First People History: I stood here first, and Columbus first discovered me! Chitto Harjo

By Trygve T Jorgensen

The 2nd edition is focused solely on the 39 tribes of Oklahoma. This book satisfies 70 O.S. § 11-103.6b (OSCN 2022) Diversity of Social Studies Core Curriculum 

A. The State Board of Education shall adopt a social studies core curriculum with courses of instruction for all students enr

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oklafalaya Publishing
• Release date: Apr 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781087900384

Trygve T Jorgensen

Trygve Jorgensen, Ed.D, is a Choctaw/Inupiat teacher of high school Native American History. As a descendant of WWI Choctaw Codetalker Ben Carterby, he loves teaching about the unkonwn contributions of First Peoples.

Book preview

First People History

First People History

I STOOD HERE FIRST, AND COLUMBUS FIRST DISCOVERED ME! CHITTO HARJO

Trygve Jorgensen, Ed.D

Copyright © 2022 by Trygve Jorgensen, Ed.D

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Printing, 2022

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Introduction

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A Choctaw story. How Possum lost his tail fur.

Possum was admiring the colors on the tail fur of Raccoon. Possum asked Raccoon "how did you get such a pretty coloration on your tail?

Raccoon was very proud of his tail and did not want anyone trying to copy his fur.

So, Raccoon told Possum that he had gone into the woods to gather sticks to build a fire. He allowed the fire to get hot and then to cool down into coals. While the wood coals were still hot, he wrapped his tail with leather to protect the light color, and then inserted his tail over the coals causing the dark rings to emerge by blackening them in smoldering smoke.

Possum was so excited to hear how perform this task. He went straight into the woods to build his own fire. Possum wrapped his tail in leather, just as Raccoon had instructed and placed it over the coals. It was very hot and very painful. When Possum pulled it out of the coals and unwound the leather, he found that all of the hair had burned off.

To this day Possum is embarrassed about this mistake. That is why when he sees you, he falls over and faints from shame. Envy causes a person more harm than satisfaction. To quote the Rolling Stones, you can’t always get what you want.

This is the first edition of this textbook, and I will admit envy in not being able to afford the best pictures for this edition; I am not going to build any fires, achi! Any omissions are not intentional and will be updated. Dr. Jorgensen.

Preface-Land Bridges

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In 1929 the bones of mammoth, bison, horse, and camel were discovered in a hollow created by Dust Bowl winds. A 19-year-old Eagle Scout named James R. Whiteman stumbled upon the bones and reported them to the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1932, Archaeologist Edgar B. Howard was digging at Burnet Cave near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Hearing of the find he went to view the blowouts that are the result of the wind erosion. The bones were located at Blackwater Draw, 14 miles south of Clovis, New Mexico.

The bones were painstakingly examined. The excavation revealed spearpoints. Dubbed Clovis Culture, the Clovis points demonstrated that Paleo-Indians had indeed hunted Mammoths onto Turtle Island. Later radiocarbon dating placed the hunters at the 12,800-year mark approximately. Each layer of excavation reveals the time in terms of epochs. Epoch defined is a division of time that is a subdivision of a period and is itself subdivided into ages, corresponding to a series in chrono stratigraphy. (Chrono is the Greek word for time). The species time would place them here at the turn of the last glaciation. Essentially the ancestral American Indian's were hunting mammoths at the same time Europeans were hunting mammoths’ continents away.

The year of the Clovis points became the foundation for archaeologist to pinpoint when tribal peoples arrived in what Europeans called the New World. The dating was considered accurate based on scientific knowledge of ice ages. The 12,800-year mark aligned with knowledge of glaciers and the lowering of planetary ocean levels. The concept of the Bering Land Bridge provided an avenue of migration from Asia into Alaska. This theory dominated archaeology for decades.

Archaeologists assert that the species homo-sapiens exited Africa around 70,000 years ago. Over the process of those eons’ humans have migrated to every continent on the planet except for Antarctica. The intersection of the two sciences of Archaeology and Paleontology has generated controversy in the migration stories told by both sciences. Homo-Sapiens means thinking and skillful man.

MAMMOTHS & MASTODONS

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The discovery of the Mammoth bones placed the timeframe for Clovis. Mammoths were being actively hunted in Europe approximately 14,000 years ago. With the discovery of Clovis points in New Mexico, it was then assumed that the ancestral tribal peoples had followed the migrating mammoth onto Turtle Island at approximately the same timeframe.

ABORIGINE IN AUSTRALIA

Archaeologists have discovered that the Aborigines of Australia had arrived anywhere from 60,000 years ago to 80,000 years ago. This means the Aborigines were among the first homo-sapiens to exit Africa. Radiocarbon dating of human sites in caves has revealed activity as old as 55,000 years ago, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. This means the Aborigine occupation of Australia is older than the pre-history of Europe. The techniques of radiocarbon dating were of campfires near animal bones.

CHIQUIHUITE CAVE

Sci-Show, a science education program on YouTube, recently produced People May Have Walked North America 30,000 Years Ago. The episode discussed the discovery of human occupation of a cave in northern Mexico in the state of Zacatecas. The research was partially funded by the Center for American Paleolithic Research (CAPR). The website of CAPR has an article written by Steven R. Holen, Ph.D. entitled The debate concerning the early peopling of the Americas has always been a Paleontological problem.

Dr. Holen continues, The latest example of paleontologists making a discovery of early human evidence is the excavation and discovery of the Cerutti Mastodon Site in southern California (Holen et al. 2017) …. All matrix was screened through fine mesh screen. Evidence from this site indicated the unexpected presence of early humans in the Americas 130,000 years ago. These early humans were breaking mastodon limb bones and molars using a hammer and anvil technique. Once again, only paleontologists could have made this discovery because archaeologists do not conduct research in deposits this old.

However, this discovery is highly controversial and Holen concedes The prevailing bias among most archaeologists in the United States is that humans did not enter the Americas until the late Pleistocene (Potter et al. 2018) ca. 14,000-15,000 cal BP. Archaeologists generally do not work in older geological deposits because they know there are no archaeological sites there. Future articles will discuss the problems that have occurred because of this approach to science.

The discoveries in the Chiquihuite cave are disputed by Archaeologists. 30,000 years ago, is the beginning of the last Ice Age known as the late Pleistocene.

PEDRA FURADA

Dr. Niede Guidon excavated a cave site in The Capivara National Park in Brazil. Per the report in Athena Review, Vol. 3, No. 2 (2002), it is stated by Dr. Guaciara M. dos Santos, A new ABOX-SC (acid-base-wet oxidation followed by stepped combustion) procedure, developed by Bird et al. (1999), which has been instrumental in establishing secure radiocarbon dates of greater than 40,000 for the human occupation of Australia (Turney et al. 2001), has now been applied by me to charcoal from the oldest occupation layer of the Pedra Furada site. This more rigorous chemical pre-treatment, which was followed by a stepped combustion (SC) procedure to remove any residual contamination, decontaminates samples from charcoal and wood (Bird et al. 1999; Santos et al. 2001), enabling credible radiocarbon dating to around 55,000 BP.

What archaeologists have discovered is that Ancestral Americans were at the site around 60,000 years ago. The Archaeological community disputes the findings. Dr. Guidon stated Perhaps because when you are the first to discover something, people want to kill you because you disturbed the placid waters of the lake. The theories on the peopling of America are only theories, and in prehistory it is not possible to say that something does not exist only because we do not find them. A theory is not a law but may and must be changed each time new facts are discovered.

COLLEGE TEXTBOOK: THE AMERICAN INDIAN

Dr. Arrell M. Gibson published his college textbook on American Indian Prehistory to the Present in 1980. In discussing the arrival of paleo Indians, he mentions archaeological discoveries in the Southwest. However, evidence found in caves in the Southwestern United States suggest… human occupation as early as 20,000 to 25,000 B.C.

Dr. Gibson continues by describing the findings in the Sandia caves near Albuquerque, New Mexico which provided spear points that were six inches long with a distinctive rounded base. The points were found near mammoth and mastodon. Radiocarbon dating placed the animals there from 20,000 to 25,000 B.C.

The most striking theory that Dr. Gibson mentions is from a 1973 report of an excavation near Puebla, Mexico. Geologists found stone tools in a local stream bed that they had dated using several techniques. The site would place the tools at 250,000 years old. The main problem with that finding (is) the tools were considerably more advanced that the tools used in Europe and Asia 250,000 years ago… the least sophisticated of the tools found a the Mexican site were of a type used in the Old World 35,000 to 40,000 years ago…[They concluded] we are painfully aware that these result deepen the dilemma already recognized that so great an age for man in the New World is archaeologically unreasonable, especially for artifacts of such sophisticated workmanship.  The timeline would push back Homo-Sapiens nearly 50,000 years earlier than the 200,000 to 100,000-year models. In addition, it challenges the Africa exit of 60,000 years ago.

NOVA: FIRST PEOPLES—AMERICAS

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The PBS series notes two important pre-Clovis sites. One in the Yucatan and one in Washington State. The episode deals with the discovery of pristine burial sites underwater in the Yucatan. Archaeologist discovered Eva, the Eve of Naharon.

There are over 20 additional pre-Clovis sites now being excavated across North and South America. New theories on tribal origins arrive almost monthly. When the academic and scientific world decide which genetic drift model is appropriate then the pre-history will change. Genetic models support variance from 50,000 to 24,900 years ago. Science takes time.

THE WHEEL

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One old theory is that American Indians were very primitive and therefore not as civilized as Europeans. Often the wheel was touted as a major technology in antiquity. Since 1946 it was known and published that Aztecs had toys with wheels.

Ekholm, G. (1946). Wheeled Toys in Mexico. American Antiquity, 11(4), 222-228. doi:10.2307/ 275722 American Antiquity is published by Cambridge University Press Pictures can be seen at https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/home/the-concept-of-the-wheel-in-ancient-mesoamerica Article written cy Javier Urcid, a Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.

EUROCENTRISM: An Editorial by Dr. Jorgensen

Textbooks approved by the State of Oklahoma have concepts contained in them that are probably Eurocentric; meaning they have a point of view that favors European concepts of history.

One textbook begins Chapter 1 with this statement: Theoretical origins of American Indians. Recorded history began in Oklahoma in 1540 when Coronado crossed the plains with his conquistadors.

Some believe the Spanish were the first Europeans in Oklahoma. For centuries before that, however, people moved back and forth across this area, and many lived here. Some may have had European origins. (Italics mine) Note that the Mayan hieroglyphs and recording of Mayan leaders is not considered in the statement about recorded history.

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The textbook states further that Beringia as the likely route of migration onto Turtle Island. Beringia is the land bridge between Asia and Alaska that tribal people are believed to have taken to spread throughout the continents.

In recent times the discovery of the Kennewick Man was used by a scientist of European descent to suggest that Europeans were part of the discovery of America. Discovered in 1996, controversy soon surrounded the Kennewick man as some archaeologist attributed their examination of skeletal remains to support European ancestry. The National Park Service was soon pulled into the controversy when the Umatilla Tribe utilized the Native American Graves Repatriation Act to insist that the bones be reinterred on tribal land. The NPS website states: "Further comparisons were made but limited to a much smaller number of populations and individual sets of remains, including pre-Columbian Native American populations (13 populations, N=304; dated 8,000-1,900 B.P.). This resulted in a closer mathematical measure, showing certain craniometric characteristics of the Kennewick remains that are like the Chukchi population from Siberia, an Eskimo population, and a several thousand-year-old Native American burial populations from the Midwest. However, this same analysis showed a lack of similarity to several other ancient Native American populations. Additional mathematical manipulation of the data to consider small sample size and wide intergroup variation showed some relationship among the Kennewick remains with a mid-Holocene Native American burial population from the eastern US and the Ainu of Northern Japan. These mathematical comparisons of metric traits are interesting and suggestive, but not clear chronological indicators upon which DOI could base a determination that the Kennewick remains are Native American.

The 1st textbook also mentions Thor Heyerdahl who used a papyrus boat to prove that Egyptians could have made the journey to America. The textbook continues: ARTIFACTS. Sculpted pieces found in Mexico in 1961 have been identified as Roman. Japanese pottery, five thousand years old, was found in Ecuador, and artifacts of Phoenician and Pompeiian origin were found in other places.

A 2nd textbook speaks of Beringia as well for the source of migration, in Chapter 3 entitled Earliest Inhabitants. The 2nd Textbooks Chapter 5 is entitled The European Discoverers. Citing runes discovered near Hartshorne, Oklahoma the authors accept the theory that 11th century Vikings arrived in Oklahoma and carved the 7 runes. Gloria Farley who discovered the runes and promoted them as Viking was not a trained archaeologist. Indeed, her research and that of Barry Fell was attempting to prove the European discovery of America. Something that American's have been promoting since Elias Boudinot the President of the Congress during the Continental Congress timeframe. Early American's had believed tribes were the Lost Tribes of Israel. Even James Adair who traveled among the Muscogee, Cherokee, and Choctaw attempted to prove linkages to the Old Testament. America was in a state of Eschatological determination to make Indian's fit within the scriptural timeframe, and thus within the world history written by Europeans.

In 2000, the Atlantic published an article on Barry Fell and concludes; Anthony Aveni, of Colgate, says derisively, This diffusionist topic is, at root, Atlantean. And I think this mono-myth -- what you might call the Simple Solution -- goes back to the Tower of Babel, to the Old Testament. It's biblical: the Lost Tribes of Israel, for example. (a church) is still advocating this idea."

WHY IS IT EUROCENTRISM?

J. Jennings (1978) published the college level textbook Ancient Native Americans. Chapter 1 entitled Origins states, At once the most important and the least dramatic event in American history was the passage of the first man from Asia into the New World 30,000 or more years ago. This means scientist as of 1978 began to suspect that the timeline for First People arrival was much, much earlier than current textbook publications. The difference between 12,500 years and 30,000 years is quite significant in underreporting in high school textbooks.

The conversation describing First People as migrants across Beringia is quite deceptive in the context of time. Tribal people arrived in the New World long before all humans were even capable of civilization. Using the term migrant suggests that like other emigration during the 1600's there is a existential link between recent arrivals and the obviously primitive First People who don't even know that land is property. Some Americans like to suggest that everyone on the North American continents are basically immigrants. By establishing a commonality, it is easier to explain the dispossession of First People both intellectually and politically. The sameness creates a space for rationalization of invasion.

FARMING & AGRICULTURE: The oldest evidence of agriculture is in the Middle East is dated to around 11,300 years ago. First People were on Turtle Island at least 18,700 years before Agriculture was invented. Besides, Corn was cultivated by tribal people as early as 9,000 years ago.

FIRST WHEEL: The first wheel was invented for making pottery in the Middle East around 5,500 years ago. Tribal people were on Turtle Island at least 24,500 years before the invention of the wheel. (Also, as displayed earlier, Aztec artifacts show toys with wheels, so the wheel was on this continent as well)

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CUNEIFORM WRITING: The first known human writing was in cuneiform in the Middle East around 5,000 years ago. First People were on Turtle Island at least 25,000 years before the word Migrant could be spelled and written by any humans on the planet including Europeans. Why are the Mayan hieroglyphics not considered writing? Other tribes used mnemonic devices to record history. Inca used quipu to record dates and other events.  Quipu technology was noted as early as the 1500's. The Pueblo peoples utilized a similar corded knot system to schedule their uprising under Pope. The Coweta Leader used a corded knot system to communicate to Spain the number of allied Tribal Towns during the Yamassee War. Some Cherokee have suggested that the adaptation by Sequoyah of the Blue Paint clan using a syllabary was already in a rudimentary form of pictographs prior to the talking leaves.

The recent re-discovery of an 8-mile-long mural in the Amazon Rainforest, complete with pictographs of now extinct species may challenge historical understandings of historic records for generations. The History Channel will probably have one of their presenters explain the mural as from some Alien beings on their Ancient Alien programming. How very American to move away from the imaginative Lost Cities of Gold to Marvin the Martian.

DOGGERLAND AND BERINGIA

In 2001, researchers began looking for Genetic evidence of the origin of males and females in England. It seems that The Y chromosome indicates that some of Britainia is related to the Basque people in northern Spain. The female x chromosomes indicate the Gaelic lineage. The ice age around 10,000 years ago, the land bridge between France and England still existed. A BBC article entitled The moment Britain became an island, published in 2011, mentions that it wasn't until 6,100 B.C. that Britain broke free of mainland Europe for good, during the Mesolithic period—the Middle Stone Age. The article quotes geologist David Smith of Oxford University who explained that around 5,000 hunter gatherers," were the predecessors of modern Britain.

In 2018, Milner, Conneller, and Taylor published their book Star Carr. The chapter entitled the British Mesolithic Context, states, The period c. 8700 to 8000 cal BC was a time of intense change with evidence for the movement of Mesolithic groups into upland location and into areas of Britain that had previously seen little occupation: Scotland, Wales, the Midlands, and South-west England.

When speaking of East Anglia, the archaeologist discusses three early Mesolithic sites: Lackford Heath, Keeling Heath, and Great Melton. They conclude that Keeling now has a near-coastal location but in the Early Mesolithic would have probably been located near to a river system which ran across Doggerland.

CONTEXT OF DOGGERLAND AND BERINGIA

The United States exists because Britain established colonies on Turtle Island in the 17th century. Those colonists are descended from people who located in Britain roughly 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. Tribal people on Turtle Island were already here for at least 20,000 years before the colonist ancestors had even populated Britain fully, thus giving them the language of Anglish, which is now called English.

Whose cultures are older? Colonist descendants would insist that the Tribal people of Turtle Island were primitive and therefore conquest was justified. Europeans proposed that the Doctrine of Discovery was axiomatic and therefore justified. The Doctrine of Discovery was developed at the end of the Renaissance and the beginning of the Age of Discovery by a corrupt Borgia Pope from Spain. That same Borgia Pope from Spain surprisingly was instructed via the sprit filled Holy See to give 3/4 of the land of Turtle Island to Spain. Perhaps, since the Constitution was written in the Age of Enlightenment, new ideas from the Age of Science should prevail. Which means Beringia or Doggerland’s history are just now being explored. Perhaps there is space to write more informed histories. Perhaps First People’s history is just a lens into greater truths. Democracy is a word with two ideas; Demos the People combined with kratos to rule. Demokratia, Democracy, People-ruling, requires more than bicameral legislatures but using our two cranial hemispheres for intelligence. Since the scientific jury is still out as far as nailing down when First People arrived, discussion of it seems premature in history textbooks without First People’s perspectives.

The size of this ancient turtle skeleton may be insightful to the imagination of pre-historic First People.  Ancients in the Mediterranean were convinced that elephant skulls proved the evidence of the Cyclops. The nose septum does look like an eyehole. Imagination is not evidence of primitive.  Ancient Turtle at Yale University

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On Turtle Island

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The Creation Story from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation 2019 Challenge Bowl—Mvskoke

Temvrkv

The creation of the Muscogee (Creek) as described by Jean Chaudhuri begins with the seeds of life slowly stirring deep inside the darkness of the earth. Mother earth was completely covered by water in the beginning. The seeds of life, mixed with the earth’s soil and the water, generated the first traces of life. Heated by the sun, those traces of life formed into the living beings inside the earth. Eventually, the living beings needed more warmth and light for their development. Eager for knowledge, the inhabitants needed to escape from the confines of the earth’s center. The crawfish tried to lead the journey out from the depths of the earth and to the outside world. However, the crawfish was unable to break through the mud, and became stuck between the earth’s inner and outside worlds. The escape route was blocked for all the inhabitants by the struggling crawfish.

The turtle, very well suited for the muddy conditions between the two worlds, decided to lead the way to the next world. The turtle pushed its way from the center of the earth, and into the next world, all the other living beings climbed up on its back. The turtle with all the living beings on its back gradually emerged through the mud and water into a world of darkness, fog and air. All the living beings had made the journey to a

new world of enlightenment atop the great transporter, the turtle. Unfortunately, this world was blanketed with a dense fog, caused by the elements of the sun and water. Eventually, the water receded, and the living beings left the turtle’s back for dry land. Again, the animals and humans lived in the dark and cold, wandering around the vastness of the earth. Frightened by the darkness caused by the dense fog, the animals and humans began to call out to one another. The animals and humans gathered in groups to comfort each other. All at once, the animals and humans began to pray and chant to the creator for help from the darkness of the fog.

Hesaketvmese (he-saw-key-duh-me-see), the master of breath, answered the prayers of the animals and humans and gave relief from the haze of the fog. A strong wind from the east began to blow and pushed the dense fog away. The removal of the fog signaled the beginning of a new world. The animals and humans were able to see one another for the first time. The animals and humans were very appreciative of one another for coming together in a time of despair. Animals and humans continued the kinship bonds which had formed between them. Humans became clan brothers of the specific animals which were present when the fog lifted. Humans learned from the animal’s keen sense of their environment and took on characteristics that would facilitate survival. Thus began the life of the Muscogee (Creek) people and the life of the clans.

INDIAN MEDICINE

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An online article from Stanford Medicine reports that, "Prior to World War I, before synthetic anti-malarial drugs were developed, Quinine was the primary treatment for malaria. Quinine is derived from the bark of the Cinchona tree from South America and has been used for centuries by native populations who recognized the Cinchona's bark as an effective fever treatment. Carolus Lineaus gave the name Cinchona to the quinine tree in 1742, after hearing the romantic tale of how it healed Dona Francisca Henriques de Ribera, the fourth Condesa de Chinchon."

In 1909 Clements Markham related the full story: "The story of the cure of the Vice-Queen of Peru is well known. This Dona Francisca Henriquez de Ribera, Countess of Chinchon, was struck down with fever at Lima. Madame de Genlis wrote a little novelette on the subject which does not contain a word of truth. The real story was that the news of the countess’s illness reached the Governor of Loxa, and he sent down a parcel of the healing bark. The fever was cured in a few days. This was in 1638. The Loxa bark was called crown bark, and it comes from a species know as Chinchona officinalis, which yields the alkaloid called chinchonidine, so that the countess was cured with chinchonidine.

As Jack Weathford (1988) states, European doctors had various potions,plasters, odd forms of surgery, and leeches with which to treat diseases and control a few of the symptoms. (Not to mention Barber Surgeons and Blood Letting represented by the red stripe on their poles). Some historians blame President Washington being bled too much as the cause of his death.

Prior to quinine it is estimated that malaria killed over 2,000,000 people a year. Weatherford goes on to say, The Quecha-speaking Incas of the Andes understood well the medicinal properties of many plants growing not only in the Andes but in the Amazon jungle as well. One of these plants was a tree that grew at elevations of three to nine thousand feet and produced the very bitter-tasting Peruvian bark that could cure many ailments, including cramps, chills, and hearth rhythm disorders. The Quechua word QUINA means bark, but this particular bark with such miraculous powers deserved the name QUINA-QUINA, bark of barks, and from this came the name quinine.

WELTANSCHAUUNG & WORLDVIEW

Weltanschauung is the sociological concept where humans have a particular philosophy or view of life; it is the worldview of an individual or group. Sociologist Max Weber also developed a concept of rationalization wherein a rational society becomes focused heavily on logic and efficiency rather than morality or tradition. In essence rationalization and industrialization lead to his concept of an iron cage, where an individual becomes trapped in institutions. Industrialization is a result of competition-based economies such as those understood to be the foundation of nascent capitalism. At the time of contact, European kingdoms were in the movement away from strict barter economies based in feudalism, or the fee system, towards becoming winner takes all trade and domination. Because the church had deemed women as inferior, during the arrival of Europeans to Turtle Island, any plant-based cures were classified as non-logical and unworthy.

The worldviews of the European cultures versus the worldviews of the Turtle Island cultures are separated by more than religious identity, they were also separated by gender supremacy.

MOTHER EARTH PROVIDES MEDICINE

The Journal of American Medicine published an article in 2000 entitled Saints and Sinners: Women and the Practice of Medicine Throughout the Ages. The article states As the medieval period progressed, the education of women in medicine suffered a decline as the early church stressed the inferiority of women. The article goes on to say Witch-hunting swept through much of Europe as the Middle Ages waned. Because women were not allowed to study medicine, skill in healing was assumed to have been obtained from the devil. Spinsters, widows, and other women who refused to conform to the expectations of their low social status, including female healers and midwives, were frequent targets of witch hunts. Scant evidence was required to convict.

Early colonial views of American Indian Medicine Men & Women were therefore shaped to view tribal plant usage and practices as Satanic. Land and plant usage patterns were therefore viewed through this Eurocentric lens that dismissed indigenous horticulture.

MATRILINEAL VS. PATRILINEAL CULTURES

European cultures are predominately patrilineal in culture. This is the reason that children of a father take his surname rather than the mothers. One key challenge involves whether the offspring are the result of marriage. If the male does not marry the female, the children can become dispossessed of property because they are illegitimate.

Turtle Island cultures are predominately matrilineal in culture. There are tribes with patrilineal clan lineage, but it does not reflect the same gender supremacy that was predominant in Euro royal lineage. Because of matrilineal descendancy, this is the reason that children of a mother will be the same clan, and is most instances, band as well as Tribal Town. There is no illegitimacy and thus property control favors communal family ownership through the mother. [It should be noted that matrilineal cultures practiced enslavement just as patrilineal cultures did]

LAND AND OWNERSHIP

Genesis 1:28 Then God blessed them and said, Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground. European society was greatly influenced by the conception of the Earth being the property of man.

In contrast the Turtle Island occupants viewed the Earth as possession of all life. A quotation from the famed Lakota leader Tshunka Witko (Crazy Horse) illuminates the idea, One does not sell the ground that the people walk upon.

The Muscogee people are even more direct in the Mvskoke Temvrkv. "The Mvskokvlke (people) came from the earth, the soil, and hence the earth is man’s mother and therefore sacred, and man cannot sell his own mother.

A DIFFERENT AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE

One of the criticisms from Europeans of the cultures on Turtle Island involved agricultural patterns. Many tribes had adopted roles that involved food preparation and agriculture. Europeans noted that it was the women that prepared the fields and grew the plant food. Mothers of men seeking favor from Mother Earth. In fact, the main tribal products, Corn, Beans, and Squash were raised together and referred by several tribes as the three sisters. Corn would be planted, some tribes placed 4 seeds in the four directions, others placed the seeds in a triangle, some corn was grown in small mounds and others saw the mounds built once the stalks emerged. After the corn emerged, the women would then plant a bean that grows up the stalk of the corn. The final planting involved the squash which would cover the ground, limiting the need to weed around the plants. As nitrogen is taken out by one of the plants, the other replaces it with its roots. The system was ingenious and early historians noted the skill of plant harvesting by women aided by their children. Men would build a tree house of sorts where boys were allowed to use rabbit sticks as well as bows and arrows to keep rabbits, deer, and other animals out of the gardens. Women also knew where to locate many plant-based curatives and because of tribal peoples’ relationship with land, tribes developed an extensive pharmacology.

HOW THE MVSKOKE GOT THEIR MAIN MEDICINES

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The Holy Man continued: The medicine people will not have the power to heal by touch. Only I have been given that power. The medicine people will use what is shown in their dreams and visions and what has been put on this Mother Earth for them to use. All of their words will be built around three things which will always be here: human beings, animals, and plants. The sacred words are to have a sound of nature such as the sound of the wind or the cry of an animal. p. 106 Muscogee Nation Challenge Bowl 2019.

THE GATHERING

And the young man answered (the plants); I will follow your instructions. I will use these sacred words before I ever remove you from this Mother Earth. I too will meet you halfway and we will work together to cure our people.

And so the plants answered back and said: "From this day on, all the medicine people will be known as the keepers of the plants."

So this is how it is going to be. All the medicine people will be keepers of the plants. The actual words of the chant that they use before removing plants were given to that man. Most of the time medicine people are shown what to do through vision, but this time the plants said this. This is the only time a plant gave instructions to a human being." p. 110 Muscogee Nation Challenge Bowl 2019

The following table is adapted from Plants used as curatives by certain southeastern tribes, by Lyda Averill Taylor. Cambridge, Mass., Botanical Museum of Harvard University, 1940. Dr. Averill concluded what curatives still possessed pharmaceutical efficacy out of the 200+ she examined.

THERE IS 500+ FEDERALLY RECOGNIZED TRIBES ACROSS TURTLE ISLAND. If each of them provided only 12 plants for curatives that would be 6,000 remedies. If you considered all tribes across the Northern Continent and Southern Continent, how many insightful remedies would there be? Medicine Men and Women are a vast cultural asset.

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THE ALABAMA TRIBE: Longleaf Pine ALABAMA —dysentery—The inner bark of saplings is boiled, and the decoction is drunk as a cure for dysentery. MEDICINAL PROPERTIES: Tannin, which is a strong astringent, is found in Pinus (8). COMMENTS: An astringent is very beneficial in dysentery.

THE CHOCTAW TRIBE: Switch Cane.       Arundinaria      tecta      Muhlenberg      Descr.      iiber.

Gram. (1817) CHOCTAW —pain in the breast —The cane root is boiled, and the medicine is drunk to relieve a pain in the breast. USDA-NRCS Plants Database

THE CHEROKEE TRIBE: Sassafras Sassafras albidum (Nutt.) Nees Syst. Laurin. CHEROKEE—worms in children —The bark, mixed with that of Cornus Florida, Amelanchier canadensis and Nyssa sylvatica, is steeped in warm water with the roots of Rosa virginiana. The child drinks and bathes in the infusion to dispel worms. MEDICINAL PROPERTIES: The bark of the root and the root are stimulant, diaphoretic and diuretic and have been used in skin eruptions (21). Sassafras also contains tannic acid (20). COMMENTS: The value of Sassafras in skin eruptions makes it beneficial in measles. The tannic acid is a beneficial application for the bee sting. CHOCTAW — measles — The root is boiled, and the decoction is drunk to cure measles & to thin the blood— A decoction, made by boiling the root, is drunk. MUSCOGEE/KOASATI heart trouble —The roots are boiled, and the decoction is drunk for heart trouble. and bee sting— The leaves are mashed and applied to the sting as a poultice. (It is also the flavoring for Root Beer).

AGRICULTURE

In the Journal of Ethnic Foods (2016), S. Park, N. Hongu, and J. Daily III discuss the impact that tribes from Turtle Island had on the world. They state that 60% of all the food now consumed worldwide originated from Turtle Island. The article quotes Samuel Beck who said,

The American Indian’s greatest contribution to our civilization is, in the eyes of many experts, the patient cultivation from their original wild state of the food plants which are now more than half of our agricultural wealth.

Tribes produced 500 varieties of Corn and the Peruvian tribes produced over 5,000 varieties of the potato.

PEPPERS

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In ancient times the pepper became a form of botanical currency. Archaeologist have found pepper seeds to have been traded from Upper Mexico to South America for 6,500 years.

MAIZE CORN

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Indigenous peoples living in the lowland areas of southwestern Mexico may have cultivated corn or maize more than 8,700 years ago, according to new research. Molecular biologists recently identified a large, wild grass called Balsas’s teosinte as the ancestor of maize. The suppression of branching from the stalk resulted in a lower number of ears per plant but allowed each ear to grow larger. The hard case around the kernel disappeared over time. Today, maize has just a few ears of corn growing on one unbranched stalk. www.archaeologysouthwest.org

The tribes of Central America over time took the grass teosinte and eventually hybridized the plant into the Corn we eat today.

John Doebley - http://teosinte.wisc.edu/

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ON TURTLE ISLAND:  CLANS

A SAMPLE OF CLANS RELOCATED TO INDIAN TERRITORY Though every tribe has very distinct clan structures, many tribes have self-identities involving complex familial structures based on regions and religions. Though tribes are often appraised as having a general belief structure rooted in Animism, many have distinct protocols based on clan structures. Generally, a child is clan of the mother in many tribes and thus matrilineal, but there are tribes that are patrilineal. For Some tribes a child is the clan of the mother but a grandchild of the fathers’ clan. Some tribes unite in villages and the clans form distinct communities sometimes referred to Tribal Towns that are independent. Sometimes those villages confederate into Districts or Bands. Each tribe is unique.

SEMINOLE CLAN LAW

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To understand clan law and its guiding force in the lives of Seminole people it is necessary to provide a brief explanation of the origin of clans. In ancient times the people aligned themselves with certain animals and other supernatural spirits to assist them in enduring a hardship they were experiencing. Upon doing so a vow was made promising a commitment by the individuals associated with their being to remain in association from that point forward. For the majority of Seminole people, this clan association had been maintained into modern times.

Clan Law and kinship are highly revered and held in great respect within the spiritual and ceremonial world among the Seminole people. Clan law traditionally governs every aspect of tribal life, from the spiritual, to the governmental, to the social.

Clans are matrilineal as they are inherited through one’s mother. For example, if an individual’s mother is of the Wotkvlke Raccoon Clan, and the father is of the Hvlpvtvlke or Alligator Clan, that individual would be of the Raccoon Clan. However, this person would also be related to the Alligator Clan, as a son or daughter. In turn, all other Raccoon Clan people and Alligator Clan people would be that person's relations and would be referred to as aunts and uncles, if the age of a fellow clansman was relative to that of the mother and father, or brother and sister if the age of the clansman was relative to that of the child him/herself.

The Seminole base the ability to take a spouse on clan relationships. There is never to be intermarriage of clans. In keeping with the previous example of the marriage between a Raccoon Clan and an Alligator Clan, a Raccoon Clan woman marrying a man of the Raccoon or Alligator Clan would be the equivalent of a woman marrying her brother, or according to age, a daughter marrying her father.

Historically, many marriages were arranged according to clan strength, or need for renewing life into a dormant clan. Although there are various creation stories that relate to the hierarchy of the various clans, each clan holds essential qualities that pertained to a specific job or position held in the ceremonial ground, as well as at home. Each clan had a special talent, as well as a balance of weaknesses for various aspects of the spiritual world.

For example, if a tribal town was only allowed to seat a certain clan as their chief, for example, they could only be of the Bear Clan, and there was a shortage of Bear Clan people in the tribal town, then men would be encouraged to take a wife of the Bear Clan. In turn, the children of this marriage would be of the Bear Clan and would therefore help to restore the Bear Clan people. (From the Seminole

Nation of Oklahoma)

CLANS AND DANCE

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Though its’ generally called a Pow Wow, every tribe has specific names for each dance. Murton McCluskey, Ed.D. (2009) published Your guide to understanding and enjoying Pow Wows for the state of Montana. He states, Some reports say that the word pow wow has its origin from the Pawnee word pa-wa, meaning to eat. Other sources say the word is of Algonquin origin and was originally pronounced pauau, which indicates a gathering of people for purpose of celebration or important event. In any case, it is a special time for people to gather and celebrate, meet old friends, and create new friendships.

Pow wows have changed over the years. However, they are still gatherings where Indian people can share part of their tribal traditions and culture. But they should not be confused with other tribal customs and ceremonies that are not performed or shared in public gatherings.

McCluskey continues, The circle is an important symbol to Native Americans. You will see that at many large pow wows that the dancers are in the center of a circle, the drums and the audience form a circle around them, and the concessions and encampment form another circle around the gathering. This is symbolic of the life cycle. The pow wow brings the circle of people closer to their family, friends, and Native American culture.

The drum is more than just a musical instrument to those who own and play it; it has its own life. Some drum groups have gone through ceremonies and have had their drums blessed and named. The drum has its own powerful spirit. Gifts are made to the drum and some drums have their own sacred medicine pipes. In some traditions, the drum symbolizes the heartbeat; in others, the powerful medicine of thunder. Drum Dancing: generally, participants dance in a Clockwise direction around a circle.

Several tribal dances honor the Animal Nations, with whom humans share Mother Earth.

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An engraving based on William Bartram's 1789 drawing of a Creek town and ceremonial ground. A is the winter council house, often called a rotunda or hot house; B is the town square ground; and C is the field where the men of the town played chunkey, a game of skill popular among southeastern Indians. The other structures represent clusters of households. To understand the town square the Muscogee state in the Mvskoke Temvrkv, "within the

square was the sacred fire or poca (bow-jah), grandfather, and the ceremonial ring, paskofv (basgo-fuh); both were considered sacred. This was the sacred ground where dances, songs and prayers were held. The arbors where the members sat were seated according to clans associated to the four directions."

Stomp Dancing: generally, participants dance in a Counter-Clockwise direction around a sacred fire.

Muscogee Women wear turtle shells with internal pebbles which makes the cadence of the dance. Historically some women used deer hooves. In modern times, milk cans replaced the turtle shells. Depending on the orthodoxy of the ceremonial ground will determine if cans are allowed instead of shells.

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THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY AND THE GREAT LAW OF PEACE WAS CLAN BASED

In 1987 the following resolution was adopted by the U.S. Congress: S.Con.Res.76 - A concurrent resolution to acknowledge the contribution of the Iroquois Confederacy of Nations to the Development of the United States Constitution and to reaffirm the continuing government to-government relationship between Indian tribes and the United States established in the Constitution.

The importance of clans cannot be overstated. Among almost every tribe in what was once called Turtle Island (North America), there was a clan structure, one that was ancient, accepted, and adhered too. The five nations of the Iroquois had developed the structure into a formal part of their law.  The Seneca Cayuga display their clans on their flag surrounding the Tree of Peace.

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"42. Among the Five Nations and their posterity there shall be the following original clans: Great Name Bearer, Ancient Name Bearer, Great Bear, Ancient Bear, Turtle, Painted Turtle, Standing Rock, Large Plover, Deer, Pigeon Hawk, Eel, Ball, Opposite-Side-of-the-Hand, and Wild Potatoes. These clans distributed through their respective nations', shall be the sole owners and holders of the soil of the country and in them is it vested as a birthright.

People of the Five Nations members of a certain clan shall recognize every other member of that clan, irrespective of the Nation, as relatives. Men and women, therefore, members of the same clan are forbidden to marry.

The lineal descent of the people of the Five Nations shall run in the female line. Women shall be considered the progenitors of the Nation. They shall own the land and the soil. Men and women shall follow the status of the mother.

The women heirs of the Confederated Lordship titles shall be called Royaneh (Noble) for all time to come. "

This clan structure existed in different forms among many of the tribes located on Turtle Island. The idea that women owned the land was central. The Seneca Cayuga in Oklahoma are from the original 5 nations and the flag of the nation displays the clans. The tree is representative of the Law of Peace wherein the weapons of war were buried, thus the phrase bury the hatchet.

CLAN LAWS

The tribes of Turtle Island were not unique among humanity. In ancient Mesopotamia, a law was adopted known as the Hammurabi Code. This code was reflected in the Law of Moses where it states, Eye for an Eye and Tooth for a Tooth. Cushman (1899) related a story that explains the concept of Clan Law. A man was in a different village. For some reason, an altercation occurred, and he shot another aged Choctaw man. The Clan Law provided an Avenger of Blood. On the day of execution, the mother of the man approached the assembled Clan members and pleaded that she be accepted, and her life taken instead of her son. She stated that His wife and child, his two little sisters and little brother would suffer if he was taken from them. The mother again implored They cannot live without him, they can without me. Your relative he killed was an old man. Let the avenger of death of your kinsman be satisfied with my death. Blood for blood satisfies our violated law. A representative of the dead kinsmen rose and accepted. She was provided time to say farewell. She admonished her son, said farewell to her family and accepted her son’s penalty of death.

PYROLATRY

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The definition of Pyrolatry presumes that the fire is what is worshiped. That is probably simplistic. The fire represents a form of communion. In fact, it is recorded that many would extinguish their own home fires during ceremonies and accept the new fire to begin a new year.

One major tribe call themselves the Nishnabe. In their history, they say "The Ojibwe, our eldest kinsmen, were first in igniting the flames of the Council. They are the Keepers of the

Medicine and Faith, entrusted with the sacred scrolls and teachings of our ancient Midewewin Lodge. The Odawa were second to build a fire as one people. They are the Keepers of the Trade, responsible for providing food and goods to the Nation. In the past, they commissioned and conducted large hunting and trading expeditions that created intertribal and later European alliances. Devoted to the Council and their duty to the people, they were fierce warriors and protectors of the vast trade network controlled by the Neshnabek. As Bodewadmi (Potawatomi), we are the youngest brother and last to build our own fire."

The Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi People recognized themselves as the people of the Three Fires Confederacy. As the Ottawa History states, Our oral history traces us back to the Eastern Coast of Turtle Island where our spiritual leaders told us that we should travel to the west until we found the food growing on the water. Our people traveled until we found wild rice growing on the water and we knew we were home.

Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa was from the Otter Clan. He was able to unite the three fires into a formidable confederacy to oppose English territorial ambitions. Other tribes joined his efforts.

WYANDOTTE JOIN THE 3 FIRES

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On the back of a Turtle symbolized the ancient connection of tribes to a concept of shared warmth and alliance. As the Wyandotte say in their history and culture The fire is that of the great council of nations over which the Wyandotte was given the sacred honor of presiding. The council was initially formed in the early 1700s and consisted of the Chippewa (Ojibwe), Ottawa, Pottawatomie, and Wyandot. In the latter half of the 1700s as the whites began encroaching upon all our lands in the greater Ohio Valley the Delaware, Shawnee, and Miami were added to the council. Upon leaving Ohio and our removal to Indian Territory (Kansas) the great council was again convened. All the tribes were there and reaffirmed us as the Keeper of the Council Fire. At that time the Kickapoo and Kansas were admitted to the council further strengthening the alliance of old friends that have proven to be inseparable.

INVASION OF THE MISSISSIPPIAN TRIBAL TOWN CLANS

The Cahokia Mound site is located on the Mississippi River directly across from modern St.

Louis, Missouri. Several tribes claim the ancient city in their history. The Peoria, a member of the Illinois tribes, have asserted their linkage to the site. The Illini tribes were abundant at the time of the construction of Cahokia. The Osage, claim potential ownership, because of their mounds located on the St. Louis, Mo. side of the river. Indeed, the Osage controlled a vast amount of territory extending from St. Louis to the territory of the Quapaw in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Span of Osage territory appears to have extended westward to Oklahoma and Kansas. De-Soto never invaded the mound complex.

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In the southeast existed other large mound-building cultures of the Mississippian. The Muscogee report to have originally had over 50 matrilineal clans and nearly 100 Tribal Towns. The attacks by the Europeans resulted in Clan consolidation. The first to face contact with Hernando De Soto were the Muscogee patterned villages. On March 25, 1540, De Soto crossed the Ocmulgee River. (It was here that his chroniclers noted that the Muscogee cooked food over barbacoa, the root word for barbecue.) Traditionally Tribal Towns had White Towns and Red Towns. One for peace and the other for war.

De Soto probably negotiated with the War Town leaders. De Soto proceeded to invade the mound city of Ichisi near what the Ocmulgee Mound site in Macon Georgia is now. On April 30, 1540, De Soto began his invasion of a mound complex named by the Spanish

Cofitachequi. Some have attributed this complex to the Yuchi.

De Soto proceeded to invade and captured the Queen of the city. The Yuchi will later join the Muscogee Confederacy after the conclusion of the Yamasee war to be discussed in later chapters. Was she a Clan mother? She obviously commanded respect.

On May 12, 1540, De Soto began his invasion of what his chroniclers named the (Tsa La Gi) Chalaque. The Cherokee had over 100 towns divided in at least 5 Districts with 7 matrilineal clans. The clans are the stars on the Cherokee Flag. The black star represents those clan members who died on the Trail of Tears.

    On June 4, 1540, De Soto began his invasion of Chiaha (Alabama- Quassarte) September 16, 1540, De Soto, approached Talisi (Tulsa).

October 9, 1540, De Soto meets Tushkalosa, a Choctaw Warrior Chief. Tuscaloosa, Alabama is named for him. Tushkalosa will lead 2,000 Choctaw warriors against De Soto. The Choctaw had 100 towns divided into 3 Districts (Bands) and 10 matrilineal clans. The three arrows on the tribal flag represent the districts.

December 14, 1540, De Soto approached the

Tombigbee and entered the territory of the Chickasaw to begin his invasion of their 14 towns comprised of 9 matrilineal clans. The Chickasaw will repel De Soto.

Early in the spring De Soto contacted other Mississipian mound-builders. The Quapaw were

comprised of 4 towns, 2 moieties of Earth and Sky with 21 matrilineal clans.

De Soto then invaded the Caddo who possessed 19 towns controlled by matrilineal clans. Discussion of the Caddo importance to trade will be discussed in later chapters when the El Camino Real is a subject.

CLAN STRUCTURES ARE ADAPTABLE

Quapaw Clans: Beaver, Black Bear, Buffalo, Crane, Crawfish, Deer, Eagle, Elk, Fish, Grizzly Bear, Moon, Panther, Reddish Yellow Buffalo, Snake, Small Bird, Star, Sun, Thunder Being, Turtle, Wolf, Chicken. Chickens were introduced by Europeans. The significance of them being adopted as a clan by the Quapaw demonstrates their relationship with the French from whom they traded.

Shawnee Clans: Bear, Buzzard, Deer, Horse, Loon, Owl, Panther, Rabbit, Raccoon, Snake, Turkey, Turtle, Wolf. Horses were not in N. America at the time of contact. Therefore, the adoption of the Horse as a clan reflects the adaptation of clan structures to contact.

Among the Tohono O’odham in Arizona, the child of O’odham parent and another tribal parent automatically become a member of the Bear Clan.

CLAN STRUCTURES ARE RESPONSIVE

The model is an oversimplification of how a Muscogee Tribal Town is structured. The Mekko (Town King) presided over the Town based on matrilineal clan descent from a Clan mother (As noted among the Iroquois