The Spartans of the West 21 



Redman. From his books I quote repeatedly. Con- 

 cerning the Indian's rehgion, he says: 



''The North American Indian is everywhere, in his native 

 state, a highly moral and religious being, endowed by his Maker 

 with an intuitive knowledge of some great Author of his being, 

 and the Universe, in dread of whose displeasure he con- 

 stantly lives, with the apprehension before him of a future 

 state, where he expects to be rewarded or punished according 

 to the merits he has gained or forfeited in this world. 



"Morality and virtue I venture to say the civilized world 

 need not undertake to teach them. 



" I never saw any other people of any color who spend so 

 much of their lives in humbling themselves before and worship- 

 ping the Great Spirit. " (Catlin's "N. A. Indian, " Vol. II., p. 



243-) 



"We have been told of late years that there is no evidence 

 that any tribe of Indians ever believed in one overruling power; 

 yet, in the early part of the seventeenth century, Jesuits and 

 Puritans alike testified that tribes which they had met, believed 

 in a god, and it is certain that, at the present time, many tribes 

 worship a Supreme Being who is the Ruler of the Universe." 

 (Grinnell's "Story of the Indian," 1902, p. 214.) 



"Love and adore the Good Spirit who made us all; who sup- 

 plies our hunting-grounds, and keeps us alive." (Teachings 

 of Tshut-che-nau, Chief of the Kansas. J. D. Hunter's "Cap- 

 tivity Among the American Indians," 1798-1816, p. 21). 



And, again. Hunter says (p. 216): 



"A day seldom passes with an elderly Indian, or others who 

 are esteemed wise and good, in which a blessing is not asked, or 

 thanks returned to the Giver of Life, sometimes audibly, but 

 more generally in the devotional language of the heart. 



