' T^E GEOEGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLEEY. 193 



he who is tlie Gaziug-at-the-Fire of your Senecas and the Bright Sky of your Mohawks, 

 and there is not in Buffalo nor, I believe, anywhere a man who would be so zealous in 

 searching for the hidden facts of your history, and so competent to arrange and an- 

 notate and give them to the world ; and my heart's desire is that you should encour- 

 age him to the undertaking and give him your countenance and aid. 



I am an old and weary man, and very few, if any of you, will ever see my face 

 again, and I shrink from the pain of parting. But I cannot say farewell without 

 again declaring that this final disposition by us of the mortal remains of Sagoyewatha 

 and his comrades, sanctioned and participated in, not only by all the Senecas and by 

 all the other Iroqnois, is a solemn recognition of our common brotherhood. These 

 remains now rest in close companionship, and near and around them repose those of 

 Love, Tracy, Fillmore, Hall, good Doctor Shelton, and many others of their white ad- 

 mirers and friends, so that when the Eedeemer shall come in glory and the last trump 

 sounds, and the earth and the sea shall give up their dead, those white men and those 

 red men may assume their spiritual bodies and rise together, hymning their gratitude 

 to God and enter heaven in company. Farewell ! — Ex-Judge Geo. W. Clinton. 



General Ely S. Parker, at Buffalo, October 8, 1884, gave the follow- 

 ing sketch of the Iroquois : 



Much has been said and written of the Iroquois people. All agree that they once 

 owned and occupied the whole country now constituting the State of New York. 

 They reached from the Hudson on the east to the lakes on the west, and claimed 

 much conquered territory. 



I desire only to direct attention to one phase of their character, which, in my judg- 

 ment, has never been brought out with sufficient force and clearness, and that is, their 

 fidelity to their obligations and the tenacity with which they held to their allegiance 

 when once it was placed. More than two hundred and fifty years ago, when the Iro- 

 quois were in the zenith of their power and glory, the French made the mistake of 

 assisting the northern Indians with whom the Iroquois were at war. They never 

 forgot or forgave the French for the aid they gave their Indian enemies, and the 

 French were never afterward able to gain their friendship. About the same time the 

 Holland Dutch came up the Hudson, and though, perhaps, they were no wiser than 

 their French neighbors they certainly pursued a wiser policy by securing the friend- 

 ship of the Iroquois. The Indians remained true to their allegiance nntil the Dutch 

 were superseded by the English, when they also transferred their allegiance to the 

 new comers. They remained steadfast to the faith they had given, and assisted the 

 English people to put down the rebellion of the American colonies against the mother 

 government. The colonies succeeded in gaining their independence and establishing 

 a government of their liking, but in the treaty of peace which followed the English 

 entirely ignored and forgot their Indian allies, leaving them to shift for themselves. 

 A portion of the Iroquois under Captain Brant followed the fortunes of the English 

 into Canada, where they have since been well cared for by the provincial and home 

 governments. Those who remained in the United States continued to struggle for 

 their homes and the integrity of what they considered their ancient and just rights. 

 The aid, however, which they had given against the cause of the American Revolu- 

 tion had been so strong as to leave an intense burning hostility to them in the minds 

 of the American people, and to allay this feeling and to settle for all time the ques- 

 tion of rights as between the Indians and the whites. General Washington was 

 compelled to order an expedition into the Indian country of New York to break the 

 Indian power. This expedition was under command of General Sullivan. The In- 

 dians left to themselves and bereft of British aid made Sullivan's success an easy one. 

 He drove them from their homes, destroyed and burned their villages, cut down their 

 corn-fields and orchards, leaving the poor Indian homeless, houseless, and destitute. 

 We have been told this evening that the "Long House" of the Iroquois had been 

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