The Lenâpé and their Legends

Footnote_43_43

Printed in the Colonial History of New York, Vol. I. Compare Force, ubi suprá, pp. 16, 17.

Footnote_44_44

Rev. J. Morse, Report on Indian Affairs, p. 362

Footnote_45_45

See Gallatin, Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, pp. 85, 86.

Footnote_46_46

See New York Colonial Documents, Vol. V, pp. 660, 673, etc.

Footnote_47_47

Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. I, pp. 299, 300, 302. Gov. Gordon writes to the "Chiefs of ye Shawanese and Assekelaes," under date December, 1731, "I find by our Records that about 34 Years since some Numbers of your Nation came to Sasquehannah," etc. Ibid., p. 302.

Footnote_48_48

See his remarks in the Transactions of the American Philological Association, 1872, p. 157.

Footnote_49_49

For instance, in Governor Patrick Gordon's Letter to the Friends, 1728, where he speaks of "Our Lenappys or Delaware Indians," in Penna. Archives, Vol. I, p. 230. At the treaty of Easton, 1756, Tedyuscung, head chief of the Delawares, is stated to have represented the "Lenopi" Indians (Minutes of the Council, Phila., 1757), and in the "Conference of Eleven Nations living West of Allegheny," held at Philadelphia, 1759, the Delawares are included under the tribal name "Leonopy." See Minutes of the Provincial Council of Penna., Vol. VIII, p. 418.

Footnote_50_50

So Mr. Lewis H. Morgan says, and he obtained the facts on the spot. "Len-ã'-pe was their former name, and is still used." Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity, p. 289 (Washington, 1871).

Footnote_51_51

History of the Indian Nations, p. 401.

Footnote_52_52

Transactions of the American Philological Association, 1871, p. 144.

Footnote_53_53

Weisberger's translation of Lenni Lenape as "people of the same nation," would be more literal if it were put "men of our nation."

President Stiles, in his Itinerary, makes the statement: "The Delaware tribe is called Poh-he-gan or Mo-hee-gan by themselves, and Auquitsaukon." I have not been able to reach a satisfactory solution of the first and third of these names. That the Delawares did use the term Lenape as their own designation, is shown by the refrain of one of their chants, preserved by Heckewelder. It was – "Husca n'lenape-win," Truly I – a Lenape – am. Or: "I am a true man of our people." Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., Vol. IV, N. Ser., p. 381.

Footnote_54_54

Mr. Eager, in his History of Orange County, quotes the old surveyor, Nicolas Scull (1730), in favor of translating minisink "the water is gone," and Ruttenber, in his History of the Native Tribes of the Hudson River, supposes that it is derived from menatey, an island. Neither of these commends itself to modern Delawares.

Footnote_55_55

See Penna. Archives, Vol. I, pp. 540-1.

Footnote_56_56

Proud, History of Penna., Vol. II, p. 297, S Smith, Hist of New Jersey, p. 456; Henry, Dict. of the Delaware Lang., MS., p. 539.

Footnote_57_57

Delaware Vocabulary in Whipple, Ewbank & Turner's Report, 1855. The German form is tsickenum.

Footnote_58_58

A Brief Relation of the Voyage of Captayne Thomas Yong, in Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., 4th series, Vol. IX, p. 119.

Footnote_59_59

See the original Warrant of Survey and Minutes relating thereto, in Dr. George Smith's History of Delaware County, Pa., pp. 209, 210 (Phila., 1862). The derivation is uncertain. Captain John Smith gives mahcawq for pumpkin, and this appears to be the word in the native name of Chester Creek, Macopanackhan, which is also seen in Marcus Hook. (See Smith's Hist. Del. Co., pp. 145, 381.) I am inclined to identify the Macocks with the M'okahoka as "the people of the pumpkin place," or where those vegetables were cultivated.

Footnote_60_60

The Shawnee word is the same, pellewaa, whence their name for the Ohio River, Pellewaa seepee, Turkey River. (Rev. David Jones, Journal of Two Visits Made to Some Nations of Indians on the West Side of the River Ohio in 1772 and 1773, p. 20.) From this is derived the shortened form Plaen, seen in Playwickey, or Planwikit, the town of those of the Turkey Tribe, in Berks county, Pa. (Heckewelder, Indian Names, p, 355.)

Footnote_61_61

Heckewelder, Hist. Indian Nations, pp. 253-4.

Footnote_62_62

Lewis H. Morgan, Ancient Society, pp. 171-2.

Footnote_63_63

Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, July 6th, 1694.

Footnote_64_64

Master Evelin's Letter is printed in Smith's History of New Jersey, 2d ed. Some doubt has been cast on his letter, because of its connection with the mythical "New Albion," but his personality and presence on the river have been vindicated. See The American Historical Magazine, Vol. I, 2d series, pp. 75, 76.

Footnote_65_65

New Jersey Archives, Vol. I, p. 183.

Footnote_66_66

Ibid, Vol. I, p. 73.

Footnote_67_67

Ruttenber, Hist. of the Indian Tribes of Hudson River, s. v.

Footnote_68_68

Heckewelder, in his unpublished MSS, asserts that both these names mean "Opossum". It is true that the name of this animal in Lenape is woapink, in the New Jersey dialect opiing, and in the Nanticoke of Smith oposon, but all these are derived from the root wab, which originally meant "white," and was applied to the East as the place of the dawn and the light. The reference is to the light gray, or whitish, color of the animal's hair. Compare the Cree, wapiskowes, cendré, il a le poil blafard Lacombe, Dictionnaire de la Langue des Cris s v

Footnote_69_69

On Indian Names, p. 375, in Trans American Philosophical Society, Vol. III, n. ser

Footnote_70_70

Proud, History of Pennsylvania, Vol. I, 144, II, p. 295. Heckewelder, Tran. Am. Philo. Soc., Vol. IV, p. 376.

Footnote_71_71

Matthew G. Henry, Delaware Indian Dictionary, p. 709. (MS in the Library of the Am. Phil. Soc.)

Footnote_72_72

"The Monthees who we called Wemintheuw," etc. Journal of Hendrick Aupaumut, Mems. Hist. Soc. Pa., Vol. II, p. 77.

Footnote_73_73

Heckewelder, ubi supra.

Footnote_74_74

New Jersey Archives, Vol. V, p. 22.

Footnote_75_75

The Rise and Progress of a Remarkable Work of Grace Among the Indians. By David Brainerd, in Works, p. 304.

Footnote_76_76

E de Schweimtz, Life of Zeisberger, p. 660, note.

Footnote_77_77

Travels into North America, Vol. II, pp. 93-94 (London, 1771).

Footnote_78_78

Lacombe, Dictionnaire de la Langue des Cris, p. 711. Dr. Trumbull, however, maintains that it is derived from sohkau-au, he prevails over (note to Roger Williams' Key, p. 162). If there is a genetic connection, the latter is the derivative. The word sakima is not known among the Minsi. In place of it they say K'htai, the great one, from kehtan, great. From this comes the corrupted forms tayach or tallach of the Nanticokes, and the tayac of the Pascatoways.

Footnote_79_79

Lewis H. Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 172.

Footnote_80_80

Loskiel, Geschichte der Mission, p. 168.

Footnote_81_81

For these particulars see Ettwein, Traditions and Language of the Indians, in Bulletin of the Pa. Hist. Soc., Vol. I; Charles Beatty, Journal of a Tour, etc., p. 51.

Footnote_82_82

C. Thompson, Inquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawnee Indians, p. 16.

Footnote_83_83

I assign them the sweet potato on the excellent authority of Dr. C. Thompson, Essay on Indian Affairs, in Colls. of the Hist. Soc. of Penna., Vol. I, p. 81.

Footnote_84_84

Peter Kalm, Travels in North America, Vol. II, p. 42.

Footnote_85_85

See Peter Kalm, Travels in North America, Vol. II, pp. 110-115; William Darlington, Flora Cestrica. (West Chester, Pa., 1837.)

Footnote_86_86

For these facts, see Bishop Ettwem's article on the Traditions and Languages of the Indians, Bulletin of the Pa. Hist. Soc., 1848, p. 32. Van der Donck (1656) describes these palisaded strongholds, and Campanius (1642-48) gives a picture of one. See also E. de Schweimtz, Life of Zeisberger, p. 83. The Mohegan houses were sometimes 180 feet long, by about 20 feet wide, and occupied by numerous families. Van der Donck, Descrip. of the New Netherlands, pp. 196-7. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc., Ser. II, Vol. I.

The native name of these wooden forts was menachk, derived from manachen, to cut wood (Cree, manikka, to cut with a hatchet). Roger Williams calls them aumansk, a form of the same word.

Footnote_87_87

See the communication on "Pottery on the Delaware," by him, in the Proceedings of the Am. Phil. Soc., 1868. The whole subject of the archæology of the Delaware valley and New Jersey has been treated in the most satisfactory manner by the distinguished antiquary, Dr. Charles C. Abbott, in his work, Primitive Industry (Salem, Mass., 1881), and his Stone Age in New Jersey (1877).

Footnote_88_88

Four specimens are reported from Berks Co., Pa., by Prof. D. P. Brunner, in his volume, The Indians of Berks Co., Pa., pp. 94, 95 (Reading, 1881). These were an axe, a chisel, a knife and a gouge. The metal was probably in part obtained in New Jersey, in part imported from the Lake Superior region. See further, Abbott, Primitive Industry, chap. xxviii. Peter Kalm, the Swedish naturalist, who visited New Jersey in 1748, says that when the copper mines "upon the second river between Elizabeth Town and New York" were discovered, old mining holes were found and tools which the Indians had made use of. Travels in North America, Vol. I, p. 384.

Footnote_89_89

Some antiquaries appear to have doubted whether the spear was in use as a weapon of war among the Pennsylvania Indians. (See Abbott, Primitive Industry, p. 248.) But the Susquehannocks are distinctly reported as employing as a weapon "a strong and light spear of locust wood." Relatio Itineris in Marylandiam, p. 85.

Footnote_90_90

For further information on this subject, an article may be consulted in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 1st Ser., Vol. III, pp. 222, et seq., by Mr. Hugh Martin, entitled "An Account of the Principal Dies employed by the American Indians."

Footnote_91_91

The Delawares had three words for dog. One was allum, which recurs in many Algonkin dialects, and is derived by Mr. Trumbull from a root signifying "to lay hold of," or "to hold fast." The second was lennochum or lenchum, which means "the quadruped belonging to man;" lenno, man; chum, a four-footed beast. The third was moekaneu, a name derived from a general Algonkin root, in Cree, mokku, meaning "to tear in pieces," from which the Delaware word for bear, machque, has its origin, and also, significantly enough, the verb "to eat" in some dialects.

Footnote_92_92

History of West New Jersey, p. 3 (London, 1698).

Footnote_93_93

Bulletin Hist. Soc. of Penna., 1848, p. 32.

Footnote_94_94

E. M. Ruttenber, History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson River, p. 96, note.

Footnote_95_95

Maximilian, Prince of Wied, Travels in America, p. 35.

Footnote_96_96

A Key into the Language of America, p. 105.

Footnote_97_97

Documentary History of New York, Vol. III, pp. 29, 32.

Footnote_98_98

Grammar of the Language of the Lenni Lenape, pp 108-109.

Footnote_99_99

They are given, with translations, in Zeisberger's Grammar, p. 109.

Footnote_100_100

See Loskiel, Geschichte der Mission, etc., pp. 32, 33; Heckewelder, History of the Indian Nations, chap. X.

Footnote_101_101

Dr. Charles C. Abbott, Primitive Industry, pp. 71, 207, 347, 379, 384, 390, 391. Dr. Abbott's suggestion that the bird's head seen on several specimens might represent the totem of the Turkey gens of the Lenape cannot be well founded, if Heckewelder is correct in saying that their totemic mark was only the foot of the fowl. Ind. Nations, p. 253.

Footnote_102_102

See Proceedings Amer. Philos. Soc., Vol. X.

pgepubid00084

The subject is discussed, and comparative drawings of the native signatures reproduced, by Prof. D. B. Brunner, in his useful work, The Indians of Berks County, Pa., p. 68 (Reading, 1881).

Footnote_104_104

John Richardson's Diary, quoted in An Account of the Conduct of the Society of Friends toward the Indian Tribes, pp. 61, 62 (London, 1844).

Footnote_105_105

History and Statistics of the Indian Tribes, Vol. I, plate 47, B, and pages 353, 354

Footnote_106_106

"Amiable and benevolent," says Heckewelder, whose life he aided in saving on one occasion. Indian Nations, p. 285.

Footnote_107_107

E. de Schweinitz, Life of Zeisberger, p. 469.

Footnote_108_108

Relation des Jesuites, 1646, p. 33

Footnote_109_109

Baraga, A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language, s. v.

Footnote_110_110

For an example, see de Schweinitz, Life of Zeisberger, p. 342.

Footnote_111_111

Documentary History of New York, Vol. IV, p. 437.

Footnote_112_112

Journal of Conrad Weiser; in Early History of Western Penna., p. 16.

Footnote_113_113

Tran. Am. Phil. Soc., Vol. IV, p. 384.

Footnote_114_114

A Dictionary of the Abnaki Language, s. v. Peinture.

Footnote_115_115

See ante p. 53. Mr. Francis Vincent, in his History of the State of Delaware, p. 36 (Phila., 1870), says of the colored earth of that locality, that it is "a highly argillaceous loam, interspersed with large and frequent masses of yellow, ochrey clay, some of which are remarkable for fineness of texture, not unlike lithomarge, and consists of white, yellow, red and dark blue clay in detached spots."

The Shawnees applied the same word to Paint Creek, which falls into the Scioto, close to Chilicothe. They named it Alamonee sepee, of which Paint Creek is a literal rendering. Rev. David Jones, A Journal of Two Visits to the West Side of the Ohio in 1772 and 1773, p. 50.

Footnote_116_116

Key into the Language of America, p. 206

Footnote_117_117

Lawson, in his New Account of Carolina, p. 180, says that the natives there bore in mind their traditions by means of a "Parcel of Reeds of different Lengths, with several distinct Marks, known to none but themselves." James Adair writes of the Southern Indians "They count certain very remarkable things by notched square sticks, which are distributed among the head warriors and other chieftains of different towns." History of the Indians, p. 75.

Footnote_118_118

Dr Edwin James, Narrative of John Tanner, p. 341

Footnote_119_119

George Copway, Traditional History of the Ojibway Nation, pp 130, 131.

Footnote_120_120

Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, Vol. I, p. 339.

Footnote_121_121

Brainerd, Life and Journal, p. 410.

Footnote_122_122

E. de Schweinitz, Life and Times of Zeisberger, p. 92.

Footnote_123_123

Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., 4th series, Vol. IX, where Captain Young's journal is printed.

Footnote_124_124

Heckewelder MSS. in Amer Phil. Soc. Lib.

Footnote_125_125

An Account of the Conduct of the Society of Friends toward the Indian Tribes, p. 72 (London, 1844).

"in books recorded. May, like hoarded Household words, no more depart!"

Footnote_126_126

The records of my own family furnish an example of this. My ancestor, William Brinton, arrived in the fall of 1684, and, with his wife and children, immediately took possession of a grant in the unbroken wilderness, about twenty miles from Philadelphia. A severe winter set in; their food supply was exhausted, and they would probably have perished but for the assistance of some neighboring lodges of Lenape, who provided them with food and shelter. It is, therefore, a debt of gratitude which I owe to this nation to gather its legends, its language, and its memories, so that they,

Footnote_127_127

A Discourse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio, p. 25 (Cinn., 1838). I add the further testimony of John Brickell, who was a captive among them from 1791 to 1796. He speaks of them as fairly virtuous and temperate, and adds: "Honesty, bravery and hospitality are cardinal virtues among them." Narrative of Captivity among the Delaware Indians, in the American Pioneer, Vol. I, p. 48 (Cincinnati, 1844).

Footnote_128_128

Life and Journal, p. 381

Footnote_129_129

"Others imagined the Sun to be the only deity, and that all things were made by him." David Brainerd, Life and Journal, p. 395.

Footnote_130_130

Loskiel, Geschichte der Mission, p. 55.

Footnote_131_131

David Brainerd, Life and Journal, pp. 395, 399.

Footnote_132_132

D. G. Brinton, The Myths of the New World, chap. vi; American Hero Myths, chap ii.

Footnote_133_133

Loskiel, Geschichte der Mission, p. 53.

Footnote_134_134

He is thus spoken of in Campanius, Account of New Sweden, Book III, chap. xi. Compare my Myths of the New World, p. 190.

Footnote_135_135

Brainerd, Life and Journal, p. 395.

Footnote_136_136

His statements are in the Calls of the Mass Hist Soc, Vol. X (1st Series), p. 108.

Footnote_137_137

Wm Strachey, Historie of Travaile into Virginia, p. 98

Footnote_138_138

Brainerd, Life and Travels, p. 394.

Footnote_139_139

Charles Beatty, Journal, p. 44.

Footnote_140_140

One, about five inches in height, of a tough, argillaceous stone, is figured and described by Dr. C. C. Abbott, in the American Naturalist, October, 1882. It was found in New Jersey.

Footnote_141_141

From the same root, tschip, are derived the Lenape tschipilek, something strange or wonderful; tschepsit, a stranger or foreigner; and tschapiet, the invocation of spirits. Among the rules agreed upon by Zeisberger's converted Indians was this: "We will use no tschapiet, or witchcraft, when hunting." (De Schweinitz, Life of Zeisberger, p. 379.)

The root tschitsch indicates repetition, and applied to the shadow or spint of man means as much as his double or counterpart. A third word for soul was the verbal form w'tellenapewoagan, "man – his substance;" but this looks as if it had been manufactured by the missionaries.

Footnote_142_142

Compare Loskiel, Geschichte, pp. 48, 49;

Footnote_143_143

Schweinitz, Life of Zeisberger, p. 472.

Footnote_144_144

Heckewelder, MSS., says that he has often heard the lamentable cry, matta wingi angeln, "I do not want to die."

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.