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20th Century
Wooly Mammoths |
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Wooly Mammoths by Denny Gayton
The idea of this paper came from many of the stories I heard while growing up on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, which lies both in North and South Dakota. Many of the stories dealt with animals that were no longer in existence at the present, and while many of the stories gave specific examples of particular kinds of behavior the people observed about various animals as well as certain acts that the tribal people themselves engaged in with the animals, it is not these stories that will be utilized for this paper. There are many stories that have been preserved and put into print already by a bevy of academics attempting to record Indian traditions before the people became extinct. A number of tribal traditions will be related here in an effort to give the context for Indian and non-Indian information that strongly calls into question the existence of mammoths very near the 20th century. Above all, the traditions of the Indians related here must be understood to have as much veracity as the scientific traditions that are related to students of American universities. Ashley Montagu relates a pertinent Indian tradition that discusses what happened to the species, how the Indians memorialize the place and is included as follows: "There was a time when the Indians paddled their canoes over the now extensive prairies of Missouri, and en-camped or hunted on the bluffs. (these bluffs vary from 50 to 400 feet in perpendicular height.) That at a certain period many large and monstrous animals came from the eastward, along and up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers; upon which the animals which had previously occupied the country became very angry, and at last so enraged and infuriated, by reason of these intrusions, that the red man durst now venture out to hunt any more, and was consequently reduced to great distress. At this time a large number of these huge monsters assembled here, when a terrible battle ensued, in which many on both sides were killed, and the remainder resumed their march towards the setting sun. Near the bluffs which are at present known by the name of the Rocky Ridge, one of the greatest of these battles was fought. Immediately after the battle, the Indians gathered together many of the slaughtered animals, and offered them on the spot as a burnt-sacrifice to the Great Spirit; the remainder were buried by the Great Spirit himself in the before mentioned Pomme de Terre which from this time took the name of the Big Bone river, as well as the Osage, of which the Pomme de Terre is a branch. From this time the Indians brought their yearly sacrifice to this place, and offered it up to the Great Spirit as a thank-offering for their timely deliverance, and more latterly, they have offered their sacrifices on the table rock previously mentioned, which was held in great veneration, and considered holy ground" (Montagu 570). A highly significant piece of information to be grasped is that the time-frame that these memories of giant animals occurred at a time when the prairies surrounding the Missouri River were covered with water, a supposition that would raise no eyebrows within mainstream scientific circles. The Indians at that time relate that the giant animals presence restrained the Indians from venturing too far from their homes until a time when the animals who previously occupied the area confronted giant animals and a massive battle ensued between the two disparate groups. The giant animals, who came from the east along river-ways, then resumed their westward procession, after which the Indians gathered the bodies and burned them. The most relevant question is then, what species were these animals? Thomas Jefferson, noted intellectual of centuries past as well as a previous American President, recorded a Delaware tradition that he, no doubt, had his own ideas as to which species of mega-fauna: "That in ancient times a herd of these tremendous animals came to the Big-bone licks, and began a universal destruction of the bear, deer, elks, buffaloes, and other animals, which had been created for the use of the Indians, that the Great Man above, seated himself on a neighboring mountain, on a rock, of which his seat and the point of his feet are still to be seen, and hurled bolts among them till the whole were slaughtered, except the big bull, who presenting his forehead to the shafts, shook them off as they fell, but missing one at length it wounded him in the side, whereon, spring round, he bounded over the Ohio, over the Wabash, the Illinois, and finally over the great lakes, where he is living to this day" (Jefferson 43). Here we are presented again with an Indian tradition that took place in Kentucky, was a site that the Indians obviously remembered in association with what occurred there and begs for some sort of explanation as to what kind of animal this was. There are a few Indian traditions that have been recorded which identify but do not name nor explicitly describe large animals that existed along with the Indians in North America. Other Indian traditions can be related that offer more data that can possibly help us look to the existence of giant animals that the Indians remembered and passed these experiences down to their younger generations. One of the stories that can be presented discusses the memories of the Cheyenne tribe passed down concerning giant animals: "Out of these Cheyenne sprang up men and women who were large, tall, strong, and fierce, and they increased in number until they numbered thousands. They were so strong that they could pick up and carry off on their backs the large animals that they killed. They tamed panther and bear and trained them to catch wild game for them to eat. They had bows and arrows, and were always dressed in furs and skins, and in their ignorance they roamed about like animals. In those days there were very large animals. One variety of these animals was of the form of a cow, though four times as large; by nature they were tame and grazed along the river banks, men milked them. Boys and men to the number of twenty could get upon their backs without disturbing them. Another variety of these large animals resembled in body the horse, and they had horns and long, sharp teeth. This was the most dangerous animal in the country. It ate man, had a mind like a human being, and could trail a human being through the rivers and tall grasses by means of its power of scent. Of these there were but few. In the rivers there were long snakes whose bodies were so large that a man could not jump over them" (Thompson 265). The animal in question is the animal in the form of a cow, but four times as large as a cow. After discussing its large or giant size, the Cheyenne tradition describes observed behavior: the large animals were seen as tame and that they grazed flora along the banks of a river. The Cheyenne traditions relates that some humans engaged in activities with the animals: the men milked them for some unknown reason and they could ride upon the backs of these animals. It is not clearly understood, though, if the humans being discussed in the Cheyenne tradition were actual Cheyenne people or another group of people. Still, more information must be offered in order to clearly understand what these animals were. One story that can be offered towards understanding some giant animals that were no longer present, at the beginning of the 20th century in the southeastern United States, is one that was related by an Indian to a non-Indian. The animal must have resembled, physically, the elephant. The story is shown here in its entirety: "Many years before the discovery of the elephant in the bayou called Carancro an Atakapas savage had informed of a man who is at present in my service in the capa city of cow-herd that the ancestors of his nation transmitted [the story] to their descendants that a beast of enormous size had perished either in this bayou or in one of the two water courses a short distance from it without their being able to indicate the true place, the antiquity of the event having without doubt made them forget it. The fact has realized this tradition" (Swanton 363). An individual relates how an Indian shared a story concerning an animal of enormous size lived and then died in a specific bayou. It is of particular interest to note that the individual brings the Indian tradition up in the context of elephants, which will later be seen as an animal that, upon seeing Indians, thought it may be the same animal they had previously known. Now stories will be related that deal more explicitly with the recent co-existence of Indians and mammoths.
One of the traditional stories of the southeastern Indians goes as follows: "A long time ago a being with a long nose came out of the ocean and began to kill people. It would root up trees with its nose to get at persons who had sought refuge in the branches, and people lived on scaffolds to get away from it. It made its home in a piece of woods near Charenton, and when guns were introduced the people went into this wood to kill the monster, but could not find it.When the elephant was seen it was thought to be the same creature, and was consequently called Neka-ci-ckami, 'Long-nosed-spirit'" (Swanton 355). Here is a tradition describing an animal that the Indians felt was the same animal that Indians saw when they first observed elephants. The animal is reported to have come out of the water and did not have a good relationship with the Indians. The relationship between the two groups was such that the Indians lived in structures erected on scaffolds out of protection from the elephant-like animals. Understandably, it is not hard to see why that when the Indians acquired weaponry adequate to become aggressive, they went after the large animals. Although, arguably, a pattern is beginning to emerge about the many giant animals that existed alongside Indians, more information must be brought into the context that is beginning to emerge out of the data itself. One of the more readily understood narratives that deals with eye-witness accounts of mammoths that has been recorded by the Western tradition is given to us from Sebastian Mabre-Cramoisy as follows: "All the largest Moose are only little dwarfs compared with this one; he has legs so long that, however deep the snow may be, he is never inconvenienced by it, while others are almost buried in it, and on that account they are easily caught" (119). "He has a skin that is arrow-proof and bullet-proof, and he seems invulnerable. They add that he carries a fifth leg, which grows out from his shoulders and which he uses like a hand in preparing his bed. He never goes alone, and does not appear without being escorted by a great number of other Moose; and, in fact, our Hunters said that they killed fifteen of the latter while chasing it." Here is a non-Indian eye-witness account concerning an animal that dwarfs a moose, which is not a small creature. While it is interesting to note some sort of relationship that existed between this animal, which must be a mammoth because of the “leg” that grows out of the anterior portion of its body and is utilized by the animal in the way that elephants also use their trunk, and the moose, it is of more importance to understand that individuals educated in the western tradition remember the existence of mammoths in North America. Looking back at some of those who were educated quite effectively in the western tradition and bringing forth more comments by past American President Thomas Jefferson who was discussing the four-legged animals that lived in North America: "Our quadrupeds have been mostly described by Linneaus and Mons. de Buffon. Of these the mammoth, or big buffalo, as called by the Indians, must certainly have been the largest. Their tradition is, that he was carnivorous and still exists in the northern parts of America" (Jefferson 37). There is little real question here in the mind of Thomas Jefferson that mammoths must have existed not in some far remote past, but quite recently. This adds to the tradition of some groups of Indians that the animal was carnivorous and was yet alive in northern America. Here it is rather imperative that we include tribal stories that expand the nature of what we know of mammoths. Stories like these have all tended to revolve around another group of non-Indian people who were much bigger in stature than Indians who seemed to have domesticated the mammoths. The most comprehensive narrative I can find concerning this is given below in its entirety related by J.F.H. Claiborne, who recorded a Choctaw tradition concerning the mammoths: "There had likewise been a race of cannibals, who feasted on the bodies of their enemies. They ... were giants, and utilized the mammoths as their burden bearers. They kept them closely herded, and as they devoured everything and broke down the forests, this was the origin of the prairies ... This cannibal race and the mammoth perished about the same time, by a great epidemic. Only one of the latter escaped, who made his home for several years near the Tombigbee. The Great Spirit struck him several times with lightning, but he presented his head to the bolt and it glanced off. Annoyed, however, by these attempts, he fled to Soc-te-thon-fah (the present Memphis) and at one mighty leap cleared the river, and made his way to the Rocky Mountains"(Claiborne 484. Here described is the mention of another group of people who were described as giants and domesticated the mammoths to carry loads for them, at which point the relationship between the two is related to the creation of the prairies on the plains, which of course at one point had been covered by water, and according to this tradition, then trees. The second portion of the tradition is not at all unlike the Delaware tradition in which the mammoth somehow managed to attract lightning. It was struck a number of times before it reportedly deflected a bolt, ran and was not seen in the area again. Offering more examples of the mammoth is Jean Bernard-Bissu. The account deals both with Indian and non-Indian individuals having their information synthesized, which concerns a then-contemporary bone artifact and an older site, as follows: "This expedition (relief of Fort du Quene) would have given me the opportunity to examine the place where an Indian found some elephant teeth. He gave me a molar which weighed about six and one-half pounds. In 1735, the Canadians, who had come to fight the Chickasaws, discovered the skeletons of seven elephants in the vicinity of the Belle, or Ohio River. This leads me to assume that Louisiana is joined to India and that the elephants came here from Asia through the west, which we do not yet know. A herd of these animals must have wandered off on dry land and through the forests to this new continent. Since the Indians did not have firearms at that time, they could not have destroyed them all. Seven of them could have come all the way to the place that I have mentioned and which has been marked with a cross on the map of Louisiana. These elephants evidently came to a swamp into which they sank up to their bellies because of their enormous weight and from which they were unable to extricate themselves" (Bissu 103-104). Here is an example of where more archaeological and geological work needs to be done in examining the anthropologic record. An Indian brought some mammoth teeth to the attention of a non-Indian and then mention of a previous engagement where seven mammoths found themselves up to their bellies in a swamp and were unable to disassociate themselves from it and their skeletons were found there. Examination of the swamp and how old it is would yield a recent date given the proper technology needed to make such an inquiry. One interesting narrative that can be included regards an expedition made to explore the New World the English were making their way through resulted in a very interesting record: "David Ingram, an English adventurer, was put ashore with 113 other men between Mexico and Florida in 1568, and he wandered for years in the American interior before making his way to the east coast of the American colonies. In his report to the state secretary of Queen Elizabeth, he described precisely and drew accurate pictures of elephants as well as bison and other animals he and his companions had observed during the journey. Ingram could not have known that some centuries later, elephant bones (mastodons and mammoth) would be discovered all over the continent. This account is not taken seriously, but it is a curious fact that 200 years later President Jefferson was informed by a delegation of Indian chiefs that hunting in the interior lands included animals described as elephants. It is a matter of record that President Jefferson asked Lewis and Clark to be on the alert for elephant herds during their exploration of the West" (Internet). It is becomingly increasingly hard to deny the very recent existence of mammoths in North America. It seems that the contemporary scholars of today, if they know of the existence of these narratives concerning non-Indian accounts, must not deal with them altogether or perhaps have come to the conclusion that although these past individuals did not really see what they had seen. While a few centuries may be easy to explain away, the inclusion of a final piece may shed some light. With the last stages of the military’s aggressive involvement in taking care of the “Indian problem” behind them, it is a bit ironic that now it is this same group that ends up validating one of the more controversial ideas to be raised in anthropology and perhaps archaeology. A newspaper in Illinois printed a story on a conversation with a military colonel put into print by a Maine newspaper as follows: "The Portland (Me.) Press of November 28 publishes a long conversation with Col. C.F. Fowler, late of the Alaskan Fur and Commercial company, in which he gives very clear evidence that in the interior of Alaska many mastodons still survive. He first discovered among some "fossil" ivory collected by the natives two tusks which showed evidence of being recently taken from the animal which carried them. On questioning the native who sold it to him he was surprised to receive a full description of the immense beast which had been killed by the natives, a description fully identifying the animal with the mastodon. Col. Fowler quotes Gov. Swineford, of Alaska, as having also investigated this matter and as being satisfied that on the high plateaus of that country large herds of mastodons still roam unmolested by the natives, who fear them greatly. The Alaska News also admits that the evidence of their existence is too strong to be denied." Here is arguably the strongest evidence of the recent existence of the large animals. In line with the earlier narratives, they travel in herds and are, at times, hunted and killed by the Indians. Like the earlier narratives, these northern Indians fear them, perhaps causing them to leave them alone, as the other traditions of the tribes within the lower 48 borders of America report. Here has been presented the extent of my research. It seems that at the very least, it can be suggested that mammoths existed until nearly the 20th century. Certainly a strong argument can be made for the existence of mammoths at the beginning of the 20th century. Other narratives must exist, so one may wish to take this research further and search through more texts than I located, in an effort to bring a much more comprehensive base for the foundation of an argument. I am of the opinion that mammoths lived a great deal longer than what we are taught to believe in secondary and post-secondary schools; and that Indian traditions need more examination than a passing glance by academics who relegate them to the status they accord European fairy tales and myths.
WORKS CITED
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