Aboriginal American Authors and their Productions | Page 3

the most tangible evidence of both their linguistic and literary ability is the work some of these natives have accomplished in European tongues. It does not come within the limits of my plan to enter fully into an examination of this branch of literature; but it is worth while mentioning some of the more prominent native writers, who have composed in European languages, as their productions are an easy test of what the faculties of the red race are in this direction.
As the colonizers of the New World have been chiefly from Spain and Great Britain, so naturally the English and Spanish languages have been brought most widely to the knowledge of the natives. The half-civilized tribes, within the area of the United States, have produced several authors of merit. Perhaps the earliest of these was David Cusick, who, in 1825, printed his Ancient History of the Six Nations. He was a full blood Tuscarora, and his English is far from correct. Yet the arrangement of his matter is skillful, and some passages quaintly vivid and forcible. Another member of the Iroquois confederacy, Peter Dooyentate Clarke, has taken up the _Origin and Traditional History of the Wyandotts_, and has made a readable little book (published at Toronto, 1870); while still more lately, Chief Elias Johnson, of the Tuscaroras, has published a History of the Six Nations, very creditably composed. (Lockport, 1881.)
The tribes of Algonkin lineage can also count some respectable writers. The Rev. William Apess (or Apes), a member of the Pequod tribe of Massachusetts, wrote and published five or six small books and pamphlets, on questions relating to his people, between 1829 and 1837. The book of George Copway, or Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh, a chief of the Ojibways, on The Traditional History of the Ojibway Nation (London, 1850), is a good authority on the topic, and so well written that we can scarcely suppose that it was his unaided effort. Of almost equal merit is the _History of the Ojibway Indians, with especial reference to their Conversion to Christianity_, by the Rev. Peter Jones, or Kahkewaquonaby, a full-blood Indian, (London, 1861.)
In the southwest, the Cherokee Phoenix offered a medium through which the native writers of that tribe frequently published original contributions; and one of its early editors, Elias Boudinot (named after the celebrated philanthropist), published separately a number of addresses and other documents, in English.
But, as we might naturally expect, it is in Spanish that we find the best work of the native writers. The partly civilized races of Mexico, Central America and Peru, were much better prepared to receive the lessons of European teachers than the barbarous hunting tribes. Had they had any fair chance, they would have soon equaled their teachers. Father Motolinia, one of the earliest missionaries to Mexico, testifies to the readiness with which the natives acquired both Spanish and Latin, and adds that, in the latter tongue, they became skilled grammarians, and wrote both verse and prose with commendable accuracy.[6] Quite a long list of such native Latinists, their names and their writings, is given by Father Augustin de Vetancurt, and he is not sparing in his praise of the ability they displayed in the use of both Spanish and Latin.[7] Similar testimony is rendered of the natives of Guatemala, by the Archbishop Garcia Pelaez. He mentions, by name, several Indians who became conspicuously thorough Latin scholars, and refers to others who won honors in all the faculties of the University of Guatemala, and distinguished themselves in after life by the display of their talents and education.[8] Nor would it be difficult to find many other such examples in Peru and Brazil.
The list of native Mexicans who wrote in Spanish is a fairly long one; and I need only mention the better known names. At the head should be placed that of Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. He was a lineal descendant of the sovereigns of Tezcuco, and an ardent student of the antiquities of his race. Among the many works which he wrote are the Relaciones Historicas and the Historia Chichimeca, which were published by Lord Kingsborough; a _Historia de la Nueva Espa?a, a Historia del Reyno de Tezcuco, and a Historia de Nuestra Se?ora de Guadalupe_, which have not had the fortune to be printed. Such an excellent critic as Mr. Prescott says of his style: "His language is simple, and occasionally eloquent and touching. His descriptions are highly picturesque. He abounds in familiar anecdote; and the natural graces of his manner in detailing the more striking events of history and the personal adventures of his heroes, entitle him to the name of the Livy of Anahuac."
Ixtlilxochitl flourished about the year 1600, and among his contemporaries was Fernando de Alvarado Tezozomoc, also of native blood, whose Cronica Mexicana has been preserved, and is considered