USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the Genesee country (western New York) comprising the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates, Volume I > Part 10
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party and finally tortured and killed. That same year certain Hurons and Algonkian allies burned some Iroquois prisoners and raided an Iroquois camp. The Iroquois were inflamed not only against the Hurons but against the French who upheld them. In 1637 they attacked a Huron party on Lake St. Peter, capturing thirty prisoners. At the same time they sent one hundred and fifty warriors to a nearby French settlement and set up the sign of their presence, a series of sticks attached to a tree. The older and wiser councillors of the Hurons urged their tribesmen to make a permanent peace, for during this year the Wenroh-ronon people had sought refuge with them and spread tales of Seneca power. A band of young Hurons responded by marching against the Senecas and so involving their nation that support was necessary. Two years later (1639) the Hurons defeated an Oneida war party led by Oronkouaia. They captured the chief and tortured him horribly. The account of this affair is one of the most terrible in all the annals of Indian warfare, and we are told that the Oneida chief bore it to the end, defying his captors to make any torture hard enough to cause an Iroquois to cry out in pain.
Revenge followed soon, for the Iroquois by quick, bold strokes, struck here and there with amazing rapidity, coming and going almost unseen, destroying remote Algonkian villages and wiping out an entire Huron town, sparing few and torturing hundreds of luckless captives. Their small companies, quickly handled, were everywhere, and by 1643 the French began to sense that the case was desperate, for now the Senecas and their allies had guns which they handled exceedingly well. Even French prisoners were not now respected, and Father Jogues and his colleagues were fright- fully tortured, and his friend Goupil was killed in one of the Mo- hawk towns (1642). There is no story of missionary effort that reveals a more heroic life than that of Father Jogues, who was later martyred in this same Mohawk country. So successful were the Iroquois, that it was unsafe for any Frenchman to wander far in the woods or to build his cabin away from a fort. As for the Indians, small settlements were wiped out and the inhabitants fled to the larger Huron towns for refuge. Occasionally the Hurons or their Algonkian allies had some small success; one Huron even penetrated the forest and entered Seneca capital on Boughton Hill, cutting his way into a bark cabin and taking several scalps.
War continued, its sordid details being recorded by the Jesuit
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fathers from day to day in their annals. Many were the thrilling episodes, many were the displays of bravery, of high character, of treachery, of savagery, of honor and of real humanity. All the play of passions from evil to good was evidenced. The beginning of the end was in sight in 1647, when the Hurons sent deputies to the Andastes in the Susquehanna, pleading for assistance to.the dying "mother nation." The distress of the Hurons even im- pressed the Onondagas, who were disposed to grant peace, and sent Council Chief Skandawati with an escort and fifteen Huron pris- oners to the Huron council, to discuss peace. The Senecas and Mohawks objected to any peace proposals that did not mean com- plete surrender. The Hurons, however, hoping for peace, sent an embassy to the Onondagas, but it was attacked and some of the ambassadors killed. When Skandawati heard of this his heart was broken, for he had pledged his honor, and his kinsfolk had counted it as naught. He brooded over this affront and shortly after sought out a secluded place and plunged a knife into his own heart. Warrior though he was, after the fashion of the day, he would not stand for treachery, nor could he endure life when his honor had been sullied by the acts of his people.
The next year the Senecas attacked a Huron hunting party in which was one of the Onondaga hostages in charge of a prisoner. Instead of being grateful for release, when the Hurons were de- feated, he demanded to be sent back with his charge, for, being an ambassador of peace, he said that he would sooner "die than to appear to have acted as their enemy." He was permitted to go his way unmolested. Such was honor among savages.
In July, 1648, the great Huron town of Teanaustate, the mis- sion of St. Joseph, was attacked. A nearby village was also in- vested and in all seven hundred prisoners were taken by the Iroquois. More than four hundred families were wiped out, scat- tered or captured, and the splendid mission of Father Antoine Daniel ruined. But the end was not yet, for the cunning Iroquois had yet other plans. During that autumn they collected an army of one thousand warriors who leisurely hunted their way to the Huron domain, enduring the winter and hardening themselves by the rigorous life in the forest. On the 15th of March, 1648, they stealthily encircled the walls of Taenhatentaron, the mission of St. Ignace, and surveyed its strong stockade and deep moat; a weak spot was found and enlarged. Like phantoms, the Iroquois
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forces entered the village and began the attack. Ten Iroquois were killed, four hundred Hurons fell and three escaped. It was a characteristic blow-swift, certain and conclusive. At sunrise the Iroquois had marched a league to the mission of St. Louis, a large fortified town, invested it and quickly defeated the eighty warriors who remained to defend it, for all others had fled with the horrifying news that the Iroquois were coming. The victors then went back to St. Ignace to rest and refresh themselves before attacking the Catholic mission building, but found it so strong and well defended that a fight must cost them many lives. The next morning three hundred Hurons who had rallied began an attack, but fear was in their marrow, and though the combat was furious and they held for a while, they fled as night came on. The Iro- quois remained to torture the priests who were forced to witness many hideous atrocities. In the end the towns were burned and the inhabitants who had been captured were either killed or bound as captives to be led back to Iroquoia.
All Huron land was terrorized and five of the largest towns were utterly abandoned, the inhabitants fleeing here and there, eastward, northward and westward in search of some safe refuge. One Huron town, that of Scanonaenrat, voluntarily surrendered and asked to be incorporated with the Senecas, that they might be their allies, and, indeed, become Senecas. Their prayer was granted, and they were sent back to the Seneca domain with the assurance that their customs and religion-they were Roman Catholic converts-should be respected. Loyalty alone was de- manded. Thus was the settlement of Chi-nos-hah-geh, which the French knew as Gandougarae, augmented by a great swarm of refugees. The Huron nation was now broken, dismayed and scat- tered. Its people poured into the villages of the Neutrals, the Eries, the Petuns, and even into the settlements of far distant for- eign tribes. In 1649 the Petun, or Tobacco, nation fell, after one swift blow. While they were hunting the Iroquois, the Iroquois suddenly entered the Petun town, captured all its females and then burned the village before the warriors returned. Thus perished the town of Etharita, where the priests had their mission of St. Jean, and here was martyred at his post the faithful missionary, Charles Garnier. The Petuns had been outmaneuvered, and when they again sought their homes they found smoking ruins and their wives and daughters prisoners. Their agony and grief were ter-
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rible, but later they rallied and sought with other refugees to form another settlement. This was found on the isle of St. Joseph, where the broken tribesmen wintered, with famine and fear gnaw- ing at their vitals. Spring came and the ice was about to break. Over this treacherous floor bands of Petuns and Hurons, together with Algonkian allies, crept, hoping to reach mainland where they might begin their fishing operations. Many broke through the ice, but the majority reached the shore where they divided into parties of eight and ten. They might have suspected that the Iro- quois would seek them out, but hunger was a stern master. How should they know that their conquerers had an expedition waiting for them? Such was the case and all but one was killed. "My pen," wrote Ragueneau, "has no ink black enough to describe the fury of the Iroquois."
Under the leadership of the Jesuits an expedition was formed to take the survivors on to Quebec, where they would have the protection of the French garrisons. The party moved cautiously in canoes, finding on their way the ashes of numerous villages and towns and fortified camps of the conquering Five Nations war parties. The whole of Huronia was abandoned and not a town or mission remained by 1650. Scores of refugees sought abiding places, some among the Algonkian tribes and some even among the Andastes on the Susquehanna, while the outcasts of two large Huron villages petitioned the Senecas for peace and adoption, which were immediately granted upon the voluntary obligation of the petitioners to become Senecas in thought and obedience. The unreconciled who were fortunate enough to escape settled at Lorette, nine miles from Quebec, and today the village of New Lorette holds their descendants, who have totally forgotten their own language and speak only French patois.
The Huron Nation passed as a power, though small bands from time to time had their revenge, only to suffer retribution by an- other frightful Iroquois blow that sapped their numbers. With the Hurons out of the way, the French themselves now received military attention, and no French settlement or even fort was safe. During all this time the Neutral Nation or Attawendaronks had kept their peace, and this amid great difficulty and temptation, for the Hurons were closely akin to them ; yet they offered no help one way or the other, save by extending refuge to Hurons who were homeless. The Iroquois cast suspicious eyes at the overflowing
KING HENDRICK Noted Indian
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Attawendaronk towns, looking for signs of Huron recuperation. In 1650 the Neutrals were accused of a breach of faith, upon grounds that appear rather flimsy when stated by their Jesuit friends. Apparently the Iroquois saw trouble brewing and wanted to nip it in the bud. So in the autumn of 1650, they made a swift and terrible attack, reducing one of the frontier towns garrisoned by sixteen hundred Neutral warriors and filled with women and children. The warriors were defeated and the women and young people led away into captivity. The next spring an- other town was attacked, with the same result, and soon every Neutral town was reduced and the population scattered, though it was probably as great as all the Five Nations. Hundreds and perhaps several thousands were made captives and settled among the Iroquois, to forget their national origin and to become Iro- quois.
It was in this war that Jikonsaseh, the traditional Mother of Nations, was captured and carried away to the settlement on the Ganarqua (Mud Creek in East Bloomfield, Ontario County). Ac- cordingly we are told that the Senecas became the guardians of the descendants of the first woman born on earth. Henceforth her posterity should be Senecas, and it is a notable fact that, as the name was transmitted from mother to daughter, it descended to the mother of Gen. Ely S. Parker and to his sister, Caroline, who became the wife of Chief John Mountpleasant, of the Tuscaroras, and whose home was but a mile from the site of the great peace village and sanctuary of the Neutral "queen" on the "mountain" above the Niagara. For two years the Senecas and their allies kept up their forays against the French and their Algonkian hordes, meeting general success, though their reverses were stun- ning at times. In 1653 they offered peace to the French and con- summated a treaty, to the great relief of New France and her red supporters. Amazing as it may seem, the Mohawks now hunted and roamed in fraternal accord with the Algonkian bands, learn- ing everything that they could as to conditions, policy and military strength. It was a shrewd ruse on the part of the sagacious Iro- quois, for a game of death was to be played in another direction and Frenchmen were not wanted as enemies. Intimation of this new venture of the Iroquois, whom one would suppose, were tired of war, came in various ways. An Onondaga sachem at Montreal in an address related that his people were now to fall upon the
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Eries and destroy them; and the Eries were the last of formidable enemies in the north country. They lay west of the Genesee from the mouth of the Cattaraugus westward along Lake Erie and southward beyond the Allegany. They had many towns and vil- lages and a population of more than fourteen thousand, if early estimates are to be relied upon. This meant that they had be- tween twenty-five hundred and four thousand men at arms. The Eries had many matters to discuss with the Senecas, their nearest neighbors, and about the year 1653 they sent thirty ambassadors to the Seneca town of Sonontouan3 to hold a conference. During this meeting one of the Eries murdered a Seneca. As this act occurred during an international council, it was construed by the haughty Senecas as an unpardonable insult, and twenty-five Erie ambassadors were slain, five escaping to return with the tragic tale. War was now inevitable, and, while the Senecas and their friends were powerful, the Eries were an even match for them, especially as they had with them several thousand Huron refugees eagerly awaiting an opportunity for revenge.
Erieland was on the alert and struck the first blows, cutting off the rearguard of a returning Seneca expedition and killing all of its eighty picked men, later attacking a Seneca town and burn- ing it. Erie scouts, with great bravery, appeared at the very gates of another Iroquois village and captured Annenraes, one of the most respected and loved of the Onondaga chiefs. It was he who was captured by the Hurons in 1647, condemned to death and allowed to escape by the Huron chiefs. Crossing Lake Ontario by canoe he found eight hundred Senecas and Cayugas led by a band of three hundred Onondagas ready to make a quick crossing and revenge his death. His home-coming was like a miracle and there was great rejoicing. Now that the Eries had carried away their beloved chief, the rage of the Iroquois was kindled afresh, par- ticularly as he was not told that any war had been declared. The old chief was taken to an Erie town and, in the absence of an old woman who had lost her son, was assigned to her, believing that she would adopt him and that he would then act as a peacemaker. When the matron returned, however, she was enraged at the idea of adopting a chief of her enemies and demanded that he be sub- jected to the torture. According to custom this was her right, and
3 The site of this famous town is at the bend of the Honeoye near Rochester Junc- tion, Monroe county.
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all the importunities of the chiefs could not dissuade her from the rash demand. Annenraes was hurried from the feast of adop- tion, stripped of his robes of honor and burned at the stake, crying out as the flames ate their way into his flesh, that by this act the Eries were burning their own nation, for his people would mete out a condign revenge. His words were prophetic.
It was not long before eighteen hundred Iroquois warriors were under way in war canoes. They landed in the domain of the Eries, carrying their canoes with them, for Erie territory was one of streams. At length the great town of Rique was reached. Where this was it is not easy to state, but from archeological evi- dence it may have been in the lower valley of the Cattaraugus- the easternmost settlement of the time. At any rate, from the Jesuit Relations we learn the details of the assault. Two Iroquois war captains were dressed in French uniforms and, leading their warriors to the Erie stockade, demanded a surrender. One of the chiefs even urged a surrender in gentle tones, to indicate that peace was preferable to war, and counseled the Eries to yield that they might live. "The Master of Life fights for us," the chief called out to the Eries, "you will be ruined if you resist him." "Who is this Master of Life?" mocked the Erie captain. "We acknowledge none but our arms and hatchets." At this, the Iro- quois, who had encircled the fort, rushed upon it, with their canoes as shields, and using them as scaling ladders. The Eries fought fiercely, sending forth great showers of poisoned arrows, but at last their walls were breached and the Onondagas, as the nation seeking first revenge, entered the town and wrought so terrible a carnage that the ground was knee deep in blood in the hollow places. A reinforcement of Eries, three hundred strong, appeared at daybreak and made a gesture of combat, but retreated in dis- may as the Iroquois dashed to their feet with lusty war yells. The pursuit went on, no quarter asked or given. In one brilliant stroke the Erie Nation ceased to exist, but so great were the losses of the Iroquois that they spent the rest of the summer nursing their wounded and burying their dead. Hundreds of Eries voluntarily surrendered and pledged allegiance to the confederacy, and six hundred sought protection and were given immunity. While the Erie Nation was now only a memory, there is little doubt that under another name many of its people wandered into Ohio and even sought refuge among the Cherokees. It seems possible that
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the Iroquois allowed the captives, who had voluntarily surrendered and plighted their word, to remain in little towns along the Catta- raugus, for archeological research has proven that there was a continuous occupation of this valley from that time, 1654-56, on until this very day. The old Seneca town of Cattaraugus may have had as the original nucleus of this settlement these Erie people. The whole valley in the neighborhood of the Sand Hill section of the Cattaraugus reservation shows evidence of pro- longed occupation from remote, pre-Iroquoian times. When the Senecas left their Genesee homes, they came to the conquered land of the Eries and settled, finding refuge in the village of Catta- raugus and its environs.
After the downfall of the Eries, the Iroquois turned their at- tention to harassing the French settlements and raiding the refu- gee Hurons and their Algonkian friends. Complications even arose between the Senecas and Mohawks, who for a while were at the verge of war, but at a confederation council held at Onondaga July 24, 1656, the differences were settled by arbitration, but the Mohawks, never over-friendly with their allies, feared attack and asked the Dutch for protection if attacked by the Senecas, for they had trouble enough with the Andastes to the south who subjected them to great annoyance. In spite of their hostility, the French found it expedient to cultivate the friendship of the various Iro- quois nations through the kind ministrations of the Catholic mis- sionaries. It was a case where politics and religion were mixed, and, though the priests won many converts and made many friends, the French colonial officials were willing to capitalize this for military and political advantage, to the injury of the mission- ary fathers and the cause of Christianity. The Iroquois were at first pleased with the priests, but later began to distrust them as agents of New France. Soon all pretexts of peace were abandoned and war against the French was resumed.
The Senecas were active in their raids for ten years after the Erie war, and ceaseless in their attacks on French settlements; they sent war parties elsewhere also, against the Minisinks and the Andastes, generally called at this time the Minquas. Events now followed with surprising rapidity, and, so strange were the kaleidoscopic changes and readjustments, that it is only through great confusion that even a critical scholar can follow the treaties, the raids, the complications and ramifications of Iroquois warfare.
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The Senecas were determined, among other things, to end the threat that the Andaste people (Conestogas, Minquas) afforded by their very existence. The Andastes had fought with Cayugas, with Mohawks, with Oneidas and with Onondagas, but could not be defeated, always managing to inflict a severe blow in retaliation for attacks. The Mohawks between 1650 and 1660 had fared badly in their Andaste war, and now the Senecas resolved to fight it out to a decision. An Iroquois war party had hovered about the great Andaste capital on the Susquehanna, just above Tioga Point, and twenty-five warriors who had entered with proposals of peace, though some authorities state that their mission was one of treach- ery, were burned on scaffolds that rose high above the palisades, permitting their friends to witness their punishment. For ten years the warfare continued, until in 1672 a party of sixty Senecas and Cayugas were attacked by sixty young Andastes and put to flight with losses. There was never any doubt as to Andaste bravery and daring, and for three years the Senecas fought them until finally, in 1675, the last of the mighty enemies of the Iroquois were subdued. They found refuge in the various Iroquois towns, particularly the Oneidas, but many were colonized in a little settle- ment on the Susquehanna where they were known as Conestogas. Those who wandered afar mingled with refugee Eries and bands of Senecas and Cayugas who were afield, and became known as Mingos.
All these wars, lasting as they did from 1630 to 1675, had cost the Iroquois thousands of lives. Indeed, they suffered so heavily that they had reduced themselves by nearly one-half, and yet, by their policy of adoption and naturalization, they probably had a greater population in their towns than when they began their on- slaughts. The captives whom they adopted were generally well treated once they had proved beyond doubt that they were utterly loyal, but if there was any suspicion they were sometimes mis- treated and even killed at the whim of their sponsors in the tribe. So far as Iroquoian blood was concerned, it still predominated, for the confederated Iroquois chose the best of their own linguistic stock. It must be noted, however, that the power behind the Iro- quois was not the people themselves, per se, but in their dynamic ideals and moral force. Thus it was that we have evidence in the Relation of 1660 that the Senecas were made up of eleven refugee nations and the Onondagas seven. These people were not asked to
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fight against their own nations, but were expected to volunteer on war parties against any other nation. During the period of their first captivity, they did not enter into discussions of the councils, but, as they proved their integrity, some were made chiefs and their children were regarded as full fledged Iroquois.
With the defeat of the Andastes the Iroquois, particularly the Senecas, began to push their way southward down the Susque- hanna in search of their enemies. This caused the settlers in Mary- land much anxiety. It seemed as if the Senecas were everywhere, for distance and enemy barriers made little difference. We hear of them at Quebec and Montreal, planning raids on the Mississippi, and spreading terror through Maryland, though, when Governor Andros sought an adjustment, an amicable arrangement was made at the treaty in Albany.
During the year 1680 the Senecas determined to exterminate the Illinois and, by playing upon the jealousy of the Miamis, in- duced them to join them in an expedition. The French explorer, La Salle, was now in the land of the Illinois, for these people were allies of the French and the proprietors of a valuable peltry mar- ket. Tonti, his faithful retainer, had become separated from him, causing La Salle much anxiety, but Tonti was in the great town of the Illinois and witnessed the coming of the Senecas and their initial attack. He did what he could to bring about peace and to protect his allies, but was wounded in the attempt by the Senecas, who distrusted him. An Onondaga interposed on his behalf, for trouble was not wanted just now with the French, to whom they had promised peace. Tonti listened to the harangue of the Iro- quois war chiefs, who ordered him to return home and promised that they would "not eat the Illinois." Tonti departed with great reluctance in a leaky canoe in which were two friars, Membre and Robourde. He had seen the Illinois abandon and burn their great village and flee down the river. The Iroquois quickly took possession of it and reenforced it with a stockade. Deprived of their victims, the Iroquois lashed themselves into a frenzy and tore the grave houses of the Illinois dead into shreds, mutilating all the corpses that they could find, and taking the skulls as decorations for their stockade. Then they pursued the Illinois down the river, following on the opposite bank, camping each night face to face with them. The Illinois fled to the mouth of the Illinois River and here divided their bands, some ascending the Mississippi and
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