HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. PART I. ABORIGINAL AMERICA. THE CHAPTER I. THE RED MEN—ORIGIN, DISTRIBUTION, CHARACTER. HE primitive inhabitants of the New World were the Red men called INDIANS. The name Indian was conferred upon them from their real or fancied resemblance to the people of India. But without any such similarity the name would have been the same; for Columbus and his followers, believing that they had only rediscovered the Indies, would of course call the inhabitants Indians. The supposed similarity between the two races, if limited to mere personal appearance, had some foundation in fact; but in manners, customs, institutions, and character, no two peoples could be more dissimilar than the American aborigines and the sleepy inhabitants of China and Japan. The origin of the North American Indians is involved in complete obscurity. That they are one of the older races of mankind can not be doubted. But at what date or by what route they came to the Western continent is an unsolved problem. Many theories have been proposed to account for the Red man's presence in the New World, but most of them have been vague and unsatisfactory. The notion that the Indians are the descendants of the Israelites is absurd. That half civilized tribes, wandering from beyond the Euphrates, should reach North America, surpasses human credulity. That Europeans. or Africans, at some remote period, crossed the Atlantic by voyaging from island to island, seems altogether improbable. That the Kamtchatkans, coming by way of Behring's Strait, reached the frozen North-west and became the progenitors of the Red men, has no evidence other than conjecture to support it. Until further research shall throw additional light on the history and migrations of the primitive races of mankind, the origin of the Indians will remain shrouded in mystery. It is not unlikely that a more thorough knowledge of the North American languages may furnish a clue to the early history of the tribes that spoke them. The Indians: belong to the Ganowanian, or Bow-and-Arrow family of men: Some races cultivate the soil; others have herds and flocks others build cities and ships. To the Red man of the Western continent the chase was every thing. Without the chase he pined and languished and died. To smite with swift arrow the deer and the bear was the sole delight and profit of the primitive Americans. Such a race could live only in a country of woods and wild animals. The illimitable hunting-grounds-forest, and hill, and river-were the Indian's earthly paradise, and the type of his home hereafter. The American aborigines belonged to several distinct families or nations. Above the sixtieth parallel of latitude the whole continent from Labrador to Alaska was inhabited by THE ESQUIMAUX. The name means the eaters of raw meat. They lived in snow huts, or in hovels, partly or wholly underground. Sometimes their houses were more artistically constructed out of the bones of whales and walruses. Their manner of life was that of fishermen and hunters. They clad themselves in winter with the skins of seals, and in summer with those of reindeers. Inured to cold and exposure, they made long journeys in sledges drawn by dogs, or risked their lives in open boats fighting with whales and polar bears among the terrors of the icebergs. By eating abundantly of oils and fat meats they kept the fires of life a-burning, even amid the rigors and desolations of the Arctic winter. Lying south of the Esquimaux, embracing the greater part of Canada and nearly all that portion of the United States east of the Mississippi and north of the thirty-seventh parallel of latitude, spread the great family of THE ALGONQUINS. It appears that their original seat was on the Ottawa River. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the Algonquins numbered fully a quarter of a million. The tribes of this great family were nomadic in their habits, roaming from one hunting-ground and river to another, according to the exigencies of fishing and the chase. Agriculture was but little esteemed. They were divided into many subordinate tribes, each having its local name, dialect, and traditions. When the first European settlements were planted the Algonquin race was already declining in numbers and influence. Wasting diseases destroyed whole tribes. Of all the Indian nations the Algonquins suffered most from contact with the White man. Before his aggressive spirit, his fiery rum, and his destructive weapons, the warriors were unable to stand. The race has withered to a shadow; only a few thousands remain to rehearse the story of their ancestors. Within the wide territory occupied by the Algonquins lived the powerful nation of THE HURON-IROQUOIS. Their domain extended over the country reaching from Georgian Bay and Lake Huron to Lakes Erie and Ontario, south of those lakes to the valley of the Upper Ohio, and eastward to the River Sorel. Within this extensive district was a confederacy of vigorous tribes, having a common ancestry, and generally-though not always-acting together in war. At the time of their greatest power and influence the Huron-Iroquois embraced no less than nine allied nations. These were the Hurons proper, living north of Lake Erie; the Eries and Andastes, south of the same water; the Tuscaroras, of Carolina, who ultimately joined their kinsmen in the North; the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks, constituting the famous Five Nations of New York. The warriors of this great confederation presented the Indian character in its most favorable aspect. They were brave, patriotic, and eloquent; not wholly averse to useful industry; living in respectable villages; tilling the soil with considerable success; faithful as friends but terrible as enemies. South of the country of the Algonquins were THE CHEROKEES and THE MOBILIAN NATIONS; the former occupying Tennessee, and the latter covering the domain between the Lower Mississippi and the Atlantic. The Cherokees were highly civilized for a primitive people, and contact with the whites seemed to improve rather than degrade them. The principal tribes of the Mobilians were the Yamassees and Creeks of Georgia, the Seminoles of Florida, and the Choctaws and Chickasaws of Mississippi. These displayed the usual characteristics of the Red men, with this additional circumstance, that below the thirty-second parallel of latitude evidences of temple-building, not practiced among the Northern tribes, began to appear. West of the Father of Waters was the great and widely-spread race of THE DAKOTAS, whose territory extended from the Arkansas River to the country of the Esquimaux and westward to the Rocky Mountains. Their languages and institutions, differing much among the various tribes, are not so well understood as those of some other nations. South of the land of the Dakotas, in a district nearly cor responding with the present State of Texas, lived the wild COMANCHES, whose very name is a synonym for savage ferocity. Beyond the Rocky Mountains were the Indian nations of the Plains; the great family of THE SHOSHONEES, THE SELISH, THE KLAMATHS, and THE CALIFORNIANS. On the Pacific slope farther southward dwelt in former times the famous races of AZTECS and TOLTECS. These were the most civilized of the primitive Indian nations, but at the same time among the most feeble; the best builders in wood and stone, but the least warlike of any of the aborigines. Such is a brief sketch of the distribution of the copper-colored race in the New World. The territorial position of the various nations and tribes will be easily understood from an examination of the accompanying map. The Indians were strongly marked with national peculiarities. The most striking characteristic of the race was a certain sense of personal independence-willfulness of action-freedom from restraint. To the Red man's imagination the idea of a civil authority which should subordinate his passions, curb his will, and thwart his purposes, was intolerable. Among this people no common enterprise was possible unless made so by the concurrence of free wills. If the chieftain entered the war-path, his kinsmen and the braves of other tribes followed him only because they chose his leadership. His authority and right of command extended no further than to be foremost in danger, most cunning in savage strategy, bravest in battle. So of all the relations of Indian life. The Medicine Man was a self-constituted physician and prophet. No man gave him his authority; no man took it away. His right was his own; and his influence depended upon himself and the voluntary respect of the nation. In the solemn debates of the Council House, where the red orators pronounced their wild harangues to groups of motionless listeners, only questions of expediency were decided. The painted sachems never thought of imposing on the unwilling minority the decision which had been reached in council. Next among the propensities of the Red men was the passion for war. Their wars, however, were always undertaken for the redress of grievances, real or imaginary, and not for conquest. But with the Indian, a redress of grievances meant a personal, vindictive, and bloody vengeance on the offender. The Indian's principles of war were easily understood, but irreconcilable with justice and humanity. The forgiveness of an injury was reckoned a weakness and a shame. Revenge was considered among the nobler virtues. The open, honorable battle of the field was an event unknown in Indian |