History of the Indians, of North and South AmericaGoodrich, Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold)
History
History of the Indians, of North and South America
Goodrich, Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold)
Indians of North America -- History; Indians of South America -- History
Mr. Catlin gives the following account of the melancholy fate of
Mah-to-toh-pa. “He sat in his wigwam and saw every one of his family
die about him,--his wives and his little children. He was attacked
with the disease himself, but he recovered. He then walked out, and,
passing around the village, wept over the destruction of his tribe. His
braves and warriors, whose sinewy arms once seemed to defy danger, were
now but as heaps of clay. He came back to his lodge, and covered the
bodies of his family in a pile with a number of robes; he threw another
around himself, and went out upon a hill at a little distance and sat
down. Despite the entreaties of some traders who chanced to be there,
he utterly refused to eat. He remained on the earth till the sixth
day, when, faint and exhausted, he staggered back to the village, and
entered the horrid gloom of his own wigwam. Laying his body down beside
the group of his sleeping wife and children, he drew his robe over his
face, and, lingering for three days, at last died.”
Thus, in the course of two months, the whole tribe of Mandans perished,
with the exception of some thirty or forty, that were taken as slaves
by the Ricarees, who moved from their own abodes and took possession
of the Mandan village. This remnant of the valiant Mandans could not
endure a state of bondage. Some months after they had been reduced to
captivity, when the Ricarees were attacked by their enemies, the Sioux,
they ran out together upon the prairie, calling to the Sioux to kill
them. “We are Ricaree dogs!” said they. “Our friends are dead,--our
warriors are no more,--our villages are in the hands of strangers. We
will not, we cannot live!” Then, brandishing their weapons in a manner
to provoke the enemy, they were all cut in pieces. Not one escaped, and
the Mandans are no more. Where is there a sadder page of history than
this?
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE WESTERN INDIANS IN THE UNITED STATES.
From our previous pages it will be seen that numerous causes have
contributed to reduce the number of the aboriginal inhabitants of
this country, so that but a remnant are now found in the States
and Territories of this republic. By the most recent report of the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Congress, the following is the
estimated number of Indians in the United States. Of tribes indigenous
to the country west of the Mississippi River, 168,909; of those
removed, 82,594; present western population of the tribes wholly or
partially removed, 89,288; remaining east of the Mississippi, 22,846.
From this it seems that there were but about 300,000 of the various
tribes specified yet remaining. But this includes only a small portion
of some of the most numerous native tribes, as, for instance, the
Blackfeet and others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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