncle, exerted a great and salutary influence among the Indians.

1. Credit is due to Morgan and to Nathaniel T. Strong, Esq., himself a Seneca, for data here The father of Mr. Strong was one of the four chosen missionaries, and, like the son, was a man of superior abilities.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

Trails, or footpaths, connected the Indian villages and distant places. Portions of these forest highways can yet be traced at certain points in the county, though the latter were generally cross trails inter- secting the great central pathway, which, starting at Albany and fol- lowing a well chosen route, terminated on Main street in the modern city of Buffalo. Morgan says, " This trail ran through the overhang- ing 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 frequently marked with the hatchet. This well beaten footpath, which no runner or band of warriors could mistake, had doubtless been trodden by suc- cessive 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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History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches, Part 5

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen Number of Pages: 1422

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen
Number of Pages: 1422