USA > New York > History of the state of New-York : including its aboriginal and colonial annals, vol. pt 1 > Part 3
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* Heckewelder, 1 vol. Phila. Hist. and Lit. Trans. p. 244.
+ Ib. ch. 34.
That is, the American continent, which they believe to be surrounded (as it probably is) by water. Red Jacket, in his speeches, call it an island. In one of his speeches, in reply to that of General Washington welcoming the Six Nations at Philadelphia in 1792 -- " We, your brothers," (addressing Colonel Timothy Pickering, then United States commissioner, who con- ducted treaties with these nations.) " of the Five Nations, believe that the great Spirit let this island drop down from above. We also believe in his superintendency over this whole island."-MS. See the Hindoe mythology.
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Origin of the Aborigines and ancient Ruins. [PART I.
back, and is also esteemed as superior because he is amphibi- ous. This idea of relationship with the animal creation pres vails also among the western Osages.(17)
§ 5.
Having thus noticed these fabulous traditions of the first creation of man and foundation of nations, we will intro- duce some of a more recent reference, possessing a degree of authenticity entitling them to more consideration than the for- mer. 'These relate to the immediate ancestors of our Indians, whence they came, who were the inhabitants of the state previous to their arrival, and who probably constructed the works of art which we have described .*
The Lenni Lenape, according to the traditions banded down to them by their ancestors, resided many hundred years ago in a very distant country in the western part of the Ame- rican continent. They determined on migrating to the east- ward, and accordingly set out in a body. After a long jour- ney, and many nights' encampment, (that is, halts of one year at a place, ) they arrived on the Namesi Sipu, (Mississippi,){ where they fell in with the Mengwe (the Iroquois or Five Na-
* The first tradition we derive from the Rev. John Heckewelder, who resided more than forty years among those Indians, Their history he has given with undoubted fidelity of relation on his own part, and with a just claim to authenticity, except so far as the relaters (the Delawares) in speak - ing of their political connexions with the Five Nations, might be presumed to have been biassed by an irreconcileable hostility towards the alleged au- thors of their national misfortunes and degradation-the Delawares having, by force or artifice, been compelled or induced for a long time to assume the character of women, or, in the Indian phrase, " to put on petticoats," as will appear in the history of our Indians bereafter .- Hist. Account of the Indian Nations, in Vol. 1. Hist. and Lit. Trans. Phila. 1819. (reviewed vol. IX. N. Amer. Rev. p. 155. 179.) Heckewelder's Narrative of his Mission among the Delawares and Mohegan Indians, Phila. 1820. and his MS. com- munications to Doct. Miller, presented by him to the New-York Historical Society.
+ River of fish : namers, a fish ; sipu, a river.
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Traditions.
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tions) who had also emigrated from a distant country, and had struck upon this river somewhat higher up. 'Their ob- ject was similar to that of the Delawares ; they were proceed- ing castward until they should find a country that pleased them. The territory east of the Mississippi was inhabited by a very powerful nation, who had many large towns built on the great rivers flowing through their land. These were the Alligewi, from whose name those of the Alleghany river* and mountains have been derived. This famous people are said to have been remarkably tall and stout ; and there is one tra- dition that giants were among them, people of a much larger size than the tallest of the Lenape. They built regular forti- fications and entrenchments, whence, they would sally, but they were generally repulsed. Mr. Heckewelder has seen many of these fortifications, two of which are remarkable, viz. -- one near the mouth of the Huron flowing into Lake St. Clair ; the other on the Huron east of Sandusky, six or eight miles from Lake Erie.
The Lenape, on their arrival, requested permission to settle in their country. The Alligewi refused, but gave them leave to pass through and seek a settlement further eastward .- They had no sooner commenced crossing the Namesi Sipu, than the Alligewi perceiving their vast numbers, furiously at- tacked them, and threatened them all with destruction if they dared to persist in coming over. Fired at this treachery, the Lenape now consulted about giving them a trial of their strength and courage. The Mengwe, who had remained spec- tators at a distance, now offered to join them, on condition that, after conquering the country, they should be entitled to share it with them. Their proposal was accepted, and the resolu- tion was taken by the two nations to conquer or die. The Lenape and Mengwe now declared war against the Alligewi, and great battles were fought, in which many warriors fell on both sides. The enemy fortified their large towns and erect-
* Viz. the Ohio, as the Iroquois named it; or La Belle Riviere, (the Beautiful river,) by the French ; a branch of it retains its ancient name. VoL. I.
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Origin of the Aborigines and ancient Ruins. [PART I.
ed fortifications, especially on large rivers and near lakes, where they were successively attacked, and sometimes stormed by the allies. An engagement took place, in which hundreds fell, who were afterwards buried in holes or laid together in heaps and covered with earth. No quarter was given ; so that the Alligewi, finding their destruction inevitable if they per- sisted in their obstinacy, abandoned the country to the con- querors, and fled down the Mississippi, whence they never re- turned. The war had lasted many years and was very des- tructive. The conquerors now divided the country. The Mengwe made choice of the lands in the vicinity of the great lakes and on their tributary streams, and the Lenape took pos- session of the country south. For a long period of time, some say many hundred years, the two nations resided peace- ably in this country, and increased very rapidly. Some of their most enterprising huntsmen and warriors crossed the mountains, and falling on streams running eastward, followed them down to the great Bay river (Susquehannab,) thence into the Bay itself (the Chesapeake) ; as they pursued their travels near the Salt-water lake (Atlantic,) they discovered the Great river (Delaware) ; thence exploring castward, through the Scheyichbi country (New-Jersey,) they arrived at another great stream (the Hudson river.) Returning to their nation with flatter- ing representations of the country, and assurances that no enemy was to be dreaded, they concluded this to be the country des- tined for them by the great Spirit. They accordingly began to emigrate thither at first in small bodies, and at last settled on the four great rivers, Delaware, Hudson, Susquehannah, and Potomac, making the Delaware, to which they gave the name of Lenapewihittuck,* the centre of their possessions. The whole of their nation did not reach this country. Some re- mained beyond the Mississippi, and others on this side. The largest body, supposed to have been one half of the whole,
* Viz. the river or stream of the Lenape. Hittuck meaning, in the Delaware language, a rapid stream ; sipo or sipu is the proper name for 2 river.
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settled on the Atlantic ; and the other half was subdivided into two parts as above, one of which, the strongest as they sup- pose, remained beyond the Mississippi, and retreated into the interior of the country on learning the reception of those who crossed ; probably supposing them destroyed. The Dela- wares, on the Atlantic shores, divided themselves into three tribes, viz .-- the Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf. The Turtle call- ing themselves Un mis, and the Turkey, Unalachtgo, se- lected ground nearest the sea, between the coast and the high mountains. As they multiplied, their settlements ex- tended from the Mohicannittuck (river of the Mohicans, viz. the Hudson) beyond the Potomac. Many of their fami- lies, scattered throughout the country, erected towns and villages, having each a chief who looked up to the head chiefs, or great council of the nation. The Wolf tribe, called Minsi, (which has been corrupted into Monseys,) who lived in the rear of the two other tribes, were the most warlike of the Lenape, and found a bulwark for their protection, by watching the motions of the Mengwe. The Minsi reached from Minisink, where they had their council seat and fire, quite up to the Hudson on the east, and on the west and south-west far beyond the Susquehannah. Their northern boundaries were supposed originally to have been the heads of the Susquehan- nah and Delaware; their southern, the Muskanecun hills, so denominated, in Jersey, or those of Lchigh, Coghnewago, &c. in Pennsylvania.
1735224
From these tribes, composing the body of the Delawares, emanated others, who adopted or received various names, taken from natural objects or local peculiarities, and who yet looked up to the parent tribe with affection, and of whom they were proud to be called the grand-children. This was the case with the Mahicanni, or Mohicans, in the cast, a people who by intermarriages had become a detached body, mixing two languages togetlier, and forming out of the two a dialect of their own. Choosing to live by themselves, they had crossed the Hudson River, naming it Mahicannituck River, after their assumed name, and spread themselves over all that country
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Origin of the Aborigines and ancient Ruins. [PART I.
which now composes the eastern states. New tribes again sprung from them, which assumed distinct names, still ac- knowledging the parent stock to be their grandfather. The Delawares at last thought proper to enlarge their council- house for their Mahicanni grand-children, that they might come to their fire, that is to say, be benefited by their advice, in order also to keep alive their family connexions, and maintain a league with each other. In a similar manner, & body of the Lenape, called Nanticokes, together with their offspring, proceeded south as far as Maryland and Virgi- nia. The council-house was extended for their benefit to the Potomac.
. Meanwhile the Mengwe, who 'had first settled on the great lakes, had always kept a number of cances in readiness to save themselves, in case the Alligewi should return, and their number also increasing, they had in time proceeded further, and settled below the lakes along the River St. Law- rence, so that they became, on the north side, neighbours of the Lenape tribes .*
This contiguity, as might be expected, soon originated a mutual jealousy, which induced a train of events that ulti- mately ruined the Lenape, but paved the way for the victo- rious progress of the confederacy of the celebrated five na- tions. A sketch of those events will be given hereafter.
The Rev. Mr. Beatty, in his mission from New-York in 1766,f to the western Indians, received from a person whom he credited, the following tradition, which he had heard from some old men among the Delaware tribe. That of old time their people were divided by a river, and one part tarried behind ; that they knew not for certainty how they came first to this continent, but gave this account, viz. that a king of their na- tion, when they formerly lived far to the west, left his kingdom to his two sons ; that the one son making war upon the other,
* Heckewelder. Vol. I. Phila. ITist. & Lit. Tr ch. 1.
i See his Journal of two months tour with a view of promoting religion. &c. By Ch. Beatty, A. M. Lond. 1768.
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the latter thereupon determined to depart, and seek some new habitation ; that accordingly he set out, accompanied by a number of people, and after wandering to and fro for the space of forty years, they at length came to the Delaware River, where they settled three hundred and seventy years ago. The way they kept an account of this was by putting a black bead of wampum every year. since, on a belt which they used for that purpose. The king of the country whence they came, some years ago, when the French possessed Fort Duquesne, (Pittsburgh) sent out some of his people to discover, if possi- ble, that part of their nation which departed to seek a new country, who, after seeking six years, came to the Pickt town on the Oubache river, met a Delaware Indian, whose language they understood, and by him were conducted to the Delaware towns, where they tarried one year and returned. Their country extended a great way towards the setting sun. Mr. Beatty's informant, who had, it seems, been years among the Indians, also said, that among the Delawares he observed their women to follow exactly the custom of the Jewish wo- men, as prescribed in the Mosaic law ; and that the Delawares observed the feast of first-fruits, or the green corn feast.
Mr. Williams,* commenting on the above tradition, asks, Does it not refer to the passage of the Israelites over Jordan into the land of Canaan, under the conduct of Joshua? The account of their wandering to and fro, may arise from a con- fused tradition of the travels of the Israelites in the wilderness. Or it may imply, he thinks, the unsettled state of North Wales ; the departure of Madoc, and his travels before he finally settled. He adds, that these Jewish customs pre- vailed among the Carthaginians, Phoenicians, and Tartars. He thinks the Tartars are descendants of the ten tribes ; that at remote periods some of them may have been driven on our northern coasts ; that even while hunting on the ice, they might have been, in consequence of a sudden thaw, thus car- ried to the American coasts. t
* Inquiry into Madoc's expedition. pp. 45. 53.
? Ib. p. 53.
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Origin of the Aborigines and ancient Ruins. [PART I.
The Mengwe (or five nations) have a tradition that they came from the west, but from what part their progenitors emi- grated they know not. The late Rev. Samuel Kirkland says (in the manuscript Journal of his missionary tour into this State in 1788) he found by inquiry that a tradition prevailed among the Indians in general, " that all Indians came from the west."
Ś 6.
The old fortifications in our State were erected previous to European intercourse. The appearances of former cultiva- tion, for instance, in Pompey : and the great number of bu- rial places, evince a once skilful and numerous population, Similar appearances would probably remain for ages, if the present white population were entirely swept away. The Indians are ignorant by whom they were made. Respect- ing the fort in Oxford, they have a tradition that the family of the Antones, which is supposed to belong to the Tuscarora nation, are the seventh generation from the inhabitants of this fort ; but of its origin they know nothing. In the Indian Re- servation, near Buffalo, are extensive clearings, of which the Senecas can give no account. Whether the people whom the Iroquois assisted to extirpate when they migrated to their pre- sent country, or whether inhabitants anterior to them, or whe- ther the Eries, whom they extirpated after the European settlement, or their predecessors, erected these works, are ques- tions which are considered to be involved in impenetrable mystery .*
'The party of gentlemen who discovered, in 1791, certain ancient remains before described, i made every inquiry con- cerning those singular constructions among the surrounding Onondagoes and other nations, but so far from receiving any
* Mr. Clinton's Memoir on Westeru Antiquities, &c.
+ Seo p. 17.
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, 0.] Traditions .-. Authors of the Ruins.
information, traditionary or otherwise, they ascertained that the natives had never noticed the ruins.
The Reverend Mr. Kirkland, in reference to the two first remains of fortified towns, which he found on the Genessee Flatt, north of the magic spring and west of the deserted vil- lage,* observes (in his manuscript journal) that from the best information he could get from the Indian historians, these forts were made previous to the Senecas being admitted into the confederacy of the Mohawks, Onondagoes, Oncidas and Cay- ugas, and when the former were at war with the Mississau- gas, and other Indians around the great lakes. This (he con- tinues) must have taken place nearly three hundred years ago, if not more, according to many concurring accounts which he obtained from several Indians of different tribes. With regard to the double-fortified town, and the funeral pile, (where the slain were buried after a great battle) which he discovered on the open plain on arriving at the river Tanawande, f he observes, that Indian tradition says these works were raised and this battle was fought betwixt the Senecas and western Indians in the pure Indian style, and with Indian weapons, Jong before their knowledge and use of fire-arms or their acquaintance with the Europeans. . They used in fighting at that time bows and arrows, the spear or javelin pointed with bone, and the war club or death-mall. When the former were expended, they came into close engagement and used the latter. Their war- rior's dress or coat of mail for this method of fighting, was a short jacket made of willow sticks or moose wood, laced tight round the body. The head was covered with a cap of' the same kind, but commonly woven double, for the better se- curity of that part against a stroke from the death-mall or war-club. In this great battle the Senecas affirm that their ancestors won the victory. Some say their ancestors had told them, there were eight hundred of their enemies slain ;
* See p. 15, i Sec p. 16.
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Origin of the Aborigines and ancient Ruins. [PART j.
others include the killed on both sides in that number .-. Be this as it may, all their historians agree that the battle was fought where this heap of slain are buried, before the ar- rival of the Europeans, some say three, some four, others five lives or ages, reckoning a life or age one hundred winters, or colds .*
Compare this tradition with that heretofore relatedf of the first migration and successful victory of the ancestors of these people over the Alligewi, that extraordinary race who had fortified their towns in the vicinity of the lakes, who suffered the horrors of a sanguinary and protracted invasion, during which great battles were fought, their fortified places stormed, and hundreds fell in an engagement and were laid together in heaps : is it improbable that the Alligewi were the real con- structors of these works ; that the Senecas (a part of the Mengwe) in alliance with the Lenape, stormed this, as well as other fortified towns ; won this, as well as other victories, and succeeded in driving from their country the remnant of the Alligewi, who fled down the Mississippi, whence they never returned ?
The probability in favour of this, as a fair deduction from comparison, is somewhat strengthened by a tradition of the Seneca Indians, which has recently been published, and its authenticity sanctioned by Captain Jones, one of the public agents and interpreters for the Six Nations.į This tradition relates, that before and after that remote period, when the an- cestors of the Senecas sprung into existence, the country, cs- pecially about the lakes, was thickly inhabited by a race of civil, enterprising, and industrious people, who were totally destroyed, and whose improvements were taken possession of by the Senecas.
* Rev. S. Kirkland's MS. Journal for 1783.
i See p. 33.
t See Appendix to a Narrative of the Life of a Female Captive, &c. By James E, Seaver. Printed at Canandaigua, by J. D. Bemis & Co. 10?1. p. 153. 157.
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Traditions .- Authors of the Ruins.
As to their origin, and the mode in which their civilized prede- cessors were destroyed, the tradition will appear to vary from those above given, but to correspond with others formerly meu- tioned respecting their origin. They say their nation broke out of the earth from a large mountain (called Gerundewaghi) at the head of Canandaigua lake. Thence they derive their name, " Ge-nun-de-wab," (sometimes pronounced Ge-nun-de- wah-gauh, or Great Hill ;) and they are denominated " The Great Hill People," which is the true interpretation of the word Seneca. This mountain they still venerate as the place of their birth ; it was for a long time a favourite spot, where they met in council to hold long talks; to offer up prayers to the Great Spirit, on account of its being their birth-place, - where also by the providertial destruction of a monstrous serpent, according to their tradition, their forefathers were delivered from threatened extermination. This serpent had totally de- stroyed the civilized race of people, of whose improvements the Senecas had taken possession. They also in turn provoked the serpent; and the monster, coiling around the great hill fort, so that his head and tail met at its gate, infected the at- mosphere with his breath, and swallowed the inhabitants as they rushed out. A poisoned arrow at length proved fatal to him. He rolled down the hill, sweeping away all the timber in his descent, and amidst his contortions, disgorged the heads of those he had swallowed. These, rolling into the lake be- low, became in time reduced to a petrified state. According- Jy, stones in the shape of Indian heads are there to be seen at this day, in great numbers. The Senecas also ascribe to the unknown influence of this monster the prevalent confusion of their language, which in those carly days was uniformly the same throughout the whole country .*
* See Appendix to Seaver's Narrative, &c. p. 52.
Vor. I.
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Origin of the Aborigines and ancient Ruins. [PARY I.
§ 7.
But their uncertainty as to the time when these fortifications were erected, as they pretend, by their ancestors, and the total absence of such a tradition among the other tribes on the con- tinent, may well justify the suspicion which President Kirk- land (18) has expressed, that this story originated in national vanity, for which he says the Senecas are pre-eminently dis- tinguished. He seems to think they were erected by the an- cestors of the improved nations of South America, in the pro- gress of their migrations from the north and north-west. In his opinion he is by no means singular. Many support the opinion, that the western states of the Union were the original country of the Mexicans and Toltecas. From a comparison of the bodies and envelopes found in the Copperas cave in Tennessee," and from other circumstances, the inference has been drawn that the western country was once their seat ; that they were a copper-coloured people, who, it has been supposed, owed their knowledge and refinement to certain aboriginal whites. ; Three South American nations ascribe their civili- zation and religion to three white men, who appeared among them.j Abbe Molinas says, there is a tribe of Indians in Baroa, in Chili, whose complexions are a clear white and red. Baron Humboldt|| remark's, that in the forest of Guiana, especially near the sources of the river Oronoco, are several tribes of a whitish complexion. An exterminating war ap- pears to have taken place T between the barbarous natives, per-
* Sce Descrip. in vol. I. Archæ. Amer.
+ Dr. M.Culloh's Researches, &c. 214, &c. Ch. Cullen, Esq. in his Transl. of Clavigero's Mexico. Med. Repos. vol III. Dr. Mease's Na- ture and Art, vol. XIV. p. 199. Atwater's Antiquities, in vol. 1. Archa. Amer. Clavigero's Hist. &c.
# M.Culloh's Researches on Amer. p. 212, 213.
$ Hist. Chili, vol. II. book 1. ch. 1.
# Political Essays.
M.Cullob, 216
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White Indians.
haps under some Attila or Genseric, and their more refined and vivilized neighbours, ending in nearly the total destruction of the latter, the few survivors of whom fled to happier climes ; and to these aboriginal whites perhaps the Mexicans, &c. were indebted for their knowledge and refinement .*
The traditions of other Indians ascribe the construction of these works to whites. Indians north-west of Ohio and others say, that they had understood from their old men, that it had been a tradition among their several nations, that the western country, and particularly Ohio and Kentucky, had once been inhabited by white people, but they were exterminated. The last battle was fought at the falls of Ohio. The Indians drove the aborigines into a small island, (Sandy Island,) below the rapids, where the whole were cut to pieces. Kentuckce, in Ju- dian, signifies river of blood. Some of the remains of the ancient tribe of the Sacs expressed to a gentleman at St. Louis, their astonishment that any person should live in Kentucky. The country, they said, had been the scene of much blood, and was filled with the manes of the butchered inhabitants who were white people. (19)
Numerous traditions of nations west of the Mississippi, though varying as to the motive or uses that occasioned the construction of their tumuli and fortifications, concur in their great antiquity, and most of them in their having been the work of a people which had altogether ceased to exist, before those hunting grounds came into possession of the ancestors of the present occupants. (20)
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