Manteo and Wanchese, 1585 (Roanoke Colonies plaque)
Here on the harbour wall, near the Mayflower Steps, is a plaque commemorating the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Roanoke Colonies, in what is now known as North Carolina. In 1584, Walter Raleigh sent ships from Plymouth to claim land for a colony, which was established following a second expedition in 1585.What the memorial plaque doesn't mention is the key role Indigenous North Americans played in these expeditions. These men were critically important to Raleigh's colonial endeavours, acting as translators and mediators both in England and on their return to Roanoke.According to historian Alden Vaughan, around twenty came to England under Raleigh's sponsorship between 1584 and 1618 in order to learn English and to provide local knowledge that would be key to English efforts to establish colonies in the Carolinas. These Indigenous visitors, many of them captives, often stayed for months or years before returning to their homelands. As Vaughan has argued, these Indigenous North Americans' experience of England was an "intense indoctrination at the seat of empire" (Vaughan, “Sir Walter Ralegh’s Indian Interpreters,” p. 343).Two Indigenous North Americans sailed from Plymouth to Roanoke in April 1585 with Sir Richard Grenville. They had accompanied the men who returned from the first of Raleigh's colonial expeditions in 1584, arriving in England in September of that year. Manteo, a Croatan werowance or chief, and Wanchese, a Roanoke man, were soon lodged at Raleigh's Durham House in London. They spent time with the mathematician and ethnographer Thomas Hariot, teaching him about their cultures and Algonquian language, before returning to Roanoke with the 1585 expedition. By all accounts, Wanchese seemed more suspicious of English interests during his time in England than Manteo. Unsurprisingly, soon after their return to Roanoke, Wanchese slipped away from the English settlers and by the following year had severed relations with them completely. Manteo and another Indigenous man called Towaye, however, seem to have travelled to England again a year or two later because they are named on the list of participants who sailed to Roanoke from Plymouth in May 1587. Manteo in particular is credited as helping the settlers as a guide. However, no records remain of Manteo following the abandonment of the colony in 1587.
The Mawooshin Five, 1605 (Plymouth Fort)
Close to this spot are the only remains of Plymouth’s Elizabethan fort, built before the Citadel but after the Castle. It was constructed by order of Elizabeth I to deter further Spanish attacks after the Armada in 1588. It was completed by 1595/6 and its first Governor was Ferdinando Gorges, a prolific figure in the colonization of what is now the United States. We know that he kept three Indigenous North American men captive here in the city in the early 1600s, possibly at the fort itself.Five Abenaki men had been captured by the Torquay seafarer George Weymouth in 1605. They were Sassacomoit, Tahenado, Skicowares, Amoret, and Maneddo. We know their names thanks to a diary written by Weymouth’s associate, James Rosier. During their voyage to Mawooshin in present-day Maine, he wrote about the Native Americans they saw and then captured - The shape of their body is very proportionable, they are wel countenanced, not very tal nor big, but in stature like to vs: they paint their bodies with blacke, their faces, some with red, some with blacke, and some with blew.Their clothing is Beauers skins, or Deares skins, cast ouer them like a mantle, and hanging downe to their knees, made fast together vpon the shoulder with leather; some of them had sleeues, most had none; some had buskins of such leather tewed: they haue besides a peece of Beauers skin betweene their legs, made fast about their waste, to couer their priuities.They suffer no haire to grow on their faces, but on their head very long and very blacke, which those that haue wiues, binde vp behinde with a leather string, in a long round knot.They seemed all very ciuill and merrie: shewing tokens of much thankefulnesse, for those things we gaue them. We found them then (as after) a people of exceeding good inuention, quicke vnderstanding and readie capacitie.Ferdinando Gorges had part-funded Weymouth’s voyage, so the three men may have been a ‘return on his investment’. Sassacomoit, Maneddo, and Skicowares remained in Plymouth, while Tahanedo and Amoret travelled onto London. Like Manteo and Wanchese, these men were seen as important sources of information about their homelands. Gorges, in particular, praised them as “the meanes under God of putting on foote, and giving life to” England’s colonies in New England.As for the Indigenous men themselves, they did go back to America. Tahenado and Amoret returned in 1606 as ambassadors, and Skicowares returned with the Popham colonists in 1607.Sassacomoit and Maneddo tried to return in 1606, but were taken prisoner by a Spanish fleet somewhere off the coast of Puerto Rico and enslaved. Sassacomoit was eventually ransomed and lived with Gorges in Plymouth for three years. While here, he was joined by Epenow, an Aquinnah Wampanoag from Martha's Vineyard who had been brought to England as a captive. Eventually, Epenow convinced Gorges that there was gold on Martha's Vineyard and Gorges commissioned a voyage there in 1614. Epenow managed to let his people know that he was being held captive on board the ship when it arrived and they helped him escape. He led resistance efforts against the colonists who landed at Plymouth six years later. Follow the YouTube link to listen to Linda Coombs of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tell Epenow's story in "Captured: 1614, Freedom for Fool's Gold."Sassacomoit, however, disappeared from the colonists’ records in 1614.While we don’t know what happened to all of them as individuals, the Abenaki men's tribal descendants still live in Maine today. The Abenaki (Wabanaki) peoples museum is the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor and you can learn more about their history and their lives today here: https://www.abbemuseum.org/about-the-wabanaki-nations.
Pocahontas, 1616 (The Barbican)
Known as Matoaka (‘Flower between two Streams’), Amonute, and Rebecca (‘Mother of Two Peoples’), the woman most widely recognized by her nickname Pocahontas (‘Playful One’) arrived in Plymouth on 12th June, 1616.She was the youngest daughter of Powhatan or Wahunsenacawh, the leader of what became known as the Powhatan Confederacy that included more than 28 Indigenous nations in what is now Virginia and beyond.Matoaka was probably born in about 1596, so she was about 11, maybe 12 when the first English colonists arrived in 1607. They created England’s first permanent colony in America and named it after the king – Jamestown. She visited the colony several times, accompanying delegations from the Powhatan Confederacy as a sign of their peaceful intentions.While there are stories of her possibly saving colonists from ambush and execution as relations soured, she was also kidnapped by them for political gain in 1613 and held captive for over a year. Already a wife to a Potowomac man named Kocoum and mother to their child, she was converted to Christianity, renamed Rebecca, and married to an Englishman.Her husband, John Rolfe, had left Plymouth in 1609 on a ship called the Sea Venture. It was part of the Third Supply of ships taking people and provisions to a starving Jamestown, finally arriving in 1610. After his marriage to Matoaka in April 1614 (she would have been about 18 at the time), he wrote a letter to the colony's governor explaining that he was not led by ‘carnall affection: but for the good of this plantation [and] our countrie ... and for the converting to the true knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, an unbelieving creature’.A year later, Pocahontas and Rolfe had a son, Thomas. All three of them, along with possibly 12 Powhatans, including her sister Mattachana and Mattachana's husband Uttamatakkomin, arrived here on 12th June, 1616. Their trip was funded by the London Company of Virginia in an attempt to secure publicity and funds for the English colonial endeavour.While we don't know exactly where in Plymouth they landed, it seems likely that it was here at the Barbican, the town's original harbour (follow the YouTube link to get an idea of the sights and sounds that may have greeted the Powhatan contingent on their arrival, through a virtual reality recreation of the 17th century harbour). They went on to London and met the King. But it was just before their return to Virginia that Pocahontas was taken ill. She died in Gravesend in March 1617.Her son, Thomas, was brought here to Plymouth under the care of Sir Lewis Stukley for a while. He, and his father, both returned to Virginia. They are forgotten. Pocahontas is not.
Segipt and his family, 1629 (The Merchants House - currently closed)
The Merchants House is one of the oldest preserved buildings in Plymouth. We don't know exactly when it was built but we do know that William Parker, a merchant and privateer, was its first recorded owner. He seems to have remodelled an older house on this site into the building you see in front of you sometime in the early 1600s.Parker was a founding member of the Plymouth Company, whose purpose was to establish settlements in North America. Merchants often financed the voyages in return for repayment and a portion of the profits made. While Parker was primarily interested in the Virginia colonies (for more on these, see Point 1), the company also claimed areas farther north, including Nova Scotia in what is now Canada.In the 1620s, Nova Scotia was claimed both by England and France. A group from Scotland, under the direction of Sir William Alexander, tried to settle in the Port Royal area with the approval of the Plymouth Company. In 1629, they sent a local Mi'kmaq leader, Segipt, his wife and son to England, supposedly to submit to the King's authority and to ask for his protection against the French settlers. It's likely that Alexander also saw this as a way to drum up interest in the settlement and a critic accused him of "making a show and ostentation" of these Indigenous visitors who had been billed as a King, Queen and Prince.Segipt and his family landed at Plymouth before making their way to London to meet King Charles I. En route, they were entertained by Sir John Poulet at his estate in Somerset for a while, where they were "made much of" and Sir John's wife gave Segipt's wife a diamond necklace. The Mi'kmaq family apparently "took all in good part, but for thanks or acknowledgment made no sign or expression at all."This diplomatic mission was not entirely successful. The group quietly returned to their homelands in 1630 and a year later, despite Charles I granting the Mi'kmaq peoples his protection, the English handed the area to the French. However, the English and French continued to fight for control of the region throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.
Ostenaco and the Cherokee, 1762 (The King's Arms)
In June 1762, three Cherokee chieftains arrived at Plymouth. They were on their way to King George III to mark the confirmation of the new treaty of friendship between Britain and the Cherokee Nation. This followed four years of hostilities and was organised by the Governor of Virginia, Francis Fauquier.The three men were Atawayi (‘Wood Pigeon’), Kunagadoga (‘Standing Turkey’) and Utsidihi (‘Man Killer’). Utsidihi preferred that name over Osteneco, the name we know, which translates as ‘Big Head’. Their translator died enroute – somewhere near Newfoundland - but they were accompanied by two officers, Lt. Henry Timberlake and Sgt. Thomas Sumter, both experienced in Anglo-Indigenous relations.They had arrived on the frigate HMS Epreuve, but were transferred to the boat of the Plymouth flagship HMS Revenge as befitted their status as ambassadors. They came in to Plymouth – although we’re not exactly sure where – on 16th June 1762.Their arrival was the scene of much celebration, as recounted by their official guide, Henry Timberlake:"Ostenaco, painted in a very frightful manner, sung a solemn dirge with a very loud voice to return God thanks for his safe arrival. The loudness and uncouthness of his singing, and the oddity of his person, drew a vast crowd of boats, filled with spectators, from all the ships in the harbour; and the landing place was so thronged, it was almost impossible to get to the inn, where we took the post to London."In the late 1700s, there were two posting inns in the Plymouth area - the Prince George at Plymouth Dock and the King's Arms here, opposite what is now The Swallow, on what would have been the route to London at that time (A. Arrowsmith, Cary's Actual Survey of the Great Post Roads between London and Falmouth, 1782). We're not sure which inn they patronised but either way they would have travelled through this area of the city on their way to Exeter the next day and then Salisbury. There they were described –“They are well-made Men, near six feet high, dressed in their own Country Fashion, with only a shirt, trousers, and mantle around them; their faces are painted of a Copper Colour, and their heads adorned with Shells, Feathers, Earrings and other trifling Ornaments. They neither of them can speak to be understood, and very unfortunately lost their Interpreter, who died in the Passage, which obliges them to make their Wants and Desires known, as well as they can, by dumb Signs. They are shy of Company, especially a Crowd, by whom they avoid being seen as much as possible.” The Cherokee delegation spent two months in London meeting the King several times and visiting many of the city's tourist attractions. It was during this period that they sat for portraits with Plymouth artist Joshua Reynolds and Francis Parsons. They became instant celebrities followed by crowds and the press, and within a short time had attracted conmen and grifters who sought to exploit them. After a brawl in Vauxhall Gardens, they were sent back to America, via Portsmouth on 24th August. Their mission having been a qualified if exuberant success. However, all future delegations out of Virginia were banned.On 16th June 2012, a group representing the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians recreated the trip - a mere 250 years on.
Atajuq, Ikkannguaq, Ikiunaq, Tuglavingaaq, and Qavvik, 1773 (Cattewater)
From here, look over the water towards Mount Batten. It was there in the Cattewater that George Cartwright dropped anchor in late May 1773 with five Inuit onboard.In November 1772, Cartwright, an English explorer and entrepreneur, had brought Atajuq (Connected), his wife, Ikkannguaq (Becoming Shallow), their toddler daughter, Ikiunaq (Spark), Atajuq's youngest brother Tuglavingaaq (the Big Beautiful Braid) and his wife Qavvik (Badger), to London. Like the Cherokee diplomats ten years earlier, these visitors were often seen as a spectacle, much to their frustration. According to Cartwright's sister, it was "extremely disagreeable to them to be stared at in the rude manner they were."By May, Cartwright wrote, they were "well pleased in the expectation of soon seeing their native country, their relations and friends again." However, as they left London on 13th May, Qavvik complained of feeling ill and a surgeon soon confirmed it was smallpox. Soon after, Ikkanguaq and Tuglavingaaq were also ill and so on 29th May Cartwright decided to anchor in Plymouth. Initially he could not find accommodation in the city. On 1st June, Ikiunaq died, followed shortly afterwards by her mother, Ikkanguaq. Cartwright had by then found a house in the Stonehouse area of the city but left the following day for London to get help. When he returned on 12th June, he found that Atajuq and his brother Tuglavingaaq had both died in quarantine tents set up outside the house soon after he had left Plymouth. The remains of the four Inuit were buried in sand dunes outside Plymouth.While Qavvik recovered and returned home to Labrador, it seems she took the disease back with her. By winter 1773, smallpox was ravaging Inuit communities in southern Labrador. As historian Coll Thrush has remarked, for Atajuq and his family the trip to England was an "unmitigated tragedy" (Indigenous London, 131).
Kualelo, 1789 (Greycoat School)
Kualelo, a boy from the Hawaiian island of Molokaʻi, arrived in Plymouth on the Prince of Wales in July 1789. He was 11 or 12 years old when he joined the Princess Royal in 1788 during the ship's voyage to what were then known as the Sandwich Islands. Kualelo spent almost a year in the city, under the care of the Prince of Wales's commander, James Johnstone. Surgeon Archibald Menzies, who had also served on the ship, wrote that Johnstone's "first object was to have him inoculated for the small Pox which he underwent with little inconvenience, & then he was sent to a public school in the neighbourhood where great pains was taken to learn him to read and write."Menzies didn't provide any further details of Kualelo's time in Plymouth but it's possible that the school he attended was based here, in what was Woolster Street. The Greycoat School was one of the few schools in Plymouth at that time that admitted boys, since they were usually encouraged to seek apprenticeships for their education. While he learned to write better than he could read, it was in drawing that Kualelo found most joy and it was this that irritated the English men who sought to "civilize" him. Menzies wrote that Kualelo showed talent and would "no doubt in a short time make great proficiency with the aid of a little instruction." Much to his disappointment, Kualelo found humour in satire and was "fondest of those rude pictures called Caricatures & frequently amused himself in taking off even his friends in imitation of these pieces." He continued to draw when he travelled to London and in this, as historian Coll Thrush has noted, he was like any visitor to a city, seeking "mementos...that would remind him of his time there and that would document his experiences for his people" (Indigenous London, 140). Kualelo eventually returned to the Hawaiian Islands in 1792 on HMS Discovery, as part of the Vancouver Expedition captained by George Vancouver. Menzies later recorded that Kualelo had achieved some success on his return by proving useful to King Kamehameha I, gaining a plantation and marrying a chief's daughter.
John Sunday, 1837 (Ebenezer Chapel)
In March 1837, the Plymouth and Stonehouse Auxiliary Branch of the Wesleyan Missionary Society celebrated their 23rd anniversary here at the site of Ebenezer Chapel (now Methodist Central Hall). One of their guest speakers had been announced as an "Indian chief of the Chippewa tribe in North America" and people flocked to see and hear this visitor. According to the Western Courier, "long before the hour appointed every part of the chapel was crowded to excess, and the aisles and staircases were lined with persons anxious to obtain a view of the platforms."That speaker was Shahwundais, also known as John Sunday, a Mississauga Ojibwe chief and Methodist minister. Born in 1795, Shawundais had been ordained in 1836, although he had worked for years as a travelling missionary. A year later, he travelled to England to raise funds for Indian missions and to advocate for First Nations' land rights.He was a talented speaker, much like Henry Pahtahquahong Chase, the other Mississauga Ojibwe preacher who visited Plymouth. At his address here, Shahwundais, dressed in the "European habit, with a coloured girdle around his waist," spoke of his conversion to Christianity. He was "very favourably received" and the audience was "highly gratified with proceedings." Shahwundais spoke at a similar meeting at Stonehouse the next day and then again the following day at a tea-party attended by about 500 people.
Rev. Henry Pahtahquahong Chase, 1881 (Plymouth Mechanics Institute)
The Plymouth Mechanics Institute, situated here at the corner of what used to be Princess Square and Westwell Street, provided access to education for the working men and women of the city for a small weekly fee. There was a library from which members could borrow books and materials, and a lecture theatre capable of seating 1200 people.It was here in June 1881 that Mississauga Ojibwe preacher Rev. Henry Pahtahquahong Chase delivered a lecture at the meeting of the Colonial and Continental Church Society, having preached at St Andrew's Church the previous night. Born near Belleville, Ontario, in 1818, Chase honed his public speaking skills for decades as a minister and an interpreter. By the 1870s, he was working for the Anglican Church in what is now Ontario and had built churches and schools on three reserves near Muncey. Fundraising to maintain these projects brought Chase to Britain in 1876, 1881, and again in 1885.Described by one reporter in the 1880s as “a dignified, wise and eloquent old man,” Chase had a commanding stage presence and was widely recognised as a gifted orator. In Plymouth, he spoke of his early life and how his father wished him to become "a hunter, a medicine man, and a warrior" but that he had become a "Christian man." As a result, he said, he had chosen not to "appear in paint and feathers" but instead in a suit. He also emphasized his nation's loyalty to the Crown, that they had "never fought with the English but they had fought for England," which garnered applause from the crowd. Finally, he turned to the successes of his missionary work, particularly the churches and schools he had established, before asking the audience for their support in continuing this work.You can learn more about Chase's life and his experiences during his later 1885 visit to Britain by reading the letters he wrote to his daughter: http://www.huronresearch.ca/confrontingcolonialism/working-with-primary-sources/157-2/Want to know more about the Mississaugas, their history, and their nation today? Watch the video link!
Gowongo Mohawk, 1893 (Grand Theatre)
Born on the Cattaraugus reservation in what is currently New York in 1860, Gowongo Mohawk was a talented athlete and performer. She gained fame around the same time as the Buffalo Bill Wild West Shows, in the 1890s and early 1900s, and she wrote and starred in her own play, “Wep-Ton-No-Mah – the Indian Mail Carrier.” In 1893, she travelled to England and toured for several years, performing here at the Grand Theatre in November of that year (the theatre's main entrance was just to the left of the Grand Theatre pub next door but the building was demolished in 1963).What was particularly notable about Mohawk’s performances was how she challenged stereotypes about Indigenous women. Mohawk played the title role of an Indigenous man and she also physically challenged expectations of femininity. She was tall and an athletic, performing her own stunts. She said that she decided to act a male role because it “allowed her greater opportunity for riding and wrestling” and audiences loved her performances.
Indigenous Imaginings, 1895 (Theatre Royal)
In 1895, the Theatre Royal staged a production of a play entitled The Black Hawks, written by a man claiming to be called Arizona Joe, and featuring an all-white English cast in make-up performing tableaux of Native American scenes.Arizona Joe appeared in the show – his real name was Colonel Joe Bruce. The production is described –‘The production might be termed a pot-pourri as it embodies a smattering of incidents called from melodrama, the circus and that kind of entertainment usually associated with Buffalo Bill…a rush of Red Indians, dogs, torsos and ghosts, mingled in hopeless confusion, start the bewildered spectator; a continuous crack of pistols and guns, steadily maintained throughout the action of the play…Arizona Joe as the hero, liberates a prisoner from the clutches of the Hawks…’ The theatre was located here and the large building, which included an attached hotel, also took up the space now occupied by the Theatre Royal Car Park. The theatre was demolished in 1937 to make way for a cinema.Plymouth has a history of staging plays with Native American themes, but never featuring Indigenous North Americans. Hiawatha, the 1855 pseudo-Native American poem by HW Longfellow turned into a more-pseudo-Native American musical by black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in 1897 was performed in Plymouth several times in the twentieth century.
Buffalo Bill and the Lakota, 1903-4 (Exhibition Grounds, Pennycomequick)
At the end of July 1903 (30th July and 1st August), Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, the touring sensation of horse acrobatics, theatrical stunts and eccentric sights from all over the world arrived in Plymouth for three days of performances. They pitched their tents at the Exhibition Grounds in Pennycomequick, now Central Park in Plymouth, close to the railway station.The programme read - “An exhibition, the intention of which is to educate the spectator, through the medium of animated pictures, in the picturesque life on the Western American Plains in the days just past, showing primitive horsemen who have attained fame; spiced with their counterparts of modern military horsemanship...”Before sell-out crowds the performers produced six spectacular shows which featured a large contingent of Sioux performing dances, scenes and exhibitions of daring horse riding. Accompanied by women and children and dressed in brightly coloured feathered and beaded regalia the performance made a huge impression in Plymouth. The Cornishman newspaper wrote, "The sightseers were not disappointed . . . they were entertained by exciting incidents, some highly amusing, others intensely dramatic and all of absorbing interest."The shows were spectacular, with huge casts of performers (800 people, hundreds of horses, with buffalo, elk and deer) re-enacting bison hunts, train robberies, attacks on burning buildings and wars with Native Americans. The company also usually paraded through the town when they arrived, as you can see in the video from 1901 (credit: The William F. Cody Archive).Buffalo Bill was actually William Cody – from Iowa. He had ridden the Pony Express, hunted buffalo and served in the American Civil War. His exploits had become the subject of books and by the late 1800s, he was starring in his own shows. He recruited actively from the Lakota people, from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, although he asked them to perform the roles of different tribal people. 97 Native American performers appeared in Buffalo Bill’s 1903 show. From the passenger lists, we know that these included Sam Lone Bear, who often served as an interpreter because he could speak English, German, and French in addition to Lakota. Also performing were the famous Lakota leader, author, and later Hollywood actor Luther Standing Bear, his wife Laura Standing Bear, and their son.Buffalo Bill returned to Plymouth on June 3, 1904, just a few days after the photographs here were taken at Penzance.
Lakota performers en route to Brussels, 1910 (Liner Lookout)
Plymouth was a port for ocean liners in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It offered speedy transatlantic access to Britain, primarily to London by train, or onto European destinations. The Liner Lookout here was originally built in 1870. A person sitting inside would watch out over Plymouth Sound for an arriving liner and send a message down to Millbay Docks when it arrived so that a boat could go and collect passengers.In 1910, the White Star liner Oceanic brought 75 Indigenous North Americans to the Sound. While some passengers disembarked here, the Indigenous passengers stayed onboard till Southampton.Most were Lakota, and they were on their way to the Brussels Exposition, or World Fair. An Irish newspaper reported that 50 were from the Pine Ridge Reservation, located in what is now South Dakota. That year the reservation, and another called Rosebud, had been reduced in size by white settlers. Some of the arrivals included men who were said to have fought against Custer in The Battle at Little Bighorn (1876) and at Wounded Knee (1890). They included Little Ribs, Red Shirt and Little Red Horse.The group, with 8 cowboys and cowgirls were on their way to Belgium. The World Fair brought together national representatives in different marquees, parks and gardens.As one of the performers, Little Ribs, reportedly noted to the Irish News and Belfast Morning News in April 1910, ‘What those Belgians want are real Indians – those right off the short grass, with white scalps dangling at their belts. We have to give them something of this kind, though we don’t like it. 100 years ago, this kind of an Indian roamed the prairies, but now he exists only in stories and in the play. We are in the play.’ The 75 Indigenous North Americans who were here, were seen by many of the 13 million visitors to the Brussels Expo of 1910. They played their Wild West Show in the Grand Hall to audiences of 5000 people per show, each paying 6 francs. We don’t know what they were paid.
First Nations Soldiers, October 1914 (Armada Memorial)
On 14th October 1914, two months after the start of the First World War, the First Contingent of Canadian troops arrived at Plymouth. Their presence at the port was somewhat unexpected; the ships' intended destination had been Southampton but concerns about U-boat activity resulted in a detour. Despite the surprise, "cheering crowds welcomed the Canadians with the utmost enthusiasm...Crowds of people lined the Hoe and piers, while others went out in boats and heartily cheered the ships as they passed" (London Times).Among the arrivals were Indigenous North American soldiers, including Francis Pegahmagabow from the Wasauksing First Nation and several from the Six Nations Reserve, such as Cameron D. Brant, Alfred Styres, Nathan F. Montour, Frank Weaver Montour, and Albert Crain. Over 4,000 Indigenous North American men enlisted in the Canadian forces but the exact number is hard to calculate. In Canada, Indian Affairs lists rarely included Métis, Inuit and non-status Indians (those who belonged to a nation who had not signed a treaty with the government). As Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada has noted, however, these Indigenous soldiers were a significant asset. They had various reasons for enlisting, including economic opportunity and patriotism, yet many also thought that their service might help accomplish justice for their nations and communities.Alfred Styres, who served with the 4th Battalion and arrived in Plymouth on the SS Tyrolia, was regularly heralded for his enlistment story, although it's unclear how much was exaggerated for publicity purposes. According to F. Douglas Reville in his History of the County of Brant, Styres, a farmer, heard of the recruitment drive while he was halfway through harvesting his oat field. Nevertheless, he "decided his duty was elsewhere, so he turned about, called on a neighbor, arranged for the harvesting of his crops and care of his stock, walked to Hagersville and enlisted."After disembarking in Plymouth, each of the men quickly headed to Salisbury Plain for training. For Francis Pegahmagabow, serving with the 1st Battalion, this was less than ideal. One of the most decorated Indigenous soldiers in Canadian military history, he was born in 1889 on the Shawanaga First Nation reserve in Ontario. He volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force almost as soon as war was declared in 1914 and found himself at Friary Station (close to the Friary Retail Park) in the early hours of 19th October on his way to the training camp. Parry Sound Indian agent Duncan Fraser Macdonald described a letter he received from Pegahmagabow shortly afterwards: "I had a letter from Francis Pegamaga [sic] at Salisbury Camp. He is getting tired waiting for to get away to try his hand at shooting. He may thank his lucky stars that he is where he is at present. Well, it's rough and will be rougher before it is quieted down." Pegahmagabow soon got his wish. He was deployed to the Western Front in 1915 and fought in some of its most infamous battles, including Ypres, the Somme, and Passchendaele, earning a reputation as a deadly sniper. On his return to Canada at the end of the war, Pegahmagabow became an Indigenous rights activist and a leader of his nation, serving as chief from 1921-1925.Another famous Indigenous soldier who arrived at Plymouth was Cameron D. Brant, a descendant of the famous Mohawk leader Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant). He served in the 4th Battalion with the other Six Nations men listed above and his time in Plymouth was short. They disembarked on 23rd October and left Plymouth by train the next day. Like Pegahmagabow, these men all found themselves at the front in 1915 and served in some of the major battles. Styres, for example, was injured in June 1916 at Ypres, spending five months at a war hospital in Newcastle before being declared permanently unfit as a result of his injuries and discharged in 1917. Brant, a popular officer, was not so lucky. He was the first Six Nations soldier killed in action during the conflict, dying in a charge on the German trenches at Ypres in April 1916.
Deskaheh, 1921 (Millbay)
Deskaheh, also known as Levi General, was born on the Six Nations reserve in Ontario, Canada in 1873. An activist and Cayuga chief, he served as deputy speaker of the Confederacy Council beginning in 1918. A few years later, Deskaheh "pressured the government to review the Six Nations’ historical status, specifically their right to recognition as allies, not subjects, of the British crown, and hence to immunity from federal control." When the Canadian government did not agree to this, the Council hired a new lawyer, George Decker, and raised funds to send a delegate to England to plead their case to the Colonial Office.Deskaheh and Decker arrived in Plymouth on the SS Ryndam on 15 August 1921. From there, they made their way to London to hand their "Petition and Case of the Six Nations of the Grand River" to the King.Having been unsuccessful in his efforts, Deskaheh returned to the United States. He took the case to the League of Nations in Geneva in 1923, lobbying for the League to recognize the Six Nations as sovereign. He stayed there for a year but did not succeed in his goals.
Running Wolf and White Elk, 1925 (Cinedrome Kinema)
On New Year's Day 1925, the patrons of the Cinedrome Kinema, one of Plymouth's finest cinematic establishments, were treated to the Western The Covered Wagon (you can watch the movie by following the video link!). This 98-minute silent film featured a buffalo hunt and "an attack by Indians on a white camp". The film was the first big-budget western (costing $780,000), and based on a 1922 book. It was about a wagon train heading from Kansas for Oregon and was filmed on location in Utah and Nevada – with wagons that had made the journey generations earlier. The cast, while predominately white, does feature an uncredited performance as the leader of the Native raiders by Richard Davis Thunderbird, one of the first significant Native performers in Hollywood. His co-stars included Native Americans from the Northern Arapaho Nation from the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.This showing of the film was significant as the film's promoter, Col. J. Raymond was in attendance, accompanied by two performers supposedly from the Bannock and Pawnee nations - Running Wolf and White Elk, who appeared in full regalia and performing dances and songs to accompany proceedings on screen. The visitors from Wyoming had been received at the Mayor’s Parlour on 30th December.This promotional tour, which had visited much of the country in 1924, was a relatively common way of publicising early westerns, taking advantage of the significant numbers of Indigenous vaudeville performers then on tour in the UK. In terms of Running Wolf and White Elk, their links to Native nations remain unclear. They were sometimes identified as Sioux, other times as Bannock and Pawnee, often as coming from Wyoming, U.S.A., but occasionally as being Canadian.The Cinedrome was opened in 1913 by William Linsdell. By 1931, according to the Kinematograph Year Book, it was owned by Thomas Hoyle. The 1940 edition listed Mrs M. Hoyle as the proprietor, possibly Thomas' widow. The cinema was badly damaged by German bombs in the blitz of 1941. It closed and did not re-open. The auditorium was subsequently demolished, but the façade has survived. Meanwhile, Gould’s Outdoors, a camping goods and clothing supplier, had been founded by Frederick E. Gould in the early-1900s. After trading from various sites in Plymouth, the business moved into the site of the former Cinedrome in 1955.
White Elk and Running Wolf, 1925 (Plymouth Corn Exchange)
The Plymouth Corn Exchange was part of a larger market complex that occupied the site from Tesco's to McDonalds on both sides of New George Street until the 1950s. On 5th January 1925, the building was "gaily decorated" and filled with the "shouts of glee of nearly 150 delighted, romping youngsters." All orphans living with foster parents in the local area, the children were given tea and gifts at this annual New Year's party and entertained by bands and performers.Among those entertaining the children were White Elk and Running Wolf, who were visiting Plymouth to publicize the movie The Covered Wagon. The Western Morning News reported that they exchanged greetings with the children and one of them, to the guests' "intense enjoyment," "afterwards sang in his native tongue to the tune of 'Annie Laurie' and also played a banjo selection." The performers' links to Native nations remain unclear. They were sometimes identified as Sioux, other times as Bannock and Pawnee, often as coming from Wyoming, U.S.A., but occasionally as being Canadian.
Rev. Henry Pahtahquahong Chase, 1881 & Doc Tate Nevaquaya, 1970 (St Andrew's Church)
St Andrew's Church was built in the 15th century, although its origins are much earlier. While it's possible that previous Indigenous North American travellers to Plymouth visited the church, the earliest recorded is in June 1881. Rev. Henry Pahtahquahong Chase, a Mississauga Ojibwe preacher, delivered a sermon here "before a large congregation" (Western Morning News). As the Western Morning News exclaimed, "an Indian chief in a Plymouth pulpit is a rather sensational announcement, but such will be the case"!Almost 100 years later, the church was again a destination for Indigenous visitors to Plymouth. Noted Comanche artist and flute player Doc Tate Nevaquaya played his flute here in 1970, as part of the Goodwill Tour for the Mayflower 350 celebrations (see tour points #19 and 20 for more details). You can listen to Nevaquaya playing his flute in 2004 by following the YouTube link. By most accounts, the Goodwill Tour group enjoyed their time in England. There was only one issue, according to the Lawton Constitution-Morning Press - the food! "Although the Indians were fervent in their praise of the English," they "admitted that the English food left something for a Comanche to desire." One of the group, George Watchetaker, apparently solved this issue by "eating all his meals in Plymouth at The Golden Dragon, a Chinese restaurant."
Goodwill Tour, 1970 (Dingles Department Store)
With America at war in Vietnam, with British support, Plymouth named 1970 Mayflower Year.‘It’s such an awfully pleasant respite from the cares of the world.’Massachusetts Senator Leverett Salton in Plymouth, May 19701970 marked the 350th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower. The city’s schoolchildren were given Mayflower mugs and medals, the State cinema in St Budeaux controversially changed its name to the Mayflower and a train service to Paddington became The Mayflower. Plymouth in 1970 was also characterised by building projects which marked the anniversary – the Mayflower Post House Hotel, the Mayflower Centre and the Mayflower Stand at Plymouth Argyle’s Home Park. A private housing estate in Eggbuckland named 6 new streets after Mayflower passengers and the 350th anniversary also saw the creation of the Elizabethan Gardens behind New Street. New publications, parties and parades again marked the Anglo-American relationship. But what did the anniversary say about the relationship with Indigenous North Americans?A group of Indigenous North American entertainers were in Plymouth for the 350th anniversary. Engaged in a Goodwill Tour of England on behalf of the US Travel Services, a branch of the Department of Commerce, their signatures are recorded in the Dingles department store visitors’ book.In this group, there were three generations of the same family – the Monetathchis. Several of the visiting Native Americans were also well known for their dancing. Joe Bointy (Comanche-Kiowa) and George Watchetaker (Comanche) were both world champion fancy dancers. One image of the visit also shows Doc Tate Nevaquaya (Comanche), a renowned artist and flute player, playing the flute outside St. Andrew's Church.There is also an urban legend associated with the tour. Several of George Watchetaker’s obituaries suggest he was knighted by the Queen after he and Doc Tate Nevaquaya gave a command performance for her during their visit. This seems unlikely.
Goodwill Tour, 1970 & White Elk and Running Wolf, 1924 (Guildhall)
As part of their Goodwill Tour visit to Plymouth, Edgar Monetathchi, Doc Tate Nevaquaya, George Watchetaker and the rest of their group performed outside of the Guildhall. The Lawton Constitution-Morning Press reported that they performed in front of "several thousand people" here but were also "greeted by pickets bearing 'Yankees Go Home' signs. The signs were prompted by a wage dispute involving an American-owned construction firm building a Holiday Inn." Apparently, some members of the audience took matters into their own hands, telling the group that "they didn't want to be embarrassed by these few and proceeded to 'break wood' over the heads of the pickets." You can watch the performance, including some footage of the protest, in the YouTube video.Around 50 years before that, another set of American Indians performed for a Plymouth audience at the Guildhall. White Elk and Running Wolf, in town to promote The Covered Wagon movie, also entertained 800 children here at a Christmas party hosted by the Mayor and the Church Army on 30th December 1924. Appearing in their "native dress," the pair "saluted the children with their native greetings, meaning 'My heart to yours.' Colonel Raymond, the film's promoter accompanied them. According to the Western Morning News, "wherever the Chiefs went they were well received" and that morning had been given a tour of the Municipal Buildings by the Mayor.
Emissaries of Peace delegation, 2012 (Lord Mayor's Parlour)
In June 2012, Plymouth hosted a delegation from the three federally recognized Cherokee nations: the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma; the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians; and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Here at the Lord Mayor's Parlour, inside Plymouth's Council House, the delegation met with the Lord Mayor Michael Wright and Lady Mayoress Deborah Osborne.Celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Cherokee visit in 1762, this Emissaries of Peace tour followed in the footsteps of the earlier one with stops at Exeter Cathedral, Wilton House in Salisbury, and St James's Palace in London. Corey Still, a member of the United Keetowah Band, reflected on the importance of this: "Nothing puts learning about a subject in history in full context until you visit the sites you study about first hand. To stand in the location those three chiefs stood 250 years ago is a mind-blowing aspect. It brings history to life being able to travel there and witness those things."Still also recalled his time in England fondly: "Everywhere I went, I was welcomed with hospitality and kindness...From the lord mayors that we met, to the people on the streets, we felt like we were old friends who came to visit." (Cherokee Phoenix, 27 July 2012).
Wampanoag, 2020 (The Box)
2020 marked the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower. The commemoration was defined by the contribution of Native Americans to events in the US, UK and in The Netherlands. The work was led by the Wampanoag Nation. The Wampanoag or ‘People of the First Light’ have lived along the American north-east coast and woodlands for 12,000 years. So, they, like other Algonquian people, were the first to encounter European seafarers from the late 1500s and into the 1600s. The Wampanoag would welcome the passengers of the Mayflower in 1620. They also enabled their survival.400 years on, Plymouth connected with the Wampanoag people again.In 2017 The Box established a transatlantic relationship with the Wampanoag Advisory Committee to Plymouth 400 (US). That enabled Plymouth, UK’s first ever commission to a Wampanoag artist. Her name is Nosapocket or Ramona Peters. She is a ceramicist and she created a Native American legacy – here – for 2020.Her cooking pot is made to a traditional design, but is a piece of contemporary art. It is now part of the collections of The Box and a permanent Native American presence in Plymouth.
Sarah Sense, 2020 (National Marine Aquarium)
The 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower is a reminder of the connection between people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Sarah Sense is a Native American artist who lived and worked in the UK. Using traditional Chitimacha and Choctaw techniques, she creates photo-weavings in 2d and 3d forms. Her permanent installation at the National Marine Aquarium Plymouth Sound Zone considers Native North American histories in England.Commissioned by Take A Part and the National Marine Aquarium, this steel piece of art tells a story of British settler colonialism and its effects on Native North America here in England. It looks to the personal impact of 400 years and 3000 nautical miles.Sense said of the piece: "History runs deep in the United Kingdom. History runs deep in North America. Between these two places is an ocean carrying stories of people moving between continents. While we enter Mayflower’s 400-year anniversary, communities in the United Kingdom and United States are questioning colonial settlerism. Before Europeans conquests, Native North America was rich with people, resources and culture. Through a process of settler colonization, the cultural and physical landscape of the Americas changed. When asked to create a Native North American perspective of Mayflower 400, I chose to make a memory of what was happing 400 years ago to Native North Americans in the United Kingdom and to bring that memory to the present so that we can heal and learn from the effects of colonization within Indigenous communities and environment. Listen to the Atlantic, It’s Speaking to You is a sound piece for participants to read aloud the names of Algonquin people of Native North America who died or went missing in London (1603-1630), around the time the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, United Kingdom. In looking at this space between America and the United Kingdom, imagine that words are carried with the waves back to Native North America.”
