Six Nations

Legends of the Iroquois

On long winter evening the Indian hunters gathered around their fireside, to listen to the historical traditions, legends of war and hunting, and fairy tales which had been handed down through their fathers and father’s fathers, with scarcely any variation for centuries, kindling the enthusiasm of the warrior and inspiring the little child some day to realize similar dreams, and hand his name down to posterity as the author of similar exploits. They have superstitious fears of relating fables in summer: not until after snow comes will they relate of snakes, lest they should creep into their beds, or of … Read more

Laws of North Carolina, A.D. 1780

“An Act to amend an act, entitled an act for quieting and securing the Tuscarora Indians, and others claiming under the Tuscarora, in the possession of their lands. Article I. Whereas, By the said act there is no penalty imposed on the jurors or witnesses duly summoned, and failing to attend. ” Attendance of Jurors. Article II. Be it enacted, &c., That the commissioners by the said act appointed, or any three of them, assembled for the purpose of holding a court, shall, and may inflict fines on jurors or witnesses so failing to attend, not exceeding one hundred pounds, … Read more

The Iroquois, National Traits of Character

In all the early histories of the American Colonies, in the stories of Indian life and the delineations of Indian character, these children of nature are represented as savages and barbarians, and in the mind of a large portion of the community the sentiment still prevails that they were blood-thirsty, revengeful, and merciless, justly a terror to both friends and foes. Children are impressed with the idea that an Indian is scarcely human, and as much to be feared as the most ferocious animal of the forest. Novelists have now and then clothed a few with a garb which excites … Read more

Legends, Traditions, and Laws of the Six Nations

Atotarho, the First Iroquois Ruler - Plate 70

To animate a kinder feeling between the white people and the Indians, established by a truer knowledge of our civil and domestic life, and of our capabilities for future elevation, is the motive for which this work is founded. The present Tuscarora Indians, the once powerful and gifted nation, after their expulsion from the South, came North, and were initiated in the confederacy of the Iroquois, and who formerly held under their jurisdiction the largest portion of the Eastern States, now dwell within your bounds, as dependent nations, subject to the guardianship and supervision of a people who displaced their … Read more

Tuscarora Immigration

In the year 1846, on the 16th day of May, about forty of the Tuscarora immigrated from the reservation to their new homes in the Indian Territory, and in one year about one-third of them died on account of the sufferings they endured. They were destitute of everything, and the Government was to have sustained them for one year, and to build houses for them, and provide all the necessaries of life, but they failed in fulfilling their promises on account of the misconduct of Dr. A. Hogeboom, the moving agent of the emigration party. By reference to official documents … Read more

Iroquois Domestic Duties

In the first place, to women, in every well regulated society, should be committed the management of the families and the business connected with the household concerns, and they should be qualified to exercise a salutary influence within their appropriate sphere. Secondly, as mothers they are responsible for the nursing and rearing of their children and for the proper sustenance of them in early life. They are also responsible for the habits of their children, including cleanliness and general propriety of behavior. A sensible, judicious mother can greatly control her children in these matters; she can make them modest or … Read more

Four Gallant Warriors

The four gallant warriors now made their way to the settlement at Gau-strau-yea (Kienuka). When they arrived, they saw only the eldest people, from about upwards of sixty-five years of age, and the younger children, from about fourteen years of age and under. While they were traveling they saw two boys picking up sticks for firewood. One of them asked the smaller boy where his father was. The bright little fellow spoke promptly and said, “Gone to war.” Before the older boy could divert his attention by touching him, the little fellow finished his answer. This they took to be … Read more

Friendship of the Tuscarora to the United States

The Tuscarora Indians have for more than a century been a firm friend to the United States. In the Revolutionary war they took an active part for the declaration of independence; many took part, but few were enrolled, consequently, but few that drew pension from the United States. For instance, Nicholas Cusick, a Tuscarora Indian; where shall you look for another instance of friendship, greater than his, towards the distinguished Marquis de Lafayette, or for Christian principle more firm and true than he evinced concerning his pension. In the war of the Revolution he was under command of Lafayette. Many … Read more

Listen to the Great Spirit

“Listen further to what the Great Spirit has been pleased to communicate to us. He has made us, as a race, separate and distinct from the pale faces. It is a great sin to intermarry and intermingle the blood of the two races. Let none be guilty of this transgression. “At one time the four messengers said to Handsomelake, ‘Lest the people should disbelieve you and not repent and forsake their evil ways, we will now disclose to you the house of torment, the dwelling place of the evil-minded.’ Handsomelake was particular in describing to us all that he witnessed, … Read more

Iroquois Customs

The more you read, and the better you understand Indian history, the more you will be impressed with the injustice which has been done the Iroquois, not only in dispossessing them of their inheritance, but in the estimation which has been made of their character. They have been represented, as seen in the transition state, the most unfavorable possible for judging correctly. In the chapter of National Traits of Character, I have in two or three instances quoted Washington Irving and might again allow his opinions to relieve my own from the charge of partiality. He says, in speaking of … Read more

Tuscarora Creation Legend

The Tuscarora tradition opens with the notion that there were originally two worlds, or regions of space, that is an upper and lower world. The upper world was inhabited by beings resembling the human race. And the lower world by monsters, moving on the surface and in the waters, which is in darkness. When the human species were transferred below, and the lower sphere was about to be rendered fit for their residence; the act of their transference is by these ideas, that a female who began to descend into the lower world, which is a region of darkness, waters, … Read more

Iroquois Laws of Descent

At the establishment of the confederacy, fifty sachems were founded and a name assigned to each, by which they are still known, and these names are kept as hereditary from the beginning to the present time. There were also fifty sub-sachems, or war chiefs that is, to every sachem was given a war chief, to stand behind him to do his biddings. These sachem ships were, and are still confined to the five nations; the Tuscarora were admitted into the confederacy without enlarging the framework of the league, by allowing them their own sachems and sub-sachems, or war chiefs, as … Read more

Antique Rock Citadel of Kienuka

There has been much said by different writers of aboriginal forts, and fort builders of western New York, in availing themselves of steeps, gulfs, defiles, and other marked localities, in establishing works for security or defense. This trait is, however, in no case more strikingly exemplified than in the curious antique work of Kienuka. The term “Kienuka,” means the stronghold or fort; but the original name of this fort is Gau-strau-yea, which means bark laid down; this has a metaphorical meaning, in the similitude of a freshly peeled slippery elm bark, the size of the fort and laid at the … Read more

Act of May 2, 1778

An Act for quieting and securing the Tuscarora Indians, and others claiming under the Tuscarora, in the possession of their lands. Article I. Be it enacted, &c., That Whitmell Tuffdeck, Chief or head man of the Tuscarora nation, and the Tuscarora Indians now living in the county of Birtie, shall have, hold, occupy, possess and enjoy, all the lands lying in the county of Birtie aforesaid, whereof they are now seized and possessed, being part of the lands heretofore allotted to the Indians aforesaid by solemn treaty, and confirmed to them and their successors by act of assembly, in the … Read more

Tuscarora Incorporated into the Confederacy

From the conquered nations they exacted tribute, and drew conscripts for their armies. The Tuscaroras, who resided in Carolina, were incorporated into the confederacy in 1715, and thereafter they were known as the Six Nations. From the extent of their conquests, the number of their subject nations, and the tribute and military aid rendered them by the latter, they have been called the “Romans of the New World.” When we reflect that of their own warriors they could bring into the field barely 2,000 braves, and with this number subjugated nations numerically more than twice as large, and spread terror … Read more

Middlesex County Ontario Earliest Indian Residents

The Indian, being without a literature, knows nothing of his origin. The Frenchman and Spaniard found him here, and learning from him all he did know, gave the story to civilization as an Indian legend, while treating the newfound race historically as they found it. Huron Nation The Hurons, originally the Wyandots, were at Quebec in 1534, when Jagques Cartier arrived there. Later, they formed an alliance with the Adirondacks, but when the latter joined the Southern Iroquois Confederacy (about 1580), the prestige of the Wyandots began to fade, and the dispersion of the tribe overall Canada to Lake Huron … Read more