Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers Part 67

TAPPAN SEA.--It is perceived from Vanderdonk, and from old maps and records, that a band of Indians lived here, who were called the "_Tappansees_."

POUGHKEEPSIE is a derivative of _Au-po-keep-sing, i.e._, Place of shelter. The entrance of the Fall Kill into the Hudson is the feature meant.

c.o.xACKIE, is evidently made up in the original from _kuk_, to cut, and _aukie_, earth, which was, probably, in old days, as it is in fact yet, a graphic description of a ridge cut and tumbled in by the waters of the Hudson pressing hard on that sh.o.r.e.

CLAVERACK is not Indian. _Clove_, in the Hollandais, is an opening or side-gorge in the valley. _Rack_, is a reach or bend in the river, the whole length of which was known, as we see, to the old skippers as separate _racks_. The _reach of cloves_ began at what is now the city of Hudson, the old Claverack landing.

TAWASENTHA.--Normanskill is the first Iroquois name noticed. It means the hill of the dead. Albany itself has taken the name of a Scottish dukedom for its ancient Iroquois cognomen, Ske-nek-ta-dea: of this compound term, _Ske_ is a propositional particle, and means beyond; _nek_ is the Mohawk name for a pine; and the term _ta-dea_ is descriptive of a valley.

_18th_. Reached Detroit in the steamer "Gen. Wayne," and a.s.sumed the duties of my new appointment. One of the earliest Was.h.i.+ngton papers I opened, gave an account of the death of Mr. William Ward, a most valuable clerk in the Indian Bureau; a man of a fine literary taste, who formerly edited and established the _North-west Journal_, at the City of Detroit.

_19th_. A singular denouement is made this morning, which appeals strongly to my feelings. On getting in the stage at Vernon, in Western New York, a gentleman of easy manners, good figure, and polite address, whom we will call Theodoric, kindly made way for me and my family, which led us to notice him, and we traveled together quite to Detroit, and put up at the same hotel. This morning a note from him reveals him to be a young Virginian, seeking his fortune west, and out of funds, and makes precisely such an appeal as it is hard, and wrong in fact, to resist. I told Theodoric to take his trunk and go, by the next steamer, to my house at Mackinack, and I should be up in a short time, and furnish him employment in the Indian department.

_25th_. Rev. Mr. Lukenbach, of the Moravian towns, Canada, writes, that the proportional annuity of the Christian Indians, for 1838, is unpaid.

He says they were paid 33/100ths, in 1837, being one-third of the original annuity. He states that Mr. Vogler and Mr. Mickeh arrived on the Kanzas with upwards of seventy souls, having left nearly one hundred at Green Bay, who are to follow them; and that these two men have commenced a new mission among the Delawares. Mr. L. says that there are but about one hundred and twenty souls left, who propose to remain in Canada with him.

_30th_. Ke-bic! An exclamation of the Algonquins in pa.s.sing dangerous rocky sh.o.r.es in their canoes, when the current is strong. Query. Is not this the origin of the name Quebec?

_May 2d_. Major Garland, my predecessor in the disburs.e.m.e.nts, writes from Was.h.i.+ngton: "You have a heavy task on your hands for this season; and, in addition to the hands of Briareus, you will need the eyes of Argus."

_3d_. I made the payments to the Saginaw chiefs in specie, under the treaty of the 14th of January, 1837.

_10th_. Mr. F.W. Shearman, the able and ingenious editor of the _Journal of Education_, writes from Marshall, that it receives an increased circulation and excites a deeper interest in the people, with his plans for further improvements.

_16th_. Letters from Mackinack informs me that the Ottawas design leaving their location in the United States for the Manitouline Islands, in Canada, where inducements are held out to them by agents of the British government. They fear going west: they cling to the north.

_20th_. The Harpers, publishers at New York, send me copies of the first issue of my _Algic Researches_, in two vols., 12mo. They intend to _publish_ the work on the 1st proximo.

_23d_. Letters from Was.h.i.+ngton speak of the treasury as being low in specie funds.

_24th_. Sales of the lands of the Swan Creek and Black River Chippewas, are made at the Land Office in Detroit, in conformity with the treaty of May 9th, 1836. The _three_ years that have elapsed in this operation, have brought the prices of lands from the summer heat to the zero of prices.

_27th. Na_, in the Algonquin language, means excellent or transcendent, and _wa_, motion. Thus the names of two chiefs who visited me to day on business, are _Na-geezhig_, excellent or transcendent day, and _Ke-wa-geezhig_, or returning cloud. Whether the word _geezhig_ shall be rendered day, or cloud, or sky, depends on the nature of its prefix. To move back is _ke-wa_, and hence the prefixed term to the latter name.

_June 4th_. Received from Col. De Garme Jones, Mayor of Detroit, sundry ma.n.u.script doc.u.ments relative to the administration of Indian affairs of Gov. Hull, of the dates of 1807, '8 and '9.

Mr. Johnstone, of Aloor, near Edinburgh, Scotland, brings me a note of introduction from Gen. James Talmadge, of New York. Mr. J. is a highly respected man at home, and is traveling in America to gratify a laudable curiosity.

_7th_. Reached Mackinack, on board the steamer Great Western, Capt.

Walker.

_10th_. _The Albany Evening Journal_ has a short editorial under the head of _Algic Researches_: "Such is the t.i.tle of a work from our countryman Schoolcraft, which the Harpers have just published, in two volumes. It consists of Tales and Legends, which the Author has gleaned in the course of his long and familiar intercourse with the children of the Forest, ill.u.s.trating the mental powers and characteristics of the North American Indians.

"Mr. Schoolcraft has traveled far into the western wilds. He has lived much with the Indians, and has studied their character thoroughly. He is withal a scholar and a gentleman, whose name is a sufficient guarantee for the excellence of all he writes."

_11th_. I set out to complete the apprais.e.m.e.nt of the Indian improvements on the north sh.o.r.e of Lake Huron, under the 8th article of the treaty of March 28th, 1836.

_12th_. Paid the Indians of L'Arbre Croche villages at Little Traverse Bay, the amount of the apprais.e.m.e.nt of their _public_ improvements, made under the treaty of 1836.

_13th_. Proceed to Grand Traverse Bay, to view the location of a mission by Messrs. Dougherty and Fleming. Found it located on the sands, near the bottom of the bay, where a vessel could not unload, at a point so utterly dest.i.tute of advantages that it would not have been possible to select a worse site in the compa.s.s of the whole bay, which is large, and abounds in s.h.i.+p harbors. Condemned the site forthwith, and the same day removed the site of operations to Kosa's village, on a bay near the end of the peninsula. I afterwards encamped on the open lake sh.o.r.e, behind a sand drift, to avoid the force of the wind, and, as soon as the waters of the lake lulled, made the traverse to the Beaver Islands, to appraise the value of the Indian improvements at that place, and, having done this, put across to the main sh.o.r.e north, for the same purpose. In this trip Mr. Turner accompanied me to keep the lists, and Dr. Dougla.s.s to vaccine the Indians, the latter of whom reported 214 persons as having submitted to receive the virus.

The Albany papers continue to publish notices of _Algic Researches_. The _Argus_ of the 13th June, says: "Mr. H.R. Schoolcraft has added another to his claims upon the consideration of the reading public, by a recent work (from the press of the Messrs. Harper), ent.i.tled '_Algic Researches_, comprising inquiries respecting the mental characteristics of the North American Indians.' It is the first of a series, which the author promises to continue at a future day, ill.u.s.trative of the mythology, distinctive opinions, and intellectual character of the aborigines. These volumes comprise their oral tales, with preliminary observations and a general introduction. The term _Algic_, is introduced by the author, in a generic sense, for all the tribes, with few exceptions, that were found in 1600 spread out between the Atlantic and the Mississippi.

"To those who care to look into the philosophy of the Indian character, these oral fictions will be read with interest. They are curious in themselves, and not less so as a material step in the researches that may serve, in the sequel, to unveil the origin, as well as the intellectual traits, of these tribes. They will at least establish the fact of 'an oral imaginative lore' among the aborigines of this continent, of which they give us faithful specimens.

"Probably no man in this country is better qualified to pursue these researches than Mr. Schoolcraft. A long residence in the Indian country, and official intercourse with the tribes, have given him an access to the Indian mind which few have enjoyed, and which none have improved to a greater extent by habits of observation and philosophical investigation. A residence at Mackinaw is of itself calculated to beget, as it is to gratify, a taste for the prosecution of these inquiries. It is described by Miss Martineau as 'the wildest and tenderest piece of beauty that she had yet seen on G.o.d's earth.' It is indeed a spot of rare attractiveness. Standing upon the promontory, in the rear of the fort and town, the view embraces to the north the head waters of the Huron and the far-off isles of St. Martin, to the west Green Isle and the straits of Mackinaw, and to the east and south Bois Blanc and the Great Lake. It is a delightful summer retreat, and many are the legends and reminiscences of the scenes of enjoyment pa.s.sed here in absolute, and we are a.s.sured happy, exclusion from the outward world, during the winter months. It has been regarded, at no distant day, as important not only as the rendezvous of the Fur Companies' agents and employers and the Indian traders, but as a government military post. It is still a great resort of the northern Indians. Often their lodges and their bark canoes, of beautiful construction, line the pebbly sh.o.r.e; and the aboriginal habits and mental characteristics may be studied on the spot.

"It is to be hoped that Mr. S. will resume the course of inquiry and research that he has marked out for himself; and that he will be induced to give to the public the results of his long and intimate familiarity with the Indian life and character."

_17th_. The _Detroit Daily Advertiser_, of this day, has the following critical notice on the work of _Algic Researches_, under the head of _Indian Tales and Legends_.

"This work has just been offered for sale at our book-stores, and we strongly recommend it to all those who feel an interest in the character of our aborigines. It is well known to many of us here, that Mr.

Schoolcraft has, for the last several years, been industriously engaged in collecting facts which ill.u.s.trate the 'mythology, distinctive opinions, and intellectual character' of the Indians. His researches have embraced 'their oral tales, fict.i.tious and historical; their hieroglyphics, music, and poetry; and the grammatical structure of their languages, the principles of their construction, and the actual state of their vocabulary.' The materials he has now on hand afford him the means of fulfilling this extensive plan, and this 'first series' is only a leading publication.

"When the position which Mr. S. has occupied for the last seventeen or more years is recollected, as well as his fitness and exertions to improve all its advantages, we shall at once see the benefit to the literary and scientific world which his researches in these various departments are likely to produce. The subjects which have engaged his attention are regarded with deep interest by the philanthropist, the philologist, the archaeologist, as well as many other liberal inquirers, both in Europe and America, who, amid the scanty facts, cursory observations, and hurried, random conjectures of those who have been favored with a comparatively near view of them, have lamented the want of such deliberate investigations and comparative examinations, continued with sober judgment through a long series of years, as are now offered to the public. We trust that a proper and enlightened patronage will warrant Mr. Schoolcraft in completing his design. No man, possessing his qualifications, has enjoyed his advantages. He has been able to take up, at his leisure, the scattered links of a broken chain, and fit them together. A chaos of aboriginal facts will be reduced, under his hand, to some degree of order.

"Mr. Schoolcraft and Mr. Catlin have done more to preserve the fleeting traits of aboriginal character and history than all their predecessors in this field of inquiry, and none can follow them with the same success, as none can have the same range of subjects before them. The scene is changing with each year, and the past, with respect to the Savages, does not recur. They fall back with no hope to recover lost ground; they diminish with no hope to increase again; they degenerate with no hope to revive in physical or moral strength. Those who have seen them most during the last few years, have seen them best. After observers will find mere fragments, or a heterogeneous ma.s.s, in which all original ident.i.ty is distorted or gone.

"The Tales now published must not be estimated for their intrinsic merit alone. They may have less variety of construction, less beauty of imagination, less singularity of incident, than belong to oriental tales, the productions of more refined times, or more excitable people.

But the estimate must not be comparative. They are to be regarded as the type of aboriginal mind, as the measure of intellectual power of our Sons of the Forest; as speaking their sentiments, their hopes and their fears, whatever they were or are, whether elevated or depressed, whether raising the race or sinking it in the scale of untutored nations.

Whether they prove a poverty of mental energy, a feebleness of imagination, a want of invention, or the reverse, cannot affect the value of these volumes in the opinion of those who look into them for evidences of the true character of the Indians. Mr. Schoolcraft, or any other gentleman of taste and skill, might have formed out of these materials a series of Tales, highly finished in their unity and design, strikingly colored by fancy, such as would have caught the popular whim.

But this was not his object. He has been honest in his renderings of the aboriginal sense, whether pointed or mystical, of the Indian's mythology, whether intelligible or obscure; of their shadowy glimpses of the past and the future; of the beginning and end of things, without alteration or embellishment. Such a work was wanted, and such a work was expected from Mr. Schoolcraft.

"If we have room, we will quote one or two of the shorter tales, such as 'Mon-daw-min, or the origin of Indian corn,' and the 'Celestial Sisters,' both of which are very characteristic, and show, under the garb of much figurative beauty, how Indians appreciate the blessings of a kind Providence, and, how his domestic affections may glow and endure.

Indeed, there are few of these tales that would not give interest to our columns, and we shall be pleased to give our readers an occasional taste, provided we thereby induce them to supply themselves with the full feast in their power."

_20th_. It is stated that the oldest town in the United States is St.

Augustine, Florida, by more than forty years. It was founded forty years before Virginia was colonized. Some of the houses are yet standing which are said to have been built more than three centuries ago, that is to say, about 1540. De Soto landed in Florida in 1539. Narvaez, in his unfortunate expedition, landed in 1537. Both these expeditions were confined to the exploration of the country west and north of the Bay of Espiritu Santo, reaching to the Mississippi. De Soto crossed the latter into the southeastern corner of the present State of Missouri, and into the area of Arkansas, where he died.

_21st_. _The Detroit Free Press_, of this day, has the following remarks:--

"Much interest is manifested in this work of Mr. Schoolcraft, as a timely rescue from oblivion of an important portion of the great world of mind--important inasmuch as it is a manifestation of two principles of human nature prominent in an interesting variety of the human race, the sense of the marvelous and the sense of the beautiful, or the developments of wonder and ideality. The character of a people cannot be fully understood without a reference to its tales of fiction and its poetry. Poetry is the offspring of the beautiful and the wonderful, and much of it the reader will find embodied in the Indian tales to which the author of the _Algic Researches_ has given an enduring record.

"Much of this work strongly reminds the reader of the Grecian Mythology and the _Arabian Nights Entertainments_.

"According to one of the Odjibwa tales, the morning star was once a beautiful damsel that longed to go to 'the place of the breaking of daylight." By the following poetic invocation of her brother, she was raised upon the winds, blowing from 'the four corners of the earth,' to the heaven of her hopes:--

Blow winds, blow! my sister lingers From her dwelling in the sky, Where _the morn with rosy fingers_, Shall her cheeks with vermil dye.

There, my earliest views directed, Shall from her their color take, And her smiles, through clouds reflected, Guide me on, by wood and lake.

"The work abounds with similar beautiful thoughts and inventions.

"Catlin may be called the red man's painter; Schoolcraft his poetical historian. They have each painted in living colors the workings of the Indian mind, and painted nature in her unadorned simplicity. They have done much which, without them, would, perhaps, have remained undone, and become extinct with the Indian race. As monuments of history for future ages, their works are not sufficiently appreciated.

"The author of these volumes has stamped upon his page much of the intellectual existence of the simple children of the forest, and bequeathed us a detail map of their _terra incognita_--their fireside amus.e.m.e.nts in legendary lore."

I am willing to notice this and some other criticisms of this work as popular expressions of opinion on the subject. But it is difficult for an editor to judge, from the mere face of the volumes, what an amount of auxiliary labor it has required to collect these legends from the Indian wigwams. They had to be gleaned and translated from time to time.