Indian Biography; Vol. 2 (of 2): Or, An Historical Account of Those Individuals Who Have Been Distinguished among the North American Natives as Orators, Warriors, Statesmen, and Other Remarkable CharactersThatcher, B. B. (Benjamin Bussey)
History
Indian Biography; Vol. 2 (of 2): Or, An Historical Account of Those Individuals Who Have Been Distinguished among the North American Natives as Orators, Warriors, Statesmen, and Other Remarkable Characters
Thatcher, B. B. (Benjamin Bussey)
Indians of North America -- Biography; Indians of North America -- History
He was said to be sixty-five years of age, by those who had the
opportunity of learning the fact from himself. That account would make him
forty-five,--the same age with the Mississaga chieftain,--at the date of
his great victory over St. Clair; and about thirty at the breaking out of
the American Revolution, during which he no doubt laid the foundation of
his fame. The Miamies are understood to have given as much trouble during
that period as any other tribe on the continent ever did in as few years.
Mr. Schoolcraft, who speaks of the Turtle in very handsome terms, gives
him the credit of doing at least as much as any other individual on the
continent "to abolish the rites of human sacrifice." The existence,
certainly the prevalence, of the custom apparently referred to here, is
not, we apprehend, perfectly well authenticated; but that circumstance
itself may perhaps be attributed to the successful efforts made in modern
times to put an end to the practice. If the language we have quoted is
intended to include generally all wanton destruction of life--such as
torture of prisoners, for example--there can be little doubt of the
justice of the praise, for the Turtle uniformly enjoyed the reputation of
being as humane as he was brave.
Nor was this the only case in which he acted the part of a reformer, so
much needed among his countrymen. He was the first man to originate an
efficient system of measures for the suppression of intemperance among
them. And never was a similar system so loudly called for the condition of
any people. Their appetite for ardent spirits is stronger than that of the
whites--owing in a great measure to their manner of living, and especially
to their diet. They have also fewer and feebler inducements to counteract
the propensity; and by _public opinion_ and _fashion_--as expressed in
common practice, and in the declarations of the leading men--they are
confirmed in the evil quite as much as our citizens are restrained by
similar causes. But worse than all, their ignorance, their indolence, and
their poverty have made them the prey of legions of civilized
scoundrels,--particularly traders in peltry,--who have supposed themselves
interested in making them as sordid and stupid as possible, to induce them
to hunt in the first instance, and to rob them of their furs in the
second.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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