book 1, chapter 1.

"The Indians of the State of New York number about 5,000, and occupy lands to the estimated extent of 87,()77 acres. With few exceptions, these people are the direct descendants of the native Indians, who once possessed and controlled the soil of the entire State."

_Report of Special Committee to Investigate the Indian Problem of the State of New York 1889._

_H. R. Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois._

_F. Parkman, The Conspiracy of Pontiac, chapter 1._

_C. Colden, History of the Five Indian Nations._

_J. Fiske, Discovery of America, chapter 1._

In 1715 the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy became Six Nations, by the admission of the Tuscaroras, from N. Carolina.

See below: IROQUOIS TRIBES OF THE SOUTH.

On the relationship between the Iroquois and the Cherokees,

See above: CHEROKEES.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Iroquois Confederacy. Their Name.

"The origin and proper meaning of the word Iroquois are doubtful. All that can be said with certainty is that the explanation given by Charlevoix cannot possibly be correct. The name of Iroquois, he says, is purely French, and has been formed from the term 'hiro,' 'I have spoken,' a word by which these Indians close all their speeches, and 'kouê,' which, when long drawn out, is a cry of sorrow, and when briefly uttered is an exclamation of joy. ... But ... Champlain had learned the name from his Indian allies before he or any other Frenchman, so far as is known, had ever seen an Iroquois. It is probable that the origin of the word is to be sought in the Huron language; yet, as this is similar to the Iroquois tongue, an attempt may be made to find a solution in the latter. According to Bruyas, the word 'garokwa' meant a pipe, and also a piece of tobacco,--and, in its verbal form, to smoke. This word is found, somewhat disguised by aspirates, in the Book of Rites,--denighroghkwayen,--'let us two smoke together.' ... In the indeterminate form the verb becomes 'ierokwa,' which is certainly very near to Iroquois. It might be rendered 'they who smoke,' or 'they who use tobacco,' or, briefly, 'the Tobacco People.' This name, the Tobacco Nation ('Nation du Petun') was given by the French, and probably also by the Algonkins, to one of the Huron tribes, the Tionontates, noted for the excellent tobacco which they raised and sold. The Iroquois were equally well known for their cultivation of this plant, of which they had a choice variety."

_H. Hale, Iroquois Book of Rites, appendix, note A._

Iroquois Confederacy. Their conquests and wide dominion.

"The project of a League [among the 'Five Nations' of the Iroquois] originated with the Onondagas, among whom it was first suggested, as a means to enable them more effectually to resist the pressure of contiguous nations. The epoch of its establishment cannot now be decisively ascertained; although the circumstances attending its formation are still preserved by tradition with great minuteness. These traditions all refer to the northern shore of the Onondaga lake, as the place where the Iroquois chiefs assembled in general congress, to agree upon the terms and principles of the compact. ... After the formation of the League, the Iroquois rose rapidly in power and influence. ... With the first consciousness of rising power, they turned their long-cherished resentment upon the Adirondacks, who had oppressed them in their infancy as a nation, and had expelled them from their country, in the first struggle for the ascendancy. {91} ... At the era of French discovery (1535), the latter nation [the Adirondacks] appear to have been dispossessed of their original country, and driven down the St. Lawrence as far as Quebec. ... A new era commenced with the Iroquois upon the establishment of the Dutch trading-post at Orange, now Albany, in 1615. ... Friendly relations were established between the Iroquois and the Dutch, which continued without interruption until the latter surrendered their possessions upon the Hudson to the English in 1664. During this period a trade sprang up between them in furs, which the Iroquois exchanged for European fabrics, but more especially for fire-arms, in the use of which they were afterwards destined to become so expert. The English, in turn, cultivated the same relations of friendship. ... With the possession of fire-arms commenced not only the rapid elevation, but absolute supremacy of the Iroquois over other Indian nations. In 1643, they expelled the Neuter Nation from the Niagara peninsula and established a permanent settlement at the mouth of that river. They nearly exterminated, in 1653, the Eries, who occupied the south side of Lake Erie, and from thence east to the Genesee, and thus possessed themselves of the whole area of western New York, and the northern part of Ohio. About the year 1670, after they had finally completed the dispersion and subjugation of the Adirondacks and Hurons, they acquired possession of the whole country between lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario, and of the north bank of the St. Lawrence, to the mouth of the Ottawa river, near Montreal. ... They also made constant inroads upon the New England Indians. ... In 1680, the Senecas with 600 warriors invaded the country of the Illinois, upon the borders of the Mississippi, while La Salle was among the latter. ... At various times, both before and after this period, the Iroquois turned their warfare against the Cherokees upon the Tennessee, and the Catawbas in South Carolina. ... For about a century, from the year 1600 to the year 1700, the Iroquois were involved in an almost uninterrupted warfare. At the close of this period, they had subdued and held in nominal subjection all the principal Indian nations occupying the territories which are now embraced in the states of New York, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the northern and western parts of Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Northern Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, a portion of the New England States, and the principal part of Upper Canada. Over these nations, the haughty and imperious Iroquois exercised a constant supervision. If any of them became involved in domestic difficulties, a delegation of chiefs went among them and restored tranquillity, prescribing at the same time their future conduct."

_L. H. Morgan, League of the Iroquois, book 1, chapter 1._

"Their [the Iroquois's] war-parties roamed over half America, and their name was a terror from the Atlantic to the Mississippi; but when we ask the numerical strength of the dreaded confederacy, when we discover that, in the days of their greatest triumphs, their united cantons could not have mustered 4,000 warriors, we stand amazed at the folly and dissension which left so vast a region the prey of a handful of bold marauders. Of the cities and villages now so thickly scattered over the lost domain of the Iroquois, a single one might boast a more numerous population than all the five united tribes."

_F. Parkman, The Conspiracy of Pontiac, chapter 1._

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Iroquois Confederacy: A. D. 1608-1700. Their wars with the French.

See CANADA (NEW FRANCE): A. D. 1608-1611; 1611-1616; 1634-1652; 1640-1700; 1696.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Iroquois Confederacy: A. D. 1648-1649. Their destruction of the Hurons and the Jesuit Missions.

See CANADA (NEW FRANCE): A. D. 1634-1652; also, above, HURONS.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Iroquois Confederacy: A. D. 1684-1744. Surrenders and conveyances to the English.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1684, and 1726; VIRGINIA: A. D. 1744; OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1748-1754; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765-1768.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Iroquois Confederacy: A. D. 1778-1779. Their part in the War of the American Revolution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778 (JUNE-NOVEMBER) and (JULY); and 1779 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Iroquois Tribes of the South.

See Note, Appendix E.

"The southern Iroquois tribes occupied Chowan River and its tributary streams. They were bounded on the east by the most southerly Lenape tribes, who were in possession of the low country along the sea shores, and those of Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds. Towards the south and the west they extended beyond the river Neuse. They appear to have been known in Virginia, in early times, under the name of Monacans, as far north as James River. ... Lawson, in his account of the North Carolina Indians, enumerates the Chowans, the Meherrins, and the Nottoways, as having together 95 warriors in the year 1708. But the Meherrins or Tuteloes and the Nottoways inhabited respectively the two rivers of that name, and were principally seated in Virginia. We have but indistinct notices of the Tuteloes. ... It appears by Beverly that the Nottoways had preserved their independence and their numbers later than the Powhatans, and that, at the end of the 17th century, they had still 130 warriors. They do not appear to have migrated from their original seats in a body. In the year 1820, they are said to have been reduced to 27 souls, and were still in possession of 7,000 acres in Southampton county, Virginia, which had been at an early date reserved for them. ... The Tuscaroras were by far the most powerful nation in North Carolina, and occupied all the residue of the territory in that colony, which has been described as inhabited by Iroquois tribes. Their principal seats in 1708 were on the Neuse and the Taw or Tar rivers, and according to Lawson they had 1,200 warriors in fifteen towns." In 1711 the Tuscaroras attacked the English colonists, massacring 130 in a single day, and a fierce war ensued. "In the autumn of 1712. all the inhabitants south and southwest of Chowan River were obliged to live in forts; and the Tuscaroras expected assistance from the Five Nations. This could not have been given without involving the confederacy in a war with Great Britain; and the Tuscaroras were left to their own resources. A force, consisting chiefly of southern Indians under the command of Colonel Moore, was again sent by the government of South Carolina to assist the northern Colonies. He besieged and took a fort of the Tuscaroras. ... Of 800 prisoners 600 were given up to the Southern Indians, who carried them to South Carolina to sell them as slaves. {92} The Eastern Tuscaroras, whose principal town was on the Taw, twenty miles above Washington, immediately made peace, and a portion was settled a few years after north of the Roanoke, near Windsor, where they continued till the year 1803. But the great body of the nation removed in 1714-15 to the Five Nations, was received as the Sixth, and has since shared their fate."

_A. Gallatin, Synopsis of the Indian Tribes (Archæologia Americana, volume 2), introduction, section 2._

ALSO IN _J. W. Moore, History of North Carolina, volume 1, chapter 3._

See, also, above: IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Itocos.

See above: CHIBCHAS.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Itonamos, or Itonomos.

See above: ANDESIANS; also BOLIVIA: ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Jivara, or Jivaro.

See above: ANDESIANS.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kah-kwas.

See above: HURONS, &c.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kalapooian Family.

"Under this family name Scouler places two tribes, the Kalapooian, inhabiting 'the fertile Willamat plains' and the Yamkallie, who live 'more in the interior, towards the sources of the Willamat River.'... The tribes of the Kalapooian family inhabited the valley of Willamette River, Oregon, above the falls."

_J. W. Powell, Seventh Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, page 81._

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kanawhas, or Ganawese.

See above: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kansas, or Kaws.

See below: SIOUAN.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kapohn.

See above: CARIBS AND THEIR KINDRED.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Karankawan Family.

"The Karankawa formerly dwelt upon the Texan coast, according to Sibley, upon an island or peninsula in the Bay of St. Bernard (Matagorda Bay). ... In 1884 Mr. Gatschet found a Tonkawe at Fort Griffin, Texas, who claimed to have formerly lived among the Karankawa. From him a vocabulary of twenty-five terms was obtained, which was all of the language he remembered. The vocabulary ... such as it is, represents all of the language that is extant. Judged by this vocabulary the language seems to be distinct not only from the Attakapa but from all others."

_J. W. Powell, Seventh Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, page 82._

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Karoks, or Cahrocs.

See below: MODOCS.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kaskaskias.

See above: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kaus, or Kwokwoos.

See below: KUSAN FAMILY.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kaws, or Kansas.

See below: SIOUAN.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kenai, or Blood Indians.

See above: BLACKFEET.

See Note, Appendix E.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Keresan Family.

"The ... pueblos of Keresan stock ... are situated in New Mexico on the upper Rio Grande, on several of its small western affluents, and on the Jemez and San Jose, which also are tributaries of the Rio Grande."

_J. W. Powell, Seventh Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, page 83_.

See PUEBLO.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kikapoos.

See above: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY, and below: SACS, &c., and PAWNEE (CADDOAN) FAMILY.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kiowan Family.

"Derivation: From the Kiowa word Kó-i, plural Kó-igu, meaning 'Káyowe man.' The Comanche term Káyowe means 'rat.' The author who first formally separated this family appears to have been Turner. ... Turner, upon the strength of a vocabulary furnished by Lieutenant Whipple, dissents from the opinion expressed by Pike and others to the effect that the language is of the same stock as the Comanche, and, while admitting that its relationship to Comanche is greater than to any other family, thinks that the likeness is merely the result of long intercommunication. His opinion that it is entirely distinct from any other language has been indorsed by Buschmann and other authorities. The family is represented by the Kiowa tribe. So intimately associated with the Comanches have the Kiowa been since known to history that it is not easy to determine their pristine home. ... Pope definitely locates the Kiowa in the valley of the Upper Arkansas, and of its tributary, the Purgatory (Las Animas) River. This is in substantial accord with the statements of other writers of about the same period. Schermerhorn (1812) places the Kiowa on the heads of the Arkansas and Platte. Earlier still they appear upon the headwaters of the Platte."-

_J. W. Powell, Seventh Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, page 84._

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kiriri, Cuyriri.

See above: GUCK OR COCO GROUP.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kitunahan Family.

"This family was based upon a tribe variously termed Kitunaha, Kutenay, Cootenai, or Flatbow, living on the Kootenay River, a branch of the Columbia in Oregon."

_J. W. Powell, Seventh Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, page 85._

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Klamaths.

See below: MODOCS.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Koluschan Family.

"Derivation: From the Aleut word kolosh, or more properly, kaluga, meaning 'dish,' the allusion being to the dishshaped lip ornaments. This family was based by Gallatin upon the Koluschen tribe (the Tshinkitani of Marchand), 'who inhabit the islands and the [Pacific] coast from the 60th to the 55th degree of north latitude.'"

_J. W. Powell, Seventh Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, page 86._

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kulanapan Family.

"The main territory of the Kulanapan family is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by the Yukian and Copohan territories, on the north by the watershed of the Russian River, and on the south by a line drawn from Bodega Head to the southwest corner of the Yukian territory, near Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California."

_J. W. Powell, Seventh Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, page 88._

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kusan Family:

"The 'Kaus or Kwokwoos' tribe is merely mentioned by Hale as living on a river of the same name between the Umqua and the Clamet."

_J. W. Powell, Seventh Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, page 89._

See Note, Appendix E.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Kwokwoos.

See above: KUSAN FAMILY.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Lenape.

See above: DELAWARES.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Machicuis.

See below: PAMPAS TRIBES.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Macushi.

See above: CARIBS AND THEIR KINDRED.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Manaos.

See above: GUCK OR COCO GROUP.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Mandans, or Mandanes.

See below: SIOUAN FAMILY.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Manhattans.

See above: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY, and, also, MANHATTAN ISLAND.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Manioto, or Mayno.

See above: ANDESIANS.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Mapochins.

See CHILE: A. D. 1450-1724.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Maranha.

See above: GUCK OR Coco GROUP.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Maricopas.

See below: PUEBLOS.

{93}

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Mariposan Family.

"Derivation: A Spanish word meaning 'butterfly,' applied to a county in California and subsequently taken for the family name. Latham mentions the remnants of three distinct bands of the Coconoon, each with its own language, in the north of Mariposa County. These are classed together under the above name. More recently the tribes speaking languages allied to the Coconun have been treated of under the family name Yokut. As, however, the stock was established by Latham on a sound basis, his name is here restored."

_J. W. Powell, Seventh Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, page 90._

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Mascoutins, or Mascontens,

See below: SACS, &c.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Massachusetts,

See above: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Mataguayas.

See BOLIVIA: ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS,

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Mayas.

"In his second voyage, Columbus heard vague rumors of a mainland westward from Jamaica and Cuba, at a distance of ten days' journey in a canoe. ... During his fourth voyage (1503-4), when he was exploring the Gulf southwest from Cuba, he picked up a canoe laden with cotton clothing variously dyed. The natives in it gave him to understand that they were merchants, and came from a land called Maia. This is the first mention in history of the territory now called Yucatan, and of the race of the Mayas; for although a province of similar name was found in the western extremity of the island of Cuba, the similarity was accidental, as the evidence is conclusive that no colony of the Mayas was found on the Antilles. ... Maya was the patrial name of the natives of Yucatan. It was the proper name of the northern portion of the peninsula. No single province bore it at the date of the Conquest, and probably it had been handed down as a generic term from the period, about a century before, when this whole district was united under one government. ... Whatever the primitive meaning and first application of the name Maya, it is now used to signify specifically the aborigines of Yucatan. In a more extended sense, in the expression 'the Maya family,' it is understood to embrace all tribes, wherever found, who speak related dialects presumably derived from the same ancient stock as the Maya proper. ... The total number of Indians of pure blood speaking the Maya proper may be estimated as nearly or quite 200,000, most of them in the political limits of the department of Yucatan; to these should be added nearly 100,000 of mixed blood, or of European descent, who use the tongue in daily life. For it forms one of the rare examples of American languages possessing vitality enough not only to maintain its ground, but actually to force itself on European settlers and supplant their native speech. ... The Mayas did not claim to be autochthones. Their legends referred to their arrival by the sea from the East, in remote times, under the leadership of Itzamna, their hero-god, and also to a less numerous immigration from the West, which was connected with the history of another hero-god, Kukul Càn. The first of these appears to be wholly mythical. ... The second tradition deserves more attention from the historian. ... It cannot be denied that the Mayas, the Kiches [or Quiches] and the Cakchiquels, in their most venerable traditions, claimed to have migrated from the north or west from some part of the present country of Mexico. These traditions receive additional importance from the presence on the shores of the Mexican Gulf, on the waters of the river Panuco, north of Vera Cruz, of a prominent branch of the Maya family, the Huastecs. The idea suggests itself that these were the rear-guard of a great migration of the Maya family from the north toward the south. Support is given to this by their dialect, which is most closely akin to that of the Tzendals of Tabasco, the nearest Maya race to the south of them, and also by very ancient traditions of the Aztecs. It is noteworthy that these two partially civilized races, the Mayas and the Aztecs, though differing radically in language, had legends which claimed a community of origin in some indefinitely remote past. We find these on the Maya side narrated in the sacred book of the Kiches, the Popol Vuh, in the Cakchiquel 'Records of Tecpan Atillan,' and in various pure Maya sources. ... The annals of the Aztecs contain frequent allusions to the Huastecs."

_D. G. Brinton, The Maya Chronicles, introduction._

"Closely enveloped in the dense forests of Chiapas, Gautemala, Yucatan, and Honduras, the ruins of several ancient cities have been discovered, which are far superior in extent and magnificence to any seen in Aztec territory, and of which a detailed description may be found in the fourth volume of this work. Most of these cities were abandoned and more or less unknown at the time of the [Spanish] Conquest. They bear hieroglyphic inscriptions apparently identical in character; in other respects they resemble each other more than they resemble the Aztec ruins--or even other and apparently later works in Guatemala and Honduras. All these remains bear evident marks of great antiquity. ... I deem the grounds sufficient ... for accepting this Central American civilization of the past as a fact, referring it not to an extinct ancient race, but to the direct ancestors of the peoples still occupying the country with the Spaniards, and applying to it the name Maya as that of the language which has claims as strong as any to be considered the mother tongue of the linguistic family mentioned. ... There are no data by which to fix the period of the original Maya empire, or its downfall or breaking up into rival factions by civil and foreign wars. The cities of Yucatan, as is clearly shown by Mr. Stephens, were, many of them, occupied by the descendants of the builders down to the conquest, and contain some remnants of wood-work still in good preservation, although some of the structures appear to be built on the ruins of others of a somewhat different type. Palenque and Copan, on the contrary, have no traces of wood or other perishable material, and were uninhabited and probably unknown in the 16th century. The loss of the key to what must have been an advanced system of hieroglyphics, while the spoken language survived, is also an indication of great antiquity, confirmed by the fact that the Quiché structures of Guatemala differed materially from those of the more ancient epoch. It is not likely that the Maya empire in its integrity continued later than the 3d or 4th century, although its cities may have been inhabited much later, and I should fix the epoch of its highest power at a date preceding rather than following the Christian era."

_H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States,