| Show LETTERS FROM JUNIUS I 1 have just finished readi reading ng the introductory chapter of a book entitled the american indian by elijah M haines it is a work which reflects great credit both on the held and heart of the author it is a contribution to american literature which future generations will highly prize it is rare to find the indian question treated so judicially logically and exhaustively the ethnologist and historian are both censured for indifference almost criminal in regard to the aborigines of this continent the government policy of extermination together with the aggressive warfare and deceptive diplomacy of its agents is also censured it is made tolerably clear that the white man was waa at first hospitably received generously treated and liberally rew rewarded added and it is also shown that the perfidy treachery and barbarism which now surround the indian name was originated and fiercely practiced by the white men from europe the spaniard came as an adventurer impelled by greed rapacity and avarice the spectacle of de soto practicing unheard of cruelties cruel ties in order to make natives reveal treasures supposed to be hidden bidden is something to make fiends laugh and angels weep the virginia colonists were not much better battered caval cavallars cavaliers cava liers lers pardoned criminals corner loungers these early virgin virginians lans were and ill calculated to inspire respect in the savage bosom for european civilization but for scientific selfishness for systematized treachery and for sanctimonious timo co cowardice cardice the puritan stands foremost of all the early colonists he never recognized the indian as human at any time in the conduct of the french towards the indian mr haines sees gleams of humanity and rell gion th the e jesuit from froin france came in good faith reci recognized in the savage a man and brother only wanting the light of christianity to make hilp an equal the jesuit familiarized himself with the languages customs manners and institutions of red men if the jesuit erred or exaggerated in the matter of rivers mountains and distances mr haines freely forgives him for he has left other knowledge gladly abc acc accepted apted by the modern student the fathers hennepin hennegin Henn epin and charlevoix are gracefully handled handed and the value of their work liberally acknowledged their critics and condemnatory are logically investigated vesti gated and demonstration plain as holy writ made that these same critics themselves erred and exaggerated capt john smith of couo bentas notoriety comes in for a little treatment though it is made tolerably certain that smiths pocohontas story of attempted decapitation a is a myth yet mr haines is far from discrediting the entire narratives of smith on the contrary smith is pardoned tor for his vanity on account of the historic materials he has otherwise left francis parkman is taunted with the fact that although he censures hennepin hennegin Henn epin and classes him as fraud and impostor yet lie he Park parkman mau draws largely on oil hennepin hennegin Henn epin for a history of la salle the truth is that most of the narratives of a topographical character by these early travelers were compiled largely from accounts given by wandering tribes and who could not be very accurate or minute iri in their relations the baron la houtan who commanded the military expedition of 1687 to the tribes west of lake michigan is certainly guilty of gross exaggerations he describes minutely his journey up the long river so much it reads I 1 like ike a reality it is now clear that no such river exists but mr haines says the description corresponds in many particulars with the platte river which the baron must have got accounts of though he professes a personal knowledge the first person who has made mention of the great salt lake is la houtan he gives a description of it as given to him by prisoners of war from the nation the lake Is 30 0 leagues in in circumference with a large river flowing into bivito it I 1 its ta shores are inhabited by tribes of the nation large boats or vessels sail on this lake some propelled by rowers the baron also mentions the rocky mountains ani an I 1 iu in his map gives representations of them mr haines handles all these travelers calmly and makes due allowance for the human w weakness in mankind which prompts persons to make heroes and marvels of themselves at the expense of truth and modesty any writer who has left something touching the ethnology of ef the indian mr haines admires and will excuse in him many little errors in geography mr haines takes the stand that the indian did not deserve the treatment he be has received he shows that the ina A i f than dian is not deficient in men mental aflfe med and cites the cherokee boock who invented an alphabet as ann an 2 mr haines also babli 4 tends that the whites are blame for the atrocities of thein Z dian r elias johnson John sou an all educated indian chief of the tuscarora tribe published some borne years ago a little IWO volume entitled the editions and laws of the Iroquois or six nations As a 9 matter of at course mr johnson defends bisram his race and shows that the whites are not dot entirely blameless he relates the history of the pequot M massacre mag sacre by the puritans he sa says y s la there X anything more barb barbaric a ric in the annals t of gindlin warfare than the ta narrative of the pequot indians in 16 one place we read of the surprise of an indian fort by night when the inmates ware vre slumbering unconscious of any dan danger ger when they awoke alok e they th ey were e w wrape ra pt in A flames and when they atte attempted toed da to flee were shot down like beasts from village to villa village 4 from wigwam to wigwam we me murderers murder ere proceeded being resolved as your historian piously t remarks by gods god Is assistance to make a final dest destruction ru of them until a small but gallant band took refuge in a swamp burning with indignation and made sullen by r despair with hearts bursting with grief at the destruction of thero there mo n tion and spirits galled and sore at t the fancied ignominy of their defeat they to ask life at the hands of an insulting foe and preferred death to submission As t the e night drew on they were surrounded in their dismal retreat volleys of musketry poured into their midst until y nearly all were killed or buried in the mire 1 I there is nothing in n character of alexander of macedon who conquered the world and wept that he be had no more to conquer to com compare re with the noble qualities u alide 1 of king gaz philip of mount wl hope 0 pep and among his warriors are a long list of brave men unrivaled in deeds of heroism by any of ancient or modern modem history but in what country and by whom were they hunted tortured and slain and who was it that met together 4 to rejoice and give thanks at a every species of cruelty inflicted upon those who were fighting f tor 0 their wives thear children their homes their altars and their gods when it is recorded that mop men women and children were indiscriminately criminate ly hewn down ana lay jay in heaps upon the snow abow it A j ft spoken of as doing G gods odda se rit hi e because they were nominally heathen en before the fight wu tyas finished the wigwams were set on fire and into these hundreds of innocent women and children had crowded themselves and perished in the general genera conf conflagration lagra tion A and nd for hi those thanksgivings were sent up to heaven the head of phill philip to strung upon a pole and edib exposed to the public but this was not done by savage warriors and the craw crowd that buzzard at the revolting w bacle assembled on the sabbath d in a puritan church to toll listen hollsten to gospel that proclaims peace 9 uve iove to all men his body was literally V out cut in 4 pes to be distria buted among the conquerors and a christian city rings with acclamation trumbull the historian of connecticut says of the pequot rebellion and of the swamp maw massacre acre they bethey took eighty captives thirty r were men the rest women and ohl children I 1 dren the sachems promised L af to conduct the english to Sas Sas and for that purpose were spared for if the present but subsequently mur dered in cold blood the women and a n d children were divided among r the troops some were carried to connecticut others to massachi aerts the people of massachusetts sent a number of women and boys 10 to lo abe west wept indies and sold them ai B slaves it is supposed that about seven hundred were destroyed zt tyne the historian further says of the massacre acre this happy event gave great jy joy to the colonists a day of public thanksgiving was appointed t and in all the churches of new 0 angland jn n gland land devout and animated ret praises e 8 were addressed to him who et his file people the victory and mauseth them to dwell in safety Y mr johnson cites an instance of virginia barbarism where here by the governor clo vernor of jameston a hand was severed from the arm of a peaceful unoffending indian that he might be sent back a terror to his people haines SInes EI says but the indian has contended against fate his power is broken and the charm of als ancient glory is among those things which are past and his country with its limpid streams enchanting forest and majestic mountains inherited from his r father shall know him no more L pursued in his retreating footsteps y fay by the onward march of civilized man to the final extinction of under the crushing decrees of inevitable destiny the murmur tog streams of the valley the re eulem winds of the surviving for eats but tell us of his bis wrongs and seemingly Mno jingly unite in tones of mourn ua concord in condemnation of his unjust uw fate and how bow fitting fi are the sympathizing words of the poet I 1 0 the poor indian 1 w 41 ey yme r haines in his excellent ih book k devotes devotee two whole chapters tto to a consideration of the ori t tata of the american indians P everything berthing Ever V thing that seems to have been L en or written on this subject wa vas examined by the industrious luthor iu thor he finds the origin of the indian as much a mystery as the s origin of matter itself there are at a appears odears a few writers who con r tens tend that the indian is indigenous to this continent the same as its abra and fauna but that theory then be extended to the iolanda of the sea p another school of writers contend that america was peopled from asia 1 way of bearings Beh rings straits but alft invading vadius I 1 n force would encounter atie Esqui maux on this route and the t latter should be either abed annihilated or be a of this asiatic wanderer same writers admit that the Esqui maux is allied neither to asiatic nor indian was america peopled by way of the ocean mr haines thinks so and says it is possible navigation at one time was as advanced as it is at present and that il became a lost art the indian is traced by others to european countries wales ireland norway all have their advocates one point seems settled among the various schools and that is that all the tribes from the arctic ocean to cape horn have descended from a common stock it matters not lot how diffie different rent in ian language I 1 aage and other peculiarities they may be in the main as far as physical structure and leading personal charac characteristics ter are co concerned n berned they are the same people or fragments of what once was a common parent however all et even those who favor the mongol and M malay alay origin admit that the burden of proof rests with the sebol school of asiatic origin mr haines devotes one chapter specially to authorities who maintain n that the indian and hebrew are from a common parentage from the many autho s consulted and from the learning and research displayed and the many unassailable proofs advanced there is left little room for doubt as to the origin of the indian and it is as plain as day that in whatever way the hebrew reached america he did so and is the common parent of all the tribes from arctic to antarctic james adair published a book on the american indians in 1885 after having lived among them over forty years he says from the most accurate observations I 1 could make in the long time I 1 traded among the indians of america I 1 was forced to believe them lineally descended from the tribes of israel the rev bev ethan smith of poul teney vermont published in 1825 bis book on the tribes of israel in america he endorses adair and summarises summarizes arises his arguments in favor of the hebrew origin of the indians into a series of reasons 1 their division into tribes 2 their worship of jehovah 3 their notions of a theobra theocracy CY 4 their belief in the administration of angels 5 their language and dialects 6 their manner of cou counti uti ng time 7 their prophets and high priests 8 their festivals fasts and religious rites 9 their daily sacrifice 10 their ablutions and anoint in ings ri U their laws of 12 their abstinence from unclean things IS 18 their marriages divorces and pun punishments I 1 of adultery 14 their several punishments 15 their cities of refuge 16 their purifications and preparatory ceremonies 17 their ornaments 18 their manner of curing the sick 19 their burial of the dead 20 their mourning for the dead 21 their raising seed to a deceased brother 22 their change of names adapt ed to their circumstances and times 23 their own traditions the accounts of english writers the testimony given by spaniards and other writers of the primitive of mexico and peru dr edwards a learned philologist concurs with adair and smith adf and further asserts that lia in genius construction and rhetoric the indian dialects are essentially hebrew bre w dr boudinot the rev bev Jed jedediah edlah morse mom and others adduce the unassailable evidence that the indian is of hebrew origin the indians indiana have their imitation of the ark of the covenant it is a small square box made to be carried on the back never to be set on the ground and not to be touched by anyone except the hief or his attendant du pratz mentions an account given by a chief of the indians indiana called of the temple of the creation it is the mosaic one with the rib and eve omitted charlevoix ascribes the origin of the indian feasts songs and dances to religion and in these finds par par abells among the jews he t thinks the piercing of ears and noses may be a relic of circumcision the feast of the return of the hunters all of which must be consumed but a remainder 7 of the passover of the israelites calvin cushman missionary among the choctaws writes in 1824 that according to rites ceremonies and observances of the ahe indians indiana they must be of hebrew origin perhaps the testimony of william penn as to the t he origin of the indians is the most convincing of any he wrote without any from eth ethnology cology any preconceived ideas of jewish origin yet he says that he was reminded of the jews when observing servin the customs and manners of firidl indians de Mora eza portuguese writer of an early date writing of brazil contends that and hebrews first peopled america that this continent was well known to tyrian marint marinero ma rs and even to carthage he says that the brazilians Brazi lians only wanted the practice of circumcision to make them veritable jews A number of able writers endorse de and some hold bold P that the antilles are the hesperides of old and that hayti Is ophir and that plato speaks of this continent in his george catlin who spent eight years 1832 to 40 among the indians as an artist observer and student noting manners customs and characteristics says amongst the list of their customs however we meet a number which had kneir origin it would seem in the jewish core cere code and which are so very becu liar in their forms that it would seem |
