Iroquois and Their Neighbors – serie

The autobiography of Chief Rickard, who fought for the recognition of his Tuscarora nation throughout his life. He led his people in the Indian resistance to federal policies, and founded the Indian Defense League of America.

The landmark Oneida Supreme Court decisions of 1974 and 1985 testify to the fact that the Iroquois' day in court has finally arrived. Although Indian petitions to regain their shrinking land base have generally caught the non-­Indian public by surprise, land rights have been an issue for the Iroquois for the past two-hundred years.This book provides a balanced appraisal of the land claims made by several of the Iroquois tribes. By drawing upon the viewpoints of those who have a direct stake in the land claims' outcome-Iroquois, attorneys representing or defending against the claims, expert witnesses—and those who have extensive knowledge of the controversy, this book reveals the complexity of the issues.While there is no easy way to resolve these claims, the uniquely qualified contributors stress that a negotiated settlement is preferable to a litigated one. The fact that these cases have had to be brought to court, even to the Supreme Court, is evidence of the seriousness of the issues involved. This timely book strikes a balance among the various parties to the land disputes, proving an invaluable resource to academics, students, legal professionals, policymakers, and the public at large.

William Johnson was among the most powerful and romantic figures in early American history. Beginning as an impoverished eighteenth century Irish immigrant, he became the wealthiest and most influentialIndian leader on the North American continent. Married to Molly Brant, sister of the celebrated Mohawk Joseph Brant, Johnson served as a mediator in the evolving clash of the European and Native Americancultures.This new edition brings back into print a classic work that will be welcomed reading for all those interested in early American history and American-Indian relations.

Collected here are the timeless Native American fables and legends handed down by noted Seneca anthropologist Arthur C. Parker. Growing up on the Cattaraugus Indian reservation in western New York, Parker knew the importance of the storyteller in Iroquois lives. The Seneca stories of animals, whose weaknesses and strengths are suspiciously like those of human beings, held a special place for Parker, who is considered by many as one of the greatest orators in any language. Oral traditions - whether myths, legends, or folktales - are more than just "stories." They are the way by which a society communicates to its members the order and meaning to be found in the world around them. Young adults and children, especially, will be captivated by these Seneca tales.

The dramatic and exciting story of Indian guerilla warfare against the Confederates during the Civil War. During the Civil War many young Lumbee Indians of North Carolina hid in the swamps to avoid conscription into Confederate labor battalions and carried on a running guerilla war. To Die Game is the story of Henry Berry Lowry, a Lumbee who was arrested for killing a Confederate official. While awaiting trial, he escaped and took to the swamps with a band of supporters. The Lowry band became as notorious as their contemporaries Jesse and Frank James, as they terrorized bush-whacked leaders of possses and military companies. For more than five years, with the support of local Indians and Negroes, they eluded capture. In 1872, Henry disappeared and some of his other followers were eventually hunted down and killed by bounty hunters.

This is the standard history of the Lumbee Indian people of southwestern North Carolina, the largest Indian community in population east of the Mississippi. Dial and Eliades trace the history of this group through 1974. Among the subjects covered are the Lumbee during the colonial period and the revolutionary War; the Lowrie war; the infamous Lowrie Band of the Civil War; the development of the Lumbee educational system; Lumbee folklore; and the modern Lumbee

Black Elk was one of the greatest religious thinkers produced by native North America, and the Sun Dance the central religious ritual of his Lakota tradition. Beginning with a review of the recent critical work on Black Elk by Paul B. Steinmetz, Julian Rice and Michael K. Steltenkamp, Holler reconstructs the history and development of the Lakota Sun Dance, essential background for understanding Black Elk's thought. His analysis is a comprehsnive study of the dance, which was banned by the government in 1883. Holler shows how Black Elk adapted the dance to the conditions and circumstances of reservation life, reinterpreting it in terms commensurate with Christianity. His firsthand account of the dance associated with Frank Fools Crow at Three Mile Camp near Kyle, South Dakota, shows how the contemporary Sun Dance reflects Black Elk's vision. Holler's book offers a philosophical engagement with native North American religion, carried out in close dialogue with anthropology. Readers who were captivated by John G. Neihardt's gripping portrait of Black Elk in ""Black Elk Speaks"" may be surprised to learn that he was a vital and creative leader until his death in 1950, not the broken, despairing old man made famous by Neihardt. Holler establishes that Black Elk was both a sincere traditionalist and a sincere Christian, seeing the two religious traditions as expressions of the sacred. Students of religion should be stimulated by Holler's interpretation of Black Elk as a creative thinker, rather than a passive informant on his people's past. Those interested in Native Americans, especially the Lakota, should appreciate his authoritative reconstruction of the Sun Dance, which proposes new understandings of this central Lakota religious ritual. The book also includes a glossary of terms.

For centuries the history of the Mohawk Valley has been shaped by the complex relationships among the valley's native inhabitants, the Mohawk Indians, and its colonists, starting with the Dutch. In Mohawk Country collects for the first time the principal documentary narratives that reveal the full scope of this Mohawk-settler interaction. Some of the sources have never before been translated into English, and several have not been previously published. Of those works that had been published, nearly all are out of print.The Mohawk location near Albany, New York put them at the center of transactions between the Iroquois and European colonists. (The Mohawk were one of the constituent nations within the League of the Iroquois.) These narratives-written by Dutch merchants, French Jesuit missionaries, English soldiers, romantic European travelers, and other literate observers-provide often biased but always fascinating accounts of the Mohawk and their valley. The reader is treated to over two centuries of history, starting with the arrival of the Dutch in the early seventeenth century to the planning of the Erie Canal in the early nineteenth century.These records bring to life the rapid changes experienced by both the Mohawk and their European neighbors. Wars, catastrophic epidemics, and the diplomacy of nearly two centuries are all well represented in this volume. Fascinating cultural differences are also unearthed: the French, for example, dealt with the Mohawk much differently than the Dutch or the English. Just as importantly, these writings reveal—from the unique perspectives of the observer—the Mohawk's struggle to retain their culture in the midst of evolvingpolitical, social, and physical environments.

The world view of the Iroquois League or Confederacy—the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora nations—is based on a strong cosmological belief system. This is especially evident in Iroquois medical practices, which connect man to nature and the powerful forces in the supernatural realm. Iroquois Medical Botany is the first guide to understanding the use of herbal medi­cines in traditional Iroquois culture. It links Iroquois cosmology to cultural themes by showing the inherent spiritual power of plants and how the Iroquois traditionally have used and continue to use plants as remedies. After an introduction to the Iroquois doctrine of the cosmos, authors James Herrick and Dean Snow examine how ill health directly relates to the balance and subsequent dis­turbance of the forces in one’s life. They next turn to general perceptions of illness and the causes of imbalances, which can result in physical manifestations from birthmarks and toothaches to sunstroke and cancer. In all, they list close to 300 phenomena. Finally, the book enumerates specific plant regimens for various ailments with a major compilation from numerous Iroquois authorities and sources of more than 450 native names, uses, and preparations of plants.

This exploration of the occult world of the Western Cherokee translates 40 shamanistic texts which deal with such esoteric matters as: divining the future; protecting oneself from enemies; destroying the power of witches; and purifying one's soul from all forms of supernatural harm.

Red Jacket was an Iroquois diplomat who, as a representative of the Seneca and Six Nations, met and negotiated with American presidents from George Washington to Andrew Jackson. This book covers his career and reflects on the treaty negotiations between Indian nations and other parties.

Examines the involvement of the Iroquois in the US Civil War. Based on archival records and wartime letters and diaries, this account shows that the Iroquois were dedicated cavalrymen and soldiers. It asks why they were so loyal to the Union and what their attitude was toward slavery and war.

Originally published in 1905, this book brings together 22 traditional Delaware Indian stories. Four of the legends have been re-translated into the Delaware language by native speakers, revealing the transformation of a transliterated Delaware text into an English-language story.

This is the first major book to explore uniquely Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), and specifically Oneida, components in the Native American oral narrative as it existed around 1900. Drawn largely from early twentieth-century journals by non-Indigenous scholar Hope Emily Allen, much of which was published in Oneida Iroquois Folklore, Myth, and History for the first time.Even as he studies time-honored themes and such stories as the Haudenosaunee account of creation, Anthony Wonderley breaks new ground examining links between legend, history, and everyday life. He pointedly questions how oral traditions are born and develop. Uncovering tales told over the course of 400 years, Wonderley further defines and considers endurance and sequence in oral narratives.. Finally, possible links between Oneida folklore and material culture are explored in discussions of craft works and archaeological artifacts of cultural and symbolic importance. Arguably the most complete study of its kind, the book will appeal to a wide range of professional disciplines from anthropology, history, and folklore to religion and Native American studies.

An exploration of family law as it pertains to women with regard to marriage, divorce and inheritance in the Middle East. This second edition is revised to expand and update coverage of family law reforms that have taken place throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and South and Southeast Asia. It focuses on the historical and legal context for reform, and the methodology and extent of contemporary legal trends, particularly in Egypt and Pakistan.

Big Medicine from Six Nations is a series of reminiscences and essays by the late Ted Williams on the themes of ""medicine"" (physical/spiritual/psychic healing). Williams intertwines the lore and lifeways of his Tuscarora upbringing, illustrating the dynamic encounter of tradition and innovation at the heart of contemporary Haudenosaunee culture. At the same time, he writes with an irreverence, irony, and good humor unmistakably his own. Colored by his wry wit, ""Big Medicine from Six Nations"" amply fulfills the promise of its title. It offers a fascinating view not only of herbal medicine but also of prayers, omens, feasts, vision quests, sweat lodges, spirits, and the sacred teachings of the Great Law of the Great Peace. But readers will find that there is more to this book about the ""spiritual mechanics"" of humankind writ large.

Echoing the muscular rhythms of the heartbeat, the poems in this stunning collection alternate between contraction and expansion. Eric Gansworth explores the act of enduring: physically, historically, and culturally. A member of the Haudenosaunee, Gansworth expresses the tensions experienced by members of a marginalized culture struggling to maintain tradition within a much larger dominant culture.With equal measures of humor, wisdom, polgnancy, and beauty, Gansworth's poems mine the infinite varieties of individual and collective loss and recovery. Seventeen paintings complement his poetry, creating a dialogue between word and image steeped in the tradition of the Haudenosaunee's mythic world. ""A Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function"" is the most recent addition to Gansworth's remarkable body of work chronicling the lives of upstate New York's Indian communities.

In this book, Rice offers a comprehensive history based on the oral traditions of the Rotinonshonni Longhouse People, also known as the Iroquois. Drawing upon J. N. B. Hewitt’s translation and the oral presentations of Cayuga Elder Jacob Thomas, Rice records the Iroquois creation story, the origin of Iroquois clans, the Great Law of Peace, the European invasion, and the life of Handsome Lake. As a participant in a 700-mile walk following the story of the Peacemaker who confederated the original five warring nations that became the Rotinonshonni, Rice traces the historic sites located in what are now known as the Mississippi River Valley, Upstate New York, southern Quebec, and Ontario. The Rotinonshonni creates from oral traditions a history that informs the reader about events that happened in the past and how those events have shaped and are still shaping Rotinonshonni society today.

In the rich tradition of oral storytelling, Chief Irving Powless Jr. of the Beaver Clan of the Onondaga Nation reminds us of an ancient treaty. It promises that the Haudenosaunee people and non-Indigenous North Americans will respect each other’s differences even when their cultures and behaviors differ greatly.Powless shares intimate stories of growing up close to the earth, of his work as Wampum Keeper for the Haudenosaunee people, of his heritage as a lacrosse player, and of the treaties his ancestors made with the newcomers. He also pokes fun at the often-peculiar behavior of his non-Onondaga neighbors, asking, ""Who are these people anyway?"" Sometimes disarmingly gentle, sometimes caustic, these vignettes refreshingly portray mainstream North American culture as seen through Haudenosaunee eyes. Powless illustrates for all of us the importance of respect, peace, and, most importantly, living by the unwritten laws that preserve the natural world for future generations.

Chief Chapman Scanandoah (1870–1953) was a decorated Navy veteran who served in the Spanish-American War, a skilled mechanic, and a prizewinning agronomist who helped develop the Iroquois Village at the New York State Fair. He was also a historian, linguist, philosopher, and early leader of the Oneida land claims movement. However, his fame among the Oneida people and among many of his Hodinöhsö:ni’ contemporaries today rests with his career as an inventor.In the era of Thomas Edison, Scanandoah challenged the stereotypes of the day that too often portrayed Native Americans as primitive, pre-technological, and removed from modernity. In An Oneida Indian in Foreign Waters, Hauptman draws from Scanandoah’s own letters; his court, legislative, and congressional testimony; military records; and forty years of fieldwork experience to chronicle his remarkable life and understand the vital influence Scanandoah had on the fate of his people. Despite being away from his homeland for much of his life, Scanandoah fought tirelessly in federal courts to prevent the loss of the last remaining Oneida lands in New York State. Without Scanandoah and his extended Hanyoust family, Oneida existence in New York might have been permanently extinguished. Hauptman’s biography not only illuminates the extraordinary life of Scanandoah but also sheds new light on the struggle to maintain tribal identity in the face of an increasingly diminished homeland.

Big Medicine from Six Nations is a series of reminiscences and essays by the late Ted Williams, on the themes of "Medicine" (physical/spiritual/psychic healing). Williams intertwines the lore and lifeways of his Tuscarora upbringing, illustrating the dynamic encounter of tradition and innovation at the heart of contemporary Haudenosaunee culture. At the same time, Williams writes with an irreverence, irony, and good humor unmistakably his own.Colored by Ted's wry and irreverent wit, Big Medicine from Six Nations amply fulfills the promise of its title. It offers a fascinating view, not only of herbal medicine, but of prayers, omens, feasts, vision quests, sweat lodges, spirits, humor, and the sacred teachings of the Great Law of the Great Peace. But readers will find that there is more to this book, about the "spiritual mechanics" of humankind writ large. Readers will discover herein a multiplicity of Big Medicine manifestations, and best of all they will get to know more about Ted Williams, Teller.

In this timeless collection, Seneca anthropologist Arthur C. Parker shares stories of wit, bravery, and wisdom, all told through a cast of animals who share the foibles and character flaws of humans. Readers learn that boastfulness and deceit cost Fox his friendships, that the red eyes of ducks signal the folly of wanting too much, and that even a kind nature cannot protect you from those who are mean and jealous. Growing up on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in western New York, Parker knew the importance of the storyteller. Oral narratives—whether myths, legends, or folktales—are more than just "stories." They are the way by which a society communicates to its members the order and meaning to be found in the world around them. This expanded edition includes a new preface by Hayden Haynes and Joy Porter that places the collection in its full cultural and historical context, from Parker’s complex legacy to the enduring relevance of these tales as pathways to intercultural understanding and wisdom. Far from relics of the past, these Seneca stories, as retold by Parker, foster awareness that we exist in kinship with all beings on Earth.

These essays discuss the historical and contemporary relationships between Native Americans and the natural world. Topics include: environmental religions, Iroquois villages of the 18th century, Navajo natural resources, and subarctic Native Americans and wildlife.

From World War II onward, the Iroquois, one of the largest groups of Native Americans in North America, have confronted a series of crises threatening their continued existence.From the New York-Pennsylvania border, where the Army Corps of Engineers engulfed a vast tract of Seneca homeland with the Kinzua Dam, from the ambition of Robert Moses and the New York State Power Authority to develop the hydroelectric power of the Niagara Frontier (which eroded the land base of the Tuscaroras), from the construction of the Saint Lawrence Seaway (which took land from the Mohawks and still affects their fishing industry), to the present-day battles over the Oneida land claims in New York State and the Onondaga efforts to repatriate their wampum—Laurence Hauptman documents the bitter struggles of proud people to maintain their independence and strength in the modern world.Out of these battles came a renewed sense of Iroquois nationalism and nationwide Iroquois leadership in American Indian politics. Hauptman examines events leading to the emergence of the contemporary Iroquois, concluding with the takeover at Wounded Knee in the winter-spring of 1973 and the Supreme Court's Oneida decision in 1974. His research is based on historical documents, published materials, and interviews and fieldwork in every Iroquois community in the United States and several in Canada.

Contemporary scholarship and Indian oral tradition come together in this unique account of the history and culture of the Oneida Iroquois—particularly the Wisconsin Oneidas—who have not been the subject of the intense scholarly attention accorded other Iroquois groups. Contributors include Oneida educators, community leaders, historians, anthropologists, and linguists; essays vary from accounts of personal experience and oral history to presentations of academic research. The common denominator is the Oneida experience of cultural change and survival.Part I focuses on the history and adaptations of the Oneidas in their New York homeland. Part II describes the motives and methods used by New York State officials in divesting the Oneidas of their New York home and explores the aftereffects of the Indians' removal to Wisconsin and the legal implications of allotment legislation on American Indians' tribal jurisdiction today.Nineteenth-century attempts by whites to take the Oneidas' Wisconsin land base forced the Indians to develop strategies for survival, described in Part III. Capable leadership, the maintenance of tribal tradition, cultural revitalization, new educational initiatives, and continuing connections among the Oneida communities have fostered a tribal reemergence and have allowed the Oneidas to maintain themselves as a unique and thriving people.

As one of the earliest literary forms of colonial America, the Indian captivity narrative is important not only in the history of American letters but also as an indispensable source concerning the colonization of the "frontier," the peoples who dwelt on either side of it, and the often limited understanding they had of one another. A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison is one of the best of this literary genre. In 1758, fifteen-year-old Mary Jemison and her family were captured near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by a Shawnee and French raiding party. Shortly thereafter, her family was killed; she was turned over to a Seneca family, adopted by them, and four years later taken to their western New York homeland—where, by choice, she spent the rest of her life as an Iroquois wife, mother, and landed proprietor. In time she gained respect as a negotiator and was known in New York and adjacent states as the "white woman of the Genesee." James E. Seaver’s account of her life, written in the first person, taking on her voice as narrator, tells not only of her own adventures and misfortunes but also of the lives, customs, and attitudes of the Indians with whom she identified. When Seaver (about whom very little is known) interviewed Jemison in 1823, she was eighty years old. She did not read or write English, but she spoke it fluently. The book, published in 1824 and reprinted more than thirty times both in the United States and abroad, lives on; for readers continue to wonder at the strength and complexity of this remarkable woman’s life.

Winner of the John Ben Snow Manuscript Prize, 1977, this book is about one of the most interesting and little known officers of the American Civil War. Parker was a Seneca Indian, military secretary to General Grant, and the first native American to serve as commissioner of Indian Affairs.