USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume I > Part 5
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finely wrought of all the Indian's stone work. They were carried as evidences of rank, or to excite a superstitious reverence. They were wrought from serpentine, or a fine and beautifully striped slate, and were drilled so that they could be carried upon a rod or handle. This striped slate, so far as is known, was nowhere found nearer than Canada. The few specimens of obsidian found in this neighborhood must have come from the Rocky Mountain region. Three or four spear heads, hammered from native copper, that have been found here must have been brought from the shores of Lake Superior, while the flints and jaspers, from which so many arrow heads were made, must have been brought a considerable distance. These facts tend to show that the Mohegans carried on commerce of exchange with other tribes and thus obtained articles that had been brought from very remote localities. Holes were drilled through stones for ornament or use by a drill of flint, or a reed with water and sand. These were worked by a bow- string. The bow was an important article of the Indian's outfit and was his chief weapon in war and in the chase. It was skilfully fashioned from ash or hickory wood, and was strung with the sinews of the deer. Another important article of manufacture was wampum, which was their medium of exchange, or money. It was made from the shell of the quohog, or hard shell clam. It was cylindrical in form, a quarter of an inch long, and in diameter less than a pipe stem, drilled lengthwise, so as to be strung upon a thread. The beads of a white color rated at half the value of the black or violet, made from the portion where the contracting muscle of the clam is attached to the shell. They were used for ornament as well as for coin, and ten thousand or more were sometimes wrought into the belt of some great chieftain. The district about Byram Lake was called Cohemong, which meant the place where wampum is made. There have been but few unbroken specimens of Indian pottery found in Westchester County, but, numerous fragments, some of considerable size are in existence. They are all quite rude, although some show attempts at ornamentation. On Croton Point, where the clay was favorable for this manufacture, a trench has been discovered containing numerous fragments of earthen vessels, along with charcoal, indicating that here may have been a simple kiln for burning pottery. In the manufacture of all these articles, some of which required a great deal of labor, besides the time necessarily taken in hunting and fishing, and in the cultivation of their crops, the Red Indians must have been pretty thoroughly occupied.
Culture and Home Life-We moderns are apt to regard the general culture of the Indian aborigines with condescending pity, but it is well for us to remember that their barbarism was by no means primordial.
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The Europeans of the present day, as of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, are and were the beneficiaries of Graeco-Roman civilization. Before we start disparaging the culture of the Indians we should remem- ber that any fair comparison would be not between them and us as we are today, but between them and our ancestors before those ancestors came in contact with Roman culture in the early Middle Ages. The difference between, for example, the primitive culture of the American Indian and the primitive culture of the Anglo-Saxon of Jutland would be a very slight difference indeed and it is by no means certain that that difference would be in favor of the Anglo-Saxon. A great civilization has never yet arisen in this world that was not the result of a cross fertilization of some kind.
The home life of the aborigines presented many interesting traits. In their domestic relations the Mohegans were far from being depraved. The lover courted his chosen maiden with presents of ornaments, and won the favor of her parents with gifts of wampum. The consent of the sachem was obtained to their marriage, and he usually joined their hands together and they went away as man and wife. The man had but one wife, unless he was a sachem or occupied an exceptionally high position. The marriage tie was respected and unfaithfulness was looked upon as a crime. In cases of separation the wife was given her share of the goods and departed, being then at liberty to marry again. The Mohegans were never charged with licentiousness as were Indians else- where. The women were described as modest and coy in their behavior, and they indignantly repelled all improper advances made by the whites. There is no account of any insulting treatment having been offered to female white captives. Children were treated with kindness, but knew little of parental restraint. The girls were at an early age taught quiet submission to the labors of their position, and the boys were encouraged to independence, and trained to become skilful in the chase and in war. If any deformed children were born they must have died in infancy, for the European visitors stated that none were cross-eyed, blind, crip- pled, lame or hunch-backed; and that all were well-fashioned, strong in constitution of body, well-proportioned and without blemish. They were kind in their treatment of the sick. They had learned the medicinal virtues of many herbs and of a few other simples. They bound up wounds with mollifying preparations of leaves. They treated fevers by opening the pores of the skin with a vapor bath; but their chief re- liance in many diseases was upon supernatural cures. Their medicine man, or pow-wow, excited their superstitious sensibilities and worked upon their imagination, using, wth great solemnity, the ceremonial stones to assist his work. It is not known whether there were formal
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ceremonies for burying the dead. The bodies were usually interred in a sitting posture, facing the southwest. With the dead were buried their arms, ornaments, useful utensils, wampum and parched corn for food. Of the religious beliefs of the Mohegans we have very little testi- mony, and even such as we have cannot be considered reliable. In the compass of human thought there are no ideas requiring so clear expression to be correctly understood as those pertaining to religion. The Indian endeavored to express them in a language imperfectly understood by the whites, and naturally the hearers interpreted these expressions according to their own predilections. It is not strange therefore that very little has come to us that can be implicitly accepted. But all our witnesses unite upon this important point-there was a kind of idolatry practiced among the aborigines here. They believed in one all-wise, all-powerful and beneficent Being, whom they called the Great Spirit, and to whom they offered prayer. They also believed in an evil spirit. The former they knew under the name Cantantowit, and the latter under that of Hobbamocko. The former had sent them their corn and beans. A crow first brought a grain of corn in one ear and a bean in the other, from their heaven, which they called the happy hunting grounds, located in the far southwest. Their highest concep- tions of a place of blessing, were associated with the southwest, because the wind from that quarter is soft and balmy and an indication of fair weather. The dead were buried with their faces towards the abode of the blessed. They believed in rewards and punishments hereafter, and they held that after death the souls of the good went to the home of Cantantowit, far away in the good southwest. There they were delivered from every sorrow and preserved from all suffering. The pleasures they there enjoyed were similar in character with the delights they had known here, but their perfection was more complete and their abundance exhaustless. The wicked knocked also at the same door, but were denied admittance, and, being turned away, they wandered forever in a state of horror and restless discontent.
It is difficult to form a correct estimate of the Indian character before that character became changed by contact with the Europeans, writes J. Wood.
History teaches how quickly an inferior race becomes impressed by the traits of a stronger people coming among them. Unfortunately that which is evil is much more quickly imitated than the noble and the good. Before the European became sufficiently acquainted with the Indian to be capable of judging of his character, that character had been changed by contact with the observer himself, so that he saw, in part, the reflection of himself in the subject before him. At best, there was presented only a dissolving view that was transformed before the observer's gaze. The Indian was immediately called a drunkard, and yet he had no beverage
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whatever that could intoxicate, and no drug that answered any similar purpose. The first influence of alcohol found it in the cabin of the "Half-Moon." So, also, with other vices. True the Indian was a barbarian. He showed no evidence of having been in any way better or more civilized in the seventeenth century than he had been in the tenth or fifth. With him, might made right. He imposed upon his women and made them his slaves. He had no intellectual lexercise, and possessed not even the rudest culture. He was selfish, took pride in the lowest cunning, and had no idea of honor, and, of course, no word for expressing it. And yet, bad as he was, on the one hand, he should not be held responsible for the European vices that were grafted upon him, nor upon the other, should he be judged by standards resulting from centuries of a foreign civilization, or held responsible for the violations of laws of which he had no knowledge.
With the coming of the white man came the fatal sorrows of the Indian. All his world was overthrown. New vices came to his character and new dangers surrounded his home. The one fixed, unchanging and unchangeable factor in his existence, upon which he could implicitly rely, was the land; and now this was snatched from him by devices of which he was totally ignorant. The term "title" conveyed no meaning to his understanding. Acting under the laws of his fathers, and doing only what he had always been taught was right, he found himself ac- cused of gross wrongs under another set of laws of which he had never heard, and whose claim to equity he could not understand. Under the pretense of right he found himself most grievously wronged, and we cannot wonder that, between such opposite rules of action, the collision of principles quickly resulted in colli- sion of arms. The contest was inevitable and whether it was carried on under the name of war or in the more quiet forms of peace it was a contest of races, a contest of civilization against barbarism, and the result was inevitable-the Indian disappeared from the land. When the "Half-Moon" lay at anchor off the village of Nappeckamak, the Indians soon overcame the terror that naturally accompanied so strange an apparition, and, putting off in their canoes, went on board in large numbers. Their curiosity knew no bounds and was only restrained by their dread of the supernatural powers the strangers might possess. By Hudson's own statement, he himself first violated faith with them. He detained two of their number on the vessel, and, although they soon jumped overboard and swam to the shore, his act was nevertheless an outrage upon the universal rules of hospitality. He recorded that when they reached the shore they called to him "in scorn." Hudson ascended the river to Albany, holding communication with the Indians along the way; and so kind was their disposition towards him, that he wrote of them as "tlie loving people." On his return he came through the Highlands on the first of October, and anchored below the village of Sackhoes, on whose site Peek- skill has been built. Here "the people of the mountains" came on board and greatly wondered at the ship and weapons, the color of the men and their dress. Descend- ing the river Hudson found that the Indians of Yonkers were prepared to resent his treatment. The young men whom he had attempted to kidnap came out with their friends in canoes and discharged their arrows at the "Half-Moon," "in recom- pense whereof six muskets replied and killed two or three of them." The Indians renewed the attack from a point of land, perhaps preceding the vessel to Port Washington, but "a falcon shot killed two of them and the rest fled into the woods; yet they manned off another canoe with five or ten men," through which a falcon shot was sent, killing one of its occupants. Three or four more were killed by the sailors' muskets, and the "Half-Moon" "hurried down into the bay clear of all danger."
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Early Writers and the Red Men-In the course of the dozen years or so following the visit of Hudson many voyages were made to the vicinity of what is now New York and The Bronx for the purposes of trade with the Indians, for their furs and to explore the country. The early Dutch historians of the region give a good deal of information concerning the aborigines. Wassenaer, Van der Donck, and others, describe the natives as generally well-limbed, slender round the waist, and broad-shouldered; that they had black hair and eyes, and snow- white teeth, and resembled the Brazilians in color. The dress of the Indian belle was more attractive than any which civilized life had pro- duced. Van der Donck writes: "The women wear a cloth round their bodies, fastened by a girdle which extends below their knees and is as much as a petticoat; but next to the body under this skirt they wear a dressed deer-skin coat, girt round the waist. The lower body of the skirt they ornament with great art, and nestle the same wth stripes which are beautifully decorated with wampum. The wampum with which one of the skirts is decorated is frequently worth from one to three hundred guilders. They bind their hair behind in a club of about a hand long, in the form of a beaver's tail, over which they draw a square cap which is frequently ornamented with wampum. When they desire to be fine they draw a headband around the forehead, which is also ornamented with wampum, etc. This band confines the hair smooth, and is fastened behind, over the club, for a beau's knot. Their head- dress forms a handsome and lively appearance. Around their necks they wear various ornaments, which are also decorated with wampum. Those they esteem as highly as our ladies do their pearl necklaces. They also wear handbands or bracelets, curiously wrought and inter- woven with wampum. Their breasts appear about half covered with an elegant wrought dress. They wear beautiful girdles, ornamented with their favorite wampum, and costly ornaments in their ears. Here and there they lay upon their faces black spots of paint. Elk-hide moccasins they wore before the Dutch came, and they, too, were richly ornamented." Not only were they a people of industry, but in morals they were quite the peers of their Dutch neighbors; indeed it has been said that had the Dutch, with all their boasted civilization and Christian principles, been the superiors of the aborigines among whom they lived they would not have been demoralized by their vices. Chastity was an established principle with them. To be unchaste during wedlock was held to be very disgraceful. Foul and improper language was de- spised by them. Most of the diseases incident to females of the present day were unknown to them. So highly were the women esteemed that the Dutch made wives of them, and refused to leave them for female.,
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of their own country. Instances could be named where the blood of the boasted ancient Knickerbockers was enriched by that of the abori- gines of the country."
Another Dutch writer speaks of their food as gross, declaring they drank only water, having no other beverage. They ate the flesh of all sorts of game and fish, and made bread of Indian meal and baked it in hot ashes. They also made a "pap or pridge, called by some sapsis, by others dundare (literally boiled bread), in which they mixed beans of different colors, which they raised." The maize, from which their bread and sapsis were made, was raised by themselves, and was broken up or ground in rude mortars. Beavers' tails, the brains of fish, and their sapsis, ornamented with beans, were their state dishes and highest luxuries. They knew how to preserve meat and fish by smoking, and when hunting or while on a journey carried with them corn roasted whole. The occupations of the men are described by the Dutch his- torians as hunting, fishing, and war. The women made clothing of skins, prepared food, cultivated the fields of corn, beans and squashes, and made mats. They were workers and faithful helpmeets, and shared in the government of the nation, having rights granted to them which were not conceded to females in civilized countries. The houses which they occupied were, for the most part, built after one plan, differing only in length, according to the number of families embraced in the clan. They were formed by long, slender hickory saplings set in the ground, in a straight line of two rows, as far asunder as they intended the width to be, and continued as far as they intended the length to be. The poles were then bent towards each other at the top in the form of an arch and secured together, giving the appearance of a garden arbor. Split poles were lathed up the sides and roof, and over this was bark, lapped on the ends and edges, which was kept in place by withes to the lathings. A hole was left in the roof for smoke to escape and a single door of entrance was provided. Rarely exceeding twenty feet in width, these houses were sometimes a hundred and eighty yards long. From sixteen to eighteen families occupied one house according to size. A single fire in the centre served them all, although each family occupied at night its particular division and mats. The modern apartment houses running up to scores of stories have been described as little more than the Indian plan of building turned on its end. A number of these houses formed together a village, and these villages were usually sit- uated on the side of a steep, high hill, near a stream of water, or on a level plain on the crown of a hill, and were inclosed with a strong stockade, which was constructed by laying on the ground large logs of wood for a foundation, on both sides of which oak palisades were set in the ground, the upper ends of which crossed each other and were
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joined together. The villages so stockaded were called castles and were the winter retreats of families of the same sub-tribe or chieftaincy, the nomadic members of which found the open forests or the seaside more congenial in the summer season, where they made huts for temporary occupancy, caught fish, and cultivated maize and beans and squashes for the winter use.
War and Government-Their weapons of war were the spear, the bow and arrows, the war club and the stone hatchet, and in combat they protected themselves with a square shield made of tough leather. A snake-skin tied around the head, from the centre of which projected the tail of a bear or a wolf, or a feather, indicating the totem or tribe to which they belonged, and a face not recognizable from the variety of colors in which it was painted, was their uniform. Some of the arrows were of elegant construction and tipped with copper, and when shot with power would pass through the body of the deer as certainly as the bullet from the rifle. The more common arrows were tipped with flint, as well as the spears. Armed and painted and on the warpath they were formidable indeed, while their war-cry, "Woach, Woach, Ha, Ha, Hach, Woach," aroused a terror which the first settlers were not ashamed to confess.
They know how to prepare a coloring, writes Van der Donck, wherein they dye their hair a beautiful scarlet, which excites our astonishment and curiosity. The color is so well fixed than rain, sun and wind will not change it. Although they do not appear to possess any particular art in this matter still such beautiful red was never dyed in the Netherlands with any material known to us. The colored articles have been examined by many of our best dyers, who admire the color and admit that they cannot imitate the same, and remark that a proper knowledge of the art would be of great importance to their profession.
The colors which they made were red, blue, green, brown, white, black, yellow, etc., which, the same writer says, were "made mostly of stone, which they prepared by pounding, rubbing and grinding. To describe perfectly and truly how they prepare all these paints and colors is out of my power."
They were not skilled in the practice of medicines, notwithstanding the general belief on the subject. They knew how to cure wounds and hurts and treated the simple diseases successfully. Their general health was due more to their habits than to a knowledge of remedies. Their principal medical treatment was the sweating bath. These baths were literally earthen ovens into which the patient crept, and around which heated stones were placed to raise the temperature. When the patient had remained under perspiration for a certain time he was taken out and immersed suddenly in cold water, a process which served to cure
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or certainly to cause death. The oil which they obtained from beavers was used in many forms and for many purposes. It was a specific for dizziness, for rheumatism, for lameness, for apoplexy, for toothache, for weak eyes, for gout, and for almost all ailments. It was the calomel of Indian allopathic practice, and the Dutch took to it, and attached great value to it. The use of certain herbs and plants, which the Indians em- ployed as remedies, also became familiar to the Dutch, and was trans- mitted by them to the English, one of which was a cathartic from but- ternut-bark. Blood letting was unknown to them. Living natural and well ordered lives the scientific treatments of a more advanced civiliza- tion was as little required by them as they were unknown to them.
Politically their form of government was an absolute democracy, and unanimity the only recognized expression of the popular will. Law and justice, as civilized nations understand these ideas, were to them unknown, yet both they had in a degree suited to their necessities. As- saults, murders, and other acts regarded as criminal offenses by all na- tions, were so regarded by them, but the execution of punishment was vested in the injured family, who were constituted judges as well as executioners, and who could grant pardons and accept atonements. The rights of property they understood and respected; and half their wars were retaliatory, for the taking of territory without making just and proper compensation. Their customs were their unwritten laws, more effective than those that fill the tomes of civilized nations, because taught to the people from infancy, and woven into every condition and necessity of their being. The ruling chieftainries, or sub-trial organiza- tions, had representation in the council chambers of the tribe to which they were totemically attached, and these totemic tribes were in turn represented in national councils. Each chieftainry or sub-tribe had its chief, and each chief his counselors, the latter composed either of ex- perienced warriors or aged fathers of families. In times of peace noth- ing could be done without the consent of the council unanimously ex- pressed. The councils were conducted with the gravest demeanor and the most impressive dignity. No stranger could visit them without a sensation of respect. The chiefs were required to keep good order, and to decide in all quarrels and disputes; but they had no power to com- mand, compel, or punish; their only mode of government was persua- sion and exhortation, and in departing from that mode they were de- posed by the simple form of forsaking them. The constant restraint which they were under in those respects made them the most courteous, affable and hospitable of men. Tribal rulership was similarly consti- tuted, with the exception that the counselors were from among the chiefs of the sub-tribes, while national councils were a duplication of the tribal, except that they were composed of representatives selected by
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the counselors and chiefs of tribes. In times of war the power of the civil government was suspended, but the chief could not declare war without the consent of his captains, and the captains could not begin hostilities except by unanimous consent. The king or sagamore of the ยท nation was a king both with and without power; a sovereign whose rule was perpetuated only through the love of his people; a monarch, the most polished, the most liberal, the poorest of his race, one who ruled by permission, who received no salary, who was not permitted to own the cabin in which he lived or the land he cultivated, who could receive no presents that did not become the property of the nation, yet whose larder and treasure-chest were never empty.
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