At present but a small tribe, numbering six or 800, the remnant of a
once numerous and warlike tribe. They are residing within the state of
Illinois, near the south end of Lake Michigan, and living in a poor and
miserable condition, although they have one of the finest countries in
the world. They have been reduced in numbers by whiskey and small-pox,
and the game being destroyed in their country, and having little
industry to work, they are exceedingly poor and dependent. In fact,
there is very little inducement for them to build houses and cultivate
their farms, for they own so large and so fine a tract of country,
which is now completely surrounded by civilized settlements, that they
know, from experience, they will soon be obliged to sell out their
country for a trifle, and move to the West. This system of moving has
already commenced with them, and a considerable party have located on a
tract of lands offered to them on the West bank of the Missouri river,
a little north of Fort Leavenworth.[13]
The Kickapoos have long lived in alliance with the Sacs and Foxes, and
speak a language so similar that they seem almost to be of one family.
The present chief of this tribe, whose name is _Kee-an-ne-kuk_ (the
foremost man, +plate+ 185), usually called the _Shawnee Prophet_, is
a very shrewd and talented man. When he sat for his portrait, he took
his attitude as seen in the picture, which was that of prayer. And I
soon learned that he was a very devoted Christian, regularly holding
meetings in his tribe, on the sabbath, preaching to them and exhorting
them to a belief in the Christian religion, and to an abandonment of
the fatal habit of whiskey-drinking, which he strenuously represented
as the bane that was to destroy them all, if they did not entirely
cease to use it. I went on the sabbath, to hear this eloquent man
preach, when he had his people assembled in the woods; and although I
could not understand his language, I was surprised and pleased with the
natural ease and emphasis, and gesticulation, which carried their own
evidence of the eloquence of his sermon.
I was singularly struck with the noble efforts of this champion of
the mere remnant of a poisoned race, so strenuously labouring to
rescue the remainder of his people from the deadly bane that has been
brought amongst them by enlightened Christians. How far the efforts
of this zealous man have succeeded in christianizing, I cannot tell,
but it is quite certain that his exemplary and constant endeavours
have completely abolished the practice of drinking whiskey in his
tribe; which alone is a very praiseworthy achievement, and the first
and indispensable step towards all other improvements. I was some time
amongst these people, and was exceedingly pleased, and surprised also,
to witness their sobriety, and their peaceable conduct; not having
seen an instance of drunkenness, or seen or heard of any use made of
spirituous liquors whilst I was amongst the tribe.
_Ah-ton-we-tuck_ (the cock turkey, +plate+ 186), is another Kickapoo
of some distinction, and a disciple of the Prophet; in the attitude of
prayer also, which he is reading off from characters cut upon a stick
that he holds in his hands. It was told to me in the tribe by the
Traders (though I am afraid to vouch for the whole truth of it), that
while a Methodist preacher was soliciting him for permission to preach
in his village, the Prophet refused him the privilege, but secretly
took him aside and supported him until he learned from him his creed,
and his system of teaching it to others; when he discharged him, and
commenced preaching amongst his people himself; pretending to have
had an interview with some superhuman mission, or inspired personage;
ingeniously resolving, that if there was any honour or emolument, or
influence to be gained by the promulgation of it, he might as well
have it as another person; and with this view he commenced preaching
and instituted a prayer, which he ingeniously carved on a maple-stick
of an inch and a half in breadth, in characters somewhat resembling
Chinese letters. These sticks, with the prayers on them, he has
introduced into every family of the tribe, and into the hands of every
individual; and as he has necessarily the manufacturing of them all, he
sells them at his own price; and has thus added lucre to fame, and in
two essential and effective ways, augmented his influence in his tribe.
Every man, woman and child in the tribe, so far as I saw them, were in
the habit of saying their prayer from this stick when going to bed at
night, and also when rising in the morning; which was invariably done
by placing the fore-finger of the right hand under the upper character,
until they repeat a sentence or two, which it suggests to them; and
then slipping it under the next, and the next, and so on, to the bottom
of the stick, which altogether required about ten minutes, as it was
sung over in a sort of a chaunt, to the end.
[Illustration: 185 186]
[Illustration: 187 188]
Many people have called all this an ingenious piece of hypocrisy on
the part of the Prophet, and whether it be so or not, I cannot decide;
yet one thing I can vouch to be true, that whether his motives and
his life be as pure as he pretends or not, his example has done much
towards correcting the habits of his people, and has effectually turned
their attention from the destructive habits of dissipation and vice, to
temperance and industry, in the pursuits of agriculture and the arts.
The world may still be unwilling to allow him much credit for this, but
I am ready to award him a great deal, who can by his influence thus far
arrest the miseries of dissipation and the horrid deformities of vice,
in the descending prospects of a nation who have so long had, and still
have, the white-skin teachers of vices and dissipation amongst them.
Besides these two chiefs, I have also painted _Ma-shee-na_ (the elk’s
horn) _Ke-chim-qua_ (the big bear), warriors, and _Ah-tee-wot-o-mee_,
and _She-nah-wee_, women of the same tribe, whose portraits are in the
Gallery.