Category Archives: Geographical Region

And our belief is that for anyone who will destroy his own life, his spirit will always be earth-bound. My father [Edward Cornplanter, speaker and ritual holder in Newtown longhouse who recited the Code of Handsome Lake to Arthur C. Parker] used to say that the spirit [of a suicide] will just wander around where the [waterhemlock] plants grow, and it will always be expecting another person to follow its example. Indians [Senecas] believe it is a sin to take one’s own life, to shorten the span of days which the Great Spirit has given to each one of us; therefore as a punishment he shall not go on the path to the spirit-world, but shall always remain on earth among the plants which he took for death.

A maple leaf is the thickness of the partition between us and the dead. A person who has died of violence―witchcraft poisoning, suicide, and murder remains earth-bound until judgment day.

[#10] The Seneca: William N. Fenton, Iroquois Suicide: A Study in the Stability of a Culture Pattern, Bureau of American Ethnology Anthropological Papers, No. 14 (Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, 1941, p. 89).

“‘Now it is said that your people must change certain customs. It has been the custom to mourn at each recurring anniversary of the death of a friend or relative. It is said that while you are upon the earth you do not realize the harm that this works upon the departed.

 “‘Now moreover it is said that when an infant is born upon the earth with which the parents are dissatisfied, it knows and says, “I will return to my home above the earth.’”

[#9]   “The Code of Handsome Lake,” section 67, from Parker on the Iroquois, ed. William N. Fenton (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1968, pp. 56-57).

Trouble seldom comes single.  My son John, was a doctor, considerably celebrated amongst the Indians of various tribes, for his skill in curing their diseases, by the administration of roots and herbs, which he gathered in the forests, and other place where they had been planted by the hand of nature.

While at Squawky Hill he got into the company of two Squawky Hill Indians, whose names were Doctor and Jack, with whom he drank freely, and in the afternoon had a desperate quarrel, in which his opponents,(as it was afterwards understood,) agreed to kill him.  The quarrel ended, and each appeared to be friendly.  John bought some spirits, of which they all drank, and then set out for home.  John and an Allegany Indian were on horseback, and Doctor and Jack were on foot.  It was darkwhen they set out.  They had not proceeded far, when Doctor and Jack commenced another quarrel with John, clenched and dragged him off his horse, and then with a stone gave him so severe a blow on his head, that some of his brains were discharged from the wound.  The Allegany Indian, fearing that his turn would come next, fled for safety as fast as possible.

John recovered a little from the shock he had received, and endeavored to get to an old hut that stood near; but they caught him, and with an ax cut his throat, and beat out his brains, so that when he was found the contents of his skull were lying on his arms.

Next morning, Esq. Clute sent me word that John was dead, and also informed me of the means by which his life was taken, I had now buried my three sons, who had been snatched from me by the hands of violence, when I least expected it.

Although John had taken the life of his two brothers, and caused me unspeakable trouble and grief, his death made a solemn impression upon my mind, and seemed, in addition to my former misfortunes, enough to bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave.  Yet, on a second thought, I could not morn for him as I had for my other sons, because I knew that his death was just, and what he had deserved for along time, from the hand of justice.

John’s vices were so great and so aggravated, that I have nothing to say in his favor: yet, as a mother, I pitied him while he lived, and have ever felt a great degree of sorrow for him, because of his bad conduct…

John left two wives with whom he had lived at the same time, and raised nine children.  …Doctor and Jack having finished their murderous design, fled before they could be apprehended, and lay six weeks in the woods back of Canisteo.  They then returned and sent me some wampum by Chongo, (my son-in-law,) and Sun-ge-waw (that is Big Kettle) expecting that I would pardon them, and suffer them to live as they had done with their tribe.  I however, would not accept their wampum, but returned it with a request, that, rather than have them killed. They would run away and keep out of danger.

On their receiving back the wampum, they took my advice, and prepared to leave their country and people immediately.  Their relatives accompanied them a short distance on their journey, and when about to part, their old uncle, the Tall Chief, addressed them in the following pathetic and sentimental speech: “Friends, hear my voice!—when the Great Spirit made Indians, he made them all good, and gave them good corn-fields; good rivers, well stored with fish; good forest, filled with game and good bows and arrows.  But very soon each wanted more than his share, and Indians quarrelled with Indians, and some were killed, and others were wounded.  Then the Great Spirit made very good word, and put it in every Indians breast, to tell us when we have done good, or when we have done bad; and that word has never told a lie.

“Friends!  Whenever you have stole, or got drunk, or lied, that good word has told you that you were bad Indians, and made you afraid of good Indians; and made you ashamed and look down.

Friends!  Your crime is greater than all those: — you have killed an Indian in a time of peace; and made the wind hear his groans, and the earth drink his blood.  You are bad Indians!  Yes, you are very bad Indians; and what can you do?  If you go into the woods to live alone, the ghost of John Jemison will follow you, crying, blood!  blood! and will give you no peace!  If you go to the land of your nation, there that ghost will attend you, and say to your relatives, see my murderers!  If you plant, it will blast your corn; if you hunt, it will scare your game; and when you are asleep, its groans, and the sight of an avenging tomahawk, will awake you!  What can you do?  Deserving of death, you cannot live here; and to fly from your country, to leave all your relatives, and to abandon all that you have known to be pleasant and dear, must be keener than an arrow, more bitter than gall, more terrible than death!  And how must we feel?—Your path will be muddy; the woods will be dark; the lightnings will glance down the trees by your side, and you will start at every sound!  Peace has left you, and you must be wretched.

Friends, hear me, and take my advice.  Return with us to your homes.  Offer to the Great Spirit your best wampum, and try to be good Indians!  And, if those whom you have bereaved shall claim your lives as their only satisfaction, surrender them cheerfully, and die like good Indians.  And—“Here Jack, highly incensed, interrupted the old man, and bade him stop speaking or he would take his life.  Affrighted at the appearance of so much desperation, the company hastened towards home, and left Doctor and Jack to consult their own feelings.

As soon as they were alone, Jack said to Doctor, “I had rather die here, than leave my country and friends!  Put the muzzle of your rifle into my mouth, and I will put the muzzle of mine into yours, and at the given signal we will discharge them, and rid ourselves at once of all the troubles under which we now labor, and satisfy the claims which justice holds against us.”

Doctor heard the proposition, and after a moment’s pause, made the following reply: ― “I am as sensible as you can be of the unhappy situation in which we have placed ourselves.  We are bad Indians.  We have forfeited our lives, and must expect in some way to atone for our crime: but, because we are bad and miserable, shall we make ourselves worse?  If we were now innocent, and in a calm reflecting moment should kill ourselves, that act would make us bad, and deprive us of our share of the good hunting in the land where our fathers have gone!  What would Little Beard [a Chief who died in 1806] say to us on our arrival to his cabin?  He would say ‘Bad Indians!  Cowards!  You were afraid to wait till we wanted your help!  Go (Jogo) to where snakes will lie in your path; where the panthers will starve you, by devouring the venison; and where you will be naked and suffer with the cold!  Jogo, (go,) none but the brave and good Indians live here!’  I cannot think of an act that will add to my wretchedness.  It is hard enough for me to suffer here, and have good hunting hereafter―worse to lose the whole.”

Upon this, Jack withdrew his proposal.  They went on about two miles, and then turned about and came home.  Guilty and uneasy, they lurked about Squawky Hill near a fortnight, and then went to Cattaraugus, and were gone six weeks.  When they came back, Jack’s wife earnestly requested him to remove his family to Tonnewonta; but he remonstrated against her project, and utterly declined going.  His wife and family, however, tired of the tumult by which they were surrounded, packed up their effects in spite of what he could say, and went off.

Jack deliberated a short time upon the proper course for himself to pursue, and finally, rather than leave his old home, he ate a large quantity of muskrat root, and died in 10 or 12 hours.  His family being immediately notified of his death, returned to attend the burial, and is yet living at Squawky Hill.

Nothing was ever done with Doctor, who continued to live quietly at Squawky Hill till sometime in the year 1819, when he died of Consumption.

[#8] James E. Seaver. A narrative of the life of Mrs. Mary Jemison. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992. Also available online from the Internet Archive.

The Chevalier Beancour return’d again to the Colony with his Party, and brought along with him twelve Prisoners of the Iroquese, who were immediately conducted to Quebec: After they arriv’d, Mr. Frontenac did very judiciously condemn two of the wickedest of the Company, to be burnt alive with a slow Firce. This Sentence extreamly terrified the Governour’s Lady, and the Jesuits; the Lady us’d all manner of application to procure a moderation of the terrible Sentence, but the Judge was inexorable, ad the Jesuits emply’d all their Eloquence in vain upon this occasion. The governour answered them, “That it was absolutely necessary to make some terrible examples of Severity to frighten the Iroquese; That since these Barbarians burnt almost all the French, who had the misfortune to fall into their Hands, they must be treated after the same manner, because the Indulgence which had hitherto been shown them, seem’d to authorize them to invade our Plantations, and so much the rather to do it, because they run no other hazard, than that of being taken, and well kept at their Master’s Houses; but when they should understand that the French caus’d them to be burnt, they would have a care for the future, how they advanc’d with so much boldness to the very Gates of our Cities; and in fine, That the Sentence of Death being past, these two wretches must prepare to take a Journey into the other world.” This obstinacy appear’d surprising in Mr. Frontenac, who but a little before had favour’d the escape of three or four Persons liable to the Sentence of Death, upon the importunate prayer of Madam and the governess; but though she redoubled her earnest Supplications, she could not alter his firm resolution as to these two Wretches. The Jesuits were thereupon sent to Baptize them, and oblige them to acknowledge the Trinity, and the Incarnation, and to represent to them the Joys of Paradise, and the Torments of Hell, within the space of eight or ten hours. You will readily confess, Sir, that this was a very bold way of treating these great Mysteries, and that to endeavour to make the Iroquese understand them so quickly, was to expose them to their Laughter. Whether they took these Trusts for Songs, I do not know; but hits I can assure you, that from the Minute they were acquainted with this fatal News, they sent back these good Fathers without ever hearing them; and then they began to sing the song of Death, according to the custom of the Savages. Some charitable Person having thrown a Knife to them in Prison, he who had the least Courage of the two, thrust it into his Breast, and died of the Wound immediately. Some young Hurons of Lorette, aged between fourteen and fifteen years, came to seize the other, and carry him away to the Diamant Cape, where notice was given to prepare a great pile of Wood. He ran to death with a greater unconcernedness than Socrates would have done, if he had been in his case. During the time of Execution he sung continually; “That he was a Warriour, brave and undaunted; that the most cruel kind of Death could not shock his Courage, that no Torments could extort from him any Cries, that his Companion was a Coward for having killed himself through the fear of Torment; and lastly, that if he was burnt, he had this Comfort, that he had treated many French and Hurons after the same manner. All that he said was very true, and chiefly as to his own courage and firmness of Soul; for I can truly swear to you, that he neither shed Tears, nor was ever perceiv’d to Sigh; but on the contrary, during all the time that he suffer’d the most horrible Torments that could be invented, and which lasted about the space of three hours, he never ceas’d one Minute from singing. The soles of Feet were roasted before two great Stones red hot, for more than a quarter of an hour; the tops of his Fingers were scorch’d in a Stove of lighted Pipes; during which Torture he did not draw back his Hand. After this the several joynts of his Body were cut off, one after another: The Nerves of his Limbs and Arms were distorted with a little Iron Wand, after such a manner, as cannot possibly be express’d. In fine, after many other Tortures, the hair of his Head was taken off after such a manner, that there remain’d nothing but the Skull, upon which these young Executioners were going to throw some burning Sand, when a certain Slave of the Hurons of Lorette, by order of Madam Governess, knock’d him on the head with a Club, which put an end to his Martyrdom. As to my self, I vow and swear, that the Prologue of this Tragedy created in me so great a Horror, that I had not the curiosity to see the end of it, nor hear this poor Wretch sing to the last moment of his Life. I have seen so many burnt against my Will, amongst those People where I sojourn’d, during the course of my Voyages, that I cannot think of it without trouble. ‘Tis a sad Spectacle, at which every one is obliged to be present, when he happens to Sojourn amongst these Savage Nations, who inflict this cruel kind of Death upon their Prisoners of War; for as I have told you in one of my Letters, all the Savages practice this barbarous Cruelty. Nothing is more grating to a civil Man, than that he is oblig’d to be a Witness of the Torments which this kind of Martyrs suffer; for if any one should pretend to shun this Sight, or express any Compassion for them, he would be esteem’d by them a Man of no Courage.

#7 Louis Armand Lom d’Arce, baron de Lahontan, New Voyages to North-America, ed. Reuben Gold Thwaites, Vol. 1, 1703. Chicago, A.C. McClurg, 1905, p. 266-270.

The Citrons of North-America are so call’d, only because their form resembles that of our Citron. Instead of a Rind, they have only a single Skin. They grow upon a Plant that rises three Foot high, and do’s not bear above three or four at a time. This Fruit [the may apple or mandrake, Podophyllum] is a wholsom as its Root is dangerous; for the one is very Healthy, and the juice of the other is a mortal subtile Poyson. While I stay’d at Fort Frontenac, in the year 1684, I saw an Iroquese Woman take down this fatal Potion, with a design to follow her deceas’d Husband; after she took leave of her Friends, and sung the Death Song, with the Formalities that are usual among these blind Wretches. The Poison quickly work’d the desir’d effect; for this Widdow, who in Europe would be justly look’d upon as a miracle of Constancy and Fidelity, had no sooner swallowed the murdering Juice, than she fell into two or three shivering Fits, and so expir’d.

…The Women have no opportunity of Marriage after the Fiftieth Year of their Age; for the Men of the like Age allege, that since they cannot then bear Children, ‘twould be a piece of Folly to meddle with them; and the young Sparks affirm, that their wither’d Beauty has not force enough to  Charm them, at a time when there is no scarcity of Buxsome young Girles. In this Distress, when the young Men will not use them as Mistresses, and Men of riper Years refuse them for Wives, if their Complexion be any thing Amorous, they are forc’d to adopt some Prisoner of War that is presented them, in order to answer their pressing Necessities.

When the Husband or Wife comes to dye, the Widowhood does not last above six Months; and if in that space of time the Widow or Widower dreams of their deceas’d Bedfellow, they Poyson themselves in cold Blood with all the Contentment imaginable, and at the same time sing a sort of tune that one may safely say proceeds from the Heart. But if the surviving Party dreams but once of the Deceased, they say, that the Spirit Dreams was not sure that the dead Person was uneasie in the Country of Souls, forasmuch as he only pass’d by without returning, and for that reason they think they are not oblig’d to go keep him Company.

[#6] Louis Armand Lom d’Arce, baron de Lahontan, New Voyages to North-America, ed. Reuben Gold Thwaites, Vol. 1, 1703. Chicago, A.C. McClurg, 1905, p. 368.

This Land of Souls has also its different levels and all are not equally good. One of our missionaries drew this conclusion from what he heard a young girl say. This girl, seeing her sister dying from the quantity of water hemlock [Cicuta maculata] which she had taken in anger and determined not to take an antidote to save herself, wept bitterly and tired to appeal to her sister by the ties of blood and affection which united them. She repeated over and over, “It is then over, thou wishest us never to find one another again, never to see one another again?” The missionary, struck by these words, asked her the reason for them. “It seems to me,” he said, “that you have a Land of Souls where you are all to be united with your ancestors; why then, dost thou speak in this way to thy sister?” “It is true,” she answered, “that we are all going to a Country of Souls but the wicked, particularly those who have destroyed themselves by a violent death, bear there the penalty of their crime; they are separated by it from the others and have no communication with them; that is the reason for my sorrow,” In like manner, Virgil assigns a separate corner of Hades to Dido and a number of others who had been the unhappy victims of their own despair.

The Indians are enlightened enough to distinguish good from evil. Conscience leaves no one in ignorance. It is not surprising that they have known, like others, that there were penalties reserved for crime and recompenses destined for virtue.

The worst punishment given them [children] when they are still little is to throw water in their faces or to threaten them with it: when they grow older, the mothers satisfy themselves with pointing out to them their duties, which they are not always of a mind to obey. No one, moreover, would dare strike and punish them. In spite of that, the children are docile enough, they have sufficient deference for the members of their lodge, and respect for the elders from whom one scarcely ever sees them emancipated; a thing which indicates that in methods of bringing up children, gentleness is often more efficacious than punishments, especially violent ones. The Indians in general are, besides, so sensitive, that, for a little too bitter a reproach, it is not unusual to see them poison themselves with water hemlock and do away with themselves.

[#5] Father Joseph François Lafitau, Customs of the American Indians Compared with the Customs of Primitive Times, ed. William N. Fenton and Elizabeth L. Moore (Paris, 1724; Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1974, pp. 254-55, 301).

[re 1600’s] “Some Savages,” reported LeMercier of the Huron, “told us that one of the principal reasons why they showed so much indulgence toward their children, was that when the children saw themselves treated by their parents with some severity, they usually resorted to extreme measures and hanged themselves, or ate of a certain root they call Audachienrra, which is a very quick poison. “The same fear was recorded among the Iroquois, including the Senecas, in 1657. And while suicides by frustrated children were not actually frequent, there are nevertheless a number of recorded cases of suicide where parental interference was the avowed cause. And mutatis mutandis, there was another rationalization for a policy of permissiveness: that the child who was harshly disciplined might grow up, some day, to mistreat his parents in revenge (pp. 38-39).

When sober, the Iroquois tended to be depressed and even suicidal. A sympathetic missionary at Buffalo Creek summarized this aspect of the problem: “Indians, as has been observed, bear suffering with great fortitude, but at the end of this fortitude is desperation. Suicides are frequent among the Senecas. I apprehend this despondency is the principal cause of their intemperance. Most of the children and youth have an aversion to spiritous liquor, and rarely taste it until some trouble overtakes them. Their circumstances are peculiarly calculated to depress their spirits, especially these contiguous to white settlements. Their ancient manner of subsistence is broken up, and when they appear willing and desirous to turn their attention to agricultural, their ignorance, the inveteracy of their old habits, the disadvantages under which they labor, soon discourage them; though they struggle hard little is realized to their benefit, beside the continual dread they live in of losing their possessions. If they build they do not know who will inhabit.” An unusually strong tendency for the humiliated Iroquois to commit suicide during this period is not easy to document with specific cases. One instance, however, was the suicide of Big Tree, who stabbed himself to death in Wayne’s camp during the winter of 1793-94. Apparently he had felt publicly dishonored: He had been pro-American during the revolution, had been an associate of Cornplanter’s thereafter, had urged the western Indians to accept the American terms, and at the last was reputed to have become melancholic and discouraged.

 [#4] Anthony F.C. Wallace, Death and Rebirth of the Seneca. New York: Random House, 1972, pp. 38-39, 200-201 (field date 1951-1956).

[The Hurons] believe in the immortality of the soul, which they believe to be corporeal. The greatest part of their Religion consists in this point. There are, besides, only superstitions, which we hope by the grace of God to change in to true Religion, and, like spoils carried off from the enemy, to consecrate them to the honor of our Lord, and to profit by them for their special advantage. Certainly, if, should they some day be Christians, these superstitions help them in proportion to what they do for them now in vain, it will be necessary that we yield to them, or that we imitate them; for they spare nothing, not even the most avaricious. We have seen several stripped, or almost so, of all their goods, because several of their friends were dead, to whose souls they had made presents. Moreover, dogs, deer, fish, and other animals have, in their opinion, immortal and reasonable souls. In proof of this, the old men relate certain fables, which they represent as true; they make no mention either of punishment or reward, in the place to which souls go after death. And so they do not make any distinction between the good and the bad, the virtuous and the vicious; and they honor equally the interment of both, even as we have seen in the case of a young man who had poisoned himself from the grief be felt because his wife had been taken away from him.

…The souls which are stronger and more robust have their gathering place toward the West, where each Nation has its own Village; and if the soul of an Algonquin were bold enough to present itself at the Village of the Bear Nation’s souls, it would not be well received.

The souls of those who have died in war form a band by themselves; the others fear them, and do not permit their entry into their Village, any more than to the souls of those who have killed themselves. As to the souls of thieves, they are quite welcome, and if they were banished from them, there would not be a soul left.

[#3] Huron: Le Jeune’s Relation: “Relation of what occurred among the Hurons in the year 1635,” “Relation of what occurred in New France in the year 1636,” and “Relation of what occurred in the Country of the Hurons in the year 1636,” in Edna Kenton, ed., The Indians of North America, vols. 8, 9, 10 (Harcourt, Brace, 1896, 1927, pp. 228, 236-237, 256-257).

The Gaspesians, however, are so sensitive to affronts which are offered them that they sometimes abandon themselves to despair, and even make attempts on their own lives, in the belief that the insult which has been done them tarnishes the honour and the reputation which they have acquired, whether in war or in hunting.

Such were the feelings of a young Indian who, on account of having received by inadvertence a blow from a broom, given by a servant who was sweeping the house, imagined that he ought not to survive this imaginary insult which waxed greater in his imagination in proportion as he reflected upon it. “What,” he said to himself, “to have been turned out in a manner so shameful, and in presence of so great a number of Indians, my fellow-countrymen, and after that to appear again before their eyes? Ah, I prefer to die! What shall I look like, in the future, when I find myself in the public assemblies of my nation? And what esteem will there be for my courage and my valour when there is a question of going to war, after having been beaten and chased in confusion by a maid-servant from the establishment of the captain of the French. It were much better, once more, that I die.” In fact he entered into the woods singing certain mournful songs which expressed the bitterness of his heart. He took and tied to a tree the strap which served him as a girdle, and began to hang and to strangle himself in earnest. He soon lost consciousness, and he would even infallibly have lost his life if his own sister had not happened to come by chance, but by special good fortune, to the very place where her miserable brother was hanging. She cut the strap promptly, and after having lamented as dead this man in who, she could not see any sign of life, she came to announce this sad news to the Indians who were with Monsieur Denys. They went into the woods and brought to the habitation this unhappy Gaspesian, who was still breathing though but little. I forced open his teeth, and, having made him swallow some spoonfuls of brandy, he came to himself, and a little later he recovered his original health.

His brother had formerly hung and strangled himself completely, in the bay of Gaspé, because he was refused by a girl whom he loved tenderly, and whom he sought in marriage. For, in fact, although our Gaspesians, as we have said, live joyously and contentedly, and although they sedulously put off, so far as they can, everything which can trouble them, nevertheless some among them fall occasionally into a melancholy so black and so profound that they become immersed wholly in a cruel despair, and even make attempts upon their own lives.

The women and the girls are no more exempt than the men from this frenzy, and, abandoning themselves wholly to grief and sadness caused either by some displeasure then may have received, or by the recollection of the death of their relatives and friends, they hang and strangle themselves, as formerly did the wives and daughters of the Milesians, whom only the apprehension of being exposed wholly nude in the public places, according to law that was made expressly for this purpose, kept from committing like cruelties. Nothing, however, has been effective up to the present in checking the mania of our Gaspesian women, of whom a number would miserably end their lives if, at the time when their melancholy and despair becomes known through the sad and gloomy songs which they sing, and which they make resound through the woods in a wholly dolorous manner, some one did not follow them everywhere in order to prevent and to anticipate the sad effects of their rage and fury. It is, however, surprising to see that this melancholy and despair become dissipated almost in a moment, and that these people, however afflicted they seem, instantly check their tears, stop their sighs, and recover their unusual tranquility, protesting to all those who accompany them, that they have no more bitterness in their hearts “…There is my melancholy gone by; I assure thee that I shall lament no more, and that I have lost any intention to hang and strangle myself.”

[#2] Micmac: “The Gaspesians: Suicide, Shame, and Despair,” from Chrestien Le Clercq, New Relation of Gaspesia [1675-1686] Toronto, Canada: Champlain Society, 1910, pp. 247-250.