The southern tribes, and those that have held a constant intercourse with the French or English, cannot have preserved their manners or their customs in their original purity. They could not avoid acquiring the vices with the language of those they conversed with; and the frequent intoxications they experienced through the baneful juices introduced among them by the Europeans, have completed a total alteration in their characters.
In such as these, a confused medley of principles or usages are only to be observed; their real and unpolluted customs could be seen among those nations alone that have held but little communications with the provinces. These I found in the north-west parts, and therefore flatter myself that I am able to give a more just account of the customs and manners of the Indians, in their ancient purity, than any that has been hitherto published. I have made observations on thirty nations, and though most of these have differed in their languages, there has appeared a great similarity in their manners, and from these have I endeavoured to extract the following remarks.
As I do not propose to give a regular and connected system of Indian concerns, but only to relate such particulars of their manners, customs, &c. as I thought most worthy of notice, and which interfere as little as possible with the accounts given by other writers, I must beg my Readers to excuse their not being arranged systematically, or treated of in a more copious manner.
The Indian nations do not appear to me to differ so widely in their make, colour, or constitution from each other, as represented by some writers. They are in general slight made, rather tall and strait, and you seldom see any among them deformed; their skin is of a reddish or copper colour; their eyes are large and black, and their hair of the same hue, but very rarely is it curled; they have good teeth, and their breath is as sweet as the air they draw in; their cheekbones rather raised, but more so in the women than the men; the former are not quite so tall as the European women, however you frequently meet with good faces and agreeable persons among them, although they are more inclined to be fat than the other sex.
I shall not enter into a particular enquiry whether the Indians are indebted to nature, art, or the temperature of the climate for the colour of their skin, nor shall I quote any of the contradictory accounts I have read on this subject; I shall only say, that it appears to me to be the tincture they received originally from the hands of their Creator; but at what period the variation which is at present visible both in the complexion and features of many nations took place, at what time the European whiteness, the jetty hue of the African, or the copper cast of the American were given them; which was the original colour of the first inhabitants of the earth, or which might be esteemed the most perfect, I will not pretend to determine.
Many writers have asserted, that the Indians, even at the maturest period of their existence, are only furnished with hair on their heads; and that notwithstanding the profusion with which that part is covered, those parts which among the inhabitants of other climates are usually the seat of this excrescence, remain entirely free from it. Even Doctor Robertson, through their misrepresentations, has contributed to propagate the error; and supposing the remark justly founded, has drawn several conclusions from it relative to the habit and temperature of their bodies, which are consequently invalid. But from minute enquiries, and a curious inspection, I am able to declare (however respectable I may hold the authority of these historians in other points) that their assertions are erroneous, and proceeding from the want of a thorough knowledge of the customs of the Indians.
After the age of puberty, their bodies, in their natural state, are covered in the same manner as those of the Europeans. The men, indeed, esteem a beard very unbecoming, and take great pains to get rid of it, nor is there any ever to be perceived on their faces, except when they grow old, and become inattentive to their appearance. Every crinous efflorescence on the other parts of the body is held unseemly by them, and both sexes employ much time in their extirpation.
The Naudowessies, and the remote nations, pluck them out with bent pieces of hard wood, formed into a kind of nippers; whilst those who have communication with Europeans procure from them wire, which they twist into a screw or worm; applying this to the part, they press the rings together, and with a sudden twitch draw out all the hairs that are inclosed between them.
The men of every nation differ in their dress very little from each other, except those who trade with the Europeans; these exchange their furs for blankets, shirts, and other apparel, which they wear as much for ornament as necessity. The latter fasten by a girdle around their waists about half a yard of broadcloth, which covers the middle parts of their bodies. Those who wear shirts never make them fast either at the wrist or collar; this would be a most insufferable confinement to them. They throw their blanket loose upon their shoulders, and holding the upper side of it by the two corners, with a knife in one hand, and a tobacco-pouch, pipe, &c. in the other, thus accoutred they walk about in their villages or camps: but in their dances they seldom wear this covering.
Those among the men who wish to appear gayer than the rest, pluck from their heads all the hair except from a spot on the top of it, about the size of a crown-piece, where it is permitted to grow to a considerable length: on this are fastened plumes of feathers of various colours with silver or ivory quills. The manner of cutting and ornamenting this part of the head distinguishes different nations from each other.