Early Account of the Indians Living on Long Island, New York

Early Account of the Indians Living on Long Island, New York

The Indians of Long Island were designated on the 
Dutch maps Mohegans, and have been so called by his- 
torians. This is but a sub-title under the general term 
Algonquins, covering a great race of savages scattered 
over Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware and other 
States. 

The Indians of the island were tall and straight, mus- 
cular and agile, with straight hair and reddish-brown 
complexion. Their language was the Algonquin, the 
highly descriptive tongue in which the apostle Eliot 
wrote the Indian Bible, and which was used by other 
missionaries. It was the language that greeted the col- 
onists at Roanoke, and the Pilgrims at Plymouth. It 
was spoken through twenty degrees of latitude and sixty 
degrees of longitude. Strange that a language which a 
century ago was spoken so widely and freely between the 
aborigines and the settlers should have so perished that 
it is doubted whether a man is living who can speak it or 
read the Indian Bible, so laboriously prepared by the 
apostolic John Eliot. 

The Indian names of Long Island are said to be Se- 
wanhacky, Wamponomon and Paumanake. These names, 
or at least the first two, seem to have arisen from the 
abundance of the quahog or hard clam, the shell of which 
furnished the wampun or sewant, which in the earlier 
times was the money of the country, as well as the 
material for the embroidery and the record symbols of 
the Indian belts. Matouwacs is the name given the 
island on the earliest Dutch maps. The. deed to the 
settlers at Easthampton styles it Paumanake. Rev. 
William Hubbard, of Ipswich, in his history of New 
England, called it Mattamwake. In books and deeds it 
bears other names, as Meitowax, Metoac, etc. Sewan- 
hacky and Wamponomon both signify the island, or place, 
of shells. Of Mattanwake Judge Furman says: "In 
the Narragansett language mattan was a term used to 
signify anything fine or good, and duke or ake meant land 
or earth; thus the whole word meant the good or pleasant 
land, which was certainly highly characteristic of Long 
Island, even at that period of its early settlement." 

The religious notions of the Long Island Indians are 
described in a communication from the Rev. Samson 
Occum, published in the collections of the Massachusetts 
Historical Society. His words are: " They believe in a 
plurality of gods, and in one great and good being, who 
controls all the rest. They likewise believe in an evil 
spirit, and have their conjurors or paw-waws." The 
ceremony performed by these characters was so odious 
in the opinion of the whole people that the duke's laws 
of 1665 enacted that ''no Indian shall be permitted to 
paw-waw or perform worship to the devil in any town 
within this government." It is evident, however, that they 
still kept up their devil worship at the visit of the 
Labadists in 1679-80. They also had divinities in the 
winds and waters. It is surprising how few tokens are 
found, in the shape of idols, or carvings of any kind, to 
signify a reverence for their gods. The only thing which 
has attracted particular attention is " the foot-print of the 
evil spirit "^the impression of a foot on a boulder, now 
iu the possession of the Long Island Historical Society, 
which had lain upon Montauk Point from the earliest 
English knowledge, and probably for centuries before, 
and which was always an object of Indian veneration. 

The lodges or wigwams of the Long Island Indians 
were fifteen or twenty feet wide, having a frame of two 
rows of poles bent together and covered with rushes, 
except along the ridge, where an opening was left for 
smoke to escape. This frame of poles was interlaced 
with the bark of trees, and continued to a length of 180 
feet or more, as the families conjointly occupying the 
wigwam might require. Fires were built along the floor, 
each family having its own for cooking and for comfort 
in cold weather. The principal household utensils were 
earthen pots and gourds for holding water. 

The original fur and feather clothing of these savages 
gave place to cloth after the advent of Europeans. At 
first a blanket about the shoulders and a cloth hanging 
from a belt about the waist composed their costume, but 
they afterward imitated the dress of the whites. All were 
fond of decoration. In early deeds from them there is a 
peculiar reservation of " the trees in what eagles do build 
their nests," doubtless in order to secure to them the 
feathers of the royal bird, which were among their valued 
adornments. 

Their canoes were of different sizes, from the light 
shallop to those of sixty feet in length. They were 
wrought out of logs with stone axes, with the help of fire. 
Their pottery, of which specimens are found in the shell 
heaps, is of clay, mixed with water, hollowed out by the 
hand and baked. Most of the specimens are very inferior. 
Private collections abound in arrow-heads, stone axes, 
and the pestles and mortars which served them for mills. 
The Long Island Historical Society has a collection of 
Indian relics, in which the only metallic instrument is 
an ax of native copper unearthed a few years ago at 
Rockaway, together with a few stone axes and a quantity 
of spear heads, apparently buried for preservation. 

Long Island was the great source of the supply of 
wampun or sewant — the Indian shell money, as well as 
the beads which they wore as ornaments or fastened to 
their clothing. Along the shores of the island immense 
deposits of shells once existed (some of which yet remain), 
from which the blue portion forming the eye was care- 
fully removed for making blue beads; these were 
worth three times as much as the white, which were 
made from the inner pillars of the conch shell or 
periwinkle. 

Long Island will always be a monumental point in 
history as the place to which Hudson and his mariners 
first came as the key to open a world in commerce and 
civilization, to which the discoveries of Columbus were 
but the vestibule. The earliest account of the Indians 
of the island is that given by Hudson in the narrative of 
his voyage of 1609. On the 4th of September of that 
year he came to anchor in Gravesend Bay. He says the 
Canarsie Indians came on board his vessel without any 
apprehension and seemed very glad of his coming. They 
brought with them green tobacco and exchanged it for 
knives and beads. They were clad in deer skins, well 
dressed, and were "very civil." On a subsequent visit 
some of them were dressed in "mantles of feathers " and 
some in " skins of diver sorts of good furs." Hudson states 
that " they had yellow copper, and red copper tobacco 
pipes, and ornaments of copper about their necks;" also 
that they had currants and "great store of maize or 
Indian corn, whereof they made good bread." They also 
brought him hemp. Some of his men landed where is 
now the town of Gravesend and met many men, women 
and children, who gave them tobacco. They described 
the country to Hudson as " full of great tall oaks, and 
the lands as pleasant with grass and flowers and goodly 
trees as they had ever seen." 

Doubtless the natives presented their very best festal 
appearance to the great captain of the "big canoe;" 
though when, seventy years after (in 1679-80). when they 
were visited by the Labadist agents, Dankers and Sluyter, 
after contact with the early settlers, they had sadly de- 
generated, and the best collection that has been made of 
their utensils and adornments fails to show any of the 
yellow copper ornaments. 

Names Indians Called Long Island,New York

Early Native American Names for Long Island

DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK HISTORY 
OF COLONIAL TIMES. 
The names by which Long Island was called 
by the Indians were various. Among them 
were Mattanwake, Meitowax, Sewanhacky 
(Island of Shells), Paumanake, etc. By rea- 
son of its form the early settlers applied to 
the island its present name. The colonial Legis- 
lature in 1693 changed it to Nassau, in honor of 
William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, and required that 
all legal instruments should recognize that name. It 
never acquired more than a partial use, and though the 
act is unrepealed the name is obsolete. 

Yosemite California Indian Wars With Gold Miners of 1851

Yosemite California Indian Wars With Gold Miners of 1851

Dr. Bunnell, in his book already referred to, has given the soldiers' and white men's account of the cause of the Indian war of 1851, but a statement of the grievances on the part of the Indians, which caused the uniting of all the different tribes in the mining region adjacent to Yosemite, in an attempt to drive the white invaders from their country, has never been published, and a brief account of these grievances may be interesting.

AGGRESSIONS BY THE WHITE SETTLERS.

The first parties of prospecting miners were welcomed by the Indians with their usual friendliness and hospitality toward strangers—a universal characteristic of these tribes,—and the mining for gold was watched with great interest. They soon learned the value of the gold dust, and some of them engaged in mining, and exchanged their gold at the trading stations for blankets and fancy trinkets, at an enormous profit to the traders, and peace and good feeling prevailed for a short time.

A Short History of the Pottawatomie Indians

SHORT HISTORY OF THE POTTAWATOMIE INDIANS

Me-Te-A, a Pottawatomie Chief. 

Pottawatomie as they appear to have been anciently known, are a branch of the 
Chippewas [Ojibwasj and trace their ancestral line back to the primitive family 
of the Algonqutns. The name, by common repute, about the middle of the sev- 
enteenth century, was understood to be a nation of tire-makers, the present form 
of the word being derived, etymologieally, from Pa-ta-wa, to expand or inflate the 
cheeks, as in the act of blowing a fire to kindle it, and mc. a nation, hence the 
name — from the apparent facility with which they kindled the council fire. 

The first notice we have of them was in 1641, when it is stated that they 
abandoned their own country (Green Bay), and took refuge among the Cbippewas, 
so as to secure themselves from their enemies, the Sioux, who, it would seem, 
having been at war with had well-nigh overcome them. In 1660, Father Allouez, 
a French Missionary, speaks of the Pottawatotuies as occupying territory 
extending from Green Bay to. the head of Lake Superior, and southward to the 
countries of the Sacs, Foxts and Miamis, and that traders had preceded him. 
Ten years later, they returned to Green Bay and occupied the borders of Lake 
Michigan on the north. Subsequently, about the beginning of the eighteenth 
century, they had traced the eastern coast of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the 
river St. Joseph, where, and to the southward of Lake Michigan, a large body of 
them held possession toward the middle of the nineteenth century. Their occu- 
pancy of this territory by the Pottawatomies was at. first permissive, only, on the 
part of the Miamis, but, in the course of'time, their right was acknowledged by 
giving them a voice in the making of treaties, involving also the right of cession. 

Being somewhat migratory they have acquired, as a consequence, the character of 
being aggressive, while they quietly take possession of territory, the right to 

which is subsequently acknowledged. And, while it may be true that they sometimes 
occupied territory without permission, as a rule, it is true, also, that such 

change of locality is the result of forcible retirement from their own country, 

as was thefact upon their first removal from Green Bay. 

During the progress of the Nicholas conspiracy, in 1747, the Pottawatomies 
were generally on the side of the French against the English, as were the Otta- 
was. In a communication from M. de Lougueuil, Commandant at Detroit, to 
the Canadian Governor, giving in review the situation of civil and military affairs

in Canada in 1747,

While the conspiracy of Pontiac was in process of development, the Potta- 
watomies, with other tribes heretofore occupying relations of amity with the 
French, were visited by the agents of Pontiac, or by the chief in person, to secure 
their influence in the "furtherance of his plans. It required but little to arouse 
the feelings of these people in favor of their common ally, the French, and elicit 
the deep interest incident to the former relations existing between them. A 
fresh impetus was given to the current of sentiment prevailing amongst them, in 
the act of the surrender of the French garrison at Detroit to the English, which 
occurred on the 10th of November, 1760. At that place, the Pottawatomies and 
Wyandots were encamped below Detroit, on the opposite side of the river, and, 
seemingly, witnessed the transfer with indifference, preferring to await the issue 
of events speedily to follow. The mutteriugs of the impending storm were dis- 
tinctly heard in the early summer of 1751. 

Early in the spring of 1763, after the garrison at Fort Miami, on the Mau- 
mee, had been surrendered to the English, the commandant was warned of the 
contemplated uprising of the Indians. A conference of the adjacent chiefs, held 
at his suggestion, developed the true situation, an account of which was com- 
municated to the English commandant at Detroit. This latter officer, resting in 
confidence upon the quiet demeanor of the Pottawatomies surrounding the post, 
discredited the report. He was soon, however, made only too conscious of his 
criminal disbelief. In the gatherings of the tribes which followed, the Pottawat- 
omies were in the front rank, anxious to participate in the coming conflict. 

On the 25th of May, of that year, the old post at St. Joseph fell into the 
hands of the conspirators, the Pottawatomies bearing Pontiac's order for the sac- 
rifice of the garrison. No further impulse was required to insure the prompt 
execution of the order. Two days later, the same determined band, in the 
further execution of orders, captured the fort at Kekionga, by the methods used 
in Indian warfare — treachery, with the accompaniments of human sacrifice. 

Passing to the results of the expedition of Gen. Wayne, in 1794, the Pot- 
tawatomies "following the course of events, participated in the conference and 
treaty at Greenville,'" in August, 1795, and allied themselves with the promoters 
of peace along the frontiers of the Northwest. They maintained that relation, 
with few exceptions, until the period of Tecumseh's effort at. confederating the 
tribes, and his subsequent alliance with Great Britain, in 1S1 2, during which 
time their peace propensities were conveniently laid aside. 

After the close of that war, amicable relations were again resumed, and, on 
the 18th of July, 1S15, the Pottawatomies concluded a treaty or peace with the 
United States, which was agreed to be perpetual. 

Metea was a war chief of the Pottawatomies, who, in the course of his career 

achieved a somewhat enviable notoriety. His tribe, during the greater part of the 

last century, inhabited the region to the northward of the present site of Fort 

Wayne. 
About the period of the war of 1812, Metea was at the zenith of his power and 
influence, among the kindred tribes. " His villages were on the Little St. Joseph 
river, one on the table-land where Cedarville now is, near the mouth, but on the 
north side of Cedar Creek ; and the other about seven miles from Fort Wayne, 
on the north side of St. Joseph, on a section of land granted by the Miami 
Indians at the treaty held in 1826, at the mouth of the Mississinewa, at Paradise 
Springs (Wabash) to John B. Bourie, which section was described so as to 
include Chop-a tie village, perhaps better known as the ' Bourie Section.' On 
the 10th of September, 1812, when Gen. Harrison's army was forcing its 
march to raise the seige which the Indians were then holding over Fort Wayne, 
Me-te-a, and a few of his braves, planned an ambush at the Five Mile Swamp, 
where Wayne's trace crossed it, and perhaps where the present county road 
crosses it, five miles southeast of this city. Having made an ambush on both 
sides of the road, in a narrow defile where the troops would have to crowd 
together, they laid in wait for the army; but Maj. Mann, a spy of Gen. 
Harrison, with a few avant courier*, discovered it in time to save the effusion of 
blood in the army. Metea, having located himself behind a tree, left his elbow 
exposed as it laid over the breech of his rifle, resting on his left shoulder. This

 Maj. Mann discovered, and instantly took aim, and firing, broke the arm of the 
brave chief; and. discovering that he had not killed him, he sprang off in hot 
pursuit after Metea, who gathered up his swinging and crippled arm, fled with 
a loud 'Ugh ! ugh !' and. by the hardest effort, escaped to Fort Wayne in time 
to advise "the besieging Indians of the approach of Gen. Harrison's army, at 
which they prepared to leave, and left that afternoon. 

" The arm of the chief healed up, but the bone never knit, which left it 
entirely useless. He often told over the incident of his wound, and chase by 
Maj. Mann, and gave him great praise for being a brave and athletic man. .It 
was supposed that if Mann's men, who were with him as spies, had been as quick 
and courageous as he was himself, that Metea would have paid the penalty of that 
ambuscade with his scalp. 

" He was a brave, generous, and intelligent Iudian, who is described by 
those who knew him well, to have been not only an orator, but a powerful reasoner 
and practical man, especially at the treaties in which he took part. In addition 

He lived in this vicinity, as is known, from 1800 to 1827, in May of 
which hitter year, he came to his death by poison, said to have been surrepti- 
tiously administered by some malevolent Indians who were unjustly incensed at 
him for his adherence to the terms of the treaty of 1826, made at the mouth of the 
Mississinewa. The poison was -opposed to have been the root of the Mayapple. 

He, the night before his death, he was believed to have been poisoned, and, in the 
the morning, found dead, his tongue having swollen'to such an extent as to have 
protruded far through filling it so as to prevent breathing. He was 
then buried on the sand-hill overlooking the St. Mary's and between where Fort 
Wayne College now stands, at the west end of Wayne street and the west end of 
Berry street. * 

" In that unmarked spot sleeps, in an undisturbed state, all that was mortal 
of the Pottawatie chief Metea, who, for half a century or more, it is thought, 
prior to May, 1827, had been an occupant of this soil, which had been reclaimed 
with such an indifferent spirit on the part of the whites, as that they nearly for-get

 that it was once Indian territory, and since which death, on the spot where 
stood his and the Indians' beloved Ke-ki-ong-a I blackberry patch), has sprung 

up abeautiful city. But here comes a musing spirit; their day if past, their fires are 

out ; the deer no longer bounds before them ; the plow is iii their hunting-grounds

 the as rings through the woods, once only familiar with the rifle's report and the' 

war-whoop; the bark canoe is no longer on the river; the springs are dry; civil- 
ization has blotted out that race, 

'"And with his frail breath, his power has passed away, 
His deeds, his thoughts, are buried with his clay.' " 

WAU-BUN-SEE 

was another noted chief of the Pottawatomies— noted especially for his exhibi- 
tions of cruelty and revenge. He often indulged in liquor, and when thus 
excited, his appearance and manner were those of a demon, giving loose rein to his 
vicious temper. He was, however, reputed to be a brave and efficient warrior. 

" The year 1812," says Schoolcraft, " was noted as the acme of the outburst 
of every malignant feeling which appears to have been in the heart of Western 
Iudians. The black reverse of the American arms at Detroit, Hull's surrender 
— the horrid massacre of the retiring American garrison of Chicago, who were 
butchered like so many cattle on the sandy shores of Lake Michigan— the wild 
howl of the tribes along the whole frontiers, came like the fierce' rushing of a 
tornado, which threatens to destroy entire villages. Among the elements of this 
tornado was the wild samgium, or war-whoop of Wau-bun-see. He was a war 
chief of some note at Chicago, distinguished for his ferocious and brutal character." 
An exhibition of this is given in connection with a dispute between two of 
his squaws. One of them, to gain her point, went to the chief and accused the 
other of abusing his children. The accused one was peremptorily brought before 
him. Her he ordered to lie down upon the ground on her back, and directed 
the accuser to dispatch her with a tomahawk. A single blow smote the skull. 
" There," said the savage, " let the crows eat her," and left her unburied until 
persu i.lcd to do otherwise. Then he directed the murderess to bury her. This 
she did, but so shallow that the wolves dug up and partly devoured the body. 

Native American Art - Swirl of the Warriors

Native American Art - Swirl of the Warriors

The Swirl of the Warriors

“The greatest event in my life, leaving behind the story that I have told, is to be found at the time the Indians received allotments of land, and were given a home so they could not roam around; and above all, the time when I found religion and became a Christian. I was baptized and confirmed in the Episcopal Church. I married my wife under the holy bonds of matrimony, and am trying to live an upright life. In the roaming life, I fought, I took many scalps, and killed many Indians. Now, put alongside of that the fact that I live in my own home, own my land, have my own family, and am a church member. I like the last life better than the first. In the former life while we lived to ourselves, we were always fighting; in the life now we have peace. The one thing now that is killing me off is our mode 
of life. There is too much confinement; instead of fighting the enemy, I am fighting disease. The white people know about everything, but if they can kill that foul disease, consumption, I shall feel very thankful. As I told you before, I think of the buffalo time, the meat, and the hides, and the desire for it seems almost like a disease, and this is especially true with the old men.”

When asked about his belief concerning the Indian's hereafter, before he became a Christian, he replied: “There was no definite Supreme Being that we believed in. There were a great many gods that we had faith in. I prayed to my own god; then we all heard that after we died we would meet in some good country where we would all be happy. No matter if we had lots of gods, we would all meet in that country. Now, while I cannot read the Bible, nor can I understand the Bible, yet we have preachers in our own language and they tell us that there is one God, and also His Holy Son, and we shall all meet in heaven, and I believe in that. A great many of the Sioux are followers like I am, but like a great many other people, there are many who do one thing and feel another. In the old days the sun was my god, the sun was my fathef's god, and I then thought the sun was my father and the earth was my mother. I sang and danced to the sun; I have my breast and arms tattooed with the sun,] and I pierced my body through offering sacrifices to the sun. Now I look back upon those old Indian customs as foolishness. It is like a man coming out of darkness into light. I was then in the dark; I am now going into the valley of light, learning every day.”