NO. 15 ROLL CALL OF IROQUOIS CHIEFS — FENTON 3 



istic notice proclaimed a war party, their number, town, tribe, how 

 many of each tribe, tribal affiliation of the leader, their mission, and 

 how many days they were out ; returning, the party marked the num- 

 ber of scalps taken, the number of captives, and their own losses. The 

 characters were highly conventionalized so as to be readily intelligible 

 to neighboring tribes. Heckewelder (1876, p. 130) remarks that all 

 nations can do this, but they do not all have the same marks; "yet 

 I have seen the Delawares read with ease the drawings of the Chip- 

 peways, Mingoes, Shawanoes, and Wyandots on similar objects." 



The warriors of the Iroquois Longhouse advertised military su- 

 premacy over neighboring tribes in a similar way. Seneca war 

 heraldry was first described and illustrated in 1666 in a Paris Docu- 

 ment that was attributed to Father Francois, the RecoUet by the 

 author of a later document, dated 1736, which O'Callaghan has 

 ascribed to Joncaire (O'Callaghan, 1849, vol. i, p. 23). "The Nine 

 Iroquois Tribes. 1666 (Paris Doc, I.)" (pp. 1-8, 9, lo-ii) is the 

 best early account of Seneca clan organization ; it says : 



When they go to war, and wish to inform those of the party who may pass 

 their path, they make a representation of the animal of their tribe, with a hatchet 

 in his dexter paw ; sometimes a sabre or club ; and if there be a number of 

 tribes together of the same party, each draws the animal of his tribe, and their 

 number, all on a tree from which Ihey remove the bark. The animal of the 

 tribe which heads the expedition is always the foremost. 

 * * * 



On their return, if they have prisoners or scalps, they paint the animal of the 

 tribe to which they belong, rampant (debout) with a staff on the shoulder along 

 which are strung the scalps they may have, and in the same number. After the 

 animal are the prisoners they have made, with a chichicois (or gourd filled with 

 beans which rattle), in the right hand. If they be women, they represent them 

 with a Cadenette or queue and a waistcloth. 



If there be several tribes in the war party, each paints the animal of his 

 tribe with the scalps and prisoners it has made, as before, but always after 

 that which is head of the party. [Pp. 4-5.] 



When they have lost any men on the field of battle they paint them with 

 the legs in the air, and without heads and in the same number as they have 

 lost; and to denote the tribe [clan] to which they belonged, they paint the 

 animal of the tribe [clan] of the deceased on its back, the paws in the air, 

 and if it be the chief of the party that is dead, the animal is without the head. 



If there be only wounded, they paint a broken gun which however is con- 

 nected with the stock, or even an arrow, and to denote where they have been 

 wounded, they paint the animal of the tribe [clan] to which the wounded 

 belonged with an arrow piercing the part in which the wound is located ; and if 

 it be a gunshot they make the mark of the ball on the body of a different color. 



If they have sick and are obliged to carry them, they paint litters (boyards) 

 of the same number as the sick, because they carry only one in each litter. [P. 6.] 



