Afraid of the witches—See [number 120], “The Raven Mocker,” and notes.

[88.] First contact with whites (p. [350]): The story of the jug of whisky left near a spring was heard first from Swimmer; the ulûñsû′tĭ story from Wafford; the locomotive story from David Blythe. Each was afterward confirmed from other sources.

The story of the book and the bow, quoted from the Cherokee Advocate of October 26, 1844, was not heard on the reservation, but is mentioned by other authorities. According to an old Cherokee quoted by Buttrick, “God gave the red man a book and a paper and told him to write, but he merely made marks on the paper, and as he could not read or write, the Lord gave him a bow and arrows, and gave the book to the white man.” Boudinot, in “A Star in the West,”[44] quoted by the same author, says: “They have it handed down from their ancestors, that the book which the white people have was once theirs; that while they had it they prospered exceedingly; but that the white people bought it of them and learned many things from it, while the Indians lost credit, offended the Great Spirit, and suffered exceedingly from the neighboring nations; that the Great Spirit took pity on them and directed them to this country,” etc. It is simply another version of the common tale of decadent nations, “We were once as great as you.”

[89.] The Iroquois wars (p. [351]): The Iroquois league—The Iroquois league consisted originally of a confederacy of five kindred tribes, the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, in what is now the state of New York; to these were added the cognate Tuscarora after their expulsion from Carolina about 1715. The name Iroquois, by which they were known to the French, is supposed to be a derivative from some Indian term. To the English they were known as the Five, afterward the Six Nations. They called themselves by a name commonly spelt Hodenosaunee, and interpreted “People of the Long House.” Of this symbolic long house the Mohawk guarded the eastern door, while the Seneca protected the western. Their remarkable governmental and clan system is still well preserved, each tribe, except the Mohawk and Oneida, having eight clans, arranged in two groups or phratries. The Mohawk and Oneida are said to have now but three clans apiece, probably because of their losses by withdrawals to the French missions. The Seneca clans, which are nearly the same for the other tribes, are the Wolf, Bear, Turtle, Beaver, Deer, Snipe, Heron, and Hawk. The confederacy is supposed to have been formed about the middle of the sixteenth century, and by 1680 the Iroquois had conquered and destroyed or incorporated all the surrounding tribes, and had asserted a paramount claim over the whole territory from the Cherokee border to Hudson bay and from southern New England to the Mississippi. According to a careful estimate in 1677 the Five Nations then numbered 2,150 warriors, or about 10,750 persons. The Tuscarora in Carolina were estimated a few years later at 1,200 warriors, or 5,000 persons, but this is probably an exaggeration. The league afterward lost heavily by wars with the French, and still more by withdrawals of Christianized Indians to the French Catholic mission colonies at Caughnawaga, Saint Regis, and elsewhere, the Mohawk being the chief sufferers. The Revolution brought about another separation, when about two-fifths of those remaining, including nearly all of the Mohawk and Cayuga, removed in a body to Canada. A mixed band of Seneca and Cayuga, known as the “Seneca of Sandusky,” had previously settled in Ohio, whence they removed in 1831 to Indian Territory. Between 1820 and 1826 the greater portion of the Oneida removed from New York to lands in Wisconsin purchased from the Menomini. In spite, however, of wars and removals the Iroquois have held their own with a tenacity and a virility which mark their whole history, and both in this country and in Canada they are fairly prosperous and are increasing in population, being apparently more numerous to-day than at any former period. Those in New York and Pennsylvania, except the Saint Regis, and on the Grand River reservation in Canada, constituting together about one-half of the whole number, still keep up the forms and ceremonies of the ancient league.

According to a special bulletin of the census of 1890 the total number of Indians then belonging to the tribes originally constituting the Six Nations was 15,833, of whom 8,483 were living in Canada and 7,350 in the United States, excluding from the latter count 37 resident members of other tribes. Those in the United States were on six reservations in the State of New York, one in Pennsylvania, one in Wisconsin, and one in the Indian Territory, and were classed as follows:

Mohawk (includingIndians of Saint Regis and Caughnawaga):
in New York1,162
Oneida:
in New York, 212;
at Green Bay agency, Wisconsin, 1,7161,928
Onondaga:
in New York, 470;
on Cornplanter reservation, Pennsylvania, 11481
Cayuga: in New York183
Seneca:
in New York, 2,680;
on Cornplanter reservation, Pennsylvania, 872,767
Tuscarora: in New York408
Iroquois mixed bloods,separately enumerated, on
reservations in New York87
Iroquois outsidereservations in New York, Connecticut,
and Massachusetts79
Mixed Seneca and Cayuga at Quapawagency, Indian Territory255
7,350

Those in Canada were at the same time officially reported thus:

Mohawk:
at Caughnawaga, 1,722;
at Saint Regis, 1,190;
on Grand River reservation, 1,344;
at Bay of Quinte, 1,0565,312
Oneida:
on Thames river, 715;
on Grand River reservation, 244959
Onondaga: on Grand Riverreservation325
Cayuga: on Grand Riverreservation865
Seneca: on Grand Riverreservation183
Tuscarora: on Grand Riverreservation327
Iroquois of Lake of Two Mountains375
Iroquois of Gibson137
8,483

A few Algonkin are included among the Iroquois of Caughnawaga and Saint Regis, the Iroquois of these two settlements having been originally Catholic emigrants from the Mohawk villages in New York, with a few Oneida and Onondaga. When the boundary line between New York and Canada was run it cut the Saint Regis reservation in two. The report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1900 shows 7,700 Iroquois living on the reservations in New York, Wisconsin, and Indian Territory, an increase within these limits of 527 in nine years. Assuming the same rate of increase in Pennsylvania and on the Canada side, the whole number of Iroquois to-day would be approximately 17,000. For detailed information see Colden, History of the Five Nations; Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois; Morgan, League of the Hodenosaunee or Iroquois; Parkman’s works; reports of the commissioners of Indian affairs for both the United States and Canada, and the excellent report on “The Six Nations of New York,” by Donaldson and Carrington, contained in an extra bulletin of the Eleventh Census of the United States.

Seneca town, South Carolina—The statement given by Schoolcraft (Notes on Iroquois, 161), on the authority of Calhoun, that the Seneca once lived at Seneca town, in South Carolina, has probably no foundation in fact, the story having evidently arisen from a supposed similarity of name. The Cherokee call it Iʻsû′nigû′, and do not connect it in any way with A-Sĕ′nikă or Ani′-Sĕ′nikă, their name for the northern tribe.