USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Paterson > History of Paterson and its environs (the silk city); historical- genealogical - biographical > Part 3
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As they lived mainly by hunting or by fishing, their huts or wigwams were temporary structures, which could be moved or abandoned as occasion or convenience required, a practice which militated against the development of permament buildings or durable materials, and also against the cultiva- tion of orchards.
As might be expected of an idea necessarily universal among the Indians, the Algonkins nearly everywhere used the same word for "house." Zeisberger gives it as wikwam, pronounced week-wawm, in his grammar, and wiquoam (pronounced the same) in his dictionary of the Delaware or Lenape language. It is given as wighwam, in the "Indian Interpreter," a sort of trader's jargon, compiled in 1684 for the use of the whites in South- ern New Jersey in their intercourse with the Indians, and recorded in the Salem Town Records, Liber B, in the Secretary of State's office, Trenton. There are 237 words entered in this book, evidently written by an English- man, therefore the letters must be given their English sounds. The same word is used by the Chippeways north of Lake Superior, at this day. The Cree root is wiki, "his house ;" whence wikiwe, the house.
Unlike the Iroquois, the New Jersey Indians did not commonly build large wigwams or "long houses" for several families, but merely small huts for a single family. Dr. Brinton says of the Algonkin tribes: "We do not find among them the same communal life as among the Iroquois. Only rarely do we encounter the 'long house,' occupied by a number of kindred families. Among the Lenâpés, for example, this was entirely unknown,
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PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
each married couple having its own residence." In his valuable work, "The Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines," the late Lewis H. Mor- gan concluded that during the Older Period and the Middle Period of bar- barism, as represented, the former by the Indians of this part of the country, and the latter by the riztecs, "the family was too weak an organization to face alone the struggle of life, and sought a shelter for itself in large house- holds composed of several families. The house for a single family was exceptional throughout aboriginal America, while the house large enough to accommodate several was the rule. Moreover, the habitations were occupied as joint tenement houses. There was also a tendency to form the households on the principle of the gentile [pronounced gen-ti-le] kin, the mothers with their children being of the same gens or clan." William Penn wrote, in 1683: "Their Houses are Mats, or Barks of Trees, set on Poles, in the fashion of an English Barn, but out of the power of the Winds, for they are hardly higher than a man; they lie on Reeds or Grass." Sometimes young trees would be bent down toward a common centre and the branches inter- laced and fastened together as a framework, and covered with bark, so closely laid on as to be very warm and rain-proof. Others would construct a circular, wattled hut, with either angular or rounded top, thatched and lined with mats woven of the long leaves of the Indian corn, or with rushes or long reed-grass, or the stalk of the sweet-flag, a vent-hole in the top serv- ing for the escape of smoke. Some would take the trouble to dig a pit, two or three feet deep, then erect their hut within, and pack the earth tightly around on the outside. If very particular, they would cover the floor with wood (traces of such wooden floors have been found in Cumberland county), but usually they slept on skins or leaves spread on the bare ground, a fact which inspired the muse of Roger Williams to sing :
God gives them sleep on Ground, on Straw, on Sedgie Mats or Boord : When English Softest Beds of Downe, sometimes no sleep affoord.
From this humble lodging no one was ever turned away-not even strangers. Their generous hospitality was always noted with admiration by travelers. Penn says: "If an European comes to see them, or calls for Lodging at their House or Wigwam, they give him the best place or first cut." "None could excel them in liberality with the little they had, for noth- ing was too good for a friend," says the historian Samuel Smith, paraphras- ing William Penn. "Give them a fine Gun, Coat, or other thing, it may pass twenty hands, before it sticks; light of heart, strong affections, but soon spent ; the most merry Creatures that live, Feast and Dance perpetually ; they never have much, nor want much; Wealth circulateth like the Blood, all parts partake ; and though some shall want what another hath, yet exact observers of Property." Writing home from New Perth (Perth Amboy, N. J.) in 1684, one of the early Scotch settlers says: "And for the Indian Natives they are not troublesome any way to any of us, if we do them no harm, but are a very kind and loving people; the men do nothing but hunt,
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THE ABORIGINES
and the women they plant Corn, and work at home; they come and trade among the Christians with Skins or Venison, or Corn, or Pork. And in the summer time they and their Wives come down the Rivers in their Cannoes, which they make themselves of a piece of a great tree, like a little Boat, and there they Fish and take Oysters." Thomas says: "If three or four of them come into a Christian's House, and the Master of it happen to give one of them Victuals, and none to the rest, he will divide it into equal Shares among them: And they are also very kind and civil to any of the Christians; for I myself have had Victuals cut by them in their Cabbins, before they took any for themselves." An Indian in need of food or lodging would not hesitate to enter the lodge of another, especially of the same tribe, and would expect as a matter of course to reciprocate as occasion offered. The guest would be given a seat on a mat in the middle of the wigwam, and would be invited to help himself out of the earthen pot, which in the beginning never knew the potter's wheel, and in its later existence was totally unacquainted with the cleansing properties of soap and water. Meat and fish and vegetables were all alike cooked in the same vessel, without salt or other seasoning than hunger, for the Indians were abstemious, and seldom ate more than two meals a day, and then only when hunger prompted. Some squaws, of course, were more skillful than others, and knew how to prepare Indian corn in a dozen different ways. Algonkin tribes so widely separated as the Micmacs of Nova Scotia, and the Piegan Blackfeet, used the same word as the Lenape for Indian corn : the first-named pe-askumun-ul; the second, esko-tope, and the last jesquem (Campanius), or chasquem (Zeisberger). The word is composed of the root ask or aski, "green," and the suffix mun or min, an edible fruit, abbreviated in the Delaware to 111.
The Indian's ordinary breakfast and dinner was maize pounded in a mortar till it was crushed into a soft mass and then boiled. This was his ach-poan, softened by the Indians of Southern New Jersey into as-poan, whence the Dutch sapaen or suppaen (sup-pawn), the Swedish sappan, and the Virginia "corn-pone," sometimes tautologically called "pone bread." An- other favorite dish was Indian corn beaten and boiled, and eaten hot or cold, with milk or butter; this they called Nasaump, whence the word "samp." Corn was often boiled whole, when it was called msichquatash, a word which looks like "succotash." Or, it was well mixed "with small beans of different colors, which they plant themselves, but this is held by them as a dainty dish more than as daily food." William Penn further remarks on their cookery : "Their Maiz is sometimes roasted in the Ashes, sometimes beaten and boiled with Water, which they call Homine; they also make Cakes, not unpleasant to eat ; they have likewise several sorts of Beans and Pcase, that are good nourishment."
Their thirst was quenched by drinking the broth of meat they boiled, or by draughts of pure water, for they had no intoxicating liquors, their only stimulant being tobacco, the smoke of which they inhaled, as they enjoyed their pipes. Dr. Brinton says tobacco was called by the Delawares kscha-tey (Zeisberger), scha-ta (Campanius), or shuate (Salem Interpreter), which
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PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
he thinks are from the root 'ta or 'dam, "to drink," the smoke being swal- lowed like water. The Delaware word for pipe was appooke, the modern Delaware being o'pahokun, which closely resembles the hopoacan of Zeis- berger (say 1750), and the hapockon of the Salem Interpreter of 1684. Their pipes were made of red marble, steatite, blue slate, sandstone or clay, often brought from the Mississippi or beyond.
Owing to their lack of intoxicants, Van der Donck remarks, "although their language is rich and expressive it contains no word to express drunken- ness. Drunken men they call fools. * * The rheumatic-gout, red and pimpled noses, are unknown to them; nor have they any diseases or infirmi- ties which are caused by drunkenness." Unfortunately, the savages soon acquired a passionate fondness for liquor, which has been the greatest curse the white man has brought upon them. Their Chiefs again and again implored the white rulers to prohibit or at least restrain the devastating traffic, but cupidity on the one side and weakness on the other made vain all attempts in that direction.
The sale of liquors to the Indians was prohibited by the Director and Council of New Netherlands, by ordinances passed 18 June, 1643; 21 No- vember, 1645; I July, 1647; 10 March, 1648; 13 May, 1648; 28 August, 1654; 20 December, 1655 (on the Delaware river) ; 26 October, 1656; 12 June, 1657 (prohibits the giving or selling) ; 9 April, 1658. The English enacted similar prohibitions I March, 1665; 22 September, 1676; in Penn- sylvania 10 December, 1682 and frequently thereafter. In New Jersey, an act was passed in 1677 imposing a penalty on any person who should "draw strong drink for the Indians, and not take effectual care to prevent any dis- turbance that may happen by any such means to any of their neighbours." But the pious and thrifty rumsellers of that day had a horror of "sumptuary" legislation, and 1682 they got this act modified by a new law, which with an amusing affectation of holy scruples set out : “Forasmuch as brandy, rum and other strong liquors, are in their kind (not abused but taken in modera- tion) creatures of God, and useful and beneficial to mankind, and that those creatures which God bestows, are not more to be denied to Indians in moderation than the Christians," etc., etc. In 1692 the Legislature regret- fully confessed that the "notion of selling strong liquors in moderation" had been a failure, and thereupon rigidly prohibited the furnishing of any kind of intoxicating liquors to the Indians, under penalty of five lashes on the bare back, ten for the second offence, fifteen for the third, and twenty for any further offence.
The men provided the fish and game, while the women cultivated the fields, raised corn and other vegetables in great quantities, and preserved them during the winter in pits or barracks. Sometimes they would have a supply of provisions stored up sufficient to last them two years, a fact which shows that they were not always as improvident as they have been assumed to be. Loskiel says: "They preserve their crops in round holes, dug in the earth at some distance from the houses, lined or covered with dry leaves or grass." What was this but a silo? They often postponed a war until crops
TOP NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTON LANSI AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONO
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Fotor!
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VIEWS OF THE PASSAIC FALLS IN 1700.
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THE ABORIGINES
could be gathered, as they depended largely on their vegetables for their sustenance.
Trained from their infancy in feats of dexterity and agility, as well as to endurance, they of course excelled in the craft of wood or water. They cheerfully placed these talents at the service of the whites for a trifling recom- pence, and proved valuable aids in subduing the native wilds, and many of their customs have been kept up by the whites to this day. That of burning the grass off the meadows in the spring, a practice of the Indians in order to dislodge the small vermin, and to stimulate the growth of the young grass for the deer to feed on. They were found trusty messengers between the Dutch settlements on the Delaware and New Amsterdam, and swift ones, too, a dusky savage undertaking (in 1661) to take a letter from Christiana (Newcastle, Del.) to Manhattan in four or five days, for the munificent reward of "a piece of cloth or a pair of socks." The distance would be one hundred and twenty miles in a straight line, and by the ordinary paths must have been nearly or quite half as far again.
They dressed in the skins of wild animals, which they skillfully cured. Their implements were of stone-flint arrow heads; jasper arrow heads have been found on Garret Mountain, which must have been brought from a distance; quartz, slate, shale and other materials were used for the same purpose. Axes, scrapers, knives, chisels (celts), fish-spears, club-heads, net- sinkers, pestles, pipes, plummets, drills, mortars, spear-heads, some of them finely wrought, and made of chert, flint, quartz, jasper, granite, slate and other stones, have been found in vast abundance in New Jersey, especially in the southern part of the State.
In Mercer county alone Dr. Abbott has collected upwards of twenty thousand specimens of Indian handiwork in this line. Oval knives, admira- bly adapted to the cleaning of fish, have been found along the Passaic and Hackensack rivers. Many of the New Jersey implements show a degree of skill superior to that of many other tribes. The Indian workman acquired great proficiency in fashioning knives and other articles out of flint by dex- terous percussion or steady pressure. Holes were bored in the hardest stones, doubtless by swiftly revolving a pointed stick or bone or other stone in the article to be penetrated, perhaps using a bit of cord to aid the revolu- tion, by twisting and untwisting, and sand to increase the trituration. Every boy knows how to whirl a stick swiftly by twisting and untwisting a cord about it. In the museum at Zurich may be seen a "restoration" of the simple contrivance on this plan wherewith the ancient Lake-Dwellers of Switzerland bored holes in stones, using a bit of cow's horn, with the point cut off, as the borer, sand and water being dropped into the hole bored ; in this way a core can be easily cut out of the hardest stone.
The native copper found near the Raritan was highly prized, and was hammered into shape for weapons or tools of various kinds. Their pottery was made of clay and pounded shells, mixed and fashioned by hand, and burned in the fire. There was usually but little attempt at ornamentation,
P-2
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PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
and very seldom were colors used. Soapstone pots were highly prized, and were brought in the rough from great distances and fashioned by the pur- chaser to his or her individual taste.
In making a canoe they would fell a tree by the use of their stone axes -- which they could do almost as readily as the whites with their implements of iron-or by burning into the trunk at the base. This they would trim off by the same means, shape it by scraping and by fire, and then would hollow it out by fire, just as did our own Aryan ancestors; or, in later times, they would skillfully cover a framework with bark, and so form a vessel large enough to contain twenty rowers, or to bear two thousand pounds of freight, and yet so light that two or four men could carry it.
They had learned to make a coarse cloth from the fibre of nettles and other plants, which they twisted upon the thigh with the palm of their hands, and wove with their fingers. They made rope, purses and bags of the same thread. For needles they used small bones or wooden splints, with which they were quite dexterous.
Like all uncivilized peoples, the Indians were very fond of ornaments, either for use or for the adornment of the person, and they were in the habit of bartering articles which they had for those which they had not. Flat or hemispherical stones, with holes bored through them, whereby they could be suspended around the neck were very common, scores of them being pic- tured in Dr. Abbott's "Primitive Industry." Shells were used in the same way. We may readily imagine the steps by which the size of these orna- ments was reduced until a mere bead was formed, perhaps in imitation of bits of hollow bone or wood or reeds, previously used for the same purpose. The dwellers along the seacoast had the advantage over the tribes in the interior, in the greater abundance of material suitable for making these beads, and in time became expert in their production. When the whites came, and we know not how long before, a standard form appears to have been settled upon, and the beads were ground down to the thickness of a large straw, about a third of an inch in length, smoothly polished, bored longitudinally with sharp stones, and strung upon thongs or the sinews of animals. The fineness was tested by passing it over the nose, the absence of friction being satisfactory proof of its good quality. These beads were formed from pieces broken out of the inside of the periwinkle, the conch, the hard clam or other suitable shell. The white beads were called wampum, and the blue. purple or violet beads were called suckanhock; in time they were distinguished simply as white wampum and black wampum. The latter being the less plentiful, and perhaps more esteemed from its richer color, was twice as valuable as the former. By the Dutch they were commonly called scawant, the etymology of which is obscure; but this is said to have been the generic name for the beads, both white and black. However, at an early day the word wampum came into general use for the article. In Massachusetts it was called wampam-peak, wampumpeag, wampompeage or simply peag or peague. Among the New Jersey Indians it was called wapapi (white wam- pum) and géquak or n' sukgéhak (black wampum). The former word is
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THE ABORIGINES
derived from the root wampi (Iroquois) or wap (Delaware), "white;" the latter from sukeu, "black," and perhaps pokqueu, "clam" or "mussel." Although its manufacture was widely spread, at one time the Indians on Long Island, especially on the Sound, almost monopolized its production. Used first merely for ornament, twined around the head, neck or waist, it came to be so much in demand by all tribes that it assumed the character of a currency, and when the whites first settled here they used it in trade also, having no other money, not only in their dealings with the Indians but among themselves. Some white men tried to make wampum, but their crude product was promptly rejected as counterfeit. With his hand or a split stick for a vise, a sharp stone for a drill, and another stone for his grindstone, a skill- ful Indian could grind, bore and polish thirty-five or forty of these beads in a day, worth ten or fifteen cents. "Wampum being in a manner the cur- rency of the country," as remarked by a writer of New Netherland in 1634, the watchful Governor and Directors of the Colony tried to regulate its value from time to time by sundry enactment. In 1641 it was declared that "very bad wampum" was circulated, and "payment is made in rough unpol- ished wampum which is brought hither from other places, and the good pol- ished wampum, commonly called Manhattan wampum, is wholly put out of sight or exported, which tends to the express ruin and destruction of this country ;" wherefore it was ordered that unpolished wampum should pass current at the rate of five for one stuyver (two cents), and well polished wampum should remain as before, at four for one stuyver, strung. In 1647 loose wampum continued current, although many of the beads were imper- fect, broken or unpierced; it kept on depreciating in quality and value till 1650, when beads of stone, bone. glass, mussel-shells, horn and even of wood were in circulation. The authorities thereupon prohibited the use of wam- pum unless strung on a cord, and fixed the value of the good article at six white and three black for a stuyver, while the "poor strung" was rated at eight white and four black per stuyver, and "there being at present no other currency," wampum was made legal tender to the value of twelve guilders- about five dollars-the bakers, tapsters and laboring men having refused to take it in pay. By 1657 it depreciated to one bead to the farthing, or eight per stuyver, and in 1658 it was still lower, and the shopkeepers were loth to take it at all. But Director General Petrus Stuyvesant and his Council ordained that half a gallon of beer must be sold for six stuyvers in silver, nine stuyvers in beaver, and twelve in wampum; a coarse wheaten loaf of eight pounds, at fourteen stuyvers in wampum; a rye loaf of the same weight at twelve stuyvers in wampum, and a white loaf of two pounds at eight stuyvers in wampum. Although wampum continued to depreciate in value, it was in quite general use as a currency for a century longer.
Wampum had another and very important function. Doubtless by means of some conventional arrangement of the beads, the significance of which is not now understood, strings of wampum served a mnemonic purpose. The messenger from one tribe to another, or from the Indians to the whites, would sometimes carry as many as thirty strings of wampum, which he
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PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
would lay down one after another as he delivered the respective points of his message. Arranged in belts, the black and white sometimes forming pictures or figures, they conveyed a meaning perfectly comprehensible to the Indian. As Montcalm wrote in 1757: "These Belts and Strings of Wampum are the universal agent among Indians, serving as money, jewelry, ornaments, annals, and for registers; 'tis the bond of nations and individuals ; an inviola- ble and sacred pledge which guarantees messages, promises and treaties. As writing is not in use among them, they make a local memoir by means of these belts, each of which signifies a particular affair, or a circumstance of affairs. The Chiefs of the villages are the depositaries of them, and com- municate them to the young people, who thus learn the history and engage- ments of their Nations. *
* * Their length, width and color are in pro- portion to the importance of the affair to be negotiated. Ordinary Belts con- sist of twelve rows of 180 beads each." A belt of white wampum, with two hands joined, in black, was a signal of peace and unity ; if of black, it meant a warning or reproof ; if black, marked with red, it was a declaration of war. When the Senecas wished the Delawares to join them in fighting the French, they sent a belt of wampum expressing their desire. The Delawares, after due deliberation, returned the belt, thereby declining the invitation.
The belt given by the Indians to William Penn at the famous treaty at Shackamaxon in 1682 is in the possession of the Historical Society of Penn- sylvania. The belt is 26 inches long and nine inches broad, consisting of 18 rows of beads, 166 beads in each row, or about 3,000 in all. "According to an Indian conception, these belts can tell, by means of an interpreter, the exact rule, provision or transaction talked into them at the time, and of which they were the exclusive record. A strand of wampum consisting of strings of purple and white shell beads, or a belt woven with figures formed by beads of different colors, operated on the principle of associating a particular fact with a particular string or figure ; thus giving a serial arrangement to the facts as well as fidelity to the memory."-Morgan, New York, 1878, p. 143. Among the Iroquois (and probably among other tribes) there were trained interpreters, called "Keepers of the Wampum," whose business it was to explain the meaning of these belts.
The exceeding fondness of the Indians for wampum made its manu- facture a profitable industry down to the middle of the nineteenth century, when many a family in Bergen county earned a livelihood by making wam- pum for the traders on the frontiers.
In their family relations the Delaware Indians seem to have been hap- pier than the Iroquois and many other tribes. They married very young- the girls at thirteen or fourteen, and the lads when seventeen or eighteen. Exogamy was the rule among all the North American Indians, as is and has been the case among nearly all peoples in a state of barbarism. No young brave was permitted under any circumstances to marry a dusky maiden of his own sub-tribe. "According to their own account, the Indian nations were divided into tribes, for no other purpose, than that no one might ever, either through temptation or mistake, marry a near relation, which at present
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THE ABORIGINES
is scarcel_ possible." The young women inclining to marriage would wear a headdress indicative of the fact, as they sat by the pathway, usually covering the face and often the whole body, so that they could not be recognized, until the favored suitor appeared. The negotiations for the maiden's hand were carried on with her nearest relations, to whom the suitor would send a pres- ent, sometimes supplemented by a gift of wampum to the girl. If the rela- tives were unfavorable, they returned the gifts, but if agreeable, the maiden was led to the young brave's hut without further ceremony, and her friends would march in solemn procession to the dwelling of the young couple, with presents of Indian corn, beans, kettles, dishes, baskets, hatchets, etc. These unions, generally formed merely from inclination or convenience, were sel- dom lasting, and the man and woman would separate on slight provocation, and enter into new relations. The advantages of this system were thus expounded (in 1770) by an aged Indian who had lived much in Pennsylvania and New Jersey : "White man court, court-may be one whole year !- may be two year before he marry !- well !- may be then got very good wife-but may be not-may be very cross! Well, now, suppose cross !- scold so soon as get awake in the morning ! scold all day! scold until sleep! all one; he must keep her. White people have law forbidding throwing away wife, be she ever so cross; must keep her always. Well, how does Indian do? Indian when he see industrious squaw, which he like, he go to her, place his two forefingers close aside each other, make two look like one-look squaw in the face-see her smile-which is all one she say, Yes! so he take her home-no danger she be cross; no, no! Squaw know too well what Indian do if she cross-throw her away and take another! Squaw love to eat meat ! no husband, no meat! Squaw do everything to please husband ; he do same to please squaw. Live happy !"
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