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DIVISION I.

ABORIGINAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

THE INDIANS.

1. Indian Races.-Four races of Indians, distinct from each other in characteristics and appearance, lived east of the Mississippi River when Columbus discovered America, viz.: the Esquimaux, the Algonquins, the Iroquois, and the Mobilians. The Esquimaux dwelt in Labrador and the extreme northern part of America. They have no connection with Tennessee history. The Algonquins occupied the entire country from the Carolina line north to the country of the Esquimaux, except a small territory around the great lakes. The Iroquois, or Five Nations, occupied a small area around Lakes Ontario and Erie and touched Lake Huron. The entire territory from the northern boundary of Carolina southward, except portions of Middle Tennessee and North Alabama, was occupied by the Mobilians. These races were subdivided into various tribes. These should be studied and located on the map.1

2. The Mobilian Race.-Although the history of Tennessee has been influenced by the Iroquois race, and by the Shawnee tribe of the Algonquin race, and by other Indians, yet the most important Indian relations of the pioneers were with the tribes of the Mobilian2 race, or the Appalachian race, as they are sometimes called. The principal tribes of this race were: the Cherokees, the Chickasaws, the Creeks, the Choctaws, and the Seminoles. The Chickamaugas are generally classed as a branch of the Cherokees, but are sometimes treated

1Much has been written on this subject, little positive is known, and accounts are vague and contradictory. Still it is an interesting subject of investigation. See Johnson's Cyclopedia, American Indians; Reports of U. S. Bureau of Ethnology; Schoolcraft; any good cyclopedia, etc.

2See Roosevelt's "Winning of the West," Vol. I., Chapters 3 and 4.

as an independent tribe. There were many other Mobilian tribes, but they had little connection with Tennessee history.1

THE NATCHEZ.

3. Were They Aborigines?--Before studying the history of the Mobilian tribes, with which the early history of Tennessee is intimately connected, let us briefly examine into what is known of the Natchez. We find that very little is known. It is conjectured by ethnologists that the Natchez, if not the aborigines of Tennessee, were the first inhabitants of whom we have any trace. All knowledge of their early history rests upon vague Indian legends, inferences drawn from accounts of the expedition of DeSoto in 1540, and of other explorers, together with such interpretations as may be placed upon various mounds and relics which have been discovered.

4. Theories about the Natchez.-Various theories have been advanced by speculative writers. The most plausible of these theories is, that America was peopled by immigrants from Asia and Europe, arriving at various times in the remote past. One wave of Indian migration starting from the Southern Pacific coast moved northeast, another wave starting from the neighborhood of Behring Strait moved southward, and possibly other waves starting from the Middle Pacific coast moved east. It is supposed that these waves of Indian migration met somewhere along the banks of the Mississippi or the Ohio rivers, where a fierce conflict ensued. According to this theory, the Natchez were the advance guard of the Southern Indians. They crossed the Mississippi and occupied the country from the Iberville River in Louisiana up to the Wabash River in Indiana, and extended eastward to the Alleghany Mountains. There is no evidence to show how long they occupied this territory. They were invaded by "the red Indians of the North," and after a fierce conflict were driven southward, a small remnant of the race retaining a foot-hold along the eastern bank of the Mississippi, and are now nearly extinct.

5. The Mound Builders.2—In many portions of the State mounds

1In the limits of North Carolina, of which Tennessee was a part, there were many Indian tribes, viz.: the Catawbas, the Tuscaroras, the Meherrins, the Machapungoes, the Pasquotunks, the Tuteloes, the Mohenens, Caronines, the Sapponies, the Toleras, the Keyawies, the Curratukes, the Pamlicoes, the Mattamuskeets, the Chowanches, the Marattas, the Mangoes, the Corees, the Weapomeas, the Chesopians, and others. See Ramsey's Annals, pp. 73-87; Moore's School History of North Carolina, pp. 13-16; Monette, Adair, etc.

2Thruston's Antiquities of Tennessee, Chapters 1 and 2, and authorities therein quoted; American Historical Magazine, Vol. I., pp. 253-257 (July No. 1896).

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of curious shape, and other remains have been discovered which bear the evidence of great age, and of civilization beyond that of the Mobilian tribes who occupied the country at the advent of the white settlers. Some of these mounds, especially those in the shape of a cone, are thought to be structures for observation or residence; other mounds were undoubtedly places for the burial of the dead. The superstition of the Indians led them to deposit in the grave of the dead warrior many of his personal effects. These relics consisted of pipes, weapons, domestic utensils, ornaments and other articles.

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EARTH WORKS AT SAVANNAH.I

These relics not only show a greater degree of skill than the Mobilian or Algonquin tribes possessed, but also evince characteristics different from those of the Mobilians, or Algonquins. These last named races were, indeed, superstitious, but their religion was a spiritual religion, and was a part of their daily lives. Different from other sav

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ages, they did not worship idols, nor build temples, and they erected no human monument as an emblem of their faith.1 On the other hand, the moundbuilders erected mounds and graves of permanent structure, containing relics which, taken in connection with vague legends, indicate a somewhat superior race, which used emblems of religion and had acquired a certain degree of skill in mechanism. Such evidences incline recent ethnologists to believe that the Natchez were a branch of the mound-building race.

THE IROQUOIS, OR FIVE NATIONS. 2

6. A Model of Government.-The Iroquois race lived around the Great Lakes, and its tribes were united in a confederation, known as the Five Nations. This confederation consisted of the Mohawks, the Senecas, the Cayugas, the Onondagas, and the Oneidas. At a later period the Tuscaroras were admitted, and the confederation became known as the Six Nations. They were the best governed and the most powerful of all the Indian peoples. Their government was the first confederated republic in the world, and is similar to that of the United States. They were especially proud of their form of government, often recommending it to the British colonies. Schoolcraft relates that Connossatego, an Iroquois Sachem, at the Lancaster Conference in 1774, explained the Iroquois system to the commissioners of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland, and advised them to adopt a similar form.

7. The Hunting Grounds.-The Iroquois claimed that their ancestors had conquered a large portion of Kentucky and Tennessee. Possibly their ancestors were the "red Indians of the North" who had expelled the Natchez. By virtue of this claim, they held possession of all the country between the Ohio and Tennessee rivers and Appalachian Mountains, forming an area, somewhat circular or elliptical in shape, and including Middle Tennessee, with portions of North Alabama and Kentucky. This magnificent country they constituted

1Some recent investigations indicate that mounds were built by some of the Mobilian races, even within historic times. This, however, is not a general characteristic of the race.

2 Haywood, p. 88; Ramsey, pp. 73-77; Schoolcraft, Vol. III., pp. 183 et seq., Vol. V., pp. 631-646.

All accounts of the title on which the claim of the Iroquois rested are vague. It is certain that they made an indefinite claim, which they conveyed in the treaty at Fort Stanwix.

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their national park, or Hunting Grounds.

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of their mortal enmity, any residence or encroachments upon this

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OLD STONE FORT NEAR MANCHESTER. T

Entrance

They forbade, under pain

territory, and appointed the Cher

okees on the east, and the Chickasaws on the west as guardians of their park. It was one of the most fertile and best watered tracts in America, and abounded in fish and game of every kind. No country could be better suited to delight the heart of the savage. The Indians considered it too good to be spoiled by settlements, and thus the white immigrants found this beautiful coun

try uninhabited and awaiting the pioneer.

CHAPTER II.

THE INDIANS-(Continued).

THE SHAWNEES.

8. Their Vicissitudes. -All pupils should learn the romantic story of these "Gypsies of the Forest," and all Tennessee pupils especially should study the pathetic history of that branch of the tribe which lived for a short time in Tennessee. 2 The Shawnees were a tribe or nation of the Algonquin race. They were at one time powerful and prosperous. Their roving disposition led them to separate into many branches, which resided temporarily in localities far apart from each other. Different portions of this tribe, at different times, resided in nearly every part of the United States except in the extreme Northeast and the extreme Southwest. One branch resided, for a short time, in Middle Tennessee. The history of the tribe is little

1 From Thruston's Antiquities.

2 Drake's History of Tecumseh; Eggleston's History of Tecumseh; any good cyclopedia; Reports of U. S. Bureau of Ethnology; Ramsey; Thruston's Antiquities; Imlay's America, pp. 290-294, 362, et seq. Imlay wrote in 1797, and gives much interesting information about the Indians, the several items being scattered through the 598 pages of his book. They can be gathered by referring to the Index.

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