Covenant Chain

The Covenant Chain was a series of alliances and treaties developed during the seventeenth century, primarily between the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) and the British colonies of North America, with other Native American tribes added. First developed in the New York area at a time of violence and social instability for the colonies and Native Americans, the English and Iroquois councils and subsequent treaties were based on supporting peace and stability to preserve trade. They addressed issues of colonial settlement, and tried to suppress violence between the colonists and Indian tribes, as well as among the tribes, from New England to the Colony of Virginia.

History

The Covenant Chain is embodied in the Two Row Wampum of the Iroquois, known as the people of the longhouse - Haudenosaunee. It was based in agreements negotiated between Dutch settlers in New Netherland (present-day New York) and the Five Nations of the Iroquois (or ''Haudenosaunee'') early in the 17th century. Their emphasis was on trade with the Native Americans. As the historian Bernard Bailyn has noted, all the colonies, Dutch and English, were first established to create profits.

Through the Beaver Wars in the seventeenth century, the Iroquois conquered other tribes and territories for new hunting grounds and to take captives to add to their populations depleted from warfare and new European infectious diseases. The tribes in New England suffered even more depletion. The Iroquois expanded their influence, conquering or displacing other tribes from Maritime Canada west to the Mississippi Valley, and from the Canadian Shield south to the Ohio Valley.Fred Anderson, "America: 'Into the Heart of Darkness'"
Review of Bernard Bailyn, ''The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675'', ''New York Review of Books'', 4 April 2013

When the English took over New Netherland in 1664 and established the Province of New York, they renewed these agreements. Conflicts erupted in New England in King Philip's War in 1675, "the most destructive war" in seventeenth-century North America, in which more than 600 colonists and 3,000 Indians died. Nearly at the same time was Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia. Both resulted in widespread suffering and loss among Native Americans and colonists.

Because of the standing relationship with the Iroquois and the extensive influence of the ''Haudenosaunee'', in August 1675, New York's Governor Sir Edmund Andros asked them for help in ending regional conflicts of the time in New England and the Chesapeake. He worked with the Onondaga leader Daniel Garacontié.

The term "Covenant Chain" was derived from the metaphor of a silver chain holding the English sailing ship to the ''Haudenosaunee'' (Iroquois) Tree of Peace in the Onondaga Nation. A three-link silver chain was made to symbolize their first agreement. The links represent "Peace, Friendship and Respect" between the Haudenosaunee and the Crown. It was also the first written treaty to use such phrases as:

::...as long as the sun shines upon the earth;
::as long as the waters flow;
::as long as the grass grows green, peace will last.

Treaties

They negotiated the signing of several treaties that expanded the number of tribes and colonies involved:
* A 1676 treaty between the Mohawk nation and the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut which ended King Philip's War in New England, as the Mohawk denied Metacom of the Hudson River, and the Nipmuc, Mohegan, and Massachusett of New England.
* A 1677 treaty between the Five Nations of the Iroquois and the Delaware ( Lenape), on one side, and the colonies of Virginia and Maryland, allied with the Susquehannock on the other, to obtain peace.

Many of the Susquehannock migrated north into western New York, re-settling with the Seneca and Onondaga of the Iroquois.

The treaties marked a new era in colonial history, in which the Chesapeake had nearly eighty years of peace. New York and the Haudenosaunee became the focus of English Indian policy. In the mid-eighteenth century, Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern Department and based in central New York, had great influence and was knighted for his service. Through the early decades of the eighteenth century, New England continued to have conflicts with New France and its Abenaki allies, leading to years of raiding by both sides and ransoming of captives.

In these agreements, the colonies agreed to hold negotiations generally at Albany, New York, under the auspices of the New York governor, as the covenant had first been established there. As a result, according to the historian Daniel Richter, "Iroquois and New Yorkers played dominant but seldom dictatorial roles" in the maintenance of these treaties.

At a council meeting in 1684, Virginia Governor Lord Effingham used the phrase "covenant chain" to describe these agreements. The metaphor was continued by a Seneca speaker, who said: "Let the Chaine be Kept Cleane and bright as Silver that the great tree that is can not break it a peeces if it should fall upon itt."

Later colonial administrators assumed that these treaties granted the English sovereign control over the Iroquois and other tribes involved in the chain.Richter, p. 43 The Iroquois did not agree with this and believed themselves at least to be equals. In a Covenant Chain council that took place in 1692, the Iroquois leaders asserted:

::You say that you are our father and I am your son...
::...We will not be like Father and Son, but like Brothers.

Dissolution

The Covenant Chain continued until 1753, when the Mohawk, claiming to have been cheated out of lands rightfully theirs in New York, declared that the chain was broken.

Howard Zinn, in his "A People's History of the United States" discusses the taking of the Mohawk land:

The Albany Congress was called to help repair the chain. Colonial delegates failed to work together to improve the diplomatic relationship with the Iroquois, a serious shortcoming on the eve of the French and Indian War. As a result, the British government took the responsibility of Native American diplomacy out of the hands of the colonies and established the British Indian Department in 1755.

In a 1755 council with the Iroquois, William Johnson, Superintendent of the Northern Department based in central New York, renewed and restated the chain. He called their agreement the "Covenant Chain of love and friendship", saying that the chain has been attached to the immovable mountains and that every year the British would meet with the Iroquois to "strengthen and brighten" the chain. He developed great influence among the Iroquois and was later knighted for his contributions to development in the Northeast.

Commemoration

In June 2010, Queen Elizabeth II of Canada renewed the Covenant Chain Treaties by presenting 8 silver hand bells each to Band Chiefs from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory and Six Nations of the Grand River in commemoration of 300 years of the Covenant Chain. The bells were inscribed "The Silver Chain of Friendship 1710–2010" (which was a common term often used throughout history when the Chain was renewed).

Notes

References

*Bailyn, Bernard, ''The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675''.
*"Covenant Chain", ''Iroquois Democracy'', Portland State University, 2001. https://web.archive.org/web/20080819150237/http://www.iroquoisdemocracy.pdx.edu/html/covenantchain.htm
* Jennings, Francis. ''The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire: The Covenant Chain Confederation of Indian Tribes with English Colonies''. New York: Norton, 1984.
*George-Kanentiio, Doug. "Iroquois Culture and Commentary". Santa Fe: Clear Light, 2000.
*Richter, Daniel K. and James H. Merrell, eds. ''Beyond the Covenant Chain: the Iroquois and their Neighbors in Indian North America, 1600–1800''. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1987. .
*Taylor, Alan. ''American Colonies: The Settling of North America''. New York: Penguin, 2001.
*Tidridge, Nathan. ''The Queen at the Council Fire: the Treaty of Niagara, Reconciliation, and the Dignified Crown in Canada''. Toronto: Dundurn, 2015. {{ISBN, 978-1-45973066-3.
*Williams, Paul Charles. ''The Chain''. Thesis (LL.M.) -- York University, 1982.

History of the Thirteen Colonies
Iroquois
Native American history of New York (state)
Treaties of indigenous peoples of North America
First Nations history in Ontario
First Nations history in Quebec
1677 treaties
1678 treaties
1676 in the Thirteen Colonies
1677 in the Thirteen Colonies