The Lenâpé and Their Legends: With the complete text and symbols of the Walam olum, a new translation, and an inquiry into its authenticityBrinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
History
The Lenâpé and Their Legends: With the complete text and symbols of the Walam olum, a new translation, and an inquiry into its authenticity
Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Delaware Indians; Delaware language -- Texts; Picture-writing, Indian
The population was, however, very sparse, owing to the predatory
incursions of the Susquehannocks, whose trails, leading up the Octorara
and Conestoga, and down the Christina and Brandywine Creeks, were
followed by war parties annually, and desolated the west shores of the
Bay and lower river. When, in 1634, Captain Thomas Young explored the
river, the few natives he found on the west side told him (through the
medium of his Algonkin Virginian interpreter) that the "Minquaos" had
killed their people, burnt their villages, and destroyed their crops,
so that "the Indians had wholly left that side of the river which was
next their enemies, and had retired themselves on the other side farre
up into the woods."[58]
North of the Chikelaki, Smith's map locates the _Macovks_. This name
does not appear in later authors, but near that site were the _Okahoki_
band, who occupied the shores of Ridley and Crum creeks and the land
between them. There they remained until 1703, when they were removed to
a small reservation of 500 acres in what is now Willistown township,
Chester county.[59]
_The Totemic Animals._
These three sub-tribes had each its totemic animal, from which it
claimed a mystical descent. The Minsi had the Wolf, the Unami the
Turtle, and the Unalachtigo the Turkey. The Unamis claimed and were
conceded the precedence of the others, because their ancestor, the
Turtle, was not the common animal, so-called, but the great original
tortoise which bears the world on its back, and was the first of living
beings, as I shall explain on a later page.
In referring to the totemic animals the common names were not used, but
metaphorical expressions. Thus the Wolf was referred to as _Ptuksit_,
Round Foot (_ptuk_, round, _sit_, foot, from the shape of its paws;)
the turtle was _Pakoango_, the Crawler; and the turkey was _Pullaeu_,
he does not chew,[60] referring to the bird's manner of swallowing food.
The signs of these animals were employed in their picture writing,
painted on their houses or inscribed on rocks, to designate the
respective sub-tribes. But only in the case of the Unamis was the whole
animal represented. The Turkey tribe painted only one foot of their
totemic bird, and the Minsi the extended foot of the wolf, though they
sometimes added an outline of the rest of the animal.[61]
These three divisions of the Lenape were neither "gentes" nor
"phratries," though Mr. Morgan has endeavored to force them into his
system by stating that they were "of the nature of phratries."[62]
Each was divided into twelve families bearing female names, and hence
probably referring to some unexplained matriarchal system. They were,
as I have called them, sub-tribes. In their own orations they referred
to each other as "playmates." (Heckewelder.)
_The New Jersey Lenape._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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