The sun., 1908-02-02

river that hears his name. They were there
years before and they are there now.
They and their kinsmen were in New
York long before Columbuss s grandfather
went a courtn', and ever since they have
stuck. In turn they have had French,
Dutch. English and American armies
hammering at their gates. not to speak
of the numerous Indian tribes that have
tried TO wipe them out. Legal proceed
ings, strategy, moral influence. subsidized
arguments and a hundred and ono other
methods have been tried against them. hut
still the Onondaga smiles in his native
haunts and battles the element which he
is pleased to call the white peril.
Ever since the advent of Hia-wa-tha,
the hero of the Iroquois. the national
records OF the Confederated Five Nations
have been preserved in The symbols woven
In belts of wampum. These belts the
various nations placed in the keeping of
the Onondaga council. which in turn desig-
mated an individual custodian, who, how
ever. had no authority to dispose OF them
or part with one unless the council con-
sented.
When white men came prQwling through
the hunting grounds of the Iroquois as
petitioners at the courts of the sachems of
0nOndaga they soon observed the wampum
customs of these people Of the forests and
began TO counterfeit the beads and also
weave belts as presents for the Indians.
The Indians we're pleased with the wam-
pun, bogus though it was. for it was like
tapping a new mine of inexhaustible re-
sources. Besides. the wampum which the
enterprising French explorers brought was
generally Of the proper quality and fpsssed
a. currency with the best native beads
and. by the way. wampumIis nothing more
or less than beads of purple clam shell
and white periwinkle cones.
The Dutch went the limit and sought to
initiate the beads in porcelain. But when
the burghers had driven a few sharp bar
gains and settled them with spurious beads
and had been made TO chew up a few and
swallow the rest the practice ceased
Wampum passed as currency among the
Colonial whites as late as i7l2 in New York
city, where a hand string was ferry fare
from New York to Brooklyn. And, by the
way. IL was then that the first 10 to none
tary scheme was invented. Beaver skins
we're bank bills and 10 -stuyvers" equalled
one beaver skin.
Since Colonial days the bushels of wam-
pun that were made and used have almost
entirely disappeared and the wonderful
belts which the Iroquois had passed ont Of
sight. A few that had been in the hands of
old families as records Of sales and like con-
tracts were soon sold at high sums. Col
lectors secured the Indian reservation
hoping to get belt for song. but they
failed. The Indians had got so many songs
from pale faced sharpers that they we're
tired Of dancing to the tunes.
Very few white men were aware that at
the oncndsga national Long House At every
session OF the confederated council the Iro-
quois read their wampums and refreshed
their minds with the wisdom OF the ancient
laws. nor did they know that some of these
belts were Of enormous size so large that
they were called carpets. nor did they know
that in lowly cabin a few miles from SYRIA
cuse reposed in an old satchel thousands Of
dollars worth of wampum.
After a while the Onondagas began 10
worry about the safety Of the wampums.
and when Mrs. Harriet Maxwell Converse.
whom they sffectionately called Yiewanoh
and made a sister and a chief Of the nations.
came out to Onondaga from her New York
city home the chiefs whispered their fear
TO her, and then began the scheme by which
the wampums were passed into tho keeping