THE COVENANT CHAIN

Continued from last week

This last exchange illustrates another aspect of “council language”: to respond to an issue that might have been confrontational by putting it in positive language.

The tone is consistently “We agree, and furthermore”, rather than a refutation or rejection of what had been said – even when the “furthermore” is inconsistent with the original proposition. It is a way of speaking that requires skill and mental agility – but its purpose is the avoidance of direct affronts.

From 1664 to 1755, the responsibility for maintaining and expanding the Covenant Chain lay with the Haudenosaunee (on the one side) and the Colony of New York (on the other). In 1755, with the appointment of Sir William Johnson as Imperial Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, the responsibility passed into the hands of a direct Imperial appointee.

Sir William Johnson’s personal seal as imperial Superintendent General contained the sailing ship and the canoe, among other symbols, but around the seal was “an everlasting chain”, with seven arms holding it: six bare arms for the Six Nations, and a seventh arm with a shirt and coat, for Johnson himself. The Covenant Chain as a circle reflects the circle of the law and the peace entwined in the Circle Wampum.

Though other aboriginal nations could make “chain” with the British, the primacy of the Confederacy in such relations was recognized. Thus in September 1761, the Hurons stated:

Brethren of the Mohawks

We have it not in our power to make a silver chain, it is you who can make such, therefore we beg you may make it so strong that nothing can break it…(National Archives of Canada, RG 10, Vol. 1820, p. 110)

Just as the Kayanerekowa requires periodic reaffirmation by the people, so the Covenant Chain must be maintained.

If you don’t renew the Covenant Chain after the War as usual with the Five Nations, & ca. or order it to be done in a handsome manner…they will certainly think themselves slighted by us.

(William Johnson to Governor George Clinton of New York, May 4, 1750, Sir William Johnson Papers 1:278)

The maintenance is part of the obligations of senior executives of both governments. For example, Governor Clinton of New York re-polished the Chain on June 18, 1744.

Brethren

This interview gives me the greatest pleasure as I am persuaded we meet with equal sincerity in order to renew, strengthen and brighten the Covenant Chain that has so long tied you and the subjects of His Majesty the great King of Great Britain your Father and my Master in mutual ties of friendship and benevolence which I hope will forever be inviolably preserved and continue as long as the sun and moon endureth.

I have express orders from the Great King your Father to do my utmost endeavors that it should be kept bright and strong even unto the world’s end, and I do now assure you on my part and on behalf of all His Majesty’s subjects upon this continent in North America that we will on our parts forever keep it secure and free from rust and I expect the same from you.

Continued next week…