Tinket’S Canoe

By Roland Bianchi

Tinkets Canoe is a fictional story about an Indian youth of the Cayugas tribe who travels West in his birch bark canoe. He discovers many other tribes and their lore in the late 1800s.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503570931

Roland Bianchi

Roland Bianchi grew up in San Francisco, California, during the 1930s and 1940s. He attended the University of California at Berkeley and went on to become vice president of Bank of America. Now retired, Roland and his, wife, Judy live in San Mateo, California.

Book preview

Chapter I

Tinket's Canoe

T he Cayugas tribe of American Indians occupied upper N.Y. State around Cayugas lake . They later fought with the British against the American revolutionary efforts of 1776 and the war of 1812. In the decades after American Independence, they allied themselves with other Eastern tribes to form what was known as the Six Nations that included the Senecas, Tuscadora, Onandagas, Oneidas, Iroquois and Mohawks.

Because of the Cayugas affiliation with the British, they were pursued, and despised and many fled to Canada or comingled with neighboring tribes in an attempt to avoid the relentless mind-set of Manifest Destiny, that imposed failed treaties, land grabs, lease purchases of Indian territories and the reality of military force. All this, foreshadowed what was to become the United States of America.

The Cayugas were persuaded to side with the British for two reasons. They were armed with rifles, by the British, that strengthened their hostility toward neighboring enemy Indian tribes. Plus, they viewed helping the British improved their chances of stemming the Westward tide of the Americans who threatened their very existence.

From their exiled villages near Ontario, Canada, the Cayugas eventually returned to their historic lifestyle, relinquishing firearms that became hard to replace, in favor of bow and arrow hunting. They joined the council of the Six Nations in an act of solidarity for mutual protection and defense.

Unfortunately, they had no immunity to many diseases introduced by European immigrants and by the mid 1800s, American Indian population generally, was ravaged by influenza type sicknesses and small pox in epidemic proportions.

Many Indian tribes concluded their only option was escape and Eastern Indians and Cayugas in particular, learned from American Indian officials, their only hope was relocation West or North into virgin territory that could take them West, to a mighty ocean bigger than the Atlantic they knew. With luck, their unknown brethren in the West and South might be able to unite to counter the relentless determination of their oppressors.

These thoughts were topics of conversation between a Cayugas grandfather and his grandson, Tinket, as they were building a birch bark canoe.

Hey, Yaah, Yaah! Yaah

Hey, YAAh Yaah Yaah

I never heard you sing that song, said Tinket.

That's a song I learned from my Grandmother, replied the older Indian. You sing it when you have accomplished a task like a successful hunt, or, you take a a wife---or, like now, when you complete building your own canoe.

Tinket and his grandfather stood back and admired the birch bark canoe they had worked on together for many months now.

Tinket, the grandson, had seen 16 summers from the time his mother died when he was born. His grandfather raised him and called him Tinket, which meant abandoned chick in the language of his tribe, a subgroup of the Iroquois who lived around the St Lawrence basin. His tribe were still referred to as the CayuGAS, part of the Six Nations that included the Senecas, their nearest neighbors.

Tinket's grandmother died when he was a child and he didn't remember her. His grandfather, named CayuCAS, was the only parent he had ever known. CayuCAS meant canoe and was appropriate because Cayucas was renowned for his canoe building talent.

Tinket had shadowed his grandfather's meticulous steps when he helped him build canoes. Cayucas taught him the patience and care required to build canoes for different purposes, those for speed and stability, war canoes capable of transporting many braves, canoes the Canadian fur trappers required for heavy loads of hides and trade goods.

Canoe shapes were subtle and dictated by the traditions of the tribe, materials used or signature bends of the shape of the canoe at the bow and stern stems. High curves were attractive and preferable in choppy water, but they hampered steering in high winds. Tumblehome was the degree of curve on the sides of the canoe which complemented a round or flat keel and influenced paddling technique.

The canoe Cayucas and Tinket had finished was referred to as a peapod. The bow and stern ends were straight up, which permitted the user to capsize the hull on land and use it as a shelter against rain and bad weather. You could plunge end stems into the earth and sleep under the canoe on extended trips.

I bequeath this canoe to you, Tinket, said Cayucas. It will serve you long and well with proper care. Tinket was surprised and questioned his grandfather about the reasons for such a generous gift. He thought to himself, I could always build my own.

I have taught you all I know, Cayucas said solemnly How to hunt, and fish---shape arrowheads---and the ways of our tribe. The day is not far when I must leave you to join the great spirit. May whatever path you take Tinket, bring you happiness and may you remember your grandfather when you paddle this canoe. It is my hope; you will depart from this place, and be spared from the death that killed your grandmother.

Tinket had learned it was not manly to show emotion at such a moment. He loved his grandfather and it shocked him to think Cayucas was anticipating the limited summers he had left and wondered what life would be like without his grandfather.

Tinket had always avoided the burial sites of his tribe which traditionally placed their dead upon scaffolds, their bodies feathered in ceremonial dress gazing at the stars of the Great Spirit. Tinket felt he did not want to end up this way. The path to the Happy Hunting Grounds had no urgency for a 16 year old. He started thinking that travel away from home was advice, he should follow... He would stay to honor his grandfather to whom he owed so much, but when and if Cayucas died, his plan was to travel West, keeping the North Star at his right as he ventured Westward. Cayucas had taught him the North Star never moved and it would check his progress as he paddled his new canoe into the sunsets of the rest of his life. If fate decreed it, he might reach the edge of the continent to its Western ocean.

4.jpg

Chapter II

Tinket's Grandfather

T hough Tinket had never known his mother, Cayucas had told him she was a captured white baby who had become the squaw of Cayucas' son. After Tinket's mother died at childbirth, his father was killed in a raid against a neighboring tribe called the Towanda. Tinket's grandmother died of the white man's plague and Cayucas resolved to raise Tinket, his grandson, by himself.

The only clues TInket was of mixed blood were his light brown eyes and slight waviness in his hair, which he wore split in the middle and braided---held by a leather thong around his forehead.

As a teenager Tinket was slender and taller than most boys his age. He showed promise of becoming a handsome physical specimen. Young Indian girls pointed and snickered a lot at Tinket. He wore no feathers which were awarded by the Chief for valor in vanquishing an enemy.

The stream that supplied water for the Cayugas tribe, flowed into an oblong lake. Tinket, with his grandfather, had paddled its length many times but never much beyond the outlet that cascaded into a larger tributary headed West. He remembered tales about Indian tribes beyond the horizon, Elders talked about such names as Blackfeet, Flatheads, Sioux and Comanches. Everyone feared Comanches. The word literally meant those who want to kill us.

In preparation for his plans to travel, Tinket began packaging supplies like arrowheads, and feathered shafts, two bows-a short hickory one and a larger yew bow, wound in animal sinuew for distance, and leather pouches containing waterproofing mix for the canoe separate containers for food, jerky, water and some corn.