LANGUAGE. (continued 4)

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:

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.

Here is another, slower and monotonous, but indicating the utmost maternal content:

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,

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,

Then the Lynx looked at the trembling Hare, and began to sing,

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,

and then the Hare laid her pink ears upon her shoulders, and was about to go on, but the Lynx began to sing again,—

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,

The Eagle answers disdainfully, looking down from a branch far above the Kite,

The Kite in a shrinking, feeble voice,

The Eagle despises him, and yet cannot forbear to answer,

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,

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 arepetition 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.

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.

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 mösa 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:

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.

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 congregatæ[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:

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]]

FOOTNOTES:

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.

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.

Ah me! when I think of him—when I think of him—my sweetheart, my Algonquin.

II.

As I embarked to return, he put the white wampum around my neck—a pledge of truth, my sweetheart, my Algonquin.

III.

I shall go with you, he said, to your native country—I shall go with you, my sweetheart—my Algonquin.

IV.

Alas! I replied—my native country is far, far away—my sweetheart; my Algonquin.

V.

When I looked back again—where we parted, he was still looking after me, my sweetheart; my Algonquin.

VI.

He was still standing on a fallen tree—that had fallen into the water, my sweetheart; my Algonquin.

VII.

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.

FOOTNOTES:

A PSALM.

OR SUPPLICATION FOR MERCY, AND A CONFESSION OF SIN, ADDRESSED TO THE AUTHOR OF LIFE, IN THE ODJIBWA-ALGONQUIN TONGUE.

BY THE LATE MRS. HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT.

1. Gaitshe minno pimaudizzeyun, Gezha Monedo, gezhigong aibeyun.

2. Keen, maumauwaikumig waozhemigoyun.

3. Keen, kah ozhiéeyong, keen gaugegaikumig, kai nuhwaunemeyong, aikoobemaudizzeyong.

4. Keen, kainuhwaubaimeyong, geezhig tibbikuk tibishko.

5. Keen, Keozheahn-geezhik-geezis, dibbik-geezis, aunungug gia.

6. Keen, kegeozhetoan tshe kimmewung, gia tshe annimikeeaug, tshe sai sai yung, tshe sogepoog gia.

7. Keen kau ozheiyong tshe unnewegauboweyaung, kakinnuk kau ozheudjig akeeng.

8. Kee, gemishemin odjechaugwug, wekaukaine bosigoog. Kee gemishemin kebauzhigo kegwiss Jesus Christ, tshe oonjenebood neenowind.

9. Mozhug issuh nemudjee-inaindumin, kagait mozhug nemudjee-eki-domin; nahwudj neminwaindumin tshe mudjee-dodumaung.

10. Kagaitego me kaisoondje izhauyaungebun mudjee Moneto.

11. Showainemishinaum, Gezha Monedo.

12. Showainemishinaum, Jesus Christ.

13. Maishkoodjetoan ne mudjee-odai-enaunin.

14. Meezhishenaun edush oushke odaiyun.

15. Apaidush nah saugeigsayun, gia dush todumaung kau izhè gugeekwayun.

16. Me ozhissinaum odaiyun tshe minwaindumaung, tshe annahme autogoyun.

17. Showainim neendunahwaitmaugunenaunig unishenaubaig.

18. Showainim kukinnuh menik pemaudizzejig akeeng.

19. Showainemishenaum kaidokoo pemandizzeyong, appe dush neeboyong.

20. Showainemishenaum neen jeechaugonaunig tshe izhowaud keen.

21. Kaugegaikumig edush tshe menawaunegooz eyong ozaum ne mudje-pemaudizzewin auno unnahmeyauyongin.

22. Kauween edush kewee pemaudizzewin, kishpin aitah appainemo yong Kegwiss Jesus Christ.

23. Aipetainemud kegwiss showainemishenaum. Kunnah gai kunnah

TRANSLATION.

1. Great good author of Life, Gezha Monedo, abiding in the heavens

2. Thou hast made all things.

3. Thou art the giver,—Thou, the everlasting preserver of life.

4. Thou hast guarded me, by day and by night.

5. Thou hast made the sun and moon, and the stars.

6. Thou makest the rain, the thunder, the hail, and the snows.

7. Thou didst make man to stand upright, and has placed him over all that is on the earth.

8. Thou hast given us souls, that will never die. Thou hast sent thy son Jesus Christ to die for us.

9. Continually are our thoughts evil, and truly, our words are evil continually.

10. Verily, we deserve punishment with the Spirit of Evil.

11. Show pity on us, Gezha Monedo.

12. Show pity on us, Jesus Christ.

13. Reform our wicked hearts.

14. Give us new hearts.

15. May we love thee with all our hearts, and by our acts obey thy precepts, (or sayings.)

16. Give us hearts to delight in prayer.

17. Show mercy to all our kindred, unishenaubaig, or common people, (means exclusively the Red Men.)

18. Show mercy to all who live on the earth.

19. Pity us, and befriend us, living and dying.

20. And receive our souls to thyself.

21. Ever to dwell in thine abiding place of happiness.

22. Not in our own frail strength of life, do we ask this; but alone in the name of Jesus Christ.

23. Grant us thy mercy, in the name of thy Son. So be it ever.

Those who take an interest in the structure of the Indian languages, may regard the above, as an improvised specimen of the capacity of this particular dialect for the expression of scripture truth. The writer, who from early years was a member of the church, had made a translation of the Lords prayer, and, occasionally, as delicate and declining health permitted, some other select pieces from the sacred writings, and hymns, of which, one or two selections may, perhaps, hereafter be made.

The distinction between the active and passive voice, in the Odjibwa language, is formed by the inflection ego.

Ne sageau,I love.

Ne sageau-ego,I am loved.

TRADITIONARY WAR SONGS OF THE ODJIBWA ALGONQUINS.

Whoever has heard an Indian war song, and witnessed an Indian war dance, must be satisfied that the occasion wakes up all the fire and energy of the Indian’s soul. His flashing eye—his muscular energy, as he begins the dance—his violent gesticulation as he raises his war-cry—the whole frame and expression of the man, demonstrate this. And long before it comes to his turn to utter his stave, or portion of the chant, his mind has been worked up to the most intense point of excitement: his imagination has pictured the enemy—the ambush and the onset—the victory and the bleeding victim, writhing under his prowess: in imagination he has already stamped him under foot, and torn off his reeking scalp: he has seen the eagles hovering in the air, ready to pounce on the dead carcass, as soon as the combatants quit the field.

It would require strong and graphic language to give descriptive utterance, in the shape of song, to all he has fancied, and seen and feels on the subject. He, himself, makes no such effort. Physical excitement has absorbed his energies. He is in no mood for calm and connected descriptions of battle scenes. He has no stores of measured rhymes to fall back on. All he can do is to utter brief, and often highly symbolic expressions of courage—of defiance—of indomitable rage. His feet stamp the ground, as if he would shake it to its centre. The inspiring drum and mystic rattle communicate new energy to every step, while they serve, by the observance of the most exact time, to concentrate his energy. His very looks depict the spirit of rage, and his yells, uttered quick, sharp, and cut off by the application of the hand to the mouth, are startling and horrific.

Under such circumstances, a few short and broken sentences are enough to keep alive the theme in his mind; and he is not probably conscious of the fact, that, to an unimpassioned and calm listener, with note book in hand, there is not sufficient said to give coherence to the song. And that such a song, indeed, under the best auspices, is a mere wild rhapsody of martial thought, poured out from time to time, in detached sentences, which are, so to say, cemented into lines by a flexible chorus and known tune. The song and the music are all of a piece. Vivid and glowing, and poetic pictures will float in such a train, and often strike the imagination by their graphic truth and boldness; but the poet must look elsewhere for finished melody, and refined and elaborate composition.

The Indian is to be viewed here, as elsewhere, as being in the highest state of his physical, not of his mental phasis. Such glimmerings may however be picked out of these warlike rhapsodies, as denote that he is of a noble and independent tone of thinking. We shall at least enable the reader to judge. The following specimens, which have been derived from actors in the depths of the forest, consist of independent songs, or stanzas, each of which is sung by a different or by the same warrior, while the dance is in progress. The words have been taken down from a young Chippewa warrior of lake Superior, of the name of Che che-gwy-ung. It will be perceived that there is a unity in the theme, while each warrior exercises the freest scope of expression. This unity I have favoured by throwing out such stanzas as mar it, and afterwards arranging them together.

WAR SONG.

a. In beginning this song the warrior has turned his eyes to the clouds.

O shá wan ong(From the place of the south)

Un dos′ e wug,(They come,) repeat.

Pe nä′ se wug,(The birds, i.e. the warlike birds.)

Ka baim wai wá dung-ig.(Hear the sound of their passing screams on the air.)

b. The idea of ravenous birds hovering in the sky, still prevails—

Tod ot′ to be(I wish to change myself to be)

Pe nä′ se.(A bird.)

Ka dow′ we á we yun′.(His swift body—to be like him.)

c. The warrior now rises above all thoughts of fear.

Ne wä be na,(I cast it away.)

Né ow a.(My body.)

Ne wá be na,(Repeats.) This is a high symbolical boast of personal bravery.

Né ow a.

d. He appeals to the Great Spirit for extraordinary power.

Na bun á kum ig,(On the front part of the earth,)

Tshe bá be wish′ em ug.(First shines [strikes] the light.)

In do main′ em ik,(Such power to me,)

Mon′ e do,(My God,)

Shä wa nem id.(In thy mercy give!)

By the boldness of this figure he claims the omnipotent power of the sun to see and discover his enemies.

e. He upbraids such of his people as hold back, and do not join in the dance—that is to say, enlist in the war.

Wä go nain′, e win?(Why do ye, warriors,)

A be yun ah,(Stand back?)

Wä wos is se, we yun.(Ye who bear the mark of the Awasees.)

The Awasee is a kind of fish, which is the totem of a clan.

f. He declares his full purpose to enter into the war.

Ne má je, e yeh!(I go to the spot—the war path!)

Ne má je, e yeh!(Repeats.)

Ne me kun ah, e yeh!(My war path!)

Ge zhig neen wá tin,(My sky is fair and clear.) The common phrase to denote good fortune.