Thank you for your input. It is always interesting to hear other views
or learn about different sources. The only reference in the available
sources here about the possible authorship of this particular piece was
a passing reference to Conassatego as a possible contributer. This
raises another interesting question - why was there a need to change the
underlying message in any way, or for that matter, how accurate was
Franklin's memory? Such details are some of the challenges one faces
when it comes to evaluation of various resources.

The underlying message is still the same, regardless of either version,
since it reflects the conflict of cultures concerning education. There
were other clashes concerning other aspects of life. I ran across one
document where one Native American mother in late 17th-century Virginia
made a very pointed reference when she told the English officials that
she felt her daughter had completed her years of servitude to her
master, and thus should now be set free, since she was "born here..."  

Exploration of colonial to early 19th-century sources (narratives and
primary sources) should provide a potential avenue for future research
and discussion on this very subject. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Douglas Deal
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 3:13 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Indian Schools

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