The following was written by Green Beauchamp
and included in the 5 June 1873
edition of the Eufaula Times:
"Green Corn Dance"
There was no particular day set apart for this
festival. It was an
annual one, and celebrated as soon as the new corn crop was fit to be
used in
roasting ear; which of course in this country was usually not before
July.
The place selected on this occasion was about two hundred yards from the
Chattahoochee River. The ground was swept clean, a circle of about
thirty
yards in diameter made, and a skinned pole, about twenty feet high, set
up in
the centre. The Indians, men, women and children in their best
clothes, and
what whites were present, stood about talking and laughing as at any
other
gathering for pleasure. Presently the young men and warriors
quietly
disappeared from the crowd. After a little there was heard from
many sides
around, a whoop or yell, such as only an Indian can make. This was
answered
from all part of the campus. The young men and warriors then
reappeared and
advanced, occasionally yelling or whooping. When in full view of
the
spectators they commenced some unaccountable and indescribable
gymnastics.
They were stripped now to the breechclout, and painted from head to foot
with
striped and spots. After they got through their capering they made
a rush
for the crowd, coming in from all directions; and when they reached it,
without making any stop, moved rapidly off in Indian file to the river,
and
all jumped in. They soon returned, with the paint washed off and
in their
usual dress. Dinner was then eaten. It consisted of green
corn, cooked in
different ways and served in earthen vessels of different sizes, and
also of
dried beef and venison, which was prepared by being picked to pieces
very
fine in shreds, they resembled cut tobacco. It was however
extremely nice
and palatable. The food was served in earthen vessels shaped like
a pumpkin
or rather like an egg, being larger in the middle than at the top.
Some were
of the capacity of two gallons. The dinner table was kind of a
scaffold.
There were neither cups nor saucers, plates, knives nor forks, but and
abundance of wooden spoons with which the green corn was eaten.
The meat was
taken with the fingers. No ardent spirits of any kind, and no
beverage but
water. At sinner, which was eaten about 1 o'clock, as well as
during all the
day, the whites who were present were treated by the Indians with the
greatest kindness and attention.
After the feast was over, the show commenced.
The spectators sat round
on the edge of the circle, the inner space being kept clear as at a
circus.
The dancers, perhaps as many as a hundred men and women, then entered
the
ring. There was no instrumental music, but much vocal, consisting
of Indian
songs rather rapidly ejaculated, and in which all the performers
participated
together. The songs were lively, but the faces of the singers at
all times
immovably solemn and in earnest. The men dancers had a bunch,
about the size
of a peck of high land terrapin shells fastened to their backs just
behind
the hips, and these were so united as to hold shot or something else
that
incontinently rattled. The squaws had something equally capable of
clatter,
but whatever that was, was concealed beneath their dress. They
would then
dance round the centre pole, singing together, and with a step so
regular and
a time so perfect that the noise of what hissed or rattled in their
shells
sounded like the escape pipe of a rapidly puffing steam engine.
Our informant, having spent a most pleasant day in
the forest fifty years
a go, with these children of the wilderness, then left them at a late
hour in
the evening, and knows not how long the amusements were protracted, not
with
what ceremonies they were brought to a conclusion. |
