Theodor de Bry 1588 Embellished Engravings of Copied Images of Native Americans - Village

1588 Theodor de Bry 1528-1598 Native American Village of Pomeiooc  A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia

Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was an engraver & publisher, famous for his depictions of early European expeditions to the Americas. In 1588 Theodor de Bry & his sons published a new, illustrated edition of Thomas Harriot's 1588 A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia about the first English settlements in North America (in North Carolina). His illustrations were loosely based on the 1585 eye-witness watercolor paintings of English colonist & artist John White.

Native Peoples from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, & Delaware to 1680

1590 North American Atlantic Coast Natives by John White (c1540 – c1593). The village of Pomeiooc (Pomeiock) was a Native America settlement, designated on de Bry’s map of Virginia, Americae Pars Nunc Virginia Dicta, between today’s Wyesocking Bay & Lake Landing, North Carolina. John White designates the settlement as Pomeyoo.

Native Peoples from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, & Delaware to 1680

By Jean R. Soderlund For The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia & Rutgers University

Native Americans lived in what became southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, & northern Delaware for more than 10,000 years before the arrival of Europeans in the early seventeenth century. By emphasizing peace & trade, the Lenapes retained their sovereignty & power through 1680, unlike native peoples in New England & Virginia who suffered disastrous conflicts with the colonists. Before William Penn founded Pennsylvania, the Lenapes & their allies among the Swedish, Finnish, & Dutch settlers created a society based on the ideals of peace, individual freedom, & inclusion of people of different beliefs & backgrounds.

The first Americans settled in the region as glaciers gradually receded in North America at the end of the last ice age. Because of the accumulation of ice, the Atlantic seashore was located more than sixty miles to the east of its present location. As the glaciers melted, the ocean level rose, submerging evidence of early communities along the coast. Archaeological data about the people inhabiting the lower Delaware Valley from this early era through the Woodland Period (c. 1000 B.C. to 1600 A.D.) indicate significant continuity over thousands of years. The Lenapes, like their ancestors, relied upon hunting, fishing, gathering, and—in the later years—small-scale agriculture. They lived in small autonomous towns without palisades, suggesting they kept mostly at peace with their neighbors & more-distant nations.

Isolation of the Lower Delaware Valley

For centuries the natives of the lower Delaware Valley remained isolated from other parts of the Americas, including the peoples of the Ohio & Mississippi Valleys who built agricultural civilizations based on the “three sisters”: corn, beans, & squash. These crops complemented one another in cultivation & providing humans a nutritious diet. The geography of Pennsylvania, particularly the north-south orientation of the Susquehanna & Delaware Rivers, limited interaction of Delaware Valley natives with the Mississippians who built cities, tall burial mounds, & stratified societies in the interior of the continent. Though the Lenapes raised corn, beans, & squash by the time the Europeans came, the natives took advantage of the abundance of game animals, fish, shellfish, berries, wild rice, & other foods rather than engage in large-scale agriculture.

The Lenape people included groups such as the Armewamese, Cohanseys, Mantes, & Sickoneysincks, who built towns along tributaries of the Delaware River & on the Atlantic seacoast near Delaware Bay. They spoke Unami, an Algonquian language similar to the dialects of their allies the Munsees, who controlled the region to the north up into southern New York, & the Nanticokes of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The Lenapes’ neighbors to the west were the Susquehannocks, an Iroquoian people of the Susquehanna Valley.

The size of the precontact Delaware Valley population is unknown because European sailors & fishermen brought pathogens even before the Dutch arrived. Colonization of Europeans in North America had a devastating impact on the Lenapes & other natives because they lacked immunity to smallpox, influenza, measles, & other diseases. In 1600 the Lenapes numbered an estimated 7,500; by the 1650s their population decreased to about 4,000, & to about 3,000 by 1670. The Lenapes’ population decline was not as severe in the 1600s as among some other groups whose numbers dropped by ninety percent or more. The Lenapes’ success in avoiding war during most of the 17C contributed to their strength & continued sovereignty over their land.

Lenape Gender Roles

The Lenapes divided work on the basis of gender: Women raised crops, gathered nuts & fruit, built houses, made clothing & furniture, took care of the children, & prepared meals, while men cleared land, hunted, fished, & protected the town from enemies.  Native women held an equivalent status with men in their families & society; parents extended freedom to their children as well, practicing flexible, affectionate child-rearing.

During the 17C, the Lenapes’ sociopolitical structure appears to have been democratic, egalitarian, & based on matrilineal kinship groups, with descent through the mother’s line. The heads of kinship groups chose the group’s leader, or sachem, who held authority by following the people’s will. With advice, the sachem assigned fields for planting & made decisions on hunting, trade, diplomacy, & war.

In religion, existing evidence suggests that the Lenapes believed the earth & sky formed a spiritual realm of which they were a part, not the masters. Spirits inhabited the natural world & could be found in plants, animals, rocks, or clouds. Natives could obtain a personal relationship with a spirit, or manitou, who would provide help & counsel to the individual throughout his or her life. Lenapes also believed in a Master Spirit or Creator, who was all-powerful & all-knowing, but whose presence was rarely felt.

When Dutch explorers entered the Delaware River about 1615, the Lenapes welcomed their trade. In 1624, they granted permission for a short-lived settlement on Burlington Island & in 1626 allowed construction of Fort Nassau across the river from the future site of Philadelphia. The natives & colonists developed a trade jargon based on Unami that became standard trade language throughout the region.

Keeping Old Ways, Adopting New

The Lenapes retained their autonomy & traditional ways of life while selectively adopting new technology from the Europeans.  Native women & men appreciated the convenience of woolen cloth, firearms, & metal tools, incorporating them into their culture but not abandoning their traditional economic cycle of hunting, fishing, gathering, & agriculture.

The Dutch trade precipitated war between the Lenapes & Susquehannocks from 1626 to 1636 because the Susquehannocks sought to control the Delaware River. They killed many Lenapes & pushed them from the west to east bank, burning towns & crops. The Lenapes fought back, eager to trade for European cloth, guns, & metal goods in exchange for beaver, otter, & other furs. While these local pelts were thinner because of milder mid-Atlantic winters than those the Susquehannocks obtained from central Canada through the continental fur trade, the Lenapes had a successful market with the Dutch. The war ended by about 1636 when a truce, which developed into an alliance, permitted both the Lenapes & Susquehannocks to trade in the region.

In 1631, violence flared when wealthy Dutch investors started a plantation called Swanendael near present-day Lewes, Delaware, at the mouth of Delaware Bay. It seemed to Lenapes that the Dutch were shifting their priorities from trade to plantation agriculture similar to the English colonists in Virginia who murdered natives & expropriated land. The Sickoneysincks, the Lenape group near Cape Henlopen, destroyed Swanendael, killing its thirty-two residents. When Dutch captain David de Vries (1593-1655) arrived in early 1632, he made peace & reestablished trade with the Sickoneysincks.

Over the next half century, Lenapes controlled the lower Delaware Valley, accepting European trade goods in exchange for small parcels of land for forts & farms, but not plantation colonies. With the attack on Swanendael & its memory, the Lenapes restricted European settlement. In 1670, just 850 Europeans lived in the lower Delaware Valley compared with 52,000 in New England, 41,000 in Virginia & Maryland, & 6,700 in New York & eastern New Jersey. With an estimated population of 3,000 in 1670, the Lenapes remained more numerous & powerful than the Europeans.

New Sweden Established

A color painting of a man wearing black clothing with a white undershirt. The man has long hair & is looking off to the right side of the image.
Johan Printz, the third governor of New Sweden, almost lost his colony due to his governing style & the colony’s limited ability to trade gods with the Lenapes.(Historical Society of Pennsylvania)

Seven years after Swanendael, in 1638, the Lenapes permitted a small group of Swedish, Finnish, & Dutch colonists to establish New Sweden at the location of current Wilmington, Delaware. Lenapes & Susquehannocks traded with New Sweden & the Dutch mariners who continued to frequent the river. While the Europeans fought each other over trade & land, the Lenapes dominated the region. In the mid-1640s they nearly evicted the Swedes because of their lack of trade goods & the bellicose posturing of their governor Johan Printz (1592-1663). Relations improved by 1654 when Naaman & other sachems concluded a treaty with the new Swedish governor, Johan Risingh (c. 1617-72), in which each side promised to warn the other if they heard of impending attack by another nation. They also pledged to discuss problems such as assaults & murders, stray livestock, & land theft before going to war.

By the 1650s, many of the Armewamese group of Lenapes lived adjacent to the Swedes & Finns in the area that became Philadelphia, a locale the Swedish engineer Peter Lindeström (d. 1691) praised for its beauty, freshwater springs, multitude of fruit trees, & many kinds of animals. Lindeström identified six towns from the Delaware to the falls of the Schuylkill that the Armewamese built to be near the terminus of the Susquehannock trade. The Lenapes also sold corn as a cash crop to New Sweden when its supplies ran short.

After the Dutch conquered New Sweden in 1655, the Lenapes, Swedes, & Finns solidified their alliance to resist heavy-handed Dutch authority. The Lenapes warned the Swedes of the Dutch assault; their Susquehannock & Munsee allies attacked Manhattan, forcing Director Peter Stuyvesant (d. 1672) & his troops to withdraw from the Delaware Valley.  While the Dutch claimed the region, the Lenapes ruled their country in alliance with the Munsees, Susquehannocks, Swedes, & Finns.

With the English conquest of the Dutch colony in 1664, the alliance of Lenapes, Swedes, & Finns remained firm as together they resisted English efforts, under the Duke of York, to impose their power & expropriate land. In the late 1660s, the Armewamese left their towns where Philadelphia now stands, migrating to join the Mantes & Cohansey communities in New Jersey. Though it is unclear whether settlers forced out the Armewamese or they left voluntarily, their relocation moved the center of Lenape population & power across the river.

In 1675-76, the alliance of Lenapes, Swedes, & Finns helped Lenape country escape the horrors of war similar to Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia & King Philip’s War in New England. Through shared economic goals & common values of peace, individual freedom, & openness to people of different cultures, the Lenapes & their European allies established the ideals of Delaware Valley society before William Penn received his land grant for Pennsylvania in 1681.

Jean R. Soderlund is a Professor of History at Lehigh University & author of Lenape Country: Delaware Valley Society Before William Penn.

See:
Dahlgren, Stellan, & Hans Norman. The Rise & Fall of New Sweden: Governor Johan Risingh’s Journal 1654-1655 in Its Historical Context. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1988.

Fur, Gunlög. Colonialism in the Margins: Cultural Encounters in New Sweden & Lapland. Leiden: Brill, 2006.

Grumet, Robert S. The Munsee Indians: A History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009.

Jennings, Francis. “Glory, Death, & Transfiguration: The Susquehannock Indians in the Seventeenth Century.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 112 (February 15, 1968): 15-53.

Kraft, Herbert C. The Lenape-Delaware Indian Heritage: 10,000 B.C. – A.D. 2000. Lenape Books, 2001.

Lindeström, Peter. Geographia Americae with an Account of the Delaware Indians Based on Surveys & Notes Made in 1654-1656. Translated & edited by Amandus Johnson. Philadelphia: Swedish Colonial Society, 1925.

Richter, Daniel K. “The First Pennsylvanians.” In Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth, edited by Randall M. Miller & William Pencak, 3-46. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press & the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, 2002.

Schutt, Amy C. Peoples of the River Valleys: The Odyssey of the Delaware Indians. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.

Soderlund, Jean R. Lenape Country: Delaware Valley Society Before William Penn. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.

Stewart, R. Michael. “American Indian Archaeology of the Historic Period in the Delaware Valley.” In Historical Archaeology of the Delaware Valley, 1600-1850, edited by Richard Veit & David Orr, 1-48. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2014.

Theodor de Bry 1588 Embellished Engravings of Copied Images of Native Americans - Elders or Chiefs

1588 Theodor de Bry 1528-1598 Native American Elder or Chief  A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia

Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was an engraver & publisher, famous for his depictions of early European expeditions to the Americas. In 1588 Theodor de Bry & his sons published a new, illustrated edition of Thomas Harriot's 1588 A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia about the first English settlements in North America (in North Carolina). His illustrations were loosely based on the 1585 eye-witness watercolor paintings of English colonist & artist John White.

1492 Native Americans Treaties before The American Revolution

Benjamin West (American, 1738–1820) Penn’s Treaty with the Indians (detail), 1771–1772.  Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.

Before Europeans came to North America, Native people governed themselves and maintained diplomatic relations with one another. Native Americans usually were members of independent, or sovereign, nations that negotiated government-to-government agreements—like treaties—with one another over trade, hunting, and other issues of mutual concern.  Tribes practiced diplomacy with one another to settle conflicts or permit entry into their homelands. Diplomatic relations were accompanied by strict protocols and thorough negotiations. In songs, dances, feasts, and speeches, past wrongs were set aside and hopes for future goodwill were expressed. Only then would discussions begin. Agreements were sometimes sanctified by ceremonies that created family connections. Some treaty-making failed & warfare could ensue.

When Europeans arrived in America, they made alliances with the Native American nations they encountered. To acquire land and establish peace and friendship, French and British colonial officials negotiated written agreements with leaders of tribal nations. For American Indians, the spoken word was sacred. People were expected to honor agreements, the details of which were passed down over generations through mnemonic (memory) devices such as birch bark scrolls and wampum belts. After the American Revolution, the law of the land was “All Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby. “  — United States Constitution, article VI, clause 2

Native Americans Treaties were the means that Europeans & Americans used to secure alliances with, & most often acquire land from, Native Americans. Historians disagree about the number of treaties negotiated between European powers & the United States between 1492 & the end of the formal treaty-making period in 1871. Because municipalities, companies, & state & national governments all made treaties, the number may well be in the thousands.

After Christopher Columbus discovered the New World for Spain in 1492, Spanish explorers & conquistadors used the Caribbean as a base from which to explore North & South America. At first, conquistadors ruthlessly took land from Native Americans, whom they considered heathen or subhuman. By the 1540s, however, Spanish cleric Francisco de Vitoria was already trying to convince the Spanish Crown & its explorers that Indians were indeed human, & thus Spain should treat them with respect rather than take land by conquest. Vitoria succeeded. As friars began to supersede conquistadors on the frontier of New Spain in an attempt to Christianize Native Americans, they introduced a treaty system.

Other nations followed suit. France, less interested in planting permanent colonies but eager to establish a footing in North America, negotiated agreements with native groups that enabled them to fish & trade in peace. Over time, French colonial officials & priests used treaties to secure an extensive web of relationships that guarded the western borders of their North American domain & ensured access to the rich fur trade of the Great Lakes region.

The Dutch used treaties. Like the French, Dutch traders forged agreements with local tribes to gain access to the western fur trade. Settlers in the lower Hudson valley also purchased land & the rights to certain hunting areas with trade goods.

English settlers tried warfare & brutality to cow Native Americans. The English at Jamestown, Virginia, tried to negotiate treaties with local tribes, even attempting at one point to "crown" Powhatan, the leader of a Chesapeake Confederacy, "king" of the Indians (Powhatan Confederacy). Powhatan's own ambitions & the Englishmen's ongoing desire for new farmlands under-mined these efforts, however. The parties maintained a fragile peace during Powhatan's lifetime (a peace sealed with the marriage of his daughter Pocahontas to an English planter), but after his death the chief's brother, Opechancanugh, reignited warfare with the English.

In New England, Pilgrim settlers on Cape Cod negotiated informal agreements with local Wampanoags that allowed them to settle at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Their Puritan brethren followed a similar path when they settled in Boston in 1630. Eventually, however, the English crowded members of the Nipmuck, Narragansett, & Wampanoag tribes onto reservations in Massachusetts. In 1675 the Wampanoag leader Metacomet, known to the English as King Philip, launched a war against the Puritans. Metacomet led warriors from all three groups against the English in the two-year struggle. Puritans won, but only after losing one-sixth of their male population. Ironically, while the English victory meant the end of an era of peaceful treaty making, it was made possible by the assistance of Hudson valley groups who refused to come to Philip's assistance because of their treaty commitments to the British.

During the eighteenth century, the strength of Native American confederacies, imperial threats from other nations, & a renewed interest in empire & mercantilism by the Crown (joint-stock companies had arranged early English settlements with little or no interest from the Crown) convinced England to rely more on diplomacy & treaties in relations with Native Americans. King George's War (1744–1748), which saw England & France vying for control of the Ohio River valley (and subsequently North America), was an example.

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended King George's War, but in truth it decided nothing. Both France & England jockeyed for position in preparation for renewed warfare. Native Americans, however, did not understand military truces, for once they proclaimed themselves enemies of another they intended to stay that way. French colonists capitalized on that confusion in an attempt to draw some of the Iroquois Confederacy (the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, & Mohawks who had earlier laid claim to the Ohio valley) away from their ally, England. To the south, at the mouth of the Mississippi River in New Orleans, French agents scored treaties with Creeks, Chickasaws, & some Cherokees.

Pennsylvania traders, led by George Croghan, realized that the British Navy had so devastated French trade routes that French Native American allies could not get the trade goods they wanted. In August 1748, Croghan & fellow traders signed the Treaty of Logstown with leaders of the Delawares, Shawnees, Iroquois, & Wyandotte Native Americans. It established a perpetual trade & defensive alliance between England & the Native Americans.

In the French & Native American War (1754–1763), the last of the great wars for the British Empire, the Iroquois Confederacy remained allied with England but did little in the way of fighting against France. The confederacy did not want to be enemies with France if France won the war. British victory in 1763 saw a deterioration in relations with the confederacy, which itself became plagued with infighting.

Upon taking control of all of North America to the Mississippi River, England encountered more trouble with former French-allied Native Americans. In 1763 on the upper Ohio, an Ottawa chief named Pontiac & an alliance of Native Americans attacked Americans (still British subjects) headed west. British soldiers put down Pontiac's rebellion, but England realized it had to conduct aggressive diplomacy with western Native Americans to make the region safe for settlement.

Parliament passed the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited Americans from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains. The proclamation would enable Parliament to both control land dispersal & establish treaties with Native Americans before Americans took the land.

The spread of Americans to the West scared Native Americans. In an attempt to create a permanent boundary between whites & Native Americans, William Johnson, the English Native American commissioner for the North, & John Stuart, an agent in the South, treated with the Iroquois Nations in 1768. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix negotiated such a line, but failed to halt the westward white movement.

Theodor de Bry 1588 Embellished Engravings of Copied Images of Native Americans - Charnel House

 1588 Theodor de Bry 1528-1598 Native American Charnel House

Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was an engraver & publisher, famous for his depictions of early European expeditions to the Americas. In 1588 Theodor de Bry & his sons published a new, illustrated edition of Thomas Harriot's 1588 A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia about the first English settlements in North America (in North Carolina). His illustrations were loosely based on the 1585 eye-witness watercolor paintings of English colonist & artist John White.

Massacres between Native Americans & Spanish Colonizers

Christopher Columbus' Soldiers Chopping the Hands off of Arawak Indians who Failed to Meet the Mining Quota in Bartolomé de Las Casas's

Hispaniola Pacification Campaign
In March 1495, in Hispaniola Christopher Columbus led first organized slaughter of native Americans to “pacify” them in order to enact his hand-amputating, gold-acquiring “tribute system.”

Xaraguá Massacre
In 1503 in Xaraguá, Hispaniola, the governor of Hispaniola, Nicolas de Ovando, led expedition to “improve relations” with remaining unconquered Native Americans of the island and, in a surprise attack on their hosts, they slaughtered hundreds of leaders of southwestern Hispaniola.

Cuba Expedition under Diego Velázquez
In 1511, as gold & slaves ran low on Hispaniola, a Spanish expedition to Cuba pursued the Native American survivors of the 1503 Xaraguá Massacre & slaughtered native Cubans along the way.

Pacra Massacre
In 1513, in Pacra, Panama, during a Spanish expedition to discover Pacific Ocean, Native Americans staged a night attack on sleeping village.  Forty men fed to the Spaniards’ dogs for the crime of “dressing like women.”

Tlaxcalan Massacre
In 1519, on way to Tenochtitlán, Cortes’s invasion encounters Tlaxcala Native Americans, who fiercely resist the Spaniards.  After Cortex's men burned ten towns & slaughtered thousands of Native Americans, the Tlaxcalans surrendered & became Cortes’s most significant ally against the Aztecs.

Cholula Massacre
In 1519, on way to Aztec capital, Hernan Cortes reported in his Second Letter to King Charles of Spain, Letters from Mexico, that he visited religious center of Cholula, Mexico & slaughtered the Native Americans of the city whom he accused of “plotting” against him.

Huitzilopochtli Festival Massacre
In 1520, in Tenochtitlan, Mexico, while Cortes was away battling other Spaniards, Pedro Alvarado led massacre during a Native American Huitzilopochtli festival, justifying it by accusing the Native Americans of “plotting” against the Spaniards.

Post-siege Massacre of Tenochtitlan
In 1521, After the successful siege & destruction of Tenochtitlan, Mexico, the Aztec capital city, most of the city’s Native Americans were put to death.

Cajas Massacre
In 1532, after raping several hundred nuns of the Temple of the Sun, Hernando de Soto’s men slaughtered the angry Native American residents of Cajas.

Cajamarca, Massacre
In 1532, in Cajamarca, Ecuador, in surprise attack, killing 3,000 unarmed Native Americans, Pizarro’s expedition captured the Incan sovereign, Atahualpa.

Napituca Massacre
In 1539, in Napituca, Florida, after defeating resisting Timucuan Native American warriors, Hernando de Soto had 200 of them executed, in the first large-scale massacre by Europeans on what became American soil.

Mabila Massacre
In 1540, The Choctaw retaliated against Hernando de Soto's expedition, killing 200 soldiers, as well as many of their horses and pigs, for their having burned down Mabila compound and killed c. 2,500 warriors who had hidden in houses of a fake village.

Tiguex Massacres
Between 1540-1541, after the invading Spaniards seized the houses, food & clothing of the Tiguex Native Americans in Mexico, & raped their women, the Tiguex resisted, which led to a Spanish attack that burned 50 Native Americans at the stake who had surrendered.  Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s men then laid siege to the Moho Pueblo, & after a months-long siege, they slaughtered 200 fleeing Native American warriors.

Mabila Massacre
In 1540, in Mabila, Alabama, Hernando de Soto’s expedition burned palisaded Native American town of Mabila.

Acoma Massacre
In 1598, in retaliation for the killing of 11 Spanish soldiers, Juan de Oñate led punitive expedition to slaughter the Native Americans at the Acoma mesa.

Theodor de Bry 1588 Embellished Engravings of Copied Images of Native Americans - Two Women

1588 Theodor de Bry 1528-1598 Native American Woman  A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia

Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was an engraver & publisher, famous for his depictions of early European expeditions to the Americas. In 1588 Theodor de Bry & his sons published a new, illustrated edition of Thomas Harriot's 1588 A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia about the first English settlements in North America (in North Carolina). His illustrations were loosely based on the 1585 eye-witness watercolor paintings of English colonist & artist John White.

1300s Crow Creek Massacre in the South Dakota area

The Crow Creek Massacre occurred around the mid 1300s AD between Native American groups at a site along the Missouri River in the South Dakota area; it is now within the Crow Creek Indian Reservation. Two groups occupied the site in prehistoric times. The Siouan-speaking Middle Missouri people, ancestral to the historic Mandan people, 1st occupied the site sometime after about 900 AD. They built numerous earth lodges on the lower portion of the site. Caddoan-speaking Central Plains people (Initial Coalescent variant) moved into the area from southern areas (present-day Nebraska) sometime around 1150 AD. (The historic Arikara are a Caddoan people.) Whether they displaced the earlier group or moved onto an abandoned site is unknown. The Central Plains (Initial Coalescent) people built at least 55 lodges, mostly on the upper part of the site.

There is evidence that the Central Plains/Initial Coalescent villagers built well-planned defensive works for their village. They were replacing an earlier dry moat fortification with a new fortification ditch around the expanded village when an attack occurred that resulted in the massacre. The attacking group killed all the villagers. In 1978 state archaeologists found the remains of at least 486 people killed during the attack. Most of these remains showed signs of ritual mutilation, particularly scalping. Other examples were tongues being removed, teeth broken, beheading, hands & feet being cut off, & other forms of dismemberment. In addition to the severity of the attack, most of the people showed signs of malnutrition & many had evidence of being wounded in other attacks. Scholars have theorized that the people were attacked by another group or several groups of the Initial Coalescent culture in the area in competition for arable land & resources.

Scalping & Mutilation
Many of the bodies are missing limbs; the attackers may have taken them as trophies, scavenger animals or birds may have carried them away, or some limbs may have been left unburied in the Crow Creek village. Investigators state that "they had been killed, mutilated, & scavenged before being buried." Tongue removal, decapitation, & dismemberment of the Crow Creek victims occured, In addition, scalping was performed, bodies were burned, & there is evidence of limbs being removed by various means. A conservative estimate of villagers who suffered scalping is 90%, but it could have been as high as 100%. This is based on skeletal remains that exhibit cuts on their skulls indicative of scalping. Men, women, & children were scalped.

Nutritional deficiencies
The villagers' skeletal remains provide evidence of extensive nutritional deficiencies of a chronic nature. The Crow Creek villagers were measured as being shorter than their Arikara descendants, with the females being significantly shorter; this could have been another effect of nutritional deficiencies & illness. The severe conditions faced by the Crow Creek villagers were not short term. Based on the evidence of "active & organizing subperiostial hematomas along with the other bony alterations" found while examining remains, the villagers had long suffered malnutrition, in repeated episodes thought due to the unstable climate & drought reducing crops & food supplies. The presence of animal bones within the fortification ditch suggests that villagers ate their dogs because of hunger.

Signs of previous warfare
The skeletal remains of the villagers also showed evidence of earlier wounds. Evidence of previous warfare is present in the skeletal remains of victims found in the mass burial. Two individuals had survived previous scalping incidents, & were in the process of healing, which was indicated by the bony re-growth of their skulls; a third individual had survived a head injury as indicated by "a healed depressed fracture in the frontal." Others showed evidence of being wounded by arrows, the points of which remained in the legs & were overgrown by bone.

Theodor de Bry 1588 Embellished Engravings of Copied Images of Native Americans - Cooking Fish

1588 Theodor de Bry 1528-1598 Cooking Fish  A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia

Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was an engraver & publisher, famous for his depictions of early European expeditions to the Americas. In 1588 Theodor de Bry & his sons published a new, illustrated edition of Thomas Harriot's 1588 A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia about the first English settlements in North America (in North Carolina). His illustrations were loosely based on the 1585 eye-witness watercolor paintings of English colonist & artist John White.

Scalping in The New World

Scalping is removal of all or part of the scalp & hair from an enemy’s head. Historical evidence indicates that many cultures have engaged in the removal of body parts from their enemies. Most frequently these were used as trophies, displayed as proof of valour, held for mutilation, or treated as supernatural objects. The Greek historian Herodotus (b 485 BC) reported that in order to receive a share in the spoils of war, Scythian warriors were required to deliver an enemy scalp to the king. Other sources indicate that the Anglo-Saxons & Franks practiced scalping through much of the 9C AD.

An Indian warrior entering his wigwam with a scalp. 1789

Archaeological evidence for such practices in North America dates to at least the early 14C in a mass grave containing nearly 500 victims with evidence of scalping, was found near present-day South Dakota.  Although historical records from the 16C & 17C do not clarify how widespread the practice of scalping was in North America before colonial contact, it is clear that bounties on scalps, together with aggression between colonizers & indigenous peoples, increased the level of scalping as North America was colonized by Europeans.

An Iroquois Scalper. Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur, Costumes de Différents Pays, ‘Guerrier Iroquois.’ Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Early eyewitness accounts written in English often were difficult to understand.  The older English word scalp did not acquire its distinctly American meaning until 1675, when King Philip’s War brought the object renewed prominence in New England. Until then, the expressions were compounds such as “hair-scalp” and “head-skin,” phrases such as “the skin and hair of the scalp of the head,” or the simple but ambiguous word “head.” Likewise, the only meaning of the verb to scalp meant “to carve, engrave, scrape, or scratch.” Consequently, English writers were forced to use “skin,” “flay,” or “excoriate” until 1675, when the American meaning became popular. French, Dutch, German, and Swedish speakers were also forced to resort to circumlocutions, until they borrowed the English words in the 18C.

18C French Depiction of Scalping New York Public Library

Europeans were the ones who encouraged and carried out much of the scalping that went on in the history of white/native relations in America. For example, Willem Kieft, governor of the Dutch Colony of New Amsterdam, offered bounties to frontiersmen & soldiers for the scalps of enemy Indians.  Colonial North America became a place where the scalps of dead men were a currency. White men & natives alike were massacring & mutilating innocent people for a fistful of cash.

In 1535, Jacques Cartier (1491-1557) stopping in the present area of Quebec City, met with a Native American chief named Donnacona.  They greeted one another with courtesy. The tribe put on a dance of welcoming for the visiting explorers, & Cartier presented Donnacona with gifts. Then, to impress his new friend, Donnacona showed Cartier his most prized possession of 5 human scalps dried out & stretched across hoops taken from their enemies, the Micmac.  After describing the scalps with hoops, the eyewitness account ends with, “After seeing these things, we returned to our ships.”

French explorer Jacques Cartier's 1st interview with the Native Indians at Hochelaga (Montreal) in 1535. The illustration from 1850.

Not long after the Mayflower anchored, white men started taking scalps.  Scalps were claimed during the Pequot War 1636-1638. When a trader named John Oldham (1592-1636) was killed by Native Americans, the Puritans of the Massachusetts Colony started fighting a full-on war with their Native American neighbors. Soon, the governor was promising a reward for any man who could bring home the head of a Native American. Scalps were easier to transport. Puritans started cutting off scalps, filling bags with them, & bringing the scalps home instead.

By 1641, the governor of New Netherlands put out the first official bounty on any & all scalps from a native’s head, promising “10 fathoms of wampum” for every scalp from a member of the Raritan tribe.  By 1703, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was offering $60 for each native scalp.

Hannah Duston Killing the Indians by Junius Brutus Stearns, (1847); Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville Maine.

Hannah Duston (1657-1756) was a housewife, the mother of 8 children, & the last person you’d expect to walk into a governor’s office demanding the bounty for her 10 scalps. In 1697, her home in Haverhill, Massachusetts, was attacked by the Abenaki tribe. Her husband, Thomas, fled with 7 of their children, but he left Hannah & their newborn daughter behind. Hannah watched in horror as 27 people in her village were murdered. Then her Abenaki captor pulled her newborn baby girl from her arms & smashed the baby’s head against a tree.  The Abenaki dragged Hannah to an island to be their captive, but Hannah spent every second looking for her chance for revenge. She waited until they fell asleep. Then she grabbed a tomahawk & rammed it into the heads of the 10 Abenaki people holding her hostage.  She cut off their scalps before she escaped. Then she brought the other hostages to a canoe & rescued them all.  Then she showed up at the Massachusett governor’s office with her captors' scalps seeking her reward.

In the early 1700s, some started working as full-time scalp collectors. They would go into the wilderness looking for Native Americans to kill, determined to bring home a bag full of scalps & make a small fortune. One of the most successful was John Lovewell, (1691-1725) who became a minor celebrity for the number of scalps he brought home. Lovewell was a famous Ranger in 18C who lived in present-day Nashua, New Hampshire. He fought in Father Rale's War as a militia captain, leading 3 expeditions against the Abenaki Indians. At one point, he made a wig from the torn scalps of the men he’d killed. Then Lovewell paraded through the streets of Boston wearing the wig on his head.  Scalping was profitable. Lovewell wasn’t just famous—he was well-off.  He got 100 pounds for every scalp he brought home.  His greed spurred him to organize a group of 47 men to take a village of more than 100 Native Americans. But Lovewell was killed in the battle & scalped.

And in 1756, Pennsylvania Governor Morris, in his Declaration of War against the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) people, offered "130 Pieces of Eight [a  type of coin], for the Scalp of Every Male Indian Enemy, above the Age of Twelve Years," & "50 Pieces of Eight for the Scalp of Every Indian Woman, produced as evidence of their being killed."

Native American scalping a Continental Army soldier.

Although scalping existed prior to the French & Indian War 1754-1760, the British encouraged it as a war tactic by paying Indians bounties for their enemy’s scalps.  On June 12, 1755, the governor of Massachusetts declared that the colony would pay ₤40 for male Indian scalps & ₤20 for female Indian scalps. Every citizen, the governor declared, was called upon to “embrace all opportunities of pursuing, capturing, killing, & destroying all & any of the aforesaid Indians.” Although the French paid Indians less, their Indian allies also scalped enemies during the war.  In theory, only the dead were scalped but several people survived the experience.  In May 1756, French allied Indians near Fort Oswego, New York, attempted to kill British colonists who ventured outside the fort.  One man, Stephen Cross, wrote on May 25th that “one of our soldiers came in from the edge of the woods, where it seems he had lain all night having been out on the evening the day before & got drunk & could not get in, & not being missed, but on seeing him found he had lost his scalp, but he could not tell how nor when, having no others around.  We supposed the Indians had stumbled over him in the dark, & supposed him dead, & taken off his scalp.” The man recovered.  The French and Indian War climaxed in 1759 with the most significant battle occurring at Québec where the British devastated the French ranks, ending French power in North America. 

The Death of Jane McCrea John Vanderlyn 1804

The Native Americans were pulled into warfare against white settlers by rival European factions in America.  During the American Revolution, a British military officer Henry Hamilton (1734-1796) earned the nickname “The Hair-Buyer General.” He was in charge of getting Native American tribes to help Britain beat down the American Revolutionaries-and he did it by buying scalps.  Hamilton wrote about the Native Americans as “savages,” arguing that Britain should take advantage of their “natural propensity . . . for blood.” He paid the Native Americans for every white man’s scalp they could bring home, only telling them not to “redden your axe with the blood of women & children.”  Hamilton provided the natives with scalping knives & kept records of how many scalps they brought in. He recieved 129 American scalps in a single day.

British and Indian scalping on the frontier. William Charles, A scene on the frontiers as practiced by the “humane” British and their “worthy allies. (Philadelphia, 1812). (Library of Congress)

The next time that the United States & Britain went to war, some Americans had embraced the idea of scalping their enemies. By the time the War of 1812 had begun, a militia group from Kentucky had gone savage.  The Kentucky Militia would daub themselves with red war paint before attacking British & Native American camps. The militia murdered every person they could find & tore off their scalps. There was no cash reward for doing it—they just wanted a memento of their massacres.  One officer from Pennsylvania wrote in his journal that he’d been sitting next to a soldier from Kentucky when, without warning, the Kentuckian “ripped open his waistband, fleshed them with his knife, salted them, & set them in hoops.”  The British called Kentuckians “the most barbarous, illiterate beings in America.” But the Kentuckians didn’t care. One young soldier wrote that he’d sent a scalp home to his parents the first chance he got. “Daddy & Mamma,” the soldierwrote, “thought I had done about right.”

Iroquois Warrior with Scalp of an Enemy Encyclopedie Des Voyages, Contenant l'Abrege Historique Des Moeurs, Usages, Habitudes Domestiques, Religio, Fetes, Supplices, Funerailles, Sciences, Arts, Commerce De Tous Les Peuples. 1795-1796

During the Mexican-American War, Texas Ranger John Joel Glanton (1819-1850) began collecting scalps from the Apache tribe. Some of the Apache had become involved in the fighting, & the American Army wanted them out of the way. So they paid handsomely for every scalp that Glanton could bring in.  This made Glanton fine money. But fairly soon, he started running out of Apaches to kill. The US Army, though, wasn’t really checking where his scalps came from. So he started killing Mexican civilians instead & passing them off as Apaches. Glanton & his gang stole a river ferry from some members of the Yuma tribe & invited people to ride in his boat. Once the people were trapped in the middle of the water, Glanton & his men would massacre them—whether they were Mexicans or Americans—to loot their dead bodies.  The Chihuahua government put a bounty on his head, but it was the Yuma who got him. While he was sleeping, the Yuma tribe sneaked into his camp. They killed his cohorts & slit Glanton’s throat while he was sleeping.

American killed and scalped by an Indian

When the Civil War 1861-1865 began, some soldiers got sidetracked over a dispute with the local Cheyenne tribe. They had been accused of stealing livestock, & the Union troops wouldn’t stand for it. In retaliation, a group led by Colonel John Chivington (1821-1894) started burning down Cheyenne camps.  The Cheyenne didn’t want any trouble. Their chief, Black Kettle, came to Chivington begging for peace, saying, “We want to take good tidings home to our people, that they may sleep in peace.” Chivington told Black Kettle that he wasn’t authorized to make peace—and then made plans to massacre the village of Sand Creek.  “Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians,” Chivington declared. “Kill & scalp all, big & little; nits make lice.”  A white man named John Smith had a son in the camp who died with the others. He went in to claim his dead & saw the horrifying scene firsthand. “I saw the bodies of those lying there cut all to pieces,” he reported. They had been scalped & brutalized, with their children killed & unborn babies ripped out of wombs.

An early 20th-century depiction of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre by Robert Lindneux

Scalping varied by region. Some Native Americans in the Southeast took scalps to achieve the status of warrior & to placate the spirits of the dead. On the other hand, most members of Northeastern tribes valued taking of captives over scalps.  Among Plains Indians scalps were taken for war trophies, often from live victims.

Iroquois Warrior Scalping Enemy, 1814

As a challenge to their enemies, some Native Americans shaved their heads.  The scalp was sometimes offered as a ritual sacrifice or preserved & carried by women in a triumphal scalp dance, later to be retained as a pendant by the warrior, used as tribal medicine, or discarded.

Ceremonial Scalp Dances Developed Among Native American Tribes

Scalp Dance Mouth Of The Teton River by George Catlin (1796-1872)

Sioux Scalp Dance by George Catlin (1796-1872)

Karl Bodmer (Swiss Artist, 1809-1893) Scalp Dance of the Minitarres

Paul Kane (1810- 1871) Scalp Dance by the Chualpays Indians

Osage Scalp Dance by John Mix Stanley (1814-872)

Theodor de Bry 1588 Embellished Engravings of Copied Images of Native Americans - A Conjurer

1588 Theodor de Bry 1528-1598 Native American Conjurer  A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia

Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was an engraver & publisher, famous for his depictions of early European expeditions to the Americas. In 1588 Theodor de Bry & his sons published a new, illustrated edition of Thomas Harriot's 1588 A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia about the first English settlements in North America (in North Carolina). His illustrations were loosely based on the 1585 eye-witness watercolor paintings of English colonist & artist John White.

1599 Acoma Tribe Massacre

In 1599, as retaliation for the killing of 11 Spanish soldiers, Juan de Oñate led punitive expedition to slaughter the natives at the Acoma mesa.

1599 Acoma Tribe Massacre

In the late 1500s, the Spanish began their conquest of the Pueblo people in northern New Spain & in 1595 the conquistador Don Juan de Oñate was granted permission from King Philip II to colonize Santa Fe de Nuevo México, the present-day New Mexico. Relations between the Spanish & the Acoma people had been mostly peaceful for several decades after the 2 groups first came into contact around 1540.

In 1598, the Acoma leader, Zutacapan, learned that the Spanish intended to conquer Acoma Pueblo. Initially, the natives planned to defend themselves; however, their belief that the Spanish were immortal & their knowledge of Spanish atrocities committed in the past led the Acoma to try to negotiate a peaceful solution to the conflict. Accordingly, Don Oñate sent his nephew, Captain Juan de Zaldívar, to the pueblo to consult with Zutacapan. When Zaldivar arrived on December 4, 1598, one of the first things he did was to take 15 of his men up the mesa on which the pueblo was located to demand food from the natives. After being denied the food they had demanded, the Spaniards allegedly attacked some Acoma women. A fight ensued, leaving Zaldivar & eleven of his men dead.

When Oñate learned of the incident, he ordered Juan de Zaldivar's brother, Vicente de Zaldívar, to lead an expedition to punish the Acoma & set an example for other pueblos. Taking about 70 men, Vincente de Zaldivar left San Juan Pueblo in late December or early January & arrived at Acoma Pueblo on January 21, 1599.

The battle began the following morning, January 22. For the first 2 days the Spanish & Acoma skirmished inconclusively until Zaldívar developed a plan to breach the pueblo using a small cannon. On the third day, Zaldívar & 12 of his men ascended the mesa & opened fire on the pueblo with the cannon. After some time, several Acoma homes caught on fire & were destroyed while the conquistadors stormed through the settlement. There were an estimated 6,000 natives living at or around the Acoma Pueblo in 1599, at least 2,000 of whom were warriors. Of the 2,000, about 500 were killed in the battle, along with about 300 women & children. Some 500 prisoners were taken & later sentenced to a variety of punishments. Don Oñate ordered that every male above the age of 25 would have his right foot cut off & be enslaved for a period of 20 years. However, only 24 men actually received amputations. Males between the age of 12 & 25 were also enslaved for 20 years along with all of the females above the age of 12. Many of these natives were dispersed among the residences of government officials or at Franciscan missions. Sixty of the youngest women were deemed not guilty & sent to Mexico City where they were "parceled out among Catholic convents". Two Hopi men were taken prisoner at the pueblo; after each had one of his hands cut off, they were released to spread the word of Spain's resolve.

When King Philip heard the news of the massacre, & the punishments, Don Oñate was banished from New Mexico for his cruelty towards the natives & later returned to Spain to live out the remainder of his life. Several Acomas escaped capture by the Spanish in 1599 & by 1601 they had rebuilt their pueblo, which still stands.

Theodor de Bry 1588 Embellished Engravings of Copied Images of Native Americans - Aged Man

1588 Theodor de Bry 1528-1598 Aged Native American Man  A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia

Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was an engraver & publisher, famous for his depictions of early European expeditions to the Americas. In 1588 Theodor de Bry & his sons published a new, illustrated edition of Thomas Harriot's 1588 A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia about the first English settlements in North America (in North Carolina). His illustrations were loosely based on the 1585 eye-witness watercolor paintings of English colonist & artist John White.

1100 The Acoma Nation & its Mesa-Top Pueblo

1846 Print of the Acoma Pueblo

The Acoma Nation & its Mesa-Top Pueblo
US National Park Service 

Set within the vast desert of northern New Mexico, a massive, 357-foot tall mesa stands proud. Known as Acoma Rock, the craggy, flat-topped mountain is home to Acoma, a National Historic Landmark, & one of the oldest continuously occupied communities in what is now the United States. The pueblo’s lofty, isolated location made it virtually impenetrable throughout the precontact period, which allowed the village & its people to flourish & develop distinct cultural traditions.

Founded as early as 1100 A.D & evolving throughout the centuries, Acoma illustrates the significance of early native peoples in New Mexico & the profound influence of Spanish culture in the Southwest beginning in the 16th century. The pueblo is home to the San Esteban del Rey Mission Church, which the Spanish Franciscan friars built in the early 1600s. The mission is the oldest surviving European church in New Mexico & an impressively large, stately presence among Acoma Pueblo’s adobe homes. The pueblo illustrates the amalgamation of European & Native cultures in New Mexico & helps illuminate the history of Spanish contact & interaction with the ancient peoples of the United States.

Opinions differ on the age of the Acoma Nation & its mesa-top pueblo. Traditional Acoma oral history tells of an ancient city far older than our imaginations & current calendars can comprehend. “Acoma” itself translates in local dialects to a “place that always was” & legend tells that the Acoma people have lived on the mesa forever. 

Scientific, historical & archeological evidence dates the Pueblo’s oldest extant remains to around 1100 A.D. & suggests that the Acoma people likely lived in the desert surrounding the mesa during earlier times & at some point decided to scale the massive rock & move their village to the top. An extensive archeological survey of the pueblo in the 1950s revealed the ancient people to be prolific potters, & skilled artisans & architects.

In the early 1500s, Viceroy of New Spain Antonio de Mendoza called for the first explorations into the lands north of Spain’s holdings at the time, which are now in modern-day Mexico. Rumors flew of vast cities of gold & incredible riches waiting for the Spanish Crown to claim them. Throughout the 16th & 17th centuries, many expeditions traveled into present-day Arizona & New Mexico. Even though Acoma sat isolated on its mesa, several Spanish explorers visited it, including Hernando de Alvarado in 1540 (a member of the Francisco Vásquez de Coronado mission), the Chamuscado-Rodriguez expedition in 1581, Antonio de Espejo in 1583, & Juan de Oñate in 1598.

Early Spanish reports indicate that the pueblo was a village of roughly 500 three or four stories tall adobe houses. Windows were small & limited & doors at the ground level did not exist. Instead, residents entered buildings via ladders placed through holes in the roof. At the time, the only way to the mesa’s top was a series of hand & toeholds carved into the steep rock. The people had to carry all of the materials used to construct the original community up the cliffs on their backs.

Because of its location, Acoma was one of the most resistant pueblos to Spanish rule. During early Spanish contact, reports indicate that the Acoma were friendly, often meeting expedition parties at the bottom of the mesa to greet & assist them. As time moved on & the Spanish presence became more & more persistent, however, the Acoma retaliated. In December 1598, residents lured Captain Juan de Zaldívar, one of Oñate's officers, into the pueblo & murdered him & 14 of his men. This had dire consequences for the village two months later when Zaldívar’s brother arrived with a force of 70 Spanish soldiers to avenge the deaths. A bitter battle resulted in the sacking & burning of much of the pueblo & the death of approximately 1,500 residents. The Spanish forced those who remained to surrender the pueblo to the Spanish. Oñate himself demanded sentencing survivors to indentured servitude & bodily mutilation. Oñate’s harsh & unfair treatment of the Acoma people would later lead to his legal expulsion from New Mexico & Mexico City.

With the rebuilding of the pueblo under Spanish rule in the early 1600s, missionary efforts began to convert the Acoma to Catholicism & Spanish ways of life. Still, strong resistance remained among the natives, & the Spanish did not have a mission church constructed until the late 1620s.  Although earlier priests visited the pueblo, Father Juan Ramirez is noteworthy as the first permanent Franciscan father to live in Acoma. It is likely that he began the building of San Esteban del Rey Mission Church upon his arrival in 1629, but the exact dates of its construction are unknown. The huge church, which still stands today, is an impressive work of architecture – especially considering that native workers had to carry all of its materials up the mountain. These materials included the church’s 40-foot long roof beams, originally hewn in the San Mateo Mountains, 30 miles away.

The church is simple in plan, with a long nave & a polygonal sanctuary at its western end. Its exterior is impressively tall due to battered walls that are up to seven-feet high from the base, tapering up to a mere 30 inches at their peak. Two square bell towers flank the main façade & contain bells brought from Mexico during the 1800s. A one-story convento sits along the north side of the church & once housed living space, workrooms, & storage for the father & friars who were in residence. A large cemetery surrounded by a low wall sits in front of the church & contains the remains of both native & Spanish residents from throughout the centuries.

During the 1600s, tensions remained high between the Spanish & native peoples throughout the Southwest. Most of the conflict centered on religious disagreements, & in 1680, many villages, including Acoma, took part in a large pueblo rebellion. The rebellion resulted in the death of several hundred Franciscan fathers, the destruction of many churches, & the death or banishment from pueblo towns of many Spanish residents. Acoma’s priest, Fray Lucas Maldonado, & the other Spaniards living in the pueblo did not survive the rebellion, but San Esteban del Rey Mission Church remained largely unharmed. It has continued to serve Acoma’s Catholic residents since Spanish re-conquest of Acoma Pueblo in 1699.  

Theodor de Bry 1588 Embellished Engravings of Copied Images of Native Americans - Man & Woman Cooking in a Pot

1588 Theodor de Bry 1528-1598  Cooking in a Pot  A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia

Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was an engraver & publisher, famous for his depictions of early European expeditions to the Americas. In 1590 Theodor de Bry & his sons published a new, illustrated edition of Thomas Harriot's 1588 A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia about the first English settlements in North America (in North Carolina). His illustrations were loosely based on the 1585 eye-witness watercolor paintings of English colonist & artist John White.

1598 Native American Hopi Nation

Juan de Oñate (c 1550–1626)

On November 15, 1598, Juan de Oñate declared possession of Hopi land (in what is now northern Arizona) in the name of the Spanish crown. Four hundred years later, the Hopi have still never signed any treaty with any non-Indian nation.

Juan de Oñate
By Gerald F. Kozlowski for the Texas State Historical Association

Juan de Oñate (ca. 1550–1626), explorer & founder of the first European settlements in the upper Rio Grande valley of New Mexico, son of Cristóbal de Oñate & Catalina de Salazar, was born around 1550, most likely in the frontier settlement of Zacatecas, Mexico. His father was a prominent Zacatecas mine owner & encomendero. In his early twenties Oñate was leading campaigns against the unsubdued Chichimec Indians along the turbulent northern frontier around Zacatecas & prospecting for silver. He aided the establishment of missions in the newly conquered territory. He married Isabel de Tolosa Cortés Moctezuma, a descendant of the famous conquistador Hernán Cortés & the Aztec emperor Moctezuma. They had a son & a daughter.

On September 21, 1595, Oñate was awarded a contract by King Philip II of Spain to settle New Mexico. Spreading Catholicism was a primary objective, but many colonists enlisted in hopes of finding a new silver strike. After many delays Oñate began the entrada in early 1598. He forded the Rio Grande at the famous crossing point of El Paso del Norte, which he discovered in May 1598, after making a formal declaration of possession of New Mexico on April 30 of that year. By late May he had made contact with the first of the many pueblos of the northern Rio Grande valley. In July 1598 he established the headquarters of the New Mexico colony at San Juan pueblo, thus effectively extending the Camino Real by more than 600 miles. It was the longest road in North America for several subsequent centuries. While awaiting the slow-moving main caravan of colonists, Oñate explored the surrounding area & solidified his position. Construction of the mission at San Francisco & a mission for the Indians of San Juan soon began. Mutiny, desertion, & dissent plagued the new colony when riches were not instantly found. Oñate dealt with these problems with a firm hand. Some of his men explored east beyond Pecos pueblo towards the Texas border in search of buffalo; they probably reached the headwaters of the Canadian River, twenty-five miles northwest of the site of present Amarillo. Oñate visited Acoma pueblos as well as the Hopi & Zuni pueblos far to the west; one party in his group went as far as the San Francisco mountains in Arizona, finding silver ore & staking claims. Upon Oñate's return to Acoma he put down a revolt that left 11 colonists dead. He severely punished the rebellious Indians.

Prospecting expeditions continued in an attempt to bring prosperity to the colony. The colony was reinforced in late 1600, but hardships, including cold weather & short food supplies, continued. On June 23, 1601, Oñate began an expedition to Quivira in search of wealth & an outlet to the sea. He followed the Canadian River across the Texas Panhandle & near the Oklahoma border headed northeast. Probably in the central part of what is now Kansas, Oñate's expedition arrived at the first of the Quivira villages. The great settlements of Quivira proved to be a disappointment to men who had come looking for easy wealth, however, & they soon turned back. While Oñate was on this expedition, conditions deteriorated in the New Mexico colony because the land was poor, the Indians were troublesome, & there were no silver strikes. The colony was subsequently abandoned except for some of Oñate's most devoted followers. The deserters spread the news of conditions in the colony when they returned to New Spain, & the government soon initiated an inquiry into the situation in New Mexico & Oñate's treatment of the Indians. At the same time Oñate launched his last major expedition, from the Zuni pueblos to the Colorado River & down it to the Gulf of California.

In 1606 King Philip III ordered Oñate to Mexico City until allegations against him could be investigated. Unaware of the order, Oñate resigned his office in 1607 because of the condition of the colony & financial problems. He remained in New Mexico to see the town of Santa Fe established. King Philip III decided to continue supporting the colony. A new governor was appointed, & Oñate was summoned to Mexico City in 1608. In 1613 he finally faced charges of using excessive force during the Acoma rebellion, hanging two Indians, executing mutineers & deserters, & adultery. He was fined, banished from New Mexico permanently, & banished from Mexico City for four years. He spent much of the rest of his life trying to clear his name, with some evident success. Eventually he went to Spain, where the king gave him the position of mining inspector. He died in Spain on or around June 3, 1626.

See
Herbert Eugene Bolton, ed., Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542–1706 (New York: Scribner, 1908; rpt., New York: Barnes & Noble, 1959).
Carlos E. Castañeda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas (7 vols., Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1936–58; rpt., New York: Arno, 1976).
George P. Hammond & Agapito Rey, eds., Don Juan de Oñate: Colonizer of New Mexico, 1595–1628 (Santa Fe: Patalacio, 1927; rpt., Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1953).
Marc Simmons, The Last Conquistador: Juan de Oñate & the Settling of the Far Southwest (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991).

Eyewitness John White 1585 - Old Man

Watercolor drawing Old Indian Man by John White (created 1585-1586)

The man is standing to the front, his face half-left, with feet apart. His greying hair is drawn flat at the sides and caught up in a knot at the back, leaving a roach down the middle of his head. Some facial hair is visible on his chin, cheeks, and upper hp. He wears a large fringed deerskin mantle thrown over his left shoulder and reaching below the knee, leaving the right shoulder bare, with the top edge turned down to reveal the hairy side. A neat seam is visible down the left side. His right hand lies across his body clasping his mantle, his left is extended at the side and points down with the index finger. He is perhaps wearing an ear ornament.

Inscribed in dark brown ink, along the top, "The aged man in his wynter garment. "

John White (c 1540-1593) was an English artist & early pioneer of English efforts to settle North America. He was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville to the shore of present-day North Carolina in 1585, acting as artist & mapmaker to the expedition. During his time at Roanoke Island he made a number of watercolor sketches of the surrounding landscape & the native Algonkin peoples. White had been commissioned to "draw to life" the inhabitants of the New World & their surroundings.  During White's time at Roanoke Island, he completed numerous watercolor drawings of the surrounding landscape & native peoples. These works are significant as they are the most informative illustrations of a Native American society of the Eastern seaboard.  They represent the sole-surviving visual record of the native inhabitants of America encountered by England's first settlers.