The appendix is that part of a book in which you find the really important things, put there to keep them from interfering with the story. Without an appendix you might not discover that all of the important things in this book really
are
true.
All the main traveled roads in the United States began as animal or Indian trails. There is no map that shows these roads as they originally were, but the changes are not so many as you might think. Railways have tunneled under passes where the buffalo went over, hills have been cut away and swamps filled in, but the general direction and in many places the actual grades covered by the great continental highways remain the same.
Licks
are places where deer and buffaloes went to lick the salt they needed out of the ground. They were once salt springs or lakes long dried up.
Wallowswere mudholes where the buffaloes covered themselves with mud as a protection from mosquitoes and flies. They would lie down and work themselves into the muddy water up to their eyes. Crossing the Great Plains, you can still see round green places that were wallows in the days of the buffalo.
The Pawnees are a roving tribe, in the region of the Platte and Kansas Rivers. If they were just setting out on their journey when the children heard them they would sing:--
"Dark against the sky, yonder distant lineRuns before us.Trees we see, long the line of treesBending, swaying in the wind."Bright with flashing light, yonder distant lineRuns before us.Swiftly runs, swift the river runs,Winding, flowing through the land."
"Bright with flashing light, yonder distant lineRuns before us.Swiftly runs, swift the river runs,Winding, flowing through the land."
But if they happened to be crossing the river at the time they would be singing to
Kawas
, their eagle god, to help them. They had a song for coming up on the other side, and one for the mesas, with long, flat-sounding lines, and a climbing song for the mountains.
You will find all these songs and some others in a book by Miss Fletcher in the public library.
You will find the story of the Coyote and the Burning Mountain in my book
The Basket Woman
.
The Tenasas were the Tennessee Mountains. Little River is on the map.
Flint Ridge is a great outcrop of flint stone in Ohio, near the town of Zanesville. Sky-Blue-Water is Lake Superior.
Cahokia is the great mound near St. Louis, on the Illinois side of the river.
When the Lenni-Lenape speaks of a Telling of his Fathers about the mastodon or the mammoth, he was probably thinking of the story that is pictured on the Lenape stone, which seems to me to be the one told by Arrumpa. Several Indian tribes had stories of a large extinct animal which they called the Big Moose, or the Big Elk, because moose and elk were the largest animals they knew.
I am not quite certain of the places mentioned in this story, because the country has so greatly changed, but it must have been in Florida or Georgia, probably about where the Savannah River is now. It is in that part of the country we have the proof that man was here in America at the same time as the mammoth.
Shell mounds occur all along the coast. No doubt the first permanent trails led to them from the hunting-grounds. Every year the tribe went down to gather sea-food, and left great piles of shells many feet deep, sometimes covering several acres. It is from these mounds that we discover the most that we know about early man in the United States.
There are three different opinions as to where the first men in America came from. First, that they came from some place in the North that is now covered with Arctic ice; second, that they came from Europe and Africa by way of some islands that are now sunk beneath the Atlantic Ocean; third, that they came from Asia across Behring Strait and the Aleutian Islands.
The third theory seems the most reasonable. But also it is very likely that some people did come from the lost islands in the Atlantic, and left traces in South America and the West Indies. It may be that Dorcas Jane and Oliver will yet meet somebody in the Museum country who can tell them about it.
The Great Cold that Arrumpa speaks about must have been the Ice Age, that geologists tell us once covered the continent of North America, almost down to the Ohio River. It came and went slowly, and probably so changed the climate that the elephants, tigers, camels, and other animals that used to be found in the United States could no longer live in it.
Tamal-Pyweack--Wall-of-Shining-Rocks--is an Indian name for the Rocky Mountains.Backbone-of-the-Worldis another.
The Country of the Dry Washes is between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas, toward the south. A dry wash is the bed of a river that runs only in the rainy season. As such rivers usually run very swiftly, they make great ragged gashes across a country.
There are several places in the Rockies calledWind Trap. The Crooked Horn might have been Pike's Peak, as you can see by the pictures. The white men had to rediscover this trail for themselves, for the Indians seemed to have forgotten it, but the railroad that passes through the Rockies, near Pike's Peak, follows the old trail of the Bighorn.
It is very likely that the Indian in America had the dog for his friend as soon as he had fire, if not before it. Most of the Indian stories of the origin of fire make the coyote the first discoverer and bringer of fire to man. The words that Howkawanda said before he killed the Bighorn were probably the same that every Indian hunter uses when he goes hunting big game: "O brother, we are about to kill you, we hope that you will understand and forgive us." Unless they say something like that the spirit of the animal killed might do them some mischief.
Indian corn,mahiz, or maize, is supposed to have come originally from Central America. But the strange thing about it is that no specimen of the wild plant from which it might have developed has ever been found. This would indicate that the development must have taken place a very long time ago, and the parent corn may have belonged to the age of the mastodon and other extinct creatures.
Different tribes probably brought it into the United States at different times. Some of it came up the Atlantic Coast, across the West Indies. The fragments of legend from which I made the story of the Corn Woman were found among the Indians that were living in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee at the time the white men came.
Chihuahua is a province and city in Old Mexico, the trail that leads to it one of the oldest lines of tribal migration on the continent.
To be given to the Sun meant to have your heart cut out on a sacrificial stone, usually on the top of a hill, or other high place. The Aztecs were an ancient Mexican people who practiced this kind of sacrifice as a part of their religion. If it was from them the Corn Woman obtained the seed, it must have been before they moved south to Mexico City, where the Spaniards found them in the sixteenth century.
Ateocaliwas an Aztec temple.
Atipiis the sort of tent used by the Plains Indians, made of tanned skins. It is sometimes called alodge, and the poles on which the skins are hung are usually cut from the tree which for this reason is called the lodge-pole pine. It is important to remember things like this. By knowing the type of house used, you can tell more about the kind of life lived by that tribe than by any other one thing. When the poles were banked up with earth the house was called anearth lodge. If thatched with brush and grass, awickiup. In the eastern United States, where huts were covered with bark, they were generally called wigwams. In the desert, if the house was built of sticks and earth or brush, it was called ahogan, and if of earth made into rude bricks, apueblo.
The Queres Indians live all along the Rio Grande in pueblos, since there is no need of their living now in the cliffs. You can read about them at Ty-uonyi in "The Delight-Makers."
Akivais the underground chamber of the house, or if not underground, at least without doors, entered from the top by means of a ladder.
Shipapu, the place from which the Queres and other pueblo Indians came, means, in the Queres language, "Black Lake of Tears," and according to the Zuñi, "Place of Encompassing Mist," neither of which sounds like a pleasant place to live. Nevertheless, all the Queres expect to go there when they die. It is the Underworld from which the Twin Brothers led them when the mud of the earliest world was scarcely dried, and they seem to have gone wandering about until they found Ty-uonyi, where they settled.
The stone puma, which Moke-icha thought was carved in her honor, can still be seen on the mesa back from the river, south of Tyuonyi. But the Navajo need not have made fun of the Cliff-Dwellers for praying to a puma, since the Navajos of to-day still say their prayers to the bear. The Navajos are a wandering tribe, and pretend to despise all people who live in fixed dwellings.
The "ghosts of prayer plumes," which Moke-icha saw in the sky, is the Milky Way. The Queres pray by the use of small feathered sticks planted in the ground or in crevices of the rocks in high and lonely places. As the best feathers for this purpose are white, and as everything is thought of by Indians as having a spirit, it was easy for them to think of that wonderful drift of stars across the sky as the spirits of prayers, traveling to Those Above. If ever you should think of making a prayer plume for yourself, do not on any account use the feathers of owl or crow, as these are black prayers and might get you accused of witchcraft.
The Uakanyi, to which Tse-tse wished to belong, were the Shamans of War; they had all the secrets of strategy and spells to protect a man from his enemies. There were also Shamans of hunting, of medicine and priestcraft.
It was while the Queres were on their way from Shipapu that the Delight-Makers were sent to keep the people cheerful. The white mud with which they daubed themselves is a symbol of light, and the corn leaves tied in their hair signify fruitfulness, for the corn needs cheering up also. There must be something in it, for you notice that clowns, whose business it is to make people laugh, always daub themselves with white.
THE MOUND-BUILDER'S STORY
The Mound-Builders lived in the Mississippi Valley about a thousand years ago. They built chiefly north of the Ohio River, until they were driven out by the Lenni-Lenape about five hundred years before the English and French began to settle that country. They went south and are probably the same people we know as Creeks and Cherokees.
Tallegewiis the only name for the Mound-Builders that has come down to us, though some people insist that it ought to beAllegewi, and the singular instead of beingTallegashould beAllega.
TheLenni-Lenapeare the tribes we know as Delawares. The name means "Real People."
TheMingweorMingoesare the tribes that the French called Iroquois, and the English, Five Nations. They called themselves "People of the Long House." Mingwe was the name by which they were known to other tribes, and means "stealthy," "treacherous." All Indian tribes have several names.
TheOnondagawere one of the five nations of the Iroquois. They lived in western New York.
Shinakiwas somewhere in the great forest of Canada.Namaesippumeans "Fish River," and must have been that part of the St. Lawrence between Lakes Erie and Huron.
ThePeace Markwas only one of the significant ways in which Indians painted their faces. The marks always meant as much to other Indians as the device on a knight's shield meant in the Middle Ages.
Sciotomeans "long legs," in reference to the river's many branches.
Wabashikimeans "gleaming white," on account of the white limestone along its upper course.MaumeeandMiamiareforms of the same word, the name of the tribe that once lived along those waters.
Kaskaskiaisalso the name of a tribe and means, "They scrape them off," or something of that kind, referring to the manner in which they get rid of their enemies, the Peorias.
The Indian word from which we takeSanduskymeans "cold springs," or "good water, here," or "water pools," according to the person who uses it.
You will find all these places on the map.
"G'we!" or "Gowe!" as it is sometimes written, was the war cry of the Lenape and the Mingwe on their joint wars. At least that was the way it sounded to the people who heard it. Along the eastern front of these nations it was softened to "Zowie!" and in that form you can hear the people of eastern New York and Vermont still using it as slang.
The
Red Score
of the Lenni-Lenape was a picture writing made in red chalk on birch bark, telling how the tribe came down out of Shinaki and drove out the Tallegewi in a hundred years' war. Several imperfect copies of it are still in existence and one nearly perfect interpretation made for the English colonists. It was in the nature of short-hand memoranda of the most interesting items of their tribal history, but unless Oliver and Dorcas Jane meet somebody in the Museum country who knew the Tellings that went with the Red Score, it is unlikely we shall ever know just what did happen.
Any early map of the Ohio Valley, or any good automobile map of the country south and east of the Great Lakes, will give the Muskingham-Mahoning Trail, which was much used by the first white settlers in that country. The same is true of the old Iroquois Trade Trail, as it is still a well-traveled country road through the heart of New York State.Muskinghammeans "Elk's Eye," and referred to the clear brown color of the water.Mahoningmeans "Salt Lick," or, more literally, "There a Lick."
Mohican-ittuck, the old name for the Hudson River, means the river of the Mohicans, whose hunting-grounds were along its upper reaches.
Niagaraprobably means something in connection with the river at that point, the narrows, or the neck. According to the old spelling it should have been pronounced Nee-ä-gär'-ä, but it isn't.
Adirondackmeans "Bark-Eaters," a local name for the tribe that once lived there and in seasons of scarcity ate the inner bark of the birch tree.
Algonquian is a name for one of the great tribal groups, several members of which occupied the New England country at the beginning of our history. The name probably means "Place of the Fish-Spearing," in reference to the prow of the canoe, which was occupied by the man with the fish spear. The Eastern Algonquians were all canoers.
Wabanikimeans "Eastlanders," people living toward the East.
The American Indians, like all other people in the world, believed in supernatural beings of many sorts, spirits of woods and rocks, Underwater People and an Underworld. They had stories of ghosts and flying heads and giants. Most of the tribes believed in animals that, when they were alone, laid off their animal skins and thought and behaved as men. Some of them thought of the moon and stars as other worlds like ours, inhabited by people like us who occasionally came to earth and took away with them mortals whom they loved. In the various tribal legends can be found the elements of almost every sort of European fairy tale.
Shamanis not an Indian word at all, but has been generally adopted as a term of respect to indicate men or women who became wise in the things of the spirit. Sometimes a knowledge of healing herbs was included in the Shaman's education, and often he gave advice on personal matters. But the chief business of the Shaman was to keep man reconciled with the spirit world, to persuade it to be on his side, or to prevent the spirits from doing him harm. A Shaman was not a priest, nor was he elected to office, and in some tribes he did not even go to war, but stayed at home to protect the women and children. Any one could be a Shaman who thought himself equal to it and could persuade people to believe in him.
Taryenya-wagonwas the Great Spirit of the Five Nations, who was also called "Holder of the Heavens."
Indian children always belong to the mother's side of the house. The only way in which the Shaman's son could be born an Onondaga was for the mother to be adopted into the tribe before the son was born. Adoptions were very common, orphans, prisoners of war, and even white people being made members of the tribe in this way.
The Great Admiral was, of course, Christopher Columbus. You will find all about him and the other Spanish gentlemen in the school history.
Something special deserves to be said about Panfilo de Narvaez, since it was he who set the Spanish exploration of the territory of the United States in motion. He landed on the west coast of Florida in 1548, and after penetrating only a little way into the interior was driven out by the Indians. But he left Juan Ortiz, one of his men, a prisoner among them, who was afterward discovered by Soto and became his interpreter and guide.
There is no good English equivalent for Soto's title ofAdelantado. It means the officer in charge of a newly discovered country.Cayis an old Spanish word for islet. "Key" is an English version of the same word.Cay Verdeis "Green Islet."
The pearls of Cofachique were fresh-water pearls, very good ones, too, such as are still found in many American rivers and creeks.
The Indians that Soto found were very likely descended from the earlier Mound-Builders of the Ohio Valley. They showed a more advanced civilization, which was natural, since it was four or five hundred years after the Lenni-Lenape drove them south. Later they were called "Creeks" by the English, on account of the great number of streams in their country.
CaciqueandCacicawere titles brought up by the Spaniards from Mexico and applied to any sort of tribal rulers. They are used in all the old manuscripts and have been adopted generally by modern writers, since no one knows just what were the native words.
The reason the Egret gives for the bird dances--that it makes the world work together better--she must have learned from an Indian, since there is always some such reason back of every primitive dance. It makes the corn grow or the rain fall or the heart of the enemy to weaken. The Cofachiquans were not the only people who learned their dances from the water birds, as the ancient Greeks had a very beautiful one which they took from the cranes and another from goats leaping on the hills.
Hernando de Soto landed first at Tampa Bay in Florida, and after a short excursion into the country, wintered at Ana-ica Apalache, an Indian town on Apalachee Bay, the same at which Panfilo de Narvaez had beaten his spurs into nails to make the boats in which he and most of his men perished. It was between Tampa and Anaica Apalache that Soto met and rescued Juan Ortiz, who had been all that time a prisoner and slave to the Indians.
When the Princess says that Talimeco was a White Town, she means that it was a Town of Refuge, a Peace Town, in which no killing could be done. Several Indian tribes had these sanctuaries.
In an account of Soto's expedition, which was written sometime afterward from the stories of survivors, it is said by one that the Princess went with him of her own accord, and by another that she was a prisoner. The truth probably is that if she had not gone willingly, she would have been compelled. There is also mention of the man to whom she gave the pearls for assisting at her escape, six pounds of them, as large as hazel nuts, though the man himself would never tell where he got them.
The story of Soto's death, together with many other interesting things, can be read in the translation of the original account made by Frederick Webb Hodge.
Cabeza de Vaca was one of Narvaez's men who was cast ashore in one of the two boats ever heard from, on the coast of Texas. He wandered for six years in that country before reaching the Spanish settlements in Old Mexico, and it was his account of what he saw there and in Florida that led to the later expeditions of both Soto and Coronado.
Francisco de Coronado brought his expedition up from Old Mexico in 1540, and reached Wichita in the summer of 1541. His party was the first to see and describe the buffalo. There is an account of the expedition written by Castenada, one of his men, translated by Frederick Webb Hodge, which is easy and interesting reading.
The Seven Cities were the pueblos of Old Zuñi, some of which are still inhabited. Ruins of the others may be seen in the Valley of Zuñi in New Mexico. The name is a Spanish corruption ofAshiwi, their own name for themselves. We do not know why the early explorers called the country "Cibola."
The Colorado River was first calledRio del Tizón, "River of the Brand," by the Spaniards, on account of the local custom of carrying fire in rolls of cedar bark. Coronado's men were the first to discover the Grand Cañon.
Pueblo, the Spanish word for "town," is applied to all Indians living in the terraced houses of the southwest. The Zuñis, Hopis, and Queres are the principal pueblo tribes.
You will findTiguexon the map, somewhere between the Ty-uonyi and the place where the Corn Woman crossed the Rio Grande.Cicuyeis on the map as Pecos, in Texas.
The Pawnees at this time occupied the country around the Platte River. Their name is derived from a word meaning "horn," and refers to their method of dressing the scalplock with grease and paint so that it stood up stiffly, ready to the enemy's hand. Their name for themselves is Chahiksichi-hiks, "Men of men."
TheOld Zuñi Trailmay still be followed from the Rio Grande to the Valley of Zuñi.El Morro, or "Inscription Rock," as it is called, is between Acoma and the city of Old Zuñi which still goes by the name of "Middle Ant Hill of the World."
In a book by Charles Lummis, entitledStrange Corners of Our Country, there is an excellent description of the Rock and copies of the most interesting inscriptions, with translations.
The Padres of Southwestern United States were Franciscan Friars who came as missionaries to the Indians. They were not all of them so unwise as Father Letrado.
Peyote, the dried fruit of a small cactus, the use of which was only known in the old days to a few of the Medicine Men. The effect was like that of opium, and gave the user visions.
The Cheyenne Country, at the time of this story, was south of the Pawnees, along the Taos Trail. All Plains Indians move about a great deal, so that you will not always hear of them in the same neighborhood.
You can read how the Cheyennes were saved from the Hoh by a dog, in a book by George Bird Grinnell, called theFighting Cheyennes. There is also an account in that book of how their Medicine Bundle was taken from them by the Pawnees, and how, partly by force and partly by trickery, three of the arrows were recovered.
The Medicine Bundle of the tribe is as sacred to them as our flag is to us. It stands for something that cannot be expressed in any other way. They feel sure of victory when it goes out with them, and think that if anything is done by a member of the tribe that is contrary to the Medicine of the Tribe, the whole tribe will suffer for it. This very likely is the case with all national emblems; at any rate, it would probably be safer while our tribe is at war not to do anything contrary to what our flag stands for. All that is left of the Cheyenne Bundle is now with the remnant of the tribe in Oklahoma. The fourth arrow is still attached to the Morning Star Bundle of the Pawnees, where it may be seen each year in the spring when the Medicine of the Bundle is renewed.
This is the song the Suh-tai boy--the Suh-tai are a sub-tribe of the Cheyenne--made for his war club:--
"Hickory bough that the wind makes strong,--I made it--Bones of the earth, the granite stone,--I made it--Hide of the bull to bind them both,--I made it--Death to the foe who destroys our land,--We make it!"
The line that the Suh-tai boy drew between himself and the pursuing Potawatomi was probably a line of sacred meal, or tobacco dust, drawn across the trail while saying, "Give me protection from my enemies; let none of them pass this line. Shield my heart from them. Let not my life be threatened." Unless the enemy possesses a stronger Medicine, this makes one safe.
[Transcribers Note: ASCII just doesn't contain all the characters required for the Glossary. This is an
attempt
at rendering the Glossary.]
ä sounds like a in father
a " " a " bay
a " " a " fat
á " " a " sofa
e " " a " ace
e " " e " met
e " " e " me
e " " e " her
i " " e " eve
i " " i " pin
i " " i " pine
o " " o " note
o " " o " not
u " " oo " food
u " " u " nut
Ä'-co-mä
A-che'-se
Ä-de-län-tä-do
Äl-tä-pä'-hä
Äl'-vär Nuñez (noon'-yath) Cä-be'-zä (thä) d_eVä'-cä
Än-ä-i'-cä
Ä-pach'-e
Ä-pä-lä'-che
Ä-pun-ke'-wis
Är-äp'-ä-hoes
Är-rum'-pä
Bäl-bo'-ä
Bi's-cay'-ne
Cabeza de Vaca (cä-be'-thä d_eVä'-cä)
C-ci'-cä
Cä-cique'
Cä-ho'-ki-a
Cay Verd'-e
Cen-te-o'-tli
Chä-hik-si-chi'-hiks
Cheyenne (shi-en')
Chi-ä'
Chihuahua (chi-wä'-wa)
Ci'-bo-lä
Ci'-cu-ye
Ci'-no-äve
Co-chi'-ti
Co-fä-vhi'que
Co-fäque'
Co-man'che
Cor-tez'
Di-ne'
El Mor'-ro
Es'-te-vän
Frän-cis'-co deCo-ro-nä'-do
Frän-ces'-co Le-trä'-do
Gä-hon'-gä
Gän-dä'-yäh
Hä-lo'-nä
Hä'-wi-kuh
Her-nän'-do deSo'-to
His-pä-ni-o'-lä
Ho'-gan
Ho-he'
Ho'-pi
Ho-tai' (ti)
How-ka-wän'-dä
I'-ró-quois
Is'-lay
I_s-si-wün'
Juan de Oñate (hwän deon-yä'-te)
Juan Ortiz (hwän or'-tiz)
Kä-bey'-de
Kä-nä'-w_á_h
Kás-kas'-kl-a
Kät'-zi-mo
K'ia-ki'-mä
Ki'-ó-was
Kit-käh-häh'-ki
Ki'-vä
Kó-kó'-mó
Koos-koos'-ki
Kó-shä'-re
Lén'-ni-Len-ape'
Lü'-cäs de Ayllon (Il'-yon)
Lujan (lü-hän')
Mahiz (mä-iz')
Mä'-hüts
Mäl-do-nä'-do
Mät'-sä-ki
Mén'-gwé
Mesquite (mes-keét')
MÃn'-go
Mó-hÃ'-cán-Ãt'-tück
Mo-ke-Ãch'-ä
M'toü'-lin
Müs-king'-ham
Nä-mae-sip'-pu
Narvaez (när-vä'-eth)
Navajo (nä'-vä-hó)
N_i-é'-tó
Nó'-päl
Nü-ke'-wis
Occatilla (õc-cä-til'-ya)
Ock-mül'-gée
O'-co-nee
O-cüt'-e
O-dów'-as
O-ge'-chee
Olla (ól'-yä)
Ong-yä-tás'-se
On-on-da'-gä
O-pä'-tä
O-wén-üng'-ä
Pän-fi'-lo de När-vä'-ez (eth)
Pän-ü'-co
Paw-nee'
Pe'-cós
Pe'-dró Mo'-ron
Pe-ri'-co
Pe-yo'-te
Pi-rä'-guäs
Pitahaya (pit-ä-hi'-ä)
Pi-zär'-ro
Ponce (pón'-the) d_eLe-on'
Pót-ä-wät'-ä-mi
Pueblo (pwéb'-tó)
Que-re'-chos
Que'-res
Que-re-sän'
QuÃ-vi'-rä
R_i'-tó de los Frijoles (frÃ-ho'-les)
Sahuaro (sä-wä'-ró)
Scioto (sÃ-ó'-to)
Shä'-man
Shi-nák'-i
Shi'p-ä-pü'
Shi-wi'-nä
Shó-sho'-nes
Shüng-ä-ke'-lä
Sonse'-só, ts_e'-nä
Süh-tai' (ti)
Tä'-kü-Wä'-kin
Täl-Ã-me'-co
Täl-le'-gä
Täl-le-ge'-wi
Tä'-mäl-Py-we-ack'
Tä'-os
Tär-yen-ya-wag'-on
Tejo (ta'-ho)
Ten'ä-säs
Te-o-cäl'-es
Thlä-po-po-ke'-ä
Ti-ä'-kens
Tiguex (ti'-gash)
Ti'-pi
Tom'-bes
To-yä-län'-ne
Tse-tse-yo'-te
Tsis-tsis'-täs
Tus-cä-loos'-ä
Ty-ü-on'-yi
U-ä-kän-yi'
Vär'-gäs
Wä-bä-moo'-in
Wä-bä-ni'-ki
Wä-bä-shi'-ki
Wap'-i-ti
Wich'-i-täs
Zuñà (zun'-yee)