History of the city of Paterson and the County of Passaic, New Jersey, Part 12

Author: Nelson, William, 1847-1914
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Paterson : Press Printing and Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 466

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THE INDIAN SHAMANS.

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 Medeu (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 sub- ject 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."1 Usually, however, the boys were initiated into the order at the age of twelve or fourteen years, with very trying ceremonies, fasting, want of sleep, and other tests of their physical and mental stamina. 2 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 initia- tions into higher degrees in the Big Medicine Lodge, according to the skill or prowess of the aspiring medicine- man.3 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 instru- mental in curing the sick, were regarded as supernaturally endowed, and had to join the ranks of the priesthood, but very many declared, and perhaps believed, that they had been called in a dream to separate themselves from their fel- lows. 4

Brainerd gives a vivid description of one of these sham- ans : "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, re- storer, 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

1 Brainerd, 348.

2 Loskiel, 47; Gookins's Historical Collections of New England, in I Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., I., 154.

3 For a detailed account of "The Midewewin or 'Grand Medicine Society,' of the Ojibwa, by W. J. Hoffman, see Seventh Annual Report U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 1891, 143-300. Mr. Hoffman Says there are several classes of Shamans or mystery-men among the Ojibways: the Jessakid, who is commonly called a juggler, but by the Indians is defined as a " revealer of hidden truths," or a seer and prophet ; the Wabeno, or dreamer, especially inspired by evil manidos ; the Mashkikikewimini, or medicine-men, whose specialty is in herbs; the Mide, in the true sense of the word, is a Shaman, though called by various writers a powow, medicine-man, priest, seer, prophet, etc. The Midewiwin-Society of the Mide or Shamans-consists of an indefinite number of Mide of both sexes, and is graded into four degrees. The Rev. Peter Jones, in his "History of the Ojebway Indians," already cited, gives a brief account of these priests and their initiation, and some extraordinary instances of their power in foretelling events. See PP. 143-152, 269.

4 Loskiel, 109, 110, 112.

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 appear- ance 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 im- ages cut upon the several parts of it. I went in, and found the ground beat almost as hard as a rock, with their fre- quent dancing upon it."1

The intrepid Zeisberger himself was awed by the appar- ent wonder-working powers of these Indian priests. "He disbelieved the stories lie heard of what they could do until several of them who had been converted unfolded to him things from their own past experience which forced lıim to acknowledge the reality of Indian sorcery. He de- scribes three kinds of Indian magic : namely, the art to produce sudden death without the use of poison ; the matta- passigan, 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."2

Brainerd makes the curious statement that when one of the most remarkable 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."3 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-deceived. 4

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 American races. Nor were the priests or shamans a class by themselves. Anyone was eligible to enter the profession, as stated by Loskiel. Although Brain-

1 Brainerd, 237-8. Similar accounts are given by Loskiel, 111, and Heckewelder, 235-6. See also Hoffman, as cited.

2 Zeisberger MSS., cited by De Schweinitz, 340-341. Cf. also Diary of David Zeisberger a Moravian Missionary among the Indians of Ohio translated from the original German manuscript and edited by Eugene F. Bliss, Cincinnati, 1885, II., 99, 436, etc.

3 Brainerd, 305.

4 Kitchi-Gami. Wanderings round Lake Superior. By J. G. Kohl, London, 1860, 280. This is one of the best and most interesting books ever written on Indian life.

HISTORY OF PATERSON.

erd and other missionaries found great difficulty in convinc- ing 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." 1 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.2 There was not so much merit iu 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 ele- vation of life or thought was connected with it-nothing but the idea of material gain. It is true that we are some- times 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 pagan- ism : "Look at the sun from the rising of it to the setting of the same."3 It is not at all clear just what the old chief meant by "good " and "evil," nor whether he attached any ethical significance to the words. The few instances where it appears that some individual of the race had glimpses of a higher conception of life than his fellows, shows all the more strikiugly 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.4

The peculiar system of government which prevailed among the primitive inhabitants of North America was never understood by the early writers. Indeed, it is only within the past twenty or thirty years that patient investi- gation by scholars 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 found- ation 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- polygeny ; and where the women held their husbands in common-polyandry. The children were also segregated into groups, where the young men called each other broth- ers, 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

1 Key, 113.

2 Life of Zeisberger, by De Schweinitz, 422.

3 Good Order Established in Pennsilvania and New-Jersey in America, by Thomas Budd, as cited, 64-65 ; quoted in Smith's Hist. N. J., 149.

4 Dante, Paradiso, xxx, 100-102 (Longfellow's translation).

first group. In time the family was developed, with a sin- gle head, either father or mother, the former being the pat- riarchal form of family government, and the latter the mat- riarchal 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 consang- uineal kindred, and this was the basis of social and govern- 'mental institutions among the Indians when the whites came to this country.1 The gens reached its highest devel-

opment among the Greeks and Romans. Its rise, progress and decay are traced clearly in Jewish history. Tacitus de- scribes it among the ancient Germauic tribes. It undoubt- edly had its influence in the organization of the village com- munities and hundreds among the Anglo-Saxons in England, and traces of it still survive among the native races of Ire- land. 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-tribes2 or gentes, as follows :

I. The Minsi, Monseys, Muncees, Montheys, Munsees or Minisinks ("people of the stony country," or "mountain- eers"), who were known as the Wolf Tribe, and occupied the country about the upper Delaware valley, in New Jer- sey, 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 forever amongst them."3 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. 4

II. The Unami, or Wonameys ("people down the river "), who were known as the Tortoise Tribe, and were the neigh- bors 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,5 which in fact was the rule among all Algonkin tribes, and among many if not most others in North America.

I Morgan, Systems of Affinity and Consanguinity, as cited ; Ancient Society ; Mc Lennan, Primitive Marriage ; Herbert Spencer ; J. W. Pow- ell, Proceedings American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1880, 687 ; in Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington, 1883, 194, and in the several Annual Reports U. S. Bureau of Ethnology.

2 Dr. Brinton insists that these divisions were neither gentes nor phratries, but simply sub-tribes .- Lenâpê, 40.

3 Heckewelder, 52, 253.

4 The Minsis spoke a harsher dialect than the other gentes of the Lenâpé, resembling somewhat that of the Mohegans and the Wampanos. -Ettwein, 31. As to their attitude toward the missionaries, cf. Brain- erd, Jones, Zeisberger (Life, and Diary), Loskiel and Memorials of the Moravian Church, passim.

5 Heckewelder, 97 ; Essays of an Americanist, 133.

HOW THE SACHEM WAS ELECTED.

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," 1 they said, probably indicating more sedentary habits on the part of that gens than was true of the others. They occu- pied the southern part of New Jersey, Delaware and North- ern Virginia.

Such is the classification given by the earlier writcrs. 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, in- termarriage and the office of sachem. The Mohegans, who occupied 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 Dela- wares or Lenape. 2

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 members of the gentes respectively derived their descent. The sub-divisions were as follows :8

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.

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.4

I. Mo-har-ä-lä, Big Bird.

1 Heckewelder, 253.

2 Morgan, Ancient Society, 173.

3 Ib., 172.

4 According to Bishop Ettwein, writing in 1788, in Eastern Pennsyl- 6

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-cliuk-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 Tor- toise 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 Daught- cr's Son may follow him. The Candidate 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 Coun- cellors and People ; the new Chief being agreed upon they preparc 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 prepared, 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, condoles the new Chief about the Deatlı of the old one, wiping off his Tears, 1 &c., and then declares him to be Chief in the place of the Deceased. He gives the People present a serious ad- monition to be obedient unto their Chief and to assist him wherever they can with 2 Belts.2 Thereupon he addresses also the Wife of the Chief and the Women present to be subject unto the Chief with a Belt.3 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 Concerns, to cherish the Friendship with other Nations. None can rule or command 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

vania, the three tribes (gentes) were: 1. The great Tortoise, Pach- oango ; 2, The Wolf, Ptuohsit; 3. The Turkey, Blaeu (Blœu, a turkey cock, according to Zeisberger). Pullaook (or Blaeu-ook, as Ettwein would give it) is the feminine.

1 A universal figure of speech among the Indians.

2 That is, he emphasizes these points of his speech by presenting two belts of wampum.

3 See next-preceding note.

HISTORY OF PATERSON.

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 there- fore large. 1

" 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 discharged.

" 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 iu 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. "2

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). 3 Notwithstanding 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 fe- male line, in order to keep the rule within the gens. As the children belonged not to the gens of the father, but to

1 See also N. Y. Doc. Hist., III., 82.

2 Ettwein, 34-36; Loskiel, 130-131, 142, 155. The system of government here described, and the metbod of choosing and installing a chief, is mucb the same as among tbe Iroquois, fully detailed by Morgan in his League of the Iroquois, and in Ancient Society ; by Hale, in Iroquois Book of Rites, and by J. W. Powell in his admirable account of the Wyandottes, in First Annual Report U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, and in Proceedings American Association for the Advancement of Science, for 1880, 675- 688. Among the Wyandottes each gens had a council of four women, wbo elected tbe chief from among tbe male members of their own gens. Earlier writers who had not penetrated the reserve with which the Indi- ans conceal their public and private affairs, bave declared that "tbe Al- gonkins knew nothing of regular government; they bad no system of polity ; there was no unity of action among tbem ; the affairs even of a single tribe were managed in the loosest manner. "-De Schweinitz, Life of Zeisberger, 39. "There is little authority known among these na- tions, " says Wassenaer. " They live almost all free. In each village, in- deed, is found a person who is somewhat above the others, and com- mands absolutely when there is war, wben they are gathered from all tbe villages to go on the war patb. After the fight his superiority ceases. "-N. Y. Doc. Hist., III., 29. " The Sackema possesses not much authority and little advantage unless in their dances and other ceremo- nies."-Journal of New Netherlands, 1641-7, in N. Y. Doc. Hist., IV., 4.

3 The Lenâpe and their Legends, 46. Tbe Minsis used the word k'htai, the great one .- 1b., 47, note. Mr. Anthony says the modern Del- aware word is wojauwe, used instead of the older sakima. See Lenape- English Dictionary, 167. Zeisberger, in his dictionary (p. 36), gives the phrase, Wajauwe n hakkey, I am a Cbief.

that of the mother, the sons of a Sachem could not succeed him ;1 but his brother, or a son of his sister, was eligible to the succession, 2 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 bravery, wisdom or eloquence, and the office was non-hereditary.3 "When a person was elected sachem or chief his name was taken away, and a new one conferred at the time of his installa- tion."4 A Sachem or chief could be deposed at any time by the council of the tribe ;5 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.6 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 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. 8 If they proved unworthy, he would set them aside and choose another, 9 and perchance they would fall a victim to his . vengeance if he suspected them of treachery to the tribe. 10

There were occasional deviations from the rule, the se- lection of the Sachem failing of ratification by the tribe, as we shall see in the case of Oratamy, Sachem of the Hack- ensack 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

1 Uncas, a famous Connecticut warrior and sachem, was the son and grandson of Sachems, and was succeeded by his son .- See " History of the Indians of Connecticut from the earliest known period to 1850, " by John W. DeForest, Hartford, 1852, pp. 66-7; " An Historical Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians in New England, in the years 1675, 1676, 1677, " etc., by Daniel Gookin, in Transactions Am- erican Antiquarian Society, II., 445. This is an exceptional case.

2 Morgan, Ancient Society, 173.

3 Ib., 71.

4 Ib., 79.

5 Ib., 74.

6 N. Y. Col. Docs., XIII., 147, 167.

7 For instances, see Penn. Col. Records, III., 97; N. Y. Col. Docs., XIII. , 371.

8 N. Y. Col. Docs., XIII., 361 ; Loskiel, 134.

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History of the city of Paterson and the County of Passaic, New Jersey, Part 12

Author: Nelson, William, 1847-1914 Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Paterson : Press Printing and Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 466

Author: Nelson, William, 1847-1914
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Paterson : Press Printing and Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 466