﻿A RESIDENCE AMONG THE INDIANS. 



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A Residence among the Indians. 



BY MILES HAWTHORNE. 



I HAVE never found any subject more deeply interesting than the 

 contemplation and study of the manners and customs of the North 

 American Indians. In my youth, when my winter evenings were 

 sometimes spent in reading about the cruelties practised by the 

 ruthless savages towards the early settlers of New England, I used 

 to think that there could not possibly exist a more wicked and 

 treacherous race of beings than the Indians. 



As I grew in years, and in knowledge, and, with the excellent 

 opportunities I have had, examined their true characters and disposi- 

 tions, my foolish youthful fears vanished, and I was led to look 

 upon the poor Indian as a human being like myself, gifted with 

 reason, though ignorant; the nobleness of whose nature would com- 

 pare favorably with many other wiser nations. In our own comfort- 

 able homes, by our own cheerful firesides, surrounded by all the 

 benefits of civilized life, we are too apt to forget the wrongs of the 



