In the Walam Olum, which is, it is asserted, a metrical translation
of an ancient hieroglyphic bark record discovered in 1820, the main
tradition is given in practically the same way, with an appendix
which follows the fortunes of the defeated tribe up to the beginning
of the historic period, thus completing the chain of evidence. (5)
In the Walam Olum also we find the Delawares advancing from the
west or northwest until they come to "Fish river"--the same which
Heckewelder makes the Mississippi (6). On the other side, we are told,
"The Talligewi possessed the East." The Delaware chief "desired the
eastern land," and some of his people go on, but are killed, by the
Talligewi. The Delawares decide upon war and call in the help of their
northern friends, the "Talamatan," i. e., the Wyandot and other allied
Iroquoian tribes. A war ensues which continues through the terms of
four successive chiefs, when victory declares for the invaders, and
"all the Talega go south." The country is then divided, the Talamatan
taking the northern portion, while the Delawares "stay south of the
lakes." The chronicle proceeds to tell how, after eleven more chiefs
have ruled, the Nanticoke and Shawano separate from the parent tribe
and remove to the south. Six other chiefs follow in succession until we
come to the seventh, who "went to the Talega mountains." By this time
the Delawares have reached the ocean. Other chiefs succeed, after whom
"the Easterners and the Wolves"--probably the Mahican or Wappinger and
the Munsee--move off to the northeast. At last, after six more chiefs,
"the whites came on the eastern sea," by which is probably meant
the landing of the Dutch on Manhattan in 1609 (7). We may consider
this a tally date, approximating the beginning of the seventeenth
century. Two more chiefs rule, and of the second we are told that "He
fought at the south; he fought in the land of the Talega and Koweta,"
and again the fourth chief after the coming of the whites "went to
the Talega." We have thus a traditional record of a war of conquest
carried on against the Talligewi by four successive chiefs, and a
succession of about twenty-five chiefs between the final expulsion
of that tribe and the appearance of the whites, in which interval
the Nanticoke, Shawano, Mahican, and Munsee branched off from the
parent tribe of the Delawares. Without venturing to entangle ourselves
in the devious maze of Indian chronology, it is sufficient to note
that all this implies a very long period of time--so long, in fact,
that during it several new tribes, each of which in time developed
a distinct dialect, branch off from the main Lenape' stem. It is
distinctly stated that all the Talega went south after their final
defeat; and from later references we find that they took refuge in
the mountain country in the neighborhood of the Koweta (the Creeks),
and that Delaware war parties were still making raids upon both these
tribes long after the first appearance of the whites.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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