The American Indians: Their History, Condition and Prospects, from Original Notes and ManuscriptsSchoolcraft, Henry Rowe
History
The American Indians: Their History, Condition and Prospects, from Original Notes and Manuscripts
Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe
Indians of North America
But what, methinks the reader is ready to ask, became of Mrs. Sitz?
Whether it was, that she had brought over some mystical arts from the
Wild Huntsman of Bohemia, or had derived protection from the venom
through the carefully administered medicines of Dr. Crouse, who duly
attended the case, or some inherent influence of the stout hearted
woman, or the audacity of the bite itself, had proved more than a match
for the wolf, I cannot say; but certain it is, that while oxen and kine,
swine and fatlings, fell under the virus and were shot, she recovered,
and lived many years to scold her dozing husband Frank, who did not jump
up immediately, and come to her rescue at the goose pen.
* * * * *
INDIAN POSSESSIONS.--The Ottoes own, at the latest accounts, a large
tract of country on the Big Platte, west of the Missouri; they are a
poor race of people, and receive a small annuity of $2,500. The Pawnees
are a powerful body, and number about 6,500 persons, divided into bands
under the names of Pawnee Loups, Grand Pawnees, Republican Pawnees,
Pawnee Pics, &c.; they are wild and furtive in their habits, and receive
provisions and goods. The Grand Nation is the Pottowattomies, or the
"united bands of the Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pottowattomies." They own
five millions of acres of prairie lands, along the Missouri river to the
Little Sioux, number about 2,000, and receive $42,000 a year for their
lands sold in Illinois and Michigan. They are a respectable body of
Indians, are good farmers, and educate their children. The payment of
the annuities is always a season of great hilarity and festivity.--
_N.O. Pic._
It is a characteristic of some of the Indian legends, that they
convey a _moral_ which seems clearly enough to denote, that a part
of these legends were invented to convey instruction to the young
folks who listen to them. The known absence of all harsh methods
among the Indians, in bringing up their children, favours this
idea. The following tale addresses itself plainly to girls; to whom
it teaches the danger of what we denominate coquetry. It would seem
from this, that beauty, and its concomitant, a passion for dress,
among the red daughters of Adam and Eve, has the same tendency to
create pride, and nourish self-conceit, and self-esteem, and assume
a _tyranny over the human heart_, which writers tell us, these
qualities have among their white-skinned, auburn-haired, and
blue-eyed progeny the world over. This tale has appeared in the
"Columbian." The term Moowis is one of the most derogative and
offensive possible. It is derived from the Odjibwa substantive, mo,
filth, or excrement.
MOOWIS, OR THE MAN MADE UP OF RAGS AND DIRT.
A TRADITIONARY LEGEND OF THE ODJIBWAS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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