That seems to be not estimated announcer learn more about the political cartoons sunday at 8 00 p. M. And midnight eastern. Youre watching American History tv. Announcer next, Timothy Shannon teaches a class on colonial era diplomatic ties between the iroquois confederacy and european settlers. He describes what treaty meetings would have looked like, the role of interpreters, and the importance of exchanging gifts. Welcome, everyone. Today we are going to talk about diplomacy on the early american frontier between native american peoples and european peoples. We will talk about some of the customs and protocols that governed that style of diplomacy and the objectives of both native american peoples and colonial peoples brought to those meetings. I have a painting from 1903 that is the big thing one such treaty conference that went on on the frontier of new york in the Mohawk Valley. You did a reading today that johnson, not am lot of contemporary American Students of history know much about him, but he was a very interesting figure in the 18th century. An irish immigrant, settled on the mohawk frontier in 1740, and became very friendly with mohawk indians, who were his neighbors. Ultimately, grained a great deal of influence among them and was appointed by the British Crown to serve as the agent to the iroquois nation. The early 20th century wanted to depict one of these treaties that johnson convened with native americans. Think about the reading you did for today. It is providing you with a mental image of the. Of that. A was that johnson hall, mention he built on the mohawk frontier that still stands today. If you are in upstate new york between albany and syracuse, new york, you can visit this site and visit another one of his home that predated this both of which are preserved as Historic Sites in new york. A really interesting story about how europeans and native americans came together on the frontier, not to fight, but actually just to talk about their differences and try to come to some kind of accommodation when they did have conflict. I want to switch from upstate new york to pennsylvania right now. If you were to travel east of gettysburg, or maybe 1. 5 hours on route 30 to the town of lancaster, pennsylvania, im sure some of you are familiar with lancaster. In 1744, lancaster was just this tiny little Frontier Community that was really on the edge of settlement in pennsylvania. But in june of 1744, a group of 250 iroquois lancaster andd in , andcarrying arms, bows arrows in tomahawks. This would cause panic among the folks that would live in this tiny frontier town. This was the quaker colony of pennsylvania. There was not even a militia to collect in fear of an attack of the iroquois. They were not there to make war, they were there for a treaty conference. They were called by the governor of pennsylvania. They marched through town, their leader singing a song of greeting to the people of lancaster. When they got to the edge of town, they encamped. They built a camp and stayed in lancaster for about the next 2. 5 weeks negotiating not only with the colony of pennsylvania, but also with delegations from the colonies of maryland and virginia, as well. This became known as the treaty of lancaster of 1744, and it was one of the more famous of these meetings that took place on the frontier between Colonial Government and native american peoples. Benjamin franklin at the time of the lancaster treaty was working as a printer. Printer in philadelphia. He was anxious to hear news of what was going on in lancaster. He wrote to his agent in london, fellow who sent him books, and he sent things to his agent in london to sell. He wrote to him and included this description of what was going on in lancaster. A treaty in a play 60 miles west of the city with the United Nations of indians on the other side, meaning the iroquois. The method of doing business with those barbarians may do you some amusement. That is a pretty condescending statement for franklin to be making of this. Certainly it reflects many of the attitudes of his contemporaries, that these were savage People Living in the forest. When he says barbarians, he is sneering about it to his agent in london. This method of doing business, franklin once to tell his london wants to tell his london agent how to do this business on the frontier. In that phrase, this method of doing business, is a very important fact to realize. Came to colonial america and met with native americans, it happened on native american terms. In order to ensure a good trade, peace, they had to get together and conduct diplomacy with native american people. The protocols and customs and language and metaphors that govern the diplomacy were not european and arjun, they were native american in arjun. In origin. Europeans had to learn to conduct business on their t urf, by their method. Link franklin, when he publishes the treaty of lancaster, sense 200 copies off to his agent hiss 200 copies off to agent of london so people can learn of this context of diplomacy. Historians, when they talk about diplomacy between native americans and europeans in the colonial era often use a metaphor that i like, which is the middle ground. They use diplomatic negotiations reflecting a middle ground between european power and interests in early america and native American Power and interests. The fellow who pioneered the use of this metaphor is a historian named richard white. He was writing about the french and directions with algonquian peoples living in the great frontal years great frontiers. There was this middle ground where neither the french nor the need of americans had the upper hand in terms of military power or strength. Each side wanted something from the other for a trade. Each side had to learn to negotiate somehow with the others. These people were culturally different, strangers, there was a language divide. White, when he wrote about the middle ground, describe not only this geographic territory, the modernday midwest where french and native peoples were coming together, but this metaphorical middle ground where each side is feeling out the other, trying to comprehend the worldview and develop some means of communicating back across the cultural divide. We will use that metaphor today and apply it primarily to the english colonies in british north america as they dealt with native american peoples and sought this diplomatic middle ground to negotiate with them. Look at this middle ground as it developed in the context of ritual, how diplomatic rituals emerged that helped europeans and indians comprehend each other. There were two complexes that europeans learned to use when the engaged with native americans. One was algonquian in origin, think of the Language Group with talked about and many native peoples who were connected to that Language Group, especially in the great lakes region. ,nd the other was iroquoian related to upstate new york, modernday ontario, who spoke lynwood is of the stock spoke the languages of the stock. The ceremony was associated with algonquian native american peoples from the great lakes region. Pipe thatny was a native americans use. Native americans grew tobacco before europeans showed up, they smoked tobacco for all sorts of reasons. One of the reasons they smoked tobacco was for ritualistic purposes, a way of greeting strangers, offering hospitality, initiating and closing diplomatic negotiations with each other. When you did it for that purpose, when you smoked tobacco for diplomatic reasons, you smoked it out of this long stemmed pipe that was called a calamine pipe calimet pipe. This was a pipe that was made specific for diplomatic purposes with eagle feathers attached to it. Made out of a soft, redstone found in minnesota and the indians could carve into a shape. We have seen this image before when we were talking about the for trading. This indian here is smoking a calumet pipe. When people of all bank you and escentalgonquian d got together, with enough tobacco smoke is something that is very unpleasant and you dont want to be stuck somewhere where people are smoking, but their notion was that tobacco cleared the air of bad thoughts. Carried awaymoked ill feelings, worries, concerns, and cleared the minds of people who were coming together to engage in negotiations. This is a french illustration of what the calumet ceremony looked like. Image, likeeresting you would read a modernday comic book strips, except you need to read it in this order. I have added numbers so you can take place of the action taking place here. Number one, the savage village. There is a native american community, then there is another group of and native f native americans traveling by canoe downriver and want to pass through the territory of these folks. But they need to do so in a way to make clear that they are arriving as friends, not here to make war, not here as aggressors. And so, the canoe goes ahead of the others with the calumet of of peace. This object here is the calumet. A canoe comes up out from the village to greet them. They see what is going on and the calumet ty pipes. The calumet is carried before the new arrivals, the visitors, as a sign of peace, and visitors come out of the village to greet them, there is ritualistic dancing, then they are admitted into the village and ultimately they smoke the calumet as a way of proving the friendly intentions, and the locals provide hospitality and they can go on with their business. That is how the calumet ceremony worked. This has entered the american idiom of english through the phrase smoking the peace pipe. We have all heard that as a way of making amends, making peace. That is the origin of that phrase in english, from the calumet ceremony. The other primary ritual complex that was used in native american and european diplomacy was iroquois and iroquois iroquoian in origin. In 1744, the Iroquois League, the five nations as franklin map tothem, this is a kind of give you a very brief introduction into the Iroquois League, or confederacy. At the time of colonization, when the dutch showed up, there were five nations in the Iroquois League. ,rom east to west, the mohawks the senecas, etc. They occupied a territory commence or it with modernday upstate new york, the city of buffalo. In the early 18th century, a sixnation migrated northward from North Carolina and joined the Iroquois League. Sometimes, you will hear references to the five nations and sometimes, the six nations. Even though they came from North Carolina, they spoke a similar language and had a similar culture. That is one of the reasons why they came up and settled in this region. The subtle between northeastern pennsylvania and central new york. Settled between northeastern pennsylvania and central new york. ,he iroquois had similar power like the chesapeake, and the specific territory between french canada, ontario, and dutch new netherlands and english new york. They occupied this very strategic territory. Diplomacy with the iroquois would be very important to the french, dutch, and english to reserve the for trade. When the europeans engaged in this diplomacy with the iroquois , had to learn something about the known as the condolence ceremony. I will tell you a little bit about how they condolence ceremony worked. When the Iroquois League got together to renew friendship and alliance between the member nations, they began their negotiations with each other by engaging in a condolence ceremony, whereby each nation offered its condolences to the other nations for losses they had suffered since the last time they met. Orebody important had died, perhaps there had been warfare with outsiders, casualties, and so forth. The opening message was condolence to assuage the grief of those people who were suffering losses since the last time they met. This was expressed by exchanging wampum beads and belts. S were beads made out of marring shells found on the shores of new england. They werent born to the were important to the iroquois because they held a lot of spiritual power. It became the symbol of condolence. You began by exchanging beats on s on strings. Ad giving threebout strings of wampum to dry the tears, open the years, and clear the throats of those who are grieving so that they could now see, hear, and speak clearly again. This was a symbolic way of recognizing the burdens that people brought with them to these diplomatic negotiations and the wampum was meant to clear away all the bad thoughts. Doing the service that tobacco was doing in the calumet ceremony. So you could now see, speak, hear clearly and engage openly in these diplomatic negotiations. When wampum beads strung together on strands of leather, you could make it wampum belt. This is what one may have looked like. This is acrylic wampum that i purchased from some folks who used modern methods to recreate this for people involved in the reenacting community and things like that. It is a really good approximation of what the size of these looked like, and especially their color. They were made out of two colors, white and purple. They represented the marine shells they came from. Those contrasting colors could then be woven into designs as belts. We will see some of these a little later. A lot of these designs like you see here had these geometric patterns that emphasize linking. Diamonds of arms, linked at the corners. That is meant to show unity and strength. Wampum often was used to symbolize war or mourning. To symbolize peace and wellbeing. These material devices that were used to engage in the condolence ceremony, you can pass it around. Diplomat,e a european you better bring your wampum. If you dont have wampum, your message is meaningless. This is an example of how the native american customs and rituals or something that europeans had to learn to use and manipulate if they were going to treat with the indians and get their objectives. Another type of gift that was exchanged in the context of the condolence ceremony were black strouds. They were navy blue, produced in england, and laura big part of the text challenge textile exchange. They became black to cover the grades of the deceased, to allow relatives to put away the grief of those who had died and again, clear that years, eyes, and throats. Do we have any questions about the condolence ceremony or the calumet ceremony . Yes. How did the british learn how to make it . Did they trade with other indian m, or didor the wampu they learn how to make it themselves . Timothy many manufactured wampum before europeans showed up, but they also bring tools tot make it much easier manufacture wampum. It tends to get much smaller, because they are using are in tools to grind and then drill holes from the beats. Beads. Native americans continue to make wampum, but europeans also become interest to and purchasing it. It becomes commodified in early new netherlands, uses money used as money when the economy is just developing, and by the 18th century, with a wampum being massproduced for the purpose of engaging in this type of diplomacy. The belts themselves were generally made by native american women. 250 indians arrived for the treaty of lancaster, approximately half of adult males, the other half were women and children. When the negotiations were going on, many of the women are spending time creating the wampum belts that will be exchanged in the course of the proceedings. T is a native american art contact with europeans changes the production losses in value, but it is still very much a native american process. We will talk a little bit about the treaty conferences that so fascinated franklin. In our modern view, if i say to you treaty, you probably think of a document. Think about the treaty of versailles that ended world war 1783the piece of paris of which ended the american revolution. We tend to think of treaties us texts that are the result of negotiations, and europeans who treated with native americans had generally specific objectives had, generally, specific objectives to talk about issues that have come up that need to be resolved. Matters of war and peace, we need to convince native allies to go to war with us, we need to convince some enemies to make peace with us, or they might have issues about the fur trade, we need to initiate contact with these people so we can expand our for trade into that region. Fur trade into that region. By the mid18th century, a big part of these treaty negotiations involved the repatriation of captives, europeans trying to get native have beenwho they warring with to return captives they have taken. These are things europeans often brought to the negotiating process. Ideally, a treaty would produce a written document that put all this down in writing in the end the europeans could archive it and refer to it the next time they had an issue with the natives. The native American Perspective was different. For the native americans, the treaty was about process as much as it was about objectives. Equally as much, maybe even more so, that you observe the proper rituals and customs and engage in this treaties than any specific objective that was reached or agreement written down at the end. The iroquois, when they wrote about or talked about treaty making, used a couple of very interesting metaphors. One was polishing the chain. They talked about their alliance with english colonies as the covenant chain alliance. Aging has many links, together they have strength. They talked about the need to periodically brighten the chain or polish the chain so it would not rust and break. You periodically have to get together with us and reenact these rituals so we know that you remain a person of good will and a person willing to treat us as equals. They also use another metaphor of clearing the path. Exchanging contact between native and colonial communities occurred along a path. And that path would become overgrown and have rambles, trees, all sorts of obstacles, and therefore periodically, you needed to get together and clear the path so that trade and communication remains open between both sides. This tension developed in the colonial era between native peoples who sought treaty making is having these relations without writers. With these outsiders. Europeans who didnt have a lot of patience for this, they tended to want to treat only one there was a specific issue, they didnt like the amount of time these treaty negotiations took or the expense that was often involved with them. A tugofwar develops between Colonial Governments, trying to minimize the time and expen