History of Westchester County, New York, Volume 1. Frederic Shonnard
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Название: History of Westchester County, New York, Volume 1
Автор: Frederic Shonnard
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Документальная литература
Серия: History of Westchester County, New York
isbn: 9783849660017
isbn:
Their numerous weapons, implements, and utensils of stone — including mortars and pestles, axes, hatchets, adzes, gouges, chisels, cutting tools, skinning tools, perforators, arrow and spear heads, scrapers, mauls, hammer-stones, sinkers, pendants, pierced tablets, polishers, pipes, and ceremonial stones — of all of which specimens have been found in Westchester County, were very well wrought, and, considering the extreme difficulties attending their fabrication on account of the entire absence of metal tools, bear high testimony to the perseverance and ingenuity of the Indians as artificers. They had great art in dressing skins, using smooth, wedge-shaped stones to rub and work the pelts into a pliable shape. They produced fire by rapidly turning a wooden stick, fitted in a small cavity of another piece of wood, between their hands until ignition was effected. When they wished to make one of their more durable canoes they had first to fell a suitable tree, a task which, on account of the insufficiency of their tools, required much labor and time. Being unable to cut down a tree with their stone axes, they resorted to fire, burning the tree around its trunk and removing the charred portion with their stone implements. This was continued until the tree fell. Then they marked the length to be given to the canoe, and resumed at the proper place the process of burning and removing.
Their agriculture was exceedingly primitive. They raised only one principal crop — maize, or Indian com. Quite extensive fields of this were grown. In addition, they planted the sieva bean, the pumpkin, and tobacco. For cultivating their fields they used only a hoe made of a clam shell or the shoulder blade of a deer. They had no domestic animals to assist them in their agricultural labors and provide them with manure for the refreshment of their exhausted lands and with food products— no horses, sheep, swine, oxen, or poultry; and even their dogs were mere miserable mongrels. It is said that they used fish for fertilizing the soil, but this use must have been on an extremely limited scale.
The extent and character of the trade relations between the Indians of the same tribe and those of different tribes can only be inferred from known facts which render it unquestionable that such relations existed For instance, tobacco, which was in universal use among the aborigines of North America, had to be obtained by exchange m all localities unadapted by climate and soil to its growth. The copper ornaments remarked by Hudson on the persons of the Indians whom he met in New York Bay must have been wrought out of metal obtained by barter or capture from distant parts of the country, since no deposits of native copper exist in this region. And Indian relics of various kinds are constantly found which bear no connection to the prevailing remains of the locality where discovered, but on the other hand are perfectly characteristic of other localities.
For purposes of exchange, as well as for ornament, the Indians used wampum, a name given to a certain class of cylindrical beads, usually one-fourth of an inch long and drilled lengthwise, which were chiefly manufactured from the shells of the common hard-shell clam (Venus mercenaria). The blue or violet portions of the shells furnished the material for the dark wampum, which was held in much higher estimation than that made of the white portions, or of the spines of certain univalves. According to Roger Williams, one of the earliest New England writers on the Indians, six of the white beads and three of the blue were equivalent to an English penny. The author of an instructive treatise on "Ancient and Aboriginal Trade in North America" (from which some of the details in the preceding pages are taken) says of the wampum belts, so often mentioned in connection with the history of the eastern tribes:
They consisted of broad straps of leather, upon which white and blue wampum-beads were sewed In rows, being so arranged that by the contrast of the light and dark colors certain figures were produced. The Indians, it is well known, exchanged these belts at the conclusion of peace, and on other solemn occasions, in order to ratify the transaction, and to perpetuate the remembrance of the event. When sharp admonitions or threatening demonstrations were deemed necessary, the wampum belts likewise played a part, and they were even sent as challenges of war. In these various cases the arrangement of the colors and the figures of the belts corresponded to the object in view: on peaceable occasions the white color predominated; if the complications were of a serious character, the dark prevailed; and in case of a declaration of war, it is stated, the belt was entirely of a somber hue, and, moreover, covered with red paint, while there appeared in the middle the figure of a hatchet executed in white. The old accounts, however, are not quite accordant concerning these details, probably because the different Atlantic tribes followed in this particular their own taste rather than a general rule. At any rate, however, the wampum belts were considered as objects of importance, being, as has been stated, the tokens by which the memory of remarkable events was transmitted to posterity. They were employed somewhat in the manner of the Peruvian guipu, which they also resembled in that particular, that their meaning could not be conveyed without oral comment. At certain times the belts were exhibited, and their relations to former occurrences explained. This was done by the aged and experienced of the tribe, in the presence of the young men, who made themselves thoroughly acquainted with the shape, size, and marks of the belts, as well as with the events they were destined to commemorate, in order to be able to transmit these details to others at a future time. Thus the wampum belts represented the archives of polished nations. Among the Iroquois tribes, who formed the celebrated " league," there was a special keeper of the wampum, whose duty it was to preserve the belts and to interpret their meaning, when required.
The civil institutions of the Mohican Indians were democratic, showing but slight modifications of the purely democratic principle.
" Though this people," says Van der Donck, " do not make such a distinction between man and man as ether nations, yet they have high and low families, inferior and superior chiefs." Their rulers were called sachems, the title usually remaining hereditarily in the family, although the people claimed the right of election. It does not appear that the sachems ever assumed oppressive powers, or, on the other hand, that rebellious or intrigues against their authority were ever undertaken to any noticeable extent. The sachem remained with the tribe at all times, and was assisted in the government by certain counselors or chiefs, elected by the people. There was a chief called a "hero," who was chosen for established courage and prudence in war; another called an " owl," who was required to have a good memory and be a fluent speaker, and who sat beside the sachem in council and proclaimed his orders; and a third called a " runner," who carried messages and convened councils. The Indian sachems and chiefs of the Hudson have left no names familiar to the general reader — certainly none comparable with those of Massasoit, Miantonomoh, Uncas, and Philip, of New England, or Powhattan, of Virginia. Even to the local historian, indeed, their names have little importance beyond that attaching to them from their connection with notable transfers of land and with rivers, lakes, and localities to which they have been applied.
In the geographical nomenclature of Westchester County, as well as of the whole country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, are preserved numerous permanent memorials of the vanished aboriginal race. The following article on the pure or derived Indian names of our county has been compiled specially for this work. It is not, however, presented with any claim to minute completeness.
AMERINDIAN NAMES IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
BY WILLIAM WALLACE TOOKER. СКАЧАТЬ