Iroquois Indians; Mohawk language -- Texts; Onondaga language -- Texts
When the League was established, Hiawatha had been adopted by the
Canienga nation as one of their chiefs. The honor in which he was held
by them is shown by his position on the roll of councillors, as it has
been handed down from the earliest times. As the Canienga nation is the
"elder brother," the names of its chiefs are first recited. At the head
of the list is the leading Canienga chief, Tekarihoken, who represents
the noblest lineage of the Iroquois stock. Next to him, and second on
the roll, is the name of Hiawatha. That of his great colleague,
Dekanawidah, nowhere appears. He was a member of the first council; but
he forbade his people to appoint a successor to him. "Let the others
have successors," he said proudly, "for others can advise you like them.
But I am the founder of your league, and no one else can do what I have
done." [Footnote: In Mr. Morgan's admirable work, "_The League of the
Iroquois_," the list of Councillors (whom he styles _sachems_),
comprises the name of Dekanawidah--in his orthography, Daganoweda.
During my last visit to my lamented friend (in September, 1880), when we
examined together my copy of the then newly discovered Book of Rites, in
which he was greatly interested, this point was considered. The original
notes which he made for his work were examined. It appeared that in the
list as it was first written by him, from the dictation of a
well-informed Seneca chief, the name of Dekanawidah was not comprised. A
later, but erroneous suggestion, from another source, led him to believe
that his first informant was mistaken, or that he had misunderstood him,
and to substitute the name of Dekanawidah for the somewhat similar name
of Shatekariwate (in Seneca Sadekeiwadeh), which stands third on the
roll, immediately following that of Hiawatha. The term _sachem_, it may
be added, is an Algonkin word, and one which Iroquois speakers have a
difficulty in pronouncing. Their own name for a member of their Senate
is _Royaner_, derived from the root _yaner_, noble, and precisely
equivalent in meaning to the English "nobleman" or "lord," as applied to
a member of the House of Peers. It is the word by which the missionaries
have rendered the title "Lord" in the New Testament.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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