Archives Of Aboriginal Knowledge Collections – Page 4 of 5

History of the Muskogee Indians

History of the Muskogee Indians: The following traditions and opinions of their origin, early history, and customs, are from the lips of Se-ko-pe-chi, (Perseverance) one of the oldest Creeks, now living in their new location west of the Mississippi. They were taken down from his narration, by Mr. D. W. Eakins, who was for some time a resident of the territory now occupied by them west of the state of Arkansas, and have been communicated in reply to the printed inquiries issued in 1847, respecting the History, Present Condition, and Future Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States.

Grave Creek Mound Tablet

Archives Of Aboriginal Knowledge Plate 75

The Grave Creek Mound tablet has been an object of debate since it’s purported discovery in 1838 – it is considered one of America’s great hoaxes. Henry Schoolcraft in his Archives Of Aboriginal Knowledge discusses the history of the mounds and the tablet up to 1860.

Gold Deposits of California

1. The discovery of gold in California makes the year 1848 an era in the history of that country. It was accidentally found, in the Spring season, in the diluvial soil, by some persons digging the sluiceway for a mill. Specimens of the various kinds of the metal and its matrix were forwarded to the War Department by the chief military officer in command, in the month of August. These specimens were not received at the War-Office till early in December. I examined them in the library of that office, on the 8th of that month. They consisted of thirteen … Read more

General Archaeology

There is little in the history of the hunter state of man that can be dignified with the name of monuments. Tribes, who rely on the bow and arrow for their means of subsistence; who cultivate the earth by loosening the soil with the scapula of a stag or bison; who are completely erratic in their habits and customs; and who put up, as a shelter from the elements, buildings of the slightest and most perishable materials, cannot be expected to have left very extensive or striking monumental traces of their past history. This will be found to be the … Read more

Funeral Food Vase

The idea of placing food in or near the grave, to serve the departed spirit on its journey to the fancied land of rest in another world, is connected with the ancient belief in a duality of souls. This idea is shown to exist among the present tribes of the United States. One of these souls is liberated at death, but the other is compelled to abide with the body; and it is to provide for this, that a dish or vase of food is deposited generally at this day, not in the grave, to be buried with the corpse, … Read more

Fleshing Tools or Stone Chisel

Ancient Mace Pipe and Fleshing Instruments - Plate11

It is known that in skinning an animal, there will always remain some parts of the flesh and integuments to the skin. With a hunter, the operation of skinning is often done in haste, and when there is ever so much leisure, still the fear of cutting the skin, induces the flayer rather to infringe upon the carcass than endanger the value of the hide. In the hunter state of society, it becomes the duty of the women to dress and prepare the skins taken in the chase. For this purpose, the skins are stretched in the green state on … Read more

Existing Geological Action of the North American Lakes

That species of action which is supposed to have brought the surface of the earth into its habitable condition is comprised in the era of physical revolutions which are long past. By what causes, and according to what laws, these changes were produced, and their effects on the superposition and relation of strata, constitute no small part of the considerations of geology. Seas, rivers, mountains, and plains, are conjectured to have been left by those ancient revolutions, all of which preceded the historical epoch. It has been observed that the post-diluvial action of rivers flowing into the sea, and carrying … Read more

Elements of Picture Writing

Grave Posts of Chippewa and Dacota - Plate 50

The Toltec and Aztec system of Picture Writing, compared with the North American; its general agreement its peculiar traits and common figurative system of the United States Tribes. Devices from a Tree on the Mamakagon River, Wisconsin. Drawing from the Upper Mississippi, denoting a Peace-Mission. Signs drawn on Grave-Posts. Sepulchral honors of the Chiefs Wabojeeg, and Babasekundabee.

Early Native American Gardening

Grand River Michigan Ancient Garden Beds - Plate 6

What proportion of the prairies of the West may be assigned as falling under the inference of having been abandoned fields, may constitute a subject of general speculation. It appears to be clear that the great area of the prairies proper is independent of that cause. Fire is the evident cause of the denudation of trees and shrubs in a large part of the area between the Rocky and the Allegheny mountains. Water comes in for a share of the denudation in valleys and moist prairies, which may be supposed to be the result of a more recent emergence from its former … Read more

Discoidal Stones

Games of various character have attracted the Indian tribes from the earliest notices we have of them. Some of these games are of a domestic character, or such as are usually played in the wigwam or domicile. Of this kind are the game of hunting the moccasin, the game of the bowl, and sundry minor games known to the Algonquins, the Cherokees, and other tribes. But by far the greater number of games practiced by the North American Indians are of an athletic character, and are designed to nourish and promote activity of limb, and manual expertness in the field, … Read more

Dighton Rock Inscriptions

An in-depth look at the Dighton Rock inscriptions, including a descriptive analysis of the petroglyphs by the Iroquioan Meda, Chingwauk, in 1839 at the behest of Henry Schoolcraft. Included with the article are Henry’s own deductions based on several decades of research into the early North American petroglyphic arts. Photographs of the rock, as well as drawn replications of both the petroglyph and the inscriptions upon it.

Dacotas of the Mississippi

A Medicine Man Administering to a Patient - Plate 46

Dacotas of the Mississippi

Corn Pestle or Hand Bray Stone

Stone Pestle and Copper Chisel - Plate 21

The zea maize was cultivated by the Indian tribes of America throughout its whole extent. Cotton was raised by the Mexican and Peruvian tribes; but there is no instance on record in which the plant was cultivated by tribes living north of the Rio Grande del Norte. The Florida and Louisiana tribes raised a kind of melon, and per haps some minor vegetables; but the whole of the tribes situated in the Mississippi Valley, in Ohio, and the Lakes, reaching on both sides of the Alleghanies, quite to Massachusetts, and other parts of New England, cultivated Indian corn. It was … Read more

Copper Armbands and Wristbands

The antique specimens of this part of personal decoration, which are furnished by graves and tumuli, do not differ essentially in their mechanical execution, from similar productions among the remote tribes of this day. They are simple rings or bands of the metal, bent. There is no union of the bent ends by soldering. Oxidation has nearly destroyed them, in the mound specimens, which have come to our notice. In the specimens, (Plate 31,) exhumed from the western part of Virginia, at the Great Tumulus of Grave Creek Flats, a salt of copper, apparently a carbonate was formed upon the … Read more

Comparative Views of International Pictography

Foreign Pictographic Signs; The Chinese Characters founded on the Picture-writing Devices of the Samoides Siberians Tartars; Inscriptions from the Banks of the Yenisei and the Irtish; Rock Inscriptions from Northern Asia; System of the Laplanders; Copies of the Figures printed on the Drums of the Lapland Magicians, with their Interpretation; The Device on the great Drum of Torna; Iroquois Pictography; Specimen from Oceanica.

Coin or its Equivalent to the Indian

The discovery of America caused a total revolution in the standard of value among the Indian tribes. Exchanges among them had been adjusted to a great extent, by articles in kind. Among the northern tribes, skins appear to have been a standard. A beaver skin long continued to be the plus, or multiple of value. But however general this standard might have been, it is certain that among the tribes seated along the north Atlantic, some varieties, or parts of species of sea-shells, under the names of peag, seawan, and wampum, became a sort of currency, and had the definite … Read more

Character of the Indian Race

Of the topics which may be employed to denote the mental character and capacities of the aborigines, the principles of their languages the style of their oratory the oral imaginative lodge lore which they possess and their mode of communicating ideas by the use of symbolic and representative devices, are the most prominent. The two latter have been selected on the present occasion. One reason for this choice is the little information we have heretofore had on the subjects. From a very early age, the Indian of North America has been observed to be a man possessing a flexible and … Read more

Bone Shuttle

In making their mats or rude lodge-tapestry, and other coarse fabrics, the aborigines employed an instrument of bone, of a peculiar construction, which has the properties of a shuttle. It was designed to introduce the woof in preparing these fabrics, as they did, from rushes and other, flexible materials used for the purpose. The art was rude,” and of a kind “to fall into disuse, by the coast tribes, as soon as European manufactures were introduced. It is therefore, when found in opening graves, &c., a proof of the ante-European period. One of these antique implements, herewith figured, (Plate 28, … Read more

Balista or Demon’s Head

Algonquin tradition affirms, that in ancient times during the fierce wars which the Indians carried on, they constructed a very formidable instrument of attack, by sewing up a large round boulder in a new skin. To this a long handle was tied. When the skin dried, it became very tight around the stone; and after being painted with devices, assumed the appearance and character of a solid globe upon a pole. This formidable instrument, to which the name of balista may be applied, is figured (Plate 15, Fig 2) from the description of an Algonquin chief. It was borne by … Read more

Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge

Volume 1 of the Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge. Contains a study (with illustrations) of Indian antiquities: their tools, weapons, art, religion, and history.