600 



SLAVES SLEDS 



[b. a. e. 



as being parasites and as usually being 

 the most worthless members of the tribes 

 (Pawnee Indians, 1880). 



In most tribes polj^gamy was per- 

 mitted, and it was a common practice 

 for men to take to wife female cap- 

 tives. As a legal wife such a woman was 

 entitled to the same privileges as her mar- 

 ried sisters in the tribe, but her actual 

 treatment depended largely upon her 

 capacities and her personal popularity. 

 When she was introduced into a family 

 where there already were several wives, 

 jealousy was easily aroused, and the new 

 wife was likely to be abused and driven 

 to menial tasks. No doubt such women 

 were often assumed to be slaves by the 

 casual observer. 



European influence materially modified 

 almost every art and practice of the Indian. 

 No sooner had the border wars begun than 

 the natives discovered a higher value for 

 the white prisoners of war than adoption. 

 Although white men and children were 

 adopted into Indian tribes and lived and 

 died with them, the ransom . offered in 

 ready money, in whisky, or in powder 

 and guns changed the status of the white 

 captive. He was very generally held in 

 captivity" for ransom, or taken to the 

 French, English, or Spanish, according 

 to his nativity, and disposed of for a cash 

 payment. Cases were not rare in which 

 white captives were redeemed and sent 

 back to their friends even after formal 

 adoption into a tribe. The practice of 

 redeeming captives was favored by the 

 missionaries and settlers with a view of 

 mitigating the hardships of Indian war- 

 fare. The spread of Indian slavery among 

 the tribes of the central region was due in 

 part to the efforts of the French mis- 

 sionaries to induce their red allies to sub- 

 stitute a mild condition of servitude for 

 their accustomed practice of indiscrimi- 

 nate massacre, torture, and cannibalism 

 (see Dunn, Indiana, 1905). During the 

 interval between his captivity and re- 

 demption, usually lasting months, occa- 

 sionally several years, the white captive, 

 unless adopted, was made to do menial 

 tasks, and his lot was hard. The white 

 prisoner, indeed, unless very young, rarely 

 proved satisfactory as an adopted mem- 

 ber of the tribe. He did not often take 

 kindly to Indian life, was quick to seize 

 an opportunity to escape, and was always 

 welcomed back by his friends, whereas in 

 the case of the Indian, adoption severed 

 all former social and tribal ties. The 

 adopted Indian warrior was forever de- 

 barred from returning to his own people, 

 by whom he would not have been re- 

 ceived. His fate was thenceforth inex- 

 tricably interwoven with that of his new 

 kinsmen. 



The Southeastern Indians — Cherokee, 



Creeks, Choctaw, and Chickasaw — soon 

 after the settlement of the country by 

 Europeans came into possession of run- 

 away negro slaves. The Indians were 

 quick to perceive their value as serv- 

 ants, and we soon find them buying 

 and selling black slaves. There is noth- 

 ing to show that this introduction of 

 black slaves among the Muskhogean 

 tribes and others materially changed the 

 status of the Indian prisoner of war. 

 The Seminole of Florida married many 

 negro runaways, whose position seems 

 to have been in all respects like that of 

 other members of the tribe. There were, 

 indeed, among the Seminole several set- 

 tlements of runaway negro slaves who 

 had their own chiefs and seem to have 

 been a recognized part of the tribe. 



Europeans made a practice of enslaving 

 or selling into slavery captive Indians. 

 Carolina was early made by the Spaniards 

 a hunting ground for Indian slaves, who 

 were deported to Cuba. Numbers of the 

 male children of the conquered Pequot 

 were transported to the West Indies from 

 Massachusetts and sold into slavery, 

 while the women and girls were scattered 

 among white families (Bradford in Coll. 

 Mass. Hist. Soc, iii, 360, 1856). The 

 English settlers of South Carolina prac- 

 tised the enslavement of Indians on a 

 large scale, and during the years 1702- 

 1708 sent out three expeditions against 

 the Yamasee, Apalachee, and Timucua, 

 of N. Florida. They carried back to 

 Charleston almost the entire population of 

 7 large towns, in all, some 1,400 persons, 

 who were sold as slaves to the Carolina 

 settlers or distributed among the Creeks, 

 who assisted in the enterprise. Indeed, 

 in the early days of the colonies the en- 

 slavement of Indians by settlers seems 

 to have been general. See Adoption, So- 

 cial Organization, (ii. w. H.) 



Slaves. An ethnic and linguistic Atha- 

 pascan group comprising, according to 

 Petitot (Diet. Dene Dindjie, xx, 1876), 

 the Etchareottine, Thlingchadinne, and 

 Kawchodinne. He included also the Eta- 

 gottine of the Nahane group. The Etcha- 

 reottine are specifically designated by this 

 term, which originated with the Cree, who 

 captured them in forays, and the tribe 

 nearest to the Cree, the Etchaotine, are 

 called Slaves proper. 



Sleds. The Eskimo and the Indians n. 

 of lat. 40° used as a vehicle for travel and 

 transportation, complementary to the 

 skin boat and the bark canoe, the sled 

 drawn by man and dog over snow and ice. 

 The Eskimo make long journeys, using 

 boat and sled alternately. Sleds differ in 

 construction, shape, and use according to 

 the materials, the ingenuity of the people, 

 the nature of the ice and snow, the jour- 

 neys to be made, and the loads to be 



