[This offering can be
consumed independently but a read of Frontier Fighting: Borders & No
Borders and The
Foreign Legion, Apaches, & Combat Migrations might allow a fuller picture. The wide view
is always more valuable than a vista.]
Let us look to early
American grappling as a case-study to demonstrate how often assumed influences
do not necessarily match probable realities.
Before we get to
grappling as a specific vehicle let’s look at the assumed causal arrow of all
Frontier development writ large.
The story of the
United States’ success goes along these lines—and, yes, I am simplifying.
·
The American
continent was a formless, cultureless land without its own web of applied technology,
considered culture, and enlightened expertise.
·
Immigrants,
pioneers, settlers from Great Britain and the European Continent arrive and
whip a little democracy, a little culture, and a vast amount of European
know-how upon the land and peoples to create something out of what was nothing.
There ya go—Hop off
the boat and make America great!
Of course, that story
is a bit simplistic, a bit paternalistic, a bit patronizing and more than a bit
wrong.
Without getting into
the weeds here, there is very credible research that shows just how “advanced”
the “uncivilized” indigenous populations were and it is evident, to some historians,
that much of what we assume to be the fruits of the European Enlightenment, the
intellectual birth of so much vaunted progress, may very well have been fueled
from the savage side of the pond as opposed to born in the skulls of Voltaire,
Thomas Paine, and many other early thought leaders.
[For those who wish to
delve deeper into this side of things, I direct you to the work of Jack
Weatherford-- Native
Roots: How the Indians Enriched America & Indian Givers: How Native Americans Transformed the World
and perhaps most importantly the late David Graeber’s The Dawn of
Everything: A New History of Humanity, an endlessly fascinating contrarian
volume. And be advised, this in no way denigrates the contributions of Paine,
Locke, Rousseau etc., rather it points to the fact that these men studied what
was coming from the New Land and had the open-mindedness to allow it to shape their
thought. This very theme holds for the martial history that follows.]
Let us follow this “Perhaps
more is birthed in the Americas than we credit” hypothesis and focus on
early grappling/wrestling, both as a sport and a way of warfare. [Keep in mind,
this holds for striking, weapons culture etc. We will delve into these another day—we
simply set the stage here for killing the idea that “All that is wonderful was
imported.”]
BTW-Detailed martial research don’t come
cheap. You notice we post this as a freebie and more detailed work will be in our
upcoming book on the subject, and, of course, the detailed physical aspects are
in the Black Box Subscription Service. In the meantime, if your mind and
pocket moves you to support such deep dives, well, I wouldn’t buck at the generosity
of a donation. Leave a Tip]
It is commonly assumed
that grappling/wrestling in the Americas developed along these lines---and,
yes, again, I am simplifying.
·
The human animal
has always scuffled, it is safe to assume that the Indigenous Peoples of the
Americas also scuffled.
·
They
likely scuffled without the educated or cultivated movement of those well-schooled
in Great Britain or on the European Continent. [Three cheers for Imperialism!]
·
As more
and more immigrants arrive, some bring their grappling prowess and education
with them, allowing it to permeate the culture—particularly those wrestling immigrants
from the regions of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Devonshire.
·
Gradually
the “freestyle” of grappling as opposed to Greco-Roman or Collar-and-Elbow takes
root.
And that,
my friends, is the story of grappling in the Americas!
But…what if, as in the case of some long-assumed Enlightenment
traditions, such as the birth of American Federalism and other “Across the
Pond” imports, what if these were less imports, than post hoc adaptations
that were themselves influenced by what they found already present here?
Early chroniclers of Indigenous
Peoples, those who actually visited and/or spent time with tribes make numerous
references to the “wrestling games and anticks” of whatever tribe is
being observed. These accounts primarily come from the observer’s perspective,
but occasionally we find tribal references inside the stories and legends of
some people, and in some cases pictograms or depictions of said “games and
anticks.”
[There is a gorgeous parfleche
with a native painting of Cheyenne games upon it that clearly depicts a
competitive wrestling bout—the postures, to my eyes at least, appear mighty informed
as to grip, stance, and base—in other words, not in need of Continental
Edification.]
These early chronicles
note that the styles and intent varied considerably between tribes—some being
variants of back-hold wrestling, or collar and elbow, but most resemble a freestyle
free-for-all in which the pin does not exist, but concession is king—and that
concession was often reached in ways that made many a chronicler pale.
“The one quality
that all forms had in common was a savagery in execution that typified all the
pursuits of the warriors.”—Graeme Kent
Note: The early Rough ‘n’ Tumble scrums observed
in the Americas among settlers more resembled this form of grappling than it
did any imported sport version.
The following excerpt
is from Whitman Mead’s Travels in North America [1820.] The
author refers to an incident he witnessed in 1817 while travelling though
Georgia.
Such gatherings,
according to Mead, occurred 2-3 times per week where folks would gather to
fellowship, feast, drink, dance, gamble, exchange wares, and often following
the ever-present horse-race, a public challenge may be issued. I offer that
this is the same celebratory form of gathering where indigenous wrestling would
occur.
Let us allow Mr. Mead
to speak:
“A ring is
formed, free for anyone to enter and fight…After a few rounds, they generally
clinch, throw down, bite and gouge, and the conquered creeps out under the ring
as a signal of his submission.”
Mead tells of meeting
several past combatants who had noses bitten off, eyes gouged out, and more
than a few who had been castrated in such affairs.
Mead’s observations
mirror many Indigenous Wrestling match outcomes.
So, we
must ask, which came first: The brutal vocabulary of the rough n tumble that is
assumed to be informed by the immigrant population, or was it the other way
around?
Let us go earlier
than Mead’s account.
The early English
settlers in America and the French voyageurs in Canada made wrestling
part and parcel of gatherings, very much in the Indigenous gathering tradition.
Each nationality brought its own form of grappling, but the staid Greco-Roman
and the tame [in comparison] freestyle/catch-as-catch-can was now considered
boring to eyes that were used to witnessing the indigenous All-In affairs.
These early settlers
of a rough and ready spirit took to the rougher ways with alacrity. Of course,
they retained the base of whatever art/sport they brought with them, but the
focus became the faster less restricted game they found already long existent
on the new Continent.
The question may be
asked, “Why on earth would anyone prefer a more reckless or dangerous sport
over the more protective version?”
The answer
may lie outside the subject of wrestling or grappling itself.
The rough and ready
spirits that self-selected to choose an untamed New World as opposed to a Tame
[in comparison] Europe, could also account for a population inside these nomads
that preferred the violent and untamed.
“The proximity of
these two cultures [Immigrant & Indigenous] over the course of many
generations presented both sides with a stark choice about how to live. By the
end of the nineteenth century, factories were being built in Chicago and slums
were taking root in New York while Indians fought with spears and tomahawks a
thousand miles away. It may say something about human nature that a surprising
number of Americans—mostly men—wound up joining Indian society rather than
staying in their own. They emulated Indians, married them, were adopted by
them, and on some occasions even fought alongside them. And the opposite almost
never happened: Indians almost never ran away to join white society. Emigration
always seemed to go from the civilized to the tribal, and it left Western thinkers
flummoxed about how to explain such an apparent rejection of their society.
“When an Indian child has been brought up among us, taught our language and
habituated to our customs,” Benjamin Franklin wrote to a friend in 1753, “[yet]
if he goes to see his relations and make one Indian ramble with them, there is
no persuading him ever to return.” On the other hand, Franklin continued, white
captives who were liberated from the Indians were almost impossible to keep at
home: “Tho’ ransomed by their friends, and treated with all imaginable tenderness
to prevail with them to stay among the English, yet in a short time they become
disgusted with our manner of life... and take the first good opportunity of
escaping again into the woods.”—Sebastian Junger, Tribe: On Homecoming
and Belonging
With this
preferred affiliation, we must ask again, which came first: The brutal
vocabulary of the rough n tumble that is assumed to be informed by the
immigrant population, or was it the other way around?
If we accept that
early grappling is less an import than a cross-pollination perhaps weighted
towards the indigenous side of things, we must ask an additional question…
If the causal arrow is
more towards the rougher side of things, how do we wind up with a narrative
that says: “We brought this form of wrasslin’ across the pond with us and
that’s how the sport evolved?”
Shade Tree
Societies
In the Untamed Americas,
the unwanted, the venturesome, and the intrepid immigrated and made what they
could of a wild land and wild ways. Once they established any modicum of
“society” the less intrepid followed the intrepid to assemble where things were
tamed by these “first-comers.”
Then the next wave of
late-comers who were less intrepid than the second wave followed and so on and
so forth—eventually you get to me and you and our 21st century toys
and First World Problems. Let’s face it, even 19th-century Shade
Tree Society lives were far harder than our own.
Many old-timers
considered a frontier town “ruined” when a Shade-Tree Society was formed.
Shade Tree Societies
were common once the more cultivated class and their families arrived in
rough-hewn towns. Towns that were wrested from the wilderness. These towns, rather
than being seen as the intrepid marvels that they were, were seen as veritable shanties
to be improved, hence, Shade Tree Societies.
Trees must be planted along
boardwalks, ordinances to paint and keep up appearances were installed,
unsavory elements [read that as, those who made towns in the first place] must
be discouraged from residence.
Gatherings must have
decorum, and sports must be codified and have governing bodies as is only
proper.
Civilization had
arrived.
The cleaned-up story
of Western expansion, and I say combat arts/sports included, is perhaps best
expressed by author Louis L ’Amour in his epigraph to the novel Bendigo
Shafter.
“To the
hard-shelled men who built with nerve and hand that which the soft-bellied
latecomers call the ‘western myth.’”
Often our explanations
are self-flattering overlays that seek to bury what was built by our
“inferiors.”
[For nothing
but rip-roarin’ to the point Old School tactics, historically accurate and viciously
verified see see our RAW/BlackBox Subscription Service.]
Or our The Rough and Tumble Raconteur available on all platforms.
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