Oneida

“ One day there came to the peace-home two young chiefs—one from the Oneidas and the other from the Onondagas. Each claimed that his arrow had given the death stroke to a mighty buck they had been trailing in the forest. When they had tried their skill with weapons, agreeing that the most skillful should possess the slain animal, neither could gain advantage over the other. Then said the Onondaga: "I will fight thee, Oneida, and he who lives may carry to his village the mighty buck and the scalp-lock of his enemy." ”

“ The Seneca has put his foot in the trap. Then shall the Oneida and Onondaga and Cayuga and Mohawk rush after, that they too may put in their feet where they can get away only by gnawing off the bone? Shall the wise chiefs of the Long House run into fight like the dogs of their village? The Oneidas say no! The Senecas took up the hatchet; let them bury it where they can. And when the winter comes, the Oneidas will send them corn that they may not have another time of starving.”
Menard was watching the Oneida with eyes that fairly snapped. ”

“ Occasionally, the children in the village gaze, with a mixture of fear and wonder, upon a wandering Oneida, as he loiters in the streets, idle and drunken—a vagabond where his fathers were lords and rulers. ”

“ All should give thanks to Him at sunrise," said the runner quietly.
The brief meal ended, Tahoontowhee laid his sack for a pillow; the strange Oneida stretched out on the ground, laid his dusty head on it, and closed his eyes. The next moment he opened them and rose to his feet. The ceremony and hospitality devolving upon me had been formally and perfectly accomplished.
As I rose, free now to question him without losing dignity in his eyes, he slipped the pouch he wore around in front, where his heavy knife and hatchet hung, and drew from it some letters. ”

“ The Oneidas, so far, have been friendly. For God's sake, be careful what you do."
"Best parley quick then," returned Nick, "for I trust no Iroquois. You know his lingo. Speak to him."
I called across the stream to the Indian: "Who are you, brother? What is your nation and what is your clan, and what are you doing on the Sacandaga, with your face painted in black and yellow bars, and fresh oil on your limbs and lock?"
He said, in his quiet but distinct voice: "My nation is Oneida; my clan is the Tortoise; I am Tahioni. I am a young and inexperienced warrior. No scalp yet hangs from my girdle. ”

“ The Oneida has seen no maiden he would take to his wigwam till he beheld Genetaska, the Peace Queen."
Then said the Onondaga: "The home of the Onondaga is desolate since the plague robbed it of the loved ones. He is a great chief and has power in his tribe, for he was never defeated on the chase or in the contest. But the Peacemaker has made his heart weak, and he can never be strong again unless she will come to his wigwam." ”

“ I leaned from my saddle, holding his powerful hands in a close clasp.
"Little Otter! Is it you, my younger brother? Is it really you?" I repeated again and again, while his brilliant eyes seemed to devour my face, and his sinewy grip tightened spasmodically.
"What happiness, Onehda!" he said, in his softly sonorous Oneida dialect. "What happiness for the young men—and the sachems—and the women and children, too, Onehda. It is well that you return to us—to the few of us who are left. ”

“ Now show me the man!"
"He is here!" cried the excited Oneidas. "He wears the antlers!"
Tahioni stretched out his hand; it was trembling when he touched the red foot sewed on my hunting shirt.
"What is his name, O Thiohero, whom you have raised up among the Oneida? Who mourn a great man dead?"
A deep silence fell among them; for what their prophetess had done meant that she must have knowledge that a great man and chief among the Oneida lay dead somewhere at that very moment.
Slowly the girl turned her head from one to another; a veiled look drowned her gaze ”

“ Now, sir, as our allies the Oneidas dare not answer to a belt summons for federal council, there is no one who can discover for you the location of the trysting-spot, Thendara. I, however, am an Oneida councilor, having conformed to the law of descent by adoption; and having been raised up to ensign by the Wolf-Clan of the Oneida Nation, beg leave to place my poor services at your Excellency's disposal. There may be a chance that I return alive ”

“ Does he hesitate because he thinks the white warriors are strong enough to turn on him and drive him from his villages? This is not the speech that young warriors are taught to expect from the Long House. When has the Long House been guided by fear? No. If the Oneida is hungry, let him eat from the stores of the white man, at the house on the Lake. The Cayugas and Onondagas will draw their belts tighter, that the Oneida may be filled.”
The young chief looked defiantly around. There was a murmur from the outer circle, but the chiefs were grave and silent. ”

“ Chingachgook laid his hand on the scalp, and considered it for a moment with deep attention. Then dropping it, with disgust depicted in his strong features, he ejaculated:
"Oneida!"
"Oneida!" repeated the scout, who was fast losing his interest in the scene, in an apathy nearly assimilated to that of his red associates, but who now advanced in uncommon earnestness to regard the bloody badge. "By the Lord, if the Oneidas are outlying upon the trail, we shall by flanked by devils on every side of us! ”

“ The Oneidas were the granite people, sprung from a stone, and they, too, dwelt upon a hill, from which they could look far away through an extensive and fertile valley, on the borders of Oneida lake. The stone which was the rallying point of the people, is a great boulder, differing in geological formation from any within a hundred miles. In council, they came afterwards to be called the great tree people, from some occurrence in a treaty beneath a big tree. ”

“ They now meet every year at Oneida Castle, on the 6th of June, form a circle in Council Grove, every family by itself, and the agents of the government pay seven dollars to each of them, because they sold their land to the United States. The counties of Oneida and Madison comprise the former abode of the Oneidas, but they now live in this part of the country, having sold a portion of their land to the United States. Of all the tribes of the six nations, they were the only one who remained faithful to the Americans in the early wars. ”

“ Morris, "what value can they be to you as they now are, any further than the consciousness that you own them?"
"Yes," said Red Jacket, but this knowledge is everything to us. It raises us in our own estimation. It creates in our bosoms a proud feeling which elevates us as a nation. Observe the difference between the estimation in which a Seneca and an Oneida are held. We are courted, while the Oneidas are considered as a degraded people, fit only to make brooms and baskets. ”

“ I demanded passionately. "When the council sits at Thendara I shall send a belt to every clan in the Oneida nation, and I care not who knows it!"
He rose, pale and menacing. "Mr. Renault," he said, "do you understand that a word from you would be a treason to the King? You can be a clansman of the Wolf and at the same time be loyal to the King and to the Iroquois Confederacy; but you can not send a single string of wampum to the Oneidas and be either loyal to the Six Nations or to your King. The Oneidas are marked for punishment ”

“ But Sir John Johnson remained before Stanwix, and McCraw's riders gave the village wide berth, and on the 18th of August we set out for Varicks'.
Warned by our extreme outposts, we bore to the south, forced miles out of our course to avoid the Oneida country, where a terrific little war was raging. For the Senecas, Cayugas, a few Mohawks, and McCraw's renegade Tories, furious at the neutral and pacific attitude of the Oneidas towards our people, had suddenly fallen upon them, tooth and nail, vowing that the Oneida nation should perish from the earth for their treason to the Long House. ”

“ I could not help smiling at his national pride;—yet this is man: in every country and condition he is proud of his descent, and loves the race to which he belongs. This Oneida was a widow's son. He had sixteen acres of cleared land, which, with occasional assistance, he cultivated himself. When the produce was sold, he divided the proceeds with his mother, and then set out, and travelled until his funds were exhausted. He had just then returned from a tour to New York and Philadelphia, and had visited almost every city in the Union. ”

“ Oneida was incorporated in 1848, and had (1900) a population of 6,364.
The site of Canastote (signifying "Cluster of pines") was purchased (1810) by Reuben Perkins; the settlement was, however, due to the canal, and was incorporated in 1835. It has attained a population of about three thousand.—Ed.
[203] The Oneida Indians, one of the "five nations" of the Iroquois confederacy, lived east of the Onondaga, in the present Madison and Oneida counties. In 1788 they ceded their land to New York state, retaining a large reservation, which has been gradually disposed of for successive annuities. ”

“ And so high did the enthusiasm run that one man said, "As soon as we get able, we will put one on every house in Oneida." After Brother Requa left Oneida, he served one year as Agent of Lawrence University, and was specially engaged in raising an Indian Scholarship Fund. His appointments subsequently were: Janesville, Fond du Lac District, Oshkosh, Sheboygan Falls, Sheboygan, Brandon and Ripon. In March, 1865, his second year at Ripon, he went as a Delegate of the Christian Commission to the army. ”

“ From this rocky promontory the forest appeared unbroken, excepting the small spot cleared by his own hands, and seemed to lie beneath this rocky throne in tranquil loveliness. Here at his cottage, when at home, his wife cooked his frugal but delicious repast. The Oneida tribe of Indians made their main path to the Susquehanna Valley through the Valley of the Otego Creek, for the purpose of procuring their yearly supply of lead, which they used to carry away in abundance. ”

“ Something of Algonquin the Mohican taught me; and with it a little of the Huron tongue. And now for nearly a month every day I have learned a little from the Oneidas at Otsego—from the Oneida girl whose bridal dress you bought to give to me. Do you remember her? The maid called Drooping Wings?"
"Yes—but—I do not understand. To what end is all this? When and where is your knowledge of the Iroquois tongue likely to aid you?"
She gave me a curious, veiled look—then turned her face away.
"You do not dream of following our army, do you?" I demanded. "Not one woman would be permitted to go. ”

“ Abraham Le Fort says, that Ondiaka was the great chronicler of his tribe. He had often heard him speak of the traditions of his father. On his last journey to Oneida he accompanied him. As they passed south by Jamesville and Pompey, Ondiaka told him that in ancient times, and before they fixed down at Onondaga, they lived at these spots. That it was before the Five Nations had confederated; but while they kept up a separate existence, and fought with each other. They kept fighting and moving their villages often. This reduced their numbers, and kept them poor and in fear. ”

“ The three young men now stationed at Oneida, began to set before the natives an example of industry, and to use endeavours to promote in them a like disposition; but they, being unaccustomed to labour, and naturally averse to habits of industry, continued in their former pursuits. Friends then improved a piece of land, without assistance from the natives, hoping some of them would be induced to follow their example. They also repaired and worked a saw-mill, belonging to the Oneidas, and instructed several of the Indians in the knowledge of sawing. ”

“ They constituted a phratry of tribes and of sachems, by an extension of the principle which united gentes in a phratry. On the opposite side of the fire were the Oneida and Cayuga and at a later day the Tuscarora sachems. The tribes they represented were brother tribes to each other and son tribes to the opposite three. Their sachems also were brothers to each other, and sons of those in the opposite division. They formed a second tribal phratry. As the Oneidas were a subdivision of the Mohawks, and the Cayugas a subdivision of the Onondagas or Senecas, they were in reality junior tribes ”

“ They were considered an offshoot of the Onondagas, to whom they bore the same filial relation which the Oneidas bore to the Caniengas. 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 persuasion. They readily consented to come into the league, and their chief, Akahenyonk ("The Wary Spy") , joined the Canienga and Oneida representatives in a new embassy to the Onondagas. ”

“ But on that day, near the Onondaga village, they met their brother, Conowaga, from the army, who informed them that the General had already advanced as far as Kanasadagea, and had men enough—only wanting a few good guides. In consequence of this information, the Oneida warriors had turned back—transmitting, however, by him, an address to the General, interceding in behalf of a clan of the Cayugas, who, they declared, had always been friendly to the United States. ”