Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri 62

Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri 62

The Indian reverences his unknown God in his way. Though the principle

be fear and the object Creation, it leads to reliance and resignation

when his own resources fail, whereas the whites spoken of vent their

displeasure for most trifling grievances and accidents in eternal

curses on the Great Disposer, the Virgin Mary, and all other holy

persons and objects they deem worthy of their execration. These

Indians are capable of pursuing a logical train of reasoning to a just

conclusion. If the subject be one with which by experience they have

become acquainted, they can argue it point by point with any person.

Even the Assiniboin, who are the most ignorant of all these tribes,

can pursue a satisfactory mode of conversation. Clear sightedness is

more observable in matters touching their own personal or national

welfare, the utility and expedience of war or peace, camp regulations,

or the advantage of trade. Not many years since the Cree and Assiniboin

combined against the Hudson Bay Co. at Red River for the purpose of

forcing that powerful house into more reasonable prices for goods and a

less distressful policy of trade or to abandon the country.

 

The case was as follows: It was then and still is in a measure the

custom of that company to make credits to those Indians in the fall

for nearly the entire amount of their winter hunts, taking advantage

of their necessities in putting exorbitant prices on the supplies thus

advanced, so that when an Indian came to pay he found himself with

nothing left to clothe his family or meet his wants; in fact, as poor

as before, and consequently obliged to contract other debts on the

ensuing year, being in this way kept always poor, more especially so if

by some accident his hunt should fail.

 

Even those who were not indebted bought supplies at such enormous

rates as with difficulty to support themselves. In order, therefore,

to reform these proceedings they assembled in council at various

places, sent runners to all the camps in the two nations, and decided

to convene at the Hudson Bay Co.‘s fort and make known to them their

determination, which was to hunt no more at such prices, or if they

did hunt, to seek some other market for their furs on the Mississippi

or Missouri. The company being aware of their proceedings and knowing

the inexpedience of being forced into measures, besides dreading the

effect such a large body of discontented Indians might have on the

settlers and property, sent their half-breed runners to the different

camps on the advance toward the fort with orders to turn them back with

stories that the smallpox had appeared in the settlement. The fear of

this terrible infection disbanded the expedition, the Indians traveling

in haste the contrary direction, which gave the company time to alter

in detail their manner of dealing with them, apparently of their own

accord. Things of this kind prove the Indians to be capable of looking

into their own interests, also of acting in a body when they are

concerned, in cases where rank is not interfered with nor subordination

required, while gain is the object and public opinion unanimous.

 

On subjects in which their actual experience and observation are at

fault, even if supported with good arguments, they are suspicious

and incredulous. They listen, doubt, but say little. On all such

topics their minds receive a bias from their superstitions and lack

of appreciation of motive. They can not conceive of any efforts made

through motives of charity, benevolence, or pity, nor realize any other

disinterested action, even if it be for their benefit, because all

they do is in expectation of reward, and being destitute of the above

principles of actions are disposed to attribute interested views to

everyone else. In reviewing such subjects with them, and supporting the

moral principle by argument, they are silenced, though not convinced;

they do not grasp it, but will not contradict, for the thing may

be so. Hence their thoughtfulness and apparent apathy, also their

uninterrupted deliberations in councils and conversation, all arising

from a desire to hear the subject in all its bearings, either with the

view of forming an opinion or of the propriety of expressing it.

 

Regarding their temperament, it is peculiar and general. We see none

of those great differences in disposition observed among the European

races.

 

There appears to be a uniformity of individual feeling and action

among them. Being all the same on like occasions, it would seem a

national and natural feature, calling forth corresponding feelings and

actions with circumstances as they arise, exhibited in overwhelming

demonstrations of grief or joy, in seriousness in business, ceremonies,

and worship, excessive gayety in their amusements and lighter

conversation, with earnestness in matters of personal interest.

They have strong powers of memory and forecast, are of a reflective

habit, their physical propensities predominating over the moral, in

their general conduct grave, can be and are very gay on occasions,

but upon the whole are rather of a cold than a fervid temperament.

We are unable to say whether their reasoning powers are brought out

or strengthened by education, never having witnessed its application

to any of these tribes, but see no reason why they should not be as

capable of improvement in these respects as any other race of people.

Their ideas are by no means groveling, nor is their form of government

to be derided. Neither can we conscientiously assign to them a lower

place in the scale of creation; perhaps not so low as any other race of

uneducated sentient beings.

 

We are not well enough acquainted with the capacity and history of the

oriental stock to say whether these assimilate in any great degree;

most likely the inference can be drawn from what has been written in

these pages.

 

We may state that as yet no person has appeared among them noted for

his natural or acquired powers as a real physician, though many have

risen to eminence in this department from their supposed supernatural

powers in curing the sick. Neither does their history produce any

person who has evinced ability as a linguist,[37] moralist, or in the

cultivation of any of the exact or moral sciences.

 

[37] Denig seems to refer here to grammatic analyses rather than to the

mere learning of languages.

 

They use no studied maxims of __EXPRESSION__ in conversation, nor are there

observed any compositions partaking of the nature of laments, unless

the speeches made to departed spirits and the universal monotonous

mourning chant[38] would be construed in that light. Their ordinary

talk is pretty much the same as that of other men, though perhaps the

Indians use fewer words in conversation, selecting only those which

have a direct reference to the subject. They do not evince a quickness

in repartee, even in their jokes, and all conversation, except the

obscene, is carried on more deliberately and concisely than among

other races. The effect of their oratory is a great deal enhanced by

the position, bearing, and gesticulation of the speaker, yet it is not

without its merits; simplicity, clearness, and strength of language are

its distinguishing traits. We have heard and understood some hundreds

of speeches on every subject of interest among the Sioux, Assiniboin,

and Cree Nations, and must confess we can not discern the figures and

tropes attributed to their oratory by fiction writers. Metaphor is

sometimes used, but not often. Their eloquence lies in the few words,

bold assertions, and pointed questions with which they clothe their

ideas, added to fierce __EXPRESSION__ of countenance and earnestness of

gesticulation.

 

[38] The song for the dead contains a few words suitable to the

occasion.

 

Everything they say in a speech has a tendency to gain their object if

they have any, and Indians seldom speak otherwise. No set forms are

followed, their thoughts finding utterance as they arise, or rather

according to their feelings, and consequently make an impression on

their auditors. The principal aims of the Indian speeches we have

heard were to gain something or to impress the mass with the spirit of

emulation, a desire for war or peace, and for the better regulation of

their national affairs. One or two addresses of this kind have already

been inserted and now follow two more, both heard and interpreted by

myself and copied from our records. We fear in reading them, a woeful

disappointment on the part of novel writers and romantic authors of

Indian tales, but such as they are they exhibit true samples of Indian

eloquence at the present day, however much it may differ from that in

the time of the celebrated Logan and others. In interpreting these

speeches, the exact and entire ideas of the Indians are preserved,

though the words chosen to express them are not always the same. We

have had occasion to remark on this head before that no Indian language

admits of being translated word for word; to do so, the purport desired

by the Indian would fail, injustice be done to his ideas as realized by

him, and a futility of words presented so devoid of order as to make no

impression on the person for whom they are intended.

 

Nevertheless it is not to be inferred that the ideas have been improved

upon. They are entire, and only so because clothed in the only kind of

words sufficient to convey the real extent of their signification.

 

The occasion which produced the following speech by the Crazy Bear

was this: In the summer of 1837 the Assiniboin, with other nations,

were invited to attend the treaty at Laramie. It was with great

difficulty any of them could be persuaded to go, as the road along

the Yellowstone was beset with Blackfeet war parties; but this man

with three others went in company with A. Culbertson, Esq., who was

authorized to conduct them. The Crazy Bear was, while at the treaty,

made chief of the Assiniboin Nation by Col. D. D. Mitchell, the United

States commissioner, and on his return to his people repeated to the

nation the stipulations of the treaty, together with the “talk” held at

the rendezvous, but, as usual with Indians, was not believed. It also

happened that in the ensuing spring, by some delay, the merchandise

intended for the Indians and promised them at the treaty did not

arrive in the West in time to be forwarded, so that summer passed and

the Missouri froze over without any appearance of presents forthcoming.

The Indians became dissatisfied, thought they had been trifled with,

abused Crazy Bear and me for deceiving them, raised war parties, and

bid fair to break the treaty and become more troublesome to whites than

ever.

 

Amidst all this clamor and disturbance the chief stood firm and, being

supported in office by the fort, all hostile demonstrations were for

the time averted. At this juncture, in January, 1853, Mr. Culbertson

arrived from St. Louis with orders from the superintendent to supply

the amount due the Indians as per treaty from the merchandise of the

fur company in this country. The nation therefore being called together

and placed in order in the interior of the fort, the goods as per

invoice laid in front of them, the Crazy Bear rose and said:

 

“My children and friends: The clouds that have hitherto obscured the

sky are brushed away and a fine day appears before you. The time has

arrived when all the turbulent and discontented must be convinced that

the whites have but one tongue; that our great father, the President,

is rich and powerful. But a few days since most of you were violent

in your reproaches against myself and the whites. If you have any

more abuse left, heap it on now, disburden your hearts at once of all

complaint, make the pile of your abuse as large as the pile of goods

before you. The whites have kept their word and your heads should hang

in shame.

 

“When you were invited to the treaty you were afraid to go, some to

leave their wives, others their children, others to cross the warpath

of the Blackfeet. I went. I appeared among nations in your name and am

the cause of the present smiling pile of goods being laid before you.

 

“When I returned from the treaty after an absence of three moons and

repeated to you the words of our Great Father, what was my reception?

How was I listened to? When, by some accident the goods promised did

not arrive, how did you act? What now do you think of yourselves?

 

“I hold in my hands the words of our Great Father. They are scored

on my heart, were poured into my ears, did not run out, and now is

the most fitting time to repeat what I have so often told you without

being believed. Your Great Father does not want your lands; he seeks

your welfare. You are a few poor miserable beings; he is rich, his

people are numerous as the leaves of the cottonwood. He desires to

stop the bloody wars heretofore existing between Indian tribes, to

make all one people, to enable all to hunt and visit together in peace

and friendship. He wishes you to refrain from all depredations on

whites, respect your chief as a chief, and listen to his words. For

this he sends you these presents which will be repeated every year for

15 years, unless by your misconduct you incur his displeasure. I have heard the words; they are true. I have seen his soldiers and know he has the power to punish those who have no ears.