Note 23 — Chapter V
Henry P. (Henry Pomeroy) Horton translation
Read the following taken from “Illustrations of the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians”, by G. Catlin: “This cruel custom of exposing their aged people, belongs, I think, to all the tribes who roam about the prairies, making severe marches, when such decrepit persons are totally unable to go, unable to ride or to walk,—when they have no means of carrying them. It often becomes absolutely necessary in such cases that they should be left; and they uniformly insist upon it, saying as one old man did, that they are old and of no further use—that they left their fathers in the same manner—that they wish to die, and their children must not mourn for them.” (I, p. 217.) ↑