American Indian Studies

or, "Ugh — me cheated!"           

With other information about colonial America

Various authors—Stickney, Smith, Quinlan, Schoonmaker, Bevier, van Buren, et al., presented by JR

These selections are part of the White history of early America.  I will for the most part just let the old books speak for themselves, with only this small introduction and some brief comments for each book.

Smith explains that his use of the term "legends" was meant to be "history" peppered with some local folklore.  He stood by everything in the book, however, as being bona fide.  And to those who will say that "legends" don't constitute history, I can only say that I agree with an historian shown once on the History Channel who said that "history is more than just a list of facts; it's also story-telling."  One hopes that this comment extends to Whites and their history.  So whose stories should you listen to?  How about those of your own kind who built the country?

Contrary to the impression given in the Mass Media, these old history books took great pains to be as deferential as possible to the Indians.  Times when Whites were seemingly at "fault" are carefully chronicled, right along with the gratuitous massacres by the Tories and Indians.

One example -- written in 1851 (!):

We presume that ere we close our "eventful history," it will be unnecessary to make an effort to prove that the Indians, if they had historians of their own, could have rendered the conduct of the whites with whom they came in contact quite as worthy of execration as the white historians have made that of the red man; nor is it necessary to attempt to show that the murders committed by Tom were unjustifiable, and that no system of ethics, whether of savage or civilized origin, will afford an excuse for his bloody outrages.   -- Tom Quick, Quinlan, ch. XIX (1894); ch. XXIX (1851).

Another from decades later:

The Indian finds, as he should do, on natural principles of simple justice, many apologists for his crimes. Tom Quick deserves the same. He, like the Indians, had a warm heart; and neither the Indians nor he, without the grossest provocations, would have done each other harm.  -- Tom Quick: or the Era of Frontier Settlement by Abraham S. Gardiner, 1888, pp. 18-19.

Also, the contributions of women were not ignored, and the role of disease in Indian deaths and the times when Indians were defrauded out of land ("Walking Purchase", etc.) did not go unrecorded.  Back then, they just told the truth, then let the chips fall where they may.  Read these accounts for yourself, and you be the judge.

A History of the Minisink Region by Charles E. Stickney (Middletown, NY: Coe Finch and I. F. Guiwits, 1867).  Another excellent history from which we can gain a greater appreciation of the travails of our ancestors.

Legends of the Shawangunk by Philip H. Smith (Pawling, NY: Smith & Co., 1887).  Great compendium of information on the Hudson and Delaware River valley Indians and settlers.  Shows the tremendous hardships of frontier life, which can scarcely be imagined today.  Also, the role of the British Empire in paying Indians to rape, burn and pillage was not censored back then.  After all, in the 19th Century, we didn't have to support them in two world wars, and thus pretend that everything they ever did was pure and golden.  (My general view of Britain is that the people are basically of good stock, being a great repository of White blood, but that they were caught up in an evil empire -- an artifact of unrestrained capitalism, freemasonry and concealed jew-worship -- that was counter-productive to White interests.  I probably couldn't have seen it at the time myself, being caught up in the false pride of uniforms and ceremonies).  White scalps went for $5 apiece; the Brits would not pay for negro scalps, so rarely was a negro killed.

Retains original pagination, headers, etc.  All text and illustrations direct from the 1st ed; nothing changed or deleted, unlike some later "reprints" that did so.  At the least, the illustrations were not reproduced even if the text was, like in the University of Syracuse reprints (2 editions: hc, 1965 and pb, 1977).  Maintains original pagination.  NOTE:  Files denoted by an asterisk (*) are over 800 kB download each, but well worth the time.

Preface.                                             pp. 71-96.

pp. 1-20.  *                                        pp. 97-122.

pp. 21-50.                                          pp. 123-150.  *

pp. 51-70.                                          pp. 151-168.

Bibliographic references.  A page I added.  As Smith did not fully document his sources, I have done so here.  These are the editions that were available to Smith at the time he wrote Shawangunk.

Shawangunk Plates.  These are the beautiful plates you won't find in any reprint.  These are hi-rez, 256-gray scale versions of those found in the DOC files above.

*** A new edition of this book can now be bought from The Barnes Review. See the top page for the link to the TBR bookstore.

More Smith:  The Green Mountain Boys.  Great colonial story.  A must-read for any worthwhile education.  The story of the birth of the state of Vermont and the victory over divine-right royalists and looting land-jobbers.

A SOURCE USED BY SMITH:

Tom Quick was a resourceful, brave and willful White pioneer.  He was just as trail-wise as the Indians, and usually beat them at their own game.  This is probably why you never hear about him today.  The liberal press preaches the concept that "at the heart of prejudice lies ignorance", but Tom Quick would seem to refute that.  He lived amongst Indians all his life, hunted like them and spoke their languages like a native.  Yet, he grew to hate them with great intensity.  A seat-of-the-pants, plainly written account of a great American.  The entire book in two editions:

Tom Quick, the Indian Slayer and the Pioneers of Minisink and Wawarsink by James E. Quinlan (Monticello, NY: DeVoe & Quinlan, 1851).  Unabridged with all chapters and appendices.  (448k)    ALL FOOTNOTES IN A SEPARATE FILE.

WHOLE BOOK (with footnotes) AS ONE PDF  (465k)  This file, and the two above, still have many errors and do not reflect the full, accurate text. The fully corrected and authentic text is available in a new JRBO publication Tom Quick: The Man Behind the Legend. See the top page for details and a link to The Barnes Review bookstore.

GENEALOGICAL NOTE ON TOM QUICK, THE INDIAN SLAYER    new 6/20/11    Here, Tom Quick is seen in light of the genealogy of the Quicks in America as published in 1942. A further link tries to identify some of the relatives of Tom Quick mentioned in the tales.  NEW update 7 Jun 2023 gives info showing descent of Maggie Quick (TQ's niece) thru' Jane (Jennie) Winfield to William Bross who wrote Legend of the Delaware and was the source of most of the TQ stories.

ABRIDGED ED.:  The Original Life and Adventures of Tom Quick, the Indian Slayer (Deposit, NY: The Deposit Journal, 1894).  Reprint of the above title.  This ed. neglected to inform its readers that in reprinting the 1851 book, it deleted 8 chapters, two appendices and many footnotes, and reordered several chapters.  A phrase was also missing here and there, such as "which had been his companion through so many scenes of blood" in the second chapter called "Capture and Escape of Tom"; there were curious, subtle changes done to the chapter called "Adventure on the Sandburgh", especially strange considering it is represented as a verbatim first-hand account.  This edition had the temerity to claim that it was nonetheless "as published at Monticello in 1851", an untruth.  Shenanigans such as these are unfortunately very common in publishing and constantly stymie the researcher.  (406k)

Related:  Tom Quick - Indian Slayer by THEO. D. SCHOONMAKER, ESQ., of Goshen, N.Y.

These pics taken from Tom Quick, Early American by Frederick W. Crumb, 1936

An early attempt at money manipulation and planned poverty for the working man, this "continental" ZOG-buck was worth about 50¢ in silver in 1790.

(The Continental Congress had no power to tax, so such notes were merely "promises" without guarantee)

ANOTHER SOURCE USED BY SMITH:

The Indians attributed to Abraham G. Bevier (Rondout, NY: Printing Office of Bradbury & Wells, 1846).

Rare original first-hand document.  His sources included those who could still remember the Revolution from their youth!  Includes an old patriotic poem "Taxation of America", which for Bevier was "rather scarce at the present day".  There were no illustrations.  (272k; DOC version, 185k; PDF version, 210k)

Reprints of this title: (Grahamsville, NY: Pastoral Press, 1965) and (Town of Wawarsing, American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, 1975), with original covers in blue, and as published with a new cover by Gale, Sabin Americana, in 2012.

A rare 1846 first edition.

Taxation of America -  Old poem taken from the above, presented as a separate html document.

A History of Ulster County Under the Dominion of the Dutch by Augustus H. van Buren (Kingston, NY: self-published, 1923).  Tons of knowledge about the Teutonic/Anglo-Saxon origins of this part of the present-day USA.  Somehow, all those massacres take on new meaning when you are confronted with specific names and places and the very real people they represent.  Lots of info esp. about Peter Stuyvesant, Dutch Governor and Director-General of New Netherland colony before its military taking by the English, who renamed it "New York".  Wildwyck and Nieu Dorp are now "Kingston" and "Hurley", NY.

Published just after WW I (what is it about WW I that seems to have changed everything?), we see the influence of Franz Boas "social anthropology" taking hold.  This is the first book about colonial times I encountered that had blatant apologetics for the Indians, and which used the term "[religious] bigot".  Still, these parts obviously stand out from the rest of the text, and it appears that the remainder was derived from unadulterated records.  This was still the era of the "honest liberal", when subjective gushings were kept separate from the hard data, i.e., what actually happened.  Whole book:

Part 1. -  Ch. I thru' V.  (DOC, 128k)                    WHOLE BOOK IN HTML  (660k)

Part 2. -  Ch. VI thru' VII.  (DOC, 112k)

Part 3. -  Ch. VIII thru' X.  (DOC, 100k)

Part 4. -  Ch. XI thru' XIII.  (DOC,100k)

A tombstone in the old burial grounds at Hurley, NY.  As late as the 1740s, these stones were still being rendered in the Dutch language.  English hegemony had been established finally in 1664.

Photo 2001 by JRBooksOnline.com

Pictures of more tombstones and the Fantinekill Massacre Memorial.

Related:  See the The City of the Saints page on this site.

Virginia, the story of Smith, Rolfe and Pocahontas.

Also see:  MEMOIRS OF A CAPTIVITY AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA  by John Dunn Hunter (1824).  Hunter spent his youth among the Indians, and was later leader of the Fredonian rebellion in Texas.

Great essay at:  Dances with Doughnuts by Carol-on-the-Web.  "Noble savage" crap thoroughly trashed.  Exposes lies dispensed to foreign tourists with mouths agape.

More at:  Life Styles: Native and Imposed.  ". . . Or did White subjugation force them to shed savagery and barbarousness, and bring them, however unwillingly, into civilized humanity?"  I hear ya.

"An Aid in the Study of United States History", a high school primer from 1910.  This could perhaps aid in home-schooling.  (2MB PDF of B&W facsimile scans).  Note that it prints out much better than it looks on screen.

Highlights from the above.  I was amazed that this document had many "revisionist" aspects, to wit:

P. 3:  "Mound builders were a different race than Indians."  Ah, so maybe the Indians weren't "here first" after all!  Note how early this was recognized.  We now know that the farther you go back, the more Caucasian the remains get.
P. 5:  "Leif Ericson -- Landed in Labrador, and explored New England coast, A. D. 1000," this statement made decades before the Ingstads' revelations at L'Anse-aux-Meadows.  I have several old books that site Ericson's American voyages as established fact, apparently on the strength of the sagas alone.
P. 11:  ". . . criminals from Europe and waifs from streets were brought to help cultivate [tobacco].  They were called 'indentured servants,' in reality were slaves, though set free after a certain time."  Mr. Hoffman's thesis expressed in 1910 (but, to be more accurate, the editors should have said "often set free . . .".

"Nits make lice."    -- Tom Quick, explaining how he could kill Indian kids.

Pure fantasy from the world of make-believe.  Antidote: see the texts above and READ!

The images shown above are just a few of the hundreds of examples that could be cited, and which we see in newspapers and magazines all the time.  These images are often represented to be of "native American" women with curious rosy-cheeks and upturned noses, attributes which no squaw ever had.  Some show an Injun with his/her arms raised up to heaven, with a look of sheer religious ecstasy on his/her face.  How many Injuns could ever be caught doing this no one knows, and in fact all we know about them speaks against it, but that won't stop the culture destroyers from plying their evil trade.  [NOTE:  Raising the arms and eyes up toward the sky briefly as sign language did mean "Great Spirit", but that was about the extent of it.  The Chippewas had a "Great Turtle" as guardian spirit, one only a priest of theirs could hear].

The above images happen to be of Western Indians, not the Eastern ones featured in the texts, but it really makes no difference.  For the liberal media, anything which portrays Injuns in a favorable light is used to awash them all in a warm glow, and everybody knows it.  And incidentally, the Injuns' own legends say that the Delaware and Iroquois originally came from out West anyway.

"I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn't inquire too closely into the health of the tenth!"

-- Theodore Roosevelt

Chow-down time.  I guess these darling "natives" didn't have to worry about whether the victim's "civil rights" had been violated.  These are Brazilian Tupi Indians, 16th Century.  See text concerning these, below:

From Hans Staden, original woodcuts of the first Marburg edition of 1557, translated and republished as Hans Staden, The True History of His Captivity 1557 (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1928; also, New York: Robert McBride & Co., 1929).

 

 

 

 

 

Hans Staden of Homberg in Hesse, 1557:

 

Intro. -  Publishing Info, Preface, Contents, Descriptive List of the Woodcuts, and the Letts, Staden and Dryander Introductions with associated Notes.

Part 1. -  The First Part with associated Notes and Map of Voyages.  Deals in great detail with Hans Staden's voyage and experiences among the Tupi Indians of Brazil, his capture, and escape attempts.

Part 2. -  The Second Part with associated Notes.  Gives a detailed account of the Indians' general characteristics, manners and customs.

Index.

This is the Letts English translation (1928) with original woodcuts illustrating the story, from the first Marburg edition.  The four files above constitute the whole book.

[For dial-up connections: allow adequate time for download.]

See later renditions of the cannibal pics that would appear to be based directly on Hans Staden's original woodcuts seen in Part 2 above:  Cannibals.

           

Hey, everybody, those injuns were filled with HATRED! --

"Why one enemy eats another.

"THIS they do, not from hunger, but from great hate and jealousy, and when they are fighting with each other one, filled with hate, will call out to his opponent: . . . "Cursed be you my meat" . . . "To-day will I cut off your head " . . . "Now am I come to take vengeance on you for the death of my friends" . . . "This day before sunset your flesh shall be my roast meat."  All this they do from their great hatred.

". . . such is their hate that they often cut off an arm or a leg from a living prisoner".

        -- Hans Staden

Where's their consent decree?  Some of those eaten were French, Portuguese and other Europeans.  Get a system of reparations going!

 

 

The True History of the Conquest of Mexico

(the complete Keatinge English translation)

            by

Bernal Diaz del Castillo

PICS OF VARIOUS INDIAN "SPIRITUAL" RITES:

Aztec Fire Sacrifice.  Burned alive!

Aztec Skull Rack.  The Spanish destroyed these in short order.

Itian (Bahaman Is.) Indians tearing out the beating heart from a sacrificial victim.

Aztec Sacrifice.  Like the above.

Thanks to The American Colonization Society for these images.