Such is no exaggerated picture of the Indian, who is in a situation to

contract the habit of intemperance. And it is only within the last year

or eighteen months--it is only since the operation of Temperance

principles has been felt in this remote place, that scenes of this kind

have become unfrequent, and have almost ceased in our village, and in

our settlement. And when we look abroad to other places, and observe the

spread of temperance in the wide area from Louisiana to Maine, we may

almost fancy we behold the accomplishment of Indian fable. It is

related, on the best authority, that among the extravagances of Spanish

enterprise, which characterized the era of the discovery of America, the

natives had reported the existence of a fountain in the interior of one

of the islands, possessed of such magical virtues, that whoever bathed

in its waters would be restored to the bloom of youth and the vigor of

manhood. In search of this wonderful fountain historians affirm, that

Ponce de Leon and his followers ranged the island. They only, however,

drew upon themselves the charge of credulity. May we not suppose this

tale of the salutary fountain to be an Indian allegory of temperance? It

will, at least, admit of this application. And let us rejoice that, in

the era of temperance, we have found the spring which will restore bloom

to the cheeks of the young man, and the panacea that will remove disease

from the old.

When we consider the effects which our own humble efforts as inhabitants

of a distant post have produced in this labor of humanity, have we not

every encouragement to persevere? Is it not an effort sanctioned by the

noblest affections of our nature--by the soundest principles of

philanthropy--by the highest aspirations of Christian benevolence? Is it

not the work of patriots as well as Christians? of good citizens as well

as good neighbors? Is it not a high and imperious duty to rid our land

of the foul stain of intemperance? Is it a duty too hard for us to

accomplish? Is there anything unreasonable in the voluntary obligations

by which we are bound? Shall we lose property or reputation by laboring

in the cause of temperance? Will the debtor be less able to pay his

debts, or the creditor less able to collect them? Shall we injure man,

woman or child, by dashing away the cup of intoxication? Shall we incur

the charge of being denominated fools or madmen? Shall we violate any

principles of morality, or any of the maxims of Christianity? Shall we

run the risk of diminishing the happiness of others, or putting our own

in jeopardy? Finally, shall we injure man--shall we offend God?

If neither of these evils will result--if the highest principles of

virtue and happiness sanction the measure--if learning applauds it, and

religion approves it--if good must result from its success, and injury

cannot accrue from its failure, what further motive need we to impel us

onward, to devote our best faculties in the cause, and neither to faint

nor rest till the modern hydra of intemperance be expelled from our

country?

FOOTNOTES:

[36] Andover.

[37] Dr. Johnson.

[38] Zoonomia.

[39] Robertson's History of America.

[40] Heckewelder's Account of the Indians.

[41] Purchas' Pilgrims, Part iv., book x.

[42] Hackluyt's Voyages.

[43] The murder of Wadin, the cold-blooded assassination of Keveny, and

the shooting of Semple, are appealed to, as justifying the force of this

remark.

[44] The North American Review. Sanford's History of the United States,

before the Revolution.

VENERABLE INDIAN CHIEF.

The Cattaraugus (N. Y.) Whig, of a late date, mentions that Gov.

Blacksnake, the Grand Sachem of the Indian nation, was recently in that

place. He resides on the Allegheny Reservation, about twenty miles from

the village; is the successor of Corn Planter, as chief of the Six

Nations--a nephew of Joseph Brant, and uncle of the celebrated Red

Jacket. He was born near Cayuga Lake in 1749, being now ninety-six years

of age. He was in the battle of Fort Stanwix, Wyoming, &c., and was a

warm friend of Gen. Washington during the Revolution. He was in

Washington's camp forty days at the close of the Revolution--was

appointed chief by him, and now wears suspended from his neck a

beautiful silver medal presented to him by Gen. Washington, bearing date

1796.

FATE OF THE RED RACE IN AMERICA:

THE POLICY PURSUED TOWARDS THEM BY GOVERNMENT, AND THE PRESENT CONDITION

OF THE TRIBES WHO HAVE REMOVED WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.[45]

The removal of the Indian Tribes within our State boundaries, to the

west of the Mississippi, and their present condition and probable

ultimate fate, have been the topic of such frequent speculation,

misunderstanding, and may we not add, misrepresentation, within a few

years past, both at home and abroad, that we suppose some notice of

them, and particularly of the territory they occupy, and the result,

thus far, of their experiment in self-government, drawn from authentic

sources, may prove not unacceptable to the public.

The nomadic and hunter states of society never embraced within

themselves the elements of perpetuity. They have ever existed, indeed,

like a vacuum in the system of nature, which is at every moment in

peril, and subject to be filled up and destroyed by the in-rushing of

the surrounding element. Civilisation is that element, in relation to

non-agricultural and barbaric tribes, and the only question with respect

to their continuance as distinct communities has been, how long they

could resist its influence, and at what particular era this influence

should change, improve, undermine, or destroy them. It is proved by

history, that two essentially different states of society, with regard

to art and civilisation, cannot both prosperously exist together, at the

same time. The one which is in the ascendant will absorb and destroy the

other. A wolf and a lamb are not more antagonistical in the system of

organic being, than civilisation and barbarism, in the great

ethnological impulse of man's diffusion over the globe. In this impulse,

barbarism may temporarily triumph, as we see it has done by many

striking examples in the history of Asia and Europe. But such triumphs

have been attended with this remarkable result, that they have, in the

end, reproduced the civilisation which they destroyed. Such, to quote no

other example, was the effect of the prostration of the Roman type of

civilisation by the warlike and predatory tribes of Northern Europe.

Letters and Christianity were both borne down, for a while, by this

irresistible on-rush; but they were thereby only the more deeply

implanted in the stratum of preparing civilisation; and in due time,

like the grain that rots before it reproduces, sprang up with a vigor

and freshness, which is calculated to be enduring, and to fill the

globe.

[Illustration: SAUKIE AND FOX INDIANS.]

Civilisation may be likened to an absorbent body, placed in contact with

an anti-absorbent, for some of the properties of which it has strong

affinities. It will draw these latter so completely out, that, to use a

strong phrase, it may be said to eat them up. Civilisation is found to

derive some of the means of its perfect development from letters and the

arts, but it cannot permanently exist without the cultivation of the

soil. It seems to have been the fundamental principle on which the

species were originally created, that they should derive their

sustenance and means of perpetuation from this industrial labor.

Wherever agricultural tribes have placed themselves in juxtaposition to

hunters and erratic races, they have been found to withdraw from the

latter the means of their support, by narrowing the limits of the forest

and plains, upon the wild animals of which, both carnivorous and

herbivorous, hunters subsist. When these have been destroyed, the grand

resources of these hunters and pursuers have disappeared. Wars, the

introduction of foreign articles or habits of injurious tendency, may

accelerate the period of their decline--a result which is still further

helped forward by internal dissensions, and the want of that political

foresight by which civil nations exist. But without these, and by the

gradual process of the narrowing down of their hunting grounds, and the

conversion of the dominions of the bow and arrow to those of the plough,

this result must inevitably ensue. There is no principle of either

permanency or prosperity in the savage state.

It is a question of curious and philosophic interest, however, to

observe the varying and very unequal effects, which different types of

civilisation have had upon the wild hordes of men with whom it has come

into contact. And still more, perhaps, to trace the original efficiency,

or effeminacy of the civil type, in the blood of predominating races,

who have been characterized by it. In some of the European stocks this

type has remained nearly stationary since it reached the chivalric era.

In others, it had assumed a deeply commercial tone, and confined itself

greatly to the drawing forth, from the resources of new countries, those

objects which invigorate trade. There is no stock, having claims to a

generic nationality, in which the _principle of progress_ has, from the

outset, been so strongly marked, as in those hardy, brave and athletic

tribes in the north of Europe, for whom the name of Teutons conveys,

perhaps, a more comprehensive meaning, than the comparatively later one

of Saxons. The object of this race appears continually to be, and to

have been, to do more than has previously been done; to give diffusion

and comprehension to designs of improvement, and thus, by perpetually

putting forth new efforts, on the globe, to carry on man to his highest

destiny. The same impulsive aspirations of the spirit of progress, the

same energetic onwardness of principle which overthrew Rome, overthrew,

at another period, the simple institutions of the woad-stained Britons;

and, whatever other aspect it bears, we must attribute to the same

national energy the modern introduction of European civilisation into

Asia.

When these principles come to be applied to America, and to be tested by

its native tribes, we shall clearly perceive their appropriate and

distinctive effects. In South America, where the type of chivalry marked

the discoverers, barbarism has lingered among the natives, without being

destroyed, for three centuries. In Canada, which drew its early

colonists exclusively from the feudal towns and seaports, whose

inhabitants had it for a maxim, that they had done all that was required

of good citizens, when they had done all that had been _previously

done_, the native tribes have remained perfectly stationary. With the

exception of slight changes in dress, and an absolute depreciation in

morals, they are essentially at this day what they were in the

respective eras of Cartier and Champlain. In the native monarchies of

Mexico and Peru, Spain overthrew the gross objects of idolatrous

worship, and intercalated among these tribes the arts and some of the

customs of the 16th century. With a very large proportion of the tribes

but little was attempted beyond military subjugation, and less

accomplished. The seaboard tribes received the ritual of the Romish

church. Many of those in the interior, comprehending the higher ranges

of the Andes and Cordilleras, remain to this day in the undisturbed

practice of their ancient superstitions and modes of subsistence. It is

seen from recent discoveries, that there are vast portions of the

interior of the country, unknown, unexplored and undescribed. We are

just, indeed, beginning to comprehend the true character of the

indigenous Indian civilisation of the era of the discovery. These

remarks are sufficient to show how feebly the obligations of letters and

Christianity have been performed, with respect to the red men, by the

colonists of those types of the early European civilisation, who rested

themselves on feudal tenures, military renown, and an ecclesiastical

system of empty ceremonies.

It was with very different plans and principles that North America was

colonized. We consider the Pilgrims as the embodiment of the true

ancient Teutonic type. Their Alaric and Brennus were found in the pulpit

and in the school-room. They came with high and severe notions of civil

and religious liberty. It was their prime object to sustain themselves,

not by conquest, but by cultivating the soil. To escape an

ecclesiastical tyranny at home, they were willing to venture themselves

in new climes. But they meant to triumph in the arts of peace. They

embarked with the Bible as their shield and sword, and they laid its

principles at the foundation of all their institutions, civil, literary,

industrial, and ecclesiastic. They were pious and industrious

themselves, and they designed to make the Indian tribes so. They bought

their lands and paid for them, and proceeded to establish friendly

neighborhoods among the tribes. Religious truth, as it is declared in

the Gospel, was the fundamental principle of all their acts. In its

exposition and daily use, they followed no interpretations of councils

at variance with its plain import. This every one was at liberty to

read.

Placed side by side with such an enlightened and purposed race, what had

the priests of the system of native rites and superstitions to expect?

There could be no compromise of rites--no partial conformity--no giving

up a part to retain the rest--as had been done in the plains of Central

America, Mexico and Yucatan. No toleration of pseudo-paganism, as had

been done on the waters of the Orinoco, the Parana and the Paraguay.

They must abandon the system at once. The error was gross and total.

They must abjure it. They had mistaken darkness for light; and they were

now offered the light. They had worshipped Lucifer instead of Immanuel.

This the tribes who spread along the shores of the North Atlantic were

told, and nothing was held back. They founded churches and established

schools among them. They translated the entire Bible, and the version of

David's Psalms, and the Hymns of Dr. Watts, into one of their languages.

Two types of the human race, more fully and completely antagonistical,

in all respects, never came in contact on the globe. They were the alpha

and omega of the ethnological chain. If, therefore, the Red Race

declined, and the white increased, it was because civilisation had more

of the principles of endurance and progress than barbarism; because

Christianity was superior to paganism; industry to idleness; agriculture

to hunting; letters to hieroglyphics; truth to error. Here lie the true

secrets of the Red Men's decline.

There are but three principal results which, we think, the civilized

world could have anticipated for the race, at the era of the discovery.

1. They might be supposed to be subject to early extermination on the

coasts, where they were found. A thousand things would lead to this,

which need not be mentioned. Intemperance and idleness alone were

adequate causes. 2. Philanthropists and Christians might hope to reclaim

them, either in their original positions on the coasts, or in

agricultural communities in adjacent parts. 3. Experience and forecast

might indicate a third result, in which full success should attend

neither of the foregoing plans, nor yet complete failure. There was

nothing, exactly, in the known history of mankind, to guide opinion. A

mixed condition of things was the most probable result. And this, it

might be anticipated, would be greatly modified by times and seasons,

circumstances and localities, acting on particular tribes. Nothing less

could have been expected but the decline and extinction of some tribe,

whilst the removal of others, to less exposed positions, would be found

to tell upon their improvement. The effects of letters and Christianity

would necessarily be slow; but they were effects, which the history of

discovery and civilisation, in other parts of the world, proved to be

effective and practical. What was this mixed condition to eventuate

in?--how long was it to continue? Were the tribes to exercise sovereign

political jurisdiction over the tracts they lived on? Were they to

submit to the civilized code, and if so, to the penal code only, or also

to the civil? Or, if not, were they to exist by amalgamation with the

European stocks, and thus contribute the elements of a new race? These,

and many other questions, early arose, and were often not a little

perplexing to magistrates, legislatures, and governors. It was evident

the aboriginal race possessed distinctive general rights, but these

existed contemporaneously, or intermixed with the rights of the

discoverers. How were these separate rights to be defined? How were the

weak to be protected, and the strong to be restrained, at points beyond

the ordinary pale of the civil law? If a red man killed a white, without

the ordinary jurisdiction of the courts, could he be seized as a

criminal? And if so, were civil offences, committed without the

jurisdiction of either territory, cognizable in either, or neither?

Could there be a supremacy within a supremacy? And what was the limit

between State and United States laws? Such were among the topics

entering into the Indian policy. It was altogether a mixed system, and

like most mixed systems, it worked awkwardly, confusedly, and sometimes

badly. Precedents were to be established for new cases, and these were

perpetually subject to variation. Legislators, judges, and executive

officers were often in doubt, and it required the wisest, shrewdest, and

best men in the land to resolve these doubts, and to lay down rules, or

advice, for future proceeding in relation to the Red Race. It will be

sufficient to bear out the latter remark, to say, that among the sages

who deemed this subject important, were a Roger Williams, a Penn, a

Franklin, a Washington, a Jefferson, a Monroe, a Crawford, and a

Calhoun.

It must needs have happened, that where the Saxon race went, the

principles of law, justice, and freedom, must prevail. These principles,

as they existed in England at the beginning of the sixteenth century,

were transferred to America, with the Cavaliers, the Pilgrims, and the

Quakers, precisely, as to the two first topics, as they existed at home.

Private rights were, as well secured, and public justice as well awarded

here, as there. But they also brought over the aristocratic system,

which was upheld by the royal governors, who were the immediate

representatives of the crown. The doctrine was imprescriptible, that the

fee of all public or unpatented lands was in the crown, and all

inhabitants of the realm owed allegiance and fealty to the crown. This

doctrine, when applied to the native tribes of America, left them

neither fee-simple in the soil, nor political sovereignty over it. It

cut them down to vassals, but, by a legal solecism, they were regarded

as a sort of free vassals. So long as the royal governments remained,

they had the usufruct of the public domain--the right of fishing, and

hunting, and planting upon it, and of doing certain other acts of

occupancy; but this right ceased just as soon, and as fast, as patents

were granted, or the public exigency required the domain. The native

chiefs were quieted with presents from the throne, through the local

officers, and their ideas of independence and control were answered by

the public councils, in which friendships were established, and the

public tranquillity looked after. Private purchases were made from the

outset, but the idea of a public treaty of purchase of the soil under

the proprietary and royal governors, was not entertained before the era

of William Penn.

It remained for the patriots of 1775, who set up the frame of our

present government, by an appeal to arms, to award the aboriginal tribes

the full proprietary right to the soil they respectively occupied, and

to guarantee to them its full and free use, until such right was

relinquished by treaty stipulations. So far, they were acknowledged as

sovereigns. This is the first step in their political exaltation, and

dates, in our records, from the respective treaties of Fort Pitt,

September 17, 1778, and of Fort Stanwix, of October 22, 1784. The latter

was as early after the establishment of our independence, as these

tribes--the Six nations, who, with the exception of the Oneidas, sided

with the parent country--could be brought to listen to the terms of

peace. They were followed by the Wyandots, Delawares, and Chippewas, and

Ottowas, in January, 1785; by the Cherokees, in November of the same

year; and by the Choctaws and Shawnees, in January, 1786. Other western

nations followed in 1789; the Creeks did not treat till 1790. And from

this era, the system has been continued up to the present moment. It may

be affirmed, that there is not an acre of land of the public domain of

the United States, sold at the land offices, from the days of General

Washington, but what has been acquired in this manner. War, in which we

and they have been frequently involved, since that period, has conveyed

no _territorial right_. We have conquered them, on the field, not to

usurp territory, but to place them in a condition to observe how much

more their interests and permanent prosperity would be, and have ever

been, promoted by the plough than the sword. And there has been a prompt

recurrence, at every mutation from war to peace, punctually, to that

fine sentiment embraced in the _first_ article of the _first_ treaty

ever made between the American government and the Indian tribes, namely,

that all offences and animosities "shall be mutually forgiven, and

buried in deep oblivion, and never more be had in remembrance."[46]

The first step to advance the aboriginal man to his natural and just

political rights, namely, the acknowledgment of his _right to the soil_,

we have mentioned; but those that were to succeed it were more difficult

and complex in their bearings. Congress, from the earliest traces of

their action, as they appear in their journals and public acts, confined

the operation of the civil code to the territory actually acquired by

negotiation, and treaties duly ratified by the Senate, and proclaimed,

agreeably to the Constitution, by the President. So much of this public

territory as fell within the respective _State lines_, fell, by the

terms of our political compact, under _State laws_, and the jurisdiction

of the State courts; and as soon as new tracts of the Indian territory,

thus within State boundaries, were acquired, the State laws had an exact

corresponding extension until the whole of such Indian lands had been

acquired. This provided a definite and clear mode of action, and if it

were sometimes the subject of doubt or confliction, such perplexity

arose from the great extension of the country, its sparsely settled

condition, and the haste or ignorance of local magistrates. And these

difficulties were invariably removed whenever the cases came into the

Supreme Court of the United States.

Without regard to the area of the States, but including and having

respect only to the territories, and to the vast and unincorporated

wilderness, called the "Indian country," Congress provided a _special

code_ of laws, and from the first, held over this part of the Union, and

holds over it now, full and complete jurisdiction. This code was

designed chiefly to regulate the trade carried on at those remote points

between the white and red men, to preserve the public tranquillity, and

to provide for the adjudication of offences. Citizens of the United

States, carrying the passport, license, or authority of their

government, are protected by their papers thus legally obtained; and the

tribes are held answerable for their good treatment, and if violence

occur, for their lives. No civil process, however, has efficacy in such

positions; and there is no compulsory legal collection of debts, were it

indeed practicable, on the Indian territories. The customs and usages of

the trade and intercourse, as established from early times, prevail

there. These customs are chiefly founded on the patriarchal system,

which was found in vogue on the settlement of the country, and they

admit of compensations and privileges founded on natural principles of

equity and right. The Indian criminal code, whatever that is, also

prevails there. The only exception to it arises from cases of Americans,

maliciously killed within the "Indian country," the laws of Congress

providing, that the aggressors should be surrendered into the hands of

justice, and tried by the nearest United States courts.

These preliminary facts will exhibit some of the leading features of the

mixed system alluded to. Its workings were better calculated for the

early stages of society, while population was sparse and the two races,

as bodies, kept far apart, than for its maturer periods. As the

intervening lands became ceded, and sold, and settled, and the tribes

themselves began to put on aspects of civilisation, the discrepancies of

the system, and its want of homogeneousness and harmony, became more

apparent. Throughout the whole period of the administrations of

Washington, and John Adams, and Jefferson, a period of twenty years, the

low state of our population, and the great extent and unreclaimed

character of the public domain, left the Indians undisturbed, and no

questions of much importance occurred to test the permanency of the

system as regards the welfare of the Indians. Mr. Jefferson foresaw,

however, the effect of encroachments beyond the Ohio, and with an

enlightened regard for the race and their civilisation, prepared a new

and consolidated code of all prior acts, with some salutary new

provisions, which had the effect to systematize the trade and

intercourse, and more fully to protect the rights of the Indians. This

code served, with occasional amendments, through the succeeding

administrations of Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams, into that of

General Jackson, when, in 1834, the greatly advanced line of the

frontiers, the multiplied population, and necessarily increased force of

the Indian department, and the large amount of Indian annuities to be

paid, called for its thorough revision, and a new general enactment was

made.

Previously, however, to this time, during the administration of Mr.

Monroe, it was perceived that the Indian tribes, as separate

communities, living in, and surrounded by, people of European descent,

and governed by a widely different system of laws, arts, and customs,

could not be expected to arrive at a state of permanent prosperity while

thus locally situated. The tendency of the Saxon institutions, laws, and

jurisprudence, was to sweep over them. The greater must needs absorb the

less. And there appeared, on wise and mature reflection, no reasonable

hope to the true friends of the native race, that they could sustain

themselves in independency or success as foreign elements in the midst

of the State communities. It was impossible that two systems of

governments, so diverse as the Indian and American, should co-exist on

the same territory. All history proved this. The most rational hope of

success for this race, the only one which indeed appeared practical on a

scale commensurate with the object, was to remove them, with their own

consent, to a position entirely without the boundaries of the State

jurisdictions, where they might assert their political sovereignty, and

live and develope their true national character, under their own laws.

The impelling cause for the action of the government, during Mr.

Monroe's administration, was the peculiar condition of certain tribes,

living on their own original territories, within the State boundaries,

and who were adverse to further cessions of such territory. The

question assumed its principal interest in the State of Georgia, within

which portions of the Creek and Cherokee tribes were then living. About

ten millions of acres of lands were thus in the occupancy of these two

tribes. As the population of Georgia expanded and approached the Indian

settlements, the evils of the mixed political system alluded to began

strongly to evince themselves. In the progress of the dispersion of the

human race over the globe, there never was, perhaps, a more diverse

legal, political, and moral amalgamation attempted, than there was found

to exist, when, in this area, the descendants from the old Saxons,

north-men and Hugenots from Europe, came in contact with the descendants

(we speak of a theory) of the idle, pastoral, unphilosophic,

non-inductive race of central Asia, living in the genial climate and

sunny valleys of Georgia and Alabama.

The American government had embarrassed itself by stipulating at an

early day, with the State of Georgia, to extinguish the Indian title

within her boundaries, at the earliest practicable period, when it could

be done "peaceably and on reasonable conditions." The Indians, as they

advanced in agriculture, became averse to sell. The Georgians, as they

increased in numbers, became importunate for the territory to which they

had, in this event, the reversionary right. The President was frequently

importuned by the State authorities. The Indians were frequently brought

to consider the subject, which was one that increased its importance

with years.

We have deemed it proper to put this matter in its right attitude in

relation to the great question of Indian removal; and as furnishing, as

it did, reasons for the early consideration and action of the

government. It is not our intention to pursue the Georgia question

disjunctively--we have neither time nor space for it here, and will only

further premise, that it is susceptible of some very different views

from those often premised of it.[47] That it was one of the prominent

considerations which led the administration of Monroe to take up betimes

the general question of the Indian tribes, is well known and remembered,

and apparent from a perusal of the public documents of the era.

Governed by such considerations, Mr. Monroe communicated a special

message to Congress on the 27th of January, 1825, recommending the

removal of all the tribes within the States and Territories, and

providing for their future "location and government." This is the

official date and foundation of the plan of removal, which has been so

generally, and may we not add, so successfully and propitiously to the

best interests of the tribes, carried into effect. "Being deeply

impressed with the opinion," observes this venerated statesman, who has,

years since, gone to join the patriot spirits who achieved our

independence--"that the removal of the Indian tribes from the land which

they now occupy, within the limits of the several States and

Territories, to the country lying westward and northward thereof, within

our acknowledged boundaries, is of very high importance to the Union,

and may be accomplished on conditions, and in a manner, to promote the

interests and happiness of those tribes, the attention of the government

has been long drawn, with great solicitude, to the object.

"For the removal of the tribes within the limits of the State of

Georgia, the motive has been peculiarly strong, arising from the compact

with that State, whereby the United States are bound to extinguish the

Indian title to the lands within it, whenever it may be done peaceably,

and on reasonable conditions.

"In the fulfilment of this compact, I have thought that the United

States should act with a generous spirit, that they should omit nothing

which should comport with a liberal construction of the instrument, and

likewise be in accordance with the just rights of those tribes. From the

view which I have taken of the subject, I am satisfied that, in the

discharge of these important duties, in regard to both the parties

alluded to, the United States will have to encounter no conflicting

interests with either: on the contrary, that the removal of the tribes

from the Territories which they inhabit, to that which was designated in

the message at the commencement of the session, which would accomplish

the object for Georgia, under a well digested plan for their government

and civilisation, in a mode agreeable to themselves, would not only

shield them from impending ruin, but promote their welfare and

happiness. _Experience has clearly demonstrated that, in their present

state, it is impossible to incorporate them, in such masses, in any form

whatever, into our system. It has also demonstrated, with equal

certainty, that without a timely anticipation of, and provision against,

the dangers to which they are exposed, under causes which it will be

difficult, if not impossible, to control, their degradation and

extermination will be inevitable._"

We have underscored the last two sentences, because they express in

forcible and just language, the experience of the American government,

in relation to the subject, after an experiment of fifty years, dating

from '75, and lie, indeed, at the foundation of the present Indian

policy. It is also the experience of sound and calm observers, who have

watched the operation of our laws and customs upon the isolated Indian

communities in the States. Every year has exemplified the futility of

raising them up to the European standard in industry, in intelligence or

character, while thus situated; nor indeed, has it been practicable to

shield them effectually against the combined effects of intemperance,

personal sloth, and of popular and vulgar contumely.

Mr. Calhoun, whose report on the subject was transmitted to Congress,

with the message above named, communicates the details essential to the

execution of the proposed plan. He states the whole number of Indians to

be removed from the States and Territories, excluding those located west

and north of Lake Michigan and the Straits of St. Mary's, at 97,000

souls, who occupy about 77 millions of acres of land. The country

proposed for their location is that stretching immediately west, beyond

the boundaries of the States of MISSOURI and ARKANSAS, having the River

Arkansas running through its centre from west to east, the Missouri and

Red rivers respectively as the northern boundary, and the vast grassy

plains east of the Rocky Mountains, as its western limit.

The map which we publish of this territory, is drawn on the basis of one

which was published by Congress in 1834, in illustration of the report

of the committee on Indian affairs of May 30th of that session. It

embraces all the locations of tribes to that period.

The plan proposed the gratuitous grant of the country to the respective

tribes, and their removal to it at government expense. It embraces the

transference to it, of their schools established by religious societies,

and supported, in part, by the civilisation fund, and all their means of

moral and religious culture. It is based on the pursuit of agriculture,

the mechanic arts, and the raising of cattle and stock. It invests the

tribes with full power of making and executing all their laws and

regulations, civil and criminal. It stipulates military protection, to

keep the surrounding tribes at peace. It leaves them their political

sovereignty; being without the boundary of the States, under their own

chiefs and local governors, with such aids as are necessary to enable

the various tribes to associate and set up the frame of an associated

government to be managed by themselves, and as subsequently proposed in

Congress, to be represented in that body whenever the system shall be

perfected so as to justify this measure. It proposed, as the basis of

removal, a solemn act of Congress, guaranteeing the country to them, and

excluding its future incorporation into the States. A second location,

in the northern latitudes, was proposed for the Indians west of

Michigan, where a further body of 32,266 souls were estimated to reside.

Such were the general principles of Mr. Monroe's plan, submitted in

1825, and subsequently adopted by Congress, in its essential features.

It has now been in operation EIGHTEEN YEARS, and it is proposed, in

bringing this paper to a close, briefly to examine the condition and

prospects of the expatriated tribes, in the country to which they have

been transferred.

By a report from the proper department, transmitted to Congress with

the President's message in 1836, the result of the first ten years'

experiment is shown to have been the actual migration of 40,000 from

their original seats, east, to the allotted Indian territory, west of

the Mississippi. Of this number, 18,000 were Creeks, 15,000 Choctaws,

6,000 Cherokees, 2,000 Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pottowattomies, 1,300

Shawnees, 800 Delawares, 500 Quapaws, 400 Seminoles, 600 Kickapoos, 400

Senecas, and an average of, say 250 each, of Appalachicolas, Weas,

Piankashaws, Peorias and Kaskaskias. In this statement, small fractions

over or under, are omitted. A location and permanent home has been

provided for seventeen tribes and parts of tribes; a number which, in

the succeeding seven years, we speak from documents before us, has been

largely augmented. The whole body of the Cherokees, of the Creeks, or

Muscogees, of the Chickasaws and Choctaws, &c., and also, with the

exception of one principal band, of the Seminoles, have been removed.

Portions of other tribes, not then full, have joined their kindred; and

some whole tribes, who had not before come into the arrangement, and

ceded their lands east, as the Miamas of the Wabash, and the Wyandots of

Sanduskey, have since accepted locations in the Indian territory. The

Chickasaws are all located with their affiliated countrymen, the

Choctaws; and numbers of the ancient Iroquois confederacy, the Six

Nations of New York, as well as the ancient Mohegans and Munsees, have,

within a few years, selected locations south of the Missouri. The entire

number of red men now concentrated on those plains and valleys, where

winter scarcely exerts any severity of power, may be set down at 77,000

souls, leaving, from the official report of 1841, but 21,774 of the

original estimated number of 1825, to be removed; exclusive of those

west of the straits of Michilimackinac and St. Mary's.

From the documents accompanying the annual report transmitted to

Congress by the President, in December, 1840, the amount of funds

invested by the government in stocks, for the Indians, was $2,580,000,

on which the annual interest paid to them was $131,05. Twenty-four of

the tribes had permanently appropriated, by treaty, $60,730 per annum,

for the purpose of education. The number of schools maintained, and the

number of pupils actually taught, are not furnished. It is gratifying to

know, from this source, that civilisation, agriculture, and the mechanic

arts, are making a rapid progress, and that education and Christianity

are walking hand-in-hand. Planting and raising cattle are adopted

generally. Portions of the most advanced tribes have devoted themselves

to the mechanic arts, supplying themselves, to a limited extent, with

smiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, and joiners, and some other branches.

Spinning and hand-loom weaving are practised to some extent. There are

native merchants, among the three principal southern tribes, who ship

their own cotton and other products to market, and supply their people,

in return, with such products of the East and West Indies, and other

parts of the world, as they require. A large part of the contracts,

particularly for Indian corn, required to subsist the United States

troops in that quarter of the Union, is furnished by native contractors.

Their legislation is performed in representative councils, and is well

adapted to the actual and advancing state of society. Many of their

leading men are well educated; some of them classically; and the general

moral and intellectual tone and habits of the tribes, are clearly and

strikingly on the advance. It requires, it is believed, but time and

perseverance in civil associations, to lead them to the same results

arrived at by other barbarous nations, and to demonstrate to them the

value and importance of a general political confederation, founded on

the principles of equal rights and equal representation, supported by

public virtue and intelligence.

Having sketched the cause of the decline of that portion of the North

American Indians, who were seated along the Atlantic, and the plan

proposed for checking it, we shall now, with the map and documentary

evidence before us, devote a few moments to the present condition and

prospects of the more prominent tribes.

1. The Choctaws, beginning at the extreme south of the territory, are

the first in position. They occupy the country above the State of

Arkansas, extending from the Arkansas to the Red river, following up the

Canadian branch of the former, comprising an area of about 150 miles in

breadth, by 200 in length. They are bounded by Texas south-west. The

country is well adapted for grain and the raising of stock, in its

middle and northern parts, and for cotton on the south. Many of the

natives have large fields, where, but a few years since, the forest was

untouched. Saw mills, grist mills, and cotton gins, are either erecting

or erected throughout the country. Salt is manufactured by an

intelligent Choctaw. Iron ore has been found, and specimens of gold have

been picked up in various places.

This tribe is governed by a written constitution and laws. Their

territory is divided into three districts, each of which elects, once in

four years, a ruling chief, and ten representatives. The general

council, thus constituted, and consisting of thirty councillors, meets

annually, on the first Monday in October. Voters must be Choctaws, of

age, and residents of the districts. The three chiefs have a joint veto

power on all laws passed; but two-thirds of the council may re-pass them

after such rejection.

The council of thirty appoint their own speaker and clerk, and keep a

journal. They meet in a large and commodious council-house, fitted up

with seats for members and spectators, and committee rooms. Their

sessions are, usually, about ten days in duration. They are paid two

dollars per diem for their services, out of public funds.

In addition to this evidence of capacity for self-government, there are

judicial districts established, the right of trial by jury is secured,

and there is an appeal to the highest tribunal. All the males, of a

special age, are subject to do military duty: for this purpose the

territory is subdivided into thirty two captaincies, the whole being

placed under the orders of a general. The council has passed many good

and wholesome laws; among them, one against intemperance and the sale of

ardent spirits. The collection of debts is at present not compulsory,

being regulated by questions of credit, punctuality, and honor, which

are to be adjusted between the buyer and seller. The country is too

sparsely settled, and the popular odium against incarceration too

strong, to permit a resort to it. Thus, it will be seen, this tribe

exhibit in their frame of government the elements of a representative

republic, not a pure democracy, with perhaps sufficient conservative

power to guard against sudden popular effervescence.

The Choctaws have twelve public schools, established by treaty

stipulations with the United States. There are several missionaries

amongst them, of the Presbyterian and Methodist denominations, whose

labors are reported by the public agents to be beneficial, and

calculated to advance their condition. There are four public blacksmith

shops, two of which are exclusively worked by the natives. The strikers,

or assistants, at all the shops, are natives. Shops have also been

erected, in various parts of the nation, which are occupied only in the

spring and summer, in planting and crop time. The mechanics in these are

natives, who are paid, not by the individuals requiring aid, but out of

public funds. The nation has an academy located in Scott county,

Kentucky, at which 125 students were taught in 1839 and 1840. This

institution is now in the process of being established in their own

territory. This tribe we learn by the Secretary of War's report,

appropriated $18,000 of their annuities, in 1843, to educational

purposes.

2. Chickasaws. This tribe is of the same lineage as the Choctaws; and,

by a compact with the latter, they occupy the same territory, and live

intermixed with them. It constitutes a part of this compact, that the

Chickasaws are to concentrate their population, and form a fourth

election district, which shall be entitled to elect ten representatives,

and three senatorial chiefs, to the national Council. The aggregate

amount of the vested funds of this tribe, in 1840, was $515,230 44; of

which $146,000 is devoted to orphans. The annual interest paid by the

government is $27,063 83. They participate equally in the advantages of

the Choctaw academy, and have had many of their youth educated at that

institution.

3. Next, in geographical position, to the united Choctaws and

Chickasaws, are the Muskogees, who are more generally known under the

name of Creeks. They occupy a territory one hundred and fifty miles in

length, by ninety in breadth. They are bounded on the south by the

Canadian fork of the Arkansas, and by the district of the Seminoles,

which lies between the main branch of this stream and its north fork.

Their territory reaches to a point opposite the junction of the Neosho,

and is protracted thence north to the Cherokee boundary. It is a rich

tract, well adapted to the growth of corn, vegetables, and esculents,

and the raising of stock. It is not as abundantly watered by running

streams as some of the tracts, or rather, it is a characteristic of its

smaller streams that they run dry, or stand in pools, during the latter

part of summer. In place of these, it has some good springs. The main

and the north fork of the Canadian are exemptions from the effects of

summer drouth. In point of salubrity, the country is not inferior to

other portions of the Indian territory.

The government of the Creeks is still essentially the same which they

exercised on the banks of the Chattahoochee and the plains of Georgia.

They exist in chieftainships, each head of which has his own local

jurisdiction, civil and criminal. Each ruling chief has his village and

his adherents; and the condition of things partakes of what we shall be

understood by designating feudal traits. They have no written

constitution; their laws are, however, now reduced in part to writing.

General councils, or conventions, not exact in the period of their

occurrence, consider and decide all general questions. At these, the

chieftainships are all entitled to representation. Local questions, of

right and police, come before the local chiefs, and are settled

according to usage. They adhere to the original mode of working common

or town fields, at which it is the duty of all to assist, both in the

original clearing and in the annual labor of planting and reaping. There

are also individuals, possessing slaves, who manage pretty extensive

plantations. More corn is raised by this tribe than by any other now

located West. Over and above their own wants, they have for several

years had a large amount for sale and exportation. Less attention has

been paid to the raising of stock, for which, indeed, the country has

been deemed less propitious; but this branch of industry has of late

years attracted more attention.

The Creeks had, for many years prior to their removal, been divided into

_upper and lower towns_--a distinction which has been transferred to the

West. Opothleyoholo is the chief of the Upper, and Roly McIntosh of the

Lower Creeks. These two chieftainships embrace the lesser ones, and

divide the nation into two parties. It was the Lower towns, headed by

the father of the present chief (whose tragic death we have mentioned),

that ceded the Georgian territory, and thus sided in the policy of that

State. The condition in which this tribe existed, in portions of

Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, was, in other respects, peculiar. In

emerging, as they were well in the process of doing, from the _hunter_

to the _agricultural_ state, the institution of slavery, by which they

were surrounded, and in which they participated, gave a peculiar

development to their industry. Chiefs, who were averse to work

themselves, employed slaves, and thus the relation of planter and slave

was established long before the question of their removal occurred. The

effects of this were to exalt a portion of the nation above, and to

depress others below, the average standing. The disparity which took

place in laborious habits and in wealth, also impressed itself on

education, dress, manners, and information generally. Although the idea

of slavery was well known to the red race from the earliest times, and

they all have a word for it, in their native vocabularies, and practised

it on their prisoners, yet the result we are considering was accelerated

by an admixture of European blood in their chieftains. Hence it is that

this tribe, and one or two others in the south, have for years been able

to put forth intelligent chiefs to transact their public business, who

have astonished the circles at Washington. Yet, if they were followed to

the huts of the common people, at home, there was a degree of ignorance

and barbarity, even below the standard of our leading northern tribes.

Two kinds of testimony, respecting the condition of the southern tribes,

both very different, and both true, could therefore be given.

The Creeks came west, soured and disappointed, and but little disposed

for the effort before them. They had suffered in various ways, and they

had left the southern slopes and sunny valleys of the southern

Alleganies with "a longing, lingering look." They had never manifested a

general interest in schools, and none whatever in religion. The latter

is still the prevalent feeling. It is believed there is not a missionary

now tolerated among them. There is a more friendly feeling towards

education. Neither had they made much advance in mechanic arts. The

chiefs were too proud, the common people too indolent, to learn the use

of the saw or the hammer. Some change, in this respect, is thought to

have ensued. Mechanics are employed for their benefit and at their

charges, by the government, which must introduce the elements of

mechanical industry. They dress in a rather gaudy, but picturesque

manner. They live in comfortable houses of squared or scored logs,

fitted up with useful articles of furniture, and they employ beasts of

burthen and of pleasure. It is the evidence of the government agents,

that the signs of advancing thrift and industry are among them. Time

alone, it is believed, is necessary, with a perseverance in present

efforts, to carry them onwards to civilisation and prosperity.[48]

4. Seminoles. This tribe is of the language and lineage of the Creeks.

They are appropriately placed on a tract within the general area of the

latter, bounded on the south by the Canadian fork of the Arkansas, and

by the lands of the Choctaws and Chickasaws. The tract has an extent of

seventy miles from east to west, and is fully adequate to their wants. A

blacksmith's shop is maintained for them; they are furnished with

agricultural implements, and have been gratuitously subsisted, as other

tribes, one year, at the public expense. It is thought to be unfavorable

to their progress, that they have been allowed to migrate with their

slaves, who are averse to labor and exert a paralysing influence on

their industry. This tribe is far behind the other southern tribes in

civilisation and manners. They occupied, while in Florida, a region

truly tropical in its climate, and which yielded spontaneously no

unimportant part of their subsistence, in the arrowroot and in sea fish.

Their chief product thus far, in the west, has been corn. They live

under the authority of local chiefs, who, as in all their past history,

exercise influence in proportion to their talents and courage. Their

withdrawal from scenes and situations which served as nurseries of idle,

savage habits, and their association with the other leading tribes, who

are now bent on supporting themselves exclusively by agriculture, have

been favorable. They have been at peace since their arrival on the

waters of the Arkansas; and it is anticipated that they will, by example

and emulation, assimilate themselves in industry with the pre-existing

tribes. It has already been demonstrated that they will sustain

themselves in their new field of labor. But few of their numbers--from

the last accounts not exceeding 100[49]--now remain in Florida.

5. Cherokees. This tribe is prominent among the native stocks in the

United States, and is foremost in the efforts it has made to take rank

among civilized nations. In this effort it has passed through some

severe and tragic ordeals from internal dissensions, from which it would

seem, that in proportion as the prize is brought within their grasp, are

the trials multiplied which delay its seizure. And, notwithstanding its

strong claims to consideration on this head, they have, it must be

admitted, much to attain. The original position of the Cherokees, in the

valleys and the western spurs of the Alleganies, and remote from the

disturbing causes which agitated the other tribes, was highly favorable

to their increase and advance. No tribe in North America had remained so

completely undisturbed, by red or white men, up to the year 1836. They

were early, and to a considerable extent, cultivators; and whatever they

were in ancient times, they have been a nation at peace, for a long

period. Soon after the close of the late war of 1812, a portion of this

tribe went over the Mississippi, and, by a compact with government,

placed themselves between the waters of the White river and the

Arkansas. This advance formed the nucleus of that political party, who

have mingled in their recent assemblies under the name of Western

Cherokees, and who deemed themselves to be entitled to some rights and

considerations above the Eastern Cherokees. The principal dissensions,

however, grew out of the question of the cession of the territory east

of the Mississippi. This was a broad question of _sale_ or _no sale_,

_emigration_ or _non-emigration_. At the head of the affirmative party

was Ridge; at the head of the negative, Ross. The latter, in addition to

his being the leading chief and most prominent man, was in a large

majority, and, for a time, successfully resisted the measure. The former

drew a number of the best educated chiefs and men to his side. Availing

himself of the temporary absence of his antagonist, Ross, from the

country, he ceded the country, and sealed the fate of his tribe east of

the Mississippi. It was a minority treaty, but the consideration was

ample; it secured large prospective advantages, besides a large and rich

domain in the West. It was, therefore, sustained by the government; the

U. S. Senate ratified it, adding some further immunities and further

compensation, at the instance of Ross. The tribe was removed, but it

went west with a deadly feud. In the end, Ridge, like McIntosh, paid for

his temerity with his life. A representative government was set up,

consisting of a house of delegates or representatives, annually chosen

by districts; a senatorial council, with powers of revision or

co-action, and an executive elective head. A code of laws has been

adopted, and a judiciary created to carry them into effect. This system,

which has been in operation some six or seven years, has been found

adequate to sustain itself through scenes of severe trial; and it must

be regarded as one which, modified as it may be, is destined to endure.

The territory of the Cherokees is between that of the Creeks and Osages.

It is ample beyond their wants, fertile, and generally well watered. The

Arkansas crosses it centrally; it has the Neosho and the State of

Arkansas as its eastern boundary. It is well adapted to the cereal

grains. Corn, wheat and oats succeed well, together with melons and

culinary vegetables of all descriptions. The Cherokees have been long

accustomed to husbandry. They own large stocks of horses, cattle, hogs

and sheep. They occupy substantial and comfortable houses. Many of their

females spin and weave, and numbers of their people are clothed in their

own manufactures. Well improved farms extend through their settlements.

A number of their merchants are natives, who buy and sell produce, and

import foreign merchandise. Reading and writing are common attainments.

They have schools and churches. They have mills for grinding grain. They

manufacture salt to a limited extent. The country yields stone coal and

gypsum. The prairies, which are interspersed through the tract, yield a

fine summer range for cattle, and produce a species of grass, which,

when properly cured, is little inferior to timothy. With a country

which has thus the elements of prosperity in itself, and an intelligent

and industrious population, this tribe must, ere long, present the

gratifying spectacle of a civilized race.

6. The Osages. This tribe is indigenous, and formerly owned a large part

of the territory which is now assigned to others. Their habits and

condition have been, however, but little benefited by the use which they

have made of their annuities. Great exertions have been made by the

local agents to induce them to give up their erratic mode of life, and

become agriculturists. To this end stock and agricultural implements

have been furnished them, and other facilities given, but without any

general effects. Among these may be named the building of mills, and the

erection of well built cabins for their chiefs. There is no tribe to

which the term predatory may be so appropriately applied as to the

Osages. They have, from an early day, been plunderers on that frontier,

among red and white men. Possessing a large territory, formerly well

supplied with the deer, elk and buffalo, powerful in numbers, courageous

in spirit, and enjoying one of the finest climates, these early

predatory habits have been transmitted to the present day. They are loth

to relinquish this wild license of the prairies--the so-called freedom

of the roving Indian. But it is a species of freedom which the

settlement of Missouri and Arkansas, and the in-gathering of the

semi-civilized tribes from the south and the north, has greatly

restricted. Game has become comparatively scarce. The day of the hunter

is well nigh past in those longitudes. When to this is added the example

of the expatriated Indians, in tillage and grazing, their field labors

in fencing and erecting houses, their improved modes of dress, their

schools, and their advanced state of government and laws, the hope may

be indulged that the Osages will also be stimulated to enter for the

prize of civilisation.

Such are the six principal tribes who form the nucleus, or, to use a

military phrase, the right wing of the expatriated aboriginal

population, as the bands are arranged in their order from south to

north, in the trans-Ozark or Indian territory. It would afford us

pleasure to devote some separate considerations to each of the remaining

nineteen tribes and half tribes, or remnants and pioneers of tribes, who

make up this imposing and interesting colony, where, for the first time

since the settlement of the Continent, the Indian race is presented in

an independent, compact, and prosperous condition. But it would

manifestly extend this article beyond its just limits, and we must

therefore generalize our remaining notices.

We still, however, adhere to a geographical method. The Senecas from

Sandusky, and the mixed Senecas and Shawnees, are situated north-east of

the Cherokees, and between the latter and the western boundary of

Missouri. They possess a hundred thousand acres of choice lands. The

Sanduskies number 251 souls; the mixed band, 222. They are represented

as farmers and stock-raisers, frugal, industrious, and less addicted to

intemperance than their neighbors. They cultivated, in 1839, from two

hundred and fifty to three hundred acres of corn. They have a

blacksmith's shop, under treaty stipulations, and possess good stocks of

horses, cattle, and hogs. The Quapaws adjoin the Senecas and Shawnees on

the north, and, as the latter, have their lands fronting on the Neosho.

This band formerly owned and ceded the south banks of the Arkansas from

its mouth as high as the Canadian fork. They are indolent, much addicted

to the use of ardent spirits, and depressed in numbers. They have a

tract of 96,000 acres. They cultivate, generally, about one hundred

acres of corn, in a slovenly manner. Part of their numbers are seated on

the waters of Red River, and the Indian predilection for rowing is

nourished by the frequent habit of passing to and fro. This erratic

habit is an unerring test of the hunter state.

The Piankashaws and Weas are of the Miami stock, and came from the

waters of the Wabash. They are located on 255 sections, immediately west

of the western boundary of Missouri, and about 40 miles south of the

Konza. Their population is 384, of which 222 are Weas. Immediately west

of them are the Peorias and Kaskaskias of the Illinois family. They

number 132, and possess 150 sections, which gives an average of more

than a square mile to each soul. Still west of these, are the Ottowas of

Ohio, about 200 in number, and above them, a small band of 61 of the

Chippewas of Swan Creek and Black River in Michigan. These locations are

all on the sources of the Osage River. The lands are fine, partly woods

and partly prairie, and are easily cultivated. These six fragmentary

bands are not dissimilar in their habits of living and the state of

their advance in agriculture. They subsist themselves by raising corn

and cattle and hogs. They evince an advancing condition, and are

surrounded by circumstances eminently favorable to it.

The Shawnees are placed at the junction of the Konza with the Missouri,

extending south and west. They number a little short of 1300, and own a

territory of ten thousand square miles, or 6,400,000 acres. They are

cultivators and graziers in an advanced state of improvement. Hunting

may be occasionally resorted to as a sport or amusement, but it has,

years since, been abandoned as a source of subsistence. Indeed, the

failure of the game in that region would have rendered the latter

imperative, had not their improved habits of industry led to it. This

tribe have essentially conquered their aversion to labor. They drive

oxen and horses trained to the plough. They split rails and build

fences. They erect substantial cabins and barns. They have old corn in

their cribs from year to year. They own good saddle-horses and saddles,

and other articles of caparison, and a traveller or visitor will find a

good meal, a clean bed, and kind treatment in their settlements.

Next in position to the Shawnees are the Delawares, the descendants of

the ancient Lenno Lenapees of Pennsylvania. Allies and kindred in their

ancient position, they are still in juxtaposition in their new Their

tract begins at the junction of the Konza and Missouri on the north, and

after running up the former to the Konza reserve, extends north and west

so as to embrace it on the north. It contains about 2450 square miles,

or 2,208,000 acres. They number, at the last dates to which we have

referred, 826 souls, and are on the increase. In point of habits,

industry, and improvement, they are perhaps not inferior to any of the

northern stocks. Shielded from intemperance by their position, out of

the State limits, where they are exclusively under the influence and

protection of Congress laws, this tribe, together with the entire circle

of Indian communities on that frontier, has been for some years in a

favourable position for recovering and developing their true energies.

They have, within a few years, received into their protection a small

band(182) of the Monceys, and a smaller one, of 74, of the Stockbridges:

the latter, we need hardly inform the intelligent reader, are

descendants of the ancient Mohegans, and the former of the Minsi and

Minnisinks, who, at the era of the colonization of "Nova Belgica" and

New York, were respectively located on the east and the west banks of

the Hudson. The Stockbridges are civilized; the Munsees less so, but

industrious. Both are poor, and without funds.

Immediately succeeding the Delawares are the Kickapoos, an erratic race,

who, under various names, in connection with the Foxes and Sacs, have,

in good keeping with one of their many names,[50] skipped over half the

continent, to the manifest discomfort of both German and American

philologists and ethnographers, who, in searching for the so-called

"Mascotins," have followed, so far as their results are concerned, an

_ignis fatuus_. The Kickapoos have 12,000 square miles, or 768,000

acres. It is a choice, rich tract, and they are disposed, with the

example of the Delawares and Shawnees, to profit by it. They raise corn

and cattle, hogs and horses, and are prosperous. Their numbers, in 1840,

were 470. There is a tract of 200 square miles, on the Great and Little

Namaha, assigned to the metifs, or descendants of mixed blood, of the

Iowas, Otoes, and Missouris. These separate the removed and

semi-civilized tribes, south and west of the Missouri, from the wild

indigenes--we mean the Otoes, the Pawnees, the Omahaws, and the Sioux,

who extend over vast tracts, and exist without any sensible improvement

in their condition. The same remark may be applied to the Konzas, who

are, however, hemmed in between the Delawares and the Shawnees, except

on their western borders. It is no part of our purpose to consider these

tribes, as, over and above the influence of contiguous examples, they

constitute no part of the evidence affecting the general question of the

plan of removal.

That this evidence, as now briefly sketched, is favorable, and indeed

highly favorable, to the general condition and prosperity of the removed

tribes, is, we apprehend, clearly manifest. Not only have they been

placed beyond the wasting influence of causes which oppressed them,

within the circle of the State communities; but they have received in

exchange for their eastern lands, a territory which, as a whole, is

highly fertile and salubrious. It is a territory which has required

little comparative labor to cultivate, made up as it is of mixed forests

and prairies. It is also, viewed _in extenso_, well watered, having

those noble streams, the Red River, the Arkansas, the Konza, the Platte,

and the Missouri, with their tributaries, running through it. The range

which it affords for cattle and stock, and the abundance of wild hay, of

a nutritious quality, has proved very favorable to an incipient

agricultural population, and greatly mitigated the ordinary labors of

farming in northern climates. There are no latitudes in North America

more favorable to the growth of corn. The cotton plant has been

introduced by the Choctaws and Chickasaws, on the banks of Red river. It

is a region abounding in salt springs and gypsum beds, both which must

hereafter be fully developed, and will prove highly advantageous. It is

above the first or principal rapids of the great streams running down

the plateau of the Rocky Mountains, and consequently affords sites for

water-mills, which are scarce and almost unknown on the lower Arkansas.

There is, indeed, a combination of circumstances, which are calculated

to favor the General Government plan, and foster the Indians in a

general attempt at civilisation and self-government. And we look with

interest, and not without anxiety, at the result of the experiment.

We are aware that there are trials before them, arising from great

diversity of feelings and opinions, and states of civilisation. Some of

the tribes are powerful, advanced, and wealthy; some feeble and poor.

Education has very unequally affected them. Laws are in their embryo

state. The Gospel has been but partially introduced. In clothing the

native councils with some of the powers of a congress, and regulating

their action by constitutional fixity, there is great care and

deliberation required, not, at once, to grasp too much. There is perhaps

yet greater danger in enlarging the authority of the chiefs and

sagamores into something like presidential dimensions. The natives have

great powers of imitation; and it is to be feared that they will content

themselves by imitating things which they do not fully understand or

appreciate. The national character of the Indians is eminently

suspicious. There is a fear to trust others, even themselves. Delegated

power is narrowly watched, and often begrudged when given. The acts of

their public men are uniformly impugned. The thought seems hardly to be

entertained by the common Indians, that an officer may be guided by

right and honest motives. The principle of suspicion has, so to say,

eaten out the Indian heart. The jealousy with which he has watched the

white man, in all periods of his history, is but of a piece with that

with which he watches his chiefs, his neighbors, and his very family.

Exaltation of feeling, liberality of sentiment, justness of reasoning, a

spirit of concession, and that noble faith and trust which arise from

purity and virtue, are the characteristics of civilisation; and we

should not be disappointed if they do not, all at once, grow and

flourish in these nascent communities. Still, our hopes predominate over

our fears. Where so much has been accomplished as we see by the

Cherokees, the Choctaws, and Chickasaws, and our most advanced northern

tribes, we expect more. From the tree that bears blossoms, we expect

fruit.

We have no expectation, however, that without some principles of general

political association, the tribes can permanently advance. To assume the

character and receive the respect of a commonwealth, they must have the

political bonds of a commonwealth. Our Indian tribes have never

possessed any of these bonds. They are indeed the apparent remnants of

old races, which have been shivered into fragments, and never found the

capacity to re-unite. The constant tendency of all things, in a state of

nature, has been to divide. The very immensity of the continent, its

varied fertility and resources, and its grand and wild features, led to

this. Hitherto, the removed tribes in the West have opposed an

associated government. They have stoutly and effectually resisted and

rejected this part of the government scheme. They fear, the agents say,

it is some plan to bring them under the civil yoke. Time, reflection,

and education must tend to correct this. More than all, their civil

discussions must tend to show the necessity of a more enlarged and

general frame of government, in which some individual rights must be

yielded to the public, to secure the enjoyment of the rest. We think

there is some evidence of the acknowledgment of this want, in their

occasional general councils, at which all the tribes have been invited

to be present. During the last year (1843) such a convocation was held

at Tablequah, the seat of the Cherokee government. At this, there were

delegates present from the Creeks, Chickasaws, Delawares, Shawnees,

Piankashaws, Weas, Osages, Senecas, Stockbridges, Ottowas, Chippewas,

Peorias, Pottowattomies, and Seminoles. The result of these

deliberations, we are informed, was a compact in which it was agreed:--

1. To maintain peace and friendship among each other.

2. To abstain from the law of retaliation for offences.

3. To provide for improvements in agriculture, the arts, and manufactures.

4. To provide against any cession of their territory, in any form.

5. To punish crimes, committed by one tribe, in the bounds of another.

6. To provide for a general citizenship among the contracting parties.

7. To suppress the use or introduction of ardent spirits.

These are very mixed principles, containing no basis of a government;

yet, futile as they are, we apprehend they contain no effective power

for their enforcement. A law without a penalty is like a rope of sand.

Any of these parties might nullify either of these acts, by neglecting

to enforce it. It is, we apprehend, the mere expression of the popular

will, in a council, without any binding obligation of the whole, or a

majority of the tribes, to compel obedience from the delinquent members.

It may, however, lead to further deliberations; and we cannot but regard

the movement as one which betokens political forethought and purpose.

Our greatest apprehensions, we must confess, before closing this paper,

arise from the peculiar geographical position of the Indian territory

with relation to our own. And this could not, perhaps, have been

anticipated twenty years ago, when the plan was formed. Our population

is on the broad move west. Nothing, it is evident, will now repress them

this side of the Pacific. The snowy heights of the Rocky Mountains are

already scaled; and we but apply the results of the past to the future,

in saying that the path which has been trod by a few, will be trod by

many. Now, the removed tribes are precisely in the centre of this path.

From the mouth of the Platte, or the Konza, the great highway to the

Oregon must run west. Whether this new tide of emigration will be

successful or unsuccessful, will those who compose it spare to trample

on the red man? Will they suddenly become kind to him, to whom they have

been unkind? Will they cease to desire the lands which their children

want? Will they consent to see the nation separated by an Indian state?

Will they award honors, nay, justice, to that state? Twenty years will

answer these questions.

* * * * *

CHOCTAWS.--An appropriation of $113,000 has been made by Congress for

the removal and subsistence of the Choctaws now in Mississippi. There

are upwards of six thousand in our state, comprising about eleven

hundred families. These are under Colonels Johnson and Fisher. The half

of the money due the Indians, and to be paid after their landing in

their new homes in the West, is to be funded. This will effectually

prevent all speculation, and enable the Indians to obtain and hold what

is due them. Those now in the state are guarded against all coercive

measures for their removal, and left free to go West or remain in their

homes in Mississippi.--_Southern Reformer._

FOOTNOTES:

[45] Democratic Review, 1844.

[46] Treaty of Fort Pitt, 1778.

[47] We have only space to say here, that the cession of the Georgia

lands was subsequently made by the Lower Creeks under the chieftaincy of

General M'Intosh, who was the first to affix his signature to it. For

this act he paid the penalty of his life; the Upper Creeks and their

adherents, having assembled in arms, surrounded his house, and fired

three hundred balls into it, killing its unhappy, but distinguished

inmate.

[48] This tribe has, the past year (1843), passed a law expelling all

white men who play at cards, from the limits of the nation, whether they

have Indian wives or not.

[49] Secretary of War's report, 1843.

[50] This is said, by one interpretation, to mean Rabbit's Ghost.

NURSERY AND CRADLE SONGS OF THE FOREST.

The tickenagun, or Indian cradle, is an object of great pride with an

Indian mother. She gets the finest kind of broad cloth she possibly can

to make an outer swathing band for it, and spares no pains in

ornamenting it with beads and ribbons, worked in various figures. In the

lodges of those who can afford it, there is no article more showy and

pretty than the full bound cradle. The frame of the cradle itself is a

curiosity. It consists of three pieces. The vertebral board, which

supports the back, the hoop or foot-board, which extends tapering up

each side, and the arch or bow, which springs from each side, and

protects the face and head. These are tied together with deer's sinews

or pegged. The whole structure is very light, and is carved with a knife

by the men, out of the linden or maple tree.

Moss constitutes the bed of the infant, and is also put between the

child's feet to keep them apart and adjust the shape of them, according

to custom. A one-point blanket of the trade, is the general and

immediate wrapper of the infant, within the hoop, and the ornamented

swathing band is wound around the whole, and gives it no little

resemblance to the case of a small mummy. As the bow passes directly

above the face and eyes, trinkets are often hung upon this, to amuse it,

and the child gets its first ideas of ornament from these. The hands are

generally bound down with the body, and only let out occasionally, the

head and neck being the only part which is actually free. So bound and

laced, hooped and bowed, the little fabric, with its inmate, is capable

of being swung on its mother's back, and carried through the thickest

forest without injury. Should it even fall no injury can happen. The bow

protects the only exposed part of the frame. And when she stops to rest,

or enters the lodge, it can be set aside like any other household

article, or hung up by the cradle strap on a peg. Nothing, indeed, could

be better adapted to the exigencies of the forest life. And in such tiny

fabrics, so cramped and bound, and bedecked and trinketed, their famous

Pontiacs and King Philips, and other prime warriors, were once carried,

notwithstanding the skill they afterwards acquired in wielding the lance

and war club.

The Indian child, in truth, takes its first lesson in the _art of

endurance_, in the cradle. When it cries it need not be unbound to nurse

it. If the mother be young, she must put it to sleep herself. If she

have younger sisters or daughters they share this care with her. If the

lodge be roomy and high, as lodges sometimes are, the cradle is

suspended to the top poles to be swung. If not, or the weather be fine,

it is tied to the limb of a tree, with small cords made from the inner

bark of the linden, and a vibratory motion given to it from head to foot

by the mother or some attendant. The motion thus communicated, is that

of the pendulum or common swing, and may be supposed to be the easiest

and most agreeable possible to the child. It is from this motion that

the leading idea of the cradle song is taken.

I have often seen the red mother, or perhaps a sister of the child,

leisurely swinging a pretty ornamented cradle to and fro in this way, in

order to put the child to sleep, or simply to amuse it. The following

specimens of these wild-wood chaunts, or wigwam lullabys, are taken from

my notes upon this subject, during many years of familiar intercourse

with the aboriginals. If they are neither numerous nor attractive,

placed side by side with the rich nursery stores of more refined life,

it is yet a pleasant fact to have found such things even existing at all

amongst a people supposed to possess so few of the amenities of life,

and to have so little versatility of character.

Meagre as these specimens seem, they yet involve no small degree of

philological diligence, as nothing can be more delicate than the

inflexions of these pretty chaunts, and the Indian woman, like her white

sister, gives a delicacy of intonation to the roughest words of her

language. The term wa-wa often introduced denotes a _wave_ of the air,

or the circle described by the motion of an object through it, as we

say, swing, swing, a term never applied to a wave of water. The latter

is called tegoo, or if it be crowned with foam, beta.

In introducing the subjoined specimens of these simple see saws of the

lodge and forest chaunts, the writer felt, that they were almost too

frail of structure to be trusted, without a gentle hand, amidst his

rougher materials. He is permitted to say, in regard to them, that they

have been exhibited to Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes Smith, herself a refined

enthusiast of the woods, and that the versions from the original given,

are from her chaste and truthful pen.

In the following arch little song, the reader has only to imagine a

playful girl trying to put a restless child to sleep, who pokes its

little head, with black hair and keen eyes over the side of the cradle,

and the girl sings, imitating its own piping tones.

Ah wa nain? (Who is this?)

Ah wa nain? (Who is this?)

Wa yau was sa-- (Giving light--meaning the light of the eye)

Ko pwasod. (On the top of my lodge.)

Who is this? who is this? eye-light bringing

To the roof of the lodge?

And then she assumes the tone of the little screech owl, and answers--

Kob kob kob (It is I--the little owl)

Nim be e zhau (Coming,)

Kob kob kob (It is I--the little owl)

Nim be e zhau (Coming,)

Kit che--kit che. (Down! down!)

It is I, it is I, hither swinging, (wa wa)

Dodge, dodge, baby dodge;

And she springs towards it and down goes the little head. This is

repeated with the utmost merriment upon both sides.

Who is this, who is this eye-light bringing

To the roof of my lodge?

It is I, it is I, hither swinging,

Dodge, dodge, baby dodge.

Here is another, slower and monotonous, but indicating the utmost

maternal content:

Swinging, swinging, lul la by,

Sleep, little daughter sleep,

'Tis your mother watching by,

Swinging, swinging she will keep,

Little daughter lul la by.

'Tis your mother loves you dearest,

Sleep, sleep, daughter sleep,

Swinging, swinging, ever nearest,

Baby, baby, do not weep;

Little daughter, lul la by.

Swinging, swinging, lul la by,

Sleep, sleep, little one,

And thy mother will be nigh--

Swing, swing, not alone--

Little daughter, lul la by.

This of course is exceedingly simple, but be it remembered these chaunts

are always so in the most refined life. The ideas are the same, that of

tenderness and protective care only, the ideas being few, the language

is in accordance. To my mind it has been a matter of extreme interest to

observe how almost identical are the expressions of affection in all

states of society, as though these primitive elements admit of no

progress, but are perfect in themselves. The e-we-yea of the Indian

woman is entirely analogous to the lul la by of our language, and will

be seen to be exceedingly pretty in itself.

2. The original words of this, with their literal import, are also

added, to preserve the identity.

(a.)

Wa wa--wa wa--wa we yea, (Swinging, twice, lullaby.)

Nebaun--nebaun--nebaun, (Sleep thou, thrice.)

Nedaunis-ais, e we yea, (Little daughter, lullaby.)

Wa wa--wa wa--wa wa, (Swinging, thrice.)

Nedaunis-ais, e we yea, (Little daughter lullaby.)

(b.)

Keguh, ke gun ah wain e ma, (Your mother cares for you.)

Nebaun--nebaun--nebaun, e we yea, (Sleep, thrice, lullaby.)

Kago, saigizze-kain, nedaunis-ais, (Do not fear, my little daughter.)

Nebaun--nebaun--nebaun, (Sleep, thrice.)

Kago, saigizze-kain, wa wa, e we yea, (third line repeated.)

(c.)

Wa wa--wa wa--wa we yea, (Swinging, twice, lullaby.)

Kaween neezheka kediausee, (Not alone art thou.)

Ke kan nau wai, ne me go, suhween, (Your mother is caring for you.)

Nebaun--nebaun--nedaunis-ais, (Sleep, sleep, my little daughter.)

Wa wa--wa wa--wa we yea, (Swinging, &c. lullaby.)

Nebaun--nebaun--nebaun, (Sleep! sleep! sleep.[51])

THE HARE AND THE LYNX.

3. The story of the Wabose, (Hare,) and the Pighieu, (Lynx,) will at

once remind the reader of the so often recited tale of little Red Riding

Hood, in which the reciter imitates the tones of the wolf, and the

little nursery listener hears with a growing amazement, and starts as if

he felt the real wolf's teeth at the close.

This story is partly spoken and partly sung. The Teller imitating

alternately the Hare, and its enemy, the Lynx.

There was once, she says, a little Hare living in the lodge with its

grandmother, who was about to send it back to its native land. When it

had gone but a little way, a Lynx appeared in the path, and began to

sing,

Where pretty white one?

Where little white one,

Where do you go?

Tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! cried the Hare, and ran back to its

grandmother. "See, grandmother," said the timid little creature, "what

the Lynx is saying to me," and she repeated the song. "Ho! Nosis," that

is to say, courage my grandchild, run along, and tell him you are going

home to your native land: so the Hare went back and began to sing,

To the point of land I roam,

For there is the white one's home,--

Whither I go.

Then the Lynx looked at the trembling Hare, and began to sing,

Little white one, tell me why

Like to leather, thin and dry,

Are your pretty ears?

Tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! cried the Hare, and she ran back to her

grandmother, and repeated the words. "Go Nosis, and tell him your uncles

fixed them so, when they came from the South." So the Hare ran back and

sang,

From the south my uncles came,

And they fixed my ears the same,--

Fixed my slender ears.

and then the Hare laid her pink ears upon her shoulders, and was about

to go on, but the Lynx began to sing again,--

Why, why do you go away?

Pretty white one, can't you stay?

Tell me why your little feet,

Are made so dry and very fleet?

Tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! said the poor little Hare, and she ran

back again to the lodge to ask again. "Ho! Nosis!" said the grandmother,

who was old and tired, "do not mind him, nor listen to him, nor answer

him, but run on."

The Hare obeyed, and ran as fast as she could. When she came to the spot

where the Lynx had been, she looked round, but there was no one there,

and she ran on. But the Lynx had found out all about the little Hare,

and knew she was going across to the neck of land; and he had nothing to

do but reach it first, and waylay her; which he did: and when the

innocent creature came to the place, and had got almost home, the Lynx

sprang out of the thicket and eat her up.

The original chant, omitting the narrative part as given above, runs in

this fashion, word for word.

Lynx. Tah kau (where ah!)

Tah hau (where ah!)

Wa bose (little white one)

Wa bose (little white one)

Ke te e zha (are you going?)

Hare. Na kwa oushing (to the point of land)

Ain dah nuk e aum baun (in my native country)

In de e zha (I go.)

Lynx. Au neen (what!)

Au neen (what!)

A nau be kaus o yun aig (causes it,)

Kish ke mun ing (why like stripes of leather)

Ish o tow ug a una, (are your ears?)

Hare. Nish ish sha ug (my uncles,)

O sha wun e nong (when from the south)

Ke e zha waud (they came,)

Ningeeaizh e goob un eeg (they did fix me so.)

Lynx. Tah kau (where ah!)

Tah kau (where ah!)

Wa bose (little white one,)

Wa bose (little white one,)

Ke de e zha (are you going?)

Au neen (why?)

Na naub o kos o yun (look they so,)

Kish ke mun a, (like dry bits of leather,)

I izh e zida una, (your feet ha!)

4. THE KITE AND THE EAGLE.

This is a specimen of Indian satire. The coward is boastful when there

is no danger: pretension succeeds in the absence of real merit! A Kite

was boasting how high he could fly, and ventured to speak disparagingly

of the eagle, not knowing that the latter overheard him. He began to

sing in a loud voice,

I upward fly

I! I alone disdain the air

Till I hang as by a hair

Poised in the sky.

The Eagle answers disdainfully, looking down from a branch far above the

Kite,

Who _mounts_ the sky?

Who is this, with babbling tongue

As he had on the storm-cloud hung,

Who flies so high?

The Kite in a shrinking, feeble voice,

The great Khakake

I've sometimes thought he flew so high

That he must see within the sky

The dawn awake.

The Eagle despises him, and yet cannot forbear to answer,

I spurn you all, ye prating throng

How often have I passed ye by

When my broad pinions fleet and strong,

Soared up where leapt the thunder cry!

Nor ye with feeble wing might dare,

Those hill-tops high, to mount in air.

and he soared off, up, up into the sky till the boaster could not behold

him. But no sooner was the Kite left alone to himself than he began to

sing again so as to be heard on every side,

I upward fly

I, I alone disdain the air

Till I hang as by a hair

Poised in the sky.

Literally thus.

Kite. Neen a (I alone)

Neen a (I alone)

Ta wa e ya (can go up)

Bai bwau }

As shau dau } (so as to seem as if hanging by a hair)

Wa ke ge naun }

O shau wush ko geezhig oong a (from the blue sky.)

Eagle. Au wa nain (Who is this?)

Au wa nain (Who is this?)

Tshe mud je wa wa (with babbling tongue, who boasts)

Ke pim o saing. (of flying so high?)

Kite (shrinkingly) replies, "Oh I was only singing of the great Khakake,

it is he who is said to fly so high."

Eagle disdainfully replies, "Tshe mud je wa wa, that is great babbler,

or bad-tongue, you are below my notice," &c., and soars aloft.

Kite, resuming its boasting tone, as soon as the eagle is out of

hearing,

Neen a (I alone &c., the whole being a

Neen a repetition of the first part.)

Ta we ya

Bai bwau

As shau dau

Wa ke ge naun,

O shau wush ko, geezhig oong a.

5. THE RAVEN AND WOODPECKER.

A still farther view of Indian manners and opinions is hid under this

simple chant. Opinion among the forest race, makes the whole animated

creation cognizant and intelligent of their customs.

A young married woman is supposed to go out from the lodge, and busy

herself in breaking up dry limbs, and preparing wood, as if to lay in a

store for a future and approaching emergency.

A raven, perched on a neighbouring tree, espies her, at her work, and

begins to sing; assuming the expected infant to be _a boy_.

In dosh ke zhig o mun

In dosh ke zhig o mun

In dosh ke zhig o mun

My eyes! my eyes! my eyes! Alluding to the boy (and future man) killing

animals as well as men, whose eyes will be left, as the singer

anticipates, to be picked out by ravenous birds. So early are the first

notions of war implanted.

A woodpecker, sitting near, and hearing this song, replies; assuming the

sex of the infant to be _a female_.

Ne mos sa mug ga

Ne mos sa mug ga

Ne mos sa mug ga.

My worms! my worms! my worms! Alluding to the custom of the female's

breaking up dry and dozy wood, out of which, it could pick its favourite

food, being the moesa or wood-worm.

* * * * *

Want of space induces the writer to defer, to a future number, the

remainder of his collection of these cradle and nursery chants. They

constitute in his view, rude as they are, and destitute of metrical

attractions, a chapter in the history of the human heart, in the savage

phasis, which deserves to be carefully recorded. It has fallen to his

lot, to observe more perhaps, in this department of Indian life, than

ordinary, and he would not acquit himself of his duty to the race, were

he to omit these small links out of their domestic and social chain. The

tie which binds the mother to the child, in Indian life, is a very

strong one, and it is conceived to admit of illustration in this manner.

It is not alone in the war-path and the council, that the Red Man is to

be studied. To appreciate his whole character, in its true light, he

must be followed into his lodge, and viewed in his seasons of social

leisure and retirement. If there be any thing warm and abiding in the

heart or memory of the man, when thus at ease, surrounded by his family,

it must come out here; and hence, indeed, the true value of his lodge

lore, of every kind.

It is out of the things mental as well as physiological, that pertain to

maternity, that philosophy must, in the end, construct the true

ethnological chain, that binds the human race, in one comprehensive

system of unity.

FOOTNOTES:

[51] These translations are entirely literal--the verbs to "sleep" and

to "fear," requiring the imperative mood, second person, present tense,

throughout. In rendering the term "wa-wa" in the participial form some

doubt may exist, but this has been terminated by the idea of the

_existing_ motion, which is clearly implied, although the word is not

marked by the usual form of the participle in _ing_. The phrase

lul-la-by, is the only one in our language, which conveys the evident

meaning of the choral term e-we-yea. The substantive verb is wanting, in

the first line of b. and the third of c. in the two forms of the verb,

to care, or take care of a person; but it is present in the phrase

"kediausee" in the second line of c. These facts are stated, not that

they are of the slightest interest to the common reader, but that they

may be examined by philologists, or persons curious in the Indian

grammar.

LANGUAGES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.

The Polynesian languages, like those of the Algonquin group of North

America, have inclusive and exclusive pronouns to express the words

_we_, _ours_, and _us_. They have also causative verbs such as, to make

afraid, to make happy, &c., but while there appears this analogy in

grammatical principles, there are some strong points of disagreement,

and there appears to be no analogy whatever in the sounds of the

language. There are eight well characterized dialects in the Polynesian

family. They are the Tahitian, the Owyhee, [Hawaiian] Marquesan, or

Washingtonian, Austral island, Hervey island, Samoan, Tongatabu, and New

Zealand. In seven of these, the name for God is Atua, in the eighth, or

Tongua dialect, it is Otua. Great resemblances exist in all the

vocabularies. Much of the actual difference arises from exchanges of the

consonants r and l, h and s, and a few others. They possess the dual

number. The scheme of the pronouns is very complete, and provides for

nearly all the recondite distinctions of person. Where the vocabulary

fails in words to designate objects which were unknown to them before

their acquaintance with Europeans, the missionaries have found it to

fall in better with the genius of the language, to introduce new words

from the Greek, with some modifications. Thus they have introduced

_hipo_ for horse, _arenio_ for lamb, _areto_ for bread, and _baptizo_

for baptism.

To continue faithful during a course of prosperity, says Xenophon, hath

nothing wonderful in it, but when any set of men continue steadily

attached to friends in adversity, they ought, on that account, to be

eternally remembered.

There are but two sources only, says Polybius, from whence any real

benefit can be derived, our own misfortunes and those that have happened

to other men.

One wise counsel, says Euripides, is better than the strength of many.

[Illustration: WOMEN OF THE MANDAN TRIBE]

EARLY SKETCHES OF INDIAN WOMEN.

_From "New England Prospect."_

CHAPTER XIX.

OF THEIR WOMEN, THEIR DISPOSITIONS, EMPLOYMENTS, USAGE BY THEIR

HUSBANDS, THEIR APPARELL, AND MODESTY.

To satisfie the curious eye of women-readers, who otherwise might thinke

their sex forgotten, or not worthy a record, let them peruse these few

lines, wherein they may see their owne happinesse, if weighed in the

womans ballance of these ruder _Indians_, who scorne the tuterings of

their wives, or to admit them as their equals, though their qualities

and industrious deservings may justly claime the preheminence, and

command better usage and more conjugall esteeme, their persons and

features being every way correspondent, their qualifications more

excellent, being more loving, pittifull, and modest, milde, provident,

and laborious than their lazie husbands. Their employments be many:

First their building of houses, whose frames are formed like our

garden-arbours, something more round, very strong and handsome, covered

with close-wrought mats of their owne weaving, which deny entrance to

any drop of raine, though it come both fierce and long, neither can the

piercing North winde, finde a crannie, through which he can conveigh his

cooling breath, they be warmer than our _English_ houses; at the top is

a square hole for the smoakes evacuation, which in rainy weather is

covered with a pluver; these bee such smoakie dwellings, that when there

is good fires, they are not able to stand upright, but lie all along

under the smoake, never using any stooles or chaires, it being as rare

to see an _Indian_ sit on a stoole at home, as it is strange to see an

_English_ man sit on his heels abroad. Their houses are smaller in the

Summer, when their families be dispersed, by reason of heate and

occasions. In Winter they make some fiftie or thereescore foote long,

fortie or fiftie men being inmates under one roofe; and as is their

husbands occasion these poore tectonists are often troubled like

snailes, to carrie their houses on their backs sometimes to

fishing-places, other times to hunting places, after that to a

planting-place, where it abides the longest: an other work is their

planting of corne, wherein they exceede our _English_ husband-men,

keeping it so cleare with their Clamme shell-hooes, as if it were a

garden rather than a corne-field, not suffering a choaking weede to

advance his audacious head above their infant corne, or an undermining

worme to spoile his spurnes. Their corne being ripe, they gather it, and

drying it hard in the Sunne, conveigh it to their barnes, which be great

holes digged in the ground in forme of a brasse pot, seeled with rinds

of trees, wherein they put their corne, covering it from the inquisitive

search of their gurmandizing husbands, who would eate up both their

allowed portion, and reserved seede, if they knew where to finde it. But

our hogges having found a way to unhindge their barne doores, and robbe

their garners, they are glad to implore their husbands helpe to roule

the bodies of trees over their holes, to prevent those pioners, whose

theeverie they as much hate as their flesh. An other of their

employments is their Summer processions to get Lobsters for their

husbands, wherewith they baite their hookes when they goe a fishing for

Basse or Codfish. This is an every dayes walke, be the weather cold or

hot, the waters rough or calme, they must dive sometimes over head and

eares for a Lobster, which often shakes them by their hands with a

churlish nippe, and bids them adiew. The tide being spent, they trudge

home two or three miles, with a hundred weight of Lobsters at their

backs, and if none, a hundred scoules meete them at home, and a hungry

belly for two days after. Their husbands having caught any fish, they

bring it in their boates as farre as they can by water, and there leave

it; as it was their care to catch it, so it must be their wives paines

to fetch it home, or fast: which done, they must dresse it and cooke it,

dish it, and present it, see it eaten over their shoulders; and their

loggerships having filled their paunches; their sweete lullabies

scramble for their scrappes. In the Summer these _Indian_ women when

Lobsters be in their plenty and prime, they drie them to keepe for

Winter, erecting scaffolds in the hot sunshine, making fires likewise

underneath them, by whose smoake the flies are expelled, till the

substance remains hard and drie. In this manner they drie Basse and

other fishes without salt, cutting them very thinne to dry suddainely,

before the flies spoile them, or the raine moist them, having a speciall

care to hang them in their smoakie houses, in the night and dankish

weather.

In Summer they gather flagges, of which they make Matts for houses and

Hempe and rushes, with dying stuffe of which they make curious baskets

with intermixed colours and portractures of antique Imagerie these

baskets be of all sizes from a quart to a quarter, in which they carry

their luggage. In winter time they are their husbunds Caterers, trudging

to the Clamm bankes for their belly timber, and their Porters to lugge

home their Venison which their lazinesse exposes to the Woolves till

they impose it upon their wives shoulders. They likewise sew their

husbands shooes, and weave coates of Turkie feathers, besides all their

ordinary household drudgerie which daily lies upon them. * * * * *

[Of the treatment of babes the writer says]: The young Infant being

greased and sooted, wrapt in a beaver skin, bound to his good behaviour

with his feete upon a board two foote long and one foote broade, his

face exposed to all nipping weather; this little _Pappouse_ travells

about with his bare footed mother to paddle in the ice Clammbanks after

three or foure dayes of age have sealed his passeboard and his mothers

recoverie. For their carriage it is very civill, smiles being the

greatest grace of their mirth; their musick is lullabies to quiet their

children, who generally are as quiet as if they had neither spleene or

lungs. To hear one of these _Indians_ unseene, a good eare might easily

mistake their untaught voyce for the warbling of a well tuned

instrument. Such command have they of their voices.

* * * * *

Commendable is their milde carriage and obedience to their husbands,

notwithstanding all this their customarie churlishnesse and salvage

inhumanitie, not seeming to delight in frownes or offering to word it

with their lords, not presuming to proclaime their female superiority to

the usurping of the least title of their husbands charter, but rest

themselves content under their helplesse condition, counting it the

womans portion: since the _English_ arrivall comparison hath made them

miserable, for seeing the kind usage of the _English_ to their wives,

they doe as much condemne their husbands for unkindnesse, and commend

the _English_ for their love. As their husbands commending themselves

for their wit in keeping their wives industrious, doe condemne the

_English_ for their folly in spoyling good working creatures. These

women resort often to the _English_ houses, where _pares cum paribus

congregatae_[52], in Sex I meane, they do somewhat ease their miserie by

complaining and seldome part without a releefe: If her husband come to

seeke for his _Squaw_ and beginne to bluster, the _English_ woman

betakes her to her armes which are the warlike Ladle, and the scalding

liquors, threatening blistering to the naked runnaway, who is soon

expelled by such liquid comminations. In a word to conclude this womans

historie, their love to the _English_ hath deserved no small esteeme,

ever presenting them some thing that is either rare or desired, as

Strawberries, Hurtleberries, Rasberries, Gooseberries, Cherries,

Plummes, Fish, and other such gifts as their poore treasury yeelds them.

But now it may be, that this relation of the churlish and inhumane

behaviour of these ruder _Indians_ towards their patient wives, may

confirme some in the beliefe of an aspersion, which I have often heard

men cast upon the _English_ there, as if they should learne of the

_Indians_ to use their wives in the like manner, and to bring them to

the same subjection, as to sit on the lower hand, and to carrie water

and the like drudgerie: but if my own experience may out-ballance an

ill-grounded scandalous rumour, I doe assure you, upon my credit and

reputation, that there is no such matter, but the women finde there as

much love, respect, and ease, as here in old _England_. I will not deny,

but that some poore people may carrie their owne water, and doe not the

poorer sort in _England_ doe the same; witnesse your _London_

Tankard-bearers, and your countrie-cottagers? But this may well be

knowne to be nothing, but the rancorous venome of some that beare no

good will to the plantation. For what neede they carrie water, seeing

every one hath a Spring at his doore, or the Sea by his house? Thus much

for the satisfaction of women, touching this entrenchment upon their

prerogative, as also concerning the relation of these _Indians_ Squawes.

FOOTNOTES:

[52] Equals assembled with equals.

PAWNEE BARBARITY.

That the tribes west of the Missouri, and beyond the pale of the

ordinary influence of civilization, should retain some shocking customs,

which, if ever prevalent among the more favoured tribes east of the

Mississippi and the Alleghenies, have long disappeared, may be readily

conceived. Wild, erratic bands, who rove over immense plains on

horseback, with bow and lance, who plunge their knives and arrows daily

into the carcasses of the buffalo, the elk and the deer, and who are

accustomed to sights of blood and carnage, cannot escape the mental

influence of these sanguinary habits, and must be, more or less, blunted

in their conceptions and feelings. Where brute life is so recklessly

taken, there cannot be the same nice feeling and sense of justice, which

some of the more favoured tribes possess, with respect to taking away

human life. Yet, it could hardly have been anticipated, that such deeds

as we are now called upon to notice, would have their place even in the

outskirts of the farther "Far West," and among a people so sunk and

degraded in their moral propensities, as the Pawnees. But the facts are

well attested.

In the fierce predatory war carried on between the Pawnees and Sioux,

acts of blood and retaliation, exercised on their prisoners, are of

frequent occurrence. In the month of February, 1838, the Pawnees

captured a Sioux girl only fourteen years of age. They carried her to

their camp on the west of the Missouri, and deliberated what should be

done with her. It is not customary to put female captives to death, but

to make slaves of them. She, however, was doomed to a harder fate, but

it was carefully concealed from her, for the space of some sixty or

seventy days. During all this time she was treated well, and had

comfortable lodgings and food, the same as the rest enjoyed. On the 22nd

of April, the chiefs held a general council, and when it broke up, it

was announced that her doom was fixed, but this was still carefully

concealed from her. This doom was an extraordinary one, and so far as

the object can be deduced, from the circumstances and ceremonies, the

national hatred to their enemies was indulged, by making the innocent

non-combatant, a sacrifice to the spirit of corn, or perhaps, of

vegetable fecundity.

When the deliberations of the council were terminated, on that day, she

was brought out, attended by the whole council, and accompanied on a

visit from lodge to lodge, until she had gone round the whole circle.

When this round was finished, they placed in her hands a small billet of

wood and some paints. The warriors and chiefs then seated themselves in

a circle. To the first person of distinction she then handed this billet

of wood and paint; he contributed to this offering, or sort of

sacrificial charity some wood and paint, then handed it to the next,

who did likewise, and he passed it to the next, until it had gone the

entire rounds, and each one had contributed some wood and some paint.

She was then conducted to the place of execution. For this purpose they

had chosen an open grassy glade, near a cornfield, where there were a

few trees. The spot selected was between two of these trees, standing

about five feet apart, in the centre of which a small fire was kindled,

with the wood thus ceremoniously contributed. Three bars had been tied

across, from tree to tree, above this fire, at such a graded height,

that the points of the blaze, when at its maximum, might just reach to

her feet. Upon this scaffold she was compelled to mount, when a warrior

at each side of her held fire under her arm pits. When this had been

continued as long as they supposed she could endure the torture, without

extinguishing life, at a given signal, a band of armed bow-men let fly

their darts, and her body, at almost the same instant, was pierced with

a thousand arrows. These were immediately withdrawn, and her flesh then

cut with knives, from her thighs, arms and body, in pieces not longer

than half a dollar, and put into little baskets. All this was done

before life was quite extinct.

The field of newly planted corn reached near to this spot. This corn had

been dropped in the hill, but not covered with earth. The principal

chief then took of the flesh, and going to a hill of corn, squeezed a

drop of blood upon the grains. This was done by each one, until all the

grains put into the ground, had received this extraordinary kind of

sprinkling.

This horrible cruelty took place in the vicinity of Council Bluffs.

Offers to redeem the life of the prisoner had been made by the traders,

in a full council of eighty chiefs and warriors, but they were rejected.

The original narrator was an eye witness. He concludes his description

by adding, that his wife's brother, a Pawnee, had been taken prisoner by

the Sioux, in the month of June following, and treated in the same

manner. Truly, it may be said that the precincts of the wild roving Red

man, are "full of the abodes of cruelty."

* * * * *

Hunting and war are arts which require to be taught. The Indian youth,

if they were not furnished with bows and arrows, would never learn to

kill. The same time spent to teach them war and hunting, if devoted to

teach them letters, would make them readers and writers. Education is

all of a piece.

Example is more persuasive than precept in teaching an Indian. Tell him

that he should never touch alcohol, and he may not see clearly why; but

show him, by your invariable practice, that you never do, and he may be

led to confide in your admonitions.

"THE LOON UPON THE LAKE."

BY E. F. HOFFMAN.

[From the Chippewa.[53]]

I looked across the water,

I bent o'er it and listened,

I thought it was my lover,

My true lover's paddle glistened.

Joyous thus his light canoe would the silver ripples wake.--

But no!--it is the Loon alone--the loon upon the lake.

Ah me! it is the loon alone--the loon upon the lake.

I see the fallen maple

Where he stood, his red scarf waving,

Though waters nearly bury

Boughs they then were newly laving.

I hear his last farewell, as it echoed from the brake.--

But no, it is the loon alone--the loon upon the lake,

Ah me! it is the loon alone--the loon upon the lake.

FOOTNOTES:

[53]

Nenemoshain nindenaindum

Meengoweugish abowaugoda

Anewahwas mongoduga, &c., &c.

TO A BIRD, SEEN UNDER MY WINDOW IN THE GARDEN.

By the late Mrs. H. R. SCHOOLCRAFT, who was a grand daughter of the war

chief WABOJEEG.

Sweet little bird, thy notes prolong,

And ease my lonely pensive hours;

I love to list thy cheerful song,

And hear thee chirp beneath the flowers.

The time allowed for pleasures sweet,

To thee is short as it is bright,

Then sing! rejoice! before it fleet,

And cheer me ere you take your flight.

ODJIBWA SONG.

The following song, taken from the oral traditions of the north, is

connected with a historical incident, of note, in the Indian wars of

Canada. In 1759, great exertions were made by the French Indian

department, under Gen. Montcalm, to bring a body of Indians into the

valley of the lower St. Lawrence, and invitations, for this purpose

reached the utmost shores of Lake Superior. In one of the canoes from

that quarter, which was left on their way down, at the lake of Two

Mountains, near the mouth of the Utawas, while the warriors proceeded

farther, was a Chippewa girl called Paig-wain-e-osh-e, or the White

Eagle, driven by the wind. While the party awaited there, the result of

events at Quebec, she formed an attachment for a young Algonquin

belonging to the French mission of the Two Mountains. This attachment

was mutual, and gave origin to the song, of which the original words,

with a literal prose translation, are subjoined:

I.

Ia indenaindum

Ia indenaindum

Ma kow we yah

Nin denaindum we.

Ah me! when I think of him--when I think of him--my sweetheart, my

Algonquin.

II.

Pah bo je aun

Ne be nau be koning

Wabi megwissun

Nene mooshain we

Odishquagumee.

As I embarked to return, he put the white wampum around my neck--a

pledge of truth, my sweetheart, my Algonquin.

III.

Keguh wejewin

Ain dah nuk ke yun

Ningee egobun

Nene mooshain we

Odishquagumee.

I shall go with you, he said, to your native country--I shall go with

you, my sweetheart--my Algonquin.

IV.

Nia! nin de nah dush

Wassahwud gushuh

Aindahnuk ke yaun

Ke yau ninemooshai wee

Odishquagumee.

Alas! I replied--my native country is far, far away--my sweetheart; my

Algonquin.

V.

Kai aubik oween

Ain aube aunin

Ke we naubee

Ne ne mooshai we

Odishquagumee.

When I looked back again--where we parted, he was still looking after

me, my sweetheart; my Algonquin.

VI.

Apee nay we ne bow

Unishe bun

Aungwash agushing

Ne ne mooshai we

Odishquagumee.

He was still standing on a fallen tree--that had fallen into the water,

my sweetheart; my Algonquin.

VII.

Nia! indenaindum

Nia! in denaindum

Ma kow we yuh

Nin de nain dum we

Odishquagumee.

Alas! when I think of him--when I think of him--It is when I think of

him; my Algonquin.

* * * * *

Eloquence on the part of the speakers, is not so much the result of

superior force of thought, as of the strong and clear positions of

right, in which they have been placed by circumstances. It is the force

of truth, by which we are charmed.

An Indian war song, sung in public, by the assembled warriors on the

outbreak of hostilities, is a declaration of war.

NIAGARA, AN ALLEGORY.

An old grey man on a mountain lived,

He had daughters four and one,

And a tall bright lodge of the betula bark

That glittered in the sun.

He lived on the very highest top,

For he was a hunter free,

Where he could spy on the clearest day,

Gleams of the distant sea.

Come out--come out! cried the youngest one,

Let us off to look at the sea,

And out they ran in their gayest robes,

And skipped and ran with glee.

Come Su,[54] come Mi,[55] come Hu,[56] come Sa,[57]

Cried laughing little Er,[58]

Let us go to yonder broad blue deep,

Where the breakers foam and roar.

And on they scampered by valley and wood,

By earth and air and sky,

Till they came to a steep where the bare rocks stood,

In a precipice mountain high.

Inya![59] cried Er, here's a dreadful leap,

But we are gone so far,

That if we flinch and return in fear,

Nos,[60] he will cry ha! ha!