USA > New York > Pioneer history of the Holland Purchase of western New York : embracing some account of the ancient remains > Part 5
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While the citations that we have made from reliable authorities, sufficiently establish the extended dominions of the Iroquois, they also sanction the highest estimate that has been made of their bravery and martial prowess. Their strength and uniform success, are mainly to be attributed to their social and political organization. They were Confederates. Their enemies, or the nations they chose to make war with, for the purposes of conquest, extended rule, poli- tical supremacy-were detached,-had feuds perhaps between themselves - could not act in concert. The Iroquois were a five fold cord. Their antagonists, but single strands, and if acting occasionally in concert, it was in the absence of a league or union, of that peculiar character that made their assailants invincible. Added to this, is the concurrent testimony of historians, that the Iroquois, in physical and mental organization far excelled all other of the aboriginal nations, or tribes of our country. A position justified by our own observation and comparisons. Even in our own day, now that they are dwindled down to a mere remnant of what they were; confined to a few thousand acres of a broad domain they once posessed, (and even these stinted allotments grudgingly made, and their possession envied by rapacious pre-emptionists,) now that they have survived the terrible ordeal-a contest with our race, and all its blighting and contaminating influences, -their superiority is evinced in various ways; their supremacy apparent. Upon the banks of the Tonawanda, the Alleghany, the Cattaragus,
* Bancroft's History of the United States.
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there are now unbroken, proud spirits of this noble race of men, who would justify the highest encomiums that history has bestowed.
If we are told that they have degenerated, the position can be controverted by the citation of individual instances. If their ambition has been crushed; if they feel, as well they may, that their condition has been changed ; that they are in a measure dependants upon a soil, and in a region, where they were but a little time since, lords and masters ; if they are conscious, as well they may be, that superior diplomacy, artful and over-reaching negotiation, has as effectually conquered and despoiled them of their possessions as a conquest of arms would have done; if they feel that they are aliens, as they are made by our laws, upon the native soil of themselves and a long line of ancestors .- There are yet worthy descendants of the primitive stock- the same "Seneca Iroquois," in mind, in fea- ture, in some of the best attributes of our common nature, - that La Salle, Hennepin, Tonti, Joncair, found here in these western forests; that the seemingly partial, yet truthful historian has describ- ed. While the vices of civilization - or those that civilization has introduced - have effectually degenerated a large portion of them; debased them to a level with the worst of the whites; there are those, and a large class of them, that have, with a moral firmness that is admirable - a native, uneducated sense of right and wrong, of virtue and vice ; resisted all the temptations with which they have been beset and surrounded, and command our highest es- teem, not for what they, or their progenitors have been ; but for their intrinsic merits. Their ancient council fires, are not extin- guished; though they burn not as brightly in the allotted retreat where they are now kindled, as of yore, when they blazed in the "Long House," from Hudson to Lake Erie. Their confederacy is dwindled to a mere shadow of what it was, but it yet exists. " They have been stripped so entirely of their possessions as to have retained scarcely sufficient for a sepulchre. They have been shorn so entirely of their power as to be scarcely heard when appealing to justice from the rapacity of the pre-emptive claimants."* And
yet they are a distinctive people - their Ancient League in force; their ancient rites and ceremonies are still performed. From their ancient seat at Onondaga, the council fire is transferred to Tonawanda, Here it is yet kindled. Here the representatives of
Shenandoah.
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the Senecas, the Tuscaroras, the Onondagas, the scattered rem- nants of the Mohawks, Cayugas and Oncidas, yet assemble, go through with their ancient rites and ceremonies ; - their speeches, dances, exhortations, sacrifices, &c .; supply vacancies that have occurred in the ranks of their sachems and chiefs, furnish a feeble but true representation of the doings of their ancient confederacy, when it was the sole conservator and legislature of two thirds of our Empire State, and held in subjection nearly that proportion of our own modern and similarly constructed Union.
The historians of the Iroquois, have found ample authority for the extended dominion, and military supremacy they have conceded to them, in the writings of the French Missionaries, and in their own well authenticated traditions; and there is still more reliable testimony. As in after times-in their wars with the French, and in the Border Wars of the Revolution, a large proportion of their prisoners were saved from torture and execution and adopted into families and tribes, for the double purpose of supplying the loss of their own people slain in battle or taken prisoners-of keeping their numbers good-and for solacing the bereaved relatives, by substituting a favorite captive in the family circle. This was not only the ancient, but the modern custom of the Iroquois. The commentators upon their institutions, have inferred that this was a part of their system and policy. This will be quite apparent in some accounts that will follow of white prisoners who were found among the Senecas in Western New York, at the carliest period of white settlement, and whose descendants are still among them. There are now upon the Tonawanda Reservation, at Cattaragus and Alleghany, descendants of Cherokee, Seminole and Catawba captives; in fact of nearly all the nations, which we are told in their traditions, they were at war with in early times. It is singular, with what apparent precision, they will trace the mixed blood, when none but themselves can discover any difference of complexion or features. Tradition must be their helper, in deter- mining after the lapse of centuries, and a long succession of gene- rations, where the blood of the captive is mingled with their own. They are good genealogists; far better than we are, who can avail ourselves of written records.
And there is a fact connected with this reprieving and adopting captives, that commands our especial wonder, if not our admiration. In all the numerous cases that we have accounts of, with few
-
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exceptions, captivity soon ceased to be irksome; an escape from it hardly a desirable consummation! Was the captive of their own race and color, he soon forgot that he was in the wigwam of stran- gers, away from his country and kindred; he was no alien; social, political, and family immunities were extended to him. He was as one of them in all respects. Had he left behind father, mother, brother, sister or wife, they were supplied him; and it baffles all our preconceived opinions of an arbitrary, instinctive sense of kin- dred blood affinity, when told how casily the captive adapted him- self to his new relations; how soon the adopter and the adopted conformed to an alliance that was merely conventional. And so it was in a great degree with our own race. They too, were captives among the Iroquois, but wore no captive's chains. After a little there was no restraint, no coercion, no desire to escape. Upon this point, we have the recorded testimony of MARY JEMISON, of HORATIO JONES, and several others. MRS. JEMISON, who had more than ordinary natural endowments; who possessed a mind and affections adapted to the enjoyments of civilization and refinement ; affirms that in a short time after she was made a captive, she was content with her condition; and she affirmed at the close of a long life, spent principally among the Senecas, that she had uniformly been treated with kindness. The author in his boyhood has listened to the recitals of captive whites among the Senecas, and well remembers how incredible it seemed that they should have preferred a continuance among them to a return to their own race. This to us seemingly singular choice, with those who were young when captured, is partly to be accounted for in the novelty of the change -- the sports and pastimes-the "freedom of the woods "-the absence of restraints and checks, upon youthful inclinations. But chiefly it was the influence of kindness, extended to them as soon as they were adopted. The Indian mother knew no difference between her natural and adopted children; there were no social discriminations, or if any, in favor of the adopted captive; they had all the rights and privileges in their tribes, nations, confederacy. enjoyed by the native Iroquois .*
The Senecas have traditions of the execution of several
* This kind treatment of prisoners, it is not contended, was uniform. A portion of them were subjected to torture and death. It was however, one thing or the other: - death attended by all the horrors of savage custom, or adoption into a family, and the treatment that has been indicated.
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prisoners, that were made captives in their wars with the Southern Indians. A stream that puts into the Alleghany, below Olean, bears the Seneca name of a Cherokee prisoner, who, their traditions say, was executed there. MRS. JEMISON * says, her husband, HIOKATOO, was engaged in 1731, to assist in collecting an army to go against the Catawbas, Cherokees, and other Southern Indians. That they met the enemy on the Tennessee River, "rushed upon them in ambuscade, and massacred 1200 on the spot ;" that after that, the battle continued for two days. She names several other wars with the Southern Indians, in which her warrior husband was engaged. It is but a few years since there were surviving aged Seneca Indians, who recounted their exploits in wars waged by the Iroquois against neighboring and far distant nations.
The reader who has not made himself familiar with the history of the aboriginal pre-occupants of our region, has, perhaps, in this brief introduction of them, their wars and extended dominion -their pre-eminence among the nations of their race-the high position assigned them by historians,-been sufficiently interested to desire to know more of them; especially to know something of the organization and frame work of a political system-a confederacy so wisely conceived by the untaught Statesmen of the forest, who had no precedents to consult, no written lore of ages to refer to, no failures or triumphs of systems of human government to serve for models or comparisons ; nothing to guide them but the lights of nature ; nothing to prompt them but necessity and emergency.
The French historian, VOLNEY, was the first to pronounce the Iroquois the ROMANS OF THE WEST ; a proud, and not undeserved title, which succeeding historians and commentators have not withheld. " Had they enjoyed the advantages possessed by the Greeks and Romans, 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
* Life of Mary Jemison by James E. Seaver, revised and enlarged by Ebenezer Mix.
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and sublimity of their eloquence, they may be fairly compared with the Greeks. Both the Greeks and Romans, before they began to rise into distinction, had already reached the state of society in which men are able to improve. The Iroquois had not. The Greeks and Romans had ample means for improvement ; the Iroquois had none."* "If we except the celebrated league, which united the Five Nations into a Federal Republic, we can discern few traces of political wisdom among the rude American tribes as discover any great degree of foresight or extent of intellectual abilities."t "The Iroquois bore this proud appellation, not only by conquests over other tribes, but by encouraging the people of other nations to incorporate with them ; 'a Roman principle,' says THATCHER, 'recognized in the practice as well as theory of these lords of the forest."# "From whatever point we scrutinize the general features of their confederacy, we are induced to regard it, in many respects, as a beautiful, as well as remarkable structure, and to hold it up as the triumph of Indian legislation."§ "It cannot, I presume, be doubted, that the confederates were a peculiar and extraordinary people, contra-distinguished from the wars of the Indian Nations by great attainments in polity, in government, in negotiation, in eloquence, and in war."||
The peculiar structure of the confederacy of the Iroquois, is one of the most interesting features of our aboriginal history. A brief analysis of it is all that will be attempted. Its general features were known to their earliest historians, but it was left to a recent contributor T to the archives of the New York Historical Society, to investigate the subject with a zeal, industry and ability. which do him great credit ; to give us a better knowledge of the legislation and laws of these sons of the forest, than we before possessed. To that source principally, with occasional reference to other authorities ; the author is indebted for the materials for the sketch that follows : -
The existence of the Iroquois upon the soil now constituting Western and Middle New York, is distinctly traced back to the period of the discovery of America. Their traditions go beyond
* President Dwight. t Robertson's America.
¿ Yonnondio, or the Warriors of Genesee, by W. H. C. Hosmer.
§ Shenandoah.
|| MR. Clinton.
TLetters on the Iroquois, Shenandoah; addressed to Albert Gallatin, President. N. Y. Historical Society.
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that period-or in fact have no limits ; some of their relators contending that this was always their home; others, that they came here by conquest ; and others, that they were peaceful emigrants from a former home in the south. This involves a mooted question, which it is not necessary here to discuss, if indeed it admits of any satisfactory conclusion. They fix upon no definite period in refer- ence to the origin of their confederacy. It existed, and was recognized by the Dutch, who were the first adventurers in the eastern portion of our state ; by the earliest French Jesuits in the valley of the Mohawk, at Onondaga, and along the south shores of Lake Ontario, and upon the Niagara River ; and there were evidences of a long precedent existence, that corresponded with their traditions.
Like most systems of human governments, and especially the better ones-it was undoubtedly the offspring of emergency. Protracted wars, such as their race have been subject to since our first acquaintance with it- and which has often called into requisi- tion the mediatory offices of our government, had created the necessity of a union of strength-an alliance, for offence and defence. It was upon a smaller scale to be sure, than an alliance that followed centuries after, between the crowned heads of Europe ; but was dictated by better motives, and far more wisdom ; though with a history of Iroquois conquests before us, it is not to be denied, that they not only contemplated peace and union at home, but like their imitators meditated assaults upon their neighbors. The one was suggested by the autocrat of Russia, from a palace-tradition attributes the other to a "wise man* of the Onondaga nation." whose dwelling was but a hunter's lodge.
The confederacy in one leading feature at least, was not unlike our Federal Union. The Five Nations were as so many states, reserving to themselves some well defined powers, but yielding others for the general good.
The supreme power of the confederacy, was vested in a con- gress of sachems, fifty in number. The Mohawks were entitled to nine representatives ; the Oneidas to nine ; the Onondagas to fourteen; the Cayugas to ten; the Senecas to eight. "The office of sachem was hereditary. They were "raised up," not by their respective nations, but by a council of all the sachems. They formed the
Dagánowedá.
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" council of the League," and in them resided the Executive legisla- tive and judicial authority. In their own localities, at home among their own people, these sachems were the government, forming five independent local sovereignties, modelled after the general con- gress of sachems. There were in fact five distinct local republics within one general republic. It was as it would be with our dele- gation in Congress, if after discharging their duties at the seat of the general government, they came home and formed a council for all purposes of local government. Although not a monarchy, it "was the rule of the few," and these few possessing what would look to us like a power very liable to abuse-the power of self creation; filling up their own ranks, as vacancies occured from time to time; and yet we are told that this formed no exception to the general well working of the system. The members of the council of the League were equals in power and authority ; and yet from some provision in their organization, or from a necessity which must have existed with the Iroquois Council as with all conventional or legislative bodies, it is to be inferred that they had a head or leader -something answering the purposes of a speaker in our system of legislation, or a president, in our conventional arrangement. How all this was managed it is difficult to understand. There was always residing in the central Onondaga nation, a sachem who had at least a nominal superiority; he was regarded as the head of the confederacy, and had dignities and honors, above his fellow sachems; and yet his prerogatives were only such as were tacitly allowed or conceded ; not derived as we would say, from any " constitutional " provisions. His position was an hereditary one, derived, as is affirmed by tradition, from an Onondaga chief- TA-DO-DA-HOH, a famous chief and warrior, who was co-temporary with the formation of the confederacy. He had rendered himself
NOTE .- Those into whose hands may chance to have fallen the pamphlet of the native Tuscarora historian, David Cusick, will remember his picture of "At-to-tar-ho." This was the real or imaginary " Ta-do-da-hoh " of Onondaga; the name varying with the different dialects. With rather more than the ordinary love of fancy and fiction, inherent in his race, the Tuscarora narrator has invested his hero with something more than human attributes ; and has awarded to his memory, a wood cut-rude but graphic. He is represented as a monarch, quietly smoking his pipe, sitting in one of the marshes of Onondaga, giving audience to an embassy from the Mohawks, who have come to solicit his co-operation in the formation of a League. Living serpents are entwined around him, extending their hissing heads in every direction. Every thing around him, and the place of his residence, were such as to inspire fear and respect. His dishes and spoons were made of the skulls of enemies he had slain in battle. Him, when they had duly approached with presents, and burned tobacco in friendship, in their pipes, by way of frankincense, they placed at the head of the League as its presiding officer.
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illustrious by military achievements. "Down to this day, among the Iroquois, his name is the personification of heroism, of forecast, and of dignity of character. He was reluctant to consent to the new order of things, as he would be shorn of his power, and placed among a number of equals. To remove this objection, his sachem- ship was dignified above the others, by certain special privileges, not inconsistent, however, with an equal distribution of powers ; and from his day to the present, this title has been regarded as more noble and illustrious than any other, in the catalogue of Iroquois nobility."
" With a mere league of Indian nations, the constant tendency would be to a rupture, from remoteness of position and interest, and from the inherent weakness of such a compact. In the case under inspection, something more lasting was aimed at than a simple union of the five nations, in the nature of an alliance. A blending of the national sovereignties into one government, with direct and manifold relations between the people and the Confed- eracy, as such, was sought for and achieved by these forest statesmen. On first observation, the powers of the government appear to be so entirely centralized, that the national independencies nearly disappear ; but this is very far from the fact. The crowning feature of the Confederacy, as a political structure, is the perfect independence and individuality of the nations, in the midst of a central and embracing government, which presents such a united and cemented exterior, that its subdivisions would scarcely be discovered in transacting business with the Confederacy. This remarkable result was in part effected by the provision that the same rulers who governed the Confederacy in their joint capacity, should, in their separate state, still be the rulers of the several nations.
"For all the purposes of a local and domestic, and many of a political character, the nations were entirely independent of each other. The nine Mohawk sachems administered the affairs of that nation with joint authority, precisely in the same manner as they did, in connection with others, the affairs of the League at large. With similar powers, the ten Cayuga sachems, by their joint couneils, regulated the internal and domestic affairs of their nation. As the sachems of each nation stood upon a perfect equality, in authority and privileges, the measure of influence was determined entirely by the talents and address of the individual. In the councils of the nation, which were of frequent occurrence, all business of national concernment was transacted ; and, although the questions moved on such occasions would be finally settled by the opinions of the sachems, yet such was the spirit of the Iroquois system of government, that the influence of the inferior chiefs, the
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warriors, and even of the women, would make itself felt, whenever the subject itself aroused a general public interest.
"The powers and duties of the sachems were entirely of a civil character, but yet were arbitrary within their sphere of action. If we sought their warrant for the exercise of power, in the etymol- ogy of the word, in their language, which corresponds with sachem, it would intimate a check upon, rather than an enlargement of, the civil authority ; for it signifies, simply, 'a counsellor of the people,' -a beautiful and appropriate designation of a ruler."
There were in each of the Five Nations, and in the aggregate, the same number of War Chiefs as sachems. The subordination of the military to the civil power, was indicated upon all occasions of the assembling of the councils, by each sachem having a War Chief standing behind him to aid with his counsel, and execute the commands of his superior. If the two, however, went out upon a war party, the precedence was reversed, or in fact the sachem, who was supreme in council, was but a subordinate in the ranks. The supreme command of the war forces, and the general conduct of the wars of the confederacy was entrusted to two military chiefs raised up as the sachems were, their offices hereditary. These were, in all cases to be of the Seneca nation .*
The third class of officers was created long after the organiza- tion of the Confederacy, since the advent of Europeans among them,-the chiefs. They were elected from time to time as necessity or convenience required, their number unlimited. Their powers were originally confined to the local affairs of their respect- ive nations ; they were home advisers and counsellors of the sachems ; but in process of time they became in some respects. equal in rank and authority to the sachems.
" It is, perhaps, in itself singular that no religious functionaries were recognized in the Confederacy (none ever being raised up); although there were certain officers in the several nations who officiated at the religious festivals, which were held at stated seasons throughout the year. There never existed, among the Iroquois, a regular and distinct religious profession, or office, as
* They likened, as will have been seen, their political edifice, to a Long House ; its door opening to the West. The Senecas occupying the door way, at the West, where hostile onsets were looked for, the location of the chief military commanders was assigned to them. It was the province of the Senecas, from their location, to first take the war path. If invaded, they were to drive back the invaders. If too formidable for them, they called upon the next allies, the Onondagas, and so on when necessary. to the Eastern end of the Long House, occupied by the Mohawks.
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