112 



NORTH AMERICA. 



productions of the earth for sub- 

 sistence, and as they have no 

 domestic animals but dogs, hunt- 

 ing and fishing are ahnost their 

 sole resource. 



It is in the management of their 

 canoes, and the stratagems by 

 which they take the seal, the wal- 

 rus, or the whale, that they display 

 their highest exertions of intellect. 

 Their dress is of skin ; and their 

 houses arc tents of skins, oi- huls 

 of snow and \cc. 



The second I'acc is dispei'sed 

 over the rest of the American 

 continent, and is composed of 

 numerous tribes, speaking different 

 languages, yet evidently sprung from the same original stock. They are larger, more warlike, 

 and more taciturn than the Esquimaux, from whom they also differ in the color of their skin, 

 which is of a coppery tinge. The greater part of these nations were found by the Europeans, 

 a "d still continue, in a state of barbarism. Armed with bows and arrows, war clubs, lances, 

 and tomahawks ; even in the preparation of these simple weapons they made no use of metal 

 or of metallic instruments ; without domestic animals or settled habitations, rarely cultivating 

 the ground, and then only in a rude manner, they wandered from place to place, subsisting by 

 the chase or by fishing, and living in temporary tents or lodges of mats or skins, or in huts 

 composed of the branches of trees, owning no property and following no regular occupation. 

 The men, who despised labor, passed the time not consumed in hunting or in war, in stupid 

 inaction, while the labor was all done by the women. They lived collected in small bands or 

 tribes, several of whom were often united under a common chief or leader, rather for the pur- 

 pose of defence or making war against their neighbors, than for the objects of civil government. 

 Many of these tribes have become extinct since the whites have occupied the great forest, 

 through which they hunted ; others have in some degree modified their primitive habits, and 

 even adopted the arts of civilized life, wdiile others, occuyjying the greater part of the immense 

 regions w-est of the Mississippi, and those north of the Canadas, retain the customs of theii 

 ancestors. An examination of their languages has shown them to consist of several great 

 families or nations, each comprising numerous kindred tribes. 



(1.) The Algonquin or Chippeway nation is spread over all the north.ern pai1 of the conti- 

 nent east of the Rocky Mountains. Among the various tribes of this family are the Knis- 

 tenaux or Crees, in the region of Slave Lake, the Saskashawan, and Hudson's Bay ; the 

 Micmacs, in the British Provinces ; the Chippeways, around Lake Superior ; the Oltawas, 

 m Michigan Territory, to which tribe the celebrated Pontiac belonged ; the Potawatomies, 

 of the same region ; the Sacs and Foxes, or Saukis and Ottoganiis, who have lately been 

 obliged to confine themselves to the west of the Mississippi ; and the Shawnees, Kickapoos, 

 Menomonies, Miamis, and Delawares, of the same region. The Mohegans and Abenaqutfe, 

 who formerly inhabited the Middle and Eastern States, belonged also to this family. 



(2.) The Wyandot or Huron family included the confederacy called the L'oquois or Six 

 Nations, comprising the Mohawks, Senecas, Onondagos, Oneidas, Cayugas, and Tuscaroras, 

 and the Wyandots. The Six Nations resided on the St. Lawrence, and some of them still 

 remain in New York and Canada. The last remnants of the Mohegans have been incorpo- 

 rated with them. 



(3.) The Southern or Floridian family comprised the Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws, 

 Choctaws, Seminoles, and Natchez. The last mentioned, now extinct, resided on the Missis- 

 sippi, and had attained a much higher degree of civilization than their neighbors. The others, 

 with the exception of some Seminoles, have been removed from their former habitations in Mis- 

 sissippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, to the Lidian Territoiy. 



(4.) The Sioux or Dahcotahs are a numerous family, inhabiting the region to the west of 

 the Mississippi, on the Missouri, Platte, and Arkansas. One tribe of this family, the Winne- 

 hagoes, formerly resided near Lake Michigan, but they have lately been obliged to retire to the 



Indian Encampment. 



