Legends, Traditions, and Laws of the Iroquois, or Six Nations

Legends, Traditions, and Laws of the Iroquois, or Six Nations

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Legends, Traditions, and Laws of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, and History of the Tuscarora Indians
by Elias Johnson Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Title: Legends, Traditions, and Laws of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, and History of the Tuscarora Indians
Author: Elias Johnson
Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7978] [This file was first posted on June 8, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: US-ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, LEGENDS, TRADITIONS, AND LAWS OF THE IROQUOIS, OR SIX NATIONS, AND HISTORY OF THE TUSCARORA INDIANS ***

Editorial note: This E-text attempts to re-create the original text as closely as possible. As the author was writing in a "foreign" language, expect grammar and spelling which might seem more strange or mistaken than mere time or preference can explain.
This E-text was prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Marlo Dianne, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

LEGENDS, TRADITIONS, AND LAWS OF THE
IROQUOIS, OR SIX NATIONS
AND
HISTORY OF THE TUSCARORA INDIANS
BY
ELIAS JOHNSON,
A NATIVE TUSCARORA CHIEF.

INTRODUCTION.
"A book about Indians!"--who cares anything about them?
This will probably be the exclamation of many who glance on my little page. To those who know nothing concerning them, a whole book about Indians will seem a very prosy affair, to whom I can answer nothing, for they will not proceed as far as my Preface to see what reasons I can render for the seeming folly.
But to those who are willing to listen, I can say that the Indians are a very interesting people, whether I have made an interesting book about them or not.
The Antiquarian, the Historian, and the Scholar, have been a long time studying Indian character, and have given plenty of information concerning the Indian, but it is all in ponderous volumes for State and College libraries, and quite inaccessible to the multitude--those who only take up such book as may be held in the hand, sitting by the fire,--still remain very ignorant of the Children of Nature who inhabited the forests before the Saxon set his foot upon our shores.
There is also a great deal of prejudice, the consequence of this ignorance, and the consequence of the representations of your forefathers who were brought into contact with the Indians, under circumstances that made it impossible to judge impartially and correctly.
The Histories which are in the schools, and from which the first impressions are obtained, are still very deficient in what they relate of Indian History, and most of them are still filling the minds of children and youth, with imperfect ideas. I have read many of the Histories, and have longed to see refuted the slanders, and blot out the dark pictures which the historians have wont to spread abroad concerning us. May I live to see the day when it may be done, for most deeply have I learned to blush for my people.
I thought, at first, of only giving a series of Indian Biographies, but without some knowledge of the government and religion of the Iroquois, the character of the Indians could not be understood or appreciated.
I enter upon the task with much distrust. It is a difficult task at all times to speak and to write in foreign language, and I fear I shall not succeed to the satisfaction of myself, or to my readers.
My title will not be so attractive to the American ears, as if it related to any other unknown people. A tour in Arabia, or Spain, or in India, or some other foreign country, with far less important and interesting material, would secure a greater number of readers, as we are always more curious about things afar off.
I might have covered many pages with "Indian Atrocities," but these have been detailed in other histories, till they are familiar to every ear, and I had neither room nor inclination for even a glance at war and its dark records.
THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.
To animate a kinder feeling between the white people and the Indians, established by a truer knowledge of our civil