[139] At the beginning of the American revolution the Iroquois were unable to agree upon a declaration of war against our confederacy for want of unanimity in council. A number of the Oneida sachems resisted the proposition and finally refused their consent. As neutrality was impossible with the Mohawks, and the Senecas were determined to fight, it was resolved that each tribe might engage in the war upon its own responsibility, or remain neutral. The war against the Eries, against the Neutral Nation and Susquehannocks, and the several wars against the French, were resolved upon in general council. Our colonial records are largely filled with negotiations with the Iroquois Confederacy.
δοκοῦντα καὶ δόξαντ' ἀπαγγέλλειν με χρὴ
δήμου προβούλοις τῆσδε καδμείας πόλεως.
—Æschylus, The Seven against Thebes, 1005.
[141] One of the Cayuga sachems.
[142] One of the Seneca sachems, and the founder of the New Religion of the Iroquois.
[143] One of the Seneca sachems.
[144] Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family. (Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. xvii, 1871, p. 131.)