25. "Moby-Dick" (1851) by Herman Melville Chs. 133-135 and Epilogue

 

""He raised a gull-like cry in the air. 'There she blows - there she blows!
A hump like a snowhill! It is Moby Dick!'" by Mead Schaeffer (1922)

Frontispiece and dust jacket illustration for Moby-Dick

"Tribal History" from the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation website.

By the early 17th century, just prior to European contact, the Pequots had approximately 8,000 members and inhabited 250 square miles. However, the Pequot War (1636-1638) -- the first major conflict between colonists and an indigenous New England people -- had a devastating impact on the Tribe.

When the Pequot War formally ended, many tribal members had been killed and others placed in slavery or under the control of other tribes. Those placed under the rule of the Mohegans eventually became known as the Mashantucket (Western) Pequots and were given land at Noank in 1651. In 1666, the land at Noank was taken from the Tribe, and it was given back property at Mashantucket.

In the ensuing decades, the Pequots battled to keep their land, while at the same time losing reservation members to outside forces. By 1774, a Colonial census indicated that there were 151 tribal members in residence at Mashantucket. By the early 1800s, there were between 30 and 40 as members moved away from the reservation seeking work. Others joined the Brotherton Movement, a Christian-Indian movement that attracted Natives from New England to a settlement in upstate New York and later, Wisconsin. As for the remaining land in Connecticut, by 1856 illegal land sales had reduced the 989-acre reservation to 213 acres.

Consider the prominence of Tashtego, a Native American from Massachusetts.

Remember, Tashtego has turned to whaling because he no longer is free to roam and hunt on land: "an inheritor of the unvitiated blood of those proud warrior hunters, who, in quest of the great New England moose, had scoured, bow in hand, the aboriginal forests of the main. But no longer snuffing in the trail of the wild beasts of the woodland, Tashtego now hunted in the wake of the great whales of the sea; the unerring harpoon of the son fitly replacing the infallible arrow of the sires" (Ch. 27).

Tashtego is the first to harpoon a whale on this voyage, though, ironically, the chapter title--"Stubb Kills a Whale"--gives credit to someone else (Ch. 61).

Tashtego knows the inside of a whale--"the belly of the beast"--better than anyone on board, having been submerged in one in Ch. 78 (Queequeg rescues him).

Tashtego claims that he saw Moby-Dick at almost the same time Ahab did: "'I saw him almost that same instant, sir, that Captain Ahab did, and I cried out,' said Tashtego." (Ch. 133)

When the flag on the top mast that serves as a weathervane is lost, Ahab orders Tashtego to hammer a new one in its place: "And now marking that the vane or flag was gone from the main-mast-head, he shouted to Tashtego, who had just gained that perch, to descend again for another flag, and a hammer and nails, and so nail it to the mast" (Ch. 135).

When Moby-Dick makes his final attack on the Pequod, the narrator paints a dramatic portrait of a defiant Tashtego: "the temporarily disabled boat lay nearly level with the waves; its half-wading, splashing crew, trying hard to stop the gap and bale out the pouring water. Meantime, for that one beholding instant, Tashtego’s mast-head hammer remained suspended in his hand; and the red flag, half-wrapping him as with a plaid, then streamed itself straight out from him, as his own forward-flowing heart" (Ch. 135).

Tashtego is the last character whose name Ahab speaks as the ship goes down, and in fact, it is Tashtego, not the captain, who plays the captain's role of "going down with the ship": "Diving beneath the settling ship, the whale ran quivering along its keel; but turning under water, swiftly shot to the surface again, far off the other bow, but within a few yards of Ahab’s boat, where, for a time, he lay quiescent. 'I turn my body from the sun. What ho, Tashtego! let me hear thy hammer. Oh! ye three unsurrendered spires of mine; thou uncracked keel; and only god-bullied hull; thou firm deck, and haughty helm, and Pole-pointed prow,—death-glorious ship! must ye then perish, and without me? Am I cut off from the last fond pride of meanest shipwrecked captains?"

The final image in the final lines of the last chapter focuses on Tashtego, who survives and resists, even after Ahab has gone, and casts a blow against Empire and "heavenly" justice that "blesses" the world's dominant powers: "A sky-hawk that tauntingly had followed the main-truck downwards from its natural home among the stars, pecking at the flag, and incommoding Tashtego there; this bird now chanced to intercept its broad fluttering wing between the hammer and the wood; and simultaneously feeling that etherial thrill, the submerged savage beneath, in his death-gasp, kept his hammer frozen there; and so the bird of heaven, with archangelic shrieks, and his imperial beak thrust upwards, and his whole captive form folded in the flag of Ahab, went down with his ship, which, like Satan, would not sink to hell till she had dragged a living part of heaven along with her, and helmeted herself with it.
    "Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf; a sullen white surf beat against its steep sides; then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago" (Ch. 135).

Given this prominence and the fact the boat Ahab captains is named after a Native American tribe of New England that has been submerged and wiped out by White conquering force, can Ahab's voyage be productively read as a hopeless but valiant effort to strike back against an inscrutable, violating power?

1491: Language Families of North America

 

Historically, there were over 500 Native languages spoken in North America. The map above was created by Ives Goddard and the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in 1999.

To zoom in on the map, click here.

In North America, Native American literature was oral. Few tribes kept written records. Non-alphabetical texts—"painted hides or bark and wampum belts made of shell could serve as prompts for the recitation of tales or in treaty negotiations and other ceremonies” (29)

“. . . European conquerors systematically destroyed the bodies of writing in such places as Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City), leaving just a handful of the pictograph codices . . .” (29)

The image at left was drawn and colored
by anonymous Tlaxcaltec artist in 1560. It depicts the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire in 1521.

1492: Colombo

Illustration designed by Joos van Winge for a 1598 edition of
“A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies” (1552)
by Bartolome de las Casas.

Under Colombo’s leadership, Spanish soldiers cut off the hands and noses of native slaves who do not bring them enough gold.

Horrified by the treatment of the American Indian slaves, de las Casas recommends shipping in slaves from Africa.

On September 6, 1492 Cristoforo Colombo's ships sail across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands, Spain.

On October 12, 1492, Colombo sets foot on an island in the Bahamas that the native Taino call “Guanahani.”

Colombo calls it “San Salvador.”

Colombo takes six friendly natives captive on his first trip back from America. 

On his second, he returns to Spain with more than 500 that he intends to sell as slaves. He “intended to create a market in enslaved Americans and a substantial number of Natives were taken as slaves, but ultimately this project failed because too many Native people died” (9).

Within twenty-five years of his arrival at Guanahani, most of the Taíno have died from enslavement, massacre, or disease.

Colombo did not set foot in land claimed by the current United States.

In 1494, Portugal’s King Joao II and Spain’s Fernando and Isabel meet in Tordesillas, Spain to divide up the “New World.”

“The Spanish founded colonies at present-day St. Augustine, Florida (1565), and Santa Fe, New Mexico (1610), and Dutch settlers established New Netherland (1614), which came to include New York City and Albany (1614)." All of these cities are older than the English settlements at Boston (1630), Plymouth (1620) and Jamestown 1607).

The pre-Columbian population of what is now the United States and Canada, with its more widely scattered societies, has been variously estimated at somewhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000. Many historians believe that as much as 90% of the population in the Americas died within a few generations of the arrival of Europeans in the Americas.

24. "Powhatan's Discourse of Peace and War" (1624) by John Smith.

Wahunsenacah and the Powhatan

The Powhatan homelands are in the Chesapeake Bay near present-day Virginia. At the time of first contact with Europeans in the 16th century, it is estimated that the Powhattan had a population of between 13,000 and 34,000 separated into approximately 30 different tribes.

Wahunsenacah, who took the name "Powhatan" when his father died, was chief of the chiefs when John Smith and 143 others arrived to establish the colony of "Jamestown" on April 26, 1607

Population Devastation

By that time the Powhatan population had already decreased by 10,000 because of diseases brought by previous European explorers.

Surviving Jamestown

In December 1607, the Powhatan captured Smith and held him captive for a month.

Only 38 of the original 144 colonists survived that first winter. But Jamestown became the first permanent English settlement in North America.

In 1609, Smith returned to England. He explored the New England coast (he gave "New England" its name) in 1614, but thereafter never returned to America.

Pocahontas

After Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas, died in 1616, Smith wrote about how she had saved his life when her father had held him captive.

Powhatan's Discourse of Peace and War

In 1624, Smith published a book titled The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles. "Powhatan's Discourse of Peace and War" is included in that text within a larger context in which Smith suggests that Powhattan was trying to deceive and manipulate the English.

“The formalize modes of address that Native Americans used in their early encounters with European were often lavishly described in exploration narratives. One reasons such scenes were central in Renaissance-era accounts is that the writers were imitating classical historiography, with its emphasis on oratory. As set pieces in their narratives, the writers included moving and aesthetically pleasing speeches based more or less loosely on memory and other sources. ‘Powhatan’s Discourse of Peace and War,’ by John Smith, and ‘King Philip’s Speech,’ by William Apess, are reconstructed works that provide narrative drama in their original contexts and stand alone as effective examples of Native eloquence” (Levine, 30).

Power and Wisdom
Powhatan explains to Smith that he knows well how the world works, contrary to what many English people believed of the Native Americans. He has lived through wars and sickness, watching his people die, and has seen much bloodshed and death. Powhatan knows what Captain Smith thinks, and says “Think you I am so simple, not to know it is better to eat good meat, lie well, and sleep quietly with my women and children...” (39). He understands that the white people look down upon his people, for being “simple” and uneducated. However, he tells Captain Smith this is not the case. Powhatan has been around long and seen many things. He reminds him that if the Englishwere to attack his people, the Powhatan would find a way survive by any means necessary. They would “lie cold in the woods, feed upon acorns, roots, and such trash...(and) neither rest, eat, nor sleep...” (39). Though they may be hunted, Powhatan and his people know how to survive in nature, as it is their home. He is not making a threat. Rather, he is trying to make Smith understand that his people will not be simply contained and pushed around. I liked this discourse because it gave the power to the Native Americans. . . . things such as this. . . [give] voice to the Native Americans[, who have] so long deserved to be heard.

Dehumanization?
.. . . when [Powhatan] asks, “What will it avail you to take that by force you may quickly have by love.” I’m not sure why this particular line stood out to me so much, but I’m suspecting that it has to do with it relating to modern times as much as it did in the past. People seem to be turning on one another so often these days to get what they want, when simple manners or politeness could work just as well, and perhaps even better. The lack of love between colonies and tribes were leading white settlers to start a “dehumanization” process to make their deeds more commendable . . . . People’s lack of love and common decency makes it hard to believe they were even human and not machines. The colonists were entirely focused on making the natives more like them instead of trying to work with them in a sensible way.

Whose Voice?
Powhatan’s discourse was apparently written by John Smith, potentially years after his capture and interaction with Powhatan. Smith of course had many reasons to fight with the native people, but even more to ally himself with them. The general opinion of many people is that Smith most likely embellished Powhatan’s speech in one way or another as “questions of its authenticity and sincerity add layers of complexity” (39). Even if Powhatan never spoke these words, though, it can be assumed that he was still in all likelihood a friend, in some way, to Smith. The fact that Smith felt compelled to write this speech at all, is interesting.. . . 

This Land Was Made for You and Me?

In 1631,  he published Advertisements for the Unexeprienced Planters of New England, or Any Where: Or, the Path-way to Experience to Erect a Plantation.  In it, he addressed the concerns of those who questioned the right of the English to take land from Native Americans. As he put it, “Many good religious devout men have made it a great question, as a matter of conscience, by what warrant they might go to possesse those Countries, which are none of theirs, but the poore [savages’].”

 Smith’s response: to refrain from colonizing America would constitute “neglect of our duty and religion” as well as as “want of charity to those poore Savages” (4)

ONE: We are bringing them Christianity: “God did make the world to be inhabited with mankind, and to have his name knowne to all Nations, and from generation to generation.”

TWO: They’ve got more land than they need: “here in Florida, Virginia, New-England, and Cannada, is more land than all the people in Christendome can [cultivate], and yet more to spare than all the natives of those Countries can use and culturate” (3-4)

THREE: If we don’t claim the land for England and Protestants, the Spanish and Portuguese will claim it for the Catholics.

24. "Iroquois Creation Story" (1827) transcribed by David Cusick

The Haudenosaunee ("People of the Longhouses") after their characteristic dwellings, which were 20 ft. wide (four park benches) and as long as 200 ft. long (six school buses).

They  resided in upstate New York, west of the Hudson river. Some of their villages had as many as 2,000 inhabitants.

The name "Iroquois" was given to them by the French, who, in 1623, became the first to translate and transcribe the Iroquois creation story.

The English called them the" Five Nations."They were: 1) Mohawk; 2) Seneca; 3) Oneida; 4) Onondaga; 5) Cayuga (later joined by a sixth nation—the Tuscarora from North Carolina).

In 1722, the Tuscarora of North Carolina (who also spoke an Iroquoian language) joined them as the sixth nation of the Confederacy.

Other tribes that spoke Iroquoian languages included the Cherokee and the Huron.

In 1827, David Cusick, a Tuscarora Indian, born on the Oneida reservation, in central New York state became the first native to write down the Iroquois creation story. This was shortly before Andrew Jackson was elected President of the United States (1828). It was Jackson’s intent to “remove” eastern Indians to lands west of the Mississippi.

 

 

24. "King Philip's Speech" (1836) by William Apess

Between 1616 and 1619, 90 percent of the Wampanoag Indians of Massachusetts were wiped out by disease in an epidemic called "The Great Dying" caused by their interaction with Europeans who had been visiting the region during the previous fifty to one-hundred years.

When the separatist Pilgrim Puritans arrived in 1620, Wampanoag leader Massasoit (ca. 1590-1662) maintained peaceful relations with the them. His son, Metacom (1638-1676), became leader of the Wampanoag when Massasoit died in 1662. Metacom was called “King Philip” by the English.

After the Plymouth colony executed three Wampanoag in June 1675, Metacom led an alliance against the English colonies in Massachusetts, Rhode island, and Connecticut. The English called it “King Philip’s War” (1675-1676).

The Narrangasetts and the Mohegans took sides with the English because they had “grievances against the militarily aggressive Pequots” (10).

In February 1676, Mary Rowlandson and her three children and 20 others were taken captive after the Indians attacked their frontier village in Lancaster, Massachusetts. Rowlandson was held captive for three months before she was released for a ransom. Six years later, she published narrative of her expeirence and her encounter with "King Philip," whom she describes as "generous" and "sympathetic to her." Her narrative was republished several times.

Metacom was killed in the Great Swamp Fight of August 1676. His severed head was later put on a stake in Plymouth, where it remained for years.

By September the colonists and their Indian allies had destroyed much of the Native American opposition in southern New England, killing thousands of Native Americans and selling many into slavery and indentured servitude. Some 600 English soldiers had been killed in the conflict and 17 white settlements destroyed; some 50 additional settlements had been damaged."

Many historians describe King Philip's war as the bloodiest conflict per capita in U.S. history.

In his “Eulogy on King Philip,” a speech he delivered in Boston in 1836, Pequot leader and Methodist minister William Apess set out to humanize Metacom.

Full text of William Apess's Eulogy for King Phillip

For more on William Apess, see:

Gussman, Deborah. "O Savage, Where Art Thou?": Rhetorics of Reform in William Apess's "Eulogy on King Philip." The New England Quarterly, Sep., 2004, Vol. 77, No. 3 (Sep., 2004), pp. 451-477  URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1559826

Invasion of Land or Disrespect for People?
Apess’s King Phillip’s Speech is an empowerment speech addressed to fellow Natives. It is meant to incite action to protect the culture. As it states, “all our ancient customs are disregarded, and the treaties made by our fathers and us broken all of us insulted” (41). This line seems to be calling them to fight for recognition and respect. Furthermore, based on the passage, I think this demonstrates that perhaps they were bothered less by the invasion of land and home and more by lack of willingness on the part of the colonist to impart camaraderie and knowledge in their interaction with the Native people.

Disrespect for Customs and Traditions?
The paragraph excerpt from Eulogy on King Philip shares a common sentiment with The Trickster. The excerpt says, “Brothers, these people from the unknown world will cut down our groves, spoil our hunting and planting grounds, and drive us and our children from the graves of our fathers, and our women and children will be enslaved” (27-28). Much like in The Trickster, someone is adamantly ignoring customs and traditions, destroying land and life.

24. Excerpts from "The Trickster" (1956)

The Ho-chunk ("People of the Big Voice") moved from the southeast to the area near Green Bay, Wisconsin 1,000 years ago. The Algonquians called them “Winnebago" ("People of the Dirty Water").

Cultural anthropologist and folklorist Paul Radin began collecting Ho-chunk stories in the early 1900s and published The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology in 1956. (34) The stories he recorded came to him second hand: an “older individual” told them (in the Ho-chungra language) to Sam Blowsnake, who wrote them down in Ho-Chunk. Then "Radin, Blowsnake, and another [Ho-Chungra] man, Oliver Lamere, collaborated on the translation in ot Enlgish, which Radin . . published in literate prose" (35).

Student comment:

The Trickster is probably the strangest thing I have ever read. From the excerpts alone, I think the Trickster’s character and behavior might symbolize the white man taking a bite out of Native Americans, whom the more natural bulb symbolizes. The story says, “Moreover, the excrement began to come up to him,” which I take as meaning that white people have built an empire on treating others like, for lack of a better term, shit (27). At the end of 25, the story says, “If the trees had not spoken to him he certainly would have died” (27). If the Trickster had not returned to nature (Native Americans) for help, he would have died—much like the relationship between  Pilgrims and Native Americans.