186 THE GEOEGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



in this State, was based on the assertion that the Iroquois had become their subjects, 

 and had brought with them their jurisdiction over the country they had conquered. 

 I do not think it is generally understood that this was the basis of the British claim 

 to the Northwest. The French did not deny the statement with regard to the con- 

 quest and power of the Iroquois, but they said, in answer to the claim that those 

 Indians had become subjected to the British Crown, that no Englishman would dare 

 to tell them that they were subjects, for if they did so they would peril their lives. 



I have a number of old documents which might be of use to those who will take 

 part in your celebration. I will send the book and map to you by express. * ■* * 



I trust the day has come when the people of New York will look up and make a 

 record of facts bearing upon its history. 



ME. CATLIN'S notes ON THE lEOQUOIS. 



The Six Nations was a confederacy formed by six tribes, who joined in a league as 

 an effective mode of gaining strength and preserving themselves by combined efforts 

 which would be sufficiently strong to withstand the assaults of neighboring tribes 

 or to resist the incursions of white people in their country. This confederacy con- 

 sisted of the Senecas, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Mohawks, and Tuscaroras ; * * * 

 they held their sway in the country, carrying victory and consequently terror and dis- 

 may wherever they warred. Their war-parties were fearlessly sent into Connecticut 

 and Massachusetts, to Virginia, and even to the Carolinas, and victory everywhere 

 crowned their efforts. Their combined strength, however, in all its might, poor fel- 

 lows, was not enough to withstand the siege of their insidious foes — a destroying flood 

 that has risen and advanced, like a flood-tide upon them and covered their country, 

 has broken up their stronghold, has driven them from land to land, and in their re- 

 treat has drowned most of them in its waves. — G. C, 1829. 



t 

 W. C. BEYANT'S NOTES ON THE lEOQUOIS INDIANS. 



The Iroquois aimed at universal sovereignty, and one of the conditions of peace 

 imposed by the haughty victors was total abstinence from war.* Acknowledged 

 masters of the continent, the energies which had found exercise in war would natur- 

 ally have turned to pursuits more consonant with peace. The process of transforma- 

 tion would have required centuries. But think of the long ages which witnessed the 

 evolution of the modern Englishman from the painted savage whom Caesar met in 

 Britain. * 



Oratory Avas not alone a natural gift, but an art, among the Iroquois. It enjoined 

 painful study, unremitting practice, and sedulous observation of the style and meth- 

 ods of the best masters. Eed Jacket [see No. 263] did not rely upon his native pow- 

 ers alone, but cultivated the art with the same assiduity that characterized the great 

 Athenian orator. The Iroquois, as their earliest English historian observed, culti- 

 vated an attic or classic elegance of speech which entranced every ear among their 

 red auditory. 



Their language was flexible and sonorous, the sense largely depending upon inflec- 

 tion, copious in vowel sounds, abounding in metaphor ; affording constant opportu- 

 nity for the ingenious combination and construction of words to image delicate and 

 varying shades of thought, and to express vehement manifestation of passion : admit- 

 ting of greater and more sudden variations of pitch than is permissible in English ora- 

 tory, and encouraging pantomimic gesture for greater force and effect. In other words, 

 it was not a cold, artiflcial, mechanical medium for the expression of thought and emo- 

 tion, or the concealment of either, but was constructed, as we may fancy, much as 

 was the tuneful tongue spoken by our first parents, who stood in even closer relations 

 to nature. 



* The name by -which their constitution or organic law was known airiong them was Kayanerenb, 

 Jf-owa, the great peace. — Hale's Booli of Eites, page 33- 



