Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 93 



Shawnees, drawing to themselves many of the law- 

 less young warriors, not only of these tribes, but of 

 the others still further off. The Mingos were like- 

 wise a mongrel banditti, made up of outlaws and 

 wild spirits from among the Wyandots and Miamis, 

 as well as from the Iroquois and the Munceys (a 

 sub-tribe of the Dela wares). 



All these Northwestern nations had at one time 

 been conquered by the Iroquois, or at least they had 

 been defeated, their lands overrun, and they them- 

 selves forced to acknowledge a vague over-lordship 

 on the part of their foes. But the power of the Iro- 

 quois was now passing away ; when our national his- 

 tory began, with the assembling of the first Conti- 

 nental Congress, they had ceased to be a menace to 

 the Western tribes, and the latter no longer feared 

 or obeyed them, regarding them merely as allies or 

 neutrals. Yet not only the Iroquois, but their kin- 

 dred folk, notably the Wyandots, still claimed, and 

 received, for the sake of their ancient superiority, 

 marks of formal respect from the surrounding Al- 

 gonquins. Thus, among the latter, the Leni-Le- 

 nappe possessed the titular headship, and were called 

 "grandfathers" at all the solemn councils as well 

 as in the ceremonious communications that passed 

 among the tribes ; yet in turn they had to use similar 

 titles of respect in addressing not only their for- 

 mer oppressors, but also their Huron allies, who had 

 suffered under the same galling yoke. 2 



The Northwestern nations had gradually come to 

 9 Barton, xxv. 



