11 5-12-rel142
TRANSCRIPT
Native Roots of American Identity
US Culture and the Iroquois
Founding Fathers: Choosing to be Romans
• Regular ongoing contact between Haudenosaunee and Colonists (Grinde)– Protecting Private Property was Founding
Father’s big concern• Two antithetical strands of American
culture (Venables):– 1)Emphasis on private, rather than communal,
property– 2)Liberty became identified with the noble
image of the Indian
Concept of Liberty
• Covenant Chain– Agreement between
Iroquois and Colonist• “We the People” not a
hierarchical concept• American Revolution
destroyed connection
Americans as Indians
• Benjamin Franklin wrote extensively about the Haudenosaunee Longhouse system
• Mohawk “Kings” in England• “Sons of Liberty” dumped tea in Boston
Harbor dressed as Mohawks
Cultural Conflict
• ”Given the conflicting impulses of life and liberty on the one hand and property on the other, it is not surprising that at one moment the Founding Fathers could extol the virtues of the savage state--life and liberty--and at the next moment move to establish an executive branch; checks; balances; and separations of powers which would insure the survival of property--prosperity.”(93)
• Quotes pp 98-99
Freedom
• Indian woman on top of the capital
• Boston Tea Party– Dressing as Mohawks
Freedom at the US Capitol
Museum of the American Indian
Columbus Landing
DeSoto Discovers Florida
Baptism of Pocahontas
Pilgrims Embarking to America
http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/rotunda/frieze/index.cfm
Old Supreme Court
Women as the Center of Community Life
Iroquois influence on the Women’s movement in the US
Iroquois Influence on Women’s Movement in the US
• Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898)– With Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.
Anthony, Gage forms the “triumvirate” of leaders– Author with Anthony of History of Woman
Suffrage– Forgotten by the end of the 19th century• Why?
Women and Property• First Women’s
Convention in Seneca Falls, NY 1848– Iroquois territory
• Women, African Americans and Indians as Property– Women’s suffering
tied to property– Blackstone’s Code
Gage’s Activism
• Wrote on Iroquois, matrilineal clan, misdeeds of white, etc.
• Women’s liberty based in liberty of all people
• Mother-in-law of L. Frank Baum
Sally Roesch Wagner
• "It comes as no surprise then, that when reformers like Matilda Joslyn Gage looked outside of their culture for a model upon which to base their vision of an egalitarian world, they quickly found their well-known Indian neighbors."[121]
• Gage Foundation in Fayetteville, NY– http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/gage/mjg.html – New vision of feminism– Sisters In Spirit
Women Providers
• Haudenosaunee women were farmers– Scandalous for Europeans– Tilled all crops in “slash & burn” fields– Extensive knowledge of plants, wild and domestic
Three Sisters
• Corn, Beans and Squash• Hilled agriculture
(Mesoamerican)• Nitrogen exchange
between corn and beans• Deep hoe techniques
came with Europeans
Communal Property
• Longhouse originally a clan residence– Overseen (“owned”)
by Clan Mother– Fields tended by clan
women
Mary Jemison
• 1750’s “abducted” by the Seneca
• Lived with them for the rest of her life
• Died a clan mother• “Captivity Narratives”
Balance of Life
• Women responsible for life “in” the earth (agriculture)
• Men responsible for life “on” the earth (hunting)
• Connected to sexual roles• Allotment Act (1870’s) shifted balance to
women in the home and men in the fields
Succotash
• Corn Soup• Mixture of corn, beans and venison (now “salt
pork”)• Washed corn, white corn, flint corn, Indian
corn– Cooked several days in wood ash
Haudenosaunee Women and Politics
• Clan Mothers choose male clan “chiefs”– Iroquois word is “good mind”– Chiefs are “horned” given deer antler “gustoweh,”
head-dress– If they misbehave they can be “dehorned” by the
clan mother
Role of Haudenosaunee Women
• Direct the men from behind• Chiefs council with clan mothers• All decisions are made only by consensus• Women make the decision to go to war– They are responsible for children who will suffer
Clan Chiefs & Mothers
Oversee ceremoniesIn Longhouse no distinction between
“religious” “political” “economic” “familial”Make certain the cycles of life continue to the
Seventh GenerationDecisions made now effect people long into the future
European Fiction of Control
• Men in control of their homes used force (rape and violence)– Legacy of a patrilineal system of inheritance and property
rights
• Men in clan house had to behave, used force in hunting and diplomacy– Legacy of matrilineal system of communal property
• Distinctive “religious” views of Mother
What is Haudenousaunee “religion?”
• Connection and exchanges with a living earth• Duties and responsibilities of women and men
to Creation• Continuing the ceremonial cycle of
Thanksgivings
Haudenosaunee and the US
Sullivan-Clinton Campaign
Washington to Major General John Sullivan, 31 May 1779
“The expedition you are appointed to command is to be directed against the hostile tribes of the Six Nations of Indians [i.e., the Haudenosaunee] with their associates and adherents. The immediate objects are total destruction and devastation of their settlements and the capture of as many prisoners of every sex and age as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops in the ground and prevent their planting more.”
U.S. Attack of Iroquois
Consequences of the Sullivan Campaign
• Land laid to waste• 160,000 bushels of corn destroyed• 43 Haudenosaunee towns burned• Winter of 1779-80 was very hard – Starvation and homelessness
• Honnahdahguyuss– ”Destroyer of Villages”
Onondaga Return Home
• Hear a voice in the woods• 17 year locust– First appearance– Gift of Creator
• Onondaga the only people of the Haudenosaunee to eat Locust– Tell story of the Sullivan Campaign to their
children
17 Year Locust
13th Hierophany of Locust
Contentious Views of Creation
• Haudenosaunee– Immanence of the
Sacred– Earth as an animate
being– People co-habit with
other beings– Emphasis on Creation
• Americans– Transcendence of the
Sacred (otiosus)– Earth as an inanimate
thing– People alone are above
other beings– Emphasis on the End of
Time
GEORGE WASHINGTON’SWAMPUM BELT AND THE CANANDAIGUA
TREATY
11 November 1794Commemorated every year on
November 11
George Washington Wampum Belt
Haudenosaunee in Washington D.C.28 February 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EFxf8cKWqU&list=UUwBBPL-YamTkGjvpR4NtBBw&index=1&feature=plcp