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Antiquities of the Cherokee Indians.
Compiled from the Collection of Rev. Daniel Sabin Buttrick,
Their Missionary from 1817 to 1847; as presented in the Indian
Chieftain, Published at Vinita, Ind. Ter., during the year 1884.
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The source of the following text is Antiquities of the Cherokee
Indians. Compiled from the Collection of Rev. Daniel Sabin Buttrick,
Their Missionary from 1817 to 1847; as presented in the INDIAN
CHIEFTAIN, published at Vinita, Ind. Ter., during the year 1884.
Vinita: Indian Chieftain, Publishers, 1884.
I have followed this text faithfully except for silent emendations
to correct obvious printing errors and to regularize the form of
attributions. No attempt, however, has been made to follow
typographical idiosyncrasies or to produce a facsimile edition. All
footnotes are the editor’s.
The reader should be aware that Buttrick, as well as the often
quoted Boudinot, belonged to that group of scholars who were
attempting to prove that American Indians were members of the
so-called Lost Tribes of Israel. In this thesis, Indians are
believed to share with the Hebrews certain linguistic
characteristics as well as religious beliefs and a common history.
Modern scholars discount these arguments.
Jeffrey Fuller-Freeman
Little Rock, Arkansas 2003
The following letter from Rev. Worcester Willy, who was a missionary
for many years among the Cherokees, gives a short but appropriate
sketch of the life and services of Rev. Daniel S. Buttrick, whose
notes on Cherokee Antiquities have appeared from time to time for
several months, in the columns of the Indian Chieftain, published at
Vinita1, Indian Territory. These notes were dedicated by Mr. Buttrick to John Ross2, who for so many years as the Principal Chief
of the Cherokee Nation, and for whom he cherished a very high
regard, a regard which was the result of an intimate acquaintance
and friendship.
The notes published comprise but a small portion of the writings of
Mr. Buttrick on the Antiquities and other subjects of Cherokee
history, but includes all that has come into our hands. Considering
the fact that they were written more than sixty years ago just as
they were received by a particularly conscientious minister, who
devoted the whole of his mature life to the advancement of what he
conceived to be the highest interests, temporal and spiritual, of
the Cherokee people, we regard them as highly valuable. It may be
that some of the views expressed by the persons from whose lips they
were penned, as they flowed, were colored or tinged to some effect
by their associations with the whites. But that intercourse had
been, even at that late period, comparatively limited, and was
doubtless more general than special, in the impressions made on the
minds of the Indians as the result.
There can be no doubt that after conceding all reasonable allowance
on that account, many, even most of the statements made by the old
persons from whom information was naturally sought, had been
received by them as the traditions of their ancestors handed down
from sire to son, from long periods of time anterior to their
knowledge of the Europeans. And in this view of their origin and
character we regard the antiquities preserved in the notes of Father
Buttrick, meager as they may seem, as of great curiosity and value.
But if there are those among us who can eliminate them from them the
spurious from the genuine, the modern from the ancient, it will add
much to the few grains of golden wheat that remain. The time for
obtaining such information on the subjects to which the notes
relate, and kindred ones, among the Cherokees, if not already gone,
is rapidly passing; and the writer of this brief introduction to
those which follow, will welcome the pen that shall come forward and
record them:
Andover, Mass, May 16th, 1884.
Hon. Wm. P. Ross3: At your request I have obtained the following
facts: Rev. Daniel Sabine Buttrick, was born in Windsor, Mass., Aug.
25th 1789; removed to Richmond, New York, where he made a profession
of religion in 1803; educated at Cooperstown Academy; ordained at
Park street church, Boston, Mass., with Sereno Dwight its Pastor,
Levi Parsons, John Nichols, and Allen Graves, missionaries, Sept.
3d, 1817.
The record of the journey of the company with which Mr. Buttrick
went to the Cherokee mission is:
Dec. 18, 1817.—Arrived at Athens, Ga. Being now near the Indian
country, and finding our spiritual life drooping, we thought it best
to spend a day in fasting and prayer. Accordingly, Friday, 19th, was
set apart for this purpose, and we found it very refreshing to our
souls.
Tuesday, Dec. 23rd.—With great joy and elevation of spirits we
entered the territory of the native. Night coming on, we encamped by
the roadside. We made a tent of our blankets, and built a fire by a
fallen tree. We prepared and took our tea, read a chapter, sung a
psalm entitled “The Travelers’ Psalm,” and with great joy and
satisfaction bowed the knee around the family altar.
Arrived at Brainerd Jan. 4, 1818. Mr. Buttrick labored at Brainerd,
Carmel, Willstown, Hightown, and elsewhere east of the Mississippi.
Removed to Fairfield, west of the Mississippi, in 1839, then
established a station near Beatty’s Prairie and called it Mt. Zion.
His health failing, he went to Dwight Mission, where he spent some
ten years, and died June 8, 1851. He married at Hightown, April 29,
1827, to Miss Elizabeth Proctor, a mission teacher, formerly of
Hopkinton, N.H., who arrived at Hightown in February, 1823. Died at
Dwight Mission Aug. 3, 1847.
Mr. Buttrick was the most enthusiastic and successful missionary the
American Board sent to the Cherokee mission. When he began his work
he determined to learn the Cherokee language, if possible. To do
this he took his blanket and went among the people, purposing to
suffer for the necessaries of life til he could ask for them in
Cherokee. In this effort he so far failed that he was never able to
preach the Gospel in Cherokee. Yet he did succeed in learning the
people, and securing their confidence to an extent that no other man
has ever reached. No grown man has ever been able to learn the
language so as to be able to preach it.
In his later years the Cherokees were accustomed to call him Father
Buttrick. He was remarkably spiritual-minded. It was a great
privilege to be associated with him in Christian work. When he
became too feeble to sustain the care of a station alone, he came to
Dwight Mission and spent the last ten years of his life. During
those years, he spent most of his time in writing, with the purpose,
as he said, to show that the Indian is somebody. He wrote trunks
full of manuscripts on Indian antiquities and Indian languages. He
spent much time in comparing these languages with the Hebrew. He
became convinced that they are all of Hebrew origin. A large
proportion of his writings were lost in the Civil War.
He used to say: “If I ever reach Heaven, it will be a great
satisfaction to tell old Father Abraham that I helped to bring some
of his children there.” When he became too feeble to perform much
labor, his friends at the North urged him to come and spend the last
of his days with them. But he replied: “I should rather die than
hear the great swearing I should be obliged to hear on the great
thoroughfares over which I should be obliged to pass in getting
there.”
Mr. Buttrick gave himself, and all he had, to the Cherokees in the
service of Christ. In the great resurrection day Father Buttrick
will rise and go home with a great company of Cherokees.
With regard to the religious views of the Cherokees, it seems that,
from time immemorial, they have been divided in sentiment. While a
great part have been idolatrous, worshipping the sun, moon, stars,
&c., &c., a small part have denied that system, and taught the
following: There are three beings above, who created all things, are
present everywhere, see everything, govern all things, and will
judge all men. When these beings call any person out of the world,
they must die; and what kind of death these three think anyone
should die, that death is certain. The names of these beings are
U-ha-li-te-qua, great great, or the head of all power, great beyond
expression; A-ta-no-ti—united or the place of uniting; and U-sqa-hu-la.
These three beings are always one in sentiment and action, and
always will be, and, being the governors and proprietors of all
things, they sit on three white seats above, and are the only
objects of worship, to whom all prayers are to be addressed. The
angels are their messengers, and come down to this earth to attend
to the affairs of men.
--Caty Vann.
Thomas Nutsawi
Ye-ho-wa was the name of a king who lived a great while ago. He was
a man, and yet a spirit, a god, a very glorious being. His name was
never to be spoken in common talk. This great king commanded them to
rest every seventh day, and told them that if they should work on
that day they should die, or some of their relatives. They were to
hold their hands still (the palms up) and their talk must be about
God. Ye-ho-wah [sic] was the most sacred name. None must speak it
but persons appointed for the purpose, and they only on the Sabbath.
God created the world in seven days.
--Nutsawi.
That the Cherokees were acquainted with the Sabbath, and the nature
of it, when their present language was formed, is put beyond a doubt
by the language itself. The name for Sabbath, Unotataquaska,”
literally signifies the day, the whole of which is devoted by the
people to a rest from all common labor. But this rest is not opposed
to weariness, nor has it any reference to it, but simply to labor or
action. To rest on account of weariness or fatigue is another word
altogether, thus: Uniawesalaha—they are resting from weariness,
unotataquaska—they are resting, i.e., ceasing from labor a whole
day, keeping Sabbath. So also in Hebrew: “Shabath”—to cease, leave
off, or rest from, work. It is opposed not to weariness, but to work
or action.
--Parkhurst4
The Cherokee names for Saturday and Monday also equally indicate
their knowledge of the Sabbath: Renotataquitena (Saturday) literally
signifies before the day wholly devoted to rest or cessation from
labor; and Unotataquanohi (Monday) signifies beyond or after the day
wholly set apart from labor. It is well to mention here that in the
names for Sabbath, Saturday, and Monday, the plural form is used. An
individual resting from labor a whole day, or keeping Sabbath, says,
“aquotataquaska”—I am resting or ceasing from labor during the day;
but “unotataquaska” signifies they, all the people rest, and thus
points out the day as a common day of rest or cessation from labor,
to be generally observed by all.
With regard to other Indian nations having a knowledge of the
Sabbath, the Hon. Elias Boudinot5 says: “The number and regular
periods of the Indian public religious feasts, is a good historical
proof that they counted time, and observed a weekly Sabbath, long
after their arrival on the American Continent, as this is applicable
to all the Nations.”
--Star in the West,
p.164-5.
The world was created at the time of the first new moon in autumn,
with the fruits all ripe. The first new moon in autumn is therefore
the great new moon, or Nu-ta-te-qua, and with it the year commences,
as regards the feasts of new moons, though the first new moon in
spring begins the year with regard to the feast of first fruits,
&c., because then the fruits begin to come forward. --Yu-wi-yoka.
The great new moon made its appearance in autumn, when the leaves
began to fall.
--Nutsawi.
God made man, red, of red clay, and made the woman of one of his
ribs.
--Nettle.
At first no snakes or weeds were poisonous. Poison was afterwards
communicated to them.
--Thomas Nutsawi
Soon after the creation one of the family was bitten by a serpent
and died. All possible means were resorted to, to bring back life,
but in vain. Being overcome in this first instance, the whole race
were doomed to follow, not only to death, but to misery afterwards,
as it was supposed that that person went to misery. Another
tradition says that soon after the creation a young woman was bitten
by a serpent and died, and her spirit went to a certain place, and
the people were told that if they would get her spirit back to her
body, that the body would live again, and they would prevent the
general mortality of the body. Some young men, therefore, started
with a box to catch the spirit. They went to a place and saw it
dancing about, and at length caught it in the box and shut the lid,
so as to confine it, and started back. But the spirit kept pleading
with them to open the box, so as to afford a little light, but they
hurried on until they arrived near the place where the body was, and
then, on account of her particular urgency, they removed the lid a
very little, and out flew the spirit and was gone, and with it all
their hopes of immortality.
All were Indians, or red people, before the flood. They had also
preachers and prophets before the flood. Their preachers would
sometimes continue their discourses nearly all the day, teaching the
people to obey God. They also taught the children to obey their
parents. They warned the people of the approaching flood, if they
continued to disobey God, but said the world should not be destroyed
by water but once; it would be afterwards destroyed by fire, when
God would send first a shower of pitch and then a shower of fire to
set everything in a flame. They also taught the people that after
death the good and the bad would separate; the good would take a
path which would lead them to a place of happiness, where it would
be always light; but the bad would be urged along another path,
which led to a deep gulf, over which lay a pole with a dog at each
end. They would be urged onto this pole, and the dogs, by moving it,
would throw them off into the gulf of fire beneath. But if any got
over it, they would be transfixed with red-hot bars of iron, and be
thus tormented forever.
The priest offered sacrifice with new fire, having a rack two or
three feet tall with an altar. A little before the flood men grew
worse and worse, and, like some of the Cherokee young men now, worse
by reproof and warning. Also, some infants were born with whole sets
of teeth.
--Nutsawi.
A venerable old man approached Columbus with great reverence, and
presented him with a basket of fruit, and said: “You are come into
these countries with a force which, were we inclined to resist,
resistance would be folly. We are all, therefore, at your mercy. But
if you are men subject to mortality, like ourselves, you cannot be
unapprised after this life there is another, wherein a very
different portion is allotted to good and bad men. If, therefore,
you expect to die, and believe with us that everyone is to be
rewarded in a future state, according to his conduct in the present,
you will do no hurt to those who do none to you.”
-- Edwards’ West Indies,
Vol. I., p.72.6
Star of the West, p. 142.
At length God sent a messenger from above to warn the people of the
flood unless they turned from their wickedness.
God then told a man to make a house that would swim, and take his
family and some of the different kinds of animals into it.
--Raven.
The rain commenced, and continued forty days and forty nights, while
the water at the same time gushed out of the ground so that as much
came up as came down from the clouds.
--Nutsawi.
As also the Natcher.
The Natchez Indians also affirm further, that not a log or anything
whatever, swam, but everything lay just as it was, so that he people
could by no means save themselves from drowning.
--Yuwi Yokh.
The house or boat was raised up on the waters and borne away. At
length the man sent out a raven, and, after some time, sent a dove,
which came back with a leaf in her mouth. Soon after this, the man
found the house (or boat) was resting on dry ground, on the top of a
mountain. This being in the spring of the year, the family and all
the animals left the boat, and the family descended to the bottom of
the mountain and commenced their farming operations.
--Nutsawi.
Some time after the flood
the people generally (the Indians excepted) determined to build a
wall to reach the clouds, and proceeded till the wall was very high.
They built this wall of stone (Nutsawi) or, according to others of
wood (Shield Eater.) At length the people became very much alarmed
by seeing something black in the air above them; and also God was
angry with them, and spoiled their language, so that the people
could not understand each other, and got into quarrels, and
separated.
--Nutsawi and Shield
Eater.
An old man, nearly a hundred years old, by the name of Kotiski, says
that, when a small boy, he used to listen to the conversation of two
very aged men, who would sometimes sit up and talk nearly the whole
night; and among other things they told the following: There was a
God, the father and the son; that they were always present, and knew
all we said and did, and that the father sent the son to attend and
manage the affairs of the world. Prayers were to be directed to
these two, and also to Aqua, Abraham, not, however, as to God, but
as to their great father, who, though a man like themselves, was
greater or wiser than themselves.
When God created the world, he made a heaven or firmament about as
high as the tops of the mountains, but this was too warm. He then
created a second, which was also too warm. He thus proceeded until
He had created seven heavens, and in the seventh fixed His abode.
During some of their prayers they raise their hands to the first,
second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh heaven, and then
express their desires to God, who dwells there. But when they sung
that special prayer designed for the morning of every seventh day,
they commenced with the third heaven, ascending to the fourth,
fifth, sixth, seventh, and then uttered their prayer to the father
and the son, in substance as follows: “Oh, God, thou hast created
us, and hast the hearts of all in thy hands. We pray for thine aid,
and for long life and health. Aqua (Abraham) our father taught us to
pray thus.” Then they prayed to Abraham to take them into his arms.
This prayer was sung every seventh morning, seven times, commencing
a little before day, and about daybreak they repaired to a stream of
water and plunged entirely four or seven times. The water washed
away their heaviness, and God gave them comfort and joy in their
hearts. They then prayed to Him to continue this joy in their
hearts. On returning to the house they put on their hands the white
ashes covering the coals, and rubbed their faces and breasts.
The old men say that God created all things in six days, and rested
the seventh; and therefore all must rest every seventh day, and meet
at the town houses.
The principle men called the people together at an early hour. No
work was done, except by women, who brought forward the food. The
old men smoked, and the young men occasionally danced before them.
At usual breakfast time, the victuals were brought by fourteen women
previously appointed, seven of whom waited on the men and seven on
the women. The priests sat on their appropriate white seats; other
old men on seats near the middle of the house; other men and boys on
seats to the right, and the women and the girls at the left. The
victuals were sat on the ground in dishes, before the several seats,
and then the waiting women took their seats with the other females.
The priest them arose and told the people that God, the creator, had
given them food, and that, by partaking of it, they would be
refreshed, and then told them to eat. The repast being ended, the
fourteen women took away the dishes. The leader of the dancers was
called forward. He arranged the company in single file; the leader
followed by his wife, the next principle man and his wife, and so
on, a man and his wife; or if a man had no wife, he was followed by
a single female who was a near relative, or of the same clan. This
arrangement might form a number of circles in the house. Being thus
arranged, while standing, the congregation was addressed by four
priests successively. They occupied the white middle seat. The
eldest arose and spoke, holding a white wing of a fowl by the right
side of his face. Together with various other instructions, he
charged the people to love and be kind to one another. On
concluding, the first took his seat, and handed the white wing to
the one next him, and so on, till all four had spoken. The white
wing was then hung in a sacred place over their heads. The dance
then commenced. Toward evening, all being again seated, the same
women who had provided breakfast now brought forward the dinner (or
supper) which was served as in the morning; and the night wholly
spent in dancing. None must sleep but small children. On Monday
morning breakfast was brought, and after eating, all retired to
their houses.
The first man and woman were made of red earth, and therefore were
red, and God told them when they died they would turn to earth
again, When God created the man and the woman, He told them to
multiply.
--Kotiski.
Big Pheasant relates the history of the creation, received from his
grandmother and handed down from the old men before they had any
knowledge from the whites. Beings from above came down and created
the world, and everything connected with it. Then they called a
council and created the man, and gave him life. The man then fell
into a sleep, and the Lord took a rib from his side and made a
woman, and gave her to the man. God instructed them about marriage,
and told them to multiply. This woman was the mother of all living
people, i.e., of all nations. God directed them, also, not to use
vulgar language nor tell a lie, as these would be very wicked.
--Big Pheasant.
Another aged Cherokee, the Otter, gives a brief account of the
Creation, as handed down by the old men, in substance as follows:
Two great beings, the Father and the Son, created all things. They
took clay and fashioned two persons in their image, except that one
was a woman. They then gave them life. They also formed a garden in
which were all kinds of fruits, but forbade the man and woman taking
any fruit from that garden, or seed to plant. The newly created pair
settled out in the country and multiplied. At length the Son came
down and found they had stolen fruit from the garden, in violation
of the command of their creator, and had it growing through the
country. He returned and told the Father what great wickedness had
been committed. But, notwithstanding this wickedness, it was
resolved not to destroy the people, but to give them further
instruction and warning. They still, however, increased in
wickedness, till the Lord brought a flood upon the Earth, and then
left it. Before leaving it, he taught the people how to pray to Him
above, every morning about daybreak; so that all must pray to the
creator every morning.
The soul of the first man was given by the breath of God. He blew
into the man and the woman, and this gave them breath, and soul, and
heart, and inwards. The soul of the infant comes with the first
breath, which happens they suppose before birth, as soon as the
infant manifests life. The soul lives forever.
--Kotiski.
God gave the red man a book and paper, and told him to write, but he
merely made marks on the paper, and as he could not read or write,
the Lord gave him a bow and arrow, and gave the book to the white
man.
A great while ago a part of the world was burned, though it is not
known now how, or by whom, but it is said the other land was formed
by washing in from the mountains.
--Kotiski.
Mr. Boudinot, speaking of the Indians, says: “It is said among their
principal or ‘beloved’ men, that they have it handed down from their
ancestors, that the book which the white men have was once theirs;
that, while they had it, they prospered exceedingly; but that the
white people bought it of them, and learned many things from it;
while the Indians lost credit, offended the Great Spirit and
suffered exceedingly from the neighboring nations; that the Great
Spirit took pity on them, and directed them to this country; that on
their way they came to a great river, which they could not pass.
Where God dried up the waters, and they passed over dry-shod.
“They also say that their fathers were possessed of an extraordinary
divine spirit, by which they foretold future, and controlled the
common course of nature, and this they transmitted to their
offspring, on condition of their obeying the same laws; that they
did, by these means, bring down showers of plenty on the beloved
people. But this power, for a long time past, has entirely ceased.”
-- Star in the West.
Aqua-ha-ye (Abraham) was the greatest among their ancestors, but
this is all that can be told of him.
When our scholars, David Brown7, John Tub, &c., first began to
translate the scriptures, they expressed Abraham in Cherokee by
Aqua-ha-mi, though the letter “m” is not congenial to the Cherokee
language nor found at all in the mountain dialect which is evidently
most ancient. But the name Aquahaye, as known only by the
antiquarians, flows easily from every Cherokee tongue.
The next man of greatest note among their early ancestors was by the
name of Wasi (Moses). He was the greatest prophet, and told them of
things past, relative to the creation of the world, the history of
mankind, and also told them things to come. He directed them how to
consecrate their priests, how and when to celebrate their feasts,
and how to attend to all their religious ceremonies, and charged
them to observe all he had commanded them forever.
--Nutsawi.
God loved their fathers, and told them that they should be the
father of all nations; and He gave them a country, though they had a
great distance to travel to get to it. At length they started for
their country, but when they started they were fleeing from their
enemies. Who these enemies were, or where they lived, is not now
known. When they started they soon came to a great water, and
because God loved their fathers, He told their leader (his name they
do not know) to strike the water with a staff, and it should divide
till they passed through, and then come together, so that their
enemies could not follow to injure them. Their leader did this. He
went forward, striking the water, and it parted so that all went
through safely, and then the waters came back and stopped their
enemies. They then entered a vast wilderness.
Some time after they entered this wilderness, they came to a high
mountain, and God came down upon the mountain, and their leader went
up and conversed with God, or, rather, as their fathers said, with
the Son of God. They supposed, therefore, that God had a son, as it
was said to be the son of God that came down on the mountain, and
the top of the mountain was bright like the sun. There God gave
their leader a law, written on a smooth stone. The reason of this
being written on stone was as follows, viz; God gave our first
parents a law, to be handed down verbally to posterity. But when the
language was destroyed and men began to quarrel and kill each other,
they forgot this law, and therefore God wrote his law now on a
stone, a smooth slate stone, that it might not be lost. Their leader
also received other instructions from God, which he wrote on skins.
God also directed their leader to erect a certain building, to be
covered with a cloth made of deer’s hair and turkey feathers. This
was to be set up when they rested, and taken down and carried when
they journeyed.
God also directed them to repeat or chant certain sentences every
morning at or about daylight, and before going to sleep at night.
In the wilderness God gave them their holy fire from heaven. This
they ever kept for burning sacrifices, and Holy purposes, and,
though, when they came to this continent they left it behind, yet in
a miraculous manner they had it brought over the great water, and
kept it till, on a certain occasion, their enemies came upon them
and destroyed the house in which it was kept. After that they were
obliged to make new fire for sacred purposes by rubbing two pieces
of dry wood together, with a certain weed called golden rod, dry,
between them. After constant rubbing for some time, this took fire,
together with the wood, and this fire was used for religious
purposes.
[When their enemies destroyed the house in which this holy fire was
kept, it was said the fire settled down in the earth, where it still
lives, though unknown to the people. The place where they lost this
holy fire is somewhere in one of the Carolinas.—Inata (Snake.)]
[This new fire, made by friction, like the original holy fire, must
not be used for any common purpose, (except when made especially to
supply the nation with new fire.) No torch must be lighted by it,
nor a coal taken from it for common use. After the sacrifice was
burned and the ceremonies ended for which the fire was made, it was
delivered to some one to keep.—Shield Eater or T. Smith.]
Originally they had twelve tribes but on account of disobedience
with regard to marriage, it was resolved to have but seven.
In their journeys through this wilderness, the tribes marched
separately, and also the clans. The clans were distinguished by
having feathers of different colors fastened to their ears. They had
two great standards, one white and one red. The white standard was
under the control of the priests, and used for civil and religious
purposes; but the red standard was under the direction of the war
priests, for purposes of war, or alarm. These were carried when they
journeyed, and the white standard erected in front of the building
above-mentioned, when they rested. The priests had trumpets, also,
for their own particular use.
In going through this wilderness they had two waters to cross,
between the first and the last river, before getting to their
country. These two their leader struck, as he had done the first,
and the water stopped, so that the children could wade through. But
their whole journey through this wilderness was attended with great
distress and danger. At one time they were beset by the most deadly
kind of serpents, which destroyed a great many of the people, but at
length their leader shot one with an arrow and drove them away.
Again, they were walking along in single file, when the ground
cracked open and a number of the people sunk down and were destroyed
by the earth closing upon them.
At another time they came nigh perishing for water. Their headmen
dug with staves in all the low places, but could find no water. At
length their leader found a most beautiful spring coming out of a
rock.
They were a great many years in getting through this wilderness, and
many of the people died. They never could have got through, the
dangers were so great, if God had not helped them.
When they came to the land which God had given to their fathers,
they had a large river to cross. This had been told them all along.
But when they came to this river, their leader struck it with his
stick and the water above stopped, so that all the children could
wade through. After they had crossed they camped on the other side
and named the place Tahmitoo.
They had then to engage in wars—and on one occasion their leader
caused the sun to stand still and thus lengthened the day, that they
might destroy their enemies. And at another time the Lord destroyed
their enemies by sending a hailstorm upon them, some of the hail
stones being as large as hominy mortar.
--Shield Eater.
--Nutsawi.
Shield-Eater once inquired if I had ever heard of houses with flat
roofs, saying that his father’s great grandfather used to say that
once their people had a great town, with a high wall about it. That,
on a certain occasion, their enemies broke down a part of this
wall—that the houses in this town had flat roofs, though, he used to
say; this was so long ago it is not worth talking about now.
A great while ago the Indians were afflicted with certain very awful
complaints, which do not prevail now. One especially, which
occasioned dreadful sores, though different from the smallpox, or
yaws, or any complaint now known. When any one of a family was taken
with the disease, the affected person was sent off some distance
from any house, and there had a house prepared for him to live in
ever after. Then the priest was sent for, to cleanse the house from
which the diseased person been removed. The ceremonies were similar
to those of cleansing a house defiled by the dead. After this,
should any touch the diseased person, he would be unclean, as if he
had touched a dead body.
--Corn Tassel.
--Old Will.
The Son of God, after giving the law on the mountain, commanded them
to sing the hymn or prayer which they now sing at daybreak in the
morning, and at night before going to sleep. This hymn was always to
be sung or repeated at those seasons everyday.
--Shield Eater.
When they had the written law the people were better than they are
now. They would not lie, nor have any idle, foolish talk. The old
people used to tell the boys it would be bad to grow up in sin. In
olden times the commandments were kept better than in later times.
All sin was forbidden. Those who grew up in sin, they said, would be
punished after death, but those who did right would be happy.
--Nutsawi.
Red Bird, an old Cherokee, used to say the Cherokees had a white
post set up near the council house and on the top of it was fastened
a white skin, or piece of white cloth to remind them to keep their
hearts as white as that was, and also to remind them of the
commandments which were once given to their fathers, and written on
white (something white). This was done when he was a boy, as he told
his son Situagi.
--Deer-in-the-water.
Anciently, when women cooked breakfast, the cook put some of
whatever she cooked into the fire; if mush, some of that; if meat,
some of that; if birds, some or one of them. But the bird she
sacrificed must be whole. The feathers were taken off and the
entrails taken out, and then the bird laid on the fire.
--Nutsawi.
Whenever a Cherokee killed and brought home a deer, he sacrificed a
piece of the tongue and the neck. Also of all other four-footed
clean beasts, that is, such as might be eaten. But after this first
sacrifice they offered no more of the same animal. But if they
obtained, or had given them, other meat, of which they had offered
none, then the women put a piece in the fire every time they cooked.
When birds were cooked, one was put into the fire. But on cooking
any large fowls, as turkeys, geese, etc., they always sacrificed the
breast. They never forgot to burn some of every kind of fresh meat.
Hunters also sacrificed a piece of the tongue of every deer they
killed during the first four days; after that period they sacrificed
the melt8 of every deer they killed. They did this to obtain success.
So, also, of every four footed clean beast, and the breast of every
clean fowl. And on starting out in the morning they prayed to the
Great White Being above to give them success.
--Kotiski.
Mr. Boudinot, speaking of
other Indians, says: “The women always throw a small piece of the
fattest meat into the fire before they begin to eat. At times they
view it with pleasing attention, and pretend to draw omens from it.
This they will do though they are quite alone, and not seen by any
one.”
--Star in the West.
Anciently the Cherokees gave thanks even before eating a common
meal.
Witches were to be killed. A poisoner, among the Indians, means a
witch, or one who, by means of certain ingredients, has power to
bewitch or kill persons at a distance.
--Thomas Nutsawi.
In ancient times the Indians always had their places of worship near
a river or creek, or on the bank of a lake, or on the seashore.
--Thomas Nutsawi,
--Deer-in-the-water.
God gave them directions with regard to marriage, as also with
regard to what animals they might eat.
God commanded them not to say “askini” (mean or cursed) to the
deformed, nor laugh at them. He said they must be kind to all
people, especially to strangers. And if they had any animals under
their care, they must treat them kindly. The old people used to
speak the name “Jews,” as in the Yowa9 hymn, (Antisuri), but nothing
further is known of them.
--Nutsawi.
The Indians never used to eat a certain sinew in the thigh. The name
of this sinew in Cherokee is “u-wa-sta-to.” Some say that if they
eat of the sinew, they will have cramp in it on attempting to run.
It is said that once a woman had a cramp in that sinew, and
therefore none must eat it.
--Nutsawi.
Anciently, during a certain portion of the year, all the people used
to fast every seventh day. Little children fasted till noon.
--Caty Vann.
Fasting all day was from sunset to sunset.
--Shield Eater,
And Other Antiquarians.
The seven clans are seven families, each from its own original
stock, and therefore too nearly related to admit intermarriages. The
names of these seven clans are as follows: 1. Ani-wa-ya, or Wolf
clan; 2. Ani-ko-ta-ke-wi, or Blind Savannah clan; 3. Ani-wo-ti, or
Paint clan; 4. Ani-qui-lo-hi, or Longhair clan; 5. Ani-tsis-qua, or
Bird clan; 6. Ani-ka-wi, or Deer clan; 7. Ani-stasti, or Holly clan.
--Shield Eater.
Circumcision.—With regard to this we can learn but little from the
Cherokees. Nutsawi says he has seen Indians of another tribe, or
strangers to him, who had been circumcised, though he had no
conversation with them on the subject. Mr. Boudinot, however,
supposes that this rite has been practiced among the Indians. His
remarks are as follows: “The Indians to the eastward say that,
previous to the white people coming into their country, their
ancestors were in the habit of using circumcision, but latterly, not
being able to assign any reason for so strange a practice, their
young people insisted on its being abolished.”
McKenzie10 says of the Slave and Dogrib Indians, very far to the
northwest: “Whether circumcision be practiced among them, I cannot
pretend to say, but the appearance of it was general among those I
saw.”
Dr. Beatty11 says, in his journal of a visit he paid to the Indians on
the Ohio, about 50 years (now 80 or 90) ago, that an old Indian
informed him that an old uncle of his who died about the year 1728,
related to him several customs and traditions of former times, and
among others, that circumcision was practiced among the Indians long
ago, but their young men making a mock at it, brought it into
disrepute, and so it came to be discontinued.
—Star in the West., p.113.
The Indians have had two great kings, the greatest of these lived
before the flood; but the second after they came to the land which
God gave to their fathers. This king was also a preacher, and in his
days the people were wise—much wiser than they have been since. He
taught them the use of all roots and herbs they use in medicine, and
also what to say or sing when administering them. He made the little
spirits called Anitawehi, which poison people, and he also made
another kind to cure the poison these infuse. Persons poisoned or
killed by witchcraft first were made crazy. He taught them how to
cure such persons, as also how to cure all diseases.
Crazy persons were supposed to be possessed with the devil, or
afflicted with the Nanehi.
--Nutsawi (of Pine Log.)
Shield Eater had a lengthy tradition relative to their decline, the
substance of which is as follows: God directed the Indians to ascend
a certain mountain, that is, the warriors, and He would there send
them assistance. They started, and had ascended far up the mountain,
when one of the warriors began to talk about women. His companion
immediately reproved him, but instantly a voice like thunder issued
from the side of the mountain and God spoke and told them to return,
as He could not assist them on account of that sin. They put the man
to death, yet the man never returned to them afterwards. The
antiquarians unite, as far as I have discovered, in saying that they
came to this continent from beyond the sea, yet how they crossed the
great water, or from what direction their minds appear to be rather
in the dark; only they say the Delawares, whom they call
grandfather, took the lead.
Some, however, according to Kotiski, say the Cherokees, with all
other tribes, came from the northwest, that is, crossed the ocean in
that direction. He says that when young he saw a very aged Cherokee
woman at Creek Path, who had been many years a prisoner among the
Delaware Indians. She said the Delawares gave the following account
of the red people, considering all the tribes as originally one
people. They said they were in great distress before they came to
this continent (island); that they had no land of their own, and the
women had to go out to work and wash for others to obtain a support,
and the men, also, had to get and chop wood for others to support
themselves—but had no wood of their own, and could get none, only as
they dug up roots out of the ground. At length, the red people
reformed, and became a good people, and were treated much worse than
before. The people among whom they lived would take their horses or
other creatures, and put them to their own use, and could not help
themselves. They therefore concluded they could not stay there and
came off and crossed the sea beyond where the Shawnees lived. This
would be from the Creek Path north of west. The ancient Cherokees
used to say that the Indians would be driven to the west till they
came to the ocean, and then be taken over.
--Kotiski
The Choctaw tradition is that they, and all the red people, came
from a country beyond the western ocean; that they went on this way
till they came to the seashore, and then followed the shore north,
till they came to a place where the sea was so narrow they could
cross it in one day. They all crossed and migrated eastward.
—Col. P. P. Pitchlynn12 .
Though different Cherokees assign different reasons for their
decline, yet all, so far as I know, ascribe it ultimately to the
displeasure of God towards them. Thus some say the reason why the
Indians have not prospered as much as the whites is because the
women have sometimes taken measures to destroy their infants before
their birth, which God has forbidden; that some women sometimes died
themselves in consequence, but that such as did not went to the bad
place when they did die. For breaking the commandments of God in
doing so, He prohibited their ever coming to Him, and would have
nothing to do with them.
--Kotiski.
Again, it is said that before coming to this continent, while in
their own country, they were in great distress from their enemies,
and God told them to march to the top of a certain mountain, and He
would come down and afford them relief. They ascended far up the
mountain, and thought they saw something coming down from above
which they supposed was their aid. But just then one of the warriors
began to talk about women. His companions reproved him, but
instantly a sound like thunder struck the mountain, and God told
them to go back, as He would do nothing for them. They killed the
offending warrior, but, notwithstanding, God would not forgive, and
had not blessed them since, as He had before.
--Shield Eater.
The Cherokees commenced their natural year with the first new moon
of autumn. At that period, they said the world was created, with the
fruits ripe. The first autumnal new moon, therefore, they called No-ta-te-qua,
or the great new moon, from which the other moons were reckoned.
Many of the modern Cherokees differ from the ancient in making the
great new moon the last instead of the first of autumn; but in this
they differ, not only from their best antiquarians , but also from
the matter of fact, as the first, and not the third, nor any other,
was honored by a great national thanksgiving.
--Yo-Wi-Yo-Ka, Terrapin
Head, and Others.
But though the first moon of autumn commenced the year, as related
to the beginning of time, and the succession of moons, yet the first
vernal new moon began the year as related to their feasts connected
with the fruit of the earth, because then the fruits of the earth,
or vegetation, begins to spring up. From various writers and authors
quoted by Mr. Boudinot, it appears that other tribes, as well as the
Cherokees, observed this two-fold commencement of the year, that is
at the time of the autumnal and vernal equinoxes.
--Star in the West.
The year, time immemorial, as far as is known, they denominated
Sute-ti-yo-ta, and why it should be stated by Mr. Boudinot and
others that they had no name for year, we cannot perceive.
The Cherokees divided the year into twelve moons, which, according
to all the aged antiquarians I have conversed with were arranged in
the following order: No-ta-te-qua, Tulisti, Tuniquati, Uskiyi,
Uquatotani, Kakali, Anoyi, Kuwoni, Anaskoti, Tehaluyi, Kuyoquoni,
Kaloni. How they supplied the place of Neadar of the Jews cannot,
perhaps, now be determined, but as the Choctaws had thirteen moons,
and as they and the Cherokees were ever, as far as known, on
friendly terms, it is probable that they had, anciently, something
like the thirteenth interialiary13 month of the Jews.
Anoyi, strawberry moon, commenced the year, as respected all their
feasts of first fruits. And, as its name indicates, the period of
strawberries, or when strawberries began to get ripe. It was
doubtless the new moon of the vernal equinox, embracing a few days
of March and the month of April. Nota-te-qua, as before observed,
commenced the natural year, and made its appearance when the fruits
were ripe and the leaves began to decay and fall, which was
evidently about the time of the autumnal equinox, embracing the
latter part of September and the most of October.
--Shield Eater, Terrapin
Head, and Yo-Wi-Yoka [sic].
The year was divided into four seasons of three months each: 1.
Ulukohisto, Autumn; 2. Kolah, or Konah, winter; 3. Koge, spring; 4.
Kogi, summer.
The year was again divided into six seasons: Ulukohusti, embracing
the two moons Notatequa and Tulisti; Kolah or Konah, embracing
Tuninoti and Uskiye; Nolatihi, including Unolotani and Nagali; Koge,
including Anoyi and Nuwoni, and Kogihi, including Anaskoti and
Tehaluyi; Kuyo, embracing Kuyoquoni and Kaloni.
The moons they divided into weeks of seven days each. A week was
called Unatotaquahi; and three days of the week had different names,
viz.: Unatotaquoski, Sabbath; Unatotaquona, Monday, i.e., the day
after Sabbath; and Unatotaquitena, the day before the Sabbath. These
three names, however, were not always familiar to all the people.
When the observance of the Sabbath was neglected, its appropriate
name seems to have been lost among many of the common people, who
reckoned their weeks by seven days, calling the seventh Uloquatiika
(or Ulumlogwattika) the glorious or excellent day. But that
Unatotaquoski was the original name for the Sabbath, appears from
this, that the real antiquarians, in speaking of the first
appointment of the Sabbath by Yihowah, always expressed it by this
name.
The other days (nights) of the week, aside from Saturday, Sabbath,
and Monday, they reckoned by the ordinal numbers as third, fourth,
&c., from the Sabbath, or three of the week, four of the week, &c.
The day, consisting of twenty-four hours, extended from twilight to
twilight and was called Susohito. Two such days were called
Talitsusohia (48). This day was divided between the light and the
darkness; that part including the light was called Unotaquatta, the
whole period of light. Two such days were Tutisutotaqutta. The other
part, including the whole of the darkness, was called Ulitsotoquotta.
Two such nights were called Tutitsulitsutaquotta. The 24 hours again
divided into Ika, da, and Sunoyi, night.
These were again subdivided into 1. ----- [sic] sundown; 2.Ikaloke,
between sundown and dusk; 3. Alitoska, twilight; 4.Uwohitsita, from
the commencement of darkness till 9 or 10 o’clock; 5. Sunoyitlustoti,
from 9 or 10 o’clock till midnight; 6. Sunoyi, midnight (the middle
syllable strongly accented); 7 ----- [sic]; 8. Ukitsakeyi,
cock-crowing and thence till daybreak, i.e., white light springing
or rising up; 10. Ikaatiha, dawn; 11----- [sic]; 12. Tikalukga,
sunrise; 13. Sunalestoti, the time from sunrise till the middle of
the forenoon; 14. Ulutsitiika, near the middle of the day; 15. Ika,
(strong accent on the first syllable), noon; 16. Itluistoti, shortly
after noon, that is , a period from 12, or noon, till probably about
the middle of the afternoon; 17. Usohiyeyi, a period commencing at
the close of the above, and extending till near sunset; 18.
Tsihnawia, or Tsiunawo, a short period before sunset, when the rays
of that planet have lost their force, and the air has become cool.
Mr. Boudinot, speaking of the Indians, says; They divide the year
into spring, summer, autumn, or the falling of the leaf, and winter.
Kolah is their word for winter with the Cherokee Indians. They
subdivide these, and count the year by lunar months or moons. They
call the sun and moon by the same word, with the addition of day and
night, as the day sun or moon, and the night sun or moon. They count
the day by three sensible differences of the sun, as—the sun is
coming out, midday, and the sun is dead, or sunset. Midnight is
halfway between the sun going in and coming out of the water. Also
by midnight and cock crowing.
They begin their ecclesiastical year at the first appearance of the
first new moon of the vernal equinox. They pay great regard to the
first appearance of every new moon. They name the various seasons of
the year from the planting and the ripening of the fruits.
The civil year of the Natchez Indians, according to Charlevoix14
,
seems to have commenced about the time of the autumn equinox, as did
that of another tribe mentioned by Mr. Bartram15, that is, when the
new crops had arrived at maturity.
--Star in the West.
Monsieur LePage du Pratz16, in his second volume History of
Louisiana; page 120, informs us that, being exceedingly desirous to
be informed of the origin of the Indian natives, made every inquiry
in his power, especially of the nation of the Natchez, one of the
most intelligent among them. All he could learn from them was that
they came from between the north and the sun setting. Being no way
satisfied with this, he sought for one who bore the character of
being one of their wisest men, and was happy to discover one named
Moneachtape, among the Yazous17, a nation about forty leagues from
the Natchez. This man was remarkable for his solid understanding and
elevation of sentiments, and his name was given to him by his nation
as expressive of the man—meaning “the killer of pain and fatigue.”
“His eager desire to see the country whence his forefathers came,”
led him to obtain directions, and he set off. He went up the
Missouri, where he stayed a long time to learn the different
languages of the nations he was to pass through. After long
traveling, he came to the nation of the Otters18, and by them was
directed on his way until he reached the southern ocean. After
living some time with the nations on the shores of the great sea, he
proposed to proceed on his journey, and joined himself to some
people who inhabited more westwardly on the coast. They traveled a
great way, between the north and the sunsetting, when they arrived
at the village of his fellow travelers, where he found the days long
and the nights short. He was here advised to give over all thoughts
of continuing his journey. They told him that the land continued a
long way in the direction aforesaid, after which it ran directly
west, and at length was cut by the great water from north to south.
One of them added that when he was young he knew a very old man who
had seen that distant land before it was cut away by the great
water; and when the great water was low many rocks still appeared in
those parts. Moncachtape took their advice and returned home after
an absence of five years.
–Star in the West.
Mr. Boudinot, in his introduction to the Star in the West, says:
This subject has occupied the attention of the writer, at times, for
more than forty years. He was led to the consideration of it, in the
first instance, by a conversation with a very worthy reverend
clergyman of his acquaintance, who, having an independent fortune,
undertook a journey (in company with a brother clergyman, who was
desirous of attending him) into the wilderness between the Allegheny
and Mississippi rivers, sometime in or about the years 1765 or 1766,
before the white people had settled beyond the Laurel mountains19.
His desire was to meet with native Indians who had never seen a
white man, that he might satisfy his curiosity by knowing from the
best source, what traditions the Indians preserved relative to their
own history and origin. This these gentlemen accomplished, with
great danger, risk and fatigue. “On their return one of them related
to the writer that, far to the northwest of the Ohio, he attended a
party of Indians to a treaty with Indians from west of the
Mississippi. There he found the people he was in search of. He
conversed with their beloved man, who had never seen a white man
before, by the assistance of three grades of interpreters. The
Indian informed him that one of their most ancient traditions was,
that a great while ago they had a common father, who lived towards
the rising of the sun, and governed the whole world; that all the
white people’s heads were under his feet; that he had twelve sons,
by whom he administered his government; that his authority was
derived from the Great Spirit, by virtue of some special gift from
Him; that the twelve sons behaved very bad, and tyrannized over the
people, abusing their power to a great degree, so as to offend the
Great Spirit exceedingly, that He, being angry with them, suffered
the white people to introduce spirituous liquors among them, made
them drunk, stole the special gift of the Great Spirit from them,
and by this means usurped his power over them, and, ever since, the
Indians’ heads were under the white people’s feet. But that they
also had a tradition that the time would come when the Indians would
regain the gift of the Great Spirit from the white people, and with
it their ancient power, when the white people’s heads would be again
under the Indians’ feet.”
Mr. McKenzie20, in his History of the Fur Trade, says that “the
Indians informed him that they had a tradition among them that they
originally came from another country, inhabited by a wicked people,
and had traversed a great lake, which was narrow, shallow, and full
of islands, where they had suffered great hardships and much misery,
it being always winter, with ice and deep snows. At a place they
call the Copper Mine River, where they made the first land, the
ground was covered with copper, over which a body of earth had since
been collected to the depth of a man’s height.
—Star in the West.
—The End—
[1]
Vinita, Oklahoma, county seat of Craig County in N.E. Oklahoma.
[2]
John Ross (1790-1866) was Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation
from 1828 to his death.
[3]
William Potter Ross (1820-1891), first editor of the Cherokee
Advocate and editor of the Indian Journal, Indian
Arrow, and Indian Cheiftain.
[4]
Parkhurst, John. A Hebrew and English Lexicon without Points.
In which the Hebrew and Chaldee Words of the Old Testament are
Explained in their Leading and Derived Senses. 7th
ed. London: Printed by T. Davison for F. C. and J. Rivington
[etc.], 1813.
[5]
Boudinot, Elias, (1740-1821.) A Star in the West, or, A Humble
Attempt to Discover the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, Preparatory to
Their Return to Their Beloved City, Jerusalem. Trenton, N.J.: D.
Fenton, S. Hutchinson, and J. Dunham, 1816.
[6]
Edwards, Bryan (1743-1800.) The History, Civil and Commercial,
of the British Colonies in the West Indies. Vol. 1. London: John
Stockdale, 1807.
[7]
David Brown was considered one of the bright young men in the
Cherokee Nation in the first decades of the nineteenth century. He
was educated at Brainerd Mission school and the Foreign Mission
School at Cornwall, Connecticut. With his father-in-law George
Lowrey, Brown worked on publications in the Cherokee language.
[8]
Spleen?
[9]
Uncertain. Yowa is the Cherokee word for “Great Spirit.”
[10]
Mackenzie, Alexander, Sir (1763- 1820). Voyages from Montreal, on
the River St. Laurence, through the Continent of North American, to
the Frozen and Pacific Oceans; in the years 1790 and 1793; with a
Preliminary Account of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the
Fur Trade of that Country; Illustrated with Maps. London: T.
Cadell, Jr., and W. Davies, 1801.
[11]
Beatty, Charles (1715?-1772.) The Journal of a Two Month Tour,
with a View of Promoting Religion among the Frontier Inhabitants of
Pennsylvania and of Introducing Christianity among the Indians to
the Westward of the Alegh-geny Mountains. Edinburgh: T
Maccliesh and J. Ogle, 1798.
[12]
Col. Peter Perkins Pitchlynn, (1806-1881.) Born in the Choctaw
Nation in Mississippi on Jan. 20, 1806, the son of John Pitchlynn, a
white man, and Sophia Folsom Pitchlynn, a Choctaw. Pitchlynn was
educated at the Academy of Columbia, Tennessee, and the University
of Tennessee. After Graduation from the university, he returned to
the Choctaw Nation, where he married his cousin, Rhoda Folsom. He
was elected to the Choctaw National Council in 1825 and, in 1828,
led an exploring and peace-making mission to Osage country west of
the Mississippi. Pitchlynn was active in Choctaw politics throughout
his life. He served as Principle Chief from 1864 through 1866 and,
after his term of office, stayed in Washington pressing Choctaw
claims against the government. He died in Washington on January 17,
1881.
[13]
Between.
[14]
de Charlevoix, Pierre-Francois-Xavier, (1682-1761.) A Voyage to
North America: Undertaken by Command of the present King of France;
Containing the Geographical Description and Natural History of
Canada and Louisiana; With the Customs, Manners, Trade and Religion
of the Inhabitants; A description of the Lakes and Rivers, With
Their Navigation and Manner of Passing the Great Cataracts.
Dublin: J. Exshaw and J. Potts, 1766.
[15]
Bartram, John, (1699-1777.) Travels Through North and South
Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the
Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and
the Country of the Chactaws; Containing an Account of the Soil and
Natural Productions of Those Regions; Together with Observations on
the Manner of the Indians. Dublin: J. Moore, W. Jones, R.
M’Allister, and J. Rice, 1793.
[16] Le Page Du Pratz, Antoine Simone (1695-1775.) The History
of Louisiana, or the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina:
Containing a Description of the Countries That Lie on Both Sides of
the River Mississippi: With an Account of the Settlements,
Inhabitants, Soil, Climate, and Products. London: T. Beckett,
1744.
[17]
Yazoo, a southeastern tribe, later absorbed by the Choctaws and
Chickasaws.
[18]
Not identified.
[19]
In Pennsylvania.
[20]
Mackenzie, Alexander, Sir, (1763- 1820). Voyages from Montreal.
When the "Antiquities" of Buttrick were being published in 1884, Cherokee intellectual Walter Adair Duncan, contested some of their basic premises. Duncan pokes holes in Buttrick's theory that the opinions expressed by his informants were the same as those of Cherokees before white contact. He touches upon critical issues such as influence, translation, and textual transmission, notions ignored or unnoticed by
Buttrick. These issues are, of course, crucial to the argument that pre-contact peoples derived from or had beliefs similar to Judaic or Christian groups.
W. A. Duncan was an influential member of the Cherokee community in the nineteenth century. Born in the Eastern Cherokee Nation in 1823, he removed with his family in 1838 to Flint District. He attended school in nearby Arkansas, was licensed to preach in 1847, and became a circuit rider. He became Principal Chief John Ross's secretary in 1850, later becoming a member of the National Council. From 1872 until 1884, he was superintendent of the Cherokee Orphan Asylum, a major unit in the Nation's educational system at the time. Duncan died in 1907.
CHEROKEE ANTIQUITIES
"The Buttrick Collections"
Cherokee Advocate, April 25, 1884
I have been reading some of the Buttrick collection of Cherokee antiquities as recently published in the pages of the Indian Chieftain. Ever since the death of Mr.
Buttrick, I have been waiting for those manuscripts to be placed before the public. I was but a boy in those days. Mr. Buttrick always seemed to feel an interest in me, and often, when we were thrown together, he would relate a great deal of what he had written about the Cherokees, their manners, customs, religion and traditions. He was decidedly of the opinion that they were descendants of the old Hebrew stock.
The day before he died, I called at his room at old Dwight Mission. He was all alone at that moment, reposing quietly as if sleeping. The circumstances did not admit of many words. The "silver cord" was being unloosed. It was very impressive, and my feelings at that time were very impressible. I spoke only one sentence, and he only one. Holding his shrunken fingers in my had, "How do you feel now, Mr.
Buttrick?" Languidly unclosing his eyes, he replied; "I am--persuaded--that he is--able to keep that which--I have committed to his--care--till that day." Quietly leaving, I went on to my appointments.
A few days after his burial, I returned by way of Dwight Mission, Mr. Willey told me that Mr. Buttrick had willed his manuscripts on the Cherokees to John B. Jones,[1] with instruction that they should not be unsealed till twenty years. They were then to be opened and published. So I had been hoping that Mr. Jones might so use them in connection with his own researches, as to bring out a publication which, from intrinsic worth, might be styled the great work on the Indians. But the designs of Providence are inscrutable. Both Mr. Jones and Mr. Buttrick have been called to their reward, and the work on the Cherokees remains unfinished.
But it is evident now from what has been published, that there will be difference of opinion as to the real merited of the
"Buttrick Collection." It is quite likely that he himself was aware of their imperfections. This may have been the reason for leaving them under instruction as to their publication. He may have supposed that Mr. Jones, by the aid of his superior attainments in the Cherokee language, would be able to so sift and winnow them as to collect the wheat from among the chaff.
It is a ground of suspicion that, in recounting the history and stating the doctrines and beliefs of the Cherokees, the collections are so minute and circumstantial. They correspond too precisely with the old testament Scriptures to be received by many as containing a representation of the pure notions of the Cherokee people. As the blood of the Whites had become greatly intermixed with that of the Cherokees at the time when Mr. Buttrick lived among them, so their notions of religion, history, and to some extent, philosophy, had found their way among those of the Indians. This presumption is rendered more credible, when it is noticed that the collections represent the Cherokees as having many notions interwoven with their sacred knowledge, which could have been derived from no other source than the New Testament.
The case is very much like the story about the three boxes. It is said to be a tradition among the American Indians that, at the beginning, God made three men, one white, one read, the other black, and placed before them three boxes, one containing books and papers, one, bows and arrows, and the other, mattocks and hoes, and that when the command was given for each man to make choice of a box, the white man took the books and papers, the red man, the bows and arrows, thus leaving the utensils of labor for the black man. As flimsy as this story is, it has been considered, even by men who have presumed upon being sufficiently learned to enlighten the world upon the origin of the races, as purely an Indian tradition. But only think of it. Does it not contain within itself the proofs of its own fallacy? What did the American Indians know about boxes, books, papers, and agricultural implements made of iron and steel, before those articles were introduced from Europe a few centuries ago? Is it not clear from the elements out of which the story has been made that it is wholly an invention of modern times? And yet, as above, intimated, even learned men have taken it to be of genuine Indian origin.
So the internal evidence of the Buttrick collections show very clearly that what he took to be peculiar to the original Cherokees had been greatly intermixed with notions which had been transmitted to them from modern sources. It was impossible when he wrote to separate the exotic from the indigenous, and it was his mistake to write down much that had been borrowed as originally Indian.
But a question here presents itself. How came the Cherokees into the possession of those modern notions, which were so extensively interwoven with their system in 1817, the time when Buttrick came among them? An answer to this question shall close this essay.
Along the Atlantic shore for more than three hundred years, the Indians had been in contact with the Europeans. Impelled by a spirit of traffic and adventure, and, in some cases, a spirit of benevolence, the whites had cultivated an extensive and intimate intercourse with them, which became a fruitful source of information in regard to the religion of the Bible. Indeed a prime motive in establishing some of the colonies was to extend the benefits of religious knowledge to the Indians; and after the puritans came to the continent, about the middle of the seventeenth century, there was special effort made to give the Gospel to the "savages," as they called us in those days. In 1642, the
Mayhews,[2] the elder and the younger, at their "small plantation in the Lord," or the island of Martha's Vineyard, entered upon an organized work "for the conversion of the poor savages." The result was that in the course of one hundred and fifty years, thousands embraced Christianity. Under the act passed in 1646 by the "General Court of Massachusetts Colony," for the propagation of the Gospel among the Indians, Mr. Elliot[3] became a missionary among them. For a number of years he labored with remarkable zeal and perseverance. The fruits that followed were immense. The Bible was translated, churches were founded, natives were made preachers. Speaking of this state of things in 1687, Dr. Mather[4] said; "There are six churches of baptized Indians in New England, and eighteen assemblies of catechumens professing the name of Christ. Of the Indians there are four and twenty who are preachers of the word of God, and besides these, there are four English ministers who preach the Gospel in the Indian tongue." For six years, about the middle of the last century, the great President Edwards,[5] himself, was missionary to those Northern Indians. All are familiar with the labors of Brainard[6] and the successes which crowned those labors. Nor should the labors performed by the Moravians be overlooked. With a smaller membership that almost any of the churches, they have covered a wider field with their stations and done more real Christian work for the conversion of the world, in proportion to numbers, than any of the modern sects. Their work among the Indians of the Atlantic soon grew up to such importance as to induce a visit from the great count Zinsendorff[7] himself.
As the result of intertribal communication among the Indians, it is easy to see how notions derived from the Bible would be carried from those parts of the continent which had been visited by the missionaries to the most remote tribes dwelling in the in the interior.
But the Southern tribes, Cherokees, Creeks and others, were not left to the fortuitous opportunities of gaining knowledge of the Christian religion merely from incidental intercourse with the tribes of a higher latitude. In addition to the casual visits among them of Catholic Priests, there were several efforts made for their conversions in those early days by some of the protestant churches, which doubtless resulted in the dissemination among them of no small measure of knowledge in regard to the teachings of the Bible. In 1735, the United Brethren formed a settlement in Georgia, having for its object the Christian instruction of the Indians. The same year Mr. John Wesley and his brother Charles, came from England in company with General Oglethorpe, as missionaries to the Indians, and to some extent, during the two years of his stay in America, John Wesley preached to the Cherokees and some others.
Such are some of the early opportunities which the Cherokees had for the acquisition of Scriptural notions. But still later, and yet prior to the time when Mr. Buttrick came among them the facilities for the acquisition of such notions were greatly increased. In 1803, the General assembly of the Presbyterian Church appointed Mr. Blackburn a missionary to the Cherokees. Entering upon his wok with great fervency of spirit, he soon established two schools, comprising seventy-five pupils; but after a few years labor, he was forced to abandon the field "for want of support." But this lack of service was soon obviated. In 1810 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was formed, and Mr. Kingsbury had preceded Mr. Buttrick to the Cherokee country, under the auspices of that board.
NOTE: I had just finished the above remarks, when the "Discourse Delivered at Vinita," by Dr. Hill on 16 March, at the dedication of the Presbyterian church, as printed in Cherokee Advocate from St. Louis Evangelist, came to hand. I get my information in regard to Mr. Blackburn's connection with the mission to the Cherokees from an old book with a preface dated, "Andover,
Tho. Sem. January 1819." The following is the sentence which I had in mind when I wrote the above "But we are sorry to add, when this active missionary had enlarged his plans to the magnitude of its object, he failed for want of support," italicized as in this quotation.
Park Hill C. N. April 19th, 1884.
W. A. Duncan
[1]Baptist missionary to the Cherokees in the second half of the nineteenth century, son of Evan Jones. Jones and his father were fluent in Cherokee.
[2] Thomas Mayhew (1593-1682) was the first governor of Martha's Vineyard and an early missionary to the Indians of New England. His son Thomas (1621-1657) was likewise a missionary to the Indians.
[3] John Eliot (1604-1690) began preaching to the Indians in 1846. He translated the Bible into Algonquin in 1661, the first Bible published in North America.
[4]Increase Mather (1639-1723), Massachusetts churchman who was Rector of Harvard in 1687.
[5]Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), Congregationalist clergyman, author, and theologian. After serving as missionary to the
Mohicans, he became President of the College of New Jersey at Princeton.
[6] David Brainerd (1718-1747), missionary to the Indians in present-day New York state. His work was continued by his son, John B. Brainerd (1720-1781).
[7] Zinzendorf, Nicolaus
Ludvig, Count von (1700-1760), leader of the Moravian Church, which established a mission and school in the Cherokee Nation in 1801.
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