INDIAN TRAITS
lmost unconsciously, even as our own eyes and other senses are trained to help us in city or country life, the Indians are adding to their education in the things which will make life and labor easier to them. Their reading of weather signs is very accurate, and possibly their rain-makers are simply experts in these signs.
Their method of lying in ambush in war times calls out all their hidden powers in every line. They can decoy their foe by imitating bird calls or animals; they can make themselves into stump-like figures and almost defy a close inspection.
If injured, they rarely show pain, though the torture of the broken limb or the bullet may be intense. Indian boys are taught by both parents from early childhood to bear their pain silently. It comes as a good lesson, when in manhood a groan might show an enemy where they were hidden.
Their long trails or paths over mountains, through thick forests, across treeless plains, with no compass [[21]]but the North Star, have made them watchful of every earthly means of finding their way. They will tell you that trees are greener on the south side than on the north, and that there are plants whose leaves point due north. Flocks of birds sometimes help to guide them. They seem to have almost an instinct in finding their way home.
An Indian’s natural pride is as great as a king’s. To him his nation is the greatest one on earth. No Indian must allow that the white is greater in numbers or strength.
A number of years ago a Mandan chief named Ietan visited the city of Washington in company with others. On his return, at the council which was called in his honor, he told of boats he had seen that were one hundred and fifty feet long; of great houses filled with white people; of great cities and long railroad trails.
The Indians will have nothing but absolute truth at these councils. They must not deceive each other. The council declared that Ietan was telling false tales to frighten the Mandans. No canoe could be built so large as he had said. No such number of white people could live in a land where there were no buffalo. Houses such as he had told about would be blown down by the great winds.
Ietan was proven to have basely deceived the council. He was condemned to death for making the [[22]]white man stronger and greater than the red man. Ietan told them he was ready and willing to suffer the penalty, but when they were older they would know that his words were not false. He was punished as the council decreed. Perhaps they are wise enough now to read the signs made by the iron trails across the Dakota prairies, and their children know that what Ietan said was true.
Indians seem to have great pity for the unfortunate few of their tribe who have lost their senses, becoming either insane or foolish. A certain professor belonging to a well-known eastern college had reason to be thankful for this trait not many years ago. He had been gathering plants and insects in one of the desolate regions in the west. He was unarmed, and knew nothing of any Indian language or of the sign language so much used west of the Mississippi.
A marauding band of Indians caught sight of him. Wheeling their ponies in his direction, they were down upon him before he had time to do anything more than gather his collection into the boxes and get upon his pony. For some reason they did not offer to hurt him; they, however, were willing to make themselves richer by whatever they could get from him. The professor did not say a word, but handed them his case of roots and plants. At this they stared open-eyed, for it contained nothing that any one could eat. His boxes of [[24]]insects were next examined. Nothing of use to them was found. His pockets were searched. They were filled with bugs, flies, and flower specimens.
Hogan of Navajo Blanket Weaver
From a Photograph
Looking him over from head to foot, they all seem to have reached the same conclusion at the same time; with shouts of laughter and mocking bows and grimaces, they gave him back his boxes. They had discovered by all the signs that he was a being who had not a sense left, and they would not harm him. So the learned professor was spared to return to tell the tale.
The numerous Indian nations of America are and were as different in their character and conditions as are the civilized people living in America to-day. They had their unions and their divisions of land according to nation, not according to family or person. Many nations seem to have had wise laws.
Very strangely, many of the tribes expected the coming of the white man. When the Indian has learned that village life is no disgrace, he may become even greater than the paleface with the talking leaves or printed book.
A wise old Indian was once told that white men were beginning to think they had found where the Indian came from; that the place was northern China.
“Perhaps the people of northern China came from the Indian race in America,” said the Indian. It was well said. There are many proofs that the mound-builders, [[25]]the Aztec, and the Indian have made this part of the world their home for ages, when it was unknown and unthought of in the wildest dreams of seamen or of kings.
The hunting chase is the great happiness of the Indian. Now the wild buffalo is gone from the plains forever; the red deer, elk, moose, and bear hide away in the northern forests; the Indian’s hope for a long future for his nation is lost. They are no longer braves but squaws, for they must plant corn and watch it. Village life is very tame compared with the wandering life when the tribes moved to some new place almost every moon.
They have an old, old prophecy among many tribes, “that the Great Manitou will some day send away the white race; the whole earth shall be given to the Indians.” This prophecy is repeated in the religious dances, and the medicine men comfort their people with it when the tribes feel the injustice of the whites. It excites them to battle with the invader.
Their training has always been for revenge, but they are also trained to remember the good which has been done to them. [[26]]