The Oneidas and Tuscaroras, likewise, met at German Flats, with a committee from the two counties, and the pledge of neutrality was there given. Colonel Johnson convened another council soon after, composed chiefly of the Cayugas and Senecas, the most numerous of the Six Nations. At this meeting, the minds of the Indians were seriously alienated from the Americans; still, they continued to receive the various commissioners sent them by Congress, and professed a determination to preserve a neutrality in the opening war. The Mohawk leader, at this period, was Thayandaneca, or Joseph Brant,[9] so famous in the history of the time. His first active participation in the contest was in 1776, on the St. Lawrence, at the battle of the Cedars, ten miles above Montreal. He appeared there, it is said, at the head of 600 Indians, principally the Caughnawagas, and other tribes not including the Six Nations. The fact was scarcely known at that time by the Americans, who yet hoped to be able to preserve themselves from the open attacks of so formidable a foe.
The division of opinion and feeling among the tribes, on the subject of the part to be taken in the war, was the cause of the dissolution, in 1777, of the confederacy of the Six Nations, which had so long existed, and which had contributed so much to their strength and civilization. The announcement of the rupture was made in a characteristic manner. Addressing Colonel Elmore, the officer in command at Fort Stanwix, the Oneida chiefs said, “Brother, we are sent here by the Oneida chiefs in conjunction with the Onondagas. They arrived at our village yesterday. They have brought us the melancholy news that the grand council-fire at Onondaga is extinguished. We have lost out of their town ninety, among whom are three principal sachems. We, the remaining part of the Onondagas, do now inform our brethren that there is no longer a council-fire at the capital of the Six Nations.” They then requested that this intelligence should be forwarded to various American officers, and also to the Mohawks.
We cannot but feel a melancholy regret at thus witnessing the dissolution of this ancient confederation, which had so long bound them together like brethren, and under the influence of which they had made a more rapid advance in improvement than any of the contemporaneous nations of their race. Henceforth they appear as separate tribes, and often in arms against each other. From this point may be dated their degeneracy, which has at last left them but the recollection of their former greatness, while they are scattered far from their ancient seats of power and the graves of their sires.