Subject: sachem war chief
Culture: Iroquois & allied Indians
Setting: Great Lakes/Ohio Valley 18th - early 19thc
Evolution:
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
*Sheppard ed. 2006 p60-61
"The commercial trade between the Ohio American Indians and French and British agents and traders during the 18th century was of a different nature to previous trading. It degenerated into competition for Indian alliances by means of gifts. ... Once the Indians had become accustomed to the white man's goods, they could not live without them. ... The French gradually regained the upper hand in the Indian trade during the first half of the 18th century, and they were in control of the Ohio area in 1754.
"The eastern Woodland Indians, especially the Canadian Iroquois and Abenakis, were among the most steadfast allies of the French in Canada. Their villages were often close to the French settlements and they served with the Canadian militia. Most of the western Woodland tribes -- Ottawa, Ojibwa, Potawatomi, and Shawnee -- were also allies of the French. The Hurons who had finally settled in the Ohio Valley following the dispersal of their confederacy by the Iroquois in the mid-17th century were known as the Wyandot. Allied with the Ottawa, they were the 'eldest children' of Onontio, the governor-general of New France, and the cornerstone of the French alliance with the Great Lakes Algonkians. Although their relations with the French were tempestuous for many years, when war broke out in the Ohio Valley, the Wyandot sided with the French, and with the other French allies went east to fight in the French campaigns in northern New York."
* Ferguson/Whitehead eds. 1999 p172-173 (Thomas S.Abler, "Beavers and muskets: Iroquois military fortunes in the face of European colonization" p151-174)
"Iroquois warfare in the colonial era was not simply the blind continuation of hostilities that existed prior to European entry onto the continent, but the presence of European traders and trade goods was central to wars in the historic era. Wars were fought to gain access to points of trade, to pirate trade goods or beaver pelts from other groups, and to secure access to beaver-hunting grounds. In addition, it became important to deny one's enemies access to the trade, for European arms had become a vital part of war. Once tied to the trade, Indians were subject to pressures to serve major trading partners as 'ethnic soldiers' in European imperial wars.
"Epidemic diseases from Europe were also a factor in this warfare. A clear goal of Iroquoian war and diplomacy was to incorporate sufficient numbers of captives and refugees to counterbalance losses to disease. Depopulation probably also reduced stability in the region, since groups were made more vulnerable when subjected to a military blow. Well-armed Iroquois warriors had the impact they did because they were making war on peoples who had recently lost major portions of their population.
"In all of these actions the Iroquois functioned not as a unitary state but as a tribal society (in the sense of Sahlins 1961). Seldom, if ever, did fighting men from all segments of the confederacy contribute to the pursuit of a common military goal. The student of Iroquois history would do well to use the term Iroquois as seldom as possible.
"The lack of intertribal unity continued to be demonstrated in the latter portion of the colonial era, when segments of the Iroquois fought for Britain or for France, depending upon the strength of trade links. In the American Revolution, too, Iroquois warriors fought for each side."
* Benn 1998 p12
"[T]he war chiefs ... who usually attained their positions through exemplary behaviour on the battlefield, had objectives that frequently clashed with those of the peace chiefs, especially because decisions to go to war often came from within families and lineages to address family concerns rather than at the village, national, or confederacy level in response to larger challenges to the polity."
* Benn 1998 p60-61
"[W]hen it was clear that the council had decided in favour of war, messengers carried wampum, tomahawks, and war clubs to communicate the decision to neighbouring villages and allies, and sometimes to the enemy. With receipt of the notice, war chiefs went through their communities, sounded the war cry, and showed some wampum to those they wanted to recruit. Anyone could join a war party but nobody was forced to do so, although community pressure to fight might be intense. War parties typically formed among men from the same clan but warriors could enlist under any chief they liked. Chiefs might attract as few as three men or dozens of warriors, depending upon their stature and the potential number of recruits.
"Usually, chiefs had little trouble attracting warriors because of the social influences which drove men between the ages of about twenty-one and fifty to fight when the opportunity arose. The pressure to prove oneself in combat was so great that even in times of general peace small groups of individuals often formed war parties, without the sanction of their community councils, to fight another, often distant, aboriginal nation with whom the tribe was not officially at peace and with whom an old feud remained unsettled. The commandant at Fort Niagara just prior to the outbreak of the American Revolution, towards the end of a ten-year period of relative peace, recorded one candid Seneca remark that exemplifies the connection between manhood and combat experience: 'The old ones ... when in their cups & off their guard can not help saying that this long peace will be the ruin of their nation, that their warriors are loosing [sic] their manhood & that their youth must become women, having no opportunities of exercising themselves in war.' The expectation that boys and youths would be warriors when they grew up was so powerful in Iroquois society that it is difficult to imagine how neutralist opinion could have prevented significant numbers of men from going off to fight when their communities decided to support the British war effort.
"The Iroquois recognized the warrior's worth in the reverence they paid to the legends and legacies of the community's military history and by creating a distinctive battle dress that affiliated the wearer with previous glories. Traditional religious practices affirmed the legitimacy of war (for instance, food brought on the warpath was treated as a divine gift), as did the prayers and sacraments of the Iroquois Anglicans and Roman Catholics in Canda. The rich symbolism of going to war further attested to the community's expectation that able-bodied men would fight when called to do so by the matrons and war chiefs. When the anonymous individual quoted earlier made the outwardly simple assertion, 'I am a Mohawk ... I will paint my face and be a man and fight Yankees as long as I live,' he was in fact expressing a rich and complex consciousness of his role within society. In contrast, an individual who chose to reject the will of his clan or village to fight an enemy would be exposed as a failure in one of Iroquois society's fundamental tests of manhood, and his failure would be made all the more painful because it would occur under the accusing eyes of the women, many of whom accompanied warriors on campaign (but not normally into battle) and thereby continued to make their views felt. With all these pressures, many men found it difficult to avoid joining a war party, although once in the field, individuals could leave their chiefs and drift home if they wished."
Costume
* Paterek 1994 p56
"For everyday wear the Iroquois man wore a tanned leather breechclout with rather short ends hanging down in front and back. For ceremonial wear, he donned a kilt, knee-length, that was held in place with a belt. Leggings were different; somewhat loose, they were sewed up the front, often with an embroidered strip covering the seam. A curve at the bottom from front to back left an opening over the instep. They were gartered above or below the knee and were rarely fringed. These leggings were so long they practically dragged on the ground. A simple tunic for wear in cooler weather was made of two pieces of tanned buckskin fastened at the shoulders, mid-thigh-length, ending at the bottom with a fringe."
* Hofsinde 1965 p34
"The early Iroquois costumes worn for war ceremonies were ornamented with quill and moose-hair embroidery. When the white man made trade beads available, the old designs were copied in beadwork. Floral designs were worked on shirt cuffs, bags, and on the toes and cuffs of moccasins. Beadwork done on leggings and breechclouts was worked in single lines of graceful curved motifs, usually in white or pale-blue beads. These designs were especially widespread after 1537 [SIC], when the Iroquois obtained red and dark-blue broadcloth from the English and French."
* Benn 1998 p76-77
"Iroquois dress in combat had many of the same functions as the battle dress for whites. It provided suitable clothing in relation to the available technology and consequent tactics, looked forcefully manly, identified the enemy. A major divergence was that the Iroquois wore far fewer clothes in combat. Since the introduction of new technologies that had rendered aboriginal armour obsolete in the seventeenth century, men normally stripped for battle. As a result, they suffered fewer encumbrances than did their white adversaries whose equipment might weigh at least twice as much. In close combat, the Iroquois also may have gained an advantage by smearing bear's grease on their bodies, partly as protection against the weather and insects, but mainly to make themselves slippery and hard to grab. In combat, a warrior usually wore only a breech cloth, leggings, and moccasins or white soldiers' boots. To these he added his accoutrements, consisting of a long plaited vegetable fibre belt that could be used to tie up prisoners, a powder horn if he used a rifle, as well as a pouch for ammunition, spare flints, and other necessities. Images of guardian spirits (such as thunderbirds, underwater panthers, and horned serpents) typically decorated these pouches. When on campaign but not in combat, warriors wore more clothes, representing a cross between traditional native dress and the clothes white militiamen wore. One Onondaga who served with the Americans in the war [of 1812], for example, sought payment for having provided his own clothing and accoutrements because he had not received government-issued supplies. His claim included such mixed white and native items as a hat, a coat, leggings, shirts, stockings, a canteen, a knapsack, and moccasins."
Guns
* Hamilton 1980 p7
"There were three kinds of guns to be found on the Colonial frontier: (1) military guns furnished the troops stationed at forts and outposts; (2) guns of superior quality brought in by officers, explorers, traders, gentlemen adventurers and as presents from the King to Native leaders; and (3) there were trade guns."
* Benn 1998 p73-74 (describing the War of 1812)
"The British gave their aboriginal allies four different types of firearms: common guns or muskets, chief's guns, pistols, and rifles. Common muskets were lighter than military muskets, fired a slightly smaller ball, and had a somewhat shorter barrel. Although the quality of the firearms the British gave their native allies was not much different from their own, the smaller calibre and shorter barrel of native arms meant that they were not as powerful as the army's muskets, and their lighter construction meant that they were not as robust as military arms. The differences between army and aboriginal firearms likely reflected some combination of aboriginal preferences for certain styles of firearms and the desire of the British to avoid providing military-grade weapons to people who might turn against them. For a native, lighter, smaller-calibre weapons were easier to carry in rough terrain, were better suited to hunting conditions, and used smaller quantities of hard-to-get gunpowder. Chief's guns were weapons of better quality than common muskets and resembled sporting guns, but they usually had the same barrel length and fired the same calibre ball as common guns. The wrist on the stock of these muskets was decorated with an inlaid silver medallion showing the likeness of a native. Pistols issued by the British were similar to those used by their light dragoons. The rifles presented by the British normally had longer barrels than muskets and had seven-grooved barrels. These rifles were more accurate and fired greater distances than the army's Baker Rifle, but had less stopping power because they fired smaller bullets. Aboriginal rifles could not carry bayonets."
* Ferguson/Whitehead eds. 1999 p173 (Thomas S.Abler, "Beavers and muskets: Iroquois military fortunes in the face of European colonization" p151-174)
"Armed with Dutch and English weapons, the Iroquois warriors made vast territorial gains in beaver-hunting lands. Once their enemies became equally well armed some of these lands were lost, but by no means all. The Iroquois controlled far more territory in the latter part of the eighteenth century than they had at the beginning of the seventeenth. This territory was conquered using muskets obtained for beaver pelts; it was conquered to increase the supply of beaver pelts; and it was defended with Iroquois lives to maintain that supply of beaver."
* Where two worlds meet 1982 p103
"Indian consumers demanded the highest quality of merchandise. To satisfy them, merchants and manufacturers searched for better goods and better ways to make them. European technology benefited from developing new solutions to the Indians' problems.
"One solution was this gun. Indian hunting methods required lightweight, dependable guns that would stand up to extreme cold. They had to be simple to load and inexpensive. After a century of improvement, British manufacturers arrived at the perfect combination of features. They called it the Northwest gun.
"The short barrel of the Northwest gun made it easy to carry in canoes and through the woods. With a wide trigger guard, the gun could be fired while wearing mittens. It had a smooth bore and a distinctive serpent side plate. Its flintlock mechanism was so dependable and easy to repair that Indians preferred it to the percussion rifle well into the 1860s."
Archery
* Benn 1998 p75
"Although firearms were the primary shooting weapons, some Iroquois used bows and arrows in combat. Bows still had a use in hunting and in socializing children for war in this period; some warriors preferred to carry these traditional weapons, and bows sometimes were used when men ran out of ammunition for their firearms."
Clubs (Ball Headed, Gunstock, Sword, Tomahawk)
* Taylor 2001 p29-30
"References to 'tomahawk', as against 'club' or 'hatchet', in the discussion of the spontoon blade raises several points with regard to the nomenclature used to describe North American Indian striking weapons. The word tomahawk was originally applied to a group of striking weapons which were commonly and anciently used by both the Algonquian and Iroquoian tribes of eastern North America. Early colonists mention the word from this region -- with slight variations -- as 'tomahack' or 'tommahick', whilst the Mahican referred to such weapons as 'tumnahecan'. The wooden ballheaded club at this time was also referred to as a 'tomahawk' and it clearly impressed white observers with its effectiveness; as an offensive striking weapon, one recorded that it was heavy enough 'to knock men's brains out.'"
* Benn 1998 p75
"At close quarters, the Iroquois used different kinds of tomahawks, clubs, spears, swords, and knives. Except for clubs and some spears, these weapons came from white sources. British inventories of material sent to Upper Canada for the natives included pocket knives, clap knives, butchers' knives, spears or 'Indian lances,' chief's swords, hangers (short, usually slightly curved swords), half axes (a kind of tomahawk), and pipe tomahawks (a tomahawk with a pipe bowl)."
Knife
* McNab 2010 p24
"By the eighteenth century, the Eastern Native Americans were increasingly using metal daggers as weapons of war. Prior to the arrival of the colonists, Indian blades were made largely of bone or rock, the latter 'pressure-flaked' with the edge of an antler to form a rudimentary but dangerous blade. Some copper blades were manufactured, but with the arrival of the settlers the Indians began to purchase far more durable iron blades. A particularly popular style of knife was the 'beaver tail' blade that, as its name suggests, had a broad double-edged blade tapering to an efficient point. The Indians developed gaudy sheaths to go with their blades, often encompassing hilt as well as blade, possibly suggesting that the knives were used more for utility and hunting than as a rapid-response weapon in combat. The Indians also made their own knives by sharpening up pieces of scrap metal and wrapping the 'tang' (handle) with strips of hide to form a basic hilt."
* Taylor 2001 p
"
Belt
* Bancroft-Hunt 1995 p26 caption
"Although many tribes of the Woodlands used small white and purple shells, known as wampum, in making sashes ..., it is from the Iroquois that they are best known. Wampum often served a specific function as a record of an agreement or treaty between rival groups or factions, and in this sense had a purpose which was as rigidly defined as any written treaty made between Indian tribes and the Colonial powers or the later Americans."
* Paterek 1994 p56
"Wampum belts were ceremonial objects; the Iroquois seem not to have used wampum beads for decoration as was the case with other Northeastern tribes. The two varieties of wampum held special significance for the Iroquois; the white represented peace and good will, and the purple typified war, disaster, or death."
* Where two worlds meet 1982 p99 f215
"When Europeans discovered that beads carved from conch and clam shells (wampum) were prized by inland tribes, they began to make the white-and-purple beads for sale. Even easier to make were glass imitations."
Jewelry
* Paterek 1994 p56-57
"Necklaces and bracelets were of bear's teeth and claws; bird bones, beaks, and claws; or beads of shell or carved bone. Gorgets of freshwater-clam shells hung on the breast. Earrings were of shell, polished stone, or clusters of beads."
* Benn 1998 p77-78
"Another important decorative feature used to boost morale and identify the warrior with Iroquois military tradition was the scalp lock. An Iroquois scalp lock was not the famous 'Mohawk' haircut of popular imagination that looks like a brush running along the centre of the scalp from the front to the back of the head. (Other natives wore three.) Rather, it was a ring of long, easily grabbed hair, located at the centre of the back of the scalp on the warrior's otherwise shaved head, decorated with domestic and imported feathers, horsehair, silver, and other ornamentation. Worn, theoretically, to taunt an enemy into trying to take it, the scalp lock probably served more to heighten the warrior's self-esteem and to link him emotionally to Iroquois military tradition. Even children wore them as part of their military development. The Iroquois seem to have believed that spiritual power was concentrated in the scalp lock. This assumption had serious implications, because a warrior had to keep his own scalp out of fear that he might be denied peace in the next world if he suffered a violent death and lost his scalp. But, if he could scalp an enemy, his people would acquire that person's spiritual power while devastating his opponent's hopes for a happy afterlife. Another distinction among the Iroquois to mark warriors was the practice of cutting and stretching the outer rims of their ears after their first experience in combat as a mark of their veteran status.
"A popular ornament was a circular gorget, worn on the chest. Originally made of white shell or wampum, most gorgets were silver or gilt by 1812. Gorgets often were made to represent an image of the sun, an appropriate wartime symbol because of the sun's association with war. Shell, and its analogue, silver, were considered to be spiritually charged gifts of underworld spirits. Many warriors wore European-style gorgets (in white society they served as token pieces of armour to link officers to the knightly ideals of medieval times). These crescent-moon devices likely appealed to the warrior's sense of their own importance because of their association with military leadership."
Body Art
* Benn 1998 p77
"Just as white troops sported costume features that were without practical value but that served to heighten self-esteem and group identity, Iroquois warriors used body paint, feathers, and other ornamentation for the same purposes as well as to associate themselves with sources of spiritual power. They regarded feathers, for example, as signs of war powers received from the thunderbirds. One person who saw some Tuscaroras from New York in 1795 noted that the warriors decorated themselves with 'feathers of all possible species of birds' and supplemented the feathers with horsehair. Warriors also painted their bodies, red being the favourite base colour, over which they usually added coloured streaks, with black being the most common. This was an appropriate combination because of the association of red with life and of black with danger and death. Although these two colours predominated, some people chose others. A British army surgeon who saw warriors on the Niagara Peninsula painted for war recorded that a favourite pattern 'was to blacken their faces, from a line drawn from ear to ear across the upper lip; above this dark base they drew a streak of red an inch broad; which they surmounted alternatively with lines of yellow white and red.' He also saw Iroquois children painting their faces with red and yellow ochre, perhaps as part of their socialization for their adulthood as warriors. The description of the Tuscaroras in 1795 gives another impression of how natives might paint themselves for combat: 'In general they prefer the harshest colours, paint one leg white, and the other black or green, the body brown or yellow, and face full of red or black spots, and their eyes different colours. Some Iroquois wore tattoos, with representations of guardian spirits or geometric patterns being common. Tattooing usually occurred at puberty after a boy experienced a successful vision quest as part of his adult formation."
* Paterek 1994 p57
"Facial paint for war was a black rectangle or three stripes on each cheek. When first encountered, the Iroquois men sported spectacular tattooing of double-curve motifs, geometric designs, or clan crests."
