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HIAWATHA AND THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERATION. 

A Study in Anthropology

by

HORATIO HALE. 

A Paper Read at the Cincinnati Meeting of the American Association forthe Advancement of Science, in August, 1881, under the Title of "ALawgiver of the Stone Age. "

Salem, Mass. :Printed at the Salem Press. 1881. 

A LAWGIVER OF THE STONE AGE. By HORATIO HALE, of Clinton, Ontario, Canada. 

What was the intellectual capacity of man when he made his firstappearance upon the earth? Or, to speak with more scientific precision(as the question relates to material evidences), what were the mentalpowers of the people who fashioned the earliest stone implements, whichare admitted to be the oldest remaining traces of our kind? As thesepeople were low in the arts of life, were they also low in naturalcapacity? This is certainly one of the most important questions whichthe science of anthropology has yet to answer. Of late years theprevalent disposition has apparently been to answer it in theaffirmative. Primitive man, we are to believe, had a feeble and narrowintellect, which in the progress of civilization has been graduallystrengthened and enlarged. This conclusion is supposed to be inaccordance with the development theory; and the distinguished author ofthat theory has seemed to favor this view. Yet, in fact, the developmenttheory has nothing to do with the question. If we suppose that theexisting and--so far as we know--the only species of man appeared uponthe earth with the physical conformation and mental capacity which heretains at this day, we make merely the same supposition with regard tohim that we make with regard to every other existing species of animal. How it was that this species came to exist is another question altogether. 

Philologists regard it as an established fact that the first people whospoke an Aryan language were a tribe of barbarous nomads, who wandered inthe highlands of central Asia. Those who have studied the earliestproducts of Aryan genius in the Vedas, the Zend-Avesta, and the Homericsongs, will be willing to admit that these wandering barbarians may havehad minds capable of the highest efforts to which the human intellect isknown to have attained. Yet if an irruption of Semitic or Turanianconquerors had swept that infant tribe from the earth, no trace of itsexistence beyond a few flint implements, and perhaps some fragments ofpottery, would have remained to show that such a people had ever existed. Have we any reason to doubt that in the course of all the ages, invarious parts of our globe, many tribes of men may have arisen andperished who were in natural capacity as far superior to the primitiveAryans as these were to the races who surrounded them? Under the law ofthe survival of the fittest, it is not the strongest that survive, butthe strongest of those that are placed in the most favorablecircumstances. On any calculation of probabilities, it will seem likelyenough that among the numberless small societies of men that haveappeared and vanished in primeval Asia and Europe, in Africa, Australia, America, and Polynesia, there may have been some at least equal, if notsuperior, in mental endowments, to that fortunate tribe of central Asia, whose posterity has come to be the dominant race of our time. Amongtheir leaders may have been men qualified to rank with the most renownedheroes, exemplars, and teachers of the human race--with Moses and Buddha, with Confucius and Solon, with Numa, Charlemagne, and Alfred, or (to comedown to recent times) with the greatest and wisest among the founders ofthe American Republic. If the possibility of the existence of such menunder such conditions cannot be denied, the facts which have lately beenbrought to light in regard to one such personage and the community inwhich he lived may have a peculiar interest and significance in theirbearing on the general question of the mental capacity of uncivilizedraces. 

It is well known that the Iroquois tribes, whom our ancestors termed theFive Nations, were, when first visited by Europeans, in the precisecondition which, according to all the evidence we possess, was held bythe inhabitants of the Old World during what has been designated theStone Age. Any one who examines the abandoned site of an ancientIroquois town will find there relics of precisely the same cast as thosewhich are disinterred from the burial mounds and caves of prehistoricEurope, --implements of flint and bone, ornaments of shells, and fragmentsof rude pottery. Trusting to these evidences alone, he might supposethat the people who wrought them were of the humblest grade of intellect. But the testimony of historians, of travellers, of missionaries, andperhaps his own personal observation, would make him aware that thisopinion would be erroneous, and that these Indians were, in their ownway, acute reasoners, eloquent speakers, and most skilful and far-seeingpoliticians. He would know that for more than a century, though nevermustering more than five thousand fighting men, they were able to holdthe balance of power on this continent between France and England; andthat in a long series of negotiations they proved themselves qualified tocope in council with the best diplomatists whom either of those powerscould depute to deal with them. It is only recently that we havelearned, through the researches of a careful and philosophicinvestigator, the Hon. L. H. Morgan, that their internal polity wasmarked by equal wisdom, and had been developed and consolidated into asystem of government, embodying many of what are deemed the bestprinciples and methods of political science, --representation, federation, self-government through local and general legislatures, --all resulting inpersonal liberty, combined with strict subordination to public law. Butit has not been distinctly known that for many of these advantages theFive Nations were indebted to one individual, who bore to them the samerelation which the great reformers and lawgivers of antiquity bore to thecommunities whose gratitude has made their names illustrious. 

A singular fortune has attended the name and memory of Hiawatha. Thoughactually an historical personage, and not of very ancient date, of whoselife and deeds many memorials remain, he has been confused with twoIndian divinities, the one Iroquois, the other Algonquin, and his historyhas been distorted and obscured almost beyond recognition. Through thecloud of mythology which has enveloped his memory, the genius ofLongfellow has discerned something of his real character, and has madehis name, at least, a household word wherever the English language isspoken. It remains to give a correct account of the man himself and ofthe work which he accomplished, as it has been received from the officialannalists of his people. The narrative is confirmed by the evidence ofcontemporary wampum records, and by written memorials in the nativetongue, one of which is at least a hundred years old. 

According to the best evidence that can be obtained, the formation of theIroquois confederacy dates from about the middle of the fifteenthcentury. There is reason to believe that prior to that time the fivetribes, who are dignified with the title of nations, had held the regionsouth of Lake Ontario, extending from the Hudson to the Genesee river, for many generations, and probably for many centuries. Tradition makestheir earlier seat to have been north of the St. Lawrence river, which isprobable enough. It also represents the Mohawks as the original tribe, of which the others are offshoots; and this tradition is confirmed by theevidence of language. That the Iroquois tribes were originally onepeople, and that their separation into five communities, speakingdistinct dialects, dates many centuries back, are both conclusions ascertain as any facts in physical science. Three hundred and fifty yearsago they were isolated tribes, at war occasionally with one another, andalmost constantly with the fierce Algonquins who surrounded them. Notunfrequently, also, they had to withstand and to avenge the incursions ofwarriors belonging to more distant tribes of various stocks, Hurons, Cherokees and Dakotas. Yet they were not peculiarly a warlike people. They were a race of housebuilders, farmers, and fishermen. They hadlarge and strongly palisaded towns, well-cultivated fields, andsubstantial houses, sometimes a hundred feet long, in which many kindredfamilies dwelt together. 

At this time two great dangers, the one from without, the other fromwithin, pressed upon these tribes. The Mohegans, or Mohicans, a powerfulAlgonquin people, whose settlements stretched along the Hudson river, south of the Mohawks, and extended thence eastward into New England, waged a desperate war against them. In this war the most easterly of theIroquois, the Mohawks and Oneidas, bore the brunt and were the greatestsufferers. On the other hand, the two westerly nations, the Senecas andCayugas, had a peril of their own to encounter. The central nation, theOnondagas, were then under the control of a dreaded chief, whose name isvariously given, Atotarho, Watatotahlo, Tododaho, according to thedialect of the speaker and the orthography of the writer. He was a manof great force of character and of formidable qualities, --haughty, ambitious, crafty and bold, --a determined and successful warrior, and athome, so far as the constitution of an Indian tribe would allow, a sternand remorseless tyrant. He tolerated no equal. The chiefs who venturedto oppose him were taken off one after another by secret means, or werecompelled to flee for safety to other tribes. His subtlety and artificeshad acquired for him the reputation of a wizard. He knew, they say, whatwas going on at a distance as well as if he were present; and he coulddestroy his enemies by some magical art, while he himself was far away. In spite of the fear which he inspired, his domination would probably nothave been endured by an Indian community, but for his success in war. Hehad made himself and his people a terror to the Cayugas and the Senecas. According to one account, he had subdued both of those tribes; but therecord-keepers of the present day do not confirm this statement, whichindeed is not consistent with the subsequent history of the confederation. 

The name Atotarho signifies "entangled. " The usual process by whichmythology, after a few generations, makes fables out of names, has notbeen wanting here. In the legends which the Indian story-tellers recountin winter about their cabin fires, Atotarho figures as a being ofpreterhuman nature, whose head, in lieu of hair, is adorned with livingsnakes. A rude pictorial representation shows him seated and givingaudience, in horrible state, with the upper part of his person envelopedby these writhing and entangled reptiles. But the grave Councillors ofthe Canadian Reservation, who recite his history as they have heard itfrom their fathers at every installation of a high chief, do not repeatthese inventions of marvel-loving gossips, and only smile withgood-humored derision when they are referred to. 

There was at this time among the Onondagas a chief of high rank whosename, variously written--Hiawatha, Hayonwatha, Ayongwhata, Taoungwatha--is rendered, "he who seeks the wampum belt. " He had madehimself greatly esteemed by his wisdom and his benevolence. He was nowpast middle age. Though many of his friends and relatives had perishedby the machinations of Atotarho, he himself had been spared. Thequalities which gained him general respect had, perhaps, not been withoutinfluence even on that redoubtable chief. Hiawatha had long beheld withgrief the evils which afflicted not only his own nation, but all theother tribes about them, through the continual wars in which they wereengaged, and the misgovernment and miseries at home which these warsproduced. With much meditation he had elaborated in his mind the schemeof a vast confederation which would ensure universal peace. In the mereplan of a confederation there was nothing new. There are probably few, if any, Indian tribes which have not, at one time or another, beenmembers of a league or confederacy. It may almost be said to be theirnormal condition. But the plan which Hiawatha had evolved differed fromall others in two particulars. The system which he devised was to be nota loose and transitory league, but a permanent government. While eachnation was to retain its own council and its management of local affairs, the general control was to be lodged in a federal senate, composed ofrepresentatives elected by each nation, holding office during goodbehavior, and acknowledged as ruling chiefs throughout the wholeconfederacy. Still further, and more remarkably, the confederation wasnot to be a limited one. It was to be indefinitely expansible. Theavowed design of its proposer was to abolish war altogether. He wishedthe federation to extend until all the tribes of men should be includedin it, and peace should everywhere reign. Such is the positive testimonyof the Iroquois themselves; and their statement, as will be seen, issupported by historical evidence. 

Hiawatha's first endeavor was to enlist his own nation in the cause. Hesummoned a meeting of the chiefs and people of the Onondaga towns. Thesummons, proceeding from a chief of his rank and reputation, attracted alarge concourse. "They came together, " said the narrator, "along thecreeks, from all parts, to the general council-fire. " But what effectthe grand projects of the chief, enforced by the eloquence for which hewas noted, might have had upon his auditors, could not be known. Forthere appeared among them a well-known figure, grim, silent andforbidding, whose terrible aspect overawed the assemblage. The unspokendispleasure of Atotarho was sufficient to stifle all debate, and themeeting dispersed. This result, which seems a singular conclusion of anIndian council--the most independent and free-spoken of allgatherings--is sufficiently explained by the fact that Atotarho hadorganized among the more reckless warriors of his tribe a band ofunscrupulous partisans, who did his bidding without question, and tookoff by secret murder all persons against whom he bore a grudge. Theknowledge that his followers were scattered through the assembly, prepared to mark for destruction those who should offend him, might makethe boldest orator chary of speech. Hiawatha alone was undaunted. Hesummoned a second meeting, which was attended by a smaller number, andbroke up as before, in confusion, on Atotarho's appearance. Theunwearied reformer sent forth his runners a third time; but the peoplewere disheartened. When the day of the council arrived, no one attended. Then, continued the narrator, Hiawatha seated himself on the ground insorrow. He enveloped his head in his mantle of skins, and remained for along time bowed down in grief and thought. At length he arose and leftthe town, taking his course toward the southeast. He had formed a bolddesign. As the councils of his own nation were closed to him, he wouldhave recourse to those of other tribes. At a short distance from thetown (so minutely are the circumstances recounted) he passed his greatantagonist, seated near a well-known spring, stern and silent as usual. No word passed between the determined representatives of war and peace;but it was doubtless not without a sensation of triumphant pleasure thatthe ferocious war-chief saw his only rival and opponent in council goinginto what seemed to be voluntary exile. Hiawatha plunged into theforest; he climbed mountains; he crossed a lake; he floated down theMohawk river in a canoe. Many incidents of his journey are told, and inthis part of the narrative alone some occurrences of a marvellous castare related even by the official historians. Indeed, the flight ofHiawatha from Onondaga to the country of the Mohawks is to the FiveNations what the flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina is to thevotaries of Islam. It is the turning point of their history. Inembellishing the narrative at this point, their imagination has beenallowed a free course. Leaving aside these marvels, however, we needonly refer here to a single incident which may well enough have been ofactual occurrence. A lake which Hiawatha crossed had shores abounding insmall white shells. These he gathered and strung upon strings, which hedisposed upon his breast, as a token to all whom he should meet that hecame as a messenger of peace. And this, according to one authority, wasthe origin of wampum, of which Hiawatha was the inventor. That honor, however, is one which must be denied to him. The evidence of sepulchralrelics shows that wampum was known to the mysterious moundbuilders, aswell as in all succeeding ages. Moreover, if the significance of whitewampum-strings as a token of peace had not been well known in his day, Hiawatha would not have relied upon them as a means of proclaiming hispacific purpose. 

Early one morning he arrived at a Mohawk town, the residence of the notedchief Dekanawidah, whose name, in point of celebrity, ranks in Iroquoistradition with those of Hiawatha and Atotarho. It is probable that hewas known by reputation to Hiawatha, and not unlikely that they wererelated. According to one account Dekanawidah was an Onondaga, adoptedamong the Mohawks. Another narrative makes him a Mohawk by birth. Theprobability seems to be that he was the son of an Onondaga father, whohad been adopted by the Mohawks, and of a Mohawk mother. That he was notof pure Mohawk blood is shown by the fact, which is remembered, that hisfather had had successively three wives, one belonging to each of thethree clans, Bear, Wolf, and Turtle, which compose the Mohawk nation. Ifthe father had been a Mohawk, he would have belonged to one of the Mohawkclans, and could not then (according to the Indian law) have married intoit. He had seven sons, including Dekanawidah, who, with their families, dwelt together in one of the "long houses" common in that day among theIroquois. These ties of kindred, together with this fraternal strength, and his reputation as a sagacious councillor, gave Dekanawidah greatinfluence among his people. But, in the Indian sense, he was not theleading chief. This position belonged to Tekarihoken (better known inbooks as Tecarihoga) whose primacy as the first chief of the eldest amongthe Iroquois nations was then, and is still, universally admitted. Eachnation has always had a head-chief, to whom belonged the hereditary rightand duty of lighting the council-fire, and taking the first place inpublic meetings. But among the Indians, as in other communities, hereditary rank and personal influence do not always, or indeedordinarily, go together. If Hiawatha could gain over Dekanawidah to hisviews, he would have done much toward the accomplishment of his purposes. 

In the early dawn he seated himself on a fallen trunk, near the springfrom which the inhabitants of the long-house drew their water. Presentlyone of the brothers came out with a vessel of elm-bark, and approachedthe spring. Hiawatha sat silent and motionless. Something in his aspectawed the warrior, who feared to address him. He returned to the house, and said to Dekanawidah, "a man, or a figure like a man, is seated by thespring, having his breast covered with strings of white shells. " "It isa guest, " replied the chief; "go and bring him in. We will make himwelcome. " Thus Hiawatha and Dekanawidah first met. They found in eachother kindred spirits. The sagacity of the Mohawk chief grasped at oncethe advantages of the proposed plan, and the two worked together inperfecting it, and in commending it to the people. After much discussionin council, the adhesion of the Mohawk nation was secured. Dekanawidahthen despatched two of his brothers as ambassadors to the nearest tribe, the Oneidas, to lay the project before them. The Oneida nation is deemedto be a comparatively recent offshoot from the Mohawks. The differenceof language is slight, showing that their separation was much later thanthat of the Onondagas. In the figurative speech of the Iroquois, theOneida is the son, and the Onondaga is the brother, of the Mohawk. Dekanawidah had good reason to expect that it would not prove difficultto win the consent of the Oneidas to the proposed scheme. But delay anddeliberation mark all public acts of the Indians. The ambassadors foundthe leading chief, Odatshehte, at his town on the Oneida creek. Hereceived their message in a friendly way, but required time for hispeople to consider it in council. "Come back in another day, " he said tothe messengers. In the political speech of the Indians, a day isunderstood to mean a year. The envoys carried back the reply toDekanawidah and Hiawatha, who knew that they could do nothing but waitthe prescribed time. After the lapse of a year, they repaired to theplace of meeting. The treaty which initiated the great league was thenand there ratified between the representatives of the Mohawk and Oneidanations. The name of Odatshehte means "the quiver-bearer;" and asAtotarho, "the entangled, " is fabled to have had his head wreathed withsnaky locks, and as Hiawatha, "the wampum-seeker, " is represented to havewrought shells into wampum, so the Oneida chief is reputed to haveappeared at this treaty bearing at his shoulder a quiver full of arrows. 

The Onondagas lay next to the Oneidas. To them, or rather to theirterrible chief, the next application was made. The first meeting ofAtotarho and Dekanawidah is a notable event in Iroquois history. At alater day, a native artist sought to represent it in an historicalpicture, which has been already referred to. Atotarho is seated insolitary and surly dignity, smoking a long pipe, his head and bodyencircled with contorted and angry serpents. Standing before him are twofigures which cannot be mistaken. The foremost, a plumed and cincturedwarrior, depicted as addressing the Onondaga chief, holds in his righthand, as a staff, his flint-headed spear, --the ensign which marks him asthe representative of the Kanienga, or "People of the Flint, "--for so theMohawks style themselves. Behind him another plumed figure bears in hishand a bow with arrows, and at his shoulder a quiver. Divested of itsmythological embellishments, the picture rudely represents the interviewwhich actually took place. The immediate result was unpromising. TheOnondaga chief coldly refused to entertain the project, which he hadalready rejected when proposed by Hiawatha. The ambassadors were notdiscouraged. Beyond the Onondagas were scattered the villages of theCayugas, a people described by the Jesuit missionaries, at a later day, as the most mild and tractable of the Iroquois. They were considered anoffshoot of the Onondagas, to whom they bore the same filial relationwhich the Oneidas bore to the Mohawks. The journey of the advocates ofpeace through the forest to the Cayuga capital, and their reception, areminutely detailed in the traditionary narrative. The Cayugas, who hadsuffered from the prowess and cruelty of the Onondaga chief, neededlittle persuasion. They readily consented to come into the league, andtheir chief, Akahenyonk, "the wary spy, " joined the Mohawk and Oneidarepresentatives in a new embassy to the Onondagas. Acting probably uponthe advice of Hiawatha, who knew better than any other the character ofthe community and the chief with whom they had to deal, they madeproposals highly flattering to the self-esteem which was the most notabletrait of both ruler and people. The Onondagas should be the leadingnation of the confederacy. Their chief town should be the federalcapital, where the great councils of the league should be held, and whereits records should be preserved. The nation should be represented in thecouncil by fourteen senators, while no other nation should have more thanten. And as the Onondagas should be the leading tribe, so Atotarhoshould be the leading chief. He alone should have the right of summoningthe federal council, and no act of the council to which he objectedshould be valid. In other words, an absolute veto was given to him. Toenhance his personal dignity two high chiefs were appointed as hisspecial aids and counsellors, his "secretaries of state, " so to speak. Other insignia of preëminence were to be possessed by him; and, in viewof all these distinctions, it is not surprising that his successor, who, two centuries later, retained the same prerogatives, should have beenoccasionally styled by the English colonists "the emperor of the FiveNations. " It might seem, indeed, at first thought, that the founders ofthe confederacy had voluntarily placed themselves and their tribes in aposition of almost abject subserviency to Atotarho and his followers. But they knew too well the qualities of their people to fear for them anypolitical subjection. It was certain that when once the league wasestablished, and its representatives had met in council, character andintelligence would assume their natural sway, and mere artificial rankand dignity would be little regarded. Atotarho and his people, however, yielded either to these specious offers or to the pressure which thecombined urgency of the three allied nations now brought to bear uponthem. They finally accepted the league; and the great chief, who hadoriginally opposed it, now naturally became eager to see it as widelyextended as possible. He advised its representatives to go on at once tothe westward, and enlist the populous Seneca towns, pointing out how thismight best be done. This advice was followed, and the adhesion of theSenecas was secured by giving to their two leading chiefs, Kanyadariyo("beautiful lake") and Shadekaronyes ("the equal skies"), the offices ofmilitary commanders of the confederacy, with the title of door-keepers ofthe "Long-House, "--that being the figure by which the league was known. 

The six national leaders who have been mentioned--Dekanawidah for theMohawks, Odatshehte for the Oneidas, Atotarho for the Onondagas, Akahenyonk for the Cayugas, Kanyadariyo and Shadekaronyes for the twogreat divisions of the Senecas--met in convention near the Onondaga Lake, with Hiawatha for their adviser, and a vast concourse of their followers, to settle the terms and rules of their confederacy, and to nominate itsfirst council. Of this council, nine members (or ten, if Dekanawidah beincluded) were assigned to the Mohawks, a like number to the Oneidas, fourteen to the lordly Onondagas, ten to the Cayugas, and eight to theSenecas. Except in the way of compliment, the number assigned to eachnation was really of little consequence, inasmuch as, by the rule of theleague, unanimity was exacted in all their decisions. This unanimity, however, did not require the suffrage of every member of the council. The representatives of each nation first deliberated apart upon thequestion proposed. In this separate council the majority decided; andthe leading chief then expressed in the great council the voice of hisnation. Thus the veto of Atotarho ceased at once to be peculiar to him, and became a right exercised by each of the allied nations. Thisrequirement of unanimity, embarrassing as it might seem, did not prove tobe so in practice. Whenever a question arose on which opinions weredivided, its decision was either postponed, or some compromise wasreached which left all parties contented. 

The first members of the council were appointed by the convention, --underwhat precise rule is unknown; but their successors came in by a method inwhich the hereditary and the elective systems were singularly combined, and in which female suffrage had an important place. When a chief diedor (as sometimes happened) was deposed for incapacity or misconduct, somemember of the same family succeeded him. Rank followed the female line;and this successor might be any descendant of the late chief's mother orgrandmother, --his brother, his cousin or his nephew, --but never his son. Among many persons who might thus be eligible, the selection was made inthe first instance by a family council. In this council the "chiefmatron" of the family, a noble dame whose position and right were welldefined, had the deciding voice. This remarkable fact is affirmed by theJesuit missionary Lafitau, and the usage remains in full vigor among theCanadian Iroquois to this day. If there are two or more members of thefamily who seem to have equal claims, the nominating matron sometimesdeclines to decide between them, and names them both or all, leaving theultimate choice to the nation or the federal council. The council of thenation next considers the nomination, and if dissatisfied, refers it backto the family for a new designation. If content, the national councilreports the name of the candidate to the federal senate, in which residesthe power of ratifying or rejecting the choice of the nation; but thepower of rejection is rarely exercised, though that of expulsion for goodcause is not unfrequently exerted. The new chief inherits the name ofhis predecessor. In this respect, as in some others, the resemblance ofthe Great Council to the English House of Peers is striking. As Norfolksucceeds to Norfolk, so Tekarihoken succeeds Tekarihoken. The greatnames of Hiawatha and Atotarho are still borne by plainfarmer-councillors on the Canadian Reservation. 

When the League was established, Hiawatha had been adopted by the Mohawknation as one of their chiefs. The honor in which he was held by them isshown by his position on the roll of councillors, as it has been handeddown from the earliest times. As the Mohawk nation is the "elderbrother, " the names of its chiefs are first recited. At the head of thelist is the leading Mohawk chief, Tekarihoken, who represents the noblestlineage of the Iroquois stock. Next to him, and second on the roll, isthe name of Hiawatha. That of his great colleague, Dekanawidah, nowhereappears. He was a member of the first council; but he forbade his peopleto appoint a successor to him. "Let the others have successors, " he saidproudly, "for others can advise you like them. But I am the founder ofyour league, and no one else can do what I have done. "

The boast was not unwarranted. Though planned by another, the structurehad been reared mainly by his labors. But the Five Nations, whileyielding abundant honor to the memory of Dekanawidah, have never regardedhim with the same affectionate reverence which has always clung to thename of Hiawatha. His tender and lofty wisdom, his wide-reachingbenevolence, and his fervent appeals to their better sentiments, enforcedby the eloquence of which he was master, touched chords in the popularheart which have continued to respond until this day. Fragments of thespeeches in which he addressed the council and the people of the leagueare still remembered and repeated. The fact that the league only carriedout a part of the grand design which he had in view is constantlyaffirmed. Yet the failure was not due to lack of effort. In pursuanceof his original purpose, when the league was firmly established, envoyswere sent to other tribes to urge them to join it or at least to becomeallies. One of these embassies penetrated to the distant Cherokees, thehereditary enemies of the Iroquois nations. For some reason with whichwe are not acquainted--perhaps the natural suspicion or vindictive prideof that powerful community--this mission was a failure. Another, despatched to the western Algonquins, had better success. A strictalliance was formed with the far-spread Ojibway tribes, and wasmaintained inviolate for at least two hundred years, until at length theinfluence of the French, with the sympathy of the Ojibways for theconquered Hurons, undid to some extent, though not entirely, this portionof Hiawatha's work. 

His conceptions were beyond his time, and beyond ours; but their effect, within a limited sphere, was very great. For more than three centuriesthe bond which he devised held together the Iroquois nations in perfectamity. It proved, moreover, as he intended, elastic. The territory ofthe Iroquois, constantly extending as their united strength made itselffelt, became the "Great Asylum" of the Indian tribes. Of the conqueredEries and Hurons, many hundreds were received and adopted among theirconquerors. The Tuscaroras, expelled by the English from North Carolina, took refuge with the Iroquois, and became the sixth nation of the League. From still further south, the Tuteloes and Saponies, of Dakota stock, after many wars with the Iroquois, fled to them from their other enemies, and found a cordial welcome. A chief still sits in the council as arepresentative of the Tuteloes, though the tribe itself has been sweptaway by disease, or absorbed in the larger nations. Many fragments oftribes of Algonquin lineage--Delawares, Nanticokes, Mohicans, Mississagas, --sought the same hospitable protection, which never failedthem. Their descendants still reside on the Canadian Reservation, whichmay well be styled an aboriginal "refuge of nations, "--affording astriking evidence in our own day of the persistent force of a great idea, when embodied in practical shape by the energy of a master mind. 

The name by which their constitution or organic law is known among themis _kayánerenh_, to which the epitaph _kowa_ [Transcriber's note: the "o"is the Unicode o-macron], "great, " is frequently added. This word, _kayánerenh_, is sometimes rendered "law, " or "league, " but its propermeaning seems to be "peace. " It is used in this sense by themissionaries, in their translations of the scriptures and theprayer-book. In such expressions as "the Prince of Peace, " "the authorof peace, " "give peace in our time, " we find _kayánerenh_ employed withthis meaning. Its root is _yaner_, signifying "noble, " or "excellent, "which yields, among many derivatives, _kayánere_, "goodness, " and_kayánerenh_, "peace, " or "peacefulness. " The national hymn of theconfederacy, sung whenever their "Condoling Council" meets, commenceswith a verse referring to their league, which is literally rendered, "Wecome to greet and thank the PEACE" (_kayánerenh_). When the list oftheir ancient chiefs, the fifty original Councillors, is chanted in theclosing litany of the meeting, there is heard from time to time, as theleaders of each clan are named, an outburst of praise, in the words--

 "This was the roll of you-- You that were joined in the work, You that confirmed the work, The GREAT PEACE. " (_Kayánerenh-kowa. _)

[Transcriber's note: the "o" in "kowa" is the Unicode o-macron. ]

The regard of Englishmen for their Magna Charta and Bill of Rights, andthat of Americans for their national Constitution, seem weak incomparison with the intense gratitude and reverence of the Five Nationsfor the "Great Peace" which Hiawatha and his colleagues established forthem. 

Of the subsequent life of Hiawatha, and of his death, we have no sureinformation. The records of the Iroquois are historical, and notbiographical. As Hiawatha had been made a chief among the Mohawks, hedoubtless continued to reside with that nation. A tradition, which is initself highly probable, represents him as devoting himself to thecongenial work of clearing away the obstructions in the streams whichintersect the country then inhabited by the confederated nations, andwhich formed the chief means of communication between them. That hethus, in some measure, anticipated the plans of De Witt Clinton and hisassociates, on a smaller scale, but with perhaps a larger statesmanship, we may be willing enough to believe. A wild legend, recorded by somewriters, but not told of him by the Canadian Iroquois, and apparentlybelonging to their ancient mythology, gives him an apotheosis, and makeshim ascend to heaven in a white canoe. It may be proper to dwell for amoment on the singular complication of mistakes which has converted thisIndian reformer and statesman into a mythological personage. 

When by the events of the Revolutionary war the original confederacy wasbroken up, the larger portion of the people followed Brant to Canada. The refugees comprised nearly the whole of the Mohawks, and the greaterpart of the Onondagas and Cayugas, with many members of the othernations. In Canada their first proceeding was to reëstablish, as far aspossible, their ancient league, with all its laws and ceremonies. TheOnondagas had brought with them most of their wampum records, and theMohawks jealously preserved the memories of the federation, in whoseformation they had borne a leading part. The history of the leaguecontinued to be the topic of their orators whenever a new chief wasinstalled into office. Thus the remembrance of the facts has beenpreserved among them with much clearness and precision, and with verylittle admixture of mythological elements. With the fragments of thetribes which remained on the southern side of the Great Lakes the casewas very different. Except among the Senecas, who, of all the FiveNations, had had least to do with the formation of the league, theancient families which had furnished the members of their senate, andwere the conservators of their history, had mostly fled to Canada or theWest. The result was that among the interminable stories with which thecommon people beguile their winter nights, the traditions of Atotarho andHiawatha became intermingled with the legends of their mythology. Anaccidental similarity, in the Onondaga dialect, between the name ofHiawatha and that of one of their ancient divinities, led to a confusionbetween the two, which has misled some investigators. This deity bears, in the sonorous Mohawk tongue, the name of Aronhiawagon, meaning "theHolder of the Heavens. " The early French missionaries, prefixing aparticle, made the name in their orthography, Tearonhiaouagon. He was, they tell us, "the great god of the Iroquois. " Among the Onondagas ofthe present day, the name is abridged to Taonhiawagi, or Tahiawagi. Theconfusion between this name and that of Hiawatha (which, in another form, is pronounced Tayonwatha) seems to have begun more than a century ago;for Pyrlaeus, the Moravian missionary, heard among the Iroquois(according to Heckewelder) that the person who first proposed the leaguewas an ancient Mohawk, named Thannawege. Mr. J. V. H. Clark, in hisinteresting History of Onondaga, makes the name to have been originallyTa-oun-ya-wat-ha, and describes the bearer as "the deity who presidesover fisheries and hunting-grounds. " He came down from heaven in a whitecanoe and after sundry adventures, which remind one of the labors ofHercules, assumed the name of Hiawatha (signifying, we are told, "a verywise man"), and dwelt for a time as an ordinary mortal among men, occupied in works of benevolence. Finally, after founding theconfederacy and bestowing many prudent counsels upon the people, hereturned to the skies by the same conveyance in which he had descended. This legend was communicated by Clark to Schoolcraft, when the latter wascompiling his "Notes on the Iroquois. " Mr. Schoolcraft, pleased with thepoetical cast of the story and the euphonious name, made confusion worseconfounded by transferring the hero to a distant region and identifyinghim with Manabozho, a fantastic divinity of the Ojibways. Schoolcraft'svolume, absurdly entitled "The Hiawatha Legends, " has not in it a singlefact or fiction relating either to Hiawatha himself or to the Iroquoisdeity Aronhiawagon. Wild Ojibway stories concerning Manabozho and hiscomrades form the staple of its contents. But it is to this collectionthat we owe the charming poem of Longfellow; and thus, by anextraordinary fortune, a grave Iroquois lawgiver of the fifteenth centuryhas become, in modern literature, an Ojibway demigod, son of the WestWind, and companion of the tricksy Paupukkeewis, the boastful Iagoo, andthe strong Kwasind. If a Chinese traveller, during the middle ages, inquiring into the history and religion of the western nations, hadconfounded King Alfred with King Arthur, and both with Odin, he would nothave made a more preposterous confusion of names and characters than thatwhich has hitherto disguised the genuine personality of the greatOnondaga reformer. 

About the main events of his history, and about his character andpurposes, there can be no reasonable doubt. We have the wampum beltswhich he handled, and whose simple hieroglyphics preserve the memory ofthe public acts in which he took part. We have, also, in the Iroquois"Book of Rites, " a still more clear and convincing testimony to thecharacter both of the legislator and of the people for whom hisinstitutions were designed. This book, sometimes called the "Book of theCondoling Council, " might properly enough be styled an Iroquois Veda. Itcomprises the speeches, songs and other ceremonies, which, from theearliest period of the confederacy, have composed the proceedings oftheir council when a deceased chief is lamented and his successor isinstalled in office. The fundamental laws of the league, a list of theirancient towns, and the names of the chiefs who constituted their firstcouncil, chanted in a kind of litany, are also comprised in thecollection. The contents, after being preserved in memory, like theVedas, for many generations, were written down by desire of the chiefs, when their language was first reduced to writing; and the book istherefore more than a century old. Its language, archaic when written, is now partly obsolete, and is fully understood by only a few of theoldest chiefs. It is a genuine Indian composition, and must be acceptedas disclosing the true character of its authors. The result isremarkable enough. Instead of a race of rude and ferocious warriors, wefind in this book a kindly and affectionate people, full of sympathy fortheir friends in distress, considerate to their women, tender to theirchildren, anxious for peace, and imbued with a profound reverence fortheir constitution and its authors. We become conscious of the fact thatthe aspect in which these Indians have presented themselves to theoutside world has been in a large measure deceptive and factitious. Theferocity, craft, and cruelty, which have been deemed their leadingtraits, have been merely the natural accompaniments of wars ofself-preservation, and no more indicated their genuine character than thewar-paint, plume, and tomahawk of the warrior displayed the customaryguise in which he appeared among his own people. The cruelties of war, when war is a struggle for national existence, are common to all races. The persistent desire for peace, pursued for centuries in federal unions, and in alliances and treaties with other nations, has been manifested byfew as steadily as by the countrymen of Hiawatha. The sentiment ofuniversal brotherhood, which directed their polity, has never been sofully developed in any branch of the Aryan race, unless it may be foundincorporated in the religious quietism of Buddha and his followers. 

To come back to our first proposition, --it is unquestionable that theIroquois, when they framed the political system which exhibited thissingular force of intellect and elevation of character, were a people ofthe Stone Age; and there is no good reason for supposing that they weresuperior in character and capacity to the people of the most primitivetimes. What we know of them entitles us to affirm that the makers of theearliest flint implements may have been equal, if not superior, innatural powers to the members of any existing race. And as language isthe outgrowth and image of the mental faculties, it is not impossible, oreven unlikely, that among the languages spoken by the people of thoseearly ages, there may have been some as far superior in construction andpower of expression to any tongue of modern Europe, as the languages ofthe barbarous Greeks and Germans, a thousand years before the Christianera, were superior to the speech of the highly civilized Egyptians. 

The conclusions to which these facts and reasonings point are of greatscientific importance. As there could be no sound astronomy while thenotion prevailed that the earth was the centre of the universe, and noscience of history while each nation looked with contempt upon everyother people, so we can hope for no complete and satisfying science ofman and of human speech until our minds are disabused of those otherdelusions of self-esteem which would persuade us that superior cultureimplies superior capacity, and that the particular race and languagewhich we happen to claim as our own are the best of all races andlanguages. 

[Printed at the SALEM PRESS, Nov. , 1881. ]