THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 175 



rectly speaking, farmers, for the Senecas have had no battles to fight lately, and very 

 little game to kill, except squirrels and pheasants, and their hands are turned to the 

 plow, having become, most of them, tolerable farmers. — G. C, 1829. 



268. ( ), String; a warrior, renowned. Painted in 1829. (No plate.) 



269. ( ), Seneca Steele ; a great libertine. Hatchet in his hand. Painted 



in 1829. (No plate.) 



MR. W. C. BRYANT'S NOTES ON THE SENECAS, 1884. 



They (the Senecas) met our pioneer fathers in amity, and divided with them their 

 slender store of corn and venison. They freely shed their blood for us on this frontier 

 in the second war for independence. They are now nearly all wasted away, and the 

 once proud and warlike Senecas will soon be classed with the tribes and races of men 

 that were, but shall be no more.* 



At the period of the breaking out of hostilities in the Revolutionary war (1775) the 

 Senecas had reached the highest state of tranquility and happiness which a savage 

 race can be permitted to attain. The bulk of their population dwelt in the valley of 

 the Genesee (New York State) and on the shores of the contiguous lakes — a region of 

 marvelous beauty and fertility. The Genesee country has been aptly termed the 

 paradise of the red men. The Indian's appreciation of its transcendent loveliness is 

 embodied in the imperishable name which he bestowed upon it, Gennisheyo, " the 

 shining or beautiful valley." 



Their history, and that of their kindred and confederate tribes (composing the Iro- 

 quois or Six Nations) is inextricably interwoven with our earlier annals. They con- 

 stituted the most gifted and powerful member of the American aboriginal family. For 

 generations they formed an impregnable barrier against the restless, daring, and am- 

 bitious designs of the French. Their fidelity aud valor largely determined the desti- 

 nies of the continent. 



The outbreak of the revolution (1775) did not alone check the new impulse among 

 the Senecas toward progress ; it was the signal for the downfall of the whole Iroquois 

 confederacy. The Senecas, denying their ancient traditions, had wisely resolved upon 

 a position of neutrality at the beginning of the contest. Partly by artifice, partly by 

 fervent appeals to that covenant chain which had so long bound them to the British,, 

 they were induced so give their allegiance reluctantly to the latter. They had no 

 concern in the quarrel, and the issue, if unfavorable to Britain, involved irretrievable 

 disaster to her humble allies. The long and bloody war, the desolating campaign of 

 Sullivan, signalized by the merciless destruction of their dwellings, orchards, crops, 

 domestic animals, and all their wealth, save the blackened soil; the winter of unex- 

 ampled rigor that followed, and which rendered recourse to the chase, as a means of 

 subsistence impossible, was fatal to the Seneca Nation. The Mohawks and the bulk 

 of the other confederate tribes, save the friendly Oneidas and the Senecas, followed 

 the British flag to Canada. 



MR. CATLIN'S NOTES ON THE SENECA INDIANS. 



One thousand two hundred in number, at present, living on their reserve near Buf- 

 falo, and within a few miles of Niagara Falls, in the State of New York. This tribe 

 formerly lived on the banks of the Seneca aud Cayuga lakes ; but, like all the other 

 tribes who have stood in the way of the "march of civilization," have repeatedly 

 bargained away their country, and removed to the West, which easily accounts for 

 the origin of the familiar phrase that is used amongst them, that " they are going to 

 the setting sun." 



* There are very few Senecas of the full blood now living— perhaps less than a score. The white, 

 blood predominates in the veins of the majority of the "Nation."— W. C. B. 



