Memoirs of a Captivity Among the Indians of North America, by John Dunn Hunter; 3rd edition (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Ohme, Brown, & Green, 1824)
-----
p. 360
CHAP. XV.
OBSERVATIONS ON CIVILIZING THE AMERICAN INDIANS.
The propriety of any measure being proved, it may be said that it is absurd to find fault with the means used to effect it, without substituting or pointing at better. We will endeavour to place reasons for the plan proposed before the reader, keeping in view the Indian character, disposition towards the civilization of their tribes, &c., and compare them with the means which have heretofore been pursued.
In the first place, the Indians are acute observers, and look much more deeply into matters than people are commonly willing to believe; and therefore reformers go among them with entirely erroneous views of their character. And the vanity of the attempt to remedy any evil, before any thing is accurately understood as to its nature, or the character of the subject, is too apparent to require arguments to prove. I have myself known young missionaries, and others also, who were sent among them, and whose correct intentions I do not pretend to question, to deal out long lectures on morality, original sin, vicarious atonement, &c. The disposition of the Indians never to interrupt a talker by a rising, or even by yawning and other indications of uneasiness, often causes the philanthropist to flatter himself that he has enlisted their whole affections and judgment in the cause, when perhaps they feel themselves insulted! When they are dismissed, and con-
-----
p. 361
verse among themselves on these subjects, they say, "The white men tell Indian be honest: Indian have no prison; Indian have no jail for unfortunate debtors: Indian have no locks on his doors." And when the preachers make their discourse more evangelical, they do not comprehend them, which shows they should become more acquainted with metaphysical disquisitions, before any attempts are made to teach them the mysteries of Christianity.
Secondly, the acuteness of the Indians in prying into the motives of those with whom they are treating, makes them criticise their conduct. They say, "If the white people are so good, why leave their kindred and friends, and go among strangers, of whose mode of living they complain so much?" They look upon it as a poor argument in favour of their doctrine, when they leave their people, and come among them whose language, habits, and pursuits are all so different. And many of them look with pride on the numerous examples of white people, who abandon the habits of civilized life, and adopt those of Indians. These are sometimes men of desperate characters, less able to undergo the hardships of Indian life, or more depraved in morals; and the Indians point to them as examples of white men's character, and bless the Great Spirit that they are his red favourites. Among the white people there are many infidels also, who speak against what the Indians suppose to be their own religion; but among them they have no party dissensions--no infidels. It is an insult to an Indian to suppose it necessary to tell him he must believe in a God. There is about as much propriety in such
-----
p. 362
exhortation, as there would be in telling the most accomplished scholar he should learn his letters. In my tour through the territories of the Choctow, Cherokee, and Creek nations, I could not avoid observing the difference which exists between them and some other tribes, with whom I had formerly resided, in respect to their modes of life, and their consequent moral tendency. Some of the Indians, it is true, possessed large herds of cattle, horses, and swine; cultivated cotton, corn, and some other necessaries and articles of commerce, and some held a number of slaves; but by far the greater portion of them were badly provided, indolent, intemperate, miserably poor, and taken collectively, from their intercourse with the whites, they had become adepts in all their most flagrant and abominable vices, while they continued strangers, at least in practice, to the greatest portion of their virtues. I do not make these remarks from any prejudiced motives or feelings; they are founded on an impartial observation, and from my knowledge of the Indian character.
I am sincerely apprehensive that similar results will follow all similar attempts that may be made to civilize any of the other Indian nations. These fears are strengthened by further observations of my own, and from information which I have received from numerous and highly respectable sources, that the same state of society, somewhat modified by locality, exists among all the tribes bordering on our extensive frontiers. The cause of these unfortunate results or effects, it appears to me, if sought for, cannot be mistaken. The Indians, originally, are accustomed
-----
p. 363
to indulge all their wants, so far as the means are attainable, and seldom restrain themselves except when old, though repeatedly admonished by experience and suffering. Hence, the want of a proper education seems unquestionably to be the radical cause.
The white people, for the most part, who heretofore have had any intercourse with them, have themselves discovered a very doubtful title to the character of civilized beings; they generally are governed in all their transactions by a self-interest, which is not in the last scrupulous as to means; breach of faith, fraud and peculation, are constantly practised on them, and that oftentimes too after their appetites for ardent spirits had been purposely indulged to such an extent, as to render them, in the strict sense of the phrase, fit subjects for protection. Added to this, they have suffered severely from various diseases, which have been introduced among them by the whites; so that the general effects of this intercourse on a people, whose very existence depends on the expertness and bravery of its hunters and warriors, are too perceptible in their enervating and destructive consequences, to escape their notice, and render them distrustful in their negotiations, and inimical to their habits and morals. Therefore, before any permanently good effects can result to them, from the beneficent but mistaken efforts of the numerous associations organized for their civilization, in various parts of the world, all their intercourse with this class of people should be broken off; the disposal and use of spiritous liquors should be
-----
p. 364
wholly interdicted; eminent physicians should be sent amongst them, to teach them to combat with efficiency those diseases to which they were strangers, previous to their acquaintance with the white people; every practicable means should be employed to regain their confidence and good-will; and, finally, as a necessary preparatory measure, they should be enlightened by the same common process that is practised in respect to infant minds, in civilized life. The numeral relations must first be taught, before any aggregated series can be comprehended; and this truism is as justly applicable to the instruction of any other race of people, as of the Indians. Hence the inference is plain: the Indians, as previously observed, must be educated before they can comprehend the benefits and advantages to be derived from civilized pursuits, or a change in their religious tenets. There is, in the Indian mode of life, something peculiarly fascinating: so much so, that scarcely an instance is known of a person, situated like myself, and even with the additional inducements arising froma knowledge of, and even an acquaintance with his parents and connections, ever having abandoned it; and there are numerous instances of persons, who, arriving at a discretionary age, have either been captured, or voluntarily joined them; and who, though subsequently having the option completely at their control, continued with them for the remainder of their lives. This disposition, no doubt, originated in their peculiar mode of education, in their love of ease and indolence, and the almost unrestrained freedom which they enjoy. It is true, their wants force them into action; other-
-----
p. 365
wise, a more supine and inactive life than they lead, could scarcely be desired even by the disciples of Diogenes themselves.
They live under an implied social compact; have chiefs and other superior officers, and traditionary laws for their government; but, nevertheless, they surrender comparatively no portion of their personal liberty: they chastise offences, and revenge insults, regardless of all considerations, and neither yield obedience nor acknowledge fealty to any one. Their lives are either calms or storms, in which all the passions of their souls are either quiescent, or tumultuously excited, and concentrated according to the impelling cause. In fine, all their hopes and desires, whether connected with this or a future life, are completely sensual: and whether their mode of education can be varied, so long as the means of indulgence are so easily attainable, admits of a doubt only to be resolved by constant, steady, and potent experiments. True Christian charity ought to be extended to them; and although great forbearance and labour may, and probably will, be required from those who undertake the measure, before they can be brought to comprehend and adopt the doctrines and mysteries of revealed religion, they should not on that account be abandoned to their errors.
In extenuation of these difficulties and troubles, it should be remembered with what pertinacity mankind in general adhere to the prejudices and errors derived from custom and early education; and with how much greater force they cling to opinions that have received the adoption and concurrent testimony
-----
p. 366
of immemorial usage, in support of their sanctity and truth. Besides, it should also be remembered that there are many individuals in all Christian countries, highly distinguished for their natural and acquired talents, who, though conversant with the Scriptures, profess that they cannot comprehend the doctrines they inculcate.
With what horror and distress would the pious professors of Christianity regard the zealous and unremitted efforts of the followers of Mahomet, to convert them to the mussulman faith; more especially should such efforts be attended with only a very limited success. The Indians do not, perhaps, experience the same degree of excitement that the Christians probably would at such attempts to revolutionize their religious opinions; they, nevertheless, look on such efforts as wicked, and upon those who make them, as instruments of the Bad Spirit sent to torment and destroy them. The object of reclaiming them from their present erroneous customs and habits, and of redeeming them from the annihilation with which they are threatened by the encroachment of the white settlers on their hunting grounds, and by a pestilential intercourse with the lowest dregs of civilized life, is of the utmost consequence to their happiness and existence, and highly worthy of the efforts of the enlightened, benevolent, and philanthropic portion of the human family. Nay, more, it does appear to me, that the American community in particular, which has become great and powerful as it were on the destruction of the Indians, owes the accomplishment of this measure,
-----
p. 367
as far as it is practicable, to its own character, to justice, and to moral right.
Spain, by her cruelty, injustice, and oppression towards the truly unfortunate aborigines of her American dominions, procured for herself a character among the nations which has barred all their sympathies for her, and in some instances caused them to rejoice at her distressing and calamitous trials. Moral re-action has revived and nearly paralysed the fibres of her heart; and she now feebly struggles, on the brink of anarchy, for a renovated existence.
Although the American people have not trod in the footsteps of Spain, as regards their conduct towards the Indians within their territories; yet they have been guilty of cruelty and injustice to them, in too many instances.
Many proofs might be deduced in support of this assertion; but, on this occasion, I shall only bring forward one, which is mild in its features compared with others of more remote occurrence. I allude to the recent location of the Cherokees in the neighbourhood of the Osage nation. These people, till the late treaty was effected between them, had been, it was well known, for a long time past implacable enemies; and the least knowledge of their character must have clearly pointed out the consequences that actually did result from the measure; namely, offensive operations, and the death of many warriors belonging to both nations. Now, the powers that be, could have effectually prevented this, without endangering the interests of the American people in the slightest degree; they, therefore, as before asserted, have
-----
p. 368
evidently been guilty of cruelty and injustice, to say the least of their conduct, towards both these tribes.
Thousands, perhaps I might say millions of these people, have perished within the boundaries, now claimed by the United States, since their intercourse with the first adventurers to this part of our continent. Numerous nations, which before that period were powerful and happy in their pusuits, now cease to exist: many others have become feeble, and are so rapidly diminishing, that in a short time, unless the proper measures be adopted to prevent it, very little will be known of them except their names. If the past be a criterion for the future, from what is now carrying on in respect to those who still remain as it were, uncorrupted by, and strangers to the cruel policy or effects of an intercourse with the white people, as it at present exists; it requires no spirit of divination to predict what will ultimately be their fate.
The title of the Indians to the distinctive character of human beings, from their moral and physical endowments, is as good, considering the circumstances in which they are found, as that of any other race of men on the face of the earth. This is so clear to those who are acquainted with them, as not to require any proof; but should there be a doubt on this subject in the minds of any, such are referred to the preceding parts of this work, for a more completely development of their character and capacities.
There are great numbers of pious good people in the United States, who display the greatest solicitude for, and generously contribute to the reclaimance of
-----
p. 369
the heathens of foreign countries from the darkness of ignorance to the saving light of wisdom, as promulgated in the gospel; while they overlook the temporal and spiritual welfare of those equally benighted, who live on their very thresholds. I say overlook, because all the measures that have been attempted, were so feeble, distracted, and inefficient, as to induce tendencies of a very doubtful, if not of a decidedly injurious nature. The skilful physician is desirous and careful to understand the symptoms and character of his patient's disease, before he prescribes a remedy; but those who would benefit the condition of the Indians, attempted it without scarcely any knowledge of their habits and morals; and, as might have been expected, have hitherto completely failed.
A plan of education, however, has been recently commenced at the Osage villages, which, if continued on the principles I have ventures to suggest, and agriculture and the mechanic arts be superadded to them, and all religious topics be suppressed till the young minds have been prepared by a sufficient previous education to understand them, will, I am well persuaded, after a long time of patient perseverance, result in the happiest consequences. But "the vineyard is great," and an increase of labourers is absolutely essential to any very extensive beneficial results.
In selecting persons for this labour, those only should be employed who are mild and forbearing in their dispositions, and moral and temperate in their habits and lives; and whose regard for the wel-
-----
p. 370
fare and happiness of the Indians would, on every occasion, shew forth eminently superior to every thing like self-interest.
The Indians are generally prejudiced against the missionaries, no matter from what denomination or people they come; and this feeling also extends to all white people, particularly to those from the United States, excepting only the Friends, whose character and disposition towards them are in general well understood by all the frontier tribes, and, in many instances, by those more remotely situated. They are held in the greatest respect and esteem; and if they would undertake to revolutionize the habits and opinions of the Indians, they would have the advantage of at least an entire generation of confidence and good-will in their favour, over any other religious sect; a circumstance that would almost operate as a miracle in arriving at the measure in view.
Whoever may undertake it, will, if they look for a rich harvest at once, be assuredly disappointed. The opinions and prejudices of nearly all their grown people are so firmly fixed, that it will require much sound policy and good management to obtain permission, in the first place, to interfere with the education of those who are younger. Taught by experience that the white people are sincere in their efforts to serve them, their prejudices will gradually unbend; they will acquire the knowledge of a few facts, that will elicit and confirm a taste for farther and more important attainments; and, finally, they will absorb every ray of truth that may be reflected on them, till they become civilized, enlightened, and themselves
-----
p. 371
the teachers of the very truths which they now so much contemn.
Man, without regard to age, colour, or endowments, from the circumstance of his reflecting powers, and the constitution of his social feelings, cannot but be discontented and unhappy when removed from his home and connections, comparatively ignorant of the motives which led to the measure, and placed among strangers whose language he knows not, and whose prejudices utterly forbid the formation of any new ties and relations. Precisely such, however, has been the situation of all those Indians who have been brought from, or induced to leave their forests and vagrant pursuits for academic education: yet, forsooth, some of the philosophers of the day would rank them in their moral and physical endowments and capacities to improve, as intermediates to their own proudly cultivated race, and baboons or apes; because, instructed, though under the above-named circumstances, they prefer their own country, and the society of kindred and friends, to those where their colour alone is an insuperable barrier to all social and friendly intercourse. Reverse this state of things; convey the means of imparting knowledge to them in their native retreats, and enlist them heartily in its pursuit, as readily may be done; and I think I am justified, from my knowledge of them, in averring that they will rival the native Mexicans in the development of their mental faculties, of whom so respectful mention has been made by Count Humboldt, in his treatise on the kingdom of New Spain.
Those who undertake the instruction of the Indians
-----
p. 371
must expect to undergo, at least for a time, some privations, and to suffer some inconveniences; but they need apprehend nothing for their safety, provided they support rigidly just and honourable relations. Their conduct should always be consistent, steady, fearless, and independent; though not stern and authoritative. Any variation from this course will be sure to lessen their respect, or excite their jealousy, either of which would prove exceedingly prejudicial to a successful prosecution of their functions. They are ambitious; and, from the youngest to the oldest, love praise and distinction: circumstances of which advantage should be taken, in the distribution of tokens, presents, &c., to smooth down, and render agreeable the irksome asperities of their novel studies and pursuits. The teachers should learn the language of the tribes in which they are respectively located; and, whenever an appropriate opportunity offers, converse freely, particularly with the older ones, on such subjects only as are agreeable to them. The good opinion of the females will also prove serviceable, and greatly facilitate the education of their children. It should be obtained by kindness and respectful attention; too great familiarity might excite interests that would lead to disagreeable consequences; besides, whatever may be their own habits, it would certainly abstract form the good opinion of the men.
The climate on the Arkansaw, [sic] Missouri, and the upper part of the Mississippi rivers, and on their tributary streams, is, perhaps, among the most healthy in the world; the surface of country is re-
-----
p. 373
markably even, though in some instances hilly, and the soil is in general easily reclaimable, unusually productive, and, in some parts, well watered; so that even in temporal or interested views, the inducements which are presented to settlers in this quarter are of a most flattering nature.
I have no doubt that extensive plans may be devised and carried into effect, which would ultimately result in producing great benefits to the Indians. The object is highly important, and no means should be spared in attempting its accomplishment; and it will, so far as is consistent with my pursuits, and the state of my affairs, at all times afford me the highest gratification to be instrumental to the education, and consequent preservation, of this neglected, persecuted, and much injured portion of the human family.