﻿56 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Ladies and Gentlemen : In considering the position of an Indian 

 woman in her tribe, most of us are, no doubt, influenced by the 

 conventional schoolbook description which, I assure you, is most 

 misleading as applied to the Iroquois. Lest you pity her too much 

 and pity the condition of a captive white woman, permit me first to 

 say that embodied in the constitution of the Confederacy of the Five 

 Nations we find recorded in most emphatic language a recognition 

 of the nobility of womanhood. Those sterling qualities that under 

 stress bring out the wonderful moral courage of woman never 

 received greater appreciation than that given by the Iroquois 

 Indian. 



Though as a cosharer in the burdens of life, woman labored in 

 lodge and in field, through her council speaker her voice rang out 

 with authority in the Confederate senate, and no warrior, no chief, 

 no sachem, ever rose to so high a position that he could disregard 

 it with impunity. Man might be the hunter, the forester, the war- 

 rior, the statesman, but woman was the bulwark and foundation of 

 Iroquois society and government. As the court of the last resort 

 in all important matters she was man's political superior. 



Such was the position of woman in the aboriginal Empire State. 



During the tragic events of a border conflict in which the Iroquois 

 found himself plunged, face to face, he struggled with a powerful 

 invader whose unfamiliar agencies of offence he could only match 

 with his own desperate devices ; snatched from her parents, there 

 came to the Seneca-Iroquois a little captive white girl. Startled and 

 crushed at first, she splendidly rallied. Among them she grew to 

 maidenhood and, as the wife of an Indian, to motherhood. Singu- 

 larly tried by circumstances she remained ever a woman whose 

 pure impulses, never sullied, were ever directed to justice and 

 charity. Her life was a leavening influence to the people of her 

 adoption and its nobility excited their admiration and reverence. 



Worthy of marble and bronze is the White Woman of the Genesee ! 

 Worthy is she because of the fortitude, the patience, the tender 

 sympathy, the motherly devotion which she ever exhibited even in 

 the most trying circumstances. Her wonderful moral courage, her 

 modesty, her heroism and her gentle heart compel our appreciation 

 and reverence. 



It is with such emotions that Mrs Kennedy (Gawennois), a 

 descendant of Mary Jemison of the fourth generation, and Miss 

 Carolina Bennet (Gaoyowas), of the sixth generation, and I, a 

 descendant of the people among whom she dwelt, unveil to you 

 this bronze statue of Mary Jemison, known to the Seneca Indians 

 as Degiwenes of the Heron clan. 



Amidst these scenes so near those of her life, her sorrows and 

 her smiles, she gazes forth into the beautiful valley. 



A legend of old tells that the Sun God in passing over this spot 

 always paused to view these wondrous falls, to watch the play of 

 the rainbow and to inspect the mighty seam in the rock. Who knows 

 but that, as the ancient story tells, the Sun Spirit lingers again 



