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| [Advertisement] | ix |
| [Introduction] | xi |
| [CHAP. I.] |
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| The Falls of Niagara | 1 |
| [CHAP. II.] |
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| Niagara Whirlpool | 12 |
| [CHAP. III.] |
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| Geographical description of the Great Lakes of North America | 21 |
| [CHAP. IV.] |
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| The Author’s motives for undertaking the Tour; character of wild Indians | 28 |
| [CHAP. V.] |
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| Romantic expectations; impressions of nursery tales respecting Indians; the savage proper; embarkation from Buffalo; beauties of Lake Erie; arrival at Detroit | 33 |
| [CHAP. VI.] |
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| History of Detroit:—early trading posts; Pontiac’s conspiracy; Detroit saved; Pontiac’s death; description and beauties of the Territory of Michigan | 40 |
| [CHAP. VII.] |
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| Remarkable instance of capital crime | 48 |
| [CHAP. VIII.] |
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| Embarkation from Detroit; Captain Symmes’s theory of the earth; sail over Lake St. Clair; interest of the scene; delta of the River St. Clair; relics of French population; a picture of French and Indians | 54 |
| [CHAP. IX.] |
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| River St. Clair; visit to Fort Gratiot; memoranda of Lake Huron:—wild and picturesque scenery of its northern regions; meeting with a canoe, manned by eight Indians with the paddle; their dexterity and the celerity of their movement; an Indian encampment; their lodges; the Indian paddle quicker than steam; the Indian’s love of money and whiskey; an Indian salute; and several interesting incidents of the passage among the islands of the north margin of Huron | 63 |
| [CHAP. X.] |
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| Arrival at the Saut de St. Marie; origin of this name; the Falls; an interesting young lady, whose mother was an Indian and her father a Scotchman; peculiar and moral power of Indian languages | 80 |
| [CHAP. XI.] |
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| Voyage from the Saut de St. Marie to Green Bay; the thirty-two thousand islands; the scenery they create; description of Michillimackinack; the sugar-loaf and arched rock; arrival at Green Bay in the North-West Territory | 88 |
| [CHAP. XII.] |
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| Political relations of the American Indian tribes; their rights ostensibly, but not really respected; the pre-emption right and its operation; the original claims of Europeans a precedent; late juridical decision of the American Supreme Court; Great Britain and the United States both responsible in the treatment and for the fate of the Indians | 96 |
| [CHAP. XIII.] |
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| Vindication of the American Indians from the charge of being Savages; their domestic affections kind and amiable; their savage passions artificial, kindled by the war-dance, and only for war; the Indian in war is frantic, and never the aggressor, without a sense of injury; Indian character essentially modified by contact with the European race | 109 |
| [CHAP. XIV.] |
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| Gradual extinction of the Eastern tribes; the New York tribes advised to remove to the North-West Territory; concurrence of the General Government in the plan; parts of the Indians agree to it; the nature of the understanding; their purchase of land and removal; their expectations; their disappointment; supposed scheme for breaking up this new arrangement, and the result of it; the reasons for this narrative; extracts from the Rev. Dr. Morse’s Report to Congress, evincing the views then entertained in regard to this removal of the New York Indians | 122 |
| [CHAP. XV.] |
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| The design of the Commission of 1830 to Green Bay; ignorance of Government of the state of the case; history of the title in dispute and the measures employed to invalidate it | 144 |
| [CHAP. XVI.] |
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| Burning and massacre of Deerfield in Massachusetts; the infant daughter of the Rev. Mr. Williams snatched from the cradle, and carried into captivity; is retained, and marries an Indian Chief; her descendants; the Rev. Eleazer Williams, formerly of the St. Regis, now of the Oneida tribe, one of them; was brought to New England in childhood, and there educated; Mr. Williams and the Author school-fellows; Mr. Williams engaged in the American army during the late war; afterwards ordained to the Christian ministry by Bishop Hobart, and established among the Oneidas, near Utica | 154 |
| [CHAP. XVII.] |
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| The Rev. Mr. Williams takes the lead in the removal of the New York Indians to Green Bay; after a long separation, the Author meets him there in 1830; the importance of his public duties in that infant settlement of his people; ascent of Fox River; deceitfulness of the Indian canoe; incidents; arrival at Mr. Williams’s house; Mr. Williams’s developement of his plans; his disappointment | 167 |
| [CHAP. XVIII.] |
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| An account of the Stockbridge tribe, and their settlement on Fox River; the Rev. John Sergeant, the first Christian Missionary to the tribe, from England; the Oxford Bible (1717) presented by the Rev. Dr. Francis Ayscouth, in 1745; the improvement of these Indians in civilization and the Christian religion; a Sabbath among them; their exemplary religious order; their attachment to their religious teachers; Sunday school; their church music and psalmody; the parish beadle; their dress and manners; an impromptu-Indian speech; Indian politeness; reflections | 185 |
| [CHAP. XIX.] |
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| The Oneida settlement at Duck Creek, under the care of the Rev. Mr. Williams; its flourishing condition; discouraging prospects of these tribes, and the disturbance of their relations with the ancient and wilder tribes of the territory | 203 |
| [CHAP. XX.] |
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| The manner in which the Commission from Government summoned the Council; instructions imposed on the Commission, and difficulties created by them; assembling of the Indians, and the setting up of their encampments; modes of dress; a city of Indian lodges; demoralizing influence of these public councils; drunkenness; the ruin of a young Indian female | 212 |
| [CHAP. XXI.] |
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| Organization and opening of the Council; the Council-house; singular formalities; smoking of the pipe; grotesque appearance of the assemblage; the New York Indians compared with the wild tribes;[1] the different tribes represented in Council; modes of interpretation; the chastened oratory of the New York Indians; John Metoxen (a Stockbridge chief); his last Speech in Council; Indian shrewdness; oratory of the wild Indians, itself wild, but often powerful; piety of the Indians | 226 |
| [CHAP. XXII.] |
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| Charge of Indian affairs in the War Department; the course pursued by the New York Indians at the Council, in the vindication of their rights; the object of the Commission defeated | 245 |
| [CHAP. XXIII.] |
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| Specimens of Indian speeches | 252 |
| [CHAP. XXIV.] |
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| Freemasonry among the Indians; Medicine-dance; the faith of the Indians in its miraculous efficacy; the manner of it; it often kills the patient; the war-dance; account of one witnessed by the Author; the preparations; the instruments of music for the occasion; the horrible manner in which they dress and paint themselves; the exciting influence of the exercises; description of them; the motives acting upon the mind, and working the passions into frenzy; the war-whoop; its shrill voice, and piercing, startling effect; an unexpected and alarming incident;—a second war-dance among the Osages, west of the Mississippi | 271 |
| [CHAP. XXV.] |
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| Specimens of Indian speeches of former times, with anecdotes:—the vision of an Indian chief, narrated by himself; speech of an Indian captain to his warriors; murder of the family of Logan, and his speech to Lord Dunmore; the Indian chief’s answer to General Knox’s inquiry—“What is the matter, brother? You look sorry;” speech of Cornplanter to General Washington; of a Pawnee chief to President Monroe; anecdote of a Pawnee Brave | 301 |