America's Tattooed Indian Kings

In April 1710, four "Indian Kings" representing the Five Nations Confederacy of the Iroquois (Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, and Mohawk) traveled across the Great Water to visit the court of Her Majesty Queen Anne in London. These Iroquois sachems, or civil chiefs, hoped to secure British military support against the marauding French and their Indian allies (Algonquin, Montagnais, and Huron) in Canada, and to ask for missionaries to come to New York State and instruct their people. Although Native Americans had visited England before (e.g., Pocahontas in 1616), none had ever been treated as royalty on a state visit!

The "Four Indian Kings," as they were known in England, caused a real sensation in old London town. They were celebrated and honored everywhere they went, and as foreign dignitaries of state the Indian Kings were given a Grand Tour of London, including a performance of Shakespeare's MacBeth and a visit to the Royal Opera. They also attended a "trial of skill with sword" between two fighting Englishmen and visited the Cockpit Royal, where they witnessed the "Royal Sport" of cockfighting firsthand.

A large collection of historical documentation survives that recounts their memorable visit including numerous versions of their speech to Queen Anne, other published accounts of their visitation, some 30 portraits of the Kings in the form of engravings and miniatures, and four portrait oil paintings. For us, and from the standpoint of tattoo artistry, these oils are important because they accurately depict - perhaps for the first time in Western history - the facial and body tattoo of the Iroquois and neighboring Mahican.

Of the four Indian Kings, only three were actually tattooed. Two tattooed sachems were Mohawk (Ho Nee Yeath Taw No Row and Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow) and one (Etow Oh Koam or John) was Mahican, a tribe that was loosely allied to the Five Nations Confederacy. In each portrait, the clan totem of each King (wolf, bear, turtle) is represented standing near the base of the canvas. Moreover, all three Kings are presented with their weapons; these symbols attest to their success and prowess on the field of battle. The portrait of Etow Oh Koam is significant because it is the only known portrait of an 18th century Mahican chief. Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow, also known as Brant, was the grandfather of Joseph Brant, the prominent Mohawk war chief who later settled the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario. Today this reserve is the most populous in Canada and the largest Iroquois reservation in Canada and the United States.

Iroquois and Mahican Tattoo

According to Jesuit documents, Iroquois and Mahican tattoo designs were first stenciled on the skin and then pricked into the flesh with trade needles or little bones until the blood flowed. Then, crushed charcoal (or sometimes red cinnabar) was vigorously rubbed into the open wounds.

Iroquois women, however, were rarely tattooed. But when they did, the purpose was usually medicinal, as a remedy to cure toothache or rheumatism. According to the Jesuit priest Lafitau, these women "content themselves with having a little branch of foliage traced along the jaw. They claim that the nerve by which the humour flows over the teeth is thus pricked, so that it can no longer fall there and that thus they cure the pain by going to the source of the ill."

Iroquois men tattooed to signify achievement on the field of battle, including cross-hatches on the face to record successful military expeditions, or other small marks on the thighs to indicate the number of enemies killed. According to a Jesuit relation of 1663, one Iroquois war-chief bore 60 tattoo marks on one thigh alone! Many other markings, which have lost their meaning and function, were placed upon the face and body, although some were probably totemic.

Nevertheless, nearly all Iroquois men's tattoos were distinct to them. According to the account book of Dutch trader Evert Wendell dated August 13, 1706, "a young Seneca, living in Canosedaken, his name Tan Na Eedsies," visited Wendell in Albany, New York and completed his transaction by drawing a pictograph next to his order. This drawing identified Tan Na Eedsies, and the tattooed patterns on his face, neck, and chest were considered equivalent to his personal signature.

The Fate of the Indian Kings and Five Nations

America's Tattooed Indian Kings returned to Boston on July 15, 1710. Although the sachems had witnessed "the Grandeur, Pleasure and Plenty" of the British nation, Brant soon died after his return from London. And as history would have it, both Nicholas and John faded into obscurity. Nothing more is known of them.

In the summer of 1711, however, a massive British military expedition involving some 12,000 American colonists and 800-odd Native Americans from the Five Nations did set sail from Boston in 60 transports and 9 man-of-war. Their destination was the French stronghold of Quebec; the palisaded city that was the key station to the important trade routes on the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes. Unfortunately, in the darkness and swift currents of the St. Lawrence, several of the British ships ran aground on the Île-aux-Oeufs and the expedition was abandoned.

Although the memory of their visit was to be documented well into the 19th century, the Kings' trip to London had little significance in the broader scope of American history. French power persisted in Canada until the fall of Montreal in 1760. And with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes region were opened to English settlement. Ironically, the westward movement of colonists towards Iroquois lands led to the eventual collapse of the Five Nations. And after 1763, a series of military, political, and economic disasters compounded these and other problems.

During the American Revolution, the Iroquois Confederacy at first attempted to remain neutral. But as time wore on, it was evident that a course of action had to be taken and the member tribes had to pick allies. Many of the Mohawks chose to side with the British, as did the Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. But the Oneidas were sympathetic to the Americans. Being unable to reach a consensus, the Iroquois League disbanded in 1777 and each Nation was left to pursue its own fate.

Of course, the Americans won their independence from Britain and from 1783 to 1797 most Iroquois tribes were deprived of their land and of their diplomatic and military power under the effective sovereignty of the United States. Soon thereafter the Iroquois were confined to a few small reservations in the United States and Canada, many of which exist today.
Source: http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/

The Tattooed Headhunters of Taiwan

Taiwan, formerly known as Ilha Formosa (Portuguese for 'beautiful island'), is a mountainous island lying approximately one hundred miles south of Mainland China. Today perhaps less than two percent of the total population is indigenous occupying the central mountainous region, the coastal plains, and a large portion of the southeastern hill country. Traditionally, twelve, or more than one half, of the aboriginal tribes practiced tattooing. They included both plains and mountain tribes.

The earliest account of the tattooing custom was given in the History of the Sui Dynasty, dating to the 7th century (A.D. 607). But with the coming of outsiders in the 17th century (Dutch, Spaniards, Chinese, and later Japanese), tattoo rapidly lost its traditional meaning and began to disappear altogether. By the terminal period of the Ch'ing Dynasty (1644-1911), tattoo was extinct among the coastal tribes and by 1914, under order of the ruling Japanese, tattoo became rare among the mountain peoples. By 1950, only traces of the indelible art remained.

Aboriginal Formosans lived in all districts of Taiwan until large in-migrations of Han Chinese forced the 'barbarian tribes' to withdraw into the central mountains about 300 years ago. This trend towards isolation continued throughout the fifty years of Japanese colonial rule (1895-1945) when indigenous peoples still remained relatively undisturbed from Western contact. However, by the beginning of the 20th century, the indigenous strongholds of the Atayal, Paiwan, Saiset, Bunun, Rukai and other 'tattooed tribes' were threatened by the expanding camphor industry that increased the flow of outsiders and contributed to widespread rebellion and bloodshed.

Growing in immense stands in the Central Mountains of Taiwan, slow-growing camphor trees were utilized in ship building and in the manufacture of mothballs, perfumes, and more importantly celluloid: a material that could be used to make medicines, combs, tobacco pouches, and billiard balls.  Since the method of collecting camphor necessitated the clear-cutting of the forest, encounters with indigenous Taiwanese increased forcing the Japanese to take-up defensive measures to protect their economic interests. Expanding on the Chinese defensive system of aiyu-sen, or guard-line, the Japanese basically encircled the indigenous territories with military outposts connected by battle fences that were constantly being advanced as the Japanese conquered new camphor groves.  Harry Franck, an American writer who traveled to Taiwan in the 1920s, described the aiyu-sen as follows:

The aiyu-sen, or guard-line, is a cleared space, from fifty to a hundred feet wide, climbing over hill and dale completely around the uncontrolled territory. It is started by cutting a road along the crest of a mountain, then destroying the vegetation on either side of this far enough back so that the guards can see attacking savages in time to defend themselves. This system dates back to the reign of Ch'ien-Lung, toward the middle of the eighteenth century, when the Chinese paid tamed savages to protect them against the others.

…The Japanese have constructed bulletproof, loopholed forts, barbed-wire entanglements, mines, and wire fences, the latter in some places locally electrified by harnessing mountain streams; handgrenades, sometimes mountain-and fieldguns, are used; on the east coast warships
have occasionally been called upon to subdue belligerent villages… Today the guard-line is about three hundred miles long.

Paiwan headhunter's tattooing, ca. 1930. Note the tattoo of the 'hundred-pace viper' in the center of the chest flanking the tattoo of a human head. These snakes were symbolically tied to 'the spirit of life, the greatest of all spirits' in Paiwan mythology.

Headhunting in Taiwan
Between 1903 and 1908 there were seventy advancements made to the guard lines by the Japanese, but indigenous men in search of heads often came over or under the barrier at nightfall to lay waiting in ambush for unsuspecting victims. Headhunting, the primary ritual component of the Atayal, Paiwan, Saiset, and other groups, not only served to maintain the prosperity of society by ensuring agricultural and community fertility through the propitiation of the deities and ancestors, it also ensured that a man would meet with success in finding a wife while at the same time guaranteeing his safe passage to the afterlife. Thus, the custom was considered indispensable to life and existence itself.

Among the Atayal, success met on the headhunt was deliberately marked upon the chins of warriors with tattoos. And those headhunters who acquired more than five heads using old weapons, like a curved machete-like knife, might also have their chests tattooed or the backs of their hands. Among the Paiwan, it was believed that the spirits of ancestors dwelled in these beheading knives, which were held in the possession of the tribe for several generations. However, the Paiwan were not necessarily tattooed after having taken a head; instead, the successful warrior was also denoted by the wearing of a certain kind of cap which was made by women of the tribe

More generally, tattooing could also be administered to the foreheads of unmarried Atayal boys and girls in their teens. Apart from the tattooed foreheads of women, only those who were skillful in weaving could tattoo their cheeks and other parts of their bodies.

Besides the beautiful cloths they wove on the loom, Atayal women also manufactured net bags that headhunting husbands used to carry severed human heads. Next to his beheading knife, these bags were his most treasured possession.

It is not surprising, then, that the Atayal believed that only those women who were proficient in weaving (hence tattooed), and those men who were successful headhunters (also tattooed) could pass safely into the afterlife.

Atayal Tattoo Artists
Atayal tattoo artists, called patasan, were women. They had to be of high virtue and most of them inherited their profession from their mothers, though some learned it by apprenticeship. Usually there were not many tattoo artists in any one particular region, so if one did not reside in an Atayal village, one was invited from the outside. Tattooists commonly charged a piece of cloth or two strings of beads for an individual's first tattoo; but, for one who had married or committed adultery, she would charge more - sometimes one or two beaded skirts!

Tattoo artists first stenciled their designs upon the skin with a linen thread soaked in black soot. The tattoo instrument resembled a toothbrush with four to sixteen needles (atok) arranged in rows and fastened to a wooden handle about 1.5 cm in diameter and 15 cm in length. Before iron was introduced to the indigenous Atayal, thorns of orange or tangerine trees were used. The hammer, which pounded the tattoo instrument into the skin, was called totsin and was constructed of a single piece of wood about 2.5 cm in diameter and approximately 17 cm in length. Excess blood was removed with a scraper (quwar) made from a rattan splint that was bent and bound at either end with linen thread. Lampblack (ihoh) was used as pigment but occasionally soot from charred pinewood resin was collected, to be stored in a gourd or small iron case.

Tattooing operations were almost always performed in a small hut located away from the living quarters and most tattooing took place in winter, since the cold weather was believed to facilitate the healing of the tattoos and prevent scabbing. Interestingly, the Atayal linked scabbing to the lack of virtue of the client!

The tattoo client lay down with a folded cloth under her head. The tattoo artist usually sat on a low stool behind her or stood hunched over the patient with her tool. She took the needle instrument and knocked it home with several forceful blows of her hammer and scraped the blood-stained face with the quwar. Oftentimes a block of wood was held in the tattoo artist's hand, and with this the tattooing implement was struck after it had been laid upon the area of application, because this action ensured a stronger blow and one more accurately placed upon the forehead. Afterwards the tattooist washed the hammered area and rubbed it with black soot.

The client prepared herself for the rite by observing various taboos before the operation including: no sexual relations, no drinking of any animal blood, and especially no wearing of red-colored clothing, since this was believed to cause her blood to flow unabated. The parents of the client chose a favorable day for the tattooing by dream divination, and on that particular day they observed various bird-omens and offered blood sacrifices to the spirits of their ancestors for a safe and successful operation. Bird omens were also consulted prior to most ceremonial occasions and especially before a hunting or war/headhunting campaign, because particular birds were in communication with the spirits of ancestors who, in turn, could guarantee glory in war, health in life, and fertility in agriculture.

Unfortunately, the major sociocultural institutions of the Atayal were not to last. Between 1920 and 1935, the Japanese initiated an island-wide program of forced relocation to control the Taiwanese aborigines and remove them from their ancestral lands: lands which were the basis of many inherited traditions that shaped social and life experience. For the Atayal, this trend was particularly disastrous, because their social structure was based upon the principle of gaya: where all of the descendants of a particular ancestor worked in common ritual and labor as a social and economic unit. As family members became dispersed across the country, the collective structure of the gaya - marked by the sharing of good luck, disaster, labor, hunting, and prayer - soon collapsed. The disappearance of many other Atayal traditions soon followed, such as weaving, headhunting, tattooing, and the communal ownership of land.

Today, the struggle over culture and land rights continues. Indigenous villages have been relocated by the government without consent to build dams, airports, and national parks: forests where it is illegal for indigenous peoples to hunt or fish in their traditional territories! However, the Taiwanese Council of Aboriginal Affairs has begun studying the possibility of creating autonomous regions for aboriginal peoples in several parts of Taiwan; regions where indigenous peoples (Yuanzhuminzu) will have an active role in the preservation, sustainability, and governance of their lands and culture.
Source: http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/