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 13
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That there was a land of happy souls was not doubted, for what could be more logical than to think that the good should not perish? Here the good went for regeneration. Here the Creator shut the eyes of pilgrims and took their soul-bodies to pieces, put- ting them back joint by joint and muscle by muscle, until all evil and disease had been found and cast out, leaving the soul being
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as one regenerated and completely good. This remaking of souls was necessary since sin was believed to be a thing that could not be forgiven, but which left its mark in the soul. Upon beliefs like these the Seneca built his faith in the essential brotherhood of all life, his hope for the future and his eternal salvation. If some of his practices were cruel and inhuman, it was because the Seneca Indian, like his white brother, belonged to the "inhuman human race," and because his beliefs required him to propitiate the demons of war who demanded suffering and blood. If this did not come from the enemy it would be exacted from the friend. Nor was he more cruel than his European brother of the same period, who burned heretics alive, tortured and flayed them or impressed them in "iron maidens."
The official religion of the Seneca was one of thanksgiving. Each season had its thanksgiving ceremony in which the Creator and his attendant spirits were thanked for their gifts to mankind. There was the Midwinter ceremony, lasting nine days, in which the High Priest offered thanks for every object in nature, from the sands beneath the waters beneath the earth to the celestial tree itself. At this ceremony all the dancing associations, all the fraternities and rites of the nation, were called upon to give public exhibitions. All who had perplexing dreams were asked to tell them, that some one might give the right interpretation, and those who desired things so much that it seemed that they could not live without the fulfillment of their wish were given an opportunity to tell the populace. Then, too, all those who had sinned were asked to confess before all men and to promise to make restitu- tion. They were called upon to walk over a straight road in the snow, as a symbol of their repentance.
The spring began with the Tree Festival and the thank offer- ing to the maple for the sap and sugar that the maples afforded. Then came the Planting Festival, followed in June by the Feast of the Strawberries. In early autumn came the Corn Thanks- giving and later the Festival of the Harvest. These celebrations were religious occasions, but there was great merriment during the afternoon and evening dances, for to enjoy life was supposed to be an evidence that life was desired and that mankind was grateful for it. To live as if one were in perpetual fear of the Creator's wrath and constantly to act as if life were a terrible burden, was thought an insult to the giver of life. The Senecas
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believed literally in making "a joyful noise unto the Lord," and in dancing before Him. Their religion was the Doxology itself.
The conditions of forest life demanded constant industry. A lazy, indolent people could not exist and meet the demands of nature or society. The Iroquois were a busy and industrious race, and their houses and camps were filled with evidences of their manufacturing activity. They were not entirely simple folk who could live like the birds without implements, but, on the contrary, were fond of having tools and utensils for their housekeeping and their forest activities. As house builders they cut down trees with their stone axes, supplemented by fire. They cut logs for their stockades and hewed out great tree trunks for their dugouts. Their canoes, however, were generally of elm bark stretched and fastened over ash skeletons. They were good canoe makers, but were not essentially a water people, often suffering severe defeat from the Algonkians when they fought water battles. Canoe making required much industry, and then there were the ribs, gunwales and paddles to make, all with stone and bone tools, for the Iroquois had no metal until the European period. They knew of native copper but would not use this emblem of their enemies.
Men manufactured snowshoes, lacrosse sticks, stone and pot- tery pipes and also various implements of chert. They manufac- tured implements from bone and shell, as awls, combs, beads and pendants. They were good workers in wood and carved out wooden bowls and spoons, baby-carrying cases and other house- hold utensils. They gathered elm and basswood bark for ropes and cords, but the women took the raw material and manufac- tured it. Men hunted the pelts and shared with the women in tanning them for clothing and moccasins. Women did most of the sewing and manufactured the hunting shirts and leggings, even to embroidering them with moosehair and porcupine quills, sometimes in color. Of course, the men caught the porcupines and pulled out the quills, but the women treated the quills and dyed them. The Seneca tailoress cut the deer skins evenly, trimming off the neck and leg projections, and fringing the edges neatly by cutting them with a sharp flint chip. The men preferred to make their own hats, or gustoweh as they called them. The Iroquois hat was a tightly fitting cap, from the top of which a bouquet of feathers floated, one splendid plume whirling from a spindle at the top. The Iroquois did not wear a bonnet of erect feathers like
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the Sioux of the open plains. Such was out of place in the forest; erect feathers would catch in the trees and shrubs through which they passed.
The men made the corn mortars by cutting off logs and making a hollow of sufficient depth by means of fire to permit further hollowing. When the bowl was two spans deep it was considered perfect. Men also made the pestles, and each mortar was sup- posed to have two. Other wooden articles that men made were bows, arrows, war clubs and troughs. Barrels and large bowls were made from elm bark.
Thus domestic life to the Iroquois was one of constant activity, for dishes and utensils, tools and weapons were constantly wear- ing out and had to be replaced. An added source of exhaustion was the sacrifice of weapons, arrows, dishes and ornaments to the spirits of the animals that they had slain. When these articles were of stone, clay, antler, bone or other durable substance, they were preserved in the refuse heaps, and the archeologist finds them today, mute evidence of the industry of the departed red man. It is only because the Senecas of the historic period clung to their ancient material culture that we are able to explain so much of their ancient civilization. Because of greater conven- ience they abandoned their clay kettles and pipes, and their bone, stone and shell ornaments for the trader brass kettle, the kaolin pipe of commerce, the steel and iron knives and glass trade beads, but they did retain many of their ceremonial paraphernalia and games, and kept other implements as heirlooms. Even at the beginning of the twentieth century many of the Senecas and Onondagas know how to make cords of bark, to make ceremonial baskets, moccasins and masks of corn husks, to carve their ritual- istic wooden masks, to make their ceremonial rattles, drums and whistles, and in the economic life some of the implements and utensils used in the preparation of their native corn for food they still make and use, like washing- and sifting-baskets, mortars, pestles, paddles, wooden spoons, bark trays and bowls, and even burden straps woven from elm and basswood cords. Herein is evidence of the innate conservatism of the Iroquois, who clings to that which he himself can make and understand. Decay can set in only when he becomes absolutely dependent upon things which he cannot make. The material culture of the Iroquois had much to do with his preservation, for it was connected with his cere-
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monial and ritualistic life; it was a part of the folkways of the group which insisted, "this shalt thou do and do this-wise."
An industrious people can scarcely be totally immoral, for industry contributes to regularity, mutual consideration and thrift. Industry, indeed, is an evidence of moral energy as well as intellectual acumen. The Senecas, howsoever they may have differed from the Europeans in religious and moral beliefs, were not essentially immoral or irreligious. There were but few pre- cepts of an ethical nature that the missionaries could teach them, and they frequently resented the missionary attitude that they did not know what was essentially right and wrong. Many of their beliefs and practices, it is true, may appear to us as folly and superstition. But analyzed, these same things are found to contain at the bottom beautiful and even lofty ideas. Ignorance of true causes often led to a perversion of what was otherwise good, and the symbol of good to be worshipped rather than the reality itself. These things have happened in all religions, and Christianity, as we have modified it for our use, has retained many of the pagan ideas through which it has filtered, as any professor of theology will acknowledge. It is but natural, there- fore, that the Iroquois should have gone afield in some things, but, after all, there is in their religion a certain beauty and sub- limity that is inspiring. If these people sinned against our code, they were but following the teachings and example of nature itself, and were, therefore, unmoral in such matters rather than immoral.
Let us consider that the Senecas of the ancient land of the Genesee, uncontaminated by unwholesome European influence, and unspoiled by the greed which commerce awakened within their souls, were a people who believed in an all-powerful Great Spirit, in the immortality of the soul, in a life everlasting for the righteous and in the fraternity of all life. They believed that it was natural to be honorable and truthful, and cowardly to lie. With them to thank the Great Spirit continually was prayer; they did not seek to instruct Him what to do on earth or in the celestial world, for they had faith that in His wisdom He knew what was right and best. Such was the faith of the Seneca.
CHAPTER VII. A CENTURY OF PERPLEXITY, 1700-1800.
BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
The opening of the eighteenth century found the Senecas torn by conflicting emotions and perplexed by the interplay of events. Jealous of their own independence and domain, they saw both threatened by two powerful white competitors. With which should they cast their lot? Everything depended upon their answer to this. To ally themselves with France meant that they must for- get many bitter grievances, and yet the French people pleased them more than all other Europeans. The Frenchman would live with them on terms of equality, adopt their manners, go out on war parties with them and marry their daughters. The indi- vidual Frenchman was a congenial companion. His colony asked only for the right to trade and, indeed, demanded that friendly Indians should trade with Frenchmen alone. French mission- aries were faithful and kind, but French missionaries were the tools of political interests and carried away great hosts of con- verts to Canada, where they took up arms against their kinsfolk. Yet, after all, the Frenchman as an individual was a likable fellow.
The English were at Albany with their Dutch friends. They seldom came among the Iroquois, asking rather that the Iroquois come to them. The Englishman assumed a haughty and superior attitude and treated the Iroquois with something akin to con- tempt. Besides this, the English were interested in acquiring land, as was proven by their penetration of the Hudson and Mo- hawk valleys, and their control of New England, eastern Penn- sylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas. One thing was in favor of the British: It was the fact that they did not want the French to lay hold of Iroquois lands, and were willing to assist in a military way in preventing French incur-
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sions. But this was not enough to force a choice of masters. One factor alone should decide this. It was, which nation could be depended upon to be most just in its dealings? Upon the answer to this question depended not only the fate of the Iroquois, but the future control of North America. During the early years of the eighteenth century the course of events was to answer the ques- tion and determine which nation should receive the support of the Iroquois people.
The region of Niagara was a pivotal point, where was destined to be settled one of the decisive arguments affecting the future control of the middle Atlantic region. Here at the beginning of the century we find a Frenchman whose interesting career excites our attention, for upon him depended much of the hold which France was to have upon the region. This man was Louis Thomas de Joncaire, the Sieur de Chabert.1 We do not know exactly when he came to America, but it is thought that he came over with the Chevalier de Vaudreuil in 1687, for Vaudreuil afterwards ap- pears as his friend and defender. Joncaire's military attain- ments were not high, but he showed a singular business ability and a great capacity for making friends. Soon after he reached America he was a member of an expedition, the nature of which we know little; it may have been military or commercial. A party of Senecas captured him and twelve companions, all of whom they planned to test by torture. Some accounts say that his companions were burned to death, and that Joncaire himself was made ready for the stake. Subsequent events seem to indi- cate that the French captives were only tested for their courage and ability to endure pain. Joncaire was seized by his captor, who was about to tie his hands in order to burn his fingers, when Joncaire set upon the Indian and gave him such a terrible beating that his nose was smashed and his face streamed with blood. The assembled Senecas howled with delight at this display of courage and drew Joncaire to their bosoms as a friend and brother.
It was five years before Joncaire and his French companions were released, and Joncaire had improved every moment to make the Senecas his friends. He learned the language, took part in their ceremonies and studied their oratory and council methods. He had so proved his loyalty that the Senecas adopted him as a
1 He was the son of Antoine Marie and Gabriel Hardi, and was born about 1670 (1668?), in the town of St. Remi in Arles Provence.
DR. PETER WILSON Noted Indian
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son and he rose from captive to a recognized member, and then to the rank of Sachem. When he was released in the autumn of 1694, he was imbued with the philosophy of his Indian friends and with a sympathy for them that endured throughout his long life. Though released, Joncaire kept in contact with his red friends, and his peculiar fitness to deal with them caused the King of France to send him to live with them during the year 1705. This official return was one of great rejoicing to the Senecas, who regarded him as a brother indeed, and wise in the lore of the French. For Joncaire they would do anything, even spare the lives of French captives, both good men and culprits.
The French were concerned a bit too with the fact that the Five Nations had deeded their beaver land north of the Great Lakes to the English, at the Albany council of July 10, 1701. This was a threat against Canada and French control. It was also a movement toward Niagara, the key of the lower lakes. If the French could do so, they were determined to possess themselves of this key and shut out the English. Who but Joncaire could win the help of the Senecas? By every tradition Niagara belonged to New France, for here in 1669 La Salle had built and launched the ill-fated Griffon, and here Denonville had constructed his fort of 1687 ..
For some years the English had been actively seeking to win the allegiance of the Five Nations, and were successful with all except the Senecas. The Iroquois were a necessary barrier be- tween them and the French Canadians. A fort and post were needed at Niagara for further protection. The French antici- pated this. In the hands of the British this meant loss of trade and power to New France. Thus, though the French built no fort there since that of Denonville (which was abandoned the next year), every year witnessed the attempts of French traders to deal with the Indians at the mouth of the Niagara. Joncaire appeared there in 1705, no doubt hoping to open a post on his own account. The English complained about this, having an eye upon Niagara themselves. A confidential report to Louis XIV, sent by his agent who had been charged with the task of inspecting all the French forts and posts on the Great Lakes, read in part:
"His Majesty is informed that the English are endeavoring to seize the post at Niagara, and that is of very great importance for the preservation of Canada to prevent them from so doing, because were they masters of it, they would bar the passage and obstruct the communication with the Indian allies of the French, whom
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as well as the Iroquois they would attract to them by their trade, and dispose, whenever they please, to wage war on the French. This would desolate Canada and oblige us to abandon it."
The advantages of controlling Niagara were apparent. With Niagara in their grasp, the French had an all-water route to lower Canada, while the English were compelled to carry their pelts for the most part overland and through the domain of the Senecas and their allies. But, though La Salle's "Griffon" was the first deep bottomed boat built by the French for traffic, via Niagara and Ontario, it was also the last. French fur trade was borne by canoes. The English had other dreams.
The New York colony remonstrated again and again against the French occupation of the Niagara area, but received scant satisfaction, for the Iroquois answered that it was without their permission. Beyond this the Senecas adroitly stated that they could not give Niagara land to the English, since it was conquered territory and belonged to all the Iroquois nations. When it was remonstrated that Joncaire was there with a land grant, they asserted their right to allow one of their own sons to build a house where it pleased him. And it so happened that Joncaire, the elder, after a winter's sojourn among the eastern Senecas, who were most friendly to the English, hurried on to Niagara and, with his Indian colleagues, took up an abode at Niagara. During the next fifteen years we find him busy in the interests of Canada and, indeed, building for himself a reputation as a trader.
The opening years of the eighteenth century found the Senecas in a state of readjustment. After the blow of Denonville, they had abandoned their old seats and taken up new abodes; the eastern Senecas settling near Seneca Lake in a large town south- west of the present site of Geneva, calling it Ganechstage, and in a smaller village at Onagie, just west of Canandaigua. As the country was now free from attack by other Indians, and as they now were becoming pelt hunters, they wandered off in small bands to the south and there were numerous minor hamlets and camps. The Senecas of the western branch from Totiacton and Gan- nounonta, after taking refuge where they might in the forests to the south, began to settle along the Genesee or near it, particularly at Geneseo, though they built towns still farther up the river. These Senecas, also, began to scatter, many of them wandering off into Pennsylvania and Ohio. Their normal life was altered
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and they, likewise, were giving up their fields and villages for a roaming hunter life.
In the events that follow it will be noted that the western divi- sicn of the Senecas were quite friendly to the French Canadians, and that the Seneca Nation was split by conflicting interests. His- tory has not explained just why this was the case, but we may consider a possible explanation to be, that the westernmost vil- lages of the Senecas were filled with adopted Hurons and Neu- trals, together with their children, now grown to maturity, and that these had natural reasons for being sympathetic toward the French, the allies of their ancestors. We may thus understand that while the eastern Seneca villages were friendly to the Eng- lish, those along the Genesee were wont to listen to the voices of the French priests, traders and officials from Montreal and Que- bec. It was a case where tradition and blood bore fruit. Never- theless, when the young warriors of the Senecas were on hunting expeditions, enemies did not discriminate; a Seneca was a Seneca. Thus the hostile Ottawas in 1704 treacherously attacked a Seneca party in the neighborhood of Fort Frontenac (near the foot of Lake Ontario at the beginning of the river St. Lawrence), and carried away thirty prisoners in triumph to Detroit, where the French commandant, seeing what had been done, demanded their instant liberation. French allies might not war upon each other. The Iroquois were inflamed, and, in 1706, Joncaire was sent by Vaudreuil to Michilimackinack to establish peace between these two hostile forces, for French trade depended upon peace between the fur producers. It was during this year that the Nanticokes. brought tribute to Onondaga. They were a lower Susquehanna- Delaware tribe which had been subjected.
But, though the French did much to win the Iroquois, the Eng- lish were not asleep and the tribes east of the Senecas were taking advantage of opportunities to sell to them, though the overland route for heavy packs of peltries was not attractive. By 1709, through the persuasions of Peter Schuyler, all the Iroquois save the Senecas were drawn to the side of the English as allies and supporters, but the Mohawks and Onondagas, fearing that the French might construe this as a hostile act, sent word to Canada that they did not wish war. This year the captive tribes in Penn- sylvania planned to go to Onondaga with their tribute, but the Governor objected that it was not a proper time. Later a council
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was held at Conastoga, attended by many Senecas. The Tusca- roras appeared with belts of wampum, as an assurance of their desire for peace in their southern homeland in the Carolinas. In furtherance of the English designs, Colonel Schuyler had taken a number of Iroquois and Mahikan chiefs to England, that they might catch a glimpse of England's glory and power. The chiefs returned in 1710, having been graciously received by Queen Anne. Three years later the Treaty of Utrecht was signed between France and England, and it was agreed that England should have all authority over the Five Nations of the Iroquois, but that there should be no restraint of trade by either party. This year, 1713, the English were asked to mediate between the warring Carolina Indians and the Tuscaroras, the latter having been badly defeated in their stronghold and eight hundred of them taken prisoners and sold as slaves. The Tuscaroras now began to come into Pennsylvania and creep into New York.
The Iroquois experienced considerable trouble with their vas- sals and found it difficult to settle them in places where they would not make a disturbance. Many of the western Senecas, who were undoubtedly Andastes and Eries, united with the Shaw- nees and Delawares and caused serious apprehension. Enemy tribes in the south were making trouble, the Catawbas having murdered some wandering Iroquois. The Senecas went down the Susquehanna to punish the offenders, and, though turned aside by the Pennsylvania authorities, engaged them in battle and brought back a host of captives with the promise that the trouble would not be repeated.
The year 1720 came and with it a renewed attempt of the French to settle a post at Niagara. The Senecas now had a small village at Lewiston, where many earned good money as carriers on the portage up the mountain and around again to the river above the falls. Joncaire had wintered once more among the eastern Senecas near Seneca Lake and at Onahie. He took back to Canada a great store of peltries, and now prepared to return with another supply of brandy, cloth and other trade articles. With young La Corne, son of the Mayor of Montreal, he reached Niagara and built a great cabin of bark, setting up the armorial standard of France, and calling his building, "Magazin Royal." Leaving the place in the hands of La Corne, he returned to Can- ada for new supplies. In the meantime an English emissary,
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Lawrence Classen, of Albany, went to Niagara and protested against the French domination of the Niagara portage, but was told that it was by command of the Governor of Canada. Later Classen went to Seneca Castle to protest, but the Senecas were induced by Joncaire, who appeared on the scene, to dispute with the English agent, proffering a non-committal reply, though Clas- sen made good his point that the French were charging them double for the goods they gave in exchange. Joncaire, with rare eloquence, smoothed out the trouble, promising that a French. fort at Niagara meant much to the Senecas, and giving them presents in testimony of his friendship. The personal element. and an appeal to emotion had triumphed over reason; the Gaul. was the victor over the Teuton, but the red American paid the bill. Joncaire's victory was received with acclaim in Canada. and he was pronounced "the best man for Niagara." He had. orders, also, to pillage the English if they appeared for trade purposes.
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