dbxio] THE ASSINIBOIN 621 



new opinions be perceived. The whole is merely a collection of 

 facts, thrown together in the form of answers to certain questions 

 without further comment than necessary for their illustration and 

 clothed in the simplest garb of verbiage to facilitate their compre- 

 hension. 



When we entered the fur trade in the spring of 1833, now 21 

 years since, all the Indians herein treated of, from the Sioux to the 

 Blackfeet, inclusive, were much more ignorant in everything, degrad- 

 ing in their habits, slovenly in appearance, and barbarous in their 

 actions than they now are. Life was then held by a slight tenure, 

 crime was frequent, atrocious disorder and family feuds were general, 

 and their occupations confined to slaughtering their enemies, murder- 

 ing each other, and providing for their families only in extremes of 

 necessity. 



The traders of the Columbia Fur Co. and after them those of the 

 American Fur Co. were men of ability, honesty, and truth. In the 

 course of their dealings, intermarriages, and conversations with the 

 Indians, the minds of the latter were enlarged, a different train of 

 thought and action engendered, new desires created which gave a 

 stimulus to industry, which raised the Indian from the level of the 

 brute to the standing of an intellectual being. 



The enmities formerly existing between different bands of the 

 same nations, arising from the petty jealousies of chiefs or private 

 family animosities, were soldered up by the traders. To be sure their 

 object in this was personal gain, but that is immaterial, the beneficial 

 results arising from their traffic, etc., were consolidation of force and 

 interest of the Indians, unity of purpose and action, entailing order 

 in their government, a great diminution of family feuds and private 

 quarrels, and an application of their time to the comfort and welfare 

 of their families instead of its being spent in bloody contention or 

 domestic idleness or discord. 



The introduction of firearms, metallic cooking utensils, and other 

 tools gave them a greater reliance on their own powers, increased 

 their hunting operations, and with them their domestic comfort, by 

 these means withdrawing their attention from their barbarous prac- 

 tices and opening a new field for their exertions. With the substi- 

 tuting of European instruments and clothing arose a different kind of 

 pride than that of olden time. The distinguishing features of the 

 original savage were fierceness, obstinate will, and bloody determina- 

 tion, leading to barbarous and disgusting practices. Their women 

 were worse than slaves, the extent of their labor was more than they 

 could bear. With the stone ax, the bone awl, the clay pot, the rib 

 knife, and all their primitive tools, even their most pressing wants 

 were met with great difficulty. The process of procuring fuel alone 



