IROQUOIS MYTHS AND LEGENDS 



17 



to do so, for it is experience which makes one able to appreciate 

 The white man's metropolis and the Indian's reservation are the 

 opposing extremes of civilization and there is little in the bustling 

 complex city to remind one of the quiet simple reservation. Thus, 

 although Mrs Converse had within her all the elements which were 

 capable of knowing sympathetically, understanding appreciatively 

 and loving steadfastly the Indians whom her father and grand- 

 father had loved, it required an awakening stimulus to arouse her 

 interest in this direction. And once awakened there could be no 

 turning. The moment Mrs Converse met the Iroquois sachem 

 her life and thought took a new direction. The great mind of the 

 Indian had furnished the impulse. 1 



For years Mrs Converse had written for the best periodicals in 

 America and Great Britain, and her essays and poems were widely 

 copied. Her poems written in the old Scottish for the Edinburgh 

 journals awakened the fires of Highland patriotism and received 

 an abundance of warm praise. Subsequently she was a regular 

 contributor to the Ladies Journal (Edinburgh), the Scottish 

 American and the British Advertiser. She became a regular 

 contributor to several American magazines and her liter- 

 ary career became assured. Her book of poems, Sheaves, 

 passed through several editions and was enthusiastically received 

 by the most rigid critics. Her friend John G. Whittier, read and 

 reread the volume and then wrote her, "It is a sheaf in which 

 there are no tares." The gifted authoress received also a com- 

 plimentary letter from Tennyson and the volume even inspired 

 Dom Pedro, the Emperor of Brazil, to write a letter of appreciation. 

 The press was universally warm in its praise and even the New 

 York Independent, usually so severe in its criticism of poetical as- 

 pirants, copied several of her poems and said that at least one of 

 the number was worthy of Keats. 



It was this promising literary career which Mrs Converse re- 

 linquished to devote the remainder of her life to the study and 

 defense of the Indians of New York. General Parker took her to 

 his reservation and to the Tuscarora Reservation where she met his 

 sister, Mrs Caroline Mountpleasant, wife of Chief John Mount- 

 pleasant of the Tuscaroras. In 1881 she visited the Cattaraugus 

 Reservation where she became acquainted with the descendants 

 of Red Jacket. 



1 Although Ely S. Parker possessed a great store of information relating to his people, 

 the Iroquois, his busy life as an army officer and engineer gave him little time to record in 

 print much of his knowledge. He seemed better able to inspire others to study and write. 

 Morgan's League of the Iroquois contains some of his essa3's and indeed Morgan acknowl- 

 edges Parker as his collaborator. If Morgan is the "father of American anthropology" 

 Parker gave him the inspiration. It is not strange, therefore, that he imparted to Mrs 

 Converse the impetus for her researches. 



