132 



ONONDAGA 



[b. a. e. 



hawk, who had become insolent from 

 their victories and were overbearing even 

 to their aUies, might become too much 

 so sliould the Hurons fail to unite all 

 their forces against them, and further be- 

 cause of fear of the power of the Cones- 

 toga. In this Onondaga project of peace 

 the Cayuga and Oneida showed favorable 

 interest, but the Seneca would not listen 

 to it, and the Mohawk were still more 

 averse to it as they were jealous of what 

 had been done by the Onondaga. Hence 

 these last two tribes sent forces to assail 

 the village of St Ignace at the end of the 

 winter of 1647-48. The following inci- 

 dents show the character of some of the 

 chief men and statesmen of the Onon- 

 daga: 



Early in Jan. 1648 the Hurons decided 

 to send another embassy to Onondaga. 

 They sent 6 men, accompanied by one 

 of the 3 Onondaga ambassadors then 

 in their country, the other two, includ- 

 ing Skanawati, the liead of the Onon- 

 daga embassy, remaining as hostages. 

 But unfortunately the new Huron em- 

 bassy was captured and killed by a 

 force of 100 Mohawk and Seneca who 

 had come to the borders of the Huron 

 country. The Onondaga accompanying 

 this embassy was spared, and two Hu- 

 rons escaped. Early in April, when the 

 distressing news reached the ears of 

 Skanawati, the proud Onondaga ambas- 

 sador remaining with the Hurons as a 

 hostage, he suddenly disappeared. The 

 Hurons believed that he had stolen away, 

 but, a few days after his disappearance, 

 his corpse was found in the forest lying 

 on a bed of fir branches, where he had 

 taken his own life by cutting his throat. 

 His companion, who was notiiied in order 

 to exonerate the Hurons, said that the 

 cause of his despair was the shame he felt 

 at the contempt shown for the sacredness 

 of his person by the Seneca and the Mo- 

 hawk in going to the Huron country and 

 massacring the Huron people while his 

 life was in pledge for the keeping of the 

 faith of his people. Of such men was 

 the great federal council of the Iroquois 

 composed. 



The Onondaga had good reason for 

 fearing the Conestoga, for the Jesuit Re- 

 lation for 1647-48 states that in a single 

 village of the latter people there were at 

 that time 1,300 men capable of bearing 

 arms, indicating for this village alone a 

 population of more than 4,500. 



At this time the Conestoga chiefs, 

 through two messengers, informed the 

 Hurons that if they felt too weak to de- 

 fend themselves they should send the 

 Conestoga word by an embassy. The 

 Hurons eagerly seized this opportunity 

 by sending on this mission 4 Christian 

 Indians and 4 "infidels," headed by one 



Charles Ondaaiondiont. They arrived at 

 Conestoga early in June 1647. The Huron 

 deputies informed their Conestoga friends 

 that they had come from a land of souls, 

 where war and the fear of their enemies 

 had spread desolation everywhere, where 

 the fields were covered with blood and 

 the lodges were tilled with corpses, and 

 they themselves had only hfe enough left 

 to enable them to come to ask their friends 

 to save their country, which was drawing 

 rapidly toward its end. This spirited but 

 laconic address moved the Conestoga to 

 send an embassy into the Iroquois country 

 to urge on the Irotjuois the advantage of 

 making a lasting peace w ith their Huron 

 adversaries. Jean Baptiste, a Huron am- 

 bassador mentioned before, being at Onon- 

 daga at the end of summer, learned that 

 this embassy of the Conestoga had reached 

 the Iroquois country, as he even saw some 

 of the Conestoga presents. It was the 

 purpose of the Conesftoga to bring about 

 tirm peace with the Hurons and the Onon- 

 daga, the Oneida and the Cayuga, and, if 

 possible, the Seneca, and to renew the 

 war against the Mohawk, should they 

 then refuse to become parties to it. The 

 Conestoga did not fear the Mohawk. The 

 Jesuit Relation for 1660 states that about 

 the year 1600 the Mohawk had been 

 greatly humbled by the Algonkin, and 

 that, after they had regained somewhat 

 their former standing, the Conestoga, in 

 a war lasting 10 years, had nearly ex- 

 terminated the Mohawk, who since, how- 

 ever, had partially recovered from the 

 defeat. 



Many of the Onondaga joined the 

 Catholic Iroquois colonies on the St 

 Lawrence, and in 1751 about half the 

 tribe was said to be living in Canada. 

 On the breaking out of the American 

 Revolution in 1775 nearly all the Onon- 

 daga, together with the majority of the 

 other Iroquois tribes, joined the British, 

 and at the close of the war the British 

 government grafted them a tract on Grand 

 r. , Ontario, where a portion of them still 

 reside. Therest are still inKew York, the 

 greater number being on the Onondaga 

 res., and the others with the Seneca and 

 Tuscarora on their several reservations. 



The Onondaga made or joined in treat- 

 ies with the state of New York at Ft 

 Schuyler (formerly Ft Stanwix), Sept. 

 12, 1788; Onondaga, Nov. 18, 1793; Ca- 

 yuga Ferry, July 28, 1795; Albany, Feb. 

 25, 1817, Feb. 11, 1822, and Feb. 28, 1829. 

 They also joined in treaties between the 

 Six Nations and the United States at Ft 

 Stanwix, N. Y., Oct. 22, 1784; Ft Har- 

 mar, O., Jan. 9, 1789; Canandaigua, N. Y., 

 Nov. 11, 1794, and Buffalo Creek, N. Y., 

 Jan. 15, 1838. 



In 1660 the Jesuits estimated the Onon- 

 daga at about 1,500 souls, while Green- 



