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The John Jon ліст Расаб Samuel Chas &

Richard Henry Lee
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Benj Hamsony

Richard Bland

Maryland

Virginia.

Virginia concluded

dward Butledge

South Carolina

GREAT IROQUOIS GATHERING.

At ten o'clock A. M., October 9, a curious gathering of people assembled at the rooms of the historical society, corner of Main and Court streets, Buffalo. There were Indians in native costume and in dress half modern; and there were white men and women, among whom were many of Buffalo's most prominent citizens. They had met to bury Red Jacket and contemporary chiefs at Forest Lawn cemetery.

The bearers took places around the caskets containing the bones of their old chiefs, and after a few words of instruction bore them down stairs, singing a low dirge as they walked. At the curbstone on Court street six hearses were waiting to receive the caskets. It was a novel sight-the Indians in feathers, paint, bright ornaments and costumes, with heads bowed, carrying between them the remains of their celebrated chiefs.

Several of the Indians carried tomahawks, and many wore buckskin coats, leggins and moccasins. When the hearses had received the caskets the bearers were placed in carriages. The funeral cortege formed in double line, with the head resting on Pearl street. Delegates, invited guests, and members o the historical society took carriages, and the procession moved off. A large crowd had gathered around the entrance to the rooms, and many people looked on from private carriages. When the procession had passed, the latter fell in at the rear and followed to Forest Lawn. The cortege numbered over sixty carriages, besides the hearses, and drove in double file down Pearl street and up Main, past the home of President William D. Forbes, who was prevented from attending by illness.

The procession turned into Delaware avenue through Virginia street, and arrived at Forest Lawn about ten o'clock. There, on the right of the roadway from the entrance, in a conspicuous location, the foundation for the Red Jacket monument had been built. Over it the platform for the ceremonies stood, and above it waved the American flag. In front of the platform were six open graves. The hearers backed up to the side of the roadway, and the delegates and distinguished visitors took places on the platform.

Chiefs Levi Jonathan, an Onondaga; Benjamin Carpenter, a Cayuga; Henry Clink, an Oneida; John Fraser, a Mohawk; Moses Hill, a Tuscarora ; and Andrew Snow, a Seneca, then gathered as bearers around the hearse containing Red Jacket's remains. They had been selected as a council, and represented the Six Nations, one from each great tribe, in the order in which they occupied the "Longhouse." They are leading men in their tribes. Chiefs John Buck, an Onondaga; Joseph Porter, an Oneida; Thomas Isaac, a Tuscarora; and Peter Powless, a Mohawk, the bearers of Destroy Town, took places in the rear of the hearse containing that chief's bones. The other bearers did the sameDavid Hill, John Hill, the Rev. Z. L. Jemison, Senecas; and Robert David, a Cayuga, for Young Chief's casket; Thomas Lay, Silver Smith, William Jones and John Jacket, all Senecas, for Little Billy's coffin; and Nicholas Parker, a Seneca; John Mountpleasant, a Tuscarora; Thomas David and Thomas Jemison, Cayugas, for the bones of Tall Peter.

At a signal from undertaker Farwell, the bearers walked slowly to the graves, placed the caskets on rests, and took places on the platform. The gathering there was a notable one. Among the persons who sat on the platform were: General Ely S. Parker, or Do-ne-ho-ga-wa, the "Open door," head chief of the Senecas, now of New York City, and his wife; the Rev. L. Jemison, Ska-oh-ya-dih, ''Beyond the sky." of Cattaraugus Reservation; John Jacket, Sno-gyo-aja-ach, "The whole earth," Plover tribe of Senecas, and a grandson of the distinguished orator and chief; Moses Stephenson, An-o-wah-nay-or, ''Broad path," Cattaraugus; William Jones, Tho-na-so-wah, “Big sand, or large sand," Seneca; Mary A. J. Jones, Jo-on-do-oh, "It has put the tree again into the water," Seneca, a great-granddaughter of Red Jacket; Abby Jacket, Oh-no-syo-dyno, “It has thrown away the house," Seneca, a granddaughter of Red Jacket; Sarah Jacket, O-ge-jo-dyno, "It has thrown away the corn tassel," Seneca; Irene Jones,

Gan-yah-was, "It sifts the skies;" Benjamin Carpenter, De-ska-he, "More than eleven," Cayuga; John Frasier, A-sta-wen-ser-on-ha, "Ratler," Mohawk; Joseph Porter, Or-on-ya-de-ka, "Bunrning sky," Oneida; Henry Church, Kanowaga, "Corn cob," Oneida; Levi Jonathan, Kadagwaji, "Well bruised." Onondaga; Peter Powless, La-de-ka-ri-wa-de, "Two stories alike," Mohawk; Moses Hill, Tgo-gwa-wa-ken, "Holding company," Tuscarora; John Buck, Ska-na-wa-da, "Beyond the swamp," Onondaga; James Jemison, Oeyo-no-do-gen, "Between the mountains," Cayuga; John Hill, Seneca ; William Nephew, So-noh-yoh-wah, Seneca; Robert David, Sa-ko-ye-wa-tha, "Keeper awake," Cayuga; Andrew Snow, Te-sen-e-doh, Seneca ; Josiah Hill, Sa-ko-ka-ryes, "He bites them;" Lieutenant-Colonel Gilkison, superintendent and commissioner of the Grand River reserve, Ontario; John Jacket, Shogyo-a-ja-ach, or Holding up our Earth," a grandson of Red Jacket; the Rev. L. A. Lambert, of Waterloo, who wrote the reply to Robert G. Ingersoll; Chester A. Lay, Ho-do-an-jiah, "Bearing the Earth, the government interpreter of the Senecas; Mr. Norman Seymour, secretary of the Livingston county Historical society; the Rev. Walter Anthony, She-qua-qk-nind, a Delaware Indian from the Grand River reserve; Little Willie Red Jacket Jones, Sho-gyo-a-ja-ach, "Holding up our Earth," of the Turtle clan, a great-grandson of Red Jacket; Miss Jessie Osborne, a Mohawk, great-granddaughter of Captain Brant; Isaac T. Parker of Batavia, Da-jis-ta-ga-na,'' Watching the Council fire," a printer, and nephew of General Parker; Major F. H. Furniss, Crystal Springs, an Indian antiquarian; George S. Conover, Indian historian, Geneva, N. Y.; Mrs. Maris B. Pierce, widow of Chief Pierce of the Senecas; Mrs. Laura N. Wright, widow of the noted missionary, who has lived fifty-one years with the Indians; Mrs. Harriet Maxwell Converse, of New York, daughter of the Indian teacher and writer; Mr. Daniel McMillan, from the Genesee valley, now eighty-two years of age, and father of Daniel H. McMillan, Esq. of Buffalo; the Misses Johnson, daughters of the late Chief Johnson of Brantford, Ont.; John Mountpleasant, Dah-gah-yah-dent, "Falling Woods," chief-sachem of the Tuscaroras; Mrs. John Mountpleasant, Ge-goh-sa-seh, or “Wildcat," only sister of General Parker, and others— members of the historical society and other guests.

The Rev. Zachariah Jemison, a Seneca and a Presbyterian clergyman, tall, straight and over eighty years of age, offered prayer in his native tongue. His voice was earnest, and touched all by its pathetic tones, though none but the Indians understood. W. C. Bryant, Esq. of Buffalo, an adopted Iroquois, then delivered the following address :

FRIENDS AND BRETHREN-The clamor of contending parties in a great political contest is calculated to absorb public attention to the exclusion of subjects of an ideal, historic or sentimental character. Amid the din and uproar of this strife for the spoils and honors of office, how few have eye or ear to per. ceive the pathos, the mournful significance of a scene like this; we are here to bury the aboriginal lords of the domain in which we dwell, and which is now all our own. They met our pioneer fathers in amity and divided with them their slender store of corn and venison. They freely shed their blood for us on this frontier in the second war for independence. They are now nearly all wasted away, and the once proud and war-like Senecas will soon be classed with the tribes and races of men that were, but shall be no more. Their history, and that of their kindred and confederate tribes, composing the Iroquois, or Six Nations, is inextricably interwoven with our earlier annals. They constituted the most gifted and powerful members of the American aboriginal family. For generations they formed an impregnable barrier against the restless, daring and ambitious designs of the French. Their fidelity and valor largely determined the destinies of a continent.

At the period of the breaking out of hostilities in the Revolutionary war, the Senecas had reached the highest state of tranquility and happiness which a savage race can be permitted to attain. The bulk of their population dwelt in the valley of the Genesee and on the shores of the contiguous lakes. The conditions here were exceedingly favorable to the growth of a vigorous race, even under the disadvantages and limitations incident to the hunter state. At the most favorable position in the temperate zone, with a climate equable and bracing ; a land of billowy hills and blossomy vales, drained by a river whose annual overflow enriched broad belts of natural clearing that in the autumn exulted in luxuriant harvests of golden maize; a river which, with a short portage to the Ohio, gave the flotillas of birchen canoes access to the heart of a continent; diversified by sunless forests and wide stretches of cloud-flecked prairies, or oak openings, whose solitude was enlivened by herds of deer and elk; spangled by lakes whose crystal depths