Daily stories of Pennsylvania

by Frederic Antes Godcharles

The commissioners wanted to begin work at once and offered to furnish a list and inventory of the delayed presents. It was then agreed to confer with the chiefs of the “Shawnee and Delaware on the state of affairs in Ohio,” pending arrival of the condolences.

Conrad Weiser and Andrew Montour acted as interpreters between the commissioners and Indians, while several magistrates and freeholders attended the conference, which was formally opened on the morning of October 1, after the gifts costing £800, which had arrived that morning, had been laid out on the ground.

During the three days following, when Indians and commissioners were not passing presents to one another, speeches were delivered according to the customary procedure of such gatherings.

At the closing of the first day, as is briefly mentioned in the report, “the goods allotted for each nation as a present of condolence were taken away by each.”

The forms of the condolences depended entirely on Indian custom and were settled in conference with Scarouady and Cayanguileguoa, a sensible Indian of the Mohawk Nation, and accordingly the proper belts and strings were made ready.

But the commissioners had been compelled to await until the condolences had arrived before they were able to assuage the Indian grief.

After the Oneida chieftain had offered the suggestion, “We dig a grave for your warriors killed in your country and we bury their bones, decently wrapping them in these blankets, and with these presents we cover their graves,” the Indians aired their complaints and protestations of loyalty to the English.

In return for all the delicate niceties of Indian procedure, which the wise Franklin had been careful to observe the red men covered graves of the English with a beaver skin blanket and offered as occasion required a string or two of wampum, belts and bundles of skins.

A shell, painted green on the concave side, with a string of wampum attached, was given the commissioners as evidence that the assembled Indians had but a single heart and that “green and good and sound.”

The calumet, a pipe decorated with fine feathers, was offered in proof that the Indians cherished no resentment against the English because of French inroads.