Texts

FROM THE LATE RAY FADDEN

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“I love these woods. They’re alive to me. The woods have life of their own. From the smallest insect to the largest moose. Everything has a function. It is a...

DEVELOPMENT?

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The forest which covers it, consisting chiefly [of] trees that live in excessive moisture, is now decayed and death struck, by the partial draining of the sw...

GOD’S CHOSEN

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Indeed to see a forest tree, which had withstood the elements till it attained maturity, torn up by its roots, and bending itself to the earth, in obedience ...

AN EERIE CANAL

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The forest which covers it, consisting chiefly [of] trees that live in excessive moisture, is now decayed and death struck, by the partial draining of the sw...

LIKE CORTEZ AND SHERMAN, BUT…

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The expedition of General John Sullivan against the hostile Indian tribes of the north was one of the most important military movements of the Revolutionary ...

HOW THE WEST WAS WON

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In September, 1776, Congress had passed resolutions for the enlistment of soldiers to serve during the Revolutionary War, resolved that each state was to fur...

BURNING ONONDAGA, APRIL ‘79

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21st. this morning set of about Day Break on the same line of march and went about 6 Miles when we halted, Capt. Graham with his Compy. was sent forward as a...

THAT VISION THING

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GENERAL SULLIVAN’S RAID And when the soldiers in their marches, Advanced on that September morn, And pushed along through woodland arches, Or passed the fie...

CIVILIZATION DEFINED

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A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE HEROES AND ADVENTURERS WHO, BY THEIR VALOR AND WAR-CRAFT, BEAT BACK THE SAVAGES FROM THE BORDERS OF CIVILIZATION AND GAVE THE AMERIC...

BURY MY HEART

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“When we look at historical accuracy, we look at history as it plays in the service of a narrative,” said Sam Martin, a vice president at HBO Films in charge...

ODE TO A CHOSEN PEOPLE

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Indeed to see a forest tree, which had withstood the elements till it attained maturity, torn up by its roots, and bending itself to the earth, in obedience ...

BEARING WITNESS

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I have seen him shrinking from civilized approach, which came with all its vices, like the dead of night upon him. I have seen him gaze and then retreat like...

BOTTOM LINES

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Total land holdings for the Iroquois in 1995 are about 86,716 acres remaining from the original 25,000,000 or .034% of what we once had. Doug George-Kanenti...

SULLIVAN-CLINTON 2005

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Clearly, NY’s taking of millions of acres of Haudenosaunee land in 1788 was based upon the devastation of the Van Schaick April 1779 raid on Onondaga and the...

AFTER DINNER TOASTS

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General Washington and the Army; General Sullivan & Western Expedition; King and Queen of France; A Successful and Decisive Campaign; May the new World ...

WE WILL HAVE OUR LANDS

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Whole Indian nations have melted away like snowballs in the sun before the white man’s advance. They leave scarcely a name of our people except those wrongly...

RIGHTS OF RETURN

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I would like to explain to you why we have the right and the desire to return to our native land here in New York: Each tribe here represented today has a s...

OURS OR MINE?

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All of these things are a gift provided by the Creator for our needs. That everything we need has been provided here, but we have to treat it in a manner tha...

WHITE BIRDS CRY

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After this transaction, the voice of the birds from every quarter cried out: “You have lost your country. You have lost you country. You’ve lost your country...

HAVING SECOND THOUGHTS

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[I write of] the great Loneliness which is creeping into my Soul with every hour and every mile which separates me from you. I really feel guilty as I applie...

THE ROAD TO EMPIRE

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The immediate purpose was to give protection to the defenseless frontier settlements. This was to be accomplished by destroying the Indian villages and sourc...

ODE TO TOWN DESTROYER

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When your army entered the country of the Six Nations, we called you Town Destroyer: and to this day when that name is heard our women look behind them and t...

A DESERT CALLED PEACE

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They make solitude, which they call peace - Tacitus We moved, on the next day, to Chinesee, crossing in our path a deep creek and the Little Seneca river, a...

TSUNAMIS, NOW & THEN

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What makes it especially frightening is that whole communities have been annihilated. We’ve known for years now that the emotional devastation that survivors...

THE MARCHING ORDERS

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The Expedition you are appointed to command is to be directed against the hostile tribes of the Six Nations of Indians, with their associates and adherents. ...

TIMELINE

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WHEN & WHERE: TIMELINE & MAIN EVENTS For the Main Events & Sites of the Sullivan/Clinton saga: A Mini-Timeline A Mini-Timeline The context is co...

WHO’S WHO: THE KEY PLAYERS

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For a “Who’s Who” of the Sullivan/Clinton saga: SULLIVAN/CLINTON AT-A-GLANCE: THE KEY PLAYERS Brant, Joseph (Mohawk) The most prominent Iroquois mi...

CLARITY & RESISTANCE

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Whole Indian nations have melted away like snowballs in the sun before the white man’s advance. They leave scarcely a name of our people except those wrongly...

YANKEE ORIGINS…

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The White Man comes, pale as the dawn, with a load of thought, with a slumbering intelligence as a fire raked up, knowing well what he knows, not guessing bu...

THE CHAPLAIN PREPARES

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The necessity of a just & speedy retaliation for British & savage barbarity prompts the Army to encounter every fatigue & surmount every difficul...

THE DEATHS OF BOYD AND PARKER

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The Boyd-Parker killings have stoked moral outrage and controversy. On the one hand, they were killed, if not tortured, in captivity, and their bodies left a...

FRONTIER METAPHYSICS

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The instinct of antipathy against an Indian grows in the backwoodsman with the sense of good and bad, right and wrong. In one breath he learns that a brother...

KNOW THEM NO MORE FOREVER

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The eastern tribes have long since disappeared; the forests that sheltered them have been laid low, and scarce any traces remain of them in the thickly-settl...

SENECAS SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER

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Father, the voice of the Seneca Nations speaks to you, the great counsellor, in whose heart the wise men of all the Thirteen Fires have placed their wisdom; ...

THE OFFICERS JOURNALS!

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Arguably among the most, if not the most “journalized” expedition in military history, Sullivan-Clinton’s officers journals are now going online. A Must See:...

TOWN DESTROYER

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To the Irouqois, General George Washington was Ha-no-da-ga-nears, which means Town Destroyer, and this remained the name they gave to all Presidents of the U...

CHERRY VALLEY TRAGEDY

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Click this to view the Cherry Valley Memorial… O haste, men of strength, the savages are near you; Now hurry to the fort, taking with you those you love, ...

SCALPS & FIREWATER

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The people [American settlers] are not [yet] Sensible what a good affect It [the burning of villages] has had on the Indians. The Onandaga warriors offer to ...

ONEIDAS: BETWEEN A ROCK & A HARD PLACE

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The Rock: Caught in an English Web… BROTHERS : It is now about four years ago since the Bostonians began to rise, and rebel against their Father, the King o...

WYOMING VALLEY TRAGEDY

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Perhaps more than any other event, the so-called “Wyoming Massacre” of July 3, 1778 was a rallying cry for launching the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign in retalia...

TEN YEARS AFTER…

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Brothers, you must not think hard if we speak rash, as it comes from a wounded heart, as you have struck the hatchet in our head and we can’t be reconciled u...

THE AFTERMATH: IMPENDING STARVATION

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‘but the Indians not being supported [by English/Loyalist reinforcements] as they expected, thought of nothing more than carrying off their Families, and we ...

THE IROQUOIS NATIONS

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The five original Iroquois/Haudenosaunee tribes are: the Seneca, the keepers of the Western Door; the Cayugas, the “people of the marsh” and “keepers of the ...

THE THREE SISTERS MEET SENECA FOODS

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The Three Sisters - Corn, Beans and Squash - are the traditional core of Seneca survival and worldview. Today, the Seneca Foods plant in the area at Leiceste...

WHITE SETTLEMENT

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When peace with England was finally declared, in 1783, there began a migration of settlers to western New York. Many of Sullivan’s men were given grants of l...

THE ERIE CANAL

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The Erie Canal (1825), a monumental achievement, was ultimately made possible by Washington-Sullivan-Clinton’s ouster of the Iroqouis nations from the region...

LAND CALCULUS

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Prior to European colonization the Iroquois exercised active dominion over most of what is now New York State. Of the 49,576 square miles of the state the Ir...

FINAL LAMENT

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We are encircled, we are encompassed. The Evil Spirit rides the blast. The waters are disturbed. They rise. They press upon us and the waves settle over us. ...

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

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The land between Seneca and Cayuga Lakes appears good. Level and well-timbered; affording a sufficiency for twenty elegant townships which, in the process of...

PROMISE TO KEEP

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The Indians shall see that we have malice enough in our hearts to destroy everything that contributes to their support. General John Sullivan Sullivan-Clint...

NO NEGOTIATIONS

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But you will not by any means listen to any overture of peace before the total ruinment of their settlements is effected’. Our future security will be in the...

VICTOR’S VERSES

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‘The wigwam fell, and the log cabin arose’ ‘Gwah U Gwah, Welcome to Civilization’ ‘Scalps in 1779, Brains in 1879’ ‘From the Trail to the Track’ ‘The End...

GEN. SHERMAN’S CREDO

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I know it is common, and too common a practice to accuse General Sullivan of having destroyed peach trees and cornfields, and all that nonsense. He had to do...

ETHNIC CLEANSING?

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I flatter myself that the orders with which I was entrusted are fully executed, as we have not left a single settlement or field of corn in the in the countr...

US AND THEM

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The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absol...

BIG TREE TREATY

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By the time appointed for the Treaty at Big Tree on the Genesee River in the summer of 1797, Robert Morris was a prisoner in his own mansion, unable even to ...

HOLLAND PURCHASE

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Years after the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign, the Seneca sold their remaining Western lands to the land-speculating Robert Morris, former “financier of the Amer...

THE CONSEQUENCES

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The nests are destroyed, but the birds are still on the wing… Major Jeremiah Fogg September 1779

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

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The objectives of the Sullivan Clinton Campaign were all realized. The hostile Senecas and Cayugas were terribly punished. Their homes were burned, their vas...

PUBLIC OPINION

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The Sullivan Clinton Expedition against the Six Nations and their British Loyalist leaders captured the imagination of the Americans. It awakened tremendous ...

ADVANCE PLANNING & FINANCING

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In advance of the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign, on June 11, 1778, Congress already had allocated the huge sum of $932,743.1/3, to resolve the problem of Indian ...

IN BROAD STROKES: TIMELINE/CONTEXT

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Authorization and financing were from the Continental Congress of the thirteen rebel colonies. NYS congressmen were especially keen on securing New York’s se...

SIZE AND SCALE

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The Sullivan-Clinton Campaign was one of the largest offensive movements in the entire War of Independence. In the Spring, Van Schaick’s force numbered 558, ...