Tiro, Karim M.

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University of Massachusetts AmherstScholarWorks@UMass AmherstThe People of the Standing Stone: The OneidaNation From the Revolution Through the Era ofRemovalUniversity of Massachusetts Press: SupplementalMaterial2011The Material Culture of Oquaga in the Collectionof the Peabody Essex MuseumKarim M. TiroXavier University, tiro@xavier.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/umpress_people_standing_stonePart of the Other American Studies CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Massachusetts Press: Supplemental Material at ScholarWorks@UMassAmherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in The People of the Standing Stone: The Oneida Nation From the Revolution Through the Era of Removalby an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact scholarworks@library.umass.edu.Tiro, Karim M., "The Material Culture of Oquaga in the Collection of the Peabody Essex Museum" (2011). The People of the StandingStone: The Oneida Nation From the Revolution Through the Era of Removal. 3.Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/umpress_people_standing_stone/3The Material Culture of  Oquaga in the Collection of  the Peabody Essex Museum    ©2011 In 1779, an American military officer wrote, “It was the finest Indian town I ever saw…on both sides of  the river there was about 40 good houses, Square logs, Shingles & stone chimneys, good Floors, glass windows &c &c.”  The prosperity and cultural openness that characterized Oquaga is also visible in three items of  Native manufacture collected by Ebenezer Moseley. A Yale-educated missionary from Connecticut, Moseley resided at Oquaga between 1765 and 1773. His mission was supported by the Britain-based Society for the Propagation of  the Gospel in New England and Parts Adjacent.  Map of  the Country of  the VI Nations by Guy Johnson, New York State Library, Albany    Located on the Susquehanna River, near the vertex of  the Fort Stanwix treaty line, Oquaga (here spelled “Onoghquagy”) was the southernmost Oneida town. Its population probably did not exceed 250, but was particularly diverse, including Tuscaroras, Cayugas, Mohawks, Mahicans, Nanticokes, and Shawnees.   Oquaga 1. Pipe Bowl Gift of  Mr. & Mrs. Moseley, 1981, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. (E68211). Photo courtesy of  the Peabody Essex Museum    This pipe bowl with an otter face was made of  catlinite pipestone obtained from a quarry in present-day Minnesota. It is unknown whether the catlinite arrived at Oquaga as raw material or a finished object. It resembles Ojibwe styles, but bears a faint Iroquois-language inscription onaongodan raonnawen—“the prominent one, his pipe.”    2. Moccasins  Gift of  Mr. & Mrs. Moseley, 1981, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. Photo courtesy of  the Peabody Essex Museum (E68212)      These moccasins reflect traditional Iroquois styling. They are decorated with dyed porcupine quills, deer hair, metal bangles, and glass beads. By 1850, Iroquois craftspeople used glass beads in greater quantities and more elaborate patterns, while porcupine quills had fallen into disuse.       3. Moccasins Iroquois, early 19th century, provenance unknown Gift of  Mr. & Mrs. Moseley, 1981, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. Photo courtesy of  the Peabody Essex Museum (E21451)  Early in the 1800s, Canadian civil servant George Heriot described moccasins and their production: The leggings have no feet and are tucked into moccasins of  a single skin with no heel and no strong leather sole. It is puckered over the toes of  the foot, where it is sewn with cords of  gut to a little leather tongue. Then it is taken up with ties of  the same skin, passed through holes cut at regular intervals and tied above the heel after being crossed on the instep of  the foot...Different sorts of  threads are interwoven very neatly with moose, buffalo and porcupine skins [quills] dyed in different colours.   The Missionary at Work Traveler Richard Smith published the following eyewitness account of  Moseley’s efforts in 1769. He took particular note of  Moseley’s dress.  June 4th. Sunday, in the Morning we attended Divine Service which was conducted with regularity and Solemnity. They first sang a Psalm, then read a Portion of  Scripture and after another Psalm Moseley preached a sermon (in a chintz Night Gown) and the Business was concluded by a Third Psalm. The Congregation consisted of  near 100 Indians, Men, Women, and Children including the chief  of  the Tuscarora Town 3 miles below with some of  his People & they all behave with exemplary devotion. For most of  his tenure, Moseley was assisted by a young man from Connecticut, James Dean, who was fluent in the Oneida language, as well as two politically prominent Oneida converts, Isaac Dekayensese and Agwelondongwas (Good Peter).         4. Belt Gift of  Mr. & Mrs. Moseley, 1981, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. Photo courtesy of  the Peabody Essex Museum (E68210)    This colorful belt was manufactured from moose hair, plant fibers such as corn husk and hemp, and trimmed with white glass beads. As is likely true of  the moccasins, the belt’s creator was probably a woman. Figures 8 and 17 in The People of  the Standing Stone suggest how the belt was probably worn. The End of  the Moseley Mission…and Oquaga Moseley carried on a correspondence with Samuel Kirkland, his counterpart at Kanonwalohale, the Oneidas’ principal village. In 1770, Moseley wrote his recently-married colleague: Dear Sir, my Situation is very lonesome and desolate, no Suitable companion for Society, nor even a house keeper to wash my dishes. I long much to see you, to know whether Hymens prison is a palace of  Joy, and his Silken bands, cords of  Friendship, or the reverse. I am at a ne plus ultra in my Mind with respect to entering upon a conjugal State. You are now capable of  giving friendly advice.   Samuel Kirkland Papers, Hamilton College Archives, 10a  By the end of  1771, Moseley had decided to terminate his mission. A disapproving Kirkland responded: I am sorry to hear you are about to quit the business of  your mission.…You will deem it an Act of  friendship in me to inform you [that] it has been suggested to the Indians (as they tell me) “that you leave your mission for filthy lucre’s sake, that you design to cross the Atlantic, purchase a quantity of  goods & pursue the mercantile life.”  … I hope these are no more than suggestions, upon meer conjecture. You are doubtless sensible, the Honor of  Relign in these parts depends not a little upon your future employment.  Moseley abandoned both the mission and the ministry. He returned to Connecticut, where he became a merchant, farmer, and a local leader in the revolutionary movement. He was a colonel in the Connecticut militia and served in the state legislature. Moseley died in 1825.   Oquaga was not as long-lived. Patriots burned the town to the ground in 1779 in retaliation for some Oquagans’ support for Britain. Most Oquagans took refuge at Fort Niagara or Kanonwalohale. The town was not reoccupied after the war, and was part of  the territory lost to New York State in the 1785 Fort Herkimer treaty. SOURCES and ACKNOWLEDGMENTS  Colin G. Calloway, The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995)  Franklin Bowditch Dexter, Biographical Sketches of  the Graduates of  Yale College  (New York: Henry Holt and Doubleday, 1885-1912)   Dolores Elliott, “Otsiningo: An Example of  an Eighteenth-Century Settlement Pattern” Researches and Transactions of  the New York Archaeological Association 17 (1977)  William Kellaway, The New England Company, 1649-1776 (London: Longmans, 1961)  John R. Grimes, Christian F. Feest, Mary Lou Curran, Uncommon Legacies: Native American Art from the Peabody Essex Museum (New York and Seattle: American Federation of  Arts/University of  Washington Press, 2002)  Judy Hall, ““To Make Them Beautiful”: Porcupine Quill Decorated Moccasins from the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes” in Fascinating Challenges: Studying Material Culture with Dorothy Burnham (Seattle: University of  Washington Press, 2001)  Marjory B. Hinman, Documentary History of  Old Onaquaga (Onaquaga: Old Onaquaga Historical Society, 1966)  George Heriot, Travels through the Canadas (London: Richard Phillips, 1807)  Sylvia Kasprycki, “Continuity and Change in Iroquois Visual Arts” in IroquoisArt: Visual Expressions of  Contemporary Native American Artists ed. Kasprycki, Doris I. Stambrau, and Alexandra V. Roth (Vienna, Austria: European Review of  Native American Studies, 1998)  Richard Smith, A Tour of  Four Great Rivers: The Hudson, Mohawk, Susquehanna, and Delaware in1769 (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1906)  Karim M. Tiro, “James Dean in Iroquoia,” New York History 80 (1999)  Special Thanks: Christine Bertoni, Randall Ericson, The Peabody Essex Museum, Sidnie Reed, Karen Kramer Russell, Eric Wolin, Roy Wright  

The Material Culture of Oquaga in the Collection of the Peabody Essex Museum

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The Material Culture of Oquaga in the Collection of the Peabody Essex Museum

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