4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ill 



Whereupon the author proceeds to illustrate the same in two 

 plates, which have been reproduced frequently; and besides the 

 printed explanations, the legend on the second plate is translated to 

 say : "The Portrait of a Savage on a board in their cabin on which 

 they ordinarily paint, how often he has been to war, how many men 

 he has taken and killed." 



If such were Seneca war records, they were probably typical of all 

 the Five Nations because Lafitau (1724, vol, 2, p. 164 apud) and 

 Colden (1922, vol. i, p. xxv) speak with familiarity of the painted 

 records of the Mohawk, the eastern member of the Confederacy. 

 Says Colden: 



. . . they always peel a large Piece of the Bark from some great Tree; they 

 commonly chuse an Oak, as most lasting; upon the smooth side of this Wood 

 they, with their red Paint, draw one or more Canoes, going from Home, with 

 the Number of Men in them padling [sic], which go upon the Expedition; and 

 some Animal, as a Deer or Fox, an Emblem of the Nation against which the 

 Expedition is designed, is painted at the Head of the Canoes; for they always 

 travel in Canoes along the Rivers ... as far as they can. 



After the Expedition is over, they stop at the same Place in their Return . . . 

 they represent on the same, or some Tree near it, the Event of the Enterprize, 

 and now the Canoes are painted with their Heads turned towards the Castle; 

 the Number of the Enemy killed, is represented by Scalps painted black, and 

 the Number of Prisoners by as / many Withs, (in their Painting not unlike 

 Pot-hooks) 2 with which they usually pinion their Captives. These Trees are 

 the Annals, or rather Trophies of the Five Nations : / have seen many of 

 them; ^ and by them, and their War Songs, they preserve the History of their 

 great Achievements. [Pp. xxv-xxvi.] 



War posts bearing the painted achievements of war leaders are 

 reported from the Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca cantons during 

 the eighteenth century, and they are recalled quaintly by the place 

 named "Painted Post" at the junction of the Cohocton and Chemung 

 Rivers near Corning, N. Y. (Beauchamp, 1905, pp. 135-138). A 

 Seneca war chief named Hiokatoo (Hagido-wa, great spear point) 

 who is described by Mary Jemison as her second husband, had such 

 a post on which he recorded his military exploits and other matters 

 he thought worthy of note. 



In order to commemorate great events, and preserve the chronology of them, 

 the war Chief in each tribe keeps a war post. This post is a peeled stick of tim- 

 ber, ID or 12 feet high, that is erected in the town. For a campaign they make, 

 or rather the Chief makes, a perpendicular red mark, about three inches long 



2 Colden here refers to prisoner ties (Willoughby, 1938) which bespeaks a 

 certain familiarity with the Mohawk, not credited to him by later historians. 

 See Hunt, 1940, p. 185. 



8 Italics added. 



