130 



UNITED STATES. 



married with a beaver's daughter. These Indians therefore never killed the beaver, till tne 

 traders offered for the skins a sum too great for Osage piety. 



The remnant of ihe Six Nations that now exist in the United States, and a few other tribes, 

 live in reservations in New York. They live principally by agriculture, and raise considerable 

 quantities of corn. They are surrounded by white population, and mutual depredations are the 

 consequence. Like the most of the other tribes in the United States, they have some advantages 

 of religious and other instruction without much avaihng themselves of it. There are faithful resi- 

 dent missionaries. Most of the Six Nations profess Christianity. They are gradually becom- 

 ing more industrious. Of the other tribes within the limits of the States we have room for no 

 other notice than the brief accounts under the sectional divisions. The Indians along the 

 Missouri are well formed, and many of them have aquiline noses. Among the Omawhaws, 

 the husband who marries the eldest daughter marries all her sisters, and takes them home when 

 they become of age. Children, as in some other tribes, are weaned at about three years of 

 age ; and in this the mother is assisted by the ridicule of visiters. Suicides sometimes *take 

 place. There is a peculiar custom that the husband liolds no communication with his wife's 

 mother or father. They never speak to each other, but all communication is made through 

 other persons. These Indians are divided into bands, to each of which some kind of food is 

 interdicted. To one a swan, to another a bison's head, &c. They take great pleasure in 

 fabulous legends, and seem to believe that at a remote period all animals had speech and went 

 to war, armed with the weapons of men. The next natives up the Missouri, are the Yanktons, 

 Puncahs, and three tribes of Tetons, which are Sioux, or Dahcotahs. The Rickarees were 

 colonies of the Pawnees. They are well formed, and the females are handsome. They are 

 hospitable and generous. The lodges are 30 or 40 feet in length, of a circular or octagonal 

 shape. These Indians are not quarrelsome, though they are well armed with muskets. They 

 cultivate beans, maize, melons, squashes, and a kind of tobacco peculiar to their district. Like 

 all otlier Indians, they are much given to die use of tobacco, principally in smoking. The 

 Mandans resided higher up the river, but they have lately been exterminated by the ravages of 

 the small pox. Like some of the other tribes, they used to cut off the joints of a finger on 

 the loss of a friend. The Minnetaries are a part of the stock of the Fall Indians. They are 

 called also Grosventres or Bigbellies. They have annually a great " medicine," or religious 

 dance, in which they inflict painful wounds upon themselves. One of them thrust a knife 

 through the muscles of his shoulder, through which he tied the reins of his horre, and thus 

 conducting the thirsty animal to the water, he turned him back without having sufF^red him to 

 •drink, and without raising his own hands. Other means of torture still more severe are prac- 

 tised. The Shoshonees live chiefly in the Rocky Mountains and the plains southward. They 



are a tribe of die Snake Indians, and are 

 represented as gentle and cheerful. They 

 were the best of the Indians seen by Lewis 

 and Clarke. Polygamy is common, but 

 the women, as with the Mandans and Rick- 

 arees, seem to be held in some respect. 

 This tribe are not well formed. The feel 

 are thick and flat, and the legs crooked. 

 Besides the common articles of dress, they 

 wear a rich tippet of sea-otter skins. 



The Blackfoot Indians, living near tho 

 Rocky Mountains, are fierce and warlike. 

 They are constantly committing depreda- 

 tions or murders upon their neighbors, who 

 are less efficiently armed than themselves. 

 They are far north, and live in constant 

 warfare with the Flatheads, and other tribes, that reside about the mountains. The cause of 

 contention is the hunting of the buffalo in the plains. The Assiniboins live partly in the British 

 territories, and partly in the possessions of the United States. 



With the exception of the Esquimaux, the Indians have the same physical characteristics. 

 The bronze color, straight black hair, high cheek bones, and erect form, are common to all. 

 There is, however, difference of stature and physiognomy. The Osages are very tall, and the 

 Shoshonees are below the middle stature. To a white all Indians may indeed seem alike, bu 



