The “Tuscarora Adoption Ceremony” is complete! The preliminary sketches were made around Thanksgiving, and I just completed the painting in the last week of April (2011). My tubes of paint are depleted (most of the paint is on the picture, however, there is a good deal on my clothes, and the surfaces of my studio.); my brushes are worn to the ferrels, and best of all, a collector in Canada has purchased the painting. I will retain possession of it until the middle of May. During that time I will exhibit the painting locally, and arrange for a limited run of 300 reproductions to be printed.
I thought that you might enjoy the history that inspired the painting, and what different images within the picture describe:
Early in the eighteenth century the Tuscarora, another Iroquoian-speaking tribe living in North Carolina, moved into the territory occupied by the Confederacy. They had rebelled against the encroachment of colonial settlers, against continual fraudulent treatment by traders, and against repeated raids that took their people for the slave trade. They suffered a terrible defeat, with hundreds of their people killed and hundreds more enslaved. Those who escaped such fates made their way north and applied to become the sixth nation of the Iroquois League.
"The Tuscarora Adoption Ceremony"
In 1722, the Tuscaroras applied to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and where given permission to join the Confederacy as the Sixth Nation. The official acceptance ceremony took place in Albany, New York, and was attended by the Governors of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. However, although the event was not recorded, I assumed that the Five Nations also convened a “Grand Council” in which the Tuscarora were “Adopted” into Iroquois Confederacy. This picture is an attempt to record that event.
The main action in the painting takes place in the lower right of the picture as the Onondaga Chief (standing) presents a tomahawk calumet, (colored white with chalk to denote peace) to the Tuscarora Chief (sitting). The event is witnessed by all in the room, but especially by the four other Chiefs of the Confederacy. They have been highlighted slightly, and are all smoking their individual pipes, carved of pipestone. Incidentally, the pipestone is native to Minnesota, but through trade was widely used throughout the native tribes.
- The Seneca Chief (Single upright feathers on their gustowehs), just to the right of the Onondaga.
- The Mohawk Chief smoking his pipe and is sitting to the left of the Onondaga, and is surrounded by his people. (Three upright feathers on their bonnets.)
- The Cayuga Chief is next to the left wearing the wolf skin headdress, and his people are surrounding him. (Two upright feathers on their gustowehs.)
- The Oneida Chief is wearing a deer antler headdress and his people are wearing gustowehs with one upright, and one feather at a 45-degree angle.
- The rest of the Onondagas are in the foreground wearing bonnets with one upright, and one trailing feather.
- The Tuscaroras have a plume of split feathers, but no uprights.
There are a group of women along the back wall, who represents the Clan Mothers. Wikipedia states the following:
Women assumed a position in Iroquois society roughly equal in power to that of the men. Individual women could hold property including dwellings, horses and farmed land, and their property before marriage stayed in their possession without being mixed with that of their husband's. The work of a woman's hands was hers to do with as she saw fit. A husband lived in the longhouse of his wife's family. A woman choosing to divorce a shiftless or otherwise unsatisfactory husband was able to ask him to leave the dwelling, taking any of his possessions with him. Women had responsibility for the children of the marriage, and children were educated by members of the mother's family. The clans were matrilinear, that is, clan ties were traced through the mother's line. If a couple separated, the woman kept the children.
The chief of a clan could be removed at any time by a council of the mothers of that clan, and the chief's sister was responsible for nominating his successor. Wikipedia
The Black Bear skin, Timber Wolf skin, and Snapping Turtle shell hanging around the Longhouse represent clan totems. Each of the Nations had several Clans (Wolf, Bear, Crane, Turtle, etc.) but the Wolf, Bear, and Turtle were common to all of the Nations.
Firepits were arranged down the center of the Longhouse, and were vented by adjustable flaps directly above each fire. The vents were also a source of light for the occupants, and the smoke from the fires also helped to cure the tobacco, and other foodstuffs that were hung from the rafters. The picture shows two of these pits. The one in the foreground is the “Council Fire” that was lit when the Council convened, and the one to the rear is being used by the women to cook a white corn and bear meat stew to serve to the participants after the ceremony.
The wampum belts at the at the painting’s left represent events in the Confederacy’s history. They were made from two types of shells (Purple, and white.) that had been cut into cylinders, drilled and strung into patterns. The belt closest to the edge is the Tadodaho Belt that represents the time when the “Peacemaker”, and Hiawatha combed the snakes from Tadodaho’s hair. The middle belt is the Hiawatha Belt that is now the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s flag, and the third signifies the treaty between the Dutch and the Five Nations. The six wampum strings hanging from the pole behind the “Presenter” indicates that the Council is in session.
This is only a flavor of the research that went into this picture, however, it will give the viewer a sense of what the picture is about.
