Aboriginal American Authors

by Daniel G. Brinton

As the colonizers of the New World have been chiefly from Spain and Great Britain, so naturally the English and Spanish languages have been brought most widely to the knowledge of the natives. The half-civilized tribes, within the area of the United States, have produced several authors of merit. Perhaps the earliest of these was David Cusick, who, in 1825, printed his Ancient History of the Six Nations. He was a full blood Tuscarora, and his English is far from correct. Yet the arrangement of his matter is skillful, and some passages quaintly vivid and forcible. Another member of the Iroquois confederacy, Peter Dooyentate Clarke, has taken up the Origin and Traditional History of the Wyandotts, and has made a readable little book (published at Toronto, 1870); while still more lately, Chief Elias Johnson, of the Tuscaroras, has published a History of the Six Nations, very creditably composed. (Lockport, 1881.)

The tribes of Algonkin lineage can also count some respectable writers. The Rev. William Apess (or Apes), a member of the Pequod tribe of Massachusetts, wrote and published five or six small books and pamphlets, on questions relating to his people, between 1829 and 1837. The book of George Copway, or Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh, a chief of the Ojibways, on The Traditional History of the Ojibway Nation (London, 1850), is a good authority on the topic, and so well written that we can scarcely suppose that it was his unaided effort. Of almost equal merit is the History of the Ojibway Indians, with especial reference to their Conversion to Christianity, by the Rev. Peter Jones, or Kahkewaquonaby, a full-blood Indian, (London, 1861.)

In the southwest, the Cherokee Phoenix offered a medium through which the native writers of that tribe frequently published original contributions; and one of its early editors, Elias Boudinot (named after the celebrated philanthropist), published separately a number of addresses and other documents, in English.

But, as we might naturally expect, it is in Spanish that we find the best work of the native writers. The partly civilized races of Mexico, Central America and Peru, were much better prepared to receive the lessons of European teachers than the barbarous hunting tribes. Had they had any fair chance, they would have soon equaled their teachers. Father Motolinia, one of the earliest missionaries to Mexico, testifies to the readiness with which the natives acquired both Spanish and Latin, and adds that, in the latter tongue, they became skilled grammarians, and wrote both verse and prose with commendable accuracy.[6] Quite a long list of such native Latinists, their names and their writings, is given by Father Augustin de Vetancurt, and he is not sparing in his praise of the ability they displayed in the use of both Spanish and Latin.[7] Similar testimony is rendered of the natives of Guatemala, by the Archbishop Garcia Pelaez. He mentions, by name, several Indians who became conspicuously thorough Latin scholars, and refers to others who won honors in all the faculties of the University of Guatemala, and distinguished themselves in after life by the display of their talents and education.[8] Nor would it be difficult to find many other such examples in Peru and Brazil.

The list of native Mexicans who wrote in Spanish is a fairly long one; and I need only mention the better known names. At the head should be placed that of Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. He was a lineal descendant of the sovereigns of Tezcuco, and an ardent student of the antiquities of his race. Among the many works which he wrote are the Relaciones Historicas and the Historia Chichimeca, which were published by Lord Kingsborough; a Historia de la Nueva Espana, a Historia del Reyno de Tezcuco, and a Historia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, which have not had the fortune to be printed. Such an excellent critic as Mr. Prescott says of his style: "His language is simple, and occasionally eloquent and touching. His descriptions are highly picturesque. He abounds in familiar anecdote; and the natural graces of his manner in detailing the more striking events of history and the personal adventures of his heroes, entitle him to the name of the Livy of Anahuac."

Ixtlilxochitl flourished about the year 1600, and among his contemporaries was Fernando de Alvarado Tezozomoc, also of native blood, whose Cronica Mexicana has been preserved, and is considered to be well written, but less reliable. Of about the same date are the Relacion of Juan Bautista de Tomar, a native of Tezcuco, in which he treats of the customs of his ancestors; the Relaciones of Don Antonio Pimentel, grandson of Nezahualpilli, lord of Tezcuco, an author quoted and praised by the historian Torquemada; the Historia de Tlaxcallan of Diego Munoz Camargo, a noble Tlascalan mestizo, of whose style Prescott remarks that it compares not unfavorably with that of some of the missionaries themselves; and the Relacion de los Dioses y Ritos de la Gentilidad of Don Pedro Ponce, the cacique of Tzumpahuacan. Somewhat later, about 1625, Don Domingo de San Anton Munon Chimalpain wrote his Historia Mexicana and his Historia de la Conquista, which have been mentioned with respect by various writers.

Along with these examples of literary culture in Mexico may be named several native Peruvian writers who made use of the language of their conquerors; as Don Joan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui, whose Relacion de Antiguedades de Piru is a precious document, though composed in very uncritical Spanish; as Don Luis Inca, whose Relacion, prepared in Spanish, seems now to be lost, but is referred to, with praise, by some of the older writers; and, above all others, Inca Garcillasso de la Vega, whose vivid and attractive style, and numerous historical writings place him easily in the first rank of Spanish historians of America.

From the above it would seem evident enough that the American aborigines were endowed, as a race, with a turn for literary composition, and a faculty for it. They were generally, however, an unlettered race. What they composed was for oral use only. This might be carefully arranged, committed to heart, and handed down from generation to generation; but as for recording it in forms which would convey it to the mind through the eye, that was a discovery they had but partially made.

I say, "partially," because graphic methods, of some kind, were widely used. We may as well omit from consideration, in this connection, the merely pictographic signs of the hunting tribes, although they were used for mnemonic purposes. Let us rather proceed, at once, to the highest specimens of the graphic art in ancient America, and inquire their scope. In Mexico, in Yucatan, in Nicaragua, and in one or two districts of South America, the early explorers found systems of writing which seemed to resemble that to which they were accustomed.

The Aztecs manufactured, in large quantities, a useful paper from the leaves of the maguey, and upon it they painted numerous figures and signs, which conveyed ideas, and sometimes also sounds. An early authority informs us that their books were of five kinds. The first detailed their method of computing time; the second described their holy days, festivals and religious epochs; the third gave the interpretation of dreams, omens and signs; the fourth supplied directions for naming children; and the fifth rehearsed the rites and ceremonies connected with matrimony.[9] Besides these, we know they wrote out tribute rolls, the ancient history of their tribes, the fables of their mythology, the genealogy of their sovereigns, and the geographical descriptions of territories. Of all these we have examples preserved, and many of them have been published.