120 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



he should make and tried to discover the best means for checking 

 the war. This was called the " Wigwam of silence." 



After this, they held another wigwam called m'sittakw-wen tle- 

 westoo, or " Wigwam of oratory." The ceremonies then began. 

 Each representative recited the history of his nation, telling all the 

 cruelties, tortures and hardships they had suffered during their 

 wars and stating that the time had now come to think of and take 

 pity on their women and children, their lame and old, all of whom 

 had suffered equally with the strongest and bravest warriors. 

 When all the speeches had been delivered, it was decided to' erect 

 an extensive fence and within it to build a large wigwam. In this 

 wigwam they were to make a big fire and, having made a switch or 

 whip, to place " their father " as a guard over the wigwam with 

 the whip in his hand. If any of his children did wrong he was to 

 punish them with the whip. Every child of his within the in- 

 closure must therefore obey his orders implicitly. His duty also 

 was to keep replenishing the fire in the wigwam so that it should 

 not go out. This is the origin of the Wampum laws. 



The fence typified a treaty of peace for all the Indian nations 

 who took part in the council, fourteen in number, of which there 

 are many tribes. All these were to go within the fence and dwell 

 there, and if any should do wrong they would be liable to punish- 

 ment with the whip at the hands of " their father." The wigwam 

 within the fence represented a universal house for all the tribes, in 

 which they might live in peace, without disputes and quarrels, like 

 members of one family. The big fire (ktchi squt) in the wigwam 

 denoted the warmth of the brotherly love engendered in the 

 Indians by their treaty. The father ruling the wigwam was the 

 great chief who lived at Caughnawaga. The whip in his hand was 

 the type of the Wampum laws, disobedience to which was punish- 

 able by consent of all the tribes mentioned in the treaty. 



After this, they proceeded to make lesser laws, all of which were 

 to be recorded by means of wampum, in order that they could be 

 read to the Indians from time to time. Every feast, every cere- 

 mony, therefore, has its own ritual in the wampum; such as the 

 burial and mourning rites after the death of a chief, the installa- 

 tion of a chief, marriage etc. There were also salutation and 

 visiting wampum. 



CEREMONIES CUSTOMARY AT THE DEATH OF A CHIEF 

 When the chief of the tribe died, his flag pole was cut down 

 and burnt, and his warlike appurtenances, bows and arrows, 



