BULL. 30] 



SENECA 



503 



part of the tribe which had at first re- 

 fused to join the League. Since the 

 organization of theLeagueof the Iroquoi.s, 

 approximately in the third quarter of tiie 



16th century, the number of Seneca clans, 

 which are organized into two phrati'ie.s 

 for the performance of both ceremonial 

 and civil functions, have varied. The 

 names of the following nine have been 

 recorded: Wolf, Iforniat 'ludion' nV; Bear, 

 Hodidjionin'^gd'; Beaver, no(Hgcn^'f/eijd\- 

 Turtle, Hadinid'^drn'; Hawk, Jladi'- 

 shwf'n' ^ gaiin\- Sandpiper, HodPne'd'iu' , 

 sometimes also called Snipe, Plover, an(l 

 Killdee; Deer, Iladiuion/gitxtUu'' ; Doe, 

 Ilodino'"-^ ^ deogcV, sometimes Ilonnord'- 

 gondje'"'\; Heron, Hodidalun'^gd' . Inalist 

 of clan names made in 1S8S by Gen. 

 Dear]>orn from information given him by 

 Mr Cone, an interpreter of the Tona- 

 wandaband, the Heron clan is called the 

 Swan clan with the native name given 

 above. Of these clans only five had an 

 unequal representation in the federal 

 council of the League; namely, the Sand- 

 piper, three, the Turtle, two, the Hawk, 

 one, the Wolf, one, and the Bear, one. 



One of the earliest known references to 

 the ethnic name Seneca is that on the 

 Original Carte Figurative, annexed to the 

 Memorial presented to the States-General 

 of the Netherlands, Aug. 18, 1616, on 

 which it appears with the Dutch plural as 

 Sennecas.- This map is remarkable also 

 for the first known mention of the ancient 



Erie, sometimes called (lahkwas or Kahk- 

 wah; on this map they appear under the 

 name last cited, Gachui (ch = kh), and 

 were placed on the n. side of the w. 

 branch of the Sus(]uehanna. The name 

 did not originally belong to the Seneca, 

 but to the Oneida, as the following lines 

 will show. 



In the early part of Dec. 1634, Arent 

 Van Curler (orCorlaer), the commi.ssary 

 or factor of the INIanor of Rensselaerwyck 

 (his uncle's estate), set out from Ft 

 Orange, now Albany, N. Y., in the inter- 

 est of the fur-trade, to visit the Mohawk 

 and the Sinnekens. Strictly speaking, 

 the latter name designated the Oneida, 

 but at this time it was a general name, 

 usually comprising the Onondaga, the 

 Cayuga, and the Seneca, in addition. At 

 that period the Dutch and the French 

 commonly divided the Five Iroquois 

 tribes into two identical groups; to the 

 first, the Dutch gave the name Maquas 

 (Mohawk), and to the latter, Sinnekens 

 (Seneca, the final -«i.s being the Dutch 

 genitive plural) , with the connotation of 

 the four tribes mentioned above. The 

 French gave to the latter group the general 

 name "les Iro(juois Superieurs", "les 

 Hiroquoisd'en haut", i. e. the Upper Iro- 

 quois, "les Hiro(]Uois des pays plus hauts, 

 nommes Sontouaheronnons " (literally, 

 'the Iro(|uois of the upper country, 

 called Sontouaheronnons' ), the latter be- 

 ing only another form of "les Tsonnon- 



OMAN-THE DAUGHTER OF GEN. ELI S. PARKER 



touans" (the Seneca); and to the first 

 group the designations "les Iroquois in- 

 ferieurs" (the Lower Irotiuois), and "les 

 Hiroquois d'en bas, nommes Agnechron- 



