294 TENTH ANNUAL RErORT 07 



able witli the bow and arrow. They value fire-arms highly, and 

 obtain them whenever an occasion offers. 



Of their religion little or nothing is known, as, indeed, all inquiries 

 tend to show that they have none ; and even have not, we are informed, 

 any word to express the idea of a Supreme Being. We have not been 

 able to learn that any observances of a religious character exist 

 among them ; and the general impression of those who have had 

 means of knowing them is, that, in this respect, they are steeped in 

 the deepest degradation. Their system of morality is exceedingly 

 defective. No confidence can be placed in any assertion they may 

 make, unless it be manifestly for their welfare to tell the truth ; they 

 give utterance to whatever they suppose is calculated to promote 

 their interests. Theft and mendacity are common vices. The habit 

 of stealing is so common, that they will appropriate to themselves 

 ■whatever they can lay their hands on, whether of any use or not, such 

 as door-knobs and keys. Not only do they steal from those who do 

 not belong to their tribe, but continually from one another. Those 

 who possess anything which they consider valuable, invariably hide 

 it from their own family ; for husbands cannot trust their own wives. 

 So little confidence do they place in each other, that those who own 

 herds fear to leave them, lest some depredation be committed by their 

 own people. Application has been made to the present commanding 

 ojBficer of Fort Defiance, (Major Kendrick_, U. S. Army,) by one of the 

 richest men in the nation, to have his cattle placed under the pro- 

 tection of the guard which has charge of those belonging to the post, 

 on the ground that he could not prevent people of his own tribe from 

 killing them. And we may add, in this connexion, that the same 

 person requested the commandant tO" put balls and chains on some of 

 his peons (a system of peonage existing among these people) who 

 had been cauglit stealing, not daring to take the responsibility of 

 punishing the culprits upon himself. 



Such facts as these show how ill-founded is the statement made of 

 these people, that " dishonesty is held in check by suitable regula- 

 tions." If any such regulations exist, (which we do not hesitate to 

 doubt,) they are most emphatically a dead letter. Their morals are 

 extremely loose — the husband keeping a constant watch upon his 

 wife, lest she stray from the paths of rectitude ; and venereal dis- 

 eases are by no means uncommon. The women, however, exert a 

 great deal of influence — more than in the majority of Indian tribes. 

 They have entire charge of the children, and do not allow the father 

 to correct his own offspring. In fact, an Indian has said that he was 

 afraid to correct his own boy, lest the child should wait for a conve- 

 nient opportunity, and shoot him with an arrow. The husband has 

 no control over the property of his wife, their herds being kept sepa- 

 rate and distinct ; from which, doubtless, arises the influence of the 

 women not only in their own peculiar sj^here, but also in national 

 matters, w]nch it is well known they oftentimes exert. The wife is 

 usually bought with horses, of her father — no ceremony that we are 

 aware of being performed ; and if upon trial she does not like her 

 husband, she leaves him, and there the matter ends. Polygamy is 

 practised by all who can afford to sustain more than one wife ; but the 



