Iroquois

Ancient Site of the Onondagas in the Valley of the Kasonda, or Butternut Creek of Jamesville

The fact that the ruins of a square fort, with extensive sub-lines in the nature of an enclosure, had existed on the elevated grounds on the right banks of this stream, a mile or two from Jamesville, at the period of its first settlement, led me to visit it. There was the more interest imparted

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Ancient Shipwreck of a vessel from the old world on the coast

Whilst the northern tribes lived under the ancient confederacy before named, on the banks of the St. Lawrence and its waters, and before they had yet known white men, it is affirmed that a foreign ship came on the northern coasts, but being driven by stress of weather, passed southward, and was wrecked in that

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Ancient Fortification of Osco at Auburn, Cayuga County

The eminence called “Fort Hill”, at one time called Osco, in the southwestern skirts of the village of Auburn, has attracted notice from the earliest times. Its height is such as to render it a very commanding spot, and crowned, as it was, with a pentagessimal work, earthen ramparts and palisades of entire efficacy against

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Ancient Entrenchments on Fort Hill, near Le Roy, Genesee County

The following diagram of this work has been drawn from a pen-sketch, forwarded by the Rev. Mr. Dewey, of Rochester. The work occurs on an elevated point of land formed by the junction of a small stream, called Fordham’s Brook, with Allen’s Creek, a tributary of the Genesee River. Its position is about three miles

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Wampum Belts

The Iroquois League had its democratic and republican elements, but the separate national governments were essentially oligarchic. The only semblance of written law was the wampum. It was the duty of the “keeper of the wampums” to store all necessary facts in his memory and associate them with the successive lines and arrangements of the

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Great Spirit

An Indian hunter went forth to hunt, and as he wandered through the forest he heard a strain of beautiful music far off among the trees. He listened, but could not tell whence it came; he knew it could not be by any human voice, or from any instrument he had ever heard. As it

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Sketches of an Iroquois Council, or Condolence

In giving the description of the condolence, I have chosen the following writings of Mr. G. S. Riley, of Rochester, to-wit: A grand council of the confederate Iroquois was held October 1, 1845, at the Indian council house, on the Tonawanda reservation, in the county of Genesee. Its proceedings occupied three days. It embraced representatives

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Atotarho

Atotarho, who by tradition was an Onondaga, is the great embodiment of the Iroquois courage, wisdom and heroism, and he is invested with allegoric traits which exalt him to a kind of superhuman character. Unequalled in war and arts his fame spread abroad, and exalted the Onondaga nation in the highest scale. He was placed

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Iroquois Cosmogony

Iroquois Cosmogony: The tribes who compose this group of the Indians, concur in locating the beginning of creative power in the upper regions of space. Neo, or the Great Spirit of Life, is placed there. Atahocan is the master of heaven. Tarenyawagon, who is thought to be the same as Michabou, Chiabo, Manabozho, and the Great

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Iroquoian Family

As to the name, original location, geographical distribution, and tribal relations of the Cherokees, the Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology gives the following information (pages 76-79): Iroquois, Gallatin in Trans, Am. Antiq. Soc., u, 2423, 305, 1836 (excludes Cherokees). Prichard, Phys. Hist. Mankind, v. 881, 1817 (follows Gallatin). Gallatin in Trans. Am.

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Nottaway Indians

Nottaway Tribe: Meaning “adders,” in the language of their Algonquian neighbors, a common designation for alien tribes by peoples of that linguistic stock. Also called: Cheroenhaka, their own name, probably signifying “fork of a stream.” Mangoak, Mengwe, another Algonquian term, signifying “stealthy,” “treacherous.” Nottaway Connections. The Nottaway belonged to the Iroquoian linguistic family, their closest

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Meherrin Indians

Meherrin Tribe: Meaning unknown. Meherrin Connections. The Meherrin belonged to the Iroquoian linguistic family, their closest connections probably being the Nottaway. Meherrin Location. Along the river of the same name on the Virginia-North Carolina border. Meherrin History. The tribal name Meherrin first appears in the form “Maharineck” in the account of an expedition by Edward

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