[Illustration: THE RED MEN OF AMERICA.--FIRST ARTICLE.]
It is a melancholy truth that this most interesting portion of the human
race is rapidly disappearing from the surface of the earth. War, its
murderous effects centupled by the destructive weapons acquired from the
white man--disease in new and terrible forms, to the treatment of which
their simple skill, and materia medica, equally simple, are wholly
incompetent--famine, the consequence of their sadly changed habits, of the
intemperance and wastefulness, substituted by the insidious arts of the
trader for the moderation and foresight of their happier fathers--the
vices, in short, and the encroachments of civilization, all and each in
its turn are blotting out tribe after tribe from the records of humanity;
and the time is fast approaching when no Red man will remain, to guard or
to mourn over the tombs of his fathers.
The conviction of this truth is become so deeply felt, that more than one
effort has been made, and is making, to preserve some memento of this
ill-treated people. We are not so much raising our own feeble voice in the
service, as attempting a record of what others have done; but so much has
been effected, and so zealous have been the exertions made to rescue the
memory, at least, of these dying nations from oblivion, that the space we
have assigned to this notice will be taken up long before our materials
are exhausted. The accuracy of the facts and statements we shall lay
before our readers may in every case be relied on.
Among the most devoted and persevering explorers of the Red man’s
territory, is one from whose authority, and indeed from whose very lips,
in many instances, we derive a great portion of the circumstances we are
about to describe--we allude to the celebrated George Catlin, whose abode
of seven years among the least known of their tribes, and whose earnest
enthusiasm in the task of inquiry which formed the sole object of his
visit, together with his entire success in the pursuit, have constituted
him the very first authority of the day. We have, besides, consulted all
the writers on this now engrossing subject, but in most cases have
afterwards taken the highly competent opinion just quoted, as to the
accuracy of their descriptions--an opinion that has always been given with
evident care and consideration.
Mr Catlin has painted with his own hand, and from the life, no less than
three hundred and ten portraits of chiefs, warriors, and other
distinguished individuals of the various tribes (forty-eight in number)
among whom he sojourned, with two hundred landscapes and other paintings
descriptive of their country, their villages, religious ceremonies,
customs, sports, and whatever else was most characteristic of Indian life
in its primitive state; he has likewise collected numerous specimens of
dresses, some fringed and garnished with scalp-locks from their enemies’
heads; mantles and robes, on which are painted, in rude hieroglyphics, the
battles and other prominent events of their owners’ lives; head-dresses,
formed of the raven’s and war-eagle’s feathers, the effect of which is
strikingly warlike and imposing; spears, shields, war clubs, bows, musical
instruments, domestic utensils, belts, pouches, necklaces of bears’ claws,
mocassins, strings of wampum, tobacco sacks; all, in short, that could in
any way exemplify the habits and customs of the people whose memory he
desired to perpetuate, have been brought together, at great cost and some
hazard to life, by this indefatigable explorer--the whole forming a museum
of surpassing interest, and which is daily attracting the people of London
to the gallery wherein it is exhibited.
The most important of the North American tribes are the Camanchees,
inhabiting the western parts of Texas, and numbering from 25,000 to 30,000
expert horsemen and bold lancers, but excessively wild, and continually at
war; the Pawnee-Picts, neighbours to and in league with the Camanchees;
the Kiowas, also in alliance with the two warlike tribes above named, whom
they join alike in the battle or chase; the Sioux, numbering no less than
40,000, and inhabiting a vast tract on the upper waters of the Mississippi
and Missouri rivers. Next come the Pawnees, a tribe totally distinct both
in language and customs from the Pawnee-Picts, whose hunting-grounds are a
thousand miles distant from those of the Pawnees; this wild and very
warlike tribe shave the head with the exception of the scalp-lock (which
they would hold it cowardly and most unjust to their enemy to remove), as
do the Osages, the Konzas, &c. The Pawnees lost half their numbers by
small-pox in 1823, but are still very numerous; their seats are on the
river Platte, from the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains.
The Blackfeet, the Crows (their inveterate enemies), the Crees, the
Assinneboins, occupying the country from the mouth of the Yellow Stone
River to Lake Winnipeg, the Ojibbeways or Chippeways, holding the southern
shores of Lake Superior, the Lake of the Woods, and the Athabasca; the
Flatheads, on the head-waters of the Columbia; and the Cherokees, removed
from Georgia to the upper waters of the Arkansas, are also important
tribes; as are the Muskogee or Creek Indians, recently transplanted from
Georgia and Alabama to the Arkansas, seven hundred miles west of the
Mississippi.
The Seminolees are also in process of removal to the Arkansas, as are the
Enchees, once a powerful tribe, but now merging into the above, and with
them forming one people. Most of these tribes, as well as others that we
have not room even to specify, have been reduced, by the different
scourges before alluded to, in a manner frightful to contemplate. The
Delawares, for example, have lost 10,000 by small-pox alone; and from a
large and numerous tribe, now reckon 824 souls only! The Senecas, Oneidas
and Tuskaroras, once forming part of that great compact known as the “Six
Nations,” are now a mere name. The Kaskaskias, the Peorias, and the
Piankeshaws, have fallen victims to the practice of drinking spirits, and
to the diseases this fearful habit engenders, so that all are now reduced
to a few individuals. Some tribes are totally extinguished;--as, for
example the hospitable and friendly Mandans, of whom even the traders
themselves report that no one of them was ever known to destroy a white
man. These afford a melancholy instance of the rapidity with which the
extermination before alluded to is effected. In the year 1834, when Mr
Catlin visited these warlike and spirited, yet kindly dwellers of the
woods, their number was 2000; three years after, they were infected by the
traders with small-pox; and this, with certain suicides committed by
individuals who could not survive the loss of all they loved, destroyed
the whole tribe, some forty excepted, who were afterwards cut off by their
enemies of a neighbouring tribe, so that at this moment not a Mandan
exists over the whole wide continent, where, before the baleful appearance
of the white man, his free ancestors ranged so happily.
This is bad, but a still more melancholy element of decay is the habit of
drinking spirituous liquors, which is daily gaining ground among these
hapless Americans; this produces an amount of crime and suffering that,
even in our own country, could find no parallel; not only is the excitable
nature of the Red man stirred to actual madness by these atrocious
poisons; but because, unlike his brother of civilized countries, he
depends on his own unassisted physical powers for the most immediate and
pressing wants of life--no grazier or butcher, no miller or baker, has
_he_ to provide for a time against improvidence on his part; from no
accommodating “shop” can _his_ wife gain credit for the moment--his family
starves at once if his own resources are destroyed; and an eloquent writer
of the day has well remarked, that “it is dreadful to reflect on the
situation of a poor Indian hunter, when he finds, he knows not why, that
his limbs are daily failing him in the chase, that his arrow ceases to go
straight to the mark, and that his nerves tremble before the wild animals
it was but lately his pride to encounter.” We have been furnished by
intelligent eye-witnesses with fearful instances of wrong and outrage
committed by the unhappy Indians on each other while under the influence
of the poison which we Christians--ah, woe for the profanation!--have
bestowed on our Red brothers; but our limits do not permit their
insertion.
We call the native American, “Indian,” in compliance with established
custom; but there is no propriety in the term as applied to these people,
who call themselves “Red men,” and nothing else. They are for the most
part of robust make and of fair average size, except the Esquimaux
inhabitants of the extreme north, who are dwarfish, and the Abipones,
natives of the southern extremity of this vast continent, who are of great
height; they have prominent features, high cheek-bones, and small deeply
set black eyes; their complexion is a cinnamon colour, varying in its
shades, and esteemed handsome among themselves in proportion as it is
dark, but with a clear, warm, coppery hue, which last they esteem an
evidence of the divine favour, for they believe that the Great Spirit
loved his Red children better than their white brethren, and so breathed a
more vivid life into their veins; a distinction of which the visible sign
is the glowing complexion we have alluded to.
The meaner vices are held in especial contempt among the yet
uncontaminated Indians: slanderers, cowards, liars, _misers_, and
_debtors_ who refuse to pay when the means are in their power, are shunned
as persons in whose society no respectable man should be seen. On the
subject of debt, in particular, Indian notions differ widely from ours.
Should his debtor be unable to meet his engagements in consequence of
illness or want of success in the chase, he scrupulously conceals the
inconvenience this may occasion, and is careful never to name debt in the
defaulter’s presence.
But, on the other hand, should the inability of the debtor proceed from
indolence or intemperance, or should he be indisposed to pay when his
means permit, he is then characterised as a “bad man”--his friends
gradually abandon him, he becomes an object of public contempt, and
nothing could after this induce his creditor to accept from him even his
just demand. He is no longer _permitted_ to pay; he has forfeited the
privilege of the upright man, and must remain in the contempt into which
he has sunk; but such instances, it will be readily supposed, are
extremely rare.
Cowardice is not punished by loss of reputation alone in some tribes; as,
among the Kansas, if the coward be found incorrigible, he is destroyed.
Te-pa-gee was a young warrior of this tribe, who had been more than once
charged with this fatal defect. He returned on a certain occasion with his
brethren from an expedition that had been eminently successful, but in
which he had himself behaved disgracefully. The whole tribe, except those
who had lost relations, were engaged the next day in the usual rejoicings;
but Te-pa-gee, conscious that cold looks were upon him, had withdrawn from
the public ceremonials, and seated himself sullenly on the trunk of a tree
by the river side. Shortly after, the dances of the squaws and children
having led them into his neighbourhood, the great mass of the tribe were
again around him, when E-gron-ga-see, one of their wisest men and bravest
warriors, came forth from the festive group, and the sports being
suspended, he declared to the offender, in a voice audible to all, that
his cowardice had forfeited his life. Te-pa-gee instantly bared his
breast, and the avenger, drawing his knife from beneath his robe, plunged
it deep into the culprit’s bosom. Another warrior of equal authority then
addressed the people, expatiating on the necessity of punishing such
crimes as that committed by Te-pa-gee, who had meanwhile died before them
almost without a groan. This fact is related by an eye-witness, who does
not, however, tell us whether the unhappy man’s constancy in death did not
go far to convince his judges that his fault was rather a defect of nerve
than the absence of power to endure.
It is the custom of Indians at war with each other to imitate the cries of
various animals of the chase, for the purpose of luring unwary hunters
into an ambush. Three young warriors of the Ottawas being thus decoyed
into a wood, two of them were shot and scalped; the third ran for his
life, without discharging his piece, setting up the yell of defeat as he
ran. The men of his tribe were alarmed, and went instantly in pursuit of
the enemy, whom they could not overtake; but on their return, they fell in
with a hunting party of the same tribe, whom they fell upon by surprise
and scalped. The usual rejoicings of the women and children took place on
their return; they were seated under the shade of broad trees to smoke
with the old men, and Shembagah, the one who had escaped by running, went
towards them with looks congratulating their success; but no one deigned
him a look, or a word of notice, and he had scarcely got among them before
all rose and left, the place. This punishment was too great for him to
bear; he left his people without saying a word or taking leave of any one,
and was never more heard of, while the relater of this anecdote remained
with the tribe.
A girl of the Ottawas being taken prisoner by a party of the Kansas, was
adopted into the family of a Kansas chief, and soon afterwards betrothed
to his son, a youth named Moi-bee-she-ga, or the Sharp Knife. A few days
before the espousals were to be solemnised, it happened that a party of
the Mahaws came and fell upon the horses of the Kansas, which were grazing
in a neighbouring prairie, and which they succeeded in carrying off; they
were detected in the act by some Kansas women who were gathering wood, and
the warriors being apprised, set off in pursuit. The old chief, now laden
with many snows, was unable to accompany his warriors, whom Moi-bee-she-ga
ought to have headed, but this last chose to remain with his bride. This
so enraged his father, that he seized the arms which the recreant son
shrank from using, and destroyed them before his face, declaring that
Moi-bee-she-ga had become a squaw, and needed no arms. The Ottawa girl,
equally shocked by the dereliction of her lover, to whom she had been
warmly attached, refused to fulfil her engagement of marriage; and the
delinquent, abandoned on all hands, was driven in disgrace from his
people, and joined a party of the wandering Pawnees.
The Indian is scrupulously exact in the performance of his engagements,
and this the traders know so well, that they feel no apprehension, when,
having delivered their goods to their Indian customer, they see him plunge
into his trackless wilderness with his purchase, and disappear amid wilds
into which no civilized foot could follow him. They know that his first
care will be to secure the game whose skin is to assist in the redemption
of his promise; and at the stipulated moment he is again seen to emerge
from the forest, unconscious even that what we should call an unusual
degree of confidence has been reposed in him, and guided only by his own
pure and simple conviction, that a promise once given is a sacred thing,
and to be redeemed at whatever cost.
Lying and treachery are held in profound abhorrence; we could relate very
many facts in support of this assertion, but will confine ourselves to the
two following ones only:--A distinguished warrior of the Assinneboins
accompanied Major Sanford to Washington in 1832, and being there, became
acquainted with the more obvious details of every-day life among the
civilized; these he described to his people on his return, and was
listened to for some time with respectful attention; but at length the
wonders he related surpassing their powers of belief, they decided that he
had been taught by the white men to lie, and that in a manner so shameless
as to make him a dangerous example to his younger hearers; they then,
after much solemn deliberation, concluded that he was unworthy to live,
and the unhappy man was put to death accordingly; his protestations of
innocence being regarded but as a deeper plunging into crime.
Every thing connected with the dead is held sacred, but the mode of burial
differs widely in different tribes. Some place the body dressed and armed
with bow, quiver, tomahawk, &c., on the ground between flat stones set
edge upwards, and cover it, first with similar stones, and afterwards with
earth; others bury at about two feet below the earth. Among the Mandans it
was customary (alas for the necessity of that “was”) to lay their dead,
well wrapped in skins, on high scaffolds, as practised by the Parsees of
Asia. After a sufficient lapse of time, the bones were gathered, and
buried with solemn ceremonies, the skulls excepted, which were ranged in a
circle within a larger one formed of buffalo skulls, and thither the women
belonging to the family of the deceased repair to soothe the departed with
songs, to inform him how those he left behind are faring, and to feed him
with their choicest dainties, dishes of which they leave behind at their
departure.
Mourning for the dead is expressed by certain modes of paint, and among
some tribes by cutting off locks of the hair. The sketch that accompanies
this paper represents two warriors, and a woman of the Sacs and Foxes,
mourning over the tomb of Black Hawk, the celebrated leader of the war
known as the Black Hawk War.
A party of Ottawas and the Kansas having been at war, had met “to bury the
tomahawk under the roots of the tree of friendship, and sit under its
shadow to smoke the pipe of peace, and to _hear the birds sing_.” Some
traders passed through their hunting-grounds, from whom they purchased
whisky, and, heated by this, an Ottawa quarrelled with a Kansa; but being
reminded by their friends of the lately promised peace, they desisted from
all hostility, and both, with the whole party, soon after fell asleep. The
Ottawa, awaking first, stabbed his sleeping adversary to the heart, and
fled into the forest. When the whole party aroused themselves, they
perceived by the arms of the murdered man that he had been taken at
advantage, and the brother of the offender, abhorrent of treachery, so
foreign to Indian habits, at once declared his intention of pursuing the
culprit. Nothing doubting his integrity, the aggrieved Kansas sat silently
awaiting his return, which took place two hours after; he had secured and
now delivered up the murderer, who was immediately put to death.
DANCING.--Dancing is an amusement which has been discouraged in our
country by many of the best people, and not without reason. Dancing is
associated in their minds with balls; and this is one of the worst forms
of social pleasure. The time consumed in preparation for a ball, the waste
of thought upon it, the extravagance of dress, the late hours, the
exhaustion of strength, the exposure of health, and the languor of the
succeeding day--these, and other evils connected with this amusement, are
strong reasons for banishing it from the community. But dancing ought not
therefore to be proscribed. On the contrary, balls should be discouraged
for this, among other reasons, that dancing, instead of being a rare
pleasure, requiring elaborate preparation, may become an every-day
amusement, and may mix with our common intercourse. This exercise is among
the most healthful. The body, as well as the mind, feels its gladdening
influence. No amusement seems more to have a foundation in our nature. The
animation of youth naturally overflows in harmonious movements. The true
idea of dancing entitles it to favour. Its end is to realise perfect grace
in motion; and who does not know that a sense of the graceful is one of
the higher faculties of our nature? It is to be desired that dancing
should become too common among us to be made the object of special
preparation, as in the ball; that members of the same family, when
confined by unfavourable weather, should recur to it for exercise and
exhilaration; that branches of the same family should enliven in this way
their occasional meetings; that it should fill up an hour in all the
assemblages for relaxation, in which the young form a part. It is to be
desired that this accomplishment should be extended to the labouring
classes of society, not only as an innocent pleasure, but as a means of
improving the manners. Why shall not gracefulness be spread through the
whole community? From the French nation we learn that a degree of grace
and refinement of manners may pervade all classes. The philanthropist and
Christian must desire to break down the partition walls between human
beings in different conditions: and one means of doing this is to remove
the conscious awkwardness which confinement to laborious occupations is
apt to induce. An accomplishment, giving free and graceful movement,
though a far weaker bond than intellectual or moral culture, still does
something to bring those who partake it near each other.--_Dr Channing’s
Address on Temperance._