In the French and Indian wars there is abundant evidence that both armies depended largely upon the natives, and that when they failed to take the advice of their savage allies they generally met with disaster. This advice was valuable, not only because the Indians knew the country, but because their strategy was of a high order. The reader may have seen at Fort George the statue of Sir William Johnson and King Hendrix, the Mohawk chief. The latter holds in his hand a bundle of sticks. Tradition says that the chief was arguing against the division of their forces to meet the approaching French army, saying: "If we are to fight, we are too few: if we are to die, we are too many!"

As an Indian, and having often heard my people discuss strategic details, I am almost sure that the chief anticipated the tactics of the enemy; and the pathetic sequel is that he was selected to lead a portion of the English forces to Fort Edward that morning, and when only a mile or so out was ambushed by the enemy. He stood his ground, urging his men to face the foe; and when he was shot dead, they were so enraged that with extraordinary valor they routed the French, and thus Hendrix in dying was really the means of saving Forts George and Edward for the colonists.

History says that Braddock was defeated and lost his life at Fort Duquesne because he had neglected and disregarded his Indian scouts, who accordingly left him, and he had no warning of the approach of the foe. Again, the Seminole war in Florida was a failure so long as no Indians were found who were willing to guide the army, and the Government was compelled to make terms, while the swift and overwhelming defeat of the Creeks, a much stronger nation, was due more to the Cherokee and Chickasaw scouts than to the skill of General Jackson. Of course, once the army is guided to an Indian village, and the warriors are surprised in the midst of their women and children, the civilized folk, with superior weapons and generally superior numbers, has every advantage.

The Indian system of scouting has long been recognized as one of the most useful adjuncts of war. His peculiar and efficient methods of communication in the field by means of blanket signals, smoke signals, the arrangement of rock-piles, and by heliograph (small mirrors or reflectors), the last, of course, in more modern days, have all been made use of at one time or another by the United States Army. It is interesting evidence of the world-wide respect for our strategy and methods, that when the Boer commission came to Washington a few years ago, Mr. Vessel called upon me to advise him how he might secure one thousand Sioux and Cheyenne scouts in their war against Great Britain. Of course I told him that it could not be done: that I would not involve my country in an international difficulty. I was similarly approached during the Russo-Japanese war.

The aid of friendly Indians in the case of massacres and surprises of the whites must not be overlooked. It may be recalled that some Cherokee warriors, returning from Washington's later successful expedition against Fort Duquesne, were murdered in their sleep by white frontiersmen after giving them friendly lodging. Here again is brought out the genuine greatness of the Indian character. The Cherokees felt keenly this treacherous outrage by the very people to whom they had just sacrificed the best blood of their young men in their war against the French. Some declared their intention of killing every white man they could find in retaliation for such unprovoked murder; but the chief Ottakullakulla calmly arose and addressed the excited assembly:

"Let us have consideration," said he, "for our white neighbors who are not guilty of this deed. We must not violate our faith or the laws of hospitality by imbruing our hands in the blood of those who are now in our power. They came to us in the confidence of a pledged friendship; let us conduct them safely back within their own confines before we take up the hatchet!"

He carried his point to some extent, and himself saved Captain Stewart, his friend, by giving up all of his property to ransom him. In difficulties between the races since colonial times there has been an unbroken record of heroic work in the rescue of missionaries and other white persons resident among the Indians by their native converts and friends. In the Minnesota Sioux outbreak of 1862 there were many notable instances. A man named Arrow stood beside Mr. Spencer and dared the infuriated warriors to touch him. There were over two hundred white captives saved by friendly Indians and delivered to General Sibley at Camp Release. During the following December some young Yanktonnais Sioux voluntarily ransomed and delivered up two white women and four children. I knew some of these men well; among them Fast Walking, who carried one of the children on his back to safety, after giving his own horse to redeem him. Seldom have such deeds been rewarded or even appreciated. When these men became old and feeble an attempt was made to have them recompensed by Congressional appropriation, but so far as I am informed it has been unsuccessful.

I do not wish to disparage any one, but I do say that the virtues claimed by "Christian civilization" are not peculiar to any culture or religion. My people were very simple and unpractical—the modern obstacle to the fulfilment of the Christ ideal. Their strength lay in self-denial. Not only men, but women of the race have served the nation at most opportune moments in the history of this country.

HISTORIC INDIAN WOMEN

It is remembered that Pocahontas saved the first Virginia colony from utter destruction because of her love for Captain John Smith, who was the heart and brain of the colony. It was the women of the Oneida and Stockbridge Indians who advised their men not to join King Philip against the New England colonies, and, later, pointed out the wisdom of maintaining neutrality during the war of the Revolution.

Perhaps no greater service has been rendered by any Indian girl to the white race than by Catherine, the Ojibway maid, at the height of Pontiac's great conspiracy. Had it not been for her timely warning of her lover, Captain Gladwyn, Fort Detroit would have met the same fate as the other forts, and the large number of Indians who held the siege for three months would have scattered to wipe out the border settlements of Ohio and Pennsylvania. The success of Pontiac would certainly have delayed the settlement of the Ohio valley for many years. It is not to be supposed that Catherine was moved to give her warning by anything save her true womanly instincts. She stood between two races, and in her love and bravery cut short a struggle that might have proved too full of caprice and cruelty on both sides. She was civilization's angel, and should have a niche in history beside Pocahontas.

Sacajawea, the young Indian mother who guided Lewis and Clark in their glorious expedition to the Pacific, was another brave woman. It is true that she was living in captivity, but according to Indian usage that would not affect her social position. It does not appear that she joined the expedition in order to regain her tribe, but rather from a sense of duty and purpose of high usefulness. Not only as guide, but as interpreter, and in rescuing the records of the expedition when their canoe was overturned in the Missouri River, the "Bird Woman" was of invaluable aid, and is a true heroine of the annals of exploration.

THE CHILDREN'S HERO

Nearly all the early explorers owed much to the natives. Who told the white men of the wonders of the Yellowstone Park and the canyon of the Colorado? Who guided them and served them without expectation of credit or honor? It is a principle among us to serve friend or guest to the utmost, and in the old days it was considered ill-bred to ask for any remuneration. To-day we have a new race, the motive of whose actions is the same as that of a civilized man. Nothing is given unless an equivalent is returned, or even a little more if he can secure it. Yet the inherent racial traits are there: latent, no doubt, but still there. The red man still retains his love of service; his love for his country. Once he has pledged his word to defend the American flag, he stands by it manfully.

In the Civil War many Indians fought on both sides, some of them as officers. General Grant had a full-blood Indian on his staff: Col. Ely Parker, afterward Commissioner of Indian Affairs. At one time in recent years a company of Indians was recruited in the regular army, and individual red men are still rendering good service in both army and navy (thirty-five ex-students of Carlisle alone), as well as in other branches of the Federal service. We have lived to see men of our blood in the councils of the nation, and an Indian Register of the Treasury, who must sign all our currency before it is valid. An Indian head is on the five-dollar bill and the new nickel.

George Guess, or Sequoyah, the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet, is the only red man admitted to the nation's Hall of Fame in the Capitol at Washington. The Indian languages, more than fifty in number, are better appreciated and more studied to-day than ever before. Half our states have Indian names, and more than that proportion of our principal lakes and rivers. These names are as richly sonorous as they are packed with significance, and our grandchildren will regret it if we suffer the tongues that gave them birth to die out and be forgotten.

Best of all, perhaps, we are beginning to recognize the Indian's good sense and sanity in the way of simple living and the mastery of the great out of doors. Like him, the wisest Americans are living, playing, and sleeping in the open for at least a part of the year, receiving the vital benefits of the pure air and sunlight. His deeds are carved upon the very rocks; the names he loved to speak are fastened upon the landscape; and he still lives in spirit, silently leading the multitude, for the new generation have taken him for their hero and model.

I call upon the parents of America to give their fullest support to those great organizations, the Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls. The young people of to-day are learning through this movement much of the wisdom of the first American. In the mad rush for wealth we have too long overlooked the foundations of our national welfare. The contribution of the American Indian, though considerable from any point of view, is not to be measured by material acquirement. Its greatest worth is spiritual and philosophical. He will live, not only in the splendor of his past, the poetry of his legends and his art, not only in the interfusion of his blood with yours, and his faithful adherence to the new ideals of American citizenship, but in, the living thought of the nation.

THE END



BIBLIOGRAPHY

The documents chiefly used in the preparation of this book, aside from the author's own observations and personal knowledge, were the annual reports of the United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs, of the United States Board of Indian Commissioners, and of the Bureau of American Ethnology, the proceedings of the Mohonk Indian Conferences, and of religious and philanthropic societies engaged in Indian work; also the reports and magazines published by the larger Indian schools, especially Carlisle and Hampton. The following list of books about the North American Indian is not presented as complete in any sense, but merely as a suggestive guide to the reader who wishes to pursue the subject further:

EARLY STUDENTS AND EXPLORERS

NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS Geo. Catlin

BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF THE INDIANS OF N. A. Drake

WORKS OF John G. Heckewelder

INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA Henry R. Schoolcraft

THE OREGON TRAIL Parkman

THE JESUITS IN NORTH AMERICA Parkman

JESUIT RELATIONS Edited by Shea

INDIAN MISSIONS

MARY AND I; OR FORTY YEARS AMONG THE SIOUX John Williamson

LIFE OF BISHOP HARE De Wolf Howe

A QUAKER AMONG THE INDIANS T. C. Battey

FATHER JUNIPERO AND THE MISSION INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA H. H.

LEGENDS AND FOLKLORE

BLACKFOOT LODGE TALES G. B. Grinnell

PAWNEE HERO STORIES G. B. Grinnell

ALGONQUIN LEGENDS OF NEW ENGLAND Chas. G. Leland

THE LENAPE AND THEIR LEGENDS Daniel Brinton

THE MAN WHO MARRIED THE MOON AND OTHER PUEBLO FOLK TALES Chas. F. Lummis

MUSIC AND ART

THE INDIANS' BOOK Natalie Curtis

INDIAN BASKETRY George W. James

INDIAN STORY AND SONG Alice C. Fletcher

PRIMITIVE INDIAN MUSIC Frederick Burton

MODERN WRITERS

THE VANISHING RACE Joseph K. Dixon

THE STORY OF THE INDIAN G. B. Grinnell

THE INDIANS OF TO-DAY G. B. Grinnell

NORTH AMERICANS OF YESTERDAY Dellenbaugh

MY FRIEND THE INDIAN James McLaughlin

WHAT THE WHITE MAN MAY LEARN FROM THE INDIAN G. W. James

INDIAN CHIEFS I HAVE KNOWN O. O. Howard

LIVES OF FAMOUS INDIAN CHIEFS N. B. Wood

A CENTURY OF DISHONOR Helen Hunt Jackson (H. H.)

THE INDIAN DISPOSSESSED Setti K. Humphrey

INDIAN SKETCHES Cornelia S. Hulst

EDUCATION OF THE INDIAN (Pamphlet) Hailmann

THE AMERICAN INDIAN Warren K. Moorehead

THE INDIAN IN RELATION TO THE WHITE POPULATION OF THE U. S. (Pamphlet) F. A. McKenzie

FICTION

RAMONA Helen Hunt Jackson

TWO WILDERNESS VOYAGERS F. W. Calkins

THE WOOING OF TOKALA F. W. Calkins

AN INDIAN WINTER J. W. Schultz

CHILDHOOD OF JISHIB THE OJIBWAY A. E. Jenks

THE MIDDLE FIVE Francis La Flesche

THE OJIBWAY James Gilfillan



TABLE OF INDIAN RESERVATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES

(Compiled by the Office of Indian Affairs.)

ARIZONA

Camp McDowell Colorado River Fort Apache Gila Bend Gila River Havasupai Hopi Navajo Papago Salt River San Carlos Walapai

CALIFORNIA

Digger Hupa Valley Mission (28 reserves) Round Valley Tule River Yuma

COLORADO

Ute

IDAHO

Coeur d'Alene Fort Hall Lapwai Lemhi

IOWA

Sauk and Fox

KANSAS

Chippewa and Munsee Iowa Kickapoo Potawatomie Sauk and Fox

MICHIGAN

Isabella L'Anse Ontonagon

MINNESOTA

Bois Fort Deer Creek Fond du Lac Grand Portage Leech Lake Mdewakanton Mille Lac Red Lake Vermillion Lake White Earth White Oak Point and Chippewa

MONTANA

Blackfeet Crow Fort Belknap Fort Peck Jocko Northern Cheyenne

NEBRASKA

Niobrara Omaha Ponca Sioux (additional) Winnebago

NEVADA

Duck Valley Moapa River Pyramid Lake Walker River

NEW MEXICO

Jicarilla Apache Mescalero Apache Pueblos (20 reserves)

NEW YORK

Allegany Cattaraugus Oil Spring Oneida Onondaga St. Regis Tonawanda Tuscarora

NORTH CAROLINA

Qualla Boundary (Cherokee)

NORTH DAKOTA

Devil's Lake Fort Berthold Standing Rock Turtle Mountain

OKLAHOMA

Cherokee Cheyenne and Arapahoe Chickasaw Chocktaw Creek Iowa Kansa or Kaw Kickapoo Kiowa and Comanche Modoc Oakland Osage Otoe Ottawa Pawnee Peoria Ponca Potawatomie Quapaw Sauk and Fox Seminole Seneca Shawnee Wichita Wyandot

OREGON

Grande Ronde Klamath Siletz Umatilla Warm Springs

SOUTH DAKOTA

Crow Creek and Old Winnebago Lake Traverse Cheyenne River Lower Brule Pine Ridge Rosebud Yankton

UTAH

Uintah Valley Uncompahgre

WASHINGTON

Chehalis Columbia Colville Hoh River Lummi Makah Muckleshoot Nisqually Ozette Fort Madison Puyallup Quileute Quinaiette Shoalwater Skokomish Snohomish or Tulalip Spokan Squaxon Island Swinomish Yakima

WISCONSIN

Lac Court Oreille Lac du Flambeau La Pointe Red Cliff Menominee Oneida Stockbridge

WYOMING

Wind River



THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS

GARDEN CITY, N. Y.



[Transcriber's Note:

The following typographical errors have been corrected:

Page 85: "cooperating" changed to "cooperating." (cooperating intelligently in the effort)

Page 130: A period was added to the sentence ending in "the greatest all-round athlete in the world."

Page 152: "southwest" changed to "Southwest." (the women of the Southwest)]

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