Six Nations of the Grand River

“ Neither the life of Brandt nor that of Red Jacket does more than skim over the great question our author has proposed to discuss. Biography is not history: the narrative of a few land treaties is not the account of a nation’s glory. As the greatest people of the Indian race, and as the conquerors of the Alligewi, we feel an interest in dissipating the obscurity which attends the origin of the Six Nations. ”

“ Mastery among rival colonies is determined by the results of the struggle for the possession of rivers; this has been as clearly shown by the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi in America, as by the Niger and the Benuwe in Africa. The influence of riverways in furthering the path of political development may be best seen in the contrast between South America and Africa; the colonising movement came to the latter more than 300 years later than to the former continent.
Every river is a route followed by political power, and is therefore at the same time a point of attraction and line of direction. ”

“ They live within the Borders of Maryland, a Few about Conestogo, and some have settled this Spring at the Mouth of the River Skohooniaty or Jeniaty, which is a Creek that falls into the Susquehanna from the West beyond the Mountains.
Tutolo's originally lived in Virginia, there are but Few of them; they settled this Spring at Shamokin, (on the East Side of Susquehanna, just below the Forks) and are intirely devoted to the Six Nations.
[Pg viii]
The several Nations of Indians with whom the Six Nations or Iroquois are in Alliance ”

“ You are, said we aloud, that all our People might hear and take Notice, to know and remember, that the Six Nations have obliged themselves to sell none of the Land that falls within the Province of Pensilvania to any other but our Brother Onas, and that to sell Lands to any other is an high Breach of the League of Friendship. ”

“ Kerhawguegh Roanu, several Savage Nations, as their Names signify, (the People of the Wilderness) live on the North Side of Huron's Lake; they neither plant Corn, nor any thing else, but live altogether upon Flesh, Fish, Roots and Herbs; an infinite Number of People, of late become Allies to the Iroquois.
Thus far proceeds Conrad Weiser's Account.
The Six Nations, as was observed above, border upon the Provinces of Pensilvania and New-York: The Rest, which are mentioned as their Dependents and Allies, lie near the French Settlements, some amidst, and some beyond them. ”

“ But though unwilling to unite, it was with jealous and angry eyes that they watched the white men cross the Ohio. The year 1790 found the western tribes ablaze with passion and again on the war-path against the United States. The Shawnees, Potawatomis, and Miamis were the leaders of the revolt. An expedition under General Harmar marched against them, but it was defeated with great loss. The Six Nations were the next in arms, and fell without mercy on the settlements by the Alleghany river. ”

“ Toward none of the Indian tribes have overtures of friendship been spared. The Creeks in particular are covered from encroachment by the interposition of the General Government and that of Georgia. From a desire also to remove the discontents of the Six Nations, a settlement meditated at Presque Isle, on Lake Erie, has been suspended, and an agent is now endeavoring to rectify any misconception into which they may have fallen. ”

“ She dispatched two runners to assemble the people at Kauquatkay the Queen too sends an ambassy to form an alliance with the Naywaunaukauraunah, a savage tribe encamped on the lake Erie, to unite against the Five Nations. During the absence of the Queen from the fort Kauhanauka, a woman went privately and took a canoe and proceeded on the lake Ontario, towards Canandaigua, as fast as possible ”

“ They bowed their heads, saying:
“We will hear the words of the great prophet.”
“For many, many moons,” continued Mahaska, “the Six Nations have been friends with the French; they have aided them in their wars, and have given their young men to die for them; they have helped them to preserve power and dominion to which they had no right. ”

“ A Nation of Indians living on the West Side of the Lake Erie, and along the Streights of Huron's Lake. They are called by the Iroquois, Unighkellyiakon; consisting of about Thirty Towns, each of about 200 Fighting Men.
2. The second Nation lives among the preceeding, called —— consisting of Four Towns of their own People, and 400 able Men in all.
3. The third Nation called by the Iroquois, Tshisagech Roanu, [7] lives on the East Side of the Huron's Lake; several of the Council have been there, and all agree they have Three large Towns of 600, 800, and 1000 able Men. ”

“ Canadian statesmanship thereupon set itself to transform geography, and to divert the course of trade in order to make the Union a reality. The Intercolonial Railway, the Canadian Pacific, the Grand Trunk Pacific, the proposed Hudson Bay Railway, and the Georgian Bay Canal schemes, all these have been deliberate instruments of policy, aiming, first of all, at bridging the wilderness between practically isolated settlements scattered across a continent, and creating a continuous Canada, east and west ”

“ But when a people has advanced to a higher conception of colonization as an outlet for national as well as commercial expansion, and when it sees that the permanent prosperity of both race and trade in the new locality depends upon the occupation of larger tracts of territory and the development of local resources as a basis for exchanges, their settlements spread from the outer rim of the coasts to its inner edge and yet beyond, if alluvial plains and river highways are present to tempt inland expansion. ”

“ In Asia the weakness of China was but dimly surmised; and Siam and Cochin China alone offered any field for settlement or conquest by European peoples from the sea. In Polynesia several groups of islands were still unclaimed; but these could not appease the land-hunger of Europe. Africa alone provided void spaces proportionate to the needs and ambitions of the white man. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 served to bring the east coast of that continent within easy reach of Europe; and the discoveries on the Upper Nile, Congo, and Niger opened a way into other large parts. ”

“ The need of protection felt by all colonists in new countries amid savage or barbarous people whom encroachment sooner or later makes hostile, leads them if possible to place their first trading posts and settlements on river islands, especially at the mouth of the streams, where a delta often affords the site required, and where the junction of ocean and river highway offers the best facilities for trade. ”

“ In almost every transaction they have had with the Six Nations during the course of the last two years, there has appeared a duplicity and inconsistency, on which it is impossible to put a liberal construction. ”

“ The Six Nations, in the present critical situation of affairs with their western brethren, ought to be exceedingly cautious how they involve themselves either one way or another. Great Britain is at peace with the United States, and it is therefore anxiously wished that her friends, the Indians in general, should be so likewise ”

“ No person will be admitted to a seat in the Convention, who would introduce the subject of Emigration to the Eastern Hemisphere—either to Asia, Africa, or Europe—as our object and determination are to consider our claims to the West Indies, Central and South America, and the Canadas. ”

“ To some extent, then, the colonial growth of France is artificial; at least, it is not based on the imperious need which drives forth the surplus population of Great Britain and Germany. Nevertheless, so far as governmental energy and organising skill can make colonies successful, the French possessions in West Africa, Indo-China, Madagascar, and the Pacific, have certainly justified their existence [453] . No longer do we hear the old joke that a French colonial settlement consists of a dozen officials, a restaurateur, and a hair-dresser. ”

“ This territory is more than fifteen hundred leagues in length, lying between the same parallels of latitude as our own France. It is watered by one of the finest rivers in the world, into which empty many tributaries more than four hundred leagues in length, beautifying a country inhabited by a vast number of tribes. Some of them are sedentary in their mode of life, possessing, like the Muscovites, towns and villages built of wood; others are nomadic hunters and fishermen, all longing to welcome the French and religious fathers, that they may be instructed in our faith. ”

“ Article 26 Indigenous peoples have the right to own, develop, control and use the lands and territories, including the total environment of the lands, air, waters, coastal seas, sea-ice, flora and fauna and other resources which they have traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or used. This includes the right to the full recognition of their laws, traditions and customs, land-tenure systems and institutions for the development and management of resources, and the right to effective measures by States to prevent any interference with, alienation of or encroachment upon these rights. ”

“ There are territories, such as South-West Africa and certain of the South Pacific Islands, which, owing to the sparseness of their population, or their small size, or their remoteness from the centres of civilisation, or their geographical contiguity to the territory of the Mandatory, and other circumstances, can be best administered under the laws of the Mandatory as integral portions of its territory, subject to the safeguards above mentioned in the interests of the indigenous population. ”

“ The United States, after recovering from the Civil War and completing their work of internal development, enter the lists as a colonising Power, and drive forth Spain from two of her historic possessions. Strife becomes keen over the islands of the Pacific. Australia seeks to lay hands on New Guinea, and the European Powers enter into hot discussions over Madagascar, the Carolines, Samoa, and many other isles. ”

“ They claim the entire coast, from that river to Beaubassin, and from Canso to Gaspe, in order to render themselves sovereigns of all the territory of the Abenakis, Catholics and subjects of the king, a nation that has never acknowledged nor wishes to acknowledge their domination and which is the most faithful to us in Canada. ”

“ Without reference to the Far West, or the Far North-West,—without regard to the Red River and Assiniboia or to British Columbia, there is before us the great fact, that out of the Canadas, and the British North American Provinces and dependencies, can be created a powerful Confederation attached to this country, and capable of the grandest development in spite of climatic influences. ”

“ How is it, as I have already observed, that all the colonies founded by other nations, either languish or have been swept away,—not all, perhaps, as yet, but the major portion of them; while every colony founded by our little island appears to flourish, till it becomes so powerful as not only no longer to require the nursing of the mother country, but to throw off its dependence, and become a nation of itself? How is it that it can so truly be said that the sun never sets upon the English flag? ”

“ The possibilities of the material development of the Dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa—without counting India and the lesser colonies—on account of their immense natural resources, are such as to justify very great hopes for their future. The time will come when they will number together a much [250] larger population than the United Kingdom. ”

“ This strengthens the nation positively by enlarging its geographic base, and negatively by forcing back the boundaries of its neighbors. The expansion of the Thirteen Colonies from the Atlantic slope to the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes by the treaty concluding the Revolution was a strong guarantee of the survival of the young Republic against future aggressions either of England or Spain, though it exchanged the scientific or protecting boundary of the Appalachian Mountains for the unscientific and exposed boundary of a river. ”

“ Canada will belong to the sturdy races of the North-Saxon and Celt, Scandinavian, Dane and Northern German, fighting their way under conditions sometimes rather more severe than those to which they have been accustomed in their old homes. Selection implies less rapid increment; quality is balanced against quantity.
The obstacles to rapid growth which Canada finds {206} in northern cold Australia meets with in southern heat, in a continental configuration which deprives the country of an adequate river system, and in isolation from European centres of emigration. ”

“ Only among savages or among civilized people who have temporarily reverted to primitive conditions in virgin colonial lands, do we find genuine riverine folk, whose existence is closely restricted to their bordering streams. The river tribes of the Congo occupy the banks or the larger islands, while the land only three or four miles back from the stream is held by different tribes with whom the riverine people trade their fish. The latter are expert fishermen and navigators, and good agriculturists, raising a variety of fruits and vegetables. ”