Iroquois Historian Writes of an Ancient Giant Race Born from the "Great Spirit"

Iroquois Historian Writes of an Ancient Giant Race Born from the "Great Spirit"

Stonish Giants, engraving by David Cusick from Sketches of the Ancient History of the Six Nations, 1828

     David Cusick, David Cusick was born around 1780, probably on the Oneida reservation in upstate New York. David Cusick’s Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations (1828). This is an early (if not the first) account of Native American history and myth, written and published in English by an Indian. Cusick wrote that among the legends of the ancient people of the stock, there was a powerful tribe called Ronnongwetowanca. They were giants, and had a "considerable habitation." When the Great Spirit made the people, some of them became giants. After a time, and having endured the outrages of these giants, it is said that the people banded together, and through the final force of about 800 warriors, successfully annihilated the abhorrent Ronnongwetowanca. After that, it was said that there were no giants anywhere. This was supposed to have happened around 2,500 winters before Columbus discovered America, around 1000 BC.

Native American Legends of an Ancient Race of Giants