CHAPTER II.
INDIAN OCCUPATION AND EARLY WARS.
When the white European adventurers made their first advent into territory now constituting the State of New York they found it in possession of the Five Nations of Indians, to whom the French gave the name, Iroquois. These nations were collectively and commonly called by the English, the Iroquois Confederacy. They were located across the State, beginning with the Mohawks on the east, the Oneidas next, the Onondagas in the central part, the Cayugas next, and the Senecas in the western part. The central council fire of the Confederacy was kept with the Onondagas, and there were held most of their important gatherings and deliberations. Of these uncivilized, war-loving savages the Oneidas were the least barbarous, revengeful and blood-thirsty; this peculiarity was demonstrated in the early wars and especially in the war of the Revolution, when they remained either neutral or loyal to the colonists. The territory of Madison county was part of the domain of this nation, who followed the chase through its primeval forests and rippled the clear waters of its lakes and streams with their silently-moving paddles during unknown years before the white man came.
The early discoveries in America and the recognized theory of European nations that such discoveries gave valid title to lands found in possession of barbarians and savages led to bloody conflict in the western world. England claimed supremacy here through the discoveries and explorations of Cabot, who sailed in 1697; France, under those of Champlain and others, and Holland by virtue of the coincident voyage of Hudson and the founding of a settlement on Manhattan Island. For many years the French were in the ascendant and it was only through prolonged and sanguinary wars that the western hemisphere was wrested from the impending domination of that nation. In all the wars for conquest in this country, the records of which the reader may find in many volumes of general history, the Iroquois Indians were a most potent factor. Roaming at will, in pride and power, over the greater part of the continent, wherein they had conquered one after another of their rival nations; brave and shrewd and savage in their futile attempts to check the encroachments of the white men, they had to be taken into account in every movement for territorial acquisition by the three great powers across the Atlantic. It was clearly seen by English, French, and Dutch alike that if either could gain the entire and unfailing fealty of the Iroquois, that power would speedily conquer the others. But in their ignorance of Indian character, their unthinking greed and selfishness, their dishonesty and treachery, neither of the European powers ever succeeded in wholly gaining the confidence and loyalty of the Five Nations-a fact that greatly prolonged the conflict.
As settlement progressed, by the French at the north, the Dutch in New York, and the English in New England, the rich fur trade with the Indians sent golden harvests across the Atlantic, for which the powers were ready to battle, and the struggle began. With the details of those wars, except so far as the Oneida Indians were directly involved, we are not interested in these pages. The early attempts by the French to conquer the Iroquois were even more futile than their later efforts to secure an alliance with them, and when James the II. Of England was driven from his throne in the revolution of 1688, open war speedily followed between that country and France. This struggle closed with the treaty of Ryswick in 1697, the English having to a great extent retained the friendship of the Indians during its progress, and securing decided advantages under the treaty, it its provisions had been heeded by the French. They were not. Queen Anne's war followed in 1702 and was ended only after eleven years of conflict by the treaty of Utrecht, April 11, 1713.
Meanwhile, the Tuscarora Indians, a powerful nation of the South, had resisted the encroachments of the Carolina proprietors, who had assigned their lands to the German Palatines, and the Indians were almost destroyed in their fort on the River Taw on the 26th of March, 1713, 800 of them having been taken prisoners and sold as slaves to the English allies. In the year just named the Iroquois made an expedition to the South, during which they adopted the remainder of the Tuscaroras, making them the Sixth Nation, and assigning them territory to the west of and in close proximity to that of the Oneidas.1
Under the treaty of Utrecht the French agreed not to attack the Iroquois, who were acknowledged to be subjects of Great Britain, and both the English and the French were guaranteed free trade with them. After a period of nominal peace of about thirty years the English and French were again at war in 1744, which continued until 1748, when, on April 30, it was concluded by the treaty of Aix-la Chapelle, which substantially renewed the former treaty. At that time, such progress in settlement had been made that the French, stimulated by the zealous and active Jesuits, numbered about 60,000, while the English colonists reached over a million in number. In this latter conflict the Iroquois did not engage until 1746. The last named treaty was very imperfect; the old causes of dissention and rivalry remained, and the two countries were again in conflict in 1755, and for a time France gained the supremacy and drew over to her side half or more of the Iroquois. They established a line of forts from Montreal to French Creek in Pennsylvania, and the breaking out of the war found the English unprepared to meet the vigorous measures inaugurated by their enemy. Battles were fought in Nova Scotia, in the Ohio Valley, at Crown Point, and at Niagara. During this period Sir William Johnson was active in the English interest and acquired an influence over the Indians that was potent in achieving the final triumph. Johnson was wounded in the engagement at Crown Point in 1754 and from that time to the end of the struggle a fierce border warfare was carried on, the details of which form many chapters of the deepest and most terrible interest in American history.
In 1756 forts were built at Onawaroghhare2 (Oneida Castle in the town of Vernon) and at Onondaga, and a block house at Canaseraga. The fort at Oneida was 120 feet square, built of sixteen feet logs set four feet in the ground. It had two block houses at opposite corners, each of which was twenty-four feet square below, while the upper part projected to allow its occupants to fire down upon an enemy. The block house at Canaseraga was similar to this.
It was during this conflict also and on May 18, 1759, that General Amherst issued orders for the construction of "3 Posts to be made as follows: At the northeast end of Oneyda Lake-50 men: at the west end of Oneyda Lake, 50 do; at Oswego Falls, 100 do. The above Posts to be retrenched with a ditch, and a block-house in the center, with flankers at each opposite angle on which swivel guns are mounted."
These orders resulted in the construction of what was called the Royal Block House, which was on the south side of Wood Creek, near its junction with Fish Creek, and the fort at Brewerton, the sites of both of which are still recognizable. The location and form of these works is shown on the accompanying diagram.
At a council held by Sir William Johnson at Onondaga, June 19, 1756, where permission was given Johnson to build a fort or magazine at Oswego Falls, an Onondaga sachem promised him the aid of the Tuscaroras and Oneidas in building a road from the German Flats to "Canaghsaragy," and of the Onondagas in building one thence to Oswego.3
The war which for many years threatened to overthrow the English finally resulted in their favor and the treaty of Paris was signed in 1763, leaving England in possession of Canada and the trans-Mississippi territory. It was to settle the territorial disputes arising after this peace between the various Indian tribes and the colonies, that the so-called Line of Property was established in 1768 and ratified by Sir William Johnson in 1770. But the fixing of this line did not permanently protect the Indians in the enjoyment of the territory set apart for them. As settlement increased, the greed of traders let to encroachments that soon created trouble and prepared the way for hostility by the natives towards the colonists in the approaching revolution. The Indians made bitter complaint of their treatment at a congress of the Six Nations held at Johnson Hall (Johnstown) in the summer of 1774. At the same time the Six Nations agreed to a proposition made by the Montauk Indians to settle on their lands at Conawaroghere, which Johnson speaks of in November, 1762, as being "a new village of the Oneidas."
As the time approached when the fires of the Revolution were to be lighted, it was clearly seen that the colonists could hope for little aid from the Iroquois as a whole; indeed they had every reason to fear their enmity, with the exception of the Oneidas and Tuscaroras. Upon the outbreak of the conflict, about 1,800 allied themselves with the British, leaving only about 200 who were friendly to the colonists. The terrible atrocities of the former, under the leadership of Brant and stimulated by many tories, whose deeds were scarcely less barbarous than those of their red friends, can never be forgotten. At a council held at Onondaga the whole Six Nations at first resolved to remain neutral, but the inducements offered by the mother country were too strong to be resisted. Joseph Brant, then one of the most prominent of the young men of the Confederacy, was sent to England, where he was set up as a hero and made the recipient of many honors and gifts. He was closely affiliated with the Johnsons also, and when he returned in the winter of 1776 he at once began organizing a force of Indians to aid the English. In the spring of 1777 he appeared at Oquaga (now Windsor, Broome County) with a large body of warriors, and in June he ascended the Susquehanna to Unadilla. There he demanded food for his followers, drove off cattle, sheep and swine, and so frightened the inhabitants that they retired to Cherry Valley and other settled points.
The attitude of the Indians under Brant was clearly exposed by that chief in an interview which was sought by General Herkimer at Unadilla. He was told that "the Indians were in concert with the King, as their fathers had been; that the King's belts were yet lodged with them, and they could not violate their pledge;" and, finally, that they had "made war on the white people when they were all united, and as they were now divided the Indians were not frightened." The Indians were simply sharing the universal belief that the war would end with the defeat of the colonists. A few days after this interview Brant withdrew his forces from the Susquehanna and joined Sir John Johnson and Col. John Butler, who had gathered at Oswego a body of tories and refugees preparatory to an attack on the Mohawk and Schoharie settlements. This motley army joined the troops of St. Leger, who were co-operating with Burgoyne, and attacked Fort Schuyler in August, 1777; the bloody battle of Oriskany was fought, in which General Herkimer fell, and the colonists under Colonel Gansevoort snatched victory from defeat and put the enemy to a disgraceful flight.
After that battle Brand chastised the Oneidas for their neutrality by destroying their upper and lower castles, their crops and their wig-wams, and by driving off their cattle; but the Oneidas retaliated by aiding in the subsequent destruction of the castles and villages of the Mohawks, which preceded the final extinction of the power of the great Confederacy. The siege of Fort Schuyler was raised on the 22d of August, 1777.
A long series of Indian and tory atrocities on he New York and Pennsylvania borders followed these events, including the terrible massacres at Cherry Valley, Wyoming and Minnisink, at length impelling Congress to strike a blow for the prompt and permanent overthrow of the Indian power. To this end was organized the historical expedition of General Sullivan in 1779 against the Senecas, in which he was ordered "to cut off their settlements, destroy their crops, and inflict upon them every other injury which time and circumstances would permit." One of the three divisions composing Sullivan's army was commanded by Gen. James Clinton and was collected at Canajoharie. He endeavored to induce the Oneidas and Tuscaroras to join him, and would doubtless have been successful, but for an address sent them by the British general, Haldimand, governor of Canada; it was written in the Iroquois language and was so effective that with few exceptions those Indians remained at their homes. Before departing on this expedition Clinton and his forces ravaged the Mohawk country, burning villages and crops and sparing only those of the Oneidas and Tuscaroras. Sullivan's forces met near Athens, Pa; started promptly on their mission and fought their first battle on or near the site of Elmira. Proceeding northward the victorious army swept over the rich Genesee country, where the powerful Senecas had made extensive improvements, leaving desolation and ruin in their track. The other hostile nations shared the same fate. Catharinestown, the home of Catherine Montour, the inhuman figure in the Wyoming massacre: Kendaia, Kanadaseagea, the capital of the Senecas at the head of Seneca Lake, with its sixty wellbuilt houses and fine orchards; Kanandaigua, with its "twenty-three very elegant houses, mostly framed, and, in general, large;" and its fields of corn and orchards of fruit; Genesee Castle, "with one hundred and twenty-eight houses, mostly large and elegant," all were destroyed. Forty Indian towns were burned, thousands of bushels of grain in fields and buildings, large and fruitful orchards, gardens filled with vegetables, and much other property were wiped out of existence. The purposes of the expedition were amply effected. The Iroquois power was broken; but before their final and complete submission they made one more effort to gratify their revenge. Crippled and humiliated, they still turned a deaf ear to the pleas of Red Jacket, the great Seneca Chief, to yield to their white conquerors, and in the ensuing winter organized an expedition under Cornplanter, fell upon the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, burned their castle, church and village, and drove them to seek safety among the white settlements farther east, where they remained until the close of the war, in active alliance with the colonists.
In further retaliation for Sullivan's invasion of the Iroquois country, Sir John Johnson in the fall of 1780, gathered at La Chine Island in the St. Lawrence, a body of tories, Canadians and Indians, the latter under Brant, and on the 15th of October descended upon the Schoharie valley, burned buildings, destroyed other property, took many prisoners and laid the whole region waste. Gen. Robert Van Rensselaer hastily gathered the militia and pursued the invaders, who fled to their boats, which had been left with their stores under a strong guard in a stockade fort previously built by the French on the east bank of Chittenango Creek, about a mile above the mouth of Black Creek. Van Rensselaer followed his enemy to Herkimer and from there sent a messenger to Fort Stanwix with orders for Capt. Walter Vrooman to take a strong detachment to Chittenango Creek and destroy the boats and stores of the enemy. This mission the young captain accomplished, but his command of fifty men was surprised on the 23rd of October by a body of Butler's Rangers, sent by Johnson to intercept them. All but two or three of the party were killed or captured, some of the captives being mercilessly tortured by the exasperated Indians. Captain Vrooman and the other survivors were taken to Montreal and held prisoners two years. These captives, or a part of them, returned to the scene of this event in 1790 and squatted on lands of the Oneida Reservation and later became the pioneers of the town of Sullivan.
In the succeeding operations in the Mohawk valley and vicinity, the Oneidas performed valuable services for the colonial cause. In the battle at Fort Plain they were opposed to the forces of Brant and Johnson and aided in their defeat. In the ranks with Col. Marinus Willett, for the defense of the valley in 1781, were many Oneidas battling faithfully for their friends. Indeed, on every occasion where they could serve the colonists, this friendly nation of Indians never failed in loyalty or bravery.
With the declaration of peace in 1783, New York authorities showed a disposition to drive from the State all the Indians of the Six Nations, the larger part of whom had been foremost in the bloody border wars; but the Federal government took a different view of the matter. Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee were appointed commissioners to adjust their claims and rights, and at a council held at Fort Stanwix in 1784, reservations were assigned to each of the nations excepting the Mohawks. Special legislation had previously been enacted for the Oneidas and Tuscaroras. On the 15th of October, 1783, a series of resolutions was adopted by Congress relating to the Indians, one of which was as follows:
Whereas, the Oneida and Tuscarora tribes have adhered to the cause of America, and joined her armies in the course of the late war, and Congress has repeatedly assured them of peculiar marks of favor and friendship, the said Commissioners are therefore instructed to reassure the said tribes of the friendship of the United States and that they may rely that the land which they claim as their inheritance will be reserved for their sole use and benefit, until they may think it for their advantage to dispose of the same.
The first known place of dwelling of the Oneidas was on an eminence in the present town of Stockbridge.4 The time when this village was abandoned for the later Oneida Castle is unknown. The latter was spoken of in 1762 as "a new village of the Oneidas." When the Tuscaroras became the Sixth Nation of the Confederacy, a portion of them were settled at the old village in Stockbridge, and others at Canaseraga. At the close of the war the Senecas gave them lands in the present county of Niagara, where they still remain. Their removal thither was made in 1784, in which year the Stockbridge tribe took possession of their village, which was called the "Upper Oneida Castle." When the first white settlers came their cabins dotted the whole valley of the Oneida. In 1792 the Oneidas numbered about 550 and were described as being "very friendly." In 1875 they numbered 150, all excepting eleven living on the reservation. Several removals of portions of the nation to Green Bay, Wisconsin, have been made, the last of which took place in 1844. There are now not more than a score left at their old home.
The long and arduous efforts made to civilize and educate the Indians, as described in the "Relations" of the Jesuits and their journals of missionaries, are well known to all intelligent persons. As a whole those efforts were unsuccessful, though much good was accomplished in certain localities. Among the most distinguished Indian missionaries, and one whose work was most productive of good results was Rev. Samuel Kirkland,5 who labored long among the Oneidas and acquired almost unbounded influence, which he exercised to the great benefit of the colonists during the Revolutionary war.
In July, 1751, David Zeisberger and Gottfried Rundt held a council with the Oneidas, who had stopped them on their way to the Onondagas and opposed their proceeding further. In the council, Brother Zeisberger addressed the, with such effect that the Indians relinquished their opposition, saying, "We are convinced that your business is not a bad one, and that your words are true."
A mission was established at Oneida Castle in 1816 by Bishop Hobart, and Rev. Eleazer Williams, the putative son of Thomas Williams, a distinguished chief of the St. Regis Indians, was placed in charge. He was well educated and officiated as lay reader, catechist and school teacher. His labors resulted in converting a large number of the Oneidas to Christianity who had before belonged to the so-called Pagan party. These converts in January, 1817, sent to Gov. De Witt Clinton an address, signed by eleven of the head men of the nation, expressing their desire to be known as the 'Second Christian Party of the Oneida Nation." In 1818 this party sold a piece of land for the erection of a chapel, which was dedicated as St. Peter's Church on September 21, 1819, by Bishop Hobart, who confirmed in all 500 persons connected with this mission. Mr. Williams removed to Green Bay, Wisconsin, with a part of the Oneidas and was succeeded in the mission by Solomon Davis, who removed to the same place with another portion of the nation. The chapel was removed to Vernon in 1840.
A Methodist mission was established among the Oneidas in 1829 by Rev. Dan Barnes, who remained three years and labored very effectually for the conversion and moral improvement of the natives. A chapel was built in the southwest corner of the town of Vernon; it was sold with its site in 1833 by the body of Indians that left in that year for Green Bay. Another house was soon afterward built in the same locality.
A Methodist Indian church and school building is still standing on the west road from Oneida near the Lawrence farm, which was used for services many years, but has not been occupied, excepting on occasional Sabbaths for some ten years.
The Stockbridge Indians, who took their name from their native place in Massachusetts, were ministered to by Rev. John Sergeant, who came with them and founded a church immediately after their settlement at Stockbridge. The tribe then comprised 420 members, sixteen of whom constituted the original church. Mr. Sergeant served as missionary there for thirty-six years, and received from the Legislature a patent for a mile square of land adjoining Stockbridge, which was presented to him by the Indians. Mr. Sergeant died September 7, 1824. In 1822 a large part of this tribe removed to Wisconsin and there made considerable advancement in civilized customs.
The Brotherton Indians were adopted by the Oneidas in the latter half of the eighteenth century. They were made up of a union of several tribes, or brothers, whence their name. They located mostly in the town of Marshall, Oneida county, and adopted the English language.
As before intimated, the Oneida Indians remained friendly to the white settlers during the greater part of the early wars. Their great chieftain, Skenandoah, was then in power; he was a man possessed of a vigorous mind, sagacious, wise and persevering, noble and commanding in person and manner. He was at all times the white man's friend. His watchfulness once prevented the massacre of the inhabitants of German Flats, and in the Revolution it was his influence that induced the Oneidas to take up arms for the colonists. Soon after Rev. Mr. Kirkland established his mission, Skenandoah became a Christian and lived in that faith to the close of his life. He died March 11, 1816, and was believed to have been about 110 years old. His remains were buried in the garden of Mr. Kirkland and a monument to his memory has been erected by the Northern Missionary Society.
Whatever may be our preconceived theories of the right of conquest, the onward march of civilization, etc., with which we Anglo-Saxons are prone to minister to our own self-esteem, it is still pitiful to contemplate the present condition and circumstances of the once numerous and powerful Indian nations of New York State. Their immense domain shorn down to a few insignificant reservations, their numbers reduced to a fraction of what they once were, their haughty and aggressive spirit subdued, the American Indians form a interesting, if saddening, example of the passing of a great nation.
Of the Oneidas there are now living in this State about 250; there are about 400 of the Tuscaroras, while at Green Bay there is a remnant of the Stockbridges. Of the other New York Indians there are according to a late census about 3,800 remaining.
It is interesting to note here that these Indians and others of the same nations on the western reservations have recently gained a claim against the government of about $2,000,000, largely through the long continued efforts of James B. Jenkins, of Oneida Castle. This claim arose through the exchange by the government of lands in Indian Territory for other and more valuable lands now lying within the State of Kansas, and a promise to pay to the Indians a large sum of money representing the difference in value of the two tracts. After about forty years of contest the Court of Claims found in December, 1890, that about $2,000,000 was due the New York Indians. Further delays carried the case along to the later part of 1898 when judgment was entered by the Court of Claims; this was subsequently affirmed by the United States Supreme Court.
1 - In 1763 their principal village was at Canaseraga, in the town of Sullivan, Madison County. They had "several others about the Susquehanna," and numbered 140. -- Sir William Johnson's enumeration of Indians, Col. Hist.
2 - Colonial History.
3 - Colonial History
4 - Schoolcraft
5 - Rev. Samuel Kirkland was born in Norwich, Conn., December 1, 1741, and received his education in Dr. Wheelock's Indian school. In 1761 he was sent among the Mohawks to learn their language. He entered Princeton College in 1762, and in 1764 returned to the Mohawk Indians to teach school and further study their language and customs. He received his collegiate degree in 1765, and in that and the following year labored among the Senecas. On July 19, 1766, he was ordained at Lebanon as an Indian missionary, and in the following July took up his residence at Oneida Castle. For forty years thereafter he labored among the nation of Indians, acquiring almost unbounded influence over them, and exerting it successfully in preventing them from joining the enemies of the colonists during the Revolutionary war. During that struggle he acted as chaplain in the United States service, and was brigade chaplain in Sullivan's campaign against the Senecas in 1779. At the close of the war he remained with the Oneidas, and in 1788 assisted at the great council for the extinction of the Indian title to the Genesee country. The Oneidas gave him a tract of land, and the State regarded the value of his services so highly that it granted him in 1789 a section of land in the town of Kirkland, Oneida county, two miles square, to which he removed. In 1792 he made a liberal endowment of land for the founding of a school which was originally called the Hamilton Oneida Academy, and in 1812 became Hamilton College by incorporation. Mr. Kirkland married in the summer of 1799, Jerusha Bingham, in Connecticut, an excellent woman, who returned westward with her husband and shared in his after labors. Mr. Kirkland died February 28, 1808. He was a man of the noblest qualities of mind and heart, a true friend of both the red man and the white, and one of the few missionaries whose labors among the Indians resulted in, to some extent, Christianizing and educating them.
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January 13, 2003
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