CHAPTER X.

CLAIM OF INDIANS TO LANDS IN

VERMONT.

The Cognawaga Indians have pressed a claim against Vermont since 1798, from time to time till 1874, of about ninety thousand dollars for more than two million of acres of land. It will not be the purpose of the writer especially to investigate the title of the Indians to these lands or to report on the validity of their claim, but rather to give a history of their claim and the presentation of the same to the State for allowance and the result of the action of the State respecting those claims. The Cognawaga tribe was a branch of the Iroquois. The Iroquois, were originally a single tribe residing in Montreal and vicinity, in subjection to the Adirondacks and subsequently entered upon the lands of New York, and became five tribes, to wit, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. To these were added the Tuscaroras in the year 1712. From that time the Iroquois were called and recognized as the Six Nations. According to their own tradition they resided on the St. Lawrence as far down as Gaspeé, but were driven back South of Lake Ontario by the Algonquin tribes. From this it may be inferred that those

found by Cartier at Montreal in 1534, were really Iroquois. When the French recovered Canada in 1632, they found the Iroquois dominant. Hostilities were kept up much of the time between the Iroquois and the French till 1691. In the wars between England and France which deprived the latter of Canada, the Iroquois were generally neutral, but they were not peaceful. The western Iroquois took the part of England in her war with the United States, while the French Iroquois in Canada were inclined to the cause of the United States.

The claims of the Indians for compensation for their hunting grounds was not made by the Iroquois of New York but by an off-shoot of that tribe, the Cognawagas who had abandoned all their rights with the Iroquois of New York about the year of 1789, and many of them had joined their enemies the French before that time. The claimants admitted at some of the hearings on their claim that some of their ancestors became allies of the French as early as 1660, and there was evidence that others of the Cognawagas became so in the years 1671, 1720, and 1749. It is certain that the Cognawagas as a tribe could not have acquired any distinct rights in Vermont lands after 1789, as Vermont had been almost wholly covered with grants to and actually occupied by the people of Vermont before that date. If any body of Indians were entitled to compensation for lands in Western Vermont, it would have been the original tribe of the Iroquois and not those who separated from the tribe; besides, those that sepa

rated from the main body were not deserving. For many years after the Cognawaga and other Indians who are the claimants against Vermont, abandoned the Iroquois League in New York and became allies of the Freneh, the Iroquois League waged incessant war upon the French and all their allies. Western Vermont, and Lake Champlain especially, was then the war path of the Iroquois in their raids upon Canada, and it was not possible that any Indians, in alliance with the French, could have used Western Vermont as a hunting ground, except to a very limited degree and on rare occasions; certainly not to such a degree as to give them an exclusive title.

The Iroquois proper did not live entirely by hunting; they were not without civilization. They had an original system of government, somewhat like that of the American Confederation of States; they dwelt in permanent villages; they had castles for defense; and they were an agricultural people to the extent of raising corn, squashes, and beans, but relying upon fish and the proceeds of the chase for meat. Honorable E. P. Walton stated in a note in the "Governor and Council" that, "The Iroquois in New York were allies of the King of England until the treaty of 1783; while the Cognawaga Iroquois admit that they were allies of the King of France until 1763, and have been allies of the Crown of England ever since that date. And that seventeen of the Vermont towns, covered by the Cognawaga claim, were granted by the King of England, previous to the surrender of the French possession to England, Feb. 10, 1763, and while

the Cognawagas were allies of France and engaged in fighting the English."

In 1798 five of the Indian Chiefs made application to Governor Isaac Tichenor to be heard on their claim to Vermont lands; they were introduced to the Governor by the High Sheriff at the city of Vergennes. On that introduction Unowee Goodstream, the Chief of the Cognawaga tribe, delivered the following talk: viz.,

"Great Friends,-we had the luck to come so far from the great Council fire of our own nation, to tell you of the joy we have to talk with Honorable Governor of the Great Father of Vermont. Great Friends,-We wish the great Chiefs of the Council happiness.

Great Friend, and Friends,- Since we have come so far to speak to the great Council of Vermont, in their big Wigwam in the city of Vergennes, we hope we shall be heard with attention.

Big Fathers, I who now speak to you am Chief of the Cognawaga Indians. I hope you will hear me on behalf of my whole nation. May the Great Spirit brighten the chain of friendship between our tribes; may the pathway between us be kept so plain as that a little child may find it when the Sun is asleep in his blanket under the western waters." They then presented a letter from Meld Woolsey bearing date at Cumberland Head, Oct. 6, 1798, in which he stated that he was called on by a deputation of seven Chiefs of the Seven Nations of lower Canada to give them a letter of introduction to the Governor, and he stated that these Chiefs are of the first respectability among their

own people, and are now proceeding to attend the Legislature of the State. They have some claims similar to those made on the State of New York that were extinguished at a treaty between them and New York.

The Governor sent a message to the House calling the attention of the Assembly to claims of those Indians. The Claim of the Seven Nations for hunting lands were quite extensive and were described as follows, "Begining on the East side of Ticonderoga, from thence to the great Falls on the Otter Creek, and continues the same course to the height of land, that divides the streams between Lake Champlain and the river Connecticut; from thence along the height of lands to opposite Missisquoi and then down to the Bay." They claimed this land belonged to them and they asked Vermont to settle for the same. Certain questions were submitted by the Governor to them to answer. Thereupon on October 18, 1798, they appeared before the Governor with their Agent, Mr. Fraser, and read the following document,

"Great Brother: You require how the lands which we claim became ours, to which we answer that it was given to our forefathers by the supreme spirit for our inheritance, together with the wild beasts for their food, and the skins thereof for their clothing; from our forefathers it descended to their children, and as they have not sold nor given it to any one it remains our proper inheri

tance.

"Brother: Our claim is equitable, we hope you will therefore consider it and do us justice. You