The war which was carried on with this nation lasted many years, during which the Lenape lost a great number of their warriors, while the Mengwe would always hang back in the rear leaving them to face the enemy. In the end the conquerors divided the country between themselves. The Mengwe made choice of the lands in the vicinity of the great lakes and on their tributary streams, and the Lenape took possession of the country to the south. For a long period of time, some say many hundred years, the two nations resided peacefully in this country and increased very fast. Some of their most enterprising huntsmen and warriors crossed the great swamps, and falling on streams running to the eastward followed them down to the great bay river (meaning the Susquehanna, which they call the great bay river from where the west branch falls into the main stream), thence into the bay itself, which we call Chesapeake. As they pursued their travels, partly by land and partly by water, sometimes near and at other times on the great salt-water lake, as they call the sea, they discovered the great river which we call the Delaware.
This quotation, although not the entire tradition as given by
Heckewelder, will suffice for the present purpose.
The traces of the name of these mound-builders, which are still preserved in the name "Allegheny," applied to a river and the mountains of Pennsylvania, and the fact that the Delawares down to the time Heckewelder composed his work called the Allegheny River "Allegewi Sipu," or river of the Allegewi, furnish evidence that there is at least a vein of truth in this tradition. If it has any foundation in fact there must have been a people to whom the name "Tallegwi" [Footnote: There appears to be no real foundation for the name Allegewi, this form being a mere supposition of Colonel Gibson, suggested by the name the Lenape applied to the Allegheny River and Mountains.] was applied, for on this the whole tradition hangs. Who were they? In what tribe and by what name shall we identify them? That they were mound-builders is positively asserted, and the writer explains what he means by referring to certain mounds and inclosures, which are well known at the present day, which he says the Indians informed him were built by this people.
It is all-important to bear in mind the fact that when this tradition was first made known, and the mounds mentioned were attributed to this people, these ancient works were almost unknown to the investigating minds of the country. This forbids the supposition that the tradition was warped or shaped to fit a theory in regard to the origin of these antiquities.
Following the tradition it is fair to conclude, notwithstanding the fact that Heckewelder interpreted "Namaesi Sipu" by Mississippi, that the principal seats of this tribe or nation were in the region of the Ohio and the western slope of the Allegheny Mountains, and hence it is not wholly a gratuitous supposition to believe they were the authors of some of the principal ancient works of eastern Ohio (including those of the Scioto Valley) and the western part of West Virginia. Moreover, there is the statement by Haywood, already referred to, that the Cherokees had a tradition that in former times they dwelt on the Ohio and built mounds.
These data, though slender, when combined with the apparent similarity between the name Tallegwi and Cherokee or Chellakee, and the character of the works and traditions of the latter, furnish some ground for assuming that the two were one and the same people. But this assumption necessitates the further inference that the pressure which drove them southward is to be attributed to some other people than the Iroquois as known to history, as this movement must have taken place previous to the time the latter attained their ascendancy. It is probable that Mr. Hale is correct in deciding that the "Namaesi Sipu" of the tradition was not the Mississippi. [Footnote: Am. Antiquarian, vol. 5, 1883, p. 117.] His suggestion that it was that portion of the great river of the North (the St. Lawrence) which connects Lake Huron with Lake Erie, seems also to be more in conformity with the tradition and other data than any other which has been offered. If this supposition is accepted it would lead to the inference that the Talamatau, the people who joined the Delawares in their war on the Tallegwi, were Hurons or Huron-Iroquois previous to separation. That the reader may have the benefit of Mr. Hale's views on this question, the following quotation from the article mentioned is given:
The country from which the Lenape migrated was Shinaki, the "land of fir trees," not in the West but in the far North, evidently the woody region north of Lake Superior. The people who joined them in the war against the Allighewi (or Tallegwi, as they are called in this record), were the Talamatan, a name meaning "not of themselves," whom Mr. Squier identities with the Hurons, and no doubt correctly, if we understand by this name the Huron-Iroquois people, as they existed before their separation. The river which they crossed was the Messusipu, the Great River, beyond which the Tallegwi were found "possessing the East." That this river was not our Mississippi is evident from the fact that the works of the mound-builders extended far to the westward of the latter river, and would have been encountered by the invading nations, if they had approached it from the west, long before they arrived at its banks. The "Great River" was apparently the upper St. Lawrence, and most probably that portion of it which flows from Lake Huron to Lake Erie, and which is commonly known as the Detroit River. Near this river, according to Heckewelder, at a point west of Lake St. Clair, and also at another place just south of Lake Erie, some desperate conflicts took place. Hundreds of the slain Tallegwi, as he was told, were buried under mounds in that vicinity. This precisely accords with Cusick's statement that the people of the great southern empire had "almost penetrated to Lake Erie" at the time when the war began. Of course in coming to the Detroit River from the region north of Lake Superior, the Algonquins would be advancing from the west to the east. It is quite conceivable that, after many generations and many wanderings, they may themselves have forgotten which was the true Messusipu, or Great River, of their traditionary tales.
The passage already quoted from Cusick's narrative informs us that the contest lasted "perhaps one hundred years." In close agreement with this statement the Delaware record makes it endure during the terms of four head-chiefs, who in succession presided in the Lenape councils. From what we know historically of Indian customs the average terms of such chiefs may be computed at about twenty- five years. The following extract from the record [Footnote: The Bark Record of the Leni Lenape.] gives their names and probably the fullest account of the conflict which we shall ever possess:
"Some went to the East, and the Tallegwi killed a portion.
"Then all of one mind exclaimed, War! War!