CHAPTER IV.

THE IROQUOIS AND ALGONQUINS.

Emerging from the mystery of the mound builders we cross the line which separates the extinct and recordless races from the races known to history. New light dawns as this boundary is passed, but very much that we would like to know still lies in deep, impenetrable shadow. Whether the inhabitants of the two American continents at the time they first fell under the eye of civilization were properly speaking one great family, or were fundamentally segregated by one or more lines of racial distinction, is a question not yet fully settled. That they approached more nearly to one common family character than the indigenous population of Asia or Africa is scarcely disputed. "The Indians of New Spain [Mexico], wrote Humboldt, "bear a general resemblance to those who inhabit Canada, Florida, Peru and Brazil. We have the same swarthy and copper colour, straight and smooth hair, small beard, squat body, long eye, with the corner directed upwards towards the temples, prominent cheek bones, thick lips, and expression of gentleness in the mouth, strongly contrasted with a gloomy and severe look. Over a million and a half of square leagues, from Cape Horn to the River St. Lawrence and Behring's Straits, we are struck at the first glance with the general resemblance in the features of the inhabitants. We think we perceive them all to be descended from the same stock, notwithstanding the prodigious diversity of their languages."

"At one extremity of the country," says another writer, we find the pigmy Esquimaux of four feet and a half in height, and at the other the Patagonian standing above six feet. In complexion the variety is great, and may be said to embrace almost every hue known elsewhere on the face of the earth, except the pitchy black of the Negro. About onehalf of all the known languages belong to America; and if we consider every little wandering horde a distinct community, we have a greater number of nations here than in all the rest of the world."

Among the American aborigines, numbering seven or eight millions, as many languages were spoken as among the seven or eight hundred million inhabitants of the Eastern Hemisphere. Yet it is a significant fact that between these multiform modes of speech and those of the other branches of the human family none but an occasional and evidently accidental resemblance can be traced. At the same time there run through all these aboriginal tongues, numbering about 450 in all, certain threads of connection. "It is the confident opinion of linguistic scholars," says Professor Whitney, "that a fundamental unity lies at the base of all these infinitely varying forms of speech; that they may be, and probably are, all de

scended from a single parent language. For, whatever their differences of material, there is a single type or plan upon which their forms are developed and their constructions made, from the Arctic Ocean to Cape Horn."

The German naturalist Blumenbach' places all the American tribes under one class except the Esquimaux, who are deemed to be of Mongolian origin. After examining scientifically the skulls found in ancient tombs, and those of existing tribes, Doctor Morton' concludes that the American aborigines, except those inhabiting circumpolar latitudes, were all of one species and one race, and comprise two great families differing intellectually but strongly related in their physical traits. These families are denominated the Toltecan and the American, the first being partially civilized, the latter wholly savage. The Esquimaux are a dwarfish race, rarely over five feet in height, crafty and dirty. They inhabit the northern coasts of this continent and its neighboring islands. On the northwest coast of Alaska are found four peculiar tribes known as Kaluschi, who have the distinction of being as fair, when their skins are washed, as the Europeans.

At the time of the arrival of the English colonists on this continent the Indians occupying its eastern half belonged almost entirely to three stems: 1, The Algonquin, comprising the Delawares, Shawnees, Narragansetts, Chippewas, Knistenaux, and thirty or forty other nations, spread over the territory between the Mississippi and the Atlantic, and all speaking dialects of the same language; 2. The Iroquois, called alternately the Five Nations or the Six Nations, and comprising fifteen or more tribes, among which were the Mohawks, Hurons, Senecas and Oneidas, dwelling on the south side of the Great Lakes and all speaking dialectic forms of the same language; 3, The Florida Indians, including the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Natches and Mobiles. These three families, together with the Wocons and Catawbas, numbering altogether about a quarter of a million souls, occupied nearly the entire region east of the Mississippi, from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, embracing a territory of more than a million square miles.

Generally speaking these various tribes were noted alike for the virtues and vices of savage character, in their fullest development. They cherished a high sense of honor, absolute fidelity in personal and tribal relations, and a fortitude which disdained suffering or misfortune. Few races have equaled and none have surpassed their stoical apathy in good and ill. Stern, gloomy and severe, they despised mirth or laughter, and gave expression to joy only in the hour of triumph. They believed almost universally in the existence of a Supreme Being, and also in a spirit of evil, hostile to human welfare. They also believed firmly in a future state in which the souls of brave warriors and chaste wives would tranquilly pursue the occupations in which they most delighted on earth. According to the creed of the Dakotas the road to the "villages of the dead" leads over a ledge of rock sharp as a knife's edge, on which only the good could keep their footing and from which the wicked fell into the abysses of the evil spirit, there to be flogged and subjected to hard labor. Polygamy was practised, and incontinence and incest were indulged in, but the distinction between vice and virtue was clear in the savage mind. Wives were purchased, marriages festively celebrated and funerals conducted with decorum. Some of the nations wore little or no clothing, the usual dress of the males of the better-clad tribes comprising a buffalo-skin hung from the shoulders, a breechclout of undressed skins and moccasins of the same material, the women

wore a long robe of undressed hide, fastened around the waist. The Indian habitations consisted of huts or cabins, usually round and small, but sometimes thirty or forty feet in diameter, formed with stakes set in the ground and covered with bark. An opening in the top served for the escape of smoke, and the skins of wild beasts for carpet and bedding. The practice of painting and tattooing the body was almost universal. The warriors also adorned themselves fancifully, and often tastefully, with plumes and other ornaments.

Each tribe was governed by a chief and council, who were elective, but when matters of importance had to be decided all the warriors were consulted, and the concurrence of all was necessary to any final conclusion. The young might be present at the council but could take no part in the debate. Among the North American Indians there were several hundred distinct governments, which differed from one another chiefly in degrees of organization. The government of the Wyandots, who were the immediate predecessors of the white men in this part of the Scioto Valley, may be considered typical of them all. Its principal features may

be thus stated:"

The Wyandots recognized, in their social organization, the family, the gens, the phratry and the tribe. The family comprised the persons who occupied one lodge, or one section of a communal dwelling. Such dwellings, when permanent, were oblong in form, and constructed with poles covered with bark. The fire was placed in the center, and served for two families, one occupying the space on each side. The head of the family was a woman.

The gens was an organized body of blood kindred in the female line. It took the name of some animal, which also served it as a tutelar deity. At the time the tribe left Ohio it comprised the following gentes: Deer, Bear, Highland Turtle (striped), Highland Turtle (black), Mud Turtle, Smooth Large Turtle, Hawk, Beaver, Wolf, Sea Snake, and Porcupine. By these names and their compounds the persons belonging to each gens were distinguished, as for example:

Man of Deer gens, De-wa-ti-re, or Lean Deer.

Woman of Deer gens, A-ya-jin-ta, or Spotted Fawn.

Man of Wolf gens, Ha-ro-un-yu, or One who goes about in the dark.
Woman of Wolf gens, Yan-di-no, or Always Hungry.

The tribe comprised four phratries, each containing three gentes. The phratry had a legendary basis, and chiefly a religious use. The tribe, by reason of the inter-relationships of the gentes, comprised a body of kindred.

Civil and military government were entirely separate. Civil powers were vested in a system of councils and chiefs. The council of each gens comprised four women who selected a chief of the gens from its male members. This chief was head of the council of his gens, and the aggregated councils of the gentes composed the council of the tribes. The grand tribal chief or sachem was chosen by the chiefs of the gentes. The women councilors of the gens were chosen, informally, by the heads of the households. At the installation of a woman as councilor, a tribal feast was spread, and the woman, adorned with savage braveries, was crowned with a chaplet of feathers. Feasting and dancing followed, and continued, civilized fashion, late into the night.

At the installation of a gens chief, the women adorned him with a chaplet of feathers and an ornamental tunic, and painted the tribal totem on his face.

The sachem was chosen from the Bears until death carried off all the wise men of that gens. Wisdom and chieftainship were after that sought among the Deers.

The chief of the Wolves was the herald and sheriff of the tribe. It was his business to superintend the erection of the council house, to take care of it, to give notice of meetings of the council, and to announce its decisions. Councils of the gentes were called as often as necessary. The tribal council met on the night of the full moon. When the councilors were assembled they were called to order by the herald, who lit his pipe and discharged a puff of smoke to the heavens and then one to the earth. He then passed the pipe to the sachem, who filled his mouth with smoke, and turning from left to right with the sun, slowly puffed it over the heads of the councilors who were sitting in a circle. The man on his left next took the pipe, which was smoked in turn by each person until it had passed around the circle, whereupon the sachem explained the object of the assembly and each member expressed his opinion as to what should be done. It was considered dishonorable for any councilor to change his opinion after he had once committed himself.

It was the function of Wyandot government to protect rights and enforce the performance of duties. Rules of conduct were established by usage. Rights were classified as those of marriage, names, personal adornments, precedence in encampments and migrations, property, person, community and religion. Men and women were required to marry within the tribe, but marriage between members of the same gens was forbidden. Children belonged to the gens of the mother. Polygamy was permitted, the wives being of different gentes and the first wife remaining head of the household. Polyandry was forbidden. A man seeking a wife was obliged to consult her mother, who consulted the councilors of her gens. The marriage was usually consummated before the end of the moon in which the betrothal was arranged. For a time the newly wedded dwelt in the household of the bride's mother.

The names of children born during the year were selected and announced by the council women at the annual greencorn festival. Original names could not be changed, but additional ones might be acquired.

The methods of painting the face, and the ornaments worn, were distinctive of each clan.

The tribal camps were pitched in the form of an open circle or horseshoe, the gentes and households taking their places in regular order.

Lands were partitioned among the heads of households by the women councilors once in two years. The right of a gens to cultivate a particular tract was settled in tribal council. All the women of the gens took part in the cultivation of each household tract. The wigwam and its furniture belonged to the woman who was at the head of its household, and were inherited at her death by her eldest daughter or nearest female relative. On the death of the husband his property was inherited by his brother or his sister's son, except the articles buried with him. Personal freedom and exemption from personal injury except as an awarded punishment for crime, were assured to each individual.

Each gens was entitled to the services of all its women in the cultivation of the soil, and of all its men in avenging its wrongs. Each phratry had the right to

conduct certain religious ceremonies, and to prepare certain medicines. Each gens was exclusively entitled to the worship of its tutelar god, and each individual to the use of his own amulet.

The crimes recognized by the Wyandots were adultery, theft, maiming, murder, treason, and witchcraft. A maiden guilty of fornication was punished by her mother or guardian, but if the crime was flagrant and repeated it might be taken in hand by the council women of the gens. A woman guilty of adultery had her hair cropped for the first offense, and for its repetition had her left ear cut off.

Accusations of theft were tried before the council of the gens, from the decision of which there was no appeal. A defendant adjudged guilty was required to make twofold restitution. The crime of murder was tried before the offender's gens, but appeal might be had to the council of the tribe. If compensation was not made when guilt was found, the crime might be personally avenged.

Treason consisted in revealing the secrets of medicinal preparations, or giving other information or assistance to the enemies of the tribe. It was punished with death.

The charge of witchcraft was investigated by the grand council of the tribe, and when sustained incurred the penalty of death, but the accused might appeal from the adverse judgment of the council to the ordeal by fire. For this purpose a circular fire was built, and the accused was required to run through it from east to west, and from north to south. If he escaped injury he was deemed innocent; otherwise he was adjudged guilty.

An inveterate criminal might be declared an outlaw having no claim upon the protection of his clan. An outlaw of the lowest grade might be killed by any one who chose to take his life; outlawry of the highest grade made it a duty to kill the offender on sight.

The military management of the tribe was vested in a council composed of its ablebodied men, and a chief chosen from the Porcupines by the council. oners of war were either adopted into the tribe or killed. If adopted, it was necessary for the captive to become a member of some family. As a test of his courage the prisoner was required to run the gantlet. Should he behave manfully he would be claimed for adoption, but if disgracefully, he was put to death.

The institution of fellowhood was common among the Wyandots. According to this custom two young men would agree to unite in a perpetual covenant of friendship, by the terms of which each was bound to reveal to the other the secrets of his life, to give counsel to his fellow in matters of importance, to defend him from wrong or violence, and at death to be his chief mourner.

Indian migrations, by clans and confederacies, were frequent, and resulted in a series of wars by which entire tribes were sometimes exterminated. "After the destruction of the Eries in 1655," says General Force, "the tract now the State of Ohio was uninhabited until the next century. The nations known as Ohio Indians moved into it after 1700."8 Who were they, and whence did they come? General Harrison says," the tribes resident within the bounds of this State when the first white settlement commenced were the Wyandots, Miamis, Shawnees, Delawares, a remnant of the Moheigans, who had united themselves with the Delawares, and a band of the Ottawas." The migrations and conflicts in process of which the State became thus peopled constitute one of the most momentous episodes in Indian history, and cover an immense territorial field.