[2 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



means the Onondaga nation . . . and it also means that the 

 heart of the Five Nations is single in its loyalty to the Great 

 Peace. . . ." 



This belt is sometimes called the Hiawatha belt and is one of the 

 most valuable Iroquois belts now extant. It is now on exhibition 

 in the Congressional Library. 



The Great Peace as a governmental system was an almost ideal 

 one for the stage of culture with which it was designed to cope. I 

 think it will be found to be the greatest ever devised by barbaric 

 man on any continent. By adhering to it the Five Nations became 

 the dominant native power east of the Mississippi and during the 

 colonial times exercised an immense influence in determining the 

 fate of English civilization on the continent. They, as allies of the 

 British, fought for it and destroyed all French hopes for 

 colonization. 



The authors of the great immutable law gave the Iroquois two 

 great culture heroes, heroes almost without equal in American 

 Indian annals. Through the law as a guiding force and through 

 the heroes as ideals the Iroquois have persisted as a people, pre- 

 served their national identity and much of their native culture and 

 lore. Today in their various bodies they number more than 16,000 

 souls. This is a remarkable fact when it is considered that they are 

 entirely surrounded by a dominant culture whose encroachments 

 are persistent and unrelenting in the very nature of things. 



The Canadian Iroquois indeed govern themselves by the laws 

 contained in these codes, proving their utility even in modern days. 



The two principal manuscripts that form the basis of this work 

 were found in the Six Nations Reservation, Ontario, Canada, in 

 1910. 



The first manuscript was a lengthy account of the Dekanawida 

 legend and an account of the Confederate Iroquois laws. This ma- 

 terial has been brought together by Seth Newhouse, a Mohawk, who 

 has expended a large amount of time and given the subject a lengthy 

 study. His account written in Indian English was submitted to 

 Albert Cusick, a New York Onondaga-Tuscarora, for review and 

 criticism. Mr Cusick had long been an authority on Iroquois law 

 and civic rites, and had been a chief informant for Horatio Hale, 

 William M. Beauchamp and in several instances for the present 

 writer. Mr Cusick was employed for more than a month in cor- 

 recting the Newhouse manuscript until he believed the form in 

 which it is now presented fairly correct and at least as accurate as 

 a free translation could be made. 



