Legends on the Land

Sparse remnants on the land help tell Native American history in the Upper Housatonic River Valley. So do deeds and governmental documents and scarce writings by European observers.

While Mohicans, Schaghticoke and others had oral tradition, much has been filtered through others.

William Cullen Bryant, the Great Barrington poet, for example, wrote in his 1824 verse “Monument Mountain” of a young Indian woman who had fallen in love with a cousin — improper according to tribal custom. In despair, she threw herself from the top of Squaw Peak. Mourners buried her at the foot of the mountain, and created a stone cairn in her memory.

Only, there are other versions of the story, including one much more violent, probably by Nathaniel P. Willis, in which the young woman disregards her tribe’s wishes and marries a young man of another tribe. She is punished: “All her limbs being bound except her hands, she was borne to the verge and launched away with all the stoicism for which the Indians are famous.”

A third version, ascribed to L.H. Hale, a warrior named Salouch wants to court Oucannawa, and follows her one day to the top of the mountain. When she rejects his advances, shoves her from the precipice to her death.

Mark Twain in Life on the Mississippi was amazed at the similarity of Indian legends. Taking in Maiden Rock in Wisconsin, he said, “There are fifty Lover’s leaps along the Mississippi from whose summit disappointed Indian girls have jumped, but this is the only jump in the lot that turned out in the right and satisfactory way.”

A white deer that arrives at Onota Lake in Pittsfield with the spring cherry buds is spared the hunter’s arrow — thus assuring prosperity for the tribe. But a French emissary to the tribe, during the time of the French & Indian wars, visiting in hopes of persuading the men to join his cause, thinks the deer would make a nice trophy for his king. Neither the slain deer, nor the Frenchman, reaches Montreal. Famine ensues and the Indians diminish.

An Indian woman, Moonkeek, who lives at Pontoosuc Lake in Pittsfield, is the daughter of the chief. She falls in love with a cousin, Shonkeek, their love stronger than tribal custom. A rival, Nockawando, wants Moonkeek, and learns she and Shonkeek plan to flee together. Witnessing Mockawando kill Shonkeek, Moonkeek paddles to find her lover and plunges into the water. The two are forever in each other’s arms, beneath the waters.

White Swan, the daughter of a witch, falls in love and marries a man. Childless after several years, she is spurned. She gazes for hours into the pool at the bottom of Bash‐Bish Falls in Mount Washington. One day hearing the voice of her late mother, she dives from the cliff. Her husband witnesses her leap and follows her into the water. His body is later discovered, hers is not.

Sisters Washining and Washinee, “Laughing Water” and “Smiling Water,” both fell in love with a captured enemy man and beg their father, the chief, to spare him. Father refuses. The young

women in dispair paddle together to the center of the lake and vanish, their empty canoe to be seen some full‐moon‐lit nights.

Chief Waramaug’s daughter, Princess Lillinonah, is said to have canoed to her death over the Great Falls in New Milford, despairing that her white lover, who has gone away, will not return. The lover does return in time to see her flounder in the pool, and leaps to his death trying to save her.

Be aware these legends have filtered through many hands.

The story of Wahconah and Nessacus in Dalton won’t be repeated here; no version can be founder earlier than one in a travel guide written by Pittsfield historian J.E.A. Smith (as “Godfrey Greylock) published in 1879. The name Wahconah does show up, however, on a Pittsfield paper mill in 1868.

— Bernard A. Drew

I don’t think any of the legends cited below are of Native American origin. Native sacred stories had much more substance that a maiden jumping off a cliff over a lost love. And if you know a Native American woman, you know they are too strong‐willed and pragmatic to have done something silly like that. As you imply, those “legends” are a creation of the white male Victorian mindset. I don’t think they should be included in our project, as to do so would only continue their being cited as Indian. If we wish to use authentic indigenous legends/sacred stories/folktales, a good publication to cite would be William Simmons’ “Spirit of the New England Tribes”, which includes many authenticated indigenous folklore/stories.

— Lucianne Lavin

SOURCES

  •   Bash Bish Falls and the Legend of a Beautiful Mohican Woman,” Adventurous Wench blog, http://www.adventurouswench.com/blog/2011/10/25/bash‐bish‐falls‐and‐the‐ legend‐of‐a‐beautiful‐mohican‐woman/ (viewed 20 November 2016).

  •   Bryant, William Cullen, “Monument Mountain” in United States Literary Gazette, September 1824.

  •   Esch, Mary, “Author and guide tells tales of hundreds of waterfalls,” News from Indian Country. http://www.indiancountrynews.com/index.php/casinostourism‐sections‐ menu‐75/1519‐author‐and‐guide‐tells‐tales‐of‐hundreds‐of‐waterfalls (viewed 20 November 2016).

  •   Greylock, Godfrey (J.E.A. Smith). Taghconic; The Romance and Beauty of the Hills. Boston: Lee and Shepard, Publisher’s 1879.

  •   Hale, L.H., “Indian Traditions of Monument Mountain” in Family Magazine, 1837.

  •   “Lost Lovers of Pontoosuc Lake,” http://gombessa.tripod.com/scienceleadstheway/id7.html (viewed 20 November 2016).

  •   “Lover’s Leap State Park,” Historical Marker Data Base. http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=22739 (viewed 20 November 2016).

  •   [Willis, Nathaniel P.] “Indian Traditions of Monument Mountain,” New York Mirror, 2 November 1833.