180 THE GEORGE CATLtN INDIAN GALLERY. 



NAMES AMONG THE IROQUOIS. 



Little consequence is attached to personal names among the Iroquois. 



Such names are clan property, but liable to be superseded by newly 



invented ones. 



New York, February 17, 1885. 

 Wm. C. Bryant, Esq., Buffalo, N. Y. : 



* * * # # * # 



Dear Sir: I agree with Mr. Hale most emphatically that " time inevitably brings" 

 great changes in languages. The Iroquois is not now spoken as it once was. Many 

 words have become obsolete and new ones have been introduced. Nor is there any 

 doubt that many proper names have become disused. Onas, the name of "Penn," is 

 no longer used, and I have never found a Seneca in my day who could tell me any- 

 thing about Onas. Yet the fact is beyond question that William Penn was called 

 Onas, and that the name signified a quill. All Iroquois names are clan names, and 

 those given to and which appertain exclusively to children were never regarded as of 

 much consequence. Children's names and adults' names were not necessarily con- 

 tinuous from generation to generation. Old ones were dropped and new ones adopted 

 at any time. Dreams were sometimes at the bottom of chauges, sometimes they were 

 bestowed for friendship's sake, and sometimes it was a personal whim or fancy. I will 

 not assert it as a fact, but I will say that I do not believe the name Otetiani has ever 

 been borne by any other Iroquois since Red Jacket's youth, so little consequence is 

 attached to names by the Indians. The only Iroquois names to which a perpetuity 

 is attached are those of the fifty sachems or league officers, and these only because 

 they are so nominated in the organic law of the league, which our fathers taught us 

 were immutable and unchangeable. To make myself more clearly understood, but 

 with no intention of egoism, I will cite ray own case. From my earliest recollection, 

 and up to the day I was promoted and installed as one of the fifty sachems, I bore 

 the name Hiisauoandii. That name was then shed or cast off, and as completely for- 

 gotten by the Indians as if it had never been, and I have never heard that it has ever 

 been deemed worthy to be bestowed upon any other young Indian. 



Your obedient servant, 



DONEHOGAWA, or ELY S. PARKER. 



ORIGIN OF THE NAMES OR TITLES OF THE FIFTY ORIGINAL IROQUOIS SACHEMSHIPS. 



Whoever has read Mr. Morgan's " League of the Iroquois" must naturally have 

 been struck with the whimsical names which the founders of the confederacy bestowed 

 on the fifty hereditary sachemships, such as (interpreted into English) " War-club-on- 

 the-ground," "At-the-great-river," " Falling-day," " Dragging-his-horns," "Hanging- 

 up-rattles," "A man-with the- headache," " On-the-watch," " Wearing-a-hatchet-in- 

 his-belt," &c. The explanation is very simple. During my childhood I often heard 

 the tradition concerning this matter from the lips of aged Indians who were the re- 

 positories of the legends and lore, handed down from father to son, for countless gen- 

 erations among my tribe. 



After the scheme of a confederacy of the different Iroquois tribes, or " nations," had 

 been perfected by Hiawatha and his partisans, and the reluctant assent of the re- 

 doubtable Onondaga chief Todadaho (Atotarho) been obtained, the fifty hereditary 

 sachems who were to administer the affairs of the new Indian empire were selected 

 from the different nations. The number was not equally apportioned among the 

 tribes. For instance, to the Onondagas were assigned fourteen sachemships, while 

 the Senecas had only eight; but as unanimity was a requisite of every decisiou of 

 this forest senate, it mattered little. A wise old chief from the more eastern tribes, 

 possibly Hiawatha himself, was chosen and instructed to journey westward and ap- 



