Chapter C: An Interview with “esq.” Johnson by Mrs. Asher Wright.66

Esquire Johnson does not recollect the name of the man who first gave the name Nan-do-wah-gaah[67] and then went to where they lived and said to them, “You are O-non-dah-ge-gaah,”[68] and then he went to another place and said to the residents, “You are Ga-nyah-ge-o-noh,”[69] and then he came to where he called them O-ne-yut-gaah,[70] then again to another place and said “You are Que-yu-gwe-o-noh”;[71] five nations, for the Tuscaroras were then at the South. This was long before the confederacy of the Iroquois, and the Tuscaroras did not return until after the Revolutionary war.

The Mohawks have 5 sachems,[72] The Onondagas, he thinks have 4, also the Oneidas and Cayugas four each, the Senecas have 4 also and two war chiefs, the other tribes had no war chiefs.

Sha-dye-na-waho,[73] Nis-ha-nye-yant,[74] Gah-nya-gaeh,[75] Shah-de-gao-yes,[76] Sho-guh-jis-wa,[77] Ga-no-ga-ih-da-wit, De-yo-ne-ho-gaah-wah,[78] were Seneca Sachems.

The Long House was first opened at Onondaga[79]; the Senecas also had a long house.[80] When anything occurred to render a council necessary, any trusty young man might be sent as a runner to the other tribes to call them together.

When they came together the evening before the council they sang a song (In Seneca Wa-a-non-dah ga-ya-soh,) and in the morning one man sang a different song as they were going to start, i.e. the volunteers to revenge the murder or whatever the injury was.

In the council some leading chief would state the business and ask, what shall we do? A few of the chiefs would tell their views and then leading men of influence would say, We will do so and so, and the multitude would acquiesce and the council would break up.

In case of making peace between the Senecas, or the Iroquois, and the Cherokees, e.g., two messengers would be dispatched by the party desiring peace. They would be called before the enemies’ council and introduced by the chief and then would deliver their message. If their proposals for peace were accepted they would agree to bury the whole list of grievances (bury the hatchet, Dyo-an-jo-gut,) so that they should not come up in sight again. If they refused the terms they would send the ambassadors back again to convey their refusal to the people and the war would continue.

The Quapaw war was long before the Cherokee war. This last was the last Indian war carried on by the Six Nations with the other Indians. Jak Snow’s widow was a Cherokee and Gah-no-syoot Hay-a-soo-oh who died at Allegany, but Johnson never heard that Blue Eyes was a Cherokee.

The office of the Ga-yah-gwaah-doh was to give notice of the death of a sachem and the convocation of the general council to mourn for the dead and to raise up some one in his place, and at such convocations all the subordinate vacancies would be filled by the “raising” of chiefs and the elections of new ones.

In the election of new chiefs the women of the family in which the vacancy occurred having the name of the office in her keeping could confer it on any one of the family (always on the female side), whom she should regard as the most reliable. It was always the province of the female head of the household to settle such questions although she consulted the whole household as to their judgment of the fitness or unfitness of any candidate. In like manner she could also depose (knock the horns off), for any dereliction of duty. After the election etc. the act would be confirmed (Da-ye-a-wit ha-di-yaas-gwah), by the relations and then by the council. These rules applied to all ranks even to the Ho-ya-neh-gowaak of the Grand Council.

Johnson says that 72 years ago[81] last spring, he with many others, was invited over from Canada by the chiefs and that he was 20 years old at this time and he says at that time the Indians had an idol over at Cornplanter’s made of wood and ornamented with feathers around which they sung and danced and called it GOD. He had seen the idol but not the dancing around it. He says that Cornplanter’s son threw it into the river (corroborating the story I have heard before). He says that he never knew of any other such idol. But he says that the women very commonly made little images, made in conformity to their dreams. (They consider all remarkable dreams as revelations from the spirit world.) And not alone the dolls, but images of any other object they might be impressed by in a dream, they considered them to be their gods, considered them as their protectors, etc. Some of them, not all of them, used to dance before them as objects of worship. (He does not know that the women ever received from the Catholics any images of the Virgin, but he has often seen gold or silver crucifixes among them used simply as ornaments.)

The Indians did not all believe that their New Years and other feasts were ordained of God. Johnson says that when he was about ten years old he saw some of the disgusting things connected with the New Years and he asked his grandfather if God appointed that institution. The old man said _No_. And from that time Johnson did not believe in them and hence when the gospel came his mind was open to conviction and he embraced it. He says they had the New Years from time immemorial, but the dog burning, he thinks, was added to it not very long ago in consequence of somebody’s dreams. The Big Feather and Green Corn dances he thinks were of equal antiquity with the New Years. He thinks all other observances comparatively modern, dreamed out and agreed upon and then proclaimed to the people as being God’s ordinances.

He adds to the smoke of the tobacco to propitiate the pigeons when they took their young, the offering of payment to the old ones,—a brass kettle or other little dish full of ot-go-ah,[82] brooches, and various other things which the man who raised the smoke would deposit on the ground before he put the tobacco on the fire, and he says that they left the kettle there when they left home, considering it a real payment to the pigeons, etc. (The prayers are the same as related by Oliver Silverheels.)

He says that anciently they had a law that if a man died his widow should mourn a whole year, she should clothe herself in rags, keep her head covered with rags, never wash her face or hands, never to go anywhere except at night weeping to the grave. (The same rules applied in case it was her child that died. It was the general law of mourning.) The chiefs at last forbade these customs, as being too hard, often resulting in the death of the mourners before the year was up, and they appointed that the mourning should last only ten days, at the end of which they should hold the funeral feast (Ho-non-di-aak-hoh-ga-ya-soh), and during these ten days they should abstain from all ordinary business; a chief, e.g. could not meet in council or attend any public business till the ten days were over. At the funeral feast the chief or other person would proclaim the removal of the disabilities.

Johnson says that a long time ago squashes were found growing wild. He says that he has seen them and that they were quite unpalatable, but the Indians used to boil and eat them. He says that in their ancient wars with the Southern Indians they brought back squashes that were sweet and palatable and beans which grow wild in the South, calico colored, and which were very good, and he thinks the white folks have never used them. Also the o-yah-gwa-oweh they brought from the south where it grows wild, also the various kinds of corn, black, red and squaw corn they brought from the prairie country south where they found it growing wild. All these things they found on their war expeditions and brought them here and planted them and thus they abound here, but he does not know where they first found the potato.

STONE GIANTS.

He says the old people used to tell the story that after God had made the world and man and animals he was one day walking around and he saw a strange people coming towards him, clothed with stone and he asked them who they were and who created them. They replied that they were free and independent and that they had no creator, that they were their own masters. He then said, “Where are you going?” They said, “We are going to find men that we may devour them.” He said, “You must not go. Very likely if you do they will kill you.” But the more he forbid them the more they were determined to go. So he went away and blackened his face with coal and took him a basswood club three or four inches through and came around in front of them and fell upon them and killed all but two who fled and he came around again and having washed off the black met them in the place where he first saw them, and said, “What is the matter with you that you flee so?” They answered, “They have been killing us, and we only are left.” He said, “That is what I told you,” though he had done it himself. He said then, “You must go away and leave mankind alone. You must keep away from and never come nigh them again.”

THE THUNDER GOD.

He also at another time saw the Hih-noh coming towards him and did not know him for he had not created him and he said to him, Who are you? Who created you? And whom do you own as your lord? He answered no one. Then he said What do you think of men? He replied Oh they are my grandchildren and if you wish me to do anything I can do it, (or I am ready to do it.) GOD said to him, What can you do. Oh he said I can wash the earth, &c. And so the Indians, when it thunders think that Hih-noh is washing the earth again and they call him Grandfather because he told GOD that they were his grandchildren.

ANOTHER STORY, OR FABLE, THE THUNDERER.

In ancient times there was a war party got up to go against the southwestern Indians. There were four or five men and there was a poor friendless boy, an orphan, and he came to one of these men and found him painted and ready for the expedition. He painted himself, and the man befriended him and sent him to where there was a company of men, who seeing him painted enquired the object and said to him, that man is your friend? He said yes and they said we will go with you. There were five in the party besides this boy whose name was Shot-do-gas, in allusion to his filthy miserable condition. They came together near Smoke’s Creek (near Buffalo) and there they made a bark canoe and then started up the lake. They came after several nights to Ga-yah-hah-geh (Clear Land), and there while the moon was yet high and it was quite light, they became sleepy, and the leader said Let us stop here. So they ran in among the cattail flags and tied a lot of them together on each side of the canoe and fastened it to them, so as to have it lie still. (Noe-oh-gwah ga-ya-soh, cattail flag.) So they slept in the canoe. After a little while the leader awoke and thought he saw evidence that they were in motion, and putting his hand over the side of the canoe, felt the rush of water, and aroused his companions, saying Wake up! The canoe is running swiftly. Another put his hand on the other side of the canoe, and said Yes we are going rapidly! They could not tell the cause of the motion, but the canoe kept on. They lay in it mostly asleep and when they awaked they found themselves at Green Bay, and the canoe kept on, and they finally landed at Chicago, at daylight, having come from Cleveland in one night. They took the canoe into the bushes and hid it and got ready their breakfast and ate it and about noon they found a trail leading off into the country and they started on that trail and they went till night and camped and started again the next morning, and till perhaps 5 p. m., they saw a man coming. They stopped beside the trail till he came up. He said the chief sent me on this trail saying you will meet men coming. Tell them to come on with you. They went on a great way for he had run very fast and at length they came to a house. Beside the door there was something tied and concealed, and he said to them you must not look upon this. Something will happen to whosoever looks upon it. (It was a She-wah, a sable.) They went into the house, no one of them having looked upon the forbidden object. They found the house full of people who made room for them, and all men, women and children saluted them kindly. The chief said to his family We are in a hard case we have nothing for these guests to eat. They can not eat our food. You must provide for them of such kind of food as they can eat. Four of them then went out and presently it began to thunder. Then these men began to realize their situation. They had come into Hih-noh’s house. The whole household were his family, although in form and speech they seemed to be human beings. These four soon returned bringing with them green corn, beans, squashes, etc., for their guests. The women cooked these things for them and they ate. They soon discovered that the Hih-noh family lived upon serpents,—that whenever they discovered a snake they shot down a bolt upon him, and carried him home for food, and that it was this that made the old man say We are in a hard case because our guests cannot eat our food. They remained there a long time living together. At length the old man said to them, Pretty soon you will see something coming in the air from the North. We have tried to kill it but we cannot do it. You can do it for us. They then all went out and soon there was a wind from the North and they saw something flying towards them. It seemed to be a man entirely naked of a yellow color, without wings or any means of flying, and yet it flew swiftly towards them. Shot-da-gas said, “Shoot it with an arrow,” and he shot, and he shot and the arrow fell below and he shot again but over-shot it. By the time his third arrow was ready it had come directly overhead, and he shot and pierced him through the body, so that he fell but a little way off. The Hih-noh family were greatly rejoiced and poured forth many thanks upon him for his exploit.

Afterwards Hih-noh said, Yonder is another thing which we cannot kill, and he led them a long way till they came to a monstrous big whitewood tree, and from a large limb projecting from near the top there was a creature sitting and Hih-noh said Shoot that, and Shot-de-gas drew his bow and shot it through the body. It crawled along the limb and finally fell, (bum!) and was stone dead. It proved to be a monstrous porcupine with quills as large as one’s finger, which the Hih-noh family had tried in vain to kill.

They staid a long time, when at last Hih-noh said, they are about to take you home, but let Shot-do-gas remain with us, we will take care of him. Shot-do-gas was willing and his friend gave his consent. They went out and saw a very big Mortar, (gä-ne-gah-tah,) and Hih-noh called them to it. Shot-do-gas climbed into it and there he was killed, but Hih-noh restored him to life and he also became a hih-noh. Then the five men were about to start, and all at once there commenced a terrible thunder storm and Hih-noh said now take them home, and suddenly they were taken up on the backs of as many men and carried along with the storm and down at Smoke’s Creek where they started. They then washed off their paint and started to go home, but they found the trail grown up with bushes; they kept on to where there was a bark shanty, it had been rebuilt,—to the council house, it was gone, every(thing) was changed they kept on and at last met a man whom they did not know, he asked them where and whither they were going, they replied we went from here and have come home, he said wait and I will go and tell the people. He found the chief and told him here are men whom I never saw before, saying that they have come home. The chief gave the call implying important business,—the people rushed together into the council house, the man told what he had seen, the chief said to him go call these men, they came, no one knew them and they knew no one. The chief asked the leader of the party for his name, we may perhaps remember that, he would not tell his own name but the rest of the party told it and each others names, but nobody recollected them. Then said the chief there is a very old woman living yonder, go call her, if so be she can recollect them. She came and they told her their names and that one of the party named Shot-do-gas had remained behind. She recollected the leaving of the party a long, long time ago, and recalled their names, and said that when they went away, there was a poor miserable little boy, on that account called Shot-do-gas, who left with them. It proved that one of these men was elder brother of this old woman, and he returned in all the freshness of youth, as when he left, while his younger sister had become a superannuated old woman. All the rest of the people had grown up since they left and therefore did not know them. She, the sole survivor of her generation, was the only one to recognize them and remove the unbelief of those that did not believe that they had ever gone from this region of country.