Mary Jemison

Mary Jemison was a white European who enjoyed a typical colonist's life until she was abducted by Iroquois Indians at age fifteen in 1758. She was smuggled to the Seneca tribe in western New York, which was known as Genesee country. Thereafter, she became known as the "White Woman of the Genesee." In a ritual, she was accepted into the clan and treated as a family member. She later learned that she was abducted in order to replace a dead relative.

From the point of her formal adoption, she was placed with a household of sisters. She learned the Seneca language, though she made sure to pray in English in order to retain her original language. She did the child-rearing and housework typical of Indian women in the Seneca tribe, though she would occasionally aid the men on hunts.

After a few years, Jemison came to love and...