Aboriginal American AuthorsBrinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
History
Aboriginal American Authors
Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Indian literature
The tribes of Algonkin lineage can also count some respectable writers.
The Rev. William Apess (or Apes), a member of the Pequod tribe of
Massachusetts, wrote and published five or six small books and
pamphlets, on questions relating to his people, between 1829 and 1837.
The book of George Copway, or Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh, a chief of the
Ojibways, on _The Traditional History of the Ojibway Nation_
(London, 1850), is a good authority on the topic, and so well written
that we can scarcely suppose that it was his unaided effort. Of almost
equal merit is the _History of the Ojibway Indians, with especial
reference to their Conversion to Christianity_, by the Rev. Peter
Jones, or Kahkewaquonaby, a full-blood Indian, (London, 1861.)
In the southwest, the _Cherokee Phoenix_ offered a medium through
which the native writers of that tribe frequently published original
contributions; and one of its early editors, Elias Boudinot (named after
the celebrated philanthropist), published separately a number of
addresses and other documents, in English.
But, as we might naturally expect, it is in Spanish that we find the
best work of the native writers. The partly civilized races of Mexico,
Central America and Peru, were much better prepared to receive the
lessons of European teachers than the barbarous hunting tribes. Had they
had any fair chance, they would have soon equaled their teachers. Father
Motolinia, one of the earliest missionaries to Mexico, testifies to the
readiness with which the natives acquired both Spanish and Latin, and
adds that, in the latter tongue, they became skilled grammarians, and
wrote both verse and prose with commendable accuracy.[6] Quite a long
list of such native Latinists, their names and their writings, is given
by Father Augustin de Vetancurt, and he is not sparing in his praise of
the ability they displayed in the use of both Spanish and Latin.[7]
Similar testimony is rendered of the natives of Guatemala, by the
Archbishop Garcia Pelaez. He mentions, by name, several Indians who
became conspicuously thorough Latin scholars, and refers to others who
won honors in all the faculties of the University of Guatemala, and
distinguished themselves in after life by the display of their talents
and education.[8] Nor would it be difficult to find many other such
examples in Peru and Brazil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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