[95] This is in Mr. Evans' System of Orthography.
I had thought of making a collection of words, as a commencement for a lexicon, but there are impediments in jay way for the present: 1st, I want a plan; I want the opinion of those versed in the language, as two roots frequently coalesce and form compound terms, and sometimes two verbs and a noun amalgamate by clipping all; and it requires a skillful hand to dissect them and show the originals. Should all these compound terms be introduced (in the contemplated lexicon), it would swell the work to a good size. If this be not done, we must find some rule for compounding the terms, that the learner may be able to do it for himself. This (the rule) I have not yet ascertained.
"I am favorably situated for making philological observations. I observe that the Cree, although essentially the same language as the Chippewa, yet drops, or never had, many of the suffix expletive particles of the latter, though the prefix particles are pretty much the same in both. The Cree has not, I believe, the double negative nor the adverbial and plaintive forms of verbs, as I have termed them. This renders the language less complex, and much more easy of acquisition than the Chippewa.
"One thought was forcibly impressed on my mind while perusing the publications of the American Antiquarian Society. In these publications they introduce the names of things in order to show the affinity of different tribes. From my knowledge of Indian, I am inclined to think that the names of things change the soonest in any language, and that, in order to ascertain the original stock of any tribe or nation by comparing languages, we must descend to the groundwork of the languages and search, not so much for similarity of sound as for the arrangement and essential and peculiar principles of the languages.
"A principle that prevails in the American languages, as far as my information extends, is, that the verb, with its nominative and objective cases, be inseparably connected. The Delaware, the Chippewa (under whatever name), and the Cree, &c., make the change in person, number, &c., by a change in the prefix or suffix. But the Mohawk and Chippewyan [96] make the change, in some cases, in the middle of the word, when the Chippewa and others always remain unchanged."
[96] It must be remembered that the Chippewas and Chippewyans, are diverse tribes. The two words are both Chippewa; but the tribes are of different groups. The one is ALGONQUIN; the other ATHAPASCA. The Mohawk belongs to a third group of languages, namely, the IROQUOIS.
CHAPTER LXIX.
Popular error respecting the Indian character and history--Remarkable superstition--Theodoric--A missionary choosing a wild flower--Piety and money--A fiscal collapse in Michigan--Mission of Grand Traverse--Simplicity of the school-girl's hopes--Singular theory of the Indians respecting story-telling--Oldest allegory on record--Political aspects--Seneca treaty--Mineralogy--Farming and mission station on Lake Michigan.
1840. Jan. 1st. Having determined to pass another winter (some ten weeks of which are past) at Mackinack, I have found my best and pleasantest employment in my old resource, the investigation of the Indian character and history. The subject is exhaustless in every branch of inquiry, but the more it is turned over and sifted, the more cause there is to see that there is error to be encountered at almost every step. Travelers have been chiefly intent on the picturesque, and have given themselves but little trouble to investigate. The historian has had his mind full of prepossessions derived from ancient reading, and has, generally, been seated three thousand miles across the water, where the work of personal comparison was impossible. Left to the repose of himself, mentally and physically, without being placed in the crucible of war, without being made the tool of selfishness, or driven to a state of half idiocy by the use of liquor, the Indian is a man of naturally good feelings and affections, and of a sense of justice, and, although destitute of an inductive mind, is led to appreciate truth and virtue as he apprehends them. But he is subject to be swayed by every breath of opinion, has little fixity of purpose, and, from a defect of business capacity, is often led to pursue just those means which are least calculated to advance his permanent interests, and his mind is driven to and fro like a feather in the winds. This man, and that man, are continually bringing up Indians to speak for some selfish object, which, being a little out of sight, he does not perceive in its true light, but which he nevertheless is soon made to comprehend, if a public agent sets it plainly before him. But there is a perpetual watch necessary to protect him from deception, and this necessity becomes stringent in the exact proportion that a tribe has funds or treaty rights of any kind. If these attempts to make the Indian a stalking-horse for masked or misstated objects be independently met, and with just sentiments of dissent, the agent of the government is liable to calumniation, and it becomes the policy of unscrupulous men to get their affairs placed in hands having less well-defined notions of moral right, or more easily swayed in their opinions.