The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

2nd Lord Baltimore, Cecil Calvert (1606-1675), by Soest, Gerard, ca. 1600-1681 ~ Hanging in the Main Hall of the Central Library, Enoch Pratt Free Library / State Library Resource Center.

The Good:
Getting to attend the Maryland Historial Society's last Thursday night (10/22/09) book signing and excellent author's lecture, by Don Shomette, UB's own "Father of Marine Archeology in Maryland," on his new book "Flotilla" - Story of Joshua Barney's War of 1812 Chesapeake Flotillamen [published by the Johns Hopkins University Press and Mr. Shomette's  latest in a line of fascinating local history books], bottled up in St. Leonard's Creek, couldn't save the Capitol from burning but eventually the battered flotillaman went on to man the guns that gave us "Star-spangled Banner" -- and saved Ft. McHenry and Baltimore.
Connection with my Native American search? 
Right there outside the Society lecture hall are dioramas that depict encounters between early Native Americans and Colonists with textual display to the effect that "at first the relations were friendly" and showing the "American Indians" as bearing trays of bounty on their heads as they march up to the Englishmen!  Have to say I'm not at all sure this was really so and suspect it's borrowed from the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Thanksgiving) legend, mostly because I've been able to find so little actual evidence -- so far -- of what, where, and when the first encounters in the Maryland colony took place and most especially the true nature of the meetings. But -- at least MdHS must believe it has such evidence -- and now it's just up to me to find it there!  But the frustration of the week-end was that I ended up being distracted all day Saturday on a jaunt to the far reaches of Silver Spring, egads, to buy a new car and never made it back to the beautiful stacks at the MdHS Library and the nice pile of material I hope Mr. Francis O'Neill has kept for me in "my" cart??.

The Bad
Oh Enoch! wherefor art thou records of Native Americans in early Baltimore??!! A diligent online search of the collections at Enoch Pratt -- and references to what may be available in hard-copy, was, frankly, fruitless. "Native Americans," and "American Indians," and the like only brought up grade-school level entries in two desultory and very minor collections that echoed stereotypes from our early childhood notions of "Indians."  If only H.L. Mencken had been interested in more than a cigar store "Chief," I might have gotten something bold and ground breaking.
But at least my temporary tangential look online at the six Lords Baltimore, resplendant in their oil portraits, unearthed a clue, actually I feel it's going to prove to be an important clue: In the description of the contributions of "Cecil" (speaking now of Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore, and until I learn more, the only solid fellow of the bunch), I read where this Baltimore baron was esteemed in that, "Thanks to the good counsel which Cecil gave his young brother, Governor Leonard Calvert ...the Governor's firm dealings with the Indians bore fruit in securing comparative harmony, in marked contrast with the experiences of settlers in Virginia and New England."  SO!!! when I can track this reference down to parsable historical proof, then maybe that MdHS diorama was spot on after all, and we just might have a story here, folks!!

The Ugly
Leave it to the Curse of the Bureaucrat to find me, also a bureaucrat, online at the US Department of the Interior website, specifically under the Bureau of Indian Affairs, where one would like to think one could go to get intelligent information about American Indian tribes. Ho, no! It was an ugly story of one broken link after another until I gave up and retreated back to good old, reliable Google to bring up the most recent list of federally-recognized tribes as published in the Federal Register (8/11/2009) the hopes of finding modern links to tribal histories of interest to the quest here. But this line, too, led only to wasteland -- in all of the 560-some tribes, there is NONE in the State of Maryland; and no entries either for Piscataway or Algonquin.

Not wanting to leave my followers with a sense of gloom, I will say that I saw a notice for a meeting this coming Tuesday evening at the Baltimore American Indian Center, not far from my home, and I intend to make the meeting (reportedly open to the public) to work on the end-piece of my research and possibly uncover clues that can provide information about the early presence, although I think it unlikely but remain open to happy surprises.

Progress in the Stacks!

Jú-ah-kís-gaw, Woman with Her Child in a Cradle, 1835Ojibwe/Chippewa
[An Algonkian People]
Oil29 x 24 in.Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.

Online at http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/catlin/

This post is short & sweet!

• Spent a very worthwhile afternoon last rainy & cold Saturday, October 17th at the Maryland Historical Society H. Furlong Baldwin Library.


• No, the library is NOT open on Sundays!


• Make note to self: wear more sweaters next time!! Brrrrrr!


• Had great help from the head Research Librarian, Mr. Francis O'Neill.


• Now have a cart full of "goodies" saved for my next visits!


• Feel more optimistic that I'll be able to put enough interesting facts and substantiated guesses together to make for a decent project.


• And ... I predict I'll have a nice surprise or two to share about the early presence of Native Americans in Baltimore!

Topic Now On Target

Algonquin Couple, an 18th-century watercolor by an unknown artist.

Courtesy of the City of Montreal Records Management & Archives, Montreal, Canada; Wikipedia.

Thanks to Dr. Singer, I have direction and focus now for my research study. I will be examining the evidence for how Native Americans affected and were affected by the establishment of Baltimore and how their history may have intertwined with that of Baltimoreans throughout area history from First Contact through the present day.

I begin this quest with some preconceptions that may or may not prove true; namely:

• (1) there will be a paucity of material, but that will mean each piece of historical reference I can unearth will be all the more meaningful and challenging to interpret.
  
• (2) Native Americans either were not present in any substantial numbers at First Contact in what became Baltimore or quickly disappeared because of contracting European diseases to which they had no immunity. This is the common, perhaps even glib, explanation for why Native Americans seemed to have had little or no role in the historical development of Baltimore, but such an easy answer calls for all the more careful scrutiny of the evidence.


• (3) the predominant tribal population at least in the earliest historical references is Algonquin.


• (4) modern day Baltimore's Native American population is primarily Lumbee, who are established generally in the Patterson Park area, and who are very late to the "Baltimore history table."

Overall, I am quite excited about exploring a largely unknown piece of Baltimore history and with Dr. Singer's encouragement am prepared to extend the focus of Native American presence beyond Baltimore itself to encompass Eastern Maryland, as well as research and discuss the reasons why there is not more Native American presence in our area.

So...it's off to Maryland Historical Society this week-end, probably both Saturday and Sunday, to begin following up on the 100+ 'hits' I have in their library database for Native Americans/American Indians. I also want to begin gathering available US Census data.

Finally for this post, as an aside from one who considers herself fortunate in having many close friends and acquaintances in the Hopi, Navajo, San Carlos Apache, Ft. McDowell Yavapai, Gila River Pima, and Laguna Pueblo tribes of Arizona and New Mexico, I strongly support using the terms desired by the people themselves for reference to their heritage; thus, some of my friends prefer "Native American," while others prefer "American Indian" and even "Indian." I'll adopt a uniform standard when the appropriate time comes for my research paper and explain my usage.

Choosing A Research Topic

Which topic to choose ....


So many topics, so little time -- these are the main research ideas I'm considering:

• History of my little house in the 'Point -- supposed to date back to 1850 -- history of its occupants and their contributions (or not) to city history; or if I can't get sufficient material, perhaps history of my street or entire block or structures on the main cross streets.


• History of one or more of my 17th-18th Century Baltimore ancestors (only recently -- spring of 2009 -- have I learned of their existence at all): Chew, Cox, Slade.


• History of an in-law Baltimore (and possibly also a 'Pointer) ancestor, who was a 19th Century sea captain for McCormick spice trade, lost at sea.

And less personal but no less interesting to me:

• History of ancient up to First Encounter Native American presence in the Baltimore area; confirming the gap during Baltimore's 'modern' formative period; i.e., mid-1600's-WWII or however recently the gap ended [part of research]; history of modern to current presence of Native Americans in Baltimore.


• Some aspect of the Friends Society influence in Baltimore; the positive and negative; what lingers today.


• Some aspect of Methodism's place in Baltimore history; the positive and negative; what lingers today.


• History of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and 'whither it goest'.


• History of the Baltimore Opera Company and 'where it went'.


• History of pre-Soviet immigration through post-Cold War presence of Russians in Baltimore including "how did they get to acquire Sparrows Point?!"


• (And someday would like to do primarily a photo historical essay of Baltimore's beautiful steeples.)

I've picked one topic to begin in earnest discovering whether or not there might be sufficient material to support a paper, namely 'history of Native American influence' in Baltimore. I visited the Maryland Historical Society -- http://www.mdhs.org/ -- yesterday (library was closed on Mondays, as we've learned, but main building is open) and spoke with a docent/greeter at the front desk. He confirmed that Native Americans were not significant in numbers in/around Baltimore from the time of the Revolution but that the Society does have some material (so far I've gotten over 100 hits in the MdHS catalog). I bought the one piece (a small pamphlet--apparently not accessible online) readily available at the front desk, and would like to pursue the topic further before deciding one way or the other to choose it as my research blog subject.

Mostly, would like Dr. Singer's advice/direction, please, about this.


Oh, I also bought a student membership (not too steep at $40), with the thought that in these hard times, it's institutions exactly like the MdHS that needs our support. The "Maryland Historical Magazine" - take a look at the tables of contents of recent journals: http://www.mdhs.org/publications/TOC.html -- is a nice part of one's membership. Plus, see these nearby (Mt. V neighborhood) restaurants and shops offering discounts to MdHS members! http://www.mdhs.org/membership/discount.html


Finally -- "did you know" MdHS has a good parking lot right off of Monument Street just west of the main buildings -- and main entrance is on Park.


That's all for now...