‘Turning round Icy cape, we find the tribes along the north-west coast gradually losing the characteristics of Esquimaux, and assuming those of the red Indians. We are at a loss to divine, from the accounts of Cook, Kotzebue and Jewett, which of the two races the tribes of that region most resemble. At Nootka Sound, the savages are fishermen like the Esquimaux, and hunters and warriors like the tribes of the Mississippi. Wherever we find a tribe relying upon fisheries as a principal means of subsistence, we find the moral and physical character approximating toward that of the Esquimaux. In short, we see no difference between the two races which may not have been produced by something less than the will of the Almighty.
‘The physical appearance of the Indians has been too often described to need notice here. It is impossible even to conjecture what their number may be. Some idea of this may be gained from the fact that the Dahcotahs, who are able to muster six or seven thousand fighting men, scarcely support themselves on a tract of land eight hundred miles long and as many in breadth. Other tribes, who rely in some degree upon agriculture and fishing, are more thickly settled. Others, who occupy less favored regions, are less so.
‘Two great families of Indians seem, from time immemorial, to have occupied the country between the Rocky mountains and the Atlantic, viz. the Dahcotahs, and the Chippeway, or Algonquin race. The former are divided into a great number of independent tribes, whose origin may be traced by similarity of language, habits and manners. The parent stock is divided into several septs, which are again subdivided into a great many minor hordes. The principal divisions are these: Munday Wawkantons, Sussetons, Wakhpaytons, Wawkhpaykootays, Yanktows and Tetons. These last live high upon the Missouri, and have little intercourse with the rest. The Assinneboins, a numerous and powerful tribe, who roam over the prairies between the Missouri and the Saskatchawayn, seceded from the Dahcotahs little more than a century ago, and a bloody war was long waged between them and the parent race. A woman was the cause of quarrel. The Winnebagoes and Otoes, renowned for desperate bravery, the Ioways, the Osages, the Omahaws and many other western tribes, claim affinity with the Dahcotahs, and speak dialects of their tongue. The tradition concerning their origin, to which we give most credit, says, that they all came from Mexico at the time of the invasion of Cortez. The Winnebagoes hold the Spaniards in abhorrence to this day. Such of these tribes as inhabit the prairie region are vagrant, and live mainly by hunting the buffalo. A description of one will be a description of all of them. They are, generally, of the middle stature of mankind, and it is rare to see a Dahcotah who much exceeds or falls short of it, or who is in any wise deformed. They are beautifully formed: it is as rare to see an ill-madeDahcotah as a well-made white man. They are not muscular, nor are they so agile as whites commonly are; but in recompense, their powers of endurance are very great. They seem utterly insensible of fatigue, and patient of hunger, pain, and all other hardships.
‘Neither these, nor any other Indians with whom we are acquainted, are at all remarkable for gravity in their social intercourse. They are more taciturn, indeed, than the whites; but this is the result rather of circumstance than of education. Spending much time alone, they acquire a habit of silence; having fewer ideas than civilized men, they have fewer inducements to discourse. The conversation that does take place among them, however, is by no means characterized by reserve or by the absence of hilarity. In councils and on solemn occasions, it is judged decorous and proper to give no indication of feeling, and hence an apathetic gravity has long been thought a distinguishing attribute of the Indian character. Even were the assumption just, the aborigines would be no more remarkable in this respect than most modern Asiatic nations.
‘The character of Indians in general seems to have been viewed by most writers through a false medium, and their qualities have been inferred from the nature of their intercourse with white men. This is a false standard; to know them, one should live long among them and watch their social relations. Thus seen, they appear to much greater advantage than when hanging upon the frontiers doing or suffering wrong, and debasing themselves by theft, beggary and intemperance.
‘It will not be denied by any who know them, that those Indians who have not been corrupted by the whites are sincerely pious. They universally believe in one all-wise, benevolent and powerful God, to whom, however, they never pray; for, they say, he knows better what is good for them than they do themselves. Nothing shocks them more than to hear his name mentioned with irreverence by the whites. They also believe in an evil principle, whom they pray to do them no harm. They people all animated nature with inferior spirits, and to these they offer prayers and sacrifices. Their superstitions are numberless. They believe in a future state, and the world of spirits is, in their opinion, a fine hunting-ground, where the vexations and sufferings of this life will be unknown. Each man has what he calls his medicine; that is, he thinks fit to consider his fate and fortunes dependent on some animal, and that animal he will neither kill, eat, or treat with disrespect. In short, they have an infinite variety of such observances, and there is little uniformity in the belief of individuals.
‘Their priests are mere jugglers, who practise various mummeries, and are also, as is common among savages, physicians and surgeons, and, indeed, they mix medicine and religion together. A cure is effected by songs and superstitious rites as well as by the use of simples. The juggler’s voice and rattle are seldom still near the couch of a sick man. We are yet to learn that these quacks are much respected in their sacerdotal character, or that any great importance is attached to their ceremonies by the majority of the laity. One merit they have, and that is their skill in rough surgery. We have seen them effect astonishing cures. It may not be amiss to mention one, by way of example. A hunter was grappled by a bear, that he had wounded, and dreadfully lacerated. His arm was broken in several places, and all who saw it thought he must die or submitto amputation. An Indian surgeon, however, undertook the cure and effected it. It is true that he was three years about it, and perhaps the abstemious habits of the patient were a main cause of his recovery.
‘As to government, the Dahcotah race have no king, and every man does what seems right in his own eyes. They have chiefs, indeed, who have, by tacit consent, the power of making treaties, and of transacting the business of their followers. Sometimes they lead in war, but, save on such occasions, authority they have none. They may advise, but cannot command. They receive no reward for their services, nor do they wear any badge of their rank. Indeed they are usually worse dressed and provided than other individuals, because it is considered peculiarly the duty of chiefs to be generous. The office is hereditary in families, but not in the direct line of descent. If the heir apparent be notoriously ineligible, he is set aside, and a more worthy kinsman takes his place. Highly distinguished warriors become war chiefs through the respect paid to their valor. Each village has one of these, who is called the war chief, to distinguish him from the hereditary leader. He rules in war, but not in civil affairs. Sometimes a chief acquires absolute power, but of that kind which strong minds gain over weak ones, and it behoves every leader to bear his faculties meekly.
‘Laws the Dahcotahs have none; but they have customs which have the force of laws, and which are seldom broken. Thus a man may have as many wives as he can maintain. Adultery is punished by cutting off the nose of the offending wife; the wife cuts the clothes of the offending husband to pieces. Life is taken for life, unless the homicide can appease the friends of the dead by the payment of a ransom. The murderer invariably gives himself up to punishment, for to fear death is considered the acme of dishonor. When minor offences are committed, the injured party kills the dogs and horses of his enemy, or destroys his tent before his eyes, and in such cases no resistance is offered. Divorces are at the option of the husband. Theft is not regarded as a crime; indeed, property is nearly in common among them, so that no theft can be committed. They apply this standard of morals to the whites, and so get the reputation of thieves, while themselves are unconscious of wrong doing. It is, in our opinion, this very community of goods that is the principal obstacle to their civilization and improvement; for it cannot be expected that one man will sow for all the world to reap, or that he will weary his limbs in the chase to obtain what will not belong to him or his family. Those tribes who hold the right of property in most esteem, as, for example, the Saques and Foxes, have made the greatest advances in civilization.
‘Another obstacle to the civilization of our aborigines is their unconquerable indolence. The savage is content with the bare necessaries of life; he neither knows nor cares for its luxuries and superfluities. Necessity only will compel him to exertion. Tribes, whose limits have been so circumscribed by the whites that they cannot live by the chase, have resorted to labor for subsistence; but we think no other force of reason or circumstance will bring about such a result.