Volume 223 in the Civilization of the American Indian Series This masterful summary represents a major synthesis of the history and culture of the Six Nations from the mid-sixteenth century to the Canandaigua treaty of 1794. William N. Fenton, the dean of Iroquoian studies, has used primary sources extensively, in both French and English, to create a very readable narrative and an invaluable reference for all future scholars of Iroquois policy. The Great Law, a living tradition among the conservative Iroquois, is sustained by celebrating the condolence ceremony when they mourn a dead chief and install his successor for life on good behavior. This ritual act, reaching back to the dawn of history, maintains the League of the Iroquois, the legendary form of government that gave way over time to the Iroquois Confederacy. Fenton verifies historical accounts from his own long experience of Iroquois society, so that his political ethnography extends into the twentieth century as he considers in detail the relationship between customs and events. His main argument is the remarkable continuity of Iroquois political tradition in the face of military defeat, depopulation, territorial loss, and acculturation to European technology. Fenton's style of writing combines Iroquois and American English in a way that no one else has been able to do. His analysis and comparison of multiple versions of the same myth is a valuable contribution in itself, while his distillation of previous cultural and historical studies will be of special interest to historians of anthropology as well as those concerned with the American Indian.
Author(s): William N. Fenton
Series: The Civilization of the American Indian Series, 223
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 812
City: Norman
Front Matter
Cover
Title
Publication Info
Dedication
Contents
Illustrations
Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
Note on Pronunciation
Abbreviations
Introduction
The Five Nations and Their Traditional History
Part One: The Cultural Foundation of the Iroquois League
Chapter 1: Culture Patterns
Chapter 2: "This Island, the World On the Turtle's Back"
Chapter 3: Early Versions of the League Legend
Chapter 4: Ethnologists Discover the League Legend
Chapter 5: Chief Gibson's Account
Chapter 6: Themes and Elements of the League Legend
Chapter 7: The Good Message of Handsome Lake
Chapter 8: Problems in Iroquois Political History
Part Two: Concerning the League
Chapter 10: Installing Cayuga Chiefs in 1945
Chapter 11: Installing Onondaga Chiefs in 1951
Chapter 12: The Requickening Paradigm
Chapter 13: The Roll Call of the Founders
Chapter 14: Structural Models of Iroquois Leadership
Chapter 15: Bylaws of the League
Chapter 16: Wampum, the Magnet That Drew Furs from the Forest
Part Three: A League for War and Peace in the Seventeenth Century
Chapter 17: From Champlain to Denonville, 1603?1687
Chapter 18: From Total War to the Grand Settlement, 1688?1701
Chapter 19: Accommodation by Trade and Treaty
Chapter 20: Voices of the Five Nations
Chapter 21: The English Takeover, 1664?1700
Chapter 22: The Grand Settlement at Montreal, 1701
Chapter 23: The English Renew the Chain, 1701
Part Four: Balancing Onontio and the English Crown, 1702?1759
Chapter 24: Kings in the Court of Queen Anne
Chapter 25: Tuscarora, the Sixth Nation
Chapter 26: The Council Brand Passes to Pennsylvania
Chapter 27: Treaty at Lancaster, 1744
Chapter 28: New Treaties, Precarious Balance
Chapter 29: The Chain is Broken
Chapter 30: The Albany Congress Mends the Chain
Chapter 31: Johnson Remakes the Confederacy
Chapter 32: Iroquois Policy Vacillates As Power Shifts
Part Five: Balancing Crown and Colonies, 1760?1777
Chapter 33: The Six Nations Fenced In
Chapter 34: The Big Giveaway at Fort Stanwix, 1768
Chapter 35: One Who Walked Where the Earth is Narrow?The Reverend Samual Kirkland
Chapter 36: Dark Clouds over Onondaga
Chapter 37: The Struggle for Neutrality
Part Six: The Federal Treaty Period, 1777?1794
Chapter 38: Bitter Medicine at Fort Stanwix! 1784
Chapter 39: Prelude to Canandaigua
Chapter 40: The Tortuous Road to Canandaigua
Chapter 41: Pickering Kindles a Fire at "Kanandaigua"
Chapter 42: The Council Fire Grows Warm
Chapter 43: The Treaty Concludes
Conclusion
The Later Evolution of the League and Confederacy
Appendix A: Summary of Elements of the Condolence Council
Appendix B: The Songs
Appendix C: Condolence Ceremonies Involving Sir William Johnson
Bibliography
Index
