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| Thomas Jefferson on Native Americans
From Notes on the State of Virginia: 1781
The Indian of North
America being more within our reach, I can speak of him somewhat from
my own knowledge, but more from the information of others better acquainted
with him, and on whose truth and judgment I can rely. From these
sources I am able to say, in contradiction to this representation, that
he is neither more defective in ardor, nor more impotent with his female,
than the white reduced to the same diet and exercise: that he is brave,
when an enterprize depends on bravery; education with him making the
point of honor consist in the destruction of an enemy by stratagem,
and in the preservation of his own person free from injury; or perhaps
this is nature; while it is education which teaches us to [8] honor
force more than finesse: that he will defend himself against an host
of enemies, always chusing to be killed, rather than to [9] surrender,
though it be to the whites, who he knows will treat him well: that in
other situations also he meets death with more deliberation, and endures
tortures with a firmness unknown almost to religious enthusiasm with
us: that he is affectionate to his children, careful of them, and indulgent
in the extreme: that his affections comprehend his other connections,
weakening, as with us, from circle to circle, as they recede from the
center: that his friendships are strong and faithful to the uttermost
[10] extremity: that his sensibility is keen, even the warriors weeping
most bitterly on the loss of their children, though in general they
endeavour to appear superior to human events: that his vivacity and
activity of mind is equal to ours in the same situation; hence his eagerness
for hunting, and for games of chance. The women are submitted
to unjust drudgery. This I believe is the case with every barbarous
people. With such, force is law. The stronger sex therefore
imposes on the weaker. It is civilization alone which replaces
women in the enjoyment of their natural equality. That first teaches
us to subdue the selfish passions, and to respect those rights in others
which we value in ourselves. Were we in equal barbarism, our females
would be equal drudges. The man with them is less strong than
with us, but their woman stronger than ours; and both for the same obvious
reason; because our man and their woman is habituated to labour, and
formed by it. With both races the sex which is indulged with ease
is least athletic. An Indian man is small in the hand and wrist
for the same reason for which a sailor is large and strong in the arms
and shoulders, and a porter in the legs and thighs. -- They raise
fewer children than we do. The causes of this are to be found,
not in a difference of nature, but of circumstance. The women
very frequently attending the men in their parties of war and of hunting,
child-bearing becomes extremely inconvenient to them. It is said,
therefore, that they have learnt the practice of procuring abortion
by the use of some vegetable; and that it even extends to prevent conception
for a considerable time after. During these parties they are exposed
to numerous hazards, to excessive exertions, to the greatest extremities
of hunger. Even at their homes the nation depends for food, through
a certain part of every year, on the gleanings of the forest: that is,
they experience a famine once in every year. With all animals,
if the female be badly fed, or not fed at all, her young perish: and
if both male and female be reduced to like want, generation becomes
less active, less productive. To the obstacles then of want and
hazard, which nature has opposed to the multiplication of wild animals,
for the purpose of restraining their numbers within certain bounds,
those of labour and of voluntary abortion are added with the Indian.
No wonder then if they multiply less than we do. Where food is
regularly supplied, a single farm will shew more of cattle, than a whole
country of forests can of buffaloes. The same Indian women, when
married to white traders, who feed them and their children plentifully
and regularly, who exempt them from excessive drudgery, who keep them
stationary and unexposed to accident, produce and raise as many children
as the white women. Instances are known, under these circumstances,
of their rearing a dozen children. An inhuman practice once prevailed
in this country of making slaves of the Indians. It is a fact
well known with us, that the Indian women so enslaved produced and raised
as numerous families as either the whites or blacks among whom they
lived. -- It has been said, that Indians have less hair than the
whites, except on the head. But this is a fact of which fair proof
can scarcely be had. With them it is disgraceful to be hairy on
the body. They say it likens them to hogs. They therefore
pluck the hair as fast as it appears. But the traders who marry
their women, and prevail on them to discontinue this practice, say,
that nature is the same with them as with the whites. Nor, if
the fact be true, is the consequence necessary which has been drawn
from it. Negroes have notoriously less hair than the whites; yet
they are more ardent. But if cold and moisture be the agents of
nature for diminishing the races of animals, how comes she all at once
to suspend their operation as to the physical man of the new world,
whom the Count acknowledges to be 'a peu pres de meme stature que l'homme
de notre monde,' and to let loose their influence on his moral
faculties?
How has this 'combination of the elements and other physical causes,
so contrary to the enlargement of animal nature in this new world, these
obstacles to the developement and formation of great germs,' been arrested
and suspended, so as to permit the human body to acquire its just dimensions,
and by what inconceivable process has their action been directed on
his mind alone? To judge of the truth of this, to form a just
estimate of their genius and mental powers, more facts are wanting,
and great allowance to be made for those circumstances of their situation
which call for a display of particular talents only. This done,
we shall probably find that they are formed in mind as well as in body,
on the same module with the [11] 'Homo sapiens Europaeus.' The principles
of their society forbidding all compulsion, they are to be led to duty
and to enterprize by personal influence and persuasion. Hence
eloquence in council, bravery and address in war, become the foundations
of all consequence with them. To these acquirements all their
faculties are directed. Of their bravery and address in war we
have multiplied proofs, because we have been the subjects on which they
were exercised. Of their eminence in oratory we have fewer examples,
because it is displayed chiefly in their own councils. Some, however,
we have of very superior lustre. I may challenge the whole orations
of Demosthenes and Cicero,
and of any more eminent orator, if Europe
has furnished more eminent, to produce a single passage, superior to
the speech of Logan, a Mingo chief, to Lord Dunmore, when governor of
this state. And, as a testimony of their talents in this line,
I beg leave to introduce it, first stating the incidents necessary for
understanding it. In the spring of the year 1774, a robbery and
murder were committed on an inhabitant of the frontiers of Virginia,
by two Indians of the Shawanee
tribe. The neighbouring whites,
according to their custom, undertook to punish this outrage in a summary
way. Col. Cresap, a man infamous for the many murders he had committed
on those much-injured people, collected a party, and proceeded down
the Kanhaway in quest of vengeance. Unfortunately a canoe of women and
children, with one man only, was seen coming from the opposite shore,
unarmed, and unsuspecting an hostile attack from the whites. Cresap
and his party concealed themselves on the bank of the river, and the
moment the canoe reached the shore, singled out their objects, and,
at one fire, killed every person in it. This happened to be the
family of Logan, who had long been distinguished as a friend of the
whites. This unworthy return provoked his vengeance. He
accordingly signalized himself in the war which ensued. In the
autumn of the same year, a decisive battle was fought at the mouth of
the Great Kanhaway, between the collected forces of the Shawanees, Mingoes,
and Delawares,
and a detachment of the Virginia militia. The Indians
were defeated, and sued for peace. Logan however disdained to be seen
among the suppliants. But, lest the sincerity of a treaty should
be distrusted, from which so distinguished a chief absented himself,
he sent by a messenger the following speech to be delivered to Lord
Dunmore.
[8. Sol Rodomonte sprezza di venire Se non, dove la via meno e sicura. Ariosto. 14. 117. ]
[9. In so judicious an author as Don Ulloa, and one to whom we are indebted for the most precise information we have of South America, I did not expect to find such assertions as the following. `Los Indios vencidos son los mas cobardes y pusilanimes que se peuden ver: -- se hacen inocentes, se humillan hasta el desprecio, disculpan su inconsiderado arrojo, y con las suplicas y los ruegos dan seguras pruebas de su pusilanimidad. -- o lo que resieren las historias de la Conquista, sobre sus grandes acciones, es en un sentido figurado, o el caracter de estas gentes no es ahora segun era entonces; pero lo que no tiene duda es, que las Naciones de la parte Septentrional subsisten en la misma libertad que siempre han tenido, sin haber sido sojuzgados por algun Principe extrano, y que viven segun su regimen y costumbres de toda la vida, sin que haya habido motivo para que muden de caracter; y en estos se ve lo mismo, que sucede en los del Peru, y de toda la America Meridional, reducidos, y que nunca lo han estado.' Noticias Americanas. Entretenimiento XVIII. 1. Don Ulloa here admits, that the authors who have described the Indians of South America, before they were enslaved, had represented them as a brave people, and therefore seems to have suspected that the cowardice which he had observed in those of the present race might be the effect of subjugation. But, supposing the Indians of North America to be cowards also, he concludes the ancestors of those of South America to have been so too, and therefore that those authors have given fictions for truths. He was probably not acquainted himself with the Indians of North America, and had formed his opinion of them from hear-say. Great numbers of French, of English, and of Americans, are perfectly acquainted with these people. Had he had an opportunity of enquiring of any of these, they would have told him, that there never was an instance known of an Indian begging his life when in the power of his enemies: on the contrary, that he courts death by every possible insult and provocation. His reasoning then would have been reversed thus. `Since the present Indian of North America is brave, and authors tell us, that the ancestors of those of South America were brave also; it must follow, that the cowardice of their descendants is the effect of subjugation and ill treatment.' For he observes, ib. (symbol omitted). 27. that `los obrages los aniquilan por la inhumanidad con que se les trata.'
]
[10. A remarkable instance of this appeared in the case of the late Col. Byrd, who was sent to the Cherokee nation to transact some business with them. It happened that some of our disorderly people had just killed one or two of that nation. It was therefore proposed in the council of the Cherokees that Col. Byrd should be put to death, in revenge for the loss of their countrymen. Among them was a chief called Silouee, who, on some former occasion, had contracted an acquaintance and friendship with Col. Byrd. He came to him every night in his tent, and told him not to be afraid, they should not kill him. After many days deliberation, however, the determination was, contrary to Silouee's expectation, that Byrd should be put to death, and some warriors were dispatched as executioners. Silouee attended them, and when they entered the tent, he threw himself between them and Byrd, and said to the warriors, `this man is my friend: before you get at him, you must kill me.' On which they returned, and the council respected the principle so much as to recede from their determination.
]
[11. Linn. Syst. Definition of a Man. ]
'I appeal
to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and
he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed
him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan
remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my
love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and
said, 'Logan is the friend of white men.' I had even thought to
have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man. Col. Cresap, the
last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations
of Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop
of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on
me for revenge. I have sought it: I have killed many: I have fully
glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of
peace. But do not harbour a thought that mine is the joy of fear.
Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his
life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? -- Not one.'
Before we
condemn the Indians of this continent as wanting genius, we must consider
that letters have not yet been introduced among them. Were we
to compare them in their present state with the Europeans North of the
Alps, when the Roman arms and arts first crossed those mountains, the
comparison would be unequal, because, at that time, those parts of Europe
were swarming with numbers; because numbers produce emulation, and multiply
the chances of improvement, and one improvement begets another.
Yet I may safely ask, How many good poets, how many able mathematicians,
how many great inventors in arts or sciences, had Europe North of the
Alps then produced? And it was sixteen centuries after this before
a Newton
could be formed. I do not mean to deny, that there are
varieties in the race of man, distinguished by their powers both of
body and mind. I believe there are, as I see to be the case in
the races of other animals. I only mean to suggest a doubt, whether
the bulk and faculties of animals depend on the side of the Atlantic
on which their food happens to grow, or which furnishes the elements
of which they are compounded? Whether nature has enlisted herself as
a Cis or Trans-Atlantic partisan? I am induced to suspect, there
has been more eloquence than sound reasoning displayed in support of
this theory; that it is one of those cases where the judgment has been
seduced by a glowing pen: and whilst I render every tribute of honor
and esteem to the celebrated Zoologist, who has added, and is still
adding, so many precious things to the treasures of science, I must
doubt whether in this instance he has not cherished error also, by lending
her for a moment his vivid imagination and bewitching language...
and
...Aborigines
When
the first effectual settlement of our colony was made, which was in 1607,
the country from the sea-coast to the mountains, and from Patowmac to the
most southern waters of James river, was occupied by upwards of forty different
tribes of Indians. Of these the Powhatans, the Mannahoacs, and
Monacans, were the most powerful. Those between the sea-coast
and falls of the rivers, were in amity with one another, and attached to
the Powhatans as their link of union. Those between the falls of
the rivers and the mountains, were divided into two confederacies; the
tribes inhabiting the head waters of Patowmac and Rappahanoc being attached
to the Mannahoacs; and those on the upper parts of James river to
the Monacans. But the Monacans and their friends were
in amity with the Mannahoacs and their friends, and waged joint
and perpetual war against the Powhatans. We are told that
the Powhatans, Mannahoacs, and Monacans, spoke languages
so radically different, that interpreters were necessary when they transacted
business. Hence we may conjecture, that this was not the case between all
the tribes, and probably that each spoke the language of the nation to
which it was attached; which we know to have been the case in many particular
instances. Very possibly there may have been antiently three different
stocks, each of which multiplying in a long course of time, had separated
into so many little societies. This practice results from the circumstance
of their having never submitted themselves to any laws, any coercive power,
any shadow of government. Their only controuls are their manners, and that
moral sense of right and wrong, which, like the sense of tasting and feeling,
in every man makes a part of his nature. An offence against these
is punished by contempt, by exclusion from society, or, where the case
is serious, as that of murder, by the individuals whom it concerns.
Imperfect as this species of coercion may seem, crimes are very rare among
them: insomuch that were it made a question, whether no law, as among the
savage Americans, or too much law, as among the civilized Europeans, submits
man to the greatest evil, one who has seen both conditions of existence
would pronounce it to be the last: and that the sheep are happier of themselves,
than under care of the wolves. It will be said, that great societies
cannot exist without government. The Savages therefore break them
into small ones.
The territories of the Powhatan confederacy, south of the Patowmac,
comprehended about 8000 square miles, 30 tribes, and 2400 warriors.
Capt. Smith tells us, that within 60 miles of James town were 5000 people,
of whom 1500 were warriors. From this we find the proportion of their
warriors to their whole inhabitants, was as 3 to 10. The Powhatan
confederacy then would consist of about 8000 inhabitants, which was one
for every square mile; being about the twentieth part of our present population
in the same territory, and the hundredth of that of the British islands.
Besides these, were the Nottoways, living on Nottoway river, the
Meherrins and Tuteloes on Meherrin river, who were connected
with the Indians of Carolina, probably with the Chowanocs.
Image Removed
The preceding table contains a state of these several tribes, according
to their confederacies and geographical situation, with their numbers when
we first became acquainted with them, where these numbers are known.
The numbers of some of them are again stated as they were in the year 1669,
when an attempt was made by the assembly to enumerate them. Probably
the enumeration is imperfect, and in some measure conjectural, and that
a further search into the records would furnish many more particulars.
What would be the melancholy sequel of their history, may however be augured
from the census of 1669; by which we discover that the tribes therein enumerated
were, in the space of 62 years, reduced to about one-third of their former
numbers. Spirituous liquors, the small-pox, war, and an abridgment
of territory, to a people who lived principally on the spontaneous productions
of nature, had committed terrible havock among them, which generation,
under the obstacles opposed to it among them, was not likely to make good.
That the lands of this country were taken from them by conquest, is not
so general a truth as is supposed. I find in our historians and records,
repeated proofs of purchase, which cover a considerable part of the lower
country; and many more would doubtless be found on further search.
The upper country we know has been acquired altogether by purchases made
in the most unexceptionable form.
Westward of all these tribes, beyond the mountains, and extending to the
great lakes, were the Massawomecs, a most powerful confederacy,
who harrassed unremittingly the Powhatans and Manahoacs.
These were probably the ancestors of the tribes known at present by the
name of the Six Nations.
Very little can now be discovered of the subsequent history of these tribes
severally. The Chickahominies removed, about the year 1661,
to Mattapony river. Their chief, with one from each of the tribes
of the Pamunkies and Mattaponies, attended the treaty of Albany in 1685.
This seems to have been the last chapter in their history. They retained
however their separate name so late as 1705, and were at length blended
with the Pamunkies and Mattaponies, and exist at present only under their
names. There remain of the Mattaponies three or four men only,
and they have more negro than Indian blood in them. They have lost
their language, have reduced themselves, by voluntary sales, to about fifty
acres of land, which lie on the river of their own name, and have, from
time to time, been joining the Pamunkies, from whom they are distant but
10 miles. The Pamunkies are reduced to about 10 or 12 men,
tolerably pure from mixture with other colours. The older ones among
them preserve their language in a small degree, which are the last vestiges
on earth, as far as we know, of the Powhatan language. They have
about 300 acres of very fertile land, on Pamunkey river, so encompassed
by water that a gate shuts in the whole. Of the Nottoways,
not a male is left. A few women constitute the remains of that tribe.
They are seated on Nottoway river, in Southampton county, on very fertile
lands. At a very early period, certain lands were marked out and
appropriated to these tribes, and were kept from encroachment by the authority
of the laws. They have usually had trustees appointed, whose duty
was to watch over their interests, and guard them from insult and injury.
The Monacans and their friends, better known latterly by the name
of Tuscaroras, were probably connected with the Massawomecs, or
Five Nations. For though we are [1] told their languages were so
different that the intervention of interpreters was necessary between them,
yet do we also [2] learn that the Erigas, a nation formerly inhabiting
on the Ohio, were of the same original stock with the Five Nations, and
that they partook also of the Tuscarora language. Their dialects
might, by long separation, have become so unlike as to be unintelligible
to one another. We know that in 1712, the Five Nations received the
Tuscaroras into their confederacy, and made them the Sixth Nation.
They received the Meherrins and Tuteloes also into their protection: and
it is most probable, that the remains of many other of the tribes, of whom
we find no particular account, retired westwardly in like manner, and were
incorporated with one or other of the western tribes.
[1. Smith.]
[2. Evans.]
I know of no such thing existing as an Indian monument: for I would not
honour with that name arrow points, stone hatchets, stone pipes, and half-shapen
images. Of labour on the large scale, I think there is no remain
as respectable as would be a common ditch for the draining of lands: unless
indeed it be the Barrows, of which many are to be found all over this country.
These are of different sizes, some of them constructed of earth, and some
of loose stones. That they were repositories of the dead, has been
obvious to all: but on what particular occasion constructed, was matter
of doubt. Some have thought they covered the bones of those who have
fallen in battles fought on the spot of interment. Some ascribed
them to the custom, said to prevail among the Indians, of collecting, at
certain periods, the bones of all their dead, wheresoever deposited at
the time of death. Others again supposed them the general sepulchres
for towns, conjectured to have been on or near these grounds; and this
opinion was supported by the quality of the lands in which they are found,
(those constructed of earth being generally in the softest and most fertile
meadow-grounds on river sides) and by a tradition, said to be handed down
from the Aboriginal Indians, that, when they settled in a town, the first
person who died was placed erect, and earth put about him, so as to cover
and support him; that, when another died, a narrow passage was dug to the
first, the second reclined against him, and the cover of earth replaced,
and so on. There being one of these in my neighbourhood, I wished
to satisfy myself whether any, and which of these opinions were just.
For this purpose I determined to open and examine it thoroughly.
It was situated on the low grounds of the Rivanna, about two miles above
its principal fork, and opposite to some hills, on which had been an Indian
town. It was of a spheroidical form, of about 40 feet diameter at
the base, and had been of about twelve feet altitude, though now reduced
by the plough to seven and a half, having been under cultivation about
a dozen years. Before this it was covered with trees of twelve inches
diameter, and round the base was an excavation of five feet depth and width,
from whence the earth had been taken of which the hillock was formed.
I first dug superficially in several parts of it, and came to collections
of human bones, at different depths, from six inches to three feet below
the surface. These were lying in the utmost confusion, some vertical,
some oblique, some horizontal, and directed to every point of the compass,
entangled, and held together in clusters by the earth. Bones of the
most distant parts were found together, as, for instance, the small bones
of the foot in the hollow of a scull, many sculls would sometimes be in
contact, lying on the face, on the side, on the back, top or bottom, so
as, on the whole, to give the idea of bones emptied promiscuously from
a bag or basket, and covered over with earth, without any attention to
their order. The bones of which the greatest numbers remained, were sculls,
jaw-bones, teeth, the bones of the arms, thighs, legs, feet, and hands.
A few ribs remained, some vertebrae of the neck and spine, without their
processes, and one instance only of the [3] bone which serves as a base
to the vertebral column. The sculls were so tender, that they generally
fell to pieces on being touched. The other bones were stronger.
There were some teeth which were judged to be smaller than those of an
adult; a scull, which, on a slight view, appeared to be that of an infant,
but it fell to pieces on being taken out, so as to prevent satisfactory
examination; a rib, and a fragment of the under-jaw of a person about half
grown; another rib of an infant; and part of the jaw of a child, which
had not yet cut its teeth. This last furnishing the most decisive
proof of the burial of children here, I was particular in my attention
to it. It was part of the right-half of the under-jaw. The
processes, by which it was articulated to the temporal bones, were entire;
and the bone itself firm to where it had been broken off, which, as nearly
as I could judge, was about the place of the eye-tooth. Its upper
edge, wherein would have been the sockets of the teeth, was perfectly smooth.
Measuring it with that of an adult, by placing their hinder processes together,
its broken end extended to the penultimate grinder of the adult.
This bone was white, all the others of a sand colour. The bones of
infants being soft, they probably decay sooner, which might be the cause
so few were found here. I proceeded then to make a perpendicular
cut through the body of the barrow, that I might examine its internal structure.
This passed about three feet from its center, was opened to the former
surface of the earth, and was wide enough for a man to walk through and
examine its sides. At the bottom, that is, on the level of the circumjacent
plain, I found bones; above these a few stones, brought from a cliff a
quarter of a mile off, and from the river one-eighth of a mile off; then
a large interval of earth, then a stratum of bones, and so on. At
one end of the section were four strata of bones plainly distinguishable;
at the other, three; the strata in one part not ranging with those in another.
The bones nearest the surface were least decayed. No holes were discovered
in any of them, as if made with bullets, arrows, or other weapons.
I conjectured that in this barrow might have been a thousand skeletons.
Every one will readily seize the circumstances above related, which militate
against the opinion, that it covered the bones only of persons fallen in
battle; and against the tradition also, which would make it the common
sepulchre of a town, in which the bodies were placed upright, and touching
each other. Appearances certainly indicate that it has derived both
origin and growth from the accustomary collection of bones, and deposition
of them together; that the first collection had been deposited on the common
surface of the earth, a few stones put over it, and then a covering of
earth, that the second had been laid on this, had covered more or less
of it in proportion to the number of bones, and was then also covered with
earth; and so on. The following are the particular circumstances
which give it this aspect. 1. The number of bones. 2. Their
confused position. 3. Their being in different strata. 4. The
strata in one part having no correspondence with those in another. 5. The
different states of decay in these strata, which seem to indicate a difference
in the time of inhumation. 6. The existence of infant bones among
them.
[3. The os sacrum.]
But on whatever occasion they may have been made, they are of considerable
notoriety among the Indians: for a party passing, about thirty years ago,
through the part of the country where this barrow is, went through the
woods directly to it, without any instructions or enquiry, and having staid
about it some time, with expressions which were construed to be those of
sorrow, they returned to the high road, which they had left about half
a dozen miles to pay this visit, and pursued their journey. There
is another barrow, much resembling this in the low grounds of the South
branch of Shenandoah, where it is crossed by the road leading from the
Rock-fish gap to Staunton. Both of these have, within these dozen years,
been cleared of their trees and put under cultivation, are much reduced
in their height, and spread in width, by the plough, and will probably
disappear in time. There is another on a hill in the Blue ridge of
mountains, a few miles North of Wood's gap, which is made up of small stones
thrown together. This has been opened and found to contain human
bones, as the others do. There are also many others in other parts
of the country.
Great question has arisen from whence came those aboriginal inhabitants
of America? Discoveries, long ago made, were sufficient to shew that
a passage from Europe to America was always practicable, even to the imperfect
navigation of ancient times. In going from Norway to Iceland, from
Iceland to Groenland, from Groenland to Labrador, the first traject is
the widest: and this having been practised from the earliest times of which
we have any account of that part of the earth, it is not difficult to suppose
that the subsequent trajects may have been sometimes passed. Again,
the late discoveries of Captain Cook, coasting from Kamschatka to California,
have proved that, if the two continents of Asia and America be separated
at all, it is only by a narrow streight. So that from this side also,
inhabitants may have passed into America: and the resemblance between the
Indians of America and the Eastern inhabitants of Asia, would induce us
to conjecture, that the former are the descendants of the latter, or the
latter of the former: excepting indeed the Eskimaux, who, from the same
circumstance of resemblance, and from identity of language, must be derived
from the Groenlanders, and these probably from some of the northern parts
of the old continent. A knowledge of their several languages would
be the most certain evidence of their derivation which could be produced.
In fact, it is the best proof of the affinity of nations which ever can
be referred to. How many ages have elapsed since the English, the
Dutch, the Germans, the Swiss, the Norwegians, Danes and Swedes have separated
from their common stock? Yet how many more must elapse before the
proofs of their common origin, which exist in their several languages,
will disappear? It is to be lamented then, very much to be lamented,
that we have suffered so many of the Indian tribes already to extinguish,
without our having previously collected and deposited in the records of
literature, the general rudiments at least of the languages they spoke.
Were vocabularies formed of all the languages spoken in North and South
America, preserving their appellations of the most common objects in nature,
of those which must be present to every nation barbarous or civilised,
with the inflections of their nouns and verbs, their principles of regimen
and concord, and these deposited in all the public libraries, it would
furnish opportunities to those skilled in the languages of the old world
to compare them with these, now, or at any future time, and hence to construct
the best evidence of the derivation of this part of the human race.
But imperfect as is our knowledge of the tongues spoken in America, it
suffices to discover the following remarkable fact. Arranging them under
the radical ones to which they may be palpably traced, and doing the same
by those of the red men of Asia, there will be found probably twenty in
America, for one in Asia, of those radical languages, so called because,
if they were ever the same, they have lost all resemblance to one another.
A separation into dialects may be the work of a few ages only, but for
two dialects to recede from one another till they have lost all vestiges
of their common origin, must require an immense course of time; perhaps
not less than many people give to the age of the earth. A greater
number of those radical changes of language having taken place among the
red men of America, proves them of greater antiquity than those of Asia.
I will now proceed to state the nations and numbers of the Aborigines which
still exist in a respectable and independant form. And as their undefined
boundaries would render it difficult to specify those only which may be
within any certain limits, and it may not be unacceptable to present a
more general view of them, I will reduce within the form of a Catalogue
all those within, and circumjacent to, the United States, whose names and
numbers have come to my notice. These are taken from four different
lists, the first of which was given in the year 1759 to General Stanwix
by George Croghan, Deputy agent for Indian affairs under Sir William Johnson;
the second was drawn up by a French trader of considerable note, resident
among the Indians many years, and annexed to Colonel Bouquet's printed
account of his expedition in 1764. The third was made out by Captain
Hutchins, who visited most of the tribes, by order, for the purpose of
learning their numbers in 1768. And the fourth by John Dodge, an
Indian trader, in 1779, except the numbers marked *, which are from other
information.
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The following tribes are also mentioned:
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But, apprehending these might be different appellations for some of the
tribes already enumerated, I have not inserted them in the table, but state
them separately as worthy of further inquiry. The variations observable
in numbering the same tribe may sometimes be ascribed to imperfect information,
and sometimes to a greater or less comprehension of settlements under the
same name.
From Jefferson's State of the Nation Address: 8 December, 1801
Among our Indian neighbors also a spirit of peace and friendship
generally prevails, and I am happy to inform you that the continued
efforts to introduce among them the implements and the practice of
husbandry and the household arts have not been without success;
that they are becoming more and more sensible of the superiority of
this dependence for clothing and subsistence over the precarious
resources of hunting and fishing, and already we are able to announce
that instead of that constant diminution of their numbers produced
by their wars and their wants, some of them begin to experience an
increase of population.
From Jefferson's State of the Nation Address: 4 March, 1802
The aboriginal inhabitants of these countries I have regarded with the
commiseration their history inspires. Endowed with the faculties and
the rights of men, breathing an ardent love of liberty and
independence, and occupying a country which left them no desire but to
be undisturbed, the stream of overflowing population from other
regions directed itself on these shores; without power to divert or
habits to contend against it, they have been overwhelmed by the
current or driven before it; now reduced within limits too narrow for
the hunter's state, humanity enjoins us to teach them agriculture and
the domestic arts; to encourage them to that industry which alone can
enable them to maintain their place in existence and to prepare them
in time for that state of society which to bodily comforts adds the
improvement of the mind and morals. We have therefore liberally
furnished them with the implements of husbandry and household use; we
have placed among them instructors in the arts of first necessity, and
they are covered with the aegis of the law against aggressors from
among ourselves.
But the endeavors to enlighten them on the fate which awaits their
present course of life, to induce them to exercise their reason,
follow its dictates, and change their pursuits with the change of
circumstances have powerful obstacles to encounter; they are combated
by the habits of their bodies, prejudices of their minds, ignorance,
pride, and the influence of interested and crafty individuals among
them who feel themselves something in the present order of things and
fear to become nothing in any other. These persons inculcate a
sanctimonious reverence for the customs of their ancestors; that
whatsoever they did must be done through all time; that reason is a
false guide, and to advance under its counsel in their physical,
moral, or political condition is perilous innovation; that their duty
is to remain as their Creator made them, ignorance being safety and
knowledge full of danger; in short, my friends, among them also is
seen the action and counteraction of good sense and of bigotry; they
too have their antiphilosophists who find an interest in keeping
things in their present state, who dread reformation, and exert all
their faculties to maintain the ascendancy of habit over the duty of
improving our reason and obeying its mandates.
From Jefferson's State of the Nation Address: 17 October, 1803
Whilst the property and sovereignty of the Mississippi and its waters
secure an independent outlet for the produce of the Western States
and an uncontrolled navigation through their whole course, free from
collision with other powers and the dangers to our peace from that
source, the fertility of the country, its climate and extent, promise in
due season important aids to our Treasury, an ample provision for
our posterity, and a wide spread for the blessings of freedom and equal
laws.
With the wisdom of Congress it will rest to take those ulterior
measures which may be necessary for the immediate occupation and
temporary government of the country; for its incorporation into our
Union; for rendering the change of government a blessing to our
newly adopted brethren; for securing to them the rights of
conscience and of property; for confirming to the Indian inhabitants
their occupancy and self-government, establishing friendly and
commercial relations with them, and for ascertaining the geography of
the country acquired. Such materials, for your information, relative
to its affairs in general as the short space of time has permitted me
to collect will be laid before you when the subject shall be in a state
for your consideration.
Another important acquisition of territory has also been made since
the last session of Congress. The friendly tribe of Kaskaskia
Indians, with which we have never had a difference, reduced by the
wars and wants of savage life to a few individuals unable to defend
themselves against the neighboring tribes, has transferred its
country to the United States, reserving only for its members what is
sufficient to maintain them in an agricultural way. The
considerations stipulated are that we shall extend to them our
patronage and protection and give them certain annual aids in money, in
implements of agriculture, and other articles of their choice. This
country, among the most fertile within our limits, extending along
the Mississippi from the mouth of the Illinois to and up to the Ohio,
though not so necessary as a barrier since the acquisition of the
other bank, may yet be well worthy of being laid open to immediate
settlement, as its inhabitants may descend with rapidity in support
of the lower country should future circumstances expose that to
foreign enterprise. As the stipulations in this treaty involve
matters with the competence of both Houses only, it will be laid
before Congress as soon as the Senate shall have advised its
ratification.
With many of the other Indian tribes improvements in agriculture and
household manufacture are advancing, and with all our peace and
friendship are established on grounds much firmer than heretofore.
The measure adopted of establishing trading houses among them and
of furnishing them necessaries in exchange for their commodities at
such moderate prices as leave no gain, but cover us from loss, has
the most conciliatory and useful effect on them, and is that which will
best secure their peace and good will.
FromJefferson's State of the Nation Address: 8 November, 1804
With the Indian tribes established within our newly acquired limits,
I have deemed it necessary to open conferences for the purpose of
establishing a good understanding and neighborly relations between
us. So far as we have yet learned, we have reason to believe that
their dispositions are generally favorable and friendly; and with these
dispositions on their part, we have in our own hands means which
can not fail us for preserving their peace and friendship. by pursuing
an uniform course of justice toward them, by aiding them in all the
improvements which may better their condition, and especially by
establishing a commerce on terms which shall be advantageous to
them and only not losing to us, and so regulated as that no incendiaries
of our own or any other nation may be permitted to disturb the
natural effects of our just and friendly offices, we may render
ourselves so necessary to their comfort and prosperity that the
protection of our citizens from their disorderly members will become
their interest and their voluntary care. Instead, therefore, of an
augmentation of military force proportioned to our extension of
frontier, I propose a moderate enlargement of the capital employed
in that commerce as a more effectual, economical, and humane
instrument for preserving peace and good neighborhood with them.
On this side of the Mississippi an important relinquishment of
native title has been received from the Delawares. That tribe,
desiring to extinguish in their people the spirit of hunting and to
convert superfluous lands into the means of improving what they
retain, has ceded to us all the country between the Wabash and Ohio
south of and including the road from the rapids toward Vincennes, for
which they are to receive annuities in animals and implements for
agriculture and in other necessaries. This acquisition is important,
not only for its extent and fertility, but as fronting 300 miles on the
Ohio, and near half that on the Wabash. The produce of the settled
country descending those rivers will no longer pass in review of the
Indian frontier but in a small portion, and, with the cession
heretofore made by the Kaskaskias, nearly consolidates our
possessions north of the Ohio, in a very respectable breadth - from
Lake Erie to the Mississippi. The Piankeshaws having some claim
to the country ceded by the Delawares, it has been thought best to
quiet that by fair purchase also. So soon as the treaties on this
subject shall have received their constitutional sanctions they shall
be laid before both houses.
From Jefferson's Second Inaugural Address 4 March, 1805
The aboriginal inhabitants of these countries I have regarded with the
commiseration their history inspires. Endowed with the faculties and
the rights of men, breathing an ardent love of liberty and
independence, and occupying a country which left them no desire but to
be undisturbed, the stream of overflowing population from other
regions directed itself on these shores; without power to divert or
habits to contend against it, they have been overwhelmed by the
current or driven before it; now reduced within limits too narrow for
the hunter's state, humanity enjoins us to teach them agriculture and
the domestic arts; to encourage them to that industry which alone can
enable them to maintain their place in existence and to prepare them
in time for that state of society which to bodily comforts adds the
improvement of the mind and morals. We have therefore liberally
furnished them with the implements of husbandry and household use; we
have placed among them instructors in the arts of first necessity, and
they are covered with the aegis of the law against aggressors from
among ourselves.
But the endeavors to enlighten them on the fate which awaits their
present course of life, to induce them to exercise their reason,
follow its dictates, and change their pursuits with the change of
circumstances have powerful obstacles to encounter; they are combated
by the habits of their bodies, prejudices of their minds, ignorance,
pride, and the influence of interested and crafty individuals among
them who feel themselves something in the present order of things and
fear to become nothing in any other. These persons inculcate a
sanctimonious reverence for the customs of their ancestors; that
whatsoever they did must be done through all time; that reason is a
false guide, and to advance under its counsel in their physical,
moral, or political condition is perilous innovation; that their duty
is to remain as their Creator made them, ignorance being safety and
knowledge full of danger; in short, my friends, among them also is
seen the action and counteraction of good sense and of bigotry; they
too have their antiphilosophists who find an interest in keeping
things in their present state, who dread reformation, and exert all
their faculties to maintain the ascendancy of habit over the duty of
improving our reason and obeying its mandates.
In giving these outlines I do not mean, fellow-citizens, to arrogate
to myself the merit of the measures. That is due, in the first place,
to the reflecting character of our citizens at large, who, by the
weight of public opinion, influence and strengthen the public
measures. It is due to the sound discretion with which they select
from among themselves those to whom they confide the legislative
duties. It is due to the zeal and wisdom of the characters thus
selected, who lay the foundations of public happiness in wholesome
laws, the execution of which alone remains for others, and it is due
to the able and faithful auxiliaries, whose patriotism has associated
them with me in the executive functions.
From Jefferson's State of the Nation: 3 December, 1805
Our Indian neighbors are advancing, many of them with spirit, and
others beginning to engage in the pursuits of agriculture and
household manufacture. They are becoming sensible that the earth
yields subsistence with less labor and more certainty than the forest,
and find it their interest from time to time to dispose of parts of their
surplus and waste lands for the means of improving those they occupy
and of subsisting their families while they are preparing their farms.
Since your last session the Northern tribes have sold to us the
lands between the Connecticut Reserve and the former Indian
boundary and those on the Ohio from the same boundary to the rapids
and for a considerable depth inland. The Chickasaws and Cherokees
have sold us the country between and adjacent to the two districts of
Tennessee, and the Creeks the residue of their lands in the fork of
the Ocmulgee up to the Ulcofauhatche. The three former purchases are
important, in as much as they consolidate disjoined parts of our
settled country and render their intercourse secure; and the second
particularly so, as, with the small point on the river which we expect
is by this time ceded by the Piankeshaws, it completes our
possession of the whole of both banks of the Ohio from its source
to near its mouth, and the navigation of that river is thereby rendered
forever safe to our citizens settled and settling on its extensive
waters. The purchase from the Creeks, too, has been for some time
particularly interesting to the State of Georgia.
The several treaties which have been mentioned will be submitted
to both Houses of Congress for the exercise of their respective
functions.
Deputations now on their way to the seat of Government from
various nations of Indians inhabiting the Missouri and other parts
beyond the Mississippi come charged with assurances of their
satisfaction with the new relations in which they are placed with us,
of their dispositions to cultivate our peace and friendship, and their
desire to enter into commercial intercourse with us. A state of our
progress in exploring the principal rivers of that country, and of the
information respecting them hitherto obtained, will be
communicated as soon as we shall receive some further relations
which we have reason shortly to expect.
From Jefferson's State of the Nation Address: 27 October, 1807
Among our Indian neighbors in the northwestern quarter some
fermentation was observed soon after the late occurrences,
threatening the continuance of our peace. Messages were said to
be interchanged and tokens to be passing, which usually denote a
state of restless among them, and the character of the agitators
pointed to the sources of excitement. Measures were immediately
taken for providing against that danger; instructions were given to
require explanations, and, with assurances of our continued
friendship, to admonish the tribes to remain quiet at home, taking
no part in quarrels not belonging to them. As far as we are yet
informed, the tribes in our vicinity, who are most advanced in the
pursuits of industry, are sincerely disposed to adhere to their
friendship with us and to their peace with all others, while those
more remote do not present appearances sufficiently quiet to justify
the intermission of military precaution on our part.
The great tribes on our southwestern quarter, much advanced
beyond the others in agriculture and household arts, appear tranquil
and identifying their views with ours in proportion to their
advancement. With the whole of these people, in every quarter, I
shall continue to inculcate peace and friendship with all their
neighbors and perseverance in those occupations and pursuits which
will best promote their own well-being.
From Jefferson's State of the Nation: 8 November, 1808
With our Indian neighbors the public peace has been steadily
maintained. Some instances of individual wrong have, as at other
times, taken place, but in no wise implicating the will of the nation.
Beyond the Mississippi the Ioways, the Sacs and the Alabamas have
delivered up for trial and punishment individuals from among
themselves accused of murdering citizens of the United States. On
this side of the Mississippi the Creeks are exerting themselves to
arrest offenders of the same kind, and the Choctaws have manifested
their readiness and desire for amicable and just arrangements
respecting depredations committed by disorderly persons of their
tribe. And, generally, from a conviction that we consider them as a
part of ourselves, and cherish with sincerity their rights and interests,
the attachment of the Indian tribes is gaining strength daily - is
extending from the nearer to the more remote, and will amply requite
us for the justice and friendship practiced toward them. Husbandry and
household manufacture are advancing among them more rapidly
with the Southern than Northern tribes, from circumstances of soil
and climate, and one of the two great divisions of the Cherokee Nation have
now under consideration to solicit the citizenship of the United
States, and to be identified with us in laws and government in such
progressive manner as we shall think best.
...
The suspension of our foreign commerce, produced by the injustice
of the belligerent powers and the consequent losses and sacrifices of
our citizens are subjects of just concern... The commerce with the Indians, too, within our own
boundaries is likely to receive abundant aliment from the same
internal source, and will secure to them peace and the progress of
civilization, undisturbed by practices hostile to both.
Contributed by Gifford, Katya
16 October 2004 |
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