176 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



There are now no better people to be found than the Seneca Indians ; none that I 

 know of that are by nature more talented and ingenious, nor any that would be found 

 to be better neighbors if the arts and abuses of white men and whisky could be kept 

 away from them. * * * 



This tribe, when first known to the civilized world, contained some eight or ten 

 thousand , and from their position in the center of the State of New York, held an im- 

 portant place in its history. The Senecas were one of the most numerous and 

 effective tribes constituting the compact called the " Six Nations." 



MR. JACKSON'S NOTES ON THE SENECAS. 



One of the five (afterwards six) Iroquois Nations in Western New York, comprising 

 originally the Sinnekas, as the Dutch call them (hence the word Senecas), Onondagas, 

 Mohawks, Cayugas, and Oneidas. When first known to the French, were living on 

 the south side of Lake Ontario, and engaged in a fierce war with their Algonkin 

 neighbors. By conquest several other tribes became incorporated with them. Mis- 

 sions were established among them by the French as early as 1657. In 1763 the Sene- 

 cas alone, of the Six Nations, joined in Pontiac's league to extirpate the Euglish. Dur- 

 ing the Revolution sided with the English, but made a peace in 1784, and during the 

 second war remained loyal. Early in the century part of the tribe settled in Ohio, 

 afterward removing to the Indian Territory in 1877, where they now are to the number 

 of 240 [in 1885, 225]. The New York Senecas still occupy the Allegany, Cattaraugus, 

 and Touawanda Reserve of 66,000 acres, where they all live in good houses [in 1885, 

 about 2,180 in number] and have large, well-cultivated farms, and are in every way 

 a civilized and well-regulated class of people — W. H. Jackson, 1877. 



(See also title Iroquois, pages 125, 178, herein.) 



LOCATTON AND NUMBER. 



Senecas : At Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory, in 1884, 225; in 1885, 

 239; at Allegany Reserve, New York, in 1884, 793; in 1885, 850; at Cat- 

 taraugus Reserve, New York, in 1884,1,310; in 1885,1,303; Cornplanter 

 Reserve, New York, in 1884, 800. In all, in 1884, 2,408 ; in 1885, 2,398. 



The Senecas in New York State are civilized, and those at Quapaw 

 Agency fairly so. They are farmers and herders. They are all annu- 

 ity Indians ; some few of them are of pure Seneca blood. 



ONEIDA. 



[Oneida : Laws of tlie United States. Oneida : Indian Bureau, June, 1885.] 



Remnant of a tribe, State of New York, one of the Six Nations; present number. 

 600. 



Mr. Oatlin visited them in 1829-'30. 



270. ( ), Bread; the chief, half-blood, civilized. 



A fine looking and an excellent man. Painted in 1830. 



(Plate No. 201, page 103, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



The remnant of a numerous tribe that have been destroyed by wars with the 

 whites — by whisky and small-pox, numbering at present but five or six hundred, and 

 living in the most miserable poverty, on their reserve in the State of New York, near 



