The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-08-17
AN AGED INDIANS COMMUNION


 And Other Touching Incidents of Spirit
 ual Life Among the Remnants of
 Heroic Tribe,
 My dear pr. Field: On a number of occasions in the last two years you have spoken kindly of persons and events among the Tuscaroras. The writer is the only one surviving to give account of an incident which he thinks will inn part no less impression to your readers than to himself. Let me say in begin ming that special interest on our part in the Tuscaroras In not misplaced. The remnant of that heroic tribe in the Carolinas escaped the extinction of the Catawbas and the Yemassees in their great conspiracy against the whites, yet rather than submit to their con querors forsook their homes and the graves and council fires of their fathers, and took up long and dangerous march across the mountains of what is now Virginia and Pennsylvania, and were received by the Five Nations as a confederate tribe, as tradition de- clared they had once before been. What is now Niagara county was assigned them by the Senecas as a home and there they have had their reservation since 1712, the time of their migration. This march for liberty has only been Cheyennes to the British boundary after their severe defeat in the dead of winter by the gallant and lamented Mackenzie. When a boy the writer has often heard the details of the wond- rous march from an aged Tuscarora as we sat fishing together along the rapids of the Niagara. He had them from his grandmother, who was a little girl of 12 at the time of the migration. It is a singular fact and ought not to be for gotten by us, that both in the Revo- lutionary war and in that of 1912 the Tuscaroras, though the weakest of the tribes, took part with us both against the British and their own confederacy and all the adroitness of Sir William Johnson and Brant could not change them The writer of these lines has some cause for special remembrance, for a Ettle band of Tuscaroras, under command of Col. Jacobs, father of Dea. Jacobs, so kindly mentioned by your self in recent article, saved my grand father, father and two uncles from massacre by the British Indians, when the attack was already made and they were without the defense of 8 single weapon. Joined by lifelong neigh | borhood to the tribe and by entire familiarity with it's members, young and old, it will not be wondered at that l should wish to give to your readers a xrir1cy ,1e die with me-
 | The church of Lewiston, of which had charge, was the nearest to the Tuscarora mission church, only three miles distant. After the missionary left, l was in the habit of visiting them for occasional Sabbath service, for the marrying of their young people and the l burial of their dead. l felt at home among them. for my fatherhad borne the brunt of frontier trails with their elder men in the strife of 1872; had been their legal adviser in matters with the state government and had myself in early years, roamed the great wilder ness with the young men, or fished with | them, by day and by night, along the great rapids. After an afternoon Sab bath, one of their chiefs, John Mount | pleasant, a man of most manly face and stature, said to me that his aged mother, infirn and blind, wished the church members to meet once more with her for observance of the ordi- nance of the Lords Supper, and asked me to lead in the observance. What followed will never leave me. On repairing to the house, the venerable woman sat in her place to receive us, and involuntary awe fell upon all. She was nearly 100 years old. Her thick hair of perfect silver fell loosely over her shoulders in marked contrast with the deep hue of her complexion. Her
 klrtle Of calico was confined with sil- Yer brooches, her skirt was of the finest blue broadcloth. while her feet were clad in the native moccasin, with the