Report on the agriculture and industry of the county of Onondaga, state of New York, with an introductory account of the aborigines ...

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Introduction

In gathering the materials for a report on the industry of Onondaga county, ■which was to be prefaced by some account of its early settlement, it seemed desirable to determine ^?ho was the first Eu opean that visited it. In settling this point many volumes were consulted, and many interesting facts in regard to the Aborigines were learned, that gradually mingled in the mind of the writer, with things before known by him, and assuming form and method, the whole subject at last took the shape in which it appears in the Introduction. A report on the agricultural and general industry of a county, certainly does not call for a history of the savages who once hunted and fished within its boundaries, and it was no part of the original purpose to attempt any such matter j but once interested in the subject, it was pursued to the end. In this form the whole report was submitted to the committee of the s ciety, and by them the Introduction, as well as the Eeport, was ordered printed.

The first settlers of Onondaga found in possession the remnants of a once powerful race of men, whose ancient renown deserves preservation by us who now possess the burial places of their fathers. These Indians, as their conquerors, have insisted on calling them, had no written history, their deeds of arms, and the decisions of their councils, being preserved only by their traditions, and by strings of beads, belts of wampum, and other mysterious symbols, that, during their savage state, were carefully ' preserved, an-! transmitted from generation to generation. They are themselves losing all knowledge of their own past history, and very soon there will be nothing preserved, except what may suit the conqueror to say of them. This being so, it perhaps will not be considered out of place here to try and grorp, in a very condensed form, such portions of their history as may particularly appertain to the Onondaga family.

The traditions of this people fix their origin at the Falls of the Oswego. Ondiyaka, who died in 1839, at the age of ninety, believed this tradition, saying to Le Fort, who succeeded him as ruling Chief, that they were created by Neo (God) where they lived, and he said, as he walked over the ruins of ancient forts in the valley of the Kasonda ( Butternut creek), this was the spot where the Onondagas formerly lived before the confederation. In those times the tribes went to war with each other, and it is probable that the ancient forts found in Central New York, which were evidently made before any white man had come here, owe their origin to these wars, and were built for protection against savages like themselves.* After the confederation of the five nations, these fortifications being no longer necessary, they fell into decay, and now, where the forest remains to protect the circular cr ring works, we find large trees on their earth walls.

The term Iroquois has been given by the French as the national name for this people, and by it they are now everywhere known. The}'- called themselves Ong we ffonwrc, or a people surpassing all others. The name they gave to the confederacy was Ko-NOSHiONi, UNITED PEOPLE. There are no means of knowing the pre- * Schoolcraft's Report ; Senate Doc. 24, 1846, page 29.

cise date of their confederating into one people. Schoolcraft thinks it "was a com paratively recent act, but probably early in the fifteenth century ; their own traditions carry it far back to wars with giants and demons.

The Iroquois confederacy consisted of five nations, viz., the central, known as the Onondaga, with which was intrusted the keeping and holding of the councils ; the Cayugas and the Senecas, on the west, and the Oneidas and Mohawks on the east. The Senecas, in their expressive language, kept the west door, and the Mohawks the east door of their long house, stretching from the Hudson to the lakes, a distance that now requires three hundred and twenty-five miles of railroad to measure. This was the seat of their power, but was by no means the limit of their territorial possessions. The confederacy was governed by hereditary chiefs, whose claims were subjected to the decision of a national council. Thus the aristocratic principle was brought into subjection to the democratic. When the hereditary chief demanded oflSce, if found unworthy, he must give place to the next in order. In council they were a pure republic, the veto of one chief was sufficient to defeat a measure.* Each canton or tribe was independent ; its quota of men was freely voted in war, or refused, without complaint fi om other cantons; thus was guaranteed to each tribe its independence and security, and to each warrior his equal rights, while general power was conceded to the confederacy in all national matters. In 1774, Canassatego, one of the chiefs, said to the commissioners of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland : " Our wise forefathers established union and amity between the Five Nations. This has made us formidable. This has given us great weight and authority with our neighboring nations. We are a powerful confederacy, and by observing the same methods our forefathers have taken, you will acquire fresh strength and power; therefore, I counsel you, whatever befalls you, never fall out with one another."

The traditions of the tribes all agree in the origin of the confederacy, and that the council forming it was held on the shores of lake Oh-nen-ta-ha (Onondaga). The right of the Onondagas to furnish a presiding officer for the league was conceded, and is still possessed by them. To the iMohawks was awarded the Te-ka-raho-gea, or chief war captain. At the formation of the confederacy, the famous A-TO-TAR-HO presided; unequalled in war and arts, his fame had spread abroad, and exalted the Onondaga tribe to a pre-eminent position. His name is " like that of King Arthur of the Round Table, or those of the Paladins of Charlemagne, used as an exemplar of glory and honor, "f and has become the title of office of the presiding chief. The great council has always consisted of six members, each nation having one, exci.pt the Senecas, who were allowed two, in consideration of their greater numerical strength. Its powers were merely advisory, aiming to arrive at harmonious results, by interchange of opinion without formal vote. No penalties could be inflicted, or power exerted beyond that of opinion". A unanimous decision was first required; this once obtained, its authority was absolute, each tribe acting through its representative, who was first informed as to its views. These decisions were in fact clothed with all the power of the most popular expression of the whole confederacy.

A government like this gave to the orator, who by his eloquence could sway his people, a vast influence, and we find that many men of note have appeared among them since they came in contact with more learned races of men, who were abundantly qualified to conduct their negotiations, and have reflected as much renown on their nation as their bravest warriors.

• Schoolcraft ; same doc, p. 51. f Schoolcraft.

The unwritten law of this wonderful people had a power unequalled by any statutes ever recorded in books. A single instance of its power will be sufficient. It is given on the authority of Mr. Webster, who lived many years among the Onondagas, and had a woman of that tribe for a wife.

A young man of the Ca3mgas came to Onondaga and claimed their hospitality. He lived among them two years, attaching himself to Webster particularly. He appeared contented and happy, " always foremost in the chase, most active in the dance, and loudest in the song.*' Mantinoah was his name. One morning he said to his friend, " I have a vow to perform; my nation and my friends know Mantinoah will be true. My friend, I wish you to go with me." Webster consented. After a pleasant journey of a few days, enlivened with fishing and hunting, they came, in the afternoon, to a place that Mantinoah said was near his village, and where he wished to invoke the Great Spirit. After a repast, and the pipe had been smoked, Mantinoah said, " two winters have gone since, in my village, in the fury of anger, I slew my bosom friend and adopted brother. The chiefs declared me guilty of my brother's blood, and I must die. My execution was deferred for two full years, during which time I was condemned to banishment ; I vowed to return. It was then I sought your nation; it was thus I won your friendship. The nearest in blood to him I slew, according to our customs, is the avenger. The time expires when the sun sinks behind the topmost boughs of the trees; I am ready. My friend, we have had many a cheerful sport together; our joys have been many; our griefs have been few; look not sad now. When you return to the Onondagas, tell them that Mantinoah died like a true brave of the Cayugas ; tell them he trembled not at the approach of dsath, like the coward pale face, nor shed tears like a woman. My friend, take my belt, my knife, my hunting pouch, my horn, my rifle, as tokens of my friendship. Soon the avenger will come ; the Great Spirit calls; Mantinoah fears not death; farewell." Vainly Webster urged him to escape. A short period of silence, and a yell is heard. Mantinoah responds. The avenger appears and takes the hand of his former friend, now his victim. IMutual salutations follow, with expressions of regret made by the executioner, but none by the doomed. The tomahawk gleams in the air, not a muscle moves, nor does the cheek of Mantinoah blanch, folding his arms on his breast, he receives the blow. As if by magic a host appears; the song of death is sung, and the solemn dance or death march is performed. Webster is invited to the village, where he is hospitably entertained, and when ready to return is accompanied by a party of Cayugas to his home.*

Thus powerful was the unwritten law of the Iroquois.

It is not easy for us to understand this people, for we know but little of their peculiar springs of action. They had their religion, which the white men that came in contact with them called their superstition. If superstition it be, it was nevertheless the principle that governed them; and did we but understand their ideas fully, we should know by what standard to judge them. Whoever has learned much of their history, knows that in their savage state, woman made prisoner, was never indelicately approached by him, who, without pity, would brain her infant child. The reason was, that it would have been a complete desecration for a brave to entangle himself by a more tender sentiment than war, and should he do so he would subject himself to the contempt of his fellows. f

He tortured and killed his prisoners, if he did not adopt them into his family, but he never enslaved them, nor outraged women. What other nation can say this with truth ?

• Clark's Onondaga. f Schoolcraft.

Mr. Schoolcraft says, that to understand the government, and learn how it acquired so much power and fame, it is necessary to examine the law of descent. Each canton was divided into distinct clans, each of which is distinguished hy the name and device of some quadruped, bird, or other object in the animal kingdom. • It was contrary to their usages that near kindred should intermarry, and the ancient rule interdicts all marriages between persons of the same clan. The population is separated into eight clans or original families, who are distinguished respectively by the totems of the wolf, the bear, the turtle, the deer, the beaver, the falcon, the crane and the plover. They must marry into clans whose totem is different from their own. A wolf or turtle male cannot marry a wolf or turtle female. There is an interdict of consanguinitjr. By this custom the purity of blood is preserved, while the tie of relationship between the clans is strengthened or enlarged. By far the most singular principle connected with totems, is the limitation of descent exclusively to the line of the female. Owing to this prohibition the chieftain's son cannot succeed him in office; but in case of his death he would be succeeded by his brother, or failing in this, by the son of his sister, or by some direct, however remote descendant of the maternal line. Thus no man, however distinguished in war or council, can establish a family or transmit the power he has acquired to his descendants. The man who, by inheritance, is entitled to the honors of chieftainship must, on arriving at the proper age, submit his right to the decisions of a council of the whole canton. If approved, he is formally installed in office. Incapacity is always and without exception recognized as a valid objection to approval.

Each canton had its eight principal chiefs, and various assistant chiefs. - These were civil officers. The war chiefs derived their consequence from their success in war, and rose up as the exigencies of the nation demanded, and sustained themselves by their capacity. All males were, by the unvarying usage, bound to render military service. Disgrace was the penalty for a failure to obey the usage. Thus the ranks were always full, and all war parties consisted of volunteers. No title was so honored as Roskeahragehte, or warrior. Each warrior supplied and carried his own arms and provisions. The enlistment consisted simply in joining the war dance. No measure, though adopted by the civil and war chiefs, could be carried out unless sanctioned by the fighting men, if it involved war. Thus, in fact and in practice, the government became a pure democracy, controlled by its martial spirit.

The strangest feature of the government yet remains to be mentioned. This was the power of the women. From the earliest time this power has existed, and through all changes has been preserved to this day. There was a male functionary, an acknowledged orator, whose duty it was to speak for the women. The matrons sat in council, and had the right to propose a cessation of arms; and a proposition from them could be made without compromitting the character of the tribe for bravery. Councils so organized were swayed by popular will, and eloquence found an ample field for the display of its noblest powers.

The Iroquois have been charged with making their women beasts of burden, while they lived lives of indolence. The division of labor between the sexes, it is true, differed widely from ours. To the warrior was assigned the duty of hunting food, and protecting his hunting grounds from inroads of the enemy. His life was daily in his hands, and such were the hazards he encountered, that there were more women than men always to be found in the tribes. He spent a long and dreary hunting season in taking furs, which, when brought home, became the property of his wife, who took them to the traders, and with the avails made such provision for him and the rest of the family as she could, he standing silently by not uttering one word. The women, old men, and boys, cultivated the little patch of corn and gathered the fuel. The warrior fights the battles of his nation, provides the meat for his lodge, and hunts the fur bearing animals to purchase what perhaps he calls luxuries. " In the lodge he is a mild considerate man, of the noninterfering and non-scolding species. He may, indeed, be looked upon rather as the guest of his wife, than what he is most unj ustly represented to be, her tyrant, and he is often only known as the lord of the lodge by the attention and respect which she shows to him. ' He is a man of few words. If her temper is ruffled he smiles. If he is displeased he walks away . It is a province in which his actions acknowledge her right to rule ; and it is one in which his pride and manliness have exalted him above the folly of altercation."* The wife owned all the property; arms only belonged to the husband ; the family was hers, and when war or the chase had made the father its victim, she who had always been its head kept it unbroken. The hazards the men must encounter were such as to render it but a prudential measure, that the women should be the owners of the family property. The divisions of labor, power and consequence, are easily traced to the sources they grew out of, and were necessary to the condition of the people. The ferocity of the savage was strangely united with a deference for woman, not surpassed by the knights of the days of Richard Coeur de Lion; but space cannot be given to a full investigation of the inner life of this people. We must proceed to the narration of their history since they have come in contact with Europeans.

The central tribe was the seat of government, and here all the general councils were held, and all the policj'' of the nation settled. The first we know of this people they here swayed the sceptre of an empire twelve hundred miles long and eight hundred wide. The means of free and rapid transportation of armies was to these savages of the same advantage that it is to the most artificial state of society. Around the shores of Onondaga lake the councils deliberated, and when once the plan of the campaign was arranged, the canoes were afloat, and soon far down the St. Lawrence the Adirondac heard the war whoop of the " men of the mountain. "f Or on the banks of the Georgian bay the trembling Huron felt the weight of their power. Or launching their barks on the head waters of the Susquehanna, soon on the shores of the Chesapeake bay they dictated terms to their enemies. Then- power was felt and acknowledged as far south as the country of the Cherokees. Fort Hill, in South Carolina, afterwards the residence of John C. Calhoun, was one of their stations, from which they waged inveterate war against the Catawbas and Cherokees.

The Iroquois nation could bring to a battle field more than two thousand warriors of their own blood, besides their levies from the tribes they had subjected. Their policy in regard to conquered enemies was like that of ancient Rome; they were converted into allies raxher than slaves, and having been fairly conquered in war, after a brave resistance, they were counted as younger brothers, worthy to fight by the side of their conquerors, and partake of their glory. Thus the confederacy grew until it dictated the policy of all that part of the continent that reaches fi-om the Hudson river to beyond the Mississippi. With the Iroquois war was the business of life, and the pursuit of an enemy on the war path, or hunting the wild beasts of the forest, were the only employments that men could engage in without subjecting them to the loss of rank, and the liability of being called women. " They reduced war to a science, and all their movements were directed by system and policy. They never attacked a hostile country until they had sent

* Sehoolcraft. f Meaning of the word " Onondaga."

out spies to explore and designate its vulnerable points, and when they encamped they observed the greatest circumspection to guard against surprise. Whatever superiority of force they might have, they never neglected the use of stratagem; they employed all the crafty wiles of the Oarthagenians. The cunning of the fox, the ferocity of the tiger, and the power of the lion, were united in their conduct. They preferred to vanquish their enemy by taking him off his guard, by involving him in an ambuscade, or by falling upon him in the hour of sleep ; but when emergencies rendered it necessary for them to face him on the open field of battle, they exhibited a courage and contempt of death which has never been surpassed. Like other savage nations they delighted in cruelty. To produce death by the most protracted sufferings was sanctioned by general and immemorial usage."*

The Europeans, instead of teachmg mercy to these men, encouraged and fostered the worst points in their characters, and by every temptation they were led on to become even more cruel, as they became demoralized and vicious by intercourse with the more learned and less principled " pale face." Massachusetts gave, first twelve, then forty, and finally one hundred pounds for a scalp. The Colonial Legislature of New York, in 1745, passed an act for giving a reward for scalps, and in 1746 a governor of the colony not only paid for two scalps of Frenchmen in money and fine clothes, but thanked the three Indians that brought them to Albany, and promised to " always remember this act of friendship."*

When the French first commenced the settlement of Canada in 1603, they found the Adirondack Indians settled, where Quebec stands, to which place they had been driven from their former homes by the Iroquois. Mons. Champlain, the governor, joined the Adirondacks with his Frenchmen to invade the country of the Iroquois. On the lake which now bears his name, Champlain met two hundred of them; both sides went on shore for the battle, and then, for the first time, the sound of musketry was heard by the Iroquois. Defeat followed, and wondering and dismayed by the murderous effects of the new weapon, they retreated to their fastnesses in the wilderness. This was their first interview with white men, and their first knowledge of them was obtained by meeting them as enemies in a battle, where they turned the scale against a people with whom they certainly had no pretense of a quarrel. This affair is supposed to have occurred in 1609. f

The next the Onondagas saw of Europeans was on the 9th of October, 1610. A fishing party on their way to Oneida lake, were surprised by a company of Adirondacks and French under Champlain. These invaders had made their way up the St. Lawrence to the lower end of Lake Ontario, where hiding their canoes, they struck across the wilderness on foot. They took captive of the Onondagas, "three men,,four women, three boys and a girl." They then marched forward, and says Champlain in his account, on the 10th of October, at 3 P. M., " we arrived before the fort of the enemy. When I approached with my little detachment, we showed them what they had never before seen or heard. As soon as they saw us, and heard the balls whistling about their ears, they retired quietly within their fort, carrying with them their killed and wounded. We also fell back upon the main body, having five or six wounded, one of whom died."t

Mons. Champlain, governor of Canada, representative not only of a great monarchy, but of Christianity, what moves you to this wanton attack on a people of whom you know nothing, except what you hear from their enemies, and with whom you certainly have no cause of quarrel ? This act of wanton injustice will return upon you and the nation you represent.

* Clinton. f Clark's Onondaga.

After a six day's seige, this mighty governor general, in the midst of his French and Indians, wounded in two places by Onondaga arrows, is ingloriously retreating, carried in a " basket of wicker work, so doubled up and fastened with cords that he was unable to move." A long and dreary winter is passed by Champlain among the Hurons before he can get back to Quebec; but the war he has commenced will only end with the extinction of the French power in Canada. Truces will be made: they are but armistices of short continuance. The Iroquois will be seen, armed with powder and ball, by the Dutch and English, on every battle field henceforth, until on the plains of Abraham, Onondaga chieftains will shed their blood as freely as Wolfe, while vengeance is glutted.

In the events that immediately ensued, we follow Bancroft, using his language when most convenient: " Thrice did Champlain invade their country, until he was driven with disgrace from their wilderness. The Five Nations in return attempted the destruction of New France. Though repulsed, they continued to defy the province and its allies, and under the eyes of its governor openly intercepted convoys destined for Quebec. The French authority was not confirmed by founding a feeble outpost at Montreal; and Fort Richelieu, at the mouth of the Sorel river, scarcely protected its immediate environs. The Iroquois warriors scoured every wilderness to lay it still more waste. Depopulating the whole country on the Ontario, they obtained an acknowledged superiority over New France. The colony was in perpetual danger, and Quebec itself was beseiged." From these straits the French sought to relieve themselves by the assistance of missionaries, of a religion whose precepts they had so wantonly violated, and in 1646 " Father Joque, commissioned as an envoy, was hospitably received by the Mohawks, and gained an opportunity of offering the friendship of France to the Onondagas." The first Frenchman came with the sword, the second with the cross.

The history of the actions of the Jesuit missionaries among these tribes, is but a constant repetition of ennobling examples of disinterested, self-sacrificing devotion to the great cause of leading the barbarians to the cross. No hardship was too great, no suffering too severe, martyrdom itself was received willingly; and when one was consumed by the fires of the savages, another stood ready to take his place.

The Iroquois were satisfied with blood, and desired rest. Peace was concluded, and in 1654 Father Le Moine appeared as an envoy to the Onondagas, to ratify there the treaty Chaumonot and Claude Dablon followed in 1655. They were " hospitably welcomed at Onondaga; at once a chapel sprung into existence, and by the zeal of the natives was finished in a day, and there, in the heart of New York, the solemn services of the Roman church were chanted as securely as in any part of Christendom."

This happy state of things was interrupted by an attempt on the part of the French to estalish a colony. May 7th, 1656, a company of fifty Frenchmen embarked for Onondaga, making a home on the shores of the lake, and encountering the forest with the ax, suffered from fever before they could prepare their tenements. Border collisions ensued; the Oneidas murdered three Frenchmen, and the French, retaliated by seizing Iroquois. At last, when a conspiracy was formed in the tribe of the Onondagas, the French, having vainly solicited re-enforcements, abandoned their chapel, their cabins and their hearths, in Onondaga, and their settlements in the valley of the Oswego. The Mohawks compelled Le Moine to return, and the French and Iroquois were, in 1659, once more at war."

" The harvests of New France could not be gathered in safety, the convents were insecure, many of the inhabitante prepared to return to France. In moments of gloom it seemed as if all must be abandoned. True, religious zeal was Still active. Le Moine once more appeared among the Five Nations, was received with affection at Onondaga," and peace followed.

The New Netherlands became the property of England, and then commenced negotiations to procure the friendship of these savages of the interior. England and France for twenty -five years sued with uncertain success, " yet afterwards in the grand division between parties throughout the world, the Bourbons found in them implacable opponents." In 1684, the Five Nations met the governor of New York at Albany, and the Sachems returned, to nail the arms of the Duke of York over their castles, a protection, as they thought, against the French, an acknowledgment, as the English deemed, of British sovereignty."

The Governor of Canada, meantime, "with six hundred French soldiers, four hundred Indian allies, four hundred canoes, and three hundred men for a garrison," started for Onondaga; but the army suffered by sickness, and after arriving on the soil of the Onondagas, he was constrained to ask for peace. The English desired the Five Nations to take advantage of the condition of the French and exterminate them; but this was not the policy of the Indians; they did not desire to entirely ruin the French, and thereby entirely relieve the English from them, but rather to play one party off against the other, while they kept to themselves the balance of power. They had, by this time, come to think that it would not be wise for them to be entirely in the power of any race of white men.

The interference of the English Avas resented, and an Onondaga chief proudly exclaimed to the envoy of New York, ' ' Onondio (the French Governor) has for ten years been our father; Corlear (the English governor) has long been our brother, but it is because we have willed it so; neither the one or the other is our master; He who made the world gave us the land in which we dwell; Ave are free; you call us subjects; we say we are brethren; we must take care of ourselves; I will go to my father, for he has come to my gate, and desires to speak words of reason; we will embrace peace instead of war; the ax shall be thrown into a deep w^ater."