28 The Book of Woodcraft 



advances into the interior parts, vice and debauchery become 

 less frequent. Happy those who have the least connection with 

 us, for most of the present depravity is easily traced to its origin 

 in their intercourse with the whites. That baneful source of 

 all evils, spirituous liquor, has not yet been introduced among 

 the natives of the Columbia. To the introduction of that 

 subtle poison among the savage tribes may be mainly attributed 

 their miserable and wretched condition." [So at once he set 

 about introducing it. E. T. S.] (A. Henry's Journal, iSii; pp. 

 710-11.) 



Jonathan Carver, who traveled among the Sioux from 

 1766-9, says: 



"Adultery is esteemed by them a heinous crime, and pim- 

 ished with the greatest rigor." (Travels, 1796; p. 245.) 



George Catlin, after his eight years among the wild Man- 

 dans of the Missouri (1832), says of them: 



"Their women are beautiful and modest — and amongst the 

 respectable families, virtue is as highly cherished and as inap- 

 proachable, as in any society whatever." (Vol. I., p. 121.) 



Colonel R. I. Dodge, an Indian fighter and hater, says : 



"The Cheyerme women are retiring and modest, and for 

 chastity will compare favorably with women of any other nation 

 or people . . . almost models of purity and chastity." 

 ("Hunting-grounds of the Great West," p. 302.) 



I am well aware that the Crows, the Arapaho and some 

 West coast tribes were shockingly immoral in primitive 

 times, but these were the exceptions, and in consequence 

 they were despised by the dominant tribes of the Plains. 



BRAVERY 



Old-time travelers and modern Indian fighters agree 

 that there was no braver man on earth, alive or in history, 

 than the Redman. Courage w^as the virtue he chiefly 

 honored. His whole life and training were with the pur- 



