Intellectual Capacity and Character
Laying aside the advantages of education, of knowledge acquired by conversation with superior men, and the increase of ideas gained in travel by the European, and drawing a comparison between the ignorant white and the savage, we feel bound to award preference to the latter. In all their conversation, manners, government of families, general deportment, bargaining, and ordinary occupations they exhibit a manliness, shrewdness, earnestness, and ability far superior to the mass of illiterate Europeans. Even their superstitions and religion present a connected, grand chain of thought, having for its conclusion the existence of a Supreme Power, much more satisfactory and sublime in the aggregate than the mixture of bigotry, infidelity, enthusiasm, and profanity observed in the actions and language of the lower class of Christians. An excellent opportunity offers in this country to draw a comparison between the Indians and the engagees of the Fur Company, and what can never fail to strike the mind of the observer is the superior manliness and energy of the Indian in thought, word, and action, as evinced in their patience, contempt of death and danger, reverses of fortune, in their affection for their children, government of their families, their freedom from petty vexations, and useless bursts of impotent passion.
The Indian reverences his unknown God in his way. Though the principle be fear and the object Creation, it leads to reliance and resignation when his own resources fail, whereas the whites spoken of vent their displeasure for most trifling grievances and accidents in eternal curses on the Great Disposer, the Virgin Mary, and all other holy persons and objects they deem worthy of their execration. These Indians are capable of pursuing a logical train of reasoning to a just conclusion. If the subject be one with which by experience they have become acquainted, they can argue it point by point with any person. Even the Assiniboin, who are the most ignorant of all these tribes, can pursue a satisfactory mode of conversation. Clear sightedness is more observable in matters touching their own personal or national welfare, the utility and expedience of war or peace, camp regulations, or the advantage of trade. Not many years since the Cree and Assiniboin combined against the Hudson Bay Co. at Red River for the purpose of forcing that powerful house into more reasonable prices for goods and a less distressful policy of trade or to abandon the country.
The case was as follows: It was then and still is in a measure the custom of that company to make credits to those Indians in the fall for nearly the entire amount of their winter hunts, taking advantage of their necessities in putting exorbitant prices on the supplies thus advanced, so that when an Indian came to pay he found himself with nothing left to clothe his family or meet his wants; in fact, as poor as before, and consequently obliged to contract other debts on the ensuing year, being in this way kept always poor, more especially so if by some accident his hunt should fail.
Even those who were not indebted bought supplies at such enormous rates as with difficulty to support themselves. In order, therefore, to reform these proceedings they assembled in council at various places, sent runners to all the camps in the two nations, and decided to convene at the Hudson Bay Co.‘s fort and make known to them their determination, which was to hunt no more at such prices, or if they did hunt, to seek some other market for their furs on the Mississippi or Missouri. The company being aware of their proceedings and knowing the inexpedience of being forced into measures, besides dreading the effect such a large body of discontented Indians might have on the settlers and property, sent their half-breed runners to the different camps on the advance toward the fort with orders to turn them back with stories that the smallpox had appeared in the settlement. The fear of this terrible infection disbanded the expedition, the Indians traveling in haste the contrary direction, which gave the company time to alter in detail their manner of dealing with them, apparently of their own accord. Things of this kind prove the Indians to be capable of looking into their own interests, also of acting in a body when they are concerned, in cases where rank is not interfered with nor subordination required, while gain is the object and public opinion unanimous.
On subjects in which their actual experience and observation are at fault, even if supported with good arguments, they are suspicious and incredulous. They listen, doubt, but say little. On all such topics their minds receive a bias from their superstitions and lack of appreciation of motive. They can not conceive of any efforts made through motives of charity, benevolence, or pity, nor realize any other disinterested action, even if it be for their benefit, because all they do is in expectation of reward, and being destitute of the above principles of actions are disposed to attribute interested views to everyone else. In reviewing such subjects with them, and supporting the moral principle by argument, they are silenced, though not convinced; they do not grasp it, but will not contradict, for the thing may be so. Hence their thoughtfulness and apparent apathy, also their uninterrupted deliberations in councils and conversation, all arising from a desire to hear the subject in all its bearings, either with the view of forming an opinion or of the propriety of expressing it.
Regarding their temperament, it is peculiar and general. We see none of those great differences in disposition observed among the European races.
There appears to be a uniformity of individual feeling and action among them. Being all the same on like occasions, it would seem a national and natural feature, calling forth corresponding feelings and actions with circumstances as they arise, exhibited in overwhelming demonstrations of grief or joy, in seriousness in business, ceremonies, and worship, excessive gayety in their amusements and lighter conversation, with earnestness in matters of personal interest. They have strong powers of memory and forecast, are of a reflective habit, their physical propensities predominating over the moral, in their general conduct grave, can be and are very gay on occasions, but upon the whole are rather of a cold than a fervid temperament. We are unable to say whether their reasoning powers are brought out or strengthened by education, never having witnessed its application to any of these tribes, but see no reason why they should not be as capable of improvement in these respects as any other race of people. Their ideas are by no means groveling, nor is their form of government to be derided. Neither can we conscientiously assign to them a lower place in the scale of creation; perhaps not so low as any other race of uneducated sentient beings.
We are not well enough acquainted with the capacity and history of the oriental stock to say whether these assimilate in any great degree; most likely the inference can be drawn from what has been written in these pages.
We may state that as yet no person has appeared among them noted for his natural or acquired powers as a real physician, though many have risen to eminence in this department from their supposed supernatural powers in curing the sick. Neither does their history produce any person who has evinced ability as a linguist,[37] moralist, or in the cultivation of any of the exact or moral sciences.
They use no studied maxims of expression in conversation, nor are there observed any compositions partaking of the nature of laments, unless the speeches made to departed spirits and the universal monotonous mourning chant[38] would be construed in that light. Their ordinary talk is pretty much the same as that of other men, though perhaps the Indians use fewer words in conversation, selecting only those which have a direct reference to the subject. They do not evince a quickness in repartee, even in their jokes, and all conversation, except the obscene, is carried on more deliberately and concisely than among other races. The effect of their oratory is a great deal enhanced by the position, bearing, and gesticulation of the speaker, yet it is not without its merits; simplicity, clearness, and strength of language are its distinguishing traits. We have heard and understood some hundreds of speeches on every subject of interest among the Sioux, Assiniboin, and Cree Nations, and must confess we can not discern the figures and tropes attributed to their oratory by fiction writers. Metaphor is sometimes used, but not often. Their eloquence lies in the few words, bold assertions, and pointed questions with which they clothe their ideas, added to fierce expression of countenance and earnestness of gesticulation.
Everything they say in a speech has a tendency to gain their object if they have any, and Indians seldom speak otherwise. No set forms are followed, their thoughts finding utterance as they arise, or rather according to their feelings, and consequently make an impression on their auditors. The principal aims of the Indian speeches we have heard were to gain something or to impress the mass with the spirit of emulation, a desire for war or peace, and for the better regulation of their national affairs. One or two addresses of this kind have already been inserted and now follow two more, both heard and interpreted by myself and copied from our records. We fear in reading them, a woeful disappointment on the part of novel writers and romantic authors of Indian tales, but such as they are they exhibit true samples of Indian eloquence at the present day, however much it may differ from that in the time of the celebrated Logan and others. In interpreting these speeches, the exact and entire ideas of the Indians are preserved, though the words chosen to express them are not always the same. We have had occasion to remark on this head before that no Indian language admits of being translated word for word; to do so, the purport desired by the Indian would fail, injustice be done to his ideas as realized by him, and a futility of words presented so devoid of order as to make no impression on the person for whom they are intended.
Nevertheless it is not to be inferred that the ideas have been improved upon. They are entire, and only so because clothed in the only kind of words sufficient to convey the real extent of their signification.
The occasion which produced the following speech by the Crazy Bear was this: In the summer of 1837 the Assiniboin, with other nations, were invited to attend the treaty at Laramie. It was with great difficulty any of them could be persuaded to go, as the road along the Yellowstone was beset with Blackfeet war parties; but this man with three others went in company with A. Culbertson, Esq., who was authorized to conduct them. The Crazy Bear was, while at the treaty, made chief of the Assiniboin Nation by Col. D. D. Mitchell, the United States commissioner, and on his return to his people repeated to the nation the stipulations of the treaty, together with the “talk” held at the rendezvous, but, as usual with Indians, was not believed. It also happened that in the ensuing spring, by some delay, the merchandise intended for the Indians and promised them at the treaty did not arrive in the West in time to be forwarded, so that summer passed and the Missouri froze over without any appearance of presents forthcoming. The Indians became dissatisfied, thought they had been trifled with, abused Crazy Bear and me for deceiving them, raised war parties, and bid fair to break the treaty and become more troublesome to whites than ever.
Amidst all this clamor and disturbance the chief stood firm and, being supported in office by the fort, all hostile demonstrations were for the time averted. At this juncture, in January, 1853, Mr. Culbertson arrived from St. Louis with orders from the superintendent to supply the amount due the Indians as per treaty from the merchandise of the fur company in this country. The nation therefore being called together and placed in order in the interior of the fort, the goods as per invoice laid in front of them, the Crazy Bear rose and said:
“My children and friends: The clouds that have hitherto obscured the sky are brushed away and a fine day appears before you. The time has arrived when all the turbulent and discontented must be convinced that the whites have but one tongue; that our great father, the President, is rich and powerful. But a few days since most of you were violent in your reproaches against myself and the whites. If you have any more abuse left, heap it on now, disburden your hearts at once of all complaint, make the pile of your abuse as large as the pile of goods before you. The whites have kept their word and your heads should hang in shame.
“When you were invited to the treaty you were afraid to go, some to leave their wives, others their children, others to cross the warpath of the Blackfeet. I went. I appeared among nations in your name and am the cause of the present smiling pile of goods being laid before you.
“When I returned from the treaty after an absence of three moons and repeated to you the words of our Great Father, what was my reception? How was I listened to? When, by some accident the goods promised did not arrive, how did you act? What now do you think of yourselves?
“I hold in my hands the words of our Great Father. They are scored on my heart, were poured into my ears, did not run out, and now is the most fitting time to repeat what I have so often told you without being believed. Your Great Father does not want your lands; he seeks your welfare. You are a few poor miserable beings; he is rich, his people are numerous as the leaves of the cottonwood. He desires to stop the bloody wars heretofore existing between Indian tribes, to make all one people, to enable all to hunt and visit together in peace and friendship. He wishes you to refrain from all depredations on whites, respect your chief as a chief, and listen to his words. For this he sends you these presents which will be repeated every year for 15 years, unless by your misconduct you incur his displeasure. I have heard the words; they are true. I have seen his soldiers and know he has the power to punish those who have no ears.
“A great deal of what you do and say is foolishness, the work and talk of children, not of men. Last fall in despite, you raised war parties, made threats against myself and the whites, gave me trouble. You now see the rashness of your proceedings. Who gives you these goods?
“Do you pay for them? Have you traded them? Do you intend to recompense your Great Father in any way? If so, listen to his words. It has been said I have sold you to the whites—bartered for your lands. I now tell you it is no such thing. There are no stipulations made for your lands in these papers. They were not even mentioned in the treaty. They are too cold for any persons except Indians, or any animals other than those with heavy hair.
“The Blackfeet are yet your enemies, but are to be spoken to by our Great Father; therefore let us refrain from war upon them to advance the views of our Great Father. Since the treaty I have had a son and a son-in-law killed by these people, and all my horses stolen twice. I can count seven times damage they have done me and my nation, but still I am disposed to remain quiet so that our Great Father may be pleased. All of you do the same. The day is coming when the Blackfeet will have ears given them.
“There are many poor people in this assembly that will be greatly benefited by this distribution of goods. Indians are born poor; they are always poor. Whatever they get for nothing is a great help and they should be thankful.
“I now appoint you six men, soldiers, for the equal distribution of these goods. Let all have a fair share. Your duty as soldiers does not end here. In the camp when you hear of war parties being assembled, stop them.
“If any one breaks the treaty stipulations with regard to the whites or other nations I desire you to punish them. If you are not able to do so you are no soldiers, and such disturbers shall be taken down by the whites in irons.
“The President of the United States has thought fit to appoint me your chief. Here is my medal; there are my papers. This makes some of you jealous. You should have thought of it before and plucked up courage enough to be seen at the treaty, that he could have chosen a better man than I, if there be one. As it is, as long as I can stand and my voice holds good I shall never agree to what is wrong nor be deterred from doing what is right.[39] I have spoken.”
It is the custom of most of the upper Missouri tribes when at the fort for trading purposes for the principal men to make what are called presents; that is, a portion of the buffalo robes are brought into the office and with much ceremony laid at the feet of the gentleman in charge of the fort, which action is followed by a speech. To a spectator only viewing the act as a gift, and only understanding the literal meaning of their speeches on the occasion, they would appear to be the most liberal people in the world, as often 100 to 150 buffalo robes are laid down and carried out to the store without any merchandise being produced in payment at the time, besides each Indian distinctly states many times in his speech that it is absolutely for nothing he makes the present.
But unfortunately for this generous appearance it has quite the contrary signification. The trader during the course of this harangue receives hints enough as to the compensation for the present and the Indian fully expects both the honor done to the trader and the skins given to be paid for; in fact, requiring in return nearly double the amount in value had the skins been handed, as is usual by the mass of the Indians, to the clerk of the store without any ceremony. It is at these times that the principal men make the speeches, such as the one which follows, which, though not distinguished for beauty of allegory or force of argument, may serve to show their shrewdness and cunning, also their reliance on flattery to gain their ends. It was necessary to premise this much so that the speech could be understood in all its bearings.