USA > Massachusetts > History of the early settlement of the Juniata Valley : embracing an account of the early pioneers, and the trials and privations incident to the settlement of the valley ; predatory incursions, massacres, and abductions by the Indians during the French and Indian wars, and the War of the Revolution, &c. > Part 2
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Speaking on the subject of antiquities with a physician some years ago,-probably the late Dr. Coffey,-he in- formed us that a skeleton was dug up near Frankstown, which he did not believe belonged to any of the tribes of Indians whose mounds are scattered so profusely along the Juniata. He arrived at this conclusion from nume- rous personal observations he made. In the first place, the body retained a portion of dried withered flesh, and
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portions of papyrus or bark-cloth enveloped the body, so that it must have undergone some species of embalm- ing before sepulture. Embalming was unknown to the Indians. Secondly, the body was in a horizontal position, north and south, whereas the Indians always buried in a sitting posture, with the face to the east. And, finally, the body was buried alone, while the Indian method was to have one common grave for all who died for years. Some articles were found when the skeleton was exhumed; but they were so much corroded as to be useless even for scientific investigation.
In breaking up a piece of new ground in Kishacoquillas Valley some twenty-five, or probably thirty, years ago, traces of a well-defined wall were discovered, which was traced, and found to enclose about an acre of ground. Although the stones that formed this wall were the ordi- nary stones found along the stream, fashioned and shaped by the great Architect of the world himself, it is certain that human hands placed them in the position in which they were found. The whole thing was destroyed before any mention was made of it.
In addition to these evidences, we have heard of arrow- heads and pottery being dug up in other sections of the valley; but, taking it for granted that they were all In- dian relics, no effort was ever made to have a thorough investigation of their origin.
How long this continent was occupied by the Indians found here on the arrival of the Northmen is a mooted point, on which no two historians can agree. The Indian method of computing time by moons is rather vague to base a calculation upon. Those who contend that they
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originated from one of the lost tribes of Israel, endeavor to prove that they have been here for many centuries; while others, basing their calculations upon the usual in- crease of the human family, think that the numbers found here on the discovery of the continent would indicate that they had been here but three or four centuries. This we think a reasonable conclusion, for it is an undisputed fact that the Indians, previous to the advent of the whites, multiplied quite as rapidly as their civilized brethren; while the tender care and solicitude they evinced for children and aged people induces the belief that the deaths among them were not in proportion as one to six to the births.
We now come to the religious belief of the savages found in the Juniata Valley. The general impression of persons who have not read Indian history is that they were idolaters. Such, however, is not the fact. They wor- shipped no "graven image." Their belief was based upon a supreme good and an evil Manitou or spirit, and their subordinates,-the former of which they worshipped, while the anger of the latter was appeased by propitiatory offer- ings or sacrifices. It is true they had images, in the form of a head carved out of wood, which represented the good Manitou, and which they wore around their necks as a talisman against disease and to insure success in great undertakings; but even Loskiel, who spent a long time among them as a missionary, makes no mention of their worshipping their inanimate gods. Their worship gene- rally consisted of sacrificial feasts, sometimes by the entire tribe, and at other times by single families. In the fall they invariably had a sort of general harvest-home gathering,
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when bear's-meat and venison were served up,-the uni- versal custom being to eat all prepared. When provisions were scarce, such an arrangement was no doubt satisfac- tory; but we can well imagine that when there was an undue proportion of meats to guests the custom must have proved exceedingly irksome. After the meal, the monotonous drum and the calabash with pebbles were brought out, and those who had not gorged themselves to repletion joined in the dance. One of the chiefs usually chanted a hymn, or rather song, of irregular measure, in praise of the Manitous, and extolling the heroic deeds of the ancestors of the tribes. A second religious perform- ance consisted of a sacred dance, in which the men alone appeared, in almost a state of nudity, with their bodies covered with pipe-clay. This was probably a dance of humble contrition. A third feast, or religious observance, consisted of some ten or a dozen of the oldest men and women of a tribe enveloping themselves in deer-skins, stand- ing with their faces to the east, and petitioning the good Manitou to bless all their benefactors. There were other religious rites and sacrifices, which can be of little general interest to the reader, such as a sacrificial feast in honor of fire, another to propitiate the Manitou before going to war, &c. We shall, therefore, conclude this part of the subject by giving the story of an old trader who traded through the valley in 1750. Of course we did not get it direct from his own lips, for he has been dead and in his grave for many years; but, even if we did get it second- hand, it is nevertheless true.
Some time in the spring of 1750, the old trader, whose name has now escaped our memory, received a pressing
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invitation to visit Standing Stone a day or two before the first full moon in September, as a grand feast was to come off at that time, which would be attended by six or eight tribes. The trader, foreseeing the chance of brisk barter, brought a large quantity of goods from Lancaster, on pack- horses, and arrived a day or two before the sports com- menced. He found preparations made for a large com- pany; and he accordingly pitched his tent on the hill, while the wigwams of the Indians stood upon the flat near the mouth of Stone Creek. On the day on which the feast was to commence, the trader was awakened at an early hour by the loud whoops of the savages already arriving to take part in the ceremonies. The day wore on; and when the sun reached the zenith a thousand warriors and their squaws, in their best attire, had gathered upon the green- sward. At the hour of twelve o'clock precisely, a chief, whom the trader supposed to be at least a hundred years of age, arose from the ground, while all the rest retained a cross-legged, sitting posture. The trader understood enough of the Delaware language to ascertain that the feast was one which took place every hundred moons, to render thanks to the Manitou for preserving them a great people. After congratulating the different tribes, and welcoming them to this friendly reunion, an immense pipe was brought into the arena, which passed from mouth to mouth, each man taking but a single whiff. Of course the women formed the outer circle, and took no further part in the proceedings than merely looking on. Two half-grown lads followed the big pipe with a small bag of Kinnikinique, and ever and anon replenished the bowl. This consumed an hour, during which time there was pro-
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found silence. The old sachem then arose, and said the balance of the day would be given up to festivities. The assemblage broke up into small parties, and as each tribe had their medicine-men, musicians, and prophets along, the tum tum of the drum and the wild chant were soon heard, and the dusky sons and daughters of the forest went into the dance of the gay and light-hearted with a thousand times more vigor than the beau and belle of the modern ball-room.
Many of the Indians called upon the trader, and were anxious to barter for "lum ;" but, notwithstanding that he had five kegs of rum, and the most friendly feel- ing existed between himself and the tribes, he refused to deal. In fact, he was a prudent man, and did not consider it altogether safe. The festivities of the day and part of the night were kept up with dancing, singing, and howling. The next day, religious exercises fol- lowed; and on the third a very solemn and impressive ceremony was to take place, to wind up the meeting, at which the trader was urgently invited to be present, and in an evil moment gave his consent to do so. Accordingly he sold all of his barrels or kegs of rum, packed up the balance of his goods, and started his pack-horse train to Aughwick, himself and horse alone remaining behind.
At the appointed time in the evening for the feast, a large fire of dry wood was built, and the savages commenced dancing around it, howling, and throwing their bodies into the most violent contortions, first step- ping three or four feet forward, with the body inclined in the same direction; then, throwing the body back- ward, moved on, keeping time with the drum and the
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chant. As one party got tired, or probably roasted out, they danced away, and another set took their places. When the fire burnt fiercest, and the lurid flame lit the surrounding hills, a wild chorus was sung in unison that might have been heard for miles. This, the trader was told, was the loud hymn of adoration. He did not dispute the assertion. The rum he had sold the Indians began to work, and the old fox was enjoying some funny scenes not set down in the bills of the day. Occasionally a chief, under the wild influence of the fire-water, would make a misstep and tramp upon the burning coals. To see him quitting in a hurry afforded the trader an infinite deal of amusement. At length the pile was reduced to coals, when an Indian brought forth from a wigwam a live dog, and threw him upon the burning embers. Another and another followed, until ten dogs were thrown upon the fire. Of course they tried to escape, but the Indians hemmed them in so completely that this was a matter of impossibility. They set up a dreadful howl, but the Indians drowned the canine noise by another stave of their loud chorus. The odor of the roasting dogs did not sit well upon the trader's stomach, and, bidding adieu to his immediate acquaint- ances, he expressed a determination to leave for Augh- wick. This his friends would not permit, and insisted most vehemently that he should see the end of it. As he had seen considerable fun, he thought he might wait and see it out, as the carcasses of the dogs would soon be consumed. In this, however, he was mistaken, for the medicine-men drew them from the fire, placed them upon wooden platters, and cut them into pieces. Five or six
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of them carried them around among the auditory, offering to each chief a piece, who not only took it, but eagerly ate it. The conclusion of this feast we give in the trader's own words :-
"At last they came where I was sitting, among the only sober chiefs . in the party. The stench of the half-roasted dogs was awful. One of them came with his trencher to me, and offered me a piece,-a choice piece, too, as I was an invited guest, being a piece of the most unclean part of the entrails. 'Thank'ee,' said I; ' never dine on dog.' But this did not satisfy them. One of the pro- phets, laboring under the effects of about a quart of my rum, insisted on me eating what was offered to me. I again declined, when one of the chiefs informed me that it was a very sacred feast, and unless I partook of my allotted portion I would highly insult the Indians, and some of those intoxicated might deprive me of my scalp. The thing was no longer a joke, and I seized the piece of dog entrail and put it in my mouth, in hopes of spitting it out ; but they watched me so close that by one mighty effort I managed to swallow it. I did not wait to see the end of the feast; I had my portion, and thought I might as well retire. I started in the direction of Aughwick, and every half mile the nauseous dog served every purpose of a powerful emetic. I was a much sicker man next day than if I had drank a gallon of my own rum; and, in all my dealings with the red men, I took particular care never again to be present at any dog feast !"
Of the social and general character of the savages we have many contradictions. Heckwelder, the old Mora- vian Missionary, whose innate goodness found
"Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and God in every thing,"
intimated that some of their social habits, such as their tender solicitude for infants and the great deference and respect they paid to the aged, were noble traits in their character. Loskiel says that "in common life and con-
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versation, the Indians observed great decency. They usually treated one another, and strangers, with kindness and civility, and without empty compliments. In the converse of both sexes, the greatest decency and pro- priety were observed. They were sociable and friendly. Difference of rank, with all its consequences, was not to be found among the Indians. They were equally noble and free. The only difference consisted in wealth, age, dexterity, courage, and office."
Their hospitality to strangers knew no bounds. In some instances it was carried to extremes. An Indian who would not hospitably entertain a stranger under his roof, and attend to all his wants as far as lay within his power, was held in supreme contempt by all his ac- quaintances. Indeed, the offence was deemed so grievous, that the offender was not only detested and abhorred by all, but liable to revenge from the person to whom the common and acknowledged rights of hospitality were denied.
Lying, cheating, and stealing, as well as adultery and fornication, were deemed scandalous offences, and were punished. They did not exist to any great extent until the parent of them-drunkenness-was introduced by the white man.
To these commendable traits in a savage people there were sad offsets. The savage was cruel and exceedingly bloodthirsty. He never forgave a premeditated injury; and if no opportunity offered to avenge himself, he en- joined upon his descendants, "even to the third and fourth generation," to revenge him. A hatred once formed against an enemy could only be quenched with
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his blood. He would treasure up a wrong for years, and it would rankle in his heart until he got his enemy into his power, when flaying, roasting, or killing by inches, was not too cruel a death to mete out to him. Nay, more than this,-in their wars neither age, sex, nor con- dition, were taken into consideration; and the proud warrior who sang the great and heroic deeds of his ancestors for a thousand moons was not too proud to carry in his belt the scalp of an innocent babe! But then the savage was untutored, and it unquestionably was a part of his religion to put to death an enemy by the most cruel torture; neither did he expect any other treatment if he fell into the hands of a foe.
In ordinary life, there undoubtedly was some honor in the Indian, but in war no trait of it was perceptible in his „npositi n. To slay an enemy while asleep, or destroy him by any stratagem, was a feat to boast of, and claimed quite as much glory as if it had been accomplished } the prowess of arms. To shoot an enemy from anbuscade, or lure him to destruction by treachery that would be branded as most infamous among civilized nations, were looked upon as exceed- ingly cunning by the Indians.
As a general thing, they professed to abhor war among themselves, and only declared it when aggravating cir- cumstances absolutely demanded ;- that the question was deliberately debated by the tribe, and if, after mature de- liberation, a majority of the chiefs and captains favored a war, speedy preparation was made for it; a red hatchet or club was sent to the offending tribe, or one of them was caught, scalped, and a war-club, painted red,
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SCENE EAST OF PATTERSON.
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laid by his side. Hostilities were then commenced, and the war waged with the greatest fury until one or the other party succumbed.
Now it happens that professions do not always accord with practice, and in this case we are quite sure they did not. The whole tenor and bearing of the savages must lead us to believe that there was no avenue open to the aspiring Indian to attain honor and distinction, except through feats of arms and daring; and it is only too true that he shared the common weakness of humanity in loving the "pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious warfare." The proof of this is that some of their most bloody conflicts were caused by the most trivial circum- stances.
That they had many fierce and sanguinary struggles among themselves is well authenticated. A battle almost of extermination was once fought between two tribes at Juniata,-now known as Duncan's Island,-within the memory of many Indians who were living when the whites settled among them. This island must have been a famous battle-ground-a very Waterloo-in its day. When the canal was in progress of construction, hundreds of skeletons were exhumed; and to this day stone arrow-heads can be found upon almost any part of the island.
The Indian traditions also chronicle a fierce battle between two tribes near Millerstown; another in Tusca- rora, and another at Standing Stone. The truth on which these traditions are based is made evident by the fact that at those places, for years, Indian war-relics have been found.
There existed for years the most intense and bitter
3
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feuds between the Six Nations and the Lenape Indians, commonly called the Delawares. How long the feud ex- isted, or how many bloody conflicts they had to gain the ascendency, cannot now, either by tradition or record, be made reliable history. From the best information we can gather, it is highly probable that these confederations had buried the hatchet a short time previous to the landing of
Penn. And we may also readily assume that the final declaration of peace was sued for by the Delawares; for the Iroquois always boasted that they had reduced them to the condition of women by their superior bravery and skill in war. This the Delawares denied, and declared that " by treaty and voluntary consent they had agreed to act as mediators and peacemakers among the other great nations ; and to this end they had consented to lay aside entirely the implements of war, and to hold and to keep bright the chain of peace. This, among individual tribes, was the usual province of women. The Delawares, there- fore, alleged that they were figuratively termed women on this account." This cunningly-devised story the Delawares palmed upon the missionary Heckwelder while he labored among them, and he was disposed to give them great credit. The Iroquois, having formed an early alliance with the Dutch on the Hudson, received fire-arms, and by the liberal use of them soon brought refractory tribes out of their confederation to terms, and reduced others to vassalage, and exacted from them an annual tribute or an acknowledgment of fealty, per- mitting them, on such conditions, to occupy certain hunting-grounds; and there must, therefore, have been at least some truth in the allegation of the Iroquois
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that the Delawares were "conquered by their arms, and were compelled to this humiliating concession as the only means of averting impending destruction." It is said, however, that the Delawares were finally enabled to throw off this galling yoke, through the influence of Zeedyusung, a powerful chief, who extorted from the Iroquois an ac- knowledgment of their independence at a treaty held at Tioga in 1756.
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" The humiliation of tributary nations was, however, tempered with a paternal regard for their interests in all negotiations with the whites; and care was taken that no trespasses should be com- mitted on their rights, and that they should be justly dealt with."
So says the record; and yet we find that the sachems of the Six Nations, who had evidently learned from the whites both the use and abuse of money, in July, 1754, at Albany, sold all the lands in the State, not previously pur- chased, "lying southwest of a line beginning one mile above the mouth of Penn's Creek, and running northwest- by-west to the western boundary of the State." This sold the land from under the feet of the Delawares, Shaw- nees, and Monseys, of the Juniata Valley, notwithstand- ing the Six Nations had guaranteed it to them forever as a sacred hunting-ground. This act of treachery on the part of the Iroquois, and the insatiate appetite of the pro- prietors to add broad acres to their extensive domain, caused many of these homeless tribes to go over to the French, and, as a writer truly adds, "the blood of Brad- dock's soldiers was added to the price of the land."
But to return to the original settlement of the valley. The Indians unquestionably received the white adven- turers with open arms, and extended to them such a
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hearty welcome as must have banished all fears for the future. The savages looked upon the death-dealing rifle with superstitious awe; and the saw, the axe, the plane, and other implements of handicraft in the possession of the whites, made them a high order of beings, endowed with peculiar gifts by the Great Spirit, in the eyes of the Indians, and their persons were regarded as sacred. They shared with them their rude huts, and left nothing un- done within their power to render them comfortable.
And for this noble and magnanimous conduct on the part of the Indian, what return did the white man make? Such a one only, we regret to say, as makes no bright page in their history. They were taught all the vices of civilization, but to teach them its virtues was deemed a work of supererogation. The ignorant Indian and his primitive habits were treated with disdain, and he was deemed a fit subject for robbery whenever opportunity offered-this more especially by the lawless, who considered themselves out of the reach of government and its officers. A gradual encroachment upon the Indian's sacred hunting- grounds, and the refusal of the white man to look upon him as any thing but a degraded being or to associate with him on an equality, soon taught the Indian that he had taken into fellowship the crafty white man only to enable him to suck out his existence by his superior skill and his subtle cunning. The keen penetration of the savage soon discovered the position he occupied by the side of his white brother. Smarting under the indignities offered, and foreseeing the degradation to which he would be sub- jected in time, the red man and the white man did not long dwell together in unity. While the latter com-
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menced tilling the land and surrounding himself with the comforts of civilization, the former fled before him to the mountains and valleys where he was monarch of the land,-where the council-fire could blaze, the green-corn dance and song be heard, and the calumet of peace be smoked without the presence of the white man.
Yet, with all the encroachments upon their rights by the settlers, the Indians exercised great forbearance. They knew the warlike appliances in the power of the proprietary government; hence they repeatedly declared their wish to "keep bright the chain of friendship;"-in less figurative language, they did not want to go to war. No depredations were committed upon the whites, of any consequence, before the French tampered with them and the Six Nations perfidiously sold the land they had given "their cousins" as a sacred hunting-ground. Nor even then, although the aggravation was great, did all the In- dians leave the valley' to join the French. Many who were friendly toward the proprietary government re- mained until war broke out between the colonies and Great Britain; and some few peaceably-disposed fragments of tribes even lingered in the valley until the close of the Revolutionary war.
During the French and Indian war, and at its close, many of the Indians returned, and lived for some years in the valley unmolested. But in 1761-62 the footprints of the white man were seen in their paths, and civilization began to crowd them. The white adventurers crowded so thick upon them, that, after the war of 1764, the greater portion of them left; nor did they return again until 1777, when they appeared as allies to the British
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crown, to massacre and scalp the unprotected frontier- men. To stimulate them to this inhuman warfare, the British not only impressed it upon them that they were redressing grievances, but they actually paid them a stipu- lated price for every scalp, of child as well as adult, brought to the Canadian frontier.
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