Memoirs of a Captivity Among the Indians of North America, by John Dunn Hunter; 3rd edition (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Ohme, Brown, & Green, 1824)

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Hunting, next to war, is thought by the Indians to be the most honourable employment they can pursue; and, as it is essential to their mode of existence, they are trained to it from the time they are able to bend the bow, and become familiar with every art and cunning that can be devised to destroy such animals as are necessary for food, or valuable for their furs. Though naturally indolent, nothing can exceed their industry when engaged in the chace. They rise early, hunt late, perform long marches fasting, and pursue game through forest and prairie grass by trails, which none but themselves would be able to discover.

In general, their hunting parties are not numerous, and are conducted according to the caprice of the individuals composing them, the majority commonly governing. But when they hunt for their winter stores, they are large, take different routes, and generally follow the directions prescribed before starting, by a general council.

They are all composed of volunteers, who respectively yield obedience, for the time, to the chiefs they have assisted to elect for the occasion. Before they start on these expeditions, whether their number be few or many, it is customary to await the favourable omen of dreams, which, if not forthcoming when wished for, are encouraged or forced by prayers and long

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and painful fastings, oftentimes to the inconvenience, and sometimes to the manifest injury, of all those concerned. This conduct frequently disconcerts the previous arrangement of the councils; for should the dream of the chief, or one of the principal hunters of a party, and those only are much depended on, happen to the contrary, they generally resign their appointments, or abandon the old and form new parties, in which their friends generally support them.

These changes are not thought of any consequence, and are only named to present the peculiarity of their characters.

The Indians of different tribes pursue different methods in taking their game; some effect it on horseback, others on foot, and occasionally the hunting parties are made up promiscuously of both. The hunting implements, where an intercourse with the traders admits of it, consist of rifles; but, under different circumstances, of lances five or six feet in length, armed with pointed stones, iron, or bones, and of bows with arrows pointed in the same manner.

The hunters from experience become acquainted with the habits of the animal they pursue; and, in deed, their success depends very much on his knowledge. They always approach from the leeward those which are naturally gifted with an acute sense of smell, as it were to guard them from danger; they resort to ambuscades to take such as depend on vision and flight for their safety; and to decoys and imitations to circumvent others not peculiarly discrimina-

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tive. In hunting the buffalo with rifles, no great difficulty is presented; precaution in the approach, and in aim, which is always at or near the ear, or just back of the shoulder, being all that is required.

The lance is used on horseback, but not till after the partial success of the bow and arrow, which are promiscuously resorted to, as occasion requires.

The mounted parties for hunting are usually numerous. They approach the herds through ravines, or under cover of hillocks, &c. till they are discovered, when each pursues a separate buffalo, at an accommodating speed, apparently as well understood by the horse as his rider, and continues to shoot his arrows till he inflicts a mortal wound; or should there be any doubt in this respect, and circumstances admit, he resorts to his lance. He then attacks another, and sometimes a third and fourth; though it is very seldom their horses are able to continue the chace so long. The individuals who kill the greatest number, through a series of hunts, are of course esteemed the best hunters; a distinction which all are exceedingly ambitious to acquire and strive to, with a zeal and intrepidity almost bordering on madness. These observations are universally applicable in respect to all the different modes of hunting. When the bow and arrow are used by hunters on foot, they usually resort to the salt-licks and watering places, where they secrete themselves among bushes or excavations of the earth, frequently arranged or constructed for the purpose. On the arrival of a herd, they simultaneously discharge their arrows at some one, or more, occupying different places, that

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had been previously fixed on, and generally with success.

The hunters in some tribes surround large herds of buffalo, elk, and deer, and drive them either into impassable ravines, or upon the precipitous confines of rocky cliffs; where they take with their lances, bows and arrows, as many as their necessity may require.

I have never known a solitary instance of their wantonly destroying any of those animals, except on the hunting grounds of their enemies, or encouraged to it by the prospect of bartering their skins with the traders.

When an opportunity for a choice is presented, and their wants extend no farther, the Indians kill the calves, on account of the preference they have for their meat; and on the same account they select the fallow cows when they lay in their stores. However, when such cannot be conveniently obtained, they shoot promiscuously at such as chance presents. But as the buffalo is a difficult animal to kill, unless shot in particular places, and as the Indians are no ways remarkable for the use of the rifle or gun, they wound very many more than they are able to take.

The sounded bulls, in particular, become fearless and ferocious; roar terribly, pitch against trees and rocks, tear up the earth, and frequently attack, and sometimes destroy, the hunters.

Many are destroyed by the hunters and panthers; but a much greater number, in my opinion, perish in the bur[n]ing prairies, or are drowned by the breaking away of the ice in their attempts to pass over streams,

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or by the devastating floods which sometimes deluge the alluvions, and bear off immense herds. Notwithstanding the great extent of this sweeping destruction, there is no apparent diminution of their number; the increase being, at least, equal to the waste. Such are the opinions of the old Indians, who have had good opportunities to judge, and such, I have no doubt, is the fact, from the existence of so many circumstances favourable to their propagation.

The sense of smell with the elk and deer is remarkable acute; they also see quick, are very cunning, and run with great rapidity; hence they are exceedingly difficult to be taken. They are hunted in the same manner as the buffalo, excepting the pursuit on horseback, and the decoys that are sometimes resorted to at particular seasons of the year.

For a decoy the Indians use the head of a buck-elk, or deer, nicely preserved with the horns attached, with which, having previously secreted themselves, they beat the bushes, and at the same time imitate the wooing bleat or defying snort of the real animal. This manœuvring generally produces the intended effect; the males or females, as they may happen to be near, are attracted to the spot, and, if in proper condition, shot by the hunters.

The Indians seldom eat the flesh of either of these animals, while that of the buffalo can be obtained; it is, nevertheless, excellent in its season, particularly that of the deer, and they preserve it in considerable quantities.

The tendons of the deer are wrought into a sort of twine, with which they sew their leggins and mocka-

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sins. The tips of their horns are applied to point their arrows, perforate skins for sewing, and the like.

They seldom hunt purposely either for bears or small game; but kill such as come in their way, and for which they have occasion. When on their hunts, at a distance from their villages, they cut their meat in pieces of greater or less thickness, according to the temperature of the weather, suspend it on poles, smoke and dry it, and finally convey it home, either on their pack-horses, or in canoes, which they construct for the purpose. When in the neighbourhood of their settlements, the meat is conveyed home fresh, in which condition they greatly prefer it.

Formerly, the Indians almost venerated the beaver, on account of the high rational faculties it discovered, in dam[m]ing creeks, and building houses for its own accommodation, and particularly in educating its young, and avoiding dangers.* But, latterly, since they have

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become acquainted with the value and consequence which the white people attach to the fur of this animal, they hunt it with an avidity and industry that threaten in the course of a few years to eradicate them from their hunting grounds. They are commonly taken with traps and snares, or falls; though sometimes they are killed with rifles, lances, or arrows.

Their haunts soon attract the notice of the hunters, who bury their traps, or suspend large logs in such a manner that the beaver, in attempting to obtain the baits, springs them to his own destruction. Sometimes holes are made in the ice formed on their ponds, to which the beavers, when driven from their houses, resort to breathe, and are despatched with spears or lances. They also break down their dams, and having previously prevented their retreat, take them by destroying their cells. Their skins form a very important item in the Indian trade.

The turkey is not much valued, though, when fat, the Indians frequently take them alive in the following manner. Having prepared from the skin an apt resemblance of the living bird, they follow the turkey trails or haunts, till they discover a flock, when they secrete themselves behind a log, in such a manner as to elude discovery; partially display their decoy; and imitate the gobbling noise of the cock. This management generally succeeds to draw off first one and then another from their companions, which from their social and unsuspecting habits, thus successively place themselves literally in the hands of the

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hunters, who quickly despatch them, and wait for the arrival of more. This species of hunting, with fishing, is more practised by the boys than the older Indians, who seldom, in fact, undertake them, unless closely pressed by hunger.

They take fish with a kind of hurdle net, made by weaving bunches of brushwood or sticks together with grape vines. They are of considerable length, and are used nearly in the same manner practised for taking shad, herrings, &c. in the United States. They are not, however, extended into deep water, and the lower ends of the brush are loaded with stones, and the rear of the net is lined with boys, who constantly beat the water with rods, to prevent the escape of the fish. In this way, considerable quantities are taken, and oftentimes merely for sport: but in such cases, the fish are always suffered to escape uninjured; a usage strictly enjoined by the older Indians, to prevent their unnecessary and wanton destruction.

AGRICULTURE.

The Indians chiefly depend on the chace for a subsistence; therefore what little progress they have made in agriculture, ought rather to be ascribed to incident, than to any settled design.

There are many, besides the roving tribes, that do not practise tillage; and it is highly probable that those which do inherit what of the art they possess from remote antiquity.

Otherwise, in a country so well supplied with game as their generally is, it appears to be, it would have received no attention, or else have been

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carried to a much greater degree of perfection. Observation, in which they are by no means deficient, must have unfolded to their knowledge the fecundifying powers of the earth, at as early a period (supposing their progenitors the same) as it did to any other race of men; and, had a similar necessity existed, they, no doubt, would have made as great proficiency. Even circumstanced as they are, they raise, in the neighbourhood of many of their villages, excellent though not very abundant crops of corn, beans, tobacco, pumpkins, squashes, &c. as before noticed. In effecting this, they usually till the prairies; when otherwise, they clear their grounds by building fires at the roots of trees, or by stripping the barks from them, and, with hoes procured from the traders, plant their various kinds of seeds promiscuously, that is, without regard to sorts or arrangement. They carefully remove the weeds; keep the soil loose; and when occasion requires, hill it, to prevent the fragile vegetation from being injured by the winds. In dry seasons they irrigate their fields occasionally, and at their harvests preserve all the refuse as a common stock for food for their horses, which, with the dogs, are the only animals they have in a state of domestication. The former are much more abundant in some tribes than others, and, where most so, constitute the principal wealth of the Indians. They are valued in proportion to their fleetness and ability to continue the chace; and those that can run down three or four buffaloes at a hunt are esteemed almost invaluable; because, to their owners,

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they are the certain passports to distinction. Among the Osages and Kansas, they are common property, and are rarely used, except as pack-horses in their hunting excursions.

Their dogs are all similar in their qualities and appearance, and seem to be intermediates between the fox and wolf.

They are with the Indians, as elsewhere, generous, faithful, and devotedly attached to their masters, who, in return, caress and provide for them with almost as much care and assiduity as they do for their own families.

They are trained to guard the corn fields against the depredatory encroachments of the horses; to pursue game, especially after it has been wounded; and, when collected, to defend it from the wolves, which seldom have the courage to dispute with them the propriety of their trust. In some tribes they are eaten, and esteemed a great delicacy; but this practice does not prevail where the buffalo, elk, and deer, are found in any considerable numbers.

According to tradition, the Great Spirit, when he became offended with the Indians because of their mal-practices, particularly one towards another, gave them the dog, as a pattern of fidelity for their imitation; from which, and from their own accounts of these animals, I infer that they were in a state of domestication among the Indians, very long before the American continent was know to, or even thought of, by the Europeans.

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MANUFACTURES.

I have already noticed the progress the Indians have made in geographical delineations and hieroglyphic writings, as proofs of their capacity for farther and more important improvements, even though wholly insulated from the civilised world. And, were others wanting, I might add the knowledge they have acquired in such branches of manufacture as are essential to their comforts.

These attainments have principally originated in necessity, and they unquestionably would have been extended to more positive demonstrations to the point, provided the exciting causes essential to such improvements had existed.

But the case is far otherwise; the means of procuring a comfortable livelihood are generally at command, and opposed to them; besides, the men are taught to regard every kind of labour and fatigue, apart from war, the chace, and the construction of implements connected with these several pursuits, as servile, and unbecoming the lofty character of the warrior. Hence, they can claim but very little if any credit for the proficiency to which some of the arts have arrived among them. It is true, they construct cabins and canoes, and manufacture for their own use, besides what I have mentioned, wooden bowls and spoons from the protuberances of trees, and pipes from clay and indurated boles; but the dressing of skins, the construction of pottery, and the fabrication of blankets and mats, are left for the

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performance of the women, notwithstanding their other engagements, and supposed inferior intellectual endowments. In consequence of this state of things, added to the roving and belligerent lives they lead, and the disadvantages they labour under for want of working tools, the very limited knowledge they have acquired ought not to excite our surprise, and I am persuaded will not, when all the circumstances of their lives have been considered.

Their mode of dressing skins is very simple. When they wish to preserve the hair, they first extend the skins in the shade, and spread a thin covering of the recent ordure of the buffalo mixed with clay, on the fleshy sides, which for two or three days are kept constantly moistened with water. In the next place, they are thoroughly cleansed, and subsequently rubbed in the brain of some animal, till they become dry, soft, and pliant.

They are then washed in water thickened with corn bran, dried, and finally scraped with bones, sharp stones, or knives, or sometimes they are worked soft, by drawing them backwards and forwards over the rounded end of a piece of timber, fixed permanently in the ground. When sufficiently dressed, in the manner above described, they are hung up to be smoked, either in the smoke aperture of the lodges, or in places constructed exclusively for the purpose.

Dressed skins are generally kept in this situation, except when required for use.

Should the hair at any time become loose, they cover the hairy sides of the skins with finely-cut oak-

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bark, and sprinkle water on them three, four, or five times a day, till it becomes fixed.

When skins are to be dressed without the hair, they are covered with ashes, and kept in a trough of water, till the action of the ley readily admits of its being scraped off; when the same processes, as above described, are performed with brains, bran, smoke, &c.

The former are used by the Indians for bedding, robes, and dresses, and, in some instances, for lining their lodges; the latter are made into leggings and mockasins, and in some of the tribes into coverings for their tents or lodges. Those used for constructing their canoes are never dressed.

While travelling, the hunters preserve their skins by simply rolling, or placing leaves in them: this, however, it should be understood, is only done in cool weather, for they seldom attempt to save them in the summer months; or if they should, it is by drying and smoking them over a fire. The skins are generally dry when put into the hands of the women for dressing, through this condition is not considered as a requisite in the process. It is a fact worthy of notice, that skins dressed by the Indians, that is, those which have been smoked, are never injured by worms, and are not so liable to become hard, or to stretch, after having been wet, as are the pliant ones of the professed leather-dressers among the white people.

In manufacturing their pottery for cooking and domestic purposes, they collect tough clay, beat it into powder, temper it with water, and then spread it

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over blocks of wood, which have been formed into shapes to suit their convenience or fancy. When sufficiently dried, they are removed from the moulds, placed in proper situations, and burned to a hardness suitable to their intended uses.

Another method practised by them is, to coat the inner surface of baskets made of rushes or willows, with clay to any required thickness, and, when dry, to burn them as above described.

In this way they construct large, handsome, and tolerably durable ware; though latterly, with such tribes as have much intercourse with the whites, it is not much used, because of the substitution of cast-iron ware in its stead.

When these vessels are large, as is the case for the manufacture of sugar, they are suspended by grape vines, which, wherever exposed to the fire, are constantly kept covered with moist clay.

Sometimes, however, the rims are made strong and project a little inwardly quite round the vessels, so as to admit of their being sustained by flattened pieces of wood, slid underneath these projections, and extending across their centres.

The hair of the buffalo and other animals is sometimes manufactured into blankets; the hair is first twisted by hand, and wound into balls. The warp is then laid of a length to answer the size of the intended blanket, crossed by three small smooth rods alternately beneath the threads, and secured at each end to stronger rods supported on forks, at a short distance above the ground. Thus prepared, the woof is filled in, thread by thread, and

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pressed closely together, by means of a long flattened wooden needle. When the weaving is finished, the ends of the warp and woof are tied into knots, and the blanket is ready for use. In the same manner they construct mats from flags and rushes, on which, particularly in warm weather, they sleep and sit.

In districts of country where the sugar maple abounds, the Indians prepare considerable quantities of sugar by simply concentration the juices of the tree by boiling, till it acquires a sufficient consistency to crystallize on cooling. But, as they are extravagantly fond of it, very little is preserved beyond the sugar-making season. The men tap the trees, attach spigots to them, make the sap troughs; and sometimes, at this frolicking season, assist the squaws in collecting sap.

The men occasionally amuse themselves with making bowls and pipes of clay, for their individual use, which are burned as before described.

They also make bowls and pipes of a kind of indurated bole, and of compact sand and limestone, which are excavated and reduced to form by means of friction with harder substances, and the intervention of sand and water. They generally ornament them with some figure characteristic of the owner's name; as for instance with that of a buffalo, elk, bear, tortoise, serpent, &c., according to the circumstance or caprice that has given rise to its assumption. In the same way they manufacture their large stone mortars, for reducing corn into fine meal.

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In specifying the employments of the Indians, although the subjects do not properly come under this head, I ought not to omit giving some account of their cabins or lodges, which are always constructed by the men. They are usually formed of split poles, in the shape of an equilateral, quandrangular, obtusely-truncated cone, with an aperture through the top, for the egress of the smoke. They are generally about twenty feet square, and from twelve to fourteen in height. The apertures between the poles are closed wither with prairie grass and clay, turf, or the barks of trees. They have no windows, and but one door, which is generally on the south side: in cold weather they close it with a curtain of skins, and it is not unusual, as I have already remarked, for the cabins of the chiefs and principal warriors to be partially, and sometimes wholly lined with the same materials.

From the loose manner in which they build their fires, their lodges are intolerably smoky, especially in windy weather; and, in fact, whenever artificially heated, they are sufficiently so to render them exceedingly uncomfortable to all except Indians, who, from being accustomed, scarcely experience any inconvenience from it.

Considerable difference prevails among the different tribes, and even among the individuals of the same tribe, in the construction of their lodges.

Sometimes they are built principally of clay or turf, and at others of bark or brush, sustained by poles, and covered first with prairie grass, and then with loose earth.

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This difference particularly distinguishes the Indians settled in villages from the roving bands, which always construct their huts in the most temporary manner; nevertheless, they are generally very comfortable, being covered with skins, which, for the especial purpose, make up part of their baggage.

The lodges for public purposes are much larger, and vary considerably in the forms of their structure; sometimes they are octagonal; at others, oblong, or square; and, as the case may be, are otherwise pyramidical.

They are the depositories of all public records and property, and are never entered by any of the individuals of a tribe, except on public occasions: even enemies, when they have it completely in their power, deem it sacrilegious to enter them, or in any way to molest their contents, unless the proprietary nation should have been wholly cut off or vanquished.

Their canoes are made promiscuously by either men or women, and sometimes conjointly by both, according to the exigency for which they are wanted. The skeletons or frames are made of osier or flexible poles, lashed together with bark or some other materials, and are covered generally with the skins of the buffalo sewed together, and to the frame, with the sinews of the deer. They vary in size considerably according to the service for which they are wanted: sometimes a single skin covers one, and, at others, a half dozen are required. The hair is left on the outside; it, however, soon wears off, when the boat moves rapidly in the water, and is easily managed.

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The Indians smoke, oil, and preserve them with great care, which makes them very durable. When travelling, they often remove them to the land, invert and use them for shelters against the rain; being exceedingly light, they are carried without inconvenience over the longest portages. The Indians also construct canoes from the bark of the birch-tree, and from cotton-wood trees, and such are more or less in use among most of the tribes.

CURRENCY AND TRADE.

From the nature and origin of society among the Indians, it may readily be supposed, and correctly too, that trade among themselves, and even with strangers, is conducted on a very limited scale, and by precarious standards.

Their currency standard of value is different in different tribes. Among the Osages, Kansas, Ottowas, Mahas, and their neighbouring tribes, the beaver skin is as much the aggregate of fractions, as the dollar is in Spain and the United States, or as the sovereign in Great Britain.

In general, two good otter skins are valued equal to one beaver skin; from ten to twelve racoon, or four or five wild-cat skins, at the same rate; and so on for other skins, or materials for traffic. The standard among the Mandans is a skin full of corn.

These skin measures are of different dimensions, and are kept in the council lodge. The Ricaras use a stone mortar for the same purpose, and it is kept in the same public place; while some of the tribes situated on the western side of the Rocky Mountains,

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make use of various coloured shells, ground to an oval or nearly round shape. Belts of wampum are also used, not only as standards of value, but as records of important transactions. According to these various standards they exchange property among themselves, and with the traders, for such articles as they fancy, or may really want; but, as the Indians re not generally acquainted with the value of foreign commodities, it frequently happens among some of the tribes, that councils are convened to establish the rate of exchange, which is afterwards publicly promulgated, and pretty strictly adhered to. In most of the tribes, however, the traders are left to fix their own prices, and they generally avail themselves of the privilege to the extent of the credulity and ignorance of the Indians; but I have already named this circumstance, together with the consequences that sometimes follow.

When two of the Indians have entered into a contract, and a credit is given, the time of payment always extends to the termination of the next hunting season, and the number of beaver skins due, is registered by a similar number of marks or notches cut on the inside of the great council lodge, at the first subsequent public meeting. On the final settlement, it is exceedingly rare that any disagreement takes place; though, should any exist, the affair is referred for adjustment to some of the most respectable old men or councillors, much after the manner practised in civilized life. The decision is final, and, though it should be disapproved, is very seldom reproached. Nothing, indeed, could give greater offence to the referees, than an opposite line of conduct: the offended parties would

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never afterwards sit at the same council fire, nor hold any other intercourse with the offender.

Breach of contract is very seldom known among them; but, when one does occur, coercion is out of the question: for they, in fact, are strangers to all systems of the kind; and when told by the traders of the practice of imprisoning for debt, which prevails among the whites, the motive, unless it be for revenge, appears to them altogether paradoxical.

Should an Indian be unable to meet his engagements, in consequence of sickness or ill success in hunting, the creditor never duns him, nor even so much as mentions his individual wants in his presence, but the same friendly relations subsist between them, as though no disappointment or delinquency had taken place. But if the inability of the debtor originates in his indolent or intemperate habits; or if he wilfully omits to pay when he has the means in his power, and otherwise applies them, he then suffers a greater penalty than imprisonment; he is abandoned by his friends, and is characterised as a bad Indian; and his creditor would esteem it dishonourable to receive from him afterwards even his just demands. Such instances have occurred within my knowledge; but they are exceedingly rare. These methods of negotiation and trade answer very well among the Indians; they suffer no inconvenience from the absence of a specie currency; and, in fact, many Indians are ignorant of its use, and, when in possession of coin, apply it solely to decorating their persons. They are generally strangers to exclusive property, except as regards their lodges and furniture. It is true, after their hunts and

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harvestings they make divisions, but they are for the convenience of disposition; for, as before remarked, no one of respectable standing will be allowed to experience want or sufferings of any kind, while it is in the power of others of the same community to prevent it. In this respect they are extravagantly generous; always supplying the wants of their friend from their own superabundance. In this equality of condition and privilege enjoined by natural laws, the Indians, where they understand how different people in civilized life manage their affairs, feel themselves supremely happy, in being exempted from the evils which avarice, pride, and folly entail on them.

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