20 The Book of Woodcraft 



yond their partners' strength. In making clothes, canoes, 

 and weapons, as well as in tilling of the fields, men and 

 women worked together. The woman had a voice in all 

 the great affairs, and a far better legal position than in most 

 of the civiHzed world to-day. 



Seventh: He was treacherous. Oh ! how ill it becomes W5 

 to mention such a thing! Every authority tells us the 

 same — that primitive Redman never broke a treaty; his 

 word was as good as his bond; that the American Govern- 

 ment broke every treaty as soon as there was something to 

 gain by doing so. Captain J. G. Bourke thus scores the 

 continual treachery of the whites: "The occasional treach- 

 ery of the aborigines," says he, "has found its best excuse 

 in the unvarying Punic faith of the Caucasian invader." 

 ("On the Border with Crook," p. 114.) 



But let us look for evidence of the Indian's character 

 among those who saw with their own eyes, and had no ob- 

 ject to serve by blackening the fair fame of the bravely 

 dying race. 



It would be easy to fill a large volume with startling and 

 trustworthy testimony as to the goodness of the old Indian 

 of the best type; I shall give a few pages bearing on the 

 Indian life and especially relating to the various charac- 

 teristics for which the Redman has been attacked, selecting 

 the testimony preferably from the records of men who knew 

 the Indian before his withering contact with the white 

 race. 



REVERENCE 



In 1832 George CatHn, the painter, went West and spent 

 eight years with the unchanged Indians of the Plains. He 

 lived with them and became conversant with their Hves. 

 He has left one of the fuUest and best records we have of the 



