Below is an edited version of an e-mail I received:
Dear AnswerPool.com Personality:
My American Literature senior seminar class is presently doing a survey of early American Drama. My project is The Contrast, by Royall Tyler. To be exact it concerns the song The Death Song of the Cherokee Indian. It is also known by the title Alknomook.
I am looking for any information from anyone at anywhere who knows something about the American Indian name Alknomook. Other spellings of the name are possibly: Alknomak, Alkmonok, Alkmonook, Alkmoonac, Alkmonac, Alkmunoac, Alkmunook, Alknomac, Alknomaak, Alknamoak, Alknomoak, Alknomuk, Alknumook, and Alknumuk. I suppose that there may be more other spelling variations and if anyone out there In Internet Sphere knows of them, I would like to be informed of them with the proper source. None of the sources, however, give definite information concerning the origin of the name and the Indian tribe to which it belongs.
Can you please help me?
I am particularly interested in:
1. When and in what way was the name first used?
2. Whether or not it is a Cherokee Indian Name, or a name belonging to another tribe. (It occurs in Royall Tyler's play The Contrast and it was included in a book of Poems under the title Alknomook, or the Death Song of the Cherokee Indian(s), written by the British poetess Anne Home Hunter in 1802. Yet, she never claimed to have written it. She never disavowed writing it either. Moreover, she must have written it before Tyler’s The Contrast had its opening night on 16 April 1787. Therefore, how did Tyler know of it?
3. To what American Indian tribe does it belong?
4. Are there related Indian names in any other Indian tribes of the American continent (North, Middle, and South America)?
Even if you have information that you might think is not of assistance to me, please send it anyway.
I thank you for your time and cooperation.
Respectfully,
This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,
Posts: 17559 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
Thanks, Fuse, for that detailed answer. I sent the writer a link to this page.
(I hope you noticed that I have been upgraded. I am no longer merely a "character". I am now a "Personality". Some day, I hope to become "the noted Personality". )
Posts: 17559 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
I received a very kind (and very funny!)follow-up message:
Dear AnswerPool.com Noted Personalities like ColdFuse and Dorian Greyed!
(I have upgraded your status!)
Reference my inquiry concerning ALKNOMOOK.
I do not use the Internet often. One to two hours a month is a high usage time for me. I do not chat, and I do not belong to any organization as a member. At this time I prefer not to register with AnswerPool.com. Nevertheless, I desire to thank you for your prompt answer to my Alknomook request. You will surely be interested to know what has happened this past week concerning my further use of the information AnswerPool.com provided me. Here it is! The
Cherokee Nation P. O. Box 948 Tahlequah, OK 74465 918-453-5000 www.cherokee.org
and
Cherokee Nation Washington Office 126 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20001 Phone 202-393-7007 http://www.cnwo.org
referred me to the Cherokee Indian Heritage Museum in South Carolina. I sent them the text of the song as sung by Maria in THE CONTRAST.
1. The Cherokee Indian Heritage Museum in South Carolina has notified me that the name Alknomook cannot be a Cherokee Indian name. They are 99.99% sure. They indicate that it could be Algonquin, but have no degree of surety. (I must explore this possibility!) I quote the Cherokee Indian Heritage Museum answer to my e-mail inquiry as follows:
“The death song given is likely to have some kind of native American origin but it is impossible to say whether it would be Cherokee. I agree with my language assistant Bo Taylor that Alknomook (sp) is not likely Cherokee in origin because the Cherokee language does not have the letter m or an m-sound in its alphabet. Ethnographic literature from the 1700s indicates that warriors from many of the southeastern tribes sang death songs while being tortured and burned alive. Because of the translation into English and conventions of English rhyming, it is impossible to say whether any of this language actually came from any tribe of the time.”
2. The National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution cannot locate the name Alknomook, or its meaning. They simply said that they have no record of it.
3. Based upon my reading of the play THE CONTRAST by Royall Tyler (16 April 1787) I have written a first rough-draft of why I believe he included the song in the play. I now provide you with this information.
The Purpose of The Death Song of the Cherokee Indians in Royall Tyler’s Play
THE CONTRAST
The song Alknomook, or the Death Song of the Cherokee Indians that Royall Tyler placed in The Contrast is sung by the unhappy Maria in the second scene. She sits somewhat desolate at the living-room table with books. She is in a solemn, tragic mood because her father has arranged her pending marriage to Billy Dimple, a man she does not love. She is melancholy. Her heart is not in the upcoming arrangement. The audience thoroughly understands her situation. Although Royall Tyler's play has nothing to do with the Indians, the Song of Alknomook, as it is also called, is used by Royall Tyler because its content introduces Maria to the audience effectively and thoroughly dramatizes the helplessness of her sex. It was common amongst the colonial settlers to appropriate from the Indians, regardless or tribe, anything that could be used for the benefit of the Whites without regard for the cultural heritage or feelings of the respective Indians. Tyler surely uses the song as a metaphor for the thwarted love affair for a young American woman. In hindsight, the appropriateness is highly questionable. During Tyler’s age, even before and after, it was/is common to exploit cultural heritages at will. Nevertheless, Maria is "formed of the more delicate materials of nature" … "endowed with only the softer passions, incapable, from out ignorance of the world, to guard against the wiles of mankind." The question that immediately comes to mind is as follows: Since Maria is a young American woman who has recently lived through an eight-year long war, how can she claim to believe that (American) women are so fragile? Her father, Colonel Van Rough, does not ascribe to this notion, saying that her moodiness is due to reading "plaguy (sic) books … Sentimental Journals … Robinson Crusoes, and other such trumpery". Royall Tyler maintains that Maria can believe in the fragility of (American) women because she sees through the shallowness of New York society. This is her virtue. She is a solid person and retains independence and traditional values. This is the core of Tyler's message. America is now a republic and in order to exist, a republic has to base its foundation for being upon the virtues of its citizens, on their love for equality. Maria's belief is really good sense and it triumphs over the false longing for artificiality in human relations, preoccupation with the proper tone, amorous trifles, in short, foreign foppery. Furthermore, the song points towards another nascent element in America's emerging national self-consciousness. This is a sentimental attachment to the Indian as a child of nature who knows how to live and how to die. Ironically, this attitude originated in Europe, and contrasts with the hostility of the first white settlers towards the Indian. At the same time, the natural dignity and stoicism of the Indian were often emphasized by romantic writers who saw the Indian in a positive light. Tyler may be no exception. The song that Maria sings – the so-called Song of Alknomook, or the Indian Death Song – was adapted (exploited?) by Royall Tyler to suit his purpose: to present Maria as a young (American) woman who, while breathing a sense of moody, tender melancholy, is also a socially advanced character who symbolizes a regeneration of human nature. The song as sung in THE CONTRAST contains the following lines only:
(THE SONG OF ALKNOMOOK)
"The sun sets at night, and the stars shun the day;
But Glory remains when their lights fade away.
Begin, ye tormenters! your threats are in vain,
For the Son of ALKNOMOOK shall never complain."
Remember the arrows he shot from his bow;
Remember your chiefs by his hatchet laid low:
Why so slow? – do you wait till I shrink from the pain?
No – the son of Alknomook will never complain.
Remember the wood where in ambush we lay,
And the scalps which we bore from your nation away:
Now the flame rises fast, you exult in my pain;
But the son of Alknomook can never complain.
I go to the land where my father is gone;
His ghost shall rejoice in the fame of his son:
Death comes like a friend, he relieves me from pain;
And thy son, Oh Alknomook! has scorn'd to complain.
In her short monologue after she stops singing, Maria expounds somewhat on the value of the song for people who listen to its message, the core of which is the virtue of courage.
4. In the American Song Sheet Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, there is a song (text only, no music to this text exists) titled Indian Chief. It is the Song of Alknomook, but with different verses. I quote it to you as I received it from the Library of Congress as follows:
Indian Chief (Song, text only)
The sun sits at night and the stars shun the day,
But the glory remains, when the light fades away,
Begin, ye tormentors, your threats are in vain,
For the sons of Alknomook shall never complain.
Remember Alknomook, our great warrior chief,
When your nation he conquer'd he still gave relief,
Undaunted as death, here I now do remain,
For the son of Alknomook shall never complain.
The blood of my father in battle was shed,
Five chiefs of renown by his arrows lay dead;
He fell by the side of a dark rolling stream,
And the vallies (sic) resound with the song of his fame.
Like a Tyger (sic) undaunted, he rush'd to the war,
Like the thunder he struck, and spread terror afar;
As the pleasure of love, and the spring of the year,
So pain, to the rage of Alknomook is dear.
How sweet is the sleep in the night of the grave,
How dear is revenge to the soul of the brave;
O'er his ashes myself for Alknomook I tore,
And sprinkled the mantle of earth with my gore.
Remember the arrows he shot from his bow,
Remember your chief by his hatchet laid low;
Why so slow do you wait 'till I shrink from my pain?
Know the sons of Alknomook shall never complain.
Remember the wood where in ambush we lay,
And the Scalps which we bore from your nation away;
Now the flame rises high, you exult in my pain,
But the sons of Alknomook shall never complain.
The pleasures of love are too fleeting to last,
In a moment the bliss of enjoyment is past!
The pleasures of spring and of life fades away,
But the laurels of valour will never decay.
My pains and my tortures will soon have an end,
In the flames of the fire my ghost shall ascend;
When I come to the land where the warriors have gone
Alknomook will shout at the sight of his son.
I go to the land where my father is gone,
His ghost will rejoice in the fame of his son;
Death comes like a friend to relieve me from pain,
And the son of Alknomook shall never complain.
With the great Potemonque, above the high clouds
On yonder green mountains shall be my abodes;
My dog ever faithful, my bow I'll retain
Ah! the son of Alknomook shall never complain.
I soon shall rejoice in these fields of delight,
Reserv'd for the brave now expanding to sight;
See the blood running freely from every vein,
But the son of Alknomook shall never complain.
With heroes united I'll travel the woods,
Or fly in the air and survey all the floods;
O, sharpen your spears, from your rage why refrain,
Know the son of Alknomook shall never complain.
On a cloud lifted high, see my friends all in smiles,
Are wating for me at the end of my toils,
Are you wearied with tort'ring while I here remain?
Know, the son of Alknomook shall never complain.
My body consum'd, my limbs still support,
While my spirit remains and my heart is unhurt;
Disdain and contempt in my breast shall remain,
For thy son, O Alknomook, shall never complain.
I come, O my Father, I now come to be
By heroes caress'd and applauded by thee;
My eyes now I close, for no strength does remain,
But the son of Alknomook still scorns to complain.
As far as I can discern, the text in these verses are probably of non-Indian origin. However, the author(s) cannot be researched.
5. The text of Alknomook is also included in an opera titled New Spain, or Love in Mexico, (1790) libretto by John Scawen and music by Mathew Arnold. Scawen's text is slightly different from Tyler's.
6. In 1802 the British poetess Anne Home Hunter included the poem in her book POEMS by Anne Home Hunter. She explains the poem in a note on page 80 of the book.
"THE idea of this ballad was suggested several years ago by hearing a gentleman, who had resided several years in America amongst the tribe or nation called the Cherokees, sing a wild air, which he assured me it was customary for those people to chaunt (sic) with a barbarous jargon, implying contempt for their enemies in the moments of torture and death. I have endeavoured to give something of the characteristic spirit and sentiment of those brave savages. We look upon the fierce and stubborn courage of the dying Indian (sic) with a mixture of respect, pity, and horror; and it is to those sensations excited in the mind of the reader, that the Death Song must owe its effect."
Ms. Hunter says only that the idea for the poem came from a chanting she had heard delivered by a "gentleman, who had lived among the Cherokee Indians. Therefore, since the appearance of this book, every literary commentator has named her as the author of the Death Song.
I have searched Anne Home Hunter biographies for the name of this "gentleman". There are no records known to me to indicate that she had ever received a visit from a male person who had actually lived amongst the Cherokees. The records indicate only that it is possible or not possible. The "gentleman", however, is not fictitious. He has been identified as Mr. Turner (first name unknown). Another important fact is that maybe Mr. Turner was the composer of both the poem and the music, since the tenor of the times could have asked the question: "What is a female doing writing (about) Cherokee Indian death songs? Is she not of her own mind?" By saying that the initiative came from someone else, a "gentleman", Mrs Anne Home Hunter is placing herself out of the context of being criticized.
This is as far as I have come concerning Alknomook. I know of some essays concerning the song, but there are none that investigate or have information concerning the origin of the name. I have obtained a copy of the Tribal Leaders Directory from the Department of the Interior. I shall check out possible sources contained therein.
I thank you noted personalities for your time and co-operation. -------- I normally don't post for someone, advising them how to join AP instead, but something about the original message got to me, and I thought it more important to start the search for the information requested. How nice it is to get a thank you note. (And how nice it is to be upgraded again!) I'd like to thank fellow Noted Personality ColdFuse for doing all the heavy lifting on this one. As usual, I was just the messenger. - DG
Posts: 17559 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
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