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Photo by Heidi Zemach Johnsonburg volunteer Brandon Parana lights the fuse of the Swivel gun, as Brian Reed, with the NPS Fort Necessity National Battlefield State Park shouts commands.
By Heidi Zemach
Special to The Record
Weekend visitors to the Clarion River’s Irwin Run Canoe Launch area might have come across the unusual sight of costumed male French fur traders armed with a musket and a brass Swivel Gun or a Native American woman cooking over a fire pit.
The Forest Service, partnering with the National Park Service, held a Living History encampment focusing on the French and Indian War period of 1750-1760 in conjunction with the Clarion River Archeology Study Program and Field School.
Further along the river, at Millstone, local high school and college students have been excavating artifacts, including native fire pits, flints from tool-making, and pottery dating back 1,000 years. The historic encampment brought what people might have encountered during the 1700s to life while introducing the students to the foods, weapons and even children’s games that were played along the Clarion River during that period.
Herb Clevenger, visitor service information assistant for the Forest Service Marienville District, was handsomely dressed in French style linen shirt, stockings, breeches and Native-American moccasins. Clevenger carried a knife in a porcupine quill case around his neck, and a woven birch fiber pouch. The French fur traders from Canada, who often traded with natives of the area for beaver furs, frequently married native women, and easily adopted their lifestyle and dress, according to Clevenger. They knew that the French were more interested in trade and enterprise, rather than in moving in and taking over their real estate — as the English were doing.
Prior to the 1754 French Indian War, the area along the Clarion River was populated with Shawnee, Seneca, Delaware, and migrating Tuscarawas from South Carolina. But the French, along with Canada controlled the lucrative beaver trade, were also moving into the area. Hoping to prevent the English from moving into the Ohio River Valley and taking over with superior trade goods, the French recruited the Shawnee and Delaware tribes to help them defend the area. The Seneca, meanwhile, allied themselves with the English.
French and English musket rifles changed native culture from bow and arrow hunting and warfare, and hand-to-hand combat, to black power and musket-style of warfare and hunting. The Europeans also brought in Swivel Guns, small brass, portable, cannon-like contraptions, which, at 90 pounds, could be carried in canoes, as they had earlier been used, and mounted on the gunwales of Naval ships.
Clevenger, and National Parks Service re-enactor Brian Reed, from Fort Necessity National Battlefield, loaded the Swivel Gun, which pointed out toward the river, as Johnsonburg FS volunteer Brandon Parana lit the fuse. The brass gun went off with much smoke and a deafening hollow boom. The French or the English would carry these small swivel guns, load them in their canoes, and then set them up on an upturned stump facing the river, Clevenger explained.
“With this small gun, we can pretty much control what comes up and down the Clarion River,” Clevenger said. “If you’re stepping on somebody’s business today, we take them to court— but then, there were other means,” he added.
The 1750s were an important part of American History because George Washington, at age 22, began his military career and led the English in the opening battle of the French Indian War at Fort Necessity National Battlefields in southwest Pennsylvania.
Carol Fortunato of Mill Run, located near Fort Necessity, was wearing native dress typical of the 1750s era, as she cooked up venison soup, game hen, cornbread, wild rice, and other delicacies for the visiting archeology students Saturday. Fortunato also taught the young visitors to play a bowl game, played by women, but also used by native men for gambling, along with a dart game made with turkey feathers, corn cobs and grape-vine hoops stuck out in the field. She also demonstrated a battle door game, similar to badminton, that is played with rackets made of sticks and birdies made from corn husks and turkey feathers. Some of the extremely physical games, like lacrosse, were a passion with the Native Americans, just as football is today, according to Fortunato.
Fortunato’s great-grandfather was Cherokee, and lived near the reservation in Ashville as Carol was growing up. Although her family was a typical all-American type family with little exposure to their native heritage, Fortunato became captivated by the Cherokee culture when she visited the reservation with her grandfather. Later, Fortunato went to college and learned about native traditions, receiving a degree in Social and Behavioral Science.
While for her regular day job she is a weigh-master, (weighing truck loads). Fortunato’s independent research has made her an expert on native children’s games. She is frequently called upon to teach these games for summer heritage festivals or historical reenactments.
Sadly, American history usually doesn’t reflect the human side of Native American culture, such as the importance of families, crafts, games, and food gathering-which took up 95 percent of their time, Fortunato said.
Native warriors, for example, frequently frustrated the French and English by insisting that they return home to help their families or tribes to hunt and gather food, or to collect and boil their maple sugar.
“I like to make people aware that there is another side,” she said. “It’s not all murder, and killing. You have to break that barrier…and I think it’s important to show that every culture has families, and likes to have fun.”
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