The Lenape, therefore, did not, at that date, occupy any degrading position, although they were under the general domination of the Iroquois League.
Both these points are proved yet more conclusively by the proceedings at a conference at White Marsh, May 19th, 1712, between Governor C. Gookin and the Delaware chiefs. Gollitchy, orator of the latter, exhibited thirty-two belts of wampum, which they were on their way to deliver to the Five Nations, adding "that many years ago they had been made tributaries to the Mingoes." He also shewed "a long Indian pipe, with a stone head, a wooden shaft, and feathers fixt to it like wings. This pipe, they said, upon making their submission to the Five Nations, who had subdued them, and obliged them to be their tributaries, those Nations had given to these Indians, to be kept by them." All the tribute belts, however, were sent by the women and children, as the speaker explained at length, "as the Indian reckons the paying of tribute becomes none but women and children."[192]
Fortunately, however, we are able to fix the exact date and circumstances of the political transformation of the Delawares into women. It is by no means so remote as Mr. Heckewelder thought, who located the occurrence at Norman's Kill, on the Hudson, between 1609 and 1620; [193] and it was long after 1670, which is the date assigned by Mr. Ruttenber,[194] from a study of the New York records.
It was in the year 1725, and was in consequence of the Delawares refusing to join the Iroquois in an attack on the English settlements.
These data come to light in a message of the Shawnee chiefs, in 1732, to Governor Gordon, who had inquired their reasons for migrating to the Ohio Valley.
Their reply was as follows:—
"About nine years agoe the 5 nations told us att Shallyschohking, wee Did nott Do well to Setle there, for there was a Greatt noise In the Greatt house and thatt in three years time, all Should know whatt they had to Say, as far as there was any Setlements or the Sun Sett."
"About ye Expiration of 3 years affore Sd, the 5 nations Came and Said our Land is goeing to bee taken from us, Come brothers assistt us Lett us fall upon and fightt with the English. Wee answered them no, wee Came here for peace and have Leave to Setle here, and wee are In League with them and Canott break itt."
"Aboutt a year after they, ye 5 nations, Told the Delawares and us, Since you have nott hearkened to us, nor Regarded whatt we have said, now wee will pettycoatts on you, and Look upon you as women for the future, and nott as men. Therefore, you Shawanese Look back toward Ohioh, The place from whence you Came, and Return thitherward, for now wee Shall Take pitty on the English and Lett them have all this Land."
"And further Said now Since you are Become women, He Take Peahohquelloman, and putt itt on Meheahoaming and He Take Meheahoaming and putt itt on Ohioh, and Ohioh He putt on Woabach, and thatt shall bee the warriours Road for the future." (Penna Archives, Vol. I.)
The circumstances attending the ceremony were probably pretty much as Loskiel relates.
The correctness of this account is borne out by an examination of law titles.
That the river tribes at the time of Penn's treaties (1680-1700) could not sell their lands without the permission of the Iroquois has never been established. Mr. Gallatin states that William Penn "always purchased the right of possession from the Delawares, and that of sovereignty from the Five Nations."[195] This may have been the case in some later treaties of the colony, but certainly there is no intimation of it in the celebrated "First Indian Deed" to Penn, July 15th, 1682.[196] Furthermore, in the Release which the Iroquois did give of their Pennsylvania lands in 1736, the boundaries are defined as "Westward to the Setting of the Sun, and Eastward to the furthest springs of the Waters running into the said River," i. e., the Susquehannah;[197] and to do away with any doubt that the tract thus defined included all the land in this part to which they had a claim, the Release goes on to recite that "our true intent and meaning was and is to release all our Right, Claim and Pretensions whatsoever to all and every the Lands lying within the Bounds and Limits of the Government of Pennsylvania, Beginning Eastward on the River Delaware, as far Northward as the sd Ridge or Chain of Endless Mountains." In other words, although the Six Nations advanced no claim to land east of the Susquehanna watershed, the Proprietors chose to include the Delaware watershed so as to avoid any future complication. It seems to me this Release does away with any "right of sovereignty" of the Iroquois over the Delaware Valley south of the mountains, and brands Canassatego's remarks above quoted as braggart falsehoods.