clw
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Post by clw on Jun 28, 2008 11:57:30 GMT -5
The Four Indian Kings Written and researched by Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewska, B.F.A. www.angelfire.com/mi4/polcrt/4Chiefs.htmlPeter Schuyler, a former mayor of Albany, a wealthy fur trader, and a member of the New York Indian Commission; took five Mohawk chiefs, of the Five Nations of the Iroquois, to London, England in 1710. Schuyler wanted them to ask for assistance against their French enemies. This was a purely political move for Schuyler. Aid from the motherland (England) would greatly improve his position in the colonies. The Iroquois held Schuyler in high regard. He was their special intermediary with the colonial government. One of the five original chiefs died on the ship before he could reach London. The other four had their portraits painted by artist Jan Verelst, an obscure Dutch artist. Jan Verelst was only one of the three artists employed for this job. Veresldt painted the chiefs as if they were European nobility. In each portrait they hold an object denoting their status. These paintings were housed in Kensington Palace, Queen Anne's London home. The Mohawks made a sensation all dressed in exotic apparel. The red cloaks were made for the chiefs upon their arrival and were gifts from Queen Anne. Queen Anne commissioned Jan Veresldt to paint these men in 1710, to commemorate their visit. The Veresldt paintings featured the chiefs each with its own hereditary clan animal at their side. These portraits are now housed in the Canadian British Nobility. Many nobles competed for the privilege of entertaining these "Four Indian Kings" as they were called. It was said that the kings were almost two meters tall and had an imposing bearing and splendid physiques. The British court was still mourning the death of Prince George of Denmark, Queen Anne's husband and King. The Kings wore black breeches, vests, and stockings and over this they wore a scarlet cloak trimmed with gold (in the Bernard Lens version). The Four Kings visited the Tower of London and Saint Paul's Cathedral. They attended cockfights, bear fights, and wrestling matches. They even saw a Shakespearean play (MacBeth) at the Haymarket Theatre. They had an audience with Queen Ann (reigned from 1702-1714), successor of William III and her sister, Mary II. The queen ordered the construction of a new fort and chapel, called Fort Hunter, along the Mohawk River. Queen Anne provided missionaries from the Church of England and she patronized the Mohawk mission. The missionaries devised a system of writing in the Mohawk language and religious literature was translated into Mohawk. Cheif Hendrick was said to one of the most faithful. In 1755, Hendrick was 70 years of age when he took 300 warriors to fight against the French alongside the English. He died in 1755, at age 70, at a battle site near Lake George in the Adirondacks. ~~~~~~~~~ <---- "Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow" was the grandfather of Joseph Brant. Also at the site above are paintings done by a different artist during the same visit and information on each of the four chiefs.
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clw
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Post by clw on Jun 28, 2008 11:27:33 GMT -5
www.a2zcds.com/Products/Native_American_Indian_Collection_CD_50.htmThe Native American Indian Collection (3-CD Set)
A treasury of over 5000+ high resolution photographs of native American Indians taken between 1907 and 1930 by the renowned historian Edward S. Curtis, along with 44 chants and songs, books and text and 7 absorbing historic films that provide a never-before insight into the lives of native American Indians. I have it, well worth the $20.
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clw
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Post by clw on Jun 28, 2008 10:21:39 GMT -5
Yes they are! We need one similar on the Mnicoujou. Very interesting stuff on them in this one, but no way to find it if one were looking for specifics by title/subject.
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clw
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Post by clw on Jun 27, 2008 9:15:05 GMT -5
From a paper by Bruce E. Johansen in Akwesasne Notes New Series, Fall -- October/November/December -- 1995, Volume 1 #3 & 4, pp. 62-63. www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/DatingIC.html[Barbara Mann of Toledo University, Ohio] offers another example of what she believes to be the European-centered and male-centered nature of existing history. Most accounts of the Iroquois League's origins stress the roles played by Deganawidah, who is called "The Peacemaker" in oral discourse among traditional Iroquois, and Aionwantha (or Hiawatha), who joined him in a quest to quell the blood feud and establish peace. Mann believes that documentary history largely ignores the role of a third person, a woman, Jingosaseh, who insisted on gender balance in the Iroquois constitution. Mann's argument is outlined in another paper, "The Beloved Daughters of Jingosaseh." Under Haudenosaunee law, clan mothers choose candidates (who are male) as chiefs. The women also maintain ownership of the land and homes, and exercise a veto power over any council action that may result in war. The influence of Iroquois women surprised and inspired nineteenth-century feminists such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, according to research by modern feminist Sally Roesch Wagner. While a high degree of gender equity existed in Iroquois law, sex roles often were (and remain) very carefully defined, right down to the version of history passed down by people of either sex. Men, the vast majority of anthropological informants, tended to play up the role of Deganawidah and Aionwantha, which was written into history. Women who would have described the role of Jingosaseh were usually not consulted. Mann points out that Jingosaseh, originally the name of an historical individual, subsequently a title, as a leader of clan mothers. The historic figure Tadadaho, originally Deganawidah's and Aionwantha's main antagonist, became the title of the League's speaker. Occasionally in Iroquois history, a title also may become a personal name -- Handsome Lake (a reference to Lake Ontario) was the title to one of the 50 seats on the Iroquois Grand Council before it was the name of the nineteenth-century Iroquois prophet. According to Mann, "it is only after the Peacemaker agrees to her terms that she throws her considerable political weight behind him . . . She was, in short, invaluable as an ally, invincible as a foe. To succeed, the Peacemaker needed her." "Jingosaseh is recalled by the Keepers as a co-founder of the League, alongside of Deganawidah and Hiawatha," writes Mann. "Her name has been obliterated from the white record because her story was a woman's story and nineteenth-century male ethnographers simply failed to ask women, whose story hers was, about the history of the League." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ from one version of the story of the Peacemaker, Deganawidah... "Because you are the first to accept the Great Law," he said, "you shall be called, 'Jikohnsaseh, Peace Queen, Mother of Nations.' When the peace comes, you - the women of the tribes - will choose and remove the chiefs. Their titles will be both political and spiritual and will always belong to the women, called 'Clan Mothers.' Women know the hearts of men better than men. Women are the connection to the Earth. They create and have the responsibility for the future of the nation. Men will want to fight. Women will now say 'yes' or 'no' to war. Men, whose nature it is to be warriors, may not always see clearly the path of Peace; but a woman who knows that she must bury her loved ones, the children she has suckled, she would see and know if the fight would be worth its cost in life and death. Women know the true price of war and must encourage the chiefs to seek a peaceful resolution." He told her the tribes were to be matri-lineal, with children belonging to the mother's clan. When a man married, he moved into his wife's longhouse with her family. If they separated, the children, home, tools and fields stayed with the mother. There is great wisdom in this. The woman raised the children. A need for a home and means to provide for the children was of utmost importance. Men could always fend for themselves but for a woman with little ones to tend for, time would be limited for replacing much-needed items. Also, the children would belong to the lineage of the woman so that every child would have a family to nurture them even if the father left or died in battle. All of these customs insured that the women of the tribes would always be treated with respect. As recent Iroquois leader Leon Shenandoah writes, "The Instructions say that men and women are equal, too. They've got to learn that one is not above the other. It takes both to create the children who are coming behind us." www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/tools/view_newsletter.php?newsletter_id=1409565088
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Post by clw on Jun 27, 2008 8:30:35 GMT -5
I see that! And I wonder if that's a condolence cane shown in the photo of his father.
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Post by clw on Jun 27, 2008 6:40:19 GMT -5
Deitmar ~ I found this: ELY SAMUEL PARKER was not Red Jacket's grandson, even though you often see that in print. Ely's mother was Elizabeth Johnson (c1800-1862) of the wolf clan. Her mother was the sister of Jemmy Johnson, another famous chief at Tonawanda (1774-1856) and the chosen successor to Handsome Lake, the Seneca prophet. Jemmy and his sister were the children of Red Jacket's sister. All of them were also members of the wolf clan, which means that Ely was Red Jacket's great-grandnephew. In Seneca tradition, however, granduncles (peers of your grandparents or great grandparents) are called "grandfathers". Therein lies the confusion. I've also found several references to the possibility he was the last Grand Sachem of the Haudenosausee, a hereditary title and that his sister Caroline, was the last know Jikohnsaseh or Peace Mother.
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Post by clw on Jun 26, 2008 23:26:25 GMT -5
Ely Samuel Parker was a Seneca Indian of noble lineage born in 1828 in Genesee County, NY. He had an encyclopedic mind and enjoyed learning about both the Indian ways and the white man's culture. Educated by white teachers at the local Baptist school, then at the Cayuga Academy in Aurora, NY, Parker went on to study law, even though New York State would not allow an Indian to have a law practice. The imposing 200 pound Indian then learned engineering on the job while working on the Genesee Valley Canal and became a captain of engineers in the New York State Militia in 1853. Parker's Iroquois title was "Donehogawa", or "Keeper of the western door", which signified that he dealt with outsiders. When Iroquois tried to enlist in New York to join the Civil War effort, they were denied entry. In March 1862 Parker wrote to the commissioner of Indian affairs about the matter; the next month mustering offices in Buffalo were ordered to accept Indian recruits. After Parker received a captain's commission in May 1863, 600 Seneca Indians gathered to wish him well when he departed for the war. Parker was a division engineer before he was assigned to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's personal military staff as Adjutant in September 1863. He had met Grant before the war and became known as "Grant's Indian". He served with Grant from Chattanooga to Appomattox, where he wrote in duplicate the terms of Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender. He later received a promotion to Brigadier General that was backdated to the surrender date. After the war Parker continued to serve on Grant's staff until 1869, when President Grant named him Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Investigated for allegations of corruption, Parker was eventually acquitted of the charges, but in June 1871 he resigned his post and retired to private business in Connecticut. Having lost his financial gains in the Panic of 1873, Parker lived many years in poverty before dying in 1895 in Fairfield, Conn. His body was reburied 18 months later in Buffalo, NY, beside the graves of other Indians. When Parker married Minnie Sackett, a white woman, in 1867, Ulysses S. Grant was his best man. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ely became a condoled chief in 1852 upon the death of John Blacksmith, chief of the wolf clan at Tonawanda. In the Haudenosaunee world there are 50 chiefs, each having their own (condoled) name. When one chief dies, another one is chosen by the clan mothers and is given the condoled name. So when Ely was chosen chief of the wolf clan at Tonawanda, he was given the name Donehogawa, the name John Blacksmith held before him. That name is still used at Tonawanda today. Ely's Seneca name was Ha sa no an da, meaning "leading name". He took the name Ely (as he said, rhymes with "free-ly") after a well known Baptist minister/teacher in the area. Parker was a name given by a British soldier (named Parker) to the family as an honor for treating him so well when he was a captive during the Revolutionary War. At the age of 14, Ely was first sent to Washington, DC as a messenger/representative for the Tonawanda Senecas who were trying to fight the fraudulent 1842 Compromise Treaty of Buffalo Creek. In that treaty (and in its predecessor, the 1838 Buffalo Creek Treaty), the Tonawanda Senecas lost all of their lands in Western New York. Ely remained a representative and advocate until 1857 when the Senecas were able to buy back part of that land. Parker became Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, not because of his efforts in the Civil War, but because of his friendship with General Ulysses S. Grant. Because of his association with him, Parker had the "ear" of many politicians in Washington both during and after the war who were wrestling with the "Indian Problem". Grant appointed him commissioner in 1868. Parker was the first Native American to hold a federal office. It was Ely Parker's ideas that were associated with the Grant administration's "Peace Plan" which abolished the treaty system and advocated "assimilate, educate and Christianize". He also believed for Indians to remain peaceful, the government had to deliver what it had promised. In 1871, Parker resigned that commission after being tried for fraud by the US Senate and exonerated. Ely died on August 30, 1895 from complications from diabetes. He was buried first at Oak Lawn Cemetery in Fairfield, Conn, where he, his wife and his daughter lived. Parker was reburied in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, NY on January 20, 1897 near the graves of several other Senecas, including Red Jacket. Condensed in part from www.nativeamericans.com/ElySamuelParker.htmHis sister was Caroline Parker who (probably) made the bag shown in the Seneca Beadwork thread.
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clw
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Post by clw on Jun 26, 2008 8:10:40 GMT -5
Thanks, Deitmar! It's a fascinating exhibit -- taken me two days to explore it with dialup, but well worth the frustration.
I was surprised to see the square cross motif used in both the tattoos and the wampum belt. Anyone know about this?
The bow is so tiny, and I thought these people used a long bow much like the early British. Maybe the little bow was just a prop used by the painter.
"Kings" makes me smile. As if. And I see the name 'Brant' was already in use.
I would dearly love to read an evaluation of these paintings by someone who has studied this early culture. And can anyone recommend a historian who knows the period?
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Post by clw on Jun 24, 2008 15:44:53 GMT -5
Very pleased to hear that. Do they have a picture of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe flag flying over Camp Harper in Basra? I do!
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Post by clw on Jun 23, 2008 10:02:05 GMT -5
To be published in September... www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/titledetail.cfm?titleNumber=688913By the editor and principal contributor of The Civil War Battlefield Guide, this book is an all-in-one guide to American Indian places, featuring illuminating essays from leading scholars on American Indians.
This historical guidebook includes 366 places that are significant to American Indians and open to the public. The book is organized geographically and includes location information, maps, and color photographs.
Frances H. Kennedy, the editor and principal contributor, has written short entries on more than one hundred of the places. More than 275 authorities who know and revere these places have written essays, including Suzan Shown Harjo, Frederick E. Hoxie, Clara Sue Kidwell, Rennard Strickland, and David Hurst Thomas.
Royalties will be donated to the National Museum of the American Indian. W. Richard West Jr., the museum’s founding director, is the primary adviser to American Indian Places.
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Post by clw on Jun 19, 2008 16:47:44 GMT -5
PS - There is a McClellan saddle listed on the same site, for any horse people out there who might want to emulate the troopers of 1876. Once was enough for me. Nice bag! Mr. Biron dates those motifs from around the 1870's on into the early 1900's.
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Post by clw on Jun 18, 2008 8:49:21 GMT -5
Also, in On Behalf of the Wolf and the First Peoples, by Joseph Marshall, III there is a wonderful chapter "On Making a Bow" where he tells how he learned the art from his grandfather and describes the meaning of the process.
I have a Lakota horse bow made from Osage orange, just my size as it was made for me with a 25 lb pull. It's a beautiful thing. I have some handmade ash arrows too, but I'm afraid to risk using them so I use modern target arrows. I can hit the broadside of a barn on a good day.
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Post by clw on Jun 17, 2008 21:55:50 GMT -5
Thanks Diane! Yes it's 1846, but that's not my bag in the inside picture. That's the one Mr. Biron sent me photos of for comparison to mine.
But I think it's a pretty good chance he's right. It's so neat to learn about this after all these years. I'll never part with it.
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Post by clw on Jun 17, 2008 20:10:49 GMT -5
And from the Smithsonian...
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Post by clw on Jun 17, 2008 19:50:18 GMT -5
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