Silent heart of the Cherokee country

Chief Barker on his mustang

The chiefs present themselves magnificently on their mustangs. The first mustang blue, riding it is the principal chief of the Cherokees Bill Barker with his wife. They sit in the back quite high, waving to the crowds that gathered on both sides of the road. The second mustang grey, the deputy chief John Critteden with his wife on it. The third mustang is ridden by a visitor from the neighbouring tribe, James Floyd, chief of the Muscogee. Following them on floats are the Cherokee Council and representatives of various Cherokee organisations: Cherokee police, Cherokee judges, youngsters from Cherokee schools, descendants of Cherokee freedmen. There even are Cherokee brass bands. All are parts of the great parade along the main street of Tahlequah, right in front of the old Cherokee Capitol.

Later chief Baker gives the "State of the Nation" speech on a square in front of the Capitol. The ceremony is opened by rising colours of both the U.S. and Cherokee Nation. Immediately after that a choir of girls in flowery dresses sing the U.S. anthem in the Cherokee language. Their flowery attire looks a bit like that of a 19th century housewifes but clearly the Cherokees consider it their national dress. After the anthem the Cherokee spiritual leader speaks:

"You see that bird printed on the leaflets? This is a crane, the symbol of our celebration today. The crane was worshipped by the Cherokees. Great warriors wore its feathers when they went to meditate. The crane feathers were used only for meditation, never for decoration. They were obtained from live birds that were caught and later released. Cranes live near water and this is the connection with today's ceremony: WATER IS SACRED. And now the blessing: in the name of God the Father, Goddess the Mother, God the child and the Holy Spirit..."

Official part of the Cherokee feast 

Chief Baker also speaks about the sacredness of water. "Water is sacred", he says, "and we are here to make sure that our descendants in the 7th generation drink the same good water we drink here today. This is why some Cherokees went to support the water guardians at the Standing Rock reservation in the north." But most of his speech is about the tribe's budget and how well it is managed. The group of youngsters who retraced the Trail of Tears on bicycled had some financial support. The cabin of Sequoia, which is now a museum, has been bought out from a private owner, who wanted to close the place because of the insufficient number of visitors. Descendants of black freedmen, whom the Cherokees had to free after the ivil War, were accepted to the tribe. The black descendants did not have the tribal citizenship but recently the U.S. Supreme Court decided that they are entitled to it and the Cherokee Supreme Court admitted they can be citizens.

Wait a minute. Some Black Americans demand that they be accepted as members of an Indian tribe? That would suggest that the budget is well managed indeed! Apparently being an Indian brings some advantages. But what are they?

* * *

In the historical centre of Tahlequah stands the capitol building. It is an impressive edifice of red brick, built on a square plan, with huge windows. In the years 1869-1907 it housed the government of the Cherokee Republic.

Here I have to insert this irritating interlude because most of my readers would expect chiefs of an Indian tribe in the 19th century to meet in a tipi made of bison hides, not in a capitol built of red brick. After all this is Oklahoma, the Indian Territory. Indians in the 19th century were supposed to chase bison in the prairies and wear feather bonnets. I have to insert this interlude to disperse the myth created by Buffalo Bill and his circus and kept alive by books like "Bury my heart at Wounded Knee". This book pretends to be sympathetic to Indians but in fact perpetuates the mythical image of a primitive man of the prairies. It is an image based on very selective information and therefore false.

The Capitol building at Tahlequah

The Cherokees are the biggest tribe in the U.S. but its history does not fit at all the "Bury My Heart..." stereotype. It was one of the "Five Civilized Tribes" named so because its members accepted the white man's ways of agriculture. They weren't stupid and quickly noticed that a field ploughed with oxen and manured with what oxen produce after eating grass gives a better yield than a field on freshly cleared forest with soil moved only with a deer antler. They also noticed that it is much easier to obtain beef from a herd of cattle grazing on a meadow behind the village than venison which has to be chased in the forest. Moreover, they noticed that their white neighbours send black slaves to till the land and that the slaves could be purchased with money earned selling deer hides. What's more, in the beginning of 19th century the Cherokees formed a republic with a written constitution, a parliament ("a tribal council" only in name) and a president ("a chief" only in name). The constitution, accepted in 1827, states clearly that selling land to anybody outside the tribe is a capital offence. This was because in the 18th century the whites bought land from village chiefs and the tribal territory shrank dangerously. This was at the time when the Cherokees lived in the mountains of Georgia and North Carolina. The Capital of the Cherokee country was a town called New Echota in what today is north-western Georgia. The president of the Cherokee Republic at the time was John Ross. Chief John Ross does not fit the stereotype of an Indian chief any more than a capitol built of red brick fits a stereotype of a place where Indian tribal elders meet. Instead of a feathered bonnet and fringed leggings he wore a suit and a top hat and instead of fighting the U.S. cavalry with bows and arrows he sued the state of Georgia in court. Incredibly - he won! Chief Justice Marshall ruled that an Indian tribe is a separate political entity from which the U.S. government can buy land but it cannot force the tribe to sell it. He ruled also that a tribe is a separate political entity, therefore tribal law applies on its territory and not state law. However, president Andrew Jackson, whose policy was to resettle all Indians beyond Mississippi, ignored this ruling. Chief John Ross, who at the time was the president of the Cherokee Republic, did not want to sell him land, but is this a problem? President Jackson found someone who was willing to sign a document which exchanged the Cherokee lands in Georgia for some lands in Oklahoma (which the U.S. government bought from Napoleon just a few years earlier). The document was signed by Major Ridge, who was very influential among the Cherokees but had no authority to sign any such thing. Another signatory was Elias Boudinot, the chief editor of a Cherokee newspaper, who as such was also very influential but had no authority to sign a document of this kind either.

Yes, the Cherokees had their own newspaper then. I know, it doesn't fit the stereotype of an Indian tribe, but what can I do? It had the title "Cherokee Phoenix" and was published in two languages. The English half was addressed to a friendly reader in American cities. The Cherokee half was for those Cherokees who did not know English but could read in their own language. The Cherokees in the 19th century had their own script, not invented by a missionary but by an Indian named Sequoia.

Major Ridge and other signatories packed their things and moved to Oklahoma on their own volition. John Ross and the majority of the tribe decided on passive resistance. Possibly this was the first, albeit not successful, such protest in history of America. The U.S. army sent for the purpose had to literally carry Indians out of their houses. The operation was supposedly logistically planned but either it was not very well planned or some of the supplies were stolen, either way many people died of malnutrition. This was the famous Cherokee "Trail of Tears".

In theory - a defeat. However, it is the ruling of chief justice Marshall that is the basis of the law that Indian reservations are exterritorial, state law does not apply there and for example casinos can be built on their territories. And the Cherokee Republic did not cease to exist! It was rebuilt in the new place, newly established town of Tahlequah became its capital and the capitol of red brick was erected. The tribal council decided (against the advice of chief John Ross) that those who sold the whole country to Americans deserve to die. They all were killed on the night of 22 June 1839. Only Stand Watie, Major Ridge's son, has been warned and managed to escape.

The Cherokees came to Oklahoma together with their slaves. It is possible that the slaves of the Cherokees had a better life than the slaves of white people. Sometimes it even happened that the black runaways joined the "Trail of Tears" and reached Oklahoma. Nevertheless the Cherokees had slaves and wanted to keep them. When the Civil War broke out chief John Ross tried to stay neutral but many Cherokees sided with the South and joined their army. Stand Watie even became a general. However, it turned out that the Cherokees sided with the losers and after the lost war had to free their slaves.

The Cherokees had their republic, built a capitol and kept black slaves but in one respect they were very different from their white neighbours: in their republic there was no private ownership of land. Every citizen could cultivate any available plot of land but when he ceased to cultivate it, he had no rights to it. This state of affairs was incomprehensible to the white neighbours who thought that there was too much unused land in the Cherokee Republic. It was suggested that the land that Indians actually cultivated would be given to individuals as private property and the "surplus" distributed to white farmers. The Cherokees would become citizens of the state of Oklahoma and the separate republic would be discontinued. The suggestion became reality in 1907. One can say that this was the end of Cherokees as a separate nation.

This at least was what I knew (having read about it in books) when I came to Tahlequah to see the capitol building. The capitol that definitely does not look like a tipi where elders of the tribe meet.

I came to see the building and I saw things that I didn't really expect. What is this parade about? If the history of the tribe has finished, then who are those chiefs on their colourful mustangs? Who are all those tribal judges, tribal police? What is that principal chief talking about giving his state-of-the-nation speech?

* * *

Cherokee girl choir

"Traditional women dance, dancers please come to the circle," the master of ceremonies announces through all the speakers. "Southern Thunder, take it off."

Boys with microphones on long poles run to the group of drummers thus named. A group of men sitting around a big drum start drumming. At first gently, then more and more loud, in the end they start singing. They don't sing with high falsettos as the Sioux in the north do but the melodic line seems to be quite similar. Women in the circle dance with grace. They move in small steps and bend their knees with each step so a shawl hanging from a forearm swings like a pendulum. Most women have dresses similar to the ones of the Sioux but there is a group of women in flowery dresses, the national Cherokee outfit. The pow wow here is quite similar to the ones I have seen in the north, on reservations of the Sioux and Ojibway, although there are some differences. In the north the Grand Entry is always at noon whereas here it is at six in the afternoon, when the sun is setting. Most of the dances are in the artificial, football-pitch style light. Among the Sioux the women dance in the direction opposite to that of men whereas here all the dancers move clockwise (as the Ojibway do). On the other hand among the Ojibway drum groups are always in the middle whereas here the drums are around the circle of the dancers (as among the Sioux). In the north the men drummers sing in high falsettos and the accompanying women even an octave higher, whereas here the singers sing in their normal, much lower voices. The melody line seems to be quite similar, though, sometimes sung without any meaningful words, just meaningless syllables. It is unmistakeably pow wow music, very different from anything a white man's ear is used to.

At a nearby football pitch there is something I have never seen in the north: a stickball match. It is a sport called so because the ball can only be touched by a racket on a long stick. Each player has two rackets, one in each hand. A goal is just a single pole. There are many players, maybe a hundred, a crowd moves quickly following the little ball. The players can tackle each other like in rugby, only the ball can be touched only with a racket.

Watching the match I sit on a bench next to a black man who is quite talkative and speaks with a Mississippian accent, similar to that of Muddy Waters. He says that he is not a descendant of a Cherokee freedman but came from Mississippi with his Choctaw wife. There is a Choctaw reservation near the place where he lives and there he found his wife. The Choctaws had their own trail of tears and the majority moved to Oklahoma, but clearly some stayed behind and today they have a reservation there. Clearly also they play stickball and it is so popular among them that a non-Indian husband comes all the way to Tahlequah to watch a match.

* * *

The "Heritage Centre" is an open air museum, a reconstruction of a Cherokee village of the 18th century. During the Cherokee national holiday there is a fair in front of it, crowds of people, some of whom come to see the village. One cannot walk around alone, only with a group and a guide. Normally I don't like the guide prattle but this time I am in luck: my guide is a born storyteller. He wears a n18th century Cherokee attire including a "Mohican", which was a hairstyle then in fashion among Indians, not only Mohicans.

Stickball

He says quite interesting things. For example explains the rules of stickball. There are two versions of this game, one when only boys play it, the other one when boys play against girls. If only boys play, they can touch the ball only with a racket but they can push and trip each other as they like. There is no set number of players, there could be a hundred or more, the only rule is that there has to be an equal number in each team. If only the boys play the goals are just single posts at each ent of the pitch. However, if boys play against girls, then the goal is only one: a wooden fish atop a tall post. Boys can touch the ball only with rackets but girls can grab it with their hands. Girls can push and trip boys but boys cannot do the same to girls. The guide demonstrates how to use the rackets. The are similar to lacrosse rackets but smaller and one player holds one in each hand.

The guide demonstrates also the use of reed blowguns that boys used to use to shoot small birds. It was the task of small boys to watch the fields so birds wouldn't eat the planted corn. The darts weren't poisoned but for small birds they were lethal anyway. These birds were then brought and left at the entrance to the council house and if anyone in the village wanted to cook them they were free to take. Travellers who visited the Cherokees in those days mention that all those birds were shot through the eye, which would suggest that the boys were quite skilful.

I wrote "council house" because the Cherokees never lived in tipis or wigwams. In the 18th century they lived in villages consisting of solid houses. Each family had two houses, one used in summer, the other in winter. The summer house had a roof but no walls whereas the winter house had walls and a fireplace. Normal houses were rectangular but the council house, which stood in a village centre, had seven walls and a conical roof. The Cherokees had seven clans and members of each clan had a place under one of these walls. Each Cherokee was a member of a clan and the membership was matrilinear. Whoever had a Cherokee mother belonged to a clan and thus was a Cherokee, it didn't matter who the father was. In the 18th century whites sometimes settled in the Cherokee country and married Indian girls, their children were considered Cherokees by the Indians. If a daughter of a white man and a Cherokee mother married a white man again, the children were fully Cherokees anyway. They say that the great chief John Ross was only 1/8 Indian but no Cherokees ever questioned the fact that he was a Cherokee.

* * *

Facing the Capitol stands the Arsenal - a building of nicely dressed stones. There is an art exhibition there during the national holiday, Cherokee artists of course but nothing specifically Cherokee there, just modern art as everywhere else. Not my cup of tea. There is also a lady selling CD's with music, choirs of girls wearing flowery frocks. Could I listen to the music before I buy? The lady has no equipement to listen to CD's but finds the choirs on youtube and shows me on the phone. They sound a bit like the choir that sang the U.S. anthem in Cherokee. Not my cup of tea either. But at least a conversation gets started.

A very interesting conversation. I've found at last somebody who can tell how it is that there is no reservation but there are the police, judges and a chief. Where do they have their jurisdiction?

"The plots of land that the Indians received in 1907 are treated as Indian land", said my interlocutor. "There we can run a business and not pay taxes on it. The casino at the entry to town and the tax-free tobacco shops are on this land. This is so called 'restricted land'. It cannot be sold to just anybody, it could only be sold to another tribe member. You cannot take a mortgage to buy this land because the bank could not repossess it in case on non-payment. If you want to take a mortgage, you have to apply to the tribe to take off the restriction.

The restricted land has its advantages as well. For example the tribe provides running water supply. Just recently my house had the running water installed. Before we had an electric pump from a well but it had problems, for example you couldn't take a shower and use a washing machine at the same time because when the well was emptied we had to wait another hour or two before it filled again. Now we have water from the pipe and there are no problems.

Cherokee freedmen

The tribe has also its own health care. It is not on the same level as in private hospitals but a Cherokee hospital can sent a patient to another hospital for a particular operation. Most Cherokees have a private insurance anyway. On the other hand we don't have to pay for Obama-care. We have to prove that we are members of the tribe, though. This is why we have the tribal ID-cards.

The descendants of freedmen would like to have all these amenities but I don't think they should be admitted to the tribe. They are not Indians. They don't know our traditions. I have seen them on a telly, they pretend to be Indians, they put some feathers on, but this is not our tradition. They are not Cherokees. The whole problem came up because the U.S. government wants to punish us for taking the wrong side in the Civil War.

A powwow is not our tradition either. We organise just one powwow in a year, it is an inter-tribal event, representatives of other tribes of Oklahoma come here as well. This is not our tradition, though. Our tradition is stomp dance. During that dance women have rattles made of turtle shells tied to their thighs so we have to dance with our legs far apart. Men dance with rattles in their hands. Yesterday there was a stomp dance in a special place next to the Heritage Centre. I don't know if they dance today as well.

If you are interested in all this you should go to John Ross Museum. My son works there, he will tell you more. Of course you should also go to Sequoia's Cabin.

* * *

Sequoia's Cabin is quite far beyond the town. Of course there is no public transport there, one has to drive to get to it. It is not so much a tourist attraction as a national treasure recently purchased from private hands, as chief Baker mentioned in his speech. Sequoia was an incredible genius, an illiterate Indian who decided to create a writing system for his people and succeeded. He lived in a simple log cabin which still exist, now a museum and a national treasure of the Cherokees.

A genius who created a script for his language. In his time the Cherokee elite sent their children to English schools but Sequoia was not part of this elite. He couldn't speak English. The story goes that he was once chatting to a group of other Cherokees, who said that the Creator gave a script to the white people and didn't give it to Indians. Sequoia hearing this shouted: "What do you mean - the Creator didn't give? I will invent a script for Indians. He worked on it for years, people thought he was kind of strange, writing strange signs on leather. He had a daughter who played with him often and learned those signs. One day somebody accused Sequoia of black magic and he decided to prove that this was no magic but a logical system that even a child can learn. He told a group of men to say a word each, wrote those words down and asked to show what he wrote to his daughter, who was not present. She read the words correctly, upon which somebody decided that not only this is not magic, but the invention can actually be useful.

Sequoia belonged to a group of Cherokees who early on were persuaded to leave their homes in Georgia and move to Oklahoma. These two places are half the continent apart and it is difficult to just drop in to visit a relative. However, with such a fantastic invention one can write letters! If a child can learn to read, surely an adult can, too! Suddenly it became fashionable among the Cherokees to write letters. White traders with astonishment noticed demand for ink and paper among the Indians.

Inside Sequoia's cabin

When Sequoia worked on his alphabet, some Cherokees decided to go for a shortcut and sent their children to English schools. So did chief Mountain Ridge (also known as Major Ridge) who sent his son John Ridge and a nephew Elias Boudinot to a school in Conneticut. When in 1828 the tribal council decided to publish their own periodical, Elias Boudinot became its chief editor. The periodical had a title "Cherokee Phoenix" and was published in two languages, the Cherokee part printed in Sequoia's alphabet. A year earlier the Cherokee Constitution was written using the same alphabet. One of the laws of this constitution read: "Selling tribal land to anybody outside the tribe is punishable by death."

1836 was for the Cherokees a year of national tragedy. Chief Major Ridge as well as his son and nephew, thinking there was no other way, signed the treaty of New Echota which stated that the Cherokees give up all their lands in Georgia and in exchange will receive new land in Oklahoma. They had no authority to sign such document. According to the Cherokee Constitution the only person authorised to sign a document of this kind was chief John Ross, the president of the Cherokee Republic, who categorically refused to give up any Cherokee land. This was the year of the Trail of Tears, when the majority of the tribe had to leave their own cuntry against their own will. Their arrival in Oklahoma caused new problems as those Cherokees who settled there earlier considered it their own land and didn't see any reason why the new arrivals (a huge majority) should now decide about their affairs. They say that Sequoia, who by now was considered a great sage, was doing all he could to reconcile the parties. In the end in 1839 a new constitution was written, which was accepted by both sides.

Later in life Sequoia travelled to Texas to find a group of Cherokees who originally settled there. Eventually they were driven away to Mexico. Sequoia travelled to Mexico to find them, never to return.

All that is left now is his cabin, a national treasure. It stands far from cities, between fields and forests of east Oklahoma, in a park. At the entry to the park there is a mosaic with a word "welcome" written in the Cherokee script. Apparently it has been decided that the cabin itself is too precious to stand exposed to elements, it is now housed in a bigger building that covers it entirely. Inside there are boards with information who Sequoia was. I guess they are for an overage American who might visit but who has his stereotype of an Indian chasing bison on the prairies. Sequoia? Who is that? An Indian who invented a script for his Indian language? No, it doesn't fit the stereotype. Neither do other things exhibited there: a few iron object forged by Sequoia, who was a blacksmith by trade.

What? An Indian blacksmith? Almost as hard to believe as an Indian inventor of a script.

One can enter the cabin and see a table, a quill, an ink pot and a buckskin with a few letters of the Cherokee alphabet written on it. It is a treasure but kind of sad. These days hardly anybody uses this alphabet. The youngsters nowadays go to English schools and speak English. Nobody needs this alphabet today. The Cherokee language as well as its script are slowly being forgotten.

* * *

In the outskirts of Tahlequah there is a cemetery with a tomb of John Ross, the great chief. He died in Washington D.C. but the tribe decided to bring his remains and bury him in Tahlequah. Next to the cemetery stands the John Ross Museum. It doesn't show him as a person but rather his political achievements. There are documents written in his hand and comments about history of the tribe. There is also information about tribal history after his death. Generally hardly a tourist attraction, probably aimed more at the Cherokee youth, so they know who they are.

Bruce Ross

At the entry to the museum I meet a man with a white beard who happily initiates a conversation. He introduces himself as Bruce Ross, a descendant of the great chief. He is a gifted storyteller and in fact this is exactly why he is here. I ask him whether one can see a stomp dance in Tahlequah.

"Stomp dance in Tahlequah is just entertainment. The only true stomp dance is at the Redbird Smith Stomp Grounds. You need a sacred flame for this ceremony and it is kept only there. The Sacred Fire was brought here during the Trail of Tears in seven parts, each clan carried one part, and after the arrival the parts were reunited. Redbird Smith Stomp Grounds are on the ground that was allotted to Redbird Smith when the Cherokee reservation was carved up in 1906. Redbird refused to accept an allotment and only signed the document when he was brought in handcuffs to court. Today the Keetowah Society has its ceremonies there. The Keetowah Society is a kind of a church of the Cherokee tradition. There is no contradiction between our religion and Christianity. I myself have been in a seminary and was on the way to become a Catholic priest, although I never became one. Redbird Smith was very friendly with Christians. His son was not, he was against Christianity, wanted to establish his own stomp ground and stole some sacred fire. Or so he thought but you cannot steal sacred fire. I have been to his place once. My spiritual guide Hickory Starr went there once and took me with him. I didn't feel well there and after I came back I had to take a bath. Others had the same reaction.

Once I had a brush with the law and was arrested but in the morning the sheriff released me without charge. I went home and wanted to take a bath to wash off the smell of prison but my wife told me to phone Hickory immediately. I phoned him and Hickory asked where I was. I said at home and he told me to go to the verandah. I did and he asked what I see. I told him that I see an owl on a tree. He asked if there was only one. I looked more closely and I saw another one. He said he was just checking whether they arrived. Ever since if I plan something and want to be sure if it is a right thing, I look for an owl outside my window.

One day at the stomp ground I met an old man whom I didn't remember having ever met but he told me that he did meet me before. When I looked surprised he told me that he saw me when my father brought me when I was a baby.

You can go to Redbird Smith stomp ground. It is not far from Tenkiller State Park. Maybe there you will meet somebody who will tell you more.

* * *

Redbird Smith Stomp Ground is not a tourist attraction. There are no road signs showing the way. The last bit one has to drive on a dirt road.

I went there as Bruce Ross told me. The grounds consist of a big well kept lawn surrounded by trees. In the middle there is a place for a bonfire with four big log ends resting as if the fire was just extinguished. Around the fireplace there are seven enches with roofs above. Nearby there is a tall post with a wooden fish on the top. There was nobody when I arrived. Motorways and cities are far, there was complete silence.

Here was the silent heart of the Cherokee country.

Redbird Smith ceremonial grounds

You will find this text, 
and many more on the subject, 
in my book "DO THEY STILL LIVE IN WIGWAMS?":

What do Indians do in Florida?

If the wind is from the Atlantic, the planes landing at Miami approach the airport from the west. They fly over the Everglades and from a plane's window one can see marshes and rivulets winding among them. The marshes are supposed to be a virgin ecosystem protected by the Everglades National Park, but in some places something that looks like vehicle tracks can be seen. What vehicles could enter those marshes? And what for? Some time ago dugouts of the Seminole fleeing the U.S cavalry moved there, but today? By the way, what happened to those Indians who hid in those marshes from the U.S. cavalry?

I landed in Miami and went straight to get the car I booked. The young man serving me asked: "Where do you want to go? To Miami Beach? No? To the Everglades? Then you have to go with the Indians. They have these flat-bottomed boats with an air prop, they take tourists to the marshes. It is like a safari, you see alligators, flamingoes. It's fantastic!"

A white American saying that Indians do something that is fantastic is not very common. In fact it is a rarity. But it seems to be the answer to the question what happened to those Indians. Their boats still move in the marshes, although now they are not paddled dugouts but motorised flat-bottoms. They seem to impress even white Americans.

The Indians here have been always masters of water transport. Indians from Florida travelled all the way to South America long before Columbus. Still in the 19th century the Seminole paddled their dugouts from Florida all the way to Bahamas to buy arms from the English. They needed the arms to fight Americans who wanted to chase them out of Florida. They fought the Yankees nail and tooth as if this was their ancient motherland, but this was not the case. In Florida the Seminole were immigrants that arrived only lately. Their ancestors contributed hugely to the elimination of Florida's original inhabitants.

An Indian boat in the Everglades

Who were the ancestors of the Seminole? They lived in the north by the mountain creeks. When in the 16th century the Spaniards came to Florida, they found there Indians named Timucua quietly growing maize there. The Spanish conquistadors looked for gold and hoped Florida would be as rich as Mexico. The Timucua did have gold but to get rid of the conquistadors they told them that there were rich principalities in the north. The principalities were there indeed, they were rich as well, though not in gold. They were also strong enough to chase the Spaniards away even thought the Spaniards had muskets and the Indians did not. There was no gold there so the conquistadores once chased away - didn't come back. However, not all Spaniards were bloodthirsty conquistadors. There were also missionaries full of good will who wanted to win souls for Christ. They founded the town of St Augustine and from there travelled inland to convert Indians. Missions were set up in villages of the Timucua. In the Spanish empire Florida was a marginal colony with few inhabitants. Those who were there made sure they had military advantage in case of conflict, which is why muskets weren't sold to Indians. Nobody here was much interested in trade in animal furs either.

In the 17th century the English colony of Carolina was founded north of Spanish Florida. At the same time in the west, in the Mississippi valley, the French colony of Louisiana was established. Both the French and the English wanted to trade with the Indians. They mostly wanted to buy furs, but not only. Both the French and the English sold firearms to Indians to make their hunt easier. The muskets could be used not only to hunt. The tribes with firearms were stronger than those without and the English bought not only furs. The Carolina colonists were planters who needed slaves to work on their plantations. Some slaves were imported from overseas but they could also be bought more cheaply from local Indians, who were ready to sell their prisoners of war for muskets and gunpowder. Armed with muskets they could get more prisoners. Where? The answer was simple - in Spanish Florida, where mission Indians had heaven guaranteed after a lost battle but did not have muskets.

The ancestors of the Seminole lived by mountain creeks therefore the Carolina colonists called them Creek Indians. They weren't really a single ethnic group, there could be several villages of peoples speaking different languages by a single creek. The English weren't interested in such details. They might call themselves Muscogee or Miccasukee or still something else but if they lives by a single creek and dressed in a similar manner, they were Creeks.

Old style Seminole house in a museum

For the Creek Indians establishment of Charles Town was initially a blessing because guns and powder greatly facilitated hunting. Soon it turned out that there is too much of this blessing, that the providers of guns and ammunition wanted to set up plantations on land where the Indians grew their corn. The Indians were not docile, they were ready to fight, but how to fight those who supplied guns and powder? For some time it was possible to get guns from the French in New Orleans but after a few wars fought in Europe it turned out that the French had to move out and the English were sole owners of the country between the Atlantic coast and the Mississippi. The Creeks and other Indians might have had a different opinion on who owned the land but the opinion did not change the fact that the English became the only providers of guns and ammunition.

What is interesting - the British Crown considered Indians the British subjects who had to be protected, which is why the white settlers were not supposed to settle beyond the Appalachian mountains. In the eyes of the settlers this restriction was really the royal oppression. In the end the settlers rebelled and created their own country, the land of the free, where this kind of restrictions was abolished. The country was free and just and was called the United States, its citizens were free to settle by the mountain creeks. Somebody lived there already, this is true, but justice required that some wild Indians move away from places where civilised people want to settle.

The "wild Indians" weren't stupid and quickly realised that the ways of agriculture of the white man bring better crop with less work. They realised that it requires much less effort to keep beef on a meadow by the village than to chase venison through the forest. They also decided that the way white men govern themselves is more practical and so decided to create similar republics with parliaments, presidents and so on. The only thing they could not change was the colour of their skin. The fact remained: they were Creek Indians and not white people who wanted to settle by their creeks. The U.S. government did not want racial conflicts and decided to move all Indians from the creek country to a distant place called Oklahoma on the other side of Mississippi. The Creek Indians didn't want to resettle, especially as somebody lived already in Oklahoma.

The U.S. government wanted to rule by law, wanted to buy land from Indians and easily found somebody who was ready to sell it. Later somebody else claimed that those who sold it didn't have right to sell it because it wasn't their land, but the U.S. government couldn't pay too much attention to too much detail. What to do in this situation? Fight against the main supplier of guns and ammunition? After a few failed uprisings most Muscogee and Miccasukee Indians moved beyond Mississippi.

But not all. Some moved to Spanish Florida. They knew the land from the time they hunted slaves there. Later they hunted deer there as well. Nobody in Florida called them Creeks. The Spaniards called them Cimarrones (wild), which name the local Indians pronounced Seminoles. In time the U.S. aquired Florida and wanted to move the Seminoles to Oklahoma. That proved more difficult. The Seminoles of course resisted but they had independent access to guns and powder. They bought it from Cuban fishermen who sometimes came to Florida, they also paddled their dugouts to the British Bahamas. They knew how to hide in the Everglades, where the U.S. cavalry was not very operative. The war lasted long and although some Indians were moved to Oklahoma, some still hid somewhere in the marshes. In the end the U.S. government decided that keeping the army in the marshes is too expensive, created a reservation and left the Seminole in peace. The aim of the U.S. government was to move all Indians to Oklahoma, the aim of the Seminole was to stay put, so it could be argued that this was the only war of an Indian tribe against the U.S. which the Indians won.

A tourist attraction on an Indian reservation

The reservation is still there and can be visited. No crowds of tourists there, to be sure. There are no crowds of visitors in the Everglades National Park either. In Florida crowds go to Disneyland where among plastic attractions one can see plastic alligators. There are, however, some true nature lovers who prefer to see real alligators wallowing in real mud in the Everglades. The masters of water transport are, as we know, the Indians. They take the tourists to see the alligators on their water safari. They don't use dugouts any more but big flat-bottomed boats with and air prop behind, so the boat slides on the surface and does not damage underwater plants. These boats leave tracks visible from the plane.

But this is not the biggest tourist attraction on the reservation. These days the biggest attractions on Indian reservations in the U.S. are casinos. In the 1980s American courts decided that reservations are outside the state jurisdiction and state laws aimed to restrict gambling do not apply there. Ever since that ruling the Indians build casinos on their soil and ordinary Americans can go there and try their luck. This is why just outside Miami in the middle of a swamp stands Miccosukee Resort and Gaming. This particular piece of the swamp is on the reservation and this is enough. Ordinary Americans can try their luck there and dream about great fortune, for the Indians this is pure profit. Educational institutions are funded frm this profit. For example Moccosukee Indian Village, a reconstruction of old thatched houses that today serves as a museum. It stands next to the road used by tourists to drive to see live wild alligators. Indians themselves live elsewhere, the staff of the museum comes from afar in cars. In general these Indians are not very different from other Americans, they dress the same way, talk English and I am not sure they know their own language.

The old houses are built on stilts and covered with huge thatch but they have no walls. In these houses artists dressed in traditional costumes demonstrate their skills: a woodcarver making a sculpture, a tailoress sawing traditional dresses on a sewing machine. These traditional dresses have nothing in common with fringes and feathers of the prairie Indians. Seminole in the 19th century dressed very much like their white neighbours, although not exactly - Indian tailoresses sew dresses and shirts according to their own Indian fashion. These dresses can be seen on old photographs exhibited in one of the thatched houses.

With a car rented at the airport I went to see this Indian village and so I know all this. I also went for a bite to the restaurant on the other side of the road. At the neighbouring table sat a group of people talking in a language I did not understand. I asked what language it was.

"Mikasuki", one of them said. "We can't let the language die out".

You will find this text, 
and many more on the subject, 
in my book "DO THEY STILL LIVE IN WIGWAMS?":

Where can you meet your Maker (and come back)?

Mount Baboquivari

San Xavier Le Bac Mission lies almost on the outskirts of Tuscon. Looking east from there one can see the motorway and the city beyond, looking west one sees a desert covered in cacti. Beyond the desert, in the distance, one can see a mountain ridge, whose highest peak towers above the crest like a finger sticking up. This is Baboquivari mountain, home of...

A few more words about the mission before I elaborate on that. First the temperature. This is the very south of Arizona, the area lower than the rest of the state and consequently hottest, at the end of September (when I am here) the temperature drops to about 40ºC. Of course there are more places in the state where temperature drops to 40ºC. What is remarkable here is the church: an authentic 18th century baroque church with proper baroque interior. It may look a bit provincial if compared to Rome, but when it was built this was really the very frontier of civilisation. In Mexico there are more magnificent churches but in the U.S. this is an exception. There is also another reason why this church is exceptional. Its patron is Saint Francis Xavier, a Jesuit missionary to the Far East, whose figure stands in the main altar. Local Indians come here to pray to Saint Xavier because the mission is in the grounds of Papago Indian Reservation.

(How did I write? Papago Indians? How could I do that? The name Papago is politically incorrect in the U.S. because some pen-pushers decided that in English it is derogatory and now the name "Tohono O'odham" should be used. I have to inform my readers about this in case they want to check on a map where the Papago Indian Reservation is. On newer maps they will not find it, they will find the Tohono O'odham instead. I will, however, continue to be politically incorrect and use the name Papago, especially as south of the border the name is still happily used, nobody sees anything wrong with it and the Indians there don't seem to be concerned about decisions of some Gringo pen-pushers. Back to the subject...)

The local Papago Indians come to pray at the figure of St Xavier, but not the one standing at the main altar. In the left transept there is a laying figure of the saint and it is there that the Indians come to pray. After the finished prayer they lift the laying figure by the head. St Francis Xavier was one of those saints whose body did not disintegrate, which is why he is sometimes shown as a figure laying on a pier. This is how he appears in the sanctuary in Magdalena del Kino in northern Mexico. For the Papagos, who live on both sides of the border, the Magdalena sanctuary is a holy place, their own equivalent of Lourdes. They make pilgrimages there and its main figure is replicated in many chapels in lands inhabited by the Papago.

However. However.

The first however is this: in the beginning of the 20th century there was a revolution in Mexico, the people who were in power were not friendly towards the Catholic Church and officially banned the cult of saints. In 1934 the Magdalena sanctuary was closed, all figures from its church chopped to pieces and used as fuel in a local brewery.

All of them?

Well, so THEY think. They think they chopped up the figure of St. Xavier, but the Indians know better. They Indians know that the figure at San Xavier le Bac is the one that used to be in the sanctuary in Magdalena before the Mexican revolution. The figure in Le Bac has no legs because one night it got up and walked all the way until it reached the place where it is now. The legs wore off in the process. A legend? Well, this is the way WE see it, but the Indians know better. Anyway there is also another legend, that the figure in Magdalena hid for the time of persecutions and returned to its old place afterwards. According to still another legend the figure fled to a place called San Francisquito, near the U.S. border, where it sill lies today in a chapel.

San Xavier le Bac

I have never been to the Mexican Magdalena but I did go to San Xavier le Bac (at the end of September, when the temperature mercifully drops to 40ºC) and I saw the figure of St Francis there. I noticed there were two kinds of people visiting the place. Guide books say that this is an authentic 18th century baroque church, something very unusual in the U.S., so some people there are tourists with cameras (like myself), taking a lot of pictures. Some of them are Catholics and genuflect when they enter the church. Most talk in English but there also some who speak Spanish or French. The guide books don't mention the horizontal figure of St. Francis in the transept, so the tourists are not aware of its importance. But there are also other visitors for whom the figure in the transept is the most important one in the church. Visually these people are not very different from other visitors, they dress just like other Americans, although they have Indian features and sometimes talk in a language i don't recognise. They genuflect as they enter and then immediately go to the left transept to pray by the horizontal figure of St Francis. After the prayer they all lift the figure by the head. Whole families come, little children are lifted up so they, too, can lift the head of the saint.

I asked some Indians why they do this. One young man in a shop explained: only if you come with a pure heart you can lift his head. If you can't do this, your prayers will not be heard. Another Indian, a hitchhiker whom we gave a lift as we drove through the reservation, said: You mean the one in San Xavier le Bac? This is Francisco Kino, who was a missionary there.

Wait, wait.

Francisco Kino? Is there a saint of that name? As far as I know Francisco Kino, a Jesuit and a missionary in northern Mexico, has not been canonised.

Perhaps the secret is hidden in the meaning of the word "canonisation". To be "canonised" means to be included in a canon, which means that the Church authorities accept that somebody actually is a saint. Nobody becomes a saint as a result of canonisation. In the middle ages people decided that somebody was a saint and made pilgrimages to his tomb without interference from the Church. Sometimes it happened that the Church could not accept a saint, which is why the whole idea of "canonisation" started. For example in mediaeval France there was a cult of St Guinefort, but the Church could not accept him as a saint because Guinefort was a dog. According to the doctrine of the Church a dog has no soul and cannot go to heaven (that is - be a saint). Anyway the Church does not make anybody a saint, only accepts that a dead person is in heaven already. For a canonisation procedure one has to prove there was a miracle which was a result of a prayer to that person. Only a saint, who already is in heaven, is in direct contact with God and can ask Him for favours. Consequently one not only can but should pray to people who died but have not been canonised. This is exactly what the Papago Indians do when they pray to Francisco Kino.

Indians praying by the lying figure of St Francis

Eusebio Francisco Kino was a Jesuit priest who in the 17th century travelled in the region called then Pimeria Alta, spreading the Gospel among Indians. He travelled around the region and set up missions, one of which was Magdalena, another San Xavier le Bac. He died in 1711 in Magdalena and he is buried there. In the main altar of the church in Magdalena there is a reclining figure of a saint whose name is also Francisco. Is it surprising that some people get confused a bit? After all St Francis Xavier was a distant figure who never came to Mexico, let alone Pimeria Alta, whereas Francisco Kino travelled in Sonora and met many people. He also must have made a huge impression on them if as a result of those meetings they became Christians. It is only natural that the Indians consider him a saint. To add some more confusion: the great fiesta in Magdalena falls on the day of St Francis, but... the one of Assisi.

Pimeria Alta was a part of the country ignored by the Spanish authorities in Mexico. There were no legends of fabulous treasures hidden there, there were even no villages with solid houses as in Rio Grande valley. Pimeria Alta was a desert inhabited by Indians who lived in simple huts. If they lived in huts, they must have been primitive. This judgement based on superficial appearances was (as is often the case) misleading. The local Indians, called Pima and Papago, lived off agriculture. One needs some solid knowledge to live off agriculture in a desert. From times immemorial they cultivated their maize watering their fields carefully. Nevertheless they were semi-nomadic, coming down from the mountains only when temperature dropped to about 40ºC, spending hotter months in higher regions. The Papago did not enter the popular Wild West literature because they were at odds with the brave Apaches, who (as a young man in a souvenir shop told me) came to their villages to kill men and steal women. Fighting the common enemy the Papago served as scouts for the U.S. troops chasing Geronimo. They managed to negotiate a big reservation for the tribe and in this reservation they build chapels of their saint Francisco and light candles there. Thousands of candles; when you enter one of these chapels you feel like stepping into an oven even though the temperature outdoors is 40ºC. What is more important - Baboquivari mountain is also on the grounds of the reservation. It is important because the person who lives there is no other than...

No guide books mention it at all but I asked the Indians I met and the answer was always the same: the person who lives on the mountain is I'toi, the Creator of the world. He lives in a cave close to the summit and the Indians bring Him flowers and offerings. Some people can meet Him, He appears as a very old hunchback. Could I go to that cave? Yes, I could, but I would need a permit from the reservation authorities. Unfortunately we would have to wait two weeks for this permit. We had a flight in a week so it could not be done. still I can say that I have seen a mountain on which the Creator lives in a cave. I even took a picture of the mountain. I didn't go to the cave only because I had no time to wait for the permit.

This is an interesting idea, though. It could be a perfect tourist attraction. Walk to the cave where your Maker lives - this would be something! The reservation authorities could earn money selling permits and the local Indians could also sell their handicrafts, or perhaps T-shirts with an appropriate design.

The only problem could be with actually meeting your Maker in person (and come back). They say that to meet Him one needs to have a pure heart. This is something one cannot buy from any authorities.

Papago Indian Reservation

You will find this text, 
and many more on the subject, 
in my book "DO THEY STILL LIVE IN WIGWAMS?":

The oldest town in America?

A Hopi town

On the top of a table mountain, in the middle of Arizona, stands a village of a few stone houses and also a few houses built of concrete blocks. This Oraibi, the oldest continually inhabited town in the U.S.A.

This is at least what its inhabitants claim. The same has been said about two other pueblos: Taos and Acoma. It is impossible to have an exact date of their foundation as they were built by Indians who had no script, no historical records. Archaeologists say they all have been built about a thousand years ago an have been inhabited ever since. Taos and Acoma are in the Rio Grande valley and are built with adobe brick whereas Oraibi is made of stone. It stands in the middle of the desert, the Indians who live there have learned how to save water and didn't use brick to build their houses. Stone is more durable than adobe and it may well be that the buildings in Oraibi are older than those in Acoma and Taos.

What did I write? On the top of a table mountain? Well, this is not precise. The Hopi live on the southern end of a plateau called Black Mesa, whose three spurs tower oner the desert that is somewhat lower (only about 2000 metres above sea level). On these spurs, called the First Mesa, Second Mesa and Third Mesa, the Hopi build their villages.

In historic times the Hopi were extremely well adjusted to the desert climate. They cultivated a variety of corn that didn't need watering but when planted at the bottom of periodic streams would reach with its long roots the water deep in the ground. This adjustment to difficult conditions and distance to countries with less severe climate protected the Hopi to some extent from the white invaders and today still protects them from an invasion of tourists. There is a tarmac road connecting their reservation with the outside world but the tourists don't come in big numbers. The Hopi are famous for their colourful ceremonies but they are also famous for treating their ceremonies the way the Catholics treat their mass (which can also be very colourful) and not as a tourist attraction. These ceremonies are not advertised in any way, the participands know about them by the word of mouth.

It is not easy to get to the Hopi reservation anyway. It lies in the middle of nowhere, there is only one tarmac road leading there and there is no public transport. One needs one's own car to get there. There is hardly any accommodation on the reservation at all. Old Oraibi, the oldest town in America, has no hotel, no hostel, no camp site, nothing. At the Second Mesa there is a little hotel and some sandy area in front of it. One can put up a tent on that sandy area and the hotel attendants will leave open to the toilet in the lobby. At least they did it when we put up our tent there.

Katsina

The tree mesas are close to each other, about 15 minutes drive, so early in the morning I drove to the Third Mesa to Oraibi. To get to the village one had to leave the tarmac and drive for a while on a dirt road. There is a little car park and a souvenir shop at the entry to the village. Things that one can see in the souvenir shop are mostly little figurines decorated with feathers called "katsina dolls". They are not really dolls but representations of protective spirits called "katsina". There are many of those spirits, which are represented during ceremonial dances by dancers especially decorated with feathers. The "dolls" representing the spirits, which really are copies of the dancers outfits, are hanged in houses like pictures of saints by Catholics. As it often happens, when white tourists appeared, they wanted to buy those figurines as souvenirs. This caused controversy among the Indians: can one sell a holy figurine? Can tourists see the sacred dances? In Oraibi early in the 20th century the argument was hotly debated and one day it was decided that the two parties - the traditionalists and the modernisers - cannot live together. It was decided that one of the parties would leave, and the contest which one was to stay and which one to leave was fought one day just outside the village. It was a kind of tug of war, although in this case the contestants pushed each other over a line drawn in the sand. The traditionalists were pushed out and they moved to found another village named Hotevilla. The so-called modernisers were only relatively "modern", they still keep their ceremonies secret, the tourists are not invited to the sacred katsina dances, although I was told that outsiders could come to see the so-called "butterfly dances", which are considered social, not sacred. But they still would not advertise them anyway, so one could only know about them by the word of mouth. Or one could come across them by pure chance.

I am not a tourist wanting to buy souvenirs so I passed the shop and entered the village. It is not so easy to run away from the souvenir sellers, though. Clearly some inhabitants think that if a white person enters the village, he will certainly want to but "katsina dolls". An Indian seeing me from a balcony of his house told me to wait and a minute later emerged with a small folding table an a few feathered figurines. I tried to tell him that I am not really a souvenir-buying tourist, that I am more interested in the life of people.

"Really?", said he. "Come here tomorrow then, we will have a butterfly dance here."

"Here, in the streets?", I asked.

"No, not here, in the central plaza. Wait, I will show you." He folded his table and took it home and a minute later he led me along the narrow alleys to the central plaza.

"At what time the ceremony starts?"

"About six in the morning. It is never exactly on the hour but usually they come out of the kiva around that hour."

It rained at night.

What did I say? Rained? It was a deluge. Thank God we put our tent up on a hill; it was on a island in the morning. It is interesting, it rains very seldom in this region, most of the Hopi ceremonies are actually prayers for rain. Clearly the prayers were successful lately.

Butterfly dance at Oraibi

I assumed that if the dancers leave the kiva at about six, at eight they should be dancing; I was surprised to see roadworks at the central plaza. A heap of sand was dropped from a pick-up and a crowd of Indians with shovels was spreading this sand on the plaza. As usual among Indians there was also plenty of laughter. Someone gave me a shovel and told me not to skive. I treated it as an honour and for the next half an hour worked with them. I was told that the night downpour changed the plaza into a lake. They had to bring a bulldozer to push the water over the edge of the mesa and then bring sand to cover the mud. So I worked and it turned out that the shovel somehow changed my status. When the sand was spread and I stood there not knowing what was going on I was approached by an Indian lady who told me to come to her house.

"You helped us to work, come for breakfast."

She led me home and sat me at the table. There were already several Indians there eating corn meal soup. It was clearly an open home that day, plenty of food, visitors coming and going. There were those who worked with the sand but also others, family and friends. Apparently this was the way to celebrate a holiday here.

At one point drums were heard. "They are coming out from kiva at last", someone said and I went to see where it was. I followed the sound and came to the end of the village, close to the cliff edge. There was flat ground there with a square entry and a ladder leading underground. This was kiva, the underground chapel. Colourfully dressed dancers emerged from there one by one and formed a procession. Girls in black dresses with strange very colourful boards standing vertically over their heads, their eyes covered with artificial fringes. Boys in ribbon shirts, each with a fox fur behind his belt, with rattles in their hands. The procession danced through the streets and entered the plaza. Then they danced. They danced all day, until the evening, with only short breaks for rest.

Why is it called "butterfly dance"? I asked some people but all I heard was that this was a social dance. Indeed, boys and girls danced together in the circle and if anybody wanted to join, he or she had to find a partner of the opposite sex. I was told that katsina dances, in which the protective spirits are called to come, are performed during the first half of the year, afterwards only social dances are performed. But why a "butterfly dance"? Nobody could answer that.

Spectators sat on chairs around the plaza and also on roofs of surrounding houses. Indians only, I was the only white person there. At one point an Indian came out of one of the houses and said:

"Come inside and have some food. My aunt says you are to come. You helped us with work in the morning, now come have some food." The aunt was a very dark skinned old lady but full of energy, busy around the oven. "My aunt cooks today. My mother has died but you know, women rule here. They own everything here. I live in Albuquerque and have a good job there, I am an engineer. My mother lived here but she died and left this house to me. Now it is used during the festivals because we have to feed the guests."

His house is built of stone but I see many houses in Oraibi built with concrete blocks. There are also some old stone houses but half ruined. When I asked why, my host answered:

"People from the National Register of Historic Buildings wanted to make a museum here, the whole village was to be preserved intact but people were supposed to move out. But people here don't want a museum. They want houses with all the facilities normal in the 21st century. They don't want tourists here. This is not a museum, it is a living village and the people don't want to move out. I understand their point of view. But I live in Albuquerque, mix with white people and I understand their point of view as well. The problem is that these points of view cannot be reconciled."

It is quite interesting what he says. It may mean that the oldest town in the U.S. may soon be built of concrete blocks.

But will it be the oldest town then?

Among the Hopi Indians in Oraibi

You will find this text, 
and many more on the subject, 
in my book "DO THEY STILL LIVE IN WIGWAMS?":