[ [12] "The Cherokees had an oration, in which was contained the history of their migrations, which was lengthy." This tradition related "that they came from the upper part of the Ohio, where they erected the mounds on Grave Creek, and that they removed hither [to East Tennessee] from the country where Monticello is situated." This memory of their migrations was preserved and handed down by official orators, who repeated it annually, in public, at the national festival of the green corn dance. J. Haywood, Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, pp. 224-237. (Nashville, 1823.) Haywood adds: "It is now nearly forgotten." I have made vain attempts to recover some fragments of it from the present residents of the Cherokee Nation.
[ [13] Indian Migrations as Evidenced by Language, p. 22.
[ [14] Prof. Thomas has shown beyond reasonable doubt that the Cherokees were mound builders within the historic period.
[ [15] Loskiel, Geschichte der Mission, etc., p. 160; Heckewelder, History of the Indian Nations, p. 54. Bishop Ettwein states that the last Cherokees were driven from the upper Ohio river about 1700-10. His essay on the "Traditions and Languages of the Indian Nations," written for General Washington, in 1788, was first published in the Bulletin of the Pa. Hist. Soc., 1844.
[ [16] Heckewelder, Indian Nations, pp. 88, 327. Mr. H. Hale, in The Iroquois Book of Rites, has fully explained the meaning and importance of the custom of "condolence." The Stockbridge Indian, Aupaumut, in his Journal, writes of the Delawares, that when they lose a relative, "according to ancient custom, long as they are not comforted, they are not to speak in public, and this ceremonie of comforting each other is highly esteemed among these nations." Narrative of Hendrick Aupaumut, in Mems. Hist. Soc. Pa., Vol. II, p. 99.
[ [17] Heckewelder, History of the Indian Nations, p. 60, and Narrative of Hendrick Aupaumut, 1791, in Mems. Hist. Soc. Pa., Vol. II. The latter, himself a native Mohegan, repeatedly refers to "the ancient covenant of our ancestors," by which this confederacy was instituted, which included the "Wenaumeew (Unami), the Wemintheew (Minsi), the Wenuhtokowuk (Nanticokes) and Kuhnauwantheew (Kanawha)." From old Pennsylvania documents, Proud gives the members of the confederacy or league as "the Chiholacki or Delawares, the Wanami, the Munsi, the Mohicans and Wappingers." History of Penna., Vol. II, p. 297, note. Compare J. Long, Voyages and Travels, p. 10 (London, 1791), who gives the same list. Mr. Ruttenber writes: "In considering the political relations of the Lenapes, they should be considered as the most formidable of the Indian confederacies at the time of the discovery of America, and as having maintained for many years the position which subsequently fell to the Iroquois."—Indian Tribes on Hudson River, p. 64.
[ [18] Trumbull, Indian Names in Connecticut, p. 31. Schoolcraft had already given the same derivation in his History and Statistics of the Indian Tribes.
[ [19] Capt. Hendricks, in Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., Vol. IX, p. 101.
Lewis H. Morgan, Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity, p. 289.
[ [20] Ruttenber, History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River, p. 50.
[ [21] Morgan, Ancient Society, pp. 173-4.