The Boy's Book of Indians and the Wild West
9781465655172
100 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
Although divided into numerous tribes or families, each speaking a different language, the Indians were, in traits of character and general appearance, very much alike. In war they were courageous, but at the same time intelligently cautious. Treacherous and deceitful to their foes, they preferred to slay an enemy by a secret rather than an open blow. Brave and successful a warrior as the Indian was, he excelled even more when he became a hunter. To be victor over the beast in the chase and hunt meant to the Indian plenty to eat and stout clothing to wear, so he developed remarkable skill in using his chief weapon, the bow and arrow. Before the white man came to America the Indians were clad almost entirely in the skins of animals which they themselves cured and dressed to perfection, fastening various pieces together with the tendons and tough strips of skin very much as we sew to-day. These garments, gayly ornamented with shells and colored stones, made very useful and picturesque clothing. The Indian boy was taught from early childhood to believe that his highest attainment was to be a brave warrior and a great hunter, and to look with scorn upon any other work. So upon the Indian women fell the task of tilling the soil. For this reason farming never became a real industry among them and they were amply satisfied to grow maize, or Indian corn, from which they made many kinds of dishes and bread. A very rich and fertile soil furthered their ambitions, for with but little attention to farming they reaped abundant crops. For houses the red men had wigwams. These they constructed by fixing long poles in the ground, tying them together at the top, and covering them with skins of animals joined together as they sewed their clothing. They made an opening in the top to serve as a chimney. Such crude structures could be quickly taken down and as readily put up again, and admirably suited the needs of their owners, who loved to wander from place to place. This peculiarity was probably due to the fact that after living in one spot for a certain length of time they would find their natural resources for food becoming exhausted, and perhaps an enemy had hunted out the encampment for ravage. Then, too, it was the Indian’s nature to rove in wild natural haunts and, no doubt, a place long inhabited lost its charm for him. A few of the tribes, however, did build permanent villages, with streets and regularly spaced wigwams, around which they extended palisades of logs for protection against attacks from their enemies. The greatest of all the Indian families, or tribes, was the Iroquois, also called the Five Nations, originally found in what is now western and central New York State. Of the many strange legends and stories common among the Indians, one of the most beautiful is the story of Hiawatha, which is the tale of the origin of the Iroquois. Tradition tells us that Owayneo, as Indians call their Creator, made the five nations from five handfuls of seed. One day he assembled his children together and said: “You have sprung from five different kinds of seed and are therefore five individual nations, but you are brothers and I am your father because I made you all.” The Mohawks, he made bold and valiant and gave them corn for their principal food. The Oneidas, he made patient and charitable and bade them eat freely of nuts and the fruits of the trees. The Senecas he made industrious and active, and for their chief food gave them the nourishing bean. To the Cayugas he gave green nuts and instructed them to grind them, and also every kind of fruit, for they were destined to be strong, friendly and generous. Squashes, grapes and tobacco were his gift to the Onondagas, for they were to be a nation wise, just and eloquent. To all in common Owayneo gave the beasts, birds and fishes to eat and the life-giving water to drink. “Now,” said he, “be just to all men, and kind to strangers that come among you.”
