THE EDUCATED INDIAN.
The following extracts are taken from speeches made by young educated
Indians, who are still living and laboring among their people. The
first was made before the Historical Society of New York, in behalf of
the little company of Cayugas who emigrated beyond the Mississippi, and
were reduced to such extreme suffering that a great proportion of them
died in less than a year. It was proposed to bring back the remainder,
and a speech to excite sympathy and raise funds was made by Dr. Wilson,
who obtained ten thousand dollars for this purpose, five hundred of
which was given by a member of the Society of Friends in Baltimore.
“The honorable gentleman has told you that the Iroquois have no
monuments. Did he not previously prove that the land of Gano-no-o, or
the Empire State as you love to call it, was once laced by our trails
from Albany to Buffalo—trails that we had trod for centuries—trails
worn so deep by the feet of the Iroquois that they became your own
roads of travel as your possessions gradually eat into those of my
people? Your roads still traverse those same lines of communication and
bind one part of the long house to another. The land of Gano-no-o—the
Empire State—then is our monument! and we wish its soil to rest above
our bones when we shall be no more. We shall not long occupy much room
in living; we shall occupy still less when we are gone; a single tree
of the thousands which sheltered our forefathers—one old elm under
which the representatives of the tribes were wont to meet—will cover us
all; but we would have our bodies twined in death among its roots on
the very soil where it grew! Perhaps it will last the longer from being
fertilized with their decay.
“I have been told that the first object of this Society is to preserve
the history of the State of New York. You, all of you know, that alike
in its wars and in its treaties the Iroquois, long before the
Revolution, formed a part of that history; that they were then one in
council with you, and were taught to believe themselves one in
interest. In your last war with England, your red brothers—your elder
brothers—still came up to help you, as of old, on the Canada frontier!
Have we, the first holders of this prosperous region, no longer a share
in your history? Glad were your forefathers to sit down upon the
threshold of the ‘Long House’; rich did they then hold themselves, in
getting the mere sweepings from its doors. Had our forefathers spurned
you from it when the French were thundering at the opposite end, to get
a passage through and drive you into the sea, whatever has been the
fate of other Indians, the Iroquois might still have been a nation; and
I—I—instead of pleading here for the privilege of lingering within your
borders—I—I—might have had—a country!”
This was delivered extemporaneously, and was very long, but only these
few sentences have been preserved, and for these we are indebted to Mr.
Hoffman, who devoted to the author and his subject a long article in
the Literary World the next day.
The following was delivered before an enlightened assembly by Mr. Maris
B. Pierce.
“It has been said, and reiterated so frequently as to have obtained the
familiarity of household words, that it is the doom of the Indian to
disappear—to vanish like the morning dew before the advance of
civilization—before those who belong by nature to a different, and by
education and circumstances to a superior race; and melancholy is it to
us—those doomed ones—that the history of this country, in respect to
us, and its civilization, has furnished so much ground for the saying,
and for giving credence to it.
“But whence and why are we thus doomed? Why must we be crushed by the
arm of civilization, or the requiem of our race be chanted by the waves
of the Pacific, which is destined to ingulf us? Say ye, on whom the
sunlight of civilization has constantly shone—into whose lap Fortune
has poured her brimful horn, so that you are enjoying the highest and
best spiritual and temporal blessings of this world, say, if some being
from fairy land, or some distant planet, should come to you in such a
manner as to cause you to deem them children of greater light and
superior wisdom to yourselves, and you should open to them the
hospitality of your dwellings and the fruits of your labor, and they
should by dint of their superior wisdom dazzle and amaze you, so as,
for what to them were toys and rattles, they should gain freer
admission and fuller welcome, till, finally, they should claim the
right to your possessions, and of hunting you, like wild beasts, from
your long and hitherto undisputed domain, how ready would you be to be
taught of them? How cordially would you open your minds to the
conviction that they meant not to deceive you further and still more
fatally in their proffers of pretended kindness?
“How much of the kindliness of friendship for them, and of esteem for
their manners and customs would you feel? Would not ‘the milk of human
kindness’ in your breasts be turned to the gall of hatred towards them?
And have not we, the original and undisputed possessors of this
country, been treated worse than you would be, should any supposed case
be transferred to reality.
“But I will leave the consideration of this point for the present, by
saying, what I believe every person who hears me will assent to, that
the manner in which the white people have habitually dealt with the
Indians, makes them wonder that their hatred has not burned with
tenfold fury against them, rather than that they have not laid aside
their own peculiar notions and habits, and adopted those of their
civilized neighbors.
“For instances of those natural endowments, which, by cultivation, give
to the children of civilization their great names and far-reaching
fame, call to mind Philip of Mount Hope, whose consummate talents and
skill made him the white man’s terror, by the display of those talents
and that skill for the white man’s destruction.
“Call to mind Tecumseh, by an undeserved association with whose name
one of the great men of your nation has obtained more of greatness than
he ever merited, either for his deeds or his character. Call to mind
Red Jacket, formerly your neighbor, with some of you a friend and
familiar, and to be a friend and familiar with whom none of you feel it
a disgrace.
“Call to mind Osceola, the victim of the white man’s treachery and
cruelty, whom neither his enemy’s arm nor cunning could conquer on the
battle field, and who at last was consumed in ‘durance vile,’ by the
corroding of his own spirit. In ‘durance vile,’ I say. Blot the fact
from the record of that damning baseness, of that violation of all law,
of all humanity, which that page of your nation’s history which
contains an account of it must ever be! Blot out the fact, I say,
before you rise up to call an Indian treacherous or cruel.
“For an instance of active pity, of deep rational active pity, and the
attendant intellectual qualities, I ask you to call to mind the story
surpassing romance of Pocahontas; she who threw herself between a
supposed inimical stranger and the deadly club which had been raised by
the stern edict of her father, and by appealing to the affections of
that father, savage though he was, overcame the fell intent which
caused him to pronounce the white man’s doom. In her bosom burned
purely and rationally the flame of love, in accordance with the
dictates of which she offered herself at the Hymenial altar, to take
the nuptial ties with a son of Christian England. The offspring of this
marriage have been with pride claimed as sons and citizens of the noble
and venerable State of Virginia.
“Ye who love prayer, hover in your imagination around the cot of Brown,
and listen to the strong supplications, as they arise from the fervent
heart of Catharine, and then tell me whether
‘—the poor Indian, whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds and hears him in the wind,’
is not capable, by cultivation, of rationally comprehending the true
God, whose pavilion is the clouds, and who yet giveth grace to the
humble.
“The ill-starred Cherokees stand forth in colors of living light,
redeeming the Indian character from the foul aspersions, that it is not
susceptible of civilization and Christianization. John Ross stands
before the American people, in a character both of intellect and heart,
which many a white man in high places might envy, and yet never be able
to attain! A scholar, a patriot, an honest and honorable man; standing
up before the ‘powers that be,’ in the eyes of Heaven and men, now
demanding, now supplicating of those powers, a regard for the rights of
humanity, of justice, of law—and still a scholar, a patriot, an honest
and honorable man; though an Indian blood coursing in his veins, and an
Indian color giving hue to his complexion, dooms him, and his children
and kin, to be hunted at the point of the bayonet by those powers, for
their home, and possessions, and country, to the ‘terra incognita
beyond the Mississippi.’
“‘Westward the star of Empire takes its way,’ and whenever that empire
is held by the white man, nothing is safe or enduring against his
avidity for gain. Population is with rapid strides going beyond the
Mississippi, and even casting its eye with longing gaze, for the woody
peaks of the Rocky Mountains—nay, even for the surf-beaten shore of the
western Ocean. And in process of time, will not our territory there be
as subject to the wants of the white people, as that which we now
occupy?
“I ask, then, in behalf of the New York Indians, that our white
brethren will not urge us to do that which justice, humanity, religion,
not only do not require, but condemn. Let us live on where our fathers
lived, and enjoy the advantages our location offers us, that we who are
converted heathens, may be made meet for that inheritance which the
Father hath promised to give the Son, our Saviour; so that the deserts
and waste places may be made to blossom like the rose, and the
inhabitants thereof utter forth the high praises of our God.
“The government instituted by our ancestors many centuries ago, was
remarkable for its wisdom, and adapted to the then condition of our
nation. It was a republican, and purely democratic government, in which
the will of the people ruled. No policy nor enterprise was carried out
by the Council of the Grand Sachems of the Confederacy, without the
sanction and ratification of the people, and it was necessary that it
should receive the consent of the confederate tribes. The consent of
the warriors alone was not deemed sufficient, but the women,—the
mothers of the nation were also consulted; by this means the path of
the wise Sachems was made clear—their hands were made strong, their
determinations resolute, knowing full well that they had the unanimous
support of their constituents; hence the confederacy of the Iroquois
became great and strong, prosperous and happy; by their wisdom, they
became statesmen, orators, and diplomatists; by their valor and skill
in the war-path, they became formidable—they conquered and subdued many
tribes, and extended their territory.
“This was our condition when the pale-faces landed upon the eastern
shores of this great island. Every nation has its destiny. We now
behold our once extensive domains reduced to a few acres; our
territory, which once required the fleetest moons to traverse, is now
spanned by the human voice. Yes, the Chiefs under our ancient form of
government have reduced our possessions, so that now when we put the
seed of the melon into the earth, it sprouts, and its tender vine
trails along the ground, until it trespasses upon the lands of the
PALE-FACES.”
When Colonel McKenney was writing his Indian history, he addressed a
letter of inquiry to General Cass, asking whether he ever knew an
instance of Indian war or massacre, that was not provoked by the white
man’s aggression. To this letter he received the following laconic
reply:
Dear Colonel:—
Never! Never! NEVER!
Yours truly,
Lewis Cass.
General Houston, in speeches lately made at Washington and at Boston,
has made the same statement; and this, any one thoroughly acquainted
with Indian history, will confirm. Had there been nothing more to rouse
Indian ferocity, it was enough to see his favorite hunting-grounds
devastated, and the desecration of the graves of his fathers. We will
not enter into the merits of the question, whether it would have been
right to permit so wide an extent of country, capable of supporting
millions, to remain in the possession of so few. It is an important
question; but when we judge the Indian, we are to look upon the
invasion as it appeared to him. In his eyes, the invaders were thieves
and robbers,—yes, barbarians and savages. Their mode of warfare, and
their system of destroying, were more inhuman and terrible than any
thing he had ever witnessed or imagined.
To expect them to yield their territory without a struggle, and a
desperate struggle, was an expectation which only an idiot could
entertain; and to expect them to lay aside their wild, roving habits,
and easy, careless life, for one of toil and drudgery, with none of the
advantages of civilization and Christianity apparent to them, was quite
as ridiculous. They were every where obliged to yield to the LAW OF
FORCE, with only now and then a glimpse of the LAW OF KINDNESS. The
good John Robinson, of Plymouth memory, even in his day “began to doubt
whether there was not wanting that tenderness for the life of man, made
after God’s own image, which was so necessary;” and says, “It would
have been happy if the early Colonists had converted some, before they
killed any.”
So early as 1623, it sometimes occurred that “Indians, calling in a
friendly manner, were seized and put in irons.” “The General Court of
Massachusetts once offered one hundred pounds each for ten Indian
scalps; and forty white warriors went forth to win the prize, and
returned with ten scalps stretched on poles, and received the one
thousand pounds!”
The Indian had no other law than an “eye for an eye, and a tooth for a
tooth;” but there was, probably, not one among the early Colonists, who
had not the Gospel of Christ, as well as the Ten Commandments.
For myself, I have wondered that the fire of revenge and hatred should
ever have gone out in a single Indian bosom; that he should have been
willing to receive the missionary and school-teacher from among a
people who had so forfeited their title to Christian, and practised so
contrary to their professions. But whoever will take the trouble to
wander among the peaceful valleys of Cattaraugus and Alleghany, will be
convinced that the natural and artificial passions of Indians may be
lulled, and the gall and wormwood which wrong and oppression have
engendered in their hearts, may be converted into the sweetest milk of
human kindness. They have learned to distinguish between the possessor
and the professor; they have learned to value the good gifts it is in
our power to bestow, and are willing to sit at our feet and learn
wisdom.
It has become an annual custom among the Senecas to hold a national
picnic, to which the people are all invited. The ceremonies are
conducted as at similar festivals among other people, and I would like
to have had the world, the unthinking, and still inexcusable ignorant
world, look upon a scene which was represented not long since in the
forest by North American Indians.
Some strangers who happened along here a few months since, exclaimed,
“Why, how have you created such a paradise here, and nobody ever has
heard of it?” He looked abroad upon the cultivated fields and
comfortable dwellings, and could not believe that the Indians had done
all this. They are so entirely a distinct and peculiar people, that
though living near a great city, and surrounded by an inquisitive and
aggressive people, they are less known in the general community than
the Chinese or the Laplanders.
What has wrought this great change? The quiet labors and the small
still voice of the missionary and the school-teacher. As well as I
could, I have pictured the Indian as he was, and now I wish you to look
upon him as he is. Just stand with me upon this little hill, and look
upon this gay concourse of people. At our feet is a beautiful grove of
elms and oaks and maples, on the borders of a silver stream, so clear
that it is a perfect mirror to the shining pebbles upon its bed. It
bears still an Indian name, the Cattaraugus, and flows on to mingle its
waters with Lake Erie.
There is music in the distance. Look up and you will see a procession.
It is heralded by the Seneca National Band, in a costume of red and
white, and the tune is Yankee Doodle, though the musicians are all
Indians. Then comes the Marshal, who would be singled out by an
observer, on any occasion, as a genuine son of a proud race, by his
fine figure and noble bearing. With his rich dress, on his caparisoned
steed, he is truly princely.
Then follow the children of the six several schools, their soft voices
joining in a lively hymn, under the care of their teachers; all with
gala dresses and distinguishing badges, and flags waving in the breeze.
Another band, “The Sons of Temperance,” bring up the rear, and slowly
they come marching on, crossing the stream upon a temporary bridge,
wheeling about in several military evolutions, and arrange themselves
in groups around the platforms wreathed with evergreens, on which the
President of the day and the Speaker stand. He who presides is one of
the oldest and most venerable of the chiefs of his people. He is
dressed in black, with a broad white silk scarf, terminating in crimson
fringes, crossing his breast and falling gracefully at his side. Around
him are other venerable men, whose memories easily go back to the time
when there was not a Christian in the whole nation. Now the missionary
pastor, who has for twenty years labored among them, and can very
justly look around him and call what he beholds the fruit of his
labors, lifts his voice to crave the blessing of Heaven upon their
festal gathering. You will listen to the speaking which follows with
interest, though you will not understand the language in which some of
the addresses are made. It is not so musical as rich, and falls on the
ear like the deep voice of the cataract, rather than the low murmuring
rill. But those who think the Indian has no vein of humor and no love
of pleasantry, should listen to him when he is surrounded only by his
kindred—those who can appreciate him, and whom he can trust. Solemnity,
enthusiasm, and mirthfulness, play alternately upon the features of the
assembly, but there is in him so great a regard for decorum, that
nothing like levity or untimely restlessness ever disturbs an Indian
audience. There is the most respectful attention till the orators are
seated, and then they gather around the table, which is tastefully and
bountifully spread, in the form of a double square. Around it circle
the guests, and within stand those who dispense the good gifts prepared
for all who come. Here, too, is the order which seldom characterizes so
large a number among people of any other name; and happiness, a quiet
but soul appreciating happiness, is beaming upon every dusky face.
When the feast is finished, the speakers again mount the rostrum, and
as usual after a good dinner, all are more disposed to merriment.
Before you are a thousand people of all ages, from the gray-haired man
of ninety, to the tiniest baby that ever opened its eyes to the light.
You may see there a group of laughing maidens, reclining upon the grass
in the shade of a spreading oak, with their gypsy hats and bright
streamers, and near by a bevy of matrons, with their raven hair braided
in rich tresses, and their mantles gathered in folds about their
waists. The musicians fill up the interstices between the speeches with
thrilling and plaintive strains, till the daylight begins to fade and
the red gleam of the setting sun gilds the forest tops. Then again they
form in procession, and march away. The children number about two
hundred; and are you realizing all this time that they are what some
people still insist upon calling savages, and maintain can never become
an educated, refined and cultivated people? really believing that they
are incapable of appreciating learning, the arts, Christianity, and
civilization? Contending that they ought to be removed far away into
the Western forests to roam for ever wild, that the white man may not
trample them as he tramples the beast and the reptile in his path? The
laborers have been few, far too few for this beautiful vineyard, yet
they have accomplished a great work. The population is now on the
increase, and schools and churches are multiplying. The people are
improving in agriculture, and pretty farms and houses are beginning to
dot their hills and valleys. They are becoming a Christian and social
people.
I have attended one or two parties, or social gatherings, at the houses
of the missionaries, where there were perhaps fifty or sixty, and have
seen far less comeliness and propriety of behavior among the same
number of the sons and daughters of New England. Indians have
remarkable tact in conforming to the customs of other people, if they
choose to exercise it, and when they are fully convinced that it is
best to relinquish their own peculiar habits, they adopt new ones very
readily. If land speculators would let them alone, and the State would
perform its whole duty, they would soon prove that the last of the
Senecas is not yet, nor for a long time to come. They would become a
valuable element in our political and social organization—refute the
slanders, and blot out the dark pictures which historians have been
wont to spread abroad concerning them. May I live to see it done, for
most deeply have I learned to blush for my people.
The speech from which I make the following extracts, was made by Mr. N.
T. Strong. The President of the day was Henry Twoguns, the step-son of
Red Jacket, and the Vice President, Dr. Wilson. The Marshal was Mr. M.
H. Parker, and the bands were composed entirely of Indians.
His speech also, like the preceding ones, was made in English; and all
are in better English than many I have read by foreigners of other
nations who have had the same advantages of education.
“Ladies and Gentlemen:—I enter upon the duties assigned me by the
committee of arrangements with much distrust. It is a difficult task at
all times to speak in a foreign language, and I fear I shall not
succeed to the satisfaction of myself or my audience.
“In some respects the present occasion is an extraordinary one—never
before did the white man with his women and children meet with the red
man and his women and children in a social picnic. It is an occasion to
excite our gratitude and make us glad, and I would like for a moment to
present the past condition and relationships of the two nations in
contrast with the present.
“That the red men were the first occupants of the soil is conceded by
all. In this we had the start of the white man, perhaps because John
Bull and the Dutchman had not been Yankeefied at that time, for we find
after this transformation took place the white man had the start of us
in every thing!
“In 1647 the confederacy of the Six Nations were able to raise 30,000
warriors. They had a regularly organized government, in which the
rights of nations were distinctly defined; but the rights of
individuals were not defined. War and the sports of the chase were then
the pursuits of the red men. Their clothing was made of the skins of
the animals they killed in the chase. Their food was the flesh of wild
animals, and the corn and vegetables which were raised by the women,
and the labor of the lodge was all performed by them. The conquests of
the Iroquois had extended far to the south and west, and the name of
the Ho-de-no-son-ne was a terror among all the surrounding nations.
“They roamed from river to river, and from valley to plain in pursuit
of the buffalo, the bear, and the elk, and darted across lakes and
rivers in their light canoes to find the beaver and otter, in order to
take their furs. At appointed seasons they returned to the council
fires of the several nations, for the transaction of public business
and to keep the annual feasts.
“In 1776, more than a hundred years afterwards, we find them greatly
reduced in numbers, though their customs are the same. The Mohawks, who
dwelt on the banks of the Hudson, and along the valley which still
bears their name, scarcely numbered four hundred souls. The Oneidas,
who were situated next west of them, numbered fifteen hundred, and the
Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tuscaroras, about ten thousand, and
could raise two thousand warriors.
“Ladies and Gentlemen:—Let us now look at the white man in the same
periods. In 1647 they had, capable of bearing arms, only 300 all told!
Their pursuits were agriculture and commerce. They had a system of
government, and written laws. The rights of nations and the rights of
individuals were well defined. Their religion was founded upon the
Bible. They were cold and calculating, and knew the value and uses of
money. They also knew that land was better than money! They therefore
made every effort to obtain it. The white man bought it of his red
brother, and paid him little or nothing. He bought furs, too, at his
own prices.
“We find him again in 1774 numbering 181,000. Their improvement, in
numbers, wealth, and the arts and sciences, has been going steadily
onward. The forests fell before the woodsman—the game, and those in
pursuit of it, also continued to retreat, till both had nearly
disappeared. Thus one of the occupations of the red man, like
Othello’s, ‘was gone.’
“The land of the red man became cultivated—‘the wilderness blossomed as
the rose.’ The white man built cities, towns, villages; he built
churches, established colleges, academies, common schools, and other
institutions of learning.
“Yes, you made canals, railroads, and your electric telegraph transmits
news almost with the speed of thought. This is wonderful! The red man
can yet scarcely comprehend it. Your commerce has extended over the
world. Your ships are on every sea—your steamers on every river. In two
hundred years your population has increased from six thousand to three
millions.
“Allow me to ask, what price did the red man receive for this broad
domain? The public documents testify thus:—‘By these presents we do for
ourselves and heirs and successors, ratify, confirm, grant, and submit,
unto our most Sovereign Lord King George, by the Grace of God, King of
Great Britain, &c., defender of the faith, &c., all the land lying
between, &c.;’ here follows an indefinite description of the premises,
including lakes, rivers, &c., and never paying a cent for it!
“Ladies and Gentlemen:—You see from this that your forefathers wronged
the red man and took advantage of his ignorance. This you will now
acknowledge. The red man has a long history of wrongs and griefs;
though unrecorded by the hand of man, they are written in the Great
Book of Remembrance kept by the Great Spirit, and He will inquire into
this at your hands by and by, and He will do justice to his red
children.
“I have not instituted these comparisons to represent the red man as an
inferior, and you as a superior being. No. These results are owing to
circumstances in the rise and fall of nations. And you must also bear
in mind that the Great God in heaven, whom you profess to worship and
adore, governs and directs the affairs of nations as well as
individuals. The powerful nations that fall, and the weak that rise, do
it alike at His bidding.
“But I appeal to you whether we are not entitled to your
sympathy—whether we have not claims upon your assistance, in
endeavoring to raise ourselves from the condition in which ignorance
and prejudice have sunk our nation.
“The red man is aware of his condition. Yes, he feels it deeply. When
he looks at the sun, the light of which enabled his ancestors to look
abroad upon a magnificent country, all his own, now peopled by another
race, he feels alone—an alien from the commonwealth. There are no
monuments to commemorate the deeds of his forefathers, as there are in
the old world; but there are the mighty rivers and the eternal hills,
which he has named.
“Ladies and Gentlemen:—The Six Nations are now represented before you.
The President of the day is a Seneca, and a worthy representative of
his nation—the Vice-President on his right is a Cayuga of the first
water, and on the left a worthy Onondaga. One of your poets has said
that ‘music has charms even to soothe a savage!’ and here is a band of
musicians who have delighted us with their sweet strains, composed
entirely of the descendants of Senecas and Tuscaroras, and I doubt not
they have gratified even civilized ears!
“Ladies and Gentlemen:—You perceive we are changed. We already have
schools, and books, and churches, and are fast adopting the customs of
white men.
“For these improvements we are mainly indebted to the Missionaries of
the American Board. Great is our debt of gratitude to these persevering
and devoted men and women. And Oh, if you will but continue to extend
to us the right hand of fellowship, we shall abundantly reward your
efforts, and you will soon see among us a high state of cultivation and
refinement.
“The missionaries have not made a great noise concerning their labors
by blowing of the trumpet, but quietly and peaceably ‘have gone about
doing good;’ and may they live to see fulfilled their most cherished
hopes, and answered their fervent prayers.”
Here I have permitted the Indian to speak for himself, and have given
only a few of the proofs which I have of a similar kind, that neither
education, nor civilization, nor Christianity enervates the mind or the
body of the Indian.
If we had lived when our fathers lived, very probably we should have
been like unto them; we should have been guilty of the same errors of
judgment, and the same mistakes in practice. But now that we have no
fear, and can look back upon the past as a whole, we are able to see
clearly, where the actors could only grope in darkness. Yet with the
experience of centuries to profit by, we are scarcely more ready to do
justice.
We are in undisputed possession of all these fair domains, and we know
the paltry price we have paid for them. We know that there is in our
midst a remnant of this proud people, whom it is our duty, and whom it
is in our power to save; and what have we done, and what are we doing
to accomplish their salvation?