TEKAKWITHA WITH HER AUNTS AT GANDAWAGUE.
Tekakwitha's brother shared the fate of her parents. All three died
within the space of a few days. Overshadowed by death and disease when
she was only four years old, the little Indian child alone remained of
the family. How she won her name is not known, though Indian names have
always a meaning. They are never arbitrarily given. The word
"Tekakwitha," as M. Cuoq, the philologist, translates it, means "One who
approaches moving something before her." Marcoux, the author of a
complete Iroquois dictionary, renders it, "One who puts things in
order."[13]
It has been suggested in reference to M. Cuoq's interpretation, that the
name may have been given to her on account of a peculiar manner of
walking caused by her imperfect sight; for it is related that the
small-pox so injured her eyes that for a long time she was obliged to
shade them from a strong light. It is possible that in groping or
feeling her way while a child, she may have held out her hands in a way
that suggested the pushing of something in front of her, and thus have
received her name. On the other hand, the interpretation of M. Marcoux,
as given by Shea, is thoroughly in keeping with her character. She
indeed spent a great part of her life, as the record shows, in _putting
things in order_.
On the death of Tekakwitha's father, her uncle, according to the Indian
laws of descent, would fall heir to the title of chief, after having
been chosen by the matron or _stirps_ of the family,[14] and then duly
elected by the men of the Turtle clan. Tekakwitha then became an inmate
of her uncle's lodge,--which was quite natural, for indeed she was
likely to prove a valuable acquisition to the household. This uncle was
impoverished, no doubt, by the plague and also by the custom of making
presents. A chief is expected to dispense freely, and is generally poor
in spite of his honors. But daughters were always highly prized by the
Iroquois; as they grew up they were expected to do a large part of the
household work; and later, when wedded to some sturdy hunter, the lodge
to which a young woman belonged, claimed and received whatever her
husband brought from the chase. So the aunts and the uncle of Tekakwitha
acted quite as much from worldly wisdom as from humanity when they
decided to give the young orphan a home. Forethought was mixed with
their kindness, and perhaps also a bit of selfishness. They had no
children of their own, but they adopted another young girl besides
Tekakwitha, thus giving to their niece a sister somewhat older than
herself. The home of this family, after the small-pox had spent its
force and when the distress it caused had forced the Mohawks to make a
treaty of peace with the French, was at Gandawague,[15] on a high point
of land in the angle between Auries Creek and the Mohawk River.
[ILLUSTRATION]
Here on the crest of the hill, in a wheat-field west of the creek, there
still are signs of an Indian village, and just outside of the fence in a
patch of woods Indian graves and corn-pits are to be seen. Well does the
writer remember a bright summer day when that village site where
Tekakwitha must have spent her early childhood was visited and examined
for traces of Iroquois occupation. Three of us had driven over from the
spring and castle-site of Caughnawaga at Fonda to the west side of
Auries Creek. Leaving our carriage, we mounted the steep bank of the
stream, eager to find the exact site of Gandawague, to which the people
of Ossernenon moved before they crossed the river to Caughnawaga. We
stood at last on the hard-won summit, and there lay the landscape in its
tranquil beauty,--the Mohawk Valley, the river, a wheat-field against a
dark wood, and off in the distance the court-house of Fonda, and dim
Caughnawaga, all bathed in a glory of sunshine. Nearer at hand and
toward the east, a little white steeple gleamed through the trees,
marking the site of the modern village of Auriesville. We stood high
above it, on the upper river terrace, where old Gandawague had once
been; and though the rude Indian castle at that spot had long ago
been trampled out of existence, we seemed to see it rise again from the
ashes of its ancient hearthfires. Then, looking off toward the
Schoharie, in our mind's eye we plainly saw on the broad, grassy plateau
the still older village of Ossernenon, with its high palisade, that once
upheld the ghastly head of the martyred Jogues. The scene was before us
in all its details. The past had become like the present that day, and
what was then present, all blended with sunshine that blotted out the
tragic and left the heroic parts of the picture, has since become past.
Those glorious hours at the castle-sites near Auriesville, so rich in
awakened thought, contagious enthusiasm, and newly acquired information,
are only a memory now; and mention is made of them here in the hope that
others may feel a stir of interest in their hearts, and be roused to
visit the Mohawk Valley, and the places so closely linked to the names
of Jogues and Tekakwitha,--Ossernenon, where the shrine is built;
Gandawague, on the bank of Auries Creek; and Caughnawaga,[16] five miles
farther up the river.
[Illustration: SITES OF MOHAWK CASTLES 1642 TO 1700, _as located by JOHN
S CLARK, AUBURN NY_]
Tekakwitha was only a little girl when she lived at Gandawague. It could
hardly have been a large castle, on such a small bit of high land. They
had little need at this time of a large castle, for many had died of the
small-pox. The old Dutch records of the time relate that the Turtles, or
people of the lower castle, were building a new palisade, in the latter
part of the year 1659,--a task which would necessarily accompany a
removal from Ossernenon; and they asked the Dutchmen, their neighbors,
to help them. The friendship of these settlers for the Mohawks was put
to rather a queer test when they proposed that the Dutch should not only
furnish them with horses, but should drive them themselves, and drag the
heavy logs up the hill for the palisade.[17] They were not used to such
work; and it better became the settlers to do it, they thought, than
Mohawk warriors!
Some Dutchmen of Fort Orange were at the Turtle Castle on an embassy
when this unpleasant proposal was made to them, and they thus shirked
it. "Do you not see we are tired?" they said. "We have travelled far
through the forest. Our men are few and weary; besides you have no
roads. Our horses could never get up there. You must excuse us, our
friends, and manage to do it without us. See, as a token of friendship,
we have brought you fifty new hatchets." Then, giving the Indians
knick-knacks and weapons, they bade them farewell and departed,
journeying back in haste to their homes on the Hudson.
Thus the Indians were left to finish their own palisade, or stockade,
whichever one may choose to call it; and the uncle of Tekakwitha
doubtless worked with the rest. When it was finished, it stood and
protected them well for six uneventful years; that is to say, they were
uneventful for Indians, though during the whole of that period they were
making and breaking treaties of peace with the French, and were warring
with other tribes. During this time, while the fighting was all carried
on at a distance from the Mohawk castles, Tekakwitha lived in the
greatest seclusion. She was cared for and taught by her aunts, in one of
the cabins closed in by the palisade. She was learning the arts of the
Indians, doing the daily work, and shrinking from all observation. This
unsociable habit of hers (for so it must have seemed to her neighbors)
was due in part to her own disposition,--modest, shy, and reserved,--but
more than all, perhaps, to the fact that the small-pox had injured her
eyesight. As she could not endure much light, she remained indoors, and
when forced to go out, her eyes were shaded by her blanket. Little by
little she grew to love a life of quiet and silence. Besides, she showed
a wonderful aptness for learning to make all the curious bark utensils
and wooden things that were used in the village. Much to her aunts'
satisfaction, she had an industrious spirit. This they took care to
encourage, as it made her very useful. These aunts were exceedingly
vain; and a child of less sense than the young Tekakwitha would soon
have been spoiled by their foolishness.
Chauchetiere has told us quaintly, in old-fashioned French, "what she
did during the first years of her age." We cannot do better here than to
follow his account, translating it almost word for word:---
"The natural inclination which girls have to appear well, makes
them esteem very much whatever adorns the body; and that is why
the young savages from seven to eight years of age are silly,
and have a great love for _porcelaine_ (wampum). The mothers
are even more foolish, for they sometimes spend a great deal of
time in combing and dressing the hair of their daughters; they
take care that their ears shall be pierced, and commence to
pierce them from the cradle; they put paint on their faces, and
fairly cover them with beads when they have occasion to go to
the dance.
"Those into whose hands Tegakoueita fell when her mother died,
resolved to have her marry very soon, and with this object they
brought her up in all these little vanities; but the little
Tegakoueita, who was not yet a Christian, in truth, nor
baptized, had a natural indifference for all these things. She
was like a tree without flowers and without fruit; but this
little wild olive was budding so well into leaf that it
promised some day to bear beautiful fruit; or a heaven covered
with the darkness of paganism, but a heaven indeed, for she was
far removed from the corruption of the savages,--she was sweet,
patient, chaste, and innocent. _Sage comme une fille francaise
bien elevee_,--As good as a French girl well brought up,--this
is the testimony that has been given by those who knew her from
a very young age, and who in using this expression gave in a
few words a beautiful panegyric of Catherine Tegakoueita.
Anastasia Tegonhatsihongo said of her that 'she had no faults.'
"Her occupation was to carry little bundles of wood with her
mother, that is to say, her aunt, the matron of the lodge, to
put wood on the fire when the mother told her, to go for water
when those in the cabin had need of it; and when they gave her
no further commands she amused herself with her little
jewels,--I mean she dressed herself up in the fashion of the
other young girls of her age, just to pass the time. She would
put a necklace about her throat; she would put bracelets of
beads on her arms, rings on her fingers, and ear-rings in her
ears. She made the ribbons and bands which the savages make
with the skins of eels, which they redden, and render suitable
for binding up their hair. She wore large and beautiful
girdles, which they call wampum belts."
[These decorations not only adorn the person, but they also
show the rank of the maiden who wears them.[18]]
"There was a sort of child-marriage in vogue among the
Iroquois. Certain agreements of theirs were called marriage,
which amounted to nothing more than a bond of friendship
between the parents, rendered more firm by giving away a child,
who was often still in the cradle; thus they married a girl to
a little boy. This was done at a time when Tegakoueita was still
very small; she was given to a child. The little girl was only
about eight years old; the boy was hardly older than herself.
They were both of the same humor, both very good children; and
the little boy troubled himself no more about the marriage than
did the girl."
It was a mere formality; but it shows how early Tekakwitha's relatives
began to think of establishing her in life.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] So cited by Shea in his translation of Charlevoix's "History of New
France," vol. iv. For different ways of spelling Tekakwitha's name, see
Appendix, Note B, where the grammatical explanation of it by M. Cuoq is
also given.
[14] Among the Iroquois descent was never reckoned through the male
line, the _stirps_ being always a woman. A chief, therefore, derived his
title from his mother. To her family, not his father's, he belonged; and
back to her or to her mother at his death the title was referred, to be
transmitted through her to some other descendant.
[15] See General Clark's map herewith printed.
[16] The castle of Caughnawaga at Fonda was also called Gandawague, long
after its removal from Auries Creek. But it prevents confusion to give
it always its more distinctive name of Caughnawaga.
[17] See Appendix, Note A, Letter of June 29, 1885.
[18] See Cholenec, who mentions this fact in the "Lettres Edifiantes,"
translated by Kip in his work entitled "Early Jesuit Missions." What is
said concerning child-marriage is from Chauchetiere's manuscript.