Another famous instance occurred when the Seneca had reached an impasse in their dealings with the United States which threatened to lead to war. The women intervened and addressed the U. S. government’s representative. Minnie Myrtle described it:In the year 1791, when Washington wished to secure the neutrality of the Six Nations, a deputation was sent to treat with them, but was not favorably received, as many of the young Chiefs were for war and sided with the British. The women, as is usual, preferred peace, and argued that the land was theirs, for they cultivated and took care of it, and, therefore, had a right to speak concerning the use that should be made of its products. They demanded to be heard on this occasion, and addressed the deputation first themselves in the following words: “Brother:—The Great Ruler has spared us until a new day to talk together; for since you came here from General Washington, you and our uncles the Sachems have been counselling together. Moreover, your sisters, the women, have taken the same into great consideration, because you and our Sachems have said so much about it. Now, that is the reason we have come to say something to you, and to tell you that the Great Ruler hath preserved you, and that you ought to hear and listen to what we, women, shall speak, as well as the Sachems; for we are the owners of this land, AND IT IS OURS! It is we that plant it for our and their use. Hear us, therefore, for we speak things that concern us and our children; and you must not think hard of us while our men shall say more to you, for we have told them.
The women then designated Red Jacket as their speaker, who represented them in this way:BROTHERS FROM PENNSYLVANIA:-You that are sent from General Washington, and by the thirteen fires; you have been sitting side by side with us every day, and the Great Ruler has appointed us another pleasant day to meet again.
We are left to answer for our women, who are to conclude what ought to be done by both Sachems and warriors.
Red Jacket—Sagoyawatha
NOW LISTEN BROTHERS:-You know it has been the request of our head warriors, that we are left to answer for our women, who are to conclude what ought to be done by both Sachems and warriors. So hear what is their conclusion. The business you come on is very troublesome, and we have been a long time considering it; and now the elders of our women have said that our Sachems and warriors must help you, for the good of them and their children, and you tell us the Americans are strong for peace.24
In treaty negotiations with the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, representatives of the newly created United States government had to deal directly and indirectly with Haudenosaunee women, a fact well-known in the nineteenth-century to those who read the wide selection of popular books on the Iroquois. Women’s political power, combined with their responsibility for the land, gave them authority in the making of treaties. According to Gage:No sale of lands was valid without consent of the [women] and among the State Archives at Albany, New York, treaties are preserved signed by the “Sachems and Principal Women of the Six Nations.25
Fletcher also described women’s involvement in treaty negotiations:In olden times the women claimed the land. In the early treaties and negotiations for the sale of land, the women had their voice, and the famous Chief Cornplanter was obliged to retract one of his bargains because the women forbade, they being the land-holders, and not the men. With the century, our custom of ignoring women in public transactions has had its reflex influence upon Indian custom.26
William Stone, writing of this story in 1841, cautioned his readers:Very erroneous opinions are generally entertained among civilized people, in regard to the consideration in which their women are held by the American Indians, and the degree of influence they exercise among them ... although the respect with which they are treated by their lords is not as refined and spiritualized as among the cavaliers in the days of chivalry, still it may safely be averred that in the adjustment of weighty and difficult matters, no other people are in the habit of treating the opinions of their women with greater deference than the America Indians.27
Stone went on to explain:It is one of the peculiar features of Indian polity that their lands belong to the warriors who defend, and the women who till them, and who, moreover, are the mothers of the warriors. And although the sachems, as civil magistrates, have ordinarily the power of negotiating treaties, yet whenever the question of a sale of land is the subject of a negotiation, if both the warriors and women become dissatisfied with the course the sachems are pursuing, they have the right to interpose and take the subject out of their hands.28
Also often cited were instances in which Iroquois women, through their male representatives, had addressed the U.S. government. One example was the last general council held by the United States with the Iroquois Confederacy at Canandaigua in 1794. There, Haudenosaunee women countered a prayer offered by Jemima Wilkinson, the itinerant preacher, who called on the Indians to repent. The Iroquois women responded through their representative that “the white people had pressed and squeezed them together, until it gave them great pain at their hearts, and they thought the white people ought to give back all the lands they had taken from them.” They, in turn, called on the white people “to repent and wrong the Indians no more.29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37
Women’s Rights Support by Haudenosaunee Men
The injustice of women’s lack of political freedom in the United States was recognized by Haudenosaunee men. Dr. Peter Wilson, a Cayuga chief, addressed the New York Historical Society in 1866, encouraging United States men to give everyone the vote, “even the women, as in his
Endnotes
Who Gets To Be Part of History?
1 Ray Fadden, “Fourteen Strings of Purple Wampum to Writers about Indians,” in New Voices from the Longhouse: an Anthology of Contemporary Iroquois Writing, [ed.] by Joseph Bruchac. Greenfield Center, New York: The Greenfield Review Press, 1989, pp. 97-98.
2 Ray, who founded the Akwesasne Mohawk Counselor Organization, is “recognized as an outstanding figure in Six Nations culture and history,” according to Julius Cook in his biographical sketch of Ray in New Voices from the Longhouse: an Anthology of Contemporary Iroquois Writing, p. 96.
3 Matilda Joslyn Gage, “Letter to the Editor,” Lucifer the Lightbearer, 21 February 1890.
4 Speech, quoted in Lucifer the Light Bearer, 13 March 1885.
5 Matilda Joslyn Gage, Woman, Church and State, Chicago: Charles Kerr, 1893; reprinted., Aberdeen, South Dakota: Sky Carrier Press, 1998, p. 145.
6 Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Sara Underwood, 19 October 1889 and 9 May 1889, Stanton Papers, Special Collections, Vassar College Libraries, Poughkeepsie, New York.
7 Matilda Joslyn Gage, “Woman in the Early Christian Church,” Report of the International Council of Women, Assembled by the National Woman Suffrage Association... 1888. Washington, D.C.: Rufus H. Darby, 1888, p. 401.
8 Lois Banner, Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Radical for Woman’s Rights. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1980, p. 145.
9 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage, History of Woman Suffrage Vol. 1, New York: Fowler and Wells, 1881; reprint ed., Salem New Hampshire: Ayer Company Publishers, Inc., 1985, p. 604.
10 Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Lucretia Mott, 19 July 1876, quoted in Stanton, Anthony and Gage, History of Woman Suffrage Vol. 3, Rochester: Susan B. Anthony, 1886; reprint ed., Salem New Hampshire: Ayer Company Publishers, Inc., 1985, pp. 45-47.
11 Gage, Woman, Church And State, p. 76.
12 The (Washington, D.C.) Alpha, May 1880, p. 6.
13 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Elizabeth Cady Stanton on Socialism.” Chicago: The Progressive Woman, 1898.
14 Gage, Woman, Church And State, p. 253.
15 Ibid., 257.
16 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Revolution (New York), 14 January 1869.
17 Matilda Joslyn Gage, Speech of Mrs. M.E.J. Gage at the Woman’s Rights Convention held at Syracuse, September 1852. Woman’s Rights Tract No. 7. Syracuse: Master’s Print, 1852.
18 Gage, “The Remnant of the Five Nations: Woman’s
Rights Among the Indians.” The (New York) Evening Post, 24 September, 1875. Scrapbook of Gage’s Published Newspaper Articles, Matilda Joslyn Gage Collection, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass.
19 “A Notable Position.” Unidentified newspaper clipping, July 1896, Iroquois collection, Onondaga Historical Association, Syracuse, N.Y.
20 Ibid.
21 Turner, Orsamus, Pioneer History of the Account of the Holland Purchase of Western New York. Buffalo: Geo. H. Derby and Co., 1850.
22 “The Onondaga Indians.” The (New York) Evening Post, 3 November 1875. Scrapbook of Gage’s Published Newspaper Articles, Matilda Joslyn Gage Collection, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass.
23 Minnie Myrtle, The Iroquois; or, The Bright Side of Indian Character, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1855, p. 299.
24 Ibid, pp. 24-25, 65-66.
25 Onondaga Standard, 11 October 1890. Iroquois Clipping File, Onondaga Historical Association, Syracuse, New York.
Haudenosaunee Women: An Inspiration To Early Feminists
1 Gage, “The Remnant of the Five Nations: Woman’s Rights Among the Indians.”
2 Gage, Woman, Church and State, p. 5.
3 Matilda Joslyn Gage editorial, “Indian Citizenship,” National Citizen and Ballot Box, May 1878.
4 Matilda Joslyn Gage to “My dear Helen,” 11 December 1893, Gage Collection, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College.
5 “Capt. Oren Tyler,” 1906. Seneca Falls Historical Society Papers, Seneca Falls, New York.
6 Free Enquirer, Vol. 2, No. 1, p. 406; Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 200-201; Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 293-294; Vol. 2, No. 5, pp. 155, 264; Vol. 3, No. 1, p. 112; Robert Dale Owen, “The Moral Physiology” in Birth Control and Morality in Nineteenth Century America: Two Discussions. New York: Arno Press, 1972, p. 46.
7 Harriet S. Caswell, Our life Among The Iroquois Indians. Boston and Chicago: Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society, 1892. pp. 29-30.
8 Harriet Phillips Eaton, letters to Matilda Joslyn Gage, 1890s. Matilda Joslyn Gage Collection, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass.
9 New York Herald, 5 November 1905. Iroquois collection, Onondaga Historical Association, Syracuse, N.Y.
10 Onondaga Standard, 8 January 1946. Iroquois collection, Onondaga Historical Association, Syracuse, N.Y.
11 Marcellus Observer, 8 July 1949. Iroquois collection, Onondaga Historical Association, Syracuse, N.Y.
12 Unidentified newspaper clipping, 17 April 1893, Iroquois collection, Onondaga Historical Association, Syracuse, N.Y.
13 Erminnie Smith, Myths of the Iroquois. U. S. Bureau of American Ethnology, 2nd Annual Report,1880-1881. Washington, D.C.:1883; reprint ed. Ohsweken, Ontario, Canada: Iroqrafts, 1994.
14 Mary Elizabeth Beauchamp, “Letter to the Editor,” Skaneateles Democrat, 10 April 1883, Beauchamp File, Onondaga Historical Association, Syracuse, New York. In William Beauchamp’s papers in the Onondaga County Library, he has listed a number of articles Mary Elizabeth wrote for the Baldwinsville Gazette as well as the Skaneateles Democrat. William Beauchamp writes, “She wrote many poems, stories and letters. I have also a typewritten Quaker story by her, unpublished and her last work. She wrote a great deal for the Family (Troy, N.Y.), ]ournal, Gospel Messenger, Churchman, Living Church and local papers.”
15 Caswell, Life, p. 289; William M. Beauchamp, Iroquois Folk Lore Gathered from the Six Nations of New York. Empire State Historical Publication 31, n.d.; reprint ed. Port Washington, N.Y.: Ira J. Friedman Division, Kennikat Press, n.d., p. 7.
16 The Iroquois collection in the Onondaga Historical Association in Syracuse, N.Y., is an extraordinarily rich resource of 100 years of articles clipped from Onondaga County newspapers.
The Untold Story
1 Matilda Joslyn Gage, “Preceding Causes,” in Stanton, Anthony and Gage, History of Woman Suffrage Vol. 1, p. 29.
2 Stanton, Anthony and Gage, History of Woman Suffrage Vol. 1, p. 31.
3 Abigail Adams letter of 31 March 1776, quoted, among other sources, in Stanton, Anthony and Gage, History of Woman Suffrage Vol. 3, pp. 19-20 and Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle, New York: Atheneum, 1974, p. 15. Abigail Adams letter of 7 May 1776 quoted in Should Women Vote? Important Affirmative Authority, N.p.: Equal Rights Association, n.d., p. 4. Original source was an edition of their correspondence (Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife, Abigail Adams, During the Revolution), published during 1876 by their grandson, Charles Francis Adams, and obviously read by the suffragists, who cited it in their 1876 protest.
4 Stanton, Anthony and Gage, History of Woman Suffrage Vol. 1, p. 33.
5 Herbert Spencer, Descriptive Sociology of England. London: Williams and Morgate, 1873. Described by Gage as the “epitome of English history” in History of Woman Suffrage Vol. 1, p. 26.
6 Tom Paine, “Occasional Letter on the Female Sex,” Pennsylvania Magazine, March 1775.
7 See Chapter 4 in Sally Roesch Wagner, A Time of Protest: Suffragists Challenge The Republic 1870-1887, Aberdeen, S.Dak.: Sky Carrier Press, 1992.
8 For an excellent theoretical analysis of the “eurocentric notion,” see Jose Barreiro, “Challenging the Eurocentric Notion” in Indian Roots of American Democracy. Ithaca, N.Y.: Northeast Indian Quarterly, 1988, pp. xii-xvi.
9 Gage, Woman, Church and State, p. 324.
10 Gage, Woman, Church and State, p. 324.
11 Henry B. Stanton, Random Recollections. New York: Macgowan and Slipper, 1886, p. 94. Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s husband Henry describes the frequent presence of Oneidas during their visits to Peterboro.
12 “Equal pay for equal work” was a major theme of the New York state woman’s rights convention held in Rochester during 1853. “Why should not woman’s work be paid for according to the quality of the work done, and not the sex of the worker?” the convention call asked. Greeley chaired the five-member Committee on Industry on which Gage served. Stanton, Anthony and Gage, History of Woman Suffrage Vol. 1, pp. 577, 589.
13 John Vivian in “the Three Sisters: the nutritional balancing act of the Americas” (Mother Earth News, February/March 2001, p. 50) describes the “complete nutritive punch” of these three plants. A “nearly ideal foundation food,” corn lacks only riboflavin and niacin, along with two essential amino acids—lysine and tryptophane—all supplied by beans. Carbohydrate-rich squash contributes quality vegetable fats the other two lack, along with vitamin A.
14 Harriet Maxwell Converse, “New York’s Indians,” New York Herald, 2 February n.d. Writings of H. M. Converse and Miscellaneous Scrapbook of Ely S. Parker, p. 109. New York State Archives, Albany, New York.
15 R. Emerson and Russell P. Dobash, “Wives: The ‘Appropriate’ Victims of Marital Violence,” Victimology: An International journal Vol. 2, 1977-78, pp. 430- 431.
16 Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986, pp. 213-214.
17 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “The Matriarchate or Mother-Age,” National Council of Women of the United States. Rachel Foster Avery (ed.), Transactions of the National Council Women of the United States, Assembled in Washington, D.C. February 22 to 25, 1891. Philadelphia, Pa.: 1891, pp. 218-227. Stanton-Anthony Papers 28: 1013-1017. Also published in The National Bulletin Vol. 1, February 1891.
18 Harriet Stanton Blatch, “Voluntary Motherhood.” The National Bulletin Vol. 1, No. 5, February 1891, pp. 7-12.
19 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “If You Would be Vigorous and Healthy” in M. L. Holbrook, M.D., “Parturition Without Pain,” appendix to George H. Napheys, The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother. New York: M.A. Donohue and Company,1927, pp. 365-366.
20 Stanton, “The Matriarchate or Mother-Age.”
21 Gage, “The Remnant of the Five Nations: Woman’s Rights Among the Indians.”
22 Stanton, “The Matriarchate or Mother-Age.”
23 Audrey Shenandoah, Speech at The Elizabeth Cad
y Stanton Annual Birthday Tea, 10 November 1991, Gould Hotel, Seneca Falls, New York. Sponsored by the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Foundation.
Mother Earth, Creator of Life
1 Matilda Joslyn Gage, “The Onondaga Indians.” The (New York) Evening Post, 3 November 1875. Scrapbook of Gage’s Published Newspaper Articles, Matilda Joslyn Gage Collection, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass.
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