Seneca Surrender Read Online Free Page B

Having lived among the white people for three years, White Thunder had grown used to the strange language and ways of the missionaries who had come to bring their beliefs and their God to the Seneca.
    He didn’t regret the time he’d spent with them, for they had taught him much about a people who seemed to be swarming the countryside. But not all the English and the French were as honest and intent as those missionaries had been. Indeed, strange were these English and French who were invading the territory of the Seneca, and as they came, they brought their conflicts and wars with each other into Seneca country.
    “Always they want something,” his grandmother Evening Song had said to the council of sachems. White Thunder had been present, listening. “Always they ask for Seneca boys and men to fight their wars. ‘Come and die for us,’ they say. ‘Come and die for us and we will ensure you keep the land you have always owned.’ Beware, I say. He who gives a man what is already his is not to be trusted.”
    Silence had followed her speech.
    At last a chief of the third party of the sachems rose up to speak. He said, “Your words are wise, Grandmother. Have you said all that you wish to say?”
    Evening Song had nodded.
    “Oyendere, good. But I will say this. Do you forget that a council was held on this matter and that the outcome has already been decided? We of the Seneca Nation objected to siding with the English in this fight, but as is the law of the Confederate Council, the matter was referred to the Firekeepers, the Onondagas. As you well know, their decision is fi nal.
    “Let me repeat in my own words their resolution: Long it is that we have been tied to the English, even before William Johnson, who represents them, came to be a member of our Nation. As you might well know at the time of the Firekeepers’ decision, the Mohawk were already fighting the war alongside William Johnson, and as we have been cautioned by the Peacemaker, if we of the League are to remain strong, we must be united. Besides, when have either the English or the League broken the Covenant Chain, a silver chain that was forged long ago, and which binds us to the English? Never have they broken that chain. Never have we. It ties us to them, and they to us.
    “Has not William Johnson shown us how the English will debate and discuss our problems as though they were their own? And if he is our brother, are we to ignore him in his time of need?”
    There was silence in the hall as the wise sachems listened and nodded their approval.
    Yet Evening Song rose up again to address the council, and she said, “Have you spoken all that you wish to say?”
    “I have.”
    “Oyendere, very good. Your words are true. William Johnson has done much for the Mohawk. But beware. He is English though he presents himself as Mohawk. And now he attempts to speak for all the people of the Six Nations, and place himself as one of our wisest sachems. But William Johnson is not Seneca. He does not know our sons and daughters, and thus, not knowing, how can he provide for their needs?
    “But do not think, because I say this about William Johnson, that the French are any better. Have you not noticed that whenever the French trader Joncaire, comes to our country, that he talks a crooked talk? And the English are no better. With their talk, they each try to incite our people to hatred for one or the other of them. Do you not recall how last summer Joncaire spread stories of fear and hatred of the English? Did he not say that the English desired to kill us and take our lands? That both the French and the English were planning to attack the Six Nations and drive us from the face of this land, Turtle Island? Yet, we found these tales to be lies.
    “Save for William Johnson, have not the English done the same? Overstating a half-truth so as to incite our men and women to hatred of the French? And what is it that they want, that they all say? ‘Fight for us,’