If the character of the Indian is enveloped in mystery, how much
more so is his origin. From his earliest history to the present time
learned men have striven to unravel this mystery, and to trace the
genealogy of the red man to its original source. But in spite of all
study and the deepest research capable of being brought to bear on
this subject, it is to-day surrounded by a darkness almost as deep
and impenetrable as that which enfolded it centuries ago. Various
writers of ability have attempted to prove that the Indians came from
eastern Asia; others trace them to Africa, others to Phœnicia, while
another class believes them to be autochthones. In favor of each of
these beliefs strong circumstantial evidence can be produced. By
closely studying the customs, costumes, faith, and religious traditions
of the various tribes, a striking homogeneity is seen to exist. At
the same time and from the same sources we are enabled to discover
satisfactory resemblances between certain superstitions and religious
rites practised among the Indian tribes and those which prevailed at
one time among the ancient Persians, the Hebrews, and the Chaldeans.
They who adhere to the belief of disparity of origin may readily adduce
arguments in refutation of an opposite theory. The apparent similarity
found to exist in the customs, dress, and religious rites of different
tribes may be partially accounted for by their long intercourse under
like circumstances, the effect of which would necessarily be an
assimilation in beliefs and usages to a greater or less degree. The
preponderance of facts inclines strongly in favor of that theory which
does not ascribe unity of origin to the Indian tribes. Passing down
the Mississippi to Mexico, and from Mexico to Peru, there once existed
an unbroken chain of tribes, which, either in a peaceful or warlike
manner, maintained a connection and kept up an intercourse with each
other. In various ways proofs have been discovered that at one time
the most northern tribes must have held intercourse with the civilized
nations of Peru and Mexico. These evidences have been seized upon by
certain savants to support the theory that the Indian tribes of North
America are descendants of the Aztecs and other kindred nations of
the south--arriving at this conclusion from the fact of an apparent
similarity in history, psychology, traditions, and customs. But by
studying the migrations and tendencies of ancient nations, and making
allowance for such modifications as climatic influences, intermarriage,
contact with civilization, and an altered mode of living would
necessarily produce upon any branch of the human race--remembering,
too, that in the vast majority of cases relating to our subject we
must be guided by tradition rather than history--it is not difficult
to establish a strong typical likeness between the tribes of American
Indians and some of the nations of most remote antiquity. When or
in what exact manner they first reached this continent is a problem
difficult of solution. This theory necessarily involves the admission
of emigration to this continent centuries before the landing of
Columbus. Upon this point there is much that may be inferred, and not a
little susceptible of strong proof.
When civilization made its first inroads within the borders of this
continent, numerous tribes, each powerful in numbers, were found
inhabiting it. Each tribe had its peculiar customs, whether of war, the
chase, or religion. They exhibited some close resemblances as well as
widely different traits of character. That they sprang from different
nations rather than from a single source seems highly probable. It is
said that when the Spaniards conquered Yucatan a number of intelligent
Indians declared that by traditions from their ancestors they had
learned that their country had been peopled by nations coming from the
east, whom God had delivered from their enemies by opening a road for
them across the sea.
Few persons will deny that the existence of America was believed in
if not positively known centuries before its discovery by Columbus.
Even so far back as the time of Alexander the Great, a historian named
Theopompus, in giving a dialogue that took place between Midas and
Silenus, credits the latter with saying that Europe, Asia, and Africa
were only islands, but that a vast fertile continent existed beyond the
sea. This continent was peopled by a race of powerful men, and gold
and silver were abundant on its surface. Hanno, eight hundred years
before Christ, made a voyage along the coast of Africa, and sailed due
west for thirty days. From the account which he afterward wrote of his
voyage, it is probable that he saw portions of America or some of the
West India islands. Reference is also made by Homer and Horace to the
existence of islands at a long distance west of Europe and Africa.
Diodorus speaks of an immense island many days’ sail to the west of
Africa; immense rivers flowed from its shores; its inhabitants resided
in beautiful mansions; its soil was fruitful and highly cultivated. The
description corresponds with that given of Mexico by the Spaniards who
first discovered it. Aristotle makes mention of it in the following
terms: “It is said that the Carthaginians have discovered beyond
the Pillars of Hercules a very fertile island, but which is without
inhabitants, yet full of forests, of navigable rivers, and abounding
in fruit. It is situated many days’ journey from the mainland.” After
the discovery of America Europeans were surprised to find in villages
in Guatemala inhabitants wearing the Arabian masculine costume and the
Jewish feminine costume. Travellers in South America have discovered
Israelites among the Indians. This discovery strengthens the theory
given by Garcia, a Spanish writer, that the Indians are the descendants
of the tribes of Israel that were led captive into Assyria. Many of
the Indian customs and religious rites closely resemble those of the
Israelites. In many tribes the Indians offer the first fruits of the
earth and of the chase to the Great Spirit. They have also certain
ceremonies at stated periods. Their division of the year corresponds
with the Jewish festivals. In some tribes the brother of a deceased
husband receives the widow into his lodge as his legitimate wife. Some
travellers claim to have seen circumcision practised among certain
tribes. Another analogy between the Jews and the Indians is seen in
their purifications, baths, anointings, fasts, manner of praying, and
abstaining from certain quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles considered
impure. In general Indians are only permitted to marry in their own
tribe. Some tribes are said to carry with them an ark similar to the
one mentioned in Holy Writ. I know that all tribes with which I have
been brought in contact carry with them a mysterious something which
is regarded with the utmost sacredness and veneration, and upon which
the eye of no white man at least is ever permitted to rest. Then again
the “medicine man” of the tribe, who is not, as his name implies, the
physician, but stands in the character of high priest, assumes a dress
and manner corresponding to those of the Jewish high priest. Mr. Adair,
who spent forty years among the various northern tribes, and who holds
to the idea that the Indian is descended from the Hebrew, asserts that
he discovered an unmistakable resemblance between various Indian words
and the Hebrew intended to express the same idea. He further asserts
that he once heard an Indian apply the following expression to a
culprit: “_Tschi kaksit canaha_”--Thou art like unto a Canaanite sinner.
Numerous evidences and various authorities go to prove that prior to
the discovery of America by Columbus a series of voyages had been
made from the old to the new continent. The historical records of the
Scandinavians, describing their migratory expeditions, fix not only the
dates of such excursions, but also the exact points on the American
coast at which landings were made and colonies established. In 1002,
Thorwald Ericsson, following the example of his countrymen, began a
voyage, during which he landed near Cape Cod. He was afterward slain
in an encounter with the natives. Other expeditions were undertaken
by the Scandinavians at subsequent periods down to the early part
of the fifteenth century, when, owing to various causes of decline,
including savage wars and disease, these early explorers lost their
foothold on the American continent and disappeared from its limits.
But from the ninth to the fifteenth century it is easily proved by
their historical records and traditions that the American continent
had been visited and occupied by pioneers from the Scandinavians.
From the great number of inscriptions, antique utensils, arms, bones,
and monuments discovered in the New England States, it is fair to
presume that these adventurers had occupied a larger portion of the
new continent than their manuscripts would lead us to suppose. At the
same time the discoveries in the Western States and territories of
mounds containing human bones, earthen vessels, and weapons whose form
and structure prove that their original owners belonged to a different
people from any with which we are acquainted at the present day, should
be received as evidence strongly confirmatory of the early migrations
claimed to have been made by the Scandinavians and other nations.
Admitting that there are certain physiological attributes common to
nearly all the Indian tribes, sufficiently decided and clear to enable
them to be classed together as one branch of the human family, yet
an intimate study of all the tribes of North America will develop
physical diversities sufficiently ample to justify the belief that the
various tribes may have sprung from different nationalities. We find
them, although generally of a copper color, presenting all shades of
complexion from a deep black to a shade of white. Some tribes are of
powerful stature, others are dwarfed. So marked are these differences
that a person accustomed to meeting the various tribes can at a glance
distinguish the individuals of one from the other. Almost every tribe
possesses a language peculiarly its own, and what seems remarkable is
the fact that no matter how long or how intimately two tribes may be
associated with each other, they each preserve and employ their own
language, and individuals of the one tribe rarely become versed in the
spoken language of the other, all intercommunication being carried
on either by interpreters or in the universal sign language. This is
noticeably true of Cheyennes and Arrapahoes, two tribes which for years
have lived in close proximity to each other, and who are so strongly
bound together, offensively and defensively, as to make common cause
against the enemies of either, particularly against the white man.
These tribes encamp together, hunt together, and make war together,
yet but a comparatively small number of either can speak fluently the
language of the other. I remember to have had an interview at one time
with a number of prominent chiefs belonging to five different tribes,
the Cheyennes, Kiowas, Osages, Kaws, and Apaches. In communicating with
them it was necessary for my language to be interpreted into each of
the five Indian tongues, no representatives of any two of the tribes
being able to understand the language of each other; yet all of these
tribes were accustomed to more or less intimate association. Between
the tribes which inhabited the Eastern States and those originally
found on the Plains a marked difference is seen to exist. They have
but little in common, while a difference equally marked is discovered
between the Indians of the Plains and those of the mountain regions
further west, as well as the tribes of both Old and New Mexico.
Inseparable from the Indian character, wherever he is to be met with,
is his remarkable taciturnity, his deep dissimulation, the perseverance
with which he follows his plans of revenge or conquest, his concealment
and apparent lack of curiosity, his stoical courage when in the power
of his enemies, his cunning, his caution, and last, but not least,
the wonderful power and subtlety of his senses. Of this last I have
had most interesting proof, one instance of which will be noted when
describing the Washita campaign. In studying the Indian character,
while shocked and disgusted by many of his traits and customs, I find
much to be admired, and still more of deep and unvarying interest. To
me Indian life, with its attendant ceremonies, mysteries, and forms,
is a book of unceasing interest. Grant that some of its pages are
frightful, and, if possible, to be avoided, yet the attraction is
none the weaker. Study him, fight him, civilize him if you can, he
remains still the object of your curiosity, a type of man peculiar
and undefined, subjecting himself to no known law of civilization,
contending determinedly against all efforts to win him from his chosen
mode of life. He stands in the group of nations solitary and reserved,
seeking alliance with none, mistrusting and opposing the advances of
all. Civilization may and should do much for him, but it can never
civilize him. A few instances to the contrary may be quoted, but these
are susceptible of explanation. No tribe enjoying its accustomed
freedom has ever been induced to adopt a civilized mode of life,
or, as they express it, to follow the white man’s road. At various
times certain tribes have forsaken the pleasures of the chase and the
excitement of the war-path for the more quiet life to be found on the
“reservation.” Was this course adopted voluntarily and from preference?
Was it because the Indian chose the ways of his white brother rather
than those in which he had been born and bred?
In no single instance has this been true. What then, it may be asked,
have been the reasons which influenced certain tribes to abandon their
predatory, nomadic life, and to-day to influence others to pursue a
similar course? The answer is clear, and as undeniable as it is clear.
The gradual and steady decrease in numbers, strength, and influence,
occasioned by wars both with other tribes and with the white man, as
well as losses brought about by diseases partly attributable to contact
with civilization, have so lowered the standing and diminished the
available fighting force of the tribe as to render it unable to cope
with more powerful neighboring tribes with any prospect of success. The
stronger tribes always assume an overbearing and dominant manner toward
their weaker neighbors, forcing them to join in costly and bloody
wars or themselves to be considered enemies. When a tribe falls from
the position of a leading one, it is at the mercy of every tribe that
chooses to make war, being forced to take sides, and at the termination
of the war is generally sacrificed to the interests of the more
powerful. To avoid these sacrifices, to avail itself of the protection
of civilization and its armed forces, to escape from the ruining
influences of its more warlike and powerful neighbors, it reluctantly
accepts the situation, gives up its accustomed haunts, its wild mode
of life, and nestles down under the protecting arm of its former enemy,
the white man, and tries, however feebly, to adopt his manner of life.
In making this change the Indian has to sacrifice all that is dear
to his heart; he abandons the only mode of life in which he can be a
warrior and win triumphs and honors worthy to be sought after; and
in taking up the pursuits of the white man he does that which he has
always been taught from his earliest infancy to regard as degrading
to his manhood--to labor, to work for his daily bread, an avocation
suitable only for squaws.
To those who advocate the application of the laws of civilization to
the Indian, it might be a profitable study to investigate the effect
which such application produces upon the strength of the tribe as
expressed in numbers. Looking at him as the fearless hunter, the
matchless horseman and warrior of the Plains, where Nature placed him,
and contrasting him with the reservation Indian, who is supposed to be
revelling in the delightful comforts and luxuries of an enlightened
condition, but who in reality is grovelling in beggary, bereft of many
of the qualities which in his wild state tended to render him noble,
and heir to a combination of vices partly his own, partly bequeathed to
him from the pale-face, one is forced, even against desire, to conclude
that there is unending antagonism between the Indian nature and that
with which his well-meaning white brother would endow him. Nature
intended him for a savage state; every instinct, every impulse of his
soul inclines him to it. The white race might fall into a barbarous
state, and afterwards, subjected to the influence of civilization, be
reclaimed and prosper. Not so the Indian. He cannot be himself and be
civilized; he fades away and dies. Cultivation such as the white man
would give him deprives him of his identity. Education, strange as
it may appear, seems to weaken rather than strengthen his intellect.
Where do we find any specimens of educated Indian eloquence comparing
with that of such native, untutored orators as Tecumseh, Osceola, Red
Jacket, and Logan; or, to select from those of more recent fame, Red
Cloud of the Sioux, or Sa-tan-ta of the Kiowas? Unfortunately for the
last-named chief, whose name has been such a terror to our frontier
settlements, he will have to be judged for other qualities than that
of eloquence. Attention has more recently been directed to him by his
arrest by the military authorities near Fort Sill, Indian Territory,
and his transportation to Texas for trial by civil court for various
murders and depredations, alleged to have been committed by him near
the Texas frontier. He has since had his trial, and, if public rumor is
to be credited, has been sentenced to death. Reference will be made to
this noted chief in succeeding pages. His eloquence and able arguments
upon the Indian question in various councils to which he was called won
for him the deserved title of “Orator of the Plains.” In his boasting
harangue before the General of the Army, which furnished the evidence
of his connection with the murders for which he has been tried and
sentenced, he stated as a justification for such outrages, or rather as
the occasion of them, that they were in retaliation for his arrest and
imprisonment by me some three years ago. As there are two sides to most
questions, even if one be wrong, when the proper time arrives a brief
account of Sa-tan-ta’s arrest and imprisonment, with the causes leading
thereto, will be given in these sketches. One of the favorite remarks
of Sa-tan-ta in his orations, and one too which other chiefs often
indulge in, being thrown out as a “glittering generality,” meaning
much or little as they may desire, but most often the latter, was that
he was tired of making war and desired now “to follow the white man’s
road.” It is scarcely to be presumed that he found the gratification
of this oft-expressed desire in recently following the “white man’s
road” to Texas, under strong guard and heavily manacled, with
hanging, to the Indian the most dreaded of all deaths, plainly in the
perspective. Aside, however, from his character for restless barbarity,
and activity in conducting merciless forays against our exposed
frontiers, Sa-tan-ta is a remarkable man--remarkable for his powers of
oratory, his determined warfare against the advances of civilization,
and his opposition to the abandonment of his accustomed mode of life,
and its exchange for the quiet, unexciting, uneventful life of a
reservation Indian. If I were an Indian, I often think that I would
greatly prefer to cast my lot among those of my people who adhered to
the free open plains, rather than submit to the confined limits of
a reservation, there to be the recipient of the blessed benefits of
civilization, with its vices thrown in without stint or measure. The
Indian can never be permitted to view the question in this deliberate
way. He is neither a luxury nor necessary of life. He can hunt, roam,
and camp when and wheresoever he pleases, provided always that in so
doing he does not run contrary to the requirements of civilization in
its advancing tread. When the soil which he has claimed and hunted over
for so long a time is demanded by this to him insatiable monster, there
is no appeal; he must yield, or, like the car of Juggernaut, it will
roll mercilessly over him, destroying as it advances. Destiny seems to
have so willed it, and the world looks on and nods its approval. At
best the history of our Indian tribes, no matter from what standpoint
it is regarded, affords a melancholy picture of loss of life. Two
hundred years ago it required millions to express in numbers the Indian
population, while at the present time less than half the number of
thousands will suffice for the purpose. Where and why have they gone?
Ask the Saxon race, since whose introduction into and occupation of the
country these vast changes have been effected.
But little idea can be formed of the terrible inroads which diseases
before unknown to them have made upon their numbers. War has
contributed its share, it is true, but disease alone has done much to
depopulate many of the Indian tribes. It is stated that the small-pox
was first introduced among them by the white man in 1837, and that in
the short space of one month six tribes lost by this disease alone
twelve thousand persons.
Confusion sometimes arises from the division of the Indians into
nations, tribes, and bands. A nation is generally a confederation of
tribes which have sprung from a common stock or origin. The tribe is
intended to embrace all bands and villages claiming a common name,
and is presided over by a head chief, while each band or village is
presided over by one or more subordinate chiefs, but all acknowledging
a certain allegiance to the head or main village. This division cannot
always be accounted for. It arises sometimes from necessity, where the
entire tribe is a large one, and it is difficult to procure game and
grazing in one locality sufficient for all. In such cases the various
bands are not usually separated by any great distance, but regulate
their movements so as to be able to act in each other’s behalf.
Sometimes a chief more warlike than the others, who favors war and
conquest at all times, and refuses to make peace even when his tribe
assents to it, will separate himself, with those who choose to unite
their fortunes with his, from the remainder of the tribe, and act for
the time independently. Such a character produces endless trouble; his
village becomes a shelter and rendezvous for all the restless spirits
of the tribe. While the latter is or pretends to be at peace, this band
continues to make war, yet when pressed or pursued avails itself of the
protection of those who are supposed to be peaceable.
Having hurriedly sketched the country in which we shall find it
necessary to go, and glanced at certain theories calculated to shed
some light on the origin and destiny of the Indian tribes, the
succeeding pages will be devoted to my personal experience on the
Plains, commencing with the expedition of Major-General Hancock in the
spring of 1867.