We have no authentic history of a people inhabiting this country anterior to those who occupied it on the advent of the Europeans, and who are classed under the generic term Indians. Even their history prior to their intimate association with civilized people is shrouded in obscurity and is transmitted to us in the form of vague and fragmentary legends.
The aborigines were a barbaric race and have left no written history, except that we occasionally discover traces of their rude paintings and still ruder engravings. But this is in a measure compensated by the more enduring relics, consisting of the implements of husbandry, the chase and war, which the plow and other means of excavation have numerously disclosed. Their fortified villages and places of burial are rich also in suggestive incidents. 1
- Taounyawatha – Deity of the Forest
- Hiawatha Speaks to the Tribes
- Oneida and Cayuga Join the Confederacy
- Onondaga Council Fire
- The Iroquios Council
- The Adirondacks
- Tuscarora Incorporated into the Confederacy
- Downfall of the Iroquois Confederacy
- Iroquois Domestic and Social Life
- Iroquois Social Interactions
- Iroquois Feasts
- Iroquois Towns
- Iroquios Personal Ornamentation
- Iroquois Religion
- Iroquois Ceremonies
Citations:
- The Indians were accustomed to bury with their dead various articles of ornament and use, which, it was supposed, would be serviceable in their passage to a future abode, of which the most barbaric had some conception.[↩]