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
were so thoughtless, they add, as to carry it away and lose it, upon
which the great bird took his flight, and has never since appeared. This
magic arrow is doubtless to be regarded as a symbol of something else,
which was very essential to their safety and happiness. Indian history
is often disguised under such symbolic forms.
They have also a tradition that they originally came from a foreign
country, which was inhabited by a wicked people. They had to cross a
great lake, or water, which was shallow, narrow, and full of islands.
Their track lay also through snow and ice, and they suffered miserably
from cold. They first landed at the mouth of the Coppermine river. The
earth thereabouts was then strewed with metallic copper, which has since
disappeared.
They believe that, in ancient times, men lived till their feet were worn
out with walking, and their throats with eating. They represent their
ancestors as living to very great ages. They describe a deluge, in which
the waters spread over the whole earth, except the highest mountains, on
which their progenitors were saved.
Their notions of a future state coincide generally with the other
stocks. But their paradise is clothed with more imaginative traits. They
believe, that at death they pass immediately to another world, where
there is a large river of water to cross. They must embark in a stone
canoe, and are borne along into a wide lake, which has an island in its
centre. This is the island of the blest, and the object of the
disembodied soul is to reach it. If their lives have been good, they
will be fortunate, and make it. If bad, they will sink; but they will
only sink to the depth of their chins, so that they may be permitted to
behold the happy land, and strive in vain to reach it. Eternity is
passed in this vain endeavour.
They have also some notion of the doctrine of transmigration. Such are
the traditionary notions of this numerous family of the Red Race, which
are sufficiently distinctive and peculiar,--and while they resemble in
many traits, yet in others they contradistinguish them from the great
Algic race of the eastern part of the continent. The most advanced
branch of these tribes in their geographical position, call themselves,
as reported by Capt. Franklin, People of the Rising Sun, or
_Saw-eesaw-dinneh_.
It seems singular, that the farther north we go, the greater evidences
do we behold of imagination, in the aboriginal race, together with some
foreshadowings of future punishment.
HISTORICAL TRADITIONS OF THE CHIPPEWAS, ODJIBWAS, OR ODJIBWA-ALGONQUINS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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