CHAPTER XXXVII. THE COMMUNISTIC LIFE. INDIAN MEN AND WOMEN OF PROMINENCE. MORALITY
There was much of the old Indian life, beyond the Mississippi, in the years preceding 1880, that was picturesque if not beautiful. Contrary to popular belief, the Indians were not continually at war. Certain organizations of young men among some bands did make warfare their chief aim of life until reaching middle age. But the average Indian at home was just as different from the Indian on the warpath, as are our troops in action, the opposite of the same men as citizens. Entirely too much emphasis has been placed upon the Indian as a warrior.
The communistic life was in vogue in many places west of the Mississippi between 1850 and 1878. The communistic sentiment, evinced in nearly every village and clan-group, was so different from our life today, that I find myself compelled to illustrate it through the following incident.
The old blind medicine man of the Otter-tail Pillagers, Bay-bah-dwun-gay-aush, was found by me helpless, living in a wretched shack on the edge of a swamp at Pine Point, Minnesota. He had been swindled out of his property. Commissioner Valentine, on my recommendation, kindly issued orders that old Bay-bah-dwun-gay-aush and his friend, the aged May-cud-day-wub, be rationed every Wednesday as long as they lived. Out of gratitude, the old man gave me the original birch-bark roll of the Mid-di-we-win, or Grand Medicine Society. He was the roll-keeper. In 1909, when received, the roll was 102 years old. It contains five degrees, which have been translated, but the old shaman requested that publication be deferred until his death. I desire to present in abridged form the fourth, or the Beaver degree, illustrating that phase of Indian character to which I have referred. In a general way, the sentiment is expressed as follows:—
The beavers live together in harmony. They occupy one village. They do not take advantage of each other as do white people. They share everything in common. They strike the water at night, and thus signal to each other when danger is near. Their storehouses of food are open to all. They help each other, build the dams together, care for the young and support the old. Thus we Ojibwa should live as do the beavers and as did our grandfathers, who learned this from the beaver clan.
The contrast between this beautiful sentiment and that obtaining in most Indian communities today is very marked. With the passing away of the communistic life, and the adoption of the more selfish point of view of the white man, Indian character was not greatly improved.
The begging dance, quite common two or three generations ago, survives here and there in spite of efforts of the Government and the missionaries to extinguish it. This same begging, or gift dance, has been persistently misunderstood. Originally, a Sioux, Pawnee, Cheyenne, or other Indian, who assembled his friends together and distributed in addition to food, even his blankets and ponies, became a famous man. He had done a good thing. His act was prompted by generosity, and a love of his fellowman. The Agent and missionary, however, told him that one should not give gifts, but on the contrary he must accumulate and hoard. All of this was very confusing to the Indians of the transition period. The older Indians (page [324]) cannot refuse their friends food, and such as still continue in the faith of their fathers feed those less fortunate than themselves, although by so doing they deprive themselves of food.
The absolute change from these communistic ideas, from the general brotherhood of the red man, to the more practical (if not sordid) views of the white man, had a curious effect on many of the Indians. The sharper Indians soon observed that among the white people there were rich and poor. The missionary, unselfishly laboring to uplift the aborigines, was very poor in this world’s goods. Yet he was self-sustaining and endeavored to persuade the Indians to become so. Both the Government teacher and the missionary impressed upon the aborigine ideas of thrift. Soon after allotments were issued, and the Indians received same, appeared other white men—bankers, real estate men and merchants. All of these secured Indian land or timber, and thus became well-to-do or rich. A certain class of half-educated Indians shrewdly observing that although the missionary pleaded, and the Agent and lawyer of the Great Father talked and blustered much, one hard, cold fact stood out indisputably: the missionary waxed poor, the Indian poorer, but the man in the frontier town waxed rich. It was incomprehensible to the old Indian, who clung to communistic ideals, but perfectly clear to the educated Indian. The latter realized that certain white men did not practice what the good missionary preached. To such, the word theft sounded very much the same as thrift. So the Indian—in many cases—drifted into evil ways, and like the white man of the frontier town, he scorned the old communistic life of his father, and to his ear there appeared practically no difference between the two words I have mentioned: thrift and theft.
Indian Men and Women
Of those representing the olden days, there were a large number who achieved more or less prominence. I am very sorry that space forbids a consideration of their careers in this book. I present a partial list of their names, and if readers will consult the Handbook of American Indians, short biographical sketches of most of these will be found. The negro has produced far fewer great men than the Indian, yet the negro has always vastly outnumbered the former. During forty years there has been practically no discrimination against the black man save in the South. His educational advantages in the North have been many, and his opportunities multitudinous. Slavery retarded him in a sense, yet slavery taught him enforced industry—which the Indian has never had. We would therefore, expect a larger proportion of prominent negro men and women.