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CHAPTER VI
Myths and Traditions of the Lenape

Cosmogonical and Culture Myths. – The Culture-hero, Michabo. – Myths from Lindstrom, Ettwein, Jasper Donkers, Zeisberger. – Native Symbolism. – The Saturnian Age. – Mohegan Cosmogony and Migration Myth. National Traditions. – Beatty's Account. – The Number Seven. – Heckewelder's Account. – Prehistoric Migrations. – Shawnee Legend. – Lenape Legend of the Naked Bear.

Cosmogonical and Culture Myths

The Algonkins, as a stock, had a well developed creation-myth and a culture legend, found in more or less completeness in all their branches.

Their culture hero, their ancestor and creator, he who made the earth and stocked it with animals, who taught them the arts of war and the chase, and gave them the Indian corn, beans and squashes, was generally called Michabo, The Great Light, but was also known among the Narragansetts of New England as Wetucks, The Common Father; among the Cree as Wisakketjâk, the Trickster; by the Chippeways as Nanabozho (Nenâboj), the Cheat; by the Black Feet as Natose, Our Father, or Napiw; and by the Micmacs and Penobscots as Glus-Kap, the Liar.

I have given the details of this myth and analyzed them in previous works;²²² here it is sufficient to say that it is a Light-myth, and one of noble proportion and circumstance, quite worthy of comparison with those of the Oriental world.

Traces of it are reported among the Lenape, and I doubt not that had we their ancient stories in their completeness, we should find that they had preserved it as wholly as the Chipeways. These related of their Nanabozho that he was the son of a maiden who had descended from heaven. She conceived without knowledge of man, and having given birth to twins, she disappeared. One of these twins was Nanabozho. Having formed the earth by his miraculous powers, and done many wonderful things, he disappeared toward the east, where he still dwells beyond the sunrise.

It was undoubtedly a fragment of this legend that the Swedish engineer, Lindstrom heard among the Lenape, on the Delaware, about 1650. They told him, or rather he understood them, as follows: —

"Once, one of your women (i. e., a white woman) came among us, and she became pregnant, in consequence of drinking out of a creek; an Indian had connection with her, and she became pregnant, and brought forth a son, who, when he came to a certain size, was so sensible and clever, that there never was one who could be compared to him, so much and so well he spoke, which excited great wonder; he also performed many miracles. When he was quite grown up, he left us, and went up to heaven, and promised to come again, but has never returned."²²³

This is but a mistranslation of the general Algonkin legend, in which the virgin mother bears a white and dark twin, the former of whom becomes the tribal culture hero and demiurgic deity.

Its interpretation is, that the virgin is the Dawn, who brings forth the Day, which assures safety and knowledge, and the Night, which departs with her. The Day leaves us, and in its personified form returns no more, though ever expected.

That such were the original form and significance of the myth, we have the testimony of Bishop Ettwein,²²⁴ himself a Delaware scholar, and who drew his information from the natives as well as the missionaries. He tells us that their legend ran, that in the beginning the first woman fell from heaven and bore twins; that it was toward the east that they directed their children to turn their faces when they prayed to the spirits; and that their old men had said that it was an ancient belief that from that quarter some one would come to them to benefit them. Therefore, said they, when our ancestors saw the first white men, they looked upon them as divine, and adored them.

The Dutch travelers, Jasper Donkers and Peter Sluyter, relate a part of this myth as they heard it from New Jersey Indians in 1679. These informed them that all things came from a tortoise. It had brought forth the world, and from the middle of its back had sprung up a tree, upon whose branches men had grown.

This tortoise "had a power and a nature to produce all things, such as earth, trees and the like." But it was not the primum mobile, not the ultimate energy of the universe. "The first and great beginning of all things was Kickeron or Kickerom, who is the original of all, who has not only once produced or made all things, but produces every day." The tortoise brought forth what this primal divinity "wished through it to produce."²²⁵

This is a very interesting statement. It reveals a depth of thought on the part of the native philosophers for which we were scarcely prepared. The worthy Dutch travelers do not pretend to explain the myth. But its sense can be clearly interpreted.

The turtle or tortoise is everywhere in Algonkin pictography the symbol of the earth.²²⁶ From the earth, from the soil, all organic life, the whole realm of animate existence – ever sharply defined in Algonkin grammar and thought from inanimate existence – proceeds, directly as vegetable life, or indirectly as animal life. The earth is the All-Mother, ever-producing, inexhaustible.

As for Kikeron, the eternally active, hidden spirit of the universe, I have but to refer the reader to the list of ideas associated around this root kik, which I have given on a previous page (p. 102) to reveal the significance of this word. We may, with equal correctness, translate it Life, Light, Action or Energy. It is the abstract conception back of all these.

The distinction was the same as that established by the scholastic philosophers between the mundus and the anima mundi; between the essentia and the existentia; between natura naturans and natura naturata. But who expected to find it among the Lenape?

This creation myth of the Delawares is also given in brief by Zeisberger. It dated back to that marvelous overflow which is heard of in many mythologies. The whole earth was submerged, and but a few persons survived. They had taken refuge on the back of a turtle, who had reached so great an age that his shell was mossy, like the bank of a rivulet. In this forlorn condition a loon flew that way, which they asked to dive and bring up land. He complied, but found no bottom. Then he flew far away, and returned with a small quantity of earth in his bill. Guided by him, the turtle swam to the place, where a spot of dry land was found. There the survivors settled and repeopled the land.²²⁷

This is more a tale of reconstruction than a creation myth. It is that which has generally been supposed to refer to the Deluge. But, as I have explained in my "Myths of the New World," all these so-called Deluge Myths are but developments of crude cosmogonical theories.

To understand the significance of this myth we must examine the Indian notion of the earth. This is the more germane to my theme, as the meaning of the original text which is printed in this volume can only be grasped by one acquainted with this notion.

The Indians almost universally believed the dry land they knew to be a part of a great island, everywhere surrounded by wide waters whose limits were unknown.²²⁸ Many tribes had vague myths of a journey from beyond this sea; many placed beyond it the home of the Sun and of Light, and the happy hunting grounds of the departed souls. The Delawares believed that the whole was supported by a fabled turtle, whose movements caused earthquakes and who had been their first preserver.²²⁹ As above mentioned, the turtle in its amphibious character and rounded back represented the earth or the land itself, as distinguished from water. Like the turtle, the land lies at times under the water and at times above it. The spirit of the earth was the practical and visible developmental energy of nature.

The medicine men, or conjurers, who professed to be in personal relations with this power, made their "medicine rattle" of a turtle shell (Loskiel), and when they died, such a shell was suspended from their tomb posts (Zeisberger).

The Delawares also shared the belief, common to so many nations the world over, that the pristine age was one of unalloyed prosperity, peace and happiness, an Age of Gold, a Saturnian Reign. Their legends asseverated that at that time "the killing of a man was unknown, neither had there been instances of their dying before they had attained to that age which causes the hair to become white, the eyes dim, and the teeth to be worn away."

This happy time was brought to a close by the advent of certain evil beings who taught men how to kill each other by sorcery.²³⁰

Their kinsmen, the Mohegans, varied this cosmogonical tradition, though retaining some of its main features. They taught that in the beginning there was nought but water and sky. At length from the sky a woman descended, our common mother. As she approached the boundless ocean, a small point of land rose above the watery surface, and supplied her with firm footing. She was pregnant by some mysterious power, and she brought forth on this island animal triplets – a bear, a deer and a wolf. From these all men and animals are descended. The island grew to a main land, and the mother of all, her mission accomplished, returned to her home in the sky.²³¹

This creation-myth, obtained from the Indians around New York harbor in the first generation after the advent of the whites, has every mark of a genuine native production, and coincides closely with that generally believed by the early Algonkins.

It is followed by a migration myth, which ran to the effect that their early forefathers came out of the northwest, forsaking a tide-water country, and crossing over a great watery tract, called ukhkok-pek, "snake water, or water where snakes are abundant," (âkhgook, snake, and pek, standing water, probably from n'pey, water, akek, place or country). They crossed many streams, but none in which the water ebbed and flowed, until they reached the Hudson. "Then they said, one to another, 'This is like the Muhheakunnuck (tidal ocean) of our nativity.' Therefore they agreed to kindle a fire there and hang a kettle, whereof they and their children after them might dip out their daily refreshment." Hence came their name, the Tide-water People (see ante, p. 20).

National Traditions

Many early writers attest the passionate fondness of the Delawares for their ancestral traditions and the memory of their ancient heroes. The missionary, David Brainerd, mentions this as one of the leading difficulties in the way of "evangelizing the Indians." "They are likewise much attached," he writes, "to the traditions and fabulous notions of their fathers, which they firmly believe, and thence look upon their ancestors to have been the best of men."²³²

To the same effect, Loskiel informs us that the Delawares "love to relate what great warriors their ancestors had been, and how many heroic deeds they had performed. It is a pleasure to them to rehearse their genealogies. They are so skilled at it that they can repeat the chief and collateral lines with the utmost readiness. At the same time, they characterize their ancestors, by describing this one as a wise or skillful man, as a great chieftain, a renowned warrior, a rich man, and the like. This they teach to their children, and embody it in pictures, so as to make it more readily remembered."²³³

The earliest writer who gives us any detailed description of what these traditions were, is the Rev. Charles Beatty, who visited the Delaware settlements in Ohio in 1767. On his way there, he met a white man, Benjamin Button, who for years had been a captive among the natives. He related to Beatty the following tradition, which he had heard recited by some old men among the Delawares: —

"That of old time their people were divided by a river, nine parts of ten passing over the river, and one part remaining behind; that they knew not, for certainty, how they came to this continent; but account thus for their first coming into these parts where they are now settled; that a king of their nation, where they formerly lived, far to the west, left his kingdom to his two sons; that the one son making war upon the other, the latter thereupon determined to depart and seek some new habitation; that accordingly he sat out, accompanied by a number of his people, and that, after wandering to and fro for the space of forty years, they at length came to Delaware river, where they settled 370 years ago. The way, he says, they keep an account of this is by putting on a black bead of wampum every year on a belt they keep for that purpose."²³⁴

From another source Mr. Beatty obtained the traditions of the Nanticokes, which is apparently a version of that of their relatives, the Delawares. It ran to this effect: At some remote age, while on their way to their present homes, "They came to a great water. One of the Indians that went before them tried the depth of it by a long pole or reed, which he had in his hand, and found it too deep for them to wade. Upon their being non-plussed, and not knowing how to get over it, their God made a bridge over the water in one night, and the next morning, after they were all over, God took away the bridge."²³⁵

A curious addition to this story is mentioned by Loskiel.²³⁶ The number of the mythical ancestors of their race who thus were left on the shore of the great water was seven. This at once recalls the seven caves (Chicomoztoc) or primitive stirpes of the Mexican tribes, the seven clans (vuk amag) of the Cakchiquels, the seven ancestors of the Qquechuas, etc., and strongly intimates that there must be some common natural occurrence to give rise to this widespread legend.²³⁷

Some peculiar sacredness must have attached to this number among the Delawares also, as we are informed that the period of isolation of their women at the catamenial period was seven days.²³⁸

The lunar month of 28 days, if divided and assigned equally to each of the four cardinal points, would give a week of seven days to each. Something of this kind seems to have been done by another Algonkin tribe, the Ottawas, who declared that the winds are caused (alternately?) by seven genii or gods who dwelt in the air.²³⁹

The seven day period is also a natural, physical one, whose influence is felt widely by vertebrate and invertebrate animals, as Darwin has pointed out,²⁴⁰ and hence its appearance among these people, who lived entirely subject to the operation of their physical surroundings, is not so surprising.

The most complete account of the Delaware tradition is that preserved by Heckewelder. In his pages it appears, not as a reminiscence of tribal history, but as the tradition of the whole eastern Algonkin race, and it claims for the three Delaware tribes an antiquity of organization surpassing that of any of their neighbors.

It holds such an important place that I quote all the essential passages: —

"The Lenni Lenape (according to the traditions handed down to them by their ancestors) resided many hundred years ago in a very distant country in the western part of the American continent. For some reason, which I do not find accounted for, they determined on migrating to the eastward, and accordingly set out together in a body. After a very long journey, and many nights' encampments by the way, they at length arrived on the Namoesi Sipu, where they fell in with the Mengwe, who had likewise emigrated from a distant country, and had struck upon this river somewhat higher up. Their object was the same with that of the Delawares; they were proceeding on to the eastward, until they should find a country that pleased them. The spies which the Lenape had sent forward for the purpose of reconnoitring, had long before their arrival discovered that the country east of the Mississippi was inhabited by a very powerful nation, who had many large towns built on the great rivers flowing through their land. Those people (as I was told) called themselves Talligeu or Talligewi. Colonel John Gibson, however, a gentleman who has a thorough knowledge of the Indians, and speaks several of their languages, is of opinion that they were not called Talligewi, but Alligewi. * * *

"Many wonderful things are told of this famous people. They are said to have been remarkably tall, and stout, and there is a tradition that there were giants among them, people of a much larger size than the tallest of the Lenape. It is related that they had built to themselves regular fortifications or entrenchments, from whence they would sally out, but were generally repulsed. * * *

"When the Lenape arrived on the banks of the Mississippi, they sent a message to the Alligewi to request permission to settle themselves in their neighbourhood. This was refused them, but they obtained leave to pass through the country and seek a settlement farther to the eastward. They accordingly began to cross the Namaesi Sipu, when the Alligewi, seeing that their numbers were so very great, and in fact they consisted of many thousands, made a furious attack on those who had crossed, threatening them all with destruction, if they dared to persist in coming over to their side of the river. * * *

"Having united their forces, the Lenape and Mengwe declared war against the Alligewi, and great battles were fought, in which many warriors fell on both sides. The enemy fortified their large towns and erected fortifications, especially on large rivers and near lakes, where they were successively attacked and sometimes stormed by the allies. An engagement took place in which hundreds fell, who were afterwards buried in holes or laid together in heaps and covered over with earth. No quarter was given, so that the Alligewi, at last, finding that their destruction was inevitable if they persisted in their obstinacy, abandoned the country to the conquerors, and fled down the Mississippi river, from whence they never returned. * * *

"In the end the conquerors divided the country between themselves; the Mengwe made choice of the lands in the vicinity of the great lakes and on their tributary streams, and the Lenape took possession of the country to the south. For a long period of time – some say many hundred years – the two nations resided peaceably in this country, and increased very fast; some of their most enterprising huntsmen and warriors crossed the great swamps, and falling on streams running to the eastward, followed them down to the great Bay river, thence into the Bay itself, which we call Chesapeak. As they pursued their travels, partly by land and partly by water, sometimes near and at other times on the great Salt-water Lake, as they call the sea, they discovered the great river, which we call the Delaware; and thence exploring still eastward, the Scheyichbi country, now named New Jersey, they arrived at another great stream, that which we call the Hudson or North river. * * *

"At last they settled on the four great rivers (which we call Delaware, Hudson, Susquehannah, Potomack), making the Delaware, to which they gave the name of 'Lenape-wihittuck' (the river or stream of the Lenape), the centre of their possessions.

"They say, however, that the whole of their nation did not reach this country; that many remained behind, in order to aid and assist that great body of their people which had not crossed the Namaesi Sipu, but had retreated into the interior of the country on the other side. * * *

"Their nation finally became divided into three separate bodies; the larger body, which they suppose to have been one-half the whole, was settled on the Atlantic, and the other half was again divided into two parts, one of which, the strongest, as they suppose, remained beyond the Mississippi, and the remainder where they left them, on this side of that river.

"Those of the Delawares who fixed their abodes on the shores of the Atlantic divided themselves into three tribes. Two of them, distinguished by the names of the Turtle and the Turkey, the former calling themselves Unâmi, and the other Unalâchtgo, chose those grounds to settle on which lay nearest to the sea, between the coast and the high mountains. As they multiplied, their settlements extended from the Mohicanittuck (river of the Mohicans, which we call the North or Hudson river) to the Potomack." * * * "The third tribe, the Wolf, commonly called the Minsi, which we have corrupted into Monseys, had chosen to live back of the other two." * * * They extended their settlements from the Minisink, a place named after them, where they had their council seat and fire, quite up to the Hudson, on the east; and to the west or southward far beyond the Susquehannah.

"From the above three tribes, the Unami, Unalachtgo and the Minsi, had, in the course of time, sprung many others, * * * the Mahicanni, or Mohicans, who spread themselves over all that country which now composes the Eastern States, * * * and the Nanticokes, who proceeded far to the south, in Maryland and Virginia."

On their conquests during the period of their western migrations, the Delawares based a claim for hunting grounds in the Ohio valley. It is stated that when they had decided to remove to the valley of the Muskingum, their chief, Netawatwes, presented this claim to the Hurons and Miamis, and had it allowed.²⁴¹ They also claimed lands on White River, Indiana, and their settlement in that region at the close of the last century was regarded as a return to their ancient seats.

Nevertheless, in the earliest historic times, when the whites first came in contact with the Lenape tribes, none of them dwelt west of the mountains, nor, apparently, had they any towns in the valley of the west branch of the Susquehanna or of its main stream.

Although the above mentioned facts point to a migration in prehistoric times from the West toward the East, there are indications of a yet older movement from the northeast westward and southward to the upper Mississippi valley. A legend common to the western Algonkin tribes, the Kikapoos, Sacs, Foxes, Ottawas and Pottawatomies, located their original home north of the St. Lawrence river, near or below where Montreal now stands. In that distant land their ancestors were created by the Great Spirit, and they dwelt there, "all of one nation." Only when they removed or were driven west did they separate into tribes speaking different dialects.²⁴²

The Shawnees, who at various times were in close relation with the Delawares, also possessed a vague migration myth, according to which, at some indefinitely remote past, they had arrived at the main land after crossing a wide water. Their ancestors succeeded in this by their great control of magic arts, their occult power enabling them to walk over the water as if it had been land. Until within the present century this legend was repeated annually, and a yearly sacrifice offered up in memory of their safe arrival.²⁴³ It is evidently a version of that which appears in the third part of the Walam Olum.

One of the curious legends of the Lenape was that of the Great Naked or Hairless Bear. It is told by the Rev. John Heckewelder, in a letter to Dr. B. S. Barton.²⁴⁴ The missionary had heard it both among the Delawares and the Mohicans. By the former, it was spoken of as amangachktiátmachque, and in the dialect of the latter, ahamagachktiât mechqua.²⁴⁵

The story told of it was that it was immense in size and the most ferocious of animals. Its skin was bare, except a tuft of white hair on its back. It attacked and ate the natives, and the only means of escape from it was to take to the water. Its sense of smell was remarkably keen, but its sight was defective. As its heart was very small, it could not be easily killed. The surest plan was to break its back-bone; but so dangerous was an encounter with it, that those hunters who went in pursuit of it bade their families and friends farewell, as if they never expected to return.

Fortunately, there were few of these beasts. The last one known was to the east, somewhere beyond the left bank of the Mahicanni Sipu (the Hudson river). When its presence was learned a number of bold hunters went there, and mounted a rock with precipitous sides. They then made a noise, and attracted the bear's attention, who rushed to the attack with great fury. As he could not climb the rock, he tore at it with his teeth, while the hunters above shot him with arrows and threw upon him great stones, and thus killed him.

Though this was the last of the species, the Indian mothers still used his name to frighten their children into obedience, threatening them with the words, "The Naked Bear will eat you."