Ely Parker
Hasanoanda was born into the Wolf Clan of the Seneca Nation on the Tonawanda Reservation in New York State in 1828. His grandfather, father, and uncles adopted the surname Parker from an English officer who had been captured by the Iroquois and befriended by the family.
In reply to an inquiry about his English name, Ely Samuel Parker wrote in 1895, “…I remember the Rev. Ely Stone very well as a Baptist clergyman, connected with the Indian Mission School once in operation adjoining the Tonawanda Indian Reservation. I was very young when placed at this school, and it was said that I was named after this clergyman. My father’s name being “Parker,” I subsequently added that of “Parker” to my name, and have borne it through life.”=
Parker became fully bilingual, fluently speaking English as well as Seneca. He was increasingly relied on as an interpreter and diplomat to communicate with the U.S. government on the rights of the Iroquois. In 1852, at the age of 24, he was bestowed the title of Tonawanda Seneca sachem and named Donehogawa, “Keeper of the Western Door” for the Iroquois Nation. Seeing the need, he studied law but was not allowed to take the bar exam because New York required citizenship and Native Americans were not considered citizens at that time.
Parker’s family had an important lineage going back to the spiritual leader of the Iroquois Confederacy, Handsome Lake, and the famous orator Red Jacket. The family was well respected and they worked with others to maintain the Haudenosaunee culture. The Parker home was a gathering place for discussions and Americans interested in the culture were drawn there and were welcomed. One such American was Lewis Henry Morgan. Ely worked with Morgan and helped him with his research for his book, League of the Iroquois. Morgan’s acknowledgement in the book reads:
It was Morgan who suggested and supported Ely in the study of engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Parker worked as a civil engineer on public projects including the Erie Canal. An acquaintance of Parker’s (W.W. Wright) recalled a meeting with Parker some seven or eight years before the start of the Civil War:
He had just chosen the profession of civil engineering, and was already employed upon the construction of and enlargements of our canals…
Of course I was attracted to Parker by his extraordinary speech, and watched his career with interest. But he did not happen to be employed where I often met him, and we barely kept up a speaking acquaintance. And after a few years he disappeared from our canals altogether.
I had almost forgotten him till the first or second year of the Rebellion when I met him in the streets of Rochester. I asked where he had been and whether he had abandoned his profession. He informed me he had not, but left the service of the State to take a position under the Government, on the Mississippi, and that he had located at Galena.
—- To be continued —-