Eepoet on the Indian Exhibit. 499 



tion of the houses of the exhibit, Indians were employed as far as pos- 

 sible. Tlie poles and bark for one house came from the Cattaraugus 

 reservation, and were a;otten out by Chief Nathaniel Kennedy. The 

 material for the Long House and other dwellings came from Gorham 

 and Naples, in Ontario county, the headquarters of the Seneca tribe 

 m the earliest times. Here a large number of trails centered, and 

 here the councils were frequently held. Twenty-three varieties of 

 ^vood entered into the framework of the houses, viz., hemlock, beech, 

 black birch, yellow birch, rock maple, soft maple, black cherry, hickory, 

 slippery elm, swamp elm, black ash, white asli, dogwood, ironwood, 

 black oak, red oak, white oak, poplar, basswood, whitewood, cucumber 

 wood, butternut and chestnut. The siding of the houses was of bass- 

 wood bark, one strip being thirteen feet six inches long, and five feet 

 six inches wide. The roofing was of elm bark. In order to avoid 

 leakage bark spouts were placed under the joints made by the roofing. 

 Five houses were put up, reproductions of the dwelHngs built by the 

 Iroquois 400 years ago. Two of the dwellings were oblong, each ten 

 feet wide and fifteen feet long. Two houses were circular, "each being 

 fourteen feet m diameter. One of these was surrounded with a single, 

 double and triple stockade such as served for defense in early days." 



The Long House, or " Ho-da-no-sau-nee," was twenty "^feet' wide 

 and forty-five feet long. It was patterned after the earliest known 

 council house which stood more than 200 years ago on the site of 

 Albany. There were no complete plans of the ancient houses except as 

 they could be gathered up in fragments here and there. In drawing 

 plans for these houses the direetor-in-chief made use of such informa- 

 tion as he has been gathering in the past sixteen years supplemented 

 by the experience of some of the most expert builders among the 

 Iroquois. Neither nails nor pins entered into the construction of the 

 bark houses. The rafters, poles, posts, bark rooting and siding were 

 securely fastened with withes of hickory and slippery elm. 



On account of the difficulty of peeling bark before the first of May, 

 the exhibit was not properly installed until July. The location of the 

 camp was selected by the chief of the department of ethnology at 

 Chicago, Professor F. W. Putnam, of Cambridge. The site for the ' 

 camj) was a gi-assy plat fronting on the South Pond and easily reached 

 by the Intramural railroad. The four canoes, made after the larimitive 

 manner by our Indians, attracted much attention, and the similarity 

 between these and the old canoe which wa,s among the Columbian 

 relics in the yard of the Convent La Rabida was striking proof that 

 the Iroquois dug-out canoes in our exhibit were true to history, for 

 without doubt Columbus' models were patterned after those of the 

 Indians. 



Fourteen Indians were engaged to form the colony from the Six 

 Nations of the State, but five of them were not ready when the time 

 of departure came. Later on others joined the force, making the 

 representation twelve in number. Among tliem were the following : 

 Solomon O'Bail, a Seneca, the. grandson of the distinguished chief 

 " Cornplanter " who trea,ted with General Washington. Washington 

 caused a medal to be struck in recognition of Cornplanter's services to 



