298 ' THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



It is on. these plains, which are stocked with buffaloes, that the finest specimens of 

 the Indian race are to be seen. It is here that the savage is decorated in the richest 

 costume. It is here, and here only, that his wants are all satisfied, and even the lux- 

 uries of life are afforded him in abundance. And here also is he the proud and hon- 

 orable man (before he has had teachers or laws about the important wants which beget 

 meanness and vice), stimulated by ideas of honor and virtue, in which the God of 

 Nature has certainly not curtailed him. 



There are, by a fair calculation, more than three hundred thousand Indians who 

 are now subsisted on the flesh of the buffaloes, and by those animals supplied with 

 all the luxuries of life which they desire, as they know of none others. The great 

 variety of uses to which they convert the body and other parts of that animal are 

 almost incredible to the person who has not actually dwelt amongst these people and 

 closely studied their modes and customs. Every part of their flesh is converted into 

 food, in one shape or another, and on it they entirely subsist. The robes of the an- 

 imals are worn by the Indians instead of blankets; their skins, when tanned, are used 

 as coverings for their lodges and for their beds ; undressed, they are used for construct- 

 ing canoes, for saddles, for bridles, l'arrets, lassos, and thongs. The horns are shaped 

 into ladles and spoons ; the brains are used for dressing the skins; their bones are 

 used for saddle-trees, for war-clubs, and scrapers for graining the robes, and others 

 are broken up for the marrow-fat which is contained in them. Their sinews are used 

 for strings and backs to their bows, for thread to string their beads and sew their 

 dresses. The feet of the animals are boiled, with their hoofs, for the glue they con- 

 tain, for fastening their arrow-points, and many other uses. The hair from the head 

 and shoulders, which is long, is twisted and braided into halters, and the tail is used 

 for a fly-brush. In this wise do these people convert and use the various parts of this 

 useful animal, and with all these luxuries of life about them, and their numerous 

 games, they are happy (God bless them) in the ignorance of the disastrous fate that 

 awaits them. 



Yet this interesting community, with its sports, its wildnesses, its languages, and 

 all its manners and customs, could be perpetuated, and also the buffaloes, whose num- 

 bers would increase and supply them with food for ages and centuries to come, if 

 a system of non-intercourse could bo established and preserved. But such is not to 

 be the case, the buffaloes' doom is sealed, and with their extinction must assuredly 

 sink into real despair and starvation the inhabitants of these vast plains, which 

 afford for the Indians no other possible means of subsistence ; and they must at last 

 fall a prey to wolves and buzzards, who will have no other bones to pick. 



It seems hard and cruel (does it not?) that we civilized people, with all the luxuries 

 and comforts of the world about us, should be drawing from the backs of these useful 

 animals the skins for our luxury, leaving their carcasses to be devoured by the 

 wolves ; that we should draw from that country, some one hundred and fifty or two 

 hundred thousand of their robes annually, the greater part of which are taken from 

 animals that are killed expressly for the robe, at a season when the meat is not cured 

 and preserved, and for each of which skins the Indian has received but a pint of 

 whisky. 



Such is the fact, and that number, or near it, are annually destroyed in addition to 

 the number that is necessarily killed for the subsistence of three hundred thousand 

 Indians, who live entirely upon them. It may be said, perhaps, that the fur trade of 

 these great western realms, which is now limited chiefly to the purchase of buffalo 

 robes, is of great and national importance, and should and must be encouraged. To 

 such a suggestion I would reply, by merely inquiring (independently of the poor In- 

 dians' disasters), how much more advantageously would such a capital be employed, 

 both for the weal of the country and for the owners, if it were invested in machines 

 for the manufacture of woolen robes of equal and superior value and beauty ; thereby 

 encouraging the growers of wool, and the industrious manufacturer, rather than cul- 

 tivating a taste for the use of buffalo skins, which is just to be acquired, and then, 



