| [43] “Etudes Philologiques sur quelques Langues Sauvages de | | L’Amérique,” Montreal, 1866. | | | | [44] In the Encyclopædia Americana (1886), the total Indian | | population is said to be (exclusive of Alaska) 264,369. The | | Dakotas are stated to number thirty-one thousand. | | | | [45] The Council building on the reservation was called the Long | | House, not on account of its size or shape, but in accordance with | | an ancient tradition. | | | | When the separation of the Iroquois took place, it was decided by | | the Council that the expression Long House was to be used as a | | symbol, that the nations were theoretically under one roof, which | | extended over all the lands occupied by them. In pursuance of this | | theory, certain tribes were given particular duties. The Senecas | | had to guard the gates looking towards the sunset, and the Mohawks | | were to watch the approaches to the gates placed in the direction | | of sunrise. | | | | As far as it is possible to form conclusions, with respect to the | | state of the Indian tribes in the sixteenth century, it appears | | that the Iroquois, in consequence of their league, had attained | | to a comparatively advanced state of warlike capacity, and had | | organised methods of conducting a campaign. | | | | They also formed regular alliances, and made treaties which they | | faithfully executed. | | | | In their treatment of captives they were cruel and barbarous, but | | they possessed in the highest degree the qualities of courage and | | endurance. | | | | [46] I should here mention that, when I was at Boston, I was much | | assisted in making investigations into certain characteristics of | | the North American Indians by Mr. Francis Parkman, whose | | researches upon all subjects relating to the condition of the | | aboriginal tribes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, have | | placed him in the first rank of the historians of that period. | | | | Mr. Parkman was personally well acquainted with the Dakotas, |