USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I > Part 19
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A number of West's most noted paintings are at present owned in this country. His "Death of General Wolfe" (now in the British Museum, London), painted in the costume of the period, against the advice of nearly all the most distinguished painters then living, effected a revolution in the historic art of Great Britain. For a photo-illustration of this painting see Chapter X, post.
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to study from. And their costumes and weapons-the toga, the tunic and manteau (of skins), the bow, the shield and the lance, so precisely similar to those of ancient times-convince us that a second (and last) strictly classic era is passing from the world."
Of Indians who lived in this country during the eighteenth century, authentic portraits are now very scarce, and of the few in existence it is almost impossible to procure photo-reproductions for publication. Therefore, in order to give the reader as good an idea as possible of the typical red man of earlier times-of the days of West and of Catlin, for example-we have procured reproductions of genuine portraits of three noted Indians of the nineteenth century. They will be found on this and the following page,* and may be compared with the picture of the "Apollo Belve- dere" herewith shown.
In stature the members of some Indian tribes (prior to the days of their decadence) were con- siderably above the ordinary height of man, while in other tribes the height-particularly of the inen-averaged or fell below that of civilized men. They were lighter in their limbs than white men, as well as less in girth-being almost entirely free from corpulency or useless flesh. Although generally nar- row across the shoulders, and less powerful with the arms than well-developed white inen, yet they were by no means effemi- "LITTLE WOUND." nate or lacking in brachial An Oglala Sioux Chief .; strength. Their bones were lighter, their skulls thinner and their muscles less hard-excepting in the legs and feet-than those of their civilized neighbors.
Catlin says : "Of muscular strength in the legs I have met many of the most extraordinary instances in the Indian country that ever I
* Also, see Chapter XXV for a portrait of the famous Seneca chief "Red Jacket."
+ At the Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo, New York, in 1901, one of the most interesting and instructive exhibits was the "Indian Congress," comprising a large number of genuine, full-blooded Indians gathered together from their various reservations. they were dressed in their native costumes, lived in wigwams, and, for the entertainment of visitors to their temporary village, enacted incidents and scenes from Indian life. Several of the members of this "Congress" were chiefs who in times past had been prominent as leaders in Indian wars and outbreaks on the frontiers of this country. Two of these chiefs were "Red Cloud" and "Little Wound" (pictured above). Both were Oglala Sioux, and were brought to Buffalo from Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota.
In December, 1890, there was an Indian uprising at Pine Ridge, due to excitement brought about by the belief in the coming of an Indian Messiah, and owing to the suppression by United States troops of the "Ghost Dance." A few days later came the battle of Wounded Knee, in which two officers and thirty- five mnen of the regular army and 145 Indians were killed. Two days afterwards the Sioux, under the leadership of "Little Wound," surrounded Col. J. W. Forsyth and a squadron of the 7th Cavalry in White Clay Canyon, and held them there until they were rescued by a squadron of the 9th Cavalry commanded by Maj. Guy V. Henry.
"Little Wound, " at the time of his sojourn in Buffalo, was a very aged man, and was called the "Patri- arch of the Congress." Shortly before the close of the Exposition he died there. A full-length portrait of "Little Wound," made in 1890, may be seen in the "Report on Indians at the Eleventh Census," page 574-B.
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have seen in my life, and I have watched and studied such for hours together (with utter surprise and admiration) in the violent exertions of their dances, where they leap and jump with every nerve strung and every muscle swelled, till their legs will often look like bundles of ropes rather than masses of human flesh. * * He who would see the Indian in a condi- tion to judge of his muscles must see him in motion ; and he who would get a perfect "SITTING BULL."" After a portrait painted by G. Gaul in 1890. study for a Hercules or an Atlas should take a stone-mason for the upper part of the figure, and a Comanche or a Blackfoot Indian from the waist downward to the feet."
There are general and striking char- acteristics in the facial outlines of the full- blooded North American Indian. His nose is usually prominent and aquiline, and the whole face, if divested of paint and copper-color, would seem to approach in appearance and character the European cast. Catlin wrote that many travelers GERONIMO IN 1901.7 By courtesy of the Editor of The Metropolitan Magazine. thought the eyes of the Indians were smaller than those of Europeans. "I my- self have been struck," said he, "as most travelers no doubt have, with
* "SITTING BULL," for many years principal chief of the Dakota-Sioux, and "the most famous Indian warrior of his time," was born about 1837. Having been driven from their reservation in the Black Hills by gold-miners in 1876, "Sitting Bull" and his followers refused to be transported to Indian Territory, and took up arms against the whites and friendly Indians. June 25, 1876, they defeated and slaughtered on the banks of the Little Big Horn River, in Montana, Gen. George A. Custer and 203 men of the 7th U. S. Cavalry (forming the entire command), who were the advance party of the force under Gen. A. H. Terry then in pursuit of the hostile Indians. "Sitting Bull," with part of his band, made his escape into British territory, where he remained until 1880, when, on promise of a pardon, he surrendered himself to the United States authorities. Subsequently he was required to make his home on Standing Rock Reserva- tion in South Dakota.
In July and August, 1888, when Government commissioners were attempting to induce the Sioux to sell their lands in South Dakota, in order that the same might be opened up to settlement, "Sitting Bull" influenced his tribe to refuse to relinquish the lands which they occupied. In 1890, when the "Messiah" craze (referred to in the note on the preceding page) broke out, "Sitting Bull" proclaimed himself "High Priest." He had always exerted a baneful influence over his followers, and they now fell easy victims to his subtlety-believing blindly in the absurdities he preached regarding the Indian millennium General Ruger, U. S. A., commanding the Department of Dakota, having ordered the arrest of "Sitting Bull," it was accomplished by several Indian policemen December 15, 1890 ; but almost immediately afterwards, while refusing to go with his captors and calling upon his followers to rescue him, "Sitting Bull" was shot dead in front of his house by one of the policemen, who, at almost the same moment, fell mortally wounded by a shot from one of the followers of the dead chief. (For the "True Story of the Death of Sitting Bull," see The Cosmopolitan Magazine, XX : 493.)
+ GERONIMO, an Apache chief, has been for some years a prisoner of war on the Fort Sill Military Reservation, Oklahoma Territory. For a long time he led a band of Apaches-"the worst for lawlessness that ever infested the Western country"-in many raids upon white settlements. He and his followers were chased for many months by troopers of the regular army under the command of some of the most noted officers in the annals of Indian warfare. From the present limits of Oklahoma almost to the waters of the Pacific Ocean these Apaches, who had continually harassed the frontier settlers, were fol- lowed, and only surrendered when worn out from lack of food and the terrible privations of such a chase. Geronimo's captor was Capt. Henry W. Lawton, 4th U. S. Cavalry, who lost his life in the Philip- pines in December, 1899-being then a Brigadier General, U. S. V.
The Apaches have for a long time been considered "the most blood-thirsty, relentless and murderous Indians in the United States ;" and it is stated that "in war their women are as cruel as the men."
Geronimo was a member of the "Indian Congress" mentioned in the note on page 140. With his seamed and scarred "baked apple" face, and only one eye (the other having been destroyed in battle) he presented a most forbidding appearance-in no wise resembling the "Apollo Belvedere" ! In 1903 he
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the want of expansion and apparent smallness of the Indians' eyes, which I have found upon examination to be principally the effect of continual exposure to the rays of the sun and to the wind, without the shields that are used by the civilized world ; and also when indoors being subjected generally to the smoke that almost continually hangs about their wigwams."
To quote further from Catlin (referring to the period 1829-'38) : "The teeth of the Indians are generally regular and sound, and wonder- fully preserved to old age-owing, no doubt, to the fact that they live without the spices of life, without saccharine and without salt. Their teeth although sound are not white, having a yellowish cast. Beards they generally have not, esteeming them great vulgarities and using every possible means to eradicate them whenever they are so unfortunate as to be annoyed with them. From the best information that I could obtain amongst forty-eight tribes that I have visited, I feel authorized to say that amongst the wild tribes-where they have inade no efforts to imitate white men-the proportion at least of eighteen out of twenty [men] are by nature entirely without the appearance of a beard ; and of the very few who have beards by nature, nineteen out of twenty eradicate them by plucking them out several times in succession, pre- cisely at the age of puberty, whereby the growth is successfully arrested. Occasionally an Indian may be seen who omitted to destroy his beard in early manhood, and he subjects his chin to the repeated pains of extracting his beard, which he is performing with a pair of clam-shells or other tweezers nearly every day of his life. * * Wherever there is a cross of the blood with the European or African-which is frequently the case along the frontier-a proportionate beard is the result, and it is allowed to grow, or is plucked out with much toil and with great pain." The eyebrows were also sometimes removed, although in certain cases a fine, delicate, sharply defined line was left, which was formed by pulling the hairs from the upper and lower edges, leaving the center.
The hair of the head-unless removed in the manner hereinafter described-was usually parted in the middle, and was always worn long, either covering the shoulders or done up in two braids which were drawn forward and allowed to hang on the breast .* The ends of these braids were wrapped in deer skin, otter skin or cloth, and occasionally single feathers, or ornaments made by combining feathers of different colors and sizes, were braided in. As late, at least, as the middle of the eighteenth century several North American tribes-among them the "French Mohawks" and the Lenapes-pulled out all the hairs of the head except a tuft on the crown.t Catlin, writing in 1844, said : "The Ioways, like three other tribes in America, observe a inode of dressing the head which renders their appearance peculiarly pleasing and effective. They shave the hair from the whole head, except a small patch left on the top of the head, called the scalp-lock, to which they attach a beautiful red crest, made of the hair of the deer's tail dyed red and horse hair ; and rising out of this crest, which has much the appear- ance of a Grecian helinet, the war-eagle's quill completing the head-
claimed to have "got religion," and was publicly baptized in Medicine Creek near Fort Sill and sub- sequently was received into the Reformed Church. A few weeks ago his fifth and last wife died at Fort Sill. Geronimo is said to be ninety-three years old.
* See portraits of "Little Wound" and "Sitting Bull."
+ See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, II : 459 ; also, the last paragraph on page 104, ante.
# See "Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution," 1885, Part II, page 147.
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dress of the warrior. They boast of this mode of shaving their heads to the part that is desired for the scalp-lock, saying that they point out to their enemies (who may kill them in battle) where to cut with the scalping-knife, that they may not lose time in hunting out the scalp- lock ! That part of the head which is shaved is generally rouged to an extravagant degree."
The various designs and colors used in face and body painting and inarking* among the North American Indians varied from tribe to tribe. Red, black, green and white were the colors most in vogue. Etlinol- ogists have discovered that contrary to the old view, the Indian painted or tattooed his face or body, not through a savage love of bright colors, but because each and every design and color had a meaning and signifi- cance in certain respects similar to the heraldry of the Middle Ages. Certain colors denoted hatred, revenge, and contempt of death. A tribe having declared war against a neighboring tribe, the fighting men began their warlike preparations by painting their faces. One brave would paint twelve red spots and eight black lines on his face to show that he had, in former engagements, been wounded twelve times and that he knew no fear. Another would daub red over his forehead, signifying that he proposed to create a scene of blood whenever the war-party should reach the enemy's country. In more recent times it has been noticed that serious Indian outbreaks and uprisings have always been preceded for months by an epidemic of face-painting among the turbulent tribes-
111e11. Sometimes, when a tribe has been powerless to make war, the members of it have vented their resentment by painting their faces in flaming colors and striking designs, indicating their true feelings to- wards those whom they hated but were too weak to oppose.
In the "Mideriwan," or "Society of the Medewin," or "Grand Medicine Society"t of the Ojibwa, or Chippewa,¿ Indians-a secret cult bearing in some respects a very striking resemblance to Free Masonry- face painting plays an important and conspicuous part. Each degree in this society has its proper and distinct set of facial designs and colors, which it is unlawful for any to wear save those who have taken the degree in question. These designs and colors have a secret and mystical signifi- cance and purport, as entirely unknown to the squaws and Indians who are not members of the "Midewiwan" as they are to the white people.
The head-dresses-particularly the "war-bonnets"-of Indian men were generally highly ornamented. The head- band was often trimmed with shells and dyed porcupine quills, while the bulk of the "bonnet" was made of the plumage of birds.$ The Iro- quois warrior, however, generally wore only a single feather from the wing of a white heron. Of the skin of the deer, dressed and smoked, they inade soft moccasins, or shoes, which they some- times highly ornamented with pigments or the stained quills of the porcupine. "In illustration of Indian tenacity in holding to old customs, an
* See last paragraph on page 86 and also on page 104.
+ For some interesting references to this secret religious society see "Report on Indians at the Eleventh Census," page 346.
# An Algonkian tribe, at one time very numerous and inhabiting the region along the shores of the lakes Huron, Michigan and Superior. Many of the tribe now reside in Minnesota and Canada.
¿ See illustrations on pages 79 and 94.
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Indian and his moccasins are yet alnost inseperable companions. He seems born in them ; he walks and sleeps in them, and he is buried in them. An Indian may be habited in a dress suit, but the chances are that his feet are covered with moccasins. In the army he dresses in uniform, but almost always insists on the moccasins. At the training and industrial schools it is with difficulty that he can be induced to dis- card them."* Another part of the costume consisted of "leather stock- ings," or leggings, of dressed deerskin, which were ornamented generally by fringes of the same material. The man's leggings were made the length of his legs; the woman's reached only to her knees, below which they were fastened by garters. In both cases the leggings covered the tops of the moccasins. In Winter the inen wore war-shirts or mantles made of the skins of beasts, such as the bear, the wolf and the panther. These were sometimes ornamented with the feathers of the eagle or the claws of the bear. Necklaces of bears' claws were also worn by the warriors. t
Before the middle of the seventeenth century the weapons and accoutrements used by the Indian in the chase or in war were few and simple. A hatchet of hard stone ; a knife of the same material, or of bone, for taking off the scalp of an enemy, and for various other purposes ; a spear, formed of a short, slender pole of tough wood, either burned at the end and sharpened, or having a flint point or head attached to it ; a bow and arrows and a huge and sometimes fancifully wrought war-club made up the list. The last-mentioned weapon was made of a piece of hard wood, at the end of which an oval-shaped stone or pebble of good size was fastened with wet raw-hide, which, drying and shrink- ing, held the stone firmly in place. The handle of the club was also sometimes covered with raw-hide. The arrow was the Indian's chief weapon, and in its use he was very expert. The shaft was made of light, tough wood and was headed with flint, which, as necessities required, was wrought into a variety of forms-as shown by the accompanying illustration. The butt of the shaft was fledged with small birds' feathers. The arrows were carried in quivers, in form and method not unlike those used by the barbarians of the Old World-the ancestors of civilized nations. So important a character was the professional arrow- maker among the Indians that he was exempted Group of arrow-heads, or "points." One- half the size of the originals. from all public duty and the toils of the chase. In showing this sort of consideration for their arrow- makers the Indians did exactly what was done by all Europeans, who, from earliest known times down to the invention of fire-arms, treated their bowyers and fletchers, or arrow- smiths, as persons of importance.
During the past one hundred years thousands of Indian arrow-heads have been found in the Wyoming region-chiefly scattered over the lowlands near the Susquehanna-where they had lain undisturbed for many years from the time they were shot away by the Indians in war and in the chase. Even at this late day fine specimens are often washed
* "Report on Indians at the Eleventh Census," page 53.
+ See illustration on page 38.
# See page 104.
INDIAN ARROW- AND SPEAR-HEADS AND A PESTLE. Photo-reproduction (one-half of the actual size) from the "Christopher Wren Collection," Wyoming Historical and Geological society- By courtesy of the Society.
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out of the ground by the river at the time of a freshet, or at other times are turned up by the farmer's plough. When one realizes-from a knowledge of the number of these flint implements now in existence, and from a consideration of other matters-how undoubtedly great was the whole number of arrow-heads in use during, say, a period of fifty years immediately preceding the introduction of fire-arms among the Indians, the conclusion is irresistible that in every tribe there must have been skillful workmen who were kept constantly employed in supplying the large demand for these necessary implements. This work was certainly not easy, and could not be done by men selected at random, for it required time, patience, skill and considerable intelligence. Catlin, in his "Last Rambles," previously referred to, gives the follow- ing interesting account of the manufacture of flint arrow-heads as he saw it carried on in 1855 by Apache Indians west of the Rocky Mountains.
"Their flint arrow and spear-heads, as well as their bows of bone and sinew, are equal, if not superior, to the manufactures of any of the tribes existing. *
* Like most of the tribes west of and in the Rocky Mountains, they manufacture the blades of their spears and points for their arrows of flints, and also of obsidian, which is scattered over those volcanic regions west of the mountains ; and, like the other tribes, they gnard as a profound secret the mode by which the flints and obsidian are broken into the shapes they require. Their mode is very simple, and evidently the only mode by which those delicate fractures and peculiar shapes can possibly be produced ; for civilized artisans have tried in various parts of the world, and with the best of tools, without success in copying them.
"Every tribe has its factory in which these arrow-heads are made, and in those only certain adepts are able or allowed to make them for the use of the tribe. Erratic bowlders of flint are collected (and sometimes brought an immense distance ), and broken with a sort of sledge-hammer made of a rounded pebble of horn-stone, set in a twisted withe holding the stone and forming a handle. The flint, at the indiscriminate blows of the sledge, is broken into a hundred pieces, and such flakes are selected as, from the angles of their fractures and their thicknesses, will answer as the basis of an arrow-head ; and in the hands of the artisan they are shaped into the beautiful formis and proportions which are desired, and which are now to be seen in most of our museums.
"The master workman, seated on the ground, lays one of these flakes on the palin of his left hand, holding it firmly down with two or more fingers of the same hand, and with his right hand places his chisel (or punch)-held between the thumb and two forefingers -on the point that is to be broken off ; and a co-operator (a striker) sitting in front of him, with a mallet of very hard wood, strikes the chisel on the upper end, flaking the flint off on the under side below each projecting point that is struck. The flint is then turned and chipped in the same manner from the opposite side, and so turned and chipped until the required shape and dimensions are obtained-all the fractures being made upon the palm of the hand. * * * The yielding elasticity of the hand enables the chips to come off without breaking the body of the flint, which would be the case if it were broken on a hard substance.
"These people have no metallic instruments to work with, and the instruments which they use *
* I found to be made of the incisors of the sperm-whale or the sea- lion, which are often stranded on the coast of the Pacific. The chisel or punch is about six or seven inches in length and one inch in diameter, with one rounded side and two plane sides. * * The operation [of flaking the flint] is very curious, both the holder and the striker singing, and the strokes of the mallet being given exactly in time with the music, and with a sharp and rebounding blow-in which, the Indians tell us, is the great medicine (mystery ) of the operation."*
From statements made to the first white men with whom the North American Indians came in contact, the normal condition of those Indians prior to the advent of the Europeans was war, cruel and bloody. War fitted the nature of the Indian, was his occupation by design and gave him fame. His heroes were warriors, and so tradition and fact en- couraged him to follow war as a profession as well as a recreation. The early Indian wars were generally for encroachments on fish and game preserves, or "hunting-grounds" ; and when the several tribes fought with
* For an interesting illustrated article relative to Indian arrow and spear-heads, their manufacture, etc., see "The Stone Age" in "Proceedings and Collections of the Wyoming Historical Society," VIII : 93 -being a paper read before the Society by Christopher Wren, Esq., of Plymouth. Pa.
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each other they fought to exterminate-using with savage cunning and brutality the rude but effective weapons with which they were provided. The bad side of the old-time Indian was that he was undoubtedly hor- ribly cruel in warfare. He was cowardly, too, because he fought behind rocks and bushes, and usually began his wars against the whites by the murder of women and children. He was at all times treacherous, and fought like a wild animal, stealthily creeping and crawling up to his prey ; but when cornered, fighting like a devil incarnate. Indians who were brutally brave in battle were at other times arrant cowards. The Europeans initiated the Indians in the use of fire-arms, and taught them by example the use and value of cunning and deceit in transactions with men ; but they did not find it necessary either to demonstrate to the Indians that there is such an art as War, or to instruct them in the brutalities of that art.
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