Legends 7 - The Battle of Taughannock Falls

Iroquois History and Legends

Andrew James Cotter

Canadian History, Iroquois, History, North American History, First Nations, Religion & Spirituality, American History, Education, Six Nations, Native America, Christianity, Native American, Indian History, Colonial History, Haudenosaunee

4.8 • 697 Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2018

⏱️ 17 minutes

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Summary

During a Delaware invasion into Cayuga territory, the area peoples rally to defeat a foe bent on revenge. The battle will culminate at the edge of the highest waterfall on this side of the continent.

Sources:

Retold, based on the account by Rev. D. H. Hamilton

The falls of Taughannock : containing a complete description of this the highest fall in the state of New York. With historical and descriptive sketches" by LEWIS HALSEY

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Iroquois History and Legends.
0:25.2	This is Caleb and this is Andrew, and welcome to our next installment of Honey Shoney Tales.
0:32.1	There's kind of a disclaimer on this one, though, Andrew, because it's possible that this is not a Hodi-Nishoti tale.
0:38.6	Yeah, so we should probably give the quick background on it.
0:41.8	It's a story about a waterfall, but not just any waterfall, Caleb, but the highest straight-drop
0:48.7	waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains.
0:51.9	And the other interesting thing about this cataract is it's called
0:55.3	Taganic, but that name is not Iroquoian. Any idea what it is? Well, I do because I read the story,
1:04.5	but, no, Andrew, no, please tell me, what is it? Oh, it's Delaware. And you may be thinking to yourself, how the heck did a place in the part of the Cayuga Nation get a Delaware name?
1:17.2	That's exactly what I was just thinking, Andrew. Will you please enlighten me?
1:21.1	Well, we don't know, is the correct answer.
1:24.6	There's no place, as Kayla mentioned, that we've found to back up historically the
1:30.2	name or the account, but this is where this legend originates in the written code. It's from a
1:36.3	19th century historian by a guy named Dr. D.H. Hamilton. He was a local minister around Cayuga Lake. He was a firebrand avid abolitionist and a local
1:49.4	historian. So he wrote down this story and published it in his works about the Teganic Falls.
1:56.9	This was written down in the early 1800s, so it is possible that he did know Cayuga people that still lived there and he learned the tale from them.
2:05.7	But on the other hand, he could totally be making up this entire story.
2:10.1	But it could be 100% accurate.
2:12.6	We really have no idea either way.
2:14.6	Andrew, around what time was James Fallimore Cooper's series of books about the
2:20.7	Deer Hunter released? I think Last of the Mohicans was 1826. So if you look at the time that this story
2:27.9	was allegedly written down, it was shortly after or right around the same time that that book had already become famous around the world.
	...

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