The red man is fast disappearing from the settled portions of the United States; here and there a small community of Indians is found east of the Mississippi. Every year has witnessed new aggressions on their territory by the whites, who have continued to despoil them of their property, and rob them of their lands. No one can doubt that great injustice has often been done, and that they have frequently been forced to yield to the arm of might rather than to the sense of right. Yet there is one compensation;—the mild spirit of the gospel has exerted itself among them, and Christian communities, with devoted and faithful leaders, are found planted in the midst of them. We shall advert more fully to some facts on this score in a subsequent page, and now only observe, that the success which has recently attended the benevolent efforts of the missionaries justifies the hope that some remnants of these tribes may yet be preserved, and be able, hereafter, to testify to a more humane policy on the part of their conquerors.
VARIOUS TRIBES OF NORTHERN AND WESTERN INDIANS.
The vast territory, which lies outspread north of the great chain of lakes which separate the British provinces from the United States, and far in the west beyond the sources of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, is inhabited by numerous tribes of Indians. Among these, in the British provinces, are the Chippewas, the Assinniboins, the Snake, Stone, Beaver, Copper, and Hare Indians. These are wandering tribes, who have no history deserving the name; though they are more or less involved, from time to time, in wars with each other. The regions in which many of them dwell are cold and barren, and they subsist almost entirely by hunting and fishing, furnishing the traders with furs, and receiving in exchange such articles as they need. Some of them are pensioners on British bounty, on account of services rendered in former wars.
Still further to the north, on the coasts of Labrador, we meet with the Esquimaux, a singular race, who live, during the long winter which reigns around them, shut up in their huts, and, at the opening of their brief summer, go forth to provide the means of subsistence by fishing and hunting. They seem to be a different race from the red Indian, as they are generally low in stature, and of a complexion approaching to white. In the interior, however, they are said to be taller. They possess great skill in the management of their canoes or boats, and the training of their dogs in sledges, which serve them as the reindeer does its Lapland master. Their history is principally comprised in the benevolent and successful efforts of the Moravians to extend to them the blessings of the Christian religion. Some of them, especially those in Labrador, have thus been civilized and Christianized. The progress of missionary exertion among them has been most interesting, and is fully recorded in the history of Moravian missions. For a long period, these self-denying men toiled amid hardships which might have discouraged others actuated by less exalted motives. Year after year rolled by, and still the frigid hearts, like the icy rocks of their native land, responded not to the warm appeals of the Christian missionary; but at last the heart was melted, and they were found anxious to learn yet more of the spiritual tidings which had been brought to their frozen zone.
The adventurous explorer of the far northern regions, by land or by sea, occasionally meets the Esquimaux roaming over the ice-clad plains; but there has been little, in that land of wintry barrenness, to tempt the invasions of cupidity; and thus they have remained comparatively at peace, except that some prowling bands of the northern tribes of Indians have, now and then, assaulted them while on their hunting expeditions.
In the travels of Mackenzie, Hearne, Franklin, Back, and the voyages of Ross and Parry, we find occasional notices of the different tribes which roam over the extended territory towards the north pole. But as they are mostly descriptions of individuals or families, they scarcely claim a place in these pages.
The Chippewas, who were formerly called Algonquins, are an extensive though scattered band, and have heretofore been engaged in bloody wars with other tribes, particularly the Otagamies and Saukies. These were once much inferior to their adversaries both in numbers and strength; but on a particular occasion, as related by Carver, they gained a great advantage in war, which resulted, at last, in an enduring friendship between the rival nations.