24 The Book of Woodcraft 



"In the life of the Indian there was only one inevitable duty, 

 the duty of prayer — the daily recognition of the Unseen and 

 Eternal. His daily devotions were more necessary to him than 

 daily food. He wakes at daybreak, puts on his moccasins and 

 steps down to the water's edge. Here he throws handfuls of 

 clear cold water into his face, or plunges in bodily. After the 

 bath, he stands erect before the advancing dawn, facing the sun 

 as it dances upon the horizon, and offers his unspoken orison. 

 His mate may precede or follow him in his devotions, but never 

 accompanies him. Each soul must meet the morning sun, the 

 new, sweet earth, and the Great Silence alone! 



"Whenever, in the course of the daily hunt, the red hunter 

 comes upon a scene that is strikingly beautiful or sublime — a 

 black thunder-cloud, with the rainbow's glowing arch above the 

 mountain; a white waterfall in the heart of a green gorge; a vast 

 prairie tinged with the blood-red of sunset — he pauses for an 

 instant in the attitude of worship. He sees no need for setting 

 apart one day in seven as a holy day, since to him all days are 

 God's." ("Soul of the Indian," Eastman; pp. 45-6.) 



In the light of all this evidence, is it to be wondered that 

 most of the early historians who lived with the primitive 

 Indians of the Plains, were led to believe, from their worship 

 of God, their strict moral code, their rigid laws as to foods 

 clean and unclean, and their elaborate system of bathings 

 and purifications, that in these red men of the New World, 

 they had indeed found the long-lost tribes of Israel? 



CLEANLINESS 



Nothing will convince some persons but that "Yankees 

 have tails," because, in their nursery days, these persons 

 always heard it was so. That is exactly the attitude of the 

 world on the subject of dirty Indians. 



Alexander Henry II., a fur and whiskey trader, who did 

 his share in degrading the early Indians, and did not love 

 them, admits of the Mandans, in 1806: 



