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... The woman also made clay pots for cooking and storage, clay pots had round bodies and raised, square collars or rims. After the arrival of the white men, the women bartered for the sturdy brass kettles to replace the clay pots. Wampum-Beads That Talked.
When the word wampum is mentioned, people often think of money, its true wampum was used like money to barter for goods, which happened in the 1600 s after the Dutch set up trading post along the Hudson River. The Indians of the Atlantic coast developed wampum and used it for historical and religious purposes. Wampum was the name for tube-like beads Indians made from seashells. White wampum beads were made from the inside of a couch or whelk, large saltwater shells that are good to eat to. I love them in a seafood salad. The purple wampum came from clam called quahog also a saltwater shell.
These were the most valuable, because it was harder to find these shells that they were made from. Making wampum was a special skill so only certain Indians from the Iroquois Nation were the official makers. Soon wampum came in many colors, but the Dutch and European traders and settlers manufactured them. The Iroquois had no written language, so they used wampum for their form of paper and books. They shaped wampum with strings and formed designs on wampum belts that told a story but of course not everyone understood the words and ideas sealed in the wampum shapes. Each tribe had a official keeper for the wampum, this was a sacred job to memorize the message of each belt or string.
The keeper learned the story first from the chief or sachem he listened carefully so he could repeat it exactly as it was spoken, and to preserve its history, each keeper trained an apprentice. Wampum told the story, not only of the tribes history, but also its customs and laws. In times of danger the wampum was buried until the danger passed, then the keeper unearthed the valuable beads. Ceremonies and Festivals were important to the Iroquois, these events were held to honor the Great Spirits who provided good crops and games. Ceremonies scared off the Evil spirits, they called this false face society. This society was called at times from the family of a sick person to help with the healing ceremony.
Members wore large ugly carved masks when they came to the longhouses and carried noise makers that were made from turtle shells filled with pebbles. They danced around the sick person, chanting and rattling the noisemakers. Once a person was cured he became a member of the False Face Society. Each of these masks was a commemoration of a mythical creature, the original False Face who was punished by the Great Spirit for being too boastful and proud. His punishment was to spend eternity healing the sick. The members of this society performed the task every spring and fall; they would go into the longhouses and conduct a ceremony to scare away spirits of illness.
When the White Man came this started the fur trade with the Indians. In the new world, the white man was eager to trade with the Indians for fur. The Indians were just as eager to trade with the White Man, they obtained wonderful possessions of metal pots, kettles, steel needles, jewels, woven cloth, blankets and guns. Before the Indians only killed animals for food, but when the greedy Europeans came they wanted all the fur they could get from the Indians, then the Indians became greedy, and wanted more of the goods from these strangers who were invading their land. The Iroquois were killing off too many animals, but their solution to this dilemma, they invaded the territory of their rivals who lived further west and north.
They often seized boatloads of furs from other Indians. After they conquered their neighbors the Human and Algonquin they controlled travel on the rivers. By 1644 they controlled the territory for St. Lawrence River to Tennessee and from New England to Michigan.
Between 1650 and 1651 the Iroquois League maintained a general peace throughout their territory. By the 1700 s the Iroquois became more drawn into the rivalry between the French and the British. This rivalry eventually split the league and destroyed the power of the Iroquois. In 1615 the soldiers of the French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, attacked an Onondaga Village and killed many Indians this was the beginning of a great hatred for the French. During the French and Indian War (1750 - 1763) many Indian tribes in the east sided with the French. It was the French and Indians against the British.
Some of the Iroquois Nation became allies of the British because of a Irish man named William Johnson, the Iroquois supported the British forces. Johnson was placed in charge of Indian affairs by the British king and soon became one of the largest landowners in America. In the Albany Congress of 1754 one of the most famous colonial leaders that attended was Benjamin Franklin. The British also invited 150 Iroquois chiefs in hopes that they would sign an agreement to support the British when war broke out. The Iroquois made no agreements; they scolded the British for letting the French get such a strong hold west of the Hudson River. They feared for themselves in the presence of so many French.
It was chief Joseph Brant (Thayandaneca) who the Iroquois supported and the British soldiers that they fought with. The final defeat of the British was also a final defeat for the Iroquois Nation. They paid a high price for supporting the losing side in the war. They were forced to surrender control of their lands to the new government of the United States. In 1784 they signed the Treaty of Fort Stanwix.
Joseph Brant knew the Iroquois would have to give up millions of acres of land for a small part of reservation land in New York. So he fled to Canada to persuade the king to give the Iroquois lands in Canada as valuable as those they would lose in the United States. The King granted to Brant a large tract of land in Ontario Canada. Today it is called Brant County it is still home to many Mohawk Indians and other descendants of the Iroquois Nation.
The Iroquois today. The Iroquois have not vanished there are more than 28, 000 living in New York State on or off reservations. In Canada there are another 30, 000 or more, mostly Mohawk descendants. A few thousand are scattered across the Unites States. The Iroquois survived better then the Indians on western reservations. They maintained their great council, which continued to meet, according to tradition in Onondaga territory.
Finally the Mohawk men developed a new job skill. In 1886, the Mohawk men of the Iroquois Nation became the first Indian steel workers hired to work on construction of a bridge over the St. Lawrence River connecting Canada and the United States. As bridge men the Iroquois men continue to display their courage as warriors of steel girders, and work in many parts of the world today.
They are very proud people, in the past 40 years they the descendant of the Iroquois work in factories, schools, hospitals, and laboratories or farm field. These Native Americans and Canadians have a proud past and a strong future. Bibliography Native American People The Iroquois: By Barbara Mc Call The Iroquois: By Petra Press New York State: By Vivienne Hodges.
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Research essay sample on False Face Hudson River
