Mary Moyars-Johnson wrote:
> Let's also not ignore the histories and autobiographies written by 
> Native Americans past and present.
> They, too, are somewhat harder to locate, but they are a rich resource.
>
> The Internet Public Library sponsored by the Regents of the University 
> of MIchigan offers an extensive guide to the works of Native Americans 
> by author, title and tribe at: http://www.ipl.org/div/natam/
> This site has links to three other major sites on Native American 
> books and culture.
>
> Mary
>
> Mary Moyars-Johnson  (MMJ)
>
>
The point I'm making about the document posted by Ms. Harbury is that it 
wasn't written by a Native American, but by Benjamin Franklin, who was 
trying, at best, to paraphrase what he had heard at a 1744 treaty 
council in PA.  The document in question was published by BF 40 years 
after that council. Naturally, it is somewhat embellished. It turns out 
BF wrote yet another summary of the same 1744 exchange in a 1753 letter 
to Peter Collinson, which in some ways resembles the 1784 pamphlet. But 
what Canasetego said in 1744 was shorter and simpler than any of BF's 
versions. In response to the Virginians' offer of schooling to a number 
of Iroquois children, the Iroquois chief said, "We must let you know we 
love our Children too well to send them to great a Way, and the Indians 
are not inclined to give their Children Learning. We allow it to be 
good, and we thank you for your Invitation; but our Customs differing 
from yours, you will be so good as to excuse us.... In Token of our 
Thankfulness for your Invitation, we give you this String of Wampum." 
(from Sol Cohen, ed., Education in the United States: A Documentary 
History, vol.1, p.626, quoting from a collection of Indian Treaties 
Printed by Benjamin Franklin, 1736-1762 (1938), ed. Carl Van Doren)

Doug Deal
History/SUNY Oswego