Walam Olum
Walam Olum,tribal chronicle of the Leni-Lenape, or Delaware Indians, divided into five books of 183 short verses that relate the story of the tribe from creation through its migration to North America and to its meeting with white men. The title is translated as Red Score, or “painted record,” for the work was written in the form of pictographs on sticks. The originals have been lost, but a manuscript copy was made by Constantine Rafinesque in 1833 to accompany his translation of “the songs annexed thereto in the original language” that he also collected. This text he published in his book The American Nations (1836) and later translations were made by E.G. Squier and Daniel G. Brinton. Not only is the work important to anthropologists but the songs have been acclaimed as a great Indian epic poem.
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