412 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



hand, this plainly proves that it had no reference to the original 

 league. It is probably not 150 years old. There are good pictures 

 of all in the census of 1900. Gen. Carrington was special agent for the 

 census of 1890, and his farther notes will be credited to Thomas 

 Donaldson, the compiler of the report on the Six Nations of New 

 York. 



Fig. 244 represents the widest belt known, one of 50 rows wide. 

 Through a slight mistake of the writer this was reported to Mr 

 Holmes as 49 rows. It is 14.75 inches wide and about 35 inches 

 long. Though not of the original length it has not been diminished 

 since it was first pictured. The pattern is decidedly modern as well 

 as the material. It is made on small buckskin thongs with a hard, 

 Ted thread. The interpretation of 1886 was, " The second belt used 

 l3y the principal chief of the Six Nations. Very old." Mr T. 

 Donaldson's note is similar. He calls it " Wing or Dust Fan of 

 Presidentia of Six Nations." Also " the wing mat used by the head 

 man to shield him from the dust while presiding at the council." 

 It seems to represent an alliance actual or proposed, and to be of the 

 variety termed chain belts. 



Fig. 232 is another modern belt of the same date, termed by Mr 

 Donaldson, "Presidentia of the Iroquois, about 1540." A series 

 of dark points inclose open white diamonds, signifying nations or 

 towns. It is properly a chain belt, showing a completed covenant. 

 ^Tien Gen. Carrington photographed it in 1890, it had lost nothing 

 since first seen by the writer. Before it again came into the latter's 

 hands it had been reduced from 16 to 14 diamonds. It is 45 rows 

 wide or 13.5 inches, and was incomplete in length when examined 

 in 1878. The material is as in the last, and both seem to have been 

 made by one person. The note of 1886 says, "The first belt used 

 by the principal chief of the Six Nations. Very old." Both these 

 were secured for the state in 1898, and they are the broadest on 

 record. Unique in every way their modern origin is at once ap- 

 parent to any careful observer, but no definite date can be given 

 them. One reason for this failure of a true tradition is very clear. 

 The belts were brought to Onondaga in 1847 ^^^^ placed in La 

 Port's hands. He died a year later, and, if familiar with them him- 



