58 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
prominent men of New York. It is of silver with the simple / 
inscription on the bowl: “ Presented by Governor Tompkins to 
Skenandoah.” De Witt Clinton visited the old chief at Oneida — 
in 1810 and said: “He is entirely blind but his hair is not gray. 
He smokes, and can converse a little in English. He was highly i 
delighted with a silver pipe that was given him by Governor | 
Tompkins.” The latter filled his office from 1807 to 1817, and 
the pipe is now nearly a century old. Mr Wyman said: “The 
lettering is very much rubbed but is legible. The pipe was 
obtained with the wampum belt of the Oneida treaties, directly 
from old Skenandoah, the chief of the Oneidas in Wisconsin, 
who died three years ago. He was the grandson of the owner 
of the pipe and was about 90 when he died.” 
Mr Jeptha R. Simms describes another of these New York 
silver pipes in the following words: 
Oct. 28, 1867, I had a visit from Rev. Robert Jones Roberts, 
a young English missionary to the Six Nation Indians at New- — 
port, province of Ontario, Canada. He was accompanied by _ 
G. H. M. Johnson—On-wan-on-shy-son—one of the principal © 
Indian chiefs of that province, who claimed to obtain his name 
by descent from Sir William Johnson. . . He carried with him 
a pipe which had descended through several generations of — 
sachems, and had become among them an evidence to its bearer 
of his dignified position. On the plate under its stem, next the 
-bowl, was engraved the history of its origin, reading upon the 
right side, from the mouth, “As a testimony of their sincere — 
esteem ;” and on its reverse, “To the Mohawk Indians, from the 
Nine Partners of the tract near Schoharie, granted in 1769.” 
This pipe is of pure silver and weighs four ounces avoirdupois. 
It is of goodly proportions, with a bowl 2 inches deep; from 
which the stem measures 183 inches. An ornamental plate, 
perhaps an inch wide, extends 5 inches from the bowl, bearing 
the inscription above named. From this plate to within 4 inches — 
of the end of the stem, is a small silver chain. On the front of 
the bowl stand the figures of a white man and an Indian, holding 
a chain in their right hands; the latter having in his left hand 
a pipe from which he is smoking. This relic is ae 
treasured among the Indians. __Simms, p. 48 
Fi he el els wth tl SNH ea nl Naty BAS oc 
Mr Simms gave a good figure of this interesting article. The 
Schoharie valley belonged to the Mohawks, and the original 
Nine Partners’ great and little patents were in Dutchess county, - 
