It is known that many North American tribes had a very high standard of honesty among themselves. Domenech wrote:—“The Indians who do not come in contact with the Palefaces never appropriate what belongs to others; they have no law against theft, as it is a crime unknown among them. They never close their doors.”[17] According to Colonel Dodge, theft was the sole unpardonable crime amongst them; a man found guilty of stealing even the most trifling article from a member of his own band was whipped almost to death, deprived of his property, and together with his wives and children driven away from the band to starve or live as best he could.[18] Among the Rocky Mountains Indians visited by Harmon theft was frequently punished with death.[19] Among the Omahas, “when the suspected thief did not confess his offence, some of his property was taken from him until he told the truth. When he restored what he had stolen, one-half of his own property was returned to him, and the rest was given to the man from whom he had stolen. Sometimes all of the policemen whipped the thief. But when the thief fled from the tribe, and remained away for a year or two, the offence was not remembered.”[20] Among the Wyandots the punishment for theft is twofold restitution.[21] The Iroquois looked down upon theft with the greatest disdain, although the lash of public indignation was the only penalty attached to it.[22] The Potawatomis considered it one of the most atrocious crimes.[23] Among the Chippewas Keating found a few individuals who were addicted to thieving, but these were held in disrepute.[24] Richardson praises the Chippewyans for their honesty, no precautions for the safety of his and his companions property being required during their stay among them.[25] Mackenzie was struck by the remarkable honesty of the Beaver Indians; “in the whole tribe there were only two women and a man who had been known to have swerved from that virtue, and they were considered as objects of disregard and reprobation.”[26] Among the Ahts “larceny of a fellow-tribesman’s property is rarely heard of, and the aggravation of taking it from the house or person is almost unknown“; nay, “anything left under an Indian’s charge, in reliance on his good faith, is perfectly safe.”[27] The Thlinkets generally respect the property of their fellow-tribesmen; but although they admit that theft is wrong they do not regard it as a very serious offence, which disgraces the perpetrator, and if a thief is caught he is only required to return the stolen article or to pay its value.[28] Among the Aleuts “theft was not only a crime but a disgrace”; for the first offence of this kind corporal punishment was inflicted, for the fourth the penalty was death.[29] According to Egede, the Greenlanders had as great an abhorrence of stealing among themselves as any nation upon earth;[30] according to Cranz, they considered such an act “excessively disgraceful.”[31] Similar views still prevail among them, as also among other Eskimo tribes.[32] A Greenlander never touches driftwood which another has placed above high-water mark, though it would often be easy to appropriate it without fear of detection.[33] Parry states that, during his stay at Igloolik and Winter Island, a great many instances occurred in which the Eskimo scrupulously returned articles that did not belong to them, even though detection of a theft, or at least of the offender, would have been next to impossible.[34]
[17] Domenech, op. cit. ii. 320.
[18] Dodge, Our Wild Indians, pp. 64, 79. Cf. Charlevoix, Journal of a Voyage to North America, ii. 26, 28 (Hurons).
[19] Harmon, Voyages and Travels in the Interior of North America, p. 348.
[20] Dorsey, ‘Omaha Sociology,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. iii. 367.
[21] Powell, ‘Wyandot Government,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. i. 66.
[22] Colden, in Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, iii. 191. Morgan, League of the Iroquois, p. 333 sq. Loskiel, History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians, i. 16.
[23] Keating, Expedition to the Source of St. Peter’s River, i. 127.
[24] Ibid. ii. 168.
[25] Richardson, Arctic Searching Expedition, ii. 19 sq.