Canasatego Forgotten Founding Father

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Canasatego. An Onondaga chief who played an important role in the proceedings of the council at Philadelphia in 1742. A dispute arose between the Delaware Indians and the government of Pennsylvania concerning a tract of land in the forks of Delaware. It was on this occasion, evidently in accordance with a preconcerted arrangement between the governor of Pennsylvania and the Iroquois chief, that the latter, addressing the Delawares, made the memorable statement: “How came you to take upon you to sell land at all? We conquered you; we made women of you; you know you are women, and can no more sell land than women. We charge you to remove instantly; we don t give you liberty to think of it.” The choice of Wyoming and Shamokin was granted, and the Delawares yielded. Little more is recorded regarding this chief. His son, Hans Jacob, resided on the Ohio in 1758. Source

Native American Contributions to the Constitution

The Great Peace Maker, Deganawodah, appeared as a ‘Heavenly Messenger’ in the eastern forests to the Iroquois Confederacy, a league of nations held together by the sacred teachings of this Holy Man. Benjamin Franklin first learned about these five nations in accounts from the proceedings of the Treaty of Lancaster (PA) in 1744. When the delegates from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia fell apart in quarrels among themselves, a great Indian Chief by the name of Canasatego ran out of patience. He scolded the colonial delegates for their lack of wisdom and ignorance of good procedures. Ben Franklin then caught an intimation of what made these peoples government work — a religion-based constitution, which he held up in a series of pamphlets as the world’s only available model for a confederation of thirteen contentious colonies. –Source: God of War, Gods of Peace, Russell Bourne, p91-92, 2002 Brief Video

Canasatego a Prominent Diplomat

Canassatego (c. 1684–1750) was a leader of the Onondaga nation who became a prominent diplomat and spokesman of the Iroquois Confederacy in the 1740s. He was involved in several controversial land sales to colonial British officials. He is now best known for a speech he gave at the 1744 Treaty of Lancaster, where he recommended that the British colonies emulate the Iroquois by forming a confederacy. He was reportedly assassinated, perhaps by sympathizers or agents of New France.
Early career
Canassatego appears in British historical documents only during the last eight years of his life, and so little is known of his early life. His earliest documented appearance is at a treaty conference in Philadelphia in 1742, where he was a spokesman for the Onondaga people, one of the six nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) League. According to most modern scholars, Canassatego did not appear to be one of the fourteen Onondaga hereditary sachems who sat on the Iroquois Grand Council.But Johansen disagrees, saying that Canassatego held the League title of Tadadaho.

This map shows Pennsylvania’s land purchases from Native Americans. Canassatego had a role in the 1736 and 1749 sales, although the Iroquois League nations had a questionable claim to those lands.


In the 1730s, a faction of Iroquois leaders opened a diplomatic relationship with the British Province of Pennsylvania, facilitated by Conrad Weiser, Pennsylvania’s interpreter and agent. Pennsylvania agreed to recognize the Iroquois as the owner of all Indian lands in Pennsylvania; the Iroquois, in turn, agreed to sell lands only to Pennsylvania representatives. Canassatego probably attended a 1736 treaty where some Iroquois chiefs sold land along the Susquehanna River to Pennsylvania, although the territory had traditionally been occupied by the Lenape people.[6

Canassatego served as the speaker for the Onondaga at another conference in 1742, where the Iroquois chiefs collected the final payment for the 1736 land sale. At this meeting, Canassatego managed to convince Governor Thomas Penn to pay more than the original purchase price. Penn, for his part, urged Canassatego to remove the Delaware Indians from what was known as the Walking Purchase of 1737, which was quite controversial. Canassatego complied, berating the Delawares as “women” who had no right to sell land, and ordering them to leave. “You are women; take the Advice of a Wise Man and remove immediately”, he told the Delaware. The Iroquois denigration of the Delaware as “women” has been the subject of much scholarly writing.

Lancaster treaty

In 1744, Canassatego served as a speaker at meetings to negotiate the Treaty of Lancaster. Witham Marshe, a Marylander in attendance, recorded the only written description of Canassatego:

The first of these sachems (or chiefs) was a tall, wellmade man; had a very full chest, and brawny limbs. He had a manly countenance, mixed with a good-natured smile. He was about 60 years of age; very active, strong, and had a surprising liveliness in his speech, which I observed in the discourse betwixt him, Mr. Weiser, and some of the sachems.

At the treaty conference were representatives of five of the Iroquois nations (except the Mohawk, the easternmost tribe), and the provinces of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. With King George’s War underway, the British colonies needed to cultivate a good relationship with their Iroquois neighbors, who might otherwise become French allies. After a speech by Canassatego, officials from Maryland and Virginia agreed to pay the Iroquois for land in their colonies, although they believed that the Iroquois had no legitimate claim to those lands. Virginia got the better part of the deal, however: although Canassatego and other Iroquois leaders believed that they had sold only the Shenandoah Valley to Virginia, the official deed gave Virginia much more land than that.

Near the end of the conference, Canassatego gave the colonists some advice:

We have one thing further to say, and that is We heartily recommend Union and a Good Agreement between you our Brethren. Never disagree, but preserve a strict Friendship for one another, and thereby you as well as we will become the Stronger.

Our wise Forefathers established Union and Amity between the Five Nations; this has made us formidable, this has given us great weight and Authority with our Neighboring Nations.

We are a powerful confederacy, and, by your observing the same Methods our wise Forefathers have taken, you will acquire fresh Strength and Power; therefore, whatever befalls you, never fall out with one another.

Canassatego was concerned that the British colonies lacked a coordinated policy to deal with the military threat coming from New France. He made similar recommendations about colonial unity at another conference in 1745. His words became a central part of the Iroquois Influence Thesis, the controversial proposal that the Iroquois League was a model for the United States Constitution.

Final years

Canassatego’s final appearance at a treaty conference was in August 1749, one year after the end of King George’s War. In Philadelphia, he complained that colonists were settling on Native land along the Susquehanna River. He agreed to sell this land to Pennsylvania, but once again, the written document ceded much more land than what had been agreed upon in negotiations.

Canassatego was reportedly assassinated with poison in September 1750. Contemporary accounts that were recorded said that he was killed for taking bribes in exchange for selling tribal communal lands. Another said that he had been poisoned by agents of New France. Historian William Starna argued that Canassatego was probably assassinated by pro-French Iroquois who wanted to repudiate Canassatego’s diplomatic ties with Pennsylvania.

Legacy

A fictional version of Canasatego was featured in the 1755 novel Lydia: or Filial Piety, by English writer John Shebbeare. Following a literary convention by which Native American characters were used to satirize Europeans, Canassatego was portrayed as wise and honest, in stark contrast to the scheming Englishmen he encounters.

The US Navy named the USS Canassatego (YN-38/YNT-6/YTM-732), a harbor tug, for Canasatego. Wikepedia

Senator Mike Lee:

Utah Senator Mike Lee published a book titled “Written out of History, The Forgotten Founders Who Fought Big Government”. It contains an enitre chapter about the importance of Canesetego as one who assisted the US government in creating a similar style of government as the Iroquois Confederacy already had.

Iroquois Confederacy Culture

Simply put, the Iroquois were the most important native group in North American history. Culturally, however, there was little to distinguish them from their Iroquian-speaking neighbors. All had matrilineal social structures – the women owned all property and determined kinship. The individual Iroquois tribes were divided into three clans, turtle, bear, and wolf – each headed by the clan mother. The Seneca were like the Huron tribes and had eight (the five additional being the crane, snipe, hawk, beaver, and deer). After marriage, a man moved into his wife’s longhouse, and their children became members of her clan. Iroquois villages were generally fortified and large. The distinctive, communal longhouses of the different clans could be over 200′ in length and were built about a framework covered with elm bark, the Iroquois’ material of choice for all manner of things. Villages were permanent in the sense they were moved only for defensive purposes or when the soil became exhausted (about every twenty years).

Iroquois ConfederacyLeaders from five Iroquois nations (Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca) assembled around Dekanawidah c. 1570, French engraving, early 18th century.From Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880-1881, edited by J.W. Powell, 1883

Agriculture provided most of the Iroquois diet. Corn, beans, and squash were known as “deohako” or “life supporters.” Their importance to the Iroquois was clearly demonstrated by the six annual agricultural festivals held with prayers of gratitude for their harvests. The women owned and tended the fields under the supervision of the clan mother. Men usually left the village in the fall for the annual hunt and returned about midwinter. Spring was fishing season. Other than clearing fields and building villages, the primary occupation of the men was warfare. Warriors wore their hair in a distinctive scalplock (Mohawk of course), although other styles became common later. While the men carefully removed all facial and body hair, women wore theirs long. Tattoos were common for both sexes. Torture and ritual cannibalism were some of the ugly traits of the Iroquois, but these were shared with several other tribes east of the Mississippi. The False Face society was an Iroquois healing group which utilized grotesque wooden masks to frighten the evil spirts believed to cause illness.

It was the Iroquois political system, however, that made them unique, and because of it, they dominated the first 200-years of colonial history in both Canada and the United States. Strangely enough, there were never that many of them, and the enemies they defeated in war were often twice their size. Although much has been made of their Dutch firearms, the Iroquois prevailed because of their unity, sense of purpose, and superior political organization. Since the Iroquois League was formed prior to any contact, it owed nothing to European influence. Proper credit is seldom given, but the reverse was actually true. Rather than learning political sophistication from Europeans, Europeans learned from the Iroquois, and the League, with its elaborate system of checks, balances,, and supreme law, almost certainly influenced the American Articles of Confederation and Constitution.

The Iroquois were farmers whose leaders were chosen by their women – rather unusual for warlike conquerors. Founded to maintain peace and resolve disputes between its members, the League’s primary law was the Kainerekowa, the Great Law of Peace which simply stated Iroquois should not kill each other. The League’s organization was prescribed by a written constitution based on 114 wampums and reinforced by a funeral rite known as the “Condolence” – shared mourning at the passing of sachems from the member tribes. The council was composed of 50 male sachems known variously as lords, or peace chiefs. Each tribe’s representation was set: Onondaga 14; Cayuga 10; Oneida 9; Mohawk 9; and Seneca 8. Nominated by the tribal clan mothers (who had almost complete power in their selection), Iroquois sachemships were usually held for life, although they could be removed for misconduct or incompetence. The emblem of their office was the deer antler head dress, and guided by an all-male council, the sachems ruled in times of peace. War chiefs were chosen on the basis of birth, experience, and ability, but exercised power only during war.

The central authority of the Iroquois League was limited leaving each tribe free to pursue its own interests. By 1660, however, the Iroquois found it necessary to present a united front to Europeans, and the original freedom of its members had to be curtailed somewhat. In practice, the Mohawk and Oneida formed one faction in the council and the Seneca and Cayuga the other. The League’s principal sachem (Tadodaho) was always an Onondaga, and as “keepers of the council fire” with 14 sachems (well out of proportion to their population), they represented compromise. This role was crucial since all decisions of the council had to be unanimous, one of the League’s weaknesses. There was also a “pecking order” among members reflected by the eloquent ritual language of League debate. Mohawk, Onondaga, and Seneca were addressed as “elder brothers” or “uncles,” while Oneida, Cayuga, and Tuscarora were “younger brothers” or “nephews.”

In this form, the Iroquois used a combination of military prowess and skilled diplomacy to conquer an empire. Until their internal unity finally failed them during the American Revolution, the Iroquois dealt with European powers as an equal. The League was a remarkable achievement, but it also had flaws, the most apparent was its inability to find a satisfactory means to share political power with its new members. As mentioned, the Iroquois incorporated thousands of non-league Iroquian peoples during the 1650s. Political power was retained by the original Iroquois to such an extent that the adoptees remained second-class citizens. The resulting dissatisfaction eventually led to the Mingo separating and moving to Ohio to free themselves from League control. Others found refuge with the French at Caughnawaga and other Jesuit missions along the St. Lawrence.

The League’s massive adoptions also explains why it was so relentless in its pursuit of the remnants of defeated enemies. So long as one small band remained free, the Iroquois were in danger of an insurrection from within. Perhaps because they considered themselves “Ongwi Honwi” (superior people), the Iroquois never offered wholesale adoption to the non-Iroquian speaking peoples who came under their control. Instead they offered membership in the “Covenant Chain,” a terminology first suggested by the Dutch at a treaty signed with the Mohawk in 1618. By 1677 the Iroquois had extended this form of limited membership to the Mahican and Delaware and later would offer it to other Algonquin and Siouan tribes. Essentially, the Covenant Chain was a trade and military alliance which gave the Iroquois the authority to represent its members with Europeans, but there was no vote or direct representation in the League council, Worse yet, the Iroquois were often arrogant and placed their own interests first. A system of “half-kings” created to represent the Ohio tribes in the 1740s never really corrected this problem.

Canasatego Temple Work

Editor’s Note 4

“The deep understanding of the proper role and procedures in good government exemplified by Canassatego in his discourses with many of the Founding Fathers may have contributed to his being included in a little-known account in the history of the Church. I have recounted many times this story of how a Native American chief by the name of Canassatego had instructed some of the Founding Fathers during a particularly difficult negotiation, thereby being an instrument in establishing the inspired Constitution of the United States.

Many Latter-day Saints are aware that in August 1877 at St. George, Utah, Wilford Woodruff, the temple president, and his recorder received visions that vicarious temple ordinances for the Founding Fathers and other eminent men and women were to be performed. On August 21, 1877, temple ordinance work was undertaken for them. However, few church members are aware that baptisms by proxy were also performed for 85 Native American Chieftains. That was done August 29, 1877, only a few days following the ordinance work that had been done for the Founders. One of the historically significant chieftains of that illustrious group was Canassatego. The death of President Brigham Young on that same day resulted in the temple presidency leaving for Salt Lake City with only the chieftains’ baptismal work accomplished. Their remaining temple work seems to have been accidentally forgotten until I showed images of the temple registry during a presentation at St. George. In that audience was Delores Kahkonen, a Cayuga of the Six Nations/Iroquois.  She literally jumped from her chair exclaiming, “Those are my people!” During the next two years she would be instrumental in researching each of those chieftains and facilitating the completion of their temple ordinance work including sealings to their spouses.”(January 26, 2019 email to Rian Nelson from Rodney Meldrum.) 

Page 196, St. George Temple Records August 29, 1877, LDS Church Archives, Copied by Rod Meldrum

Canassatego also said, “Our wise forefathers established Union and Amity between the Five Nations. This has made us formidable; this has given us great Weight and Authority with our neighboring Nations. We are a powerful Confederacy; and by your observing the same methods, our wise forefathers have taken, you will acquire such Strength and power. Therefore, whatever befalls you, never fall out with one another.” Canassatego, Lancaster Treaty Council, 1744.

Legends of the Iroquois Nation Allen C. Christensen

Hiawatha

There are intriguing legends and historical traditions attached to the powerful Iroquois Nation or Confederacy.  One such tradition known to some is that before the five tribes became united, there were frequent intertribal conflicts among them which were fierce and deadly.  In the midst of these fratricidal struggles well before the coming of Columbus, two men came to the five nations and declared to them a message of peace.  These two men, Deganawidah or Deganawideh (The Peacemaker) and Hayenwatha (Hiawatha) instructed them that no longer were they to engage in such conduct, but that they were to live in peace one with another. 

Purchase Here

Hiawatha had known great personal sorrow and was well acquainted with grief.  According to Iroquois memory his seven daughters had been murdered.  Depravity had come to characterize that society.  There were evil forces who thought that killing his daughters would be an acceptable means of drafting him into their service.  The people had become corrupted to the point they were beyond feeling.  They had lost empathy and the power of grief, because they had so debased the value of a single life. v  Hiawatha wandered the woods seeking consolation.  He devised a ceremony designed to console one who had suffered tremendous loss.  Later, the Peacemaker–one born of a virgin mother who could not be killed, and who taught peace–came to him with a new ceremony.  Known today as the Ritual of Condolence, it symbolically anoints and consoles.  One is helped to recognize grief and the sanctity of life, wherein society acknowledges that when suffering grief, it is hard to hear the laughter of children, hard to swallow and hard to see the sun in the sky.  Using the white fawn-skin of pity, the Ritual of Condolence wipes the ears to hear the laughter of children, the eyes to see the sun, opens the throat to swallow. vi  Outside of the Iroquois “Longhouse ceremonies,” the actual name of the Peacemaker is not used for it is considered sacred. vii

Great Law of Peace

They were given the laws by which they were to conduct their affairs.  Whatever the genesis of that Great Law of Peace, sometimes referred to as the Iroquois Constitution, the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca tribes bound themselves together in a league of confederacy.  Decisions reached in Council meetings had to be unanimous.  The Iroquois believed that it was so important that all be of one heart, one mind, one law, that the Confederacy did not take action without unanimous agreement.  Formal provision was made for women to appoint delegates to the Council of the Iroquois Nation.  No nation of the Confederacy was under the rule of a single leader, although one chief might hold an honored station as the keeper of the sacred artifacts. viii,ix 

Their chieftains were installed by having a headdress of antlers placed upon them.  Impeachment for unacceptable behavior resulted in dehorning or removal of the antlers.  Those acquainted with the Old West’s cattle roundups for purposes of branding and dehorning probably have assumed that “dehorning” was a word unique to the American cowboy or Mexican vaquero.  According to the best information available today, sometime between 800 and 1390 A.D. the Iroquois peoples and their patterns of government were firmly established in what is now New York and Ontario, Canada.  These five nations fared well.  War came only after all efforts at diplomacy failed. 

As an aside, consider what America’s governmental system and the resolution of contentious contemporary problems might be like today were the people’s representatives or delegates removed for acting in self-interest.  What would happen were grandmothers to determine that leaders should be removed where such officials were deemed as not acting in the best interests of the next seven generations?  M. Franklin Keel has written: “From a practical point of view, who better than mothers, grandmothers, and aunts would know the very nature and personality of the many young children.  Knowing them from birth, they were in a unique position to see which children were kind, which ones were bullies, which ones had leadership qualities, which ones were intelligent, which ones were generous, which ones were wise.   Among the Iroquois, there was a governance requirement for considering the long-term consequences of council decisions.  Honestly assessed, the clan mothers knew who would provide the type of leadership that the Great Law required.” x  Clearly the power of incumbency would be held in check.  Truth is like gold.  Neither gold nor truth is confined to a single place or to a single people.  Sometimes great effort is required to extract gold from its ore-bearing rock.  And lest we forget, so it is with truth. 

The councils of the Iroquois were dignified, a stark contrast to the rancor and harsh rhetoric which sometimes were manifest in colonial politics.  Native orators were perhaps among the tribes most eloquent spokesmen.  However, it did not follow that the spokesman was the most influential in the actual decision making.  The colonist wanted to strike deals quickly whereas members of the Confederacy proceeded deliberately.  When they were unable or had not reached consensus, Iroquoian representatives offered polite evasions.  Seemingly, in that regard they were more sophisticated than their colonial counterparts.  Their speech was richly symbolic.  Metaphors such as ‘burying the hatchet” meant to make peace, especially so, when a tree was planted to cover the hole.  “To clear a path” meant the restoration of trade.  “Eating from the same bowl” was to share one’s land resources. xi  There were cultural chasms to be bridged.  It was difficult for the somewhat rough-hewn colonial translators to infuse the fire of native oratory into English expression.  If the most effective communication is not to be misunderstood, then the lack of such linguistic sensitivities on the part of the colonists were a harbinger of difficulties to come.

When expansionist European nations came to America, things changed.  The Iroquoian peoples became involved in the fur trade.  Beaver were not abundantly supplied in their land.  Men began to devote themselves to the quest for beaver beyond their traditional territory.  Beaver skins became the medium of exchange for iron tools and utensils, for cloth and guns.  European powers schemed successfully to promote intertribal tension.  Playing one people against the other is not new in international subterfuge and intrigue.  In the early 1600s, French Jesuits established themselves among the Hurons, where they were well received and became effective missionaries, perhaps due in part to the fact the French were Huron trading partners.  Jesuit records indicate hundreds of Huron converted to Catholicism, most often as the proselyte lay dying from small pox or measles.  Following the destruction of the Huron Confederacy, the Jesuits turned their missionary efforts toward the Iroquois.  While not so well received, they did find some success among the Mohawk tribe.  Adoption of French practices tended to result in rejection of old ways and beliefs. xii

During the numerous wars of America’s colonial period, some tribes had been allied with the French, others with the British.  Those friendship choices frequently were influenced by the European nation that had been their trading partner.  To their disappointment and apparent surprise, the Thirteen Colonies discovered after that poetic moment when “once embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world,” xiii many of those tribes, who had been British trading partners, continued to ally themselves with Great Britain.  We have learned by sad experience that with quarrels, while blood is said to be thicker than water, it tends not to be thicker than money.  Then and now, people did what they thought to be in their best interest. 

Continental Congress Ask Iroquois Chiefs for help

On June 11. 1776, while delegates to the Continental Congress were debating the matter of independence visiting Iroquois chiefs were invited into the meeting hall.  Addressed as brothers (as used it that context it meant equals), the Iroquois were invited to act with the American Colonists as one people  and have but one heart.  While the sought for military alliance did not happen, the Founding Fathers ultimately gave serious consideration to the Iroquois Constitution as a model of Government, which knowing Iroquoian descendants state had been given by the “Luminous White Being.” xv  Clearly, that model of governance influenced America’s Articles of Confederation.  Benjamin Franklin became one of the proponents of that model.  He is reported to have said that if six nations of unsophisticated people (the Tuscarora had become the sixth member of the Confederacy by that time) “should be capable of forming a Scheme for such Union, and be able to execute it in such a Manner as that it has subsisted for Ages, and appears indissoluble; and yet a like Union should be impracticable for ten or a Dozen English Colonies, to whom it is more necessary, and must be more advantageous; and who cannot be supposed to want an equal Understanding of their Interests.” xvi  Franklin proposed naming the national legislature, “The Great Council.”  He also proposed making America’s wild turkey the National Bird.  Even great men don’t get their way on everything. (See Editor’s Note 2)

Iroquois Nation of the Oneida

From Joseph’s Remnant we read, “The Oneida, an Iroquois nation, played a significant role in the Revolutionary War.  They fought at Oriskany and Saratoga.  Oneida chief, Shenandoah, had prevented a massacre of settlers at German Flats.  It was he who encouraged his people to ally themselves with the Americans.  In the Battle of Oriskany, 800 American militia under the command of Nicolas Herkimer attempted to relieve the British siege of Fort Stanwix.  En-route, they were ambushed by British forces and thrown into confusion.  A sortie from the fort and a party of Oneida came to the rescue.  In that August 6, 1777 battle, 60 or more Oneida warriors fought with the colonists.  The Pennsylvania Journal & Weekly Advertiser of September 3, 1777 described the exploits of Oneida Han Yerry and his family.  It reported that Han was a friendly Indian, with his wife and son, who distinguished themselves remarkably on that occasion.  The Indian killed nine of the enemy, when, having received a ball through his wrist that disabled him from using his gun, fought with his tomahawk.  His son killed two and his wife, on horseback, fought by his side with pistols during the whole action.  Mrs. Yerry’s name was Tyonajanegen.  It was she who loaded his guns and notified the colonists that the American militia had been badly bloodied by the British ambush.  It had cost at least 200 Oneida and Patriot lives.

The Oneida were the first sovereign nation to recognize the United States of America.  They fought alongside the Americans at Saratoga.  That American victory was a turning point in the war and was key in convincing the French that aiding the American effort was both desirable and feasible.    The Oneida were with Lafayette in 1778, and probably saved the young 20-year-old general and his 2,000 troops from being captured or killed at the Skirmish of Barren Hill in May.  Lest one forget, for their population base the Oneida suffered staggering losses in the war.

Oneida Nation Friendship Statue

General George Washington and Oneida Nation Friendship statue at National Museum of the American Indian Washington DC. Edward Hlavka depicts Oneida Chief Oskanondohna and Oneida woman (Polly Cooper), and General George Washington. The statue is a commemoration of the bonds between the Oneida Nation and the United States.

Polly Cooper, an Oneida woman, walked some 400 miles from her New York home to Valley Forge.  She and others brought 600 barrels of corn to feed Washington’s desperately hungry troops. It was white rather than yellow corn.  White corn requires extended preparation before it can be eaten.  If uncooked, raw-white corn swells in the stomachs and causes death.  Polly Cooper and the others taught the camp cooks the lengthy preparation process.  Following the war, the Army tried to pay her, but she refused stating simply that it was her duty to help her friends in their time of need.  She accepted as a token of appreciation, however, a shawl and bonnet offered by Martha Washington.  Her descendants have treasured that shawl to this day.    

In 1777, the United States Congress recognized the Oneida contribution, stating: We have experienced your love, strong as the oak, and your fidelity, unchangeable as truth.  You have kept fast hold of the ancient covenant-chain, and preserved it free from rust and decay, and bright as silver.  Like brave men, for glory you despised danger; you stood forth, in the cause of your friends, and ventured your lives in our battles.  While the sun and moon continue to give light to the world, we shall love and respect you.  As our trusty friends, we shall protect you; and shall at all times consider your welfare as our own. Sadly, America’s record toward those beautiful words has been one of malicious neglect and frequent betrayal.  

Yes, remarkable bravery had been displayed.  But life was not all about war and bloodshed.  Traditions of faith and the need for spirituality existed among the Iroquois Confederacy.  Handsome Lake was a 60-year-old Seneca when he fell gravely ill in 1795.  For four years he suffered, experiencing periods of delirium and unconsciousness.  In 1799, he seemed to die.  When others had come to mourn his death, he suddenly awoke and announced that he had received a miraculous manifestation.  He had been visited by four messengers from the “Great Creator.”  He had been given a message for the Seneca, a lengthy set of instructions which enumerated their wrong doings.  Commandments or instructions for behavioral change were given.  The Seneca were instructed to live virtuous and peaceful lives.  They were to repair family and community relationships, treat children with patience and love, show kindness to the elderly, and avoid gossip and quarrels. This spiritual announcement followed two centuries of warfare.  It is called by some the prophecy of Handsome Lake.

Handsome Lake also began to teach that the Seneca should adopt the white man’s agricultural methods.  That men rather than women should become the farmers. xxiii  He also exhorted his people to discontinue their abortive and contraceptive practices.  He attempted to make fathers responsible for the welfare and success of their individual families.  He turned the family focus away from matrilineal ties.  He plead for the role of the nuclear family rather than placing the rearing responsibility on the traditional extended-family residences.  Essentially, he argued that father and mother, not the village, were to raise the children.  The debate of whom is responsible for the successful rearing of children continues in contemporary America.  During the initial Latter-day Saint mission to Native Americans, it was to Seneca people that Oliver Cowdery, Parley P. Pratt, Peter Whitmer and Ziba Peterson visited first in the fall of 1830.” Joseph’s Remnant by Allen C. Christensen

Mormon’s Burial Place

As an aside, in a 1979 address to missionaries in training at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, President Murray J. Rawson shared an experience from his time as mission president in Florida. He reported that he had been teaching a group of the Seminole tribe concerning the Book of Mormon, when he was interrupted by their chief, who said: “We had a war a long time ago with a light-skinned people around the Great Lakes. We conquered them, but we had so much respect for their warrior chief that we buried him at the mouth of the Oswego River that is in New York State. We don’t discuss this very much, because it is an embarrassment to us.” President Rawson then asked: “Why is this an embarrassment?” The Chief replied, “Our history is written on metal plates and buried in a hill in New York, but we do not know which hill!” 

The mouth of the Oswego River empties into Lake Ontario. It is northeast of present-day Palmyra and the Finger Lake region of New York. In what some may call the storehouse of legends, it is fascinating that this account makes reference to an event that would have taken place in the lands of the Iroquois Confederacy, and yet, centuries later or a long time ago, was of sufficient significance that it was remembered and treasured among the Seminole of Florida. Murray J. Lawson

Thomas Mayhew Jr. Patriarch to the Inidans

“Governor Thomas Mayhew, the Elder (March 31, 1593 – March 25, 1682) established the first English settlement of Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and adjacent islands in 1642. He is one of the editors of the Bay Psalm Book, the first book published in British North America. His assistant Peter Foulger was the grandfather of Benjamin Franklin. Lloyd C.M. Hare wrote a book about Mayhew titled, Thomas Mayhew, Patriarch to the Indians

Mayhew and his fellow settlers found a large and economically stable native population of about 3,000 living in permanent villages, led by four sachems (chiefs). Relations between the first settlers and their Wampanoag neighbors were peaceful and courteous. Under the leadership of his son, a minister, they instituted a policy of respect and fair dealing with the Wampanoag natives that was unequaled anywhere. One of the first of Mayhew’s orders was that no land was to be taken from the native islanders, the Wampanoags, without their consent or without fair payment. From this time forward, the colonial settlers and Indians lived without the bloodshed that marked the history of European colonies elsewhere in the New World.

From the beginning, Mayhew had worked to preserve the original political institutions of the Indians. Religion and government were distinct matters, he told the Indian chiefs. When one of your subjects becomes a Christian, he is still under your jurisdiction. Indian land was guarded against further encroachment by white settlers. So successful were these policies that during the bloody battles of King Philip’s War, (blog here) in 1675-1676, the Vineyard Indians never stirred, although they outnumbered the English on the island by twenty to one.

By 1660 there were about 85 white people living peaceably among the natives, earning their living by farming and fishing. The Mayhew family, which from that time forth became an integral part of island history, wanted to share its religion with the natives, but the Wampanoags were not too interested, having their own spiritual faith. However, once it was clear that, though Mayhew was the governor, the sachems remained in charge of their people, some became curious about the white man’s God. When a native named Hiacoomes expressed an interest, Mayhew invited him into his home and instructed him in English and Christianity. Hiacoomes, in return, taught Mayhew the native language. As soon as Mayhew could converse with the natives, he would some days “walk 20 miles through uncut forests to preach the Gospel…in wigwam or open field”. Thomas Mayhew is a direct descendent and 8th great-grandfather of the editor.

This is a stained-glass window at the baptismal section in the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. depicting Rev. Thomas Mayhew Jr. baptizing Hiacoomes.

”The common wisdom among historians is that the people who wrote the Constitution had no concept of the Indian way of life,” said John Mohawk, a Seneca from the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation near Buffalo, and the organizer, with Professor Lyons, of the project. ”But what made the colonists American as opposed to English was their experiences with the Indians.”

As proof, they cite records kept by the colonists. An Onondaga named Canassatego suggested that the colonists form a nation similar to the Iroquois Confederacy during a meeting of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania in Lancaster on June 25, 1744.

According to the director of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Peter J. Parker, the council minutes show that Canassatego urged the colonists to ”receive these your brethren with open arms; unite yourselves to them in the covenant chain and be you with them as one body and one soul.” Iroquois Constitution: a Forerunner to Colonists’ Democratic Principles, New York Times June 28, 198.

“The Iroquois Confederacy had been a functioning democracy for centuries by Benjamin Franklin’s day. Sometime between 1000 and 1450, the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca Nations came together to become the Iroquois Confederacy, and in the early 18th century they were joined by the Tuscaroras. Referred to as the Six Nations by the English, and the Iroquois by the French, the Confederacy called themselves the Haudenosaunee, or People Building a Long House.” By Cynthia Feathers and Susan Feathers www.upenn.edu/gazette/0107/gaz09.html

“Contrary, then, to widespread assumptions during Joseph Smith’s lifetime that the Onondaga migrated to the New York region, it becomes clear that they originated here as a small, narrowly localized amalgamation of a few villages near Onondaga Lake, during the century before Columbus’ discovery of America” Beauchamp’s Aboriginal Place Names of New York;

Joseph Smith during his life more than likely knew about many of these Indian chiefs below who were from the same vicinity as him. Joseph may have also spent time with many of them.

IROQUOIS INDIAN CHIEFBORNPLACE
DEGANAWIDA-Huron/ Onondaga/Mohawk12th CenturyNear Lake Huron
HIAWATHA- Onondaga/Mohawk12th CenturyOnandaga, NY
TADODAHO- Onondaga12th CenturyOnondaga, NY
JIGONHSASEE- Haudenosaunee12th CenturyCohoes Falls, NY
CANASSATEGO- Onondaga1684-1750Onondaga, NY
SAYENQUERAGHTA- Seneca1707-1786Geneva, NY
GUYASUTA- Seneca1725-1794Conawagus, NY
SKENANDOA- Susquehannock/Oneida1706-1816Conestoga, PA
CORNPLANTER- Seneca1732-1836Canawaugus, NY
HANDSOME LAKE- Seneca1735-1815Conawagus, NY
GOVERNOR BLACKSNAKE – Seneca1737-1860Romulus, NY
RED JACKET- Seneca1750-1830Canoga, NY
JOHN BRANT- Mohawk1794-1832Brant, Ontario
JESSE CORNPLANTER- Seneca1889-1957Cattaraugus, NY
See blog called Onandaga, Joseph Smith’s Indians here.

 “On the one hand, there are parallels between Handsome Lake’s teachings and Book of Mormon, economic and social interactions between Iroquois and white settlers at the time were still extensive during the early decades of the 19th century, and Lucy Mack Smith wrote that Joseph talked about Indians “as if he had spent his whole life among them.” Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations (Liverpool: S.W. Richards, 1853. “Joseph Smith was interested in the people who lived around him. Young Joseph was a member of the juvenile debating club in Palmyra during 1822 when Red Jacket, arguably the most widely-known Seneca of this period, delivered a speech in town. Joseph also liked to hang out on Ganargua Creek (Mud Creek) in the area where Iroquois travelers camped. He had interest and access.” Joseph Smith and the Code of Handsome Lake Lori Taylor, Ph.D.

The Onondaga Nation at the great white pine tree in Syracuse NY on the shores of Onondaga Lake is where the message of peace was planted, and the hatchets were buried according to many researchers. Similarly, the Lamanites ,  “…buried the weapons of war, for peace.” Alma 24:19 (“a peacemaker crossed Onondaga Lake in a stone canoe, how he convinced warring nations to bury their weapons beneath a tree of peace.”) Sean Kirst Syracuse.com

“The Onondagas: These have special interest… this warrior, Zelph, was an Onondaga, as well as a “white” Lamanite, and that the Onondagas (of New York), consequently must be of Lamanite lineage.” J.M. Sjodahl, An Introduction to the Study of the Book of Mormon

 “How America Was Discovered is a story told by Handsome Lake (Seneca Prophet), and documented by Arthur C. Parker, about a young minister who meets the one he perceives to be the Lord, who then asks him to go to a new land and bring with him cards, money, a fiddle, whiskey, and blood corruption. In return the young minister will become rich. The young minister sought out Christopher Columbus, and with the help of his crew, traveled to the Americas. They turned back to report what they had seen, which caused an immigration of people from Europe to the Americas. Along with the people came the five things that aided in destroying the natives. The end reveals that the “Lord” in the gold castle was actually the devil, and that even he knew what he had caused was wrong.” Rudes, B. Tuscarora English Dictionary Toronto.