USA > New York > Pioneer history of the Holland Purchase of western New York : embracing some account of the ancient remains > Part 6
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among most nations ; and it was, doubtless, owing to the simplicity, as well as narrowness, of their religious creed.
" With the officers above enumerated, the administration of the Confederacy was entrusted. The government sat lightly upon the people, who, in effect, were governed but little. It seemed to each that individual independence, which the Hodenosaunee knew how to prize as well as the Saxon ; and which, amid all political changes, they have contrived to preserve. The institutions which would be expected to exist under the government whose frame-work has just been sketched, would necessarily be simple. Their mode of life, and limited wants, the absence of all property, and the infre- quency of crime, dispensed with a vast amount of the legislation and machinery, incident to the protection of civilized society. While, therefore, it would be unreasonable to seek those high qualities of mind, which result from ages of cultivation, in such a rude state of existence, it would be equally irrational to regard the Indian character as devoid of all those higher characteristics which ennoble the human race. If he has never contributed a page to science, nor a discovery to art; if he loses, in the progress of generations, as much as he gains ; still, there are certain qualities of his mind which shine forth in all the lustre of natural perfection, and which must ever elicit admiration. His simple integrity, his generosity, his unbounded hospitality, his love of truth, and, above all, his unbroken fidelity,-a sentiment inborn, and standing out so conspicuously in his character, that it has, not untruthfully, become its living characteristic ; all these are - adornments of humanity, which no art of education can instill, nor refinement of civilization can bestow. If they exist at all, it is because the gifts of the Deity have never been debased. The high state of public morals, celebrated by the poet as reached and secured under Augustus, it was the higher and prouder boast of the Iroquois never to have lost. In such an atmosphere of moral purity, he grew up to manhood.
' Culpari metuit fides :
Nullis polluitur casta domus stupris : Mos et lex maculosum edomuit nefas.'
If our Indian predecessor, with the virtues and blemishes, the power and weakness, which alternate in his character, is ever rightly comprehended, it will be the result of an insight into his social relations, and an understanding of the institutions which reflect the higher elements of his intellect."
In each nation there were eight tribes, which were arranged in two divisions and named as follows : -
Wolf, Bear,
Beaver, Turtle,
Deer, Snipe, Heron, Hawk.
"The division of the people of each nation into eight tribes,
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whether pre-existing, or perfected at the establishment of the Con- feracy did not terminate in its objects with the nation itself. It became the means of effecting the most perfect union of separate nations 'ever devised by the wit of man.' In effect, the Wolf Tribe was divided into five parts, and one-fifth of it placed in each of the five nations. The remaining tribes were subjected to the same division and distribution: thus giving to each nation the eight tribes, and making in their separated state, forty tribes in the Con- federacy. Between those of the same name - or in other words, between the separated parts of each tribe - there existed a tie of brotherhood which linked the nations together with indissoluble bonds. The Mohawk of the Beaver Tribe, recognized the Seneca of the Beaver Tribe as his brother, and they were bound to each other by the ties of consanguinity. In like manner the Oneida of the Turtle or other Tribe, received the Cayuga, or the Onondaga of the same tribe, as a brother ; and with a fraternal welcome. This cross-relationship between the tribes of the same name, and which was stronger, if possible, than the chain of brotherhood between the several tribes of the same nation, is still preserved in all its original strength. It doubtless furnishes the chief reason of the tenacity with which the fragments of the old Confederacy still cling together. If either of the five nations had wished to cast off the alliance, it must also have broken the bond of brotherhood. Had the nations fallen into collision, it would have turned Hawk Tribe against Hawk Tribe, Heron against Heron, in a word, brother against brother. The history of the Hodenosaunee exhibits the wisdom of these organic provisions ; for they never fell into anarchy during the long period which the league subsisted ; nor even approximated to a dissolution of the Confederacy from inter- nal disorders.
" With the progress of the inquiry, it becomes more apparent that the Confederacy was in effect a League of Tribes. With the ties of kindred as its principle of union, the whole race was inter- woven into one great family, composed of tribes in its first subdi- vision (for the nations were counterparts of each other); and the tribes themselves, in their subdivisions, composed of parts of many households. Without these close inter-relations, resting, as many of them do, upon the strong impulses of nature, a mere alliance between the Iroquois nations would have been feeble and transitory.
" In this manner was constructed the Tribal League of the Hode- nosaunee ; in itself, an extraordinary specimen of Indian legislation. Simple in its foundation upon the Family Relationship; effective, in the lasting vigor inherent in the ties of kindred ; and perfect in its success, in achieving a lasting and harmonious union of the nations; it forms an enduring monument to that proud and progressive race, who reared under its protection, a wide-spread Indian sovereignty.
"All the institutions of the Iroquois, have regard to the division of the people into tribes. Originally with reference to marriage.
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the Wolf, Bear, Beaver and Turtle Tribes, were brothers to each other, and cousins to the remaining four. They were not allowed to intermarry. The opposite four tribes were also brothers to each other, and cousins to the first four ; and were also prohibited from intermarrying. Either of the first four tribes, however, could intermarry with either of the last four ; thus Hawk could inter- marry with Bear or Beaver, Heron with Turtle ; but not Beaver and Turtle, nor Deer and Deer. Whoever violated these laws of marriage incurred the deepest detestation and disgrace. In process of time, however, the rigor of the system was relaxed, until finally, the prohibition was confined to the tribe of the individual, which among the residue of the Iroquois, is still religiously observed. They can now marry into any tribe but their own. Under the original as well as modern regulation, the husband and wife were of different tribes. The children always followed the tribe of the mother.
" As the whole Iroquois system rested upon the tribes as an organic division of the people, it was very natural that the separate rights of each should be jealously guarded. Not the least remark- able among their institutions, of which most appear to have been original with the race, was that which confined the transmission of all titles, rights and property in the female line to the exclusion of the male. It is strangely unlike the canons of descent adopted by civilized nations, but it secured several important objects. If the Deer Tribe of the Cayugas, for example, received a sachem- ship or warchiefship 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. It thus became instrumental in giving the tribe individuality. A still more marked result, and perhaps leading object, of this enactment was, the perpetual disinheritance of the son. Being of the tribe of his mother, it formed an impas- sable barrier against him ; and he could neither succeed his father as a sachem, nor inherit from him even his medal, or his toma- hawk. The inheritance, for the protection of tribal rights, was thus directed from the descendants of the sachem, to his brothers, his sisters, children, or some individual of the tribe at large under certain circumstances ; each and all of whom were in his tribe, while his children being in another's tribe, as before remarked, were placed out of the line of succession.
" By the operation of this principle, also, the certainty of descent in the tribe, of their principal chiefs, was secured by a rule infal- lible ; for the child must be the son of its mother, although not necessarily of its mother's husband. If the purity of blood be of any moment, the lawgivers of the Iroquois established the only certain rule the case admits of, whereby the assurance might be enjoyed that the ruling sachem was of the same family or tribe with the first taker of the title.
" The Iroquois mode of computing degrees of consanguinity
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was unlike that of the civil or canon law ; but was yet a clear and definite system. 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 his grandchildren-that is to say, the grandchil- dren of the propositus, or individual from whom the degree of relationship is reckoned. These were the chief relatives within the tribe, though not fully extended to number. Out of the tribe, the paternal grandfather and his brothers were equally grand- fathers ; the father and his brothers equally fathers ; the father's sisters were aunts, while, in the tribe, the mother's brothers were uncles ; the father's sister's children would be 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, or the grandchilden of the propositus. Again : the children of a brother would be his children, and the grand- children of a brother would be his grandchildren ; also, the children of a father's brothers, are his brothers and sisters, instead of cousins, as under the civil law ; and lastly, their children are his grandchildren, or the grandchildren of the propositus.
"It was the leading object of the Iroquois law of descent, to merge the collateral in the lineal line, as sufficiently appears in the above outline. By the civil law, every departure from the common ancestor in the descending series, removed the collateral from the lineal ; while, by the law under consideration, the two lines were finally brought into one .* Under the civil law mode of computation, the degrees of relationship become too remote to be traced among collaterals; while, by the mode of the Iroquois, none of the collaterals were lost by remoteness of degree. The number of those linked together by the nearer family ties, was largely mul- tiplied by preventing, in this manner, the subdivision of a family into collateral branches.
" The succession of the rulers of the Confederacy is one of the most intricate subjects to be met with in the political system of the Hodenosaunee. It has been so difficult to procure a satisfactory exposition of the enactments by which the mode of succession was
* The following are the names of the several degrees of relationship, recognized among the Hodenosaunee, in the language of the Seneca :
Hoc-sote, Grandfather. Hoc-no-seh,
Uncle.
Uc-sote, Grandmother.
Ah-geh-huc,
Aunt,
Ha-nih, Father.
Ha-yan-wan-deh,
Nephew.
Noh-yeh, Mother.
Ka-yan-wan-deh, Niece.
Ho-ah-wuk, Son.
Brothers and Sisters.
Go-ah wuk, Daughter.
Ka-va-da, Grandchildren.
Da-ya-gwa-dan-no-da, Ah-gare-seh,
Cousin.
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regulated, that the sachemships have sometimes been considered elective ; at others, as hereditary. Many of the obstacles which beset the inquiry are removed by the single fact, that the titles of sachem and war-chief are absolutely hereditary in the tribe to which they were originally assigned ; and can never pass out of it, but with its extinction. How far these titles were hereditary in that part of the family of the sachem or war-chief, who were of the same tribe with himself, becomes the true question to consider. The sachem's brothers, and the sons of his sisters, are of his tribe, and consequently in the line of succession. Between a brother and a nephew of the deceased, there was no law which estab- lished a preference ; neither between several brothers, on the one hand, and several sons of a sister, on the other, was there any law of primogeniture ; nor, finally, was there any positive law, that the choice should be confined to the brothers of the deceased ruler, or the descendants of his sister in the female line, until all these should fail, before a selection could be made from the tribe at large. Hence, it appears, so far as positive enactments were concerned, that the offices of sachem and war-chief, as between the eight tribes, were hereditary in the particular tribe in which they ran; while they were elective, as between the male members of the tribe itself.
" In the absence of laws, designating with certainty the indi- vidual upon whom the inheritance should fall, custom would come in and assume the force of law, in directing the manner of choice, from among a number equally eligible. Upon the decease of a sachem, a tribal council assembled to determine upon his successor. The choice usually fell upon a son of one of the deceased ruler's sisters, or upon one of his brothers-in the absence of physical and moral objections ; and this preference of one of his near relatives would be suggested by feelings of respect for his memory. Infancy was no obstacle : it uniting only the necessity of setting over him a guardian, to discharge the duties of a sachem until he reached a suitable age. It sometimes occurred that all the rela- tives of the deceased were set aside, and a selection was made from the tribe generally ; but it seldom thus happened, unless from the great unfitness of the near relatives of the deceased.
" When the individual was finally determined, the nation sum- moned a council, in the name of the deceased, of all the sachems of the league ; and the new sachem was raised up by such council, and invested with his office.
" In connection with the power of the tribes to designate the sachems and war-chiefs, should be noticed the equal power of deposition. If, by misconduct, a sachem lost the confidence and respect of tribe, and became unworthy of authority, a tribal council at once deposed him ; and, having selected a successor, summoned a council of the Confederacy, to perform the ceremony of his investiture.
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"Still further to illustrate the characteristics of the tribes of the Iroquois, some reference to their mode of bestowing names would not be inapt .* Soon after the birth of an infant, the near relatives of the same tribe selected a name. At the first subsequent council of the nation, the birth and name were publicly announced, together with the name and tribe of the father, and the name and tribe of the mother. In each nation the proper names were so strongly marked by a tribal peculiarity, that the tribe of the indi- vidual could usually be determined from the name alone. Making, as they did, a part of their language, they were, consequently, all significant. When an individual was raised up as a sachem, his original name was laid aside, and that of the sachemship itself assumed. The war-chief followed the same rule. In like manner, at the raising up of a chief, the council of the nation which per- forms the ceremony, took away the former name of the incipient chief and assigned him a new one, perhaps, like Napoleon's titles, commemorative of the event which led to its bestowment. Thus, when the celebrated RED-JACKET was elevated by election to the dignity of chief, his original name, O-TE-TI-AN-I (Always Ready) was taken from him, and in its place was bestowed SA-GO-YE- WAT-HA, (Keeper Awake,) in allusion to the powers of his eloquence.
"It now remains to define a tribe of the Hodenosaunee. From the preceding considerations it sufficiently appears, that it was not, like the Grecian and Roman, a circle or group of families ; for two tribes were, necessarily, represented in every family : neither, like the Jewish, was it constituted of the lineal descendants of a com- mon father ; on the contrary, it distinctly involves the idea of descent from a common mother : nor has it any resemblance to the Scottish clan, or the Canton of the Switzer. In the formation of an Iroquois tribe, a portion was taken from many households, and bound together by a tribal bond. The bond consisted in the ties of consanguinity ; for all the members of the tribe, thus composed, were connected by relationships, which, under their law of descents, were easily traceable. To the tribe attached the incident of descent in the female line, the prohibition of intermarriage, the capacity of holding and exercising political rights, and the ability to contract and sustain relationships with the other tribes.
" The wife, her children, and her descendants in the female line, would, in perpetuity, be linked with the destinies of her own tribe and kindred ; while the husband, his brothers and sisters, and the descendants of the latter, in the female line, would, in like manner, be united to another tribe, and held by its affinities. Herein was a bond of union between the several tribes of the same nation, corresponding, in some degree, with the cross-rela-
* Like the ancient Saxons, the Iroquois had neither a prenomen, nor a cognomen; but contented themselves with a single name.
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tionship founded upon consanguinity, which bound together the tribes of the same emblem in the different nations.
"Of the comparative value of these institutions, when contrasted with those of civilized countries, and of their capability of eleva- ting the race, it is not necessary here to inquire. It was the boast of the Iroquois that the great object of their confederacy was peace: - to break up the spirit of perpetual warfare, which wasted the red race from age to age. Such an insight into the true end and object of all legitimate government, by those who constructed this tribal league, excites as great surprise as admiration. It is the highest and the noblest aspect in which human institutions can be viewed; and the thought itself -universal peace among Indian races possible of attainment-was a ray of intellect from no ordinary mind. To consummate such a purpose, the Iroquois nations were to be concentrated into one political fraternity; and in a manner effectively to prevent off-shoots and secessions. By its natural growth, this fraternity would accumulate sufficient power to absorb adjacent nations, moulding them, successively, by affiliation, into one common family. Thus, in its nature, it was designed to be a progressive confederacy. What means could have been employed with greater promise of success than the stupendous system of relationships, which was fabricated through the division of the Hodenosaunee into tribes ? It was a system sufficiently ample to infold the whole Indian race. Unlimited in their capacity for extension ; inflexible in their relationships ; the tribes thus interleagued would have suffered no loss of unity by their enlargement, nor loss of strength by the increasing distance between their council-fires. The destiny of this league, if it had been left to work out its results among the red race exclusively, it is impossible to conjecture. With vast capacities for enlargement, with remarkable durability of structure, and a vigorous, animating spirit, it must have attained a great elevation and a general supremacy."
The Confederacy was based upon terms of perfect equality; equal rights and immunities were secured to each integral part. If in some respects there would seem to be especial privileges, and precedence, it is explained as arising from locality or convenience; as in the case of the Senecas being allowed to have the head war chiefs, the Mohawks being the receivers of tribute from subjugated nations; or the Onondagas, the central nation, supplying their Ta- do-da-hol and his successors. " The nations were divided into classes or divisions, and when assembled in general council were arranged on opposite sides of the Council fire; on the one side stood the Mohawks, Onondagas and Senecas, who as nations, were regarded as brothers to each other, but as fathers to the remainder.
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Upon the other side were the Oneidas and Cayugas, and at a sub- sequent day, the Tuscaroras; who in like manner were brother nations by interchange, but sons to the three first. These divisions were in harmony with their system of relationships, or more prop- erly formed a part of it. They may have secured for the senior nations increased respect, but they involve no idea of dependence in the junior, or inequality in civil rights."
There was no annual or other fixed periods for the assembling of the general Council. It was convened only when there was occasion for it. When not in session, there was no visible general government; nor in fact, a need of any, as the local governments were so constituted as to subserve all the ordinay purposes. When events occured that concerned the general welfare, the council was convened, the business despatched, and then followed a mutual prorogation; an example worthy of imitation by modern legislators. With the Iroquois law makers, however, there was no self-sacrifice involved, no inducement to protracted sessions. Their services were gratuitous. Having no other government, the councils were the sole arbiters in all their concerns : - they made war, planned systems of offence and defence ; regulated successions, their ath- letic games, dances and feasts. "The life of the Iroquois was either spent in the chase, or the war path, or at the council fire." Simplicity marked every feature of their system, and yet all was effective, and accomplished its purpose. Councils were convened by runners who were sent out with their belts of wampum, indica- ting the nature of the emergency, or the business in hand. In proportion as it was urgent, or interesting, would be the attendance of lay members, or those who constitute "the third house," in modern legislation. Upon important occasions, when matters of great moment were to be discussed and determined, the villages of the several nations would be nearly depopulated ; the mass of the subjects of the League would flock to the council fire, and make a formidable lobby in its precincts. Their interests and curiosity, it is affirmed were excited by a regard for the general welfare. There were no special favors to be asked or granted. This was a long while anterior to the invention of the system of "log-rolling." The primitive children of the forest, were less sinister in all their motives and incentives, than the race that has succeeded them. Among the general powers vested in the council of the confede- racy, may be enumerated those of declaring war and making
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peace, of admitting new nations into the league, or of incorporating fragments of nations into those existing, of extending jurisdiction over subjugated territory, of levying tribute, of sending and renew- ing embassies, of forming alliances, and of enacting and executing laws. Unanimity was a fundamental law .* The idea of majori- ties and minorities was entirely unknown to our Indian predecessors. To hasten their deliberations to a conclusion and ascertain the result, they adopted an expedient which dispensed entirely with the necessity of casting votes. The founders of the Confederacy, seeking to obviate as far as possible, altercations in council, and to facilitate their progress to unanimity, divided the sachems of each nation into classes, usually of two and three each. Each sachem was forbidden to express an opinion in council, until he had agreed with the other sachems of his class, upon the opinion to be expressed, and had received an appointment to act as speaker of his class. Thus the eight Seneca sachems, being in four classes, could have but four opinions ; the ten Cayuga sachems but four. In this manner, each class was brought to unanimity within itself. A cross consultation was then held between the four sachems who represented the four classes, and when they had agreed, they appointed one of their number to express their opinion, which was the answer of the nation. The several nations having by this ingenious method become of "one mind," separately, it remained to compare their several opinions, to arrive at the final sentiment of all the sachems of the league. This was effected by a cross conference between the individual representatives of the several nations ; and when they had arrived at unanimity, the answer of the Confederacy was determined. +
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