230 pioneer life; or, 



red jacket and the wyandot claim to supremacy. 



At a great council of the western tribes, assembled 

 near Detroit, prior to the late war, the celebrated 

 Seneca orator, Red Jacket, was present, when the 

 right of the Wyandots to light the council fire, was 

 brought up. This claim he strenuously -resisted, and 

 administered a rebuke to this nation in the following 

 terms : 



" Have ^the Quatoghies forgotten themselves ? Or 

 do they suppose we have forgotten them? Who 

 gave you the right in the west or east, to light the 

 general council fire? You must have fallen asleep, 

 and dreamed that the Six Nations were dead I "Who 

 permitted you to escape from the lower country? 

 Had you any heart to speak for yourselves ? Remem- 

 ber how you hung on by the bushes. You had not 



even a place to land on. You have not done p g 



for fear of the Konoshioni. High claim, indeed, for 

 a tribe who had to run away from the Kadarakwa. 



" As for you, my nephews," he continued, turning 

 to the Lenapes, or Delawares, u it is fit you should 

 let another light your fire. Before Mic^uon came, we 

 had put out your fire, and put water on it ; it would 

 not burn. Could you hunt or plant without our 

 leave ? Gould you sell a foot of land ? Did not the 

 voice of the Long House cry c go ! ' and you went ? 

 Had you any power at all ? Fit act, indeed, for you 

 to give in to our wandering brothers — you, from 

 whom we took the war-club and put on petticoats." 



