Let us picture to ourselves, as it occurred in ancient times, and when
his customs and traditions were as yet uncontaminated by civilization,
one of the great religious feasts of the Indian--a dance, in honor,
perhaps, of the sun, or pipe of peace, or of the green corn.
A wildly picturesque scene rises before us, as we read the descriptions
of writers who have witnessed these ceremonies in later days; such a
scene, as--in the language of Catlin: "not all the years allotted to
mortal man could in the least deface or obliterate from the memory."
The tribe is assembled in the Indian village, or upon a bare hill-top,
or perhaps in a lonely spot in the forest; a great bonfire burns in
their midst, around which many mysterious rites have been performed.
The rain perhaps was to be called down from heaven, sickness averted,
evil spirits to be exorcised and driven away, or the deer or moose to
be led in a state of charmed fatuity into the midst of the camp. With
wild noises and gestures the warriors have danced around the fire,
waving corn-stalks, or fiercely brandishing their weapons of war; the
odor of burning tobacco or roasting dog's flesh fills the air, and the
forest re-echoes with the cawings of the crow, the "gobble" of the
wild turkey, or the growl of the bear, exactly imitated by the dancers.
With a truthfulness born of their intense sympathy for nature, the
moving figures mimic the spring of the panther or wild-cat, the start
of the deer, and the sinuous motion of the snake.
At length a figure, half man half animal, approaches--the prophet or
medicine-man. Nothing can be more strange than his appearance; his
dress is hung with the skins of snakes, frogs, and bats, and adorned
with the beaks, tails, and toes of birds, and the hoofs of the deer and
antelope,--a diabolical embodiment of animal monstrosity.
All is now quiet, and from his medicine bag, made of the skin of the
raccoon, polecat, or bat, beautifully decorated, and lined with moss
and fine grass, he produces a scroll of birch bark, a tablet of wood,
or a stone, engraved with mystic characters. Holding the tablet in his
hands, as his eye falls upon the carved devices a low sound, rising
into a song or chant, now only interrupted by the crackling of the
fire, issues from under the hideous bear's-mask which hides his head.
Each picture suggests to his mind some event of the far past, carefully
treasured in the traditional lore of his tribe.[G] His song, rising and
falling in strange inflections, and preserving a sort of rhythm, now
tells of the creation of the world, a deluge, the origin of his people,
and their primitive struggles with the forces of nature; now images of
primeval giants and demi-gods rise before the minds of the assembled
tribe, his hearers, of Manabozho the great hare, of Tarentya-wagon
holder of the heavens, of Hiawatha, and Nanabush, and of "Stonish
Giants," and "Flying Heads"; now he tells of the passage of great
waters and mountains, of treeless plains, and forests, now of long
wars with human enemies, and of the final coming of the whites. The
squatting figures listen in motionless silence, as the song proceeds
through its many verses, each the theme of a particular event. At last
it ceases, and the pictured scroll or tablet, formula of its spell,
restored to its place in the medicine pouch, remains hidden from the
eyes of the tribe until its reappearance upon some similar occasion.
Such is the song-chronicle of the Indian's history; and such songs are
known to have been carefully preserved and sung by many if not all of
the Eastern tribes.
Such was the national song-legend of the Creeks and Choctaws, narrating
in considerable detail their traditional origin and early migration
from the West. It was read to the English by the Creek chief, Chekillè,
at Savannah, in 1775, "and was written in red and black characters
on the skin of a young buffalo." This pictured skin, with an English
translation, was sent to London, and there, in a frame in the Georgia
office, at Westminister, was kept for many years as a curiosity; it was
finally lost, but the translation has been recently brought to light by
Dr. D. G. Brinton, of Philadelphia.
Such, too, was the national song of the Cherokees, sung by them at
their annual green-corn dance. Portions of it which tell of an early
migration from the headwaters of the Monongahela, and of the great
mound at Grave Creek which the Cherokees claim to have built, are given
by Haywood in his "History of Tennessee." They were related to the
author from memory by an old Indian trader who had heard the song. Mr.
Chamberlain, at present missionary among the Cherokees, states that
Guess or Sequoyah, a half-breed Cherokee, since dead, had invented
the Cherokee alphabet of eighty-two letters, for the express purpose
of perpetuating this chronicle of his nation, and had recorded it in
the new characters, but these interesting manuscripts, which after his
death were unfortunately mislaid, have thus far escaped discovery.
The Blackfeet, too, have a singular historical song sung on stated
occasions; and the Shawnees, now situated in the northeast corner of
the Indian territory, have a national legend, described in one of
the late Indian reports as a "weird song sung in a rising melancholy
strain"; it is sung at one of their great annual feasts, but as yet the
double-barrelled shotgun or the "handsomest blanket in Philadelphia,"
offered by Dr. Brinton for a translation, have not served to break the
reserve of the Indians familiar with the particular dialect in which it
is sung, and who say that its revelation would bring misfortune upon
the tribe.
The historical records of the Ojibways, says Ka-ge-ga-gah-bowh,
or George Copway, their native historian, were written in Indian
hieroglyphics upon "slate-rock, copper, lead, and the bark of birch
trees," and kept in three secret underground depositories near the
headwaters of Lake Superior, where, being disinterred and examined
every fifteen years by a committee of chiefs, the dimmed and decaying
pictographs were replaced by facsimiles.
It seems highly probable, in fact, that the solemn songs above, as well
as most of the important historical narratives of the Indian tribes,
have been repeatedly and variously recorded in eye-catching pictures
of men, animals, and natural objects, intended to refresh or jog the
memory of the singer or speaker, in his lengthy recitations to the
assembled tribe. And such a pictured song-chart, or reference-table we
may perhaps consider the carving on the reverse of the Lenape stone
(fig. 16), which, should it be, as we have supposed, a production
of the Lenni Lenape, would not unnaturally refer to the well-known
historical legend of that ancient people.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.]
This tradition of the Delawares, more interesting and suggestive
probably than any of these long-overlooked records of ancient North
America, has once at least, been recorded by Indians in pictographic
symbols; fortunately it has been preserved to us in full, and we can
compare it with the carving on the reverse of the Lenape stone (fig.
16), which we may suppose suggested to the mind of the Indian singer
versed in the art of picture-writing some at least of the events
remembered in his tradition.
Two versions of this wonderful Indian chronicle have been rescued from
oblivion. The first, far less complete than the other, was collected
from the Indians themselves by the Moravian missionary Heckewelder,
about 1800. It reads as follows: "The Lenni Lenape (according to
the traditions handed down to them by their ancestors) resided many
hundred years ago in a very distant country, in the western part of
the American continent. For some reason which I do not find accounted
for, they determined on migrating to the eastward, and accordingly set
out together in a body. After a very long journey, and many nights'
encampments by the way, they at length arrived at the Namaesi Sipu, or
River of Fish (from _namaes_, a fish, and _sipu_, a river)."
One of the first figures that catches our eye on looking at the
carvings is the unmistakable outline of a fish, (_a_), just beneath
the waving lines; (_b_) representing water at the left of the stone.
The tradition goes on to say that at this river the Delawares "fell in
with the Mengwe (Iroquois, or five nations), who had likewise emigrated
from a distant country, and had struck upon this river somewhat higher
up. Their object was the same with that of the Delawares; they were
proceeding on to the eastward until they should find a country that
pleased them. The spies which the Lenape had sent forward for the
purpose of reconnoitring, had long before their arrival discovered that
the country east of the Mississippi was inhabited by a very powerful
nation, who had many large towns built on the great rivers flowing
through their land. Those people (as I was told) called themselves
Talligeu or Talligewi. Colonel John Gibson, however, a gentleman
who has a thorough knowledge of the Indians, and speaks several of
their languages, is of opinion that they were not called Talligewi,
but Alligewi, and it would seem that he is right, from the traces of
their name, which still remain in the country, the Allegheny river and
mountains having indubitably been named after them. The Delawares still
call the former Alligéwi Sipu, the River of the Alligewi."
"Many wonderful things are told of this famous people. They are said
to have been remarkably tall and stout, and there is a tradition that
there were giants among them, people of a much larger size than the
tallest of the Lenape. It is related that they had built to themselves
regular fortifications or intrenchments, from whence they would sally
out, but were generally repulsed.[H] * * * When the Lenape arrived on
the banks of the Mississippi, they sent a message to the Alligewi to
request permission to settle themselves in their neighborhood. This was
refused them, but they obtained leave to pass through the country and
seek a settlement farther to the eastward."
This agreement, that the Lenape should cross in peace, might have been
symbolized in the Muzzinabiks (rock writings) and historical song
records of any tribe, by the figure of the pipe (_c_) on the left of
the stone, just above the water, and opposite the fish.
"They accordingly began to cross the Namaesi Sipu," continues the
account, "when the Alligewi, seeing that their numbers were so very
great, and in fact they consisted of many thousands, made a furious
attack on those who had crossed, threatening them all with destruction
if they dared to persist in coming over to their side of the river.
Fired at the treachery of these people, and the great loss of men they
had sustained, and besides, not being prepared for a conflict, the
Lenape consulted on what was to be done--whether to retreat in the best
manner they could, or try their strength, and let the enemy see they
were not cowards, but men, and too highminded to suffer themselves
to be driven off before they had made a trial of their strength, and
were convinced that the enemy was too powerful for them. The Mengwe,
who had hitherto been satisfied with being spectators from a distance,
offered to join them on condition that, after conquering the country,
they should be entitled to share it with them. Their proposal was
accepted, and the resolution was taken by the two nations to conquer or
die. Having thus united their forces, the Lenape and Mengwe declared
war against the Alligewi, and great battles were fought, in which many
warriors fell on both sides."
This ancient alliance may have been symbolized to the mind of the
Delaware by the figures of the hawk (_e_), beneath which is seen (_f_)
perhaps a wampum belt, and of the turtle (_d_) in the central part
of the stone, and set in divisions formed by one intersecting and
four diverging lines. Devices of the "great Thunder-bird, whose eyes
were fire and glance lightning, and the motion of whose wings filled
the air with thunder," and of the "great turtle, upon whose back the
mother of the human race had been received from heaven," were common
in the mystic songs of the medas or priests, and their particular
significations in these incantations might have been almost endless
when we consider that to the initiated _Meda_ or _Josakeed_ (prophet)
the same sign calls up quite different ideas, as the theme of the
writer varies from war to love, or from the chase to medicine, or
prophecy. If, however, we refer the subject of the carving to history,
the hawk and turtle may well be viewed as the tokens or heraldic
badges of the chief actors in the story[I] (the Lenape and Mengwe).
As clan badges, both symbols were in common use among most of the
Indian tribes. The turtle clan, says Heckewelder, was the governing
family in any nation, and among the Delawares claimed an ascendency
over the wolf and turkey families on account of its superior antiquity
and relationship to "the great turtle, the Atlas of their mythology,
who bore the great island--the earth--upon its back."
The hawk totem, which of course the Delawares might have applied to
any people they chose, irrespective of its real emblem, occurred among
the Hurons, and in both the Seneca and Cayuga tribes of the Iroquois
confederacy; also among the Ojibways, Pottowatamies, Miamis, Abenakis,
Sacs, and Foxes, and in many other tribes.
The account goes on to say that "the enemy fortified their large
towns and erected fortifications, especially on large rivers and near
lakes, where they were successively attacked and sometimes stormed
by the allies. An engagement took place, in which hundreds fell, who
were afterwards buried in holes or laid together in heaps and covered
over with earth. No quarter was given, so that the Alligewi, at last,
finding that their destruction was inevitable if they persisted in
their obstinacy, abandoned the country to the conquerors and fled down
the Mississippi River, from whence they never returned. The war which
was carried on by this nation lasted many years, during which the
Lenape lost a great number of their warriors, while the Mengwe would
always hang back in the rear, leaving them to face the enemy."
In this description of a superior race of Indians, conquered after
a most desperate resistance, and whose memory still survives in the
great mountain chain to which they have given a name, we find a key
to the often-spoken-of mystery of the mound-builders and their sudden
disappearance.
The story of their long death-struggle and final overthrow by a horde
of savage invaders, as here given in the formal style of Heckewelder,
seems somewhat colored by his well-known partiality for the Delawares.
It is confirmed, as we shall see, by the evidence of other Indian
traditions and the study of their language, which seems to show
that this people,--the Alligewi or mound-builders--fleeing down the
Mississippi, were received and adopted by the Choctaws and Cherokees,
themselves in comparatively recent times a mound-building people, and
who thus have become in part their descendants.
A suggestion of these long and bloody wars, in which the Lenape did
most of the fighting, may be seen in the figure of the tomahawk (_g_)
just below the turtle,[J] and of the mound-builders themselves
perhaps, in the singular group of figures above the water on the left,
_i. e._, the outline of a mountain or mound on which a series of
numerical marks are faintly seen, a tablet inscribed with ten dots, two
diagonally intersecting lines, and five parallel marks or points.
"In the end," continues the account, "the conquerors divided the
country between themselves," as the wigwams (_h_ and _i_) above each
totem might denote. "The Mengwe made choice of the lands in the
vicinity of the great lakes" and on their tributary streams, again
suggested, perhaps, by the snow-shoe (_j_) "and the Lenape took
possession of the country to the south. For a long period of time--some
say many hundred years--the two nations resided peacefully in this
country and increased very fast. Some of their most enterprising
huntsmen and warriors crossed the great swamps, and falling on
streams running to the eastward, followed them down to the great Bay
River (Susquehannah), and thence into the bay itself, which we call
Chesapeak." As they pursued their travels, partly by land and partly
by water, in this primitive reconnaissance of the great wilderness now
our homes, journeying sometimes near and at other times on the "great
salt-water lake" (the sea), they finally discovered the river which we
call the Delaware.
"Thence exploring still eastward," continues the account, "they
discovered the Scheyichbi country, now named New Jersey, and at length
arrived at another great stream--that which we call the Hudson or
North River. Satisfied with what they had seen, they (or some of
them), after a long absence, returned to their nation and reported
the discoveries they had made. They described the country they had
discovered as abounding in game and various kinds of fruits, and the
rivers and bays with fish, tortoises, etc., together with abundance of
water-fowl, and no enemy to be dreaded. They considered the event as a
fortunate one for them, and concluding this to be the country destined
for them by the Great Spirit, they began to emigrate thither, as yet
but in small bodies, so as not to be straitened for want of provisions
by the way, some even laying by for a whole year. At last they settled
on the four great rivers (which we call Delaware, Hudson, Susquehanna,
and Potomac), making the Delaware, to which they gave the name of
'_Lenapewihittuck_,' (the river or stream of the Lenape), the centre of
their possessions."
Here the ancient portion of the chronicle and its parallelism with the
figures on the stone seems to end, the remainder being devoted to long
wars with the Mengwe, relations with the whites, and the more modern
events of the history of the tribe in the east.
The other figures upon the stone--the star (_k_), the calumet (_l_),
the deer (_m_), the curve crossed by three oblique lines (_n_),
probably a war canoe, and the fish-like figure (_o_) at the end of the
stone--are hardly suggested by the narrative, yet may refer to further
details of the passage of the Alleghenies, and the exploration and
settlement of the country to the east, along the great rivers and by
the sea-coast.
Far more interesting than Heckewelder's account, is a full version of
the great national song of the Lenape as they sung it in their own
language, with an English translation, and with all the pictographic
devices used to jog the memory of the singer. He may well have needed
them, as the whole song consists of two hundred and two verses.
It was first published in 1836 by the eccentric French-American
philosopher, Rafinesque, in an extravagant work by him entitled "The
American Nations," and is known as the Wallum Olum (literally, painted
sticks), or pictographic traditions of the Lenni Lenape. It contains
the Delaware account of the creation, a deluge, the early migrations
and entire history of the tribe, and one hundred and eighty-four
mnemonic symbols painted upon tablets of wood. "It was obtained" says
Rafinesque, "about 1822,--the symbols from a Dr. Ward of Indiana, who
had received them as a reward for a medical cure from the Delawares,
at Wahapani or White River, in 1820, and the verses from another
individual."
Mr. E. G. Squier, who considered the internal evidence furnished by the
songs sufficiently strong to settle their authenticity, submitted the
manuscript copy of the songs and pictographs in the hand of Rafinesque,
who it appears had never owned the original "painted sticks," to George
Copway, the Chippewa chief, who unhesitatingly, he says, pronounced it
authentic. This manuscript, together with the pictographs, of which
Rafinesque had published none, and Squier but forty, was considered
hopelessly lost until its fortunate discovery a few weeks ago by Dr.
Brinton, by whom it will shortly be published with a new translation.
Passing over its account of the creation and deluge, the narrative goes
on to describe the passage by the Lenape of a large body of water on
the ice (Behring's Straits, says Rafinesque), and their settlement at a
place called _Shinaki_, or the "Land of Firs."
After many generations of chiefs, continues the fourth song, during
which time they were continually engaged in wars with "_Snakes_"
(enemies), they wander from the fir land to the south and east, pass
over a hollow mountain _Oligonunk_ (Oregon, according to Rafinesque),
and at last "find food" at "_Shililaking_, the plains of the Buffalo
Land." Here they tarry and build towns and raise corn on the great
meadows of the _Wisawana_ (Yellow River). But after many wars with
"_Snakes_," "northern enemies," and "father snakes," of which we can
see a suggestion in the eel-like form (_p_) on the stone, they again
resume their migration towards the "sun-rising," and finally reach
the shores of the Messussipu,[K] or Great River, "which divides the
land." The accompanying pictograph for verse 49, descriptive of the
Great River, quite unlike the figure upon the stone, is here given
from the original drawing by Rafinesque, kindly furnished the writer
by Dr. Brinton (fig. 17). The narrative, of which we give the English
translation by Rafinesque, omitting the Delaware version, continues in
the original as follows:
49. The Great River (_Messussipu_) divided the land, and being tired,
they tarried there.
50. _Yagawanend_ (Hut-maker) was next _sakima_, and then the _Tallegwi_
were found possessing the east.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.]
51. Followed _Chitanitis_ (Strong-friend), who longed for the rich
east-land.