An Account of the Commissioners of Pennsylvania

Place Information

who
were appointed by Government to explore the Back
Country, &c. in 1796.

On their arrival in the town in which the Corn-
planter

usually resides, they communicated to him,
and the men of the town, the errand on which they
came. After receiving a welcome, and an approba-
tion of their business, the Commissioners retired, and
were about to proceed forward, when they were
again called to the Council House, where an elderly
Indian woman, in the presence of the Corn-planter
and his Council, gave in charge to the Commissioners
to inform your Excellency,

That, in the Seneca Nation

, the women have as
much to say in Council as the men have, and in all
important business have equal authority; that all
affairs of trade and agriculture are under the sole
direction of the women; that having learned from
their Wise Men that the business they came on was
a search after a better road into their country than
the usual trading path, the women had judged it
proper to express their approbation of that measure,
which they saw was equally advantageous to the
Senecas, by lessening the expense of carriage, as to
the white people; that they were sensible that since
the game was going from among them, their men
had been less successful in hunting than formerly,
yet they hoped their trade was well worth their
attention; that the proposals made last Spring by
the Chiefs of their Nations, for introducing the plough
among them, had been considered and approved by
the women, who had the greatest interest in it, as
the labour fell wholly on them; that they had also
approved of the request for teachers to be sent among
them to instruct their young people; that if these
were done, they hoped that their Nation might be-
come one people with the Americans, and the Senecas
would then enjoy the advantages which they per-