#theirmarks

[theirmarks]

There are some moments in the archive that stick with you. For me, one such moment was seeing this 1668 deed for “Secunk” — a place now called Rehoboth, Massachusetts — in the stacks of the John Carter Brown Library my first week working there.

On the page was a signature line reading: “The marke of phillip Sachem,” and between those words, the bold pictographic mark chosen by Metacom (called “King Philip” by the English). I had read so much about Metacom, but had never before seen a stroke of pen on paper, chosen by him to represent himself.

Seeing that mark collapsed so much historical distance. These marks were not about myths, symbols, or abstractions, but human beings with relationships, responsibilities, griefs, humor, strategies, families, and dreams. Ancestors who lived and loved on these lands for millennia before the United States existed — and whose descendants are still here.

That moment became one of the sparks for Their Marks. It sent me searching for the lives, circumstances, and pictographs of Northeastern Native ancestors so often flattened, erased, trivialized, or rendered invisible within dominant historical narratives. Narratives that celebrate “American exceptionalism” while treating so many Native people as footnotes to someone else’s story.

I’ve come to think of them not only as evidence of Native presence, but as assertions of belonging. As forms of memory. As refusals. As calls across generations. If, for so many years, academia had known how (or been willing) to truly read these marks, perhaps the histories told about this place would have looked very different.

Every pictograph represents a person who understood themselves as part of a world shaped by land, kinship, language, diplomacy, innovation, spirituality, and responsibility. A person whose experiences were - and are - worthy of recording and remembering. A person whose descendants still carry those histories forward.

Their Marks, for me, has always been about calling ancestors back to us. About looking beyond colonial handwriting and legal language to the human beings who put hand to paper. About imagining fuller stories for them than the archive often allows. Stories tied not only to dispossession, but to endurance, creativity, governance, survivance, and dreams for the future.

Photos by Rythum Vinoben

[theirmarks]

Jano his mark.

Narragansett. A signatory here on a deed also signed by Miantonomo, Pumham and Totanoman (all marks we have shared previously).

The deed describes “one parcel of lands…lyinge uppon the west syde of that part of the sea called Sowhanes Bay, from Copassanatuxett, over against a little island in the sayd bay, being the north bounds, and the outmost point that neck of land called Shawhomet.” This area is now referred to as “Warwick, Rhode Island.”

Signed January 12, 1642. Seen at the John Carter Brown Library.

[theirmarks]

Captain Jacob Turkey his mark

Possibly Munsee, Paugussett or Schaghticoke (if our readers have more information, please let us know in the comments!). Jacob Turkey’s homelands in so-called southwestern Connecticut. This document signed for lands at the place today called Ridgefield, Connecticut, bounded to the east by so-called Danbury and to the north by so-called New Fairfield.

Jacob’s kin: his mother, Betty, whose mark we shared in a previous post.

This document signed December 19, 1739. Seen at the Newberry Library.

[theirmarks]

Tanneyarh his mark

Presumably Mohawk, with connections to Mohican and Schaghticoke, Tanneyarh’s mark appears here on a transfer of land at present-day Schenectady where he is identified as a sachem of Kannesyoharre (today spelled Canajoharie). Tanneyarh’s homelands exist in parts of so-called “Upstate New York” along the Mohawk River. This deed, written in Dutch, outlines land “situated on the north side of the Magauge River.. And up the river to the Kanide Kills, near the flats…” (place names spelled as they appear in the deed). The land transferred for “155 pieces of 8” a value that is exceedingly hard to quantify in today’s dollars, but could perhaps be the equivalent of a few thousand (2,000-3,000) dollars today.

If you have more information about Tanneyarh to help us to update this caption, please let us know in the comments!

Signed June 9, 1735. Seen at the Newberry Library.

[theirmarks]

the mark of wagésuk

Nipmuc, of Wabbaquasset, Chaubunagungamaug or Magunkaquog.

This document, signed by Wagesuk, Wuttasacomponom, Job Kattenanit and others, reports to be submitted on behalf of “...We the inhabitants of Quanutusset, Mônuhchogok, Chaubunakongkomuk, Asukodnôcog, kesepusqus, wabuhqushish and the adjacent parts of Nipmuk…”It pledges the submission of  inhabitants of those praying towns to the government of Massachusetts. It’s signed in 1668, a little less than a decade before the War would begin and at a time where tensions were high between Nipmuc and Mohawk tribal communities. 

Seen at the Massachusetts State Archives.

[theirmarks]

Sachemus his mark

Presumably Wampanoag. Unfortunately, the top left portion of this land transfer document, and therefore much of the text, is missing from the Newberry Library’s copy. Another deed (also a later copy of an original) signed on the same date, complete but with different wording (so perhaps another land transfer facilitated by the same people on the same day) is part of the collection of the Sturgis Library (third slide). The Sturgis deed identifies Sachemus as the “Sachem of Satuckett” [sic] and the pictograph mark is the same. Here, Satuckett or Satucket is suggested to be the place now commonly referred to as “Dennis, Massachusetts.” Both signed December 3, 1663.

A copy of the original (first and second slides), seen at the Newberry Library.

[theirmarks]

Thomas the interpreter his marke

Wampanoag. Perhaps living at Sakonnet, Pokanoket or other lands adjacent to the areas called “Little Compton, Rhode Island,” and “Bristol, Rhode Island” by English colonizers. Thomas’s mark appears here on a 1674 deed where he served as interpreter for Awashonks whose mark also appears on this document (shared here in a much earlier post).

A “Thomas the interpreter” is also identified on a 1668 deed signed by Metacom and Tuspaquin.

This deed for Sakonnet land signed May 23, 1674. Seen @ Massachusetts Historical Society.

[theirmarks]

Thawinadichtow his mark & seal.

Also spelled Thowinoduchtow. Mohawk. Here representing Mohawk homelands that spread across areas known today as eastern New York State, parts of western Vermont and parts of southern Ontario and Quebec.

Thawinadichtow is another of eight Mohawk leaders to sign this document, detailing the transfer of land at the site of Fort Hunter west of so-called Albany, New York (we’ve previously shared pictograph marks from this document by Asras, Cornelius, Craine, Sander and Thenusskesack). Fort Hunter was constructed several years prior to the 1714 date of this deed, built by colonizers at the mouth of the Schoharie Creek, on the Mohawk River. Mohawk signers of this document identify themselves as representatives of “we the three Races or Tribes of the Mohaugs Indians the Turtle, Wolf & B[ea]r.”

Signed in “Mohaughs Cuntry” May 14, 1716. Seen at Chapin Special Collections Library, Williams College.