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 early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume I > Part 19
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The cultivation of corn, pumpkins and beans, the gathering of potatoes, the curing of the tobacco-plant (in the region of Virginia and the Carolinas) and the grinding of grain into flour were labors despised
INDIAN WOMAN SPEARING FISH FROM A CANOE.
by the men as forming a sort of degrading slavery. In this they were as proud as the old Roman citizens whose business was war. These toils were laid by the Indians upon their women, who were also beasts of burden in marches, carrying on their backs their domestic utensils, and their babies ("papooses") strapped in cases hanging from their shoulders. Parkman, in describing the Huron Indian woman, wrote :
* In official reports prepared by Government statisticians in 1822, and published, it was set forth that in those sections of the country where fish constituted an article of diet among the Indians, the number of persons in each family was about six ; while "in other tribes, where this article is wanting, the average number in a family is about five."
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"In March and April she gathered the year's supply of firewood. Then came sowing, tilling and harvesting, curing fish, dressing skins, making cordage and clothing, prepar- ing food. On the march it was she who bore the burden, for, in the words of Champlain, 'their women were their mules.' The natural effect followed. In every town were shriveled hags, hideous and despised, who in vindictive- ness, ferocity and cruelty far exceeded the inen. To the men fell the task of building the houses and making weapons, pipes and canoes. For the rest, their home-life was a life of leisure and amusement. The Summer, Autumn and early Winter were their seasons of serious en1- ployment-of war, hunting (in which they were aided by a wolfish breed of dogs unable to bark ), fishing and trade."
Boys and girls played alike to- gether until they had attained the age of about ten years, when there was a separation. Then the girls romped about the tepees, or were instructed to some extent by their mothers in the simple methods of cooking and taking care of their homes practised Indian woman pounding corn with a stone pestle suspended by a thong from the branch of a tree. by them ; while the boys gathered on the banks of a neighboring stream and (From an old engraving ) sported in the water or threw spears and shot arrows at a mark. At the age of fifteen a girl had considerable to say in family affairs, and was permitted to vote upon questions of importance. She was not compelled to work unless the task met with her ap- proval. Indeed, until her marriage, the maiden had almost unlimited liberty. Having reached the period of young- womanhood the prettiest procurable cos- tumes were given to her. Her moccasins and leggings of deerskin were sometimes marvels of workmanship. Her hair, part- ed in the middle, was combed straight back, and the part was painted-at least among certain tribes-invariably a bright yellow. At one time the women wore necklaces of bears' teeth and claws and elks' teeth, which were much esteemed ; but later, beads of European manufacture took their place.
In the general appearance and habits of the North American Indian-in his A typical Indian woman of modern times. physiognomy, his mental characteristics and his physical make-up-there is much to indicate the wide differences that exist between him and the white man. His high cheek-bones and broad face ; his heavy, dark eyes; his jet-black hair, lank and incapable of curling because of its peculiar structure; his taciturnity in society, and his stoicism in all emergencies of mental excitement and physical suffering-all these are peculiar to the red man. Many writers hold that the Indian of earlier days was gifted
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with a better and more symmetrical physique and greater "staying power" than the white man. On this subject Catlin, writing in 1840, said :
"Although the Indians of North America, where dissipation and disease have not got amongst them, undoubtedly are a longer lived and healthier race, and capable of enduring far more bodily privation and pain than civilized people can endure, yet I do not believe that the differences are constitutional, or anything more than the results of different circumstances and a different education. As an evidence in support of this assertion I will allude to the hundreds of men whom I have seen and traveled with who have been for several years together in the Rocky Mountains, in the employ- ment of the fur companies, where they have lived exactly upon the Indian system- continually exposed to the open air and the weather and to all the disappointments and privations peculiar to that mode of life ; and I am bound to say that I never saw a more hardy and healthy race of men in my life, whilst they remain in the country, nor any who fall to pieces quicker when they get back to a confined and dissipated life-which they easily fall into when they return to their own country."
When the eminent American painter Benjamin West* visited Rome in 1760, and there gazed for the first time on the famous "Apollo Belve- dere"-an ancient work of art "in which are combined the highest intel- lect with the most consummate phys- ical beauty"-the then young artist exclaimed, "My God ! how like a young Mohawk Indian !" When, many years later, George Catlin first saw this same statue, he, captivated by the grace, dignity and apparent vitality displayed in it, was startled into making an exclamation quite similar to the one West had made. Catlin was an avowed lover of the American Indian, and, as previously mentioned, had visited various tribes and come in contact with many THE "APOLLO BELVEDERE." Indians-good, bad and indifferent. West, also, during his life in Philadelphia (1756-'57), saw many Six Nation, Delaware and other Indians, who came there frequently to attend conferences and for other purposes.
"Art may mourn when these people are swept from the earth," wrote Catlin in 1868, "and the artists of future ages may look in vain for another race so picturesque in their costumes, their weapons, their colors, their manly games and their chase, and so well adapted to that talent which alone is able to throw a speaking charmn into marble or to spread it upon canvas. The native grace, simplicity and dignity of these natural people so much resemble the ancient marbles that one is irresistibly led to believe that the Grecian sculptors had similar models
* BENJAMIN WEST was born near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 10, 1738, of Quaker parentage. At the age of seven years he surprised his family and friends by his skill in drawing. At the age of six- teen he began to paint portraits in his native village, and at eighteen he opened a studio in Philadelphia Later he went to New York City, where, in 1760, he was aided by some generous friends to go abroad. At Rome, as the first American artist ever seen in Italy, he attracted much attention. During a sojourn of three years in Italy he was elected a member of the Academies of Florence, Bologna and Parma. In1 1763, at the age of twenty-five years, he left Italy for England, intending to return to America ; but he was induced to remain in London, and there he lived and painted until his death, March 11, 1820. He attained very great contemporary fame, and in 1792 succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds as. President of the British Royal Academy.
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 110ted 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 men-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 men, 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 men 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 inust see him in motion ; and he who would get a perfect "SITTING BULL."* study for a After a portrait painted by G. Gaul in 1890. 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.+ 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 B1111" 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 alinost 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 inen."
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 wigwamns."
To quote further from Catlin (referring to the period 1829-'38) : "The teetli 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 teetli 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 made 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 Lenapés-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 mode 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 helmet, 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.
Į 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 mnay 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 marking* among the North American Indians varied from tribe to tribe. Red, black, green and white were the colors most in vogue. Ethnol- 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- men. 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 "Midewiwan," 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 made 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.
į 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 almost 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 alınost 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 men wore war-shirts or mantles inade 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.
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