USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 97
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When declining years broke one's intellectual and physical powers some younger person immediately dropped in to fill the gap, and the old warrior or councilor fell away into obscurity. Thus it is easily seen how the hand of power and dis- tinction could be constantly shifted from one person or family to another, and could never remain settled longer than he or they were able to uphold the quali- ties entitling them to the supremacy. The founders of the League may or may not have considered this question in the organization they made. They perfected a confederacy of tribes, officered by forty-eight hereditary sachems or peace men and two hereditary military sachems or chieftains. They ignored the individual- ity of persons (except Tododalio) and families and brought the several tribes into the closest relationship by the establishment of common clans or totemships, to whom was confided the liereditability of the League officers. It was a purely accidental circumstance that some of the clans in some of the tribes were not en-
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dowed with sachemships and that others got more than one. But because some of the claus got more than one sachem, and that a family in that clan was temporar- ily intrusted with the care of it, the clan or family were not in consequence tliere- of ennobled or made aristocratic. Bear in mind this fact, a sachemship belongs to a clan and is the property of no one family. Honorary distinctions are only as- smned by the tribes or elans from the fact that the League makers gave them the rank of the elder or younger, and the family government and gradation of kinship was introduced to bring the same more readily to their comprehension, under- standing and remembrance.
This idea of Indian social grades with titles is all a vain and foolish fancy of the early imaginative writers, who were educated to believe in such things; and the idea is retained, used and still disseminated by our modern susceptibles who love and adore rank and quality, and who give and place them where none is claimed. I do not deny that Royaner in the Mohawk means Lord or Master, but the same word, when applied to terrestrial or political subjects, only means Conn- cilor. The Seneea word is Hoyarna, Councilor-Hoyarnagowar, Great Councilor. These names are applied to the League officers only, and the term "great" was added to designate them more conspicuously and distinguish them from a great body of lesser men who had forced themselves into the deliberations of the League Councilors. The term Hasanowanch (great name) is given to this last great body of men, a body known as chiefs. They were never provided for and, as I believe, were never contemplated by the League originators, but they subsequently came to the surface, as I have hereinbefore set forth, and forced a recognition of their existence upon the "Great Councilors, " and, on account of their following and ability, were provided with seats at the council board.
Red Jacket was one of these "chiefs." He was supremely and exclusively in- tellectual. He was a walking encyclopedia of the affairs of the Iroquois. His logical powers were nearly ineontrovertible, at least to the untutored Indian gen- erally. In his day, and to the times I am referring, the "Great Councilor's" word was his bond; it was of more weight and consequence than the word of a chief. Red Jacket knew this well and, while he could not be made a League officer, lie used every means which his wisdom and cunning could devise to make himself appear not only the foremost man of his tribe but of the League. He was ever the chosen spokesman of the matrons of tribes. 'He was spokesman of visit- ing delegations of Indians to the seat of government, whether state or federal. In the signing of treaties, though unsuccessfully opposing them in open council, he would secretly intrigue for a blank space at or near the head of the list of signers, with a view, as the Indians asserted, of pointing to it as evidence that he was among its early advocates, and also that he was among the first and leading men of his tribe. He was even charged with being double-faced and sometimes speaking with a forked tongue. These and many other traits, both good and bad, which he possessed worked against him in the minds of his people, and inter- posed an insurmountable bar to hiis becoming a League officer.
After the war of 1812, whenever Red Jacket visited the Tonawanda Reservation, he made my father's house his principal home, on account of his tribal relation-
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ship to my mother, who was of the Wolf clan. My father and his brother Samuel were both intelligent men, and knew and understood the Indians well, and were also fairly versed in Indian politics. During my early youth I have heard them discuss with other Indians the matters above referred to and, while they always agreed as to the main facts, they generally differed only as to the underlying motives and intentions of Red Jacket in liis various schemes.
White men visiting Indians for information usually ask specific questions, to which direct and monosyllabic answers are generally given. Seldom will an In- dian go beyond a direct answer and give a general or extended reply; lience, I am not surprised that you had never heard anything respecting my statement, for, as such a thing had never occurred to you, you have never thought to ask con- cerning it. The fact, however, remains the same, and I do not consider it derog- atory of or a belittling of Red Jacket's general character. Men of mind are nearly always courageous and ambitious. Red Jacket was not an exception.
You suggest the performance on my part of an act which is simply impossible. The words sachem, sagamore, chief, king, prince, cazique, queen, princess, etc., have been promiscuously and interchangeably used by every writer on Indians ever since their discovery. I have seen three of the above terms used in one article witli reference to one and the same person, showing great looseness and want of discrimination in the writer. Yourself, let me say. mentions Jolin Mt. Pleasant as the "principal hereditary sachem of the Tuscaroras." Now, my classification of Iroquois officers would be to rank the fifty original councilors as sachems, be- cause they are the highest officers of the League. I would not use the term sagamore, because its use is almost wholly New England, and has been applied promiscuously to the heads of bands, large and small, and sometimes to mere heads of families. To use other terms, such as king, prince, or princess (see King Philip, King Powhattan and Princess Pocahontas), is preposterous and pre- sumptuous, considering the total absence among these people of the paraphernalia, belongings and dignity of royalty. My classification is: League officers, fifty in numbers, "Sachems," all other "Chiefs." The Tuscaroras, for certain reasons, were not admitted to perfect equality in the League. They were not granted sachemships. Hence, Mt. Pleasant is not a sachem, only a chief. His talent and character might, indeed, constitute him the head chief of his tribe, but I doubt if his successor in name would take the same rank or exercise the same influence over the tribe that he does. Besides, the sachems alone can exercise a general authority in the League, while the chiefs' anthority is confined to their respective tribes or bands. To invent a new name now for our fifty League officers would produce endless confusion in papers and books relating to them and their affairs. The task is too herculean to undertake. Pardon me for having been so prolix. I may also have failed to make myself understood, for I have been compelled for want of time to leave out a great deal of explanatory matter. But you are such a good Indianologist that I feel certain of your ability to comprehend me. I am, with respect,
Your obedient servant,
Ely S. Parker.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
APPENDIX NO. II.
AN ACCOUNT OF PRESENT CONDITIONS AMONG THE SENECAS.
The census of 1890 showed that the membership in the League of the Iroquois in the United States was 7,387. In Canada, in the same year, the membership was 8,483, making a total of 15,870. The number included in the Six Nations of New York was 5,239, and there were in addition 98 Senecas and Onondagas in Warren county, Pennsylvania, upon the Cornplanter reservation ; of these 87 were Senecas and II Onondaga-, thus making a total in New York and Pennsylvania of 8,337. There were then at the Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory, 255 Senecas and Cayugas; there were residing in Connecticut, Massachusetts and elsewhere in New York 79 members of the League, and there were 1716 Oneidas in the State of Wisconsin. The immigration to Canada of a considerable portion of the League members took place during and prior to 1790.
The total acreage of the reservations of the Six Nations in the State of New York in 1890 was 87,327 73-100, the value of which was estimated at $1, 810,699.
Of the census given of the Six Nations in New York in 1890 there were on the Onondaga reservation 494, of which six were Senecas; on the Tonawanda reser- vation 561, of which 517 were Senecas ; on the Allegany reservation SSo, of which 792 were Senecas; on the Cattaraugus reservation 1,582 of which 1,355 were Sene- cas; on the Tuscarora reservation 459 of which Io were Senecas, and on the St. Regis reservation 1, 157, of which none were Senecas, and there were 106 Oneidas off the Reservations.
The Allegany, Cattaraugus and Tonawanda reservations only will be referred to, inasmuch as they contain practically all of the Seneca Indians within the State. There were in the State, in 1903, 2,724 Seneca Indians of all ages, about 2,300 of whom resided on the Allegany and Cattaraugus reservations, the remainder resid- ing on the Tonawanda reservation. Those residing on the two reservations first mentioned are organized, pursuant to a law of the State of New York under the title of "The Seneca Nation of Indians;" those residing on the Tonawanda Reser- vation are known as "The Tonawanda Band of Senecas."
The Allegany reservation is in Cattarangus county and lies along the Allegany River for a distance of thirty-five miles, from one to two and a half miles in width, the line having been so run as to take in the bottom lands along the river. There are 30,469 acres in this reservation, of which about 11,000 are tillable, but of this not one-half is cultivated or in pasture. Nearly all the valuable timber has been cut off and sold. The Indians on this reservation, as a rule, pay but little attention to farming. There are a few good farmers among them, but the majority farm just enough to get a scanty subsistence, and the most of that is obtained from labor among their white neighbors.
There are six villages on this reservation, namely Vandalia, 240 acres; Carrol- ton, 2,200 acres; Great Valley 260 acres: Salamanca. 200 acres; West Salamanca 750 acres, and Red House, 40 acres. These villages were laid out under an act of Congress, passed February 19th, 1875, which authorized leases to be made by the council of the Seneca Nation to white occupants, for periods not exceeding
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twelve years. In 1890 this act was amended, authorizing leases to be made for periods not exceeding 99 years. The twelve year leases within these villages expired in 1892, and were renewed for 99 years. The rentals from these lands amount to $6,785 and in addition revenues are derived from leases to rail- roads, telegraph lines, farm lands on the Oil Spring reservation, and an oil and gas lease of the Cattaraugus and a part of the Allegany Reservations, making tlie total income $7,580 per year. The Nation also receives a royalty-one-eightlı of the production-from the oil wells mentioned, which are operated under a lease given to the Seneca Oil Company, and now owned and operated by the Southi Pann Oil Company. The production is steadily declining. The amount received ill 1902 and up to June, 1903, from these royalties, amounted to $4,530. These rentals were formerly paid to the Treasurer of the Seneca Nation, but great improvidence was shown in the management of its financial affairs, and in 1901 the Ryan act, so called, was passed, which put into the hands of the Indian agent the collection of these rentals.
The schools on the reservations of which there are about thirty are supported by the State. The State builds and maintains the schoolhouses, pays the salaries of the teachers and in some instances buys fuel. The Indians do not seem to properly appreciate the school advantages furnished, and do not require such regularity of attendance as is needed to produce good results. Lately the better class of Indians have manifested a desire to have those Indian children who have already received a common school education given opportunity for higher education.
The expense of school maintenance on these reservations by the State in 1897 was-
Allegany, $2,003.30
Cattaraugus, $3,772.85
Tonawanda, $1,302.25
Teachers, 6 - Children of School age 200. Daily av. attendance, 79. Teachers 10-Children of School age, 325. Daily av. attendance, 136. Teachers, 3 - Children of school age, 137. Daily av. attendance, 53.
An Indian school for Indian children is supported near Tunesassa, on the Alle- gany reservation, by the yearly meeting of Friends in Philadelphia. The school gives instruction in all the substantial branches of education. The annual cost of maintenance is $3,200 in addition to the income of the farm of 464 acres upon which the school is located. The attendance is limited to forty-five.
The Thomas Asylum for orphan and indigent Indian children is supported by the State. The institution is beautifully situated on a farm of 100 acres in the valley of the Cattaraugus Creek at Iroquois on the Cattarangus reservation. It costs the State about $100 per capita annually for the support and education of one hundred and thirty Indian children at this Institution, in addition to the income of the farm. The whites prosecute mission work upon the several reservations with a fair degree of success.
On the Allegany reservation, there are two Presbyterian churches with a regular membership of about 124. There is also a Baptist church with a membership of about 40.
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On the Cattaraugus reservation, the Presbyterians support a resident missionary with a membership of over 100. Services are regularly maintained at the com- modious church and at several outside stations. There is upon this reservation a Baptist church in charge of a native preacher with a membership of over 125.
On the Tonawanda reservation there are a Baptist, Methodist and a Presbyterian church. A native preacher has charge of the Baptist church which has a member- ship of 60. The Methodist church has a very small membership; the Presby- terian church has a membership of 60 and the services are conducted by the Presbyterian pastor at Akron.
The United States holds in trust $238,050 for the Senecas and $86,950 for the Tonawanda Band of Senecas. The interest on these funds, amounting to $11,902.50 and $4,349.50 respectively is disbursed per capita by the United States agent. The per capita amount from the first fund for 1897 was $4.25. Each of the Tona- wandas received from their fund $8.40 and $1.37 for gypsum mined on the reserva- tion, in addition to the general Seneca annuity, making a total to the Tonawandas of $14.02 per capita. The State of New York also pays to the Senecas an annuity of $500. In addition the Federal agent distributes each year $4,500 worth of sheet- ing and gingham among the Cayugas, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas and Tuscaroras, in pursuance of a treaty made with the Six Nations of New York, November 17th, 1794.
Cattaraugus Reservation is in Erie, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties. It lies on both sides of the Cattaraugus creek beginning at a point near Gowanda, and running to Lake Erie. It embraces 21,680 acres. Many of the Cattaraugus Indians are good farmers, and have well-tilled farms, good stock and comfortable build- ings. The majority, however, cultivate only small patches of land. A large portion of the land on this reservation is valuable, and lies within the grape belt and fruit growing section of Western New York, but much of it has been allowed to grow up to brush and such other vegetable growthis as are indigenous to the locality. If these lands were properly cultivated and improved, every Indian on the reservation would be independent and have all the comfort of a civilized life; this is also true of the other reservations.
Tonawanda Reservation is located in the counties of Genesee, Erie and Niagara. It lies above the Tonawanda creek on each side of that stream, and contains, 6,495 acres. This reservation is a fertile tract, and there are a few good farmers among the Indian residents upon it. A large part of the 2,000 acres under cultivation is tilled by whites under leases authorized by the laws of the State. The govern- ment of the Tonawanda Band is by chiefs, who are elected for life, according to the Indian custom. There are elected by popular vote each year, a president, treasurer, a marshall and three peacemakers.
The Senecas on the Allegany and Cattaraugus reservations have a common inter- est in the lands of both of these reservations. They have a constitution for their government. The president is the executive officer of the Nation, and sixteen councillors, chosen in equal numbers from each reservation, compose the legislative branch of the government. There is a clerk and treasurer of the Nation, and on each reservation a surrogate, three peacemakers, a marshall and an overseer of the
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poor. All the officers are elected for one year, except the surrogate and peace- makers. The surrogate holds office for two years, and the peacemakers are elected for a term of three years, expiring in alternate years. The peacemakers are judi- cial officers, and their court is one of general jurisdiction as to all controversies between Indians, including those pertaining to real estate. This jurisdiction of the peacemakers is exclusive ; an appeal lies from their decision to the council, and the decision of the concil is conclusive. The system, it is claimed, has resulted in great oppression and injustice. Indeed, it cannot be said with truth that the Senecas have displayed much aptitude for the successful administration of their affairs. Gross abuses made necessary the Ryan act, of which mention has been made, and it is probable that legislation will soon be enacted having for its object the allotment of the lands of the several reservations in severalty among the Indians, the uprooting of the whole tribal system, the extension of the laws of the State over them, and their adoption into citizenship.
James Wadsworth, who had an unusual opportunity to judge of the Seneca's capacity for improvement, under proper conditions, "entertained a confident opinion that the red man is as susceptible of civilization as the white man." His plan was to deal with the native individually and not by tribes, and the following letter written by him to Daniel Webster in December, 1827, on the sub- ject of the colonization of the Indians, might well be penned in these early years of the new century by one of our most progressive law makers having in view the ultimate good of these unfortunate people :
Geneseo, 3d December, 1827.
Sir -- I read many years since, in a number of the North American Review, an article on the situation of the Indians dispersed over the reservations in the State of Massachusetts. I cannot now lay my hand on the number: I believe it was in 1812 or '13. The writer takes a rapid view of the Indians from the time of Cotton Mather, when, if I recollect, there were thirty or forty regular chnrelies. From that period to the present, the State has supported one or two clergymen, and several schoolmasters, on each reservation. But notwithstanding the labors prompted by the pious zeal and benevolence of our forefathers, the Indians have been gradually, but regularly, sinking in moral character; and the reviewer describes them, in 1812, as a miserable race-part negro, part white and part Indian-too degraded to be described. This I believe, is a faithful picture of the Indians in Connecticut and Rhode Island ; and I have no hesitation in saying, that the Indians on the reservations in this State, are rapidly approximating to the same degraded condition. .
The writer, if I recollect, considers the case a remediless one, and advises the application of the funds given for the support of the Indians to other objects. The article referred to, drew my attention to the state of the Indians many years since, and I still entertain a confident opinion that the red man is as susceptible of civilization as the white man. The fault is not the Indian's. It is for want of an intelligent course of treatment on the part of the white man. There has been zeal, honest zeal, enough expended, but it has been zeal without thought or intelligence, and the experiment, it must be confessed, has hitherto totally failed.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
We have been training the Indians on the reservations in New England for 100 years, and they have fallen to a pitch of degradation too painful to be described. The Indians in this State have been under the same course of treatment for forty or fifty years : and in half a century more, they will well compare with their brethren in New England. Are we then to abandon our red brethren, and consider their civilization as a hopeless canse? By no means. Let us rather. examine and ascertain what are the elements of civilization. By what process has the white man of England been raised from his semi-barbarons state at the time of the Roman invasion, to his present comparatively improved and refined state? I am sensible that the discussion of this subject cannot be comprised in a letter. If Caesar, when he invaded England, had introduced, instead of a military govern- ment, monitorial schools, a free press, the con-titution and laws of England modified to the then state of society, and the benign principles of Christianity, how soon would these all controlling causes have changed the character of our savage ancestors? Man, whether red or white, is the creature of laws and educa- tion. To show that our training of the Indians has not been judicious, let us take one or two single cases. Suppose, immediately after the extinction of the Indian title, and on the first settlement of Oneida county, N. Y., a respectable Indian family had been allowed by law to retain and hold in fee simple, a lot of 100 acres. Suppose the adjoining lots purchased and occupied by respectable New England farmer -. My object is to ascertain whether an Indian family, placed in this situation, which at first view will be considered highly favorable to its improve- ment, would become refined and elevated in their moral liabit -? Examine, if you please, the early progress of the New England farmers and the Indian family. Say the children of each are about the same age. I will allow that the Indian children will copy after, and attain tolerable proficiency in the operations on the farms and in the houses of their New England neighbors. Suppo-e the children of the Indian and New England families of an age to go into society, will the children of each mingle in society on equal terms? A step further-will the New England farmers give their daughters to the Indian sons in marriage? In this stage, and indeed in every stage of this experiment, will not the Indian family perceive, and be made to feel that they belong to a degraded cast in society? and will not moral debasement immediately follow? I need not follow up this experi - ment to the inevitable degradation of the daughters and sons of the Indian family, when they will become hewers of wood and drawers of water to their neighbors. In this case I have considered whit I believe is essential to the civilization of man, the holding of land in severalty ; but which, of itself, though an essential, is not sufficient to produce the greater result. From this view of a single family we will pass to an Indian reservation, surrounded by farms inhabited by a white population. The Indians are at once deprived of hunting, the great resource for subsistence in a savage state. They hold their lands in common, and not in severalty. They are sensible, and realize that the educated white man can at any time purchase their lands and improvements by direct or indirect means of their chiefs. The Indian is a tenant at sufferance. He is ent off from the great stimuli of exertion to the white man, the enjoyment of comforts arising from protected
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industry, and the accumulation of property-the distinctions arising from personal consideration. and the possession of property, and the desire so powerful in the white man, but not felt by the red man, in his savage state, of transmitting his inheritance to his children. The Indians find themselves a unit in a vast com- munity and a degraded race, despised by that community. Would not the white man, in the same situation, immediately sink into abasement? Would not the white man, equally deprived of incentives to exertion, seek solace and forgetful- ness of his wretchedness in intoxication? Here, I ask, is it not perfectly idle to expect persevering labor-a regard for the right of property, while he possesses no rights himself, enlightened moral or religious views, or an elevated tone of character to grow out of this state of society?
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