MooNEY] THK IKOQIHIS WAHS ']5ii 



111 1847 thorc Wfrc still li\ irii:' ;iiiioii<:- tlir Sciicca the yiaiulcliiklron 

 of Cherokee captives taken in these wms. In |7;)4 ih," Senecii pointed 

 out to Colon(>l Pickeriny ;i chief who wus ;t native Cherokee, havinu- 

 been taken when a boy and a(lo])te(l aniony the Seneia. who at'terwai'd 

 made him chief. This was probably the same man of whom lhe\ tokl 

 Schook'i'aft fifty years hiter. He was a full-blood Cherokee. l)ut had 

 been captured when too youny to ha\'e any memorx' of the event. 

 Years afterward, when he had jirown to manhood and had bec()m(^ a 

 chief in the tribe, he learned of his foreign oi'iu;in, and was tilled at 

 once with an overpowering longing to go back to the south to tind 

 his people and live and die among them. He journeyed to the Chero- 

 kee country, but on arriving there found to his great disajjpointment 

 that the story of his capture had been forgotten in the tribe, and that 

 his relatives, if any were left, failed to recognize him. Being unable 

 to tind his kindred, he made only a short" visit and i-eturned again to 

 the Seneca. 



From James Watford, of Indian Teiritory. the authoi- ol)tained a 

 detailed account of the Iroquois peace em))assy referred to by Stand 

 Watie, and of the wampum belt that accompanied it. Watford's 

 information concerning the proceedings at Echota was obtained 

 directly from two eyewitnesses — Sequoya, the inventor of th(> alpha- 

 bet, and Gatun'wali, "Hard-mush," who afterward explained the l)elt 

 at the great council near Tahlequah seventy years later. Secjuova. at 

 the time of the Echota conference, was a boy living- with his mother 

 at Taskigi town a few miles away. whil(> Gatuii'wa'li was already a 

 young man. 



The treaty of peace between the Cherokee and Iroquois, made at 

 Johnson Hall in New York in 17(58, appears from the record to ha\e 

 been brought about by the Cherokee, who sent for the jjurpose a 

 delegation of chiefs, headed by Agiinsta'ta. " Groiuidhog-sausage,'' 

 of Echota, their great leader in the war of 1 760-61 against the Eng- 

 lish. After the treaty had been concluded the Chei-okee delegates 

 invited some of the Irocjuois chiefs to go home with them for a visit, 

 but the latter declined on the ground that it was not yet saf(>, and in 

 fact some of their warriors were at that very time out against the 

 Cherokee, not yet being aware of the peace negotiations, it is proba- 

 ble, therefore, that the Iroquois delegates did not arrive at Echota 

 until some considerable time, ptuhaps three yeai-s. after the formal 

 preliminaries had been concluded in the north. 



According to Sequoya's accoiuit. as given to Watford, there had 

 been a long war betwecm the Cherokee and the northern Indians, who 

 were never able to conquer the Cherokee or ])reak theii- spirit, until 

 at last the Iroquois were tired of fighting and mmi a didegation to 

 make peace. The messengei's set out for the south with thidi- wam- 

 pimi belts and peace emblems, but lo>t their way aftei- ])assing Ten- 

 19 KTii— 01 23 



