"Seneca Possessed" examines the ordeal of a Native people in the
wake of the American Revolution. As part of the once-formidable
Iroquois Six Nations in western New York, Senecas occupied a
significant if ambivalent place within the newly established United
States. They found themselves the object of missionaries'
conversion efforts while also confronting land speculators,
poachers, squatters, timber-cutters, and officials from state and
federal governments.In response, Seneca communities sought to
preserve their territories and culture amid a maelstrom of
economic, social, religious, and political change. They succeeded
through a remarkable course of cultural innovation and
conservation, skillful calculation and luck, and the guidance of
both a Native prophet and unusual Quakers. Through the prophecies
of Handsome Lake and the message of Quaker missionaries, this
process advanced fitfully, incorporating elements of Christianity
and white society and economy, along with older Seneca ideas and
practices.But cultural reinvention did not come easily. Episodes of
Seneca witch-hunting reflected the wider crises the Senecas were
experiencing. Ironically, as with so much of their experience in
this period, such episodes also allowed for the preservation of
Seneca sovereignty, as in the case of Tommy Jemmy, a Seneca chief
tried by New York in 1821 for executing a Seneca "witch." Here
Senecas improbably but successfully defended their right to
self-government. Through the stories of Tommy Jemmy, Handsome Lake,
and others, "Seneca Possessed" explores how the Seneca people and
their homeland were "possessed"--culturally, spiritually,
materially, and legally--in the era of early American
independence.
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