The Indian in his Wigwam; Or, Characteristics of the Red Race of America / From Original Notes and Manuscripts

by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

From the documents accompanying the annual report transmitted to Congress by the President, in December, 1840, the amount of funds invested by the government in stocks, for the Indians, was $2,580,000, on which the annual interest paid to them was [$131,050]. Twenty-four of the tribes had permanently appropriated, by treaty, $60,730 per annum, for the purpose of education. The number of schools maintained, and the number of pupils actually taught, are not furnished. It is gratifying to know, from this source, that civilisation, agriculture, and the mechanic arts, are making a rapid progress, and that education and Christianity are walking hand-in-hand. Planting and raising cattle are adopted generally. Portions of the most advanced tribes have devoted themselves to the mechanic arts, supplying themselves, to a limited extent, with smiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, and joiners, and some other branches. Spinning and hand-loom weaving are practised to some extent. There are native merchants, among the three principal southern tribes, who ship their own cotton and other products to market, and supply their people, in return, with such products of the East and West Indies, and other parts of the world, as they require. A large part of the contracts, particularly for Indian corn, required to subsist the United States troops in that quarter of the Union, is furnished by native contractors. Their legislation is performed in representative councils, and is well adapted to the actual and advancing state of society. Many of their leading men are well educated; some of them classically; and the general moral and intellectual tone and habits of the tribes, are clearly and strikingly on the advance. It requires, it is believed, but time and perseverance in civil associations, to lead them to the same results arrived at by other barbarous nations, and to demonstrate to them the value and importance of a general political confederation, founded on the principles of equal rights and equal representation, supported by public virtue and intelligence.

Having sketched the cause of the decline of that portion of the North American Indians, who were seated along the Atlantic, and the plan proposed for checking it, we shall now, with the map and documentary evidence before us, devote a few moments to the present condition and prospects of the more prominent tribes.

1. The Choctaws, beginning at the extreme south of the territory, are the first in position. They occupy the country above the State of Arkansas, extending from the Arkansas to the Red river, following up the Canadian branch of the former, comprising an area of about 150 miles in breadth, by 200 in length. They are bounded by Texas south-west. The country is well adapted for grain and the raising of stock, in its middle and northern parts, and for cotton on the south. Many of the natives have large fields, where, but a few years since, the forest was untouched. Saw mills, grist mills, and cotton gins, are either erecting or erected throughout the country. Salt is manufactured by an intelligent Choctaw. Iron ore has been found, and specimens of gold have been picked up in various places.

This tribe is governed by a written constitution and laws. Their territory is divided into three districts, each of which elects, once in four years, a ruling chief, and ten representatives. The general council, thus constituted, and consisting of thirty councillors, meets annually, on the first Monday in October. Voters must be Choctaws, of age, and residents of the districts. The three chiefs have a joint veto power on all laws passed; but two-thirds of the council may re-pass them after such rejection.

The council of thirty appoint their own speaker and clerk, and keep a journal. They meet in a large and commodious council-house, fitted up with seats for members and spectators, and committee rooms. Their sessions are, usually, about ten days in duration. They are paid two dollars per diem for their services, out of public funds.

In addition to this evidence of capacity for self-government, there are judicial districts established, the right of trial by jury is secured, and there is an appeal to the highest tribunal. All the males, of a special age, are subject to do military duty: for this purpose the territory is subdivided into thirty two captaincies, the whole being placed under the orders of a general. The council has passed many good and wholesome laws; among them, one against intemperance and the sale of ardent spirits. The collection of debts is at present not compulsory, being regulated by questions of credit, punctuality, and honor, which are to be adjusted between the buyer and seller. The country is too sparsely settled, and the popular odium against incarceration too strong, to permit a resort to it. Thus, it will be seen, this tribe exhibit in their frame of government the elements of a representative republic, not a pure democracy, with perhaps sufficient conservative power to guard against sudden popular effervescence.

The Choctaws have twelve public schools, established by treaty stipulations with the United States. There are several missionaries amongst them, of the Presbyterian and Methodist denominations, whose labors are reported by the public agents to be beneficial, and calculated to advance their condition. There are four public blacksmith shops, two of which are exclusively worked by the natives. The strikers, or assistants, at all the shops, are natives. Shops have also been erected, in various parts of the nation, which are occupied only in the spring and summer, in planting and crop time. The mechanics in these are natives, who are paid, not by the individuals requiring aid, but out of public funds. The nation has an academy located in Scott county, Kentucky, at which 125 students were taught in 1839 and 1840. This institution is now in the process of being established in their own territory. This tribe we learn by the Secretary of War's report, appropriated $18,000 of their annuities, in 1843, to educational purposes.

2. Chickasaws. This tribe is of the same lineage as the Choctaws; and, by a compact with the latter, they occupy the same territory, and live intermixed with them. It constitutes a part of this compact, that the Chickasaws are to concentrate their population, and form a fourth election district, which shall be entitled to elect ten representatives, and three senatorial chiefs, to the national Council. The aggregate amount of the vested funds of this tribe, in 1840, was $515,230 44; of which $146,000 is devoted to orphans. The annual interest paid by the government is $27,063 83. They participate equally in the advantages of the Choctaw academy, and have had many of their youth educated at that institution.

3. Next, in geographical position, to the united Choctaws and Chickasaws, are the Muskogees, who are more generally known under the name of Creeks. They occupy a territory one hundred and fifty miles in length, by ninety in breadth. They are bounded on the south by the Canadian fork of the Arkansas, and by the district of the Seminoles, which lies between the main branch of this stream and its north fork. Their territory reaches to a point opposite the junction of the Neosho, and is protracted thence north to the Cherokee boundary. It is a rich tract, well adapted to the growth of corn, vegetables, and esculents, and the raising of stock. It is not as abundantly watered by running streams as some of the tracts, or rather, it is a characteristic of its smaller streams that they run dry, or stand in pools, during the latter part of summer. In place of these, it has some good springs. The main and the north fork of the Canadian are exemptions from the effects of summer drouth. In point of salubrity, the country is not inferior to other portions of the Indian territory.