USA > New York > Genesee County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Genesee County, New York, v. 1 > Part 2
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At one period we hear the sound of their war cry along the Straits of the St. Mary's, and at the foot of Lake Superior. At another, under the walls of Quebec, where they finally defeated the Hurons, under the eyes of the French. They put out the fires of the Gah-kwas and Eries. They eradicated the Susquehannoc's. They placed the Lenapes, the Nanticokes, and the Munsees under the yoke of subjection. They put the Metoacks and Manhattans under tribute. They spread the terror of their arms over all New England. They traversed the length of the Appalachian Chain and descended like the enraged yagisho and megalonyx, on the Cherokees and Catawbas. Smith encountered their warriors in the settlement of Virginia, and La Salle in the discovery of Illinois.
In 1660 the French declared the number of the Iroquois warriors to be 2,200; in 1617 an agent of England, dispatched to their country for the sole purpose of ascertaining their strength, confirmed the French estimate. Bancroft says that their geographical position " made them umpires in the contest of the French for dominion in the west."
The strength of these Five Nations lay in the fact that they were confederated. The nations they made war against were detached, and not only would not join in attempting to bar the progress of the tri- umphant Iroquois, but doubtless had feuds among themselves. The Iroquois, on the other hand, invariably acted as one nation in war, always in perfect accord. Perhaps by reason of their constant inter- course and interchange of ideas, possibly from other reasons, they had a physical and mental organization, a certain degree of enlightenment,
I Smith's History of New York.
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THE IROQUOIS.
far ahead of that of all other tribes or nations. They were most appro- priately termed the Romans of the West, a name first applied to them by Volney, the French historian. "Had they enjoyed the advantages possessed by the Greeks and the Romans," wrote President Dwight in his " Travels," "there is no reason to believe they would have been at all inferior to these celebrated nations. Their minds appear to have been equal to any effort within the reach of man. Their conquests, if we consider their numbers and circumstances, were little inferior to those of Rome itself. In their harmony, the unity of their operations, the energy of their character, the vastness, vigor, and success of their enterprises, and the strength and sublimity of their eloquence, they may be fairly compared with the Greeks."
While the Seneca Indians were the aboriginal inhabitants of the eastern portion of the territory which subsequently became the original Genesee county, the Neutral Nation inhabited that part of the territory contiguous to the Niagara river and the eastern end of Lake Erie. The Senecas were the most numerous of the five nations known as the Iroquois, or the Five Nations, and they occupied the most westerly portion of the territory controlled by this great confederacy. The English called the Iroquois the Confederates; the Dutch, more partic. ularly those who settled the Mohawk valley, knew them only as the Mohawks and Senecas; and the Indians called themselves the Aganns- chioni, meaning "United People." They also called themselves the Hodenosaunee, meaning " People of the Long House," all their habita- tions being low, narrow and as a rule very long. They also likened their confederacy, stretched for two hundred miles along a narrow valley, to one of the long wigwams containing many families. '
The Five Nations were composed of the Mohawks, on the east; next west being the Oneidas, then the Onondagas, then the Cayugas, and finally the Senecas, who held most of the original county of Genesee. When the Tuscaroras, from the Carolinas, joined the confederacy known as the Five Nations, they became amalgamated with the Oneidas and gradually lost their identity. When the confederacy was established is not known. In David Cusick's history he relates the Indian traditions relative to the origin of the kingdom. The following is abstracted from the work referred to:
' For the brief resume of early Indian history contained in this chapter the writer is indebted to Davit Crack's sketches of ancient history of the Six Nations, with annotations ly W. M Beauchamp, and to data furnished by the late George S. Conover, the well known asthere; on Indian history.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
By some inducement a body of people was concealed in the mountain at the falls named Kuskehsawkich (now Oswego). When the people were released from the mountains they were visited by Tarenyawagon, i. e., the Holder of the Heavens, who had power to change himself into various shapes; he ordered the people to pro- ceed toward the sunrise as he guided them and come to a river and named Yeron- anatche, i. e., going around a mountain (now Mohawk), and went down the bank of the river and come to where it discharges into a great river running towards the midday sun; and Shaw-nay-taw-ty, i. e, beyond the pineries (now Hudson), and went down the bank of the river and touched bank of a great water. . The people were yet in one language ; some of the people went to the banks of the great water towards the midday sun, but the main company returned as they came, on the banks of the river, under the direction of the Holder of the Heavens. Of this con- pany there was a particular body which called themselves one household; of these were six families and they entered into a resolution to preserve the chain of alliance which should not be extinguished in any manner. The company advanced some distance up the river of Shaw-na-taw.ty (Hudson), the Holder of the Heavens directs the first family to make their residence near the bank of the river, and the family was named Te.haw-re-ho-geh, i. e., a speech divide.l (now Mohawk) and their lan- guage was soon altered; the company then turned and went towards the sunsetting. and traveled about two days and a half, and come to a creek, which was named Kaw.na-taw-te-ruh, i. e., Pineries. The second family was directed to make their residence near the creek, and the family was named Ne-haw-re-tah-go, i. e., Big Tree, now Oneidas, and likewise their language was altered. The company con- tinued to proceed towards the sunsetting; under the direction of the Holder of the Heavens. The third family was directed to make their residence on a mountain named Onondaga (now Onondaga and the family was named Seuh-now-kah-tah, t. e., carrying the name, and their language was altered. The company continued their journey towards the sunsetting. The fourth family was directed to make their residence near a long lake named Go-yo-goh, i. e., a mountain rising from the water (now Cayuga) and the family was named Sho-nea na-we-to-wah, i. e., a great pipe, their language was altered. The company continued to proceed towards the sun- setting. The fifth company was directed to make their residence near a high moun - tain, or rather nole, situated south of the Canandaigua lake, which was named Jenneatowake and the family was named Te-how-nea-nyo-hent, i. e., Passing a Door, now Seneca, and their language was altered. The sixth family went with the company that journeyed towards the sunsetting, and touched the bank of a great lake, and named Kau-ha-gwa-rah-ka, i. e., A Cap, now Enie, and then went towards between the mid-day aad sunsetting, and travelled considerable distance and came to a large river which was named Ouau-we-yo-ka, i. e., a principal stream, now Mississippi. . . The family was directed to make their residence near Cau-ta- noh ; i. e., Pine in water, situated near the mouth of Nuse river, now in North Caro. lina, and the family was named Kan-ta-noh, now Tuscarora and their language was altered. The Holder of the Heavens returns to the five families and forms the mode of confederacy which was named Ggo-nea.seab-neh. i. e .. A Long House. to which are 1st-Tea-kaw-reh-ho-geh; 2d -- New -haw-teh tab-go; 3d-Seuh-nau-ka- ta; 4th-Sho-nea-na-we-to-wan ; 5th-Te-hoo-bea-nyo-hent.
STTHOD NO
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THE IROQUOIS.
This organization is supposed to have taken place between 1900 and 2000 years before Columbus discovered America, or between 100 B. C. and 500 B.C. While this account is purely traditional it is conceded by most authorities to be the most authentic in existence.
When the white intruders first discovered that such an alliance ex. isted, all that was known of the organization of the form of govern- ment so remarkable among a savage people was, as we have shown, mere tradition. Each nation of the confederacy was independent of every other in all matters of a local character, and in the councils no sachem was superior to another, except by reason of higher intellectual attainments, such as they might be. The fifty offices created at the organization of the confederacy were distributed among the nations according to their numerical strength. Although these offices were hereditary, no one could become a ruler or sachem until elevated to such a place by a council of all the sachems of the original American confederacy. The sachems, who, in council, constituted the legislative body of the union were also the local rulers of their respective nations. While a sachem or chief had civil authority, he could not be a chieftain in war until elected to that position. Every sachem went on the war- path as a common warrior unless he had been doubly honored and made a military leader as well as a civil officer. The Iroquois nation then was practically a republic, founded on much the same principles as the United States of America.
The policy of the Iroquois nation in war appears to have been not alone for the sake of war, but for conquest and the extension of the nation's power and influence. So successful were they in their efforts that at the end of the seventeenth century they dominated a very large portion of what is now the United States. The Iroquois of New York and the Algonquin tribes of New England were perpetually at war.
For many years, during the early French and Indian wars and doubt- less for a long period prior thereto, the principal and probably the most western of the permanent villages of the Senecas, was located at Boughton Hill, about twenty miles east of Rochester. Sporadic camps were to be found among the forests and in the sheltered places in the territory further west, which afterward became Genesee county; but aside from a village (probably a summer encampment) on the site of Buffalo, we have no knowledge of the existence of any centres of pop- ulation among the Senecas west of the Genesee river prior to 168", when Governor de Nonville of Canada made his first invasion. As late
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
as 1779, when Sullivan entered upon his campaign against them, he went no further west than the Genesee river. The year following the Senecas, who had deserted their villages at Sullivan's approach, estab- lished a permanent settlement on Buffalo Creek, on territory from which they had driven the Kah Kwah tribe. This settlement was made upon the advice and under the auspices of the British at Fort Niagara, to whom the Indians had fled from the French for protection and relief.
The Neutral Nation (the Kah-Kwahs), to which reference has been made, occupied the territory adjoining the Niagara river on both the east and the west, but they ventured but a short distance eastward from that stream. They had but four villages on the east side of the river. The Kah-Kwahs were called the Neutral Nation by reason of the fact that they found it necessary for their own preservation to maintain peaceful relations with both the Iroquois of Central New York and the Hurons of Canada. The two latter nations were hostile, but they met under an armistice in the territory of the Kah- Kwahs. The latter were unable to continue their policy of peace and neutrality for long, and the nation was finally disrupted and overthrown by death in battle, and adoption into the rival tribes of the Hurons and the Iroquois.
It is a fact worthy of note that the confederacy recognized no relig- ious functionaries, though in each nation there were officers who offici- ated at the religious ceremonies held at stated intervals throughout the year. Among most of the aboriginal nations there existed a regular religious profession ; but among the Iroquois this was unknown. In reality the Iroquois were governed but little. Each warrior was in a measure independent. But the moral state of the Iroquois was high, and it was their boast that they had ever maintained it.
There were in each nation eight tribes, named as follows: Wolf. Bear, Beaver, Turtle, Deer, Snipe, Heron and Hawk. The Wolf tribe was divided into five parts, one-fifth being located in each of the five nations. The remaining tribes were similarly divided and distributed, thus giving to each nation the eight tribes, and in their separated state making forty tribes in the confederacy. Between the separated parts of each tribe there existed a relationship which linked the nations to- gether with firm bonds. The Mohawk Indian of the Hawk tribe rec. ognized the Onondaga or the Seneca of the Hawk tribe as his brother, and each considered the other bound to him by ties of consanguinity. This custom prevailed among all the tribes of the various nations, prob- ably furnishing the chief reason why the fragments of the ancient con-
712000
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THE IROQUOIS.
federacy continued to cling together long after it was disrupted by the encroachments of the whites. The wisdom of these divisions and dis- tributions is shown by the history of the nation; for its various nations never fell into a state of anarchy, nor did any nation ever hint at such . a thing as secession. The confederacy was, in fact, a lasting league of tribes, interwoven into one great family, the tribes themselves, in their subdivisions, being composed of parts of many households. Thus it will be seen that the basis of the entire organization was the family relationship.
The Wolf, Bear, Beaver and Turtle tribes were brothers to one an- other and cousins to the tribes known as Deer, Snipe, Heron and Hawk. These groups were not permitted to intermarry. But any of the first four tribes could intermarry with any of the last four. Whoever vio- lated the laws of marriage incurred everlasting disgrace and degrada- tion. In the course of time, however, the rigor of this system was relaxed until the prohibition was confined to the tribe of the individual. The children always followed the tribe of the mother.
Naturally, in accord with such a system, the separate rights of each tribe and of each individual were jealously guarded. One of the most remarkable civil institutions was that which confined the transmission of all titles, rights and property in the female line to the exclusion of the male. For example, if the Wolf tribe of the Senecas received a sachemship at the original distribution of these offices, the descent of such title being limited to the female line it could never pass out of the tribe. One of the most marked results of this system was the per- petual disinheritance of the son. Being of the tribe of his mother it formed an impassable barrier against him; and he could neither suc- ceed his father as a sachem nor inherit from him even his medal or his tomahawk. For the protection of tribal, rather than individual or family rights, the inheritance was thus directed from the descendants of the schem to his brother, his sister's children, or some individual of the tribe at large under certain circumstances.
The method of reckoning degrees of consanguinity was clear and definite. No distinction was made between the lineal and collateral line, either in the ascending or descending series. The maternal grandmother and her sisters were equally grandmothers; the mother and her sisters were equally mothers; the children of a mother's sisters were brothers and sisters; the children of a sister would be nephews and nieces ; and the grandchildren of a sister would be grandchildren-
IT
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
that is, the grandchildren of a person from whom the degree of relation- ship is reckoned. These were the principal relatives within the tribe. Out of the tribe the paternal grandfather and his brothers were equally grandfathers; the father and his brothers were equally fathers; the father's sisters were aunts, while in the tribe the mother's brothers were uncles; the children of the father's sister were cousins, as in the civil law ; the children of these cousins would be nephews and nieces; and the children of these nephews and nieces would be his grandchildren. The children of a brother were reckoned as children, and the grand- children of a brother were grandchildren. The children of a father's brothers were brothers and sisters; and their children were reckoned as grandchildren.1
The peculiarities of the mode of computing the degrees of blood re- lationship were nothing as compared with the intricacies of the succes- sion among the rulers of the confederacy. Some authorities claim that the sachemships were elective offices; others have endeavored to point out that they were hereditary. Apparently they were, many times, both elective and hereditary. One fact should be borne in mind, in order that the casual reader may not be misled; and that is that the titles of of sachem and war-chief are absolutely hereditary in the tribe to which they were originally assigned, and can never pass out of it, except with its extinction.
As has been shown, the sachem's brothers, and the sons of his sisters, are of his tribe, and therefore in the line of succession. Between a brother and nephew of the deceased there was no law establishing a preference. Between several brothers, on the one hand, and several sons of a sister, on the other, there was no distinction in the law. Nor was there any positive law that the choice should be confined to the brothers of the deceased ruler, or to the descendants of his sister in the female line, before a selection could be made from the tribe at large. It thus appears that the offices were hereditary in the particular tribe in which they ran, while being elective as between the male members of the tribe itself.
Upon the decease of a sachem a council of the tribes was held to select his successor. In the absence of physical and moral objections
1 The names of the several degrees of relationship recognized among the Iroquois are is fu- lows, in the Seneca tonger. Grandfather. Hee-vote, grandmother Ver-te; father, ha-mh; mother. Noh-vel; son. ho-ah-werk daughter s rah-werk gran kelldren, na va-da, which hee- nowsel; aunt. alexeh-han nephew. Na-van-wan-deh. mede, kaya -width brothers and ais. ters, de-y .- gwa-dan-n .d., cousin, ah-pre-wh.
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THE IROQUOIS.
the choice generally fell upon a son of the deceased ruler's sisters, or upon one of his brothers. If the new sachem was an infant a guardian was chosen for him, and such guardian performed the duties of a sachem until the young sachem reached a suitable age. It seldom happened that a selection from the tribe at large was made unless the near relatives or direct heirs proved unfit for or unworthy of the office.
The tribes held the power of deposition as well as that of selection. If a sachem lost the confidence and respect of the tribe, and was deemed unworthy of authority, he was at once deposed by a tribal council.
The manner of selecting names for infants was unique. Soon after a birth occurred, a name for the infant was selected by the near rela- tives of the same tribe. At the next national council public announce- ment of the birth and name was made, with the name and tribe of the father and name and tribe of the mother. When an individual was in - vested with authority as a sachem, his original name was cast aside and that of his sachemship itself assumed. The same rule applied to war- chiefs. When a chief was chosen, the council of the nation performing the ceremony took away the original individual name and assigned to the incumbent a new one. Thus, when the celebrated Red Jacket was raised to the dignity of chief, his original name, O-te-ti-an-i ( meaning Always Ready), was laid aside and the name of Sa-go.ye. wat-ha (meaning Keeper Awake), signifying the power of his eloquence, was bestowed upon him.
A tribe of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee involves the idea of descent from a common mother. In the formation of an Iroquois tribe portions were taken from many households and bound together by a tribal bond, in reality by the ties of consanguinity. All the members of the tribe were connected by easily traceable relationship. The wife, her children. and her descendants in the female line were forever linked with the destinies of her own tribe and kindred; and the husband. his brothers and his sisters, and the descendants of the latter in the female line, were held by affinity to the mother tribe.
This magnificent republic was founded upon terms of absolute equal- ity. Those apparently special privileges that were granted to certain tribes arose solely from locality. For instance, the Senecas, located upon the western frontier of the nation, were allowed to have the head war-chiefs; while the Mohawks, by reason of their most easterly loca- tion, became receivers of tribute from the subjugated nations to the north, east and south of them.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
A great peculiarity of the confederacy was that unanimity was one of the fundamental laws. Such a thing as majority rule was unknown. With the idea of obviating altercations in council, as far as possible, the founders of the confederacy divided the sachems of each nation into classes, usually of two and three each. No sachem was allowed to ex- press an opinion in council until he had agreed with the other sachems of his class upon the opinion to be expressed and had been designated as spokesman for his class. Thus, the eight sachems of the Senecas, being divided into four classes, were entitled to but four opinions. The four sachems representing the four classes then held a consultation, and when they had agreed they selected one of their number to express their opinion. This opinion was the opinion and decision of the nation. The final settlement was reached by a conference of the individual rep- resentatives of the several nations; but no determination was reached until these delegates were unanimously agreed upon the question at issue. Thus, the Iroquois war against the French was declared by a unanimous vote; but when the question of an alliance with the British in the Revolution came up, the council was divided, and although most of the confederates were allies of the British in that war, it was by rea- son of the fact that each nation was permitted to act as it decmed best.
The earliest detailed notice, from English sources, of the territory which subsequently became, for the most part, the original county of Genesee, was contained in a work published in London in 1:80 under the title of "Chalmer's Political Annals of the United Colonies." The de- scriptive article which was of interest in this connection appeared under the heading of " Observations of Wentworth Greenhalph, in a journey from Albany to the Indians westward, begun the 28th of May, 16 :: , and ended the 14th of July following." After describing the country of the first four nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, the writer alludes as follows to the Senecas and their abode:
The Senecas have four towns, viz :- Canagorah. Tistehatan, Canoenada, Keinthe. Canagorah and Tistehatan lie within thirty miles of the Lake Frontenac! the other two about four or five miles to the southward of these ; they have abundance of coro. None of their towns are stockaded.
Canagorah lies at the top of a great hill, and, in that as well as in the bigness, much like Onsadagoe,' containing one hundred and fifty houses, northwestward of Cayuga seventy-two miles.
Here the Indians were very destrons to see us ride our horses, which we did. They made feasts and dancing, and invited us.
1 Onondagoe is described in "situated on a hill that is very large, the bank in cich side extending itself at least two miles, all cleared lands, whereon the corn is planted."
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THE IROQUOIS.
Tistehatan lies on the edge of a hill; not much cleared ground; is near the river Tistehatan, which signifies bending.1 It lies to the northward of Canagorah about thirty miles; contains about one hundred and twenty houses, being the largest of all the houses we saw; the ordinary being fifty or sixty feet long, and some one han- dred and thirty or one hundred and forty feet long, with thirteen or fourteen fires in one house. They have good store of corn growing about a mile to the northward of the town.
Being at this place, on the 17th of June, there came fifty prisoners from the south . westward, and they were of two nations; some of whereof have a few guns, the other none. One nation is about ten days' journey from any Christians, and trade only with one great house, not far from the sea; and the other, as they say, trade only with a black people. This day, of them were burnt two women and a man, and a child killed with a stone. At night we heard a great noise, as if the houses had all fallen ; but it was only the inhabitants driving away the ghosts of the murdered.
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