Allegheny Episodes / Folk Lore and Legends Collected in Northern and Western Pennsylvania

by Henry W. Shoemaker

The war was followed by the usual period of upheaval and reconstruction, and the moral code of the redmen suffered as much as did modern civilization as an aftermath of the world war. Many Cherokee prisoners were brought to Pennsylvania and put at menial work, or bartered as slaves while others intermarried with the northern tribes, so that Cherokee blood become a component part of the make-up of the Pennsylvania aboriginies. The Cherokee legends and history lingered wherever a drop of their blood remained, so that the beginnings of some, at least, of our Pennsylvania Indian folk-lore hark back to the golden age of the Cherokees.

They certainly have been the martyr-race, the Belgians of the North American Indians, even to the time of their brutal expulsion from their Carolina homes during the Nineteenth Century by U. S. troops at the behest of selfish land-grabbers, and sentenced to die of exhaustion and broken hearts along the dreary trek to the distant Indian Territory.

Among the bravest and most enthusiastic of the Pennsylvania invaders was the young warrior In-nan-ga-eh, chief of the draft, who led the drafted portion of the army against the Cherokee foemen. He was of noble blood, hence himself exempt from the draft, but he was a lover of war and glory, and rejoiced to lead his less well-born, and less patriotic compatriots into the thick of battle. Although noble rank automatically exempted from the draft, the young scions of nobility enlisted practically to a man, holding high commissions, it is true, yet at all times bold and courageous.

In-nan-ga-eh was always peculiarly attractive to the female sex. Tall, lithe and sinewy, he was a noted runner and hunter, as well as famed for his warlike prowess. At twenty-two he was already the veteran of several wars, notably against the Ottawas and the Catawbas, and thirsted for a chance to humble his southern rivals, the Cherokees. He wished to make it his boast that he had fought and conquered tribes on the four sides of the territory where he lived, making what is now the Pennsylvania country the ruling land, the others all vassal states.

He was indiscriminate in his love making, having no respect for birth or caste, being different from his reserved and honorable fellow aristocrats, consequently at his departure for the south, he was mourned for by over a score of maidens of various types and degrees. If he cared for any one of these admirers, it was Liddenah, a very beautiful, kindly and talented maiden, the daughter of the noted wise man or sooth-sayer, Wahlowah, and probably the most remarkable girl in the tribe.

That she cared for such an unstable and shallow-minded youth to the exclusion of others of superior mental gifts and seriousness of purpose, amply proved the saying that opposites attract, for there could have been no congeniality of tastes between the pair. Temperamentally they seemed utterly unsuited, as Liddenah was artistic and musically inclined, and a chronicler of no mean ability, yet she would have given her life for him at any stage of the romance. She possessed ample self-control, but when he went away her inward sorrow gnawing at her heart almost killed her. She may have had a presentiment of what was in store!

During invasions of this kind, communication with home was maintained by means of runners who carried tidings, good or bad, bringing back verbal lists of the dead, wounded and missing, some of which they shamefully garbled.

In-nan-ga-eh was decorated several times for conspicuous bravery, and was reported in the vanguard of every attack, until at length came the shocking news of his ambush and capture. Over a score of the most beautiful maidens along the Ohe-yu and Youghiogheny were heartbroken to distraction, but none more so than the lovely and intellectual Liddenah. This was the crowning blow, her lover taken by his cruel foes, being perhaps boiled alive, or drawn and quartered. Seated alone in her lodge house by the banks of The Beautiful River, she pictured all sorts of horrors befalling her beloved, and of his own deep grief at being held prisoner so far from his homeland.

It was a humiliation to be captured, and by a band of Amazons, who begged permission to entrap the fascinating enemy. Finding him bathing in a deep pool, they surrounded it, flinging at him slightly poisoned darts, which made him partially overcome by sleep, so that he was only able to clamber out on the bank, there to be secured by his fair captors and led in dazed triumph to their chief.

The Chieftain was elated at the capture, and treated the handsome prisoner with all the deference due to his rank. Instead of boiling him in oil, or flaying him, he was feted and feasted, and the warlike bands became demoralized by catering to his pleasure.