SOLON ROBINSON, 1834 55 



rats, about four miles from my house. The wigwams are 

 built of sticks, and covered with long grass and flag 

 matting, and are about ten or twelve feet in diamiter, 

 with a small fire, and a great smoke in the centre, around 

 which the family sit or lie, on a few skins or blankets. 

 Superfluity of furniture, is not a sin which they are 

 guilty of. It would be well for many of your readers 

 who think they have not enough, to look into an Indian 

 wigwam, and see the fact demonstrated, that, 



"Man wants but little here below, &c. 



And yet these are a cheerful happy people. Their dress 

 usually consits of moccasins, broadcloth or buckskin leg- 

 gins, a kind of kilt, and sometimes a shirt, and over all 

 a blanket loosely thrown. They are frequently at my 

 house to "swap" Suc-se-we-oss [Venison] for Buck-we-an 

 and Quass-gun, [flour and bread] or Po-ke-min [Cran- 

 berries] and Musquas skins, for Sum-ma [Tobacco] and 

 Daw-mien [corn.] They are quiet and civil, but not quite 

 so neat as might be. Their besetting sin is a love of 

 whiskey — an awful curse that white men have inflicted 

 upon them. I blush to say that there are men in Indiana 

 that will strip an Indian of his last blanket for whiskey. 

 They are fast falling before the sweeping pestilence of 

 drunkenness. One of the coldest nights of this winter, 

 one of the poor wretches lay out upon this Prairie, hav- 

 ing pawned his best blanket for whiskey enough to mur- 

 der him. I am certain this is one crime I never shall be 

 guilty of. 



I take pride in being the Indian's friend. I have al- 

 ready acquired among them the name of "Wyonett 

 Tshmokeman," the english of which I will explain to 

 you when you come to see me. 



Some person who would like to emigrite to the Pota- 

 watamie country, are deterred from it by fear of the 

 Indians. Such if once here would soon dismiss their 

 fears. They are by no means unpleasant neighbors — 

 besides it is probable that they will all leave the country 



6—50109 



