Racist Views of Lykens Valley Indians, 1922

In 1922, a book entitled Lykens-Williams Valley History – Directory and Pictorial Review:  Embracing the Entire Lykens and Williams Valley, in An Effort to Preserve the Past and Perpetuate the Present, was edited, compiled and published by J. Allen Barrett.

The first chapter of that book was entitled “A Geological Survey” and was written by H. E. Buffington of Lykens Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.  Included within that chapter was a section entitled “The Lykens-Williams Valley Indian.”   Barrett’s acceptance of the text that was included in the book as an idea or attitude that he believed should be preserved and/or perpetuated, gives some indication of the feelings of those living in the area at the time. Unfortunately, the racist views stated in the section on the Indian did have an effect on many.  Within a short time of the publication, racist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan rose to dominance in the Lykens Valley as well as nationally.  And, unfortunately, when the U.S. Bicentennial of 1976 was taking place, the Barrett history was re-produced under the title Bi-Centennial History Lykens-Williams Valley:  History and Pictorial Review, Approximately 1750-1922 – without any changes or editing, and with the section on “The Lykens-Williams Valley Indian” left intact.  Both the original 1922 edition and the 1976 reprint are easily found in used book stores and through Internet sources.

The section on the Indian is reproduced below with the comment that it is a racist, long-discarded view of a peaceful people who were the original inhabitants of Susquehanna Valley.

THE LYKENS-WILLIAMS VALLEY INDIAN

In complexion, our uncivilized predecessors were of tawny color, inclining to red, which, differing from the complexion of every other portion of the human family, seems peculiar to most, if not all, the aborigines.  Their cheek-bones were high and prominent; their eyes widely separated; their noses unusually broad, even when curved in outline; and the ordinary cast of their features was coarse and often inexpressive.  The men were generally tall, straight, well proportioned, and hardly ever corpulent or in any manner deformed.  The women were too apt to be short and clumsy; their features were seldom delicate or handsome; and what feminine graces they had were soon obliterated by hard bodily labor combined with mental and moral degradation.  The beautiful Indian maiden was only a myth or the dream of the poet.  The mode of life of the men, and perchance their natural constitution, gave them a power of enduring fatigue and privation such as no European could rival.  When necessary they would hunt for days together while suffering from hunger, or perform long journeys through the forests with no other refreshment than a little parched corn and water.

For subsistence, the Indian depended much less upon agriculture than upon either fishing or hunting.  They confined themselves chiefly to the raising of beans, corn and tobacco.  The corn and beans were cultivated by women and children, the tobacco alone was thought worthy of the labor and attention of the men.  The women of an ordinary family would commonly raise in a single season two or three heaps of corn, each containing twelve, fifteen, or twenty bushels.  The corn was spread day after day in the sun, carefully shielded from the rain or dew, and when in this way sufficiently prepared was buried in the earth and thus preserved for the winter’s subsistence.

Hunting and fishing were perchance the chief dependence for food.  The forest was filled with animals, some of them beasts of prey, others suitable for food, others valuable on account of their furs.  Flocks of wild turkeys roamed through the woods, partridges and pheasants abounded, both in the woods and open country, and at certain times of the year the pigeons collected in such numbers that their flight seemed to obscure the light of the sun.  The ponds, creeks, and rivers swarmed with fish, and every spring great numbers of shad, rock-fish, salmon and perch ascended the streams furnishing a seasonable supply to the natives when their provisions were exhausted by a long a severe winter.

The clothing of the natives was composed of skins cured so as to be soft and pliable, and sometimes ornamental with palm and beads manufactured from shells.  It may be stated in this connection that very little is known of the process used by the Indians to prepare bear- and deer-skins for shoes and clothing.  Loskiel says, “Their shoes are of deed-skin, without heels, some being very neatly made by the women.  Their skins are tanned with the brains of deer, which make them soft; some leave the fur upon the skin, and such fur shoes are remarkably light and easy.”  The buffalo robes sold by our furriers as tanned by the Indians are softer than those that are tanned by civilized people.  Occasionally the women decked themselves in mantles made of feathers overlapping each other, as on the back of the fowl, and presenting an appearance of fantastic gayety which no doubt prodigiously delighted the wearers. Their dress consisted usually of two articles a leather skirt, or undergarment, ornamented with a fringe, and a skirt of the same material fastened around the waist with a belt and reaching nearly to the feet.  Their hair they dressed in a thick, heavy plait, which fell down upon the neck; and they sometimes ornamented their heads with bands of wampum or with a small cap.

The men went bareheaded, with their hair fantastically trimmed each according to his own fancy.  One warrior would have it shaved on one side of the head and long on the others.  Another might be seen with his scalp completely bare, except a strip two or three inches in width running from the forehead over to the nape of the neck.  This was kept short, and so thoroughly stiffened with paint and bear’s-grease as to stand up straight, after the fashion of a cock’s comb or the crest of a warrior’s helmet.  The legs were covered with leggins of dressed deer skin, and the lower part of the body was protected by the breech-cloth, usually called by the early settlers Indian-breeches.  Moccasins, that is, light shoes of soft-dressed leather were common to both sexes, and like other portions of the attire, were many times tastefully ornamented with embroidery of wampum.  The men often dispensed with their leggins, especially in summer; while in winter they protected themselves against the bleak air by adding to their garments a mantle of skins.  The male children ran about until they were ten or twelve years old in a state of nature; the girls were provided with an apron, although of very economical dimensions.

As to their homes and furniture, their food and its preparation, amusements, courtships and marriage, we shall not refer.  There are certain peculiarities characteristic of the Indian which are interesting to dwell upon, but these must be left to another occasion.  A few remarks, however, upon their moral life may explain their future conduct may explain their future conduct towards the white settlers.  Indian of to-day, however, is a fair type of those savages who lived in our locality two centuries ago.  We dislike to picture vice in all its horrid details, and to much that is inherent in the savage nature of the aborigine we shall refrain from referencing.

Although marriage was not always recognized among their rites, unfaithfulness was looked upon as a crime, and even death was frequently inflicted for the offense by the irate husband.  Licentiousness was common, and the man who looked upon the waywardness of his wife, visiting her with blows and wounds, may have been the most debauched creature in the tribe,  No female ever ventured alone, for bestiality was the besetting sin of the race.  Uncleanness was in all their manners.  Impatient of bodily labor, and indisposed to thought, they naturally turned for pleasure to those course gratifications of the senses which were within reach.  They were indolent when not strongly incited to exertion; they were gluttonous hen supplied with an abundance of food, and they became intemperate as soon as the means of intemperance were placed within their reach. They were revengeful by nature; custom had made vengeance with them a matter of duty and honor.  They had little idea of truth; they were natural-born lairs, and a result were the meanest of robbers.  As for murder and arson they had no compunctions of conscience; there were no refined feelings in their nature.  Selfish in the extreme, they never realized what was ennobling.