Copyright © 2000 by David G. Swatzler
Prologue: Strawberry Time on the Upper Allegheny
Chapter 1: Friends Come to the Upper Allegheny
Chapter 2: Henry Simmons among the Senecas
Chapter 3: The Children of Onas (Pennsylvania Friends)
Chapter 5: Great Eaters with Big Bellies (How the Senecas lost the bulk of their land.)
Chapter 7: A Victory in the Struggle for Sobriety
Chapter 8: Dances and a Dead Feast
Chapter 10: Visions, White Dogs, and Green Corn
Chapter 11: Motives and Agendas
Introduces Handsome Lake; recounts his first religious vision and the events surrounding it. Also introduces Cornplanter, chief headman of the Allegany Senecas, and Henry Simmons, Quaker missionary and culture broker.
Examines the origins of the Quaker mission to the Allegany Senecas with emphasis on Cornplanter's motives for soliciting assistance.
Briefly reviews four decades of military and political setbacks that weakened and impoverished the Senecas and led Cornplanter to seek out the Friends. Examines his economic strategy for restoring the Allegany Senecas' standard of living to a more comfortable level. Notes that the adoption of plow agriculture and animal husbandry was only one part of his flexible and diversified strategy, which featured continuation of the fur trade as well as innovation such as the lumber business. Defines the Quaker role in his strategy as one of providing access on favorable terms to the smithing and milling technologies of the day, which in turn afforded a variety of economic opportunities to his people.
Also examines the political and legal vulnerabilities that resulted, respectively, in the steady erosion of the Seneca land base and the failure of the American justice system to protect Seneca persons and property. Notes that Cornplanter's strategy was to use the Quakers as advocates in the halls of state and national power in Philadelphia (the capital of both Pennsylvania and the United States), as buffers against those elements of European-American society inclined to prey upon Indians, and as deterrents to scheming land speculators.
Recounts the inception of the Quaker mission and the establishment of the model or demonstration farm at Genesinguhta, 10 miles up the Allegheny River from Cornplanter's village. Traces developments there through the end of January 1799, just before the Simmons Journal begins.
Examines the personal interaction between Simmons and the Allegany Senecas after the 30-year old missionary took up residence within Cornplanter's village to teach school. Presented as a series of vignettes based on Simmons's journal entries.
Inquisition: An Indian council examines Simmons on the origins of the world and man. The inquisition is forced by nativists opposed to the Quakers.
Genesis Redacted: Compares and contrasts the Iroquois creation story with the story of Genesis to show how artfully calculated was Simmons's answer during the inquisition.
Factions: Presents an overview of the factional split within the Allegany Seneca community that prompted the inquisition. Defines the factions -- pragmatists and nativists -- in terms of their views on acculturation as a threat to Indian identity.
So Much Noise About Dreams: Examines the Iroquois cult of dreams in order to establish the basis for the credence later accorded to Handsome Lake's religious visions.
Dancing Frolics and Probing Questions: Simmons denounces nightly "social" dances that have been interfering with school. The Indians hold a council and probe his views on race.
Resentment Rising: Nativist resentment against Simmons's continual interference rises. Cornplanter feels the need to reassure Simmons of his continued welcome, but is reluctant to do so publicly. Examines specific issues in the dispute between pragmatists and nativists.
Precursor to the Prophet: A young man has a dream that includes astonishing visions of heaven and hell, including bizarre punishments for specific sins. Simmons endorses the dream.
Examines the sectarian milieu that shaped Simmons and the other Quaker missionaries. Simmons was raised by devout Quaker parents during a radical reformation within the Religious Society of Friends in Pennsylvania (the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, PYM). Extensive purging of the Society's ranks left only a fervent and dedicated remnant at the close of the 18th century.
Religious Society of Friends: Describes the structure and organization of the Religious Society of Friends (RSF, aka Quakers), its unique form of worship, its balancing act between universal priesthood and recognized ministers, and its core beliefs in the "inner light" and "immediate revelation."
The Quaker Peace Testimony: Summarizes the development of Friends' peace testimony through the middle of the 18th century. Traces the maturation of the peace testimony through the French and Indian War and the American Revolution: conscientious objection, war-tax protests, refusal to participate in government-proclaimed days of prayer and fasting, and refusal to swear oaths of allegiance. Examines the impact of the peace testimony: the Quaker exodus from government, persecution of Quakers in the form of imprisonment, fines, and second-class citizenship, and increased sectarian isolation of Friends from the American body politic.
Friends and Temperance: Briefly summarizes the rise and triumph of temperance within the PYM during the 1760s and 1770s.
Friends and Abolition: Recounts the rise of voluntary manumission among Pennsylvania Friends after the middle of the 18th century and traces the progress of abolitionist sentiment that led to the elimination of slave holding within the PYM by the end of the American Revolution.
Rise of Quaker Benevolence: Examines the evolution of Quaker charity during the reformation in Pennsylvania from a strictly intra-sect religious obligation to help needy Friends to include an institutional but nonsectarian philanthropic response to the suffering of non-Quakers and non-Christians, most notably African Americans and American Indians.
Quaker Milieu: Shows that the Society's discipline pervaded every aspect of a Friend's daily life. He or she lived under the constant supervision of the monthly meeting's designated overseers and under the continuous scrutiny of fellow Friends.
Friends and the Indians: Examines Quaker beliefs about Indian salvation and the need for the Indians to be "civilized" before they could be Christianized. Explores Indian and Quaker attitudes towards each other's worship practices. Also examines Friends' motivation in extending humanitarian benevolence to American Indians and African Americans. Contrasts the explanations of Quaker motivation offered by Sydney V. James and Jack D. Marietta.
Explores the ways in which the Iroquois played games for religious and curative reasons.
"The messages of many religious faiths are that God is pleased with our righteousness, our suffering, our labor, or our sacrifice -- the Iroquois proclaimed that the Good Spirit delights in watching our play." (Swatzler 2000: 87)
Lineage, Clan, and Moiety: Briefly overviews these anthropological concepts as prerequisite to understanding how the Iroquois formed teams to play games.
Bowl Game: Describes the bowl game and explains its sacred nature.
Lacrosse: Reconstructs the game as played by the Senecas 200 years ago. Looks at some of the activities surrounding the game: rituals, wagering, and feasting. Reviews the practice of playing lacrosse to prevent or cure illness and to bring favorable weather. Develops the relationship between lacrosse and healing, starting from the cult of dreams and moving to the notion of spiritual alliance as powerful medicine. Critiques the interpretation of lacrosse as a surrogate for war ("little brother of war").
Snow Snake: Brief description of this Seneca winter-time favorite.
Examines national and private incomes of the Allegany Senecas, how they were obtained during treaty negotiations, and what they cost in tribal lands lost. Describes the process by which the Senecas were alienated from the bulk of their ancestral homelands -- within the space of 13 years.
First Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1768: Reviews this treaty negotiated between the British Crown and the Six Nations when the Iroquois were still a power to be reckoned with.
Iroquois in the American Revolution: Examines the process by which the Six Nations abandoned their initially neutral stance, with two nations joining the Americans and four joining the British. Reviews the strategy employed by Cornplanter, chief warrior of the Seneca nation, and Joseph Brant, chief of the Mohawks. Recounts the three-pronged invasion of Iroquoia in 1779 that earned George Washington the name of "Town Destroyer."
Second Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1784: Relates the punitive terms imposed by the Americans to the new nation's dire financial straits and explains how the Americans were able to impose such harsh terms on the unvanquished Iroquois. Bottom line -- the United States forced the Senecas to make an uncompensated cession of a million acres of their traditional homelands, and Pennsylvania maneuvered them into relinquishing for a pittance the last of their claims within that state.
From the Conquest Treaties to Canandaigua: Traces diplomatic and military developments in the wake of second Stanwix through the conclusion of the Treaty of Canandaigua in 1794. Covers the treaties of Fort McIntosh and Great Miami, which together with second Stanwix, constituted the "conquest treaties" by which the United States attempted to impose peace on the Indians while simultaneously annexing vast stretches of Indian territory. Examines why this policy worked best in the case of second Stanwix and why the other conquest treaties collapsed into the War for the Old Northwest Territory. Describes the missed opportunity for a comprehensive settlement at the 1789 Treaty of Fort Harmar and the ensuing military disasters suffered by the United States Army at the hands of the Western Confederates -- at Kekionga in 1790 and on the upper Wabash in 1791.
Recounts Pennsylvania's maneuvering to secure its claim to the Erie Triangle, including Cornplanter's role in helping to quiet the Indian claims and his reward for doing so. Also, his role as intermediary between the Americans and the Western Confederates and his cooperation with the US Army in defending the northwest Pennsylvania frontier against the confederates.
Examines the changes in US Indian policy that led to the Treaty of Canandaigua in 1794: the ascendance of the Federalists, the demise of the conquest theory, recognition of Indian rights to the soil, and the calculated decision to purchase Indian lands in digestible tracts as needed, instead of trying to extort large tracts far in advance of settlement. Reviews the negotiations and the main articles of the treaty
Treaty of Big Tree, 1797: Examines developments and negotiations that led up to the sale by the Senecas of a staggering 3.8 million acres to Revolutionary War financier Robert Morris, who immediately sold most of his purchase to the Holland Land Company. Explores the complicity of Cornplanter, Red Jacket, and other Seneca chiefs in bringing about the sale. Traces the rocky and tortuous negotiations, including behind-the-scenes maneuvering, under-the-table arrangements, and the use of bribes and well-timed gifts. Outlines the terms of the final settlement.
Examines the seasonal round of subsistence activities and related religious celebrations that prevailed among the Allegany Senecas at the close of the 18th century.
Celebration: Describes the religious calendar: Midwinter Rites, Thanks-to-the-Maple, Corn Planting Ceremonial, Strawberry Festival, Green Corn, and Harvest Feast. Provides detailed description of the lengthy Midwinter Rites, with commensurately briefer treatments accorded to the shorter celebrations. Green Corn is covered in detail in Chapter 10. Details on some of the Seneca dances performed during these ceremonies are provided in Chapter 8.
Sustenance: Describes seasonal subsistence activities: maple sugar camp, brook fishing, pigeon camp, horticulture of corn, beans, and squash, summer hunting trips, fish drives in the river, harvesting and storing crops, winter hunting camp. Provides a synthesis of the entire annual cycle drawn from a variety of ethnographic sources, including contemporaneous journals.
Simmons describes a drunken binge that occurs after some of Cornplanter's Senecas return from Pittsburgh, having traded their winter's accumulation of pelts for a large quantity of whiskey. The Indians decide "not to suffer any more whiskey to be brought amongst them."
The Long Fight to Stay Dry: Reviews an extensive historical record in which American-Indian leaders repeatedly petitioned European-American officials to regulate the alcohol trade. Looks at why the efforts of leaders on both sides to stem the flow of alcohol into Indian country were generally ineffectual. Explores the ambivalence and divided counsel within the Indian community regarding temperance and prohibition. Examines the role of some Indians who participated in the rum trade as distributors and vendors. Considers liquor as the engine of the fur trade.
Costs and Causes of 18th-Century Indian Drinking: Examines the costs of heavy drinking: violence, social disorder, debt, and poverty. Explores drinking patterns: communal drinking bouts, episodic rather than chronic drunkenness, and the phenomenon of the "designated drinker." Suggests reasons for drinking: ritual purposes, supposed access to spiritual forces that were sometimes dangerous but always powerful, grief and insecurity.
Temperance Assessed: Looks ahead into the first decade and a half of the 19th century to assess Handsome Lake's effectiveness in persuading the Senecas and other Iroquois nations to abstain from alcohol.
Simmons describes the dancing and feasting associated with the Corn Planting Ceremonial, which he witnessed in late May. To compensate for Simmons's regrettable shortcomings as an ethnographer, this chapter uses contemporaneous journals kept by other Quakers and non-Quakers. Also used are the works of 19th- and 20th-century anthropologists, ethnologists, and ethnomusicologists. Additionally, Simmons describes a feast for the dead.
Seneca Dances -- Feather, Drum, and War: Describes the sacred feather and thanksgiving dances and explains their religious significance. Includes descriptions of costumes, musical instruments, songs, and dance steps. Examines the war or brag dance and includes John Adlum's eyewitness account of a dramatic night-time war dance performed at Cornplanter's village in 1794.
Feast for the Dead: Describes this ritual ceremony, based on 18th-century eyewitness reports and 20th-century anthropological research.
"Perhaps the most appropriate way to think of the dead feast is as a village reunion, attended by the dead as well as the living. The dead were summoned to the feast, where they joined in the dancing and shared in the food." (Swatzler 2000: 194)
Simmons's journal entry for June 13, 1799: Cornplanter orders the execution of a witch blamed for killing his daughter. Simmons intervenes to stop a man from beating his wife.
Witches: Presents a retrospective on the witchcraft accusations that had surrounded the death of one of Cornplanter's daughters several months prior to the execution. Examines the complex of beliefs and rituals related to the fear of witchcraft. Explains the role of the false faces in combatting witchcraft. Recounts some of the arcane practices attributed to witches: spells, magical poisons, charms, and introjection. Describes some of the techniques used by shamans to diagnose and counter witchcraft. Also reviews the materia medica of the Allegany Senecas. Looks at some of Handsome Lake's witch hunts, including one that almost led to war with the Cattaraugus Munsees. Reviews Cornplanter's role in ending his half-brother's witch hunts.
Wives: Critiques the notion of Iroquois matriarchy and some of the theories that have been advanced to support it. Relies, in part, on research done by women anthropologists to provide a more realistic perspective on the power and influence of women within Iroquois society. Describes women's roles in the political structures and processes of their villages and clans.
"Within Iroquois culture, women's contributions were not only valued and recognized, but reflected as political realities. Consequently, Iroquois women enjoyed a higher status within their society than did European-American women in their own." (Swatzler 2000: 215)
Simmons describes Handsome Lake's first religious vision and the circumstances surrounding it. The prophet condemns drunkenness and witchcraft and appropriates the strawberry tradition as a symbol for his new covenant.
Sky Journey: Several weeks later Handsome Lake falls into a 7-hour trance. His soul leaves his body and is taken by a guiding spirit on a sky journey. Upon regaining consciousness, he recounts the vision to his half-brother, Cornplanter, who in turn relays it to Simmons. Simmons also interviews the prophet directly, but records only the last segment of the journey.
Presents highlights from all segments of the sky journey to illustrate Handsome Lake's main themes. Selected highlights also demonstrate the decidedly nativistic bent of his testimony. For example, in what must surely be one of the most scathing indictments ever lodged against Christian faithlessness, Handsome Lake and his guide encounter a lonely and bewildered Jesus, bemusing the fact that he has no followers. Highlights are selected from The Code of Handsome Lake.
White-Dog Sacrifice: Examines this religious sacrifice as practiced among the Senecas, which Handsome Lake's guide said should be performed immediately to forestall an outbreak of sickness in the village. Looks ahead to the decline of this tradition in the latter part of the 19th century, and notes the conflicting explanations offered for its demise.
Approbation and Equivocation: Analyzes Simmons's endorsement of Handsome Lake's second vision in terms of Quaker beliefs regarding the inner light and immediate revelation. Contrasts his sincerity in approving of the prophet's message with the attitudes of other missionaries.
"Only Simmons seems to have credited the workings of the Holy Spirit, both in Handsome Lake's message and in the people's response to it." (Swatzler 2000: 228)
Green Corn: Simmons, in this case at his ethnographic best, describes the four-day Green Corn Festival. This is supplemented with information drawn from contemporaneous sources and from 19th- and 20th-century ethnographic studies. Simmons declares his intention of returning home and delivers a farewell address. A delegation from the Indian Committee back in Philadelphia stages a surprise inspection visit. Simmons reaffirms his intent to go home. Cornplanter announces that he will accompany Simmons on the first part of his homeward journey to ensure safe passage.
The information presented thus far in the book, supplemented as necessary from other sources, is used to analyze the motives and agendas of both the Quakers and the Indians in regard to the Allegany mission.
Cornplanter's Motives: Having been thoroughly examined in Chapter 1, Cornplanter's motives are only summarized here: the Quaker presence and involvement provided access to the agrarian milling and smithing technologies of the day, a cadre of influential advocates to lobby for Indian interests in the federal and state governments, and a formidable buffer against the mendacity of surrounding European Americans and their local governments.
Quaker Motives: Argues that Friends were motivated by a sense of moral obligation born of an awareness of how much the European-American advent had cost American Indians. Extending institutionalized benevolence toward the Indians offered Friends a role in public policy, to which the impoverished new federal government welcomed them with open arms, and by which the Quakers hoped to influence the government and the public toward an Indian policy that recognized and respected Indian rights, not just as a matter of enlightened humanitarianism, but as a matter of justice.
The Quakers also sought to "civilize" the Senecas, in part as a prerequisite to Christianizing them. But Friends also felt that fostering material progress among the Indians was wholly justified on the basis of purely humanitarian concerns, aside from any considerations about eventual conversion.
"The Quakers had very strong opinions about what constituted 'civilization' and about what path the Indians should follow to material security and prosperity. Their prescription, like the government's, was one of radical acculturation, in which the Senecas would abandon many traditional ways and replace them with European-American practices. Although Friends were not religious proselytizers, they were very definitely cultural proselytizers." (Swatzler 2000: 238)
Quaker Agenda: Traces the ups and downs of the Quaker effort to school the Allegany Seneca children. Examines technology transfer (blacksmith, grist mill, sawmill, and the requisite skills) from the Quakers to the Senecas, which was also a major point on the Indian agenda. Describes friction that arose over a Quaker-operated sawmill on mission property adjacent to the reservation. Recounts the successful training of Indian blacksmiths and the unbridled enthusiasm with which the Allegany Senecas took up animal husbandry. Points out flaws in the Quaker plan for the Allegany Seneca men to become full-time farmers, raising cash crops.
Conflicting Cultural Values: Analyzes strains in the Quaker-Seneca relationship in terms of conflicting cultural values. The Quakers promoted an idealized agrarian model of society for the Indians to adopt, based on private property, a dispersed settlement pattern, and the profit motive. Seneca society at that time was based on communal ownership of land, organized around village life, and operated on the principle of reciprocal sharing. Examines specific ways in which these differing values came into conflict and produced tensions between the Friends and the Senecas and within the Allegany Seneca community itself.
Indian Agenda: Demonstrates that the Allegany Senecas got much of what they wanted from their relationship with the Friends -- but not everything. They got Quaker assistance in defending the remaining Seneca land base. The Indians' expectation that Friends would serve as buffer agents in their dealings with European Americans was fully met. Not met was the Indian hope that Friends would keep a trading post and store as part of the mission. The Allegany Senecas adopted a flexible mix of economic strategies, most of which were at variance with Quaker recommendations. The economic strategies proposed by the Quakers and those actually pursued by the Allegany Senecas are critiqued in terms of their practicality and efficacy.
The elders depart and a few weeks later Simmons takes his final leave of the Allegany Senecas. As promised, Cornplanter accompanies him through the wilderness and frontier districts.
Presents brief accounts of the lives of Simmons, Cornplanter, and Handsome Lake after the autumn of 1799.
The Simmons 1799 Journal—unedited and edited versions in two-column format.
Specifications: 319 pages, 6 x 9 inches, hard cover with dust jacket, 28 black-and-white illustrations, 5 maps, reference notes, bibliography, and index.
Copyright © 2000 by David G. Swatzler
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Sydney V. James, A People Among Peoples: Quaker Benevolence in Eighteenth-Century America, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1963
Jack D. Marietta, The Reformation of American Quakerism, 1748-1783, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia PA, 1984
Arthur C. Parker, The Code of Handsome Lake, the Seneca Prophet, New York State Museum, Bulletin 163, Albany NY, 1913
Dave Swatzler, A Friend Among the Senecas: The Quaker Mission to Cornplanter's People, Stackpole Books, Harrisburg PA, 2000
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