APPENDIX B 



SKETCHES OF AN INDIAN COUNCIL, 1846 

 (From Schoolcraft's Census of 1845) 



A grand council of the confederate Iroquois was held last week, 

 at the Indian council house on the Tonawanda Reservation, in the 

 county of Genesee. Its proceedings occupied three days, closing 

 on the third instant. It embraced representatives from all the Six 

 Nations — the Mohawk, the Onondaga, the Seneca ; and the Oneida, 

 the Cayuga and the Tuscarora. It is the only one of the kind which 

 has been held for a number of years, and is the last which will ever 

 be assembled with a full representation of all the confederate 

 nations. 



With the expectation that the council would commence on Tues- 

 day, two or three of us had left Rochester so as to arrive at the 

 council house Monday evening; but owing to some unsettled pre- 

 liminaries, it had been postponed till Wednesday. The Indians from 

 abroad, however, arrived at the council grounds, or in their immedi- 

 ate vicinity, on Monday ; and one of the most interesting spectacles 

 of the occasion, was the entry of the different nations upon the 

 domain and hospitality of the Senecas, on whose ground the coun- 

 cil was to be held. The representation of Mohawks, coming as they 

 did from Canada, was necessarily small. The Onondagas, with the 

 acting Tod-o-dah-hoh of the confederacy, and his two counsellors, 

 made an exceedingly creditable appearance. Nor was the array of 

 Tuscaroras, in point of numbers at least, deficient in attractive and 

 imposing features. 



Monday evening we called upon, and were presented to, Black- 

 smith, the most influential and authoritative of the Seneca sachems. 

 He is about 60 years old, is somewhat portly, is easy enough in his 

 manners, and is well disposed and even kindly towards all who 

 convince him that they have no sinister designs in coming among 

 his people. 



Jemmy Johnson is the great high priest of the confederacy. 

 Though now 69 years old, he is yet an erect, fine looking, and ener- 

 getic Indian, and is both hospitable and intelligent. He is in pos- 

 session of the medal presented by Washington to Red Jacket in 

 1792 which among other things of interest, he showed us. 



