Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 (of 3)

J >> James Athearn Jones >> Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 (of 3)

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"The Spirit of Vapour" (Vol. 3, p. 313) is referred to by Mackenzie in
his "General History of the Fur Trade," page cvi, prefixed to his
"Journal of a Voyage to the Frozen Ocean." (_Quarto._ London, 1801).

"The Devil of Cape Higgin" (Vol. 3, p. 321) was related to me by my old
nurse, and is a well known tradition, though not otherwise in print than
through my means.

"The Warning of Tekarrah" is a genuine tradition related to me by a Mr.
Clarke, an American gentleman of worth and intelligence, who left
England in June last for the United States.

But, while I distinctly aver the authenticity of those traditions which
rest upon my own authority, and submit the proofs of the genuineness of
the others, it must be understood that they have, with a few exceptions,
been much elaborated, though always with a careful reference to the
manners, customs, rites, opinions, &c. of the people whose history they
were supposed to tell. I have endeavoured to tell these stories as I
thought a genuine Indian would tell them, using only their figures,
types, and similitudes, and rejecting all inappropriate phrases, and
those which savoured of a foreign origin. I cheerfully submit to the
public whether I have not faithfully executed the task which I proposed
to myself--that of giving a collection of genuine Indian traditions in
the peculiar phraseology, and in strict consonance with the known habits
and customs, of that singular people.

CONTENTS

OF

THE FIRST VOLUME.

* * * * *

Introduction v
The Man of Ashes 1
Pomatare, the Flying Beaver 47
The Alarm of the Great Sentinel. A Tradition of the Delawares 61
The Mother of the World. A Tradition of the Dog-Ribs 73
The Fall of the Lenape 87
The Marriage of the Snail and the Beaver 103
The Choice of a God 117
The Resurrection of the Bison 143
The Wahconda's Son 147
The Idols. A Tradition of the Ricaras 173
Discovery of the Upper World. A Tradition of the Minnatarees 201
Love and War 213
Legends of the Happy Hunting-Grounds.
I. Akkeewaisee, the Aged 225
II. The Delaware Heaven 233
III. The Hunting-Grounds of the Blackfoots 245
IV. The Stone Canoe 255
V. The Little White Dove 269
VI. The Teton's Paradise 279

INTRODUCTION.

In the year 1695, a number of _savans_ associated in Paris for the
purpose of procuring information respecting the American Indians. They
were called shortly _The Theoretical and Speculative Society of Paris_,
but their title at large was _The Society for Prosecuting Researches in
the Western Hemisphere, and for procuring Speculations to be made, and
Theories drawn up, of the Origin and History of its Ancient and its
Present Inhabitants_. The undertaking met with almost prompt and cordial
support; the proudest names and the brightest lights of the age were
enlisted in it. The celebrated Madame de Maintenon became the patroness,
forbidding, however, the Society to speculate upon her affairs; the
illustrious Duke de Rohan became the president; the Czar Peter an
honorary member; and the Society was otherwise royally and nobly
officered and befriended. So numerous were the applications to be
received as members, that it was found necessary to establish the rule,
since adopted by certain colleges, of conferring diplomas upon all who
asked for them. It is stated, that there was as loud a call upon the
time and attention of the publishing committee, no fewer than seven
hundred papers of theories and speculations, all essentially varying,
having been presented at the second weekly meeting.

It will be seen from the date that it was a very important era in
speculative philosophy. Father Hennepin had just returned from Canada,
and published his _Discovery of a Large Country_, the greater part of
which had remained unknown till then, and has not been seen since. Other
French missionaries were daily arriving from New France, as the French
possessions in America were denominated, and spreading tales, partly
true, partly-false, of the wonderful things they had seen. The questions
so very important and so essential to be solved, whether the ancient
inhabitants of North America, the race which is supposed to be extinct,
were of Malay origin, and came from Australasia, or from the islands of
the Pacific Ocean, and whether the surviving race are descended from the
Tartars, the Scandinavians, the Jews, or the Welsh, began to be agitated
about this time, though they were not debated with the profound
shrewdness and sagacity which Adair, Barton, Boudinot, and other
enlightened men, have since evinced on the subject.

With a view to remove the difficulty, and solve the problem, if it were
solvable, it was determined by this learned Society to dispatch
forthwith to America a man, whose mind should be well stored with
science, literature, and philosophy, whose constitution and habits of
body should be equal to the hardships he must necessarily undergo, and
who should be of a temper to despise the dangers he must of course
encounter, in prolonged travels among scattered tribes of wild and
barbarous Indians. It was almost impossible, the Society knew, to find a
person fitted in every respect for the mission. In an age of theories,
it is no easy matter to meet with a man possessed of the common elements
of being, who has not submitted to the tyranny of opinion, and adopted
the theory most in vogue. Few of us like to be singular, and hence we
often adopt opinions, which, at first, we entertain most unwillingly,
but which, after we have defended a few times, we come to love most
heartily. Nothing so heightens our passion for a beautiful woman as
obstacles thrown in our way; nothing so confirms our admiration of a
theory as shallow cavils; a weak battery raised against a besieged town
always increases the courage, and heightens the resistance, of the
besieged.

In respect of the person who should be sent on this honourable mission,
the Society were for a long time much perplexed, and began to fear the
"foundering of their hobby from want of a jockey of required weight." It
was necessary that he should be deeply imbued with classic lore, and
profoundly skilled in languages, because he was to "detect lingual
affinities," and further, might have to read manuscripts, and decipher
inscriptions, of the ancient people. He was required to be deeply
conversant with military science, in all its details, for he was to
report of the nature of Indian tactics, fortifications, and defensive
structures; and it was essential that he should be a theologian, for he
was not only to sow the Word as he went, but to gather, if possible,
from the religious opinions, rites, and observances, of the nations
scattered over North America, proofs of a similitude to other people, or
to accumulate data for the opposite belief. It was very difficult to
discover a man so eminently gifted and taught, and the Society found
themselves heavily burthened with the search. Nevertheless one was at
length found, imbued to a reasonable degree with the requisite qualities
in the person of M. Philippe Verdier, of the city of Nanci. They applied
to him to undertake the proposed mission, and he consented, protesting,
according to custom, his utter unworthiness, and his belief that France
had many sons more competent to the task than himself.

M. Verdier had studied in his youth, with the view of becoming a priest,
and was profoundly skilled in the learning proper for that vocation.
Afterwards, when he had abandoned all thoughts of entering the
priesthood, he served in Holland under Conde, and there, and in many
other countries, in succeeding wars, acquired the character of a valiant
soldier and expert tactician. Excellence in poetry and metaphysics came
to him naturally, and a thorough acquaintance with languages, both dead
and living, by laborious study and prolonged travel. He had resided some
time in the Australasian islands and those of the Pacific Ocean, and had
travelled over the Peninsula of Malacca and the Island of Madagascar. He
had thence brought numerous things which have since been of great
service to philosophers, in explaining difficulties and solving problems
connected with the antiquities and history of the western aborigines.
His museum of curiosities contained a feathery mantle such as were found
enwrapping the American mummies, a pair of mocassins made of the rind of
plants, curious carvings which were pronounced by the French _savans_
to resemble much the pieces of sculpture brought by M. Jaques de
Numskull from the Ohio, and a human cranium or two, to which were added
a Madagascar humming-bird, and a Malacca pepper plant. From the nature
of these acquisitions, he was supposed to be well qualified to decide
upon the merits of that part of the theory of the indigenous inhabitants
of America, which represents the _extinct_ race as descended from the
Malays of eastern Asia!!!

M. Verdier was quite as well qualified to act upon the other theory. He
had travelled to Tartary in the suite of the French ambassador, and
resided some years at the court of the Great Khan, where he had acquired
the Tartar language, and become deeply learned in the history and
customs of that ancient people. He had taken numerous drawings of their
physiognomy and features, and many casts of Tartar visages. With a view
to learn their opinions of the Deity, and a future state, he had
officiated for a full year as the conjuror or powwow of a tribe. When he
returned to Europe, he brought with him a couple of human teeth, a pipe,
a bow and arrow, a jackall, a wild sheep, a sharp-nosed, thievish
Siberian cur, with his sleigh and harness, and a very pretty Samoyede
girl, the last with a view to ascertain the peculiar cast of features
and shade of complexion which should mark a half-breed, which he was so
fortunate as to possess in a short time thereafter, together with a
couple of copies to bestow upon his friends.

It was a singularly lucky circumstance that the learned association were
apprised in season of the merits of M. Verdier. There was not another
man in France so well qualified to perform the generous behests of the
Society, and to prosecute their enquiries to a beneficial result. It
would seem as if he had aimed his studies, directed his researches,
timed his travels, and planned his occupations, with a kind of
presentiment, that he should in time be called to the very task he
undertook. Indeed some have said that there was an actual precognition
of it, by means of a vision, while he was yet a student in theology with
the Abbe Guissot. But, the Society, upon the motion of a learned member,
caused their doubts of the truth of the story to be placed upon record.

Previously to the departure of M. Verdier, a special meeting of the
Society was called, and a committee of thirty members appointed to
prepare suitable directions, in the form of interrogatories, for his
guidance. They were to report on two different sets, the first (A.)
which were to relate to the ancient inhabitants of the country; the
second (B.) to the race who were its then possessors. After a sitting
of twenty days in the hall of the Sorbonne, the Committee reported on
the papers A. and B., which were accepted without debate.

A.

1. He was to ascertain when the tumuli, or mounds, were built,
and for what use.

2. Who built them? Were they Malays? If they were Malays, did
they come from Australasia, or from the Islands of the Pacific
Ocean?

3. If they were not Malays, who were they? Were they
Mauritanians, _vide_ Postel; or Scandinavians, _vide_ Busbeck;
or Canaanites, _vide_ Gomara, and John de Lery; or descendants
of the tribes led captive by Psalmanazar, _vide_ Thevet; or of
Shera and Japhet, _vide_ Torniel; or a colony of Romans,
_vide_ Marinocus; or Gauls, _vide_ James Charron; or
Friezelanders, _vide_ Hamconius and Juffredus Petri; or Celtae,
_vide_ Abraham Milius; or Phoenicians, _vide_ Le Compte; or
Carthaginians, _vide_ Father Acosta, &c. &c.?

4. Had this ancient people the art of embalming human bodies,
or is that art of modern invention, as some pretend?

5. If M. Verdier find they are of Malay origin, he must
ascertain in what year of the world they went to America, and
who was their leader;

6. How long they resided there, and under which pope they were
driven away or exterminated.

7. In what manner, and by what conveyance, was the
transportation made? Did they cross Behring's Straits, or on
the ice from Japan to California? Were the first settlers the
crew of some vessel or vessels driven to the western continent
by stress of winds, or were they led thither by some
far-sighted captain?

8. Finally, how many ships did it take to carry them over?

Many pages of remarks, by different members, were appended to this
paper. The other paper, marked B., read as follows:

B.

1. Is the similarity of physiognomy and features between the
present race of American Indians and the Asiatic Tartars
strong enough to induce an unprejudiced observer to pronounce
them members of the same great family of mankind, or, to speak
so as to be understood, 'does an Indian look like a Tartar?'

2. Are the coincidences of sound and signification in the
languages of North America and Tartary sufficiently numerous
and unequivocal to induce one to pronounce them of a common
origin?

3. Do the customs and manners of the North American Indians
correspond in any material degree with those of their supposed
brethren, the Tartars?

4. Are there any animals, wild or domestic, tameable or
untameable, in America, which are of a species known to exist
at this day in Tartary? And is there any thing in the
vegetable kingdom of the west which bears marks of derivation
from that country?

5. Is there any reason to think these Indians descended from
the Welsh? What are we to think of the voyage of Madoc and his
supposed colonization of the Western continent? Upon this
point M. Verdier will do well to examine their pedigrees with
great care.

The committee deem it altogether impossible to particularise all the
subjects upon which questions may be put, to the fair furtherance of the
objects which the Society has in view in sending out M. Verdier. A great
deal must be left to his discretion and judgment. Many reflections will
occur to him, as he personally surveys the monuments, and becomes
acquainted with the people of that continent, which does not occur to
us, and perhaps never would to him but for such visit.

The Society hope every thing from the zeal, the perseverance, and the
talents, of their missionary. They hope to be able to record as a
benefactor to this Society, to the kingdom, to the world, not only M.
Verdier, but the gentleman who first recommended him to their notice.

Thus furnished with ample directions, and with a letter to the governor
of the French possessions in Canada, M. Verdier set out upon his travels
in May 1697. The Society liberally afforded him the means of
conciliating the Savages, furnishing him with abundance of those
articles which they were supposed to covet, such as beads, knives, &c.
The ship in which he sailed had a very short passage, at least for a
period when the arts of ship-building and navigation were so little
understood, and landed him safely at Quebec some days before the
setting-in of winter. The dignity of our traveller's mission, the high
reputation of the Society under whose auspices he acted, together with
his own merit, attested by strong letters of introduction, operated to
procure him a most cordial and gratifying reception. All ranks joined in
evincing unbounded respect both for him and his object, and in placing
all possible helps within his reach. One admitted him to his museum of
Indian curiosities, another presented him with a bundle of Indian
manuscripts, a third took measures with the Indian chiefs for his
unmolested passage through their country, a fourth instructed him in the
Indian language, and taught him the peculiarities of their hundred
dialects. Nor were the women behind the other sex in kindness to our
traveller. He was invited to take up his abode altogether with the
Ursuline nuns, with whom he rose to such high favour, that they would
confess to no other during his stay in the city. The married ladies were
quite as courteous as those who were vowed to a single life, and feasted
and caressed him beyond our ability or wish to describe.

He did not leave Quebec until the return of spring, when, in the
prosecution of his object, he bade adieu to his pleasant quarters, and
travelled into the country of the Iroquois or Five Nations. His friend,
the Governor, persuaded him much to take an interpreter with him, and
nominated good old father Luke Bisset for that purpose. But M. Verdier
declined, trusting that the "coincidences of sound and signification,"
(suggested in query 2, paper B,) would free him from all difficulties on
that score. He hired an Indian, who had come to Quebec to dispose of his
furs, to act as his guide, and a French boy to carry his change of linen
and his presents, the last named being a labour to which no Indian will
submit, unless he has become an outcast from his tribe, or otherwise
disgraced and dishonoured.

They set out for the country of the Iroquois in the month of May, 1698.
After travelling for many weeks, at a great rate, for the Savages are
inconceivably swift walkers, and can endure great fatigues, they
arrived at the principal town of the Five Nations. There, and elsewhere
within the limits of that confederacy, our traveller abode two full
years. The public must not expect to find in this brief introduction a
cursory statement, much less a minute journal of his curious
observations and discoveries during that period. The Editor would make a
very bad use of the confidence reposed in him, if he were to attempt
either. Public curiosity, however, will be gratified, for the highly
learned and philosophical reports of M. Verdier on the philology,
origin, history, manners, and customs, of the Aborigines of America,
will soon be published under the eye of a competent gentleman. But, for
the immediate satisfaction of those who have had their minds highly
excited on the subject, and prefer to have their knowledge in advance,
the Editor begs leave to observe, that these reports fully prove that
the Indians of North America and the Tartars of the Eastern continent
are of a common stock. The former, M. Verdier proves, by a long train of
reasoning, to be descended from a Calmuck, who, in the year 622, (the
year of Mahomet's flight from Mecca) married a Samoyede woman, and, with
a party of his countrymen, crossed Behring's Straits to the Western
Continent. The exceedingly subtle and plausible process by which he
arrived at the exact year in which they crossed, and determined that the
emigrants were of two different tribes--again, that the chief was tall
and lean, his wife short, pursy, and thick-breathed, proved the value of
trifling circumstances to the creation of beautiful theories, and with
what wonderful ingenuity philosophic minds apply themselves to subjects
capable of being theorised. Thus, from the circumstance that the Indian
curs, when they were possessed of a bone, would snarl and show their
teeth if one went near them, and even hide it in the ground rather than
have it taken from them, he drew the conclusion that they were the true
_canis sibericus_, which is known to possess these singular traits of
canine sagacity and ferociousness. Additional proof was found in the
fact, that an Indian dog of the same species bit M. Verdier in his heel,
setting his teeth in precisely the same spot, where, some years before,
a Tartar dog had placed his, making but a single scar. He caused an
Iroquois cur to be tied by his tail to a log of wood, and the celerity
with which he drew it, yelping and screaming over a bed of ice, fully
convinced M. Verdier that he was a legitimate descendant from those
which perform the part of dray-horses among the Tartars. So much for
canine resemblances, which one would think of little importance, yet
were the chief prop to a learned theory upon this very subject,
published some years ago by an erudite American gentleman.

His inquiries concerning the other object of his mission were as deep,
and his conclusions as profitable. It may be remembered, that the
principal aim of the Society in sending M. Verdier to America, was to
ascertain who were its primitive inhabitants, and the builders of the
stupendous mounds found there. Having, by severe study, mastered the
Indian language and its numerous dialects, he assumed the dress of a
chief, and set out for the Ohio. He took with him seven Indian chiefs
belonging to the Seneca tribe, great warriors, great talkers, and great
smokers, who could live seven days without food, and feast the next
seven without intermission. Their names, rendered into English, were The
Flying Medicine, The Hollow Bear, The Little Dish, The Wicked Cow, The
Black Mocassins, The Big Thief, and The Guard of the Red Arrows. The
party were provided with parched corn and jerked beef, the common
hunting provisions of the Indians. Though filled with pacific
intentions, and meaning to rely for safety principally on the calumet,
or pipe of peace, they nevertheless went completely armed. It would have
ill suited Indian ideas of dignity and honour had they left behind what
they believe to be the essential emblems of both.

Three years were spent by M. Verdier in surveying the country west of
the Alleghany mountains. In that time he visited and examined all the
mounds or _tumuli_, "deciphered a great many _resemblances_ of
inscriptions," and penetrated into many saltpetre caves in search of
mummies and triune idols. He succeeded in proving to his own
satisfaction, and, as we shall see, to that of his employers, that the
tumuli were erected for burying-places; that their builders were Malays
who chartered the ship Argo from Jason, and came over from the Sandwich
Islands in the ninth year of pope Boniface the third; that they had the
art of embalming in nitre, and were adepts at making triune idols. They
were idolaters, worshippers, he was convinced, of Brahma and his Hindoo
brothers. He was puzzled for a while to tell what became of them
finally; nor were his doubts cleared up until he travelled into Mexico.
A residence of a few months among the Aztecas of that region convinced
him that they were, to use the words of an eminent American philosopher,
whose cogitations upon this subject have been read from Labrador to
Tobolsk, "descendants of the extinct race." He examined the pyramids of
Cholula, which agreed in all respects with the works in Ohio, and thence
argued that the Malays who built the former were also the builders of
the latter.

Though M. Verdier had been very industrious, and had theorised and
speculated himself almost into insanity, he thought he had not done
enough to secure a gracious reception at home. With a view to make
himself master of all which could aid him in preparing his report, he
determined to call a general meeting of the Indian tribes, in order to
acquire a knowledge of their traditionary lore, and it is from this
period that he seems to have laboured to a more useful purpose than that
of making "velvet purses of sows' ears, and twisting ropes of sand." The
shafts of ridicule may with propriety be levelled at all attempts to
ascertain the origin of the American Indians, but their Traditions are
their history and learning, and therefore entitled to respectful
consideration. He dispatched messengers to all the tribes far and near,
with the information that a grand council would be held at
Machilimakinak, i.e. a great place for turtles, in the moon next after
the gathering of the corn, at which they were invited to attend and
offer sacrifices to the Great Spirit. They were especially requested to
bring with them their story-tellers as well as their _pow-wows_, or
priests, with whom M. Verdier was anxious to confer. Nothing more fully
proves the excellence of his heart than his willingness to meet and
confer, as the phrase of our day is, with "ministers of a different
denomination." But M. Verdier was a charitable man, and partook of none
of that bigotry laid often unjustly to the charge of Roman Catholics. He
believed that many went to heaven who denied the infallibility of the
pope; and feared that many took the downward road who made that dogma
the standard of their faith.

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