422 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



lived about 300 years ago. He did not, however, go up Onondaga 

 creek with the belts; for the Onondagas did not reach that valley 

 till over a century later. 



Fig. 236 This belt was made great many years afterwards. It 

 is the Caughnawauga belt. This represents the union of the seven 

 nations; the St Regis and Caughnawaugas — and the crooked line 

 at the bottom represents that they were crooked — that is, Roman 

 catholic. I 



Fig. 248 This is the record of the treaty with General Washing- 

 ton. 



Mr Paige refers this to a treaty of 1789, between the United 



States and Six Nations, printed among the United States treaties, 



J. B. Thacher has this fine belt. 



Fig. 237 A record of this: The priest told the Onondagas that 

 a building right by the mission houso^ — and told them that there 

 were goods there stored for the Onondagas, but he could not open 

 them until the king came, and a white boy who had been captured 

 had been told by the priest that it was full of arms — and when the 

 king came they would annihilate the Onondagas. The boy told the 

 chief, and they held a council and resolved to open the building. 

 The priest tried to keep them from it, but they opened the door 

 in spite of him, and found the building full of arms. They heated 

 an axe red hot^ and hung it upon the priest's heart, and it burnt 

 his heart out. The French did come, and the Onondagas met 

 them at Camden, and defeated them in a great battle, and then the 

 Onondagas all renounced Catholicism. — It was between Pompey 

 and Jamesville, about this side of Pompey Hill. Cross means 

 Canada. The white line a road from Canada to the Onondagas and 

 the village at the other end. 



These symbols are correct, but the only historic truth is that of 

 the almost bloodless French invasion. 



Fig. 239 This belt was used to call a meeting of the council of 

 the Five Nations, at which should be read all the laws. This was 

 made when Hi-a-waf-ha was traveling and distributing the clans, 

 and this belt made to represent that the nations were divided into 

 clans, and were to remain strictly so — that there could be no inter- 

 marriage. This last was said rather as a detail. 



Fig. 240 The five upper diagonal rows are the Hi-a-wat-ha belt, 

 and represent the union of the Five Nations. When the Tuscaroras 

 were taken in they added the sixth, which they call a brace. This 

 is the taking in of the Tuscaroras. 



This interpretation is baseless. The belt had seven diagonal 



rows when first seen by the writer,, and was even then defective at 



both ends, probably having as many as 10 bars. 



