USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Paterson > History of Paterson and its environs (the silk city); historical- genealogical - biographical > Part 8
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Certain sacrifices were held at stated periods. A family feast was held once in two years, to which all the relatives and neighbors were invited. After dinner the men and women engaged in a solemn dance, while a singer walked up and down, rattling a small tortoise-shell filled with pebbles, and chanting an appropriate recital. At another feast, ten or more old men or women wrapped themselves in tanned deer-skins, and with faces turned toward the east uttered prayers. The festival in honor of fire has been de- scribed. They also had sacrificial dances in honor of the first-fruits (the green-corn dance), hunting, fishing, and other special occasions. The earliest description we have of any of these sacrifices is found in Biörck's little book, which is so rare, and has been so seldom (if ever) referred to by other writers on the American Indians, that some extracts may be worth giving:
"A hut having been constructed, with due ceremony, and covered with bark and skins, is surrounded by several persons. The priest places some tobacco on stones, heated with fire, and directly another follows and pours water on them. Whereupon, as the vapor ascends on high, the priest cries with a loud voice, Kännaka, kännaka, or sometimes hoo, hoo, and turns his face toward the east. While some are silent during the sacrifice, certain make a ridiculous speech, while others imitate the cock, the squirrel and other animals, and make all kinds of noises. During the shouting, two roasted deer are distributed, one with bread from maize, cooked by the magicians, called by them Kankis. But the sacrificing priest eats nothing." So much for the hunting or deer sacrifice.
The first-fruits sacrifice he describes as witnessed by the Rev. Andrew Hesselius: "The families gather the first-fruits of roots, which grow in swamps, not unlike nuts, called Tachis, or by the English, hopnuts. These are first dried in a pot in the sun, or placed over the fire in a copper vessel,
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THE ABORIGINES
and cooked during the day. While this cooking is going on, and some are dancing in a circle, an Indian woman advances, her hair streaming down upon her shoulders, and with a spoon (or tortoise shell) stirs up the mass repeat- edly, and throws a certain portion into the fire, which act is greeted with a shouts by the approving dancers circling about. Piece by piece they devour the food thus prepared for them on this occasion."
The same author adds that "this and other sacrifices of the Americans they call, from a native word of their own, Kinticka, i e., a festive gather- ing, or a wedding." Every important event in the life-or death-of the Indian was celebrated with dance and song. "The Cantico," says Penn, "is performed by round Dances, sometimes Words, sometimes Songs, then Shouts ; two being in the middle that begin, and by singing and drumming on a Board, direct the Chorus; their Postures in the Dance are very antick and differing, but all keep measure. This is done with equal earnestness and labour, but great appearance of Joy." When a young Indian warrior was being butchered by inches by the Dutch soldiers in Fort Amsterdam, in 1644, with resulting cruelties which caused the squaws to cry shame ! he "desired them to permit him to dance the Kinte kaye, a religious use observed by them before death," and continued to dance and chant his death-song till he dropped dead under the knives of his inhuman captors. A pleasanter picture is that given by Van der Donck, in 1653, who says: "Feast days are con- cluded by old and middle aged with smoking, by the young with a kintecaw, singing and dancing." In 1663, during the war between the Dutch and the Esopus Indians, we are told that the latter "kintecoyed and deliberated" how they might best attack New Amsterdam, and that they "made a great uproar every night, firing guns and kintekaying." As the surest way to get the Indians together, it was proposed by one of their own tribe in 1671 to "cause a kinticoy to be held." In 1675 the Indians sachems of New Jersey were highly pleased with the promises and presents of Gov. Andros, and "they return thanks and fall a kintacoying with expressions of thanks, singing kenon, kenon." No doubt the gestures of the participants in these cere- monial dances, though "antic" and "ridiculous" to the white spectators, had a conventional symbolic significance perfectly understood by the Indians.
The serpent, with other animals, was held in reverence by the aborigines, and naturally its mysterious movements and fatal bite caused it to be re- garded with peculiar awe. That it was worshipped by the Americans in gen- eral is certain, but the only testimony regarding the attitude of the Lenâpé toward it is the vague account of Wassenaer, who describes the Kitzinacka (Big-Snake) as a priest who had no house of his own, but lodged where he pleased. or where he last officiated; was a celibate, and ate food prepared only by a maiden or an old woman. He tells elsewhere how the Indians placed a kettle full of all sorts of articles in a hole in a hill. "When there is a great quantity collected, a snake comes in, then they all depart, and the Manittou, that is the Devil, comes in the night and takes the kettle away. according to the statement of the Koutsinacka, or Devil hunter, who presides over the ceremony."
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As the Indians regarded every ill, whether to life, health or prosperity, as the work of a manito, the functions of priest and physician were united in one person, called, as we have seen, a Powaw (dreamer, clairvoyant), a Medcu (medicine man, conjurer), or Kitsinacka ( Big-Snake doctor). "Some of these diviners" (or priests), says Brainerd, "are endowed with the spirit in infancy ; others in adult age. It seems not to depend upon their own will, nor to be acquired by any endeavours of the person who is the subject of it, although it is supposed to be given to children sometimes in consequence of some means which the parents use with them for that purpose." Usually, however, the boys were initiated into the order at the age of twelve or four- teen years, with very trying ceremonies, fasting, want of sleep, and other tests of their physical and mental stamina. Although we have no account of such a custom, it is very probable that among the Lenâpé, as among the kindred Ojibways to this day, there were successive initiations into higher degrees in the Big Medicine Lodge, according to the skill or prowess of the aspiring medicine-man. Loskiel says that old men, unable to hunt, some- times became physicians (and priests), "in order to procure a comfortable livelihood;" others who had been instrumental in curing the sick, were re- garded as supernaturally endowed, and had to join the ranks of the priest- hood, but very many declared, and perhaps believed, that they had been called in a dream to separate themselves from their fellows.
Brainerd gives a vivid description of one of these shamans : "Of all the sights I ever saw among them, or indeed anywhere else, none appeared so frightful or so near akin to what is usually imagined of infernal powers, none ever excited such images of terror in my mind, as the appearance of one who was a devout and zealous reformer, or rather, restorer, of what he supposed was the ancient religion of the Indians. He made his appearance in his pontifical garb, which was a coat of bearskins, dressed with the hair on, and hanging down to his toes; a pair of bearskin stockings [leggings], and a great wooden face painted, the one half black, the other half tawny, about the color of an Indian's skin, with an extravagant mouth, cut very much awry ; the face fastened to a bearskin cap, which was drawn over his head. He advanced toward me with the instrument in his hand, which he used for music in his idolatrous worship; which was a dry tortoise shell, with some corn in it, and the neck of it drawn on to a piece of wood, which made a very convenient handle. As he came forward, he beat his tune with the rattle, and danced with all his might, but did not suffer any part of his body, not so much as his fingers, to be seen. No one would have imagined from his appearance or actions, that he could have been a human creature, if they had not had some intimation of it otherwise. When he came near me, I could not but shrink away from him, although it was then noonday, and I knew who it was ; his appearance and gestures were so prodigiously frightful. He had a house consecrated to religious uses, with divers images cut upon the several parts of it. I went in, and found the ground beat almost as hard as a rock, with their frequent dancing upon it."
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THE ABORIGINES
The intrepid Zeisberger himself was awed by the apparent wonder- working powers of these Indian priests. "He disbelieved the stories he heard of what they could do until several of them who had been converted un- folded to him things from their own past experience which forced him to acknowledge the reality of Indian sorcery. He describes three kinds of Indian magic : namely, the art to produce sudden death without the use of poison; the mattapassigan, a deadly charm by which epidemics could be . brought upon entire villages, and persons at a distance sent to their graves ; and the witchcraft of the kimochwe, who passed through the air by night, casting the inhabitants into an unnatural sleep, and then stealing what they wanted."
Brainerd makes the curious statement that when one of the most re- markable of these powows was converted to Christianity, he lost his power, "so much so that he no longer even knew how he used to charm and conjure. and could no longer do anything of that nature if he were ever so desirous of it." On the other hand, an Ojibway jossakid who performed marvelous feats, said thirty years later, when a Christian and on his death-bed, that the wonders seen were all the work of the spirits, whose voices he heard, and whose messages he repeated. He was evidently sincere, even if self-de- ceived.
The Lenâpé had not reached the stage of progress where the priestly office was separated from that of the physician, as among some of the Ameri- can races. Nor were the priests or shamans a class by themselves. Anyone was eligible to enter the profession, as stated by Loskiel. Although Brainerd and other missionaries found great difficulty in convincing them of the error of their ways, they were themselves tolerant of the religious beliefs and practices of others. "They have a modest Religious perswasion," says Roger Williams, "not to disturb any man, either themselves, English, Dutch or any in their conscience, and worship." And although the priests tried to incite their dupes to the massacre of Zeisberger and his fellow missionaries, the Grand Council of the Delawares in 1775 decreed religious liberty. There was not so much merit in this toleration as would appear at first sight. With the Indian, his religion was not a matter of conscience ; there was no principle of right and wrong involved in his belief or practice. No elevation of life or thought was connected with it-nothing but the idea of material gain. It is true that we are sometimes told of individuals who had a perception of moral and ethical principles, as in the case of Ockanickon, a sachem who died about 1680 at Burlington, and was buried among the Friends there, by his own desire. Addressing his nephew, he said: "I would have thee love that which is good and to keep good company, and to refuse that which is evil. * *
* Always be sure to walk in a good path, and never depart out of it." And then he lapses into paganism: "Look at the sun from the rising of it to the setting of the same." It is not at all clear just what the old chief meant by "good" and "evil," nor whether he attached any ethical sig- nificance to the words. The few instances where it appears that some indi- vidual of the race had glimpses of a higher conception of life than his fel-
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lows, shows all the more strikingly that the religion of nature-of belief in present earthly prosperity as the highest good-had scarcely begun to undergo the transition into the religion of the spirit-the perception of the truths which pertain to eternity. The Indian had not yet learned that
There is a light above, which visible Makes the Creator unto every creature, Who only in beholding Him has peace.
CHAPTER V.
The three tribes of the Lenape-Complications of government-The elec- tion and duties of a chief-Politics and scalp-raising among the Hackensack Indians-Figurative oratory-The Pequannock and Pompton Indians and others who lived in what are now the limits of Passaic County.
The peculiar system of government which prevailed among the primi- tive inhabitants of North America was never understood by the early writers. Investigation by later writers has revealed the principles underlying that complex institution. The study of the general subject of marriage has led to the conclusion that it was the foundation of social and governmental organization. Promiscuity of cohabitation was followed by a segregation of neighbors into groups, where the men held their wives in common-polyg- amy; and where the women held their husbands in common-polyandry. The children were also segregated into groups, where the young men called each other brothers, and the young women called each other sisters; the sisters of the young men would be the wives of another group, the latter being the brothers of the wives of the first group. In time the family was developed, with a single head, either father or mother, the former being the patriarchal form of family government, and the latter the matriarchal form. Obviously, all the members of all these groups and families were allied by the ties of kindred-either by affinity or consanguinity. In time it was usual for them to refer their origin to some remote ancestor, either male or female, and to call themselves after the name of that supposititious person. In this way there was developed the gens (kin), composed of bodies of consan- guineal kindred, and this was the basis of social and governmental institutions among the Indians when the whites came to this country. The gens reached its highest development among the Greeks and Romans. Its rise, progress and decay are traced clearly in Jewish history. Tacitus describes it among the ancient Germanic tribes. It undoubtedly had its influence in the organiza- tion of the village communities and hundreds among the Anglo-Saxons in England, and traces of it still survive among the native races of Ireland. But nowhere is the opportunity of studying this ancient human institution presented to us so favorably as among the uncivilized tribes of our own land.
The Lenâpé of New Jersey were divided into three sub-tribes or gentes, as follows:
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THE ABORIGINES
I. The Minsi, Monseys, Muncees, Montheys, Munsees or Minisinks ("people of the stony country," or "mountaineers"), who were known as the Wolf Tribe, and occupied the country about the upper Delaware valley, in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. "The Wolf is a rambler by nature," said they, "running from one place to another for his prey, yet they consider him their benefactor, as it was through him that the Indians got out from under the earth. Therefore the wolf is to be honored and his name preserved amongst them." All accounts go to show that the Minsis were the most intractable of all the Lenape-the most ready to go to war, and the most averse to the missionaries.
II. The Unami. or Wonameys ("people down the river"), who were known as the Tortoise Tribe, and were the neighbors of the Minsi, south of the Lehigh. As the Tortoise was regarded as the progenitor of mankind, and bore the earth on his back, the Tortoise Tribe always took the lead in governmental affairs, which in fact was the rule among all Algonkin tribes, and among many if not most others in North America.
III. The Unalachtigo, or Wunalachtiko ("people who live near the ocean"), who were known as the Turkey Tribe. "The Turtle is stationary, and always remains with them," they said, probably indicating more seden- tary habits on the part of that gens than was true of the others. They occu- pied the southern part of New Jersey, Delaware and Northern Virginia.
Such is the classification given by the earlier writers. But Morgan says the Munseys were a distinct gens or tribe, divided into the same three gentes -the Wolf, the Tortoise and the Turkey, and with the same rules as to descent, intermarriage and the office of sachem. The Mohegans, who occu- pied that part of New York bordering on New Jersey, had the same gentes, and the same rules as to intermarriage, inheritance, descent and the election of sachem, showing that they, like the Munseys, were closely allied to the Delawares or Lenape.
In 1860 Morgan closely studied the organization of the Delawares, at their reservation in Kansas. He found that each gens was divided into twelve sub-gentes, each having some of the attributes of a gens, and these sub-gentes were designated by personal names, in nearly or quite every case those of females, apparently the eponymous ancestors from whom the mem- bers of the gentes respectively derived their descent. The sub-divisions were as follows :
I. Wolf. Took-seat.
I. Mä-an-greet, Big Feet.
2. Wee-sow-het-ko, Yellow Tree.
3. Pä-sa-kun-a-mon, Pulling Corn.
4. We-yar-nih-kä-to, Care Enterer.
5. Toosh-war-ka-ma, Across the River.
6. O-lum-a-ne, Vermilion.
7. Pun-ar-you, Dog standing by Fireside.
8. Kwin-eek-cha, Long Body.
9. Moon-har-tar-ne, Digging.
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IO. Non-har-min, Pulling up Stream.
II. Long-ush-har-kar-to, Brush Log.
12. Maw-soo-toh, Bringing along.
2. Turtle. Poke-koo-un-go.
I. O-ka-ho-ki, Ruler.
2. Ta-ko-ong-o-to, High Bank Shore.
3. See-har-ong-o-to, Drawing down hill.
4. Ole-har-kar-me-kar-to, Elector.
5. Mä-har-o-luk-ti, Brave.
6. Toosh-ki-pa-kwis-i, Green Leaves.
7. Tung-ul-ung-si, Smallest Turtle.
8. Lee-kwin-a-i, Snapping Turtle.
9. We-lun-ung-si, Little Turtle.
IO. Kwis-aese-kees-to, Deer. The two remaining sub-gentes are extinct.
3. Turkey. Pul-la-ook.
I. Mo-har-ä-lä, Big Bird.
2. Le-le-wa-you, Bird's Cry.
3. Moo-kwung-wa-ho-ki, Eye Pain.
4. Moo-har-mo-wi-kar-nu, Scratch the Path.
5. O-ping-ho-ki, Opossum Ground.
6. Muh-ho-we-kä-ken, Old Shin.
7. Tong-o-nä-o-to, Drift Log.
8. Nool-a-mar-lar-mo, Living in Water.
9. Muh-krent-har-ne, Root Digger.
IO. Muh-karm-huk-se, Red Face.
II. Koo-wä-ho-ke, Pine Region.
12. Oo-chuk-ham, Ground Scratcher.
Bishop Ettwein gives the only detailed account we have of the manner of choosing the Chiefs of the various gentes :
Each Tribe has a Chief. The Chief of the great Tortoise is the Head, but the Tortoise Tribe cannot make or chuse him; that is the Work of the Chiefs of the other Tribes, and so vice versa. None of the Chief's sons can follow him in his Dignity, because they are not of that Tribe, but the Son of his Sister, or his Daughter's Daughter's Son may follow him. The Candi- date is commonly in the lifetime of a Chief appointed, to be learned and informed in the affairs of the Chief. The Election and Appointment is made in the following Manner : After the Death and Burial of a Chief, the 2 other Chiefs meet with their Councellors and People; the new Chief being agreed upon they prepare the Speeches and necessary Belts. Then they march in Procession to the Town where the Candidate is, the two Chiefs, walking in front, sing the intended Speeches, and enter the Town singing; they go on to the East Side into the Council House and round the several Fires pre- pared, then sit down on one side of them, upon which the Town's People come in, shake hands with them and place themselves over against them. One of the Chiefs sings a Speech, signifying the aim of their Meeting, con- doles the new Chief about the Death of the old one, wiping off his Tears, &c., and then declares him to be Chief in the place of the Deceased. He gives the People present a serious admonition to be obedient unto their Chief and to assist him wherever they can with 2 Belts. Thereupon he addresses also the Wife of the Chief and the Women present to be subject unto the
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THE ABORIGINES
Chief with a Belt. He then tells the Chief his Duties, and the new Chief promises to observe them. All is sung.
The Head Chief with two others, has to take care of the National Con- cerns, to cherish the Friendship with other Nations. None can rule or com- mand absolute, he has no Preference, nobody is forced to give him anything, but he is commonly well provided with Meat, and the Women assist his Wife in Planting, that he may get much corn, because he must be hospitable, and his House open to all. They are generally courteous and conversable. He has the Keeping of the Council Bag with the Belts, &c., and his House is commonly the Council House and therefore large.
The chief Duty of a Chief is to preserve Peace as long as possible ; he cannot make War, without the consent of the Captains, and also cannot receive a War Belt. If he finds his Captains and People will have War, he must yield to them, and the Captains get the Government. But as the Chief cannot make War, so the Captains cannot make Peace. If a Captain receives a Proposition for Peace, he refers it to his Chief, and says: I am a Warrior, I cannot make Peace. If a Captain brings such a Proposition to his Chief and he likes it, he bids him to sit down, and takes the Hatchet from him, and a Truce begins. Then the Chief says to the Captain ; as thou art not used to sit still, to smoke only thy pipe, help me in that good Work, I will use thee as a Messenger of Peace among the Nations : and thus the Warriors are dis- charged.
Captains are not chosen. A Dream or an enthusiastic Turn for War, with which an old conjuror joins, persuading the man that he would be a lucky Captain, is his call, upon which he acts. After he has been 6 or 7 times in War so lucky as to lose none of his Company, or got for each one lost, a Prisoner, he is declared Captain. If the contrary happens, he is broke. There are seldom many Captains, yet always some in each Tribe.
The Chief here spoken of was the Sachem of his tribe-a name derived from the root ôki, signifying above (in space, and hence in power). Not- withstanding what has been said above regarding the election of a Sachem, it is clear that the office was in a sense hereditary. The descent was in the female line, in order to keep the rule within the gens. As the children be- longed not to the gens of the father, but to that of the mother, the sons of a Sachem could not succeed him ; but his brother, or a son of his sister, was eligible to the succession, and in electing a new Sachem he was chosen from among them. This custom was probably a survival of a primitive matriarchal rule. The common chiefs were chosen for their personal merit-their brav- ery, wisdom or eloquence, and the office was non-hereditary. "When a per- son was elected sachem or chief his name was taken away, and a new one conferred at the time of his installation." A Sachem or chief could be de- posed at any time by the council of the tribe ; and his office was also vacated by his removal to another locality, as in the case of Mattano, Chief of the Nyack Indians, who in 1660 removed to Staten Island. The government of the tribe was a democracy ; the Sachem or Chief who attempted to lead his people against their will must needs have a powerful mastery over his fellow men, or he fared ill. At the same time, the earlier patriarchal or matriarchal influences were so strong that the free impulses of the savages were held much in check, and deference was paid even to an unpopular Chief. The Sachem was permitted to exercise a certain authority in the naming of his
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prospective successor, whom he chose from among the most eligible young men of the tribe, and instructed in the duties and responsibilities of the office. If they proved unworthy, he would set them aside and choose another, and perchance they would fall a victim to his vengeance if he suspected them of treachery to the tribe.
There were occasional deviations from the rule, the selection of the Sachem failing of ratification by the tribe, as we shall see in the case of Oratamy, Sachem of the Hackensack Indians. Sometimes, either because of her descent, or for some special trait which marked her out, a woman was chosen to rule over the tribe as a Squaw-Sachem, and the verdict of history is that their sway was quite as wise and firm as that of the sterner sex. The position of woman among the Indians was far from unfavorable; she was secure in the possession of her property and of her children, and had a voice in the selection of Chiefs. This independence was due largely to the gentile organization of the tribe ; a woman had the support of all the members, male and female, of her gens.
The Council of each tribe was composed of the Sachem and the other Chiefs, either experienced warriors, or aged and respected heads of families, elected by the tribe. The executive functions of the government were per- formed by the Sachems and Chief, who were also members of the Council. The latter body was legislature and court combined, having a strict and most decorous procedure. Here matters pertaining to the welfare of the tribe were discussed, whether of peace or of war ; offences against good order in the tribe were considered, and the accused tried with deliberation and the utmost fairness. As already remarked, crimes committed against individuals were not regarded as sins, or torts against the tribes ; they were usually set- tled between the persons or families concerned, or in the gens, upon the prin- ciple of ler talionis. The evolution of the crude law of the gens and then of the tribe went on for centuries and perhaps for ages ere there arose upon its base the fair fabric of moral obligation, of ethical compulsion-of Right, as distinguished from Expediency. The relations with other tribes and con- federations were talked over in the Council, and a course of action formu- lated. As the whites became more numerous, they in various ways under- mined the authority of the Chiefs, who were compelled to admit that they could not alway restrain the impetuosity of their warriors, wauwapiesjes, or of their young men-the "barebacks;" but in theory the decision of the Council was absolutely binding upon every member of the tribe, and a breach of its mandates was punishable with death. Describing a Council which he attended, William Penn says: "Their order is thus: The King sits in the Middle of a half-moon, and hath his Council, the old and wise on each hand ; behind them, or at a little distance, sit the younger Fry in the same Figure ; having consulted and resolved their business, the King ordered one of them to speak to me. * * During the time that this person spoke, not a man of them was observed to whisper or smile ; the Old Grave, the Young reverent in their deportment : They do speak little, but fervently and with elegancy."
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