The Indians from the Atlantic and Mississippi valleys were more
dangerous, as a rule, when they came into a combat with white soldiers,
than were the Indians of the plains and Rockies. The Shawnee and
Delaware Indian braves a hundred years ago, when my grandfather was an
Indian fighter in Kentucky, were considered equal to any white soldiers
and proved themselves in battle to be so. Their mode of warfare,
however, was not on horseback, as was the mode of warfare with the
Indians of the plains. They were "still" hunters, as they might be
called, and when they met with white men in battle array, would get
behind trees, if possible, as a protection, and remain and fight to the
bitter end. When these tribes became overpowered, it was easy, compared
with the Indians of the plains, to bring them under some of the
conditions of civilization; therefore the Cherokees, Seminoles,
Chickasaws, Choctaws, Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandottes, Kickapoos, Sacs,
Foxes, the Creeks, and many others whose names I can not now recall,
have become somewhat civilized, and many of them semi-civilized tribes,
but the Indians of the plains and Rocky Mountain regions have been very
slow to accept what we term civilization. They seem somewhat like the
buffalo and other wild animals that we have never been able to
domesticate. It looks to one like myself that has known them for so many
years, that before they are civilized they will become almost
exterminated; that is to say that civilized life does not agree with
them, and they die from causes and conditions that such life compels
them to exist under, and in my opinion the day will come when there will
be few, if any, in the near future, left of the tribes that were known
to belong to the territory west of the Mississippi River and extending
to the Pacific Coast. There was often among the wildest tribes of
America many good traits. If they found you hungry and alone and in
distress, as a rule they would take care of you, giving you the very
best they had, and never with a view of charging you for their kindness.
If they had a grudge against the white race for some misdemeanor some
white man may have committed, they might kill you in retaliation. For
this reason white men always felt, when they were among them, that their
safety depended largely upon how the tribe had been treated by some
other white man, or party of white men. As far as I know, throughout the
entire savage tribes retaliation is one of the laws by which they are
governed. The women, as a rule, were very generous and kind-hearted,
and I know of one case where a friend of mine, Judge Brown of Pettis
County, Mo., had his life saved and his property restored to him through
the instrumentality of an Indian woman. The Indians were at that time
quite hostile toward the whites, and had held council and determined to
kill him, as they had him a prisoner and at their mercy. This woman
seemed to be one of great influence in the tribe, and when the braves
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