races. CHAPTER VII. INDIAN RACES. European THE roll of European races establishing themselves independently upon our soil was filled up by Spain, France, England, Holland, Sweden, and, with Sweden, Germany. After the Swedish colony of 1638, no national settlement was made by any nation not already upon the scene. Indian races. It is time, therefore, to take an account of the races that occupied the country before any of those from Europe entered upon their possessions. The share of the Indians in our history endures, though their share in our territory wastes away. Names bers. The idea of Columbus that he had merely redisand num- covered India gave the name of Indians to the existing inhabitants of the continent. Within the limits of our country they were divided into four grand divisions, as the Algonquins, the Iroquois, the Mobilians, and the Dahcotas. The last name includes the tribes west of the Mississippi, of which, in the early period, the number could not have been at all considerable. Neither were the three divisions lying east of the Mississippi by any means numerous. The entire number is estimated to have been under three hundred thousand, and perhaps not above two hundred thousand, at the time of the first European settlements. Take from the whole the large part which had little or no connection with any of the European races, and the Indian population dwindles to small proportions. It seems strange that so few, and these few savages, should have exercised so great an influence upon so many, and these many civilized. But it will be accounted for by a rapid survey of the Indian divisions and the Indian resources. Algon- First of the Algonquins. The central tribe of quins. this vast race was the Lenni-Lenape, which, occupying the shores of the Delaware, went by the name of Delawares amongst the English. The name of LenniLenape, meaning Aborigines, is supposed to mark them as the parent stock of the Algonquins. The shoots of the race were enormously spread. Starting far up in the north, they stretch through New England, as the Abenakis, the Pawtuckets, the Massachusetts, the Pokanokets, the Narragansets, the Pequots, and the Mohegans. Thence they may be traced as the Manhattans of New York, the Susquehannas and the Nanticokes of Pennsylvania and Maryland, the Powhatans of Virginia, and the Pamlicos of South Carolina. Towards the west they appear as the Ottawas of Michigan, the Miamis of Ohio and Indiana, the Illinois of Illinois, and the Shawanoes of Kentucky. Long as this list is, it embraces but a portion of the names to be found in any full record of the Algonquins. Next of the Iroquois. The centre of this divis Iroquois. ion was among the lakes of Western New York, where the Five Nations of the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas established their confederacy. To the west and north-west of the Five Nations lay their conquests of after years, the lands of the Eries, of the Hurons, and of other tribes. The prowess or the intrigue of the Iroquois had already subdued the great tribe of the Algonquins, the Lenni-Lenape. Far to the south, partly in Virginia and partly in Carolina, were the Tuscaroras, who, at a later period, migrated to unite with their brethren in the north, making six nations of the five. Mobilians. Lastly, of the Mobilian division. It was broken up amongst the Yamassees of Georgia; the Muskhogees or Creeks of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida; the Seminoles of Florida, with the inland tribes of Catawbas in South Carolina, Cherokees in Georgia and Alabama, Choctaws, Natchez, and Chickasaws in Alabama and Mississippi. Customs There was but one line of wide distinction and insti- amongst these various tribes. It separated those tutions. who lived by the chase alone from those who lived not only by the chase, but by agriculture. The former class, of course, was the ruder of the two; yet the customs and the institutions of both were much the same. The Indian was every where a hunter, every where a warrior. If he was any thing else, if he attempted agriculture or trade, he seemed to be out of his element. The habits of civilized life were a burden, sometimes a destruction to him. This is true of all the tribes upon our soil; the only customs to which they took, and by which they held, were those of the wilderness, or, at the best, of the field. Their institutions were comparatively advanced. Gathered with his kinsmen in a totem or clan, then with other clans in a tribe, then perhaps with other tribes in a confederacy, the Indian was as much a member of a nation as the European. Above him were his chiefs, the hereditary sachems of peace, and the chosen leaders of war. Their sway and his rights rested together on laws, unwritten, but not undetermined. The devotion shown to these relations and to these institu tions was that of true patriots, as well as true savages. It sustained the Indians through trials under which more civilized nations have much sooner succumbed. Had it been united with a civilization, or rather a religion, by which the different tribes could have been blended in one, beneath better statutes and holier influences, the Indian race would have left no space for the European. upon the pean. We can now appreciate the influence of the InInfluence dian upon the European. Though far from being Euro- disciplined, though still farther from being concentrated, the natives of our soil would not encounter an invader without leaving an abiding mark upon him and upon his destiny. If not numerous in proportion to the vast regions over which they were spread, they were multitudinous in proportion to the scanty settlements of the stranger. He, moreover, was in an untried land, they in one which they had occupied from infancy. Counter Had there been nothing else to make the Indians influence formidable, the treatment which they received would upon the have been sufficient. The white men came, if not Indian. to drag the red man into captivity, or to ransack his stores, at any rate to occupy his lands. This was done, sometimes with and sometimes without the show of justice. If any nation deserves credit above another, it is not the English, not their Puritan or their Quaker branches, as frequently boasted, but the Dutch of New Netherland. Nowhere, however, do we find more than the pretence of even dealing with the natives. The intercourse thus opened was continued in much the same fashion. The Spaniards and the French had greater numbers, proportionally, of missionaries amongst the Indians; the French, whether missionaries or not, were on comparatively good terms with many of the tribes about them. But there are no exceptions to the general course of the Indian from the time that he encountered the European. Scorn, treachery, degradation, were his portion; fury and savage warfare were his revenge. Of the Indian wars we shall take notice hereafter. African race. As the Indian drooped beneath the blight of the stranger, and became a dependant where his fathers had been free and powerful, he came in contact with another race also in dependence upon the European. This was the African, introduced into Virginia in the thirteenth year of the colony, and into all the other colonies in after years. Of little or no account in the eyes of the early settlers, the slaves of later generations became the most exciting element in the population. The coun And here, as we have completed the enumeration try. of the races in the country, it behooves us to give a glance at the country itself, varied and wide enough, as it must have seemed, for many colonies, or many nations. Although as yet the seaboard alone was occupied, the vast reaches of the interior, the stretching plains, the penetrating rivers, were descried. Most of the early dreams concerning wealth and splendor had vanished; but the reality was still full of promise. Fertile and beautiful, a land of plenty and of grandeur, it drew increasing numbers to its shores, and they who came generally remained through life. As far as the future could be secured through physical attractions or material resources, it appeared to be secure. |