The Council building on the reservation was called the Long House, not on account of its size or shape, but in accordance with an ancient tradition.
When the separation of the Iroquois took place, it was decided by the Council that the expression Long House was to be used as a symbol, that the nations were theoretically under one roof, which extended over all the lands occupied by them. In pursuance of this theory, certain tribes were given particular duties. The Senecas had to guard the gates looking towards the sunset, and the Mohawks were to watch the approaches to the gates placed in the direction of sunrise.
As far as it is possible to form conclusions, with respect to the state of the Indian tribes in the sixteenth century, it appears that the Iroquois, in consequence of their league, had attained to a comparatively advanced state of warlike capacity, and had organised methods of conducting a campaign.
They also formed regular alliances, and made treaties which they faithfully executed.
In their treatment of captives they were cruel and barbarous, but they possessed in the highest degree the qualities of courage and endurance.
I should here mention that, when I was at Boston, I was much assisted in making investigations into certain characteristics of the North American Indians by Mr. Francis Parkman, whose researches upon all subjects relating to the condition of the aboriginal tribes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, have placed him in the first rank of the historians of that period.
Mr. Parkman was personally well acquainted with the Dakotas, amongst whom he had dwelt for nearly two years.
He, on several occasions arranged, in the kindest manner, that I should meet those who were interested in the native races. Upon one of these occasions I met Mr. E. G. Squier, whose original surveys of the ancient earthworks in Ohio were published by the Smithsonian Institution.