it expedient, from policy, to keep possession of Canada. This being admitted, it is certain that no method will more effectually conduce to that end, than retaining such barriers in our hands as will enable us to afford them protection, and supply them with arms and ammunition, and other necessaries, in time of danger.
The Indians who lie to the north of Philadelphia, between the provinces of Pennsylvania and the Lakes, consist of three distinct leagues, of which the Senekas, Mohawks, and Onondagoes, who are called the fathers, compose the first; the Oneidoes, Cayugas, Tuscororas, Conoys and Nanticokes, which are one tribe, compose the second, and these two leagues constitute what is called the Six Nations. The third league is formed of the Wanamis, Chihokockis, or Delawares, the Mawhiccons, Munseys, and Wapingers, to which may be added the Mingoes. The Cowetas, or Creek Indians, are also united in friendship with them.[1]
Mr. Colden says, the nations who are joined together
by a league or confederacy, like the United Provinces of
Holland, are known by the names of Mohawks, Oneydoes,
Onondagoes, Cayugas, and Senekas; that each of
these nations is again divided into three tribes or families,
who are distinguished by the names of the Tortoise,
Bear, and Wolf; and that the Tuscororas, after the war
————
- ↑ The Conoys and Nanticokes were fragments of Indian tribes which had
removed from the South—driven forth by the pressure of English population—and with the consent of the Six Nations had settled on the upper waters of the
Susquehanna.
In the third league the author probably intends to include the so-called "Ohio Indians"—the Miamis (Wanamis), Delawares, Mohicans, Munseys (a sub-tribe of the Delawares), the Wapingers (unidentified), and the Mingoes- who were all subordinate to the Six Nations. The Creeks were a powerful confederacy in Alabama, of which Coweta was the principal war-town on the Chattahoochee River.—Ed.
