Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines Part 3

At the time of their discovery they were the highest representatives of the red race north of New Mexico in intelligence and advancement, though perhaps inferior to some of the Gulf tribes in the arts of life. In the extent and quality of their mental endowments they must be ranked among the highest Indians in America. There are over six thousand Iroquois in New York, besides scattered bands in other parts of the United States, and a still larger number in Canada; thus ill.u.s.trating the efficiency as well as persistency of the arts of barbarous life in sustaining existence. It is, moreover, now ascertained that they are slowly increasing.

When the confederacy was formed, about A. D. 1400-1450, the conditions previously named were present. [Footnote: The Iroquois claimed that it had existed from one hundred and fifty to two hundred years when they first saw Europeans. The generations of sachems in the history by David Cusick (a Tuscarora) would make it more ancient. Schoolcraft's History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes, 5, p. 631.]

The Iroquois were in five independent tribes, occupied territories contiguous to each other, and spoke dialects of the same language which were mutually intelligible. Beside these facts, certain gentes were common in the several tribes, as has been shown. In their relations to each other, as separated parts of the same gens, these common gentes afforded a natural and enduring basis for a confederacy.

With these elements existing, the formation of a confederacy became a question of intelligence and skill. Other tribes in large numbers were standing in precisely the same relations in different parts of the continent without confederating. The fact that the Iroquois tribes accomplished the work affords evidence of their superior capacity. Moreover, as the confederacy was the ultimate stage of organization among the American aborigines, its existence would be expected in the most intelligent tribes only.

It is affirmed by the Iroquois that the confederacy was formed by a council of wise men and chiefs of the five tribes which met for that purpose on the north sh.o.r.e of Onondaga Lake, near the site of Syracuse; and that before its session was concluded the organization was perfected and set in immediate operation. At their periodical councils for raising up sachems they still explain its origin as the result of one protracted effort of legislation. It was probably a consequence of a previous alliance for mutual defense, the advantages of which they had perceived and which they sought to render permanent.

The origin of the plan is ascribed to a mythical, or, at least, traditionary person, Ha-yo-went-ha, the Hiawatha of Longfellow's celebrated poem, who was present at this council and the central person in its management. In his communications with the council he used a wise man of the Onondagas, Da-ga-no-we'-da, as an interpreter and speaker to expound the structure and principles of the proposed confederacy. The same tradition further declares that when the work was accomplished Ha-yo-went-ha miraculously disappeared in a white canoe, which arose with him in the air and bore him out of their sight. Other prodigies, according to this tradition, attended and signalized the formation of the confederacy, which is still celebrated among them as a masterpiece of Indian wisdom. Such in truth it was; and it will remain in history as a monument of their genius in developing gentile inst.i.tutions. It will also be remembered as an ill.u.s.tration of what tribes of mankind have been able to accomplish in the art of government while in the Lower Status of barbarism, and under the disadvantages this condition implies.

Which of the two persona was the founder of the confederacy it is difficult to determine. The silent Ha-yo-went'-ha was, not unlikely, a real person of Iroquois lineage, but tradition has enveloped his character so completely in the supernatural that he loses his place among them as one of their number. If Hiawatha were a real person, Da-ga-no-we'-da must hold a subordinate place; but if a mythical person invoked for the occasion, then to the latter belongs the credit of planning the confederacy. [Footnote: My friend Horatio Hale, the eminent philologist, came, as he informed me, to this conclusion]

The Iroquois affirm that the confederacy, as formed by this council, with its powers, functions, and mode of administration, has come down to them through many generations to the present time with scarcely a change in its internal organization. When the Tuscaroras were subsequently admitted, their sachems were allowed by courtesy to sit as equals in the general council, but the original number of sachems was not increased, and in strictness those of the Tuscaroras formed no part of the ruling body.

The general features of the Iroquois Confederacy may be summarized in the following propositions:

I. The Confederacy was a union of Five Tribes, composed of common gentes, under one government on the basis of equality; each Tribe remaining independent in all matters pertaining to local self-government.

II. It created a General Council of Sachems, who were limited in number, equal in rank and authority, and invested with supreme powers over all matters pertaining to the Confederacy.

III. Fifty Sachems.h.i.+ps were created and named in perpetuity in certain gentes of the several Tribes; with power in these gentes to fill vacancies, as often as they occurred, by election from among their respective members, and with the further power to depose from office for cause; but the right to invest these Sachems with office was reserved to the General Council.

IV. The Sachems of the Confederacy were also Sachems in their respective Tribes, and with the Chiefs of these Tribes formed the Council of each, which was supreme over all matters pertaining to the Tribe exclusively.

V. Unanimity in the Council of the Confederacy was made essential to every public act.

VI. In the General Council the Sachems voted by Tribes, which gave to each Tribe a negative upon the others.

VII. The Council of each Tribe had power to convene the General Council; but the latter had no power to convene itself.

VIII. The General Council was open to the orators of the people for the discussion of public questions; but the Council alone decided.

IX. The Confederacy had no chief Executive Magistrate or official head.

X. Experiencing the necessity for a General Military Commander, they created the office in a dual form, that one might neutralize the other. The two princ.i.p.al War-chiefs created were made equal in powers.

These several propositions will be considered and ill.u.s.trated, but without following the precise form or order in which they are stated.

At the inst.i.tution of the confederacy fifty permanent sachems.h.i.+ps were created and named, and made perpetual in the gentes to which they were a.s.signed. With the exception of two, which were filled but once, they have been held by as many different persons in succession as generations have pa.s.sed away between that time and the present.

The name of each sachems.h.i.+p is also the personal name of each sachem while he holds the office each one in succession taking the name of his predecessor. These sachems, when in session, formed the council of the confederacy in which the legislative, executive, and judicial powers were vested, although such a discrimination of functions had not come to be made. To secure order in the succession, the several gentes in which these offices were made hereditary were empowered to elect successors from among their respective members when vacancies occurred as elsewhere explained. As a further measure of protection to their own body, each sachem, after his election and its confirmation, was invested with his office by a council of the confederacy. When thus installed his name was "taken away" and that of the sachems.h.i.+p was bestowed upon him. By this name he was afterwards known among them. They were all upon equality in rank authority, and privileges.

These sachems.h.i.+ps were distributed unequally among the five tribes; but without giving to either a preponderance of power; and unequally among the gentes of the last three tribes. The Mohawks had nine sachems, the Oneidas nine, the Onondagas fourteen, the Cayugas ten, and the Senecas eight. This was the number at first, and it has remained the number to the present time. A table of these sachems.h.i.+ps, founded at the inst.i.tution of the Confederacy with the names which have been borne by their sachems in succession from its formation to the present time, is subjoined, with their names in the Seneca dialect, and their arrangement in cla.s.ses to facilitate the attainment of unanimity in council. In foot-notes will be found the signification of these names, and the gentes to which they belonged: [Footnote: These names signify as follows:]

Table of sachems.h.i.+ps of the Iroquois.

MOHAWKS.

One.

1. Da-go-e'-o-ge. [Footnote: "Neutral," or "The s.h.i.+eld."]

2. Ho-yo-went'-ha. [Footnote: "Man who Combs."]

3. Da-go-no-we'-do. [Footnote: "Inexhaustible."]

Two.

4. So-o-e-wo'-ah. [Footnote: "Small Speech."]

5. Da-yo'-ho-go. [Footnote: "At the Forks."]

6. O-o-o'-go-wo. [Footnote: "At the Great River."]

Three.

7. Da-an-no-go'-e-neh. [Footnote: "Dragging His Horns."]

8. So-da'-go-e-wo-deh. [Footnote: "Even Tempered."]

9. Hos-do-weh'-se-ont-ho. [Footnote: "Hanging up Rattles."

Thee sachems in cla.s.s One belonged to the Turtle gens, in cla.s.s Two to the Wolf gens, and in cla.s.s Three to the Bear gens.]

ONEDIAS.

One.

1. Ho-dos'-ho-the. [Footnote: "A man bearing a Burden."]

2. Ga-no-gweh'-yo-do. [Footnote: "A Man covered in Cat-tail Down."]

3. Da-yo-ho'-gwen-da. [Footnote: "Opening through the Woods."]

Two.

4. So-no-sase'. [Footnote: "A Long String."]

5. To-no-o-ge-o. [Footnote: "A Man with a Headache."]

6. Ho-de-o-dun-nent'-ho. [Footnote: "Swallowing Himself."]

Three.

7. Da-wo-do'-o-do-yo. [Footnote: "Place of the Echo."]

8. Go-ne-o-dus'-ha-yeh. [Footnote: "War-clubs on the Ground."]

9. Ho-wus'-ho-da-o. [Footnote: "A man Steaming Himself."

The sachems in the first cla.s.s belong to Wolf gens, in the second the Turtle gens, and in the third to the Bear gens.]

ONONDAGAS.

One.

1. To-do-do'-ho. [Footnote: "Tangled," Bear gens.]

2. To-nes'-sa-ah.

3. Da-ot'-ga-dose. [Footnote: "On the Watch,"

Bear gens. This sachem and the one before him were hereditary councillors of the To-do-do'-ho, who held the most ill.u.s.trious sachems.h.i.+p.]

Two.

4. Go-neo-do'-je-wake. [Footnote: "Bitter Body," Snipe gens.]

5. Ah-wo'-ga-yat. [Footnote: Turtle gens.]

6. Da-o-yat'-gwo-e. [Footnote: Not ascertained.]

Three.

7. Ho-no-we-ne-to. [Footnote: This sachem was hereditary keeper of the wampum; Wolf gens.]

Four.

8. Go-we-ne'-san-do. [Footnote: Deer gens]