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ALGIC RESEARCHES,
COMPRISING
INQUIRIES RESPECTING THE MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS
OF THE
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.
FIRST SERIES.
INDIAN TALES AND LEGENDS.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
BY HENRY ROWE SCHOOLCRAFT.
Author of a Narrative Journal of Travels to the Sources of the Mississippi;
Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley;
An Expedition to Itasca Lake, &c.
NEW-YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF-STREET.
1839.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839,
By HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT,
In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.
TO
LIEUT. COL. HENRY WHITING,
OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY.
SIR,
The position taken by you in favour of the literary susceptibilities of
the Indian character, and your tasteful and meritorious attempts in
imbodying their manners and customs, in the shape of poetic fiction, has
directed my thoughts to you in submitting my collection of their oral
fictions to the press. Few have given attention to the intellectual
traits and distinctive opinions of these scattered branches of the human
family, without finding the subject interesting and absorbing. But in an
age of multifarious excitement, in which topic after topic, and
invention after invention, have poured in upon us with an almost
overwhelming rapidity, the interest felt on the subject, and the tribes
themselves, and their strong claims to attention, have been thrown into
the background and nearly lost sight of.
It is a pleasing coincidence, that, in addressing one whose feelings and
sentiments, in relation to them, have preserved their equanimity, amid
the din of the intellectual and moral novelties of the day, I can, at
the same time, appeal to the ties of literary sympathy and of personal
friendship. Accept these expressions of my respect, and believe me,
Most truly yours,
HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT.
CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME.
Page
General Considerations 9
Preliminary Observations on the Tales 31
* * * * *
Ojeeg Annung; or, the Summer-maker 57
The Celestial Sisters 67
Tau-Wau-Chee-Hezkaw; or, the White Feather 74
Peboan and Seegwun. An Allegory 84
The Red Lover 87
Iamo; or, the Undying Head 96
Mon-Dau-Min; or, the Origin of Indian Corn 122
Peeta Kway; or, the Tempest 129
Manabozho 134
Bokwewa; or, the Humpback 175
Iena; or, the Magic Bundle 181
Sheem; or, the Forsaken Boy 191
Paup-Puk-Keewiss 200
Iadilla; or, the Origin of the Robin 221
The Enchanted Moccasins 226
The Broken Wing 233
The Three Cranberries. A Fable 238
Paradise opened to the Indians; Pontiac's Tale 239
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
It is proposed by the author to publish the result of his observation on
the mythology, distinctive opinions, and intellectual character of the
aborigines. Materials exist for separate observations on their oral
tales, fictitious and historical; their hieroglyphics, music, and
poetry; and the grammatical structure of the languages, their principles
of combination, and the actual state of their vocabulary. The former
topic has been selected as the commencement of the series. At what time
the remaining portions will appear, will depend upon the interest
manifested by the public in the subject, and the leisure and health
necessary to the examination of a mass of original papers, the
accumulation of nearly twenty years.
The character and peculiarities of the tribes have been studied under
favourable circumstances and new aspects; offering, it is believed, an
insight into their mental constitution, as yet but imperfectly
understood. Hitherto our information has related rather to their
external customs and manners, their physical traits and historical
peculiarities, than to what may be termed the philosophy of the Indian
mind. Such an examination required time and diligence. Much of the
earlier part of it was necessarily devoted to clearing the ground of
inquiry, by acquiring the principles of the languages, and obtaining
data for generalization. This was to be done, too, at remote points of
the Continent, away from all the facilities and encouragements of
literary society, and with the aid of persons profoundly ignorant of the
grammatical principles of the languages they spoke, and incapable of
discriminating the fabulous from the true in the histories they related.
The severe axioms of commerce had, from the first, caused the Indians to
be regarded merely as the medium of a peculiar branch of trade, which
was pursued at great hazards, excited deep animosity in the breasts of
the respective commercial factors, and gave an absorbing interest to all
that took place in the Indian country for two centuries. The
interpretership of the languages became, of necessity, the business of a
class of men who were generally uneducated, and who, imbued strongly
with the feelings and prejudices of their employers, sought no higher
excellence in their profession than to express the common ideas
connected with the transactions of trade. The result was, then as now,
that they comprehended the scope and genius of none of the languages
they spoke. Whoever will submit to the labour of a critical examination
into the subject, will soon become satisfied that the mediums of
communication he is compelled to use are jargons, and not languages. It
is impossible not to attribute to this imperfect state of oral
translation, a considerable share of the errors and misunderstandings
which have characterized our intercourse, political and commercial, with
the tribes. Made sensible of this defect in the mode of communication,
at an early period after my entrance into the Indian territories, my
collections in Indian lexicography have been withheld from my journals
of travel for further opportunity to examine the principles of the
languages themselves. Notwithstanding this impression, and the care
adopted to ensure accuracy, much of my earlier information, derived
through the ordinary channels of interpretation, proved either wholly
fallacious, or required to be tested and amended by a diligent course of
subsequent scrutiny.
Language constituted the initial point of inquiry, but it did not limit
it. It was found necessary to examine the mythology of the tribes as a
means of acquiring an insight into their mode of thinking and reasoning,
the sources of their fears and hopes, and the probable origin of their
opinions and institutions. This branch of inquiry connected itself, in a
manner which could not have been anticipated, with their mode of
conveying instruction, moral, mechanical, and religious, to the young,
through the intervention of traditionary fictitious tales and legends;
and naturally, as the next effort of a barbarous people, to hieroglyphic
signs to convey ideas and sounds. Rude as these characters were,
however, they furnish very striking illustrations of their intellectual
efforts, and exhibit evidences of that desire, implanted in the minds of
all men, to convey to their contemporaries and transmit to posterity the
prominent facts of their history and attainments. Nothing in the whole
inquiry has afforded so ample a clew to their opinions and thoughts, in
all the great departments of life and nature, as their oral imaginative
tales; and it has, therefore, been deemed proper to introduce copious
specimens of these collections from a large number of the tribes,
embracing three of the generic stocks of language.
In adopting an original nominative for the series, the object has been
to convey definite general impressions. The term ALGIC[1] is introduced,
in a generic sense, for all that family of tribes who, about A.D. 1600,
were found spread out, with local exceptions, along the Atlantic,
between Pamlico Sound and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, extending northwest
to the Missinipi of Hudson's Bay, and west to the Mississippi. The
exceptions embrace the Yamassees and Catawbas on the coast, and the
Tuscaroras, Iroquois, Wyandots, and Winnebagoes, and a part of the
Sioux, in the interior, all of whom appear to have been intruders within
the circle, and three of which, namely, the Tuscaroras, Iroquois, and
Wyandots, speak dialects of a generic language, which we shall
denominate the OSTIC.[2] The Winnebagoes are clearly of the Abanic[3]
stock, and the Yamassees and Catawbas--extinct tribes, of whom but
little has been preserved, of the restless and warlike Muscogee race.
The latter, who, together with the Cherokees and Choctaws, fill up the
southern portion of the Union, quite to the banks of the Mississippi,
exist in juxtaposition to, and not as intruders within, the Algic
circle. The Chickasaws are a scion of the Choctaws, as the Seminoles
are of the Muscogees. The Choctaw and Muscogee are, radically, the same
language. The Cherokees do not appear to have put forth any distant
branches, and have come down to our times, as a distinct people. It thus
appears that four mother stocks occupied the entire area of North
America, east of the Mississippi, and lying between the Gulf of Mexico
and Hudson's Bay, with the exception of a single tribe and a portion of
another. The Winnebagoes, who are of the Abanic race, had, however,
merely crossed from the west to the east banks of the Mississippi, but
never proceeded beyond the shores of Green Bay. The Dacotahs had crossed
this stream higher north, and proceeded to the west shores of Superior,
whence they were beat back by the van of the Algics under the name of
Odjibwas.
The object of inquiry is thus defined with general precision, although
it is not intended to limit the inquiry itself to geographical
boundaries. It will be perceived that the territory formerly occupied by
the Algic nations comprehended by far the largest portion of the United
States east of the Mississippi, together with a large area of the
British possessions. They occupied the Atlantic coast as far south as
the river Savannah in Georgia, if Shawnee tradition is entitled to
respect, and as high north as the coast of Labrador, where the tribes of
this stock are succeeded by the Esquimaux. It was into the limits of
these people [Algics] that the Northmen, according to appearances,
pushed their daring voyages previous to the discovery of Columbus;[4]
and it was also among these far-spreading and independent hordes that
the earliest European colonies were planted. Cabot, and Hudson, and
Verrizani made their principal landings among the tribes of this type.
The Pilgrims first set foot ashore in their midst, and they landed near
the spot where, several centuries before, Thorwald Ericson had fallen a
sacrifice to the spirit of Norwegian and Icelandic discovery. If the
country had ever been occupied by Esquimaux, as indicated by
Scandinavian history, there was not an Esquimaux there at that period.
The entire coast of New-England was possessed by the Algics. They
extended north of it to Cape Breton. Cartier found them in the Bay of
Chaleur, the Pilgrims at Plimouth, Hudson at the island of Manhattan,
Barlow and Amidas on the coasts of Virginia. They lined the seaboard;
they appear to have migrated along its borders from southwest to
northeast, and were probably attached to the open coast by the double
facility which it afforded of a spontaneous subsistence, having the
resources of the sea on one side and of the forest on the other. It is
probable that these advantages led them to underrate the interior,
which, being left unguarded, their enemies pushed in from the west, and
seated themselves in Western New-York and Pennsylvania on the sources of
the principal streams. It is evident that the Algics did not penetrate
the interior to a great extent, their camps and towns forming, as it
were, but a hem or cordon along the Atlantic. At the only points where
this edging was penetrated, the discoverers found tribes of the Ostic
stock, a fierce and indomitable race, of a sanguinary character, and
speaking a harsh and guttural language. Such were the Iroquois, who were
encountered on the Upper Hudson and the Mohawk, and the Wyandots found
by Cartier at the islands of Orleans and Hochelaga. Regard these two
leading races of the north in whatever light we may, it is impossible to
overlook the strong points of character in which they differed. Both
were dexterous and cunning woodsmen, excelling in all the forest arts
necessary to their condition, and having much in their manners and
appearance in common. But they spoke a radically different language, and
they differed scarcely less in their distinctive character and policy.
The one was mild and conciliating, the other fierce and domineering.
They were alike in hospitality, in their misconception of virtue, and
their high estimate of bravery. Independence was strikingly
characteristic of both; but the one was satisfied with personal or
tribal freedom, while the other sought to secure it by general
combination. And if the two races be closely compared, there appears to
be grounds for the opinion, that one is descended from a race of
shepherds or pastoral nomades, and the other from a line of adventurers
and warlike plunderers. It may, perhaps, be deemed among the auspicious
circumstances which awaited the Europeans in this hemisphere, that they
planted their earliest colonies among the former race.
In giving this enlarged signification to the terms Algic and Ostic,
reference has been had to the requisitions of a general philological
classification. But it is proper to remark of the Algic tribes, to whom
our attention is to be particularly directed, that they were marked by
peculiarities and shades of language and customs deemed to be quite
striking among themselves. They were separated by large areas of
territory, differing considerably in their climate and productions. They
had forgotten the general points in their history, and each tribe and
sub-tribe was prone to regard itself as independent of all others, if
not the leading or parent tribe. Their languages exhibited diversities
of sound, where there was none whatever in its syntax. Changes of accent
and interchanges of consonants had almost entirely altered the aspect
of words, and obscured their etymology. Some of the derivates were
local, and not understood beyond a few hundred miles, and all the roots
of the language were buried, as we find them at this day, beneath a load
of superadded verbiage. The identity of the stock is, however, to be
readily traced amid these discrepancies. They are assimilated by
peculiar traits of a common physical resemblance; by general coincidence
of manners, customs, and opinions; by the rude rites of a worship of
spirits, everywhere the same; by a few points of general tradition; and
by the peculiar and strongly-marked features of a transpositive
language, identified by its grammar, alike in its primitive words, and
absolutely fixed in the number and mode of modification of its radical
sounds.
One or two additional remarks may be made in relation to the general
traits of the Algic race. It was the chiefs of these nomadic bands who
welcomed the Europeans to the shore. They occupied the Atlantic States.
They everywhere received the strangers with open arms, established
pacific relations with them, and evinced, both by their words and their
policy, the abiding sense they had of the advantages of the intercourse.
They existed so completely in the hunter state as to have no relish for
any other kind of labour, looking with an inward and deep contempt on
the arts of husbandry and mechanics. They had skill enough to construct
their canoes; knew sufficient of the elementary art of weaving to make
bags and nets of bark, and the simple tapestry or mats to cover their
lodges; and, above all, they were expert in fabricating the proper
missiles of war and hunting. They had no smiths, supplying their place
by a very considerable skill in the cleavage of silicious stones. They
knew enough of pottery to form a mixture which would stand the effects
of repeated and sudden heating and cooling, and had probably retained
the first simple and effectual arts of the human race in this branch.
They had but little knowledge of numbers, and none of letters; but found
a substitute for the latter in a system of hieroglyphics of a general
character, but quite exact in their mode of application, and absolutely
fixed in the elements. They were formal, and inclined to stateliness in
their councils and public intercourse, and very acute and expert in the
arrangement and discussion of minor matters, but failed in comprehensive
views, deep-reaching foresight, and powers of generalization. Hence they
were liable to be called cunning rather than wise. They were,
emphatically, men of impulse, capable of extraordinary exertions on the
instant, but could not endure the tension, mental and physical, of
long-continued exertions. Action appeared to be always rather the
consequence of nervous, than of intellectual excitement. Above all, they
were characterized by habits of sloth, which led them utterly to despise
the value of time; and this has appeared so constant a trait, under
every vicissitude of their history, that it may be regarded as the
probable effect of a luxurious effeminacy, produced upon the race under
a climate more adverse to personal activity. It should be borne in mind,
that the character first drawn of the Algic race is essentially that
which has been attributed to the whole of the North American tribes,
although it is not minutely applicable to some of the interior nations.
The first impressions made upon the strangers from the Old World, sank
deep; and there was, naturally, but little disposition to re-examine the
justice of the conclusions thus formed. These people were, from the
outset, regarded as of eastern origin; and, if nothing before adverted
to had been suited to give colouring to the idea, it would have
resulted, almost as a matter of course, from their having, in all their
tribes and every band of them, a class of Magii, who affected to exert
the arts of magic, offered sacrifices to idolatrous things, and were
consulted as oracles both in peace and war. These pseudo priests were
called _Powows_ by the English, _Jongleurs_ by the French, and by
various other terms by themselves and by others; but their office and
general character were identical. They upheld a spurious worship, and
supported it by all sorts of trick and deception. There was no regular
succession in this priesthood, so far as is known; but the office, like
that of the war-captain, was generally assumed and exercised by men of
more than ordinary acuteness and cunning. In other words, it was
conferred by the election of opinion, but not of votes.
The Algics entered the present limits of the United States from the
southwest. They appear to have crossed the Mississippi at the point
where the heavy formations of boulder and gravel, southwest of the
Alleghanies, are heaved up close along its banks. They were followed, at
distinct eras, by the Ostic, the Muskogee, and the Tsallanic[5] hordes,
by the first of whom they were driven, scattered, and harassed, and
several of the tribes not only conquered, but exterminated. The
Iroquois, who, in their sixfold dialects, constitute the type of the
Ostics, appear to have migrated up the Valley of the Ohio, which they
occupied and named; and, taking a most commanding and central position
in Western New-York, interposed themselves between the New-England and
the Algonquin sub-types, and thus cut off their communication with each
other. This separation was complete. They pushed their conquests
successfully down the Hudson, the Delaware, the Susquehanna, and the St.
Lawrence, and westward up the great lakes. The Wyandots, an Ostic tribe,
who, at the discovery of the St. Lawrence by the French, were posted as
low down as the island of Orleans, formed an alliance with the French
and with the Algonquins north of that stream. This exposed them to
dissension with their warlike and jealous relatives the Iroquois, and
led to their expulsion into the region of the upper lakes, even to the
farther shores of Lake Superior. They were, however, supported by all
the influence of the French, and by the whole of the confederate Algic
tribes, and finally fixed themselves upon the Straits of Detroit, where
they were privileged with a high political power, as keepers of the
great council fire, and enjoyed much respect among the Western tribes
through the whole of the eighteenth century. It was this tribe whom it
required most address to bring over, in the combined struggle which the
lake tribes made for independence under the noted Algic leader Pontiac,
between 1759 and 1764.
History first takes notice of the Algics in Virginia, and some parts of
the Carolinas and Georgia. The Powhattanic tribes were a clearly-marked
scion of this stock. They occupied all the streams of Virginia and
Maryland flowing into the Ocean or into Chesapeake Bay. They were ever
prone to divide and assume new names, which were generally taken from
some prominent or characteristic feature in the geography or natural
productions of the country. The farther they wandered, the more striking
were their diversities, and the more obscure became every link by which
identity is traced. Under the name of Lenawpees and of Mohegans, they
extended along the seashore through the present limits of Delaware,
Pennsylvania, New-Jersey, and New-York, and various petty independent
tribes of the same race swept round the whole coast of New-England, and
the British provinces beyond it, to Cape Breton and the Gulf of St.
Lawrence. The traditions of all these tribes pointed southwest as the
place of their origin, and it was there that they located the residence
of their God. The Odjibwas and Algonquins proper, and their numerous
progeny of tribes in the west and northwest, date their origin in the
east, and to this day call the north and northwest winds the _home
wind_,[6] indicating, probably, that it blows back on the track of
their migration. Whether this be considered in a local or general sense,
it is equally interesting of a people, whose original terms are simple
in meaning, and constitute, as it were, so many links in the
investigation of their history. The whole of these tribes, interior and
Atlantic, spoke branches of one radical language. Scattered as they were
in geographical position, and marked by peculiarities of language and
history, they are yet readily recognised as descendants from a common
stock. Wherever the process of philological analysis is applied, the
Algic roots are found. The tribes coincide also in their general
characteristics, mental and physical. They employed the same
hieroglyphic signs to express names and events; possessed the same
simple, and, in some respects, childlike attainments in music and
poetry, and brought with them to this Continent, and extensively
propagated, a mythology, the strong belief in which furnishes the best
clew to their hopes and fears, and lies at the foundation of the Indian
character. Simple although their music is, there is something strikingly
characteristic in it. Their Pib-e-gwun is but another name for the
Arcadian pipe; but they did not appropriate the same music to love and
religion. The latter was of a totally different, and of a louder and
harsher kind. Their hieroglyphics, bearing quite a resemblance to the
Egyptian, express a series of whole images, without adjuncts, and stand
as general memoranda to help the recollection, and to be interpreted
according to the mythology, customs, and arts of the people. There is
nothing whatever in this system analogous to the Runic character. Nor
does there appear to be, in either language or religion, anything
approximating either to the Scandinavian or to the Hindoo races. With a
language of a strongly Semitic cast, they appear to have retained
leading principles of syntax where the lexicography itself has changed;
and while they fell into a multiplicity of bands from the most common
causes, they do not appear to have advanced an iota in their original
stock of knowledge, warlike arts, or political tact, but rather fell
back. The ancient bow and arrow, javelin, and earth kettle, remained
precisely the same things in their hands. And whatever mechanical skill
they had in architecture, weaving, or any other art, dwindled to a mere
knowledge of erecting a wigwam, and weaving nets and garters. At least,
if they possessed superior attainments in the Southern portions of this
Continent, where they certainly dwelt, these were lost amid the more
stern vicissitudes and frigid climate of the North. And this was
perfectly natural. Of what use were these arts to a comparatively
sparse population, who occupied vast regions, and lived, very well, by
hunting the flesh and wearing the skins of animals? To such men a mere
subsistence was happiness, and the killing of a few men in war glory. It
may be doubted whether the very fact of the immensity of an unoccupied
country, spread out before a civilized or half civilized people, with
all its allurements of wild game and personal independence, would not be
sufficient, in the lapse of a few centuries, to throw them back into a
complete state of barbarism.
But we will not anticipate the results of research, where the object is
merely to direct attention to the interest of the inquiry itself. To
discover and fix the comprehensive points of their national resemblance,
and the concurring circumstances of their history and traditions; to
point out the affinities of their languages, and to unveil the
principles of their mythology, are conceived to be essential
prerequisites to the formation of right notions of their probable origin
and mental peculiarities. And it is obvious that the true period for
this inquiry must be limited to the actual existence of the tribes
themselves. Every year is diminishing their numbers and adding to the
obscurity of their traditions. Many of the tribes and languages are
already extinct, and we can allude to at least one of the still existing
smaller tribes who have lost the use of their vernacular tongue and
adopted the English.[7] Distinct from every benevolent consideration,
weighty as these are, it is exceedingly desirable that the record of
facts, from which they are to be judged, should be completed as early as
possible. It is conceived that, in rescuing their oral tales and
fictitious legends, an important link in the chain has been supplied.
But it is believed that still higher testimony remains. History,
philosophy, and poetry regard with deep interest these recorded and
accumulating materials on the character and origin of races of men, who
are associated with the geographical nomenclature of the country, and to
whom at least, it may be assumed, posterity will render poetic justice.
But revelation has a deeper stake in the question, and it is one
calculated to infuse new energy in the cause of benevolence, and awaken
fresh ardour in the heart of piety.
It is not the purpose of these remarks to excite the expectation that a
long residence in the Indian country, and official intercourse with the
tribes, have given the author such access to the Indian mind, or enabled
him to push his inquiries so far into their former history and mental
characteristics, as to clear up fully the obscurities referred to; but
the hope is indulged that data have been obtained of a new and authentic
character, which will prove important in any future researches on these
topics.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Derived from the words Alleghany and Atlantic, in reference to the
race of Indians anciently located in this geographical area, but who, as
expressed in the text, had extended themselves, at the end of the 15th
century, far towards the north and west.
[2] From the Algic Oshtegwon, a head, &c.
[3] Denoting occidental. From Kabeyun the west--and embracing the tribes
who, at the commencement of 1800, were located west of the Mississippi.
The Sioux, Otoes, Omahaws, Osages, and Quapaws, constitute the leading
members of this group.
[4] For some remarks on this question, see Am. Biblical Repository,
second series, No. 2, April, 1839.
[5] From _Tsallakee_--the name by which, according to David Brown, the
Cherokees call themselves.
[6] Keewaydin.
[7] The Brothertons.
INDIAN TALES AND LEGENDS,
MYTHOLOGIC AND ALLEGORIC.
RENDERED FROM THE ORAL TRADITIONS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS BY
COMPETENT INTERPRETERS,
AND WRITTEN OUT
FROM THE ORIGINAL NOTES.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE TALES.
The following tales are published as specimens of an oral imaginative
lore existing among the North American aborigines. In the long period of
time in which these tribes have been subjects of observation, we are not
aware that powers of this kind have been attributed to them. And it may
be asked, Why the discovery of this peculiar trait in their intellectual
character has not been made until the first quarter of the nineteenth
century? The force of the query is acknowledged; and, in asserting the
claim for them, the writer of these pages proposes first to offer to the
public some proofs of the correctness of his own conclusions on this
point.
The era of the discovery was the era of maritime adventure. The master
spirits of those times were men of shrewd, keen sense and adventurous
tempers, who wished to get ahead in the world, and relied for their
success, rather upon the compass and sword, than upon their pens. It was
the age of action and not of research. Least of all, had they the means
or the inclination to inquire into the mental capacities of fierce and
warlike races of hunters and warriors, who claimed to be lords of the
soil, and actually exterminated the first settlement made in St. Domingo
and in Virginia. They set out from Europe with a lamentable want of true
information respecting them, and were disappointed in not finding them
wild animals on two legs. Long after the discovery, it was debated
whether any faith ought to be kept with them; and the chief point of
inquiry was, not whether they had any right to the soil, but how they
could be turned to the best account in the way of trade and merchandise.
The Spaniards, who occupy the foreground in the career of discovery,
began by selling the Indian and compelling him to feudal servitude, and
would probably have driven as profitable a traffic as was subsequently
carried on with the Africans, had it not soon appeared that the Indian
was a lazy man, and not a productive labourer. He sank under the
overwhelming idea of hopeless servitude, lingered a few years an
unprofitable miner, and died. The project was therefore relinquished,
not because of the awakened sensibilities of the conquerors, but because
it was (in the mercantile acceptation of the term) a bad business. The
history of the manners, customs, and languages of the ancient nations,
and particularly of the oriental branches of the human family, from whom
they were thought to have descended, was deeply in the dark. Comparative
philology was unknown, and the spirit of critical and historical acumen,
which has evinced itself in Germany in modern days, and is rapidly
extending itself over the world, still slumbered under the intellectual
darkness which spellbound the human mind after the overthrow of Greece
and Rome, and the dispersion of the Jews. To expect, therefore, that the
hardy commanders of exploring voyages should have, at the opening of the
sixteenth century, entered into any minute inquiries of the kind
referred to, would be to expect that the human mind should reverse its
ordinary mode of operation. These men do not appear to have troubled
themselves with the inquiry whether the Indians _had_ a history:
certainly they took no pains to put on record facts in the department of
inquiry to which our attention is now directed. This view results from
an attentive examination of the earlier voyages and histories of
adventure in this hemisphere, in which is exhibited the coldest air of
mercantile calculation. The journals themselves are mere logbooks, rigid
and dry in their details, destitute of any powers of reflection upon the
events they narrate, and unrelieved by exact research, tact of
observation, or high-souled sentiment.
History is required to pass a less censorious judgment on the moral
character of those of the colonists who settled north of the latitudes
of the West Indies. The great Anglo-Saxon stock, which spread along the
shores of the North Atlantic, carried with it notions of liberty and
justice, which shielded the aboriginal tribes from the curse of slavery.
They treated them as having a just right to the occupancy of the soil,
and formed treaties with them. They acknowledged, by these acts, their
existence as independent political communities, and maintained, in their
fullest extent, the doctrine of political faith and responsibility. Some
of the colonies went farther, and early directed their attention to
their improvement and conversion to Christianity. The two powers were,
however, placed in circumstances adverse to the prosperous and
contemporaneous growth of both, while they occupied a territory over
which there was a disputed sovereignty. It must needs have happened,
that the party which increased the fastest in numbers, wanted most land,
and had most knowledge (to say nothing of the influence of temperance
and virtue), should triumph, and those who failed in these requisites,
decline. It is believed that this is the true cause why the
transplanted European race overspread the land, and the Indians were
driven before them. And that the result is by no means owing to a proper
want of sympathy for the latter, or of exertions both to better their
condition and avert their fate. The Indians could not, however, be made
to understand this. They did not look to causes, but reasoned wholly
from effects. They saw the white race occupying the prominent harbours,
pushing up the navigable streams, spreading over the uplands, and
multiplying in numbers "like sands on the seashore." And they attributed
to hostile purpose, breach of faith, and cupidity, what was, to a very
great extent, owing to their own idle habits, vices, and
short-sightedness. The two races soon came to measure swords; and this
contest extended, with short periods of intervening peace, from about
A.D. 1600 to the close of 1814. The Indians staked stratagem and the
geographical obstacles of a vast unknown wilderness, against knowledge,
resources, and discipline. Their policy was to fly when pursued, and
pursue when relieved from pursuit; to avoid field fights, and carry on a
most harassing war of detail. By avoiding concentration in camps, and
occupying a comparatively large area of country, they have compelled
their assailants, at all times, to employ a force entirely
disproportioned to that required to cope with the same number of
civilized troops. The result of this long-continued, and often renewed
contest for supremacy, it is only necessary to advert to. It has been
anything but favourable to the production of right feelings and a
reciprocal knowledge of real character on both sides. The Indians could
never be made to appreciate the offers of education and Christianity by
one portion of the community, while others, were arrayed against them in
arms. Their idea of government was, after all, the Eastern notion of a
unity or despotism, in which everything emanates from the governing
power, and is responsible to it. Nor has their flitting and feverish
position on the frontiers been auspicious to the acquisition of a true
knowledge of their character, particularly in those things which have
relation to the Indian mind, their opinions on abstract subjects, their
mythology, and other kindred topics. Owing to illiterate interpreters
and dishonest men, the parties have never more than half understood each
other. Distrust and misapprehension have existed by the century
together. And it is, therefore, no cause for astonishment, that the
whole period of our contemporaneous history should be filled up with so
many negotiations and cessions, wars and treaties.
These remarks are offered to indicate, that the several periods of our
colonial and confederate history, and wars, were unfavourable to the
acquisition of that species of information respecting their mental
capacities and social institutions, of which it is our purpose to speak.
The whole tendency of our intercourse with them has been, to demonstrate
rather the physical than moral capabilities of the Indian, his
expertness in war, his skill, stratagem, powers of endurance, and
contempt of suffering. Indian fortitude has been applauded at the stake,
and Indian kindness and generosity acknowledged in the wigwam, and in
the mazes of the wilderness. Admiration had been excited by his noble
sentiments of independence and exaltation above personal fear. Above
all, perhaps, had he been accredited for intellect in his acuteness in
negotiation and the simple force of his oratory. But the existence of an
intellectual invention had never been traced, so far as it is known, to
the amusements of his domestic fireside; nor could it well have been
conjectured to occupy so wide a field for its display in legendary tales
and fables.
My attention was first arrested by the fact of the existence of such
tales among the Odjibwa nation inhabiting the region about Lake Superior
in 1822. Two years previous, I had gone out in that quarter as one of
the members of a corps of observation, on an exploratory expedition to
the head waters of the Mississippi. The large area of territory which
it was found this tribe occupied, together with their number and warlike
character, induced the department of war to extend a military post to
the Falls or _Sault_ of St. Mary's, near the outlet of Lake Superior, in
the year above named. I accompanied this force, and assumed, at the same
time, an official relation to this tribe, as Agent of Indian Affairs,
which led me to inquire into their distinctive history, language, and
characteristic traits. It was found that they possessed a story-telling
faculty, and I wrote down from their narration a number of these
fictitious tales;[8] some of which were amusing merely, others were
manifestly intended to convey mythologic or allegoric information. The
boundaries between truth and fiction are but feebly defined among the
aborigines of this Continent, and it was found in this instance, that
the individuals of the tribe who related the tales were also the
depositories of their historical traditions, such as they were; and
these narrators wove the few and scattered incidents and landmarks of
their history into the web and woof of their wildest tales. I
immediately announced this interesting discovery in their moral
character to a few friends and correspondents, who were alike interested
in the matter; and a new zest was thus given to the inquiry, and the
field of observation greatly extended. The result was the finding of
similar tales among all the northwestern tribes whose traditions were
investigated. They were also found among some of the tribes west of the
Mississippi, and the present state of the inquiry demonstrates that this
species of oral lore is common to the Algic, the Ostic, and some tribes
of the Abanic stock. It is conjectured to exist among the rather
extended branches of the Muskogee, and also the Cherokee, although no
actual proof is possessed. And it becomes a question of interest to
ascertain how far a similar trait can be traced among the North American
tribes, and where the exceptions and limitations are to be found. To
find a trait which must hereafter be deemed characteristic of the mental
habits of these tribes, so diffused, furnishes a strong motive for
extending inquiries farther and wider. It may be asked whether the South
American aborigines possessed or still possess, this point of
intellectual affinity with the tribes of the North. Did Manco Capac and
Montezuma employ this means to strengthen political power, inspire
courage, or console themselves under misfortune? Do the ice-bound and
impoverished natives of the Arctic circle draw inspiration in their
cruel vicissitudes from a similar intellectual source? What sound
deductions can be drawn from a comparison of Eastern with Western fable,
as thus developed? And, finally, is this propensity connected, in other
of the American stock tribes, with a hieroglyphic system of notation, as
we find it in the Algic, which will bear any useful comparison with the
phonetic system of Egypt, the Runic of Iceland and Norway, or with any
other mode of perpetuating the knowledge of events or things known to
the human race?
A few remarks may be added respecting the character of the tales now
submitted to inspection. And the first is, that they appear to be of a
homogeneous and vernacular origin. There are distinctive tribal traits,
but the general features coincide. The ideas and incidents do not appear
to be borrowed or unnatural. The situations and circumstances are such
as are common to the people. The language and phraseology are of the
most simple kind. Few adjectives are used, and few comparisons resorted
to. The style of narration, the cast of invention, the theory of
thinking, are eminently peculiar to a people who wander about in woods
and plains, who encounter wild beasts, believe in demons, and are
subject to the vicissitudes of the seasons. The tales refer themselves
to a people who are polytheists; not believers in one God or Great
Spirit, but of thousands of spirits; a people who live in fear, who
wander in want, and who die in misery. The machinery of spirits and
necromancy, one of the most ancient and prevalent errors of the human
race, supplies the framework of these fictitious creations. Language to
carry out the conceptions might seem to be wanting, but here the
narrator finds a ready resource in the use of metaphor, the doctrine of
metamorphosis, and the personification of inanimate objects; for the
latter of which, the grammar of the language has a peculiar adaptation.
Deficiencies of the vocabulary are thus supplied, life and action are
imparted to the whole material creation, and every purpose of
description is answered. The belief of the narrators and listeners in
every wild and improbable thing told, helps wonderfully, in the
original, in joining the sequence of parts together. Nothing is too
capacious for Indian belief. Almost every declaration is a prophecy, and
every tale a creed. He believes that the whole visible and invisible
creation is animated with various orders of malignant or benign spirits,
who preside over the daily affairs and over the final destinies of men.
He believes that these spirits must be conciliated by sacrifices, and a
series of fasts and feasts either follow or precede these rites, that by
the one they may be rendered acceptable, and by the other, his gratitude
may be shown. This constitutes the groundwork of the Algic religion: but
superstition has ingrafted upon the original stock, till the growth is a
upas of giant size, bearing the bitter fruits of demonology, witchcraft,
and necromancy. To make the matter worse, these tribes believe that
animals of the lowest, as well as highest class in the chain of
creation, are alike endowed with reasoning powers and faculties. And as
a natural conclusion, they endow birds, and bears, and all other animals
with souls, which, they believe, will be encountered in other shapes in
another state of existence. So far the advantages of actual belief come
in aid of their fictitious creations, and this is the true cause why so
much importance is attached to the flight and appearance of particular
birds, who, being privileged to ascend in the air, are supposed by them
to be conversant with the wishes, or to act in obedience to the mandates
of the spirits: and the circumstance of this belief deserves to be borne
in mind in the perusal of their tales, as it will be found that the
words put into the mouths of the actors express the actual opinions of
the natives on life, death, and immortality, topics which have
heretofore been impenetrably veiled.
The value of these traditionary stories appeared to depend, very much,
upon their being left, as nearly as possible, in their original forms of
thought and expression. In the original there is no attempt at ornament.
Great attention is paid, in the narration, to repeating the
conversations and speeches, and imitating the very tone and gesture of
the actors. This is sometimes indulged at the risk of tautology. Moral
point has been given to no tale which does not, in the original, justify
it; and it is one of the unlooked-for features connected with the
subject, that so considerable a proportion of them possess this trait.
It is due to myself, and to those who have aided me in the collection
and translation of the materials, to say, that the advantages enjoyed in
this respect have been of the most favourable character. The whole
examination, extending, with intervals, through a period of seventeen
years, has been conducted not only with the aid that a public station,
as an executive officer for the tribes, has supplied, but with the
superadded intelligence and skill in the languages existing within the
range of my domestic and affiliated circle.
Of the antiquity of the tales, the surest external evidence may probably
be drawn from the lexicography. In a language in which the actor and
the object are riveted, so to speak, by transitive inflections, it must
needs happen that the history of its names for objects, whether
preserved orally or by letters, is, in fact, the history of the
introduction of the objects named, and this fixes eras in the
enlargement of the vocabulary. Although it is true, that without letters
these eras cannot be accurately fixed, yet valuable inferences may be
drawn from an examination of this branch of the inquiry. Words are like
coins, and may, like them, be examined to illustrate history. It has
been found that those of the highest antiquity are simple and brief.
Most of the primitive nouns are monosyllabic, and denote but a single
object or idea. A less number are dissyllabic; few exceed this; and it
may be questioned, from the present state of the examination, whether
there is a single primitive trisyllable. The primitives become
polysyllabic by adding an inflection indicating the presence or absence
of vitality (which is the succedaneum for gender), and a farther
inflection to denote number. They also admit of adjective terminations.
Pronouns are denoted by particles prefixed or suffixed. The genius of
the language is accumulative, and tends rather to add syllables or
letters, making farther distinctions in objects already before the mind,
than to introduce new words. A simple word is thus oftentimes converted
into a descriptive phrase, at once formidable to the eye and the ear.
And it is only by dissecting such compounds that the radix can be
attained.