ABORIGINES.
Conjecture respecting their former numbers and condition. Present number
and state.--Indian Territory appropriated as their permanent
residence.--Plan and operations of the U. S. Government.--Missionary
efforts and stations. Monuments and Antiquities.
The idea is entertained, that the Valley of the Mississippi, was once
densely populated by aborigines;--that here were extensive
nations,--that the bones of many millions lie mouldering under our feet.
It has become a common theory, that previous to the settlement of the
country by people of European descent, there were _two_ successive races
of men, quite distinct from each other;--that the first race, by some
singular fatality, became exterminated, leaving no traditionary account
of their existence. And the second race, the ancestors of the existing
race of Indians, are supposed to have been once, far more numerous than
the present white population of the Valley.
Some parts of Mexico and South America, were found to be populous upon
the first visits of the Spaniards; but I do not find satisfactory
evidence that population was ever dense, in any part of the territory
that now constitutes our Republic. Mr. Atwater supposes, from the mounds
in Ohio, the Indian population far exceeded 700,000, at one time in that
district. Mr. Flint says, "If we can infer nothing else from the mounds,
we can clearly infer, that this country once had its millions." Hence, a
principal argument assigned for the populousness of this country is, the
millions buried in these tumuli, the bones of which, in a tolerable
state of preservation, are supposed to be exhibited upon excavation. The
writer has witnessed the opening of many of these mounds, and has seen
the fragments of an occasional skeleton, found _near the surface_.
Without stopping here to enter upon a disquisition on the hypothesis
assumed, that these mounds, as they are termed, are as much the results
of natural causes, as any other prominences on the surface of the globe:
I will only remark, that it is a fact well known to frontier men, that
the Indians have been in the habit of burying their dead on these ridges
and hillocks, and that in our light, spongy soil, the skeleton decays
surprisingly fast. This is not the place to exhibit the necessary data,
that have led to the conviction, that not a human skeleton now exists in
all the western Valley, (excepting in nitrous caves,) that was deposited
in the earth before the discovery of the New World, by Columbus.
The opinion that this Valley was once densely populous, is sustained
from the supposed military works, distributed through the West. This
subject, as well as that of mounds, wants re-examination. Probably, half
a dozen enclosures, in a rude form, might have been used for military
defence. The capabilities of the country to sustain a dense population,
has been used to support the position, that it must have been once
densely populated. This argues nothing without vestiges of agriculture
and the arts. With the exception of a few small patches, around the
Indian villages, for corn and pulse, the whole land was an unbroken
wilderness. Strangers to the subject have imagined that our western
prairies must once have been subdued by the hand of cultivation, because
denuded of timber. Those who have long lived on them, have the evidences
of observation, and their senses, to guide them. They know that the
earth will not produce timber, while the surface is covered with a firm
grassy sward, and that timber will spring up, as soon as this
obstruction is removed.
To all these theories, of the former density of the aboriginal
population of the Valley, I oppose, first, the fact that but a scattered
and erratic population was found here, on the arrival of the
Europeans,--that the people were rude savages, subsisting chiefly by
hunting, and that no savage people ever became populous,--that from time
immemorial, the different tribes had been continually at war with each
other,--that but a few years before the French explored it, the
Iroquois, or Five nations, conquered all the country to the Mississippi,
which they could not have done had it been populous, and that Kentucky,
one of the finest portions of the Valley, was not inhabited by any
people, but the common hunting and fighting grounds of both the northern
and southern Indians, and hence called by them, _Kentuckee_, or the
"Bloody ground."[7]
That the Indian character has deteriorated, and the numbers of each
tribe greatly lessened by contact with Europeans and their descendants,
is not questioned; but many of the descriptions of the comforts and
happiness of savage life and manners, before their country was possessed
by the latter, are the exaggerated and glowing descriptions of poetic
fancy. Evidence enough can be had to show that they were degraded and
wretched, engaged in petty exterminating wars with each other, often
times in a state of starvation, and leading a roving, indolent and
miserable existence. Their government was anarchy.--Properly speaking,
civil government had never existed amongst them. They had no executive,
or judiciary power, and their legislation was the result of their
councils held by aged and experienced men. It had no stronger claim upon
the obedience of the people than advice.
In Mexico, civilization had made progress, and there were populous towns
and cities, and edifices for religious and other purposes. With the
exception of some very rude structures, the ruins of which yet remain,
and which upon too slight grounds, have been mistaken for military
works, nothing is left as marks of the enterprise of the feeble bands of
Indians of this Valley. Their implements, utensils, weapons of war, and
water-craft, were of the most rude and simple construction, and yet
prepared with great labor. Those who have written upon Indian manners,
without personal and long acquaintance with their circumstances, have
made extravagant blunders. The historian of America, Dr. Robertson,
seems to suppose that the Indians cut down large trees, and dug out
canoes with stone hatchets,--and that they cleared the timber from their
small fields, by the same tedious process. Their stone axes or hatchets,
were never used for _cutting_, but only for splitting and pounding. They
burned down and hollowed out trees by fire, for canoes, and never
chopped off the timber, but only deadened it, in clearing land. The
condition of depraved man, unimproved by habits of civilization, and
unblest with the influences and consolations of the gospel, is pitiable
in the extreme. Such was the character and condition of the "Red skin,"
before his land was visited by the "Pale faces." I have often seen the
aboriginal man in all his primeval wildness, when he first came in
contact with the evils and benefits of civilization,--have admired his
noble form and lofty bearing,--listened to his untutored and yet
powerful eloquence, and yet have found in him the same humbling and
melancholy proofs of his wretchedness and want, as is found in the
remnants on our borders.
The introduction of ardent spirits, and of several diseases, are the
evils furnished the Indian race, by contact with the whites, while in
other respects their condition has been improved.
From the second number of the "_Annual Register of Indian Affairs,
within the Indian (or western) Territory_," just published by the Rev.
Isaac McCoy, the following particulars have been chiefly gleaned:
Mr. McCoy has been devoted to the work of Indian reform for almost
twenty years, first in Indiana, then in Michigan, and latterly in the
Indian territory, west of Missouri and Arkansas. He is not only
intimately acquainted with the peculiar circumstances of this
unfortunate race, and with the country selected as their future
residence by the government, but is ardently and laboriously engaged for
their welfare.
INDIAN TERRITORY.
The Indian territory lies west and immediately adjacent to Missouri and
Arkansas. It is about 600 miles long from north to south, extending from
the Missouri river to the Red river, and running westwardly as far as
the country is habitable, which is estimated to be about 200 miles. The
almost destitution of timber, with extensive deserts, renders most of
the country from this territory to the Rocky mountains uninhabitable.
The dreams indulged by many, that the wave of white population is to
move onward without any resisting barrier, till it reaches these
mountains, and even overleap them to the Pacific ocean, will never be
realized. Providence has thrown a desert of several hundred miles in
extent, as an opposing barrier.
As very contradictory accounts have gone abroad, prejudicial to the
character of the country selected for the Indians, it becomes necessary
to describe it with some particularity. The following, from Mr. McCoy
(if it needed any additional support to its correctness,) is
corroborated by the statements of many disinterested persons.
"There is a striking similarity between all parts of this territory. In
its general character, it is high and undulating, rather level than
hilly; though small portions partly deserve the latter appellation. The
soil is generally very fertile. It is thought that in no part of the
world, so extensive a region of rich soil has been discovered as in
this, of which the Indian territory is a central position. It is watered
by numerous rivers, creeks and rivulets. Its waters pass through it
eastwardly, none of which are favorable to navigation. There is less
marshy and stagnant water in it than is usual in the western country.
The atmosphere is salubrious, and the climate precisely such as is
desirable, being about the same as that inhabited by the Indians on the
east of the Mississippi. It contains much mineral coal and salt water,
some lead, and some iron ore. Timber is too scarce, and this is a
serious defect, but one which time will remedy, as has been demonstrated
by the growth of timber in prairie countries which have been settled,
where the grazing of stock, by diminishing the quantity of grass,
renders the annual fires less destructive to the growth of wood. The
prairie (i. e., land destitute of wood) is covered with grass, much of
which is of suitable length for the scythe."
The Chocktaws, Creeks, Cherokees, Osages, Kanzaus and Delawares, are
entitled to lands westward of this territory for hunting grounds; some
to the western boundary of the United States, others to the Rocky
mountains.
Mr. McCoy estimates the number of inhabitants of this territory at
47,733.
INDIGENOUS TRIBES.
Osage, about 5,510
Kanzau, " 1,684
Ottoe and Missourias, 1,600
O'Mahaus, 1,400
Pawnees, four tribes, 10,000
Puncahs, about 800
Quapaws, " 450
------
21,444
EMIGRANT TRIBES.
Chocktaw, about 15,000
Cherokee, " 4,000
Creek, " 3,600
Seneca, Shawanoe of Neosho, 462
Wea, about 225
Piankeshau, 119
Peoria and Kaskaskias, 135
Ottawa, 81
Shawanoe of Kanzau river, 764
Delaware, 856
Kickapoo, 603
Putawatomie, 444
------
Emigrants, 26,289
Indigenous, 21,444
------
Total, 47,733
The estimate of the Chocktaws include about 400 negro slaves,--that of
the Cherokees 500, and that of the Creeks about 450 slaves.
_Chocktaws._ Their country adjoins Red river and the Province of Texas
on the south, Arkansas on the east, and extends north to the Arkansas
and Canadian rivers, being 150 miles from north to south, and 200 miles
from east to west. Here are numerous salt springs. For civil purposes,
their country is divided into three districts.
_Cherokees._ The boundaries of their country commences on the Arkansas
river, opposite the western boundary of Arkansas Territory;--thence
northwardly along the line of Missouri, 8 miles to Seneca river;--thence
west to the Neosho river;--thence up said river to the Osage
lands;--thence west indefinitely, as far as habitable;--thence south to
the Creek lands, and along the eastern line of the Creeks to a point 43
miles west of the Territory of Arkansas, and 25 miles north of Arkansas
river;--thence to the Verdigris river, and down Arkansas river, to the
mouth of the Neosho;--thence southwardly to the junction of the North
Fork and Canadian rivers;--and thence down the Canadian and Arkansas
rivers to the place of beginning. The treaty of 1828, secures to this
tribe 7,000,000 of acres, and adds land westward for hunting grounds as
far as the U. S. boundaries extend.
The _Creeks_, or Muscogees, occupy the country west of Arkansas that
lies between the lands of the Chocktaws and Cherokees.
The _Senecas_ join the State of Missouri on the east, with the
Cherokees south, the Neosho river west, and possess 127,500 acres.
The _Osage_ (a French corruption of _Wos-sosh-ee_, their proper name,
which has again been corrupted by Darby and others into _Ozark_) have
their country north of the western portion of the Cherokee lands,
commencing 25 miles west of the State of Missouri, with a width of 50
miles, and extending indefinitely west. About half the tribe are in the
Cherokee country.
The _Quapaws_ were originally connected with the Osages. They have
migrated from the lower Arkansas, and have their lands adjoining the
State of Missouri, immediately north of the Senecas.
The _Putawatomies_ are on the north-eastern side of the Missouri river,
but they are not satisfied, and the question of their locality is not
fully settled. 444 Putawatomies are mingled with the Kickapoos, on the
south-west side of the Missouri river.
The Weas, Piankeshaws, Peorias and Kaskaskias are remnants of the great
western confederacy, of which the Miamies were the most prominent
branch. These and other tribes constituted the Illini, Oillinois, or
Illinois nation, that once possessed the country now included in the
great States of Indiana, Illinois, &c. Their lands lie west of the State
of Missouri, and south-west of the Missouri river.
The _Delawares_ occupy a portion of the country in the forks of the
Kanzau river, (or, as written by the French, Kansas.) They are the
remnants of another great confederacy, the _Lenni-Lenopi_, as
denominated by themselves.
The lands of the _Kickapoos_ lie north of the Delawares, and along the
Missouri, including 768,000 acres.
The _Ottoes_ occupy a tract of country between the Missouri and Platte
rivers, but their land is said to extend south and below the Platte.
The country of the _O'Mahaus_ has the Platte river on the south, and the
Missouri north-east.
The country of the _Pawnees_ lies to the westward of the Ottoes and
O'Mahaus. The boundaries are not defined.
The _Puncahs_ are a small tribe that originated from the Pawnees, and
live in the northern extremity of the country spoken of as the Indian
territory.
_Present Condition._--The Chocktaws, Cherokees and Creeks are more
advanced in civilized habits then any other tribes. They have organized
local governments of their own, have enacted some wholesome laws, live
in comfortable houses, raise horses, cattle, sheep and swine, cultivate
the ground, have good fences, dress like Americans, and manufacture much
of their own clothing. They have schools and religious privileges, by
missionary efforts, to a limited extent. The Cherokees have a written
language, perfect in its form, the invention of Mr. Guess, a
full-blooded Indian. The Senecas, Delawares, and Shawanoes, also, are
partially civilized, and live with considerable comfort from the
produce of their fields and stock. The Putawatomies, Weas, Piankeshaws,
Peorias, Kaskaskias, Ottawas, and Kickapoos, have partially adopted
civilized customs. Some live in comfortable log cabins, fence and
cultivate the ground, and have a supply of stock; others live in bark
huts, and are wretched. The Osages or Wos-sosh-ees, Quapaws, Kanzaus,
Ottoes, O'Mahaus, Pawnees and Puncahs have made much less improvement in
their mode of living. A few have adopted civilized habits, and are
rising in the scale of social and individual comforts, but the larger
portion are yet _Indians_.
Mr. McCoy estimates the whole number of aborigines in North America,
including those of Mexico, at 1,800,000, of which 10,000 are so far
improved as to be classed with civilized men, and amongst whom, there
are as many pious Christians, as amongst the same amount of population
in the United States. In addition to these, he estimates that there may
be about 60,000 more, "which may have made advances toward civilization,
some more and some less."
For some years past, the policy of the government of the United States
has been directed to the project of removing all the Indians from the
country organized into States and Territories, and placing them
sufficiently contiguous to be easily governed, and yet removed from
direct contact and future interruption from white population. This
project was recommended in the period of Mr. Monroe's administration,
was further considered and some progress made under that of Mr. Adams,
but has been carried into more successful execution within the last five
years. It is much to be regretted that this project was not commenced
earlier. The residence of small bands of Indians, with their own feeble
and imperfect government, carried on within any organized state or
territory, is ruinous. Those who argue that _because_ of the removal of
the Indians from within the jurisdiction of the states, or an organized
territory, _therefore_ they will be driven back from the country in
which it is now proposed to place them, evince but a very partial and
imperfect view of the subject. The present operation of government is an
experiment, and it is one that ought to receive a fair and full trial.
If it does not succeed, I know not of any governmental regulation that
can result, with success, to the prosperity of the Indians. The project
is to secure to each tribe, by patent, the lands allotted them,--to form
them into a territorial government, with some features of the
representative principle,--to have their whole country under the
supervision of our government, as their guardian, for their benefit,--to
allow no white men to pass the lines and intermix with the Indians,
except those who are licensed by due authority,--to aid them in adopting
civilized habits, provide for them schools and other means of improving
their condition, and, through the agency of missionary societies, to
instruct them in the principles of the gospel of Christ.
_Missionary Efforts and Stations._--These are conducted by the American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,--the Baptist Board of F.
Missions,--the Methodist Epis. Missionary Society,--the Western Foreign
Missionary Society,--and the Cumberland Presbyterians. Stations have
been formed, and schools established, with most of these tribes. About
2,500 are members of Christian churches of different denominations. The
particulars of these operations are to be found in the Reports of the
respective societies, and the various religious periodicals.
Of other tribes within the Valley of the Mississippi, and not yet within
the Indian territory, the following estimate is sufficiently near the
truth for practical purposes.
Indians from New York, about Green Bay 725
Wyandots in Ohio and Michigan 623
Miamies 1,200
Winnebagoes 4,591
Chippeways, or O'Jibbeways 6,793
Ottawas and Chippeways of lake Michigan 5,300
Chippeways, Ottawas and Putawatomies 8,000
Putawatomies 1,400
Menominees 4,200
They are all east of the Mississippi, and chiefly found on the
reservations in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, and in the country between
the Wisconsin river and lake Superior. Those tribes west of the
Mississippi river, and along the region of the upper Missouri river, are
as follows:
Sioux 27,500
Ioways 1,200
Sauks of Missouri 500
Sauks and Foxes 6,400
Assinaboines 8,000
Crees 3,000
Gros Ventres 3,000
Aurekaras 3,000
Cheyennes 2,000
Mandans 1,500
Black Feet 30,000
Camanches 7,000
Minatarees 1,500
Crows 4,500
Arrepahas and Kiawas 1,400
Caddoes 800
Snake and other tribes within
the Rocky mountains 20,000
West of the Rocky mountains 80,000
The Camanches, Arrepahas, Kiawas and Caddoes roam over the great plains
towards the sources of the Arkansas and Red rivers, and through the
northern parts of Texas. The Black Feet are towards the heads of the
Missouri.
_Monuments and Antiquities._--Before dismissing the subject of the
aborigines, I shall touch very briefly on the monuments and antiquities
of the west,--with strong convictions that there has been much
exaggeration on this subject. I have already intimated that the mounds
of the west are natural formations, but I have not room for the
circumstances and facts that go to sustain this theory. The number of
objects considered as antiquities is greatly exaggerated. The
imaginations of men have done much. The number of mounds on the American
bottom in Illinois, adjacent to Cahokia creek, is stated by Mr. Flint at
200. The writer has counted all the elevations of surface for the extent
of nine miles, and they amount to 72. One of these, Monk hill, is much
too large, and three fourths of the rest are quite too small for human
labor. The pigmy graves on the Merrimeek, Mo., in Tennessee, and other
places, upon closer inspection, have been found to contain decayed
skeletons of the ordinary size, but buried with the leg and thigh bones
in contact. The _giant_ skeletons sometimes found, are the bones of
buffalo.
It is much easier for waggish laborers to deposit old horse shoes and
other iron articles where they are at work, for the special pleasure of
digging them up for credulous antiquarians, than to find proofs of the
existence of the horses that wore them!
There may, or may not, be monuments and antiquities that belong to a
race of men of prior existence to the present race of Indians. All that
the writer urges is, that this subject may not be considered as settled;
that due allowance may be made for the extreme credulity of some, and
the want of personal observation and examination of other writers on
this subject. Gross errors have been committed, and exaggerations of
very trivial circumstances have been made.
The antiquities belonging to the Indian race are neither numerous or
interesting, unless we except the remains of rude edifices and
enclosures, the walls of which are almost invariably embankments of
earth. They are rude axes and knives of stone, bottles and vessels of
potter's ware, arrow and spear heads, rude ornaments, &c.
Roman, French, Italian, German and English coins and medals, with
inscriptions, have been found,--most unquestionably brought by
Europeans,--probably by the Jesuits and other orders, who were amongst
the first explorers of the west, and who had their religious houses here
more than a century past.
Copper and silver ornaments have been discovered in the mounds that have
been opened. The calumet, or large stone pipe, is often found in Indian
graves. Two facts deserve to be regarded by those who examine mounds and
Indian cemeteries. First, that the Indians have been accustomed to bury
their dead in these mounds. Secondly, that they were accustomed to place
various ornaments, utensils, weapons, and other articles of value, the
property of the deceased, in these graves, especially if a chieftain, or
man of note. A third fact known to our frontier people, is the custom of
several Indian tribes wrapping their dead in strips of bark, or
encasing them with the halves of a hollow log, and placing them in the
forks of trees. This was the case specially, when their deaths occurred
while on hunting or war parties. At stated seasons these relics were
collected, with much solemnity, brought to the common sepulchre of the
tribe, and deposited with their ancestors. This accounts for the
confused manner in which the bones are often found in mounds and Indian
graveyards. Human skeletons, or rather mummies, have been discovered in
the nitrous caves of Kentucky. The huge bones of the mammoth and other
enormous animals, have been exhumed, at the Bigbone licks in Kentucky
and in other places.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] See Pownal's Administration of the British Colonies,--Colden's
History of the Five Nations,--New York Historical Collections, vol.
II.,--Charlevoix Histoire de la Nouvelle France,--Hon. De Witt Clinton's
Discourse before the N. Y. Historical Society, 1811,--Discovery of the
Mississippi river, by Father Lewis Hennepin,--M. Tonti's Account of M.
De La Salle's Expedition,--La Harpe's Journal, &c.