The Lenâpé and their Legends

Footnote_145_145

"As for the Powaws," says the native Mohegan, the Rev. Sampson Occum, in his account of the Montauk Indians of Long Island, "they say they get their art from dreams." Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., Vol. X, p. 109. Dr. Trumbull's suggested affinity of powaw with Cree tàp-wayoo, he speaks the truth; Nar, taupowauog, wise speakers, is, I think, correct, but the latter are secondary senses. They were wise, and gave true counsel, who could correctly interpret dreams. Compare the Iroquois katetsens, to dream; katetsiens, to practice medicine, Indian fashion. Cuoq, Lexique de la Langue Iroquoise.

Footnote_146_146

David Brainerd, Life and Journal, pp. 400, 401.

Footnote_147_147

Hist. Ind. Nations, p. 280.

Footnote_148_148

Hist. and Statistics of the Indian Tribes, Vol. I, p. 358, seq.

Footnote_149_149

Wassenaer's Description of the New Netherlands (1631), in Doc. Hist of New York, Vol. III, pp 28, 40. Other signs of serpent worship were common among the Lenape. Loskiel states that their cast-off skins were treasured as possessing wonderful curative powers (Geschichte, p. 147), and Brainerd saw an Indian offering supplications to one (Life and Journal, p. 395).

Footnote_150_150

See Brainerd, Life and Journal, pp. 310, 312, 364, 398, 425, etc., and

Footnote_151_151

Transactions of the American Philological Association, 1872, p. 158.

Footnote_152_152

Penn, Letter to the Free Society of Traders, 1683, Sec. xii.

Footnote_153_153

On the literary works of Zeisberger, see Rev. E. de Schweinitz, Life of Zeisberger, chap. xlviii, who gives a full account of all the printed works, but does not describe the MSS.

Footnote_154_154

Major Ebenezer Denny's "Journal" in Memoirs of the Hist. Soc. of Penna., Vol. VII, pp. 481-86.

Footnote_155_155

Report upon the Indian Tribes, by Whipple, Ewbank and Turner, p. 56 (Washington, 1855).

Footnote_156_156

History and Statistics of the Indian Tribes, Vol. II, p. 470.

Footnote_157_157

I am aware that in this proposition I am following the German and French linguists, Steinthal, F. Müller, Adam, Henry, etc., and not our own distinguished authority on Algonkin grammar, Dr J Hammond Trumbull, who, in his essay "On the Algonkin Verb," has learnedly maintained another opinion (Transactions of the American Philological Association, 1876, p. 146). I have not been able, however, to convince myself that his position is correct. The formative elements of the Algonkin paradigms appear to me simply attached particles, and not true inflections Their real character is obscured by phonetic laws, just as in the Finnish when compared with the Hungarian.

Footnote_158_158

"Ungemein wohlkhngend." Loskiel, Geschichte der Mission, p. 24. An early traveler of English nationality pronounced it "sweet, of noble sound and accent." Gabriel Thomas, Hist. and Geog. Account of Pensilvania and West New Jersey, p. 47 (London, 1698).

Footnote_159_159

Key into the Language of North America, p. 129. See, also, Mr. Bickering's remarks on the same subject, in his Appendix to Rasles' Dictionary of the Abnaki.

Footnote_160_160

Howse, Grammar of the Cree Language, p. 316.

Footnote_161_161

See his Ancient Society, pp. 172-73.

Footnote_162_162

The native name of William Penn offers an instance of this phonetic alteration. It is given as Onas. The proper form is Wonach. It literally means the tip or extremity of anything; as wonach-sitall, the tips of the toes; wonach-gulinschall, the tips of the fingers. The inanimate plural form wolanniall, means the tail feathers of a bird. To explain the name Penn to the Indians a feather was shown them, probably a quill pen, and hence they gave the translation Wonach, corrupted into Onas.

Footnote_163_163

Trans. Am. Philol. Assoc., 1872, p. 157.

Footnote_164_164

De Schweinitz, Life of Zeisberger, p. 131.

Footnote_165_165

A Grammar of the Cree Language, with which is combined an Analysis of the Chippeway Dialect, by Joseph Howse, Esq. (London, 1844).

Footnote_166_166

In a note to Zeisberger's Grammar of the Delaware, p. 141.

Footnote_167_167

A Grammar of the Cree Language, p. 175.

Footnote_168_168

Dictionnaire de la Langue des Cris, sub voce.

Footnote_169_169

In Trans. Amer. Antiq. Society, Vol. II, p. 223. Zeisberger's statements were criticised by Joseph Howse, Grammar of the Cree Language, pp. 109, 310, 313. His strictures and those of the Abbé Cuoq, in his Etudes Philologiques sur Quelques Langues Sauvages, Chap. I, were collected and extended by Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull, in his paper on "Some Mistaken Notions of Algonquin Grammar," Trans. of the American Philological Association, 1874. There is a needless degree of severity in both these last named productions.

Footnote_170_170

Rasles, Dictionary of the Abnaki, p. 550. Dr. Trumbull compares the Mass. anue, more than. Trans. American Philological Association, 1872, p. 168.

Footnote_171_171

J. Howse: Grammar of the Cree Language, p. 111.

Footnote_172_172

H R Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, pp. 135-36

Footnote_173_173

The Disease of the Scythians (Morbus Feminarum) and Certain Analogous Conditions. By William A. Hammond, M. D. (New York, 1882). Dr. Hammond found that the hombre mujerado of the Pueblo Indians "is the chief passive agent in the pederastic ceremonies which form so important a part in their religious performances," p. 9.

Footnote_174_174

Loskiel, Geschichte der Mission, etc., s. 161-2.

Footnote_175_175

Wm. Henry Harrison, A Discourse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio, pp. 24, 25 (Cincinnati, 1838).

Footnote_176_176

Gallatin, Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soc., Vol. II, p. 46.

Footnote_177_177

Horatio Hale, The Iroquois Book of Rites, p. 92.

Footnote_178_178

Edmund de Schweinitz, Life and Times of David Zeisberger, p. 46.

Footnote_179_179

Heckewelder, Indian Nations, pp. xxxii and 60.

Footnote_180_180

Narrative of Hendrick Aupaumut, Mems. Hist. Soc. Pa., Vol. II, pp. 76-77. Wenaumeen for Unami, the Mohegan form of the name. This seems to limit the peace making power to that gens. He may mean, "Those of the Delawares who are called the Unamis are our Grandfathers," etc.

The Chipeways, Ottawas, Shawnees, Pottawattomies, Sacs, Foxes and Kikapoos, all called the Delawares "Grandfather", J. Morse, Report on Indian Affairs, pp. 122, 123, 142. The term was not intended in a genealogical, but solely in a political, sense. Its origin and precise meaning are alike obscure.

Footnote_181_181

History of the Indians, MS., quoted by Bishop Schweinitz, Life of Zeisberger, p. 444, note.

Footnote_182_182

The words are those of George Croghan, Esq., at the treaty of Pittsburgh, 1759, with the Six Nations and Wyandots. History of Western Penna., App. p. 135.

Footnote_183_183

Records of the Council at Easton, 1756, in Lib. Amer. Philos. Soc.

Footnote_184_184

Smith, History of New Jersey, p. 451 (2d ed.)

Footnote_185_185

See the Narrative of the Long Walk, by John Watson, father and son, in Hazard's Register of Penna., 1830, reprinted in Beach's Indian Miscellany, pp 90-94; also the able discussion of the question in Dr. Charles Thompson's Inquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawnee Indians, pp. 30-34 and 42-46. (London, 1759.)

Footnote_186_186

Relations des Jesuites, 1660, p. 6. Some confusion has arisen in this matter, from confounding the Susquehannocks with the Iroquois, both of whom were called "Mengwe" by the Delawares, corrupted into "Mingoes." Thus, a writer in the first half of the 17th century says of the "Mingoes" that the river tribes "are afraid of them, so that they dare not stir, much less go to war against them." Thomas Campanius, Description of the Province of New Sweden, p. 158.

Footnote_187_187

See Mr. E. M. Ruttenber's able discussion of the subject in his History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River, p. 66 (Albany, 1872).

Footnote_188_188

Dr. Charles Thompson, An Inquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawnee Indians, pp. 11, 12. (London, 1759.)

Footnote_189_189

See his "Notes Respecting the Indians of Lancaster County, Penna.," in the Collections of the Historical Society of Penna., Vol. IV, Part p. 198.

Footnote_190_190

Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, Vol. I, p. 333.

Footnote_191_191

Ibid, Vol. I, p. 410-11.

Footnote_192_192

Minutes of the Provincial Council, Vol. II, pp 572-73.

Footnote_193_193

History of the Indian Nations, p. xxix.

Footnote_194_194

The Indian Tribes of Hudson's River, p. 69.

Footnote_195_195

Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc., Vol. II, p. 46.

Footnote_196_196

Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. II, p. 47.

Footnote_197_197

Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. I, p. 498

Footnote_198_198

The Indian Tribes of Hudson's River, p. 69.

Footnote_199_199

See Penna. Archives, Vol. I, p. 144, and Du Ponceau, Memoir on the Treaty at Shackamaxon, Collections of the Penna. Hist. Soc., Vol. III, Part II, p. 73.

Footnote_200_200

New York Colonial Documents, Vol. VII, p. 119.

Footnote_201_201

Thompson, Inquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawnee Indians, p. 107.

Footnote_202_202

Heckewelder, Indian Nations, p. 70; E. de Schweinitz, Life of Zeisberger, pp. 430, 641

Footnote_203_203

Janney, Life of Penn, p. 247.

Footnote_204_204

Ruttenber, Indians of the Hudson River, p. 177.

Footnote_205_205

Durant's Memorial, in New York Colonial Documents, Vol. V, p. 623.

Footnote_206_206

Early History of Western Pennsylvania, p. 31 (Pittsburgh, 1846); and see Penna. Archives, Vol. I, pp. 322, 330.

Footnote_207_207

Loskiel, Geschichte der Mission, p. 54. The treaty of Lancaster, 1762, was the last treaty held with the Indians in eastern Pennsylvania.

Footnote_208_208

Schweinitz, Life of Zeisberger, p. 90.

Footnote_209_209

New York Colonial Documents, Vol. VII, p. 583.

Footnote_210_210

On the locations of the Delawares in Ohio, and the boundaries of their tract, see Ed. de Schweinitz, Life of Zeisberger, p. 374, and an article by the Rev. Stephen D. Peet, entitled "The Delaware Indians in Ohio," in the American Antiquarian, Vol. II.

Footnote_211_211

The position of the Delawares in Indiana is roughly shown on Hough's Map of the Tribal Districts of Indiana, in the Report on the Geology and Natural History of Indiana, 1882.

Footnote_212_212

J. Morse, Report on the Indian Tribes, p. 110.

Footnote_213_213

Mr. John Johnston, Indian Agent, in Trans. of the Amer. Antiquarian Society, Vol. I, p. 271.

Footnote_214_214

History of the Baptist Indian Missions, p. 53, etc.

Footnote_215_215

Captivity of Christian Fast, in Beach, Indian Miscellany, p. 63.

Footnote_216_216

See the work entitled, Account of the Conduct of the Society of Friends toward the Indian Tribes, pp. 55 seq. (London, 1844.)

Footnote_217_217

"I have likewise been wholly alone in my work, there being no other missionary among the Indians, in either of these Provinces." He wrote this in 1746. Life of David Brainerd, p. 409.

Footnote_218_218

See "A State of Facts about the Riots," in New Jersey Archives, Vol. VI, pp. 406-7, where the writer speaks with great suspicion of "the cause pretended for such a number of Indians coming to live there is that they are to be taught the Christian religion by one Mr. Braniard." Well he might! Any such occurrence was totally unprecedented in the annals of the colony.

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See Minutes of the Provincial Council of Penna., Nov., 1742, Vol. IV, 624-5, Further, on Tatemy who had been converted by Brainerd and served him as interpreter, see Heckewelder, Indian Nations, second edition, p. 302, note of the editor.

Footnote_220_220

The Heckewelder MSS., in the library of the Am. Philos Society, give the results of the first twenty years, 1741-61, of the labors of the Moravian brethren. In that period 525 Indians were converted and baptized. Of these – 163 were Connecticut Wampanos; 111 were Mahicanni proper; 251 were Lenape. Some of the latter were of the New Jersey Wapings.

Footnote_221_221

The Life and Times of David Zeisberger, the Western Pioneer and Apostle of the Indians. By Edmund de Schweinitz, Philadelphia, 1871.

Footnote_222_222

D. G. Brinton, Myths of the New World, Chap. VI. (N.Y., 1876), and American Hero Myths, Chap. II (Phila., 1882). The seeming incongruity of applying such terms as Trickster, Cheat and Liar to the highest divinity I have explained in a paper in the American Antiquarian for the current year (1885) and will recur to later.

Footnote_223_223

Thomas Campanius, Account of New Sweden, Book III, cap. xi

Footnote_224_224

Traditions and Language of the Indians, in Bulletin Hist. Soc. Pa., Vol. I, pp. 30-31.

Footnote_225_225

Journal of a Voyage to New York in 1679-80. By Jasper Donkers and Peter Sluyter, p. 268. Translation in Vol. I of the Transactions of the Long Island Historical Society (Brooklyn, 1867).

Footnote_226_226

Schoolcraft says of the Chipeway pictographic symbols: "The turtle is believed to be, in all instances, a symbol of the earth, and is addressed as mother." History and Statistics of the Indian Tribes, Vol. I, p. 390.

Footnote_227_227

Zeisberger, MSS, in E. de Schweinitz, Life and Times of Zeisberger, pp. 218, 219; Heckewelder, Indian Nations, p. 253.

Footnote_228_228

"The Indians call the American continent an island, believing it to be entirely surrounded by water." Heckewelder, Hist. Indian Nations, p. 250.

Footnote_229_229

Ibid, p. 308.

Footnote_230_230

Heckewelder, MSS in the Library of the American Philosophical Society. It is one of the points in favor of the authenticity of the Walam Olum that this halcyon epoch is mentioned in its lines, though no reference to it is contained in printed books relating to the Lenape legends.

Footnote_231_231

Van der Donck, Description of the New Netherlands, Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc., Ser. II, Vol. I, pp. 217-18.

Footnote_232_232

Life and Journal of the Rev. David Brainerd, pp. 397, 425 (Edinburgh, 1826).

Footnote_233_233

So we may understand Loskiel to mean when he says,

"Das bringen sie ihren Kindern ebenfalls bey, und kleiden es in Bilder ein, um es noch eindrücklicher zu machen."

Geschichte der Mission, etc., s. 32. I think Zeisberger, who was Loskiel's authority, meant Bilder in its literal, not rhetorical, sense.

Footnote_234_234

Charles Beatty, Journal of a Two Months' Tour: with a View of Promoting Religion among the Frontier Inhabitants of Pennsylvania, and of Introducing Christianity among the Indians to the Westward of the Alleghgeny Mountains, p. 27 (London, 1768).

Footnote_235_235

Ibid, p. 91.

Footnote_236_236

Geschichte der Mission, etc., p. 31.

Footnote_237_237

The Mohegans seem also to have at one time had a sevenfold division. At least a writer speaks of the "seven tribes" into which those in Connecticut were divided. Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., Vol. IX (I ser.), p. 90.

Footnote_238_238

Charles Beatty, Journal, etc., p. 84.

Footnote_239_239

Relation des Jesuites, 1648, p. 77.

Footnote_240_240

The Descent of Man, p. 165, note.

Footnote_241_241

Heckewelder, Tran. Amer. Philos. Soc., Vol. III, p. 388.

Footnote_242_242

This legend was told by the Sac Chief Masco, to Major Marston, about 1819. See J. Morse, Report on Indian Affairs, p. 138.

Footnote_243_243

This myth was obtained in 1812, from the Shawnees in Missouri (Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, Vol. IV, p. 254), and independently in 1819, from those in Ohio (Mr. John Johnston, in Trans. of the Amer. Antiq. Soc., Vol. I, p. 273). Those of the tribe who now live on the Quapaw Reservation, Indian Territory, repeat every year a long, probably mythical and historical, chant, the words of which I have tried, in vain, to obtain. They say that to repeat it to a white man would bring disasters on their nation. I mention it as a piece of aboriginal composition most desirable to secure.

Footnote_244_244

Published in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 1st ser., Vol. IV, pp. 260, sqq.

Footnote_245_245

From amangi, great or big (in composition amangach), with the accessory notion of terrible, or frightful; Cree, amansis, to frighten; tiât, an abbreviated form of tawa, naked, whence the name Tawatawas, or Twightees, applied to the Miami Indians in the old records. (See Minutes of the Provincial Council of Penna., Vol. VIII, p. 418)

Footnote_246_246

American Journal of Science, Vol. XL, p. 237.

Footnote_247_247

Samuel F. Haven, Archaeology of the United States, p. 40.

Footnote_248_248

The Good Book; or the Amenities of Nature. Printed for the Eleutherium of Knowledge. Philadelphia, 1840, pp. 77, 78. This "Eleutherium," so far as I can learn, consisted of nobody but Monsieur Rafinesque himself. Among his manifold projects was a "Divitial System", by which all interested could soon become large capitalists. He published a book on it (of course), which might be worth the attention of a financial economist. The solid men of Philadelphia, however, like its scholars, turned a deaf ear to the words of the eccentric foreigner.

Footnote_249_249

The American Nations, etc., p. 78.

Footnote_250_250

Ibid, p. 123.

Footnote_251_251

Tanner's Narrative, p. 359.

Footnote_252_252

American Nations, p. 122.

Footnote_253_253

Ibid, p. 151.

Footnote_254_254

"My friend, Mr. Ward, took me to Cynthiana in a gig, where I surveyed other ancient monuments." Rafinesque, A Life of Travels and Researches, p. 74. (Phila., 1836.)

Footnote_255_255

American Journal of Science, Vol. XL, p. 237, note.

Footnote_256_256

The American Nations, p. 151.

Footnote_257_257

Correspondence between the Rev. John Heckewelder and Peter S Duponceau, Esq., p. 410.

Footnote_258_258

The American Nations, p. 125.

Footnote_259_259

Read, woak.

Footnote_260_260

Var moshalguat.

Footnote_261_261

Var. showoken.

Footnote_262_262

Var. menakinep.

Footnote_263_263

Var wapanahan.

Footnote_264_264

Var mixtisipi.