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up materials for future use. These materials have been collected in his hands to a rare and valuable amount. We call them rare and valuable, because they all have the stamp of genuineness, and will hereafter aid more in constructing a monument to a perishing race of human beings, than any other that are in the white man's possession. Some of them have been spread before the public eye; but much, we believe, yet remains behind. There has not been an encouragement to bring them forth. This is no reproach to the public, which has its tastes, and a right to indulge them. Besides, Mr. Schoolcraft may not always have adopted the best means of propitiating those tastes. The titles he has used have not always been expressive of his subjects. His "Algic Researches," which will, at some future day, be regarded as the broadest and clearest mirror of the red man's intellect that has ever been set up before the public eye, suggested nothing as to the bearing or purport of the volumes. The title is hardly equal to the old sign, "Inquire within." And "Oneota " called for as much explanation. A novel may play bopeep with its reader in this way, as such readers generally delight to be puzzled. But all Mr. Schoolcraft's works have deserved a right name.

Mr.

It is now some few years since Mr. Schoolcraft withdrew from his position in the Northwest, and became a resident of the State of New York. His inclinations have still led him to turn his attention to his favorite subject, and the volume before us shows what task, most intimately connected with it, he has been performing. The State of New York, during the year 1845, passed a law which required a census to be taken of the Indians residing upon several of the reservations in the State, and inquiries to be made into their condition, advancement in civilization, and the like. Schoolcraft was appointed one of the agents for this duty, and made his report to the State government in October of the same year. The legislature ordered the document to be printed in such numbers as insured that degree of circulation through the community which suited a work of no pretensions to popularity. It should have a place in all public libraries, and would not be misplaced in such private libraries as propose to furnish sources of information relative to the aborigines of our country.

New York has performed a most acceptable work in this

respect. She has long had within her borders the remnants of an Indian confederacy, which, in the early days of our country, stood predominant far and wide; and to her credit be it spoken, she has permitted them to remain there. It is true, the possessions of these remnants have been brought down to a narrow span. Their once broad domains, measured by latitudes and longitudes, have been reduced to a few reservations which are hardly measured by miles. But these dwindled spots are still theirs. Individuals and companies have often tried to erase these few honorable exceptions from the map of the State. The Indians, however, have clung to the soil, and it is to be hoped that they will be permitted to continue there, until the experiment be fully made, whether the influences of a contiguous white population are conservative or ruinous to the red man. New York presents almost the only opportunity for this experiment. The Indians, as tribes, have been expelled from all the other States east of the Mississippi. Their lands have been purchased, and they have gone over the great river, and are now reëstablished nearly under the shadows of the Rocky Mountains. What will be the result of this vast transfer is yet to be seen. They were before among us in a scattered state, segregated and hedged in; though not civilized, yet feeling some of the influences of civilization, particularly its restraints. They were like so many wild buffaloes fenced round after the manner of domestic cattle; wild still, but barred from that immense herding which gives them the blind and overwhelming power of an avalanche. Now, these fractions are added up into one formidable sum on the borders of the trans-Mississippi States.

Indian tribes are mostly Ishmaelites with respect to each other. At present, this is the security of these States. They are safe, while the Indians have their hands against each other. As long as the barbarians contended among themselves, Rome was not molested. We have conducted tribe after tribe over the Mississippi ; all have been loath to go, but were uprooted, even from the least to the greatest. The Indian, by his residence on any spot, scarcely changes a feature of nature; and when he is driven to a new haunt, he leaves no memorial behind (we speak of Northern tribes) that outlasts a few seasons. And yet, his attachment to VOL. LXIV. - - No. 135.

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those haunts appears to be the strongest of all local affections. It is not, then, the broad and deep foundation, nor the lofty structure, that most endears a place to the human heart. The inhabitants of cities and cultivated fields may be drawn forth to new places, which will soon assume many of the features of the old. Skill, industry, and taste soon restore all, or nearly all, that had been lost. Not so with the dwellers in tents; their hill-sides, their valleys, their streams, when once left behind, are left for ever. Nature does not repeat herself like art; she has no fac-similes, few resemblances.

The New York Indians have been permitted to remain where the white man found them, and they present the most interesting and satisfactory example of the change that may be wrought in the nomadic and savage character by the influences of contiguous civilization. It was exceedingly desirable that the progress and extent of this change should be fully ascertained. This could be done only by the State authority; cursory and occasional views, such as individuals could take, would be of little advantage. It is evident, from the obstacles that Mr. Schoolcraft encountered, that none could have succeeded but an authorized and prudent agent of the State. It was natural that the Indians should regard with disapprobation or suspicion this attempt to number their tribes. They could not comprehend its objects, unless those objects were such as threatened their independence or welfare. The truth could not be stated to them, that their condition was a subject of curiosity, of philanthropic speculation; that it was desirable to know how far they had departed from the customs of their fathers, and were shading off from their strong relief into the general complexion around them. Mr. Schoolcraft says, "If I might judge from the scope of remarks made both in and out of council, they regarded it [the census] as an introduction of a Saxon feature into their institutions, which, like a lever, by some process not apparent to them, was designed, in its ultimate effects, to uplift and overturn them." They objected to the census, but still more, says our author, to the scrutiny "which the act called for into their agricultural products, and the results of their industry." We may well suppose this. Their numbers might be necessary to determine the distribution of pensions, &c. ; but an account of their grain,

cattle, and other property was an unprecedented thing, and seemed only a preliminary to taxation. It required, no doubt, much prudence and familiarity with the Indian character to get over or around their objections. Mr. Schoolcraft was likely to be well qualified for this delicate task; and it would appear by the result, that he was able to perform it without leaving any serious dissatisfaction behind.

The census in one respect is important. We desire to know the extent of their population, that we may compare it with their numerical strength when the white man first came in contact with them, and particularly with their numbers when they settled down into their present peaceful condition. We may thus judge whether that condition has been favorable or unfavorable to their increase. This is a very interesting question. It is often said that the red man fades under the light of civilization, and many facts have favored this assertion. The Indian, as a savage, has not thrived with the white man. His forests are cleared up, and his game destroyed or dispersed. He must change his habits, or starve. Many tribes appear to have preferred the latter course; the New York Indians have been more wise, or more yielding. They have undergone this change; they have ceased to be hunters, and have become agriculturists. Have they lost by the transformation?

Mr. Schoolcraft's Report will answer this interesting question more satisfactorily than it has yet been answered. The number of these Indians was not accurately ascertained at former periods; the statements made were likely to be exaggerated. Even admitting that these reports were true, still the conclusion is, that the Iroquois are not dwindling away; on the contrary, says our author, they are "now on the increase." Such a conclusion, well warranted, as this appears to be, must be gratifying to every benevolent mind. We have cut down all the forests of the aborigines, and the fur-bearing animals have fled as their haunts have been removed. These animals could not change their habits; the sun, let in upon their ranges, seemed to lick them up with the moisture that had softened these solitudes under their stealthy step for ages. It was feared that the wild man was as unchangeable as the wild animal, that he, too, would pass away with the shadows of the forest. This Report shows that he has a more accommodating spirit than we formerly assigned to him.

The New York Indian has conformed to his altered circumstances. He has learned to live by the sweat of his brow, and has thus submitted to the great decree that was stamped on the destiny of man at the beginning. This is the true test of Indian improvability. Whenever he begins habitually to work, he begins a new existence, or rather, he begins to insure a continued existence. A square mile of the untouched forest is not more unlike a cultivated farm, than the roving savage is unlike the tiller of the earth. Nature in her rough state is not intended to sustain a large people; she gives no grains, and has no cattle. Her spontaneous productions, her maize, her potatoes, are little or nothing without the hand of man. These two great articles of human food had their origin in this hemisphere. They came into use after the discovery by Columbus, and this use is among the grand consequences of that discovery. Still, the traces of them in the wild state are hardly discernible; the Indians knew them, but did not place much reliance on them as food.

Mr. Schoolcraft's report of the agricultural products of the Iroquois is most encouraging. The total population of the tribes is somewhat under four thousand; the quantity of cultivated land occupied by them is stated at nearly fourteen thousand acres. We do not stop to inquire how this compares with the white population in this respect. The proportion may fall far below, and still be high enough to show that these Indians till land sufficient to give bread to themselves and fodder to their cattle. When this point is gained, they are safe. It is hardly possible for them to retrograde from it, and it is probable they will continue to advance. Hand in hand with their progress in agriculture is seen the increase in the number of their domestic animals. These animals, excepting the dog, are never seen with the savage; they cannot subsist in the forest. From the beginning, the gros et menu betail have consorted with the shepherd and the tiller of the ground; they have hung around the tentopening and the threshold, yielding their necks to the yoke, their fleeces for raiment, their milk for food, their bodies for the sacrifice. They have lain down and risen up among the human race with household familiarity. The line between them and the beasts of the field was broadly drawn at the creation. It has never been effaced; and when man took to the forest and the chase, the cattle after their kind did not follow him.

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