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
The boast was not unwarranted. Though planned by another, the structure
had been reared mainly by his labors. But the Five Nations, while
yielding abundant honor to the memory of Dekanawidah, have never regarded
him with the same affectionate reverence which has always clung to the
name of Hiawatha. His tender and lofty wisdom, his wide-reaching
benevolence, and his fervent appeals to their better sentiments, enforced
by the eloquence of which he was master, touched chords in the popular
heart which have continued to respond until this day. Fragments of the
speeches in which he addressed the council and the people of the league
are still remembered and repeated. The fact that the league only carried
out a part of the grand design which he had in view is constantly
affirmed. Yet the failure was not due to lack of effort. In pursuance
of his original purpose, when the league was firmly established, envoys
were sent to other tribes to urge them to join it or at least to become
allies. One of these embassies penetrated to the distant Cherokees, the
hereditary enemies of the Iroquois nations. For some reason with which
we are not acquainted--perhaps the natural suspicion or vindictive pride
of that powerful community--this mission was a failure. Another,
despatched to the western Algonquins, had better success. A strict
alliance was formed with the far-spread Ojibway tribes, and was
maintained inviolate for at least two hundred years, until at length the
influence of the French, with the sympathy of the Ojibways for the
conquered Hurons, undid to some extent, though not entirely, this portion
of Hiawatha's work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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