Native Americans and Southampton

Southampton & Native American Heritage

In reflecng on the migraon of the Mayflower Pilgrims and as part of Nave American Heritage Month we thought it would be fascinang to look at the long links between Southampton and Nave American heritage. 3 The Treasure 1 Early Days In 1616 the ship Treasure docked in Southampton with a cargo of In fourteen hundred and ninety two, two hundredweight of tobacco Columbus sailed the Ocean blue and it is believed that one of the Within a very few years of Columbus arriving at a passengers was the woman land mass that would be named The Americas known as Pocahontas. To her small ships were seng sail for the eastern people she was known as seaboard of the connent from the port of Matoaka, the daughter of the Southampton. Their aim was to reach the fishing chief Powhatan of grounds off Newfoundland. From the early 1500s Aanoughkomouck. To the Newfoundland fish or stock fish found its way to English she was the Chrisan the local fish market by St Michael’s church. woman Rebecca, a princess, daughter of an Emperor from the To give an example of the scale of the industry in Statue of Christopher Columbus, land they called Virginia, named 1623 the Fisher a vessel of 80 tons and 32 crew Civic Centre, Southampton for Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen. returned, from the cod banks off Newfoundland with 106,000 dried fish; 5300 tons of wet fish; and 9 tons of fish This young woman who, oil. The return trip had taken 16 days. legend says, saved the life of the Englishman The fishing fleets spent months not just at sea but on land where, John Smith and who learning from the Nave Americans ways to dry and preserve fish, married the merchant they would dry out the stock fish prior to bringing it back to and tobacco planter England where it was staple part of the country’s diet. John Rolfe, made a great impact on her arrival in 2 Beginning of Empire England. She was presented at court and For nearly a hundred years aer Columbus English sailors and became a celebrity. Her privateers did not try to set up selements and colonies like the real life story was even Pocahontas from a Spanish and Portuguese, but more dramac as she contemporary engraving instead, preferred to capture had also been captured ships and treasure en-route from South and held for ransom by colonists America to Iberia. New goods such as deer, in 1613 when she was persuaded beaver, oer and seal skins arrived in to become a Chrisan. In 1614 Southampton as well as exoc animals like she was married at around the the porcupine displayed in 1585. However age of 17. Pocahontas died aged in 1583 the town financed Sir Humphrey barely 20 and was buried at Gilbert’s voyage to Newfoundland, and he is Gravesend leaving behind her credited with the claiming of North America baby son, Thomas. for Queen Elizabeth I. Gilbert’s ship went down on his return Note the supporters of the coat of voyage to England but his licence to explore arms granted to Newfoundland in and create colonies passed to his half- 1638 showing two Nave Americans. brother Sir Walter Raleigh who connued the drive to found selements. His enterprise was led by the cartographer and arst John White. When White returned to England from Roanoke in 1587, he travelled via Southampton in the company of a Nave American. The founding of Jamestown in 1608 saw the expansion of trading Image by John White opportunies and a new popular cargo arriving in Southampton, tobacco. ©The Trustees of the Brish Museum 4 The Iroquois Delegation As colonisaon progressed across the American connent it brought the colonists into contact with other tribes. In 1710 the Mayor of Southampton hosted a banquet in the Audit House for the ‘ Kings of the five naons of the Iroquois ’. In the town records the names of the delegaon are listed both in English and Iroquois. The Iroquois’ names were wrien down phonecally and differ somewhat to how the names are wrien today. Southampton City Archives Although the Southampton records show that there were five kings, one had died on the voyage over to England, the delegaon, therefore, is known as the four kings – three Mohawks and one Mohican. The men had travelled to England to seek Brish military support against the French in what is now North America and Canada. Queen Anne commissioned their portraits from John Verelst and these are the earliest known surviving oil ‘portraits from life’ of Nave Americans. The ‘kings’ were so popular that printmaker John Simon created mezzonts of the painngs, and poems and ballads were wrien about them. The painngs hung at court for over a hundred years before being acquired by the Petre family and finally being purchased by the Canadian government in 1977. The portraits were displayed at the Smithsonian Naonal Portrait Gallery in 2009 with whose kind permission we reproduce their analysis of the imagery portrayed in the painngs.

©Library and Archives Canada/Portrait Gallery of Canada Sa Ga Yeath Ho Nee Yeath Qua Pieth Tow Taw No Row King of the Maquas King of the lifedates unknown Generethgarich Naons lifedates Verelst’s depicon of unknown Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) symbolic skin Born in the area of markings, elaborately present-day upstate demonstrated by New York, Ho Nee Mohawk Sa Ga Yeath Yeath Taw No Row Qua Pieth Tow (bapzed (bapzed John) was Brant), is one of the best one of the records of eighteenth- Haudenosaunee century Nave taooing (Iroquois) known as the in existence. The taoos, ‘Four Indian Kings.’ The visible on all four delegates, were first stencilled on the display of symbolic skin markings, disncve clothing, skin and then pricked into the flesh with trade needles and beauful or unique items were all ways that Nave or lile bones unl the blood flowed. While the precise diplomats demonstrated their values and status. significance of the markings remains unclear, There is much discussion among ethnographers Haudenosaunee men were taooed to commemorate regarding the authencity of the items represented in their achievements in bale. these painngs. For example, Ho Nee Yeath Taw No The highly individualized depicon of these markings is Row is depicted holding a bow that would be too small an important aspect of the representaon to have been used by an adult. The depicon of a wolf characterisc of this commemorave portrait. Sa Ga behind him represents his dodem, or clan affiliaon. Yeath Qua Pieth Tow was the grandfather of venerated Dodem animals—wolf, bear, and turtle—included in Mohawk leader Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant), a each of the four portraits, mark the delegates’ captain in the Brish military during the American connecons to their community. Verelst, most likely, Revoluon. spoke with each of the men, through their interpreter, to understand the importance of such symbols. Etow Oh Koam Tee Yee Neen Ho King of the River Naon Ga Row (Mohican) Emperor of the Six lifedates unknown Naons c. 1680-1755 The four representaves Presented as ‘kings’ to of the Haudenosaunee the Royal Court in (Iroquois) alliance are London, the four dressed in a style reserved Haudenosaunee for royalty. They are posed (Iroquois) carried the in a stance associated with authority of diplomats. those wielding power, Mohawk leader their gaze directed at the Theyanoguin (bapzed viewer. Mohican Etow Oh Hendrick) was given the Koam (bapzed Nicholas) epithet ‘Emperor of the wears or holds items that Six Naons.’ While the refer to his status, such as the carved wooden ball- four ‘kings’ were represented both in European and headed club which idenfies him as a warrior. Haudenosaunee terms, he is the only one almost fully The beauful thunderbirds taooed across the side of depicted in English dress. He wears black because the his face make reference to an important spiritual Court was in mourning for the recent death of the support for a warrior. In many Nave cultures, Queen’s consort. His dress consists of a sleeved thunderbirds are powerful sky spirits that can evoke waistcoat, linen shirt, breeches, stockings, and buckled the terrors and dangers of the natural world. The shoes, helping viewers idenfy his status as ‘Emperor.’ dramacally draped red cloaks, edged in gold, may The wampum belt that he holds is a deeply significant have been offered by a London costumer at the item that serves to commemorate the meeng and to Queen’s request. In this way, Verelst portrayed the represent an alliance that cannot be broken unless the ambassadors in a format familiar to European viewers belt is returned. Theyanoguin subsequently became a that indicated their social posion both in European significant military leader and ambassador aer his and Haudenosaunee terms of reference. return to North America.

5 The Cherokee Ambassadors In 1730 chief Aakullaculla led a group of Cherokee leaders on an embassy to Britain and, in 1762, second delegaon came led by chief Ostenaco and Cunnshote Voyl. During this visit the Cherokee delegaon visited Southampton to look at a brig which was being used for French prisoners of war and was moored near the harbour. The next day they were guests at a two hour parade and firing exhibion by the Wiltshire milia designed to impress the men with Britain’s military might. The visit of Ostenaco was organised by the journalist, writer and cartographer Henry Timberlake, who was sympathec to Ostenaco’s wish to meet with the Brish government to ask them to stand by the Painng of Ostenaco agreement to restrict colonists from encroaching on by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Cherokee lands. Lord Halifax refused to meet with the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma delegaon. Timberlake wrote his memoirs with the map entled A Draught of the Cherokee Country . Henry married a daughter of Ostenaco and had a son Richard. The family remained in England and lived in London. His grandfather, also Henry Timberlake, an associate of the 3rd Earl of Southampton, had travelled to Virginia and he is buried in St Peter’s church in Titchfield. Draught of the Cherokee Country by Henry Timberlake 6 Buffalo Bill ’’’s Wild West Show By the 19th century America had become independent from Britain, whereas Canada remained part of the Empire. The new country of the United States grew by taking over more land and squeezing the Nave Americans onto reservaons. By the end of the 19th century the romance of Wild West was born and one of the most charismac characters Buffalo Bill Cody capitalized on his fame by developing a travelling circus show. Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show made four extremely popular tours of England in 1887, in 1891-2, which tour departed England from Southampton on the Berlin in 1894 with a troupe of 161 people, and finally a farewell tour in 1903. On this last occasion the show was staged over two days in the town on the 7th and 8th of August. They had arrived in Southampton on four special trains with 800 company members and 500 horses. The show was displayed in what is now Was Park where they re-enacted bales from American history, bucking broncos, Indian war dances and displays of horsemanship. As the publicity announced ‘ a gathering of extraordinary consequence to fingly depict all that virile, muscular, heroic Image of Nave American performers at Land’s End in 1904 manhood has and can endure ’. The party departed England from Southampton. Cody’s show was a romancism of his life and career in the Old West but what he did do was bring those Nave Americans, who were also part of that history, with him as part of the company. The most famous of his Nave performers was the Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sing Bull who had fought at the bale of the Lile Big Horn. Aer Sing Bull’s death at the hands of the Indian Agency police in 1895 his son took his father’s place in the Wild West Show.

Buﬀalo Bill parade during the 1904 tour