1913 Cherokee Stickball Players
A
lifestyle so connected with the outdoors over thousands of years
produced a hardy, athletic race of people, adapted to weather and
subsistence. Relatively small tribal populations in relation to vast
expanses of lands kept human impact well within the carrying capacity
of the land. Indian runners whose endurance was renowned carried
communications across the mountains.
William Gerard DeBrahm, an important British surveyor recorded in 1796:
They
all walk very straight, upright, and rather with stiff Knees, which
they scarcely bend. They are very dexterous and nimble in their next
Exercises, which is wrestling, jumping, throwing and running; as also
in their third Exercise, hunting and shooting, both with arrow and
Guns. An Indian once kept up, running afoot, for three hours, with the
Author, who kept his Horse in a constant Gallop, from Keowe to
Estetowe, and never left him.
James Adair:
. . . but
those towns that lie among the Apalahche mountains are very pinching
to such who are unaccustomed to a savage life. The ice and snow
continue on the north-side, till late in the spring of the year:
however, the natives are well provided for it, by their bathing and
anointing themselves. This regimen shuts up the pores of the body, and
by that means prevents too great a perspiration; and an accustomed
exercise of hunting, joined with the former, puts them far above their
climate: they are almost as impenetrable to cold, as a bar of steel,
and the severest cold is no detriment to their hunting.
Acclimation and Bathing
The Indians bathed daily in the rivers and streams where their towns and farms were almost always located. White people were amazed at their immunity against cold and rain.
They
were acclimated because they were hardened against the elements by
living with the elements. Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins traveled
through the north Georgia Cherokee country using Cherokee guides to
take him to the Coosa River of Alabama to Creek Country.
He recorded in his detailed journal, “My
guides spoke their native tongue only. I gave them directions when I
set off, and had the aid of an interpreter, which they follow with
great exactness.”
On December 5, 1796, he recorded:
My
guide in the evening told me we had traveled 34 miles--here I saw a
Creek Indian, near his hunting camp, he at first was a great distance
from me and walked hastily on till he came up with me, gave me his
hand, told me who he was and conversed for some time with my guide, who
had been instructed to inform every one he saw on the path who I was.
In the course of the evening it rained. I had prepared for a shelter in
time which was covered with a blanket, bear skins and oilcloth cloak. I
was surprised at the little effect the rain had on my two Indians, the
old man had a leather shirt and legings, the young one leather legings
and an old shirt, they had each a small halfworn blanket, the young
man every evening pulled off his shirt and spread it under him. They
both slept soundly the whole time it rained, got up once and ordered my
attendants up twice to endeavor to preserve our fire by the addition
of wood, but they never stired till daybreak; they are small eaters,
use no salt, and but little bread. They carry their parched corn meal,
Wissoetaw, and mix a hand full in a pint of water which they drink.
Although they had plenty of corn and fowls they made no other provision
than a small bag of this for the path. I have plenty of provisions,
and give them some at every meal. I have several times drank of the
Wissoetaw and am fond of it with the addition of some sugar. To make of
the best quality I am told the corn should be first boiled, then
parched in hot ashes, sifted, pounded and made into flour.
The
first and principal Exercise of the Indians is bathing and swimming,
in which they are very dexterous. Every Morning, immediately after
rising, both in Summer and NB in Winter, coming out of their hot
Houses, they take their Babes under their Arms, and lead their Children
to the River, in which they enter be it ever so cold. The Mothers
learn their Babes swimming before they can walk, which greatly
increases their Strength, and of Course their Growth.
source: Wild South
