The Lenâpé and their Legends

The first estimate of the whole number of native inhabitants of the province was by William Penn. He stated that there were ten different nations, with a total population of about 6000 souls.[203]

This was in 1683. Very soon after this they began to diminish by disease and migration. As early as 1690, a band of the Minsi left for the far West, to unite with the Ottawas.[204] In 1721 the Frenchman Durant speaks of them as "exceedingly decreased."[205] Already they had yielded to the pressure of the whites, and were seeking homes on the head-waters of the Ohio, in Western Pennsylvania. Their first cabins are said to have been built there in 1724.[206]

All that remained in the Delaware valley were ordered by the Iroquois, at the treaty of Lancaster, 1744, to leave the waters of their river, and remove to Shamokin (now Sunbury) and Wyoming, on the Susquehanna, and most of them obeyed. The former was their chief town, and the residence of their "king," Allemœbi.

When the interpreter, Conrad Weiser, visited their Ohio settlements, in 1748, he reported their warriors there at 165, which was probably about one-fourth of the nation.

In the "French War," 1755, the Delawares united with the French against the Iroquois and English, and suffered considerable losses. At its close they were estimated to have, both on the Susquehanna and in Ohio, a total of 600 available fighting men.[207]

After this date they steadily migrated from the Susquehannah to the streams in central and eastern Ohio, establishing their chief fire on the Tuscarawas river, at Gekelemukpechunk, and hunting on the Muskingum, the Licking, etc.[208]

When the war of the Revolution broke out, Zeisberger used all his efforts to have them remain neutral, and at least prevented them from joining in a general attack on the settlements. Their distinguished war-chief, Koquethagachton, known to the settlers as "Captain White Eyes," declared, in 1775, in favor of the Federal cause, and renounced for himself and his people all dependence on the Iroquois. These friendly relations were confirmed at the treaty of Fort Pitt (1778), and the next year a number of Delawares accompanied Col. Brodhead in an expedition against the Senecas.

The massacre of the unoffending Christian natives of Gnadenhütten, in 1788, was but one event in the murderous war between the races that continued in Ohio from 1782 to the treaty of peace at Greenville, in 1795.

To escape its direful scenes, a part of the Delawares removed south, to upper Louisiana, in 1789, where they received official permission from Governor Carondelet, in 1793, to locate permanent homes.[209] Zeisberger also, in 1791, conducted his colony of Christian Indians to Canada, and founded the town of Fairfield, on the Retrenche river. Thus, in both directions the Delawares were driven off the soil of the United States. Yet those that remained in Ohio, if we may accept the account of John Brickell, who was a captive among them from 1791 to 1796, attempted to live a peaceable and agricultural life.[210]

Peace restored, the Delawares made their next remove to the valley of White Water river, Indiana, where they attempted to rekindle the national council fire, under the head chief Tedpachxit. They founded six towns, the largest of which was Woapikamikunk or Wapeminskink, "Place of Chestnut Trees." This tract was guaranteed them "in perpetuity" by the treaty of Vincennes, 1808.[211] Nevertheless, just ten years later, at the treaty of St. Mary's, they released the whole of their land, "without reserve," to the United States, the government agreeing to remove them west of the Mississippi, and grant them land there.

At this time they numbered about 1000 souls, of whom 800 were Delawares, the others being Mohegans and Nanticokes.[212] Their head chief was Thahutoowelent, of the Turkey tribe, Tedpachxit having been assassinated, at the instigation of Tecumseh.

They are described as "having a peculiar aversion to white people," and "more opposed to the Gospel and the whites than any other Indians,"[213] which is small matter of wonder, when they had seen the peaceful Christian converts of their nation massacred three times, in cold blood, once at Gnadenhütten, in Pennsylvania (1756); again at Gnadenhütten, in Ohio (1788), and finally at Fairfield, Canada (1813).

The Rev. Isaac McCoy, who visited them on the White Water, in the winter of 1818-19, states that they lived in log huts and bark shanties, and were fearfully deteriorated by whisky drinking.[214]

The last band of the Delawares that appeared in Ohio was in 1822.[215]

The location assigned to the Delawares was near the mouth of the Kansas river, Kansas. They were reported, in 1850, as possessing there 375,000 acres and numbering about 1500 souls. Four years later they "ceded" this land, and were moved to various reservations in the Indian Territory.

There still remain about sixty natives at New Westfield, near Ottawa, Kansas, under the charge of the Moravian Church. The same denomination has about 300 of the tribe on the reservation at Moraviantown, in the province of Ontario, Canada. A second reservation in Canada is under the charge of the Anglican Church. The majority of the tribe are scattered in different agencies in the Indian Territory.

§ 3. Missionary Efforts in the Provinces of New Jersey and Pennsylvania

None of the American colonies enjoyed a more favorable opportunity to introduce the Christian religion to the natives than that located on the Delaware river. What use was made of it?

The Rev. Thomas Campanius, of Stockholm, a Lutheran clergyman, attached to the Swedish settlement from 1642 to 1649, made a creditable effort to acquire the native tongue and preach Christianity to the savages about him. He translated the Catechism into the traders' dialect of Lenape, but we have no record that he succeeded in his attempts at conversion.

One might suppose that so very religious a body as the early Friends would have taken some positive steps in this direction. Such was not the case. I have not found the record of any one of them who set seriously to work to learn the native tongue, without which all effort would have been fruitless.

William Penn was not wholly unmindful of the spiritual condition of his native wards. In 1699 he offered to provide the Friends' Meeting at Philadelphia with interpreters to convey religious instruction to the Indians. But the Meeting took no steps in this direction. He himself, when in the colony in 1701, made some attempts to address them on religious subjects, as did also Friend John Richardson, who was with him, availing themselves of interpreters. The latter reports a satisfactory response to his words, but not being followed up, their effect was ephemeral.[216]

Nothing further was done for nearly half a century, and when the enthusiastic young David Brainerd began his mission in 1742, he distinctly states that there was not another missionary in either province.[217] His labors extended over four years, and were productive of some permanent good results among the New Jersey Indians, and this in spite of the suspicions, opposition and evil example of the whites around him. The little society of Christian Indians which he gathered in Burlington County, New Jersey, was even reported as a congregation of rioters and enemies of the State![218]

Nor was the province of Penn inclined to greater favors toward Christianized natives. When the Indians were cheated out of their lands by the "Long Walk," a few who had been converted, among others the chief Moses Tatemy, petitioned the Council to remain on their lands, some of which were direct personal gifts from the Proprietaries. Their request was refused, and Moses Tatemy, who did remain, was shot down like a dog, in the road, by a white man.[219]

Unknown to Brainerd, however, the seeds of a Christian harvest had already been sown, in 1742, in the wilderness of Pennsylvania, by the ardent Moravian leader, Count Nicholas Lewis Zinzendorf; already, in 1744, the fervent Zeisberger, prescient of his long and marvelous service in the church militant, had registered himself as destinirter Heidenbote– "appointed messenger to the heathen" – in the corner-stone of the Brethren's House, at Bethlehem; already the pious Rauch had collected a small but earnest congregation of Mohegans at Shekomeko, who soon removed to the Lehigh valley, and pitched the first of those five Gnadenhütten, "Tents of Grace," destined successively to mark the unwearied efforts of the Moravian missionaries, and their frustration through the treachery of the conquering whites.[220]

It is not my purpose to tell the story of this long struggle. Its thrilling events are recounted, with all desirable fullness, in the vivid narrative of Bishop Edmund de Schweinitz, grouped around the marked individuality of the devoted Zeisberger – pages which none can read without amazement at the undaunted courage of these Christian heroes, without sorrow at the sparse harvest gleaned from such devotion.[221]

When, after sixty-two years of missionary labors, the venerable Zeisberger closed his eyes in death (1808), the huts of barely a score of converted Indians clustered around his little chapel. His aspiration that the Lenape would form a native Christian State, their ancient supremacy revived and applied to the dissemination of peace, piety and civilization among their fellow-tribes – this cherished hope of his life had forever disappeared. He had lived to see the Lenape, a mere broken remnant, "steeped in all the abominations of heathenism, eke out their existence far away from their former council fires."

CHAPTER VI

Myths and Traditions of the Lenape

Cosmogonical and Culture Myths. – The Culture-hero, Michabo. – Myths from Lindstrom, Ettwein, Jasper Donkers, Zeisberger. – Native Symbolism. – The Saturnian Age. – Mohegan Cosmogony and Migration Myth. National Traditions. – Beatty's Account. – The Number Seven. – Heckewelder's Account. – Prehistoric Migrations. – Shawnee Legend. – Lenape Legend of the Naked Bear.

Cosmogonical and Culture Myths

The Algonkins, as a stock, had a well developed creation-myth and a culture legend, found in more or less completeness in all their branches.

Their culture hero, their ancestor and creator, he who made the earth and stocked it with animals, who taught them the arts of war and the chase, and gave them the Indian corn, beans and squashes, was generally called Michabo, The Great Light, but was also known among the Narragansetts of New England as Wetucks, The Common Father; among the Cree as Wisakketjâk, the Trickster; by the Chippeways as Nanabozho (Nenâboj), the Cheat; by the Black Feet as Natose, Our Father, or Napiw; and by the Micmacs and Penobscots as Glus-Kap, the Liar.

I have given the details of this myth and analyzed them in previous works;[222] here it is sufficient to say that it is a Light-myth, and one of noble proportion and circumstance, quite worthy of comparison with those of the Oriental world.

Traces of it are reported among the Lenape, and I doubt not that had we their ancient stories in their completeness, we should find that they had preserved it as wholly as the Chipeways. These related of their Nanabozho that he was the son of a maiden who had descended from heaven. She conceived without knowledge of man, and having given birth to twins, she disappeared. One of these twins was Nanabozho. Having formed the earth by his miraculous powers, and done many wonderful things, he disappeared toward the east, where he still dwells beyond the sunrise.

It was undoubtedly a fragment of this legend that the Swedish engineer, Lindstrom heard among the Lenape, on the Delaware, about 1650. They told him, or rather he understood them, as follows: —

"Once, one of your women (i. e., a white woman) came among us, and she became pregnant, in consequence of drinking out of a creek; an Indian had connection with her, and she became pregnant, and brought forth a son, who, when he came to a certain size, was so sensible and clever, that there never was one who could be compared to him, so much and so well he spoke, which excited great wonder; he also performed many miracles. When he was quite grown up, he left us, and went up to heaven, and promised to come again, but has never returned."[223]

This is but a mistranslation of the general Algonkin legend, in which the virgin mother bears a white and dark twin, the former of whom becomes the tribal culture hero and demiurgic deity.

Its interpretation is, that the virgin is the Dawn, who brings forth the Day, which assures safety and knowledge, and the Night, which departs with her. The Day leaves us, and in its personified form returns no more, though ever expected.

That such were the original form and significance of the myth, we have the testimony of Bishop Ettwein,[224] himself a Delaware scholar, and who drew his information from the natives as well as the missionaries. He tells us that their legend ran, that in the beginning the first woman fell from heaven and bore twins; that it was toward the east that they directed their children to turn their faces when they prayed to the spirits; and that their old men had said that it was an ancient belief that from that quarter some one would come to them to benefit them. Therefore, said they, when our ancestors saw the first white men, they looked upon them as divine, and adored them.

The Dutch travelers, Jasper Donkers and Peter Sluyter, relate a part of this myth as they heard it from New Jersey Indians in 1679. These informed them that all things came from a tortoise. It had brought forth the world, and from the middle of its back had sprung up a tree, upon whose branches men had grown.

This tortoise "had a power and a nature to produce all things, such as earth, trees and the like." But it was not the primum mobile, not the ultimate energy of the universe. "The first and great beginning of all things was Kickeron or Kickerom, who is the original of all, who has not only once produced or made all things, but produces every day." The tortoise brought forth what this primal divinity "wished through it to produce."[225]

This is a very interesting statement. It reveals a depth of thought on the part of the native philosophers for which we were scarcely prepared. The worthy Dutch travelers do not pretend to explain the myth. But its sense can be clearly interpreted.

The turtle or tortoise is everywhere in Algonkin pictography the symbol of the earth.[226] From the earth, from the soil, all organic life, the whole realm of animate existence – ever sharply defined in Algonkin grammar and thought from inanimate existence – proceeds, directly as vegetable life, or indirectly as animal life. The earth is the All-Mother, ever-producing, inexhaustible.

As for Kikeron, the eternally active, hidden spirit of the universe, I have but to refer the reader to the list of ideas associated around this root kik, which I have given on a previous page (p. 102) to reveal the significance of this word. We may, with equal correctness, translate it Life, Light, Action or Energy. It is the abstract conception back of all these.

The distinction was the same as that established by the scholastic philosophers between the mundus and the anima mundi; between the essentia and the existentia; between natura naturans and natura naturata. But who expected to find it among the Lenape?

This creation myth of the Delawares is also given in brief by Zeisberger. It dated back to that marvelous overflow which is heard of in many mythologies. The whole earth was submerged, and but a few persons survived. They had taken refuge on the back of a turtle, who had reached so great an age that his shell was mossy, like the bank of a rivulet. In this forlorn condition a loon flew that way, which they asked to dive and bring up land. He complied, but found no bottom. Then he flew far away, and returned with a small quantity of earth in his bill. Guided by him, the turtle swam to the place, where a spot of dry land was found. There the survivors settled and repeopled the land.[227]

This is more a tale of reconstruction than a creation myth. It is that which has generally been supposed to refer to the Deluge. But, as I have explained in my "Myths of the New World," all these so-called Deluge Myths are but developments of crude cosmogonical theories.

To understand the significance of this myth we must examine the Indian notion of the earth. This is the more germane to my theme, as the meaning of the original text which is printed in this volume can only be grasped by one acquainted with this notion.

The Indians almost universally believed the dry land they knew to be a part of a great island, everywhere surrounded by wide waters whose limits were unknown.[228] Many tribes had vague myths of a journey from beyond this sea; many placed beyond it the home of the Sun and of Light, and the happy hunting grounds of the departed souls. The Delawares believed that the whole was supported by a fabled turtle, whose movements caused earthquakes and who had been their first preserver.[229] As above mentioned, the turtle in its amphibious character and rounded back represented the earth or the land itself, as distinguished from water. Like the turtle, the land lies at times under the water and at times above it. The spirit of the earth was the practical and visible developmental energy of nature.

The medicine men, or conjurers, who professed to be in personal relations with this power, made their "medicine rattle" of a turtle shell (Loskiel), and when they died, such a shell was suspended from their tomb posts (Zeisberger).

The Delawares also shared the belief, common to so many nations the world over, that the pristine age was one of unalloyed prosperity, peace and happiness, an Age of Gold, a Saturnian Reign. Their legends asseverated that at that time "the killing of a man was unknown, neither had there been instances of their dying before they had attained to that age which causes the hair to become white, the eyes dim, and the teeth to be worn away."

This happy time was brought to a close by the advent of certain evil beings who taught men how to kill each other by sorcery.[230]

Their kinsmen, the Mohegans, varied this cosmogonical tradition, though retaining some of its main features. They taught that in the beginning there was nought but water and sky. At length from the sky a woman descended, our common mother. As she approached the boundless ocean, a small point of land rose above the watery surface, and supplied her with firm footing. She was pregnant by some mysterious power, and she brought forth on this island animal triplets – a bear, a deer and a wolf. From these all men and animals are descended. The island grew to a main land, and the mother of all, her mission accomplished, returned to her home in the sky.[231]

This creation-myth, obtained from the Indians around New York harbor in the first generation after the advent of the whites, has every mark of a genuine native production, and coincides closely with that generally believed by the early Algonkins.

It is followed by a migration myth, which ran to the effect that their early forefathers came out of the northwest, forsaking a tide-water country, and crossing over a great watery tract, called ukhkok-pek, "snake water, or water where snakes are abundant," (âkhgook, snake, and pek, standing water, probably from n'pey, water, akek, place or country). They crossed many streams, but none in which the water ebbed and flowed, until they reached the Hudson. "Then they said, one to another, 'This is like the Muhheakunnuck (tidal ocean) of our nativity.' Therefore they agreed to kindle a fire there and hang a kettle, whereof they and their children after them might dip out their daily refreshment." Hence came their name, the Tide-water People (see ante, p. 20).

National Traditions

Many early writers attest the passionate fondness of the Delawares for their ancestral traditions and the memory of their ancient heroes. The missionary, David Brainerd, mentions this as one of the leading difficulties in the way of "evangelizing the Indians." "They are likewise much attached," he writes, "to the traditions and fabulous notions of their fathers, which they firmly believe, and thence look upon their ancestors to have been the best of men."[232]

To the same effect, Loskiel informs us that the Delawares "love to relate what great warriors their ancestors had been, and how many heroic deeds they had performed. It is a pleasure to them to rehearse their genealogies. They are so skilled at it that they can repeat the chief and collateral lines with the utmost readiness. At the same time, they characterize their ancestors, by describing this one as a wise or skillful man, as a great chieftain, a renowned warrior, a rich man, and the like. This they teach to their children, and embody it in pictures, so as to make it more readily remembered."[233]

The earliest writer who gives us any detailed description of what these traditions were, is the Rev. Charles Beatty, who visited the Delaware settlements in Ohio in 1767. On his way there, he met a white man, Benjamin Button, who for years had been a captive among the natives. He related to Beatty the following tradition, which he had heard recited by some old men among the Delawares: —

"That of old time their people were divided by a river, nine parts of ten passing over the river, and one part remaining behind; that they knew not, for certainty, how they came to this continent; but account thus for their first coming into these parts where they are now settled; that a king of their nation, where they formerly lived, far to the west, left his kingdom to his two sons; that the one son making war upon the other, the latter thereupon determined to depart and seek some new habitation; that accordingly he sat out, accompanied by a number of his people, and that, after wandering to and fro for the space of forty years, they at length came to Delaware river, where they settled 370 years ago. The way, he says, they keep an account of this is by putting on a black bead of wampum every year on a belt they keep for that purpose."[234]

From another source Mr. Beatty obtained the traditions of the Nanticokes, which is apparently a version of that of their relatives, the Delawares. It ran to this effect: At some remote age, while on their way to their present homes, "They came to a great water. One of the Indians that went before them tried the depth of it by a long pole or reed, which he had in his hand, and found it too deep for them to wade. Upon their being non-plussed, and not knowing how to get over it, their God made a bridge over the water in one night, and the next morning, after they were all over, God took away the bridge."[235]

A curious addition to this story is mentioned by Loskiel.[236] The number of the mythical ancestors of their race who thus were left on the shore of the great water was seven. This at once recalls the seven caves (Chicomoztoc) or primitive stirpes of the Mexican tribes, the seven clans (vuk amag) of the Cakchiquels, the seven ancestors of the Qquechuas, etc., and strongly intimates that there must be some common natural occurrence to give rise to this widespread legend.[237]

Some peculiar sacredness must have attached to this number among the Delawares also, as we are informed that the period of isolation of their women at the catamenial period was seven days.[238]

The lunar month of 28 days, if divided and assigned equally to each of the four cardinal points, would give a week of seven days to each. Something of this kind seems to have been done by another Algonkin tribe, the Ottawas, who declared that the winds are caused (alternately?) by seven genii or gods who dwelt in the air.[239]

The seven day period is also a natural, physical one, whose influence is felt widely by vertebrate and invertebrate animals, as Darwin has pointed out,[240] and hence its appearance among these people, who lived entirely subject to the operation of their physical surroundings, is not so surprising.

The most complete account of the Delaware tradition is that preserved by Heckewelder. In his pages it appears, not as a reminiscence of tribal history, but as the tradition of the whole eastern Algonkin race, and it claims for the three Delaware tribes an antiquity of organization surpassing that of any of their neighbors.