Birch Bark Legends of Niagara

Produced by Bill Boerst, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
A STORY OF THE LUNAR-BOW; (Which Brilliantly Adorns Niagara Falls by Moonlight),
My preface will be a few citations from reliable authorities to introduce to my readers the people of whom I write:
GOV. CLINTON, in a discourse delivered before the New York Historical Society, says: Previous to the occupation of this country by the progenitors of the present race of Indians, it was inhabited by a race of men much more populous and much farther advanced in civilization; that the confederacy of the Iroquois is a remarkable and peculiar piece of legislation; that the more we study the Indian history the more we will be impressed with the injustice done them. While writers have truthfully described their deeds of cruelties, why not also quote their deeds of kindness, their integrity, hospitality, love of truth, and, above all, unbroken fidelity?
WASHINGTON IRVING says: The current opinion of Indian character is too apt to be formed from the degenerate beings, corrupted and enfeebled by the vice of society, without being benefitted by its civilization. That there are those, and a large class of them that have with moral firmness resisted the temptations, with which they have been surrounded, and command our highest esteem.
VOLNEY, the French Historian, pronounces the Iroquois The Romans of the West.
W. H. C. HOSMER, The Warriors of Genesee.
ORSEMUS TURNER, in his History of the Holland Purchase, says. The existence of the IROQUOIS upon the soil now constituting Western and Middle New York, is distinctly traced back to the Period of the discovery of America.
Their traditions go beyond that period. They fix upon no definite period in reference to the origin of their confederacy. Their Councils were held along the southern shores of Lake Ontario, and upon the Niagara River, before the first adventurers, the Dutch, and French Jesuits appeared in the valley of the Mohawk; and there are evidences of a long precedent existence that corresponds with their traditions.