In war, the men used the bow and arrows, spear and tomahawk. They
protected themselves with round shields. They speared fish in the streams
and lakes or caught them in brush nets or with hooks of bone or
bird-claws.
There were three totems of the Lenape. Every man was either a wolf,
turkey, or turtle. He had one of these three animals for his emblem, and
was as fond of drawing or carving it as a boy among us is of writing his
name. This emblem was signed to treaties, it was painted on the houses, it
was carved on stones. But only those who were turtles drew their totem
entire; usually the wolf or the turkey were represented only by one foot.
Between a person and his totem there was a curious friendship, and it was
believed that the animal was a sort of protector and friend of those who
bore his name. All who had the same totem were blood-relations.
All Algonkins were accustomed to draw pictures to record events. The
blankets of chiefs were decorated with such pictures. The Ojibwas were
fond of writing birch-bark letters. One of the most interesting Indian
records known is the _Walam olum_; this means the red score or red record.
Probably it at first consisted of a lot of little sticks or boards with
some quaint red pictures upon them. These were probably kept tied together
into a little bundle. The original sticks have long been lost, but the one
hundred and eighty-four pictures were copied and are still preserved. They
were intended to assist in remembering a long poetical legend in which the
Algonkin ideas regarding the creation of the world and their tribal
history were told.
At first everything was good. Animals and men lived in peace. Then a
wicked serpent tried to drown the world. Only a few persons escaped to the
back of a great turtle. Their great hero Nanabush helped them. The waters
subsided. As the land where they now found themselves was cold, the people
determined to move southward. The story of their quarrels and divisions on
the journey is told, and also the way in which they seized their new home,
destroying or driving out the original owners.
The song in which this story is told is long and full of old words
difficult to understand. The Indians themselves must have had difficulty
in remembering it. It was a great help to have these little sticks with
the red pictures to remind them of its different parts.
Far to the west, close against the base of the Rocky Mountains, lived a
famous Algonkin tribe—the Blackfeet. They were great buffalo hunters and
warriors. We often think of Indians as being stern and morose, never
smiling, never amused. Yet most tribes had sunny tempers like children.
Mr. Grinnell, to show this side of Indian nature, describes a day in camp
in the olden, happy time. Two parts of his description describe feasts and
gambling. Feasts were in constant progress: sometimes one man would give
three in a day; men who were favorites might go from feast to feast all
day long. If a man wished to give a feast, he ordered the best food he had
to be cooked. Then, going outside, he called out the list of invited
guests: the name of each one was cried three times. At the close of his
invitation he announced how many pipes would be smoked: usually three.
When the guests came, each was given a dish, with his share of the food;
no one might have a second help, but it was quite polite to carry away
what was not eaten.
While the guests were feasting, the man of the house prepared a pipe and
tobacco. After the eating was over, the pipe was lighted and passed from
hand to hand, each person giving it to the one on his left. Meantime
stories of hunting and war were narrated and jokes cracked. Only one man
spoke at one time, the rest listening until he was through. Thus they
whiled away the time until the last pipe was smoked out, when the host,
knocking the ashes from the pipe, told them they might go.
All Indians are gamblers, and they have many gambling games. The Blackfeet
played one which was something like the famous game of Chunkey, played
among the Creeks. (See XIX.) A wheel about four inches in diameter with
five spokes on which were beads of different colors, made of horn or bone,
was used. It was rolled along upon a smooth piece of ground at the ends of
which logs were laid to stop it. One player stood at each end of the
course. After a player set the wheel to rolling, he hurled a dart after
it. This was done just before the wheel reached the end of its journey.
Points were counted according to the way in which the wheel and dart fell
with reference to each other. Ten counts made the game. This game always
attracted great crowds of spectators, who became greatly excited and bet
heavily on the result.
[Illustration.]
Blackfoot Squaw Traveling.
At night about their camp-fires the Blackfeet delighted to tell their
sacred stories, which they did not dare repeat in daylight. In telling a
story of personal adventure, Indians, like white people, were often
tempted to make it larger than it really was.
The Blackfeet and some other Indians had the following mode of getting at
the truth. When a man told an improbable story some one handed a pipe to
the medicine man, who painted the stem red and prayed over it, asking that
the man’s life might be long if his story were true, but cut short if the
story were false. The pipe was then filled and lighted and given to the
man. The medicine man said, as he handed it to him: “Accept this pipe, but
remember that if you smoke, your story must be as sure as that there is a
hole through this pipe and as straight as the hole through this stem. So
your life shall be long and you shall survive; but if you have spoken
falsely, your days are counted.” If he refused to smoke, as he surely
would if he had not spoken true things, every one knew that he was a
braggart and a liar.
DANIEL GARRISON BRINTON.—Physician, anthropologist. Has written
many books, mostly about American Indians. _The Lenape and their
Legends_, in which the _Walam olum_ is given in full, is a volume
in his _Library of Aboriginal American Literature_.