The Lenâpé and their Legends

It holds such an important place that I quote all the essential passages: —

"The Lenni Lenape (according to the traditions handed down to them by their ancestors) resided many hundred years ago in a very distant country in the western part of the American continent. For some reason, which I do not find accounted for, they determined on migrating to the eastward, and accordingly set out together in a body. After a very long journey, and many nights' encampments by the way, they at length arrived on the Namoesi Sipu, where they fell in with the Mengwe, who had likewise emigrated from a distant country, and had struck upon this river somewhat higher up. Their object was the same with that of the Delawares; they were proceeding on to the eastward, until they should find a country that pleased them. The spies which the Lenape had sent forward for the purpose of reconnoitring, had long before their arrival discovered that the country east of the Mississippi was inhabited by a very powerful nation, who had many large towns built on the great rivers flowing through their land. Those people (as I was told) called themselves Talligeu or Talligewi. Colonel John Gibson, however, a gentleman who has a thorough knowledge of the Indians, and speaks several of their languages, is of opinion that they were not called Talligewi, but Alligewi. * * *

"Many wonderful things are told of this famous people. They are said to have been remarkably tall, and stout, and there is a tradition that there were giants among them, people of a much larger size than the tallest of the Lenape. It is related that they had built to themselves regular fortifications or entrenchments, from whence they would sally out, but were generally repulsed. * * *

"When the Lenape arrived on the banks of the Mississippi, they sent a message to the Alligewi to request permission to settle themselves in their neighbourhood. This was refused them, but they obtained leave to pass through the country and seek a settlement farther to the eastward. They accordingly began to cross the Namaesi Sipu, when the Alligewi, seeing that their numbers were so very great, and in fact they consisted of many thousands, made a furious attack on those who had crossed, threatening them all with destruction, if they dared to persist in coming over to their side of the river. * * *

"Having united their forces, the Lenape and Mengwe declared war against the Alligewi, and great battles were fought, in which many warriors fell on both sides. The enemy fortified their large towns and erected fortifications, especially on large rivers and near lakes, where they were successively attacked and sometimes stormed by the allies. An engagement took place in which hundreds fell, who were afterwards buried in holes or laid together in heaps and covered over with earth. No quarter was given, so that the Alligewi, at last, finding that their destruction was inevitable if they persisted in their obstinacy, abandoned the country to the conquerors, and fled down the Mississippi river, from whence they never returned. * * *

"In the end the conquerors divided the country between themselves; the Mengwe made choice of the lands in the vicinity of the great lakes and on their tributary streams, and the Lenape took possession of the country to the south. For a long period of time – some say many hundred years – the two nations resided peaceably in this country, and increased very fast; some of their most enterprising huntsmen and warriors crossed the great swamps, and falling on streams running to the eastward, followed them down to the great Bay river, thence into the Bay itself, which we call Chesapeak. As they pursued their travels, partly by land and partly by water, sometimes near and at other times on the great Salt-water Lake, as they call the sea, they discovered the great river, which we call the Delaware; and thence exploring still eastward, the Scheyichbi country, now named New Jersey, they arrived at another great stream, that which we call the Hudson or North river. * * *

"At last they settled on the four great rivers (which we call Delaware, Hudson, Susquehannah, Potomack), making the Delaware, to which they gave the name of 'Lenape-wihittuck' (the river or stream of the Lenape), the centre of their possessions.

"They say, however, that the whole of their nation did not reach this country; that many remained behind, in order to aid and assist that great body of their people which had not crossed the Namaesi Sipu, but had retreated into the interior of the country on the other side. * * *

"Their nation finally became divided into three separate bodies; the larger body, which they suppose to have been one-half the whole, was settled on the Atlantic, and the other half was again divided into two parts, one of which, the strongest, as they suppose, remained beyond the Mississippi, and the remainder where they left them, on this side of that river.

"Those of the Delawares who fixed their abodes on the shores of the Atlantic divided themselves into three tribes. Two of them, distinguished by the names of the Turtle and the Turkey, the former calling themselves Unâmi, and the other Unalâchtgo, chose those grounds to settle on which lay nearest to the sea, between the coast and the high mountains. As they multiplied, their settlements extended from the Mohicanittuck (river of the Mohicans, which we call the North or Hudson river) to the Potomack." * * * "The third tribe, the Wolf, commonly called the Minsi, which we have corrupted into Monseys, had chosen to live back of the other two." * * * They extended their settlements from the Minisink, a place named after them, where they had their council seat and fire, quite up to the Hudson, on the east; and to the west or southward far beyond the Susquehannah.

"From the above three tribes, the Unami, Unalachtgo and the Minsi, had, in the course of time, sprung many others, * * * the Mahicanni, or Mohicans, who spread themselves over all that country which now composes the Eastern States, * * * and the Nanticokes, who proceeded far to the south, in Maryland and Virginia."

On their conquests during the period of their western migrations, the Delawares based a claim for hunting grounds in the Ohio valley. It is stated that when they had decided to remove to the valley of the Muskingum, their chief, Netawatwes, presented this claim to the Hurons and Miamis, and had it allowed.[241] They also claimed lands on White River, Indiana, and their settlement in that region at the close of the last century was regarded as a return to their ancient seats.

Nevertheless, in the earliest historic times, when the whites first came in contact with the Lenape tribes, none of them dwelt west of the mountains, nor, apparently, had they any towns in the valley of the west branch of the Susquehanna or of its main stream.

Although the above mentioned facts point to a migration in prehistoric times from the West toward the East, there are indications of a yet older movement from the northeast westward and southward to the upper Mississippi valley. A legend common to the western Algonkin tribes, the Kikapoos, Sacs, Foxes, Ottawas and Pottawatomies, located their original home north of the St. Lawrence river, near or below where Montreal now stands. In that distant land their ancestors were created by the Great Spirit, and they dwelt there, "all of one nation." Only when they removed or were driven west did they separate into tribes speaking different dialects.[242]

The Shawnees, who at various times were in close relation with the Delawares, also possessed a vague migration myth, according to which, at some indefinitely remote past, they had arrived at the main land after crossing a wide water. Their ancestors succeeded in this by their great control of magic arts, their occult power enabling them to walk over the water as if it had been land. Until within the present century this legend was repeated annually, and a yearly sacrifice offered up in memory of their safe arrival.[243] It is evidently a version of that which appears in the third part of the Walam Olum.

One of the curious legends of the Lenape was that of the Great Naked or Hairless Bear. It is told by the Rev. John Heckewelder, in a letter to Dr. B. S. Barton.[244] The missionary had heard it both among the Delawares and the Mohicans. By the former, it was spoken of as amangachktiátmachque, and in the dialect of the latter, ahamagachktiât mechqua.[245]

The story told of it was that it was immense in size and the most ferocious of animals. Its skin was bare, except a tuft of white hair on its back. It attacked and ate the natives, and the only means of escape from it was to take to the water. Its sense of smell was remarkably keen, but its sight was defective. As its heart was very small, it could not be easily killed. The surest plan was to break its back-bone; but so dangerous was an encounter with it, that those hunters who went in pursuit of it bade their families and friends farewell, as if they never expected to return.

Fortunately, there were few of these beasts. The last one known was to the east, somewhere beyond the left bank of the Mahicanni Sipu (the Hudson river). When its presence was learned a number of bold hunters went there, and mounted a rock with precipitous sides. They then made a noise, and attracted the bear's attention, who rushed to the attack with great fury. As he could not climb the rock, he tore at it with his teeth, while the hunters above shot him with arrows and threw upon him great stones, and thus killed him.

Though this was the last of the species, the Indian mothers still used his name to frighten their children into obedience, threatening them with the words, "The Naked Bear will eat you."

CHAPTER VII

The Walam Olum: Its Origin, Authenticity And Contents

Biographical Sketch of Rafinesque – Value of his Writings – His Account of the Walam Olum. – Was it a Forgery? – Rafinesque's Character – The Text pronounced Genuine by Native Delawares – Conclusion Reached

Phonetic System of the Walam Olum – Metrical Form – Pictographic System – Derivation and Precise Meaning of Walam Olum. – The MS of the Walam Olum – General Synopsis of the Walam Olum – Synopsis of its Parts.

Rafinesque and his Writings

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz, to whom we owe the preservation and first translation of the Walam Olum, was born in Galata, a suburb of Constantinople, Oct. 22d, 1783, and died in Philadelphia, of cancer of the stomach, Sept. 18th, 1840.

His first visit to this country was in 1802. He remained until 1804, when he went to Sicily, where he commenced business. As the French were unpopular there, he added "Schmaltz" to his name, for "prudent considerations," that being the surname of his mother's family.

In 1815 he returned to America, but had the misfortune to be shipwrecked on the coast, losing his manuscripts and much of his property. On his arrival, he supported himself by teaching, occupying his leisure time in scientific pursuits and travel. In 1819 he was appointed "Professor of Historical and Natural Sciences," in Transylvania University, Kentucky. This position he was obliged to resign, for technical reasons, in 1826, when he returned to Philadelphia, which city he made his home during the rest of his life.

From his early youth he was an indefatigable student, collector and writer in various branches of knowledge, especially in natural history. On the title-page of the last work that he published, "The Good Book and Amenities of Nature" (Philadelphia, 1840), he claims to be the author of "220 books, pamphlets, essays and tracts." Including his contributions to periodicals, there is no reason to doubt the correctness of this estimate. They began when he was nineteen, and were composed in English, French, Italian and Latin, all of which he wrote with facility.

His earlier essays were principally on botanical subjects; later, he included zoölogy and conchology; and during the last fifteen years of his life the history and antiquities of America appear to have occupied his most earnest attention.

The value of his writings in these various branches has been canvassed by several eminent critics in their respective lines.

First in point of time was Prof. Asa Gray, who in the year following Rafinesque's death published in the "American Journal of Science and Arts," Vol. XI, an analysis of his botanical writings. He awards him considerable credit for his earlier investigations, but much less for his later ones. To quote Dr. Gray's words: "A gradual deterioration will be observed in Rafinesque's botanical writings from 1819 to 1830, when the passion for establishing new genera and species appears to have become a complete monomania."[246] But modern believers in the doctrine of the evolution of plant forms and the development of botanical species will incline to think that there was a method in this madness, when they read the passage from Rafinesque's writings, about 1836, which Dr. Gray quotes as conclusively proving that, in things botanical, Rafinesque had lost his wits. It is this: "But it is needless to dispute about new genera, species and varieties. Every variety is a deviation, which becomes a species as soon as it is permanent by reproduction. Deviations in essential organs may thus gradually become new genera." This is really an anticipation of Darwinianism in botany.

The next year, in the same journal, appeared a "Notice of the Zoölogical Writings of the late C. S. Rafinesque," by Prof. S. S. Haldeman. It is, on the whole, depreciatory, and convicts Rafinesque of errors of observation as well as of inference; at the same time, not denying his enthusiasm and his occasional quickness to appreciate zoölogical facts.

In 1864 the conchological writings of Rafinesque were collected and published, in Philadelphia, by A. G. Binney and Geo. W. Tryon, Jr., without comments. One of the editors informs me that they have positive merit, although the author was too credulous and too desirous of novelties.

The antiquarian productions of Rafinesque, which interest us most in this connection, were reviewed with caustic severity by Dr. S. F. Haven,[247] especially the "Ancient Annals of Kentucky", which was printed as an introduction to Marshall's History of that State, in 1824. It is, indeed, an absurd production, a reconstruction of alleged history on the flimsiest foundations; but, alas! not a whit more absurd than the laborious card houses of many a subsequent antiquary of renown.

His principal work in this branch appeared in Philadelphia in 1836, entitled: "The American Nations; or, Outlines of a National History; of the Ancient and Modern Nations of North and South America." It was printed for the author, and is in two parts. Others were announced but never appeared, nor did the maps and illustrations which the title page promised. Its pages are filled with extravagant theories and baseless analogies. In the first part he prints with notes his translation of the The Walam Olum, and his explanation of its significance.

History of the Walam Olum

Rafinesque's account of the origin of the The Walam Olum may be introduced by a passage in the last work he published, "The Good Book." In that erratic volume he tells us that he had long been collecting the signs and pictographs current among the North American Indians, and adds: —

"Of these I have now 60 used by the Southern or Floridian Tribes of Louisiana to Florida, based upon their language of Signs – 40 used by the Osages and Arkanzas, based on the same – 74 used by the Lenàpian (Delaware and akin) tribes in their The Walamolum or Records – besides 30 simple signs that can be traced out of the Neobagun or Delineation of the Chipwas or Ninniwas, a branch of the last."[248]

In these lines Rafinesque makes an important statement, which has been amply verified by the investigations of Col. Garrick Mallery, Dr. W. J. Hoffman and Capt. W. P. Clark, within the last decade, and that is, that the Indian pictographic system was based on their gesture speech.

So far as I remember, he was the first to perceive this suggestive fact; and he had announced it some time before 1840. Already, in "The American Nations" (1836), he wrote, "the Graphic Signs correspond to these Manual Signs."[249]

Here he anticipates a leading result of the latest archaeological research; and I give his words the greater prominence, because they seem to have been overlooked by all the recent writers on Indian Gesture-speech and Sign-language.

The Neobagun, the Chipeway medicine song to which he alludes, is likewise spoken of in "The American Nations," where he says: "The Ninniwas or Chipiwas * * have such painted tales or annals, called Neobagun (male tool) by the former."[250] I suspect he derived his knowledge of this from the Shawnee "Song for Medicine Hunting," called "Nah-o-bah-e-gun-num," or, The Four Sticks, the words and figures of which were appended by Dr. James to Tanner's Narrative, published in 1830.[251]

Discovery of the Walam Olum

As for the Lenape records, he gives this not very clear account of his acquisition of them: —

"Having obtained, through the late Dr. Ward, of Indiana, some of the original Wallam-Olum (painted record) of the Linàpi Tribe of Wapihani or White River, the translation will be given of the songs annexed to each."[252]

On a later page he wrote: —[253]

"Olum implies a record, a notched stick, an engraved piece of wood or bark. It comes from ol, hollow or graved record. * * * These actual olum were at first obtained in 1820, as a reward for a medical cure, deemed a curiosity; and were unexplicable. In 1822 were obtained from another individual the songs annexed thereto in the original language; but no one could be found by me able to translate them. I had therefore to learn the language since, by the help of Zeisberger, Heckewelder and a manuscript dictionary, on purpose to translate them, which I only accomplished in 1833. The contents were totally unknown to me in 1824, when I published my 'Annals of Kentucky.'"

I have attempted to identify this "Dr. Ward, of Indiana;" but no such person is known in the early medical annals of that State. There is, however, an old and well-known Kentucky family of that name, who, about 1820, resided, and still do reside, in the neighborhood of Cynthiana. One of these, in 1824-25, was a friend of Rafinesque, invited him to his house, and shared his archaeological tastes, as Rafinesque mentions in his autobiography.[254] It was there, no doubt, that he copied the signs and the original text of the Walam Olum. My efforts to learn further about the originals from living members of the family have been unsuccessful. From a note in Rafinesque's handwriting, on the title page of his MS. of 1833, it would appear that he had at least seen the wooden tablets. This note reads: —

"This Mpt & the wooden original was (sic) procured in 1822 in Kentucky – but was inexplicable till a deep study of the Linapi enabled me to translate them with explanations. (Dr. Ward.)"

The name of Dr. Ward added in brackets is, I judge, merely a note, and is not intended to imply that the sentence is a quotation.

Was it a Forgery?

The crucial question arises: Was the Walam Olum a forgery by Rafinesque?

It is necessary to ask and to answer this question, though it seems, at first sight, an insult to the memory of the man to do so. No one has ever felt it requisite to propound such an inquiry about the pieces of the celebrated Mexican collection of the Chevalier Boturini, who, as an antiquary, was scarcely less visionary than Rafinesque.

But, unquestionably, an air of distrust and doubt shadowed Rafinesque's scientific reputation during his life, and he was not admitted on a favorable footing to the learned circles of the city where he spent the last fifteen years of his life. His articles were declined a hearing in its societies; and the learned linguist, Mr. Peter Stephen Duponceau, whose specialty was the Delaware language, wholly and deliberately ignored everything by the author of "The American Nations."

Why was this?

Rafinesque was poor, eccentric, negligent of his person, full of impractical schemes and extravagant theories, and manufactured and sold in a small way a secret nostrum which he called "pulmel," for the cure of consumption. All these were traits calculated to lower him in the respect of the citizens of Philadelphia, and the consequence was, that although a member of some scientific societies, he seems to have taken no part in their proceedings, and was looked upon as an undesirable acquaintance, and as a sort of scientific outcast.

As early as 1819 Prof. Benjamin Silliman declined to publish contributions from him in the "American Journal of Science," [255] and returned him his MSS. Dr. Gray strongly intimates that Rafinesque's assertions on scientific matters were at times intentionally false, as when he said that he had seen Robin's collection of Louisiana plants in France, whereas that botanist never prepared dried specimens; and the like.

I felt early in this investigation that Rafinesque's assertions were, therefore, an insufficient warranty for the authenticity of this document.

As I failed in my efforts to substantiate them by local researches in Kentucky and Indiana, I saw that the evidence must come from the text itself. Nor would it be sufficient to prove that the words of the text were in the Lenape dialect. With Zeisberger and Heckewelder at hand, both of whose works had been years in print, it were easy to string together Lenape words.

But what Rafinesque certainly had not the ability to do, was to write a sentence in Lenape, to compose lines which an educated native would recognize as in the syntax of his own speech, though perhaps dialectically different.

This was the test that I determined to apply. I therefore communicated my doubts to my friend, the distinguished linguist, Mr. Horatio Hale, and asked him to state them to the Rev. Albert Anthony, a well educated native Delaware, equally conversant with his own tongue and with English.

Mr. Anthony considered the subject fully, and concluded by expressing the positive opinion that the text as given was a genuine oral composition of a Delaware Indian. In many lines the etymology and syntax are correct; in others there are grammatical defects, which consist chiefly in the omission of terminal inflections.

The suggestion he offered to explain these defects is extremely natural. The person who wrote down this oral explanation of the signs, or, to speak more accurately, these chants which the signs were intended to keep in memory, was imperfectly acquainted with the native tongue, and did not always catch terminal sounds. The speaker also may have used here and there parts of that clipped language, or "white man's Indian," which I have before referred to as serving for the trading tongue between the two races.

This was also the opinion of the Moravian natives who examined the text. They all agreed that it impressed them as being of aboriginal origin, though the difference of the forms of words left them often in the dark as to the meaning.

This very obscurity is in fact a proof that Rafinesque did not manufacture it. Had he done so, he would have used the "Mission Delaware" words which he found in Zeisberger. But the text has quite a number not in that dialect, nor in any of the mission dictionaries.

Moreover, had he taken the words from such sources, he would in his translation have given their correct meanings; but in many instances he is absurdly far from their sense. Thus he writes: "The word for angels, angelatawiwak, is not borrowed, but real Linapi, and is the same as the Greek word angelos;"[256] whereas it is a verbal with a future sense from the very common Delaware verb angeln, to die. Many such examples will be noted in the vocabulary on a later page.

In several cases the figures or symbols appear to me to bear out the corrected translations which I have given of the lines, and not that of Rafinesque. This, it will be observed, is an evidence, not merely that he must have received this text from other hands, but the figures also, and weighs heavily in favor of the authentic character of both.

That it is a copy is also evident from some manifest mistakes in transcription, which Rafinesque preserves in his printed version, and endeavored to translate, not perceiving their erroneous form. Thus, in the fourth line of the first chant, he wrote owak, translating it "much air or clouds," when it is clearly a mere transposition for woak, the Unami form of the conjunction "and," as the sense requires. No such blunder would appear if he had forged the document. It is true that a goodly share of the words in the earlier chants occur in Zeisberger. Thus it seems, at first sight, suspicious to find the three or four superlatives in III, 5, all given under examples of the superlatives, in Zeisberger's Grammar, p. 105. It looks as if they had been bodily transferred into the song. So I thought; but afterwards I found these same superlatives in Heckewelder, who added specifically that "the Delawares had formed them to address or designate the Supreme being."[257]