The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1894-07-24
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS,

-
The Iroguois of the Grand River
tory.
IIarper's Weekly.
Within the last decade public inter-
est in the North American Indians has
undergone a revival, whether induced
by the fact that the red man is making
q final and powerful effort to obtain q
hearing of his wrongs and emphasiz-
ing this endeavor by frequent blood
shed in tho far West, or whether by
the removal and assidous application of
ethnolOgists and archaeologists to In
dian subjects, it is difficult to decide.
The latter may we'll direct their atten-
tion TO the investigation and study of
this probably most romantic and poct-
ic people tho world has ever known.
for the day is wellnigh dead for tho pu-
rity of ceremonial .itcs, folklore, and
tradition amongst their many hundred
nations, for civilization md intermar-
rlagc are adulterating those exclusive
tribal ordinances that for many ccntu-
ries have been the stronghold of q most
conservative race.
With the exception of Finland, the
country is unknown that possesses such
wealth of folklore Us America. There
are mines of unchronicled legends and
superstitionS, each colored by tribal
distinctions, that scholars will never
unearth, and that will perish with the
people whose blood grows annually
thinner n paler as their prairies re-
COVE the white mans footprint" as
their rivers ripple to the dip of his oar,
as their forests fall at the hurting OF
his axe, and who will themselves be
but Il tradition and q memory in the
lapse OF q century or so.
Probably the nos famous and we'll
known Indian nation, both on the pages
of history and in the press &C today, is
the lroquois, hat magnificent people
whose name was synonymous with war,
blood, and bravery throughout tho sew
enteenth and eighteenth centuries, and
whose descendants still possess much
OF the fire and all of the exclusive birth
rights OF tradition SO jealousy treas
med by their ancestors.
The six distinct tribes that compose
the lroquois nation, being the Mohawk,
Cayuga, Onondaga, Scnaca, Oneida,
and Iuscarora, have since the Ameri-
can War OF independence been perma-
nontly settled in southwestern Ontario.
When, under the g~eneralship of Cap
tain Joseph Brant, these people allied
their forces with the British, and loft
in the Mohawk Valley q precarious
livelihood that had been riddled and
c~heckered by the numerous wars of tho
colonists, the imperial government al
loted them q reserve grant which com
prised the land lying within six miles
on either side of the Grand River, from
its source to it's mouth.
At that period these we're hunting
and fishing grounds unequalled in tho
country; but q century of insidious in
roads made by white settlers, of q civ
ilzatlon not always wisely conducted,
has despoiled tho Iroquois OF his game,
MS national glory and hardihood, and
the greater portion of his real estate,
inasmuch as the reserve has dwindled
and shrunken into q comparative dot
OF land that embraces but SO, 900 acres
OF n least value along tho entire
course of tho liver. In carly times
much OF this land slipped out of the
Indians possession in an unrecorded
manner; but after a season, when in
coming whites were settling the coun-
try, the demand for river lands in south
ern Upper Canada grew urgent, and
the lroquos were induced to surrender
their reserve bit after bit, until now,
In lieu OF their orstwhile real estate,
they have deposited with the Dominion
government upwards OF eight hundred
thousand dollars, the interest on which
they draw biannually individually, tho
amount varying in accordance with the
expenditure they make on public works
within their own reserve.
The history Of the Iroquos is unques-
tlonably the most interesting of the
myriad native tribes in the Americas
from the time Of the formation of the
great Iroquois Confederacy, more than
-four hundred years ago, down to the
present day. OF this mighty alliance
that terrorized the entire continent
north Of Mexico, and which was origi-
nally cemcnted together by "the ifty
great chiefs Of the fifty noble families
under the leadership of Hiawatha, who
framed that confederacy," Mr.. Horatio
Hale writes: "During the American
Wa Of In~depedence, this confederacy,
in the clash OF stronger forces, was for
a time broken up. The government for
which they fought gave them lands
along the Grand River, and here Just q
hundred years ago they re-establiishod
their league and rekindled its council
fires. Tho laws and policies framed
by Hiawatha and his associates more
than four centuries ago are still in
force among their descendants In this |
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