Collection: Directories and Documents > Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection

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Title: The Powhatans and other Woodland Indians as Travelers Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection Author: Helen C. Rountree # of Pages: 17 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2017-11-10 08:56:20 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 05:53:18 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 05:53:18

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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38 POWHATAN FOREIGN RELATIONS road. Thus “the path slowly adjusted itself, moving now to the right and now to the left. If a graph could be made of a trail, decade by decade, it would show a broad, blurred band, perhaps (as in the portage area berween Presque Isle and French Creek) a mile or more in breadth.” But when the important places ina region remained the same, as they did in the Tennessee mountains where major settlements were always in the river valleys, trails connecting such places would not only remain “plain,” unless fallen logs caused a change, but they would actually “become worn down below the surface of the soil.”7° Europeans followed these trails afterward, and still later they built them! into highways and, in mountainous areas, added railroads as well. When Indian people set out to walk along their trails ot paddle along the waterways, they traveled fast by European standards. Woodland Indian people of both sexes were physically fit and very proud of being so. When they ran, their speed and endurance seemed almost miraculous. In either case, non-Indian travelers were often left gasping in their wake, with the sound of derisive laughter for company.”'! John Lawson solved his problem with an Indian guide when he “sadI’d him with a good heavy Pack of some Part of our Cloaths and Bedding; by which Means we kept Pace with him.” When another guide was laden only with all the party’s clothes, “we had much a-do to keep pace with him.” The Indians whom Lawson saw, men and women alike, were able to stride along all day or alternatively to dance “for several Nights together, with the greatest Briskness imaginable, their Wind never failing them.” That sort of endurance helps to explain how the “Tomahitans” could cover 2,200 miles on foot and by canoe in five months, with only short rest stops, and consider such efforts merely to be ordinary.” The safe return of an expedition, other than a war party, was often treated as an ordinary event as well. The English records say nothing of Powhatan practices on this score, but Europeans elsewhere were dumbfounded by Indian people’s “lack” of emotion at such times, which was in reality a carefully controlled reserve dictated by etiquette. A Creek woman, for instance, greeted a returning husband after several months’ absence with a flat, “So, you have got back again, I see,” to which he merely replied, “Yes,” before going into the house. However profitable his expedition had been, he would not discuss it until he went to the town square the next morning, where he told his cronies all about it “in a tedious, circumlocutory conversation of many hours”—also dictated by etiquette.” When a successful warrior came home, on the other hand, emotion as well as ceremony was the order of the day. He often shouted out his arrival and was greeted by “a yelling multiThe Powhatans as Travelers 39 tude,” after which ceremonies of public triumph and thanksgiving took place.”* Lodging and Food People who traveled by canoe went ashore ac night to eat and sleep. So accustomed were the Powhatans to travel this way that they could nor at first believe that English ships could be sailed all night on the open ocean, The Indian priest who accompanied Pocahontas to England in 1616 added up the days it took to cross the Atlantic and got a figure that was double the English one—because he had counted the nights as additional days.” Indian travelers preferred to spend their nights with friends and relatives along the way, unless, that is, they were in a tearing hurry. Anyone pressed for time in che Indian world did well to avoid people altogether, since any meeting, even a casual one along the trail, required an exchange of civilities that took up time. Hospitality and sober, unhurried conversation were major values among Indian people. When people met on the trail, if they were not enemies or pursuing urgent business, they promptly sat down together under a tree for a visit. They would not break immediately into volubility, either. They would sic awhile and share a pipe of tobacco, and then have “half an hour’s grave discourse” about the news of the day. If one party had freshly killed game, they would send some of it along with the other party when they took their leave.” When people encountered a family encampment away from a town, hospitality was still the rule of the day. Any food the family and the visitors had would be shared, even if it was very little. Visitors had to accept what their hosts gave them, even if the hosts were in danger of going hungry themselves, for “it is incumbent on those who partake of a feast of this sort, to eat all that comes to their share or burn it.” John Bartram and his companions were once impelled by their hostess to accept a meal newly cooked. “I heartily pityed the poor Square, for I believe she had dressed it for herself and several children; she also obliged us to accept a fine piece of venison to carry away.” If the visitors camped with their hosts for the night, the next morning’s present of food might be accompanied with “a familiar conversation for half an hour.” ”” When travelers arrived at a town, the rules of hospitality were even more lavish. The records of the Powhatan version concern diplomatically important visitors.”* The townspeople would form two lines, through which the new arrivals would walk, and salute them with shouts. Or else they would