BANCROFT 
 LIBRARY 
 
 o 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
HIAWATHA 
 
 
 AND 
 
 IROQUOIS CONFEDERATION, 
 
 A STUDY IN ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 BY HORATIO HALE. 
 
 A PAPER READ AT TUB CINCINNATI MEETING OF THK AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
 
 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. IN AUGUST, 1SS], UNDEK THE TITLE OF 
 
 "A LAWGIVER OF THE STONE AGE." 
 
 SALEM, MASS.: 
 PRINTED AT THE SALEM PRESS. 
 
 1881. 
 
HIAWATHA 
 
 AND 
 
 THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERATION, 
 
 A STUDY IN ANTHROPOLOGY. 
 
 BY HORATIO HALE. 
 
 A PAPER READ AT THE CINCINNATI MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
 
 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, IN AUGUST, 1881, UNDER THE TITLE OF 
 
 "A LAWGIVER 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 
 first appearance upon the earth? Or, to speak with more scien 
 tific precision (as the question relates to material evidences), what 
 were the mental powers of the people who fashioned the earliest 
 stone implements, which are admitted to be the oldest remaining 
 traces of our kind ? As these people were low in the arts of life, 
 were they also low in natural capacity? This is certainly one of 
 the most important questions which the science of anthropology 
 has yet to answer. Of late years the prevalent disposition has 
 apparently been to answer it in the affirmative. Primitive man, 
 we are to believe, had a feeble and narrow intellect, which in the 
 progress of civilization has been gradually strengthened and en 
 larged. This conclusion is supposed to be in accordance with the 
 development theory ; and the distinguished author of that theory 
 has seemed to favor this view. Yet, in fact, the development the 
 ory has nothing to do with the question. If we suppose that the 
 existing and so far as we know the only species of man 
 appeared upon the earth with the physical conformation and 
 mental capacity which he retains at this day, we make merely 
 the same supposition with regard to him 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 
 who spoke an Aryan language were a tribe of barbarous nomads, 
 who wandered in the highlands of central Asia. Those who have 
 studied the earliest products of Aryan genius in the Vedas, the 
 Zend-Avesta, and the Homeric songs, will be willing to admit 
 that these wandering barbarians may have had minds capable of 
 the highest efforts to which the human intellect is known to have 
 attained. Yet if an irruption of Semitic or Turanian conquerors 
 had swept that infant tribe from the earth, no trace of its exist 
 ence beyond a few flint implements, and perhaps some fragments 
 of pottery, 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, in various parts of our globe, many tribes of men 
 may have arisen and perished who were in natural capacity as far 
 
 (3) 
 
4 A LAWGIVER OF THE STONE AGE ; 
 
 superior to the primitive Aryans as these were to the races who 
 surrounded them ? Under the law of the survival of the fittest, 
 it is not the strongest that survive, but the strongest of those that 
 are placed in the most favorable circumstances. On any calculation 
 of probabilities, it will seem likely enough that among the number 
 less small societies of men that have appeared and vanished in pri 
 meval Asia and Europe, in Africa, Australia, America, and Poly 
 nesia, there may have been some at least equal, if not superior, 
 in mental endowments, to that fortunate tribe of central Asia, 
 whose posterity has come to be the dominant race of our time. 
 Among their leaders may have been men qualified to rank with 
 the most renowned heroes, exemplars, and teachers of the human 
 race with Moses and Buddha, with Confucius and Solon, with 
 Numa, Charlemagne, and Alfred, or (to come down to recent 
 times) with the greatest and wisest among the founders of the 
 American Republic. If the possibility of the existence of such 
 men under such conditions cannot be denied, the facts which 
 have lately been brought to light in regard to one such personage 
 and the community in which he lived may have a peculiar interest 
 and significance in their bearing on the general question of the 
 mental capacity of uncivilized races. 
 
 It is well known that the Iroquois tribes, whom our ancestors 
 termed the Five Nations, were, when first visited by Europeans, 
 in the precise condition which, according to all the evidence we 
 possess, was held by the inhabitants of the Old World during 
 what has been designated the Stone Age. Any one who examines 
 the abandoned site of an ancient Iroquois town will find there 
 relics of precisely the same cast as those which are disinterred 
 from the burial mounds and caves of prehistoric Europe, imple 
 ments of flint and bone, ornaments of shells, and fragments of 
 rude pottery. Trusting to these evidences alone, he might sup 
 pose that the people who wrought them were of the humblest 
 grade of intellect. But the testimony of historians, of travellers, 
 of missionaries, and perhaps his own personal observation, would 
 make him aware that this opinion would be erroneous, and that 
 these Indians were, in their own way, acute reasoners, eloquent 
 speakers, and most skilful and far-seeing politicians. He would 
 know that for more than a century, though never mustering more 
 than five thousand fighting men, they were able to hold the bal 
 ance of power on this continent between France and England ; 
 
BY HORATIO HALE. 5 
 
 and that in a long series of negotiations they proved themselves 
 qualified to cope in council with the best diplomatists whom either 
 of those powers could depute to deal with them. It is only re 
 cently that we have learned, through the researches of a careful 
 and philosophic investigator, the Hon. L. H. Morgan, that 
 their internal polity was marked by equal wisdom, and had been 
 developed and consolidated into a system of government, em 
 bodying many of what are deemed the best principles and methods 
 of political science, representation, federation, self-government 
 through local and general legislatures, all resulting in personal 
 liberty, combined with strict subordination to public law. But it 
 has not been distinctly known that for many of these advantages 
 the Five Nations were indebted to one individual, who bore to 
 them the same relation which the great reformers and lawgivers 
 of antiquity bore to the communities whose gratitude has made 
 their names illustrious. 
 
 A singular fortune has attended the name and memory of Hia 
 watha. Though actually an historical personage, and not of 
 very ancient date, of whose life and deeds many memorials re 
 main, he has been confused with two Indian divinities, the one 
 Iroquois, the other Algonquin, and his history has been distorted 
 and obscured almost l^ond recognition. Through the cloud of 
 mythology which has enveloped his memory, the genius of Long 
 fellow has discerned something of his real character, and has 
 made his name, at least, a household word wherever the English 
 language is spoken. It remains to give a correct account of the 
 man himself and of the work which he accomplished, as it has 
 been received from the official annalists of his people. The nar 
 rative is confirmed by the evidence of contemporary wampum 
 records, and by written memorials in the native tongue, one of 
 which is at least a hundred years old. 
 
 According to the best evidence that can be obtained, the for 
 mation of the Iroquois confederacy dates from about the middle 
 of the fifteenth century. There is reason to believe that prior to 
 that time the five tribes, who are dignified with the title of nations, 
 had held the region south of Lake Ontario, extending from the 
 Hudson to the Genesee river, for many generations, and probably 
 for many centuries. Tradition makes their earlier seat to have 
 been north of the St. Lawrence river, which is probable enough. 
 It also represents the Mohawks as the original tribe, of which the 
 
6 A LAWGIVER OF THE STONE AGE ; 
 
 others are offshoots ; and this tradition is confirmed by the evi 
 dence of language. That the Iroquois tribes were originally one 
 people, and that their separation into five communities, speaking 
 distinct dialects, dates many centuries back, are both conclusions 
 as certain as any facts in physical science. Three hundred and 
 fifty years ago they were isolated tribes, at war occasionally with 
 one another, and almost constantly with the fierce Algonquins 
 who surrounded them. Not unfrequently, also, they had to with 
 stand and to avenge the incursions of warriors 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 had large and 
 strongly palisaded towns, well-cultivated fields, and substantial 
 houses, sometimes a hundred feet long, in which many kindred 
 families dwelt together. 
 
 At this time two great dangers, the one from without, the other 
 from within, pressed upon these tribes. The Mohegans, or Mohi 
 cans, a powerful Algonquin 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 the Iroquois, the Mo 
 hawks and Oneidas, bore the brunt and were the greatest sufferers. 
 On the other hand, the two westerly nations, the Senecas and 
 Cayugas, had a peril of their own to encounter. The central na 
 tion, the Onondagas, were then under the control of a dreaded 
 chief, whose name is variously given, Atotarho, Watatotahlo, To- 
 dodaho, according to the dialect of the speaker and the orthogra 
 phy of the writer. He was a man of great force of character 
 and of formidable qualities, haughty, ambitious, crafty and 
 bold, a determined and successful warrior, and at home, so far 
 as the constitution of an Indian tribe would allow, a stern and 
 remorseless tyrant. He tolerated no equal. The chiefs who ven 
 tured to oppose him were taken off one after another by secret 
 means, or were compelled to flee for safety to other tribes. His 
 subtlety and artifices had acquired for him the reputation of a 
 wizard. He knew, they say, what was going on at a distance as 
 well as if he were present ; and he could destroy his enemies by 
 some magical art, while he himself was far away. In spite of the 
 fear which he inspired, his domination would probably not have 
 been endured by an Indian community, but for his success in war. 
 
BY HORATIO HALE. 7 
 
 He had 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 the record-keepers of the present day do not confirm 
 this statement, which indeed is not consistent with the subsequent 
 history of the confederation. 
 
 The name Atotarho signifies "entangled." The usual process 
 by which mythology, after a few generations, makes fables out of 
 names, has not been wanting here. In the legends which the 
 Indian story-tellers recount in winter about their cabin fires, Ato 
 tarho figures as a being of preterhuman nature, whose head, in 
 lieu of hair, is adorned with living snakes. A rude pictorial repre 
 sentation shows him seated and giving audience, in horrible state, 
 with the upper part of his person enveloped by these writhing and 
 entangled reptiles. But the grave Councillors of the Canadian 
 Reservation, who recite his history as they have heard it from 
 their fathers at every installation of a high chief, do not repeat 
 these inventions of marvel-loving gossips, and only smile with 
 good-humored derision when they are referred to. 
 
 There was at this time among the Onondagas a chief of high 
 rank whose name, variously written Hiawatha, Hayonwatha, 
 Ayongwhata, Taoungwatha is rendered, "he who seeks the 
 wampum belt." He had made himself greatly esteemed by his 
 wisdom and his benevolence. He was now past middle age. 
 
 Jr o 
 
 Though many of his friends and relatives had perished by the 
 machinations of Atotarho, he himself had been spared. The 
 qualities which gained him general respect had, perhaps, not been 
 without influence even on that redoubtable chief. Hiawatha had 
 long beheld with grief the evils which afflicted not only his own 
 nation, but all the other tribes about them, through the continu 
 al wars in which they were engaged, and the misgovernment and 
 miseries at home which these wars produced. With much medi 
 tation he had elaborated in his mind the scheme of a vast confed 
 eration which would ensure universal peace. In the mere plan of 
 a confederation there was nothing new. There are probably few, 
 if any, Indian tribes which have not, at one time or another, been 
 members of a league or confederacy. It may almost be said to be 
 their normal condition. But the plan which Hiawatha had evolved 
 differed from all others in two particulars. The system which he 
 devised was to be not a loose and transitory league, but a perma 
 nent government. While each nation was to retain its own coun- 
 
A LAWGIVER OF THE STONE AGE ; 
 
 cil and its management of local affairs, the general control was to 
 be lodged in a federal senate, composed of representatives elected 
 by each nation, holding office during good behavior, and acknowl 
 edged as ruling chiefs throughout the whole confederacy. Still 
 further, and more remarkably, the confederation was not to be a 
 limited one. It was to be indefinitely expansible. The avowed 
 design of its proposer was to abolish war altogether. He wished 
 the federation to extend until all the tribes of men should be in 
 cluded in it, and peace should everywhere reign. Such is the 
 positive testimony of the Iroquois themselves ; and their state 
 ment, as will be seen, is supported by historical evidence. 
 
 Hiawatha's first endeavor was to enlist his own nation in the 
 cause. He summoned a meeting of the chiefs and people of the 
 Onondaga towns. The summons, proceeding from a chief of his rank 
 and reputation, attracted a large concourse. k fc They came together," 
 said the narrator, u along the creeks, from all parts, to the general 
 council-fire." But what effect the grand projects of the chief, en 
 forced by the eloquence for which he was noted, might have had 
 upon his auditors, could not be known. For there appeared 
 among them a well-known figure, grim, silent and forbidding, 
 whose terrible aspect overawed the assemblage. The unspoken 
 displeasure of Atotarho was sufficient to stifle all debate, and the 
 meeting dispersed. This result, which seems a singular conclusion 
 of an Indian council the most independent and free-spoken of 
 all gatherings is sufficiently explained by the fact that Atotarho 
 had organized among the more reckless warriors of his tribe a 
 band of unscrupulous partisans, who did his bidding without 
 question, and took off by secret murder all persons against whom 
 he bore a grudge. The knowledge that his followers were scat 
 tered through the assembly, prepared to mark for destruction 
 those who should offend him, might make the boldest orator chary 
 of speech. Hiawatha alone was undaunted. He summoned a 
 second meeting, which was attended by a smaller number, and 
 broke up as before, in confusion, on Atotarho's appearance. The 
 unwearied reformer sent forth his runners a third time ; but the 
 people were disheartened. When the day of the council arrived, 
 no one attended. Then, continued the narrator, Hiawatha seated 
 himself on the ground in sorrow. He enveloped his head in his 
 mantle of skins, and remained for a long time bowed down in grief 
 and thought. At length he arose and left the town, taking his 
 
BY HORATIO HALE. 
 
 course toward the southeast. He had formed a bold design. As 
 the councils of his own nation were closed to him, he would have 
 recourse to those of other tribes. At a short distance from the 
 town (so minutely are the circumstances recounted) he passed his 
 great antagonist, seated near a well-known spring, stern and 
 silent as usual. No word passed between the determined repre 
 sentatives of war and peace ; but it was doubtless not without a 
 sensation of triumphant pleasure that the ferocious war-chief saw 
 his only rival and opponent in council going into what seemed to 
 be voluntary exile. Hiawatha plunged- into tae forest; he climbed 
 mountains ; he crossed a lake ; he floated down the Mohawk river 
 in a canoe. Many incidents of his journey are told, and in this 
 part of the narrative alone some occurrences of a marvellous 
 cast are related even by the official historians. Indeed, the 
 flight of Hiawatha from Onondaga to the country of the Mo 
 hawks is to the Five Nations what the flight of Mohammed from 
 Mecca to Medina is to the votaries of Islam. It is the turning 
 point of their history. In embellishing the narrative at this point, 
 their imagination has been allowed a free course. Leaving aside 
 these marvels, however, we need only refer here to a single inci 
 dent which may well enough have been of actual occurrence. A 
 lake which Hiawatha crossed had shores abounding in small white 
 shells. These he gathered and strung upon strings, which he 
 disposed upon his breast, as a token to all whom he should meet 
 that he came as a messenger of peace. And this, according to 
 one authority, was the origin of wampum, of which Hiawatha was 
 the inventor. That honor, however, is one which must be denied 
 to him. The evidence of sepulchral relics shows that wampum 
 was known to the mysterious moundbuilders, as well as in all 
 succeeding ages. Moreover, if the significance of white wampum- 
 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 pro 
 claiming his pacific purpose. 
 
 Early one morning he arrived at a Mohawk town, the residence of 
 the noted chief Dekanawidah, whose name, in point of celebrity, 
 ranks in Iroquois tradition with those of Hiawatha and Atotarho. 
 It is probable that he was known by reputation to Hiawatha, and 
 not unlikely that they were related. According to one account 
 Dekanawidah was an Onondaga, adopted among the Mohawks. 
 Another narrative makes him a Mohawk by birth. The proba- 
 2 
 
10 A LAWGIVER OF THE STONE AGE ; 
 
 bility seems to be that he was the son of an Onondaga father, who 
 had been adopted by the Mohawks, and of a Mohawk mother. That 
 he was not of pure Mohawk blood is shown by the fact, which is re 
 membered, that his father had had successive!} 7 three wives, one be 
 longing to each of the three clans, Bear, Wolf, and Turtle, which 
 compose the Mohawk nation. If the father had been a Mohawk, 
 he would have belonged to one of the Mohawk clans, and could 
 not then (according to the Indian law) have married into it. He 
 had seven sons, including Dekanawidah, who, with their families, 
 dwelt together in one of the "long houses" common in that day 
 among the Iroquois. These ties of kindred, together with this 
 fraternal strength, and his reputation as a sagacious councillor, 
 gave Dekanawidah great influence among his people. But, in the 
 Indian sense, he was not the leading chief. This position belonged 
 to Tekarihoken (better known in books as Tecarihoga) whose 
 primacy as the first chief of the eldest among the Iroquois nations 
 was then, and is still, universally admitted. Each nation has al 
 ways had a head-chief, to whom belonged the hereditary right and 
 duty of lighting the council-fire, and taking the first place in pub 
 lic meetings. But among the Indians, as in other communities, 
 hereditary rank and personal influence do not always, or indeed 
 ordinarily, go together. If Hiawatha could gain over Dekanawi 
 dah to his views, he would have done much toward the accomplish 
 ment of his purposes. 
 
 In the early dawn he seated himself on a fallen trunk, near the 
 spring from which the inhabitants of the long-house drew their 
 water. Presently one of the brothers came out with a vessel of 
 elm-bark, and approached the spring. Hiawatha sat silent and 
 motionless. Something in his aspect awed the warrior, who feared 
 to address him. He returned to the house, and said to Dekanawi 
 dah, "a man, or a figure like a man, is seated by the spring, having 
 his breast covered with strings of white shells." u lt is a guest," 
 replied the chief; " go and bring him in. We will make him wel 
 come." Thus Hiawatha and Dekanawidah first met. They found 
 in each other kindred spirits. The sagacity of the Mohawk chief 
 grasped at once the advantages of the proposed plan, and the two 
 worked together in perfecting it, and in commending it to the peo 
 ple. After much discussion in council, the adhesion of the Mo 
 hawk nation was secured. Dekanawidah then despatched two of 
 his brothers as ambassadors to the nearest tribe, the Oneidas, to 
 
BY HORATIO HALE. 11 
 
 lay the project before them. The Oneida nation is deemed to be 
 a comparatively recent offshoot from the Mohawks. The differ 
 ence of language is slight, showing that their separation was much 
 Liter than that of the Onondagas. In the figurative speech of the 
 Iroquois, the Oneida is the son, and the Onondaga is the brother, 
 of the Mohawk. Dekanawidah had good reason to expect that it 
 would not prove difficult to win the consent of the Oneidas to the 
 proposed scheme. But delay and deliberation mark all public acts 
 of the Indians. The ambassadors found the leading chief, Odats- 
 hehte, at his town on the Oueida creek. He received their mes 
 sage in a friendly way, but required time for his people to consider 
 it in council. " Come back in another day," he said to the mes 
 sengers. In the political speech of the Indians, a day is under 
 stood to mean a year. The envoys carried back the reply to 
 Dekauawidah and Hiawatha, who knew that they could do nothing 
 but wait the prescribed time. After the lapse of a year, they 
 repaired to the place of meeting. The treaty which initiated the 
 great league was then and there ratified between the representatives 
 of the Mohawk and Oneida nations. The name of Odatshehte 
 means "the quiver-bearer;" and as Atotarho, "the entangled," 
 is fabled to have had his head wreathed with snaky locks, and as 
 Hiawatha, " the wampum-seeker," is represented to have wrought 
 shells into wampum, so the Oneida chief is reputed to have 
 appeared at this treaty bearing at his shoulder a quiver full of 
 arrows. 
 
 The Onondagas lay next to the Oneidas. To them, or rather 
 to their terrible chief, the next application was made. The first 
 meeting of Atotarho and Dekanawidah is a notable event in 
 Iroquois history. At a later day, a native artist sought to rep 
 resent it in an historical picture, which has been already referred 
 to. Atotarho is seated in solitary and surly dignity, smoking a 
 long pipe, his head and body encircled with contorted and angry 
 serpents. Standing before him are two figures which cannot be 
 mistaken. The foremost, a plumed and cinctured warrior, de 
 picted as addressing the Onondaga chief, holds in his right hand, 
 as a staff, his fiint-headed spear, the ensign which marks him as 
 the representative of the Kanienga, or "People of the Flint," 
 for so the Mohawks style themselves. Behind him another 
 plumed figure bears in his hand a bow with arrows, and at his 
 shoulder a quiver. Divested of its mythological embellishments, 
 
12 A LAWGIVER OF THE STONE AGE J 
 
 the picture rudely represents the interview which actually took 
 place. The immediate result was unpromising. The Onondaga 
 chief coldly refused to entertain the project, which he had already 
 rejected when proposed b} T Hiawatha. The ambassadors were not 
 discouraged. Beyond the Onondagas were scattered the villages of 
 the Cayugas, a people described by the Jesuit missionaries, at a 
 later day, as the most mild and tractable of the Iroquois. They 
 were considered an offshoot of the Onondagas, to whom they bore 
 the same filial relation which the Oneidas bore to the Mohawks. 
 The journey of the advocates of peace through the forest to the 
 Cayuga capital, and their reception, are minutely detailed in the 
 traditionary narrative. The Cayugas, who had suffered from the 
 prowess and cruelty of the Onondaga chief, needed little persua 
 sion. They readily consented to come into the league, and their 
 chief, Akahenyonk, u the wary spy," joined the Mohawk and 
 Oneida representatives in a new embassy to the Onondagas. Act 
 ing probably upon the advice of Hiawatha, who knew better than 
 any other the' character of the community and the chief with 
 whom they had to deal, they made proposals highly flattering to 
 the self-esteem which was the most notable trait of both ruler and 
 people. The Onondagas should be the leading nation of the con 
 federacy. Their chief town should be the federal capital, where 
 the great councils of the league should be held, and where its 
 records should be preserved. The nation should be represented 
 in the council by fourteen senators, while no other nation should 
 have more than ten. And as the Onondagas should be the 
 leading tribe, so Atotarho should be the leading chief. He alone 
 should have the right of summoning the federal council, and no 
 act of the council to which he objected should be valid. In other 
 words, an absolute veto was given to him. To enhance his per 
 sonal dignity two high chiefs were appointed as his special aids 
 and counsellors, his "secretaries of state," so to speak. Other 
 insignia of preeminence were to be possessed by him ; and, in 
 view of all these distinctions, it is not surprising that his successor, 
 who, two centuries later, retained the same prerogatives, should 
 have been occasionally styled by the English colonists "the 
 emperor of the Five Nations." It might seem, indeed, at first 
 thought, that the founders of the confederacy had voluntarily 
 placed themselves and their tribes in a position of almost abject 
 subserviency to Atotarho and his followers. But they knew too 
 
BY HORATIO HALE. 13 
 
 well the qualities of their people to fear for them any political 
 subjection. It was certain that when once the league was estab 
 lished, and its representatives had met in council, character and 
 intelligence would assume their natural sway, and mere artificial 
 rank and dignity would be little regarded. Atotarho and his 
 people, however, yielded either to these specious offers or to the 
 pressure which the combined urgency of the three allied nations 
 now brought to bear upon them. They finally accepted the 
 league ; and the great chief, who had originally opposed it, now 
 naturally became eager to see it as widely extended as possible. 
 He advised its representatives to go on at once to the westward, 
 and enlist the populous Seneca towns, pointing out how this 
 might best be done. This advice was followed, and the adhesion 
 of the Senecas was secured by giving to their two leading chiefs, 
 Kan} 7 adariyo (" beautiful lake") and Shadekaronyes ( 4t the equal 
 skies"), the offices of military commanders of the confederacy, 
 with the title of door-keepers of the "Long-House," that being 
 the figure by which the league was known. 
 
 The six national leaders who have been mentioned Dekana- 
 widah for the Mohawks, Odatshehte for the Oneidas, Atotarho 
 for the Onondagas, Akahenyonk for the Cayugas, Kanyadariyo 
 and Shadekaronyes for the two great 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 its first 
 council. Of this council, nine members (or ten, if Dekanawidah 
 be included) were assigned to the Mohawks, a like number to the 
 Oneidas, fourteen to the lordly Onondagas, ten to the Cayugas, 
 and eight to the Senecas. Except in the way of compliment, the 
 number assigned to each nation was realty of little consequence, 
 inasmuch as, by the rule of the league, 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 the question proposed. 
 In this separate council the majority decided ; and the leading 
 chief then expressed in the great council the voice of his nation. 
 Thus the veto of Atotarho ceased at once to be peculiar to him, 
 and became a right exercised by each of the allied nations. This 
 requirement of unanimity, embarrassing as it might seem, did not 
 prove to be so in practice. Whenever a question arose on which 
 
14 A LAWGIVER OF THE STONE AGE ; 
 
 opinions were divided, its decision was either postponed, or some 
 compromise was reached which left all parties contented. 
 
 The first members of the council were appointed by the conven 
 tion, under what precise rule is unknown ; but their successors 
 came in by a method in which the hereditary and the elective sys 
 tems were singularly combined, and in which female suffrage had 
 an important place. When a chief died or (as sometimes happened) 
 was deposed for incapacity or misconduct, some member of the 
 same family succeeded him. Rank followed the female line ; and 
 this successor might be any descendant of the late chief's mother 
 or grandmother, his brother, his cousin or his nephew, but 
 never his son. Among many persons who might thus be eligible, 
 the selection was made in the first instance by a family council. In 
 this council the "chief matron" of the family, a noble dame whose 
 position and right were well defined, had the deciding voice. This 
 remarkable fact is affirmed by the Jesuit missionaiy Lafitau, and 
 the usage remains in full vigor among the Canadian Iroquois to 
 this day. If there are two or more members of the family who 
 seem to have equal claims, the nominating matron sometimes de 
 clines to decide between them, and names them both or all, leav 
 ing the ultimate choice to the nation or the federal council. The 
 council of the nation next considers the nomination, and if dissat 
 isfied, refers it back to the family for a new designation. If con 
 tent, the national council reports the name of the candidate to the 
 federal senate, in which resides the power of ratifying or re 
 jecting the choice of the nation ; but the power of rejection is 
 rarely exercised, though that of expulsion for good cause is not 
 unfrequently exerted. The new chief inherits the name of his 
 predecessor. In this respect, as in some others, the resemblance 
 of the Great Council to the English House of Peers is strik 
 ing. As Norfolk succeeds to Norfolk, so Tekarihoken succeeds 
 Tekarihoken. The great names of Hiawatha and Atotarho are 
 still borne by plain farmer-councillors on the Canadian Reser 
 vation. 
 
 When the League was established, Hiawatha had been adopted 
 by the Mohawk nation as one of their chiefs. The honor in 
 which he was held by them is shown by his position on the roll 
 of councillors, as it has been handed down from the earliest times. 
 As the Mohawk nation is the ' 'elder brother," the names of 
 its chiefs are first recited. At the head of the list is the lead- 
 
BY HORATIO HALE. 15 
 
 ing Mohawk chief, Tekarihoken, who represents the noblest line 
 age of the Iroquois stock. Next to him, and second on the roll, 
 is the name of Hiawatha. That of his great colleague, Dekanawi- 
 dah, nowhere appears. He was a member of the first council ; but 
 he forbade his people to appoint a successor to him. "Let the 
 others have successors," he said proudly, " for others can advise 
 you like them. But I am the founder of your league, and no 
 one else can do what I have done." 
 
 The boast was not unwarranted. Though planned by another, 
 the structure had been reared mainly by his labors. But the Five 
 Nations, while yielding abundant honor to the memory of Dekana- 
 widah, have never regarded him with the same affectionate rever 
 ence which has always clung to the name of Hiawatha. His tender 
 and lofty wisdom, his wide-reaching benevolence, and his fervent 
 appeals to their better sentiments, enforced by the eloquence of 
 which he was master, touched chords in the popular heart which 
 have continued to respond until this day. Fragments of the 
 speeches in which he addressed the council and the people of the 
 league are still remembered and repeated. The fact that the league 
 only carried out a part of the grand design which he had in view 
 is constantly affirmed. Yet the failure was not due to lack of 
 effort. In pursuance of his original purpose, when the league was 
 firmly established, envoys were sent to other tribes to urge them 
 to join it or at least to become allies. One of these embassies 
 penetrated to the distant Cherokees, the hereditary enemies of the 
 Iroquois nations. For some reason with which we are not ac 
 quainted perhaps the natural suspicion or vindictive pride of 
 that powerful community this mission was a failure. Another, 
 despatched to the western Algonquins, had better success. A 
 strict alliance was formed with the far-spread Ojibway tribes, and 
 was maintained inviolate for at least two hundred years, until at 
 length the influence of the French, with the sympathy of the 
 Ojibways for the conquered Huron s, undid to some extent, though 
 not entirely, this portion of Hiawatha's work. 
 
 His conceptions were beyond his time, and be} r ond ours ; but 
 their effect, within a limited sphere, was very great. For more than 
 three centuries the bond which he devised held together the Iro 
 quois nations in perfect amity. It proved, moreover, as he in 
 tended, elastic. The territory of the Iroquois, constantly extending 
 as their united strength made itself felt, became the " Great Asy- 
 
16 A LAWGIVER OF THE STONE AGE ; 
 
 him" of the Indian tribes. Of the conquered Eries and Hnrons, 
 many hundreds were received and adopted among their conquerors. 
 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 a representative of the Tuteloes, 
 though the tribe itself has been swept away by disease, or 
 absorbed in the larger nations. Many fragments of tribes of 
 Algonquin lineage Delawares, Nanticokes, Mohicans, Missis- 
 sagas, sought the same hospitable protection, which never failed 
 them. Their descendants still reside on the Canadian Reser 
 vation, which may well be styled an aboriginal "refuge of na 
 tions," affording a striking evidence in our own day of the persist 
 ent 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 them is kaydnerenh , to which the epitaph kowa, "great," 
 is frequently added. This word, kaydnerenh, is sometimes ren 
 dered " law," or " league," but its proper meaning seems to be 
 " peace." It is used in this sense by the missionaries, in their 
 translations of the scriptures and the prayer-book. In such ex 
 pressions as "the Prince of Peace," " the author of peace," " give 
 peace in our time," we find kaydnerenh employed with this mean 
 ing. Its root is yaner, signifying " noble," or "excellent," which 
 yields, among many derivatives, kaydnere, " goodness," and ka 
 ydnerenh, "peace," or " peacefulness." The national hymn of 
 the confederacy, sung whenever their " Condoling Council" meets, 
 commences with a verse referring to their league, which is literally 
 rendered, " We come to greet and thank the PEACE " (kaydnerenh). 
 When the list of their ancient chiefs, the fifty original Council 
 lors, is chanted in the closing litany of the meeting, there is heard 
 from time to time, as the leaders of each clan are named, an out 
 burst 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." (Kayanerenh-koica.) 
 
 The regard of Englishmen for their Magna Charta and Bill of 
 
BY HORATIO HALE. 17 
 
 J 
 
 Rights, and that of Americans for their national Constitution, seem 
 weak in comparison with the intense gratitude and reverence of 
 the Five Nations for the " Great Peace" which Hiawatha and his 
 colleagues established for them. 
 
 Of the subsequent life of Hiawatha, and of his death, we have 
 no sure information. The records of the Iroquois are historical, 
 and not biographical. As Hiawatha had been made a chief among 
 the Mohawks, he doubtless continued to reside with that nation. 
 A tradition, which is in itself highly probable, represents him 
 as devoting himself to the congenial work of clearing away the 
 obstructions in the streams which intersect the country then in 
 habited by the confederated nations, and which formed the chief 
 means of communication between them. That he thus, in some 
 measure, anticipated the plans of De Witt Clinton and his 
 associates, on a smaller scale, but with perhaps a larger states 
 manship, we may be willing enough to believe. A wild legend, 
 recorded by some writers, but not told of him by the Canadian 
 Iroquois, and apparently belonging to their ancient mythology, 
 gives him an apotheosis, and makes him ascend to heaven in a 
 white canoe. It may be proper to dwell for a moment on the 
 singular complication of mistakes which has converted this Indian 
 reformer and statesman into a mythological personage. 
 
 When by the events of the Revolutionary war the original con 
 federacy was broken up, the larger portion of the people followed 
 Brant to Canada. The refugees comprised nearly the whole of 
 the Mohawks, and the greater part of the Onondagas and Cay ugas, 
 with many members of the other nations. In Canada their first 
 proceeding was to reestablish, as far as possible, their ancient 
 league, with all its laws and ceremonies. The Onondagas had 
 brought with them most of their wampum records, and the Mo 
 hawks jealously preserved the memories of the federation, in 
 whose formation they had borne a leading part. The history of 
 the league continued to be the topic of their orators whenever 
 a new chief was installed into office. Thus the remembrance of 
 the facts has been preserved among them with much clearness 
 and precision, and with very little admixture of n^'thological ele 
 ments. With the fragments of the tribes which remained on the 
 southern side of the Great Lakes the case was very different. 
 Except among the Senecas, who, of all the Five Nations, had had 
 least to do with the formation of the league, the ancient families 
 
18 A LAWGIVER OF THE STONE AGE ; 
 
 which had furnished the members of their senate, and were the 
 conservators of their histoiy, had mostly fled to Canada or the 
 West. The result was that among the interminable stories with 
 which the common people beguile their winter nights, the traditions 
 of Atotarho and Hiawatha became intermingled with the legends of 
 their mythology. An accidental similarity, in the Onondaga dia 
 lect, between the name of Hiawatha and that of one of their an 
 cient divinities, led to a confusion between the two, which has 
 misled some investigators. This deit}^ bears, in the sonorous Mo 
 hawk tongue, the name of Aronhiawagon, meaning "the Holder 
 of the Heavens." The early French missionaries, prefixing a 
 particle, made the name in their orthography, Tearonhiaouagon. 
 He was, they tell us, " the great god of the Iroqnois." Among 
 the Onondagas of the present day, the name is abridged to Taon- 
 hiawagi, or Tahiawagi. The confusion between this name and 
 that of Hiawatha (which, in another form, is pronounced Tayon- 
 watha) seems to have begun more than a century ago ; for Pyr- 
 Iseus, the Moravian missionary, heard among the Iroqnois (ac 
 cording to Heckewelder) that the person who first proposed the 
 league was an ancient Mohawk, named Thannawege. Mr. J. V. 
 H. Clark, in his interesting History of Onondaga, makes the 
 name to have been originally Ta-oun-ya-wat-ha, and describes the 
 bearer as u the deity who presides over fisheries and hunting- 
 grounds." He came down from heaven in a white canoe and 
 after sundry adventures, which remind one of the labors of Her 
 cules, assumed the name of Hiawatha (signifying, we are told, "a 
 very wise man"), and dwelt for a time as an ordinary mortal a- 
 mong men, occupied in works of benevolence. Finally, after 
 founding the confederacy and bestowing many prudent counsels 
 upon the people, he returned to the skies by the same conveyance 
 in which he had descended. This legend was communicated by 
 Clark to Schoolcraft, when the latter was compiling his "Notes on 
 the Iroqnois." Mr. Schoolcraft, pleased with the poetical cast of 
 the story and the euphonious name, made confusion worse con 
 founded by transferring the hero to a distant region and identifying 
 him with Manabozho, a fantastic divinity of the Ojibways. School- 
 craft's volume, absurdly entitled u The Hiawatha Legends," has 
 not in it a single fact or fiction relating either to Hiawatha him 
 self or to the Iroquois deity Aronhiawagon. Wild Ojibway stories 
 concerning Manabozho and his comrades form the staple of its 
 contents. But it is to this collection that we owe the charming 
 
BY HORATIO HALE. 19 
 
 poem of Longfellow ; and thus, by an extraordinary fortune, a 
 grave Iroquois lawgiver of the fifteenth century has become, in 
 modern literature, an Ojibway demigod, son of the West Wind, 
 and companion of the tricksy Paupukkeewis, the boastful lagoo, 
 and the strong Kwasind. If a Chinese traveller, during the mid 
 dle ages, inquiring into the history and religion of the western, 
 nations, had confounded King Alfred with King Arthur, and both 
 with Odin, he would not have made a more preposterous confusion 
 of names and characters than that which has hitherto disguised 
 the genuine personality of the great Ononclaga reformer. 
 
 About the main events of his history, and about his character 
 and purposes, there can be no reasonable doubt. We have the 
 wampum belts which he handled, and whose simple hieroglyphics 
 preserve the memory of the public acts in which he took part. 
 We have, also, in the Iroquois " Book of Rites," a still more clear 
 and convincing testimony to the character both of the legislator 
 and of the people for whom his institutions were designed. This 
 book, sometimes called the "Book of the Condoling Council," might 
 properly enough be styled an Iroquois Veda. It comprises the 
 speeches, songs and other ceremonies, which, from the earliest 
 period of the confederacy, have composed the proceedings of their 
 council when a deceased chief is lamented and his successor is 
 installed in office. The fundamental laws of the league, a list of 
 their ancient towns, and the names of the chiefs who constituted 
 their first council, chanted in a kind of litany, are also comprised 
 in the collection. The contents, after being preserved in memory, 
 like the Vedas, for many generations, were written down by desire 
 of the chiefs, when their language was first reduced to writing ; 
 and the book is therefore more than a century old. Its language, 
 archaic when written, is now partly obsolete, and is fully under 
 stood by only a few of the oldest chiefs. It is a genuine Indian 
 composition, and must be accepted as disclosing the true char 
 acter of its authors. The result is remarkable enough. Instead 
 of a race of rude and ferocious warriors, we find in this book a 
 kindly and affectionate people, full of sympathy for their friends 
 in distress, considerate to their women, tender to their children, 
 anxious for peace, and imbued with a profound reverence for their 
 constitution and its authors. We become conscious of the fact 
 that the aspect in which these Indians have presented themselves 
 to the outside world has been in a large measure deceptive and 
 factitious. The ferocity, craft, and cruelty, which have been 
 
20 A LAWGIVER OF THE STONE AGE J BY HORATIO HALE. 
 
 deemed their leading traits, have been merely the natural accom 
 paniments of wars of self-preservation, and no more indicated 
 their genuine character than the war-paint, plume, and tomahawk 
 of the warrior displayed the customary guise in which he ap 
 peared 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 by few as steadily as by the countiymen of Hiawatha. 
 The sentiment of universal brotherhood, which directed their 
 polity, has never been so fully developed in any branch of the 
 Aryan race, unless it may be found incorporated in the religious 
 quietism of Buddha and his followers. 
 
 To come back to our first proposition, it is unquestionable 
 that the Iroquois, when they framed the political system which ex 
 hibited this singular force of intellect and elevation of character, 
 were a people of the Stone Age ; and there is no good reason for 
 supposing that they were superior in character and capacity to 
 the people of the most primitive times. What we know of them 
 entitles us to affirm that the makers of the earliest flint imple 
 ments may have been equal, if not superior, in natural powers to 
 the members of any existing race. And as language is the out 
 growth and image of the mental faculties, it is not impossible, 
 or even unlikely, that among the languages spoken by the people 
 of those early ages, there may have been some as far superior in 
 construction and power of expression to any tongue of modern 
 Europe, as the languages of the barbarous Greeks and Germans, 
 a thousand years before the Christian era, were superior to the 
 speech of the highly civilized Egyptians. 
 
 The conclusions to which these facts and reasonings point are 
 of great scientific importance. As tliere could be no sound as 
 tronomy while the notion prevailed that the earth was the centre 
 of the universe, and no science of history while each nation 
 looked with contempt upon every other people, so we can hope 
 for no complete and satisfying science of man and of human 
 speech until our minds are disabused of those other delusions of 
 self-esteem which would persuade us that superior culture implies 
 superior capacity, and that the particular race and language which 
 we happen to claim as our own are the best of all races and lan 
 guages. 
 
 [Printed at the SALEM PRESS, Nov., 1881.]