Stories the Iroquois Tell Their Children Part 1

Stories the Iroquois Tell Their Children.

by Mabel Powers.

FOREWORD

Once our fathers own these lands of New York State. Once the Iroquois were great people. Their council fires burn from Hudson on east to Lake Erie on west, from rising to setting sun. Then White man come. He ask for small seat size buffalo skin. He take larger and larger one, till Indian have but small place to sit.

Now we have little left but stories of our fathers. They, too, will soon be lost and forgotten, but a voice has come to speak for us. _Yeh sen noh wehs_--the one who tells the stories--will carry these stories of our fathers to Paleface. She will help White man to understand Indian, Indian to be understood. She will have all men brothers.

Indian's heart is glad that _Yeh sen noh wehs_, our white friend, has come to us. She have good eyes. She see right. She like things Indian.

She try to preserve them. Our old men and women tell her the stories told them, many, many moons ago, when little children.

_Yeh sen noh wehs_ write down these stories so our children and our children's children may read and know them; and so Paleface Children may learn them also. Indian tell these stories to his children to make them good and brave and kind and unselfish. May they teach Paleface Children how they should do.

Again we say, Indian is glad to have some one speak for him. He is glad to have some one write down the great and beautiful thoughts in Indian's mind and heart. We have spoken. _Na ho._

Chief of Seneca Nation,

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Chief of Onondagas,

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Chief of Tuscaroras,

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Chief of Oneidas,

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Chief of Cayugas,

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Chief of Mohawks,

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HOW THE STORIES CAME TO BE

Out of the moons of long ago, these stories have come. Then every tribe of the Iroquois had its story-teller.

When the Old Man of the North came out of his lodge, and the forests and rivers of the Red Children grew white with his breath, these story-tellers wandered from wigwam to wigwam.

Seated on warm skins by the fire, the story-teller would exclaim, "_Hanio_!" This meant, "Come, gather round, and I will tell a story."

Then all the Red Children would cry, "_Heh_," and draw close to the fire. This meant that they were glad to hear the story. And as the flames leaped and chased one another along the fire trail, they would listen to these wonder stories of the Little People, of the trees and flowers, of birds, of animals, and men. When the story-teller had finished, he said, "_Na ho_." This meant, "It is the end."

The earth was very young, when the Red Children first learned how everything came to be, and just why it is that things are as they are.

They told these wonderful things to their children, and their children in turn told them to their children; and those children again in turn told them to theirs, that these things might not be forgotten.

Now, but few of the Red Children know these stories that the grandmothers and old men of the tribe used to tell. The story-teller is no longer seen wandering from wigwam to wigwam.

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WHY I WAS CALLED THE STORY-TELLER

Some time ago the writer of these stories was asked to speak for an Indian Society. She accepted the invitation, and that night made her first Indian friends.

Her new friends told her many beautiful things about the Red Children.

The more the writer learned about the Iroquois people, and things Indian, the more interested she became. After a time she began to tell the Paleface the things she had learned.

Soon, one of the tribes, the Senecas--the tribe to which her new friends belonged--heard that she was speaking for them. They wished to honor her, so they asked her to be present at their Green-Corn Feast, and become one of them.

So when the Green-Corn moon hung her horn in the night sky, the writer found the trail to the Land of the Senecas. There the Senecas adopted her into the Snipe clan of their nation. She was called _Yeh sen noh wehs_--"One who carries and tells the stories."

Thus it was that the writer became one of the Red Children, _Yeh sen noh wehs_--the Daughter of the Senecas.

The more _Yeh sen noh wehs_ learned of the Red Children, and their simple stories, the more she loved them. One day, _Yeh sen noh wehs_ said she would be the story-teller not only of the Senecas, but of all the tribes of the Iroquois. There are six great families of this people.

Each family is called a tribe or nation.

Once, the council fires of these six nations burned from the Hudson on the east, to Lake Erie on the west, and they were a great and powerful people.

It was at the time of the Berry Moon that _Yeh sen noh wehs_ hit the story trail. Since then she has journeyed through all the lands of the Senecas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, the Oneidas, the Mohawks, and the Tuscaroras.

Like the story-teller of old, _Yeh sen noh wehs_ wandered from lodge to lodge of the Iroquois. "_Hanio_," she would call, and as the Indians gathered round, she would tell them one of the stories that other Indian friends had told to her.

Sometimes this would remind the Red Children of another story, which _Yeh sen noh wehs_ did not know, and they would tell it to her. It was in this way that these stories have been gathered.

There were many days when _Yeh sen noh wehs_ told her stories, but none were told in return. Few members of the tribes--these usually the oldest--could remember the stories "they used to tell."

Sometimes _Yeh sen noh wehs_ heard a story as she trudged along a furrow, beside a ragged Indian who was plowing with a more ragged-looking team. Or she would listen as she helped an Indian woman prepare the evening meal, pick berries, or gather nuts.

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Sometimes, as _Yeh sen noh wehs_ sat by a fire down in the depths of a beautiful wood, and watched the smoke of the sacred medicine rise, a medicine man would tell her a story; or an Indian woman would drop a word, as she sat at her door weaving baskets or making beadwork.