404 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the same value, observing however a sHght difference in the num~ 

 ber of beads, which must be proportioned to the rank of the per- 

 sons or nations .with which they treat." The note to Montcalm's 

 letter is in the same words. La Hontan said: "Sometimes they 

 keep for an age the collars that they have received from their neigh- 

 bors, and, in consideration that every collar has its peculiar mark, 

 they learn from the old persons the circumstances of the time and 

 place in which they were delivered; but after that age is over they 

 are made use of for new treaties." If they were but formal pres- 

 ents, they were often taken to pieces and distributed at once. This 

 shows how little reason there is to think any belt left in Indian 

 hands is of any great age, even were nothing else alleged. 



Recent. Among the belts procured for the state museum by Mrs 

 Harriet Maxwell Converse is one formerly held by Gen. Ely S. 

 Parker, and represented in fig. 231. Her notes on this are given in^ 

 full and some are attached to the belts. 



Five council fires^ or death belt of the Five Iroquois Nations,. 

 ot the confederacy of the Iroquois. This belt I value perhaps more 

 than any other in the possession of the state, inasmuch as the death 

 belts were in the custody of the keepers of the east and west doors 

 of the Ho-de-ne-sau-neh. This one was always held by the Do-ne- 

 ho-ga-wah, the keeper of the west door, the Seneca nation, wha 

 were the guardian of the west door, the watcher and army guard 

 of the confederacy. The Mohawks of the east door should have 

 its mate in Canada. This belt signified death or war against some 

 other nation or nations. When it was sent to the east door, the 

 Hudson river, it was held in the council of war of each of the 

 nations, Cayugas, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas and Mohawks, 

 till returned by the latter, which signal was that the war must 

 begin at once. It represented death or absolute extermination, or 

 absorption by adding to the numbers of the Iroquois, whichever 

 they decided on. The red paint, with which it was always decor- 

 ated at the time of its journeys may be seen on it now. 



In 1845 the Senecas abandoned the tribal government, and the 

 one surviving portion of the body — the Tonawanda Senecas, be- 

 came the actual proprietors of the death belt. During the lifetime 

 of the Donehogawah, Gen. Ely S. Parker, he held it, and bequeathed 

 it to his daughter. By the consent of his widow I have procured 

 it for the state. To the Tonawandas it was of no material value, 

 as they have been at peace for more than a century; therefore they 

 relinquished their title to it when they ratified the transfer of the 



