NO. 15 ROLL CALL OF IROQUOIS CHIEFS — FENTON 5 



and half an inch wide ; on the opposite side of this, for a scalp, they make a red 

 cross, thus, + ; on another side, for a prisoner taken alive, they make a red 

 cross in this manner, X. with a head or dot, and by placing such significant 

 hieroglyphics in so conspicuous a situation, they / are enabled to ascertain with 

 great certainty the time and circumstances of past events. [Seaver, 1932, 

 pp. 176-177.] 



Pictorial and war records in red paint were quite familiar to Sir 

 William Johnson, who on occasion was not above marching at the 

 head of a procession of chiefs singing on the path to a Condolence 

 Council (Beauchamp, 1907, p. 393) ; although no mnemonic cane 

 is mentioned in either description, in his celebrated letter of Febru- 

 ary 28, 1 771, to Dr. Arthur Lee, who had requested identification of 

 signatures to a deed of 1726, Johnson, then at the height of his power 

 and operating knowledge on Indian customs, manners, and languages, 

 is at some pains to explain their want of writing. He says : 



... the Mohocks ... in things of much Consequence . . . usually ddineate 

 a Steel, such as is used to strike Fire out of Flint, which being the Symbol of 

 their Nation, This Steel they call Canniah — & themselves Cannimtgaes, . . . 

 [But he is at a loss to derive this from "flint" itself.] 



The Tuscaroras I omit as they are a south" people not long introduced into 

 the Alliance making the 6 nat°. 



The Oneidas . . . have in use [as] Symbols, a Tree, by which they w** 

 Express Stability. But their true Symbol is a Stone Onoya, and they call them- 

 selves Onoyiits a particular Inst"' of wch I can give from an Expedit* I went 

 on to Lake St. Sacrament in 1746, when to shew the Enemy the strength of our 

 Ind" Alliances I desired Each Nation to affix their Symbol to a Tree [to alarm] 

 the French: the Oneydas put up a stone wch they painted Red.* [P. 432.] 



The Onondagas ... are somewhat better versed in the Customs of their 

 ancestors, they call themselves people of the Great Mountain. [P. 432.] 



The Cayugas . . . have for their Symbol a pipe. 



The Senecas are the most numerous & most distant of the six Nat° have sev' 

 Towns & Symbols from wch however little can be understood ... [P. 433-1 

 * * * 



But tho it does not appear that they had the use of Letters yet the traces of 

 Government may still be seen, and there is reason to believe that they made use 

 of Hieroglyphics Tho they Neglect them at present, ... But theirs are drawn 

 to the utmost of their skill to represent the thing intended, for Instance, when 

 they go to War, they paint some trees with the figures of men, often the exact 

 number of their party, and if they go by Water, they delineate a Canoe, when 

 they make an atchievement, they mark the Handle of their Tomahawks with 

 human figures to signify prisoners, bodies without heads to express scalps. The 

 figures which they affix to/ Deeds, have led some to imagine that they had 

 Characters or an Alphabet. The case is this, every Nation is divided into a 

 Certain number of Tribes [clans], of which some have 3. as the Turtle, Bear 



4 Although the stone was the Oneida national symbol, in the League a tree 

 trunk denominated that tribe. 



