Archives Of Aboriginal Knowledge

Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe. Archives of aboriginal knowledge. Containing all the original paper laid before Congress respecting the history, antiquities, language, ethnology, pictography, rites, superstitions, and mythology, of the Indian tribes of the United States. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1860.

Ancient Skill in Fortification

Archives Of Aboriginal Knowledge Plate 4

The area which is embraced by works of this kind is very large: west of the Alleghanies it embraces the greater portion of the entire Mississippi valley, extending to Minnesota and the banks of many of its confluent streams. The valley of the Ohio appears to have been a favorite field of ancient occupancy. Its fertile soil; its mild climate; its varied resources; and its picturesque character and beauties, appear to have been as well appreciated and understood by its ancient as its present inhabitants. That its possession was coveted, that it was long cherished, and perhaps often fought for, … Read more

An Ancient Shipwreck On The American Coasts

Iroquois tradition preserves the account of the wreck of a vessel, in the ante-Columbian era, on a part of the Southern Atlantic Coasts, occupied by one of the tribes of that ancient and leading stock of men namely, the Tuscaroras. This division of that confederacy then lived in the present area of North Carolina. The story is stated by Cusic, in his curious pamphlet of the historical traditions of the Six Nations, published at Lewiston, in Western New York, about 1825. Cusic had reflected much on the position of the Iroquois in our aboriginal history; and waited, it seems, for … Read more

Algonquian Pictography

Symbolic Petition of Chippewa Chiefs - Plate 61

Pictorial inscriptions of the character of the Muzzinabiks of the Western Indians, particularly of those of the Algonquin type of languages, are to be traced eastward from Lake Superior and the sources of the Mississippi, on the back line of their migration, through Lake Huron, by its northern communications, to the shores of the Northern Atlantic. One of these has been previously alluded to as existing on the Straits of St. Mary’s, and it is believed that the art will be found to have been in use, and freely employed at all periods of their history, embracing the residence of … Read more

Algonquian Language

Algonquian Words 1. Substantives Spiritual and Human Existence: Terms of Consanguinity: Names of Parts of the Human Frame. 1. God Manitoo Gen. xxiv. 26 2. Devil Mannitoosh  Job i. 7.  Chepian. Life of Eliot, p. 97 3.Angel English employed. 4. Man Wosketomp 5. Woman Mittomwossis Gen. xxiv. 8. Job xxi. 9. 6. Boy Mukkutchouks Job iii. 5 7. Girl, or maid Nunksqua Gen. xvi. 24. Luke viii. 54. Ps. clviii. 12 8. Virgin Penomp Gen. xxiv. 16. Job xxxiii. 4. Isa. vii. 14. Mat. i. 23 9. Infant, or child Mukkie Gen. xxv. 22. Job xxxiii. 25 10. Father, my … Read more

Akeek or Ancient Cooking Pot

Cooking Pot and Vase - Plate 22

In a state of nature, boiling is performed sometimes by casting heated stones into bark vessels filled with water. One of our tribes, (the Assinoboins,) has been named, it is averred, from this custom. The Micmacs and Souriquois, and some other extreme northern tribes, boiled in this manner. The southern and southwest and midland tribes, from the earliest notices of them, possessed a species of kettle made from pottery, the art of making, which was carried northward up the Mississippi Valley and to the great lakes. The Atlantic and New England tribes, whose traditions point southwest, had also, at the … Read more

Aishkun, or Bone Awl

Awls, Mortar and Corn Cracker - Plate 27

Men’s and women’s clothes were before the discovery made of skins, or dressed leather. It was necessary to the formation of garments for the body and legs, and shoes for the feet, that some hard and sharp instrument should be employed, capable of readily penetrating the skin or leather. The method of the ancient species of sewing of our tribes resembled that of a modern cordwainer rather than of a seamstress or tailor. Leather, dressed or undressed, being the material to be put together, this was accomplished by making holes in the edges of the garment or skin, and pushing … Read more

1837 Smallpox Epidemic

No disease which has been introduced among the tribes, has exercised so fatal an influence upon them as the smallpox. Their physicians have no remedy for it. Old and young regard it as if it were the plague, and, on its appearance among them, blindly submit to its ravages. This disease has appeared among them periodically, at irregular intervals of time. It has been one of the prominent causes of their depopulation. Ardent spirits, it is true, in its various forms, has, in the long run, carried a greater number of the tribes to their graves; but its effects have … Read more