Long, long ago, before Columbus found America, the Indians lived where
we live now, There were no cities or houses then, such as we have.
There were no farms or gardens or fences or roads. A large part of the
country was covered with trees. The rest was great grass plains and
swamps.
The Indians built their houses where they pleased, beside the rivers or
near the mountains or on the wide plains. What sort of houses did they
live in? They lived in tents made of skins. The Indian tents were
called wigwams.
[Illustration: An Indian Wigwam.]
There were many tribes of Indians. Each tribe had a great many men and
women and children. Some of the tribes lived in the north, some in the
south, some near the sea. In nearly every part of the country there
were Indian tribes. Often some of the tribes went to war with other
tribes. They fought with bows and arrows and tomahawks. The tomahawk
was a sort of hatchet. The head of it was made of a stone with a sharp
edge.
[Illustration: Indian Bow and Arrows.]
[Illustration: Tomahawks.]
The Indians were very cruel in war. When they killed a man, they cut
the skin and hair off the top of his head. This was called scalping.
When about to go to war, they painted their faces to make themselves
look very fierce. They also wore a band around their heads, and in
these they stuck some long feathers.
There are Indians still in some parts of our country, and many of them
live in wigwams. They sleep in these wigwams, but they cook their food
outside. They have no coal or stoves or fire-places. Instead of coal
they use wood and dried grass. They make their fire on the ground.
Their food is very simple. They have meat and fish and berries, and
cakes made of corn. The meat they eat is the flesh of the deer and
other wild animals.
[Illustration: An Indian Chief.]
The Indians are of a copper color. They are sometimes called "Red
Men." They have high cheek bones, black eyes, and straight black hair.
The Indian men spend their time hunting and fishing. They do not have
bows and arrows now. They shoot with guns as white men do.
The Indian women do all the work. They cook the food, make the clothes,
and plant the corn. They also put up the wigwams and take them down.
For the Indians do not live always in the same place, but often move
about.
An Indian woman is called a squaw, and an Indian baby is called a
pa-poose'. You would wonder if you saw the Indian baby's cradle. It
is a bag made of skin fixed to a flat board. It is just large enough
for baby to fit in. The little papoose is wrapped up warm and put into
the bag. The mother carries the baby on her back in this cradle.
Often she hangs the cradle up on a branch of a tree. Then the little
red baby swings while its mother is cooking or working in the field.
[Illustration: An Indian Baby.]
The men, women, and children wear clothes made of skin. They often
wear blankets as shawls are worn by white people. Their shoes are made
of deerskin and have no soles. They are called moccasins.
[Illustration: Moccasins.]
In many places the Indians now have schools, and the little Indian boys
and girls go to school every day. Our government has sent teachers to
teach them. They learn to read and write and count.
But the Indian boys and girls learn a great many things at home. Their
fathers tell them about birds and beasts and trees and rivers. And
they teach the boys to hunt and fish, and train them up to be brave in
war.
The Indian boys and girls have a great many games. The boys play with
bows and arrows. They play "blindman's buff," and "hunt the slipper,"
and handball and football. The girls take part in the football. One
of their games is the "stick and ring" game. The ring is made of skin
and is sometimes covered with beads. Each boy has a stick, and he
throws it at the ring while it is rolling along the ground. The game
is to send the stick through the ring. Every boy tries to strike every
other boy's stick to stop it from going through the ring.
The Indian boys sometimes play at fighting battles. They form
themselves into two armies, and one army fights against the other.
They fight with balls of wet clay. Often the battle lasts two or three
hours.
Indian girls have dolls, and they dress them and sing them to sleep.
They play "house," and often have doll-house moving.
[Illustration: Indian Girls.]
Indian men and boys are fond of swimming, and they are very good
swimmers. They are also fond of sailing in their canoes. The canoe
is made of the bark of the birch tree. The Indians paddle their
canoes. They can make them go very fast.
Many of the Indians now live in houses and have farms the same as white
men, and they raise corn and vegetables and fruit. They have horses
and cows and sheep as other farmers have. And we may hope that before
long the Red Men will live in the same way as white men, and be as well
off and as happy.