Hiawatha and the Iroquois Confederation: A Study in Anthropology. A Paper Read at the Cincinnati Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in August, 1881, under the Title of "A Lawgiver of the Stone Age."Hale, Horatio
History
Hiawatha and the Iroquois Confederation: A Study in Anthropology. A Paper Read at the Cincinnati Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in August, 1881, under the Title of "A Lawgiver of the Stone Age."
Hale, Horatio
Hiawatha, active 15th century; Iroquois Indians
Other insignia of preeminence were to be possessed by him; and, in view
of all these distinctions, it is not surprising that his successor, who,
two centuries later, retained the same prerogatives, should have been
occasionally styled by the English colonists "the emperor of the Five
Nations." It might seem, indeed, at first thought, that the founders of
the confederacy had voluntarily placed themselves and their tribes in a
position of almost abject subserviency to Atotarho and his followers.
But they knew too well the qualities of their people to fear for them any
political subjection. It was certain that when once the league was
established, and its representatives had met in council, character and
intelligence would assume their natural sway, and mere artificial rank
and dignity would be little regarded. Atotarho and his people, however,
yielded either to these specious offers or to the pressure which the
combined urgency of the three allied nations now brought to bear upon
them. They finally accepted the league; and the great chief, who had
originally opposed it, now naturally became eager to see it as widely
extended as possible. He advised its representatives to go on at once to
the westward, and enlist the populous Seneca towns, pointing out how this
might best be done. This advice was followed, and the adhesion of the
Senecas was secured by giving to their two leading chiefs, Kanyadariyo
("beautiful lake") and Shadekaronyes ("the equal skies"), the offices of
military commanders of the confederacy, with the title of door-keepers of
the "Long-House,"--that being the figure by which the league was known.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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