The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-09
The Passing of a Nation.
u few days & at Albany N. T.
a ceremony too place which
winds up the career of a ma

n few days ago at Albany, n. Y.
n a ceremony took place which
winds up the career of a ma
iona powerful nation. too. in its day.
The consisted in the surren-
der of the wampum belts. which were
once the insignia of the authority OF
the Iroquis nation and for a century
or more have been the cherished relics
OF the descendants Of those tribes.
They were handed over to the charge
of the board of regents of the Uni
versity of New York state To be pre-
served as perpetual memorials OF a
people whose name and fame have
passed into history.
The voluntary surrender of these
wampum belts is a virtual surrender
of the identity of the Iroquois as a
nation. Their power long since passed
away. but they ave retained a nomi-
nal organization which has become
weaker as the tribes have become more
civilized. But now that responsible
delegations from the remnants of these
tribes have given up their insignia Of
authority and power the history of the
nation of ~Iroquois Indians is closed.
Every school boy who has studied
United States history knows that the
~Iroquois nation was the most powerful
and highly organized body of Indians
existing north Of Mexico when this
country was first settled by the white
man. They are probably the only In
dians who then deserved the name of
xa,s1, rTIafr bona MN the uyaGtprn-
central counties of New York state, a
region well adapted to the wants of a
people exerting a commanding in
| fuence over a large number of ndian
tribes outside their own organization.
1t is high and healthful and the rivers
and lakes which drop down from IL in
nearly every direction made it easily
accessible when canoes were the chief
means of communication with the out
sid world. The power of the Iroquois
was not, however. restricted by the
territory occupied by the six tribes that
composed the nation. BY treaties and
by conquest they extended their in
fuence eastward into Massachusetts,,
southwark to the Mississippi river.
while the northern limit of their power
has never been well defined.
| Such a nation even of savage In
dams, says the Philadelphia Press.
could not help but leave its impress on
history. For a hundred years they
were one of the chief factors in the
settlement OF New York state by white
men and the barrier they presented to
western migration long held civiliza-
ton back. They compelled treaties
from the whites and made alliances
with the French. the English and the
Americans in the wars they waged with
each other. One of the indications of
the comparative stage of civilization
the Iroquois had reached was their use
of wampum, made from different
colored shells to denote its value as
money or its sacredness. The white
wampum was made from the conch or
periminkle and the black wampum
from the hard-shell clam. II was
ground into beads and strung on belts
and when used as money in 1910 six
beads passed for a penny and belts
varied in value from five shillings 10
ten shillings. In ratifying a treaty a
belt of wampum was given to bind each
article and on the beads were carved
arbitrary figures which formed a record
of the event. For this reason they are
one of the most unique relics on this
continent"
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