THE COVENANT CHAIN

On behalf of the British Crown, Sir William Johnson described and renewed the Covenant Chain in council with the Haudenosaunee on several separate occasions. On April 25, 1748, he spoke to the Confederacy at Onondaga: Brethren of the Five Nations,

I will begin upon a thing of long standing, our first Brother ship. My reason for it is, I think there are several among you who seem to forget it; It may seem strange to you how I a Foreigner should know this. But I tell you I found some of the writings of our Forefathers which was thought to have been lost, and in this old valuable record I find, that our first Friendship commenced at the arrival of the first great Canoe or Vessel at Albany, at which time you were much surprised but finding what it contained pleased you much, being things for your purpose…you all resolved to take the greatest care of that Vessel that nothing should hurt her; Whereupon it was agreed to tie her fast with a great rope to one of the largest nut trees on the bank of the river. But on further consideration in a fuller Meeting it was thought safest, fearing the wind should blow down the tree, to make a long rope and tie her fast at Onondaga which was accordingly done and the rope put under your feet, that if anything hurt or touched said Vessel by the shaking of the rope you might know it, and then agreed to rise all as one and see what the matter was and whoever hurt the Vessel was to suffer.

After this was agreed on and done you made an offer to the Governor to enter into a Bond of Friendship with him and his People, which he was so pleased at that he told you he would find a strong Silver Chain which would never break, slip or rust, to bind you and him in Brothership together, and that you warriors and ours should be as one heart, one blood & that what happened to one happened to the other. After this firm agreement was made our Forefathers and finding it was good and foreseeing the many advantages both sides would reap of it, ordered that if ever that Silver Chain should turn the least rusty, offer to slip or break, that is should be immediately brightened up again, and not let it slip or break on any account for then you and we were both dead.

(Council, Onondaga, April 25, 1748, Sir William Johnson Papers, I:158; See also The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire, Francis Jennings, McLeod, Toronto, 1984, p. 145.)

Jonson explained the origins of the Covenant Chain again on June 23, 1755. The Haudenosaunee representatives had asked for copies of their written agreements with the Crown. Johnson replied:

Behold our Brethren these great books, 4 folio volumes of the records of Indian Affairs which, lay upon the table before the Colonel. They are records of the many Solemn Treaties and the various transactions, which have passed between your forefathers and your Brethren the English, also between many of you here and present & us your Brethren now living.

You well know and these Books testify that it is now almost 100 years since your Forefathers and ours became known to each other. That upon our first acquaintance we shook hands & finding we should be useful to one another entered into a Covenant of Brotherly Love and mutual friendship. And tho’ we were at first only tied together by a rope, yet lest this rope should grow rotten & break we tie ourselves together by an Iron Chain. Lest time or accidents might rust & destroy this Chain of Iron, we afterwards made one of Silver, the strength & brightness of which would subject it to no decay. The ends of the Silver Chain we fixed to the Immoveable Mountains, and this in so firm a manner that no mortal enemy might be able to remove it. All this, my Brethren you know to be Truth. You know also that this Covenant Chain of Love & Friendship was the Dread & Envy of all your Enemies & ours that by keeping it bright and unbroken we have never split in our anger one drop of each other’s blood to this day. You well know also that from the beginning to this time we have almost every year, strengthened and brightened this Covenant Chain in the most public & solemn manner.

You know that we became as one body, one blood & one people. The same King our common Father, that your enemies were ours that whom took onto your alliance & allowed to put their hands into this Covenant Chain as Brethren we must have always considered and treated as such.

(National Archives of Canada, RG 10, Vol. 1822,p.35.22)