Sketches of an Iroquois Council, or Condolence.
In giving the description of the condolence, I have chosen the following writings of Mr. G. S. Riley, of Rochester, to-wit:
A grand council of the confederate Iroquois was held Octobcr 1, 1845, at the Indian councilhouse, on the Tonawanda reservation, in the county of Genesee. Its proceedings occupied three days. It embraced representatives from all the six nations—the Mohawk, the Onondaga, the Seneca, the Oneida, the Cayuga, and the Tuscarora. It is the only one of the kind which has been held for a number of years, and is probably the last which will ever be assembled with a full representation of the confederate nations.
The Indians from abroad arrived at the council-grounds, or the immediate vicinity, two days previous, and one of the most interesting spectacles of the occasion was the entry of the different nations upon the domain and hospitality of the Senecas, on whose grounds the council was to be held. The representation of the Mohawks, coming as they did from Canada, was necessarily small. The Onondagas, with acting Todotahhoh, of the confederacy, and his two counselors, made an exceedingly creditable appearance. Nor was the array of the Tuscaroras, in point of numbers, at least, deficient in attractive and improving features.
We called upon and were presented to Black Smith, the most influential and authoritative of the Seneca sachems. He is about sixty years old, is somewhat portly, is easy enough in his manners, and is well disposed, and even kindly towards all who convinced him that they have no sinister designs in coming among his people.
Jemmy Johnson is the great high priest of the confederacy. Though now sixty-nine years old, he is yet an erect, fine-looking and energetic Indian, and is hospitable and intelligent. He is in possession of the medal presented by Washington to Red Jacket in 1792, which, among other things of interest, he showed us.
It would be imcompatible with the present purpose to describe all the interesting men who were assembled, among whom were Captain Frost, Messrs. Le Fort, Hill, John Jacket, Dr. Wilson and others. We spent much of the time during the week in conversation with the chiefs and most intelligent Indians of the different nations, and gleaned from them much information of the highest interest, in relation to the organization, government, laws, religion and customs of the people and characteristics of the great men of the old and once powerful confederacy. It is a singular fact, that the peculiar government and national characteristics of the Iroquois is a most interesting field of research and inquiry, which has never been very thoroughly, if at all, investigated, although the historic events which marked the proud career of the confederacy have been perseveringly sought and treasured up in the writings of Stone, Schoolcraft, Hosmer, Yates and others.
Many of the Indians speak English readily, but with the aid and interpretations of Mr. Ely S. Parker, a young Seneca of no ordinary degree of attainment in both scholarship and general inteligence, and who, with Le Fort, the Onondaga, is well versed in old Iroquois matters, we had no difficulty in conversing with any and all we chose to.
About midday on Wednesday, October 1, the council commenced. The ceremonies with which it was opened and conducted were certainly unique— almost indescribable; and as its proceedings were in the Seneca tongue, they were in a great measure unintelligible, and in fact, profoundly mysterious to the pale faces. One of the chief objects for which the council had been convoked, was to fill two vacancies in the Sachems of the Senecas, which had been made by the death of the former incumbents; and preceding the installation of the candidates for the succession there was a general and dolorous lament for the deceased Sachems, the utterance of which, together with the repetition of the laws of the confederacy, the installation of the new Sachems, the impeachment and disposition of three unfaithful Sachems, the elevation of others in their stead, and the performance of the various ceremonies attendant upon these proceedings, consumed the principal part of the afternoon.
At the setting of the sun a bountiful repast, consisting of an innumerable number of rather formidable looking chunks of boiled fresh beef, and abundance of bread and succotash, was brought into the council house. The manner of saying grace on this occasion was indeed peculiar. A kettle being brought, hot and smoking from the fire, and placed in the center of the council house, there proceeded from a single person, in a high shrill key, a prolonged and monotonous sound, resembling that of the syllable wah or yah. This was immediately followed by a responsive but protracted tone, the syllable whe or swe, and this concluded grace. It was impossible not to be somewhat mirthfully affected at the first hearing of grace said in this novel manner. It is, however, pleasurable to reflect that the Indians recognize the duty of rendering thanks to the Divine Being in some formal way for the bounties and enjoyments which He bestows; and, were an Indian to attend a public feast among his pace faced brethren, he would be affected perhaps to a greater degree of marvel at witnessing a total neglect of this ceremony than we were at his singular way of performing it.