USA > Massachusetts > The story of western Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 4
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From Mackinack, in 1702, Father Carheil bitterly complained of the loose habits of his charges and "the commerce of the savage women with the French". He said that the fort of the post was
26
WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
"a place that I am ashamed to call by its proper name, where the women have found that their bodies serve in lieu of merchandise. All the soldiers keep open house in their dwellings, for all the women of their acquaintance. From morning to night they pass entire days there, sitting by the fire and often on their beds, engaged in con- versations and actions proper to their commerce".
In Virginia, in 1728, William Byrd said that they "were unluckily so many that they could not well make us the compliment of bed- fellows, according to the Indian rules of hospitality, though a grave matron whispered one of the commissioners very civilly in the ear that if her daughter had been but one year older, she should have been at his devotion". On another occasion, Byrd said that "we resisted all their charms, notwithstanding the long fast we had kept from the sex. Nor can I say the price they set upon their charms was at all exorbitant. A princess for a pair of red stockings surely cannot be thought too dear".
The Lewis and Clark expedition to the Columbia in 1804-1806, saw natives under most primitive conditions; Indians who had never before seen white men and whose habits were not influenced by a prior knowledge of the ways of civilization.
Of the Ricaras, the journalist said: "These women are hand- somer than the Sioux; both of them are, however disposed to be amorous and our men found no difficulty in procuring companions for the night. The Sioux had offered us squaws, but we having declined while we remained there, they followed us with offers of females for two days. The Ricaras had been equally accommodating; we had equally withstood their temptation; but such was their desire to oblige us that two very handsome young squaws were sent on board this evening, and persecuted us with civilities. The black man, York, participated largely in these favors, for, instead of inspiring any prejudice, his color seemed to procure him additional advantages from the Indians, who desired to preserve among them some memorial of this wonderful stranger. Among other instances of attention, a Ricara invited him into his house and presenting his wife to him, retired to the outside of the door. While there, one of York's comrades who was looking for him, came to the door, but the gallant husband would permit no interruption until a reasonable time had elapsed".
Of the Shoshonees, they said that "the chastity of the women does not appear to be held in much estimation. The husband will, for a trifling present, lend his wife for a night to a stranger and the loan may be protracted by increasing the value of the present".
"The Chinook woman who brought her six female relations to our camp, had regular prices, proportioned to the beauty of each female and among all the tribes, a man will lend his wife or his daughter for a fish-hook, or a strand of beads". They later came in contact with the same band, and recorded that they "were visited this afternoon by Dalashelwilt and his wife, with six women of his tribe, whom the old Chinook bawd, his wife, had brought to market.
27
AN INDIAN CENSUS
This was the same party who had last November infected so many of our men with venereal disease".
Sergeant Patrick Gass saw the Mandans in 1805. He said that "chastity is not very highly esteemed by these people; the women are generally considered an article of traffic and indulgences are sold at a very moderate price. For an old tobacco box, one of our men was granted the honor of passing a night with the daughter of the head chief of the Mandan nation".
Among the Blackfeet, in 1832, Capt. Benjamin Bonneville saw the white trappers returning to civilization, "leading their pack horses and looking like banditti returning with plunder. On the top of some of the packs were perched several half-breed children, perfect little imps, with wild black eyes glaring from among elf locks. These were the children of the trappers; pledges of love from their squaw spouses in the wilderness".
In all ages and in all lands, "fraternization" between conquerors and the conquered has ever been common, but the aim and the end has always produced the same results. In America, an indolent mariner willingly "jumped ship" and accepted the epithet of "squaw- man" in exchange for a life of ease. In his mind the association might have been initiated as something of a temporary nature, but it often grew into a permanent condition.
From 1524 to 1832, north, south, east and west, it was the same story for more than three hundred years. With such a mingling of blood, one can but ask,-what is an Indian?
A daughter, born in 1600, to an Indian girl and a trader, might, by another trader, have a son born in 1620. Such a son would have had far more European than Indian blood. Through the years there have been numerous Indians, outstanding among their people; Uncas, King Philip, Sitting Bull, Geronimo. Did a preponderance of white blood account for their preeminence?
CHAPTER IV
Indian Garb
D URING the past hundred years, through painstaking research, bits of local history have been gleaned from the old records and brought together to tell a rather complete story of the Springfield of the past. They have shown the falsity of some old legends and corroborated others. Each year new material is unearthed, manuscripts are transcribed, indexed and made available. The com- munity has a wealth of such material. Town and county records are unusually complete. The Book of Possessions and the Pynchon account books give minute details that must be unquestioned.
The story of the early settlers and the story of the Indians and their relations with each other are an open book for him who will read. Therefore it is a great pity that the public should unnecessarily be led to misconstrue known facts. The incontrovertible details of the past that have been so laboriously gathered should be cherished and saved. The erection in Forest Park of a misleading representa- tion of Toto, the friendly Indian whose timely warning saved Spring- field from destruction in 1675, is to be regretted. It is the child that is most intrigued by the romance of the Indian and it is a vicious thing to give to the child, symbolism which he accepts as realism.
The physiognomy and dress of the prehistoric Indian of New England are not matters of theory. Both were depicted by com- petent artists and described by historians of the 17th century.
Probably no other subjects in the history of New England have been the source of so much misinformation and so many erroneous ideas as have the native Indians. For generations we have been given false ideas and misconceptions of the eastern Indians. Even today there are numerous histories and school books in which the New Eng- land tribesmen are pictured as dwelling in conical tepees, wearing war bonnets or with shaven heads and upstanding roaches of hair, and clad in elaborately fringed buckskin garments. And despite count- less scientific bulletins and reports and many accurate popular books on the subject, yet so firmly fixed are the erroneous ideas about our New England natives that the average person invariably pictures them as replicas of the old cigar store wooden Indian or the head on the old copper cent. While no eastern Indian ever saw or wore a war bonnet until this form of head gear was introduced from the Far West,
29
INDIAN GARB
yet in the minds of the majority of white persons this headdress of the plains' nomads is an essential part of the costume or regalia of every Indian.
To deck a Massachusetts Indian in the regalia of a Sioux, Black- foot or western tribesman is bad enough, but nothing compared to the weird costume on the statue on the alleged site of King Philip's stock- ade in Forest Park. Attired in a combination costume of bits from several tribes-and some which must have been evolved in the sculp- tor's mind-with a clay pipe typical of an Irish laborer stuck in his belt, this caricature of Toto, or whatever it is supposed to represent, grasps in his left hand what one man suggested might well be a wooden nickel, and peers towards Springfield as if searching for his creator in order to wreak dire and deserved vengeance.
Quite recently science has added a note of value and interest to studies of the past.
During the past 40 years much study has been given in Europe to the relation between the human skull and the fleshy face, and it seems now possible, given either one, to reproduce the other with consider- able accuracy. From 104 skulls and faces measurements of the skull and flesh were taken at 21 different points, and from these data a system has been worked out which gives an effect almost uncanny.
Although the method is confessedly incomplete, it was used with startling results in 1895, in building up the face upon the supposed skull of Johann Sebastian Bach, who died in 1750, with results that proved the identity of the skull in question beyond all doubt.
As the story is told, there were three skulls, one of which was supposed to be that of Bach. Taking one at random, a face was built up on it, of plastic material, but it resembled no known person. The result was the same with the second. The third, when completed, showed the features of Bach to the life, and proved the correctness of the theory and system.
Harris Hawthrone Wilder, Ph.D., professor of zoology at Smith College, became interested in this work and applied these methods to the skulls of various New England Indians, substituting plastilina for the missing flesh. The skulls first selected for restoration included a man and a woman of the Narragansett tribe and two men from Hadley. From the heads built up of the plastic material, plaster casts have been made, two of which are in our Science Museum.
Both the physiognomy and cranial capacity indicate persons of limited intelligence and they undoubtedly show in a correct way the features of the Connecticut Valley Indians. If the hair and native headdress were added, they would probably truly represent the local Indians. Thus Dr. Wilder has supplied data, supposedly lost forever.
Almost as fixed as the prevalent war bonnet is the idea that all New England Indians who did not wear such a headdress had their hair shaved off to leave a comb-like roach or "scalp lock" of hair. Yet there is no evidence, no reliable information or record to indi- cate that this was either a universal or a general custom of the New England tribes. It was more or less in vogue among the tribes of
30
WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
the Iroquois Confederation, the Hurons and Eries and the Mikmaks of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but the great majority of the eastern Indians wore their hair "bobbed" or shoulder length. More- over, the tuft of hair on the crown of the shaven heads was not a "scalp lock", but was left as a means of securing feathers or other insignia or ornaments.
In the same way, the Indians who wore bobbed hair usually left a tuft of longer hair for the same purpose, and it was this long tuft that the early settlers and chroniclers referred to as a "scalp lock." But no New England Indian ever had need of a scalp lock and none
fitted into tis "
shaft i.
1
auxilliary cutting blades
Port orford cedar v
16
Shaft
-
- - - -- 21/2" - - -
side or flat view
Edge view of "Tip"
Plan of the modern Arrow Point known as a Broadhead
ever took a scalp until after the arrival of the white men who taught them the trick. Settlers were paid bounties for the killing of wolves and other predatory animals, but to qualify for the reward they were required to bring in the ears of the slain beast. From the ears of a wolf to the hair of an Indian was but a step. The New England tribes- men were quick to profit by the pale-faces' offer of bounties for human scalps, and reasoning that if the white men put such a high value on the trophies they must possess magical powers, they began lifting hair on their own account.
The procedure, as described by William Byrd in 1728 appears decidedly gruesome. He tells us that "those that are killed of the enemy, or disabled, they scalp; that is, they cut the skin all around the head just below the hair, and then clapping their feet to the poor mortal's shoulders, pull the scalp off clean and carry it home in triumph."
But regardless of all this, the public still demands either a war bonnet or a "scalp lock" on its Indians.
The popular idea of the "red Indian" or "copper colored sav- age" is also erroneous for such never existed au naturel. From
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INDIAN GARB
the constant use of red ochre as paint many Indians acquired a reddish stain, but the normal and natural color of the skins of the New England Indians was an olive, varying from that of a brunette white person to a pale dead-leaf brown, or often about the color of a Chinese. In most cases an eastern Indian, when dressed in con- vential garments and seen on the street, would be mistaken for a dark complexioned white man-a Spaniard, Neapolitan or possibly a Syrian-and ninety-nine out of a hundred persons would never recog- nize him as an Indian.
Even brownish hair, often wavy, and gray or hazel eyes are not at all unusual among Indians, especially those of Algonquin stock. How much of this variation was due to mixed blood must remain an enigma, but it is undeniable that there was a decided admix- ture, especially in New England.
There are so many contemporaneous descriptions of the appear- ance of the 16th and 17th century Indians as to leave little ground for argument or misunderstanding. Explorers wrote home in minute detail of the marvelous things which they saw in the New World. Between 1630 and 1640, 20,000 permanent settlers came to Massa- chusetts alone, all of whom left beliind home-folks anxious to learn of life in America, and a surprising number of their letters have been preserved. Many descriptive books were published for the informa- tion of a curious public. Such evidence cannot be gainsaid.
The distance across the United States is, roughly, three thou- sand miles. A traveler going an equal distance eastward from Paris would pass through France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and well into Persia with the expectation of encountering varied races, customs, costumes and languages. Why, then, should one expect to find here, identical people, from coast to coast? Actually the varia- tions were as great here as there.
However, the natives of the Atlantic seaboard, from Maine to Pamlico Sound in North Carolina were all of the Algonquian family and so quite similar except as to dialectal changes in their language. This is most fortunate, as these were the people encountered and described by the majority of the early travelers.
In 1524, Verrazzano came into New York harbor and reported to the king that the natives there "go entirely naked, except that about the loins they wear the skins of small animals, like martens, fastened by a girdle of plaited grass, to which they tie, all round the body, the tails of other animals hanging down to the knees; all other parts of the body and the head are naked. Some wear garlands similar to bird's feathers. The complexion of these people is black, not much different from that of the Ethiopians; their hair is black and thick, and not very long. It is worn tied back upon the head in the form of a little tail".
From the Hudson, Verrazzano went to Rhode Island where he met "two kings, one about forty years old, the other about twenty- four, dressed in the following manner. The oldest had a deer's skin around his body, artificially wrought in damask figures; his head was
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WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
without covering, his hair was tied back in various knots. The young man was similar in his general appearance. Members of this tribe are of a very fair complexion, some of them incline more to a white and others to a tawny color, their hair long and black. Their women are of the same form; they wear no clothing except a deer skin, ornamented like those of the men; some wear very rich lynx skins upon their arms and various ornaments upon their heads, composed of braids of hair, which hang down upon their breasts on each side".
In 1584, Arthur Barlowe wrote to Raleigh, from Virginia that he saw the wife of the king's brother and that "she had on her back a long cloak of leather, with the fur side next to body and before her a piece of the same. His apparel was as his wives, only the women wear their hair long on both sides and the men but one."
The following year, Ralph Lane wrote to Hakluyt, from Virginia, that the natives were "very desirous to have cloaths but especially coarse cloath, rather than silk. Coarse canvas they also like well". Thus early did these imitative natives seek to acquire European clothing.
Gosnold came to the Massachusetts coast in 1602, where he found the natives "all naked, saving about their shoulders certain loose deer skins, and near their waists, seal skins tied fast like to Irish dimmie trousers. These people are in color swart, their hair long, uptied with a knot in the part behind the head. They paint their bodies, which are strong and well proportioned."
In 1609, Henry Hudson came to the river which now bears his name and found the natives "in deer skins, loose, well dressed. They desired clothes." The following day he saw "some in mantles of feathers and some in skins of divers sorts of good furs". Again, he said "The swarthy natives all stood around. Their clothing consisted of the skins of foxes and other animals which they dress and make the skins into garments of various sorts".
Francis Higginson came to Salem in 1629. In 1630, three editions of his New England's Plantation were published in London. He said of the Massachusetts natives that "they are a tall and strong limbed people; their colors are tawny; they go naked, save only they are in part covered with beasts skins on one of their sholders and wear something about their privities. Their hair is generally black and cut before like our gentlewomen and one lock longer than the rest, much like to our gentlemen".
From Lord Baltimore's plantation in Maryland, in 1634, one of the settlers wrote to friends in England that the "natives are swarthy by nature but much more by art; painting themselves with colors, in oil, like a dark red. They wear their hair generally very long and it is as black as jet, which they bring up in a knot to the left ear, and tie it about with a large string of wampampegge. Their apparel gen- erally is deer skin and some fur, which they wear like loose mantles, yet under this about their middle all women and men at man's estate, wear round aprons of skins, which keeps them decently covered. All
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INDIAN GARB
the rest of their bodies are naked, and at times, some of the youngest sort, both men and women have just nothing to cover them."
Philip Vincent said to them, in 1637,-"naked they go, except a skin about their waist, and sometimes a mantle about their shoulders".
Thomas Morton came to Massachusetts in 1622. Though prior to that date, the natives for a long period had dealings with the explorers, it is doubtful if the dress of the Indians had seen much change and Morton must have known them in nearly their primitive state. In his New English Canaan, published in 1637, he say that "the Indians of these parts do make their apparel of the skins of several sorts of beasts. Some of these skins they dress with the hair on. The hairy side, in winter time, they wear next to their bodies, and in warm weather they wear the hair outwards. They make like- wise; some coats of the feathers of turkies, which they weave together with twine of their own making. These garments they wear like mantles over their shoulders and put under their arm. They make shoes of moose skins, and of such deer skins as they dress bare, they make stockings that come within their shoes like a stirrup stocking and is fastened above at their belt. Every male, after he attains the age which they call pubes, weareth a belt about his middle and a broad piece of leather that goeth between his legs and is tucked up both before and behind, under that belt".
De Vries went up the Hudson River to Albany in 1639. He said of the natives there that "all of them have black hair and yellow skin. They go naked in the summer. In winter they throw over them an unprepared deer skin or bear hide, or a covering of turkey feathers, or they buy duffels of us, two ells and a half long, and unsewed, go off with it and think they appear fine. They make them- selves shoes and stockings of deer skins, or they take the leaves of maize and braid them together, and use them for shoes. Men and women go with their heads bare. The women let their hair grow very long, tie it together a little and let it hang down the back. Some of the men have it on one side of the head, others have a lock hanging on each side. On the top of the head they have a strip of hair from the forehead to the neck, about three fingers broad, and cut two or three fingers long. It then stands up like a cock's comb. On both sides of this cock's comb, they cut it off close, except the locks. They paint their faces red, blue and brown and look like the devil himself."
It is obvious that De Vries is here describing the Iroquois, who were of a family totally unlike the New England Indians, in the man- ner of trimming their hair.
Roger Williams came to Massachusetts in 1631, where he remained for five years, removing to Rhode Island in 1636. There he lived with the descendants of the natives whom Verrazzano had described one hundred and twelve years earlier. In that interim the Indians had received many visits from explorers and traders from whom they acquired various bits of European wares. They had, however, remained in a surprisingly primitive state.
W. Mass .- I-3
FRAGMENT OF A KETTLE AND ARROW HEAD FROM FORT RIVER FORT SITE-HADLEY MASS, 1940
OBVERSE
END
REVERSE
Two COPPER ARROW HEADS FROM THE FORT LOTIN SPRINGFIELD, MASS .- 1896
SCALE FULL SIZE
WH S. HOWES~DEL.
35
INDIAN GARB
Probably no one in America knew the Indians more intimately than Williams. In his Key Into the Language, published in 1643, he said that "they have a two fold nakedness. First, ordinary and con- stant, when, although they have a beast's skin or an English mantle on, yet that covers ordinarily but their hinder parts and all the fore- parts, from top to toe, except the secret parts covered with a little apron, all else open and naked. Their male children go stark naked and have no apron until they come to ten or twelve years of age. Their female they cover with a little aprons 135ยช hand breadth from their very birth. 31486
"Their second nakedness is when their men, often abroad and both men and women within doors, leave off their beast's skin or English cloth and so, excepting their little apron, are wholly naked." They also had "a coat or mantle, curiously made of the fairest feathers of their turkeys, which commonly their old men make; and is with them as velvet is with us. Within their skin or coat they creep contentedly, by day or night, in house, or in the woods, and sleep soundly. Both shoes and stockings they make of their deer skin, worn out, which being excellently tanned by them, is excellent for travel in wet and snow, for it is so well tempered with oil, that the water clean wrings out, and being hanged up in their chimney, they presently dry without hurt. They commonly paint their skins for their summer wearing, with variety of forms and colors. Our English clothes are so strange to them and their bodies inured so to endure the weather that when some of them have had English clothes, vet in a shower of rain, I have seen them rather expose their skins to the wet than their clothes, and therefore pull them off and keep them dry. While they are amongst the English they keep on the English apparel, but pull off all as soon as they come again into their own houses and company. Some cut their hair round and some as low and as short as the sober English, yet I never saw any forget nature in excessive length."
Such citations from contemporary reports could be quoted rather indefinitely, but, due to their similarity, would add nothing of value.
However, at the time of King Philip's War the Springfield Indians had for more than forty years been in close association with their English neighbors. During that period the natives had become civilized as to clothing and had adopted most of the white man's dress, except possibly his hat and shoes. The Indian was not born to the need of a hat, and the toughness of his horn-like feet made the use of shoes unnecessary.
To understand the events relating to the destruction of Spring- field by the Indians, a knowledge is necessary of the Indians them- selves. To the casual thinker, they were a wild, mysterious people, but to the early settlers, they were merely a pest, adopted in an ill- advised moment, and whom they had to make the best of. They were just a bit less troublesome than the bears and wolves, because, being thinking persons, the fear of punishment could be put into their
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