Note 1265 — Chapter VIII

The question of the rights of Indian women in lands of the tribes forms part of the discussion in the paper by Lucien Carr, entitled "The social and political condition of women among the Huron-Iroquois tribes." (Report xvi. of the Peabody Museum, pp. 216-218.) Instances are on record where transfers were compelled by the women in opposition to the wishes of the chiefs, and where they prevented sales, the terms of which had been arranged by the men. At the conference at Canajoharie Castle in 1763, where the Mohawks submitted one of their numerous complaints against settlers for stealing their lands, all the women present interrupted the speaker, and declared that they "did not choose to part with their lands and be reduced to make brooms for a living." The fraudulent transfers alluded to in the text had already attracted the attention of the authorities. By proclamation, dated October 7, 1763, the king had forbidden private individuals to purchase land from Indians.