136 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



L W. Patrick, then agent, reports, August 20, 1885: 



These Indians are chaste, cleanly, and industrious, and would lie a valuable acqui- 

 sition to the Prairie Band if it were not for their intense devotion to a religious dance 

 started among the northern Indians some years since. This dance was introduced to 

 the Prairie Band about two years ago by the Absentee Pottawatomies and Winne- 

 bagoes, and has spread throughout the tribes in the agency. They seem to have 

 adopted the religion as a means of expressing their belief in the justice and mercy of 

 the Great Spirit, and of their devotion to him, and are so earnest in their convictions 

 as to its affording them eternal happiness, that I have thought it impolitic, so far, to 

 interfere with it any further than to advise as few meetings as possible, and to dis- 

 countenance it in my intercourse with the individuals practicing the religion. It is 

 not an unmixed evil, as under its leaching drunkenness and gambling have been re- 

 duced 75 per cent., and a departure from virtue on the part of its members meets with 

 the severest condemnation. As some tends of revealed religion are embraced in ils 

 doctrines, I do not consider it a backward step for the Indians who have not hereto- 

 fore professed belief in any Christian religion, and believe its worst features arc 

 summed up in the loss of time it occasions and the fanatical i rain of thought involved 

 in the constant contemplation of the subject. 



At the Nemaha Agency are also the " Mexican Kickapoos," number- 

 ing 370. This tribe is composed of the Kickapoos and Pottawatomies 

 who left their reservation in Kansas during the war of the rebellion and 

 went to Mexico. They were a warlike band, plying their calling along 

 the border. What portion of this band is Pottawatomie is not known. 



The agent writes of them, August, 1884 : 



They are the most crafty Indians in this agency, and are very shrewd traders. 



For notes on the Pottawatomie Indians see Beckwith's "Historic 

 Notes on the Northwest" and the " Illinois and Indiana Indians," by II. 

 W. Beckwith. (Fergus' Historical Series No. 27, Chicago, 1884, and 

 also No. 10 of the same series. 



KICK-A-POO. 



[Kickapoo: Laws of the United States. Kiekapoo : Indian Bureau, 188;").] 



On the frontier settlements ; semi-civilized ; number about 600; greatly reduced by 

 small-pox and whisky. 



Mr. Catlin visited them in 1831 on their reservation in Illinois, on the 

 western shore of Lake Michigan, from whence they removed. 



240. Kee-dn-ne-kuk, the Foremost Man, called the " Prophet." Chief of the tribe, 

 in the attitude of prayer. Painted in 1831. 



(Plate No. 185, page 100, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



This very shrewd fellow engraved on a maple stick, in characters, a prayer which 

 was taught him by a Methodist missionary, and by introducing it into the hands of 

 every one of his tribe, who are enjoined to read it over every morning and evening 

 as service, has acquired great celebrity and respect in his tribe, as well as a good 

 store of their worldly goods, as he manufactures them all and gets well paid for them > 



The present chief of this tribe, whose name is Kee-an-ne-kvJc (the foremost man, plate 

 185, No. 240), usually called the Shawnee Prophet, is a very shrewd and talented man. 

 When he sat for his portrait he took his attitude as seen in the pieture, which was 

 that of prayer. And I soon learned that he was a very devoted Christian, regularly 

 holding meetings in his tribe on the Sabbath, preaching to them and exhorting them 



