support from the bay, in taking clams, oysters, and fish; quite a number of the men follow whaling as a business, in which they evince skill and ability. Many of the young women seek employment as house servants. The condition of these people was greatly benefited by a temperance reform begun in 1828-29, when most of them "signed the pledge," and afterwards remained consistent members of a temperance society. In 1866 all but ten could read and write. They are mostly Congregationalists, but a few hold to the tenets of the Adventists, and have separate worship.

A few individuals of the Montauk tribe still live upon the point of that name. They have no separate recognition by the State or National Government, and no school. The same may be said of the Poospatuck tribe in Brookhaven, Suffolk County.2

The Seneca constitution.-The affairs of the Senecas were formerly managed among themselves by chiefs, who were about a hundred in number, and held office for life. By chapter 150, Laws of 1845, the Senecas became an incorporated body, capable of suing and being sued, an attorney being appointed to represent them in legal transactions, and this act has been declared valid by the courts. The general policy of the State before this, and still has been, to regard these people not as citizens, but as distinct tribes or nations living under the protection of the Government.5

By chapter 365, Laws of 1847, all the officers among the Senecas were made elective annually. On the 4th of December, 1848, a written constitution was adopted, and at the next session of the Legislature this was sanctioned by law. It was also recognized by the authorities at act March 16, 1859, allowing the Indians and the proprietors to release to each other their rights on either side of a well-defined line. Under this act a portion known as the "Shinnecock Hills," and north of a line described, is released to the whites, and "Shinnecock Neck" is now again owned in fee by the native race. The amount released was about 3,000 acres, and the amount retained 640, of which 100 is marsh.

Their condition before this reform is described as extremely degraded. Those interested in their history will find details in the Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1864, p. 101, and in the histories of Long Island, by Thompson and Prime.

2 Shinnecock and Poospatuck Reservation.-From the report of the Hon. William B. Ruggles, superintendent of public instruction, will be seen the condition and prospects of the Indian schools on the Shinnecock and Poospatuck Reservations. The children on these reservations make commendable progress until they are old enough to go to service, and then, with very few exceptions, they drop out altogether or attend so irregularly that the advantages of school are lost to them. This is shown in the enrolment at Poospatuck, which for the present term has been 90 per cent. of all those of school age. with an average daily attendance nearly three times that of last year." Expenditures, $868.42.

3 New York Assembly Document 63, 1865.

4 Case of Seneca Nation v. Tyler, 14 Howard's Practice, 109.

5 Case of Goodell v. Smith, 20 Johnson, 693; reversing S. C., ibid., 183.

6 Act of April 11, 1849, resting all the powers formerly enjoyed by the chiefs in the president and council under the new government (chap. 378, Laws of 1849). This revolution did not pass without the most active effort at resistance by way of memo

Washington, and with some changes it is continued till the present time.

Under this constitution, an election for all officers was to be held annually, upon the Cattaraugus and Allegany Reservations, each male Indian of the age of twenty-one, and resident or owning lands taxed for roads or other purposes, being allowed to vote, or to hold office if chosen. There was established a legislative, an executive, and a judicial department. The first of these consisted of a council of eighteen members (afterwards changed as to number), apportioned among the reservations in proportion to population. They were to meet annually on the first Tuesday of June, and two-thirds present were to form a quorum. Each member was to be paid $1 a day for attendance, but not more than twenty-six days in a year, and they might pass any laws not inconsist ent with the Constitution and laws of the State or the United States, and might regulate the admission of other Indians to their citizenship. A president was to be chosen annually, who presided in the council with a casting vote, and was required to report annually a statement of affairs, with such recommendations as he thought proper.

The judicial power was vested in three peace-makers on each reser. vation, with powers similar to those of justices of the peace, but their criminal jurisdiction did not extend to cases within cognizance of State or Federal courts. In some instances the council might act in a judicial capacity.

The treaty-making power was vested in the council, but their treaties must be approved by three-fourths of all the legal voters, and also by three-fourths of all the mothers of the nation, before they were valid. A clerk and treasurer, a superintendent of schools, overseers of the poor, assessors and overseers of highways were to be elected in each reservation; receivers of public moneys were required to give security, and a marshal and two deputies were chosen for the execution of the laws, and of the processes of their courts in each reservation. The constitution might be amended by a vote of two-thirds, three months' notice of intention being first given. Several amendments have been since made, and one adopted March 18, 1862, was confirmed by law in 18651.

Under the constitution adopted in 1848, the saw-mills then on the reservations were declared national property, but this was not to hinrials and remonstrances. (See Assembly Docs. 108, 189, 190, 1849, and Senate Doc. No. 59, 1850.) The chiefs represented that great confusion had followed the change; that timber, lumber, and bark were now stolen without hindrance, and that many disorders had arisen unknown before. These charges were in turn denied, and great benefits were anticipated from the change. Among these, it was years afterwards alleged that polygamy had been abolished, and great progress had been made in agriculture and the domestic arts. (Assembly Doc. 63, 1865.)

Act of March 16, 1865, chap. 24. See also, Assembly Document No. 63, 1865, in which statements of the operation of the constitution are given. Taxes have long been raised among the Senecas for the support of their poor, as well as for highways and other public purposes.

der the erection of others by private owners upon their own lands, if done without injury to the rights of others. In 1847 a change was made, under an order of the Secretary of War, in the mode of paying annuities, by providing that these moneys should be paid directly to the heads of families, instead of to the chiefs as formerly.

Schools among the New York Indians.-The first schools among the Iroquois of New York, were established by missionaries and through the efforts of Friends, as briefly noticed in our account of the several reservations. The American Board of Foreign Missions had schools in the Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Tuscarora Reservations, but there were pagan neighborhoods in which the idea prevailed that "education coming from whatever source" would destroy the traditional religion and custom of their ancestors, and in these the schools received little favor. The State did nothing in a systematic way towards education among these people until 1846, when it gave the sum of $300 for a schoolhouse at Onondaga, like sums for Allegany and Cattaraugus, and $250 for St. Regis. It also gave for five years, the annual allowance of $200 to St. Regis, $250 to Onondaga, $300 to Allegany, and $350 to Cattaraugus for teachers' wages. These grants were continued in the main until in 1855 they had amounted to $12,100. From 1849 to 1853 the sum of $1,000 a year was allowed for maintaining Indian youths at the normal school in Albany. In 1853 this sum was given to academies at which pupils might be sent from the reservations, but in 1854, this policy was again changed to that of placing Indian youths among farmers, in aid of which the sum of $1,000 was given. Under this plan four girls and one boy were provided with places.

In 1853 a school was established by the State at Tonawanda. These desultory and unstable plans were without efficient system, but in 1855, the subject of education among the native tribes came before the Legislature, and a committee, of which the Hon. T. V. H. Clark, the historian of Onondaga County, was chairman, made a very able report, setting forth the duties of the State in a clear and convincing light. The committee reported a bill, which passed the assembly, but was not reached during the session in the senate.2

The committee state'in their report that the St. Regis, Tonawanda, and Onondaga Indians were behind the rest in all that goes to swell the sum of human comfort. The Cattaraugus Reservation was far in advance of that on the Allegany, their farms being tolerably well cultivated, and their dwellings beginning to assume an air of comfort, industry, and 1 Several of these pupils sickened, and some died of consumption, apparently from too great a change in their diet and mode of life.

2Assembly Document No. 43, 1885. The plan recommended was the appointment of a board of commissioners for Indian affairs, consisting of the Governor, secretary of state, and superintendent of public instruction, with power to appoint a suitable person to make examination into the condition of the Indians of the State. The board was to report annually to the Legislature, with such recommendations as they might deem proper.

thrift. Of these two reservations, the committee say there are two popular and prevalent errors:

"One is that they are fast decreasing in population; the other, that all effort for their improvement is hopeless. Notwithstanding the rayages of disease and death in their most aggravated forms, and the emigration of a portion to the West, the Senecas have so increased since 1832 that the annuities which then gave them $3 a piece, now give but $2.46, i. c., they are about 18 per cent. more numerous than they were twenty-three years ago, and are steadily increasing."

At that period about two-thirds of the Cattaraugus people attended divine worship, while open profession was made by less than an eighth. One-third were openly and avowedly pagans, and declined all proffers of aid to civilization.

This report having awakened public attention to the importance of education among the Indian tribes, an act was passed at the following session (April 1, 1856), substantially the same as that now in force. It charged the superintendent of public instruction with the duty of providing the means of education for all the Indian children of the State. He was to cause to be ascertained the condition of the various bands in the State in respect to education, establish schools, employ superintendents, and, with the concurrence of the comptroller and secretary of state, cause buildings to be erected, where necessary, for school purposes. The children of Indians between the ages of four and twenty-one were now first entitled to share in the school fund, and the sum of $5,000 was granted from the income of the United States deposit fund for carrying the law into effect.

It may be of interest to notice the condition of the Indian schools at the time their care was assumed by the State.

The report made in 1855, shows that there then were seven schools at Cattaraugus, five at Allegany, two each at Tonawanda, Tuscarora, Oneida, and St. Regis, and one at Onondaga. Of the Cattaraugus schools, two were aided by the American Board of Missions, one wholly by the State, and of the other four the patronage was not stated. Six of these schools had in all two hundred and fifty-five names on the lists, and an average attendance of one hundred and sixty-three. Of the Allegany schools, four were mission schools (one a girls' boarding school), and there were on the rolls of the five schools one hundred and forty-six names. The average attendance was one hundred and six. Besides these there was, just off the reservation, a Friend's boarding school, with fifteen pupils. The two schools at St. Regis were sup ported by the State, with one hundred and ten names on the rolls and an average attendance of about thirty.

The Tonawanda schools had formerly been under the Baptist Missionary Society, but since the Ogden controversy, that society had with drawn its support, and they had been kept up by the State. Attendance, eighty; average, fifty-five.

One of the Tuscarora schools was a girls' boarding school of over forty pupils, from four to fifteen years of age, supported by the Ameri can Board of Missions. The other was under the common school system, with about twenty-five pupils.

At Onondaga, the school had about fifty-five names on the list, but not more than ten showed an interest in learning. The Oneida schools were aided by the State, and their missionaries were supported by charitable enterprise.

Only two good school-houses were found, but in 1856 new ones were built at St. Regis, Oneida, and Tonawanda, and the year following at Shinnecock. Measures were begun for dividing reservations into school districts.

It was presently found that the prejudice which had existed against mission schools, was not felt in pagan neighborhoods with respect to schools supported by the State, and in the report for 1858, it is stated "that where the erection of houses became necessary, the national council has in each case contributed $50 to $80 towards the expense, whilst the Indian population has voluntarily furnished the timber and no inconsiderable quantity of the lumber used for this purpose. In this manner the expense for this object has been materially lessened, whilst the alacrity displayed in meeting the requirements of the superintendent, shows a gratifying appreciation of the benevolent designs of the State."

Again, in the report for 1859, testimony is borne of the Seneca council that it "has always manifested a deep interest in the progress of the schools and a willingness to contribute, as far as the limited national resources would permit, towards the erection of school-houses." So much had been given in labor, lumber, stone, rough timber, and other materials, that in every instance but one the building had cost less than $300, including suitable accommodations for the residence of a teacher.' Hitherto the greatest obstacle to success in the Indian schoo's has been found in the fact that the services were conducted in the English language, while to the pupils this was often an unknown tongue. The practice has prevailed to a very limited extent of allowing white and Indian children to attend the same school. This resulted from accident rather than design, as from location it might be the more convenient if not the only chance of sending to any school. A decided benefit has resulted from this, because children learn language in play more readily than from books.

For many years it has been customary to employ Indian teachers; but 'The Report of the Superintendent of the Seneca schools for 1859 says: "In the new districts, where the people are mostly pagans, the teachers had to encounter great opposition; but by kind deportment and persevering attention, they have induced the mothers to visit the schools, where, seeing the order of the school and the progress made by their children, they are often seen shedding tears of joy for their children, and grief on account of their own ignorance, and the opposition has nearly passed away."