The Trail Book Part 26

_Adirondack_ means "Bark-Eaters," a local name for the tribe that once lived there and in seasons of scarcity ate the inner bark of the birch tree.

_Algonquian_ is a name for one of the great tribal groups, several members of which occupied the New England country at the beginning of our history. The name probably means "Place of the Fish-Spearing," in reference to the prow of the canoe, which was occupied by the man with the fish spear. The Eastern Algonquians were all canoers.

_Wabaniki_ means "Eastlanders," people living toward the East.

The American Indians, like all other people in the world, believed in supernatural beings of many sorts, spirits of woods and rocks, Underwater People and an Underworld. They had stories of ghosts and flying heads and giants. Most of the tribes believed in animals that, when they were alone, laid off their animal skins and thought and behaved as men. Some of them thought of the moon and stars as other worlds like ours, inhabited by people like us who occasionally came to earth and took away with them mortals whom they loved. In the various tribal legends can be found the elements of almost every sort of European fairy tale.

_Shaman_ is not an Indian word at all, but has been generally adopted as a term of respect to indicate men or women who became wise in the things of the spirit. Sometimes a knowledge of healing herbs was included in the Shaman's education, and often he gave advice on personal matters.

But the chief business of the Shaman was to keep man reconciled with the spirit world, to persuade it to be on his side, or to prevent the spirits from doing him harm. A Shaman was not a priest, nor was he elected to office, and in some tribes he did not even go to war, but stayed at home to protect the women and children. Any one could be a Shaman who thought himself equal to it and could persuade people to believe in him.

_Taryenya-wagon_ was the Great Spirit of the Five Nations, who was also called "Holder of the Heavens."

Indian children always belong to the mother's side of the house. The only way in which the Shaman's son could be born an Onondaga was for the mother to be adopted into the tribe before the son was born. Adoptions were very common, orphans, prisoners of war, and even white people being made members of the tribe in this way.

THE SNOWY EGRET'S STORY

The Great Admiral was, of course, Christopher Columbus. You will find all about him and the other Spanish gentlemen in the school history.

Something special deserves to be said about Panfilo de Narvaez, since it was he who set the Spanish exploration of the territory of the United States in motion. He landed on the west coast of Florida in 1548, and after penetrating only a little way into the interior was driven out by the Indians. But he left Juan Ortiz, one of his men, a prisoner among them, who was afterward discovered by Soto and became his interpreter and guide.

There is no good English equivalent for Soto's t.i.tle of _Adelantado_. It means the officer in charge of a newly discovered country. _Cay_ is an old Spanish word for islet. "Key" is an English version of the same word. _Cay Verde_ is "Green Islet."

The pearls of _Cofachique_ were fresh-water pearls, very good ones, too, such as are still found in many American rivers and creeks.

The Indians that Soto found were very likely descended from the earlier Mound-Builders of the Ohio Valley. They showed a more advanced civilization, which was natural, since it was four or five hundred years after the Lenni-Lenape drove them south. Later they were called "Creeks"

by the English, on account of the great number of streams in their country.

_Cacique_ and _Cacica_ were t.i.tles brought up by the Spaniards from Mexico and applied to any sort of tribal rulers. They are used in all the old ma.n.u.scripts and have been adopted generally by modern writers, since no one knows just what were the native words.

The reason the Egret gives for the bird dances--that it makes the world work together better--she must have learned from an Indian, since there is always some such reason back of every primitive dance. It makes the corn grow or the rain fall or the heart of the enemy to weaken. The Cofachiquans were not the only people who learned their dances from the water birds, as the ancient Greeks had a very beautiful one which they took from the cranes and another from goats leaping on the hills.

THE PRINCESS'S STORY

Hernando de Soto landed first at Tampa Bay in Florida, and after a short excursion into the country, wintered at Ana-ica Apalache, an Indian town on Apalachee Bay, the same at which Panfilo de Narvaez had beaten his spurs into nails to make the boats in which he and most of his men perished. It was between Tampa and Anaica Apalache that Soto met and rescued Juan Ortiz, who had been all that time a prisoner and slave to the Indians.

When the Princess says that Talimeco was a White Town, she means that it was a Town of Refuge, a Peace Town, in which no killing could be done.

Several Indian tribes had these sanctuaries.

In an account of Soto's expedition, which was written sometime afterward from the stories of survivors, it is said by one that the Princess went with him of her own accord, and by another that she was a prisoner. The truth probably is that if she had not gone willingly, she would have been compelled. There is also mention of the man to whom she gave the pearls for a.s.sisting at her escape, six pounds of them, as large as hazel nuts, though the man himself would never tell where he got them.

The story of Soto's death, together with many other interesting things, can be read in the translation of the original account made by Frederick Webb Hodge.

THE ROAD-RUNNER'S STORY

Cabeza de Vaca was one of Narvaez's men who was cast ash.o.r.e in one of the two boats ever heard from, on the coast of Texas. He wandered for six years in that country before reaching the Spanish settlements in Old Mexico, and it was his account of what he saw there and in Florida that led to the later expeditions of both Soto and Coronado.

Francisco de Coronado brought his expedition up from Old Mexico in 1540, and reached Wichita in the summer of 1541. His party was the first to see and describe the buffalo. There is an account of the expedition written by Castenada, one of his men, translated by Frederick Webb Hodge, which is easy and interesting reading.

The Seven Cities were the pueblos of Old Zuni, some of which are still inhabited. Ruins of the others may be seen in the Valley of Zuni in New Mexico. The name is a Spanish corruption of _As.h.i.+wi_, their own name for themselves. We do not know why the early explorers called the country "Cibola."

The Colorado River was first called _Rio del Tizon_, "River of the Brand," by the Spaniards, on account of the local custom of carrying fire in rolls of cedar bark. Coronado's men were the first to discover the Grand Canon.

_Pueblo_, the Spanish word for "town," is applied to all Indians living in the terraced houses of the southwest. The Zunis, Hopis, and Queres are the princ.i.p.al pueblo tribes.

You will find _Tiguex_ on the map, somewhere between the Ty-uonyi and the place where the Corn Woman crossed the Rio Grande. _Cicuye_ is on the map as Pecos, in Texas.

The p.a.w.nees at this time occupied the country around the Platte River.

Their name is derived from a word meaning "horn," and refers to their method of dressing the scalplock with grease and paint so that it stood up stiffly, ready to the enemy's hand. Their name for themselves is Chahiksichi-hiks, "Men of men."

THE CONDOR'S STORY

The _Old Zuni Trail_ may still be followed from the Rio Grande to the Valley of Zuni. _El Morro_, or "Inscription Rock," as it is called, is between Acoma and the city of Old Zuni which still goes by the name of "Middle Ant Hill of the World."

In a book by Charles Lummis, ent.i.tled _Strange Corners of Our Country_, there is an excellent description of the Rock and copies of the most interesting inscriptions, with translations.

The Padres of Southwestern United States were Franciscan Friars who came as missionaries to the Indians. They were not all of them so unwise as Father Letrado.

_Peyote_, the dried fruit of a small cactus, the use of which was only known in the old days to a few of the Medicine Men. The effect was like that of opium, and gave the user visions.

THE DOG SOLDIER'S STORY

The Cheyenne Country, at the time of this story, was south of the p.a.w.nees, along the Taos Trail. All Plains Indians move about a great deal, so that you will not always hear of them in the same neighborhood.

You can read how the Cheyennes were saved from the Hoh by a dog, in a book by George Bird Grinnell, called the _Fighting Cheyennes_. There is also an account in that book of how their Medicine Bundle was taken from them by the p.a.w.nees, and how, partly by force and partly by trickery, three of the arrows were recovered.

The Medicine Bundle of the tribe is as sacred to them as our flag is to us. It stands for something that cannot be expressed in any other way.

They feel sure of victory when it goes out with them, and think that if anything is done by a member of the tribe that is contrary to the Medicine of the Tribe, the whole tribe will suffer for it. This very likely is the case with all national emblems; at any rate, it would probably be safer while our tribe is at war not to do anything contrary to what our flag stands for. All that is left of the Cheyenne Bundle is now with the remnant of the tribe in Oklahoma. The fourth arrow is still attached to the Morning Star Bundle of the p.a.w.nees, where it may be seen each year in the spring when the Medicine of the Bundle is renewed.

This is the song the Suh-tai boy--the Suh-tai are a sub-tribe of the Cheyenne--made for his war club:--

"Hickory bough that the wind makes strong,-- I made it-- Bones of the earth, the granite stone,-- I made it-- Hide of the bull to bind them both,-- I made it-- Death to the foe who destroys our land,-- We make it!"

The line that the Suh-tai boy drew between himself and the pursuing Potawatomi was probably a line of sacred meal, or tobacco dust, drawn across the trail while saying, "Give me protection from my enemies; let none of them pa.s.s this line. s.h.i.+eld my heart from them. Let not my life be threatened." Unless the enemy possesses a stronger Medicine, this makes one safe.