USA > Louisiana > Sketches, historical and descriptive, of Louisiana > Part 34
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It is therefore likely, that America derived its popula- tion from various sources; partly from the north and south of Asia; partly from Africa; and partly from the north, and perhaps from some other regions of Europe. The features, manners, and customs of the Indians, seem to resemble in many respects, those displayed on the other continents, the most contiguous to them ; and certain it is, that they have several primitive languages among them .* The Esquimaux and Greenlanders, exhibit the features
*Isca, among many tribes in Louisiana, is the word for father or chief.
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and manners of the Laplanders of Europe, and the Sa- moides of Asia. Many animals are likewise common to America and Asia; the buffaloe of the former is the bi- son of the latter.
The exertions formerly made to civilize and christian- ize the Indians, produced no good effects. This was more owing to the wrong methods pursued, than to the untractable dispositions of the natives. The first settlers of New England, made great efforts to propagate their religion among the Indians; but they labored in vain. When Dartmouth college was founded by royal charter, in 1769, provision was made for the education and in- struction of Indian youth. Several have been admitted to that seminary ; but the moment they were liberated from it, they assumed the mode of living practised by their nations or tribes ; and the knowledge they obtained served only to give them a keener relish for vice, and to enable them the more readily to invent ingenious expedients to gratify their. propensities. In former times the French missionaries in Canada, and along the Mississippi, ob- tained and preserved an influence over the Indians, and persuaded many of them to embrace the catholic religi- on. The only permanent effect these missions had, was to reconcile the Indians to the French. In other respects they were more vicious and dishonest than those less ac- quainted with religion and civilization. Even to this day the French have an almost unbounded influence over them. The Indians still remember and speak of the old French government in Louisiana, and manifest a strong attachment to it. The French have been less at war with them, than either the English or Spaniards. Their mode of life, the long intercourse, and many intermarriages between them, have established a reciprocal friendship, and they consider each other as brethren. The house of a Frenchman is always open to an Indian, and they are ever ready to supply the wants of each other.
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There is a striking difference between those Indians, who live in the neighborhood of the whites, and those who reside at a distance from them. The former, espe- cially if accustomed to a long intercourse, have wonder- fully degenerated. They have gradually imbibed all the ; vices of the whites, and forgotten their own virtues. They are drunkards and thieves, and act on all occasions with the most consummate duplicity. The traders and o- thers, who are obliged to visit them, and to reside among them, never feel themselves safe, though they take the precaution to have their stores and dwellings strongly stockaded.
Traders are obliged to credit out their goods among them in winter, and wait till spring for their pay. It is usual for one or two chiefs to become responsible for the payment ; but notwithstanding this, particularly in seasons unfavorable for the acquisition of skins and furs, many of the Indians cannot discharge their debts ; others re- fuse to make any payment at all. Nothing so much of- fends an Indian as to be requested to pay his old debts. " If, says he, I deliver you my peltries to pay for the "goods I received last season, my family must suffer, and " perhaps starve."
The Indians who live at a distance from the whites, yield to the same principle, and for the same reason ; but in other respects, they generally conduct themselves up- rightly. If by accident any property of a stranger falls into their hands, they preserve it with the greatest care, and when an opportunity offers, readily restore it to the owner. Among them we discover the genuine simplici- ty of nature. Their countenances are noble, indicative of health, cheerfulness, hospitality, and friendship. When a white, especially one of note, arrives in their towns, he is received with marked attention. He is bidden welcome to every cabin, and each is emulous to have him for a guest, though in this particular the principal chief gene-
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rally claims a priority of right. These Indians are large, and infinitely more active than those in the neighborhood of the whites. When employed on any particular busi- ness, they seldom prove treacherous ; and to serve their employer they will encounter the greatest hardships. Their manners are simple, modest, and inoffensive ; though when abused, and awakened to anger, they are not readi- ly appeased.
As most of them believe in the existence of a supreme being, they easily comprehend the nature of an oath. some of the Missouri Indians when called to testify, swear by the great spirit above, and by the earth beneath. They are obstinately attached to their own religious opinions ; and to depart from them would, in their view, trouble the repose of their fathers. In 1804, a pious christian in Phi- ladelphia presented a large bible to-a Missouri chief, and told him, that it contained the only true religion. The chief made him this acknowledgment : " Brother, I ac- " cept of your book, because you offer it to me, and because " the pictures in it will please my children and people. " But I cannot promise to utter your words to them, or to " explain to them your religion. We have a very good " religion already, which our fathers handed down to us. " We all believe in it, and it makes us happy and united. " Now, were I to explain your religion to my people, per- " haps some might be so foolish as to embrace it, which " would create disputes and quarrels. Now a religion, " which produces quarrels, and makes men unhappy, can- " not be a good religion."-This is the language of na- ture ; and were it adopted as a substitute for the fiery zeal of enthusiasts, perhaps mankind would be less disposed to disturb the peace of each other.
Few of the interior nations have any knowledge of ar- dent spirits, and it is not for the interest of the traders to carry any among them. In 1804, when a party of them was at St. Louis, one of them, on a visit among his ac-
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quaintance about the town, was persuaded to drink some spirits, which intoxicated him. On his return to his com- panions, he was supposed to be in a fit of madness, and therefore was seized, and tied fast to the ground all night : " The next day, when the cause of his madness was known, the chief made a serious complaint to the civil authority, and demanded, that he who had misbehaved to one of his people should be punished. We are informed by Ulloa, that formerly inebriating liquors were carried among the Indians in Chili, which rendered them lazy and debauch- .ed, and precipitated them into crimes. This practice was finally abolished by the government ; so that the Indians soon resumed their former habits of honesty, sobriety, and industry. A trader now is seldom defrauded ; though he suddenly distributes all his goods among them in propor- tion to their wants, and means of payment ; then gives them notice of the time of his intended departure, which seldom exceeds ten days, when all of them cheerfully cancel their debts agreeably to contract.
To judge from the past, we may safely pronounce, that all attempts to civilize and christianize the Indians on the principles formerly established, are illusive, and pregnant with evil. Instead of changing their moral or metaphysi- cal sentiments and prejudices, we must change their occu- pations and modes of life, and then the end we have in view will result of course. But this important change, however desirable, can extend only to those nations, who are contiguous to the whites, and who can no longer sub- sist by the chase. "They are better able to feel than to rea- son, and many of them already experience the want of game. If by this experience they can be made fully sen- sible of their wants, no doubt their attention will be drawn to agriculture and household manufactures, their naturcs in a manner changed, and their dispositions deprived of their ferocious qualities. The remains of the ancient In- dians in some of our populous states, may be adduced in
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support of this declaration. Although they are incorrigi- ble drunkards, yet they live in harmony among themselves, and with the whites, and their savage natures have long since left them. Nearly a century ago the Jesuits obtain- ed permission to christianize the Indians in Paraguay, in- dependent of the civil power, and no Spaniard or other white man was allowed to visit them without the consent of the fathers. The great object of these spiritual leaders was to change the occupations of the Indians, and to make them acquainted with agriculture, and the amenities of social life. They at first gathered into one place about fifty families ; accessions were gradually made to their empire, and in the end, the amazing number of three hun- : dred and forty thousand families were collected into towns and cities ! The policy of the fathers was of a masterly kind. They unfolded to the Indians some of the plainest precepts of religion and morality ; such indeed, and such only, as were of a practical nature, and easily comprehen- ded. They explained to them the benefits of agriculture, manufactures, and an interior commerce. This vast num- ber of Indians in a short time resembled the Europeans in their dress and pursuits, and many of them aspired to the elegant arts. The fathers infused a military spirit a- mong them ; they made them acquainted with the modern art of war, rendered them obedient to their officers, and subdued them to strict discipline. By these means an ar- my of sixty thousand men was formed, armed after the European manner; and it more than once proved the sal- vation of the Spanish provinces in the south.
What these Jesuits actually accomplished in Paraguay, our government has attempted in part in the United States ; and it is expected, that success will result from the mea- sures in operation. 'The Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and some other nations within our juris- diction, have already resorted to agriculture, and to the manufacture of many indispensable articles. Some of
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them have deserted their towns, planted themselves along the public roads, procured slaves, and turned their atten- tion to the tillage of their fields, and the other usual oc- cupations of husbandmen. Game is scarce among them ; and they reflect with surprise on the little labor necessary to secure them from want, and even to increase their wealth : When they followed the chase, their subsistence was precarious, and this alone consisted of wild meat. They now raise poultry, corn, and garden vegetables in a- bundance. They also raise plenty of cattle and swine ; so that many of them are real farmers, and seldom resort to the chase, except to supply themselves occasionally with skins for family use. Travellers find good entertainment among them ; much better indeed than among the whites on the frontiers.
This change of life has a tendency to wipe away their savage manners, to restore them to the dignity of human nature, and to make them useful to themselves, and to the world. But this change, to be complete and permanent, must be gradual ; it must be the effect of a steady policy. The Indians resemble children at school, whose manners must be formed before they can be graceful ; they must become acquainted with language before they can under- stand the force of it ; with the rudiments of science before they can attain to science itself.
. The United States, however, will never fully realize their expectations, unless they review their present sys- tem of Indian intercourse, and provide some new reme- dies for the evils incident to it. The importance of the subject will authorize the cursory remarks we are about to make.
We certainly have it in view to improve the condition of the Indians; not simply from motives of charity and friendship to them, but from motives of security to our- selves ; by obtaining a control over them, and rendering them dependant, we lessen the prospects of war. Other
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important advantages would result from it, and we are urged by many public considerations to extend and per- fect the system we have adopted. The greatest obstacle to our success arises from the intercourse, which subsists and is carried on between the Indians, and the English and Spaniards ; and until this be removed, the success of our exertions will be, in a great degree, partial and limit- ed. Foreign traders of this description introduce them- selves into our territory on the Mississippi, Missouri, and Red river; and perhaps it will be found on examination, that their trade may be greatly restricted, if not wholly interdicted.
The English of Canada visit the Indians about the source of the Mississippi, and also those high up on the Missouri, by means of lake Superior, and the waters con- nected with it. Perhaps it is not in our power wholly to prevent this intercourse ; and indeed it is of the less im- portance, as the Indians with whom the English carry on a trade in those quarters, are too remote from our settlements to have any immediate or permanent con- nexion with us, or to afford us any trouble, except what results from the murders and depredations committed on our mercantile adventurers. The English likewise trafic on the Mississippi, and its tributary streams, below the falls of St. Anthony ; and also on the Missouri, about the river Platte ; and in the trade carried on at these two points, the United States are deeply interested. If they have a right to trade with the Indians in our territory on the east side of the Mississippi, and even to navigate that river, they cannot on any just pretence extend that trade to the Indians of Louisiana .. The United States will find it necessary to prohibit this trade, and happily they pos- sess the means of doing it with effect.
The Canadian traders, who visit this part of the Mis- sissippi, are obliged to pass over lake Michigan. This lake affords only two communications with that river.
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One of them is down the Illinois ; but the most eligible one, and that most generally used, is by way of the Quisconsing. The first joins the Mississippi about eighteen miles above the mouth of the Missouri, and the second about five hun- dred and eighty two miles still higher up. Each of these ยท communications is obstructed by a short portage, except in the wet season, when the waters of lake Michigan min- gle with those of the Illinois by means of the Chicago, at the mouth of which we have a garrison. The portage be- tween the Ouisconsing, and Fox river, which. flows into lake Michigan, is three miles.
These traders, in passing from lake Michigan, seldom descend the Illinois ; because almost the only Indians be- low the Ouisconsing, and indeed below the falls of St. An- thony, are the Ioways, Sacs, and Foxes, who live on and near the river Des moins, in the neighborhood of whom we have lately established a factory and garrison. They will, . therefore communicate with the Mississippi by way of the > Ouisconsing, near the mouth of which they many years ago erected a small village called Prairie des Chiens, where they rendezvous at certain seasons, despatch their merch- andize in various directions, but mostly up the river St. Pierre, and where also they ultimately receive the returns of them. The Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States in 1804, a tract of land opposite to the mouth of the Ouis- - consing, and on the right bank of the Mississippi, under an expectation, that a garrison and factory would be erect- ed on it. 'This and Prairie des Chiens afford admirable sites for establishments of this nature ; but neither of them would be fully sufficient to turn the current of trade, so long as the English are permitted to navigate the Missis- sippi. They would enter the river St. Pierre, the mouth of which is just below the falls of St. Anthony, in about forty four degrees north latitude, on whose banks are ma- ny bands of Indians, particularly the Naudowessies, and some others of the Scioux nation, whose trade is consider-
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able. Some parts of the St. Pierre approach the waters of the Missouri ; so that the English traders transport their goods to the latter with expedition and ease. An establishment, therefore, at the mouth of the St. Pierre would effectually destroy the English trade in this quar- ter: If foreign traders were excluded from that river, they would find it for their interest to abandon the country ; be- cause this affords the only communication with the Indi- ans of Louisiana, inhabiting the country between St. Lou- is and the falls of St. Anthony, except the Missouri and river Des moins ; and these are already sufficiently guar- ded. The mouth of the St. Pierre is about eight hun- dred and eighty five miles above the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi, where the United States already own a considerable tract of land, which was voluntarily given them by the Indians.
The plan, however, just suggested, is attended with one difficulty, which is not easily surmounted. Many of those whom we denominate English traders, are invested with the rights and privileges of citizens of the United States, either by virtue of the treaty of 1783, or by subsequent naturalization. The merchants of Canada, to remove eve- . ry obstacle to their intercourse with the Indians on the Mississippi, either formed connections, many years ago, with some of our citizens, or sent their clerks and others, in whom they could confide, to reside at Michilimakinak, within our jurisdiction. These are the English traders, of whom we speak ; and che trade they carry on is osten- sibly for themselves, though the interest they have in it, is really uo other than that of agents or partners. At any rate, they derive all their supplies from English subjects, who are supposed, and not without foundation, to be almost exclusively benefited by their labor and enterprise. The duties paid at our custom-liouse on the Indian goods im- ported from Canada are of no value, when compared with the evils inflicted by this meretricious commerce. Tak-
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ing into view the preceding circumstances, perhaps the only way to counteract or destroy it on the Mississippi, is to prohibit the importation of merchandize from the Brit- . . ish provinces. This would probably inflict a temporary injury on some of our legitimate traders, particularly as they find it convenient to purchase their goods in Canada, where also they find the most ready and profitable market for their peltries. But as long as this intercourse is per- mitted, we have reason to conclude, that our views rela- .. tive to the Indians will in a great measure be frustrated. Another conclusion is evident, that any competition in the Indian trade, either by our citizens, or by the United States, while they have the English for their competitors, cannot fail to terminate to their disadvantage : Yet a gar- rison and factory at the mouth of the St. Pierre, even if the Canadian trade was not prohibited on that river, would be of great public utility ; because, in addition to the sup- plies we should be able to furnish the Indians, such an es- tablishment would serve to restrain their depredations, , and to render the intercourse of foreigners less pernici- ous .*
The English traders not only traffic with the Indians a- bout the shining mountains, but they have extended it to the Mandans on the Missouri, and to several other tribes both above and below them. The Spaniards also from Santa Fe occasionally traffic with the Indians about the
* The Sacs, Foxes, and Iowas, have recently turned much of their attention to the manufacture of lead. In 1810 they procured four hun- dred thousand pounds of this article, which they exchanged for goods at our factories, or sold to our traders. The lead mines above them in the vicinity of the Scioux, and other tribes, are equally abundant. The manufacture of lead will probably become general among them, especially as they find it much more profitable than the chase. Such an occurrence would induce the Canadian traders to abandon the country; with them, in a commercial point of view, lead is of no im. portance. .
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waters of the Kansas, as likewise with those on the river . Platte. 'These, and some others between them and the Mandans, stand in need of supplies, and they are able to furnish in return a vast quantity of valuable skins and furs. It is believed by good judges, that their trade, if once se- cured, would be more productive than that of all the other Indians, with whom we are connected. This renders it probable, that we should be more than indemnified for the extraordinary expenses of an establishment in that quar- ter; and such indeed are the advantages to be justly ex- pected from it, that we ought to hazard the experiment.
- The mouth of the river Platte seems to be a central po- sition, both as to territory and Indian population ; and in other respects it affords an eligible place for a garrison and factory. This is about six hundred and thirty miles above the mouth of the Missouri, according to the course of the river, and in north latitude forty degrees fifty four minutes. The Indians in this quarter procure merchan- dize both from the English and Spaniards, and in some in- stances from our own traders.
The garrison and factory recently established on the Missouri, is about three hundred and twenty five miles up that river, and just below the Kansas river. This establishment is too remote from the Indians on the river Platte to be of any material advantage to them ; yet it is calculated to accommodate the Osages, as also occasional hunting parties from the east side of the Mississippi, and in some measure to obstruct the Canadian trade by way of the river St. Pierre ; it is likewise of importance in seve- ral other points of view.
It is apprehended, that the factory at Nachitoches on Red river is of little importance to the United States, both in a pecuniary point of view, and as it relates to the convenience of the Indians. No nation or tribe rendez- vous at that place, except the small band of Caddoques, and most of the peltries procured even by them are either
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disposed of to the upper settlers, or to the traders, who occasionally visit them. The Indians about the upper part of Red river, and between that and the Arkansas, find it convenient to carry their peltries to the Spanish settle- ments. Hence it happens, that the trade carried on by the factory at Nachitoches is almost wholly confined to straggling parties of Chickasaws and Choctaws, and to some parties belonging to nations or bands near the gulf in the Spanish province of Texas. An establishment made at such a distance from the Indian villages, and also from their hunting grounds, cannot be very profitable ; nor can it have any other tendency than to involve us in ex- pense, and to increase the depravity of the Indians. Even the rations issued to them at Nachitoches authorize a con- siderable deduction from whatever profits may accrue from their trade. These, and other considerations, warn us to assume a new position.
All circumstances considered, perhaps the most eligible place for a garrison and factory is on the left bank of Red river in about north latitude thirty three degrees, which forms the divisional line between the territories of Orleans and Louisiana. The only obstruction to the navigation of the river is the great raft ; but in seasons of high water a good channel exists round it by means of bayous and lakes, connected with each other, and with the main stream ; and indeed it would require no great effort to remove such parts of the raft itself as at all times to af- ford a free communication. The Indians, who are now obliged to trade at Nachitoches, would be equally well, and perhaps better supplied at the proposed factory. In addition to this, the Pawnes * and Ietans, and some other Indians high up on Red river, and to the south west of it, might also obtain supplies from us, and thereby be pre-
* These are a different people from those of the same name on the river Platte.
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vailed on to break their connexion with the Spaniards. The Pawnes pursue no other game than the buffaloe, of which they kill an immense number. They, however, attend to agriculture, and raise more than double the quantity of corn and vegetables than is necessary for their own con- sumption, and furnish their neighbors with the surplus in exchange for peltries ; so that their trade, which is now engrossed by the Spaniards, is deemed of considerable value. A very little exertion on our part would enable us to secure not only this, but nearly the whole of the Indian trade on and near Red river, particularly as we can af- ford greater supplies, and at a much cheaper rate, than any of our Spanish neighbors. The Indians would soon perceive the difference, and be induced to abandon their , former connexions, and to shield themselves under the pro- . tection of the United States.
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