BRANTFORD EXl’OSIT()l{ SOUVENIR NUMBER

‘GK The Six Nations 7

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»~,,\,vI*IIEl{lZ are few historical events recorded in Ainerica that fire more interesting than that touching the consolidation of the “ I.‘1VC Nations into one vast con- federation, under the statesinanship of Hiawatlia, nearly four centuries ago. A

" In following up the history of this people we ﬁnd them, subsequent to their _ alliaiice,engaged in all the early colonial wars. French and English colonists alike feared, yet pandered to, this gr\eat war-like nation, who at one time ruled the land from the Atlantic

sea—board to the Mississippi, and from North Carolina to the great V ' lakes and river St. Lawrence. 3‘ 9 That the f‘ ,;,\s€s remnant of ~/( ' " w . _ , \_ M i thisall—power— ’ « i ~ ‘

full people - . whooiicedic- tated terms

to every white and red I race on the continent, is,

in the pre-

sent day, a _, -, law abiding, ‘.5? p e a c e fu l , semi—agricul— tural nation, occupying a

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- ‘~Q<’f7’‘ Cou/~icii,I-lm/st. I

1*‘ I ‘. . »>‘A,,K.§_“q.'I'l$x _

great portion of our own county, and tliefladjoiiiiiig one of I‘Ialdimand, is telling evidence of the Nineteenth century march of advance- ment, and the possibilities of all intelligent races that are given opportunities of i _ , , , __ , . . , absorbing what is best in i 3,,‘ ‘ « ‘ "“ .‘ ~- 1 ‘ g ' r. p L i . "q ' . , . _‘ " ,_ ‘ their sister-nations, whether ‘ '.’I”‘1“‘l"T"l _. " _— , ’ g ’ _ ,- . A ~ , _ ' _, ~ V it be art, habit, or handi- ‘ ' ‘ I ' ' ’ ‘ I I ” " ~ ' I The English and the Iroquois, as we know them in the County of Brant, have made a brotherly exchange of many things, within the last few decades, 'wiiie'i'i happily bodes more good to both nations than those erstwhile inter- changes of inusket shots and toiiiah.'i\\'l<s. The ('anadians have adopted the Iroquois use of Indian corn as an almost national food. The Iroquois national game of lacmsse has been Canadiani7.ed, and although thirty years ago it was absolutely iinknown among the whites, it is to-day known the world over as (‘anada's national sport. Snow shoeing, tobogganing, canoeing, are all adaptations from the red man, who in his turn has adjusted himself to civilized habits and customs, proﬁting by their exCCllC11CC5?1H<l, 1“ U5 WU-“T. learning as little harm as possible from their imperfections. _ It has been a long but astonishingly rapid leap from the wigwaiii, and the council fire of a ccntury ago, to the neat little, well-()i'dcrcd, governmental building, known as the " Six Nations Council House,” at Ohsweken, yet through all that time with its changes in the Imperial parlia- Of Hiawatha unshakcn unadulterated unaltered a “Vin” ois nation have held their system of government intact. It stands to-day, as it stood in the days , _ a _ ‘ » _ » . b monument to the magniﬁcent statesmanship of the man who conceived it, and carried it, and cul- minated it befoie ever the white man had entered the depths of Amcricag forest lands ofml1:3‘,£‘3‘lE;‘;nr?;C::;31_§“ttllfgcrallgl “tV‘3V has dW111d1e_d.froin what was the first Imperial grant, that is, the lands that lay for six milesiii depth on each side 0 0 I 5 1710" 1, 0 3 tract C0mI>rising but ﬁfty-two thousand acres, the greater portion of which is under cultivation, for unlike western

tribes the Iroquois have shown a great aptitude for agriculture, as those who have visited their annual industrial exhibition in the spacious agricultural build- ing at the village of Ohsweken will readily testify. ‘

The little village of Ohswcken is ofmuch interest held, and the affairs of the nation discussed and dis great council of the confederation.

_ ‘ The present council house was erected in 1863 and since that time has been in constant usage. Prior to that year various buildings were used in var- ‘?u‘5]10Cf;1E)t1C.i"('i. AF “Ii? tl"1T1CI”tl1_C Council house was at the now village of Middleport, and in yet earlier times some assert it was one of the ancient, and now- cf(<)::q1a‘te((h uli”Ep5i;,:51<():ii)thiétrcf(.;i tllciggts. (Ijn addition to the Ohsweken council house, there are two others devoted to the exclusive useof the Pagan indians, one t. Id tjﬁ 2» ;h _ tl hrldlch hon agas. _fh_eselatter buildings are called “Long Houses,” and are in reality the places of worship of these two conserva- ‘l_VC 0 11_ C5,_ “ C10“ 10?’ O‘ err various religious dances and festivals throughout the year, worshipping in the exquisite beauty of “Pagan” faith, and 5lmP1C bead “fl thc 1G1‘C‘31t 5l)1T1t, th3t.WOf1C_11‘Ou_S, peaceful, large-hearted God of the unchristianized indian, that God that they believe no sin can really Sggacnlﬁfdf.Cﬁn:V1:gITf{;,Yb1(:?SCngvih Etllzld {$1/t<)r isftheirs, it matters not how unworthy they may be, that God that is pleased with the simple dances and feasts of his- rcachcs of H,apPy Huntm“ Groulldiugljdggr ecqirrlig ltlowards them, and who has for souls and bodies after death, _whether they bad or_good, limitless God and man. :3 23 y 0u,, a eteinity the happy atmosphere known only where an everlasting Peace-I ipe is in daily use between 1\xncrig:u§(ll]i;\$('1‘X1lC))/(l£:‘1g1a(i:lEI:;)r§.I(E::‘1(Eﬁ:nO§y1§I’iE dginejticfated Iroquois were not always the outcome of religious zeal and good-fellowship with the Great Spirit ;for Conquer. their ﬁcrsc Visaﬁcs and lnmmek zcil land. 0 flight or ten thousand Iroquois warriors chose to don their war l)a1‘I‘1t, and set forth coiicluering,’ and to Colors Ofythc Mohawkq l.},0r.milCS azcross ti. o ies, ecoratedwith the ominous streaks of black and red, meaning Blood and Death,‘ always the war the Georgian bay andthc faithful Jesuit fade countrydcould their terrible war cries be heard, and the hated Huron crouclied fearfully in his wigwam beside ward mg in one R” battlc Cwcmlmatcd JeS1C_: Crogspl himself to no purpose, w_hen the Iroquois roused with a Just ire, impassioned by a taunt, marched north Ovcrfook Pcnctamrlmhcnc -NO it is not a ﬁuit_ an Thuron, leaving the little christian hamlet a desolation,and dancing a triumphant war dance on the hills that throng our busy ﬁtlé gtrcétq wérc some of t? 103. e ancestors ofthose calm-eyed Indian men, of those_low-voiced, gentle-faced women,who on market days and the .( ashes of thci; {athgrs 1) against the _1C éavefst, most intrepid and valiant warriors known to the history of the world ; men who defended their country mcommw Castcm power as E,n”l;,nd,s Sons l‘I]I‘OElldbbO it great all-conquering racc;.mcn who fought, and bled, and died to hold the western continent against an Imam S1:»bjCCt_thCn mass‘ absorzg their blOOdV(‘.[)}l11 _ attde ‘and fall .to—day, weretheir own mother country threatened with a power that would eventually anni- fCmCi.ty and blood tmrsmqcss in thc Carl d , ‘ giktra itions, their nation, until naught promises to remain save a memory. The Iroquois got a bad name for ism and that they Won the res met (pf tﬁslys (E1 1 merican history, but I can tell you, reader, that those Indian warriors were savage with a righteous patriot- whélc Civilized world would havclhisscd thcltillvlv 3 ehworld by the way they contended and wrestled to retain their forest homes, their game, their gods. '_Ihc and perhaps the anccqtor of this ( uicmnmncr 3&1 td_ey not loved the land and fought ﬁercely for the soil where their ancestors were born, and lived and died, deep in the blood of i:mnCh and IE“ “S1; in Cd 1} lgililwho any day you might see in our streets, was once an indomitable war-stained brave, standing ankle tmcnt ncvcr to be rcﬁamcd. of a Scgttcrcd V: Clrb, g, ting with the desperate savagery, born only of the pre-moiiition of a lost cause, a lost land, a lost con- with hlis Own Con ucrzsr‘ A. d U h op nevenagain to be. a nation, and then, with the noblest of that military valor, in after years linking his fate

q s. n ien per aps the strangest of all things has happened, that to this very Iroquois who fought and killed your own ancestors,

Stiggr?:1%<E1r:y'€*]I;)(ISf£)q‘l1§l1)tlfiqelbﬁ side with their sons against the colonists, perhaps to this very man who fought so ﬁercely for his owii country, then with such a ic ii isi ab, you owe the possession of your peaceful home in Canada to-day. IL. l’i\U1.INI~‘. }0IINs'i‘oN.

INDIAN FAIR, Ocr, I895. ‘

Tm: WAR DANCE.’

ment, its strange happenings in Canadian politics, the Iroqu

to the visitor, being as it is the seat of the Six Nations’ government, where the local “parliament” is posed of by the lineal descendants of Hiawatha’s “ Fifty-two Noble families," who comprised the ﬁrst