THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
| Number 6. | SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 1840. | Volume I. |
THE RED MEN OF AMERICA.—First Article.
It is a melancholy truth that this most interesting portion of the human race is rapidly disappearing from the surface of the earth. War, its murderous effects centupled by the destructive weapons acquired from the white man—disease in new and terrible forms, to the treatment of which their simple skill, and materia medica, equally simple, are wholly incompetent—famine, the consequence of their sadly changed habits, of the intemperance and wastefulness, substituted by the insidious arts of the trader for the moderation and foresight of their happier fathers—the vices, in short, and the encroachments of civilization, all and each in its turn are blotting out tribe after tribe from the records of humanity; and the time is fast approaching when no Red man will remain, to guard or to mourn over the tombs of his fathers.
The conviction of this truth is become so deeply felt, that more than one effort has been made, and is making, to preserve some memento of this ill-treated people. We are not so much raising our own feeble voice in the service, as attempting a record of what others have done; but so much has been effected, and so zealous have been the exertions made to rescue the memory, at least, of these dying nations from oblivion, that the space we have assigned to this notice will be taken up long before our materials are exhausted. The accuracy of the facts and statements we shall lay before our readers may in every case be relied on.
Among the most devoted and persevering explorers of the Red man’s territory, is one from whose authority, and indeed from whose very lips, in many instances, we derive a great portion of the circumstances we are about to describe—we allude to the celebrated George Catlin, whose abode of seven years among the least known of their tribes, and whose earnest enthusiasm in the task of inquiry which formed the sole object of his visit, together with his entire success in the pursuit, have constituted him the very first authority of the day. We have, besides, consulted all the writers on this now engrossing subject, but in most cases have afterwards taken the highly competent opinion just quoted, as to the accuracy of their descriptions—an opinion that has always been given with evident care and consideration.
Mr Catlin has painted with his own hand, and from the life, no less than three hundred and ten portraits of chiefs, warriors, and other distinguished individuals of the various tribes (forty-eight in number) among whom he sojourned, with two hundred landscapes and other paintings descriptive of their country, their villages, religious ceremonies, customs, sports, and whatever else was most characteristic of Indian life in its primitive state; he has likewise collected numerous specimens of dresses, some fringed and garnished with scalp-locks from their enemies’ heads; mantles and robes, on which are painted, in rude hieroglyphics, the battles and other prominent events of their owners’ lives; head-dresses, formed of the raven’s and war-eagle’s feathers, the effect of which is strikingly warlike and imposing; spears, shields, war clubs, bows, musical instruments, domestic utensils, belts, pouches, necklaces of bears’ claws, mocassins, strings of wampum, tobacco sacks; all, in short, that could in any way exemplify the habits and customs of the people whose memory he desired to perpetuate, have been brought together, at great cost and some hazard to life, by this indefatigable explorer—the whole forming a museum of surpassing interest, and which is daily attracting the people of London to the gallery wherein it is exhibited.
The most important of the North American tribes are the Camanchees, inhabiting the western parts of Texas, and numbering from 25,000 to 30,000 expert horsemen and bold lancers, but excessively wild, and continually at war; the Pawnee-Picts, neighbours to and in league with the Camanchees; the Kiowas, also in alliance with the two warlike tribes above named, whom they join alike in the battle or chase; the Sioux, numbering no less than 40,000, and inhabiting a vast tract on the upper waters of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Next come the Pawnees, a tribe totally distinct both in language and customs from the Pawnee-Picts, whose hunting-grounds are a thousand miles distant from those of the Pawnees; this wild and very warlike tribe shave the head with the exception of the scalp-lock (which they would hold it cowardly and most unjust to their enemy to remove), as do the Osages, the Konzas, &c. The Pawnees lost half their numbers by small-pox in 1823, but are still very numerous; their seats are on the river Platte, from the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains.