66. How the Indians looked; the Clothes they wore. Let us now learn a few things about the Indians as they were before their habits and mode of life had been changed by contact with white men.

The heads of the Indians were always bare. It was customary for them to allow one tuft of hair to grow longer than the rest. This was called the “scalp lock.” When a fight had been finished, this lock served as a convenience to the victor. It enabled him to remove handily the scalp from the head of a dead enemy, and to carry it easily away as a trophy of triumph.

The Indians had the curious custom of smearing their faces and their bodies with red paint. On great occasions, such as the holding of a tribal council or a war dance, they painted themselves a more brilliant red. The bright color was believed to give a formidable aspect. They decked themselves with queer ornaments of many sorts. Around their necks they wore strings of shining stones, bits of mica, baubles made of copper, and animals’ teeth highly polished. Feathers were held in great esteem. Success in war entitled the victor to wear eagles’ feathers as a mark of the greatest distinction. In this love of finery the men were fully as vain as the women.

The clothing of the Indians was, for the most part, fashioned out of the dried skins of animals, such as the deer and the beaver, whose flesh had been used for food. Unlike that of civilized people, this clothing was seldom or never changed, but was worn till it was worn out. If not unwashable, it was rarely washed. The “noble red man” was not a model of cleanliness. He had never heard of soap.

67. What the Indians had to eat. The food of the Indians varied with the place and the season, but game and fish were the principal articles. Their game was chiefly deer, bears, moose, raccoons, foxes, wild geese, and wild turkeys. Having no salt nor spices, no bread nor potatoes, neither milk, butter, nor cheese, their living must have lacked such relish as we give to ours.

In the settled villages the Indians cultivated rude gardens. In these they raised corn, beans, squashes, and tobacco; but, considering the crudeness of their tools, we must suppose that the crops were scanty. The squaws used to cook corn and beans together, making succotash. Both the dish and the name have come to us from the Indians. Green corn they used to roast in hot ashes, very much as we sometimes do now at clambakes or other outings. Meat they commonly cooked by thrusting a stick through it and holding it over the fire; but they sometimes boiled it in rude earthen pots. Fish they broiled on a frame of sticks.

68. The Indian’s Struggle for a Living. The principal work of the Indians was to get food enough. They did not hunt or fish merely for sport, as men and boys of our time are apt to do. To the Indian, hunting was the serious task of providing for his family and himself. At times the supply became very slight. It was especially so in the winter. Then they really suffered from hunger, and were forced to eat ground-nuts and acorns anything to keep alive. But when they had had good hunting they would eat enormously. At times, when game was scarce, different tribes would have savage fights for the best hunting ground.

Their only drink was water. After the white man came they learned the use of rum and whiskey, and would pay a great price for what they called “fire water.” On the other hand, the white man learned from the Indian the use of tobacco. It was a bad bargain both ways.

69. Hardships of the Indian Women. The Indian warriors occupied themselves with war and the chase. They looked upon ordinary labor as degrading, and fit only for women. These they treated very much as slaves. The squaw did all the everyday work building the wigwam, raising the crops, making the clothes, and weaving bark mats for the beds. On journeys the women carried their infants, or papooses, on their backs.

With some tribes woman held a higher place. She had a considerable degree of influence in public matters, and often decided the question of peace or war. She could even drive away her husband if he failed to bring home game or fish enough for the family.

70. The Indians’ Weapons. Indian wars were conducted in a manner entirely different from that of civilized nations. The weapons were the bow and arrow, the hatchet of sharp stone, and the war club. The bowstring was made of Indian hemp or the sinews of the deer. The arrowhead was of sharp flint or bone; its point was often made of an eagle’s claw or the spur of a wild turkey. The stone hatchet, called “tomahawk,” had a long handle and was a powerful weapon.

After the Indians had seen the white man’s guns, hatchets, and knives, and could obtain such things for themselves, the use of their own rude weapons was abandoned.

Gunpowder was for a long time a mystery to the Indians. At first they thought that it grew from the ground, like the tobacco plant. It is said they once sowed some of it in the spring, expecting to see it take root and grow. They supposed every white person knew how to make it; and so, once upon a time, when they had captured two young girls, they tried to force them to make a supply of it.

71. How the Indians fought. In battle, Indians did not come out in fair and open fight, as is the custom of white men; but their skill consisted in surprises, shooting from behind rocks and trees, skulking around at night, and killing the enemy asleep. Captives in war were frequently tortured in the most barbarous ways; sometimes they were tied to trees and were slowly burned to death or were shot. But it was a high standard of Indian valor to bear the sharpest pain without flinching, with never a groan or any sign of suffering.

The Indians, believing as they did that all animals were protecting or unfriendly spirits, often addressed them as if they were human beings. The story is told of an Indian who shot at a large bear and wounded him. The bear fell and lay whining and groaning. The Indian went up to him and said: “Bear, you are a coward, and no warrior. You know that your tribe and mine are at war, and that yours began it. If you had wounded me, I would not have uttered a sound; and yet you sit here and cry and disgrace your tribe.”

72. The Use made of Wampum, or Indian Money. Indians had little use for gold or silver, but they had something in its place, which they called “wampum.” This was made of bits of seashells like beads. The pieces had a hole in the center, so that they could be strung in long strips or made into belts.

Wampum was used for a long time as regular money or the medium of exchange between the Indians and the whites, and even between one white and another. Strings of it were passed around for purposes of trade, as we now use coins of silver and gold. But after a while, as seashells became plentiful, wampum became almost worthless, and then the Indians were glad enough to take the white man’s silver money.

Among some of the tribes, bands of wampum were woven into ornamental belts, and these were decorated with colored beads combined into striking figures and designs. The wampum belts were often given as a pledge that the giver would faithfully live up to certain terms of a treaty.

73. Indian Tools and Snowshoes. As the Indians had so little to work with no iron for knives, nor tools of any kind except flinty stones made sharp and called “hatchets” it is wonderful how ingenious they were in supplying their personal wants. They kneaded in oil and softened with heat the furry skins of animals, and from these they made excellent garments for winter. From dried deerskins they fashioned a sort of soft serviceable shoe called the “moccasin.” This was wrought from a single piece of the leather. It fitted snugly to the foot and was tied with strips of buckskin at the ankle.

The danger of starving in the winter when the snow was deep led the Indians to invent the snowshoe. This was made of a light framework of ash, filled with meshes of rawhide, thus presenting a broad surface to the snow. By this contrivance the Indians could travel in winter as easily as in summer.

It is said that an Indian upon snowshoes could easily travel forty miles a day. Strangely enough, all the cunning of the white man has never availed to make anything better for such a purpose.

74. Indians as Hunters. The Indian contrived ingenious traps for catching bears, moose, and other sorts of game. One of these devices consisted of a long and heavy log, carefully balanced upon a post placed upright in the ground, with a log attached to one end of it. The roving animal would approach, and by jumping attempt to get the bait that was so attractive. The movement would cause the log to fall, and thus, perhaps, the creature would be killed.

Fish were killed by shooting them with the arrow as they swam; or they were caught with hooks of bone, or taken in rivers by means of a weir, or brush fence, fixed across the stream. Sometimes they were taken in nets woven from the bark of the elm, and in traps of wickerwork not unlike the lobster pots now in use.

The Indians had a remarkable faculty, resembling that of the ventriloquist, whereby they could imitate the voices of woodland creatures the hoot of the owl, the cry of the wild turkey, the howl of the wolf. By this means they could readily attract animals of various species to a spot where they might easily kill them. Even hostile Indians out searching for game were in this manner sometimes allured to the place of danger.

75. Story illustrating the Indian’s Keen Observation. It is marvelous what quick eyes the Indian had to see almost instantly things that other persons would never see at all. The story is often told of an Indian who returned one day to his wigwam and found that a large piece of venison had been stolen. He looked carefully around, and then started off for the thief. He asked the first man he met if he had seen a little old white man with a short gun and a small dog with a short tail. Afterwards he explained how he learned all these points. He said he knew the thief was little, for he had to pile up some stones to reach the venison; old, by his short steps; white, by the toes of his tracks turning out; that he had a short gun, for when it fell to the ground from where it leaned against the tree, it made a short mark in the dirt. He knew by the dog’s track that the dog was small; he knew that the dog had a short tail, because a short groove had been “wiggled” in the dust where the dog had sat while his master was stealing the meat!

76. The Indians were Cruel, Cunning, and Revengeful. As to character, the Indian had, like all the rest of us, a good and a bad side. Though usually silent and moody in the presence of white men, travelers tell us that the Indians had lively games when by themselves, and enjoyed fun and frolic and story-telling like other people. They were crafty and treacherous, as well they might be from their constant warfare.

They were cruel and remorseless in their revenge, and they never forgot a wrong. Full of cunning, they took pride in ingenious tricks. They would wear snowshoes with the toes turned backwards, that the enemy might think they had gone the other way! In their homes they were filthy, lazy, and improvident. They were passionately fond of gambling, after they had learned it of the whites!

On the other hand, they were patient of hunger, cold, and fatigue, and were wonderfully brave. They were hospitable to an acquaintance in need, even sharing the last of their food with him. They were grateful for benefits, and never forgot a kindness. Their promise was almost sacred, and the pledge of their chief was rarely broken.

When the early settlers in this country treated the Indians kindly, they usually received kindness in return, as we shall see later in reading William Penn’s dealings with the Indians in Pennsylvania. But now and then some rude white man was cruel or dishonest in dealing with them, and then he learned that the red man knew what revenge means.

If any serious offense was given to the Indians they brooded over it, and then, eager to inflict more harm than they had suffered, instead of punishing the offender alone, they spent their revenge upon all they could reach of the white race. So they sprang suddenly upon peaceful villages and cruelly killed innocent men, women, and children.

77. Anecdote of Tecumseh. The true Indian warrior had a certain proud dignity that challenged respect. At a great council of the government with the Indians, the famous Indian chief, Tecumseh, after he had made a speech, turned to take a seat, when it was found that by accident no chair had been placed for him. General Harrison instantly called for one. It was brought by the interpreter, who said, “The Great Father wishes you to take a chair.” “My father!” he said with dignity, as he wrapped his blanket about him to seat himself in Indian style upon the ground; “the Sun is my father, the Earth is my mother, and on her bosom will I repose.”

78. Care and Training of the Indian Children. The care and training of Indian children were peculiar. When the little papoose was very young, it was not fondled nor much attended to. Quite early it was placed in a small trough of bark and strapped in with a mat or skin in front, the little bed being padded with soft moss. This bit of a cradle was handy to carry around, to lean against a log, or to hang up in a tree.

As they grew up, they were as happy as other children. Their parents made toys for them, and their older mates taught them songs and games. As soon as they were large enough, each had his share of work to do. The girls had to help their mothers to dress skins for clothing, to bring wood and water, and to work in the rude garden.

79. The Indian Boy’s Early Training. The Indian boy was early trained for hunting and war. His first lessons were to manage his bow and arrows, and then he was taken into the woods to shoot. He was taught to set traps for small game, and his father often slyly put some animal in the snare to encourage the young hunter.

So the boy was taught, not arithmetic and grammar, but all about birds their colors, their different whistles and cries, and what each note means; their food and habits, where they nest, how they fly, and the best way to shoot them. His lessons included the study of rabbits and squirrels, of beavers and foxes, and of all such game.

By the time the Indian boy had seen twelve or fourteen snows, as the Indian would say, he could make his own bows and arrows and could help make canoes. He had received many lessons about shaping tomahawks and war clubs, and how to use them. Playing ball was a favorite game with Indian youth. Catlin, the celebrated authority on Indian life, tells us that he used to ride thirty miles to see a ball game, and would sit on his horse all day to see a match played by six to eight hundred or even a thousand young Indians.

80. How the Indians buried their Dead. For the most part the Indians buried their dead in mounds or in shallow graves, sometimes prostrate, but often in a sitting posture facing the east. But some tribes placed the body on a high scaffold raised on long poles out of the reach of wild beasts. Beside the body were carefully placed the weapons of the dead, paints, any favorite trinkets he used to wear, and food to sustain him on his journey to the far-off Happy Hunting Grounds.