Notes on the Iroquois / or, Contributions to the Statistics, Aboriginal History, Antiquities and General Ethnology of Western New-York

by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

Mission Station, Buffalo Reservation.

Seventy-four Seneca chiefs attended the general council held here. Putting their gross population at 2,500, this gives one chief to every thirty-three souls. This makes them “captains of tens.”

The Seneca language has been somewhat cultivated. Mr. Wright, the missionary, who has mastered the language, has printed a spelling book of 112 pages, also a periodical tract for reading, called the “Mental Elevator.” Both valuable philological data.

The Senecas of this reservation are on the move for Cattaraugus and Alleghany, having sold out, finally, to the Ogden company. They leave their old homes and cemetery, however, with “longing, lingering looks.”

Here lie the bones of Red Jacket and Mary Jemison.

Curious and interesting reminiscences the Senecas have. Jot down their traditions of all sorts. Can’t separate fiction from fact. They must go together; for often, if the fiction or allegory be pulled up, the fact has no roots to sustain itself.