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To see excerpts of Indian Tribes of Hudson's River -- The Delaware Indians -- Ulster Under the Dutch The Redman
WHEN Red Jacket, at the treaty of
Fort Stanwix, in 1784, projected the bold idea of the union of all the Indian tribes on
the continent, to resist the aggressions of the whites, he may not have thought it would
soon come near having a practical fulfillment. This thought grew out of the circumstances
and necessities of the times, and was the natural forecast of a great mind. His words sank
deep into the hearts of his people,-they were carried beyond the bounds of that
council-fire,-they went gliding along with the light canoe that plied the Lakes,-and were
wafted onward by the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi. Several causes contributed to give direction and force to this movement. Prominent among them was the fact, that the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783, though it put an end to the war, did not secure friendly relations between the two countries. Hostile feelings had been engendered and were still cherished, particularly by those who had taken refuge in Canada, in the early part of the Revolutionary struggle. Some of them were very active in stirring up Indian hostilities among the tribes at the west.
But prominent above all others were the exertions of Thayendanegea, or Brant, the famous war-chief, from whose leadership the inhabitants of our frontier settlements had suffered so severely, during the war of the Revolution. Very soon after the treaty at Fort Stanwix in 1784, from the dissatisfaction growing out of that treaty, and other indications among the Indians, he began to entertain the ambitious project of forming a grand Indian confederacy, of which he would be chief, embracing not only the Iroquois, but all of the Indian nations of the great North-west. He had given the entire summer of 1785, to the business of visiting these nations, and holding councils among them, with a view to the furtherance of this object.*
From chapter 6 of Red Jacket 356pp $24.50.
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The Iroquois
The Iroquois designated themselves as Ho-de-no-san-nee, "A people dwelling in a long house." According to another writer, they called their confederacy Ko-no-shi-oni-the "Long House." Their territory seems to have extended from that occupied by the "Neutrals" near Lake Erie up to and even beyond the Hudson River. The Senecas were placed in the western part of their territories as a defence against the fierce, western tribes.
Afterward the Iroquois extended their conquest as far as the Mississippi river, and "it was solely on this conquest that the English based their claims to that territory as against the French at the opening of the French and Indian war, and it was in this way that New York came into possessicn of that vast section which she gave to the United states from which were carved Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin." For this alone both our state and national governments owe a great debt to this barbaric republic.
The eastern gate of their territory was kept by the Mohawks, in many respects the ablest warriors among all the aborigines of America. Near Lake Onondaga where Hi-a-wat-ha appeared to them in his beautiful canoe they kept their great council fire, the capital of the confederacy. It was the duty of the Onondagas to guard this fire, the general meeting place of the nation.
From chapter 2 of The Iroquois 122pp $8.95.
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Copyright © 1995 by Richard Frisbie -- All rights reserved.