Misplaced Pages

Covenant Chain

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

The Covenant Chain was a series of alliances and treaties developed during the seventeenth century, primarily between the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) and the British colonies of North America , with other Native American tribes added. First met in the New York area at a time of violence and social instability for the colonies and Native Americans, the English and Iroquois councils and subsequent treaties were based on supporting peace and stability to preserve trade. They addressed issues of colonial settlement, and tried to suppress violence between the colonists and Indian tribes, as well as among the tribes, from New England to the Colony of Virginia .

#662337

120-732: The Covenant Chain is embodied in the Two Row Wampum of the Iroquois, known as the people of the longhouse - Haudenosaunee. It was based in agreements negotiated between Dutch settlers in New Netherland (present-day New York) and the Five Nations of the Iroquois (or Haudenosaunee ) early in the 17th century. Their emphasis was on trade with the Native Americans. As the historian Bernard Bailyn has noted, all

240-530: A kaswentha relationship between Iroquois nations and the Dutch appear[ing] in [...] 1689". And the earliest record of Haudenosaunee speakers explicitly mentioning or reciting the kaswentha tradition before Anglo-American and French colonial audiences dates to more than 30 years before this, in 1656 (43 years after the putative origin of the treaty in 1613). While the evidence that the Haudenosaunee and

360-472: A Belt of Wampum to our Brothers the other 5 Nations to acquaint them the Covenant Chain is broken between you and us. So brother you are not to expect to hear of me any more, and Brother we desire to hear no more of you. The Albany Congress was called to help repair the chain. Colonial delegates failed to work together to improve the diplomatic relationship with the Iroquois, a serious shortcoming on

480-969: A Covenant Chain council that took place in 1692, the Iroquois leaders asserted: The Covenant Chain continued until 1753, when the Mohawk , claiming to have been cheated out of lands rightfully theirs in New York, declared that the chain was broken. Howard Zinn , in his " A People's History of the United States " discusses the taking of the Mohawk land: "Before the Revolution, the Indians had been subdued by force in Virginia and in New England. Elsewhere, they had worked out modes of coexistence with

600-512: A Mohawk convert to Catholicism. She moved with relatives to Caughnawaga on the north side of the river after her parents' deaths. She was known for her faith and a shrine was built to her in New York. In the late 20th century, she was beatified and was canonized in October 2012 as the first Native American Catholic saint. She is also recognized by the Episcopal and Lutheran churches. After

720-497: A fake, or to set the bar for evidentiary proof of a concept's existence to practically impossible standards – such as requiring a surviving "physical" Two Row belt from the colonial era that can be explicitly associated with a documentary source. Onondaga leaders state that the oral tradition which accompanies the wampum belts is evidence that an agreement was made in 1613. Andy Mager of the Syracuse Peace Council

840-584: A farming settlement, where the Dutch took over some of the former Mohawk maize fields in the floodplain along the river. Through trading, the Mohawk and Dutch became allies of a kind. During their alliance, the Mohawks allowed Dutch Protestant missionary Johannes Megapolensis to come into their communities and teach the Christian message. He operated from the Fort Nassau area for about six years, writing

960-653: A large group of Iroquois out of New York to what became the reserve of the Six Nations of the Grand River , Ontario . Brant continued as a political leader of the Mohawks for the rest of his life. This land extended 100 miles from the head of the Grand River to the head of Lake Erie where it discharges. Another Mohawk war chief, John Deseronto , led a group of Mohawk to the Bay of Quinte . Other Mohawks settled in

1080-478: A precursor to the formal establishment of Dutch Fort Nassau at nearby Normans Kill." According to Parmenter, "Dating of the original agreement prior to circa 1620 finds support in [a] 1701 recitation, in which Haudenosaunee delegates described their original agreement with the Dutch occurring 'above eighty years' prior to that date, and in 1744 Onondaga headman Canasatego dated the origin of the relationship to "above One Hundred Years Ago'." Parmenter has investigated

1200-539: A record in 1644 of his observations of the Mohawk, their language (which he learned), and their culture. While he noted their ritual of torture of captives, he recognized that their society had few other killings, especially compared to the Netherlands of that period. The trading relations between the Mohawk and Dutch helped them maintain peace even during the periods of Kieft's War and the Esopus Wars , when

1320-591: A role in defining the relationship between citizens of New York State and Haudenosaunee residents of the region. In 2006, a dispute over whether Onondaga Nation students could be permitted to wear native regalia at their graduation ceremony at Lafayette High School in LaFayette, New York , was resolved in part through the school board's consideration and application of the principles of the Two Row Wampum. Larger disputes concerning extant treaties based on

SECTION 10

#1732765779663

1440-589: A sacred duty, given to it by the Creator, to give all creation clean, fresh water." The existence of an alleged written version of the treaty was first made public in an article in 1968 by documents collector L.G. van Loon . He claimed to have acquired it from an unnamed person on the Mississauga reserve in Canada. In 1987, academics Charles Gehring, William Starna, and William Fenton published an article in

1560-657: A veteran of the French and Indian War and ally of the rebels, offered his services to the Americans, receiving an officer's commission from the Continental Congress . He led Oneida warriors against the British. During this war, Johannes Tekarihoga was the civil leader of the Mohawk. He died around 1780. Catherine Crogan , a clan mother and wife of Mohawk war chief Joseph Brant , named her brother Henry Crogan as

1680-485: Is no evidence that such a thing as an "original" two-row wampum belt ever existed. Nor is there any evidence of the existence of a 1613 treaty beyond a claim traceable to a document forged in the 1960s by a historian who collected and wrote about old manuscripts. Indeed, no documentary evidence (including wampum, which is very fragile) survive from the original treaty negotiations of 1613. But, as Parmenter points out: Evidence of Haudenosaunee and European recitations of

1800-527: Is now known as the Hudson River and its estuary , traders from the United Provinces of the Netherlands set up factorijs (trading posts) to engage in the fur trade , exploiting for extractive purposes the trade networks that had existed for millennia. The Dutch traded with the indigenous populations to supply fur pelts particularly from beaver , which were abundant in the region. By 1614,

1920-426: Is one of many "media" by which the Haudenosaunee have represented pictorially their relationship to European newcomers over the centuries, with other media including "a piece of tree bark or rope" and (later) images of an iron chain and, eventually, a burnished silver and/or covenant chain. But of these, it is the "ship and canoe" conception of the kaswentha relationship that is the deepest and most significant, and it

2040-491: Is still in motion. Wampum belts of the two-row style are merely one of many methods of representing in physical form the diplomatic and economic agreements implicit in the kaswentha relationship. There is clear evidence of Haudenosaunee use of wampum for diplomatic functions during the pre-contact period, while the post-contact period saw "increasing significance of wampum as a material form to facilitate communication across cultural boundaries". Early evidence for wampum in

2160-414: Is the two-row wampum that is understood to represent this conception most powerfully, with two rows of purple wampum beads against a background of white beads, each row representing a parallel river, down which the respective vessels of each people travel, independently but in mutual support of each other. The question of what materials — wampum or otherwise — were exchanged at the initial negotiations of

2280-712: The Dutch and the Mohawk nations did not take place or took place at a later date. In August 2013, the Journal of Early American History published a special issue dedicated to exploring the Two Row Tradition. At the start of the 17th century, the Iroquois Mohawk and the Mahican territory abutted in what is now known as the mid- Hudson Valley . Soon after Henry Hudson 's 1609 exploration of what

2400-768: The Mississippi Valley , and from the Canadian Shield south to the Ohio Valley . When the English took over New Netherland in 1664 and established the Province of New York , they renewed these agreements. Conflicts erupted in New England in King Philip's War in 1675, "the most destructive war" in seventeenth-century North America, in which more than 600 colonists and 3,000 Indians died. Nearly at

2520-492: The New Netherland Company was established and Fort Nassau was built, setting the stage for the development of the colony of New Netherland . According to Jon Parmenter: Kaswentha may best be understood as a Haudenosaunee term embodying the ongoing negotiation of their relationship to European colonizers and their descendants; the underlying concept of kaswentha emphasizes the distinct identity of

SECTION 20

#1732765779663

2640-599: The Oka Crisis blockades in 1990 and the Caledonia Ontario, Douglas Creek occupation of a construction site in summer of 2006. On May 13, 1974, at 4:00 a.m, Mohawks from the Kahnawake and Akwesasne reservations repossessed traditional Mohawk land near Old Forge, New York, occupying Moss Lake, an abandoned girls camp. The New York state government attempted to shut the operation down, but after negotiation,

2760-638: The Onondaga leader Daniel Garacontié . The term "Covenant Chain" was derived from the metaphor of a silver chain holding the English sailing ship to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Tree of Peace in the Onondaga Nation . A three-link silver chain was made to symbolize their first agreement. The links represent "Peace, Friendship and Respect" between the Haudenosaunee and the Crown. It was also

2880-517: The Pequot and other Algonquian Indians of coastal New England sought an alliance with the Mohawks against English colonists of that region. Disrupted by their losses to smallpox, the Mohawks refused the alliance. They killed the Pequot sachem Sassacus who had come to them for refuge, and returned part of his remains to the English governor of Connecticut, John Winthrop , as proof of his death. In

3000-533: The United Nations in 1977, requesting the Haudenosaunee passport to be honored internationally. The Dutch government honored the passport until 2010. It remains unclear if the policy will be changed in recognition of the 400th anniversary of the treaty. In September 2013, three Haudenosaunee leaders traveled to the Netherlands for an official visit in recognition of the anniversary, traveling on Haudenosaunee passports. The Two Row Wampum continues to play

3120-523: The United States in 1794. The treaty is spiritually and culturally revered and widely accepted among the Indigenous peoples in the relevant territories, and documented by the wampum belts and oral tradition. However, in more recent years the authenticity of the later, written versions of the agreement have been a source of debate, with some scholarly sources maintaining that a treaty between

3240-574: The United States District Court for the Western District of New York . The main structures of social organization are the clans ( ken'tara'okòn:'a ). The number of clans vary among the Haudenosaunee; the Mohawk have three: Bear ( Ohkwa:ri ), Turtle ( A'nó:wara ), and Wolf ( Okwaho ). Clans are nominally the descendants of a single female ancestor, with women possessing the leadership role. Each member of

3360-676: The War of 1812 . In 1971, the Mohawk Warrior Society , also Rotisken’rakéhte in the Mohawk language, was founded in Kahnawake . The duties of the Warrior Society are to use roadblocks, evictions, and occupations to gain rights for their people, and these tactics are also used among the warriors to protect the environment from pollution. The notable movements started by the Mohawk Warrior Society have been

3480-666: The World Trade Center buildings that were destroyed during the September 11 attacks , helped rescue people from the burning towers in 2001, and helped dismantle the remains of the building afterwards. Approximately 200 Mohawk ironworkers (out of 2,000 total ironworkers at the site) participated in rebuilding the One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. They typically drive the 360 miles from

3600-405: The kaswentha tradition indicates clearly that the remarkable durability over time of ideas associated with a Two Row relationship does not depend on the legitimacy of a single document and that Haudenosaunee and contemporary Europeans "verbalized" these ideas long before the late nineteenth century. [...] Kaswentha relations were not static – they evolved over time as ties between the Iroquois and

3720-461: The kaswentha tradition. On two such occasions the sources refer to a "Chain Belt," but no documented example provides a specific correlation with a Two Row-patterned belt. While most of the earliest recorded recitations of the kaswentha relationship between the Haudenosaunee and the Dutch do not mention wampum belts specifically, descriptions "of wampum belts in documentary sources, particularly from

Covenant Chain - Misplaced Pages Continue

3840-663: The "Covenant Chain of love and friendship", saying that the chain has been attached to the immovable mountains and that every year the British would meet with the Iroquois to "strengthen and brighten" the chain. He developed great influence among the Iroquois and was later knighted for his contributions to development in the Northeast. In June 2010, Queen Elizabeth II of Canada renewed the Covenant Chain Treaties by presenting 8 silver hand bells each to Band Chiefs from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory and Six Nations of

3960-408: The "ship and canoe" discourse present in the explicit "Two Row" articulations of the tradition that appear after circa 1870. It is important to point out that the while the language of the "chain" connecting the two peoples persisted in recitations of the tradition over time, it never supplanted the "ship and canoe" language characteristic of Haudenosaunee understandings of kaswentha . As illustrated in

4080-575: The 1930s to the 1970s on special labor contracts as specialists and participated in building the Empire State Building . The construction companies found that the Mohawk ironworkers did not fear heights or dangerous conditions. Their contracts offered lower than average wages to the First Nations people and limited labor union membership. About 10% of all ironworkers in the New York area are Mohawks, down from about 15% earlier in

4200-526: The 20th century. The work and home life of Mohawk ironworkers was documented in Don Owen 's 1965 National Film Board of Canada documentary High Steel . The Mohawk community that formed in a compact area of Brooklyn , which they called "Little Caughnawaga", after their homeland, is documented in Reaghan Tarbell's Little Caughnawaga: To Brooklyn and Back , shown on PBS in 2008. This community

4320-814: The Akwesasne Reservation in Franklin County under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). According to the terms of the 1993 compact, the New York State Racing and Wagering Board, the New York State Police and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Gaming Commission were vested with gaming oversight. Law enforcement responsibilities fell under the state police, with some law enforcement matters left to

4440-708: The British Crown), Conrad Weiser (on behalf of the colony of Pennsylvania ), and Hendrick Theyanoguin (for the Mohawk). Johnson called the Albany Congress in June 1754, to discuss with the Iroquois chiefs repair of the damaged diplomatic relationship between the British and the Mohawk, along with securing their cooperation and support in fighting the French, in engagements in North America. During

4560-657: The British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, built his first house on the north bank of the Mohawk River almost opposite Warrensbush and established the settlement of Johnstown . The Mohawk were among the four Iroquois people that allied with the British during the American Revolutionary War . They had a long trading relationship with the British and hoped to gain support to prohibit colonists from encroaching into their territory in

4680-523: The British ceded their claim to land in the colonies, and the Americans forced their allies, the Mohawks and others, to give up their territories in New York. Most of the Mohawks migrated to Canada, where the Crown gave them some land in compensation. The Mohawks at the Upper Castle fled to Fort Niagara , while most of those at the Lower Castle went to villages near Montreal . Joseph Brant led

4800-724: The Canadian Indian Act , Mohawk communities have been dealing with considerable internal conflict since the late 20th century. The Mohawk language , or its native name, Kanyen'kéha , is a Northern Iroquoian language . Like many Indigenous languages of the Americas , Mohawk is a polysynthetic language. Written in the Roman alphabet, its orthography was standardized in 1993 at the Mohawk Language Standardization Conference. In

4920-447: The Canadian and U.S. governments usually prefer to deal exclusively. The self-governing communities are listed below, grouped by broad geographical cluster, with notes on the character of community governance found in each. Given increased activism for land claims, a rise in tribal revenues due to establishment of gaming on certain reserves or reservations, competing leadership, traditional government jurisdiction, issues of taxation, and

Covenant Chain - Misplaced Pages Continue

5040-406: The Dept. of Interior taking other land into trust for federally recognized 'tribes', which would establish the land as sovereign Native American territory, on which they might establish new gaming facilities. The other suit contends that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act violates the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution as it is applied in the State of New York. In 2010 it was pending in

5160-404: The Dutch (and the latter's English and American successors) deepened and sociopolitical circumstances grew more complex – but they did exist. Indeed, [...] it is incumbent upon all scholars considering the historicity of indigenous (not only Haudenosaunee) oral traditions (especially regarding something as fundamentally significant as kaswentha ), to do more than simply identify a single document as

5280-408: The Dutch crown. Beyond the direct evidence represented by the recitations, additional documentary sources amplify our confidence in the deep roots of the fundamental concepts of the kaswentha relationship: its beginnings in the early decades of the seventeenth century, its rhetorical framing in terms of an "iron chain" forged and renewed with the Dutch prior to 1664, and its early association with

5400-512: The Dutch entered into some kind of political or economic agreement in the early seventeenth century is overwhelming, some historians have found reasons to be cautious about assuming the nature of that agreement was formal and treaty-like. The Dutch, for example, may not have recognized their agreement with the Haudenosaunee as a "treaty" in the way that Haudenosaunee tradition remembers it, and may instead have seen their agreement as something less official and more contingent. Mark Meuwese has examined

5520-403: The Dutch fought localized battles with other native peoples. In addition, Dutch trade partners equipped the Mohawk with guns to fight against other First Nations who were allied with the French , including the Ojibwe , Huron-Wendat , and Algonquin . In 1645, the Mohawk made peace for a time with the French, who were trying to keep a piece of the fur trade. During the Pequot War (1634–1638),

5640-421: The Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee (or Iroquois) and representatives of the Dutch government in what is now upstate New York . The agreement is considered by the Haudenosaunee to be the basis of all of their subsequent treaties with European and North American governments, and the citizens of those nations, including the Covenant Chain treaty with the British in 1677 and the Treaty of Canandaigua with

5760-482: The Fort Nassau on native lands and the Kleyntjen affair." Jacobs concludes (along with Paul Otto) that whatever agreements or negotiations traders such as Jacob Eelkens and Hendrick Christiansen may have made with Native peoples, these could not be construed, at least in European terms, as diplomatic treaties between sovereign nations. [... This] does not, however, discredit the tradition of an agreement between Dutch and Iroquois representatives that would later became

5880-403: The French also conducted fur trading . During this time the Mohawk fought with the Huron in the Beaver Wars for control of the fur trade with the Europeans. Their Jesuit missionaries were active among First Nations and Native Americans, seeking converts to Catholicism . In 1614, the Dutch opened a trading post at Fort Nassau , New Netherland . The Dutch initially traded for furs with

6000-460: The Grand River in commemoration of 300 years of the Covenant Chain. The bells were inscribed "The Silver Chain of Friendship 1710–2010" (which was a common term often used throughout history when the Chain was renewed). Two Row Wampum The Two Row Wampum Treaty , also known as Guswenta or Kaswentha and as the Tawagonshi Agreement of 1613 or the Tawagonshi Treaty , is a mutual treaty agreement, made in 1613 between representatives of

6120-482: The Haudenosaunee and the Dutch (later the British). According to Parmenter: Three of the Haudenosaunee recitations (1656, 1722, and 1744) associate the agreement directly with wampum belts, and Johnson punctuated his 1748 recitation with a "large Belt of Wampum". Exchanges of wampum belts also occurred commonly in association with renewals of the alliance at treaty negotiations in which neither Iroquois nor New York authorities were recorded making explicit recitations of

SECTION 50

#1732765779663

6240-487: The Haudenosaunee became the focus of English Indian policy. In the mid-eighteenth century, Sir William Johnson , Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern Department and based in central New York, had great influence and was knighted for his service. Through the early decades of the eighteenth century, New England continued to have conflicts with New France and its Abenaki allies, leading to years of raiding by both sides and ransoming of captives. In these agreements,

6360-490: The Haudenosaunee league, along the Mohawk and Hudson rivers to New York City, ending at a special session at the United Nations. The anniversary journey brought world attention to the Two Row Treaty. Organized by the Onondaga Nation and Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON), the renewal journey covered over 300 miles, with public events at sites including Kanatsiohareke Mohawk Community, Albany, Poughkeepsie, and Beacon NY, where Native leaders and public officials discussed

6480-409: The Hudson River and other areas in the mid-Atlantic region, Jaap Jacobs finds that "Dutch traders would have had no need to make a treaty with local Indian groups on behalf of the Dutch nation and there is no indication that they did so. On the other hand, there is good reason to believe that Dutch traders and local Native people would have made some sort of agreement as indicated by the Dutch building of

6600-468: The Interior disapproved this action although the Mohawks gained Governor Eliot Spitzer 's concurrence, subject to the negotiation and approval of either an amendment to the current compact or a new compact. Interior rejected the Mohawks' application to take this land into trust. In the early 21st century, two legal cases were pending that related to Native American gambling and land claims in New York. The State of New York has expressed similar objections to

6720-410: The Kahnawake reserve on the St. Lawrence River in Quebec to work the week in lower Manhattan and then return on the weekend to be with their families. A selection of portraits of these Mohawk ironworkers were featured in an online photo essay for Time Magazine in September 2012. Both the elected chiefs and the Warrior Society have encouraged gambling as a means of ensuring tribal self-sufficiency on

6840-449: The Kanienʼkehá:ka people now live in settlements in northern New York State and southeastern Canada. Many Kanienʼkehá:ka communities have two sets of chiefs, who are in some sense competing governmental rivals. One group are the hereditary chiefs ( royaner ), nominated by Clan Mother matriarchs in the traditional Mohawk fashion. Mohawks of most of the reserves have established constitutions with elected chiefs and councilors, with whom

6960-401: The Kanienʼkehá꞉ka as Egil or Maqua . The French colonists adapted these latter terms as Aignier and Maqui , respectively. They also referred to the people by the generic Iroquois , a French derivation of the Algonquian term for the Five Nations, meaning "Big Snakes". The Algonquians and Iroquois were traditional competitors and enemies. In the upper Hudson and Mohawk Valley regions,

7080-404: The Keepers of the Eastern Door who are the guardians of the Iroquois Confederation against invasions from the east. Today, Mohawk people belong to the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne , Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation , Mohawks of Kahnawà:ke , Mohawks of Kanesatake , Six Nations of the Grand River , and Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe , a federally recognized tribe in the United States. At

7200-430: The Mohawk Valley. Joseph Brant acted as a war chief and successfully led raids against British and ethnic German colonists in the Mohawk Valley, who had been given land by the British administration near the rapids at present-day Little Falls, New York . A few prominent Mohawk, such as the sachem Little Abraham (Tyorhansera) at Fort Hunter, remained neutral throughout the war. Joseph Louis Cook (Akiatonharónkwen),

7320-460: The Mohawk in the New York colony. Many were baptized with English surnames, while others were given both first and surnames in English. During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Mohawk and Abenaki First Nations in New England were involved in raids conducted by the French and English against each other's settlements during Queen Anne's War and other conflicts. They conducted a growing trade in captives, holding them for ransom. Neither of

SECTION 60

#1732765779663

7440-485: The Mohawk language, the Mohawk people call themselves the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka ("people of the flint"). The Mohawk became wealthy traders as other nations in their confederacy needed their flint for tool making. Their Algonquian -speaking neighbors (and competitors), the people of Muh-heck Haeek Ing ("food area place"), the Mohicans , referred to the people of Ka-nee-en Ka as Maw Unk Lin , meaning "bear people". The Dutch heard and wrote this term as Mohawk , and also referred to

7560-510: The Mohawk-Mahican War four years later, the context for such an enduring agreement is far more probable. Nevertheless, Haudenosaunee tradition records not only the existence of a treaty, but its specific meaning, in the form of a Haudenosaunee reply to the initial Dutch treaty proposal: You say that you are our Father and I am your Son. We say 'We will not be like Father and Son, but like Brothers.' This wampum belt confirms our words. [...] Neither of us will make compulsory laws or interfere in

7680-476: The Mohawks cultivated productive maize fields on the fertile floodplains along the Mohawk River, west of the Pine Bush . On June 28, 1609, a band of Hurons led Samuel De Champlain and his crew into Mohawk country, the Mohawks being completely unaware of this situation. De Champlain made it clear he wanted to strike the Mohawks down after their raids on the neighboring nations. On July 29, 1609, hundreds of Hurons and many of De Champlain's French crew fell back from

7800-401: The Mohawks destroyed it, killing several priests. Over time, some converted Mohawk relocated to Jesuit mission villages established south of Montreal on the St. Lawrence River in the early 1700s: Kahnawake (used to be spelled as Caughnawaga , named for the village of that name in the Mohawk Valley) and Kanesatake . These Mohawk were joined by members of other Indigenous peoples but dominated

7920-496: The Mohawks long had contact with the Algonquian-speaking Mohican people who occupied territory along the Hudson, as well as other Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples to the north around the Great Lakes . The Mohawks had extended their own influence into the St. Lawrence River Valley, which they maintained for hunting grounds. The Mohawk likely defeated the St. Lawrence Iroquoians in the 16th century, and kept control of their territory. In addition to hunting and fishing for centuries

8040-423: The Mohawks surprised by De Champlain's steel cuirass and helmet. One of the chiefs raised his bow at Champlain and the Indians. Champlain fired three shots that pierced the Mohawk chiefs' wooden armor, killing them instantly. The Mohawks stood in shock until they started flinging arrows at the crowd. A brawl began and the Mohawks fell back seeing the damage this new technology dealt on their chiefs and warriors. This

8160-441: The New York History journal entitled "The Tawagonshi Treaty of 1613: The Final Chapter." Their theory is that this written version is a forgery because it contains what they argue are grammatical anachronisms ; that a blend of handwriting styles from the 17th and 20th centuries is used; that the names of villages and not chiefs are used; and that the writing is "too smooth" to be made by a 17th-century quill pen . Herkens writes that

8280-482: The Pequot confederacy, in a war that lasted until 1671. In 1666, the French attacked the Mohawk in the central New York area, burning the three Mohawk villages south of the river and their stored food supply. One of the conditions of the peace was that the Mohawk accept Jesuit missionaries. Beginning in 1669, missionaries attempted to convert Mohawks to Christianity, operating a mission in Ossernenon 9 miles west of present-day Auriesville, New York until 1684, when

8400-489: The Town of Palatine in Montgomery County, New York which they named Kanatsiohareke . It marked a return to their ancestral land. Mohawks came from Kahnawake and other reserves to work in the construction industry in New York City in the early through the mid-20th century. They had also worked in construction in Quebec. The men were ironworkers who helped build bridges and skyscrapers, and who were called skywalkers because of their seeming fearlessness. They worked from

8520-502: The Two Row Wampum, such as the Treaty of Canandaigua , remain unresolved through litigation and pending land claims. The Two Row Treaty contradicts the 15th Century Doctrine of Discovery , which decreed that Christian European nations could seize lands of non-Christian peoples whom they encountered in the New World. Modern legal rulings, including a 2005 decision by the US Supreme Court against Haudenosaunee plaintiffs, continue to hinge on that doctrine, and Two Row Treaty supporters promote

8640-469: The basis for Anglo-British and then American negotiations with the Iroquois. The historical context does make it unlikely, at best, that such an event happened in the 1610s. The claim that 2013 is the four-hundredth anniversary of a first covenant is therefore not corroborated by historical research. However, after the 1621 establishment of the West India Company and particularly after the end of

8760-473: The colonial governments generally negotiated for common captives, and it was up to local European communities to raise funds to ransom their residents. In some cases, French and Abenaki raiders transported captives from New England to Montreal and the Mohawk mission villages. The Mohawk at Kahnawake adopted numerous young women and children to add to their own members, having suffered losses to disease and warfare. For instance, among them were numerous survivors of

8880-407: The colonies agreed to hold negotiations generally at Albany, New York , under the auspices of the New York governor, as the covenant had first been established there. As a result, according to the historian Daniel Richter, "Iroquois and New Yorkers played dominant but seldom dictatorial roles" in the maintenance of these treaties. At a council meeting in 1684, Virginia Governor Lord Effingham used

9000-540: The colonies, Dutch and English, were first established to create profits. Through the Beaver Wars in the seventeenth century, the Iroquois conquered other tribes and territories for new hunting grounds and to take captives to add to their populations depleted from warfare and new European infectious diseases . The tribes in New England suffered even more depletion. The Iroquois expanded their influence, conquering or displacing other tribes from Maritime Canada west to

9120-542: The colonies. But around 1750, with the colonial population growing fast, the pressure to move westward onto new land set the stage for conflict with the Indians. Land agents from the East began appearing in the Ohio River valley, on the territory of a confederation of tribes called the Covenant Chain, for which the Iroquois were spokesmen. In New York, through intricate swindling, 800,000 acres of Mohawk land were taken, ending

9240-613: The community. As required by IGRA, the compact was approved by the United States Department of the Interior before it took effect. There were several extensions and amendments to this compact, but not all of them were approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior . On June 12, 2003, the New York Court of Appeals affirmed the lower courts' rulings that Governor Cuomo exceeded his authority by entering into

9360-628: The compact absent legislative authorization and declared the compact void  On October 19, 2004, Governor George Pataki signed a bill passed by the State Legislature that ratified the compact as being nunc pro tunc , with some additional minor changes. In 2008 the Mohawk Nation was working to obtain approval to own and operate a casino in Sullivan County, New York , at Monticello Raceway . The U.S. Department of

9480-496: The document contains c. 40 grammatical anachronisms, and that on grammatical grounds it is likely that the text was written in the 20th century. Given that Van Loon forged other pieces from the same period, they point to him as the most probable forger. In 2013, linguistic experts Harrie Hermkens, Jan Noordegraaf, and Nicoline van der Sijs submitted the document to further linguistic and historical analysis, including its provenance and connection to Lawrence G. Van Loon. They also found

9600-454: The document to contain "a significant number of anachronisms making it impossible for the text to have originated in 1613. Nor is it possible that it is a later copy of a document since lost." Robert Venables, a retired Cornell University professor, is among those who remain convinced that the document version is also valid, and concurs with other scholars who point out that any inconsistencies in language and pen strokes can be explained by

9720-437: The early period of contact, are notoriously vague." Moreover, as artifacts wampum belts were extremely prone to deterioration and disassembly, so there is no expectation that early belts should have survived had they in fact been exchanged in the early seventeenth century. In any event, by 1870 the image of the two-row wampum belt had come to symbolize for the Haudenosaunee their ongoing treaty and kaswentha relationship with

9840-500: The elected chiefs have tended to be associated (though in a much looser and general way) with democratic , legislative and Canadian governmental values. On October 15, 1993, Governor Mario Cuomo entered into the "Tribal-State Compact Between the St. Regis Mohawk First Nation and the State of New York". The compact allowed the Indigenous people to conduct gambling, including games such as baccarat , blackjack , craps and roulette , on

9960-605: The eve of the French and Indian War . As a result, the British government took the responsibility of Native American diplomacy out of the hands of the colonies and established the British Indian Department in 1755. In a 1755 council with the Iroquois, William Johnson , Superintendent of the Northern Department based in central New York, renewed and restated the chain. He called their agreement

10080-430: The extent to which Haudenosaunee oral tradition is corroborated by surviving documentary (written) records and found that "the documentary evidence, considered in the aggregate, reveals a striking degree of consistency over time in the expression of fundamental principles of the kaswentha tradition by Haudenosaunee speakers", with "the fullest single written source that corroborates the early seventeenth-century origins of

10200-637: The fact that it was copied by hand years after 1613. The document was given to the Onondagas and remains near Syracuse, New York. In July and August 2013, hundreds of Native Americans and their allies took part in a river journey to recognize and renew the Two Row Wampum Treaty. Canoeing and kayaking across New York State, the participants called attention to the treaty and its significance for native land rights and environmental protection. The paddlers traveled from Onondaga, birthplace of

10320-428: The fall of New Netherland to England in 1664, the Mohawk in New York traded with the English and sometimes acted as their allies. During King Philip's War , Metacom , sachem of the warring Wampanoag Pokanoket , decided to winter with his warriors near Albany in 1675. Encouraged by the English, the Mohawk attacked and killed all but 40 of the 400 Pokanoket. From the 1690s, Protestant missionaries sought to convert

10440-582: The first written treaty to use such phrases as: They negotiated the signing of several treaties that expanded the number of tribes and colonies involved: Many of the Susquehannock migrated north into western New York, re-settling with the Seneca and Onondaga of the Iroquois. The treaties marked a new era in colonial history, in which the Chesapeake had nearly eighty years of peace. New York and

10560-514: The flint ' ), are an Indigenous people of North America and the easternmost nation of the Haudenosaunee , or Iroquois Confederacy. Mohawk are an Iroquoian -speaking people with communities in southeastern Canada and northern New York State , primarily around Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River . As one of the five original members of the Iroquois League , the Mohawk are known as

10680-677: The foundation for all Haudenosaunee treaties, many since broken by New York State, the US and Canada. UN representatives from Panama and Bolivia described their work to restore land to native ownership and protection. The UN Secretary for Human Rights outlined the UN's goal to redress treaty violations, treat them as human rights violations, and help enforce treaties like the Two Row in the future. Mohawk nation The Mohawk , also known by their own name, Kanien'kehà:ka ( lit.   ' People of

10800-399: The hand of man", serve as a sign of "alliance, concord, and friendship" that links "divergent spirits" and provides a "bond between hearts". "Contemporary Haudenosaunee oral tradition identifies the original elaboration of kaswentha relations between Iroquois nations and Europeans with a circa 1613 agreement negotiated between Mohawks and a Dutch trader named Jacob Eelckens at Tawagonshi, as

10920-639: The history of Dutch-Indigenous relations in Africa and Brazil and found that, before 1621, "Dutch traders did not conclude treaties with Native peoples in the Atlantic world. Various agreements and alliances were made, but these took place only when specific factors were involved — the threat of Iberian intervention and the presence of centralized political orders among Indigenous peoples, factors that were not present in North America." Similarly, examining Dutch language sources pertaining to early Dutch trade voyages to

11040-670: The internal affairs of the other. Neither of us will try to steer the other's vessel. The treaty is considered by Haudenosaunee people to still be in effect. The Haudenosaunee tradition states: As long as the Sun shines upon this Earth, that is how long our Agreement will stand; Second, as long as the Water still flows; and Third, as long as the Grass Grows Green at a certain time of the year. Now we have Symbolized this Agreement and it shall be binding forever as long as Mother Earth

11160-518: The local Mohican, who occupied the territory along the Hudson River. Following a raid in 1626 when the Mohawks resettled along the south side of the Mohawk River, in 1628, they mounted an attack against the Mohican, pushing them back to the area of present-day Connecticut . The Mohawks gained a near-monopoly in the fur trade with the Dutch by prohibiting the nearby Algonquian-speaking peoples to

11280-467: The mission, daunted by what lay ahead. Sixty Huron Indians, De Champlain, and two Frenchmen saw some Mohawks in a lake near Ticonderoga ; the Mohawks spotted them as well. De Champlain and his crew fell back, then advanced to the Mohawk barricade after landing on a beach. They met the Mohawks at the barricade; 200 warriors advanced behind four chiefs. They were equally astonished to see each other— De Champlain surprised at their stature, confidence, and dress;

11400-562: The more than 100 captives taken in the Deerfield raid in western Massachusetts. The minister of Deerfield was ransomed and returned to Massachusetts, but his daughter was adopted by a Mohawk family and ultimately assimilated and married a Mohawk man. During the era of the French and Indian War (also known as the Seven Years' War ), Anglo-Mohawk partnership relations were maintained by men such as Sir William Johnson in New York (for

11520-473: The new Tekarihoga. In retaliation for Brant's raids in the valley, the rebel colonists organized Sullivan's Expedition . It conducted extensive raids against other Iroquois settlements in central and western New York, destroying 40 villages, crops, and winter stores. Many Mohawk and other Iroquois migrated to Canada for refuge near Fort Niagara , struggling to survive the winter. After the American victory,

11640-447: The north or east to trade with them but did not entirely control this. European contact resulted in a devastating smallpox epidemic among the Mohawk in 1635; this reduced their population by 63%, from 7,740 to 2,830, as they had no immunity to the new disease. By 1642 they had regrouped from four into three villages, recorded by Catholic missionary priest Isaac Jogues in 1642 as Ossernenon , Andagaron , and Tionontoguen , all along

11760-656: The period of Mohawk-New York friendship. Chief Hendrick of the Mohawks is recorded speaking his bitterness to Governor George Clinton and the provincial council of New York in 1753: Brother when we came here to relate our Grievances about our Lands, we expected to have something done for us, and we have told you that the Covenant Chain of our Forefathers was like to be broken, and brother you tell us that we shall be redressed at Albany, but we know them so well, we will not trust to them, for they [the Albany merchants] are no people but Devils so ... as soon as we come home we will send up

11880-549: The phrase "covenant chain" to describe these agreements. The metaphor was continued by a Seneca speaker, who said: "Let the Chaine be Kept Cleane and bright as Silver that the great tree that is can not break it a peeces if it should fall upon itt." Later colonial administrators assumed that these treaties granted the English sovereign control over the Iroquois and other tribes involved in the chain. The Iroquois did not agree with this and believed themselves at least to be equals. In

12000-400: The possibility that two-row wampum belts may have featured in the initial treaty negotiations between the Dutch and the Haudenosaunee. The significance of the two-row style of wampum, according to Parmenter, is that it captures the original "ship and canoe" metaphor present in the Haudenosaunee understanding of the kaswentha relationship. Parmenter explains how this "ship and canoe" metaphor

12120-472: The recitations [...], the idea of a rope, and later a "chain" of iron, then silver represented a critical component of the tradition that bound the two peoples together in friendship as a necessary precursor to the kind of relationship embodied by two vessels travelling along a parallel route. The latter idea, in other words, related to the former concept – the two were neither incompatible nor mutually exclusive. Diana Muir Appelbaum has written that: there

12240-475: The region indicates that the dominant style was a relatively simple, monochrome design, often with discoidal beads strung together (rather than tubular beads woven together). Historians debate whether or not the technology required to construct the sophisticated two-row style wampum belt (including, most importantly, tubular purple beads) was available to communities in the region prior to 1613; however, Parmenter indicates that archeological evidence does not rule out

12360-527: The same time was Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia. Both resulted in widespread suffering and loss among Native Americans and colonists. Because of the standing relationship with the Iroquois and the extensive influence of the Haudenosaunee , in August 1675, New York's Governor Sir Edmund Andros asked them for help in ending regional conflicts of the time in New England and the Chesapeake. He worked with

12480-541: The second and third quarters of the 18th century, most of the Mohawks in the Province of New York lived along the Mohawk River at Canajoharie . A few lived at Schoharie , and the rest lived about 30 miles downstream at the Tionondorage Castle, also called Fort Hunter . These two major settlements were traditionally called the Upper Castle and the Lower Castle. The Lower Castle was almost contiguous with Sir Peter Warren 's Warrensbush. Sir William Johnson ,

12600-421: The settlements by number. Many converted to Roman Catholicism. In the 1740s, Mohawk and French set up another village upriver, which is known as Akwesasne . Today a Mohawk reserve, it spans the St. Lawrence River and present-day international boundaries to New York, United States, where it is known as the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation . Kateri Tekakwitha , born at Ossernenon in the late 1650s, has become noted as

12720-477: The south side of the Mohawk River from east to west. These were recorded by speakers of other languages with different spellings, and historians have struggled to reconcile various accounts, as well as to align them with archeological studies of the areas. For instance, Johannes Megapolensis , a Dutch minister, recorded the spelling of the same three villages as Asserué, Banagiro, and Thenondiogo. Late 20th-century archeological studies have determined that Ossernenon

12840-555: The state offered the Mohawk some land in Miner Lake, where they have since settled. The Mohawks have organized for more sovereignty at their reserves in Canada, pressing for authority over their people and lands. Tensions with the Quebec Provincial and national governments have been strained during certain protests, such as the Oka Crisis in 1990. In 1993, a group of Akwesasne Mohawks purchased 322 acres of land in

12960-660: The time of European contact, Mohawk people were based in the valley of the Mohawk River in present-day upstate New York, west of the Hudson River . Their territory ranged north to the St. Lawrence River , southern Quebec and eastern Ontario ; south to greater New Jersey and into Pennsylvania; eastward to the Green Mountains of Vermont ; and westward to the border with the Iroquoian Oneida Nation 's traditional homeland territory. Members of

13080-619: The treaty and its bearing on current issues. On August 9, the paddlers arrived in New York City to attend a UN session for Indigenous Peoples Day with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and member state representatives. At the session, UN officials underscored the UN's role as a peacemaker, negotiator, and advocate for treaty rights. Oren Lyons , a diplomat from the Onondaga Turtle Clan, described the Two Row Treaty as

13200-433: The treaty as a legal standard to replace it. Supporters of the Two Row Wampum Treaty note that it conveys a respect for the laws of nature and thus an obligation for ecological stewardship. The treaty has been cited as an inspiration to clean up polluted waters such as Onondaga Lake and the Mohawk River. "Water is sacred, like all parts of creation," said Freida Jacques, an Onondaga Clanmother. "All life relies on it. It has

13320-413: The treaty cannot be answered definitively. While it is possible that a two-row wampum belt featured in the initial treaty negotiations, there is no documentary evidence to support this claim. There is, however, evidence in the form of Haudenosaunee oral tradition that wampum belts featured, if not in the original negotiations, then at least in the earliest rituals of renewal (of which there were many) between

13440-507: The two peoples and a mutual engagement to coexist in peace without interference in the affairs of the other. The Two Row Belt, as it is commonly known, depicts the kaswentha relationship in visual form via a long beaded belt of white wampum with two parallel lines of purple wampum along its length – the lines symbolizing a separate-but-equal relationship between two entities based on mutual benefit and mutual respect for each party’s inherent freedom of movement – neither side may attempt to "steer"

13560-488: The various reserves or Indian reservations. Traditional chiefs have tended to oppose gaming on moral grounds and out of fear of corruption and organized crime. Such disputes have also been associated with religious divisions: the traditional chiefs are often associated with the Longhouse tradition, practicing consensus-democratic values, while the Warrior Society has attacked that religion and asserted independence. Meanwhile,

13680-470: The vessel of the other as it travels along its own, self-determined path. A nineteenth-century French dictionary of the Mohawk language defined the very word for wampum belt ( kahionni ) as a human-made symbol emulating a river, due in part to its linear form and in part to the way in which its constituent shell beads resemble ripples and waves. Just as a navigable water course facilitates mutual relations between nations, thus does kahionni , "the river formed by

13800-453: The vicinity of Montreal and upriver, joining the established communities (now reserves) at Kahnawake , Kanesatake , and Akwesasne . On November 11, 1794, representatives of the Mohawk (along with the other Iroquois nations) signed the Treaty of Canandaigua with the United States, which allowed them to own land there. The Mohawks fought as allies of the British against the United States in

13920-503: The winter of 1651, the Mohawk attacked on the southeast and overwhelmed the Algonquian in the coastal areas. They took between 500 and 600 captives. In 1664, the Pequot of New England killed a Mohawk ambassador, starting a war that resulted in the destruction of the Pequot, as the English and their allies in New England entered the conflict , trying to suppress the Native Americans in the region. The Mohawk also attacked other members of

14040-544: Was located about 9 miles west of the current city of Auriesville; the two were mistakenly conflated by a tradition that developed in the late 19th century in the Catholic Church. While the Dutch later established settlements in present-day Schenectady and Schoharie , further west in the Mohawk Valley, merchants in Fort Nassau continued to control the fur trading. Schenectady was established essentially as

14160-802: Was most active from the 1920s to the 1960s. The families accompanied the men, who were mostly from Kahnawake ; together they would return to Kahnawake during the summers. Tarbell is from Kahnawake and was working as a film curator at the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian , located in the former Custom House in Lower Manhattan . Since the mid-20th century, Mohawks have also formed their own construction companies. Others returned to New York projects. Mohawk skywalkers had built

14280-562: Was quoted in The Post-Standard as saying "We believe the Haudenosaunee oral history of the treaty...We believe the basic outlines of a treaty and that a treaty was negotiated between representatives of the Dutch and the Haudenosaunee in or around 1613." The Netherlands have been called upon as allies by Haudenosaunee in international affairs, notably at the League of Nations in 1923 in a conflict with Canada over membership and at

14400-422: Was the first contact the Mohawks had with Europeans . This incident also sparked the Beaver Wars . In the seventeenth century, the Mohawk encountered both the Dutch , who went up the Hudson River and established a trading post in 1614 at the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers, and the French, who came south into their territory from New France (present-day Quebec). The Dutch were primarily merchants and

#662337