THE LENAPE OR DELAWARES.
Derivation of the Name Lenape.--The Three Sub-Tribes the Minsi
or Wolf, the Unami or Turtle, and the Unalachtgo or Turkey
Tribes--Their Totems--The New Jersey Tribes the Wapings, Sanhicans
and Mantas--Political Constitution of the Lenape--Vegetable Food
Resources--Domestic Architecture--Manufactures.--Paints and Dyes.--
Dogs--Interments--Computation of Time--Picture Writing--Record Sticks--
Moral and Mental Character--Religious Belief.--Doctrine of the Soul.--
The Native Priests.--Religious Ceremonies.
_Derivation of Lenni Lenape_.
The proper name of the Delaware Indians was and is _Lenapé_, (a as in
father, é as a in mate). Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull[48] is quite wide of
the mark both in calling this a "misnomer," and in attributing its
introduction to Mr. Heckewelder.
Long before that worthy missionary was born, the name was in use in the
official documents of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania as the synonym
in the native tongue for the Delaware Indians,[49] and it is still
retained by their remnant in Kansas as the proper term to designate
their collective nation, embracing its sub-tribes.[50]
The derivation of _Lenape_ has been discussed with no little learning,
as well as the adjective _lenni_, which often precedes it (Lenni
Lenape). Mr. Heckewelder stated that _lenni_ means "original, pure,"
and that _Lenape_ signifies "people."[51] Dr. Trumbull, in the course
of a long examination of the words for "man" in the Algonkin dialects,
reaches the conclusion that "Len-âpé" denotes "a common adult male,"
_i. e._, an Indian man; _lenno lenâpé_, an Indian of _our_ tribe or
nation, and, consequently, _vir_, "a man of men."[52] He derives these
two words from the roots _len_ (= _nen_), a pronominal possessive, and
_ape_, an inseparable generic particle, "denoting an adult male."
I differ, with hesitation, from such an eminent authority; but this
explanation does not, to my mind, give the precise meaning of the term.
No doubt, both _lenno_, which in Delaware means _man_, and _len_, in
Lenape, are from the pronominal radicle of the first person _né_, I,
we, mine, our. As the native considered his tribe the oldest, as well
as the most important of created beings, "ours" with him came to be
synonymous with what was esteemed ancient, indigenous, primeval, as
well as human, man-like, _par excellence_. "We" and "men" were to
him the same. The initial _l_ is but a slight modification of the _n_
sound, and is given by Campanius as an _r_, "_rhenus_, homo."
_Lenape_, therefore, does not mean "a common adult male," but rather "a
male of our kind," or "our men."[53]
The termination _apé_ is said by Heckewelder to convey the idea of
"walking or being in an erect posture." A comparison of the various
Algonkin dialects indicates that it was originally a locative,
signifying staying in a place, abiding or sitting. Thus, in Cree,
_apú_, he is there; in Chipeway, _abi_, he is at home; in Delaware,
_n'dappin_, I am here. The transfer of this idea to the male sex is
seen in the Cree, _ap_, to sit upon, to place oneself on top, _apa_, to
cover (animate and active); Chipeway, _nabe_, the male of quadrupeds.
Baraga says that for a Chipeway woman to call her husband _nin nabem_
(lit. my coverer, comp. French, _femme couverte_), is coarse.
_The Lenape Sub-Tribes._
The Lenape were divided into three sub-tribes:--
1. The Minsi, Monseys, Montheys, Munsees, or Minisinks.
2. The Unami, or Wonameys.
3. The Unalachtigo.
No explanation of these designations will be found in Heckewelder or
the older writers. From investigations among living Delawares, carried
out at my request by Mr. Horatio Hale, it is evident that they are
wholly geographical, and refer to the locations of these sub-tribes on
the Delaware river.
_Minsi_, properly _Minsiu_, and formerly _Minassiniu_, means "people of
the stony country," or briefly, "mountaineers." It is a synthesis of
_minthiu_, to be scattered, and _achsin_, stone, according to the best
living native authorities.[54]
_Unami_, or _W'nãmiu_, means "people down the river," from _naheu_,
down-stream.
_Unalachtigo_, properly _W'nalãchtko_, means "people who live near the
ocean," from _wunalawat_, to go towards, and _t'kow_ or _t'kou_, wave.
Historically, such were the positions of these sub-tribes when they
first came to the knowledge of Europeans.
The Minsi lived in the mountainous region at the head waters of the
Delaware, above the Forks, or junction of the Lehigh river. One of
their principal fires was on the Minisink plains, above the Water Gap,
and another on the East Branch of the Delaware, which they called
_Namaes Sipu_, Fish River. Their hunting grounds embraced lands now
in the three colonies of Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. The
last mentioned extinguished their title in 1758, by the payment of one
thousand pounds.
That, at any time, as Heckewelder asserts, their territory extended
up the Hudson as far as tide-water, and westward "far beyond the
Susquehannah," is surely incorrect. Only after the beginning of the
eighteenth century, when they had been long subject to the Iroquois,
have we any historic evidence that they had a settlement on the last
named river.
The Unamis' territory on the right bank of the Delaware river extended
from the Lehigh valley southward. It was with them and their southern
neighbors, the Unalachtigos, that Penn dealt for the land ceded him
in the Indian Deed of 1682. The Minsis did not take part in the
transaction, and it was not until 1737 that the Colonial authorities
treated directly with the latter for the cession of their territory.[55]
The Unalachtigo or Turkey totem had its principal seat on the affluents
of the Delaware near where Wilmington now stands. About this point,
Captain John Smith, on his map (1609,) locates the _Chikahokin_. In
later writers this name is spelled _Chihohockies_, _Chiholacki_ and
_Chikolacki_, and is stated by the historians Proud and Smith to be
synonymous with Delawares.[56] The correct form is _Chikelaki_, from
_chik'eno_, turkey, the modern form as given by Whipple,[57] and _aki_
land. The _n_, _l_ and _r_ were alternating letters in this dialect.
The population was, however, very sparse, owing to the predatory
incursions of the Susquehannocks, whose trails, leading up the Octorara
and Conestoga, and down the Christina and Brandywine Creeks, were
followed by war parties annually, and desolated the west shores of the
Bay and lower river. When, in 1634, Captain Thomas Young explored the
river, the few natives he found on the west side told him (through the
medium of his Algonkin Virginian interpreter) that the "Minquaos" had
killed their people, burnt their villages, and destroyed their crops,
so that "the Indians had wholly left that side of the river which was
next their enemies, and had retired themselves on the other side farre
up into the woods."[58]
North of the Chikelaki, Smith's map locates the _Macovks_. This name
does not appear in later authors, but near that site were the _Okahoki_
band, who occupied the shores of Ridley and Crum creeks and the land
between them. There they remained until 1703, when they were removed to
a small reservation of 500 acres in what is now Willistown township,
Chester county.[59]
_The Totemic Animals._
These three sub-tribes had each its totemic animal, from which it
claimed a mystical descent. The Minsi had the Wolf, the Unami the
Turtle, and the Unalachtigo the Turkey. The Unamis claimed and were
conceded the precedence of the others, because their ancestor, the
Turtle, was not the common animal, so-called, but the great original
tortoise which bears the world on its back, and was the first of living
beings, as I shall explain on a later page.
In referring to the totemic animals the common names were not used, but
metaphorical expressions. Thus the Wolf was referred to as _Ptuksit_,
Round Foot (_ptuk_, round, _sit_, foot, from the shape of its paws;)
the turtle was _Pakoango_, the Crawler; and the turkey was _Pullaeu_,
he does not chew,[60] referring to the bird's manner of swallowing food.
The signs of these animals were employed in their picture writing,
painted on their houses or inscribed on rocks, to designate the
respective sub-tribes. But only in the case of the Unamis was the whole
animal represented. The Turkey tribe painted only one foot of their
totemic bird, and the Minsi the extended foot of the wolf, though they
sometimes added an outline of the rest of the animal.[61]
These three divisions of the Lenape were neither "gentes" nor
"phratries," though Mr. Morgan has endeavored to force them into his
system by stating that they were "of the nature of phratries."[62]
Each was divided into twelve families bearing female names, and hence
probably referring to some unexplained matriarchal system. They were,
as I have called them, sub-tribes. In their own orations they referred
to each other as "playmates." (Heckewelder.)
_The New Jersey Lenape._
The native name of New Jersey is given as Shã'akbee (English
orthography: ã as in fate); or as the German missionaries wrote it,
_Sche'jachbi_. It is a compound of _bi_, water, _aki_, land, and
the adjective prefix _schey_, which means something long and narrow
(_scheyek_, a string of wampum; _schajelinquall_, the edge of the eyes,
the eyelids, etc.) This would be equivalent to "long-land water," and,
according to the rules of Delaware grammar, which place the noun used
in the genitive sense before the noun which governs it, the term would
be more suitable to some body of water, Delaware bay or the ocean, than
to the main land.
The Lenape distinctly claimed the whole of the present area of New
Jersey. Their great chief, Tedyuscung, stated at the Conference at
Easton (1757), that their lands reached eastward to the shore of the
sea. The New Jersey tribes fully recognized their unity. As early as
1694, at an interview with Governor Markham at Philadelphia, when the
famous Tamany and other Lenape chieftains were present, Mohocksey, a
chief of the Jersey Indians, said: "Though we live on the other side
of the water (_i.e._, the Delaware river), yet we reckon ourselves all
one, because," he added, giving a characteristically native reason,
"because we drink one water."[63]
The names, number and position of the Jersey tribes have not been very
clearly made out. A pamphlet published in London, in 1648, states
that there were twenty-three Indian kinglets in its area, with about
2000 warriors in all. Of these, Master Robert Evelin, a surveyor, who
spent several years in the Province about 1635, names nine on the left
bank of the Delaware, between Cape May and the Falls. The names are
extremely corrupt, but it may be worth while giving them.[64]
1. Kechemeches, 500 men, five miles above Cape May.
2. Manteses, 100 bowmen, twelve leagues above the former.
3. Sikonesses.
4. Asomoches, 100 men.
5. Eriwoneck, 40 men.
6. Ramcock, 100 men.
7. Axion, 200 men.
8. Calcefar, 150 men.
9. Mosilian, 200 men, at the Falls.
Of these, the Mantes lived on Salem creek; _Ramcock_ is Rancocas creek;
the _Eriwoneck_ are evidently the _Ermomex_ of Van der Donck's map of
1656; _Axion_ may be for Assiscunk creek, above Burlington, from Del.
_assiscu_, mud; _assiscunk_, a muddy place. Lindstrom and Van der Donck
name the most Southern tribe in New Jersey _Naraticons_. They were on
and near Raccoon creek, which on Lindstrom's map is _Narraticon Sipu_,
the Naraticon river. Probably the English name is simply a translation
of the Del. _nachenum_, raccoon.
In 1675 the number of sachems in Jersey of sufficient importance for
the then Governor Andros to treat with were four. It is noted that when
he had made them the presents customary on such occasions, "They return
thanks and fall a kintacoying, singing _kenon, kenon_."[65] This was
the Delaware _genan_ (_genama_, thank ye him. Zeis).
The total number in New Jersey a few years before this (1671) were
estimated by the authorities at "about a thousand persons, besides
women and children."[66]
The "_Wakings, Opings_ or _Pomptons_," as they are named in the old
records, were the tribe which dwelt on the west shore of New York
harbor and southwardly, or, more exactly, "from Roeloff Jansen's Kill
to the sea."[67] They were of the Minsi totem, and were the earliest of
the Lenape who saw white men, when, in 1524, the keel of Verrazano was
the first to plough the waters of New York harbor.
The name Waping or Oping is derived from _Wapan_, east, and was applied
to them as the easternmost of the Lenape nation.[68] Their other name,
Pompton, Mr Heckewelder identifies with _pihm-tom_, crooked-mouthed,
though its applicability is not obvious.[69]
In the middle of the eighteenth century the remains of the Pompton
Indians resided on the Raritan river. The boundaries of their territory
were defined in 1756, at the Treaty of Crosswicks.
The _Sanhicans_ occupied the Delaware shore at the Falls, near where
Trenton now stands, and extended eastward along the upper Indian path
quite to New York bay. Heckewelder says that this name, _Sankhicani_,
means a gun lock, and was applied by the Lenape to the Mohawks who
were first furnished with muskets by the Europeans. This has led some
writers to locate a band of Mohawks at the Falls.
The Sanhicans were, however, undoubtedly Lenape. Campanius, who quotes
the name of the place in 1642, classes them as such. In Van der
Donck's map, of 1656, they are marked as possessing the land at the
Falls and Manhattan Bay; and De Laet gives the numerals and a number of
words from their dialect, which are all pure Delaware, as:--
_Sanhican._ _Delaware._
Deer, atto, achtu.
Bear, machquoyuo, machquak.
Wolf, metumnu, metemmeu.
Turkey, sickenum, tschickenum.
Their name has lost its first syllable. It should be _assanhican_.
This means not merely and not originally a gun-flint, but any stone
implement, from _achsin_, or, in the New Jersey dialect, _assun_,
a stone, and _hican_, an instrument. They were distinctively "the
stone-implement people."
This is plainly with reference to their manufactures near Trenton.
The great deposit of post-glacial gravels at this point abound with
quartzite fragments suitable for working into stone implements, and to
what extent they were utilized by the natives is shown by the enormous
collection, numbering over thirty thousand specimens, which Dr. Charles
C. Abbott, of Trenton, has made in that immediate vicinity. A horde of
over 125 beautifully chipped lance heads of quartz and jasper, and the
remains of a workshop of remarkable magnitude, were evidences of the
extensive manufacture that once prevailed there.
The left bank of the Delaware, from the vicinity of Burlington quite
to and below Salem, was held by a warlike tribe known to the settlers
as the _Mantas_, or _Mantos_, or _Mandes_, otherwise named the Frog
Indians. They extended eastward along the main or southern Indian
path, which led from the Delaware, below the mouth of Rancocas Creek,
to the extensive Indian plantations or corn fields near Sandy Hook,
mentioned by Campanius and Lindstrom.[70]
Mr. Henry has derived their name from _mangi_, great,[71] and others
have suggested _menatey_, an island; but I do not think either of these
is tenable. I have no doubt that _mante_ is simply a mis-spelling of
_monthee_, which is the form given by the East Jersey and Stockbridge
Indians to the name of the Minsi or Monsey sub-tribe of the
Delawares.[72] This is further indicated by the fact that toward the
beginning of the eighteenth century they incorporated themselves wholly
with the two other Lenape sub-tribes.[73] We thus find that the Minsis
were not confined to the North and Northwest, as Heckewelder and others
wrote, but had pressed southward in New Jersey, quite to the shores of
Delaware Bay.
The New Jersey Indians disappeared rapidly. As early as 1721 an
official document states that they were "but few, and very innocent and
friendly."[74] When, in 1745, the missionary Brainerd visited their
settlement at Crosweeksung, Burlington county, he found some "who
had lived with the white people under gospel light, had learned to
read, were civil, etc."[75] Those with whom he labored at this place
subsequently removed to New Stockbridge, Mass., and united with the
Mohegans and others there.[76]
The Swedish traveler, Peter Kalm, who spent about a year in New Jersey
in 1749, observes that the disappearance of the native population
was principally due to two agencies. Smallpox destroyed "incredible
numbers", "but brandy has killed most of the Indians."[77]
The dialect of the New Jersey Indians was soft and vocalic, avoiding
the gutturals of their northern relatives, and without the frequent
unpleasant forcible expirations of the Nanticoke. A vocabulary of
it, obtained for Mr. Thomas Jefferson, in 1792, at the village of
Edgpiihik, West New Jersey, is in MS. in the library of the American
Philosophical Society.
_Political Constitution_.
Each totem of the Lenape recognized a chieftain, called sachem,
_sakima_, a word found in most Algonkin dialects, with slight
variations (Chip. _ogima_, Cree, _okimaw_, Pequot, _sachimma_), and
derived from a root _ôki_, signifying above in space, and by a transfer
frequent in all languages, above in power. Thus, in Cree,[78] we
have _sâkamow_, "il projecte, il montre la tête," and in Delaware,
_w'ochgitschi_, the part above, the upper part (Zeisberger), etc.
It appears from Mr. Morgan's inquiries, that at present and of later
years, "the office of sachem is hereditary in the gens, but elective
among its members."[79] Loskiel, however, writing on the excellent
authority of Zeisberger, states explicitly that the chief of each totem
was selected and inaugurated by those of the remaining two.[80] By
common and ancient consent, the chief selected from the Turtle totem
was head chief of the whole Lenape nation.
These chieftains were the "peace chiefs." They could neither go to war
themselves, nor send nor receive the war belt--the ominous string of
dark wampum, which indicated that the tempest of strife was to be let
loose. Their proper badge was the wampum belt, with a diamond-shaped
figure in the centre, worked in white beads, which was the symbol of
the peaceful council fire, and was called by that name.
War was declared by the people at the instigation of the "war
captains," valorous braves of any birth or family who had distinguished
themselves by personal prowess, and especially by good success in
forays against the enemy.[81]
Nor did the authority of the chiefs extend to any infringement on
the traditional rights of the gens, as, for instance, that of blood
revenge. The ignorance of this limitation of the central power led to
various misunderstandings at the time, on the part of the colonial
authorities, and since then, by later historians. Thus, in 1728, "the
Delaware Indians on Brandywine" were summoned by the Governor to answer
about a murder. Their chief, Civility, answered that it was committed
by the Minisinks, "over whom they had no authority."[82] This did not
mean but that in some matters authority could be exerted, but not in a
question relating to a feud of blood.
_Agriculture and Food Resources_.
The Lenape did not depend solely on the chase for subsistence. They
were largely agricultural, and raised a variety of edible plants.
Indian corn was, as usual, the staple; but in addition to that, they
had extensive fields of squashes, beans and sweet potatoes.[83] The
hardy variety of tobacco was also freely cultivated.
The value of Indian corn, the _Zea mais_, must have been known to
the Algonkin tribes while they still formed one nation, as the same
name is applied to it by tribes geographically the widest apart.
Thus the Micmacs of Nova Scotia call it _pe-ãs'kumun-ul_ whose
theme _ãs'ku-mun_ reappears in the _wuskannem_ (Elliott) and the
_scannemeneash_ (Roger Williams) of New England, in the Delaware
_jesquem_ (Campanius), and _chasquem_ (Zeis.), and even in the Piegan
Blackfoot _esko-tope_.
The first radical _ask_, Chip. _ashk_, Del. _aski_, means "green." The
application is to the green waving plant, so conspicuous in the fields
during the summer months. The second _mün_ or _min_ is a generic suffix
applied to all sorts of small edible fruits. In the Blackfoot its place
is supplied by another, and in the Unami Delaware it is abbreviated to
the letter _m_.
On the other hand, in the Chipeway word for corn, _mandamin_, Ottawa
_mindamin_, Cree _mattamin_, the second radical is retained in full,
while for the first is substituted an abbreviation of _manito_, divine
("it is divine, supernatural, or mysterious"); if we may accept the
opinion of Mr. Schoolcraft, and I know of no more plausible etymology.
Tobacco was called by the Delawares _kscha-tey_, Zeis., _seka-ta_,
Camp., or in the English orthography _shuate_ (Vocab. N. J. Inds.),
and _koshãhtahe_ (Cummmings). I am inclined to think that these are but
dialectic variations and different orthographies of the root _'ta_
or _'dam_ (_a_ nasal) found in the New England _wuttãm-anog_, Micmac
_tùmawa_, Abnaki _wh'dãman_ (Rasle), Cree _tchistémaw_, Chip. _assema_
(= _asté-maw_), Blackfoot _pi-stã-kan_; a root which Dr. J. H. Trumbull
has satisfactorily identified as meaning "to drink," the smoke being
swallowed and likened to water. "To drink tobacco" was the usual old
English expression for "to smoke."
If this etymology is correct, it leads to the inference that tobacco
also was known to the ancient Algonkins before they split up into the
many nations which we now know, and furthermore that they must have
lived in a region where these two semi-tropical or wholly tropical
plants, Indian corn and tobacco, had been already introduced and
cultivated by some more ancient race. To conclude that they themselves
brought them from a tropical land, would be too hazardous.
The pipes in which the tobacco was smoked were called _appooke_ (modern
Delaware _o'pahokun'_, Cumings' Vocab.) They were of earthenware and
of stone; sometimes, it is said, of copper. According to Kalm, the
ceremonial pipes were of a red stone, possibly the western pipe stone,
and were very highly prized.[84]
Of wild fruits and plants they consumed the esculent and nutritious
tubers on the roots of the Wild Bean, _Apios tuberosa_, the large,
oval, fleshy roots of the arrow-leaved _Sagittaria_, the former
of which the Indians called _hobbenis_, and the latter _katniss_,
names which they subsequently applied to the European turnip. They
also roasted and ate the acrid cormus of the Indian turnip, _Arum
triphyllum_, in Delaware _taw-ho_, _taw-hin_ or _tuck-ah_, and
collected for food the seeds of the Golden Club, _Orontium aquaticum_,
common in the pools along the creeks and rivers. Its native name was
_taw-kee_.[85]
_House Building._
In their domestic architecture they differed noticeably from the
Iroquois and even the Mohegans. Their houses were not communal, but
each family had its separate residence, a wattled hut, with rounded
top, thatched with mats woven of the long leaves of the Indian corn
or the stalks of the sweet flag (_Acorus calamus_,) or of the bark of
trees (_anacon_, a mat, Z.) These were built in groups and surrounded
with a palisade to protect the inhabitants from sudden inroads.[86]
In the centre was sometimes erected a mound of earth, both as a place
of observation and as a location to place the children and women. The
remains of these circular ramparts enclosing a central mound were seen
by the early settlers at the Falls of the Delaware and up the Lehigh
valley.
_Manufactures_.
The art of the potter was known and extensively practiced, but did not
indicate any unusual proficiency, either in the process of manufacture
or in the methods of decoration, although the late Mr. F. Peale thought
that, in the latter respect, the Delaware pottery had some claims to a
high rank.[87] The representation of animal forms was quite unusual,
only some few and inferior examples having been found.
Their skill in manufacturing bead work and feather mantles, and in
dressing deer skins, excited the admiration of the early voyagers.
Although their weapons and utensils were mostly of stone, there was a
considerable supply of native copper among them, in use as ornaments,
for arrow heads and pipes. Some specimens of it have been found by
Dr. Abbott near Trenton, and by other collectors in Pennsylvania,[88]
and its scarcity in modern collections is to be attributed to its
being bought up and melted by the whites rather than to its limited
employment.
Soap stone was hollowed out with considerable skill, to form bowls, and
the wood of the sassafras tree was highly esteemed for the same purpose
(Kalm).
The maize was broken up in wooden or stone mortars with a stone pestle,
the native name of which was _pocohaac_, a word signifying also the
virile member.
Their arms were the war club or tomahawk, _tomhickan_, the bow,
_hattape_, and arrow, _alluns_, the spear, _tanganaoun_, and for
defence Bishop Ettwein states they carried a round shield of thick,
dried hide.
The spear was also used for spearing fish, which they, moreover, knew
how to catch with "brush nets," and with fish hooks made of bone and
the dried claws of birds (Kalm).[89]
_Paints and Dyes_.
The paints and dyes used by the Lenape and neighboring Indians were
derived both from the vegetable and mineral realms. From the former
they obtained red, white and blue clays, which were in such extensive
demand that the vicinity of those streams in New Castle county,
Delaware, which are now called White Clay Creek and Red Clay Creek, was
widely known to the natives as _Walamink_, the Place of Paint.
The vegetable world supplied a variety of dyes in the colored juices of
plants. These were mixed with the acid juice of the wild, sweet-scented
crab apple (_Pyrus coronaria_; in Lenape, _tombic'anall_), to fix the
dye.
A red was yielded by the root of the _Sanguinaria Canadensis_, still
called "Indian paint root;" an orange by the root of _Phytolacca
decandra_, the poke or pocoon; a yellow by the root of _Hydrastis
Canadensis_; a black by a mixture of sumac and white walnut bark,
etc.[90]
_Dogs_.
The only domestic animal they possessed was a small species of dogs
with pointed ears. These were called _allum_, and were preserved less
for protection or for use in hunting than for food, and especially for
ceremonial purposes.[91]
_Interments_.
The custom of common ossuaries for each gens appears to have prevailed
among the Lenape. Gabriel Thomas states that: "If a person of Note dies
very far away from his place of residence, they will convey his Bones
home some considerable Time after, to be buried there."[92] Bishop
Ettwein speaks of mounds for common burial, though he appears to limit
their use to times of war.[93]
One of these communal graveyards of the Minsis covers an area of
six acres on the Neversink creek,[94] while, according to tradition,
another of great antiquity and extent was located on the islands in the
Delaware river, above the Water-Gap.[95]
_Computation of Time._
The accuracy with which the natives computed time becomes a subject of
prime consideration in a study of their annals. It would appear that
the Eastern Algonkins were not deficient in astronomical knowledge.
Roger Williams remarks, "they much observe the Starres, and their very
children can give names to many of them;"[96] and the same testimony is
borne by Wassenaer. The latter, speaking of the tribes around New York
Harbor, in 1630, says that their year began with the first moon after
the February moon; and that the time for planting was calculated by the
rising of the constellation Taurus in a certain quarter. They named
this constellation the horned head of some great fictitious animal.[97]
Zeisberger observes that, in his day, the Lenape did not have a fixed
beginning to their year, but reckoned from one seeding time to another,
or from when the corn was ripe, etc.[98] Nevertheless, they had a word
for year, _gachtin_, and counted their ages and the sequence of events
by yearly periods. The Chipeways count by winters (_pipun-agak_, in
which the first word means winter, and the second is a plural form
similar to the Del. _gachtin_); but the Lenape did not apparently
follow them in this. They recognized only twelve moons in the year
and not thirteen, as did the New England nations; at least, the names
of but twelve months have been preserved.[99] The day periods were
reckoned usually by nights, but it was not improper to count by "suns"
or days.
_Pictographic Signs_.
The picture writing of the Delawares has been quite fully described
by Zeisberger, Loskiel and Heckewelder. It was scratched upon stone
(Loskiel), or more frequently cut in or painted upon the bark of trees
or pieces of wood. The colors were chiefly black and red. The system
was highly conventionalized, so that it could readily be understood by
all their tribes, and also by others with whom they came in contact,
the Shawnees, Wyandots, Chipeways, etc.
The subjects had reference not merely to matters of present interest,
but to the former history of their nation, and were directed "to the
preservation of the memory of famous men, and to the recollection
of events and actions of note." Therefore, their Agamemnons felt no
anxiety for the absence of a Homer, but "confidently reckoned that
their noble deeds would be held in memory long after their bodies had
perished."[100]
The material on which the drawings were made was generally so
perishable that few examples have been left to us. One, a stone about
seven inches long, found in central New Jersey, has been described and
figured by Dr. Abbott.[101] It represents an arrow crossing certain
straight lines. Several "gorgets" (smooth stone tablets pierced with
holes for suspension, and probably used for ceremonial purposes),
stone knives and pebbles, showing inscribed marks and lines, and rude
figures, are engraved in Dr. Abbott's book; others similar have been
seen in Bucks and Berks counties, Pa.
There was a remarkable series of hieroglyphics, some eighty in
number, on a rock at Safe Harbor, on the Susquehanna. They have been
photographed and described by Prof. T. C. Porter, of Lancaster, but
have yet to be carefully analyzed.[102] From its location, it was
probably the work of the Susquehannocks, and did not belong to the
general system of Algonkin pictography.
If the rude drawings appended to the early treatises as signatures
of native sachems be taken as a guide, little or no uniformity
prevailed in the personal signs. The same chieftain would, on various
occasions, employ symbols differing so widely that they have no visible
relation.[103]
An interesting incident is recorded by Friend John Richardson when
on a visit to William Penn, at his manor of Pennsburg, in 1701. Penn
asked the Indian interpreter to give him some idea of what the native
notion of God was. The interpreter, at a loss for words, had recourse
to picture writing, and describing a number of circles, one inside the
other, he pointed to the centre of the innermost and smallest one,
and there, "placed, as he said, by way of representation, the Great
Man."[104] The explanation was striking and suggestive, and hints at
the meaning of the not infrequent symbol of the concentric circles.
An alleged piece of Delaware pictography is copied by Schoolcraft[105]
from the London _Archæologia_, Vol. IV. It purports to be an inscription
found on the Muskingum river in 1780, and the interpretation is said to
have been supplied by the celebrated Delaware chief, Captain White Eyes
(Coquethagechton). As interpreted, it relates to massacres of the whites
by the Delaware chief, Wingenund, in the border war of 1763.
There is a tissue of errors here. The pictograph, "drawn with charcoal
and oil on a tree," must have been quite recent, and is not likely
to have referred to events seventeen years antecedent. There is no
evidence that Wingenund took part in Pontiac's conspiracy, and he was
the consistent friend of the whites.[106] Several of the characters
are not like Indian pictographs. And finally, White Eyes, the alleged
interpreter in 1780, had died at Tuscarawas, two years before, Nov.
10th, 1778![107]
_Record Sticks_.
The Algonkin nations very generally preserved their myths, their
chronicles, and the memory of events, speeches, etc., by means of
marked sticks. As early as 1646, the Jesuit missionaries in Canada made
use of these to teach their converts the prayers of the Church and
their sermons.[108]
The name applied to these record or tally-sticks was, among the Crees
and Chipeways, _massinahigan_, which is the common word now for book,
but which originally meant "a piece of wood marked with fire," from
the verb _masinákisan_, I imprint a mark upon it with fire, I burn
a mark upon it,[109] thus indicating the rude beginning of a system
of mnemonic aids. The Lenape words for book, _malackhickan_, Camp.,
_mamalekhican_ Zeis., were probably from the same root.
In later days, instead of burning the marks upon the sticks, they were
painted, the colors as well as the figures having certain conventional
meanings.[110]
These sticks are described as about six inches in length, slender,
though varying in shape, and tied up in bundles.[111] Such bundles are
mentioned by the interpreter Conrad Weiser, as in use in 1748 when he
was on his embassy in the Indian country.[112] The expression, "we tied
up in bundles," is translated by Mr. Heckewelder, _olumapisid_, and a
head chief of the Lenape, usually called _Olomipees_, was thus named,
apparently as preserver of such records.[113] I shall return on a later
page to the precise meaning of this term.
The word signifying to paint was _walamén_, which does not appear
in western dialects, but is found precisely the same in the Abnaki,
where it is given by Rasles, _8ramann_[114], which, transliterated
into Delaware (where the _l_ is substituted for the _r_), would be
_w'lam'an_. From this word came _Wallamünk_, the name applied by the
natives to a tract in New Castle county, Delaware, since at that
locality they procured supplies of colored earth, which they employed
in painting. It means "the place of paint."[115]
Roger Williams, describing the New England Indians, speaks of
"_Wunnam_, their red painting, which they most delight in, and is both
the Barke of the Fine, as also a red Earth."[116]
The word is derived from Narr. _wunne_, Del. _wulit_, Chip. _gwanatsch_
= beautiful, handsome, good, pretty, etc.
The Indian who had artistically bedaubed his skin with red, ochreous
clay, was esteemed In full dress, and delightful to look upon. Hence
the term _wulit_, fine, pretty, came to be applied to the paint itself.
The custom of using such sticks, painted or notched, was by no means
peculiar to the Delawares. They were familiar to the Iroquois, and the
early travelers found them in common employment among the southern
tribes.[117]
As the art advanced, in place of simple sticks, painted or notched,
wooden tablets came into use, on which the symbols were scratched or
engraved with a sharp flint or knife. Such are those still in use among
the Chipeway, described by Dr. James as "rude pictures carved on a flat
piece of wood;"[118] by the native Copway, as "board plates;"[119]
and more precisely by Mr. Schoolcraft, as "a tabular piece of wood,
covered on both sides with a series of devices cut between parallel
lines."[120]
The Chipeway terms applied to these devices or symbols are, according
to Mr. Schoolcraft, _kekeewin_, for those in ordinary and common use,
and _kekeenowin_, for those connected with the mysteries, the "meda
worship" and the "great medicine." Both words are evidently from a
radical signifying a mark or sign, appearing in the words given in
Baraga's "Otchipwe Dictionary," _kikinawadjiton_, I mark it, I put a
certain mark on it, and _kikinoamawa_, I teach, instruct him.
_Moral and Mental Character._
The character of the Delawares was estimated very differently, even by
those who had the best opportunities of judging. The missionaries are
severe upon them. Brainerd described them as "unspeakably indolent and
slothful. They have little or no ambition or resolution; not one in a
thousand of them that has the spirit of a man."[121] No more favorable
was the opinion of Zeisberger. He speaks of their alleged bravery
with the utmost contempt, and morally he puts them down as "the most
ordinary and the vilest of savages."[122]
Perhaps these worthy missionaries measured them by the standard of the
Christian ideal, by which, alas, we all fall wofully short.
Certainly, other competent observers report much more cheerfully. One
of the first explorers of the Delaware, Captain Thomas Young (1634),
describes them as "very well proportioned, well featured, gentle,
tractable and docile."[123]
Of their domestic affections, Mr. Heckewelder writes: "I do not believe
that there are any people on earth who are more attached to their
relatives and offspring than these Indians are."[124]
Their action toward the Society of Friends in Pennsylvania indicates
a sense of honor and a respect for pledges which we might not
expect. They had learned and well understood that the Friends were
non-combatants, and as such they never forgot to spare them, even in
the bloody scenes of border warfare.
"Amidst all the devastating incursions of the Indians in North America,
it is a remarkable fact that no Friend who stood faithful to his
principles in the disuse of all weapons of war, the cause of which
was generally well understood by the Indians, ever suffered personal
molestation from them."[125]
The fact that for more than forty years after the founding of Penn's
colony there was not a single murder committed on a settler by an
Indian, itself speaks volumes for their self-control and moral
character. So far from seeking quarrels with the whites they extended
them friendly aid and comfort.[126]
Even after they had become embittered and corrupted by the gross
knavery of the whites (for example, the notorious "long walk,") and
the debasing influence of alcohol, such an authority as Gen. Wm. H.
Harrison could write these words about the Delawares: "A long and
intimate knowledge of them, in peace and war, as enemies and friends,
has left upon my mind the most favorable impression of their character
for bravery, generosity and fidelity to their engagements."[127] More
than this, and from a higher source, could scarcely be asked.
That intellectually they were by no means deficient is acknowledged by
Brainerd himself. "The children," he writes, "learn with surprising
readiness; their master tells me he never had an English school that
learned, in general, so fast."[128]
_Religious Beliefs_.
With the hints given us in various authors, it is not difficult to
reconstruct the primitive religious notions of the Delawares. They
resembled closely those of the other Algonkin nations, and were founded
on those general mythical principles which, in my "Myths of the New
World," I have shown existed widely throughout America. These are, the
worship of Light, especially in its concrete manifestations of fire and
the sun; of the Four Winds, as typical of the cardinal points, and as
the rain bringers; and of the Totemic Animal.
As the embodiment of Light, some spoke of the sun as a deity,[129]
while their fifth and greatest festival was held in honor of Fire,
which they personified, and called the Grandfather of all Indian
nations. They assigned to it twelve divine assistants, who were
represented by so many actors in the ceremony, with evident reference
to the twelve moons or months of the year, the fire being a type of the
heavenly blaze, the sun.[130]
But both Sun and Fire were only material emblems of the mystery of
Light. This was the "body or fountain of deity," which Brainerd said
they described to him in terms that he could not clearly understand;
something "all light;" a being "_in_ whom the earth, and all things
in it, may be seen;" a "great man, clothed with the day, yea, with
the brightest day, a day of many years, yea, a day of everlasting
continuance." From him proceeded, in him were, to him returned, all
things and the souls of all things.
Such was the extraordinary doctrine which a converted priest of the
native religion informed Brainerd was the teaching of the medicine
men.[131]
The familiar Algonkin myth of the "Great Hare," which I have elsewhere
shown to be distinctively a myth of Light,[132] was also well known to
the Delawares, and they applied to this animal, also, the appellation
of the "Grandfather of the Indians."[133] Like the fire, the hare was
considered their ancestor, and in both instances the Light was meant,
fire being its symbol, and the word for hare being identical with that
of brightness and light.
As in Mexico and elsewhere, this light or bright ancestor was the
culture hero of their mythology, their pristine instructor in the
arts, and figured in some of their legends as a white man, who, in
some remote time, visited them from the east, and brought them their
civilization.[134]
I desire to lay especial stress on these proofs of Light worship among
the Delawares, for it has an immediate bearing on several points in the
WALAM OLUM. There are no compounds more frequent in that document than
those with the root signifying "light," "brightness," etc., and this is
one of the evidences of its authenticity.
Next in order, or rather, parallel with and a part of the worship of
Light, was that of the Four Cardinal Points, always identified with
the Four Winds, the bringers of rain and sunshine, the rulers of the
weather.
"After the strictest inquiry respecting their notions of the Deity,"
says David Brainerd, "I find that in ancient times, before the coming
of the white people, some supposed there were four invisible powers,
who presided over the four corners of the earth."[135]
The Montauk Indians of Long Island, a branch of the Mohegans, also
worshiped these four deities, as we are informed by the Rev Sampson
Occum;[136] and Captain Argoll found them again in 1616 among the
accolents of the Potomac, close relatives of the Delawares. Their chief
told him: "We have five gods in all, our chief god appears often unto
us in the form of a mighty great hare, the other four have no visible
shape, but are indeed the four winds, which keep the four corners of
the earth."[137]
These are the fundamental doctrines, the universal _credo_, of not only
all the Algonkin faiths, but of all or nearly all primitive American
religions.
This is very far from the popular conception of Indian religion, with
its "Good Spirit" and "Bad Spirit." Such ideas were not familiar to
the native mind. Heckewelder, Brainerd and Loskiel all assure us in
positive terms that the notion of a bad spirit, a "Devil," was wholly
unknown to the aborigines, and entirely borrowed from the whites.
Nor was the Divinity of Light looked upon as a beneficent father, or
anything of that kind. The Indian did not appeal to him for assistance,
as to his _totemic and personal gods_.
These were conceived to be in the form of animals, and various acts
of propitiation to them were performed. Such acts were not a worship
of the animals themselves. Brainerd explains this very correctly when
he says: "They do not suppose a divine power essential to or inhering
in these creatures, but that some invisible beings, not distinguished
from each other by certain names, but only notionally, communicate to
these animals a great power, and so make these creatures the immediate
authors of good to certain persons. Hence such a creature becomes
_sacred_ to the person to whom he is supposed to be the immediate
author of good, and through him they must worship the invisible powers,
though to others he is no more than another creature."[138]
They rarely attempted to set forth the divinity in image. The rude
representation of a human head, cut in wood, small enough to be carried
on the person, or life size on a post, was their only idol. This was
called _wsinkhoalican_. They also drew and perhaps carved emblems of
their totemic guardian. Mr. Beatty describes the head chief's home as a
long building of wood: "Over the door a turtle is drawn, which is the
ensign of this particular tribe. On each door post was cut the face of
a grave old man."[139]
Occasionally, rude representations of the human head, chipped out of
stone, are exhumed in those parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey once
inhabited by the Lenape.[140] These are doubtless the _wsinkhoalican_
above mentioned.
_Doctrine of the Soul_.
There was a general belief in a soul, spirit or immaterial part of
man. For this the native words were _tschipey_ and _tschitschank_ (in
Brainerd, _chichuny_). The former is derived from a root signifying to
be separate or apart, while the latter means "the shadow."[141]
Their doctrine was that after death the soul went _south_, where it
would enjoy a happy life for a certain term, and then could return and
be born again into the world. In moments of spiritual illumination it
was deemed possible to recall past existences, and even to remember
the happy epoch passed in the realm of bliss.[142]
The path to this abode of the blessed was by the Milky Way, wherein the
opinion of the Delawares coincided with that of various other American
nations, as the Eskimos, on the north, and the Guaranis of Paraguay, on
the south.
The ordinary euphemism to inform a person that his death was at hand
was: "You are about to visit your ancestors;"[143] but most observers
agree that they were a timorous people, with none of that contempt of
death sometimes assigned them.[144]
_The Native Priests._
An important class among the Lenape were those called by the whites
doctors, conjurers, or medicine men, who were really the native
priests. They appear to have been of two schools, the one devoting
themselves mainly to divination, the other to healing.
According to Brainerd, the title of the former among the Delawares,
as among the New England Indians, was _powwow_, a word meaning "a
dreamer;" Chip., _bawadjagan_, a dream; _nind apawe_, I dream; Cree,
_pawa-miwin_, a dream. They were the interpreters of the dreams of
others, and themselves claimed the power of dreaming truthfully of the
future and the absent.[145] In their visions their guardian spirit
visited them; they became, in their own words, "all light," and they
"could see through men, and knew the thoughts of their hearts."[146]
At such times they were also instructed at what spot the hunters could
successfully seek game.
The other school of the priestly class was called, as we are informed
by Mr. Heckewelder, _medeu_.[147] This is the same term which we
find in Chipeway as _mide_ (_medaween_, Schoolcraft), and in Cree as
_mitew_, meaning a conjurer, a member of the Great Medicine Lodge.[148]
I suspect the word is from _m'iteh_, heart (Chip. _k'ide_, thy heart),
as this organ was considered the source and centre of life and the
emotions, and is constantly spoken of in a figurative sense in Indian
conversation and oratory.
Among the natives around New York Bay there was a body of conjurers who
professed great austerity of life. They had no fixed homes, pretended
to absolute continence, and both exorcised sickness and officiated
at the funeral rites. Their name, as reported by the Dutch, was
_kitzinacka_, which is evidently Great Snake (_gitschi_, _achkook_).
The interesting fact is added, that at certain periodical festivals a
sacrifice was prepared, which it was believed was carried off by a
huge serpent.[149]
When the missionaries came among the Indians, the shrewd and able
natives who had been accustomed to practice on the credulity of their
fellows recognized that the new faith would destroy their power, and
therefore they attacked it vigorously. Preachers arose among them, and
claimed to have had communications from the Great Spirit about all the
matters which the Christian teachers talked of. These native exhorters
fabricated visions and revelations, and displayed symbolic drawings on
deerskins, showing the journey of the soul after death, the path to
heaven, the twelve emetics and purges which would clean a man of sin,
etc.
Such were the famed prophets Papunhank and Wangomen, who set up as
rivals in opposition to David Zeisberger; and such those who so
constantly frustrated the efforts of the pious Brainerd. Often do both
of these self-sacrificing apostles to the Indians complain of the evil
influence which such false teachers exerted among the Delawares.[150]
The existence of this class of impostors is significant for the
appreciation of such a document as the WALAM OLUM. They were partially
acquainted with the Bible history of creation; some had learned to
read and write in the mission schools; they were eager to imitate
the wisdom of the whites, while at the same time they were intent on
claiming authentic antiquity and originality for all their sayings.
_Religious Ceremonies._
The principal sacred ceremony was the dance and accompanying song.
This was called _kanti kanti_, from a verbal found in most Algonkin
dialects with the primary meaning to sing (Abnaki, _skan_, je danse et
chante en même temps, Rasles; Cree, _nikam_; Chip., _nigam_, I sing).
From this noisy rite, which seems to have formed a part of all the
native celebrations, the settlers coined the word _cantico_, which has
survived and become incorporated into the English tongue.
Zeisberger describes other festivals, some five in number. The most
interesting is that called _Machtoga_, which he translates "to sweat."
This was held in honor of "their Grandfather, the Fire." The number
twelve appears in it frequently as regulating the actions and numbers
of the performers. This had evident reference to the twelve months of
the year, but his description is too vague to allow a satisfactory
analysis of the rite.
FOOTNOTES:
[48] See his remarks in the Transactions of the _American Philological
Association_, 1872, p. 157.
[49] For instance, in Governor Patrick Gordon's Letter to the Friends,
1728, where he speaks of "Our Lenappys or Delaware Indians," in
_Penna. Archives_, Vol. I, p. 230. At the treaty of Easton, 1756,
Tedyuscung, head chief of the Delawares, is stated to have represented
the "Lenopi" Indians (_Minutes of the Council_, Phila., 1757), and in
the "Conference of Eleven Nations living West of Allegheny," held at
Philadelphia, 1759, the Delawares are included under the tribal name
"Leonopy." See _Minutes of the Provincial Council of Penna._, Vol.
VIII, p. 418.
[50] So Mr. Lewis H. Morgan says, and he obtained the facts on the
spot. "Len-ã'-pe was their former name, and is still used." _Systems of
Consanguinity and Affinity_, p. 289 (Washington, 1871).
[51] _History of the Indian Nations_, p. 401.
[52] _Transactions of the American Philological Association_, 1871, p.
144.
[53] Zeisberger's translation of Lenni Lenape as "people of the same
nation," would be more literal if it were put "men of our nation."
President Stiles, in his _Itinerary_, makes the statement: "The
Delaware tribe is called _Poh-he-gan_ or _Mo-hee-gan_ by themselves,
and _Auquitsaukon_." I have not been able to reach a satisfactory
solution of the first and third of these names.
That the Delawares did use the term Lenape as their own designation, is
shown by the refrain of one of their chants, preserved by Heckewelder.
It was--"_Husca n'lenape-win_," Truly I--a Lenape--am.
Or: "I am a true man of our people." _Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc._, Vol.
IV, N. Ser., p. 381.
[54] Mr. Eager, in his _History of Orange County_, quotes the old
surveyor, Nicolas Scull (1730), in favor of translating _minisink_ "the
water is gone," and Ruttenber, in his _History of the Native Tribes
of the Hudson River_, supposes that it is derived from _menatey_, an
island. Neither of these commends itself to modern Delawares.
[55] See _Penna. Archives_, Vol. I, pp. 540-1.
[56] Proud, _History of Penna_, Vol. II, p. 297, S Smith, _Hist of New
Jersey_, p. 456; Henry, _Dict. of the Delaware Lang._, MS., p. 539.
[57] Delaware Vocabulary in Whipple, Ewbank & Turner's _Report_, 1855.
The German form is _tsickenum_.
[58] _A Brief Relation of the Voyage of Captayne Thomas Yong_, in
_Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls._, 4th series, Vol. IX, p. 119.
[59] See the original Warrant of Survey and Minutes relating thereto,
in Dr. George Smith's _History of Delaware County, Pa._, pp. 209, 210
(Phila., 1862). The derivation is uncertain. Captain John Smith gives
_mahcawq_ for pumpkin, and this appears to be the word in the native
name of Chester Creek, _Macopanackhan_, which is also seen in _Marcus_
Hook. (See Smith's _Hist. Del. Co._, pp. 145, 381.) I am inclined to
identify the _Macocks_ with the _M'okahoka_ as "the people of the
pumpkin place," or where those vegetables were cultivated.
[60] The Shawnee word is the same, _pellewaa_, whence their name for
the Ohio River, _Pellewaa seepee_, Turkey River. (Rev. David Jones,
_Journal of Two Visits Made to Some Nations of Indians on the West
Side of the River Ohio in 1772 and 1773_, p. 20.) From this is derived
the shortened form _Plaen_, seen in _Playwickey_, or _Planwikit_, the
town of those of the Turkey Tribe, in Berks county, Pa. (Heckewelder,
_Indian Names_, p, 355.)
[61] Heckewelder, _Hist. Indian Nations_, pp. 253-4.
[62] Lewis H. Morgan, _Ancient Society_, pp. 171-2.
[63] _Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania_, July 6th,
1694.
[64] Master Evelin's Letter is printed in Smith's _History of New
Jersey_, 2d ed. Some doubt has been cast on his letter, because of
its connection with the mythical "New Albion," but his personality
and presence on the river have been vindicated. See _The American
Historical Magazine_, Vol. I, 2d series, pp. 75, 76.
[65] _New Jersey Archives_, Vol. I, p. 183.
[66] Ibid, Vol. I, p. 73.
[67] Ruttenber, _Hist. of the Indian Tribes of Hudson River_, s. v.
[68] Heckewelder, in his unpublished MSS, asserts that both these names
mean "Opossum". It is true that the name of this animal in Lenape is
_woapink_, in the New Jersey dialect _opiing_, and in the Nanticoke of
Smith _oposon_, but all these are derived from the root _wab_, which
originally meant "white," and was applied to the East as the place of
the dawn and the light. The reference is to the light gray, or whitish,
color of the animal's hair. Compare the Cree, _wapiskowes_, cendré, il
a le poil blafard Lacombe, _Dictionnaire de la Langue des Cris_ s v.
[69] _On Indian Names_, p. 375, in _Trans American Philosophical
Society_, Vol. III, n. ser.
[70] Proud, _History of Pennsylvania_, Vol. I, 144, II, p. 295.
Heckewelder, _Tran. Am. Philo. Soc._, Vol. IV, p. 376.
[71] Matthew G. Henry, _Delaware Indian Dictionary_, p. 709. (MS in the
Library of the Am. Phil. Soc.)
[72] "The Monthees who we called Wemintheuw," etc. _Journal of Hendrick
Aupaumut_, _Mems. Hist. Soc. Pa._, Vol. II, p. 77.
[73] Heckewelder, _ubi supra_.
[74] _New Jersey Archives_, Vol. V, p. 22.
[75] _The Rise and Progress of a Remarkable Work of Grace Among the
Indians_. By David Brainerd, in _Works_, p. 304.
[76] E de Schweimtz, _Life of Zeisberger_, p. 660, note.
[77] _Travels into North America_, Vol. II, pp. 93-94 (London, 1771).
[78] Lacombe, _Dictionnaire de la Langue des Cris_, p. 711. Dr.
Trumbull, however, maintains that it is derived from _sohkau-au_, he
prevails over (note to Roger Williams' _Key_, p. 162). If there is a
genetic connection, the latter is the derivative. The word _sakima_ is
not known among the Minsi. In place of it they say _K'htai_, the great
one, from _kehtan_, great. From this comes the corrupted forms _tayach_
or _tallach_ of the Nanticokes, and the _tayac_ of the Pascatoways.
[79] Lewis H. Morgan, _Ancient Society_, p. 172.
[80] Loskiel, _Geschichte der Mission_, p. 168.
[81] For these particulars see Ettwein, _Traditions and Language of the
Indians_, in _Bulletin of the Pa. Hist. Soc._, Vol. I; Charles Beatty,
_Journal of a Tour, etc._, p. 51.
[82] C. Thompson, _Inquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the
Delaware and Shawnee Indians_, p. 16.
[83] I assign them the sweet potato on the excellent authority of Dr.
C. Thompson, _Essay on Indian Affairs_, in _Colls. of the Hist. Soc. of
Penna._, Vol. I, p. 81.
[84] Peter Kalm, _Travels in North America_, Vol. II, p. 42.
[85] See Peter Kalm, _Travels in North America_, Vol. II, pp. 110-115;
William Darlington, _Flora Cestrica_. (West Chester, Pa., 1837.)
[86] For these facts, see Bishop Ettwem's article on the Traditions
and Languages of the Indians, _Bulletin of the Pa. Hist. Soc._, 1848,
p. 32. Van der Donck (1656) describes these palisaded strongholds, and
Campanius (1642-48) gives a picture of one. See also E. de Schweimtz,
_Life of Zeisberger_, p. 83. The Mohegan houses were sometimes 180 feet
long, by about 20 feet wide, and occupied by numerous families. Van der
Donck, _Descrip. of the New Netherlands_, pp. 196-7. _Coll. N. Y. Hist.
Soc._, Ser. II, Vol. I.
The native name of these wooden forts was _menachk_, derived from
_manachen_, to cut wood (Cree, _manikka_, to cut with a hatchet). Roger
Williams calls them _aumansk_, a form of the same word.
[87] See the communication on "Pottery on the Delaware," by him, in
the Proceedings of the _Am. Phil. Soc._, 1868. The whole subject of
the archæology of the Delaware valley and New Jersey has been treated
in the most satisfactory manner by the distinguished antiquary, Dr.
Charles C. Abbott, in his work, _Primitive Industry_ (Salem, Mass.,
1881), and his _Stone Age in New Jersey_ (1877).
[88] Four specimens are reported from Berks Co., Pa., by Prof. D. P.
Brunner, in his volume, _The Indians of Berks Co., Pa._, pp. 94, 95
(Reading, 1881). These were an axe, a chisel, a knife and a gouge. The
metal was probably in part obtained in New Jersey, in part imported
from the Lake Superior region. See further, Abbott, _Primitive
Industry_, chap. xxviii. Peter Kalm, the Swedish naturalist, who
visited New Jersey in 1748, says that when the copper mines "upon the
second river between Elizabeth Town and New York" were discovered, old
mining holes were found and tools which the Indians had made use of.
_Travels in North America_, Vol. I, p. 384.
[89] Some antiquaries appear to have doubted whether the spear was in
use as a weapon of war among the Pennsylvania Indians. (See Abbott,
_Primitive Industry_, p. 248.) But the Susquehannocks are distinctly
reported as employing as a weapon "a strong and light spear of locust
wood." _Relatio Itineris in Marylandiam_, p. 85.
[90] For further information on this subject, an article may be
consulted in the _Transactions of the American Philosophical Society_,
1st Ser., Vol. III, pp. 222, et seq., by Mr. Hugh Martin, entitled "An
Account of the Principal Dies employed by the American Indians."
[91] The Delawares had three words for dog. One was _allum_, which
recurs in many Algonkin dialects, and is derived by Mr. Trumbull from
a root signifying "to lay hold of," or "to hold fast." The second was
_lennochum_ or _lenchum_, which means "the quadruped belonging to man;"
_lenno_, man; _chum_, a four-footed beast. The third was _moekaneu_, a
name derived from a general Algonkin root, in Cree, _mokku_, meaning
"to tear in pieces," from which the Delaware word for bear, _machque_,
has its origin, and also, significantly enough, the verb "to eat" in
some dialects.
[92] _History of West New Jersey_, p. 3 (London, 1698).
[93] _Bulletin Hist. Soc. of Penna._, 1848, p. 32.
[94] E. M. Ruttenber, _History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson River_,
p. 96, note.
[95] Maximilian, Prince of Wied, _Travels in America_, p. 35.
[96] _A Key into the Language of America_, p. 105.
[97] _Documentary History of New York_, Vol. III, pp. 29, 32.
[98] _Grammar of the Language of the Lenni Lenape_, pp 108-109.
[99] They are given, with translations, in Zeisberger's _Grammar_, p.
109.
[100] See Loskiel, _Geschichte der Mission_, etc., pp. 32, 33;
Heckewelder, _History of the Indian Nations_, chap. X.
[101] Dr. Charles C. Abbott, _Primitive Industry_, pp. 71, 207, 347,
379, 384, 390, 391. Dr. Abbott's suggestion that the bird's head seen
on several specimens might represent the totem of the Turkey gens of
the Lenape cannot be well founded, if Heckewelder is correct in saying
that their totemic mark was only the foot of the fowl. _Ind. Nations_,
p. 253.
[102] See _Proceedings Amer. Philos. Soc._, Vol. X.
[103] The subject is discussed, and comparative drawings of the native
signatures reproduced, by Prof. D. B. Brunner, in his useful work, _The
Indians of Berks County, Pa._, p. 68 (Reading, 1881).
[104] John Richardson's Diary, quoted in _An Account of the Conduct of
the Society of Friends toward the Indian Tribes_, pp. 61, 62 (London,
1844).
[105] _History and Statistics of the Indian Tribes_, Vol. I, plate 47,
B, and pages 353, 354.
[106] "Amiable and benevolent," says Heckewelder, whose life he aided
in saving on one occasion. _Indian Nations_, p. 285.
[107] E. de Schweinitz, _Life of Zeisberger_, p. 469.
[108] _Relation des Jesuites_, 1646, p. 33.
[109] Baraga, _A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language_, s. v.
[110] For an example, see de Schweinitz, _Life of Zeisberger_, p. 342.
[111] _Documentary History of New York_, Vol. IV, p. 437.
[112] _Journal of Conrad Weiser_; in _Early History of Western Penna._,
p. 16.
[113] _Tran. Am. Phil. Soc._, Vol. IV, p. 384.
[114] _A Dictionary of the Abnaki Language_, s. v. _Peinture_.
[115] See anté p. 53. Mr. Francis Vincent, in his _History of the State
of Delaware_, p. 36 (Phila., 1870), says of the colored earth of that
locality, that it is "a highly argillaceous loam, interspersed with
large and frequent masses of yellow, ochrey clay, some of which are
remarkable for fineness of texture, not unlike lithomarge, and consists
of white, yellow, red and dark blue clay in detached spots."
The Shawnees applied the same word to Paint Creek, which falls into the
Scioto, close to Chilicothe. They named it _Alamonee sepee_, of which
Paint Creek is a literal rendering. Rev. David Jones, _A Journal of Two
Visits to the West Side of the Ohio in 1772 and 1773_, p. 50.
[116] _Key into the Language of America_, p. 206.
[117] Lawson, in his _New Account of Carolina_, p. 180, says that the
natives there bore in mind their traditions by means of a "Parcel of
Reeds of different Lengths, with several distinct Marks, known to none
but themselves." James Adair writes of the Southern Indians "They count
certain very remarkable things by notched square sticks, which are
distributed among the head warriors and other chieftains of different
towns." _History of the Indians_, p. 75.
[118] Dr Edwin James, _Narrative of John Tanner_, p. 341.
[119] George Copway, _Traditional History of the Ojibway Nation_, pp
130, 131.
[120] Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, Vol. I, p. 339.
[121] Brainerd, _Life and Journal_, p. 410.
[122] E. de Schweinitz, _Life and Times of Zeisberger_, p. 92.
[123] _Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls_., 4th series, Vol. IX, where Captain
Young's journal is printed.
[124] _Heckewelder MSS_. in Amer Phil. Soc. Lib.
[125] _An Account of the Conduct of the Society of Friends toward the
Indian Tribes_, p. 72 (London, 1844).
[126] The records of my own family furnish an example of this. My
ancestor, William Brinton, arrived in the fall of 1684, and, with
his wife and children, immediately took possession of a grant in the
unbroken wilderness, about twenty miles from Philadelphia. A severe
winter set in; their food supply was exhausted, and they would probably
have perished but for the assistance of some neighboring lodges of
Lenape, who provided them with food and shelter. It is, therefore, a
debt of gratitude which I owe to this nation to gather its legends, its
language, and its memories, so that they,
"in books recorded.
May, like hoarded
Household words, no more depart!"
[127] _A Discourse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio_,
p. 25 (Cinn., 1838). I add the further testimony of John Brickell,
who was a captive among them from 1791 to 1796. He speaks of them
as fairly virtuous and temperate, and adds: "Honesty, bravery and
hospitality are cardinal virtues among them." _Narrative of Captivity
among the Delaware Indians_, in the _American Pioneer_, Vol. I, p. 48
(Cincinnati, 1844).
[128] Life and Journal, p. 381.
[129] "Others imagined the Sun to be the only deity, and that all
things were made by him." David Brainerd, _Life and Journal_, p. 395.
[130] Loskiel, _Geschichte der Mission_, p. 55.
[131] David Brainerd, _Life and Journal_, pp. 395, 399.
[132] D. G. Brinton, _The Myths of the New World_, chap. vi; _American
Hero Myths_, chap ii.
[133] Loskiel, _Geschichte der Mission_, p. 53.
[134] He is thus spoken of in Campanius, _Account of New Sweden_, Book
III, chap. xi. Compare my _Myths of the New World_, p. 190.
[135] Brainerd, _Life and Journal_, p. 395.
[136] His statements are in the _Calls of the Mass Hist Soc_, Vol. X
(1st Series), p. 108.
[137] Wm Strachey, _Historie of Travaile into Virginia_, p. 98.
[138] Brainerd, _Life and Travels_, p. 394.
[139] Charles Beatty, _Journal_, p. 44.
[140] One, about five inches in height, of a tough, argillaceous
stone, is figured and described by Dr. C. C. Abbott, in the _American
Naturalist_, October, 1882. It was found in New Jersey.
[141] From the same root, _tschip_, are derived the Lenape
_tschipilek_, something strange or wonderful; _tschepsit_, a stranger
or foreigner; and _tschapiet_, the invocation of spirits. Among the
rules agreed upon by Zeisberger's converted Indians was this: "We will
use no _tschapiet_, or witchcraft, when hunting." (De Schweinitz, _Life
of Zeisberger_, p. 379.)
The root _tschitsch_ indicates repetition, and applied to the shadow or
spint of man means as much as his double or counterpart.
A third word for soul was the verbal form _w'tellenapewoagan_,
"man--his substance;" but this looks as if it had been manufactured by
the missionaries.
[142] Compare Loskiel, _Geschichte_, pp. 48, 49; Brainerd, _Life and
Journal_, pp. 314, 396, 399, 400.
[143] Schweinitz, _Life of Zeisberger_, p. 472.
[144] Heckewelder, MSS., says that he has often heard the lamentable
cry, _matta wingi angeln_, "I do not want to die."
[145] "As for the Powaws," says the native Mohegan, the Rev. Sampson
Occum, in his account of the Montauk Indians of Long Island, "they say
they get their art from dreams." _Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls_., Vol. X, p.
109. Dr. Trumbull's suggested affinity of powaw with Cree _tàp-wayoo_,
he speaks the truth; Nar, _taupowauog_, wise speakers, is, I think,
correct, but the latter are secondary senses. They were wise, and
gave true counsel, who could correctly interpret dreams. Compare the
Iroquois _katetsens_, to dream; _katetsiens_, to practice medicine,
Indian fashion. Cuoq, _Lexique de la Langue Iroquoise_.
[146] David Brainerd, _Life and Journal_, pp. 400, 401.
[147] _Hist. Ind. Nations_, p. 280.
[148] _Hist. and Statistics of the Indian Tribes_, Vol. I, p. 358, seq.
[149] Wassenaer's _Description of the New Netherlands_ (1631), in _Doc.
Hist of New York_, Vol. III, pp 28, 40. Other signs of serpent worship
were common among the Lenape. Loskiel states that their cast-off skins
were treasured as possessing wonderful curative powers (_Geschichte_,
p. 147), and Brainerd saw an Indian offering supplications to one
(_Life and Journal_, p. 395).
[150] See Brainerd, _Life and Journal_, pp. 310, 312, 364, 398, 425,
etc., and E. de Schweinitz, _Life of Zeisberger_, pp. 265, 332, etc.