124 



ONEIDA 



[B. A. E. 



tliat time the least tractable of the Iro- 

 quois tribes. It was at this jieriod that 

 Father Bruyas was stationed at the mis- 

 sion of St Fran(;ois Xavier among the 

 Oneida. It is also learned from this 

 source that the Mohegan and the Cones- 

 toga menaced the Oneida. While on this 

 mission Father Bruyas suffered for food 

 for a part of the year and was compelled 

 to sustain life on a diet of dried frogs. 

 By the end of the year 1669 he had bap- 

 tized 30 persons. In 1660 the (Jneida 

 with the Mohawk were the least populous 

 of the Iroquois tribes. The Jesuit Rela- 

 tion for 1669-70 speaks of the Oneida be- 

 ing present at a " feast of the dead " held 

 at the Mohawk village of Caughnawaga, 

 showing that in a moditied form at least 

 the decennial ceremony of the so-called 

 "Dead Feast" was practised among the 

 Iroquois when first known. On Jan. 

 30, 1671, the Oneida began the torture of 

 a captive Conestoga woman, and the tor- 

 ture was prolonged through 2 days and 2 

 nights because he in whose stead she had 

 lieen given was burned at Conestoga for 

 that length of time. It is held V)y some 

 that the town defended by four lines of 

 palisades closely fastened together and 

 attacked by Champlain in 1615 with his 

 Huron and Algonquian allies, was an 

 Oneida village, although other authorities 

 place it elsewhere, in Onondaga territory. 

 In fact, the wars of the Oneida were those 

 of the League, although like the other 

 tribes they seem to have put forth most 

 energy against the triljes whoin some man- 

 ner had given them the greatest offense. 

 The Catawba and the Muskhogean tribes, 

 as well as the Susquehanna r. Indians, 

 the Conestoga, gave most occupation to 

 the Oneida warriors. 



After the conquest of the tribes on the 

 Susquehanna and its tributaries and those 

 on the Potomac, chiefly by the warriors 

 of the Oneida, the Cayuga, and the 

 Seneca, and those tribes which had sub- 

 mitted to Iroquois rule, a question arose 

 as to the propriety of the Mohawk, who 

 had not given any aid in subduing these 

 peoples, sharing in the income arising 

 from land sales there. Hence for a time 

 the Mohawk received no emolument 

 from this source, until the Iroquois tribes 

 ])ecame divided and the Mohawk sold 

 the lands in the Wyoming Valley region 

 of Pennsylvania to the Suscjuehanna 

 Land Co. of Connecticut. This, then, in 

 1728, moved the great federal council of 

 the league at Onondaga to send Shikel- 

 lamy, an Oneida chief, as a superinten- 

 dent, to the forks of the Susquehanna for 

 the purpose of watching over the affairs 

 and the interests of the Six Nations of 

 Iroquois in Pennsylvania. At first Shi- 

 kellamy exercised a general supervision 

 over onlv the Shawnee and the Dela- 



wares, who thereafter were required to 

 consult him in all matters arising be- 

 tween them and the proprietary govern- 

 ment. So well did he perform his duty 

 that in 1745 Shikellamy was made full 

 superintendent over all the dependent 

 tribes on the Susquehanna, with his resi- 

 dence at Shamokin. He showed great 

 astuteness in the management of the af- 

 fairs intrusted to his care, seeking at all 

 times to promote the interests of his peo- 

 ple. Such was the influence which the 

 Oneida exercised on the Susquehanna. 



In 1687 the Oneida were included in 

 the warrant of the King of Great Britain 

 to Gov. Dongan of New York, authoriz- 

 ing him to protect the Five Nations as 

 subjects of (Treat Britain. In 1696 Count 

 Frontenac burned the Oneida castle, de- 

 stroyed all their corn, and made prison- 

 ers of 30 men, women, and children. 



In 1645-46 the Oneida were at war 

 with the Nipissing, and one band of 17 

 warriors from ' ' Ononiiote ' ' defeated an 

 Algonkin party under Teswehat, the 

 one-eyed chief of this people, killing the 

 chief's son and taking 2 women prison- 

 ers. This Iroquois party was afterward 

 defeated by 30 Hurons and the 2 women 

 were recaptured. 



In the Jesuit Relation for 1666-68 

 Father Bruyas writes that the Oneida 

 were reputed the most cruel of all the Iro- 

 quois tribes; that they had always made 

 war on the Algonkin and the Hurons, and 

 that two-thirds of the population of their 

 villages were composed of the people of 

 these two tribes who had become Iroquois 

 in temper and inclination. This mission- 

 ary adds that the nature of the Oneida 

 was then altogether barbarous, being 

 cruel, sly, cunning, and prone to blood- 

 shed and carnage. 



In 1655 a party of 60 Oneida warriors 

 was sent against the Amikwa, or Beaver 

 Indians. This war was still in progress 

 in 1661, for in that year 2 bands, one of 

 24 and the other of 30 warriors, w'ere 

 encountered on their way to fight the 

 Amikwa. 



Chauchetiere ( letter in Jesuit Relations, 

 Thwaites ed., lxii, 185, 1900) says that 

 "war is blazing in the country of the 

 Outaouaks," that the Iroquois, especially 

 the Oneida, continued their hatred of the 

 Outagami (Foxes) and the Illinois, and 

 so have slain and captured many Illinois. 

 In 1681 they killed or captured about 

 1,000 of these unfortunate people. 



In 1711, about half of the Tuscarora 

 tribe, then dwelling in North Carolina, 

 seems to have conspired with several 

 alien neighboring tribes and bands to 

 destroy the Carolina settlers. The colon- 

 ists, however, recollecting the ancient 

 feud between the Southern and the North- 

 ern Indians, allied themselves with the 



