Gayusuta and Washington

Gayusuta and Washington

Friday, April 29, 2016

The Five Civilized Tribes

In the first few weeks of this blog we spent some time detailing the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, as well as the Black Seminoles.  Now it's time to focus on another grouping of Natives.  The name "civilized" has always irked me because it implies that other tribes lacked civilization.  However, all tribes had a form of government, a way of settling disputes and punishing wrongdoers, a method for educating their young and providing for the needs of their people.  If that's not civilization, I have no idea what is.  In the case of these five tribes, however, the label of "civilized" was used by early European-American settlers as a euphemism to mean, 'more like us'.  Each of these tribes practiced agriculture, grouped themselves into towns, accepted Christianity to some degree, sent their elite young men to be educated in White schools, intermarried with Settlers and-regretfully-practiced slavery and plantation farming to an extent.  These tribes chose to adopt certain White ways for many reasons, but one was an effort to get along more peacefully with the Settlers in their midst, and to be accepted by the Settlers as equals and not savages.  In the end, the strategy failed.  Members of all five tribes, along with other smaller tribes in the Southeast, were placed on the Trail of Tears and deported to Oklahoma in the 1830's.

The largest nation was, and in many cases still is, the Cherokee.  They refer to themselves as Ani-yu-wiya, meaning principal people.  The word Cherokee may derive from a Choctaw word meaning 'people of the mountains' or 'those who dwell in cave country'.  An Iroquoian-speaking people, their fellow Iroquois speakers also referred to them as 'those who dwell in cave country.'  The term 'Tsalagi' more properly refers to the language, but is sometimes used to denote the people themselves. The Cherokee originated from the area around what is now New York, with the other Iroquois nations.  Consensus is mixed on when they moved to the Southeast or why, but likely they had been in the area of North and South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia for hundreds of years.  Like other Iroquoian nations, Cherokee society is matrilineal and agricultural.  They were also efficient warriors, guarding their hunting ranges from powerful tribes like the Shawnee and Catawba. 

The next three tribes, the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek are Muscogean-speaking people.  Scholars believe that they descended from an earlier, mound-building civilization known as the Mississippian culture.  During his expeditions in 1539-1541, Hernando de Soto and his men observed remnants of the declining Mississippi culture and may have met early predecessors of these three tribes.  Their range was in the lower Southern States, from Louisiana to Alabama.  Spanish missionaries worked among these Natives for many years, and some accepted Catholicism.  That did not prevent them from practicing their indigenous beliefs.  The high point of the year in their villages and towns was the annual Green Corn Ceremony, where the entire community gave thanks for a plentiful corn harvest.  Fires were relit, young men received their adult names and the right to embark on warrior training, all crimes except for rape and murder were pardoned, and the community gave itself up to several days of feasting and dancing.  At some point during the ceremony, a ritual drink made of the Yaupon Holly was served to the leading warriors by the newly initiated young men.  Called 'Black Drink' or 'Asi', it was accompanied by a shout or 'Yahola.'  One young warrior of Creek heritage who had immigrated to Florida to live with the Seminoles emerged from his Green Corn Ceremony with a name that would go down in legend-Osceola. 

The final tribe in this group, the Seminoles, were primarily descendants of Creeks who had migrated to Florida for a variety of reasons.  Whether they were following retreating Spanish missionaries, or wary of White encroachment on their land in the lead up to the Seven Years War (1755-1762), is a matter of debate.  Also up for controversy is the extent to which these Creeks melded with existing Florida tribes such as the Yamassee, Guale, Miccosuki and others.  Even their name is shrouded in mystery.  Seminole may be a corruption of the Spanish word 'cimarron' meaning wild or a runaway.  The Seminole people's own name for themselves, 'yat-siminoli' means free people.  Like their Creek forebears, Seminole society is matrilineal, with the primary until of government being the town.  They, too, practiced agriculture.  Some of their leaders, such as Tiger Tail, spoke English.  They were not averse to coexisting with Settlers in Florida, as long as they were left well-enough alone.  Sadly, that was not to be the case.  We'll get to the three Seminole wars and the roundups that followed in a future blog, but we're back to the most important contribution of the Cherokee tomorrow--a system of w


riting.     

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Myths and Misnomers: The Dark and Bloody Ground

The area of what is now Kentucky was a crossroads during the 18th century.  It was Cherokee country, but other tribes, such as the Shawnee, often contested their possession of it.  Many trails crisscrossed the area the area that would become the state, including the Great Warpath.  The land saw much fighting, both between Native tribes who sought the rich hunting and faming grounds for themselves, and later with Settlers, for the same reason.  Perhaps because of this, many writers have stated that the name Kentucky derives from Native words referring to a dark and bloody ground.  Novelists have followed suit.  A quick search of Amazon or Google references several books with this title, some having to do with Kentucky history or otherwise set in the state. 

False.  The Wyandot name for this area "Kah-ten-tah-teh", refers to "the land of tomorrow" or "the place where we shall dwell/camp tomorrow".  The Shawnee referred to the area as "Kain-tuck-ee" or "at the head of the river."  Since several rivers have their origin in the area, this name make sense.  The Mohawk version of the word "Kentucke" meant "among the meadows".  The Delawares used a similar word to describe the area as "the place among the meadows".  The Catawba name for the area meant "the prairie" or "the barren place". Other Iroquois words referred to the land as being a level place.  No tribe was ever on record as giving the area a name that meant anything near to dark and bloody ground.

So, where did the idea come from?  Kentucky's first state historian, John Filson, wrote that the Indians called the area the dark and bloody ground, or the middle ground.  Middle ground might be accurate, because of the area's use as a crossroads for so many tribes.  But Filson may have gleaned the dark and bloody etymology from remarks made by Cherokee chiefs at a council at Sycamore Shoals in 1775, which lead to the Treaty of Wautaga.  Chief Dragging Canoe warned White delegates to the conference that there was a dark cloud over the land they were seeking to acquire.  He meant that several tribes, including his own, were opposed to the Settlers possessing the land and some would challenge their presence on it, treaty notwithstanding.  Another Cherokee chief added that the country was bloody country, meaning that the rich land and abundant hunting grounds had long been contested by various tribes, who would continue to prevent the White presence there.  Nevertheless, the Treaty was eventually signed
and the country lived up to the warnings.  Some of the bitterest fights over land and hunting rights between Natives and Settlers took place in the Kentucky region.  Writers must have believed they had an excuse for claiming that Kentucky meant dark and bloody ground because of the bloodshed that took place there.  They repeated the idea until it became a reality.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Black Natives: the Seminoles

The Seminole people of Florida and Oklahoma did not originate from a single ancestral tribe.  The nations that would merge to become the Seminoles began appearing in Florida around 1750.  Creeks, Miccosuki and other Muscogean peoples were fleeing White encroachment on their lands in the buildup to the final French and Indian War (1755-1763).  Another group was also seeking freedom, enslaved Blacks.  Some blacks had already fled their masters, emerging as the Gullah people of Georgia and South Carolina.  They kept a few of their African traditions and remnants of their language alive.  They were lured by the Spanish promises of wages if the Blacks would agree to join the Spanish garrisons of Florida.  The Gullah and other blacks, both escaped slaves and freedmen, soon discovered that army life wasn't any better than slavery.

They deserted and took up dwelling in the swamps of Florida, where they would be inaccessible to slave catchers or Spanish authorities seeking to round up deserters.  The Spanish name for these runaways was maroons.  The word Seminole, first applied to the Natives who had fled to Florida, may come from the Spanish word Cimarron, meaning wild or a runaway, but scholars differ on this application.  At first, the blacks and the Natives maintained their own identities and their own villages and means of tribal governance.  As more Settlers moved into Florida from the Southern colonies/later states, Blacks and Natives saw the need to join forces.  While they maintained their own villages and camps, Blacks and Natives traded, coordinated on strategy for dealing with the Whites, and intermarried.  Many Blacks had mixed Native ancestry and soon became regarded as Black Indians, or Black Seminoles.

One such man was John Horse, or Gopher John (1812-1882).  The son of a Seminole father and an escaped slave mother, he was considered a slave by both Whites and Natives.  Nominally, he belonged to Chief Micanopy.  A skilled warrior who could speak English, he was useful to the Seminoles as an interpreter and often joined forces with Osceola.  Osceola may have been married to a black woman, though sources aren't definite on this point.  He abhorred the idea of slavery and was willing to work with John and another Black Seminole leader, Abraham, to make sure that the Blacks were not used as a bargaining chip in treaties with the Whites.  Osceola fiercely protested any treaty provisions requiring Natives to disclose the whereabouts of Black Seminole villages or any promises to return Black slaves to their former owners. 

John was captured with Osceola in October, 1837, and sent to Fort Marion, in St. Augustine.  He and several other Seminole leaders, both Black and Native, starved themselves for several days, pried the bars off the windows of their common cell, and slipped away from the fort.  With Osceola sidelined by captivity and later dead, a younger generation of leaders had to step up.  Only after he was assured that his people would not be enslaved did John Horse agree to talks with the Army.  He and his band resettled in Oklahoma, and later returned to Florida in 1840 in an attempt to talk Wild Cat/Cooacochee, a Native Seminole leader, into surrendering.  Cooacochee agreed to do so in 1840, and he and John Horse accompanied Cooacochee's people to Oklahoma.  For this service, John was given his freedom by White authorities, and personally by Chief Micanopy. 

But more White settlers were pouring into the Plains states, some illegally into Oklahoma itself.  Many of these people were from the South and wanted to bring Oklahoma into the Union as a slave state.  They also wanted to dispossess the Natives of land they had been promised in return from agreeing to move West.  Uneasy at these developments, Cooacochee and John Horse gathered their people in 1847, fled across Texas and into Mexico.  John Horse served for a time in the Mexican army, but in the coming years, went back to Oklahoma, were he also served with the United States Army as a scout.  In 1882 he traveled to Mexico City to plead with Mexican authorities to reaffirm the land grants to the Seminoles and Black Seminoles still living south of the border.  He died during this trip.  No one knows how or where he is buried. 

Today, Black Seminoles still live in Oklahoma, Texas, Mexico, Florida, and the Bahamas.  They honor the memory of John Horse and Osceola, the Native leader who was willing to fight for their rights and welcome them into the ranks of his warriors.

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Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Native Life: Trade Silver

Over the weekend, we discussed the trade links that the Great Warpath made possible.  Today we're focusing on a specific item of trade-trade silver.  A note on terminology, first.  Trade silver refer to silver items being traded, not to any particular grade of silver.  Trade silver items were sometimes made of coins, so coin silver was the most-preferred grade of silver.  Coin silver is metal with a high volume of silver, and a copper or zinc alloy mixed in.  It's easy to work with and could be used to mass produce a variety of earrings, necklaces, armbands, brooches, nose bobs and other items that were portable enough to carry in a trader's pack, yet valuable enough to swap for beaver pelts or other items the trader wished to acquire from the Natives.  Natives often used these pieces to trade and barter amongst themselves, which is they preferred the more valuable coin silver.  Nickel silver is not silver at all.  It's an alloy of nickel, zinc and copper that looks silver but contains none.  It became used for trade silver in the nineteenth century, during the latter part of the period under discussion and beyond.  Let's discuss a few of the items in greater detail.

Earrings ran the gamut from simple balls and drops mounted on rings, to elaborate stars and pinwheels that could be stamped out of sheets of silver and mounted on hooks or chains to thread through the earlobe.  Most men had a set of ball and drop earrings.  Some had a series of piercings along the upper ridge of the ear and used several of the ball/drop pattern earrings to outline the ear.  Other men preferred the stars, sometimes in patterns of two, three or more to create elaborate earrings. 

Nose bobs and nose rings.  A nose bob resembles an old pop top on a soda or beer can and was attached to the septum of the nose by tribes who practiced nasal piercing, such as the Seneca and Shawnee.  Others used nose rings or smaller stars for this purpose.

Necklaces were usually strings of silver beads that fit around the neck and could be either one or two strands.  However, in the Catlin portrait, Osceola appears to have a longer two-four strand silver necklace.  Whether these were chains or silver beads similar to a modern liquid silver necklace I can't make out. 

Brooches took many forms, but the most popular were ring brooches, a tiny series of rings fastened to the front yoke of a shirt.  Brooches of other patterns, including crosses and small carvings of animals, served as adornments on shirts.

Arm bands often fit around the upper or lower arm.  In addition to ornamentation, they served the practical purpose of controlling the long, full sleeves, much as garters did later.  Cornplanter/Kaintwakon had a particularly large silver bracelet, almost like a wrist greave, in one of his portraits.  Whether he used it for ornamentation or protection is not apparent from the picture.  Joseph Brant often wore smaller bracelets around the wrist, much as some men do today.

Gorgets,, pronounced gor-zhay, the crescent-shaped neck ornaments used by the leaders and leading warriors of many tribes, could also be made of trade silver.  Copied from the insignia of rank used by European and American officers, they were often given to high status men during negotiations with Natives as a way of acknowledge the rank and conferring a special gift.  Soon, leaders and noted warriors had gorgets made as their own symbols of rank, stacking them in layers of two, three or four crescent-shaped pieces down the front of their outfit.  There was no system of rank insignia, such as more gorgets indicating a chief, while less indicated a warrior.  Osceola had a neckpiece of four gorgets, but detached one to give it to a White friend who had bought a dress for Osceola's daughter.  Gorgets could be highly stylized and decorated, as is the one Joseph Brant wears in one of his portraits. 

There were other items, too.  James Girty wore a series of the ball and drop adornments in a lattice-work around the front of his headdress.  Joseph Brant appears to have silver adornments on the base of one of his headdresses, as well.  Corn planter wore several silver accents on his clothing, somewhat like a modern regalia. 

Looking at portraits of these men, you will also see various peace medals.  These were a specialty item, which we'll discuss in a later post.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Native Life: Slaves and Captives Along the Great Warpath

It was the stuff of every Colonial family's nightmares, and it happened many times on the frontier.  A party of Natives would burst into a lonely cabin, kill anyone who resisted and capture the rest.  The Settlers would then be route-marched along an Indian trail to a place they knew not where.  Captives who failed to keep up would be killed along the trail, usually with a blow to the head from a tomahawk or other war club.  The others would be taken to a Native village.  Any surviving men or older boys would be tortured and burned to death.  Younger boys who seemed likely candidates for warrior training would be made to run the gauntlet, two long lines of warriors who would try to strike the young man with sticks or other implements until he'd completed the race, or dropped dead.  Girls would be distributed to families within the community as slaves.  If any of these people were lucky, they would be adopted into the tribe and spend many years, maybe the rest of their lives there. 

Yes, it happened.  Many people, such as John Stark, Mary Jemison and Simon Girty, lived among the Indians as captives and adoptees and lived to tell the tale.  Later in life, when given the choice, some such as Jemison refused to go, preferring to stay with her Native husband and children.  Simon Girty and his two brothers returned to Fort Pitt and got jobs as an interpreters and scouts, trading on their knowledge of several Native tribes.  John Stark joined Robert Roger's band of Rangers, where his knowledge of Native hunting and warfare came in handy.  They weren't the only ones. 

The truth is that Natives took captives in war, both other Natives captured in battle, and Settlers.  All captives, regardless of their origin, would face this initial ordeal.  Travel down the rugged Indian paths was quick.  It had to be.  War parties knew that a pursuing rescue force would soon be on their trail.  Conditions were rugged.  Paths forded creeks and rivers, detoured around waterfalls, rocky outcrops and snags.  Injuries were frequent, particularly among Settlers who were did not have the clothes or shoes to withstand such a journey.  Anyone who could not keep the pace, or became sick or injured on the march, had to be killed and quickly. 

There were several reasons for Natives taking captives in raids.  The primary one was as a show of strength.  Settlers or other Natives encroaching on another tribes hunting range had to be dealt with before others showed up and dispossessed that tribe, or seriously impacted the animal population they would need for next year's meat.  As discussed in yesterday's post, warfare between the Native tribes and between the tribes and Europeans was constant from 1628 onward.  Many families lost husbands, fathers and brothers. These had to be replaced somehow.  When a captive boy had run the gauntlet and shown his physical toughness and suitability for warrior training, he was more likely to be adopted into a family who had just lost another male member in warfare.  It would now be the boy's job to grow into a sturdy, dependable warrior to replace the one who was lost.  Disease also took its toll.  Other captives were adopted to replace members of the tribe or band who had died of illness or accident. 

Finally, some Indians did take slaves.  These were of two kinds.  Captives who were not deemed worthy of adoption into a tribe and had not been killed were traded to other tribes who might take them in.  Other captives often stayed in the village of the tribe or band that had captured them, doing drudge work until they were adopted, traded, or even ransomed or rescued.  Some tribes in what is now the Southeastern United States also owned black slaves, captured on raids or purchased in trades.  Some of these people, too, earned their freedom, intermarried with Natives and made their lives as Native Americans.  More on this later, because it is a controversial topic. 

Many captives grew to love their Indian families.  Girty formed a bond with his foster father, Gayasuta, that was broken only when Gayasuta learned that Girty had initially joined the Revolutionaries seeking Independence from the British Crown.  Mary Jemison refused opportunities and offers of escape time and again, fearing she would have to leave her children, or that she and they would be ostracized in White society.  In her memoirs, she spoke of her Native husbands with deep respect and affection, noting that they had never abused her.  More on captivity narratives later.  Stark and Rogers parted ways after Stark was ordered to attack the Native village where he had once lived.  He refused, siting the fact that his foster parents still lived in that village.  Others, though, looked back on their time with the Natives in anger.  Lewis Wetzel, a Virginia man, escaped captivity and devoted his life to terrorizing his former captors, killing all he could and daring them to try to reclaim him and take his scalp. 

Tomorrow on Great Warriors Path, we'll look at the life of one Cherokee adoptee, William Holland Thomas, and his continuing gratitude to the Native father who'd raised him and to his tribe of adoption. 


Saturday, April 23, 2016

Native Life: War and Trade Along the Great Warpath

The system of Indian trails that made up the Great Warpath and similar roads served two vital purposes, facilitating trade and communication between tribes and the movement of combatants and prisoners during times of war.  We'll get to captives in a later blog, because it's a more complicated subject.  Today, let's stick with trade and the wars it inevitably brought with it, both between competing tribes and between European settlers often pitting tribe against tribe to gain the advantages in trade with one or the other Native nation. 

Europeans and Natives soon realized in their early contacts that they each had something to offer.  Natives were adept at hunting beaver and other furs that traders prized.  And Natives discovered that European goods made their lives easier.  Guns and lead to make ammunition were the hottest commodity.  But Natives were also interested in cooking pots and sewing notions such as needles and thimbles.  Beads were popular, as were mirrors and European cosmetics to use for paint.  Bolts of cloth to make shirts and dresses also came in handy, as did leather to make the soles of moccasins and sturdy straps for bags.  Occasionally, already made items such as shirts and/or officer's coats were welcome.  Last and not least, there was whiskey.  Whiskey is another touchy subject, both then and now, so we'll save that for later. 

Trading took place in several venues.  Some traders established posts at military installations or outlying settlements.  The Natives and other traders came there to conduct their business.  Other traders, such as Simon Girty's father, used pack animals to haul their goods into the wilderness and come back with loads of fur.  These traders had to be adept at understanding Native needs and culture, a well as a working knowledge of a Native language, or at least the sign language used by Natives when they couldn't communicate.  Traders also had to know their way around the country and they used the trails for this purposes.  If a trader did not possess these skills, he could rely on either friendly Natives, or on men who had grown up as captives or adoptees within various tribes to provide these services. 

While the Natives prized guns above all other trading items, the Europeans prized beaver pelts to make the fashionable hats of the period.  From 1628-1701, warriors of the powerful Iroquois Confederacy, backed by the French, faced off against a number of smaller Iroquoian and Algonquian-speaking tribes in the Great Lakes region.  These smaller tribes were backed by English and Dutch colonial authorities.  While the Iroquois were bent on expanding and consolidating their power by conquering and absorbing or driving out the other tribes, the Europeans were keen to protect their fur-trading rights with their respective Native allies.  The series of conflicts making up the Beaver Wars continued for decades, with the French and Iroquois emerging the victors.

But not for long.  As the Beaver Wars wound down, another series of battles would keep the trails busy.  History books mention one French and Indian War.  In fact there were four.  Their Colonial names are as follows: King William's War (War of the League of Augsburg 1688-1697); Queen Anne's War (War of the Spanish Succession 1702-1713); King George's War (War of the Austrian Succession, 1744-1748); and the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War, 1754-1763).  Far away from America and unbeknownst to the Natives or Settlers, decisions about royal succession, domination of territory, and sea power rocked Europe.  These conflicts then spilled over into North America, were French, English and Dutch colonials battled for control of the continent, again taking advantage of Native tribal rivals to pit Natives against one another.  If that sounds cynical, it's because it was.  Colonial commanders knew that Natives made excellent scouts and forward skirmishers.  They also knew that untested troops and militias were afraid of Native warriors in battle.  Native war parties could, and sometimes did, turn the outcomes of battles just by being at the right place at the right time.  Through these wars, the English ultimately prevailed, pushing the Dutch off the Continent and forcing the French to cede major portions of their holdings in North America.

But the Great War Path would be busy with action of another sort soon enough.  Settlers often used portions of the path as routes to new and forbidden homelands within the Appalachian Mountain System.  The route over the Cumberland Gap in Tennessee is one such example.  During the Revolutionary War, in 1779, General John Sullivan used a portion of the Great Warpath to launch punitive raids against the Mohawks and other Six Nations tribes for their part in supporting the British during the Revolution.  After the Revolution, Settlers continued their relentless push of Native peoples out of the Eastern United States.  The Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee fled to Canada.  The Shawnee and other peoples migrated to the Ohio River Valley, where they had again been promised a home.  The Great Warpath and the other trials became roads or fell into disuse, only to be rediscovered later, such as the trails preserved at Warriors Path State Park, and Cumberland Gap National Historic Park in Tennessee.
 

Friday, April 22, 2016

Native Life: The Great Indian Warpath

How many of us have heard the expression 'on the warpath', meaning that someone was angry and looking for an argument or fight.  There was an actual path, or rather a series of them, used by Natives for both trade and to move war parties and prisoners.  Called the Great Indian Warpath, the Great Indian War and Trading Path, or the Seneca Trail, this road, or series of roads stretched from near what is now Mobile, Alabama to near Niagara falls.  Other trails from as far away as St. Augustine, Florida bisected with this main path at certain points.  Most of these roads appear to connect in what is now West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, much like a modern interstate system.  From the Allegheny Mountains, other trails continued through New England and into Newfoundland.

The Warpath got its name from British traders, who mixed the Algonquian words for 'Great Path' with the Shawnee and Delaware terms for 'Path Where They Go Armed'.  Some of these trails were made following animal tracks through the forest, especially toward watering holes, which might be easier places to ford rivers.  Over time, they became well-worn footpaths along which Natives traded, touched base with allied tribes, and maneuvered during times of war.  Travel on these paths was always by foot, since the horse wasn't introduced in this region until after European settlement.  In order to mark various trails, Natives used carvings in trails, landmarks, and trees deliberately contorted into odd shapes.  Many of these trees still exist, although some declared trail-marker trees may be the product of storm damage or people attempting to copy the Native techniques.  Many of thee trees, though, are legit.  On a well-maintained trail, Native warriors and traders could travel up to 25 miles per day.

As Settlers moved into the Appalachian Mountains, they too used these trails to get around.  They were also used as boundary markers.  In the 1763 Royal Proclamation prohibiting settlement in the Appalachian Mountains, the boundary of the Seneca trail in New York was the dividing line between White and Native territory.  In the next few installments of Great Warriors Path, we'll focus on three main activities along these trails, trade, war and captives
.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

People of the Longhouse: the Iroquois Confederacy

The Iroquoian-speaking people lived in what is now the State of New York, and along the St. Lawrence river in Canada down to Montreal.  Five major tribes (Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, and Cayuga) formed the Iroquois League, later Confederacy.  Although each tribe regulated its internal affairs, they banded together in matters of trade, war and dealings with outsiders, be they other tribes or European explorers and settlers.  Some Iroquoian peoples, though not members of the League, were absorbed into it by conquest or intermarriage, such as the Erie, Susquehannock, Huron and Wyandot.  The Cherokee, another Iroquois people, chose to migrate south during the 17th century.  The Tuscaroras, feeling pressure from the Cherokee and other tribes as well as white incursion, migrated north and became the sixth member of the League in 1722. 

Prior to forming the League, in the twelfth century, the five major tribes warred amongst themselves.  A Huron prophet named Deganawidah convinced a leading warrior, Hiawatha, and one of the principal women Jigonsaseh, to join him in preaching a way of peaceful settlement of disputes, rather than war.  The five tribes agreed, buried weapons under a large pine tree and began to live under the Great Law of Peace, later known as the Iroquois Constitution.  They called themselves the Haudenosaunee, or People of the Longhouse, the traditional shelter of Iroquoian communities.  The Constitution provided for a council of fifty sachems, each tribe having a proportional representation on this counsel.  It provided a means for settling disputes, diplomacy, war and major offenses.  Descent amongst the Iroquois was matrilineal.  Clan matriarchs held the power of choosing the sachems and disposing of family and clan resources.  The women held their own counsel and could propose laws and register their pleasure or displeasure at the proceedings of the sachems via the war chiefs of the tribes.  The women thus held a position of check-and-balance in Iroquois government.

Iroquois is a French term, borrowing from Algonquian words meaning Killer People or Snake People, a description of the ability of Iroquois warriors.  Using a system of paths, warriors and hunters traveled quickly through their territory to deal with any threats to their unity.  Although the Great Law had been in place since the twelfth century, French explorers in the seventeenth century tended to describe the Iroquois as vicious savages who had no law, no society and no religious faith to speak of.  French and later English settlers discovered that they dismissed this proud and capable people at their cost in bloody conflicts.  They soon made allies of the Iroquois, who served both French and British commanders capably in several wars and battles that we'll describe in later entries of this blog. 

The union of the Iroquois Confederacy was sorely tested during the American Revolution, when the Mohawk, Senaca, Onandaga and Cayuga sided with the British.  The Tuscarora and Oneida sided with the Colonists.  Despite their loyalty to either side, the Iroquois lost most of their land in New York State, migrating to reservations in Canada.  The Six Nations of Grand River Reserve is along the border between Canada and the United States, being known as the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation in New York.  Per the terms of the Jay Treaty of 1794, members of the Six Nations may travel freely across this border area to access Canada or the United States.

Scholars debate whether the Iroquois Confederacy, with its Constitution, participatory government and check-and-balance system had any influence on the United States Constitution.  However, the similarities are striking.   The Iroquois system of participatory democracy and proportional representation served them well.  In addition to being formidable warriors, they were also skilled diplomats and traders.  The Great Warriors Path began in their territory.  We'll trace the route in the next installment of this blog.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Native Life: Chiefs versus Leaders

In popular history as well as everyday speech, it is common to refer to any Native leader as a chief.  The Black Drink Singer will always be Chief Osceola, even if there wasn't a guy throwing flaming spears in his name over in Tallahassee.  More on CHIEF OSCEOLA versus Osceola later, but he wasn't the only Native leader to have to handle this matter of protocol, telling painter George Catlin that he was not a chief.  Black Hawk, the Sac and Fox leader who lent his name posthumously to the Chicago Blackhawks, was another war leader often referred to as a chief, though he was a war leader only.  So, who was a chief and who was a leader?  The best information for that is always the tribe's website or other resources.  If they refer to a given individual as a chief, then so he was.  When in doubt, the proper term is leader, which is what I use here. 

But that begs the question, who was a chief?  In most of the tribes under discussion in this era, there were several ways a man might become a chief.  Inheritance through the matrilineal line was practiced by the Iroquois Confederacy and several other tribes.  However, inheritance was not strictly father to son.  Upon the death of a chief, often called a sachem by Euro-American writers, the clan matriarch would chose the next most eligible male member of her family to replace him.  Other tribes, such as the Shawnee, also practiced descent through the male line, but then again the process was never automatic.  Tecumseh wasn't automatically a chief because his father, Pukeshinwa was.  He, too, had to earn the right to that acclaim by his people.  The key to who was a chief lay in the man's acceptance as such by members of his tribe.  No matter how a chief was appointed, he could be deposed by popular will.  The Iroquois Constitution has elaborate provisions for the deposition of a sachem.  Pontiac, the Otttawa war chief, was deposed in part for his excessive cruelty. 

In addition to hereditary chiefs, other men functioned as subchiefs, or lieutenants to more powerful chiefs.  These are specifically called for in the Iroquois Constitution.  There were also war chiefs, specifically elected by the tribal council and appointed for that purpose.  Other chiefs handled religious or diplomatic matters.  Alongside the chiefs and subject to their authority were war leaders, leaders of towns or villages and respected elders.  While these men had a measure of renown and authority, they were not chiefs.  They were leaders.

We've mentioned the Iroquois Confederacy and their Constitution, so that's the next step on our journey. 

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Great Warrior: Black Drink Singer

Names:          Osceola, Billy Powell
Title:              Tallassee Tustenuggee (Warrior of Tallassee); Tustenuggee Thlocko (Great Warrior);
Nation:           Creek (Red Stick); Muscogee; Seminole
Dates:             1804-1/30/1838
Born:              Tallassee, Alabama, in present day Elmore County.
Died:              Fort Moultrie, South Carolina
Burial:            Fort Moultrie, South Carolina
Family:           2 wives (Morning Dew, Unknown), 4/5 children, 1 sister.

Born to a mixed-race Creek and Scottish mother, scholars have debated his father's identity.  Osceola himself claimed to painter George Catlin that he was "full-blood Muscogee."  Either his mother had a relationship with an unknown Creek man, making her son of mostly Creek heritage with some Scottish ancestry through his maternal grandfather.  Or if her husband, Scottish/English trader William Powell was his father, Osceola was of mostly European ancestry and claiming Creek status by virtue of matrilineal ties to the tribe.  William Powell left the family when Billy was young.  In 1814, after the defeat of the Red Stick Creek faction, led in part by Billy's maternal uncle Peter MacQueen, the family fled to Florida and took refuge with the Seminoles. 

Billy excelled at sports such as foot racing and stick ball.  At age 18, he participated in his first Green Corn Ceremony, marking his entrance to adulthood.  As part of the ceremony, participants drank a bitter potion made of the Yaupon Holly, called Asi, and accompanied the drinking with a ritual shout or Yahola.  Billy received his adult name, which is anglicized as Osceola, at this time, though he may have continued to use Powell in dealing with whites.  He eventually married two wives, either or both said to be black or part black.  There is no proof either way.  He excelled as a warrior, earning the rank of Tustenuggee, and later Thlocko Tustenuggee (Great Warrior or First Warrior).  In 1832, he became angry at hearing that certain chiefs were willing to cede Seminole land to the United States.  Legend holds, though scholars debate, that Osceola declared war by stabbing the treaty document with his knife, saying, "this is the only way I will sign!" 

His work as Tustenuggee also made him, in effect, chief of police for his tribe.  He would intercede for tribal members facing jail, lashing or other punishments for offenses, usually stealing food from neighboring plantations or trespassing on land whites considered theirs.  This work brought him into open conflict with the Indian Agent, Wiley Thompson.  After a particularly tense confrontation, Thompson had Osceola chained and thrown into the guardhouse at Fort King.  Furious, Osceola later retaliated by killing and scalping Thompson in December, 1835.  By this time, the Seminoles were in open conflict with the United States authorities, who wanted them to cede their land and prepare for removal to Oklahoma.  Osceola led daring guerilla raids that confused and embarrassed several future generals, including Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor.  His strongest performance came at the Battle of Withlacoochee, where he told General Duncan Clinch through an emissary, "you have guns and so do we.  You have powder and lead and so do we.  Your men will fight and so will ours until the last drop of Seminole blood moistens the dust of this hunting ground!" Soon after, though, Osceola was wounded in the hand in another skirmish and came down with a chronic illness, probably malaria.

A new commanding general, Thomas Jessup, despaired of Osceola ever agreeing to removal from Florida of his own accord.  However, Osceola, through an emissary, agreed to meet with Jessup's representative to discuss the possibility of retaining land in Florida.  When he arrived at the meeting in October, 1837, bearing white crane plumes as a sign of truce, Osceola was arrested and placed in Fort Marion in St. Augustine.  In December, 1837, he was transferred to Fort Moultrie, South Carolina and learned that he had become something of a celebrity as a resistance fighter.  Several artists came to paint his portrait, which he allowed and encouraged.  He formed a friendship with George Catlin, who painted two portraits of him.  Catlin left Fort Moultrie on January 26, 1838, and asked the post doctor Frederick Weedon, to inform him of how Osceola died.

Weedon was the brother-in-law of Wiley Thompson and scholars debate over the quality of care he gave Osceola, who had developed a tonsillar abscess known as quinsy.  Osceola was aware that he was dying, had himself dressed in his finest regalia, bid goodbye to his family, several Seminole leaders and the officers of the Fort.  He asked Weedon to make certain that he was buried in Florida.  After Osceola's death, the commander of Fort Moultrie ordered the body stripped of its adornments.  He and Weedon kept most of the regalia, not returning any of it to the family.  Further, Weedon decapitated the corpse, took a death mask, and preserved the head in embalming fluid.  Osceola was buried, naked and unadorned, at the gates of Fort Moultrie.  A local admirer donated a simple white slab with Osceola's name and dates, and the words, "warrior and patriot."  There he rests today.

Catlin paid one last tribute to his friend.  He took the two portraits to his gallery in New York and made prints of them, which he sold.  He also gave interviews of his experience with Osceola to several newspapers and toured Europe, telling the warrior's story.  Catlin's efforts in part prompted a national inquiry into Jessup's conduct in capturing a Native leader under a flag of truce.  Jessup was whitewashed by a Congressional committee, but his reputation suffered as a result of his conduct.  Osceola's possessions passed into the hands of private collectors
, though some have made their way to the Smithsonian, and to a museum run by the Seminole Tribe of Florida.  The head was given to a Philadelphia surgeon for his specimen collection, and the building where it was housed burned down in the 1890's.  Several places in the United States, including a county in Florida, were named for Osceola, and it became a popular first name for girls and boys in the South.

One thing that Osceola cleared up with Catlin during their time together was that he was not a chief.  Although many people refer to him as 'Chief Osceola' and confuse him with the FSU tribute rider, he was a war leader, not a chief.  That raises the question, who was a chief and who was not.  We'll deal with that topic next. 

Monday, April 18, 2016

Myths and Misnomers: Scalp Knives, War Paint and War Bonnets.

The scalp knife is a staple of Western movies and dime novels, as well as many early non-fiction accounts describing Natives.  For example, observers of Osceola during his captivity at Fort Moultrie in 1838 noted that he was allowed to keep his "scalping knife" and had it clutched in his hand when he died.  True, many Native tribes did practice scalping, and Osceola did so on one particular occasion.  But they also engaged in other activities that would require a blade, combat or self defense, cleaning small game, making repairs to equipment or any other reasons a man might need a large utility knife while on the frontier.  In fact, both Settlers and Natives carried large utility knives in sheaths or stuck in their belts or sashes.  Jim Bowie and his elder brother Rezin were famous for theirs.  No one would have thought of calling the Bowie knife or its variations a scalping knife, unless it happened to belong to a Native American.  The more neutral term for such knives is sheath knife.

Another erroneous description from Osceola's death bed describes him as painting his face, hands, and the handle of his knife in red, the color of death and war.  True, red paint worn on the face or any other part of the body while in combat could symbolize blood and war, but the narrators erred in describing this as war paint.  Many tribes painted their faces, bodies, their weapons and animals in time of war.  However, they might also paint for other reasons.  Preparing a body for death, such as Osceola was doing to himself, was an example.  Others occasions were hunts, feasts, or rights of passage such as coming of age or marriage.  Painting was reserved for special personal or religious reasons, and many leaders sat for their portraits without paint, as Joseph Brant/Theyandanega, does here.

Finally, the war bonnet.  Chiefs and ranking warriors among the Plains tribes wore them, especially the Sioux,  Crow and Comanche.  Eastern Woodlands tribes, such as the Iroquois, Algonquians, Seminoles, etc., never wore them.  They may have worn other feathered headdresses at various times, such as Brant's headdress, a form of the Iroquois gustoweh.   He would not have worn this on the march or in combat, though, as it was too fussy.  For war, Eastern tribes often shaved their heads and wore feathers fastened in their hair, as did Shawnee and Cherokee warriors, or as Sac and Fox leader Black Hawk demonstrates here.  Only later, when posing for pictures for white photographers, did some Eastern Natives wear war bonnets because that's what the public expected a great Indian to look like.  

I've mentioned Osceola twice in this post, so guess where we're headed.  The first of our Great Warriors. 


Sunday, April 17, 2016

Myths and Misnomers: the Indian Princess

Since I've already mentioned Jamestown in both the introductory information and the timeline, you're probably wondering when I'm going to rehash the story of John Smith and Pocahontas.  I'm not.  Minnehaha, the beautiful wife of Hiawatha as related in the poem?  Nope.  Not her, either.  We're not going there.  Not only does the story of Jamestown colony have no bearing on the time period covered in this blog, it only perpetuates a tired stereotype that Native women have had to put with for too long-the Indian Princess. 

Short answer: she didn't exist.  The wives and daughters of chiefs did not bear titles.  There was no such thing as a Native royal family.  With some exceptions, the only women who carried any type of position or authority in a village were the clan matriarchs.  They could, in some tribes, choose and depose chiefs, veto actions of the council, or dispose of property and prisoners.  For these reasons, women often carried great authority in their tribes and could be perceived by outsiders as queens or princesses, but they weren't. 

The Indian Princess stereotype began in the nineteenth century with Longfellow's poems, or other novels, plays and poems describing how a beautiful Indian maiden threw herself on top of an English adventurer and begged for his life.  Whether she did or didn't is a topic for another blog.  The fact is that this beautiful maiden got more buxom and more royal every time her story was told.  The same went for Minnehaha, the fictionalized wife of the Iroquois leader Hiawatha, and the nameless daughter of Shenandoah.  The stereotype perpetuates in fantasy art depictions of curvaceous Native women wielding bows, wearing war bonnets and commanding the elements of nature.  More on war bonnets later, but suffice it to say that such women do not exist.  Today, the only Indian princesses around are those who are chosen by their tribe to represent them in pageants. 

'But I've always been told great-grandma was a Cherokee princess.'  You may have had a Native woman in your ancestry.  She may have been Cherokee.  If she were lucky, she was someone like Nancy Ward, the last War Woman of the Cherokee and one of the few women who did hold an official title in their tribe.  More likely, she was a hardy, industrious woman who managed her family and her property and tried to survive as best she could.  Princess, no.  Worthy of respect, yes.  Worthy of researching the facts about who she really was. 

It's bashing stereotypes time here at Great Warriors Path.  Next up, the scalp knife, war paint and war bonnets.


Saturday, April 16, 2016

Welcome to Great Warriors Path

I love history.  For most of my life I've focused on European history or American history as told from the Euro-centric point of view.  Recently, I've begun to take a deeper look at a time period in our history that bears scrutiny, the systematic eradication of thousands of men, women and children from the Eastern United States beginning in 1622, two years after the Pilgrims landed near Plymouth Rock, to 1858, the end of the Second Seminole war.  I want to drill down on the period between the beginning of the Seven Years War in 1755, through the end of the Second Seminole War, in 1842, when much of this anguish and injustice was taking place. 

One of my grandmothers was on the Cherokee Trail of Tears, so I can't promise a completely unbiased treatment.  But this is not an academic study.  This blog and the pages that accompany it are not grand historical narratives, but rather human snapshots.  I want to focus on the people, Native and European, who lived and struggled through this time.  Battles and dates don't make history, human beings do.  Human beings make the decisions, suffer the consequences, and survive as best they can.  Nobility and heroism, as well as greed and duplicity, existed on all sides.  I want to get to the bottom of both.  While I will focus on the battles and leaders, I also want to examine the lives of both Natives and Settlers, and to give the Native side of the story more attention than it receives in most history books. 

Please comment, ask questions or suggest ideas for future posts and pages.  I would love to hear from you.