126 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



Iii the CartooD Collection it is given as " No. 3, A-Tchee-a-ka-chee, , 



an Iroquois woman, curiously wrapped in her blanket." (See page 6, 

 Catalogue Cartoon Collection.) 



MR. CATLIN'S NOTES ON THE IROQUOIS. 



One of the most numerous and powerful tribes that ever existed in tbo northern re- 

 gions of our country, and now one of the most completely annihilated. * * * The 

 tew remnants of them have long since merged into other tribes. — G. C. 



(See title Iroquois, in Dr. D. G. Brinton's "TheLenape and their 

 Legends," 1885, also title " Six Nations," page 178, herein.) 



The whole of the Six Nations have been by some writers denominated Iroquois. 

 How correct this may bo I am not quite able to say ; one thing is certain, that is, 

 that tho Iroquois tribe did not all belong to that confederacy, their original country 

 was on the shores of tho Saint Lawrence; and, although one branch of their nation, 

 the Mohawks, formed apart, and the most effective, portion of that compact, yet the 

 other members of it spoke different languages; and a great part of the Iroquois 

 moved their settlements further north and east, instead of joining in the continual 

 wars carried on by the Six Nations. It is of this part of the tribe that I am speak- 

 ing when I mention them as nearly extinct; and it is from this branch of the family 

 that I got the portrait which I have introduced above. — Page 10G, vol. 2, Catlin's 

 Eight Years. 



6T-TA-WAS. 



[Ottawa: Laws of the United States. Ottawa: Indian Bureau, June, 1885.] 



A subdued and half-civilized tribe of 5,500, speaking the Ojibbeway language, on 

 the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Agricultural and dissipated. 



198. Skin-gos-se-moon, the Big Sail; a chief, blind in one eye. 

 The effects of whisky and civilization are plainly discernible in this instance. 



Mr. Catlin saw Big Sail in 1831, while he was visiting near Niagara 

 Falls. This person belonged to the Chippewas of Upper Canada. 



ALGONK1N— OTTAWAS. 



When first discovered by the early French explorers were residing on the north- 

 west shore of the peninsula of Michigan. After the defeat of the Hurons in 1649, 

 they fled before the Iroquois to beyond the Mississippi, but were soon compelled to 

 retrace their steps by the Dakotas, and finally settled at Mackinaw, where they 

 joined the French in many of their operations and in their contest for Canada. At 

 its close, Pontiac, head chief of the Detroit Ottawas, organized a great conspiracy 

 for the destruction of the English, which was only partially successful. During the 

 Revolution were with the English, and also in the war of 1812. At the close of the 

 war of 1812 a long series of treaties followed, until, in 1833, those in Michigan ceded 

 their lands and removed south of the Missouri River. In 1836 those in Ohio sold 

 their lands and removed to the Indian Territory and prospered, becoming citizens of 

 the United States in 1867. In 1870 made another move to a new reservation of 25,000 

 acres near the Shawnees, where they are now living, reduced to 140 (1871). A large 

 number of Ottawas are now living on the shore of Lake Superior, so intermarried 

 and confederated with tho Chippewas that there is no attempt at any distinction 

 between them, the two combined numbering over 6,000. In Canada there are about 

 1,000 more, ;ill self-supporting.— W. H. Jackson, 1877. 



(See also Chippewa.) 



