BRANTFORD EXPOSITOR NUMBER

”c>\Q-T he Six Nations -2 f

\ .,,;.I.-II.§l{IC are few historical events recorded inttAtmei‘iea that are more interesting t than that touching the consolidation of the i.‘lVC Nations into one vast con- federation, under the statesmanship of Hiawatha, nearly four centuries ago. _ t "' i“ In following up the history of this people we find them, subsequenttto their _ alliaiice,engaged in all the early colonial wars. French and Lnglish 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 lakes and river St. Lawrence. That the remnant of thisall—power— full people whoonce dic- tated terms to ev e r y white and red race on the continent, is, in the pre- sent day, a law abiding, ;,,,~i,. peaceful," -- semi-agricul- v ‘ V. .{~ = ' tural nation, "' " 7 occupying a

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great portion of our own county, and thefladjoining one of Iialdimand, is telling evidence of the Nineteenth century march of advance- ment, and the possibilities of all intelligent races that are given opportunities of absorbing what is best in their sister—nations, whether it be art, habit, or handi- craft.

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, '.i'iiiel’i iiappiiy bodes iiioie

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INDIAN

O t 5"”. good to both nations than CT’ 8 5‘ those erstwhile inter- changes of musket shots

and tomahawks. The Canadians have adopted the Iroquois use of Indian corn as an almost national food. The Iroquois national game of lacrosse has been Canadianized, and although thirty years ago it was it is to-day known the world over as Canada's national canoeiiig, are all adaptations from the red man, who in his turn ized habits and customs, profiting by their excellences and, let us trust, ssible from their imperfections.

but astonishingly rapid leap from the wigwam, and the council fire of a t little, well-ordered, governmental building, known as the " Six Nations Council House,” at Ohsweken, yet through all that time with its changes in the Imperial parlia- OIS nation have held their system of government intact. It stands to-day, as it stood in the days monument to the magnificent statesmanship of the man who conceived it, and carried it, and cul-

absolutely unknown among the whites, sport. Snow shoeing, tobogganing, has adjusted himself to civil learning as little harm as po _ It has been a long

century ago, to the neat

\ . THE WAR DANCE.’

ment, its strange happenings in Canadian politics, the Iroqu of Hiawatha, unsliaken, unadulterated, unaltered, a living ininated it before e er ' i . -

v the white man had entered the depths of Amer,Ca’S fol-Cst 1andS_

Th‘? Indla“ YCSCIVC ‘m U‘? Grand “V01” has dwindled from what was the first Imperial grant, that is, the lands that lay for six miles in depth on each side

» t9 3 tract Com}->rising but fifty-two thousand acres, the greater portion of which is under cultivation, for unlike western

)' t ttdf ‘ ‘ . . . . t‘ t. _ _. _ . intt at the vmattc Of. Ohswttktm wi1(>t»lrtCt:td‘3;t‘t‘t:St(t_3fy‘t3r agriculture, as those who have visited their annual industrial C.\l11bltlO11 in the spacious agiicultuial build-

The little village of Ohsweken is ofmuch interest to the visitor being as it is the seat of the Six’ Nations’ ) 1-, ‘ . -

held, and the affairs of the nation discussed a d d” ‘A - - - » (( - tttcttt Council of the Ctmtcdctttttont n isposed of by the lineal descendants of Hiawathas I‘

The present council house was erected

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government, where the local ‘parliament” is ifty-two Noble families," who comprised the first

_ t _ _ t t _ t in 1863 and since that time has been in cons ious localities. At one time the council house was at the now village of Middleport an (tlt()2tb(tl1?t1tECgtE)yut:l:i;${_,’tL$1;t%tlt:Et(.tlti1rIEt(tEtgg)tt:6néI]t:1(l(llttit)t;l to the Ohsweken council hOtlt1SC, there are two others devoted to the exclusive usetof the Pagan iiidians, one ttvc Old ttibtté» Wihcttt they hold their Vtttt3t;,u3-SS.tC]t ttcselatttter buildings are called Long Houses,” and aretin reality the places of worship of these twp conserva- Stmpltt belief tn the “Gtttttt Sptttt ” that tttonttgoous ancets and festivals throughout the year, _worsl_iippi_ng_in the exquisite beauty of Pagan faith, and Cstrtmgc them from Whose love ant’, favor is thcits 9:» PC-‘1CCtUl. la1‘ge—hearted God of the unehristianized indian, that God that they believe no sin can really ted Children who hitttbots no ttttthouttht t tt , 1 matters not how unworthy they may be, that God that is pleased with the simple dances and feasts of his-

, ,, or ee ing towards them, and who has for souls and bodies after death, whether they be bad or good, limitless

1‘ fH ' ~ - . (( - ,. .. . E335 1a";t5d0man3I’l’Y Huntmg £'T0U“d5, and through all eternity the happy atmosphere known only where an everlasting Peace—I’ipe is in daily use between

But in early times the dances of the domesticated Iro America knew no greater terror than when a band of conquer; their fierce visages, and half-naked bodies decorated with th colors of the Moliawks. For miles across the country could their ten-jb the Georgian bay, and the faithful Jesuit father crossed himself to no ward, and in one fell battle exterminated Jesuit and Huron leaving thre overlook I’enetanguishene. No, it is not a fiction. The ancestors bf th throng our busy little streets, were some of the bravest most intre )id and the " ashes of their fathers,” against the inroads of 2; great all—ccin incoming eastern power, as England's sons would battleband fall to-c(11

tant usage. Prior to that year various buildings were used in var- d in yet earlier times some assert it was one of the ancient, and now-

quois were not always the outcome of religious zeal and

_ good-fellowship with the Great Spirit ; for eight or ten thousand Iroquois warriors chose to don their w

ar paint, and set forth conquering and to e ominous streaks of black and red, meaning “Blood and Death,” always the war le war cries be heard, and the hated Huron crouched fearfully in his wigwam beside urpose, when the Iroquois roused with a just ire, impassioned by a taunt, marched north little christian hamlet a desolation,and dancing a triumphant war dance on the hills that ose calm—eyed Indian men, of those low—voiced, gentle-faced women,who on market days- and valiant warriors known to the history of the world; men who defended their country uering race; men who fought, and bled, and died to hold the western continent against an

. . . ay were their own mother countr threatened with a power that would eventuall anni- hilate sub ect——then alas! absorb th ' ' " - ° - ’ - - y- - Y . J eir blood, their traditions, their nation, until naught promises to remain save a memory. The Iroquois got a bad name for

tfptittoctittnydaptdttplptog/tltttgttiifisz irtictgltitetcetaitittr titacysvptf ffimeritcdanbhistory, but I can tell you, reader, that those Indian warriors were savage, with a righteous patriot- whttlc Civilized world wttttltl have hissed them hag t-‘hWOI‘ ty the way they contended and wrestled to retain their forest homes, their game, their gods. The and pcthatts the tmccttttt of this tttttcttmtmnctcd tndtcy nott oved the land and fought fiercely .for the soil where their ancestors were born, and lived and died, deep in the blood of Ftttttch and English invaders io any day you might see in our streets, was once an indoinitable war-stained brave, standing ankle tmcntt never to be t_CttainCd_ of tt Scattered ttto )tC)n 5 ing ‘with the desperate savagery, born only of the pre-monition of a lost cause, a lost land, a lost con- with his Own Cottttuctztsttst Aand then ttctht tti thtlt Stt C\7tf1‘tE:§Dat_I1 to be a nation, and then, with the noblest of that military valor, in after years linking his fate thcn ttftctwttttts fttttttht Side by Side Wtthctfhtttt Sons art1,_,e_s ‘tot al things‘ has happened, that to this very Iroquois who fought and killed your own ancestors, tttdot and Vttlttt for tel-tc lttttttstt flatt you Owe the ttagains tie colonists, perhaps to this very man who fought so fiercely for his owtn country, then with such , possession of your peaceful home in Canada to-day. IL. PAULINE _]OIlNs‘TON.

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