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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



councils, assuming a control that none dared oppose, and ruled for 

 many years with such insane and despotic sway that he broke 

 their hearts and the once powerful, proud and most courageous 

 of all the nations became abject and cowardly weak. 



It was at this time that Hi-ant -wat-ha, (Hiawatha), grieving 

 over the deplorable condition to which the demonized Ot-to-tar-ho 

 had reduced his people and desiring to promote their welfare and 

 restore them to prosperity and the proud position they had lost, 

 conceived the idea of forming a league which would unite the five 

 nations, the Mohawks, Onondagas, Oneidas, Cayugas and Senecas 

 and in bond of union and good fellowship which would not only 

 cement a tie of national brotherhood, but by their united action 

 they would become more formidable in war and better able to van- 

 quish other nations and extend their domain and power. But 

 Ot-to-tar-ho was intractible and bitterly opposed to Hiawatha and 

 to defeat him put three of his brothers to death. 



Although driven away by the relentless Ot-to-tar-ho, Hiawatha 

 actuated by his love for his people and great concern for their happi- 

 ness did not abandon the hope of effecting his purpose, and later 

 returning aided by a powerful chief succeeded in placating the in- 

 tractible Ot-to-tar-ho by combing the snakes from his head with 

 the wampum and the union was formed, the nations united and 

 the confederacy of the Iroquois, one of the greatest political organ- 

 izations ever accomplished by either civilized or uncivilized peoples 

 was formed. 1 



HOW THE FLYING SQUIRREL WON HIS WINGS, THE FROG LOST 

 ITS TEETH, AND THE WOODCHUCK ITS APPETITE 



Teh-do-oh, the woodchuck; Nos-gwais, the frog; Jo-nis-gy-ont, the 

 squirrel 



Iroquois mythology invests animals and birds with all the traits 

 and characteristics of the Indian himself. They too have their 

 tribes people, chiefs who hold councils, and warriors who battle. 



Nuk-da-go was the head chief of the squirrel tribe. He was 

 powerful and wise, and could become invisible, and one day when 

 troubled by a conversation he had overheard between a wood- 

 chuck, a frog and a squirrel, said to himself, " I will investigate." 



Jo-nis-gy-ont, a frugal squirrel, had laid away his winter's supply 

 of nuts in a hollow tree near a pine, but his storehouse was being 

 plundered and he was complaining to his nearest neighbors, a wood- 



1 Ot-to-tar-ho or To-ta-da-ho became the first presiding sachem of the confederacy. 

 The wampum belt commemorating him is second only in size to the Wing or Carpet belt 

 of the league. Both belts are in the State Museum. 



