The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-01
SACHEM DIES LIKE SACHEM.
ON Els FEET, IN HIS WAR BON
NET, ARMED WITH HIS WAR CLUB.
Failing Day, Head OF the SniDe Cian OF
the Senecas, Kept h Faith OF His
Fathers-Handed On . Tradition Of
WashIn etOn-BuFiRl Feast Next week.

Ou y HTtuluOu W
WashingtOn-BuriR Feast Next Week
Chancey Abrams; saohem Of the Snipe
clan Of the Seneca Indians, died on Monday
N the Tonawanda Reservation and was
hurled yesterday with the rites Of the tribe
Eis-Nya-Net, Falling Day, was his Indian
came, and az Falling Day he should be
known in death, for he G.ed a pagan. A
man OF education, we'll read, living and
dressing after the manner Of the whites,
he olung, as is right for a saohem TO the
god of his fathers. Most Of the Seneoas
nave listened to the missionaries OF one
tribe or another, but never Failing Day
who died Of a broken heart.
Last month his wife died; and Falling
Day wept himself into the grave. He
retired to his own house and mourned,
and presently he took to his bed. 1t was a
fortnight ago when that white man known
10 the Indians as Gyantwaka-"The Planter
a full member Of the tribe, went up to the
reservation on a visit. He heard that
Falling Day was eiok and went to visit
him. The other Pagan Indians Of the
tribe we're squatted about the room, watch
ing, and on a chair near the bed we're Falling
Days leggings, his bead belt, his war club,
his headdress, with the eagle feather at
LIS crest, all the paraphernalia Of a Snipe
saohem. To the eyes Of a Seneca this
showed two things. First, the old chief
expected death, and second, he was going
to die in the faith. For when a chief OF the
Senecas dies he faces it In war regalia
and on his feet.
1t was Monday morning when the white
physician who had attended him instead
OF a medicine man told the watchers that
the end had ome His two oldest friends
were waiting. They clasped on his legs
the leggings Of old time Government broad
cloth which had been his fathers; they
slipped his moccasins on his feet, his war
bonnet on his head; about his waist they
slipped the beh with beads woven in the
wool, and to it they hung his war club.
So they put his arms over their shoulders
and lifted him to his feet. A weary while
they waited, for he was a long time dying;
but at last he drew a long breath and his
head fell on his breast. He had faced
death like a chieftain.
For a sachem, his life was a peaceable one.
He was just a farmer, a power among his
people, and a good Indian, The traders
said that he was honest and straight, and
the mission people admitted 1t reluctantly,
for he rejected Christianity. He was a
grandson Of Chief Blacksmith, who saw
Washington on behalf of the Senecas and
to whom Washington promised a perpetual
which stands out among promises to the
Indians in that it was kept. Falling Day,
as a boy, used to sit on the knee of Black
smith and hear the tale Of the visit to WASH
ington. He has often repeated it to Planter
as his grandfather, an Indian of the old
school, told it in his grand eloquent Indian
speech
HE was a tall man and strong, with the
look of a chief. He stood before us. His
heart was good and his words were straight.
And he said:
"'You and your people shall lave the SO
lands of the white man forever. None
shall take them from you unless he onquers
the white man. AS long as the waters run
and the beavers build, as long as the leaves
fall and the eagle flies, as long as the grass
these lands belong to the Senecas."
When he was young Falling Day went to a
mission school and was educated. He
resisted conversion, but the learning he
kept, and he was fond Of reading, especially
history. He could write an intelligent
and interesting letter, and though he had
an Indians reserve, he talked delightfully."-
when the shell was broken. In later years
he became sachem Of the Snipe clan by
election of the women, for woman suf-
prevails dlncuB IN otItCdb 10 d ue- |
gree which would delight Susan b. An
thony. The ONE elect the sachem. 1t
is true that the council of men has the
right Of veto and can force the women to
make a second choice, but rarely does.
Falling Day was buried yesterday. No
news cam. out of the reservation about
it. but it must have beena simple ceremony,
because the ceremonial of a Seneca death
il not at the grave, but at the death feast, |
Lays later. The chief il. laid away in
his war regllia and with very little cere-
mony. A hole is drilled in the grave from
the body to the surface. for souls do strange
things sometimes, and the soul of he dead
NAV wish to revisit the body.
The great ceremonial observance is the
aAdia-Kow-Ha,' on the tenth day after
lowering about the earth, lingering near its
old haunts. watching everything, listening
to everything. But on the tenth day It
and in the feast the tribe bids it
For two or three days before
this feast runners of the Snipe clan will
the people OF the Wolf, the Deer, the Turtle,
the Heron, the Beaver and the Hawk.
They will assemble in he Long House Of
the Snipe people. Everything will be done
according 30 ancient ceremonial. The
women will enter from one door, the men
from another, They will eat corn bread
the meal is beaten out as their
mothers beat tin wooden mortars.
For although the Senecas live in modern
they go back to the old customs
at their ceremonial feasts. The people
wear any bits of the old dress which they
own, and the women of the clan work all
the day before with the pestles. The
are followed from the trunks Of
The bread of meal and beans is
boiled up in kettles and baked over the fire. |
They make, too, a soup of meal and beans.
this is ready when the guests arrive
seat themselves about the Long House. |
The last great death feast was held in |
1904, for Mrs. Harriet Maxwell
Converse, a white woman and an adopted
Of the tribe. She also was Of the
Snipe clan. She had died a year before. II \
prevents the feast on the tenth
day it is held one year after the death, |
the soul comes back once a year.
On this occasion the Toe was distributed
the mourners, and then Chester Lay, |
head man Of the Wolf clan and a friend Of
the dead, spoke her eulogy, and the Senecas |
wept, for they are a people of soft hearts.
crov, the preacher" Of his tribe, expounded
doctrine of Ga-Nia-Deio, the Seneca
and teacher, and others who had
her followed in the Seneca tongue.
the end the Snipe clan gave presents
10 the runners, the chief mourners, the
friends OF the dead and the women who
mad prepared the feast.
Something like this will be the death feast
Falling Day, known to the whites as