68. DANIEL WILSON ON THE HUEON-IEOQUOIS OF 



diversities in the dialects of the Six Nations is itself an evidence of their long separation, 

 prior to the date of their confederation, which is believed to have been effected in the 

 earlier half of the fifteenth century. By far the most interesting and trustworthy narrative 

 of this famous league is embodied by Mr. Horatio Hale in '' The Iroc(Uois Book of Eites," a 

 (•ontribution to aboriginal American literature of singular interest and value. Among the 

 members of this confederacy the Tuscaroras occxrpy a peculiar position. They were 

 reunited to the common stock so recently as 1*714, but their traditions accord with those 

 of the whole Huron-Iroquois family in pointing to the Lower St. Lawrence as their 

 original home ; and the diversity of the Tuscarora dialect from those of the older nations 

 of the league furnishes a valuable gauge of the significance of such differences, as 

 evidence of the length of period during which the varioiis members of the common 

 stock had been separated. On the other hand, the manner in which, in the absence of 

 any hereditary feud, the Irocjuois respected the bonds of consanguinity, and welcomed 

 the fugitive immigrants from North Carolina, throws an interesting light on the history 

 of the race, and the large extent of country occupied by it in the time of its greatest 

 prosperity. 



The earliest home of the whole Huron-Iroquois stock was within the area latterly 

 embraced in Upper and Lower Canada, and, therefore, they have a peculiar claim on 

 the interest of Canadians as our precursors in the occupation of th(^ soil ; while, in so 

 far as its actual occixpancy by the representatives of the common stock is concerned, 

 the Hurons were welcomed to a friendly, if fatal, alliance with the early French colon- 

 ists ; and the Iroquois of the Six Nations have enjoyed a home, under the protection of 

 England, on the western Canadian reserves set apart for their use a century ago. 



Tlîere is one notable inconsistency in thi' traditions of the Huron-Ivoquois which is 

 significant. The fathers of the common stock dwelt, in such tinn's as their oldest and 

 most cherished traditions preserved in memory, in their northern home on the St. 

 Lawrence, and beside the great sea. It ranked also among the ancient traditions of the 

 " Wampum-keepers," or official annalists, that there came a time when, from whatever 

 cause, the Caniengas — Ka-nyen-ke-ha-ka, or Flint people, /. e., the Mohawks, — the " eldest 

 brother " of the family, led the way from the northern shore of the St. Lawrence to their 

 later home in what is now the State of New York. But the remote and prehistoric 

 character of this later tradition is shown by the fact that the Ou'eidas, Onondagas 

 and Senecas, all claimed for themselves the character of autochthones in their later home. 

 The precise spot where, according to the cherished legend of the Oneidas, they literally 

 sprang from the soil, is still marked by " the Oneida Stone," a large boulder of flesh- 

 coloured syenite, from which the latter called themselves Oniota-aug, " the people begot 

 from the stone." It occupies a commanding site overlooking a fine expanse of country 

 stretching to the Oneida Lake. But, according to Mr. Hale, the name of the Oneida 

 nation, in the council of the league, was Nihnt iront tkouHi, usually rendered the " great- 

 tree people," or literally " those of the great log." This designation is connected, most 

 probably as an after-thought, with a legendary meeting of their people with Hiawatha.' 



The long-enduring league of the Iroquois is foremost among the characteristic 

 features which distingixish this remarkable race of American aborigines from the 



' Iroquois Book of Kites, p. 78. 



