The history of this once powerful tribe is so closely and necessarily
connected with that of the United States, and the revolutionary war,
that it is generally pretty well understood. This tribe formerly
inhabited great parts of the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, (and
for the last sixty years,) a part of the states of Ohio and Indiana,
to which they had removed; and now, a considerable portion of them,
a tract of country several hundred miles West of the Mississippi,
which has been conveyed to them by Government in exchange for their
lands in Ohio, from which it is expected the remainder of the tribe
will soon move. It has been said that this tribe came formerly from
Florida, but I do not believe it. The mere fact, that there is found
in East Florida a river by the name of _Su-wa-nee_, which bears some
resemblance to _Sha-wa-no_, seems, as far as I can learn, to be the
principal evidence that has been adduced for the fact. They have
evidently been known, and that within the scope of our authenticated
history, on the Atlantic coast—on the Delaware and Chesapeak bays.
And after that, have fought their way against every sort of trespass
and abuse—against the bayonet and disease, through the states of
Pennsylvania, Delaware and Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, to
their present location near the Konzas River, at least 1500 miles from
their native country.
This tribe and the Delawares, of whom I have spoken, were neighbours
on the Atlantic coast, and alternately allies and enemies, have
retrograded and retreated together—have fought their enemies united,
and fought each other, until their remnants that have outlived their
nation’s calamities, have now settled as neighbours together in the
Western wilds; where, it is probable, the sweeping hand of death will
soon relieve _them_ from further necessity of warring or moving; and
the _Government_, from the necessity or policy of proposing to them a
yet more distant home. In their long and disastrous pilgrimage, both
of these tribes laid claim to, and alternately occupied the beautiful
and renowned valley of Wy-ô-ming; and after strewing the Susquehana’s
lovely banks with their bones, and their tumuli, they both yielded at
last to the dire necessity, which follows all civilized intercourse
with natives, and fled to the Alleghany, and at last to the banks of
the Ohio; where necessity soon came again, and again, and again, until
the great _“Guardian” of all “red children”_ placed them where they now
are.
There are of this tribe remaining about 1200; some few of whom are
agriculturists, and industrious and temperate, and religious people;
but the greater proportion of them are miserably poor and dependent,
having scarcely the ambition to labour or to hunt, and a passion for
whiskey-drinking, that sinks them into the most abject poverty, as they
will give the last thing they possess for a drink of it.
There is not a tribe on the Continent whose history is more interesting
than that of the Shawanos, nor any one that has produced more
extraordinary men.
The great Tecumseh, whose name and history I can but barely allude
to at this time, was the chief of this tribe, and perhaps the most
extraordinary Indian of his age.
The present chief of the tribe _Lay-law-she-kaw_ (he who goes up the
river, +plate+ 211), is a very aged, but extraordinary man, with a
fine and intelligent head, and his ears slit and stretched down to
his shoulders, a custom highly valued in this tribe; which is done
by severing the rim of the ear with a knife, and stretching it down
by wearing heavy weights attached to it at times, to elongate it as
much as possible, making a large orifice, through which, on parades,
&c. they often pass a bunch of arrows of quills, and wear them as
ornaments.
In this instance (which was not an unusual one), the rims of the ears
were so extended down, that they touched the shoulders, making a ring
through which the whole hand could easily be passed. The daughter of
this old chief, _Ka-te-qua_ (the female eagle, +plate+ 212), was an
agreeable-looking girl, of fifteen years of age, and much thought of by
the tribe. _Pah-te-coo-saw_ (the straight man, +plate+ 213), a warrior
of this tribe, has distinguished himself by his exploits; and when he
sat for his picture, had painted his face in a very curious manner with
black and red paint.
_Ten-squa-ta-way_ (the open door, +plate+ 214), called the “_Shawnee
Prophet_,” is perhaps one of the most remarkable men, who has
flourished on these frontiers for some time past. This man is brother
of the famous Tecumseh, and quite equal in his _medicines_ or
mysteries, to what his brother was in arms; he was blind in his left
eye, and in his right hand he was holding his “_medicine fire_,” and
his “_sacred string of beans_” in the other. With these mysteries
he made his way through most of the North Western tribes, enlisting
warriors wherever he went, to assist Tecumseh in effecting his great
scheme, of forming a confederacy of all the Indians on the frontier,
to drive back the whites and defend the Indians’ rights; which he told
them could never in any other way be protected. His plan was certainly
a correct one, if not a very great one; and his brother, the Prophet,
exercised his astonishing influence in raising men for him to fight his
battles, and carry out his plans. For this purpose, he started upon
an embassy to the various tribes on the Upper Missouri, nearly all of
which he visited with astonishing success; exhibiting his mystery fire,
and using his sacred string of beans, which every young man who was
willing to go to war, was to touch, thereby taking the solemn oath to
start when called upon, and not to turn back.
In this most surprising manner, this ingenious man entered the villages
of most of his inveterate enemies, and of others who never had heard
of the name of his tribe; and manœuvred in so successful a way, as to
make his medicines a safe passport for him to all of their villages;
and also the means of enlisting in the different tribes, some eight or
ten thousand warriors, who had solemnly sworn to return with him on his
way back; and to assist in the wars that Tecumseh was to wage against
the whites on the frontier. I found, on my visit to the Sioux—to the
Puncahs, to the Riccarees and the Mandans, that he had been there,
and even to the Blackfeet; and everywhere told them of the potency of
his mysteries, and assured them, that if they allowed the fire to go
out in their wigwams, it would prove fatal to them in every case. He
carried with him into every wigwam that he visited, the image of a
dead person of the size of life; which was made ingeniously of some
light material, and always kept concealed under bandages of thin white
muslin cloths and not to be opened; of this he made great mystery, and
got his recruits to swear by touching a sacred string of white beans,
which he had attached to its neck or some other way secreted about
it. In this way by his extraordinary cunning, he had carried terror
into the country as far as he went; and had actually enlisted some
eight or ten thousand men, who were sworn to follow him home; and in
a few days would have been on their way with him, had not a couple of
his political enemies in his own tribe, followed on his track, even
to those remote tribes, and defeated his plans, by pronouncing him
an impostor; and all of his forms and plans an imposition upon them,
which they would be fools to listen to. In this manner, this great
recruiting officer was defeated in his plans, for raising an army of
men to fight his brother’s battles; and to save his life, he discharged
his medicines as suddenly as possible, and secretly travelled his
way home, over those vast regions, to his own tribe, where the death
of Tecumseh, and the opposition of enemies, killed all his splendid
prospects, and doomed him to live the rest of his days in silence, and
a sort of disgrace; like all men in Indian communities who pretend to
_great medicine_, in any way, and fail; as they all think such failure
an evidence of the displeasure of the Great Spirit, who always judges
right.
This, no doubt, has been a very shrewd and influential man, but
circumstances have destroyed him, as they have many other great men
before him; and he now lives respected, but silent and melancholy
in his tribe. I conversed with him a great deal about his brother
Tecumseh, of whom he spoke frankly, and seemingly with great pleasure;
but of himself and his own great schemes, he would say nothing. He told
me that Tecumseh’s plans were to embody all the Indian tribes in a
grand confederacy, from the province of Mexico, to the Great Lakes, to
unite their forces in an army that would be able to meet and drive back
the white people, who were continually advancing on the Indian tribes,
and forcing them from their lands towards the Rocky Mountains—that
Tecumseh was a great general, and that nothing but his premature death
defeated his grand plan.
The Shawanos, like most of the other remnants of tribes, in whose
countries the game has been destroyed, and by the use of whiskey, have
been reduced to poverty and absolute want, have become, to a certain
degree, agriculturists; raising corn and beans, potatoes, hogs, horses,
&c., so as to be enabled, if they could possess anywhere on earth, a
country which they could have a certainty of holding in perpetuity, as
their own, to plant and raise their own crops, and necessaries of life
from the ground.
The Government have effected with these people, as with most of the
other dispersed tribes, an arrangement by which they are to remove West
of the Mississippi, to lands assigned them; on which they are solemnly
promised a home _for ever_; the uncertain definition of which important
word, time and circumstances alone will determine.
Besides the personages whom I have above-mentioned, I painted the
portraits of several others of note in the tribe; and amongst them
_Lay-loo-ah-pe-ai-shee-kaw_ (the grass-bush and blossom), whom I
introduce in this place, rather from the very handy and poetical name,
than from any great personal distinction known to have been acquired by
him.
[Illustration: 211 212]
[Illustration: 213 214]
+The CHER-O-KEES.+
Living in the vicinity of, and about Fort Gibson, on the Arkansas,
and 700 miles west of the Mississippi river, are a third part or more
of the once very numerous and powerful tribe who inhabited and still
inhabit, a considerable part of the state of Georgia, and under a
Treaty made with the United States Government, have been removed to
those regions, where they are settled on a fine tract of country;
and having advanced somewhat in the arts and agriculture before they
started, are now found to be mostly living well, cultivating their
fields of corn and other crops, which they raise with great success.
Under a serious difficulty existing between these people (whom their
former solemn Treaties with the United States Government, were
acknowledged a free and independent nation, with powers to make and
enforce their own laws), and the state of Georgia, which could not
admit such a Government within her sovereignty, it was thought most
expedient by the Government of the United States, to propose to them,
for the fourth or fifth time, to enter into Treaty stipulations again
to move; and by so doing to settle the difficult question with the
state of Georgia, and at the same time, to place them in peaceable
possession of a large tract of fine country, where they would for ever
be free from the continual trespasses and abuses which it was supposed
they would be subjected to, if they were to remain in the state of
Georgia, under the present difficulties and the high excited feelings
which were then existing in the minds of many people along their
borders.
_John Ross_, a civilized and highly educated and accomplished
gentleman, who is the head-chief of the tribe, (+plate+ 215), and
several of his leading subordinate chiefs, have sternly and steadily
rejected the proposition of such a Treaty; and are yet, with a great
majority of the nation remaining on their own ground in the state of
Georgia, although some six or 7000 of the tribe have several years
since removed to the Arkansas, under the guidance and controul of an
aged and dignified chief by the name of _Jol-lee_ (+plate+ 217).
This man, like most of the chiefs, as well as a very great proportion
of the Cherokee population, has a mixture of white and red blood in
his veins, of which, in this instance, the first seems decidedly to
predominate. Another chief, and second to this, amongst this portion of
the Cherokees, by the name of Teh-ke-neh-kee (the black coat), I have
also painted and placed in my Collection, as well as a very interesting
specimen of the Cherokee women (+plate+ 216).
I have travelled pretty generally through the several different
locations of this interesting tribe, both in the Western and Eastern
divisions, and have found them, as well as the Choctaws and Creeks,
their neighbours, very far advanced in the arts; affording to the world
the most satisfactory evidences that are to be found in America, of the
fact, that the Indian was not made to shun and evade good example, and
necessarily to live and die a brute, as many speculating men would
needs record them and treat them, until they are robbed and trampled
into the dust; that no living evidences might give the lie to their
theories, or draw the cloak from their cruel and horrible iniquities.
As I have repeatedly said to my readers, in the course of my former
epistles, that the greater part of my time would be devoted to the
condition and customs of the tribes that might be found in their
primitive state, they will feel disposed to pardon me for barely
introducing the Cherokees, and several others of these very interesting
tribes, and leaving them and their customs and histories (which are of
themselves enough for volumes), to the reader, who is, perhaps, nearly
as familiar as I am myself, with the full and fair accounts of these
people, who have had their historians and biographers.
The history of the Cherokees and other numerous remnants of tribes,
who are the exhabitants of the finest and most valued portions of the
United States, is a subject of great interest and importance, and has
already been woven into the most valued histories of the country, as
well as forming material parts of the archives of the Government, which
is my excuse for barely introducing the reader to them, and beckoning
him off again to the native and untrodden wilds, to teach him something
new and unrecorded. Yet I leave the subject, as I left the people (to
whom I became attached, for their kindness and friendship), with a
heavy heart, wishing them success and the blessing of the Great Spirit,
who alone can avert the _doom_ that would almost seem to be fixed for
their unfortunate race.
The Cherokees amount in all to about 22,000, 16,000 of whom are yet
living in Georgia, under the Government of their chief, John Ross,
whose name I have before mentioned; with this excellent man, who has
been for many years devotedly opposed to the Treaty stipulations for
moving from their country, I have been familiarly acquainted; and,
notwithstanding the bitter invective and animadversions that have been
by his political enemies heaped upon him, I feel authorized, and bound,
to testify to the unassuming and gentlemanly urbanity of his manners,
as well as to the rigid temperance of his habits, and the purity of
his language, in which I never knew him to transgress for a moment, in
public or private interviews.
At this time, the most strenuous endeavours are making on the part
of the Government and the state of Georgia, for the completion of an
arrangement for the removal of the whole of this tribe, as well as
of the Choctaws and Seminoles; and I have not a doubt of their final
success, which seems, from all former experience, to attend every
project of the kind made by the Government to their red children.[19]
[Illustration: 215 216]
[Illustration: 217 218]
[Illustration: 219 220]
[Illustration: 221 222]
It is not for me to decide, nor in this place to reason, as to the
justice or injustice of the treatment of these people at the hands of
the Government or individuals; or of the wisdom of the policy which is
to place them in a new, though vast and fertile country, 1000 miles
from the land of their birth, in the doubtful dilemma whether to break
the natural turf with their rusting ploughshares, or string their bows,
and dash over the boundless prairies, beckoned on by the alluring
dictates of their nature, seeking laurels amongst the ranks of their
new enemies, and subsistence amongst the herds of buffaloes.
Besides the Cherokees in Georgia, and those that I have spoken of in
the neighbourhood of Fort Gibson, there is another band or family
of the same tribe, of several hundreds, living on the banks of the
Canadian river, an hundred or more miles South West of Fort Gibson,
under the Government of a distinguished chief by the name of _Tuch-ee_
(familiarly called by the white people, “_Dutch_,” +plate+ 218). This
is one of the most extraordinary men that lives on the frontiers at
the present day, both for his remarkable history, and for his fine and
manly figure, and character of face.
This man was in the employment of the Government as a guide and hunter
for the regiment of dragoons, on their expedition to the Camanchees,
where I had him for a constant companion for several months, and
opportunities in abundance, for studying his true character, and
of witnessing his wonderful exploits in the different varieties of
the chase. The history of this man’s life has been very curious and
surprising; and I sincerely hope that some one, with more leisure and
more talent than myself, will take it up, and do it justice. I promise
that the life of this man furnishes the best materials for a popular
tale, that are now to be procured on the Western frontier.
He is familiarly known, and much of his life, to all the officers who
have been stationed at Fort Gibson, or at any of the posts in that
region of country.
Some twenty years or more since, becoming fatigued and incensed with
civilized encroachments, that were continually making on the borders of
the Cherokee country in Georgia, where he then resided, and probably,
foreseeing the disastrous results they were to lead to, he beat up
for volunteers to emigrate to the West, where he had designed to go,
and colonize in a wild country beyond the reach and contamination of
civilized innovations; and succeeded in getting several hundred men,
women, and children, whom he led over the banks of the Mississippi, and
settled upon the head waters of White River, where they lived until
the appearance of white faces, which began to peep through the forests
at them, when they made another move of 600 miles to the banks of the
Canadian, where they now reside; and where, by the system of desperate
warfare, which he has carried on against the Osages and the Camanchees,
he has successfully cleared away from a large tract of fine country,
all the enemies that could contend for it, and now holds it, with his
little band of myrmidons, as their own undisputed soil, where they are
living comfortably by raising from the soil fine crops of corn and
potatoes, and other necessaries of life; whilst they indulge whenever
they please, in the pleasures of the chase amongst the herds of
buffaloes, or in the natural propensity for ornamenting their dresses
and their war-clubs with the scalp-locks of their enemies.
+The CREEKS (or MUS-KO-GEES).+
Of 20,000 in numbers, have, until quite recently, occupied an immense
tract of country in the states of Mississippi and Alabama; but by a
similar arrangement (and for a similar purpose) with the Government,
have exchanged their possessions there for a country, adjoining to
the Cherokees, on the South side of the Arkansas, to which they have
already all removed, and on which, like the Cherokees, they are laying
out fine farms, and building good houses, in which they live; in many
instances, surrounded by immense fields of corn and wheat. There is
scarcely a finer country on earth than that now owned by the Creeks;
and in North America, certainly no Indian tribe more advanced in the
arts and agriculture than they are. It is no uncommon thing to see a
Creek with twenty or thirty slaves at work on his plantation, having
brought them from a slave-holding country, from which, in their long
journey, and exposure to white man’s ingenuity, I venture to say, that
most of them got rid of one-half of them, whilst on their long and
disastrous crusade.
The Creeks, as well as the Cherokees and Choctaws, have good schools
and churches established amongst them, conducted by excellent and pious
men, from whose example they are drawing great and lasting benefits.
In +plates+ 219 and 220, I have given the portraits of two
distinguished men, and I believe, both chiefs. The first by the name of
_Stee-cha-co-me-co_ (the great king), familiarly called “Ben Perryman;”
and the other. _Hol-te-mal-te-tez-te-neehk-ee_ (——), called “Sam
Perryman.” These two men are brothers, and are fair specimens of the
tribe, who are mostly clad in calicoes, and other cloths of civilized
manufacture; tasselled and fringed oft by themselves in the most
fantastic way, and sometimes with much true and picturesque taste. They
use a vast many beads, and other trinkets, to hang upon their necks,
and ornament their moccasins and beautiful belts.
+The CHOCTAWS.+
Of fifteen thousand, are another tribe, removed from the Northern
parts of Alabama, and Mississippi, within the few years past, and now
occupying a large and rich tract of country, South of the Arkansas and
the Canadian rivers; adjoining to the country of the Creeks and the
Cherokees, equally civilized, and living much in the same manner.
[Illustration: 223]
In this tribe I painted the portrait of their famous and excellent
chief, _Mo-sho-la-tub-bee_ (he who puts out and kills, +plate+ 221),
who has since died of the small-pox. In the same plate will also be
seen, the portrait of a distinguished and very gentlemanly man, who
has been well-educated, and who gave me much curious and valuable
information, of the history and traditions of his tribe. The name of
this man, is _Ha-tchoc-tuck-nee_ (the snapping turtle, +plate+ 222),
familiarly called by the whites “_Peter Pinchlin_.”
These people seem, even in their troubles, to be happy; and have,
like all the other remnants of tribes, preserved with great tenacity
their different games, which it would seem they are everlastingly
practicing for want of other occupations or amusements in life. Whilst
I was staying at the Choctaw agency in the midst of their nation, it
seemed to be a sort of season of amusements, a kind of holiday; when
the whole tribe almost, were assembled around the establishment, and
from day to day we were entertained with some games or feats that were
exceedingly amusing: horse-racing, dancing, wrestling, foot-racing, and
ball-playing, were amongst the most exciting; and of all the catalogue,
the most beautiful, was decidedly that of ball-playing. This wonderful
game, which is the favourite one amongst all the tribes, and with these
Southern tribes played exactly the same, can never be appreciated by
those who are not happy enough to see it.
It is no uncommon occurrence for six or eight hundred or a thousand of
these young men, to engage in a game of ball, with five or six times
that number of spectators, of men, women and children, surrounding the
ground, and looking on. And I pronounce such a scene, with its hundreds
of Nature’s most beautiful models, denuded, and painted of various
colours, running and leaping into the air, in all the most extravagant
and varied forms, in the desperate struggles for the ball, a school for
the painter or sculptor, equal to any of those which ever inspired the
hand of the artist in the Olympian games or the Roman forum.
I have made it an uniform rule, whilst in the Indian country, to
attend every ball-play I could hear of, if I could do it by riding a
distance of twenty or thirty miles; and my usual custom has been on
such occasions, to straddle the back of my horse, and look on to the
best advantage. In this way I have sat, and oftentimes reclined, and
almost dropped from my horse’s back, with irresistible laughter at the
succession of droll tricks, and kicks and scuffles which ensue, in
the almost superhuman struggles for the ball. These plays generally
commence at nine o’clock, or near it, in the morning; and I have more
than once balanced myself on my pony, from that time till near sundown,
without more than one minute of intermission at a time, before the game
has been decided.
It is impossible for pen and ink alone, or brushes, or even with their
combined efforts, to give more than a _caricature_ of such a scene; but
such as I have been able to do, I have put upon the canvass, and in
the slight outlines which I have here attached in +plates+ 224, 225,
226, taken from those paintings, (for the colouring to which the reader
must look to my pen,) I will convey as correct an account as I can, and
leave the reader to imagine the rest; or look to _other books_ for what
I may have omitted.
While at the Choctaw agency it was announced, that there was to be a
great play on a certain day, within a few miles, on which occasion I
attended, and made the three sketches which are hereto annexed; and
also the following entry in my note-book, which I literally copy out.
“Monday afternoon at three, o’clock, I rode out with Lieutenants S.
and M., to a very pretty prairie, about six miles distant, to the
ball-play-ground of the Choctaws, where we found several thousand
Indians encamped. There were two points of timber about half a mile
apart, in which the two parties for the play, with their respective
families and friends, were encamped; and lying between them, the
prairie on which the game was to be played. My companions and myself,
although we had been apprised, that to see the whole of a ball-play,
we must remain on the ground all the night previous, had brought
nothing to sleep upon, resolving to keep our eyes open, and see what
transpired through the night. During the afternoon, we loitered about
amongst the different tents and shantees of the two encampments, and
afterwards, at sundown, witnessed the ceremony of measuring out the
ground, and erecting the “byes” or goals which were to guide the play.
Each party had their goal made with two upright posts, about 25 feet
high and six feet apart, set firm in the ground, with a pole across
at the top. These goals were about forty or fifty rods apart; and at
a point just half way between, was another small stake, driven down,
where the ball was to be thrown up at the firing of a gun, to be
struggled for by the players. All this preparation was made by some
old men, who were, it seems, selected to be the judges of the play,
who drew a line from one bye to the other; to which directly came from
the woods, on both sides, a great concourse of women and old men,
boys and girls, and dogs and horses, where bets were to be made on
the play. The betting was all done across this line, and seemed to be
chiefly left to the women, who seemed to have martialled out a little
of everything that their houses and their fields possessed. Goods and
chattels—knives—dresses—blankets—pots and kettles—dogs and horses, and
guns; and all were placed in the possession of _stake-holders_, who sat
by them, and watched them on the ground all night, preparatory to the
play.
The sticks with which this tribe play, are bent into an oblong hoop
at the end, with a sort of slight web of small thongs tied across, to
prevent the ball from passing through. The players hold one of these in
each hand, and by leaping into the air, they catch the ball between the
two nettings and throw it, without being allowed to strike it, or catch
it in their hands.
The mode in which these sticks are constructed and used, will be seen
in the portrait of _Tullock-chish-ko_ (he who drinks the juice of the
stone), the most distinguished ball-player of the Choctaw nation
(+plate+ 223), represented in his ball-play dress, with his ball-sticks
in his hands. In every ball-play of these people, it is a rule of the
play, that no man shall wear moccasins on his feet, or any other dress
than his breech-cloth around his waist, with a beautiful bead belt,
and a “tail,” made of white horsehair or quills, and a “_mane_” on the
neck, of horsehair dyed of various colours.
This game had been arranged and “made up,” three or four months before
the parties met to play it, and in the following manner:—The two
champions who led the two parties, and had the alternate choosing of
the players through the whole tribe, sent runners, with the ball-sticks
most fantastically ornamented with ribbons and red paint, to be touched
by each one of the chosen players; who thereby agreed to be on the
spot at the appointed time and ready for the play. The ground having
been all prepared and preliminaries of the game all settled, and the
bettings all made, and goods all “staked,” night came on without
the appearance of any players on the ground. But soon after dark, a
procession of lighted flambeaux was seen coming from each encampment,
to the ground where the players assembled around their respective
byes; and at the beat of the drums and chaunts of the women, each
party of players commenced the “ball-play dance” (+plate+ 224). Each
party danced for a quarter of an hour around their respective byes,
in their ball-play dress; rattling their ball-sticks together in the
most violent manner, and all singing as loud as they could raise their
voices; whilst the women of each party, who had their goods at stake,
formed into two rows on the line between the two parties of players,
and danced also, in an uniform step, and all their voices joined in
chaunts to the Great Spirit; in which they were soliciting his favour
in deciding the game to their advantage; and also encouraging the
players to exert every power they possessed, in the struggle that
was to ensue. In the mean time, four old _medicine-men_, who were to
have the starting of the ball, and who were to be judges of the play,
were seated at the point where the ball was to be started; and busily
smoking to the Great Spirit for their success in judging rightly, and
impartially, between the parties in so important an affair.
This dance was one of the most picturesque scenes imaginable, and was
repeated at intervals of every half hour during the night, and exactly
in the same manner; so that the players were certainly awake all the
night, and arranged in their appropriate dress, prepared for the play
which was to commence at nine o’clock the next morning. In the morning,
at the hour, the two parties and all their friends, were drawn out
and over the ground; when at length the game commenced, by the judges
throwing up the ball at the firing of a gun; when an instant struggle
ensued between the players, who were some six or seven hundred in
numbers, and were mutually endeavouring to catch the ball in their
sticks, and throw it home and between their respective stakes; which,
whenever successfully done, counts one for game. In this game every
player was dressed alike, that is, _divested_ of all dress, except
the girdle and the tail, which I have before described; and in these
desperate struggles for the ball, when it is _up_ (+plate+ 225, where
hundreds are running together and leaping, actually over each other’s
heads, and darting between their adversaries’ legs, tripping and
throwing, and foiling each other in every possible manner, and every
voice raised to the highest key, in shrill yelps and barks)! there are
rapid successions of feats, and of incidents, that astonish and amuse
far beyond the conception of any one who has not had the singular good
luck to witness them. In these struggles, every mode is used that can
be devised, to oppose the progress of the foremost, who is likely to
get the ball; and these obstructions often meet desperate individual
resistance, which terminates in a violent scuffle, and sometimes
in fisticuffs; when their sticks are dropped, and the parties are
unmolested, whilst they are settling it between themselves; unless it
be by a general _stampede_, to which they are subject who are down, if
the ball happens to pass in their direction. Every weapon, by a rule of
all ball-plays, is laid by in their respective encampments, and no man
allowed to go for one; so that the sudden broils that take place on the
ground, are presumed to be as suddenly settled without any probability
of much personal injury; and no one is allowed to interfere in any way
with the contentious individuals.
There are times, when the ball gets to the ground (+plate+ 226),
and such a confused mass rushing together around it, and knocking
their sticks together, without the possibility of any one getting or
seeing it, for the dust that they raise, that the spectator loses his
strength, and everything else but his senses; when the condensed mass
of ball-sticks, and shins, and bloody noses, is carried around the
different parts of the ground, for a quarter of an hour at a time,
without any one of the mass being able to see the ball; and which they
are often thus scuffling for, several minutes after it has been thrown
off, and played over another part of the ground.
For each time that the ball was passed between the stakes of either
party, one was counted for their game, and a halt of about one minute;
when it was again started by the judges of the play, and a similar
struggle ensued; and so on until the successful party arrived to 100,
which was the limit of the game, and accomplished at an hour’s sun,
when they took the stakes; and then, by a previous agreement, produced
a number of jugs of whiskey, which gave all a wholesome drink, and sent
them all off merry and in good humour, but not drunk.
After this exciting day, the concourse was assembled in the vicinity
of the agency house, where we had a great variety of dances and other
amusements; the most of which I have described on former occasions.
One, however, was new to me, and I must say a few words of it: this was
the _Eagle Dance_, a very pretty scene, which is got up by their young
men, in honour of that bird, for which they seem to have a religious
regard. This picturesque dance was given by twelve or sixteen men,
whose bodies were chiefly naked and painted white, with white clay, and
each one holding in his hand the tail of the eagle, while his
head was also decorated with an eagle’s quill (+plate+ 227). Spears
were stuck in the ground, around which the dance was performed by four
men at a time, who had simultaneously, at the beat of the drum, jumped
up from the ground where they had all sat in rows of four, one row
immediately behind the other, and ready to take the place of the first
four when they left the ground fatigued, which they did by hopping or
jumping around behind the rest, and taking their seats, ready to come
up again in their turn, after each of the other sets had been through
the same forms.
[Illustration: 224]
[Illustration: 225]
[Illustration: 226]
In this dance, the steps or rather jumps, were different from anything
I had ever witnessed before, as the dancers were squat down, with their
bodies almost to the ground, in a severe and most difficult posture, as
will have been seen in the drawing.
I have already, in a former Letter, while speaking of the ancient
custom of flattening the head, given a curious tradition of this
interesting tribe, accounting for their having come from the West, and
I here insert another or two, which I had, as well as the former one,
from the lips of Peter Pinchlin, a very intelligent and influential man
in the tribe, of whom I have spoken in page 123.
_The Deluge._ “Our people have always had a tradition of the Deluge,
which happened in this way:—there was total darkness for a great time
over the whole of the earth; the Choctaw doctors or mystery-men looked
out for daylight for a long time, until at last they despaired of ever
seeing it, and the whole nation were very unhappy. At last a light was
discovered in the North and there was great rejoicing, until it was
found to be great mountains of water rolling on, which destroyed them
all, except a few families who had expected it and built a great raft,
on which they were saved.”
_Future State._ “Our people all believe that the spirit lives in a
future state—that it has a great distance to travel after death towards
the West—that it has to cross a dreadful deep and rapid stream, which
is hemmed in on both sides by high and rugged hills—over this stream,
from hill to hill, there lies a long and slippery pine-log, with the
bark peeled off, over which the dead have to pass to the delightful
hunting-grounds. On the other side of the stream there are six persons
of the good hunting-grounds, with rocks in their hands, which they
throw at them all when they are on the middle of the log. The good walk
on safely, to the good hunting-grounds, where there is one continual
day—where the trees are always green—where the sky has no clouds—where
there are continual fine and cooling breezes—where there is one
continual scene of feasting, dancing and rejoicing—where there is no
pain or trouble, and people never grow old, but for ever live young and
enjoy the youthful pleasures.
“The wicked see the stones coming, and try to dodge, by which they fall
from the log, and go down thousands of feet to the water, which is
dashing over the rocks, and is stinking with dead fish, and animals,
where they are carried around and brought continually back to the same
place in whirlpools—where the trees are all dead, and the waters are
full of toads and lizards, and snakes—where the dead are always hungry,
and have nothing to eat—are always sick, and never die—where the sun
never shines, and where the wicked are continually climbing up by
thousands on the sides of a high rock from which they can overlook the
beautiful country of the good hunting-grounds, the place of the happy,
but never can reach it.”
Origin of the _Craw-fish band_. “Our people have amongst them a band
which is called, the _Craw-fish band_. They formerly, but at a very
remote period, lived under ground, and used to come up out of the
mud—they were a species of craw-fish; and they went on their hands and
feet, and lived in a large cave deep under ground, where there was no
light for several miles. They spoke no language at all, nor could they
understand any. The entrance to their cave was through the mud—and
they used to run down through that, and into their cave; and thus, the
Choctaws were for a long time unable to molest them. The Choctaws used
to lay and wait for them to come out into the sun, where they would try
to talk to them, and cultivate an acquaintance.
“One day, a parcel of them were run upon so suddenly by the Choctaws,
that they had no time to go through the mud into their cave, but
were driven into it by another entrance, which they had through the
rocks. The Choctaws then tried a long time to smoke them out, and
at last succeeded—they treated them kindly—taught them the Choctaw
language—taught them to walk on two legs—made them cut off their toe
nails, and pluck the hair from their bodies, after which they adopted
them into their nation—and the remainder of them are living under
ground to this day.”
[Illustration: 227]
[19] Since writing the above, the Government have succeeded in
removing the remainder of the Cherokees beyond the Mississippi,
where they have taken up their residence along side of their old
friends, who emigrated several years since under _Jol-lee_, as
I have before mentioned. In the few years past, the Government
has also succeeded in stipulating with, and removing West of the
Mississippi, nearly every remnant of tribes spoken of in this
and the two last Letters, so that there are at this time but
a few hundreds of the red men East of the Mississippi; and it
is probable, that a few months more will effect the removal of
the remainder of them. See their present locations West of the
Mississippi, on the map at the beginning of this Volume.
LETTER—No. 50.