Part 8

After the massacre, and the Tuscaroras heard it reported that they were charged with being the author of the disaster, they immediately sent messengers and denied the charge of having officially taken any part in the disorder, but acknowledged that a few of the reckless and lawless warriors did take part against their admonitions, but they were willing to make all the restoration that was in their power to do, and would fight for them if necessary. At different times they petitioned, remonstrated and supplicated for peace, which was slighted and disregarded, and only produced more violence and insult.

Notice what Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, said concerning the Tuscaroras, to wit:

"On the first of the disaster I sent a detachment of the militia to the tributary Indians of this province to prevent them from joining in the war, and understanding that the Indians in some of the Tuscarora towns had refused to march against the whites, sent a messenger to invite them, with the rest of the friendly tribes, to a conference at the Nottoway line, on the southern border of Virginia, where he met them on the 7th of November."

"The Governor, after entering into some conversation with the Chiefs, had the pleasure of finding the report which his messengers had made, from their observations while in the Tuscarora towns, that they were very desirous of continuing in peace, and were greatly concerned that any of their nation should have joined in the massacre."

The Chiefs, after accounting for the delay that occurred, expressed the desire of the Indians of their towns to continue in strict friendship with the whites, and assist them in chastising the authors of the late disorder.

"But now an unfortunate difference arose between the Governor and the burgesses, the latter insisting on the passage of a bill for raising an army in Virginia, without trusting to the sincerity of the profession of the Tuscarora Chiefs. The Governor refusing to accede to this proposition, and declining to co-operate in their plans, the dispute ended by a dissolution of the assembly."

There was at one time a treaty of peace concluded between the Sachems and Chiefs of the Tuscaroras and Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, and one of the conditions of the treaty was to help in chastising the authors of the late massacre. In conformity with this pledge the Tuscaroras made an attack on the Mattamuskeets, where they obtained thirty scalps and presented them to the authorities of the whites, of which they pretended to be pleased. I don't doubt but that they were really pleased, but not with any good feelings towards the Tuscaroras. I suppose the object was to get all the other Indian nations alienated from them, so that in due time they might be easily conquered, because they were the nation that the whites seemed bent on destroying. The Tuscaroras had faith in the treaty, but only to disappoint them in the thought of having the dark cloud which hung so glowingly over them taken away. It is said by historians that the Tuscaroras disregarded the treaty and began hostilities. But I will relate a tradition, handed down from generation to generation, which is as follows, to wit:

Some little time after the treaty concluded, several white men went into one of their towns and said that they were sent by the government to distribute among them an annuity of goods in token of friendship; and also said, "In token of your sincerity to the treaty of peace, you will all repair to a place where there is a cord stretched out in a straight line, you must all take hold of the line with your right hand, and all those that refuse to take hold will be considered as hostile and will be omitted in the distribution of the goods." They all went to the place designated and found the cord strung out for nearly a mile; at one end of it was a bundle covered with cloth, which, as they supposed, contained the goods; so the unsuspecting Indians, women and children, with eager hearts, laid hold on the rope. When it was thought that they were in a proper position, the white men all at once uncovered the supposed goods, which was a large cannon, and being prepared to shoot in a line with the cord it was at once fired and roared like thunder. In a moment the ground along the cord was strewn with the meats of the Tuscaroras. This is one of the effects of the treaty at that time.

I will copy a report of Governor Spotswood to the Lords Commissioners of Trade, in the year 1711, to-wit:

"Had they," said he, "really intended to carry on the war against the Indians, they could not have done it in a more frugal way than by the treaty I concluded with the Tuscarora chiefs.

"Indeed, some of that house, since the dissolution, own more freely than they would do while sitting, that most of the irregularities of their proceedings are owing to some rash votes, passed without foresight, which they could not afterwards get over without breaking the rules of their house; and so they chose, rather, to let the country suffer than to own themselves in an error.

"Some of the Tuscarora chiefs have lately been with Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, and pretend a great inclination to peace.

"They are again to be with him on the 26th of this month; we are to send two agents to meet them there--Mr. Tobias Knight and Mayor Christophe Gale--not with any expectation that the Governor will make any treaty for us, for that would be dishonorable to your lordship and make us appear contemptible in the eyes of the Indians, but with a view to hear what they have to propose."

I might quote many more passages similar to those above, but let these few suffice to show how the Tuscaroras were treated. Now, finally, with a combination of causes, they were in 1713, crushed and broken down as a nation, to satisfy the inclinations of the white people, persecutions being kept up by neighboring whites and southern Indians until June following. The Oneida Indians, having heard of the disaster to the Tuscarora Nation, invited them to come and make their dwelling among them: so, accordingly, they left Carolina and took their journey north to rejoin their sister nations.

Methink I can see them leaving their once cherished homes--the aged, the helpless, the women and children, and the warriors faint and few--the ashes are cold on their native hearth; the smoke no more curls round their lowly cabin: they move on with slow, unsteady steps; they turn to take a last look upon their doomed village and cast a last glance upon the long cherished memories of their fathers' graves. They shed no tears; they utter no cries: they heave no groans, they linger but a moment. They know and feel that there is for them still one more remove further, not distant nor unseen.

One bright, sunny June morning, in the year 1813, was one of the darkest days that the Tuscaroras ever witnessed, when most of the nation took their pace to the north until they came within the bounds of the Oneida domain, about two miles west of Tamaqua, in the state of Pennsylvania, where they located and set out apple trees which can be seen to this day: some of the trees, will measure about two feet in diameter. Here they dwelled for about two years.

In about the year 1815, the Iroquois, being the Mohawk, Onondaga, Seneca, Oneida and Cayuga nations, which were then called the five nations, had a general council where the Tuscarora made an application through their brothers the Oneida, to be admitted into the Iroquois and become the sixth nation, on the grounds of a common generic origin, which was granted them unanimously. Then the Seneca adopted the Tuscarora as their children. Ever since that time to the present, if a Seneca addresses the Tuscaroras, he will invariably salute them as "my sons," in social or in council; and also the Tuscaroras in return will say "my fathers." The relation has always been kept up to the present.

The Tuscaroras were then initiated without enlarging the frame-work of the confederacy and formation of the League, by allowing them their own Sachems and Chiefs, which they had as hereditary from their nation in the south, except on which they gave, as the Holder of the Tree, to sit and enjoy a nominal equality in the councils of the League, by the courtesy of the other five nations. They were not dependent, but were admitted to as full an equality as could be granted them without enlarging the frame- work of the confederacy. In the councils of the League they had no national designation. They were then assigned a portion of the Oneidas' territory, which is lying upon the Unadilla river on the east, the Chenango on the west, and the Susquehanna on the south, where they dwelled and enjoyed their peace again for about seventy years. In 1736 they numbered 200 warriors of fighting men.

We again hear of the Tuscarora by history, concerning a massacre of the German Flats, N. Y., in November, 1757.

A narrative communicated to the author of the Documentary History of New York, vol. 2, page 520, viz: A few days after this massacre and desolation had been perpetrated, Sir William Johnson dispatched Geo. Croghan, Esq., Deputy Agent, with Mr. Montour, the Indian interpreter, to the German Flats, where he understood several of the Oneida and Tuscarora Indians were assembled, in order to call upon them to explain why they had not given more timely notice to the Germans of the designs and approach of the enemy, it having been reported that no intelligence had been given by the Indians until the same morning the attack was made, and as these Indians might naturally be supposed, from their situation and other circumstances, to have had an earlier knowledge of the enemy's design and march.

Before Mr. Croghan could get up to the German Flats the aforesaid Indians were on their road homewards, but he was informed that the Chief Sachem of the Upper Oneida town, with a Tuscarora Sachem (which is supposed to be Solomon Longboard) and another Oneida Indian, were still about four miles from Fort Harkeman, upon which he sent a messenger to acquaint them that he was at the said fort.

The aforesaid Indians returned, and on the 3oth of November, at Fort Harkeman, Conaghquieson, the Oneida Sachem, made the following speech to Mr. Croghan, having first called in one Rudolph Shumaker, Hanjost Harkman and several other Germans who understood the Indian language, and desired them to sit down and hear what he had to say. Conaghquieson then proceeded and said:

"Brothers:--I can't help telling you that we were very much surprised to hear that our English brethren suspect and charge us with not giving them timely notice of the designs of the French, as it is well known we have not neglected to give them every piece of intelligence that came to our knowledge.

"Brothers, about fifteen days before the affair happened we sent the Germans word that some Swegatchi Indians told us that the French were determined to destroy the German Flats, and desired them to be on their guard. About six days after that we had a further account from the Swegatchi Indians that the French were preparing to march.

"I then came to the German Flats, and in a meeting with the Germans told them what we had heard, and desired to collect themselves together in a body at their fort, [Footnote: A stockaded work round the church, and a block-house, with a ditch, and a parapet thrown up by Sir William Johnson, a year ago, upon an alarm then given.] and secure their women, children and effects, and to make the best defence they could. At the same time I told them to write what I had said to our brother, Warraghryagey (meaning Sir William Johnson [Footnote: They never sent this intelligence to Sir William Johnson.]), but they paid not the least regard to what I told them, and laughed at me, slapping their hands on their buttocks, saying they did not value the enemy, upon which I returned home and sent one of our people to the lake (meaning Oneida Lake) to find out whether the enemy were coming or not. After he had staid there two days the enemy arrived at the carrying-place, and sent word to the castle at the lake that they were there, and told them what they were going to do, but charged them not to let us at the upper castle know anything of their design. As soon as the man I sent there heard this he came on to us with the account that night; and as soon as we received it we sent a belt of wampum, to confirm the truth thereof, to the Flats, which came here the day before the enemy made their attack: but the people would not give credit to the account even then, or they might have saved their lives. [Footnote: The Indians who brought the belt of wampum, finding the Germans still incredulous, the next morning, just before the attack began, laid hold on the German Minister, and in a manner forced him over to the other side of the river, by which means he and some who followed him escaped the fate of their brethren.] This is the truth, and those Germans here present know it to be so. The aforesaid Germans did acknowledge it to be so, and that they had such intelligence.

"GEORGE CROGHAN."

The Oneida being the original owner of the tract of land assigned to the Tuscarora as aforesaid, were made party with the Tuscarora to the treaty made at Fort Herkimer in the year 1785, by which it was ceded to the State, and the Oneida took all the avails of the treaty. The Tuscaroras were then again left without a home and were partially scattered among the other nations, although they continued to preserve their nationality. They had some settlements, at a later period, in Oneida Castle, called by them Gaunea-wahro-hare (signifying head on the pole), and one in the valley of the Genesee below Avon, called by them Ju-na-stre-yo (signifying the beautiful valley); another settlement at Con-na-so-ra-ga, on the line between Onondaga and Oneida; another in the fork of Chattenango Creek, which they called Ju-ta-nea-ga (signifying where the sun shines); and another on the Jordan Creek, which they called Kan-ha-to (signifying limb in water). These several places were settled at different periods, which I am not able to give.

In the revolutionary war between the United States and Great Britain, the Tuscaroras then had their settlement at the place alotted them by the league in 1715, between the Unadilla river and the Chenango. They took an active part with the United States. Many a soldier and scout of the United States, in their fatigue and hunger, found a rest and a morsel in the rude homes of the Tuscaroras, which were ever hospitably open to them.