'^"no';"?^?'^^' IROQUOIS MASKS AT ONONDAGA — ^HENDRY 377 



intermarried into these tribes or with the Whites. ^^ These people 

 have no voice in the government and are allowed to hold land only if 

 one of their grandparents was an Onondaga. Thus they are disposed 

 to discard the aboriginal values and adopt western ones, as by birth, 

 if not by choice, they are already marginal to the old culture. As one 

 of this group put it, "Anyone not an Onondaga is always regarded as 

 an outsider." 



There is, of course, a great deal of variation within the two groups, 

 and possibly a careful analysis would reveal the existence of a number 

 of subgroups, overlapping but distinguishable on the basis of individual 

 reactions to change. ^^ Nor can it be claimed that tribal affiliation is 

 the only or even the most important determinant of acculturation, 

 although it seems to carry a greater weight than any other obvious 

 factor such as age. 



There are indications that the compromise between the old culture 

 and the new, and between the people who identify with them, is an 

 uneasy one both for individuals and for the community as a whole. ^^ 

 The suppressed animosity between the church and the Council House, 

 the ambivalence evident in the sudden shift from one religion to the 

 other, the conflict between those who wish to preserve the native 

 traditions and those who wish to make the reservation "progressive," 

 and a certain defensiveness on the part of those who have clung to 

 the old ways, are some of the more overt manifestations of the tension 

 and anxiety which result from the attempt to strike a balance between 

 two divergent cultures. Among some of the Indians, particularly the 

 younger generation, Iroquois retentions seem to be one of the reactions 

 to the insecurity which they feel in their situation — a self-conscious 

 return to the aboriginal culture which they have idealized and which 

 they believe offers a safer, more satisfactory way of life. This nativism, 

 which is individual, spasmodic, and unorganized, is an important 

 element in mask carving and will be discussed subsequently in greater 

 detaO. 



THE CARVERS 



Maskmaking at Onondaga is neither a profession nor a full-fledged 

 craft recognized by the community as such. Rather, its status is that 

 of a part-time activity carried on by a smaU group of men who do not 

 depend upon it as a source of income. Those who engage in the art 



1' Since descent Is matrillneal, this does not include the offspring of marriages in which the woman is 

 Onondaga. In these cases, even If the father is White, the children retain their tribal membership. 



1' The categories which Voget (1951, pp. 220-231) used in his analysis of Iroquois society on the Caugh- 

 nawaga Reservation in Canada might, with more careful investigation, prove to apply equally well to 

 Onondaga. On the basis of differential reactions to acculturation, he divided the community into four 

 groups: native, native-modified, American-modified, and American-marginal. 



>» By "identify" I mean that people define themselves as belonging to a particular group (in this case 

 Indian or White) and refer their behavior to the values which they attribute to that group. 



