Story Circles

The Navajo, like the Maya, have a large circle of teaching stories for their children. They tell them and tell them again. They are likely to consider the the time of thunder and lightning before they do.


They have other cycles of stories too. Inside the circle of children's stories is a large circle of the stories and deeds of the people. Within that circle their may be on of stories of legitimization and origins.


Cycles within cycles. Inside the stories of origins and legitimization may be a great cycle of of curing ceremonies which contain other stories. The curing ceremonies may seem a bit like variety shows, operas, dances and more. They can be expensive. There is a set way for them to be done and are meant to be carried out correctly by those who know.


A new story may be created, but it may be very wrong to change and old one.


Deep within the circles of stories may be a cycle of mysteries and hidden things. Near the center may be things that I do not imagine and cannot guess.


For those who can turn the circle of circles inside-out, it may not be necessary to guess.


I am neither Maya nor Navajo nor am I an authority on these things.

Ancient Hand

  Carved mica hand found in mound #25 at Hopewell in Ohio.

I've adopted it as my logo.

Dates and Notes Related to Early Spanish Contacts with Native Americans

1501 AD: The Spanish Inquisition intensified again. An argument might be made blaming America Indians for this intensification, at least in part. In case I didn't mention it earlier, the purpose of the Inquisition was to make sure that persons called Christian were good Christians and in now way weakened Christendom. You may remember that the "Conquistadores" were generally accompanied by priests who proposed to save Native souls and to encourage Native peoples to call themselves Christian.


1511: The Toltec Empire of Mexico ended about this date. I have forgotten, for the moment, who to blame, but the Spanish were around as were Toltec and others.


1513: Balboa sighted the Pacific Ocean. Indians showed it to him. I don't think that he believed them when they first told him about that great water. I wonder which Indians did the showing. I think that Indians helped Balboa cross the isthmus where Panama is now. I wonder if those Indians were called Panamanians. Who will tell us more about Balboa and the Indians he contacted.


1515: Juan Ponce de Leon landed on the Florida peninsula. There 'John Lion Belly' was impressed by an Indian queen who ran an impressive queendom. Some of his entourage, without the same appetites as Juan, were impressed by well laid-out real estate developments. The impressive developments included neat and efficient canals used for transportation and communication as well as productive raised gardens and other earthworks. Juan, I understand, was disappointed at not finding immortality and at finding very little gold. I believe that some of his party were pleased to be taking home some nice baskets full of pearls.


1515 - 1582: Marks the lifespan of Saint Teresa of Avila who, for an important part of that span, did a pretty good job, I understand, of keeping the Christian home fires burning.


1519: Cortez invaded the Aztec Empire. A version of this story can be found in your kids school books. As you might guess Cortez was a Spaniard and the Aztec Empire was made up of American Indians. If you ask, your kids might tell you that Hernan Cortez seized control of Mexico from the Aztec Emperor Montezuma. They might not tell you that "Montezuma" is not a very true rendering of that 'emperors' name. While your talking with those kids of your, you might ask them if they know the song that contains as part of its lyrics, "from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli." Did they know that 'Mexico,' at that time, referred only to the valley that Mexico City is in today? Were the US Marines with Cortez?

1520: Panfilo de Navaez was sent by Diego Velasquez de Cuellar, governor of Cuba, to force Hernando Cortes into submission to authorities in Spain. He was captured by Cortez. I have hear that his loss to Cortez may have been due in part, to mistaking firefly lights for musket matches of Cortez' troops. I've also hear that diseases among Narvaez troops captured by Cortes spread epidemic death among the Indians of Vera Cruz and beyond.

1526: In about this year there were Spaniards in Zuni villages. They were looking for gold. Spaniards of the time were very much into gold and also pretty serious about adventuring. A few of them were interested in saving souls. At first some Zuni may have considered some Spaniards as a kind of demigod. Later some of them probably agreed that most of the Spaniards were witches.


1531: Pizarro marched on the Inca.


1533: Baja California discovered by Spanish. Indian traders and fishermen saw them. Some say that the sea level was then about 20 feet higher than it is today.


1534: St. Ignatius Loyola found the Jesuit Order. The Spanish Crown and the Vatican charged priests with the care of the souls of the Indians in the New world. Seems their souls were good dead or alive.
The same year the German 'conquistadores' George Hohermuth, Niclaus Federmann, and Philip von Hutton searched for gold and crossed the Colombian and Venezuelan 'Llanos'(plains). If I haven't mentioned the Llanos, I am pretty sure that I have already posted on Federmann.


1536: Mendoza founded Buenos Aires in what is now
Argentina. Many of the Indians there were, in some ways, similar to the plains Indians of North America.


1539: Esteban, of  theFriar Marcos de Niza expedition was killed by inhabitants of "Cibola." Those Spaniards got around. Estevan may have been the first 'black man' killed in the 'Four corners' region of what is now the U.S.


1540: The Colorado River delta was explored by the M. Diaz expedition from the mouth of the river to 20 to 40 miles up the river. I don't remember hearing that they made a lot of friends.


1541: Napo Chi led Mani against the Spanish and won. This isn't the first major battle won by Native American Indians against European invaders, but it is one of the fairly well publicized ones. I heard that it made news in Rome and Madrid. We're talking about Yucatan Maya. Bishop Diego de Landa knew the people of Mani.

1542: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed under the Spanish flag into what is now known as the Bay of San Pedro, California. I have heard that along the curve of that bay at that time was an Indian settlement called, by some, Pubugna.
In that same year Cabrillo landed on the the Santa Barbara Islands off the California coast. The Chumash saw him. Yes, the same Chumash whose holy men were respected by the great Cahuilla people. Cabrillo was probably a Portuguese hired by Spaniards for his ability as a navigator. Almost for got, Cabrillo and his crew saw Chumash in their fine boats along what is now the coast of Ventura county.

1550 -1580: Indians in the south of Mexico engaged in ongoing violent struggle against the Spaniards entering their lands. It was easier to fight the Spaniards than to fight the diseases of the Spaniards. 


1562: Bishop Diego de Landa helped bring the Inquisition to Mexico. The Bishop and men of Mexico, Madrid, and Rome seemed surprised and concerned by the strong reaction of the Maya to the workings of that institution. Check your history book or on-line for the "auto de fe" of Mani or for Bishop Diego de Landa. The Bishop may get a worse rap than he deserves.

1564: Fray Diego de Landa is recalled to face charges that he had overstepped his authority in the investigation and torture of native 'lords' and 'commoners.' Men of Mexico, Madrid, and Rome feared that Fray Diego would stir Maya to bloody rebellion. Diego brought some of the notes of what would become his "Account of the Affairs of Yucatan" to help in pleading his case before men of the Court and Church.
In this same year Xui Mayas and Spanish defeated other Maya in eastern Yucatan so that they ruled there.


1566: Santa Elena, the sixteenth-century capital of Spanish Florida was founded. It was founded by Pedro Menedez de Aviles on what is now Parris Island off the coast of South Carolina. The Spaniards had found the mainland densely populated by Native Indian peoples.


1571: Inquisition Offices were opened in Mexico. Maybe Fray Diego had convinced powerful Europeans that Indians and others in the New world needed help in keeping Christian.

American Indian Peoples

Please comment on one or more of the tribes listed below: 
~ Apache
~ Arapaho
~ Calusa
~ Cahuilla 
~ Cheyenne
~ Chumash
~ Guinch 'in
~ Hopi
~ Lipan
~ Neosho
~ Nootko
~ Muskogee
~ Osage
~ Pawnee
~ Sac
~ Guacara
~ Hoopa
~ Kickapoo
~ Navaho
~ Apache
~ Choctaw 
~ Ottawa
~ Zuni


(I'll enter more as time goes by.)

Calusa

In the 1500s the Calusa still controlled much of the southwest of Florida. They defended their lands against other peoples including European explorers. The Spaniards knew them as fierce. The Calooshahatchee River, with its mouth on the southwest coast of Florida, was theirs.


They lived mostly along the inland waterways and developed them for transportation and food production. The sea was also a source of food for them. They left middens of seashells large enough to compete in size with their mounds and other earthworks. They trapped fish and caught them on hooks and in nets..


The Calusa had a strong influence on the tribes around them. That influences may have stemmed  from their wide trading activities more than from their fierceness.  They typically used dugouts of 15' in length for use at sea and along inland waterways. They also built and used larger vessels. They visited Cuba regularly and probably sailed farther into the Gulf and the Caribbean.


Their homes were built on platforms on pilings over the water. The were attractively roofed with palmetto leaves. It is said that some of their 'houses' might have been large enough to hold 2ooo persons.


They were excellent wood workers and some of their remaining wood carvings has been called examples of artful sculpting.


Please add to our information about the Calusa and please help me to correct errors I have made here.

Who Is Using the Atlatl Now?

There are American Indians who remember the atlatl as part of their heritage. I have heard the very word used in songs and chants. You might hear it at a modern pow wow. That they remember it may not be surprising when we know that many of their ancestors were using it before 7000 BC. They were probably using it before 20,000 BC. There seems to be a bit of evidence that they may have been using it as early as 30,000 BC. They found it useful for hunting food animals larger than grizzlies and moose. They used it to hunt some animals larger than a modern elephant.

The atlatl was more important in the hearts and minds of Native Americans than the sword was to European's and Asian's; and the atlatl may have been used longer. The great difference being that the atlatl was seldom used to kill a man. It was made for bigger game.

You can probably find pictures of atlatls on the www. An atlatl is an implement use to launch a spear-like dart a greater distance, with greater power, and probably with greater accuracy than a man could throw a javelin. It usually of wood, worked to a length a bit less than the length of a man's arm. It had a hand grip at one end and at the other a notch to hold the butt end of a large dart or spear. It multiplied the power of a man's arm.

Some atlatls were still in use among Native Americans when De Soto arrived in North American. But by the time that Spanish Explorer and Conquistador arrived the bow and arrow was more appropriate for the deer and other small game available. Then, Americans and others were still carrying swords in 1900, when they had much more efficient weapons available.

I have never held an atlatl, but I have heard that, in Alabama, hunters are licensed to use them. I suspect that they may be used in California and Arizona. What can you tell use.

Midew elders of the Grand Medicine Society of the Canadian Great Lakes region may sing of the atlatl using another name. What is that name.

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Intimations of an Ancient Heartland

Long before the Seven Nations Confederation of First Peoples was a Seven Hundred Tribes and Chiefdoms system. It lasted for an amazingly peaceful thousand years. There is much I don't know about this system and I hope that you will tell me more.

I believe that in the minds of elders of peoples like the Algonquin, Arkansas, Blood, Calusa, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Delaware, Huron, Illinois, Iroquois, Kickapoo, Menominee, Miami, Mohawk, Natchez, Onondaga, Osage, Ottawa, Owasca, Pawnee, Pottawatomie, Seminole, Shawnee, Seneca, Whyandotte, and many others there is a memory of those times. Dances and chants of atlatl, mega-fauna, travels, and revered ancestors may relate to those times.
Tell me more. Let's share.

The kept strong for long; before the time of corn. The time is long, but the blood is the same. Perhaps what kept them strong was: a trade and commerce as holy and sacred as it was competitive; an ongoing dialogue and interaction which was  respectful even when carried on in sign language; a highly varied diet of fresh nutritious food including gardens of produce largely unknown to us now and usually lots of hickory nuts;
an avoidance of monoculture; a well developed appreciation of art, craft, and beauty shown in many ways(they loved their pan pipes and sometimes covered them in copper or even silver); a love of wood and water which lead those people to use them and benefit from them well. They had been great hunters who had so long appreciated the atlatl that it had become part of their spiritual life. They lived a life that was the imperfect life of all men, but one that made them strong, and happier than most.

Some of the source of their strength and happiness can be found in the oldest songs and dances, and in the old stories.

There was an excellent trail for them, they especially like the fresh water of lakes and rivers, but knew the salt waters too. The wetlands were  source of wealth for them.

For, perhaps, 10,000 years of ups and downs they thrived through the changes on the land.
Many of of the present cities, states, rivers, streams, and lakes carry their names through time. Let's know them better. I would know them better. We live among them still.

Let's share what we know, imagine, suspect, and believe of them. The more we know of them the better are our chances to live long and prosper.