Niagara County’s 200-year history includes a “partnership” with the Tuscarora nation of the Iroquois Confederacy. Being fully ensconced within Niagara County’s borders by 1722, the Tuscaroras have formed a productive association with the county, state and nation. Looking back even earlier than our first days as a county, the Iroquois people were proud of their own history that dated back many hundreds of years before. As new “neighbors,” the American colonists often felt it was their duty to “civilize” their “native” American brethren. As such, in 1744, the Virginia legislature offered free tuition at the College of William and Mary to six Iroquois youths, but the Iroquois politely declined.

In explanation, Canasatego, spokesman for the Onondaga, told why the offer of a college education made no sense at all. “We have had some experience of it. Several of our young people were formerly brought up in the colleges of the Northern provinces; they were instructed in all your sciences; but when they came back to us, they were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, unable to bear either cold or hunger, knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, nor kill an enemy, spoke our language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for hunters, warriors, nor counselors; they were totally good for nothing. We are however not the less obliged for your kind offer, though we decline accepting it; and to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we will take great care of their education, and instruct them in all we know, and make men of them.”

Douglas Farley, Director
Erie Canal Discover Center
24 Church St.
Lockport NY 14094
716.439.0431
CanalDiscovery@aol.com
www.NiagaraHistory.org