[Illustration: Engraved by A.B. Walter Philad.]
PERSONAL MEMOIRS
OF A
RESIDENCE OF THIRTY YEARS
WITH THE
INDIAN TRIBES
ON THE
AMERICAN FRONTIERS:
WITH BRIEF
NOTICES OF PASSING EVENTS, FACTS, AND OPINIONS,
A.D. 1812 TO A.D. 1842.
BY HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT.
1851.
TO
ALEXANDER B. JOHNSON, ESQ.
OF UTICA.
My dear sir:--I feel impelled to place your name before these sheets,
from a natural impulse. It is many years since I accompanied you to the
Genesee country, which was, at that time, a favorite theatre of
enterprise, and called the "Garden of the West." This step, eventually,
led me to make deeper and more adventurous inroads into the American
wilderness.
If I am not mistaken, you will peruse these brief memoranda of my
exploratory journeys and residence in the wide area of the west, and
among barbarous tribes, in a spirit of appreciation, and with a lively
sense of that providential care, in human affairs, that equally shields
the traveler amidst the vicissitudes of the forest, and the citizen at
his fireside.
Very sincerely yours,
HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT.
PREFACE.
Ten years ago I returned from the area of the Mississippi Valley to New
York, my native State, after many years' residence and exploratory
travels of that quarter of the Union. Having become extensively known,
personally, and as an author, and my name having been associated with
several distinguished actors in our western history, the wish has often
been expressed to see some record of the events as they occurred. In
yielding to this wish, it must not be supposed that the writer is about
to submit an autobiography of himself; nor yet a methodical record of
his times--tasks which, were he ever so well qualified for, he does not
at all aspire to, and which, indeed, he has not now the leisure, if he
had the desire, to undertake.
Still, his position on the frontiers, and especially in connection with
the management of the Indian tribes, is believed to have been one of
marked interest, and to have involved him in events and passages often
of thrilling and general moment. And the recital of these, in the simple
and unimposing forms of a diary, even in the instances where they may be
thought to fail in awakening deep sympathy, or creating high excitement,
will be found, he thinks, to possess a living moral _undertone_. In the
perpetual conflict between civilized and barbaric life, during the
settlement of the West, the recital will often recall incidents of toil
and peril, and frequently show the open or concealed murderer, with his
uplifted knife, or deadly gun. As a record of opinion, it will not be
too much to say, that the author's approvals are ever on the side of
virtue, honor, and right; that misconception is sometimes prevented by
it, and truth always vindicated. If he has sometimes met bad men; if he
has experienced detraction, or injustice; if even persons of good
general repute have sometimes persecuted him, it is only surprising, on
general grounds, that the evils of this kind have not been greater or
more frequent; but it is conceived that the record of such injustice
would neither render mankind wiser nor the author happier. The "crooked"
cannot be made "straight," and he who attempts it will often find that
his inordinate toils only vex his own soul. He who does the ill in
society is alone responsible for it, and if he chances not to be rebuked
for it on this imperfect theatre of human action, yet he cannot flatter
himself at all that he shall pass through a future state "scot free."
The author views man ever as an accountable being, who lives, in a
providential sense, that he may have an opportunity to bear record to
the principles of truth, wherever he is, and this, it is perceived, can
be as effectually done, so far as there are causes of action or
reflection, in the recesses of the forest, as in the area of the
drawing-room, or the purlieus of a court. It is believed that, in the
present case, the printing of the diary could be more appropriately
done, while most of those with whom the author has acted and
corresponded, thought and felt, were still on the stage of life. The
motives that, in a higher sphere, restrained a Wraxall and a Walpole in
withholding their remarks on passing events, do not operate here; for if
there be nothing intestimonial or faulty uttered, the power of a stern,
high-willed government cannot be brought to bear, to crush independence
of thought, or enslave the labors of intellect: for if there be a
species of freedom in America more valuable than another, it is that of
being pen-free.
It is Sismondi, I think, who says that "time prepares for a long flight,
by relieving himself of every superfluous load, and by casting away
everything that he possibly can." The author certainly would not ask him
to carry an onerous weight. But, in the history of the settlement of
such a country and such a population as this, there must be little, as
well as great labors, before the result to be sent forward to posterity
can be prepared by the dignified pen of polished history; and the writer
seeks nothing more than to furnish some illustrative memoranda for that
ultimate task, whoever may perform it.
He originally went to the west for the purpose of science. His
mineralogical rambles soon carried him into wide and untrodden fields;
and the share he was called on to take in the exploration of the
country, its geography, geology, and natural features, have thrown him
in positions of excitement and peril, which furnish, it is supposed, an
appropriate apology, if apology be necessary, for the publication of
these memoirs.
But whatever degree of interest and originality may have been connected
with his early observations and discoveries in science, geography, or
antiquities, the circumstances which directed his attention to the
Indian tribes--their history, manners and customs, languages, and
general ethnology, have been deemed to lay his strongest claim to public
respect. The long period during which these observations have been
continued to be made, his intimate relations with the tribes, the
favorable circumstances of his position and studies, and the ardor and
assiduity with which he has availed himself of them, have created
expectations in his case which few persons, it is believed, in our
history, have excited.
It is under these circumstances that the following selections from his
running journal are submitted. They form, as it were, a thread
connecting acts through a long period, and are essential to their true
understanding and development. A word may be said respecting the manner
of the record which is thus exhibited:--
The time is fixed by quoting exactly the dates, and the names of persons
are invariably given wherever they could, with propriety, be employed;
often, indeed, in connection with what may be deemed trivial
occurrences; but these were thought essential to the proper relief and
understanding of more important matters. Indeed, a large part of the
journal consists of extracts from the letters of the individuals
referred to; and in this way it is conceived that a good deal of the
necessarily offensive character of the egotism of journalism is got rid
of. No one will object to see his name in print while it is used to
express a kind, just, or noble sentiment, or to advance the cause of
truth; and, if private names are ever employed for a contrary purpose, I
have failed in a designed cautiousness in this particular. Much that
required disapprobation has been omitted, which a ripening judgment and
more enlarged Christian and philosophic view has passed over; and much
more that invited condemnation was never committed to paper. Should
circumstances favor it, the passages which are omitted, but approved, to
keep the work in a compact shape, will be hereafter added, with some
pictorial illustrations of the scenery.
The period referred to, is one of considerable interest. It is the
thirty years that succeeded the declaration of war by the United
States, in 1812, against Great Britain, and embraces a large and
important part of the time of the settlement of the Mississippi Valley,
and the great lake basins. During this period ten States have been added
to the Union. Many actors who now slumber in their graves are called up
to bear witness. Some of the number were distinguished men; others the
reverse. Red and white men alike express their opinions. Anecdotes and
incidents succeed each other without any attempt at method. The story
these incidentally tell, is the story of a people's settling the
wilderness. It is the Anglo-Saxon race occupying the sites of the Indian
wigwams. It is a field in which plumed sachems, farmers, legislators,
statesmen, speculators, professional and scientific men, and
missionaries of the gospel, figure in their respective capacities.
Nobody seems to have set down to compose an elaborate letter, and yet
the result of the whole, viewed by the philosophic eye, is a broad field
of elaboration.
HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT.
PHILADELPHIA, _Sept. 12th, 1851_.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Brief reminiscences of scenes from 1809 to 1817--Events preliminary to a
knowledge of western life--Embarkation on the source of the Alleghany
River--Descent to Pittsburgh--Valley of the Monongahela; its coal and
iron--Descent of the Ohio in an ark--Scenes and incidents by the
way--Cincinnati--Some personal incidents which happened there.