THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE INDIAN 503 



THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE INDIAN 



By ALEXANDER F. CHAMBERLAIN, Ph.D. 



CLARK UNIVERSITY 



^l^HE oneness of the American Indians with all races of men (in- 

 -*- eluding us whites) is readily admitted by those who have seen 

 them in their human activities and not merely in their forced relations 

 with so-called ' higher civilization.' The writer was fortunate enough, 

 a number of years ago, to come into the friendliest contact with the 

 Kootenay Indians of northern Idaho and southern British Columbia, 

 one of the least spoiled aboriginal peoples of the continent, and brought 

 back with him to the east many pleasant experiences and reminiscences 

 of ' savage ' life. Since that time the building of the Crow's Nest Pass 

 railroad and the opening up of the Kootenay district consequent upon 

 it have made impossible some of the incidents occurring during his 

 visit as an investigator under the auspices of the British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science. 



The Kootenays are very fond of their children, the men much more 

 so than is commonly believed, or even supposed. To see a man carry- 

 ing a little child is by no means a rare sight. Among the Lower 

 Kootenay in Idaho, the writer saw one of the older men of the tribe 

 playing in right human fashion with his children. The little ones 

 ran merrily all about him, pulling his hair, pinching him, etc. One 

 little tot of some five years of age persisted in crawling all over him. 

 He was very affectionate toward them and even allowed this child to 

 put its toes into his mouth. Surely the white man could go no 

 further ! 



About the same time, a young woman of fifteen was busy chopping 

 firewood — and she handled the axe remarkably well. After carrying 

 on her back to the tent the wood she had cut to pieces, she looked 

 around for a little girl of five or six who was amusing herself at a dis- 

 tance. ' Tlane ! tldne ! ( Come ! come ! ) ,' she cried loudly, but the child 

 did not or would not hear. Soon she ran over to the child, caught her, 

 spanked her and brought her home. The spanking was quite after the 

 fashion of the whites, and was probably learned from them, as that 

 method of punishment is un-Indian. The Kootenays seldom, if ever, 

 whip their children, and one of them said that he would rather die 

 than see a white man chastise his offspring. At one of the stores in 

 the Upper Kootenay country a little Indian boy was playing ' hide-and- 

 seek ' with a little white girl as blithely as might be. This same little 



