BULL. 30] 



ORONHY ATEKHA ORONO 



155 



Hist., xviii, pt. 1, 1902, (3) in Univ. Cal. 

 Pub., Am. Archieol. and Ethnol., ii, no. 

 4, 1905; Laufer in Mem. Am. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., VII, pt. 1, 1902; Lumholtz, ( 1 ) ibid.. 

 Ill, Anthrop. ii, pt. 1, 1900, (2) ibid., pt. 



3, 1904, (3) Unknown Mexico, 1902; 

 Schmidt, Indianer-studien in Zentral- 

 Brasilien, 1905; Schurtz, Das Aujienorna- 

 ment, Abh. Phil. Hist., 11, K. Sachsische 

 Ges. der Wissenschaften, xv, no. ii; 

 Stolpe, Studier i Amerikansk Ornamen- 

 tik, 189B; Swanton in Mem. Am. Mus. 

 Nat. Hist., viii, 1905; Teit, ibid., ii, An- 

 throp. I, pt. 4, 1900; Von den Steinen, 

 Unter den Natur-Volkern Zentral Brasil- 

 iens, 1894; Wissler in Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., xviii, pt. 3, 1904. ( w. h. h. ) 



Oronhyatekha ( 'It [is a] burnino; sky'). 

 A ncjted Mohawk mixed-blood, l)orn on 

 the Six Nations res., near Brantford, On- 

 tario, in 1841; died at Augusta, Ga., Mar. 



4, 1907. In his childhood he attended a 

 mission industrial school near liis home, 

 and later entered the Wesleyan Academy 

 atWilbraham, Mass., and Kenyon College 

 at Gambler, Ohio, where he remained two 

 years, fitting himself for Toronto Univer- 

 sity, which he afterward entered. To 

 cover expenses during his college vaca- 

 tion, he hired some white men, whom he 

 dressed in Indian garb and exhibited with 

 himself in a " Wild West" show. While 

 a student at Toronto, in 1860, the chiefs 

 of the Six Nations deputized Oronhyate- 

 kha to deliver an address to the Prince of 

 Wales (King Edward VII ) on the occasion 

 of his visit to America, the Prince invit- 

 ing him to continue his studies at Oxford, 

 which he entered under the tutelage of 

 Sir Henry Acland, regius professor of 

 medicine. Returning to America a 

 graduated physician, he practised for a 

 time in Toronto. He married a grand- 

 daughter of Joseph Brant (Thayendane- 

 gea), the celebrated Mohawk, by whom 

 he had a son and a daughter. Oronhya- 

 tekha was an enthusiast in secret society 

 work. He was a prominent member of 

 the Good Templars and of the Masonic 

 fraternity, and in 1902, at Chicago, was 

 elected president of the National Fra- 

 ternal Congress. He was founder of the 

 Independent Order of Foresters and held 

 the ofKce of Grand Ranger from 1881 

 until thetimeof his death. He delivered 

 an address at the Indian centennial at 

 Tyendinaga, Canada, Sept. 4, 1884. One 

 who knew him personailj' described Oron- 

 hyatekha as "a man of extraordinary 

 parts. He impressed all with his remark- 

 able refinement. The stranger would take 

 him for a high-class Englishman, were it 

 not for those racial marks which betrayed 

 his Indian origin. Hewas an expert par- 

 liamentarian, of dignified and suave yet 

 forceful address. He was a keen debater, 

 poignant and witty when occasion de- 

 manded, could tell a good story, and had 



a faculty of withdrawing from any situa- 

 tion without leaving behind him ran(;or or 

 injured feelings" (New Indian, Stewart, 

 Nev. , Mar. 1907 ) . Oronhyatekha was the 

 author of an article on the Mohawk lan- 

 guage, printed in the J'roceedings of the 

 Canadian Institute (n. s., x, 182-194, 1865; 

 XV, 1-12, 1878). 



Orono. A Penobscot chief, born, ac- 

 cording to tradition, on Penobscot r. , Me. , . 

 in or about 1688. According to one tra- 

 dition he was a descendant of Baron de 

 Castine, aiKi although Williamson, who 

 seems to have seen him and was familiar 

 with his later career, is disposed to reject 

 this story (Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d s., 

 IX, 82-91, 1846), yet from Orono's own 

 admissions it is possible that he was a son 

 of Castine's daughter, who married a 

 Frenchman, and with her children was 

 taken cai)tive in 1704. Nickolar, who 

 was related to Orono by marriage, as- 

 serted, according to Williamson, that 

 Orono was in some way related to old 

 Castine; moreover he asserts that Orono 

 was not of full blood, but part white — "a 

 half breed or more." Orono informed 

 Capt. Munsell (Williamson, op. cit., 83) 

 that his father was a Frenchman and his 

 mother half French and half Indian. He 

 had none of the physical characteristics 

 of an Indian save that he was tall, straight, 

 and \vell proportioned. Very little is 

 known of him until he had passed his 

 50th year. That he embraced the Ro- 

 man Catholic faith while comparatively 

 young, and that he was only a subordi- 

 nate chief until he had reached his 75th 

 year, are confirmed l)y the scanty records 

 of his history. Until 1759 Tomasus, or 

 Tomer, was head-chief of the Penobscot, 

 when he was succeeded by Osson, who 

 in turn was succeeded by Orono al)out 

 1770 or 1774. These three were anient 

 advocates of peace at the commencement 

 of the French and Indian war in 1754, 

 and until war was declared against the 

 tribe by the Engli-sh colonists. In 1775 

 Orono and three of his colleagues went, 

 with one Andrew Gilman as interpreter, 

 to profess their friendship and to tender 

 their services to the Massachusetts gov- 

 ernment. They met the Provincial Con- 

 gress at Watertown on June 21, where 

 they entered into a treaty of amity with 

 that body and offered assistance, and 

 afterward proved faithful allies of the 

 colonists during their struggle for inde- 

 pendence. Orono was held in as high 

 esteem after the war as before; and in 

 1785 and 1796 entered into treaties with 

 Massachusetts, by which his tribe ceded 

 certain portions of their lands and fixed 

 permanent limits to the parts reserved. 

 At the time of the latter treaty Orono is 

 said to have reached his 108th year. He 

 died at his home at Oldtown, Me., Feb. 

 5, 1802. His wife, who was a full blood 



