IVES GODDARD “I AM A RED-SKIN”: The Adoption of a Native American Expression (1769–1826)

Redskin ‘Indian, Native American’ has TTAB’s finding of disparagement is Samuel Smith’s Letter been a contentious word in recent not supported by substantial evi- years. In 1999 the United States Trade- dence” and that “the doctrine of lach- Dictionaries give the first occurrences mark Trial and Appeal Board ordered es precludes consideration of the of the expression redskin as being in the cancellation of the trademarks of case.”1 One need not accept Harjo’s a letter of reminiscences written by the Washington Redskins football unfounded claim that the word redskin Samuel Smith of Hadley, Massachu- team after finding that the use of the “had its origins in the practice of pre- setts, on 1 January 1699 (Mathews word redskin was “scandalous” and senting bloody red skins and scalps 1951: 1368; OED). This has “ye Red “may … disparage” Native Americans as proof of Indian kill for bounty pay- Skin Men” in one place and three or “bring them into contempt, or disre- ments”2 to accept that many find the occurrences of “ye Red Skins.” Two of pute.” Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of word objectionable in current use. But these are in the following passage, the United States District Court for the the actual origin of the word is entire- where Smith writes of his father that District of Columbia reversed this de- ly benign and reflects more positive “he did helpe to rear bothe our owne cision on 30 September 2003, grant- aspects of relations between Indians House & ye Firste Meetinge House ing summary judgment for Pro-Foot- and whites. It emerged at a specific of Weathersfield, … Ye firste Meet- ball, Inc., against Cheyenne-Creek time in history among a small group of inge House was solid mayde to with- Indian activist Suzan Shown Harjo men linked by joint activities that pro- stande ye wicked onsaults of ye Red and others. The court found that “the vided the context that brought it forth. Skins. Its Foundations was laide in ye Before its documented history can be feare of ye Lord, but its Walls was traced, however, the false history truly laide in ye feare of ye Indians, Ives Goddard is Senior Linguist in the given for it in standard reference for many & grate was ye Terrors of Department of Anthropology, National Mu- books must be expunged. em. … I do not myself remember any seum of Natural History, Smithsonian In- of ye Attacks mayde by large bodeys stitution. His research has focused on the of Indians whilst we did remayne in 1 Algonquian languages, especially Munsee, Pro-Football, Inc., Plaintiff, v. Suzan Weathersfield, but did ofttimes hear Unami, Massachusett, and Meskwaki. Since Shown Harjo, 284 F. Supp. 2d 96 (2003), 1990 he has been conducting fieldwork pp. 4, 83 (= United States District Court of em. Several Families wch did live among the Meskwaki in Tama County, IA, as for the District of Columbia, Memoran- back a ways from ye River was either part of a project to edit and translate the dum Opinion (September 30, 2003), Murderdt or Captivated in my Boy- native-written Meskwaki manuscripts col- Civil Action No. 99-1385 (CKK)). Posted hood & we all did live in constant lected for the Bureau of American Ethnol- at www.dcd.courts.gov/99-1385a.pdf. feare of ye like. My Father ever de- 2 ogy by Truman Michelson in 1911 and the “Some facts on squaw and similar clardt there would not be so much years following. He is the editor of Lan- words,” posted by Suzan Harjo (15 to feare iff ye Red Skins was treated guages, vol. 17 of the Handbook of North August 2003) at poynteronline.org American Indians (1996), and the compiler under “Article Feedback.” Harjo made with suche mixture of Justice & Au- of the wall map Native Languages and the same assertions in an interview on thority as they cld understand, but iff Language Families of North America (1999). the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1992; the he was living now he must see that Author’s address: Smithsonian Institution, program, called Racism in 1992: Native wee can do naught but fight em & that MRC 100, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, Americans, was no. 8 in a series on right heavily” (Smith 1900: 49–50). DC 20013-7012. U.S.A. racism. (I am grateful to Jim Rementer There are obvious problems with for a transcription of her remarks, made E-mail: [email protected] this source, however. For one thing, The author is indebted for various assi- from a video.) Two years later a stance to James Axtell, Richard W. Bailey, Washington Post reporter, after inter- the original letter has never been Randy Blomquist, Steve Brisson, Laura viewing Harjo, led a lengthy article with found. It is quoted from a book pub- Buszard-Welcher, Elizabeth Chenault, Con- this claim, stating that it was true lished in 1900 with the title Colonial stantin Chmielnicky, David Costa, Ray- “according to the custodians of Native Days & Ways as Gathered From mond J. DeMallie, Michael Dickey, Mag- American history” (“Bury My Heart at Family Papers (Smith 1900).3 The gie Dittemore, Nancy Flood, Wayne Frank- RFK,” Washington Post, 6 November lin, Dee Grimsrud, Geoffrey A. Kimball, 1994, pp. F1, F4–F5). The claim also John E. Koontz, John Ludwickson, Mi- appears in Harjo’s published account of 3 The copyright suggests that one or more chael McCafferty, Jack B. Martin, Mari- the trademark case (Harjo 2001: 190); it chapters may have originally appeared anne Mithun, Dennis Northcott, Jan Ober- was not, however, part of the submis- in the New York Evening Post. It was la, Douglas R. Parks, Andrew Pierce, sion to the trademark board, and no reprinted in 1901. An early manuscript Robert L. Rankin, Jim Rementer, Stephen supporting evidence for it has ever outline has the title “Colonial Family Life Rhind-Tutt, Donald A. Ringe, David S. been cited. For the aboriginal roots of from Family Papers” with an earlier “Co- Rood, Jurga Saltanaviciute, Elizabeth G. scalping and other trophy taking, the lonial Home Life Pictures” crossed out. Shapiro, Jean Daniel Stanley, Lucy Thom- role of scalp bounties in promoting the (Ledger of submitted articles and ason, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, John practice, and the rise of the modern accounts p. 128, unnumbered box, VanDereedt, Robert Vézina, Herman J. myth that Europeans introduced it, see Helen Evertson Smith papers, New-York Viola, and Neal Woodman. Axtell and Sturtevant (1980). Historical Society.)

NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES 19:2 2005 1 author of this, Helen Evertson Smith, It is evident that this passage alleged- was rewritten from what is in the note- describes the letter as known from a ly from a Samuel Smith letter of 1676 book. For example, there is a refer- copy made by Samuel Smith’s great- is an earlier version of the section of ence to “Catamounts,” a word not oth- great-granddaughter Juliana Smith in his purported letter of 1699 that is erwise known to have been applied to a diary she kept from 1779–1781 that quoted in extenso above. For exam- the North American mountain lion be- was among a trove of documents pre- ple, there are two places in the hand- fore 1794, though later used by both served in the ancestral family house in written passage where Helen Evert- Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wen- Sharon, Connecticut. The stone Geor- son Smith changed wording that is dell Holmes (OED). The letter has “till gian house that the Smith family called inside her quotation marks to the they got Married,” but the expression “Weatherstone” is real, but according wording that appears in her book. to get married was not used in the sev- to Elizabeth G. Shapiro, the Director of What was first written as enteenth century, and get with any the Sharon Historical Society, none of his first recollections were “of passive participle is rare before the the documents referred to in Helen was changed to nineteenth century (OED: get, v., 34b).9 Evertson Smith’s book, including Juli- am(on)g his first recollections were The expanded description of the meet- ana Smith’s diary, have ever been “the ing house in the book records that it located (pers. com., 6 October 2004; in the book, and “firmness & justice” be- “was solid mayde”; this adverbial and 10 November 2004; 28 January 2005). came “Justice & Authority”. The note- preverbal use of solid is not found in There is, however, a document that book entry appears to be a sort of dress the seventeenth century, but the ex- sheds light on the published letter rehearsal, an earlier attempt at fabri- pression in the letter has close paral- among Helen Evertson Smith’s papers cating a letter from the Colonial Period, lels in poems by Alfred Tennyson: “But in the New-York Historical Society. In complete with a somewhat different fam- like a statue solid-set” (In Memoriam this collection there are two note- ily source. And most significantly in the A. H. H., 1850); “Enoch stronger-made books labeled “Colonial” and “Colo- present context, what is in the published Was master” (Enoch Arden, 1864). The nial and other Material,” which contain letter as “iff ye Red Skins was treated” word boyhood is not found by the OED excerpts from various sources. And in is in Helen Evertson Smith’s notebook before about 1745 and did not at first one of these is the following passage as “if the Indians were treated.”6 have the meaning it has in the phrase in Helen Evertson Smith’s hand:4 The excerpt in Helen Evertson Smith’s “during my boyhood” that appears in “Samuel Smith (first) in a letter writ- notebook contains no non-standard the letter (‘the period of one’s life when ten soon after the great Indian spellings and only mild attempts at one is, or especially was, a boy’). attack upon Hadley, Mass., in 1676, archaic vocabulary and diction, but Helen Evertson Smith’s other literary at which time he was then living, the published letter has been relent- work and the times in which she wrote says that am’g his first recollections lessly antiqued. Many words are print- provide context for her evident fabri- were “[[of]] the Indian Alarms in ed with the addition of a word-final cation of the Samuel Smith letter. She Wethersfield, Ct., where the founda- silent -e, but the frequency and distri- also used the hoary literary device of tions of my father’s meeting house bution of this feature are inconsistent the found letter in an apparently un- were laid in the fear of the Lord, & with late seventeenth-century usage.7 published story that is headed: “A for- its walls were reared in the terror of In the book, “ye” has been substituted gotten National Crime[: ] Bombard- the Indians. I do not remember any everywhere the notebook has the, and ment of Copenhagen in 1807. Told in attacks made by large parties there, the non-emphatic auxiliary verb did is letters from an English lady married to but several families, which lived back used with unidiomatic frequency, as a member of the Royal Council of Den- a ways from the River were either in the two places where “did live” has mark, to her father a member of the murdered or captivated during my replaced lived.8 The words Helen Ev- British House of Commons[.] Edited boyhood, and we all lived in constant ertson Smith had entered in her note- by Helen Evertson Smith”. On the out- fear of the like. My father ever de- book as murdered and declared she side of the folded typescript is written: clared there would not be so much to had her publisher print as “murderdt” “This account is based on a few frag- fear if the Indians were treated with and “declardt,” spellings that, like her ments of letters & the narrative many such [[a]] mixture of [[firmness &]] word “onsaults” (for onslaughts), ap- times heard in my childhood, from the [[j]]Justice & Authority as they could pear to be unknown outside her book. lips of the old lady whom I have called comprehend, but if he was living now There are other anachronistic or Mrs. Castenskjöld, & carefully verified he must think that we can do naught, unidiomatic usages in the published by comparison with the best printed but fight them & that right heavily.” Smith letter outside the section that authorities. H.E.S.”10 Copied by Julian Smith in their fam- ily news paper the “Clio” in 1781.5 6 The passages with the other occurrences 9 Richard W. Bailey (pers. comm., 3 Jan- of “Red Skin(s)” in the published letter uary 2005); Bailey observes that the 4 In printing this excerpt and another one have no counterparts in the notebook. only seventeenth-century use of get with below two editorial conventions have 7 I am grateful for the observations of a passive participle in the OED (in the been used to indicate changes made in Richard W. Bailey on this and other as- expression got acquainted with) is the manuscript in the writer’s hand: un- pects of the language of the published arguably not really a passive. derlining marks additions, and double letter (pers. comm., 3 January 2005). 10 Box “Miscellaneous Mss,” Helen Evert- brackets ([[…]]) are added to enclose 8 English and French words cited in italics son Smith papers, New-York Historical deletions. Parentheses mark the expan- are in the present standard orthogra- Society. In the title, the word National sion of an abbreviation. phies. Double quotes are used for direct was added later. 5 Notebook “Colonial and Other Material” quotations, including citations of specif- Presumably historians will want to re-eval- p. 20, in box “Scrap books, note books, ic non-standard forms in the sources; uate the assumed authenticity of the ex- & misc.,” Helen Evertson Smith papers, single quotes mark glosses and longer cerpts from Juliana Smith’s manuscript New-York Historical Society. The passage translations of cited materials. The newspaper that have made their way in- ends at the end of a page, with no punc- spellings redskin and white-skin are to the biography of Noah Webster (War- tuation. those of the OED lemmata. fel 1966: 41–43). Another publication in

2 EUROPEAN REVIEW OF Although the Samuel Smith letter out the apparent first use of redskin in The French account from 1725 says has many features inconsistent with the 1699 Smith letter as “an isolated explicitly of the Taensa that “they call its purported date of 1699, it is very example” from such an early date, and themselves in their language ‘Red much at home among the sort of writ- he concluded from this that “its authen- Men’” (Rowland and Sanders 1927– ings that were popular as part of the ticity is slightly suspect” and astutely 1932, 2: 486).14 Since the Taensa Colonial Revival at the time of its pub- suggested that “it may reflect a later spoke the same language as the Nat- lication in 1900. This cultural move- editorial hand.” With the discovery that chez (Swanton 1911: 22), the Taensa ment, which came into full force with the purported 1699 letter has not mere- expression was presumably the same the national centennial celebrations, ly suffered from editorial intervention as the Natchez designation 〈tvmh- influenced architecture, furniture, but was the fictional creation of a late hakup〉 ‘Indian’ (Ann Eliza Worcester decorative arts, and popular history nineteenth-century writer, the fact that Robertson in Brinton 1873: 488), which with a nostalgia for Colonial times, the myriad of references to Indians in in phonemic transcription is toM ‘man’ which were viewed as a Golden Age English documents of the Colonial Pe- (or in its earlier shape *taM) plus for household arts and domestic life. riod never use the term redskin makes haakup ‘red’ (Geoffrey A. Kimball, And in fact, other writers with these sense, which would not be the case if pers. com., 17 November 2004).15 interests are known to have created redskin really had been already in use Similarly, the Chickasaws in 1725 were fictional diaries and memoirs as a way by the end of the seventeenth century. of vividly evoking the Colonial Period, Eighteenth-century records do, 13 As an example Robert Vézina (pers. in some cases innocently and in some however, attest the emergence of the comm., 20 February 2005) cites Jean- cases not (Norton 1998).11 use of the color terms red and white Bernard Bossu (1768: 60), who quotes a by Native Americans as racial desig- Natchez elder as referring to “tous les nations, and the adoption of these hommes rouges,” explaining that, “C’est Red and White As Racial Terms terms by Europeans in eastern North ainsi que ces Sauvages s’appellent pour se distinguer des Européens qui sont America. The first uses of the term red blancs, & des Africains qui sont noirs.” The only one of the linguistic oddities as a racial label that Shoemaker In the translation of Seymour Feiler (Bos- in Samuel Smith’s letter that has made (1997: 627) found are from 1725. In su 1962: 39) this is “all the red men,” with it into the Oxford English Dictionary is that year a Taensa chief talking to a a note: “This is what the Indians call the expression “Red Skins” (and French Capuchin priest in Mobile re- themselves to distinguish themselves attributive “Red Skin”), but in 1699, counted an origin story about a “white from the Europeans who are white and when the letter was purportedly writ- man,” a “red man,” and a “black man” the Africans who are black.” Shoemaker (1997: 632) suggests that ten, American Indians had, in fact, not (Rowland and Sanders 1927–1932, 2: the racial use of “red” and “white” might yet been racially characterized as red. 485–486), and a Chickasaw chief owe something to the use of these col- In two lengthy studies of the use of meeting with the English Commis- ors for opposing moieties among tribes color terminology for races in Ameri- sioner for Indian Affairs at Savanna in the Southeast, but there is no neces- ca, the historians Alden T. Vaughan Town referred to “White people” and sary connection. The same colors can (1982) and Nancy Shoemaker (1997) “red people” (George Chicken in stand for different things in different con- texts. For example, both James Madi- have not found any use of the adjec- Mereness 1916: 169). As Shoemaker son and Black Thunder, who used red tive red to distinguish American Indi- (1997: 628) documents, this use of and white as racial terms (see below), ans as a separate race before the “red” was soon adopted in both also used red (or bloody) and white to 1720s.12 Vaughan (1982: 948) singled French and English and was conven- symbolize war and peace, clearly intend- tional by the 1750s. Although Euro- ing no linkage between the two idioms peans sometimes used such expres- (Stagg et al. 2004: 175–177; Boilvin 1816). 14 the same genre is the account by Smith sions among themselves, however, The document has been published only in English translation. (1894) of a debate between Alexander they remained aware of the fact that Hamilton and William Livingston 15 The shallow-pointed brackets (〈…〉) en- “(Edited from Unpublished Papers of this was originally and particularly a close an exact transliteration of a pre- 13 the Late Governor John Cotton Smith, of Native American usage. modern transcription. Italics is used for Connecticut).” phonemic transcriptions, but for acces- 11 A second purported excerpt from sibility and typographical convenience Juliana Smith’s diary in Smith (1900), a their skin—red and tanned—should not these have been rewritten to use ordi- description of a family dinner on come close to that of the French, which nary letters as much as possible. Tech- Thanksgiving Day, 1779 (Smith 1900: was white” (McWilliams 1953: 24). (“M. nical phonetic symbols have been re- 291–297, esp. 291), also shows evi- d’Iberville, en leur montrant sa main, leur placed as follows: double vowels dence of being a later fabrication. The fit comprendre que leur peau rouge et (instead of vowel + raised dot) are writ- Harvard University social historian bazanée ne devoit point s’approcher de ten for long vowels (pronounced as in Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has stated that it celle des François, qui estoit blanche.” German or Finnish), and double conso- is obvious from the anachronistic lan- [Margry 1876–1886, 5: 394].) This is not nants are written for long consonants (as guage and descriptions in this account evidence that the French used the ad- in Italian); a superscript n (rather than a that “it is a 19th century fiction … a colo- jective rouge ‘red’ in a racial sense in Polish nasal hook) marks the preceding nial revival invention” (pers. comm., 6 1700, however, given that Iberville was vowel as nasalized (as in French); sh October 2004; quoted with permission). using gestures supplemented by Mo- and ch are unit phonemes pronounced 12 Shoemaker (1997: 633) cites a rare early bilian Jargon, and that Pénigault’s ac- as in English (except in Mohawk; see n. use of “red” to refer the skin of Indians count, which has details inconsistent with 34); zh has the sound of the s in English in André Pénigault’s narrative of Mobile Iberville’s journal (McWilliams 1981: 119), pleasure; x is a voiceless velar fricative during the years 1699–1721. Pénigault was written up, at least in the form that (German ch or Spanish j); gh is a voiced reports that in 1700 Pierre Le Moine survives, after its author had returned to velar fricative (like Modern Greek d’Iberville, when he first visited the Ba- France in 1721. gamma); M is a voiceless m (an m whis- yogoula village on the Mississippi, had For red paint or Carl Linnaeus as pered through the nose); and an apos- rejected the chief’s offer of women for assumed factors in describing Indians trophe is used for glottal stop (the his men “by showing his hand to them as red, see Vaughan (1982: 922, 945– sound between the two syllables of the [and] mak[ing] them understand that 946) and Shoemaker (1997: 625–626). English exclamation Uh-Oh!).

NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES 19:2 2005 3 probably already using the expres- to people telling the Indians things close varieties of Dhegiha Siouan. sion with the same basic meaning that about the “Dutch or Whites” (Vaughan Pawnee, spoken just up-river from the was attested later as Chickasaw 1982: 931). The phrase “or Whites” Dhegiha-speakers, was a Caddoan Hattak Api’ Homma’ ‘Indian’, which is cannot be an explanation of “Dutch,” language. The first Europeans to have hattak ‘person’ + api’ ‘stalk’ + homma’ as the Dutch did not then use this extended contacts with these peoples ‘red’ (Munro and Willmond 1994: 32, term for themselves and would hardly were speakers of French, and the first 101, 342); Pamela Munro, pers. com., have needed to add a synonym for English-speakers in the area relied on 22 November 2004).16 Creek (which, “Dutch” anyway. The intended mean- French-speakers in their dealings with like Chickasaw, is a Muskogean lan- ing of “or Whites” must be ‘or, as they the Indians. The restricted context of guage) was using the expression isti- call us, Whites’, reflecting the termi- origin makes it possible to describe chaáti (‘person’ + ‘red’) for ‘Indian’ as nology used by interpreters and par- very precisely the occasions when the early as 1738, when it appeared in a tial bilinguals. Vaughan (1982: 932) word redskin was first used, and the vocabulary beside isti-lásti (‘person’ + gives other early uses of white applied identities and backgrounds of those ‘black’) for ‘Negro’ and isti-hátki (‘per- to Europeans by Indians or used by who were the first to use it are an inte- son’ + ‘white’) for ‘white person’.17 Europeans in dealing with Indians.19 gral part of this account. It is extreme- There is also evidence for the early ly unusual to be able to document the use of the label ‘white’ to refer to Euro- emergence of a vernacular expres- peans in Native American languages. The First Known Uses of Redskin sion in such exact and elucidative David Zeisberger’s eighteenth-centu- detail. ry compilation of Delaware words It was from the use of red as a con- The earliest examples of redskin to gives for ‘European’ both 〈schwonnac〉 ventional iconic reference to North be found so far are emblematic of the and 〈Wâpsît Lennape〉 (Zeisberger American Indians, both by Native process of its adoption in English. In 1887: 69). The first of these is the Americans and by representatives of 1769 three chiefs of the Piankashaws, equivalent of Unami (modern Oklaho- the Colonial European powers, that a Miami-speaking people then living ma Delaware) shuwánakw, the usual the word redskin emerged. This de- on the lower Wabash River, sent to Lt. word for ‘whiteman’ in the twentieth velopment took place among a small Col. John Wilkins four talks, written out century. The second expression is group of people in a limited area, part for them in French, which were for- waápsiit lënaáppe ‘white person’, of what was historically called the Illi- warded to London with translations and apparently from the Northern Unami nois Country. There, after France gave explanations in August of that year. dialect used by the Moravian mission- up her territories on the North Ameri- Wilkins, the British commander in Illi- aries; waápsiit is ‘(that, animate,) can continent in 1762 and 1763, nois, had his headquarters at Fort which is white’, and lënaáppe is other- French communities remained behind Cavendish (the former Fort de wise the Unami word for ‘Indian’ (ana- at Saint Joseph (Niles, Michigan), Oui- Chartres), about 18 miles above Kas- lytically ‘ordinary man’) but here atenon (Lafayette, Indiana), Vincennes, kaskia on the east bank of the appears in what is evidently an earlier and Peoria, and from Cahokia (East Mississippi. He had the task of elicit- and more general meaning. Actually, St. Louis) to Kaskaskia on the Missis- ing loyalty or at least peaceful behav- the word shuwánakw was felt to be sippi and across the river in Spanish ior from the Illinois tribes, who were uncomplimentary (Heckewelder 1819: territory at St. Louis and St. Genevieve. still strongly attached to the French 131), even in the twentieth century, The Indians in and around this region four years after their surrender and being based on a root shuw- ‘sour, spoke languages of three separate departure, a disposition that had led salty’. Northern Unami waápsiit linguistic families. Sauk-Meskwaki (a to the assassination of the Ottawa war lënaáppe would have been the formal language spoken by the Sauks and chief Pontiac by Peorias further up- expression used in high-register dis- the Meskwakis, or Fox, in two very river in Cahokia some months earlier course, corresponding to modern similar dialects), Miami-Illinois (also (Kelsey 1979; Chevrette 1974). The Unami weeyoópsiit ‘white person, spoken in several dialects), and Pota- “Old Sachem” Mosquito (French white people’, formed from the same watomi were Algonquian languages. Maringouin) ended his first talk with an stem.18 Heckewelder (1819: 130) re- Santee (or Dakota), the eastern dia- invitation: ports the belief that this was the first lect of Sioux, was a Siouan language. “je serai flatté que tu Vienne parler name given to the Europeans, and Iowa-Otoe-Missouri (also called Chi- toimeme pour avoir pitie De nos there is indirect evidence that a Dela- were) was another Siouan language, femmes et De nos enfans, et si ware expression referring to Europe- with three tribal varieties, and Omaha- quelques peaux Rouges te font Du ans as white was in fact in use already Ponca, Kansa, and Osage were very mal je Scaurai soutenir tes Interests by the middle of the seventeenth cen- au peril De ma Vie” (Johnson tury. A Dutch document of 1652 refers 1921–1965, 7: 133). 19 In 1796 Jean-Baptiste Truteau, describ- This was translated as: ing the tribes of the upper Missouri, “I shall be pleased to have you 16 The expression is at least as old as the wrote: “Ils ne scavent point faire la dis- come to speak to me yourself if you mid-nineteenth century, when it was tinction des nations policées, anglaise, recorded for Choctaw by Byington francaise, Espagnoles &c. qu’ils nom- pity our women and our children; (1915:137), who glossed it “a man of a ment tous indifferemment hommes and, if any redskins do you harm, I red trunk or stalk.” Blanc ou Esprits.” Annie H. Abel (1921: shall be able to look out for you 17The Creek terms are phonemicized from 178) gives both the French text and her even at the peril of my life” (Johnson the transcription in Greek letters used by translation: “They do not know how to dis- 1921–1965, 7: 137–138). Johann Martin Bolzius and Israel Chris- tinguish among civilized nations, Eng- The more “severe” speech of the war lish, French, Spanish, et cetera, whom tian Gronau (Jack B. Martin, pers. comm. chief and village chief called 12 January 2005; Martin 2004: 74). they call indifferently white men or spir- 18 Unami weeyoópsiit (from *weewaápsiit) its.” The English alone is reprinted by Hannanas (evidently a French nick- was back-formed from a plural in which Nasatir (1952: 282), who has further name Ananas ‘Pineapple’) included the reduplication would be normal. notes. these words:

4 EUROPEAN REVIEW OF “aparament que tu crois que je ne ties of British agents among the Indi- tated to the trader Sylvestre Labba- serai pas capable De rien Lorsque ans (Clark 1812; Carter 1934–1969, die, Chouteau’s nephew (Carter 1934– tu me privera de poudre et De 14: 109; Brant 1961: 68–70; Foley 1969, 14: 466–468). Zebulon Pike, who balles, tu dois scavoir que je scais 2004: 191–192; Stagg et al. 2004: gives his Osage name as Tetobasi, me servir de Bois pour faire mes 175–186). met him in 1806 (Pike 1966, 1: 296, armes et que avec ce meme bois ye Madison’s speech to the chiefs 301, 304–305, 310–314, 2: 31). The tue Des hommes, … offers a fine illustration from the early Indian agent for the Osages, George “… tu Crois que je suis Orphelin, years of the American republic of the C. Sibley, referred to him as the head mes tous les Gens De ces rivieres use of the color word red as a sus- warrior of his band in 1813 (Carter et tout les peaux rouges appren- tained metaphor for race. Madison 1934–1969, 14: 713).24 deront ma mort” (Johnson 1921– urged the chiefs to stay out of the fight French Crow, the principal chief of 1965, 7: 135). between Britain and the United the Wahpekute band of Santee Sioux, This was translated as: States, affecting a high rhetorical style pledged obedience and peace and “Apparently you think that I shall not that made liberal use of conventional said: be capable of anything when you Native American diplomatic language “I am a red-skin, but what I say is deprive me of powder and ball. You and metaphor. the truth, and notwithstanding I must know that I know how to use “My red children: You have come came a long way I am content, but wood to make my weapons and that thro’ a long path to see your father, wish to return from here” (Stagg et with this same wood I kill men .… … I thank the great spirit that he has al. 2004: 182). “… You think that I am an orphan; brought you in health through the French Crow signed the treaties that but all the people of these rivers and long journey; … were entered into by the Eastern all the redskins will learn of my death” “The red people who live on the Sioux bands in 1816, 1825, and 1830 (Johnson 1921–1965, 7: 139). same great Island with the white (Kappler 1904–1941, 2: 129, 254, 309).25 The French texts were described as people of the 18 fires, are made by The fifth attestation of redskin to “an Exact Copy” of what the chiefs’ the great spirit of the same earth, come to light is also in the translation French interpreter had written. The from parts of it differing in colour of an Indian speech. In 1813 Maurice first has “si quelques peaux Rouges” only” (Stagg et al. 2004: 175–176).22 Blondeau traveled up the Mississippi translated as “if any redskins,” and Throughout his speech, Madison River from St. Louis to the village of the second has “tout les peaux referred to “red people,” and used the Sauk chief known as Blue, which rouges” translated as “all the red- such expressions as “all my red chil- was at the mouth of the Des Moines skins.” The first appearances of red- dren,” “all the red tribes,” “their red River. Blondeau had a Meskwaki skin in English are thus as literal trans- brethren,” and “between one red tribe mother and had been promoted from lations of what would be in standard and another.” interpreter to sub-agent for the Sauks French Peau-Rouge (in both cases After Madison finished his address while with the delegation in Washing- the plural Peaux-Rouges), which is to the chiefs they replied in turn. No ton the previous August (Eustis itself in a translation from a dialect of Ears (Sans-Oreilles), listed by Clark 1812).26 His mission was to persuade the Miami-Illinois language.20 (1812) as one of the second chiefs of the Sauks and Meskwakis to move The first recorded public uses of the the Little Osages, expressed satisfac- away from the Rock River in western English word redskin were nearly half tion with the American administration, Illinois, where they were subject to the a century later, on 22 August 1812.21 adding (Stagg et al. 2004: 181): “I know malign influence of British agents, and The occasion was a reception in the the manners of the whites and the red settle on the Des Moines River, and to President’s House in Washington for skins.” No Ears was a son of White send fifteen chiefs to meet with Clark an Indian delegation representing Hair, who had usurped the role of in St. Louis. Arriving at the village on several western tribes: the Osages, principal chief of the Osages as part Sauks, Meskwakis, Shawnees, San- of an intrigue with the trader Pierre 24 The same information in Sibley (1927: tees, Iowas, and Winnebagos. The Chouteau and had died in 1808 197) cannot be dated; see n. 21. chiefs had come to Washington in two (James B. Wilkinson in Pike 1966, 2: 25 In the treaties of 1825 and 1830 French groups, accompanied by William 16–17, 32; Donald Jackson in Pike Crow (khanghí washíchun) is identified Clark, the famed explorer, who had 1966, 1: 288, n. 2).23 He had asked to specifically as a Wahpekute; Clark been appointed Agent of Indian be taken to see the president in a let- appears to have been mistaken in call- ing him a Yankton (Clark 1812). Affairs for most of Louisiana Territory ter to the Indian agent Auguste Chou- 26 For Maurice Blondeau see Reuben Gold in 1807, and Nicolas Boilvin, the agent teau, a resident of St. Louis long in- Thwaites (in Forsyth 1911: 356–357). for the upper Mississippi tribes. War volved in the fur trade, which he dic- There are several contemporary refer- had just broken out with Great Britain, ences to his half-Meskwaki parentage and the president, James Madison, (Carter 1934–1969, 17: 385, 402; For- was concerned about the threat to 22 Madison’s speech was earlier pub- syth 1830). He was trading with the national security posed by the activi- lished in the National Journal in 1825 Meskwakis by 1801. British Lt. Col. Rob- and reprinted in Niles’ Register for 14 ert McDouall (1895: 109–110) was told May 1825 (vol. 28, pp. 175–176). It and that he was “a very clever fellow” and two copies of the chiefs’ responses are hoped to entice him to the British side 20 I am indebted to John Ludwickson for also on microfilm (Library of Congress, and make him a Lieutenant in the Indian pointing out these examples. Presidential Papers Microfilm, James Department. He could sign his name, 21 Redskins was ostensibly used by Madison Papers, Series 1, reel 14 [1812 but the letters of his that survive do not George C. Sibley in a letter of 11 August Apr 21–1813 Jan]). appear to be written by him and Ninian 1811, but the extant copies of this were 23 No Ears was not the Osage principal Edwards asserted that, among other rewritten with apparent additions in chief who was called “White hair’s son,” failings, he was “incapable of making 1860 (Sibley 1927: 204, Sibley 1965: as Stagg et al. (2004: 186, n. 1) state; out any reports” (Carter 1934–1969, 17: 185; George R. Brooks in Sibley 1965: Clark (1812) wrote the name of this chief 199). There is no evidence that he 185, n. 27). as “Kehagartongar.” spoke English.

NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES 19:2 2005 5 21 April, he held a council the same translated “the red people.” The fact Nomwait had maintained the Sauk day. There Blue reported that eight that in 1813 a translation made in St. refusal to yield the land between the days earlier the British agent Robert Louis used “red skins,” but one made Wisconsin and Illinois rivers that the Dickson had held a council with the just across the river did not, reflects United States claimed had been upstart war leader Black Hawk and how new and restricted the use of this ceded by the treaty of 1804, and in his other pro-British Sauks, ten lodges of expression then was. response Clark had chastised the whom had moved the previous fall to Sauks and Kickapoos for not sending the upper Rock River, away from the chiefs who had the authority to sign village of the principal chiefs near the The First Appearances of Redskin treaties. After public expressions of Mississippi. Dickson had asked that in Print hostility from Indians of other tribes they move north to Prairie du Chien, at and, later, rumors of planned “mis- the mouth of the Wisconsin River, and Although the earliest recorded public chief,” the Meskwakis, Sauks, and that their leaders go to parley at Ft. uses of the word redskin that have Kickapoos had left Portage des Sioux Malden, the main western outpost of come to light were in a very public to return home under cover of dark- the British just south of Detroit at place indeed, before James Madison ness that very night (Missouri Gazette, Amherstburg, Ontario. in the President’s House in Washing- 15 July 1815; Clark, Edwards, and On 23 April Dickson’s agents deliv- ton, there is no evidence that this Chouteau 1834; A.H. Bulger 1890: ered the same invitations at the camp expression was picked up and spread 194–195). of the Sauk chiefs Leggin and abroad by any of those that heard it on There is neither an official nor a pri- Nomwait at the mouth of the Iowa that occasion. The speeches that con- vate account of the daily activities at River.27 Nomwait, the principal Sauk tained it were written down and sur- the treaty councils, and the only event war chief,28 responded with a ques- vive, but they were not printed until recorded for 20 July in an official tion, which Blondeau translated into 2004, when the mammoth project to record is the signing of the treaty with French on the basis of the account he publish the James Madison papers the Omahas (Kappler 1904–1941, 2: had received: brought out the final set from the year 115–116). The newspaper report of “votre pere anglois vous a-t-il dit de 1812. It was apparently not until 1815 Black Thunder’s speech, however, quelle maniere il va supporter les that the word began to show up in indicates that the commissioners also peaux rouges a faire la guerre aux print. had a confrontational meeting with américains? pour ma part je ne vois The first two known occurrences of representatives of the Meskwakis and de quelle maniere il pourra support- redskin that were published contem- of another tribe on that day. (The other er la guerre” (Blondeau 1813a). poraneously are in translations of tribe is unidentified but was most like- A contemporary translation of Blon- speeches by two Indian chiefs of dif- ly the Iowas, who were also tardy in deau’s report gives this as follows: ferent tribes that were made within a sending an acceptable delegation.) “Did your English father tell you in few days of each other in July 1815 As the report does not refer to the what manner he would support the and in almost the same place. The Omaha treaty but does mention red skins to make war against the occasion was the series of councils treaties that were signed on 18 and 19 Americans, as for my part, I do not held with representatives of the tribes July, the meeting with the Meskwakis see in what manner he will be able to of the upper Mississippi and lower most likely took place before the sign- support the war” (Blondeau 1813b). Missouri rivers by three “commission- ing of the Omaha treaty. A letter writ- The translation that contains this pas- ers plenipotentiary” appointed by ten to a different newspaper on 20 sage was sent by Nicolas Boilvin, President Madison and headed by July reported that thirty Meskwakis Blondeau’s boss, to John Armstrong, William Clark, who had become Gov- had arrived at the council grounds the Secretary of War (Blondeau ernor of Missouri Territory on 16 June from Rock River without their principal 1813b). A copy of Blondeau’s report 1813. The other commissioners were chiefs (Missouri Gazette, 22 July in French, probably originally dictated Governor Edwards of Illinois and 1815). But if these Meskwakis, who rather than written by him, was sent to Auguste Chouteau. The commission- doubtless included Black Thunder, Governor Ninian Edwards of Illinois ers were to negotiate and sign peace had come from Rock River, they were (Blondeau 1813a), and in the transla- treaties with the Indians in accor- probably coming from a council at tion that was made for Edwards “les dance with the ninth article of the which all the chiefs had been present. peaux rouges” (lit. ‘the redskins’) is Treaty of Ghent, which had been rati- At the meeting on 20 July Clark must fied in February, ending the War of have chastised the representatives of 27 The location of this camp on the Iowa 1812. The treaties were signed at the Meskwakis and the other tribe for River is specified in a second letter Portage des Sioux, on the west bank not sending delegations with the (Blondeau 1813d). of the Mississippi in Missouri, and proper authority to negotiate with the 28 Nomwait’s name appears also as there were other gatherings in St. commissioners, just as he had done Namoitte, Namirto, Neomite, Mamoite, Louis, about twenty miles to the south- with the Sauks and the Kickapoos on Lamoite, la Moite, Amoite, Lemoite, east, both before and after (Carter 10 July. The first Indian speaker to LeMoite, and Leettoite. Nomwait is a shortening of a full form given in an 1934–1969, 14: 679, 15: 68, n. 18; respond, the representative of the English spelling of Blondeau’s pronun- Fisher 1933; Foley 2004: 202–207). unnamed tribe, had “trembled like an ciation as Namoitissort (Carter 1934– The first of these published uses of aspin leaf” and was “scarcely … able 1969, 14: 662). The optional pronuncia- redskin (as “red skins”) is in the trans- to articulate” (Niles 1815b: 113). tion of /n/ as [l] was a feature of Sauk- lation of a speech delivered by the Then Black Thunder, who had kept Meskwaki in the nineteenth century, and Meskwaki chief Black Thunder at to the American side throughout the the sounds were no longer distinct phonemes. Variant forms of Nomwait’s Portage des Sioux on 20 July 1815. war, rose and addressed Clark. name have sometimes been taken to The atmosphere was tense. During “My Father—Restrain your feelings, refer to different men (Fisher 1933: 500, the opening ceremonies on 10 July and hear ca[l]mly what I shall say. I 502; Foley 2004: 200, 206). the brother of the Sauk war chief shall tell it to you plainly, I shall not

6 EUROPEAN REVIEW OF speak with fear and trembling. I feel that trip, Black Thunder was referred lissa 1821a, 1821b). His quoted no fear. I have no cause to fear. I to a number of times from 1814 until remarks to Clark were presumably have never injured you, and inno- 1822, when he signed the treaty with either transcribed by someone work- cence can feel no fear. I turn to all, the “Sac and Fox Tribes of Indians” in ing for the Missouri Gazette or ob- red skins and white skins, and chal- St. Louis (Anderson 1882: 207; tained from official sources. He lenge an accusation against me” Forsyth 1872: 191; Lyman C. Draper declared that he represented five (Niles 1815b: 113). in Meeker 1872: 280; Kappler 1904– bands (“villages”), including those of Black Thunder went on to affirm 1941, 2: 202–203). the Pawnees (Missouri Gazette, 5 friendship with the United States while The second use of redskin to August 1815). also asserting: “My lands can never appear in print (in the phrase “one of The third known occurrence in print be surrendered. I was cheated.” He our red skin chiefs”) is in a rendering (as “the red skins”) is in “the recital of had, as he said, moved his village of some brief remarks addressed to a talk received from an English officer above Prairie du Chien, thus putting it Clark by the Omaha principal chief in Canada, addressed to the” Sauks, outside the disputed area between Big Elk.31 The exact date and place Kickapoos, Winnebagos, Chippewas, the Wisconsin and Illinois rivers (Niles are not recorded, but he was proba- Ottawas, Meskwakis, Menominees, 1815b: 113; Anderson 1882: 207). bly speaking at a gathering in St. and Iowas. The talk was reported by Most Sauks and Meskwakis, however, Louis a few days after the signing of the Sauks to the Indian agent Nicolas considered the treaty of 1804 to be a the Omaha treaty on 20 July 1815, be- Boilvin at a council he held with them fraud based on deception (Black fore returning home up the Missouri:32 in their village on Rock River (Missouri Hawk 1990; Hagan 1958: 16–25), and “Who would not wish to die among Gazette, 16 September 1815), and the commissioners would have under- you! that he may be buried with the Boilvin sent a transcript of it to stood that Black Thunder was deliver- honors of war, as you buried one of Governor Edwards: ing a diplomatically phrased message our red skin chiefs, who died at “My Children—The Americans & from the principal leaders of his tribe Portage des Sioux” (Missouri Ga- English have taken one another by that they, like the Sauks, would not zette, 29 July 1815). the hand of friendship, and we hope relinquish the disputed territory. Big Elk was principal chief of the it will be for the benefit of the red As a member of the Thunder Clan, Omaha from 1811 until his death skins of the Mississippi.” Black Thunder could not hold the about 1849 and another noted orator The editor’s use of italics presumably highest tribal offices, either on the (O’Shea and Ludwickson 1992: 335, indicates that he considered the peace side or the war side, but the 338; Ludwickson 1995: 142–143). The expression “red skins” to be an Indian early settler John Shaw (1888: Indian chief he refers to was Black turn of phrase. The British talk report- 220–221) described him as of impres- Buffalo, the principal chief of the ed by the Sauks was a speech sent sive mien and “a very remarkable ora- Teton Sioux, who had died at the site by Lt. Col. Robert McDouall from his tor of his day [who] was considered of the peace councils on 14 July and post at Michilimackinac explaining the the ablest speaker of the Sauks and had been buried with full military hon- terms of the Treaty of Ghent to the Foxes of his time.”29 As a great orator ors the following day, when Clark was western Indians allied with the British. and a firm friend of the Americans he absent. Big Elk had given a funeral This speech had been read to a gath- would have been the obvious choice oration, which was widely reprinted ering of over 1,200 Indians from vari- to take the message of the Meskwaki (Niles 1815b; Bradbury 1817: 220– ous tribes by Capt. Thomas G. Ander- chiefs to Portage des Sioux. In fact, as 221; Drake 1833, 5: 114–115; Outa- son on 22 May 1815 in the last coun- he reminded Clark in his speech, he cil held under the British flag at Prairie had told the president the same thing du Chien. Anderson then took the in Clark’s presence when he had Ridge (Stagg et al. 2004: 184–185). The speech to Rock River. The original extant copies of Black Thunder’s gone to Washington in 1812 with the speech (again ascribed to “Big Thun- wording of McDouall that was eventu- Sauk and Meskwaki chiefs to serve as der”) do not include the refusal to sur- ally rendered as “the red skins of the the speaker for the Meskwakis.30 After render the disputed land, but a remark Mississippi” was “all his Red chil- by Boilvin (1815) confirms that the dren,” his referring to “Your Great Meskwakis made this point “at the coun- Father the King” (A.H. Bulger 1890: 29 The printed version of the treaty the cil in the President’s House in Wash- 191–193; A. E. Bulger 1895: 155–161). Meskwakis eventually signed on 14 ington in 1812.” Redskin is known to have been used September 1815 gives Black Thunder’s 31 Big Elk’s name is given as Oupaatanga Meskwaki name as Mackkatananama- (Kappler 1904–1941, 2: 116) and Ong- a number of times in public between kee, translated as “the black thunder” patonga (James 1823, 1: 202; Cooper in 1819 and 1822, but the record of the (Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1837: Beard 1960, 1: 199; McKenney and Hall last of these occasions actually ap- 181; Kappler 1904–1941, 2: 122); on the 1933, 1: 273–282) or Ong-pa-ton-ga peared in print first. There are twenty- original this is “Mack-ka-ta-na-na-ma- (James 1823, 1: 174; McKenney and Hall nine occurrences in Edwin James’s kee,” translated “The Black Thunder” engraving in Cooper 1983, Plate 2), rep- account of Maj. Stephen H. Long’s resenting Omaha ánphan ttánga (John E. (NA mfm T 494, r. 1, ratified treaty no. exploratory expedition of 1819–1820 73). Another variant is “Mucathaana- Koontz, pers. comm., 30 November 2004). mickee” (Kappler 1904–1941, 2: 203). 32 Because Big Elk refers to Portage des (James 1823; Thwaites 1905). The In correct Meskwaki the name is mahka- Sioux in a way that indicates that he was Indian Agent Benjamin O’Fallon tee-nenemehkiwa or mahkateewi-nene- somewhere else, he must have been repeatedly used this expression (usu- mehkiwa ‘black thunderer’, i.e. ‘black speaking in St. Louis, and this could ally printed as “red skins” or “red- thunder being’.” only have been after the formal council skins”) in speaking to Pawnees and 30 Clark (1812) listed him as “a Fox Deputy had ended. Clark had a council house Sauks, and three Pawnee chiefs and a at the southeast corner of Main and Vine to speak Called the Big Thunder,” but Sauk chief used it in their replies to this can only be Black Thunder. He streets in St. Louis, where he had held a gave the response to the president for series of meetings with the chiefs of the him; it also appears in James’s para- the Meskwakis after some brief remarks Missouri River tribes in June (Fisher phrases of remarks by two speakers by the Meskwaki principal chief, called 1933: 499). of Omaha. O’Fallon was a nephew of

NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES 19:2 2005 7 William Clark who had lived with his the red skins of the upper Missis- members of a delegation of Missouri uncle in St. Louis since his teens and sippi … I am now chief to the red River Indians that was escorted by had become a successful Indian trad- skins of Missouri, some of whose O’Fallon from Council Bluffs to er. He was made Indian Agent at blood you have spilt. … Washington to see the eastern cities Prairie du Chien for the upper “When I first climbed the rapid and meet President James Monroe, Mississippi tribes in 1817, and in Missouri, I found the red skins as much as the earlier group had been March of 1819 he had been appoint- wild as wolves. … They again brought by his uncle to see Madison ed Indian Agent on the Missouri, his raised their arms, every body who in 1812 (Anonymous 1822; Morse first assigned task being to assist the were there at the time, both whites 1822: 241; Horan 1972: 45–49, 362; expedition (Michel 1999; Carter and red skins, raised their arms, Viola 1972). There were 17 Indians in 1934–1969, 15: 520–521). and looked around them” (James all from four Siouan-speaking tribes O’Fallon addressed a gathering of 1823, 1: 223–224, n.; cf. Thwaites and the three bands of the Pawnees. seventy Pawnees from the three 1905, 1: 314–315, n. 207). At the official reception in the White bands on 9 October 1819: In his reply the Sauk chief said: House on 4 February, after Monroe “Pawnees encamp here and smoke “All those braves have expressed addressed the chiefs, a Pawnee your pipes in security; you have their wish for peace, with the red responded first.33 He can be identified conducted yourselves badly, but skins of Missouri” (James 1823, 1: as Sharitarish, who led the Pawnee the whites will not harm the red- 225, n.; cf. Thwaites 1905, 1: 317, n. delegations as the brother and repre- skins when they have them thus in 207). sentative of the principal chief: their power; we fight in the plains, In two places James adopts the word “My Great Father: and scorn to injure men seated himself in paraphrasing what Omahas “I have travelled a great distance to peaceably by their fires” (James had told him. From one, who was see you—… 1823, 1: 159–160; cf. Thwaites 1905, almost certainly Big Elk, he had “I am going to speak the truth. … 1: 240). learned: The Great Spirit made us all—he O’Fallon used redskin several other “In their opinion, the Wahconda made my skin red, and yours white; times in the formal council the next [“Master of Life”] has been more he placed us on this earth, and day, saying for example: profuse in his distribution of gifts to intended that we should live differ- “Pawnees! I wish to be at peace the white people, than to the red- ently from each other. He made the with you, and all the red-skins, I tell skins” (James 1823, 1: 320; cf. whites to cultivate the earth, and you again. … Thwaites 1905, 2: 110). feed on domestic animals; but he “I will work a change among you, And he reported that the hunter made us, red skins, to rove through Red-skins” (James 1823, 1: 402, Nozundaje the uncultivated woods and plains, 403; cf. Thwaites 1905, 2: 355, 356). “says he has killed several red skins to feed on wild animals, and to Petalesharo, the chief of the Kitkahahki in action, but never yet had the hon- dress with their skins. He also Pawnees, had earlier said: our to strike a body” (James 1823, intended that we should go to war— “Father, I have seen people travel in 1: 183; cf. Thwaites 1905, 1: 268). to take scalps—steal horses from blood. I have travelled in blood After O’Fallon’s 1821 council with the and triumph over our enemies—cul- myself, but it was the blood of red- Sauks, the next recorded uses of red- tivate peace at home, and promote skins, no others. skin were in August 1821 at a treaty the happiness of each other. I “Father, I have been in all the na- conference held at Chicago with rep- believe there are no people of any tions round about, and I have never resentatives of the Ottawas, Chippe- color on this earth who do not feared a red-skin” (James 1823, 1: was, and Potawatomis (Kappler believe in the Great Spirit—in 400; cf. Thwaites 1905, 2: 353). 1904–1941, 2: 198–201). There the rewards, and in punishments. … At a meeting on 25 April 1820 the lead speaker for the Potawatomis was “My father [Agent Benjamin Grand Pawnee chief Long Hair the accomplished orator Metea (Mee- O’Fallon] … settles all differences (Tarrarecawaho) addressed his war- te-ay), a chief from the Wabash River between us and the whites and riors by way of responding to (McKenney and Hall 1933, 2: 205– betwen the red skins themselves— O’Fallon, saying (with the editor’s par- 212), who declared: he makes the whites do justice to enthetical explanation): “I am an Indian, a red-skin, and live the red skins and he makes the red “I have been to the town of the Red by hunting and fishing, but my skins do justice to the whites. … head, (Governor Clarke, at St. country is already too small” “Here, my Great Father, is a pipe Louis,) and saw there all that a red (Schoolcraft 1825: 342). which I present you, as I am accus- skin could see” (James 1823, 1: And Topinabee (Topenebee), the tomed to present pipes to all the red 352; cf. Thwaites 1905, 2: 147). Potawatomi principal chief, said: skins in peace with us” (Daily In fact, in the style he adopted in “My Father,—I am a red skin. I do speaking formally to Indians, which not know how to read or write, but I 33 was influenced throughout by the never forget what is promised me” The texts of the five Indian speeches to President Monroe were printed in a idiom of Native American oratory, (Schoolcraft 1825: 347). Washington newspaper, The Daily O’Fallon never said Indian, only red- The speeches at the council were National Intelligencer (16 February skin. After the return of the expedition, taken down by Henry R. Schoolcraft 1822). Possible reprintings in other he used the word repeatedly in (1825: 343), who stated that he had newspapers have not been searched speaking to a deputation of Sauks in “adhered literally to the spirit and form for. The speeches are most accessible St. Louis on 3 April 1821, urging them of expression of the interpreters.” in Morse (1822: 242–247), but this omits strenuously to cease their warfare The next recorded public uses of a long section from one of them. The synopses written from memory by against the Otoes, Missouris, and redskin were in 1822 and appeared in Anonymous (1822) generally agree with Omahas, saying, for example: print that same year, before James’s the texts but contain additional material “A few winters since, I was a chief to book. They were in two speeches by that appears to be authentic.

8 EUROPEAN REVIEW OF National Intelligencer, 16 February The Interpreters account for the badness of the 1822; cf. Morse 1822: 242–245, French & the errors or Orthography” Buchanan 1824: 41–47). As in the case of the use of the simple (Johnson 1921–1965, 7: 136). The next to speak was the Omaha adjective red as a designation of race Several interpreters accompanied the chief Big Elk, the same man who had in the eighteenth century, first by Na- delegation that went to Washington in been at the treaty council in 1815. Big tive Americans and then by Europeans, 1812 (Clark 1812). The Osage words Elk began: the English word redskin emerged in of No Ears would have been translat- “My Great Father: the nineteenth century as the render- ed into French by Paul Loise, and “Look at me—look at me, my father, ing of a Native American idiom. Ex- Samuel Solomon would have trans- my hands are unstained with your cept for O’Fallon, who was addressing lated the French into English. Loise blood—my people have never struck Indians, all the speakers and writers had been born in St. Louis to French the whites, and the whites have known to have used redskin down to parents in 1777; he was employed for never struck them. It is not the case 1822 were translating the words of a years as an Osage interpreter and with other red skins. Mine is the only Native American language: Miami- had a half-Osage daughter (Calhoun nation that has spared the long Illinois, Osage, Sioux, Sauk-Meskwaki, 1822: 38; Lee 1834; Barry 1948: 8 n. knives. … Omaha, Pawnee, or Potawatomi. Ex- 23, 24 n. 60; Fischer 1999).35 Solomon “The Great Spirit made my skin red, cept for the cases in Illinois in 1769 was a St. Louis tavern-keeper who was and he made us to live as we do and 1821, the word was spoken or born in Montreal in 1773 to a German now; … written, or both, by men working Jewish father, the part-owner a trad- “I am fond of peace, my Great directly or indirectly for William Clark, ing house at Michilimackinac, and a Father, but the Sioux have disturbed who supervised Indian affairs from St. French mother (Fischer 1999; Katz my repose. … they rove on the land Louis in several official capacities. 1948: 253; Gundry 1957: 221–224; like hungry wolves, and, like ser- The work of interpreting was compli- Armour 1985). He had a son with an pents creeping through the grass, cated by the fact that in the early Ojibwa woman in 1797 and was pre- they disturb the unsuspected stran- years of the nineteenth century there sent for his baptism in Michilimacki- ger passing through the country. I were few men who could translate nac in 1799, though the mother was am almost the only red skin op- directly between English and the not. It is possible that, like his younger posed to war—but, my Father, what Indian languages of the Missouri and brother William, he spoke Ojibwa. He should I do to satisfy the dead, the upper Mississippi. Instead, there was in St. Louis by January of 1801, when every wind coming over their were two groups of interpreters. when he married a Frenchwoman from bones brings to my ears their cries Those who knew the Indian languages Kaskaskia there, and in April 1803 he for revenge?” (Daily National Intelli- translated between Indian and French, was an interpreter at the arbitration of gencer, 16 February 1822).34 and other interpreters, who were bilin- an estate in Cold Water (Agua Fría, These earliest known attestations of gual in French and English, translated L’Eau-Froide), a settlement of English- redskin (from 1769 to 1822) come from between those two languages. The speaking Protestants just north of St. a very restricted context. Almost all of first group, sometimes distinguished Louis (Fischer 1999; St. Louis Archives them were in translations of speeches as “Indian interpreters,” were often 1803). He served Clark as a French or briefer utterances by Indians who French-speaking mixed-bloods who interpreter in St. Louis for a number of lived in present-day Iowa and Missouri translated between the languages of years.36 and the surrounding areas of Illinois, their French fathers and Indian moth- northwestern Indiana and extreme ers; some of these could also handle southwestern Michigan, southern Min- other languages, especially ones that 35 His surname appears in some records nesota, and eastern Nebraska and were closely related but sometimes as Louis and Louise. 36 Kansas. The remainder were in even ones that were not. Also in the Samuel Solomon (sometimes Samuel D. Solomon) appears in many St. Louis speeches to Indians of this area. And first group were a few Frenchmen, records from 1801 until the U.S. Census since the interpreters thus play a cen- born in Canada, Detroit, or the Illinois of 1830 (NA mfm M19, r. 72), when his tral role in the adoption of redskin as Country, who had acquired proficien- age is given incorrectly as 60 to 70. His an English word, their identities and cy in Indian languages from long con- signature matches that of the son of skills are key components of the spe- tact with Indians. The interpreters in Ezekiel Solomon who witnessed the cific historical reality that provided the the second group were most often marriage contract between his sister context for its origin. Euro-Canadians, usually but not Sophie and Isidore Pelletier on 23 July 1798, and the registration of his son’s always of French origin, who had pre- baptism 26 July 1799 (Thwaites 1908: sumably grown up speaking both 501; 1910a: 113; Solomon family records, 34 The “long knives” are the Americans; English and French after the British Mackinac Island State Park Commis- this expression (also “big knives”), takeover of the French possessions. sion, Mackinaw City, Michigan). There which diffused through many Native Later there were Americans of British seems to be no reason to believe that American languages, originally referred heritage who became interpreters. the St. Louis records refer to more than specifically to Virginians. It traces back The talks sent to Lt. Col. Wilkins by one man, as Ehrlich (1997–2002, 1: 11) suggests might be the case. In report- to a conference with the Iroquois at Al- the Piankashaw chiefs in 1769 were bany on 13 July 1684, where the Gover- ing his resignation in 1818, Clark refers nor of Virginia, Lord Howard of Effing- written in French, presumably by a to him as “the U.S. old Interpreter & ham, was given the Mohawk name trader living among them. Sir William Translator” (Carter 1934–1969, 15: 405). a’share’koówa ‘big knife’, a translation Johnson (perhaps), in forwarding the What is transcribed as “jun.” after his of the name Howard as if it were Dutch translation to London, comments that: name on the Osage treaty of 1808 houwer ‘cutlass’ (Woodward 1928). (I “The Speeches made at the Ilinois & (Kappler 1904–1941, 2: 99) is most like- ly an error, perhaps a misreading of am indebted to Marianne Mithun [pers. at other places are generally taken comm., 1993] for the phonemic form of “int.” for interpreter or the like. (The orig- the Mohawk word; sh represents a clus- by French Interpreters, who are inal of the treaty is not in the National ter s + h.) men of very little learning, this will Archives and was not microfilmed.)

NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES 19:2 2005 9 There were two interpreters of the performed the same function at the Meskwaki Maurice Blondeau, who Sioux language with the 1812 delega- Omaha treaty the same day. was Boilvin’s subordinate. tion, Augustin Angé and John A. Four names appear after the other The Omaha interpreter for Edwin Cameron (Clark 1812). Angé, a native signers at the bottom of the 1815 treaty James was John Dougherty (1791– of Canada who had been one of the with the Omahas, where the interpret- 1860), who had learned to speak a founders of the French traders’ village ers normally signed; their respective number of Indian languages (Withers at Prairie du Chien in 1781 (Brisbois roles are not specified but can be de- 1930–1931: 359–360; Jones 1969: 1882: 285; R. G. Thwaites in Boilvin duced. Louis Dorion, a half-Sioux 303, n. 19; Maximilian 1839–1841, 2: 1888: 249), was a man of middle age mixed-blood who also signed treaties 599, 612); he was later the Sub-Agent in 1812, so when Walking Buffalo, the with the Sioux and the Iowas, would at the Council Bluffs agency. The Principal chief of the Mdewakanton have been the interpreter between speeches of the Pawnee chiefs to Sioux, referred to his interpreter as “the Omaha and French.38 Louis Decou- O’Fallon in 1820, and doubtless in young man whom we know” (Stagg et agne, Jacques Metté, and John A. 1819, were translated by Charles Simo- al. 2004: 182) he could only have Cameron, who each signed seven or neau (“Charly Simenon,” “Semino”) meant Cameron. French Crow spoke eight treaties, would have been the in- and Alexandre Papin (Calhoun 1822: next and Cameron would have inter- terpreters between French and Eng- 38). Both lived in the Pawnee villages, preted for him also. Uniquely among lish.39 Big Elk’s remarks to Clark about Papin being from an established St. the interpreters of the five Indian lan- the funeral for the Teton chief Black Louis trading family (Jones 1969: guages spoken in the President’s Buffalo were therefore presumably 295). The translator for the Sauk House that day, Cameron would have translated into French by Louis Dorion, chiefs in St. Louis in April 1821 was translated directly into English rather and his French rendering could have Louis Pettle, the salaried Sauk and than through the medium of French. been translated by any of the other Meskwaki interpreter there (Calhoun When Black Thunder made his three, or by Samuel Solomon, who 1822: 55). If “Pettle” was a garbled speech on 20 July 1815 his inter- would have been available in St. Louis. form of Pilet, as in other cases preters were apparently not the ones Nicolas Boilvin, who was born in (Danckers et al. 2000), he may have who signed the treaty with the Mes- Quebec in 1761 and apparently knew been Louis Pilet dit LaSonde, a mem- kwakis at the time it was finally exe- little English, would have written his re- ber of a French family that lived in cuted on 14 September. The treaty port of the talk received from the Sauks Cahokia and Kaskaskia. bears the signatures of Samuel Solo- in French (Thwaites 1910b: 314; Gregg The Potawatomi speeches at the mon and Noel Mongrain as interpret- 1937: 80–83; Scanlan 1943: 161).40 This Chicago treaty council in 1821 were ers, and the half-Meskwaki sub-agent was translated into English by John P. translated by Whitmore Knaggs (1763– Maurice Blondeau, who could also have Gates, also a native of Canada, who 1827), a long-time interpreter and interpreted, signed with the other received it from Boilvin (R. G. Thwaites later Indian agent and sub-agent who Indian agents (Kappler 1904–1941, 2: in Street 1888: 357; Missouri Gazette, had been born to a trading couple on 122). Mongrain was a French-Osage 16 September 1815). Gates and Mon- the Maumee River in Ohio (Calhoun mixed-blood who had apparently grain had worked together as the in- 1822: 80–81, 1823: 11; Ross 1902). He learned Meskwaki in addition to Osage terpreters for the Osage treaty of 1808 had been the interpreter for Ottawa, and Kansa despite the enmity be- (Kappler 1904–1941, 2: 95–99). Boil- Chippewa, and Potawatomi at the De- tween the Osages and the Meskwakis vin’s interpreter from Sauk into French troit treaty of 1807 (Kappler 1904– (Kappler 1904–1941, 2: 218–219; would certainly have been the half- 1941, 2: 95), and the Chicago treaty Barnes 1936: 240; D. Jackson in Pike was his seventh. 1966, 1: 290, n. 4). On 20 July howev- When Sharitarish addressed Presi- 38 er, neither Solomon nor Mongrain Louis Dorion was born in 1782, the son dent Monroe in 1822 his interpreter was appears to have been at Portage des of Pierre Dorion (1740–1810), who was apparently Étienne Malboeuf, who had born in Quebec City, and a Yankton Sioux. Solomon was not among the Sioux woman named “Holy Rainbow” been paid by O’Fallon as an interpreter interpreters that signed the Omaha (Anonymous 2004). He did not speak to the three Pawnee bands in 1820 treaty on that day, and Mongrain did English (Pilling 1887: 50–51). (Calhoun 1822: 38).41 Malboeuf had not sign any of the treaties of 18–20 39 Jacques Metté (sometimes spelled been one of the French boatmen on the July.37 Blondeau, on the other hand, Matte), who was also an interpreter of first leg of the Lewis and Clark expe- was at Portage des Sioux on 18 and the Potawatomi language, was born in dition in 1804 (Clarke 1970). He was 19 July (Kappler 1904–1941, 2: 111– Detroit (Carter 1934–1969, 17: 402). As born about 1775, presumably a half- an interpreter working for Ninian Ed- 115), and he must have been the one wards he explained a letter written by blood, since his father had children with who translated Black Thunder’s words Edwards to the Kickapoos (Carter two or three Indian women. The fact into French. By the same logic, Blon- 1934–1969, 16: 229). that he had a half-Mandan sister sug- deau’s French translation would have 40 Many letters written by Boilvin in French gests that his mother may also have been put into English by whoever had survive, and transcribed copies of most been from the Missouri River. He was of these were assembled by Peter L. living in Kaskaskia when the explorers Scanlan (“Transcript and Translations of hired him, and he was in the militia at 37 Mongrain (whose surname seems to be Letters and Documents … Sent by or written “Mograine” on the Meskwaki Concerning Nicholas Boilvin … 1811– treaty) was an interpreter only for 1823”; Platteville Mss D, Peter L. Scan- treaties with the Osages (12 September lan Papers, Folder 1; Southwest Wis- 41 Vouchers for payments to O’Fallon’s 1815), the Missouri River Sauks (13 consin Room, Karrmann Library, Univer- interpreters are in the NA RG 217, SIA, September 1815), and the Meskwakis sity of Wisconsin at Platteville, Platte- box 14 (1821–1822), folders 339–341, (14 September 1815) (Kappler 1904– ville, WI. The new translations are by account no. 5707. Some men who 1941, 2: 120, 121, 122). He had also Marian Scanlan). Gov. Edwards, in list- ostensibly signed vouchers from this been the interpreter for the treaty signed ing employees who might have alien period and were paid on the same with the Osages on 10 November 1808 sympathies, says he was born in France account had actually remained at the (Kappler 1904–1941, 2: 99). (Carter 1934–1969, 17: 401). Council Bluffs agency.

10 EUROPEAN REVIEW OF St. Louis in 1809 (Marshall 1926, 2: have been the one who apparently ita (pl. oonsaawilokiichiki) and oon- 98). Apparently he had learned English. translated for both Big Elk and the saawilokia ‘Indian’.45 Perhaps this re- When Big Elk’s turn came to respond Pawnee chief Ishkatappa when they placement had to do with the apparent to the president his words were trans- met with Jedidiah Morse (1822: 249). recent evolution of Algonquian color lated by William Rodgers, “an Ameri- terminologies to accommodate the can.” Rodgers was encountered in need for consistent labels for dyed May 1811 near the mouth of the Platte The Native American Sources and manufactured items; this would with “a Frenchman from St. Louis,” who of Redskin have entailed a contraction of the employed him as an interpreter, and range of colors that could be referred an Omaha woman and her child that It is clear from the earliest citations to as ‘red’ and a shift from coppery he tried unsuccessfully to send back that redskin was regarded as an and tawny shades to brighter hues. to her father (Bradbury 1817: 55–59). Indian expression. It was at first used The expressions “red skins” and He took out his own license to trade only to translate what Indians said or “white skins” in the speech of the Mes- with the Indians “on Missouri & waters” as a consciously adopted Indian turn kwaki chief Black Thunder conform to later the same year (Marshall 1926, 2: of phrase employed in formally ad- the general idiom for talking about 202). Rodgers signed treaties with the dressing Indians. The tribal identities races in Meskwaki: The way to say ‘be Pawnees, Omahas, and Otoe-Missouris of the speakers who were quoted of the same race’ is literally ‘have the as an interpreter in 1825 and was paid using this word in the period from same sort of skin’.46 To this day the as an interpreter “for the Otoes, Ma- 1769 to 1822 point to its specific lan- word for ‘white person’ is waapeshki- has, &c.” in 1826 (Kappler 2: 258, 260, guages of origin. nameshkaata ‘one that has white skin’, 262; Barbour 1827: Abstract No. 2). The French expression Peaux- as also in the Sauk dialect (Whittaker Since the Otoes and Missouris spoke Rouges in the written talks of the Pian- 1996: 106). This has waapeshk- ‘white’ the same language and Omaha and kashaw chiefs in 1769 (and from this + -i-nameshk ‘skin’ (as in nenameshkaya Kansa were also mutually intelligible, redskins) translates a Miami-Illinois ‘my skin’, with ne- ‘I, my’; -ay abstract; Rodgers would have been the inter- word for ‘Indian’. An Illinois dictionary -a animate singular), and a verb-form- preter for all the Siouans in the dele- written at the beginning of the eigh- ing suffix -ee ‘have’, replaced by -aa gation. It is possible that he also spoke teenth century has 〈nitarante8irouki〉 in participles (which have -ta ‘one Pawnee, but neither the fact that ‘je suis rouge’ (〈8〉 is for French ou), that’, -chiki ‘ones that’). Dougherty planned to send him to the representing nitaranteewiroki ‘I am More complicated is the corre- Pawnees to try and stop a human sac- red’, literally ‘I have red skin’ (Masthay sponding word for ‘Indian’. In Mes- rifice in 1827 (Jones 1969: 299–301; 2002: 71).44 The components of the kwaki the everyday word is nenootee- Thurman 1970: 71) nor the fact that he verb stem are aranteew- ‘red’ and -i- wa, but writings by native speakers signed the Pawnee treaty of 1825 with rokii ‘(have such) skin’ (compare the from the early twentieth century also Papin prove this. Papin was certainly possessed noun nirookayi ‘my skin’, have a rare, high-register expression a Pawnee speaker, and Rodgers’ role with ni- ‘I, my’; -ay abstract suffix; -i eesaawinameshkaata ‘one that has a may simply have been to translate inanimate singular ending). The dic- brown skin’ (with asaaw- ‘brown, yel- between French and English for him.42 tionary translates this verb literally, but low’ and a vowel change required in Louis Tesson Honoré, an interpreter it would hardly have had any applica- participles). And in an account of tra- “of several languages” (Lee 1834: 365), tion except to specify racial member- ditional history written in Meskwaki by was paid on the 1821 trip as “Indian ship. Its unattested plural participle Charley H. Chuck (1914) this word is interpreter for the Saks, Foxes, and would have been eeranteewirokiichiki glossed as meeshkwinameshkaata Sioux Nations on the Mississipy,” but ‘those with red skins,’ which is likely ‘one that has red skin’ (with meshkw- these tribes were not represented in the form the Piankashaw chiefs used ‘red’ and vowel change). Given that in the delegation and he served O’Fallon to mean ‘Indians’ half a century later. Miami-Illinois the earlier expression mainly as an assistant for local ar- When Miami-Illinois was documented meaning ‘one with red skin’ has been rangements.43 It is uncertain which of in the nineteenth century, however, displaced by one meaning ‘one with O’Fallon’s three interpreters would this verb was apparently out of use, but there was an exactly parallel stem oonsaawilokii- ‘have a brown or yellow 45 These forms are phonemicizations by 42 As pointed out by John Ludwickson skin’ (with oonsaaw- ‘yellow, brown’) David J. Costa (pers. comm., 12 and 14 March 2005) of transcriptions in manu- (pers. comm., 14 March 2005), to whom that formed words used specifically I am indebted for several references, script materials of Albert S. Gatschet and Rodgers was presumably the “Rodger, as racial designations: oonsaawiloki- in Kerr (1835: 26) and Anonymous (1837: commonly called Bell” (i.e., Bill Rodg- 47). I have written the element -rok- ers) encountered on the Missouri by (-lok-) ‘skin’ with a short o when part of a Paul Wilhelm, Duke of Württemberg in 44 The authorship of this dictionary is un- verb stem on comparative grounds (cf. July and August of 1823 (Paul 1835: known, but it evidently incorporates ear- Kickapoo -nok- ‘skin’ and Meskwaki -nok- 275, 277, 311, 334, 338; 1973: 290–291, lier materials, probably including com- ‘constitution’ < *‘body’ < *‘skin’), but a 329, 351, 355), but he was not the pilations of the first great student of the long oo (taken over from the noun) is Pawnee named Rogers who entered language, Jacques Gravier, to whom it also possible; I assume the automatic school at the age of 17 in 1824, as has been traditionally ascribed. The shortening of word-final vowels. claimed by Thurman (1970: 279, n. 23). writing of the manuscript can be dated 46 A Native American in a myth written by 43 Louis Tesson Honoré was born to to the first two decades of the eigh- Alfred Kiyana (1913: 9) refers to: mani French parents in St. Louis in 1789 teenth century, probably after 1702 eeshinameshkeeyaani eeshinamesh- (Fischer 1999). At least among English- (Michael McCafferty, pers. comm., 13 kaachiki ‘people of my race’, literally speakers he called himself, and was March 2005). I am indebted to McCaf- ‘people whose skin is the way my skin referred to as, Honoré, but the family ferty and to David J. Costa for discus- is’. Meskwaki words are phonemicized surname was Tesson, Honoré being a sions of these and other points and for on the basis of my fieldwork in Iowa dit name, a sort of inherited family nick- bringing to my attention the Miami and since 1990 but cited from syllabary name (McDermott 1941:67–69). Illinois words discussed here. manuscripts in the NAA.

NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES 19:2 2005 11 brown skin’, it is possible that a paral- daga chief, speaking an Iroquoian existed in 1812 that French Crow could lel replacement took place in Mes- language, described the kings of Eng- have used with the meaning ‘I am a kwaki, a closely related and geo- land and France as “both of one Skinn redskin’. It is possible that shared for- graphically neighboring language. It meaning white Skinned, & not brown mal idioms were used in inter-tribal is also possible, however, that Chuck as they Indians are” (sic; quoted in diplomatic language in the early nine- was explaining the old term, which Vaughan 1982: 933). Other words for teenth century that have not survived, today would seem to mean ‘one with ‘whiteman, European’ in Algonquian and it is suggestive that Lakota has a yellow skin’, by alluding to the English languages that mean ‘one with white word hásapa ‘black person’ (Rood expression. Whether Nomwait and skin’ are Kickapoo waapeshkinokaata; and Taylor 1996: 447), literally ‘(hav- Black Thunder said literally ‘redskins’ Shawnee weewaapilookayeeta (Voe- ing) black [sápa] skin [há]’, which or ‘brownskins’, however, they were gelin 1938– 1940: 411); Miami waap- may earlier have been part of a larger using an established expression based hkilokiita (pl. waaphkilokiichiki),48 with set of racial designations on this pat- on Sauk-Meskwaki idiom that the in- variants in other dialects of Miami- tern. Alternatively, Cameron may have terpreters rendered according to the Illinois but in the early eighteenth-cen- translated French Crow’s word for current convention in local French tury Illinois dictionary only with the lit- ‘Indian’ according to the literal mean- and English. eral gloss ‘(one) who has white skin’;49 ing of the corresponding expression Potawatomi is like Meskwaki in hav- and Ojibwa wayaabishkiiweed (Baraga in other languages, which is presum- ing two words for ‘Indian’ (Gailland 1853: 393, phonemicized; cf. Rhodes ably what was done by the inter- 1877: 165, phonemicized); the ordinary 1985: 350). In Unami the word for In- preters of Osage and Pawnee. word nëshnabe has an Ojibwa cog- dian is meexkeeohkë´ssiit, lit. ‘the one In any case, it is evident that a con- nate, and the rare and now obsolete with red flesh’.50 vention of translating the word for expression wezawnëmshkad, lit. ‘one For the languages of some of the ‘Indians’ in all Indian languages with with brown skin’, is the cognate of the early users of expressions that were French Peaux-Rouges and English Meskwaki synonym. Knaggs’s transla- translated as ‘redskin’ no term for redskins had become established tion “I am an Indian, a red-skin” indi- ‘Indian’ with the same literal meaning among the close-knit group of inter- cates that Metea used both expres- is known. Osage and Pawnee have or preters that worked for William Clark sions together, and, in fact, Gailland had words that literally mean ‘red per- and his agents, many of whom had also gives “red skin” as an explana- son’. Osage níkka zhúche ‘Indian’ is linguistic skills in more than one tion of the second word, though he ‘man’ + ‘red’ (LaFlesche 1932: 109, Indian tongue. Even if these expres- certainly knew that this was not the lit- 282; John E. Koontz, pers. com. 19 sions were used in translating lan- eral meaning. November 2004). Pawnee cahrikspa- guages that did not have a term with The expression “red skin” in the hat (Skiri dialect cahispahat), also this exact meaning, the linguistic evi- speeches of the Omaha chief Big Elk ‘person’ + ‘red’, was known in the dence shows that this usage was a lit- is a literal translation of Omaha xínha- nineteenth century as a word for eral translation of expressions used in zhide (‘skin’ + ‘red’), used in the nom- ‘Indian’ in general but is now restrict- at least some of the Algonquian and inal phrase níkkashinga xínha-zhide ed to the Five Civilized Tribes of Siouan languages of the area. And the ‘Indian’, lit., ‘person (with) red skin’ (Tte- Oklahoma (Douglas R. Parks, pers. rendering of an Algonquian element ukkanha in Dorsey 1890: 682). Omaha com., 23 February 2005). For Santee meaning ‘brown’ as rouge or red also had níkkashinga xínha-ska ‘white and the other dialects of Sioux, on the would attest the persistent influence person’, lit. ‘person (with) white skin’ other hand, no expression for ‘Indian’ of an older and more widespread (Tte-ukkanha in Dorsey 1891: 23). As is attested that contains ‘red’ (David Native American convention. pointed out by John E. Koontz, to S. Rood, pers. com., 2 February 2005; whom I am indebted for these forms, Raymond J. DeMallie, pers. com., 3 these expressions are uncommon and February 2005).51 It is thus uncertain French Peau-Rouge “occur … in the context of political what Santee expression might have rhetoric” (pers. com. 19 November The occurrence of redskin in the 2004, 7 May 2005).47 Quapaw, another English version of many Indian Dhegiha Siouan language, was using 48 Phonemicized from Volney (1804: 436) speeches reflects a key role played zho-zhitte (‘flesh’ + ‘red’, i.e. ‘redskin’) and Anonymous (1837: 47). by French, the language of most of 49 for ‘Indian’ at least by the 1820s, as Illinois waapihkilokiita ‘qui a la peau the traders and Indian agents in the blanche’, waapilokiita ‘qui a le teint, la this expression was recorded by Gen. old Illinois Country in the early years of peau blanche’ (Masthay 2002: 217, George Izard, the governor of Arkan- phonemicized). the Illinois Territory and the Louisiana sas Territory, in a vocabulary that was 50 The Kickapoo and Unami words are Territory (called the Missouri Territory received in Philadelphia on 10 Jan- from my field notes. after 4 June 1812). In the case of the uary 1827 (Robert L. Rankin, pers. 51 In two of the earliest Lakota vocabularies talks of the Piankashaw chiefs in 1769 com., 13 January 2005; Freeman and wichhásha ‘Indian’ is explained as liter- and Maurice Blondeau’s report of h Smith 1966: 318). ally ‘red man’ or ‘red men’—i.e., wich á Nomwait’s speech in 1813 the two- ‘man’ + sha red’ (Husband 1849; Hay- The reference to skin in designa- den 1862: 378). Robert Rankin (pers. stage translation through French is tions of race is found in other Native comm., 29 April 2005) points out, how- documented. The Piankashaw word American languages besides Miami- ever, that this is most likely a folk ety- was written down as French “peaux Illinois, Sauk-Meskwaki, Omaha, and mology specific to Lakota (and Yankton) Quapaw and dates back to the sev- wichhásha, as the older form of this word h enteenth century. In 1687 an Onon- appears to have been wichháshta, the Stoney wich ásta. Today Lakota wich- word for ‘man, men, person, mankind’ in hásha is ‘man, person’, and ‘Indian’ is Santee (Riggs 1852: 241), which is sup- lakhóta, especially applied to Sioux Indi- 47 The second form occurs in the cited text ported as old by the forms in the most ans and their allies, or ikché wichhasha, with the suffixed animate plural article divergent languages of the Dakotan with ikché ‘common, wild’ (Rood and -ma ‘the’. subgroup, Assiniboine winchháshta and Taylor 1996: 477, 479; Ingham 2001: 141).

12 EUROPEAN REVIEW OF rouges,” and this was rendered as The trader Jean-Baptiste Truteau in a rehearsal of talking points Evans “redskins.” Nomwait’s Sauk word was wrote in 1795 about an encounter with was to use in addressing the Indian translated into French by Blondeau as the Yankton Sioux the year before: tribes he encountered and is hence of les Peaux-Rouges, which is attested “les hantons approuvoient toutes a piece with Truteau’s usage. It may in the copy of his report that survives, les paroles que je leur avois dit, dis- indicate that Mackay’s English origi- and this in turn was translated into ant que leurs chefs avoient étés en nal had redskins. English as “the red skins.” differentes fois au páys des françois; The nearly universal word for ‘Indi- The use of Peau-Rouge in Missis- qu’ils avoient étés bien reçus du an’ (noun and adjective) in the French sippi Valley French is implied by Mc- grand chef des espagnols, le pere of the Mississippi Valley in the eigh- Dermott (1941: 113–114), though he de toutes les nations peaux rouges” teenth and early nineteenth centuries cites no specific cases. Apparently, (Truteau 1914: 312– 313). was sauvage, an affectless term with- however, it was readily adopted not ‘The Yanktons expressed approval of out negative connotations (McDermott only in translations of Indian speeches all the words that I had addressed 1941: 8, 136). In Boilvin’s letters the but also in official communications to them, saying that their chiefs had Indian Department is le Département addressed to Indians. An early exam- been at different times in the coun- sauvage and Indian gifts (to the Pres- ple that is not a translation is in a letter try of the French, and that they had ident) are présents sauvages. Expres- which Don Francisco Cruzat, the been well received by the great sions of opprobrium for Indians re- Spanish Lieutenant Governor of Upper chief of the Spaniards, the father of quired additional words, as in “cest Louisiana, wrote in French to the Sauks all the redskin tribes.’ (Adapted Diables de sauvages” (ces diables de and the Meskwakis on 20 November from Nasatir 1952, 1: 270–271.) sauvages) ‘those wretched Indians’, 1781. He had met that day with their Vézina observes that on the several lit. ‘those devils of Indians’ (Vasquez chiefs, the Meskwaki nicknamed Wis- occasions when Truteau used the 1812), and “sais barbare sauvage” (ces consin (“Huisconsin”) and the Sauk expression Peaux-Rouges in his writ- barbares sauvages) ‘those Indian sav- called Leggin (“Mitasse”),52 and was ings, it was always in the context of ages’, lit. ‘barbarians’ (Boilvin 1813a). trying to persuade the tribes “not to speeches delivered by or to Native Peaux-Rouges appears as a simple take part in the war between the whites”: Americans. For example, Truteau used synonym for sauvages in sponta- “De tout tems vous savez que tous this expression in the summary of a neous discourse, not addressed to or vos Enciéns péres les français avec letter he sent to two other French tra- intended for Indians, only in the nine- qui vous êtes poussé, et sorti de la ders in 1795 laying out points they teenth century. The first example to terre, ont aimé les peaux rouges, should make in talking to the Mandans; come to light is in a letter Baronet … et l’arbre dont je vous parle c’est this appears in translation in Nasatir Vasquez wrote to his brother Benito in vôtre encién père le français vous (1952, 1: 304). In a speech Truteau September 1812 about the defense of voyez mes Enfants qu’il est debout, reports making to the Poncas in 1795 Fort Madison on the west bank of the et qu’il ne veut point voir verser le he not only used this term, but he also Mississippi during a three-day assault sang de sez Enfants les peaux referred to himself and the other by Winnebago warriors: rouges” (Cruzat 1781). traders as “nous autres peaux blanch- “je ta sure que je me sui ennuyez ‘From earliest times you have known es” ‘we white-skins’.54 The Poncas lorsquils se sont retirez car cetait un that your former fathers, the French, spoke the same language as the playsire de tirer sur cest paux with whom you have sprouted and Omahas, and both expressions would rouges” (Vasquez 1812). grown up out of the earth, have have literally translated the racial ter- (I.e.: Je t’assure que je me suis loved the redskins, … and the tree minology they used themselves. ennuyé lorsqu’ils se sont retirés, car I’m speaking to you about is your A letter the trader and explorer c’était un plaisir de tirer sur ces former father, the Frenchman. You James Mackay wrote to John Evans Peaux-Rouges.) see, my children, that he is stand- on 28 January 1796 survives in a con- ‘I swear to you that I was sorely dis- ing, and that he has no wish to see temporary French translation that con- appointed when they withdrew, as it the blood of his children, the red- tains the phrase “toutes les peaux was a delight to shoot at those red- skins, spilled.’ rouges” ‘all the redskins’.55 This occurs skins.’ Here, amid much rhetoric that uses Na- Antoine François Vasquez, known as tive American metaphors, phraseolo- Baronet, was born into a St. Louis tra- 54 gy, and fictive kinship relations, “les This is found in an unpublished version ding family in 1783. He spoke French, peaux rouges” ‘the redskins’ is used of Truteau’s journal (Robert Vézina, Spanish, and “several Indian lan- pers. comm., 21 February 2005). twice to refer to the Indians who were 55 The letter is: James Mackay, Instruc- guages” but only rudimentary English. loved by the French before their de- tions donée a Jean Evans pour travers- He was an interpreter for Pike in 1806 parture. er ce continent (28 January 1796), and had been promoted to second Robert Vézina has found several Louisiana Papers, BANC MSS M-M 508, lieutenant in the United States Army in later examples from the early period.53 box 4, folder 365 (The Bancroft Library, 1811 (Lecompte 1969). University of California, Berkeley). It has The letters of Nicolas Boilvin attest a been translated by Nasatir (1952, 2: 52 The Sauk principal chief called Leggin 410–414, esp. 414). number of instances of Peaux- in 1813 could have been the same man, The translator treats “les peaux rouges” or he could just have been given the as feminine (shown by the feminine plur- same nickname. al agreement on toutes ‘all’, instead of points out that the use of this expression 53 I am grateful to Robert Vézina for a sum- masculine tous), like the feminine noun with feminine plural agreement is also mary of his findings (pers. comm., 20 peau ‘skin’, as if the Indians were desig- found elsewhere (pers. comm., 20 March February 2005); the French texts of the nated by synecdoche as literally ‘red 2005). Most likely this usage reflects an examples from Truteau, Mackay, and skins’ (‘skins that are red’) rather than by uncertainty over how to treat the gender Vasquez were located by him. The a compound meaning ‘redskins’ (‘those of the compound in contexts where Truteau and Vasquez quotations have with red skins’), which would require overt agreement is required, and this been verified from the cited sources. masculine agreement. Robert Vézina has led to a hypercorrection.

NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES 19:2 2005 13 Rouges as the equivalent of sauvages For some of the letters in which language. In the 1823 translation of in the years 1813–1818. (The absence Boilvin used Peaux-Rouges as a syn- The Pioneers, “you would have called of this usage from his earlier and later onym of sauvages there are contem- him as comely a red-skin as ye ever letters may or may not be significant.) porary translations. In one of these he set eyes on” has become “vous auriez For example Boilvin wrote to the refers to his dealings with the tribes at avoué qu’il étoit impossible de voir Secretary of War John Armstrong from Prairie du Chien in 1818 and to his re- une peau rouge plus avenante”; St. Louis on 22 May 1813: port to tribal representatives of the “There will soon be no red-skin in the “jais Enployez tous les moyent pos- friendly attitude towards them that he country.” has become “Bientôt il n’y sible poure connaitre tous Les had observed in the President and aura plus de peau rouge dans ce Daimarche dais EnGlais En vaire other Washington officials: pays.” (Cooper 1823, 1: 264, 3: 192, Les amerriquint En charchant de Le “je me suis Rendus a la destinas- 1980: 155, 403). In these passages vez tous Les paux rouge contre siont doux je Doy Ex sai cuttez le the translator interprets “red-skin” as nous, pare Les Espiont que jai tenus Devoire Dont je suis charges En “red skin” in the literal sense. By the tous Levaire Sure Leure rive” (Boil- vaire les Paux rouge … tous les time he reached the end of the book, vin 1813b). considairres quille ont Envoyez me however, he may have deduced that (I.e.: J’ai employé tous les moyens voire je leure Est Dit … que je nais this was intended as a compound, possibles pour connaître tous les vus Ent heux que du bien Envaire given that on the next to the last page démarches des Anglais envers les tout les paux rouge” (Boilvin 1818). “les Peaux blanches” and “les Peaux Américains en cherchant de lever (I.e.: Je me suis rendu à la destina- rouges” appear for “the whites” and tous les Peaux-Rouges contre nous, tion d’où je dois exécuter le devoir “the red-skins” (Cooper 1823, 3: 294, par les espions que j’ai tenus tout dont je suis chargé envers les Peaux- 1980: 455).56 l’hiver sur leurs rives.) Rouges … Tous les considérés ‘I have employed all possible means qu’ils ont envoyés me voir, je leur ai to gain knowledge of all the actions dit … que je n’ai vu entre eux que The Speeches From the 1815 Peace being taken by the English in oppo- du bien envers tous les Peaux- Council in Print sition to the Americans as they seek Rouges.) to enlist all the redskins against us, This was translated as: Since official records of the July 1815 by means of the spies that I have “I have … arrived and shall com- peace councils do not exist, the kept all winter on their shores.’ mence the performance of the duty speeches of Black Thunder and Big He wrote again to the Secretary of with which I am entrusted toward Elk survive only because they ap- War on 5 December 1813: the Red Skins, … I have communi- peared in newspapers. Big Elk’s fu- “je ma Dresse avous poure vous cated to all the cheifs whom they neral oration for Black Buffalo, which communiQuez Les Dispossisiont have sent to me, … that I witnessed he had given on 15 July, and Black Des Sauvage qui abite Sure le mis- the most Friendly Sentiments, on Thunder’s speech of 20 July were sisipi aprais avoire fait plussieure their part, towards the Red Skins” printed in The Western Journal, a St. voyage permis les Sac et renard (Boilvin 1818). Louis weekly, having been provided Dont jen est retirres sure le missour- It is evident that “Red Skins” in such to the paper by the commissioners’ ris poure les Eloignez de la Gaire, et cases is completely dependent on the secretary, Robert Wash, who would fuire les consaiye Des EnGlais qui French expression it translates, and have transcribed them directly from ont Etez toujours laperte de tout Les that it is used in an entirely affectless the interpreter’s words. The brief re- paux rouge” (Boilvin 1813c). manner, like French sauvages. marks made by Big Elk that include the (I.e.: Je m’adresse à vous pour vous Outside of St. Louis and the com- phrase “red skin chiefs” were printed communiquer les dispositions des munities in close contact with it, in a second St. Louis weekly, the sauvages qui habitent sur le French Peau-Rouge, like English red- Missouri Gazette (29 July 1815). Big Mississippi, après avoir fait skin, appears to have been unknown Elk also drew attention with a speech plusieures voyages parmi les Sacs in the early nineteenth century. It is he had made when he and other et Renards, dont j’en ai retiré sur le evident that even by the 1850s neither chiefs from the Missouri River tribes Missouri pour les éloigner de la expression was familiar to Ursula M. had first arrived in St. Louis (Missouri guerre, et fuire les conseils des Grignon, a member of an old French Gazette, 10 June 1815; Douglas Anglais, qui ont été toujours la perte Creole family in Green Bay, Wiscon- 1908: 378), and with a much longer de tous les Peaux-Rouges.) sin. She found the original of Cruzat’s speech that he apparently delivered ‘I’m writing to you to inform you of 1781 letter to the Sauks and Mes- at a joint council with other tribes at the state of mind of the Indians who kwakis “among the old papers of her the end of the treaty conference live on the Mississippi, having made father” and presented it to Lyman C. (Missouri Gazette, 5 August 1815).57 several journeys among the Sauks Draper, the corresponding secretary of No copy of the issue or issues of and Meskwakis, some of whom I the State Historical Society of Wiscon- The Western Journal that contained have removed to the Missouri to get sin, who had interviewed her father, Big Elk’s funeral oration and Black them further from the war and to get Augustin Grignon, in May and June of Thunder’s speech is known, but away from the counsels of the Eng- 1857 (Draper 1857a, 1857b: 504, n.). lish, which have always been the In the translation she also furnished ruin of all the redskins.’ she rendered “les français … ont aimé 56 The misunderstanding by the French In these and other cases Boilvin ap- les peaux rouges” as “the French … translator is clearly more serious than pears to use “paux rouge,” etc. (i.e., have loved the red complexion” and the apparent gender variation in the ear- Peaux-Rouges ‘redskins’), in exactly “sez Enfants les peaux rouges” as liest French uses in North America, which is hardly more than orthographic; the same way as the usual term sau- “his children, the red skin.” The first see n. 55. vages ‘Indians’, or, if anything, with French translator of James Fenimore 57 James (1823, 1: 174–176; Thwaites 1905: more of an implication of solidarity. Cooper also knew this idiom in neither 258–261) also gives a speech of his.

14 EUROPEAN REVIEW OF Wash’s transcripts caught the eye of (Cooper 1983: 103, 261). When Magua lished only in 1821, was the continua- Hezekiah Niles, who reprinted them in says, “a red skin never ceases to re- tion of The Analectic Magazine (1813– his Baltimore paper Niles’ Weekly member,” and, “The red-skins should 1820), also called The Analectic Register under the heading “Indian be friends,” he is speaking Huron Magazine and Naval Chronicle (1816). Eloquence” (Niles 1815b). Niles had (Cooper 1983: 250, 289–290). Cooper The Analectic was a journal Cooper earlier reprinted the brief remarks of clearly uses redskin as an affectless had been reading, presumably for its Big Elk which contained “red skin” designation for Native Americans, coverage of naval affairs, since long (Niles 1815a: 29), but this short speech and by inserting it into dialogue spo- before he began writing novels (Beard was apparently not reprinted further. ken between Indians he shows that he 1960, 5: 216).61 Cooper would thus A writer using the name Outalissa took the English word to be the trans- almost inevitably have seen Black (1821a, esp. 61–62, 68) included lation of an inclusive term of self refer- Thunder’s speech in The Literary Black Thunder’s speech and Big Elk’s ence in one or more Native American Gazette, and this publication was the funeral oration in a long article on languages. probable source of his knowledge of Indian oratory that appeared in The When Cooper was writing the bulk the word redskin. Cooper’s familiarity New Monthly Magazine (published in of The Pioneers (which his publisher with Black Thunder’s speech is also Philadelphia) and was reprinted in began printing in the spring of 1822 strongly indicated by his use of the The Literary Gazette, a Philadelphia [in Cooper 1980: 468]) the word red- parallel expression “white-skins” in weekly (Outalissa 1821b, esp. 586– skin had apparently appeared in print the words he wrote for the dying 587, 589).58 From there Samuel Drake in the East only in the speeches Black Chingachgook in The Pioneers: (1833, 5: 113–114) reprinted Black Thunder and Big Elk had given in the “Hawk-eye! my fathers call me to Thunder’s “excellent speech,” con- summer of 1815, and in those Sari- the happy hunting-grounds. The firming the attention it had received tarish and Big Elk delivered in Wash- path is clear, and the eyes of Mo- with the observation that it had made ington in 1822. The later speeches hegan grow young. I look—but I see the speaker “remembered by many.” were published in a Washington news- no white-skins; there are none to be paper, but they were not generally seen but just and brave Indians” available before the appearance of (Cooper 1980: 421).62 James Fenimore Cooper Morse’s Report to the Secretary of Black Thunder’s phrase “red skins and War (Morse 1822). This book only white skins” was the only place the One of those who noticed Black Thun- came out toward the end of 1822, expression white-skin had appeared der’s speech was evidently James however; it was deposited for copy- in print before Cooper’s novels, and Fenimore Cooper. Cooper’s novel The right on 23 September, and by the this word has hardly been used since Pioneers, which appeared in 1823, in- time it would have become available except in echoes his usage. troduced the word redskin to a wide the word would already have been set The appearance of speeches by audience. (He wrote it “red-skin,” “Red- in type in the first and probably also Black Thunder and Big Elk in a publi- skin,” and “red skin.”) In this book the the thirteenth chapters of The Pio- cation Cooper was likely to have seen word is used only by the white hunter neers (Cooper 1980: 26, 155). James’s in 1821 may lend a new perspective Natty Bumppo (Leather-Stocking), Account, containing many uses of the to an event that took place later that who spoke “Delaware,” and his “Mo- word by O’Fallon and Indian speak- year. The delegation of Missouri River hican” friend Chingachgook (John ers, was published in Philadelphia on Indians that met with President Mon- Mohegan) (Cooper 1980: 26, 155, 403, 11 January 1823, three weeks before roe on 4 February 1822 had arrived in 452 [twice], 455), as when the dying the publication of The Pioneers on 1 Chingachgook says (p. 403): “There February 1823 (in Cooper 1980: 468), 61 I am greatly indebted to Donald A. will soon be no red-skin in the coun- much too late to have been Cooper’s 59 60 Ringe for pointing out the significance of try.” In The Last of the Mohicans source. Cooper’s life-long passion for the Navy, (published in 1826), the second of the Of the speeches of Black Thunder of which he wrote a history, and the Leather-Stocking tales though set ear- and Big Elk that contain forms of the direct evidence that he read The lier in time, the same characters use word redskin, Black Thunder’s is the Analectic Magazine (pers. comm., 27 the word redskin, as do the Huron one known to have attracted later November 2004), and to Wayne Franklin chief Magua and an unnamed Dela- attention and to have been reprinted for additional detailed discussion and supporting arguments (pers. comm., 5 ware. When Magua says, “The pale- after 1815. In fact, a good case can December 2004). faces have driven the red-skins from be made that Cooper would have 62 The OED cites the first use of white-skin their hunting grounds,” and, “the red- seen this speech specifically in The from chapter 14 of The Last of the skins know how to take the Yen- Literary Gazette. This journal, pub- Mohicans (1826), giving a quotation geese,” he is speaking in English with two ill-advised ellipses and one respelling that appears in full in Cooper 60 Both Morse (1822) and James (1823) (1983: 138) as: “’Twould have been a 58 The pseudonymous author has a British were in the “Quarterly List of New cruel and an unhuman act for a white- perspective on American Indians and Publications” in The North American skin; but ’tis the gift and natur of an acknowledges receiving “specimens of Review (Boston) for January 1823 (vol. Indian, and I suppose it should not be their eloquence” from “an American 16, issue 38, p. 227). An announcement denied!” (This is Hawk-eye reacting to friend”; the article also appeared in the that James’s Account was published on Chingachgook’s scalping of a French- London edition of the monthly. Outalissa 11 January 1823 is in the Saturday man.) The same book also has “men gives Big Elk’s funeral oration with the Evening Post (Philadelphia) for that day. with white skins” (Cooper 1983: 227). I addition of an inappropriate vocative The speeches in James’s book with the am indebted to Wayne Franklin for “Warriors” as the first word. word redskin are not among the pre- drawing my attention to the earlier ap- 59 David Simpson (1986: 169) unaccount- publication excerpts printed in The pearance of white-skin in The Pioneers ably describes Natty Bumppo as “the National Gazette and Literary Register and for the information that it appears in single user of the term red-skin,” citing (Philadelphia) and reprinted in Niles’ the first edition in volume 2 (chapter 19), only this very page. Weekly Register for 5 October 1822. page 282.

NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES 19:2 2005 15 Washington on 28 and 29 November. part of Penn that would later be the similar effect of the political In the intervening period O’Fallon had ascribed to Samuel Smith’s father, alliance and religious movement pro- escorted 15 of the Indians and two Dixon had at first written: moted by the Shawnee chief Tecum- interpreters from Washington to New “though a fervent believer in the seh and his brother Tenskwatawa, the York, where they spent the nights of native virtues of the Red Indian, Shawnee Prophet, which had reached 11 to 16 December 1821 at the City when treated with truth and fair- the eastern parts of the Illinois Count- Hotel. This was the very hotel where ness, he could not help feeling that ry. The travel to Washington of multi- Cooper stayed and where he was liv- before he could have time to tribal delegations to be a part of the ing that week, and the meetings he impress their rude minds with confi- formation of national policy towards later mentioned having with Big Elk dence in his integrity of purpose, Indians also helped forge a pan-tribal and the most famous of the Pawnees some unfortunate mischance might self-image and identity among the named Petalesharo, the son of the lead to sudden and serious mis- leaders of different Indian peoples. Skiri chief (Beard 1960, 1: 199; Beard chief” (Dixon 1851: 247). When Black Thunder wanted to refer in Cooper 1983: xix), must have taken Two decades later, in “A New Edition” inclusively to all the assembled tribes place there at that time.63 Without fur- described as “substantially a new and to both the Americans and the ther information, however, Cooper book,” Dixon rewrote this as: French, he said “red skins and white could not have connected the travel- “though a strong believer in the skins.” When Big Elk told Clark how ing Big Elk to the published funeral native virtues of the Redskins, when impressed he had been by the obse- oration, which Outalissa ascribed to these savages were treated well,— quies for Black Buffalo, at which, sure- an unnamed “chief of the Teton tribe,” he could not help feeling that before ly for the first time, an Omaha princi- but obviously an encounter with Big he might have time to impress their pal chief had given a funeral oration Elk, O’Fallon, and the interpreters cre- minds with confidence in his integri- for his Teton counterpart, he availed ated an additional opportunity for ty of purpose, some mischance himself of the inclusive term “red skin” Cooper to learn or confirm the word might lead him into peril of his life” as an expression of solidarity. redskin.64 (Dixon 1872: 205). At the same time, the views of the The Indian speeches that used the Here, in a passage highly sympathet- officials and the local whites towards word redskin were soon forgotten, but ic to Indians, “Red Indian” has be- Indians were forced to evolve. The Cooper’s novels eventually brought come “Redskins” and “savages.”65 oratorical powers and political skills of the word to universal notice. It was not the leading chiefs demanded and listed in the first edition of John received respect. Local newspapers Russell Bartlett’s Dictionary of Ameri- Cultural and Historical Factors that as recently as the month before canisms (1848), but when it appeared were denouncing scalpings now were in the second edition (Bartlett 1859: The spurious occurrence of redskin publishing the texts of Indian speech- 358) the illustrative quotation was an with a date of 1699 has masked the es both as significant news events utterance of Natty Bumppo from The true history of the adoption of this and as admirable intellectual achieve- Last of the Mohicans. The spread of word into English, which has been fur- ments. In these changed circum- redskin as a neutral synonym for ther obscured by the omission from stances the interpreters began to use Indian during the middle decades of the standard dictionaries of citations the literal translation redskins for the nineteenth century is also illustrat- from James Fenimore Cooper, the Native American expressions they ed by the revision of the biography of most important agent of its diffusion. might earlier have rendered Indians or William Penn by the British author The word redskin reflects a genuine red men, and the newspapers fixed in William Hepworth Dixon. In describing Native American idiom that was used print speeches that displayed the new an attitude towards the Indians on the in several languages, where it grew usage in a confident and appealing out of an earlier established and more voice. The local French equivalent, 63 The receipt for O’Fallon’s payment to widespread use of “red” and “white” Peau-Rouge, played a role in this, Chester Jennings (“Jenings”), the pro- as racial labels. This terminology was though the earliest uses of the English prietor of the City Hotel, is in NA RG developed by Native Americans to word differ from the contemporane- 217, SIA, box 14 (1821–1822), Account label categories of the new ethnic and ous uses of the French word in being no. 5707 (B. O’Fallon). Cooper’s political reality they confronted with strictly an Indian expression, used account with the hotel for this period is: the coming of the Europeans. only by or in speaking to Indians. “James Cooper Esquire to C. Jennings The sudden emergence of the Eng- Cooper’s use of redskin as a Native Dr., 2/17/1822,” James Fenimore Cooper papers, box 4, American Antiquarian lish word redskin in print during the American in-group term was entirely Society, Worcester, MA; I am indebted treaty negotiations of 1815 can plausi- authentic, reflecting both the accurate to Wayne Franklin for the Cooper refer- bly be seen as directly stimulated by perception of the Indian self-image and ence and for the information on the circumstance of those events. The the evolving respect among whites for Cooper’s activities at this time. treaties were greatly empowering for the Indians’ distinct cultural perspec- 64 Cooper referred to Big Elk as Ongpa- the Indians, who ceded nothing and tive, whatever its prospects. The tonga (n. 31), which he translated as ‘le were loaded with gifts in exchange for descent of this word into obloquy is a gros cerf’, in an English letter to the Duchess de Broglie. He gives his tribe accepting a mutual peace. The huge phenomenon of more recent times. as “Omawhaw.” intertribal gathering at Portage des Charles Bird King painted a portrait of Sioux encouraged a sense of supra- Big Elk in Washington in 1822; this was tribal Indian identity in dealing with the among those that burned in the Smith- fledgling U.S. Government, continuing sonian fire in 1865. A replica by King (in the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of Amer- ican History and Art, Tulsa) bears the 65 The OED quotes this use of “Redskins” painted title: “Big Elk, or Great Orator, citing Dixon (1872) but gives it under Omawhaw Chief.” (Viola 1972: 29). the 1851 date of Dixon’s earlier book.

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