Tag Archives: Iroquois

Thanksgiving

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The First Thanksgiving, by Jennie A. Brownscombe, courtesy Pilgrim Hall Museum

The Thanksgiving holiday does not have the same significance for Native Americans as it does generally for others in this country. The fact that European pilgrims survived their first harsh winter boded ill for native peoples who suffered death, disease, and cultural disintegration at their hands. However, many Native American tribes incorporated gratitude into everyday life, often thanking plants and other living things for giving themselves to human use. Many tribes also had specific times and occasions for which they specifically took time out to express gratitude, such as mid-winter and harvest time.

Among others, the Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Yuchi, and Iroquois tribes celebrated the Green Corn Festival, which marked the beginning of the first corn harvest. It was a time to thank Mother Earth and all living things for providing food  and other usable items that made life good. Most Native Americans had various harvest ceremonies with the same purpose in mind. The Iroquois particularly formalized times of thanksgiving, which would include a special Thanksgiving Address. A speaker was chosen to give thanks on behalf of all the people. The thanksgiving prayer then offered gratitude to the Creator for the earth and the living things upon it. The prayer could be quite long, encompassing specific things the speaker wanted to call special attention to, like birds, rivers, medicinal grasses and herbs, wind, rain, sunshine, the moon and stars, and so on.

For many Native Americans, gratitude intersected with the spirituality they brought to daily life. Ceremonies simply formalized the gratitude they typically expressed on a smaller scale every day.

Harvest Dance, Santo Domingo Pueblo, 1910, courtesy Library of Congress

Sugar-Making Among the Indians in the North, 19th century illustration

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Early Observations on the West

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Drawing of Beaver, Native Americans and Wildlife From 1700s

Though mountain men like Jedediah Smith (see last post) brought their prejudices and world-views with them, they also rejected much of civilized society’s mores and were comfortable interacting with whatever or whomever they found on their journeys. Mountain men were disposed to go along in peace with native peoples if they could, so often they had a chance to make observations that later whites could not. Smith wrote about the “Pa-utch and Sam-pach” tribes and their preparation of a strange root about the size of a parsnip. “They prepare them by laying them on heated Stones and covering them first with grass and then with earth where they remain until they are sufficiently steamed,” Smith wrote. The roots were then mashed and made into cakes.

Smith was impressed by a method of communication he observed among an Indian group he did not name. “Each family or set of families has a quantity of dry Sedge Bark and Brush piled up near the habitation and immediately on the approach of a Stranger they set fire to the pile and this being seen by their neighbor he does the same . . . so that the alarm flies over the hills in every direction with the greatest rapidity.”

When travelers like Smith merely wrote down what they observed, they provided good records of early Native American customs. When they slipped into judgment and comparisons with white culture, however, their observations become more suspect and may not tell the whole story.

One Type of Smoke Signal

Iroquois Fur Trappers

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A Working Society

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Navajo Woman at Work on Blanket, (between 1890-1920), courtesy Library of Congress

Navajo Woman at Work on Blanket, (between 1890-1920), courtesy Library of Congress

Like most other societies, Native Americans usually incorporated well-defined gender roles within their various groups. Men hunted, fought in battle, negotiated treaties and agreements, and made decisions about moving.  Men were chiefs, medicine men, and priests, though women could also take on these roles at times.

Women raised children, farmed if the society were agricultural, tanned skins and preserved food. Though their home-making roles were similar to white women’s, Native American women typically had more power. In Cherokee society, women owned land. Plains Indians traced their lineage through their mothers. Iroquois women controlled their families and could initiate divorce, and Blackfoot women owned the tipi in which their families lived. One important difference between Native American and white societies was the respect women received for their contribution to the home.

Returning War Party, courtesy Library of Congress

Returning War Party, courtesy Library of Congress

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