Letter VI.
TO THE DIRECTORS OF THE ASSOCIATION.
University of St. Louis, June 10, 1849.
GENTLEMEN :
In order to complete the observations which I had the honor of offering you in my late letters on the Western tribes of Indians of the United States, I purpose submitting to you certain facts touching the actual condition of the Indians in Upper Missouri and among the Rocky Mountains.
The facts-such is, at least, my opinion-reveal clearly the melancholy future which at no very remote epoch awaits these nations, if efficient means are not employed for preventing the woes with which they are threatened. My visit to several tribes, and, above all, that which I lately paid to the great Sioux nation, have only confirmed the sad forebodings to which my experience, during a prolonged residence among these forsaken children of the forest, lead given birth. I have communicated these views, in substance, to an honorable agent of the United States Government, who is laboring with ardor and constancy in the amelioration of the condition of the Indians, and who joins, as much as is in his power, the use of means to the laudable wishes of his heart.
I have traversed at several different times the vast plains which are watered by the Missouri and its principal tributaries, such as the Platte or Nebraska, Yellow Stone, the Mankizita-Watpa, the Niobrarah, Tchan Sausan, called James River by the whites, the Wassecha or Vermillion, and the three great superior forks 'that constitute the source of the Missouri, viz., the Jefferson, the Gallatin, and the Madison. Coasting along the north and south branches of the Saskatchawan, I penetrated three hundred miles into the interior of the forests and plains watered by the Athabasca. In every place the whites, half-breeds, and natives, who inhabit these regions, agree in saying that the buffalo, moose, or American elk, and deer of all kinds, diminish in an alarming manner, and that in a few years these races of animals will have wholly disappeared. The territory traversed by the Athabasca furnished, some years ago, abundant game to the greater part of the nations of the Crees, and to a tribe of Assiniboins, which, sixty years previous, had detached themselves from the main body of their nation. Well, over this vast extent of territory I met but three families, viz.-an old Iroquois with his children and grandchildren, numbering about thirty-seven; a family of half-breeds composed of seven persons; and a Sioux with his wife and children. The Crees and the Assiniboins, hitherto the occupants of this land, have been forced to follow the track of the buffalo, and are beginning to intrude upon the territory of the Black-Feet. I resided a long time among the Flat-Beads and the Kalis pels. I have visited at different epochs the Koetenays at the North, and the Shoshonies or Snakes at the South. Their vast territories,. watered by the principal branches of the Upper Columbia and the Rio Colorado of the West, were formerly abundantly provided with every variety of game, which furnished them with clothing and nourishment.
But now that the buffalo has disappeared from these lands, the poor Indians are obliged to go and pass a portion of the year east of the Rocky Mountains, in search of their only means of subsistence. Often, too, in pursuit of their prey, they are drawn into the regions claimed by the Crows and -Black-Feet, and are thus obliged to open their way, arms in hand. The Yantons and the Santics, Sioux tribes, are beginning to make inroads on the hunting-grounds of the Brules, a portion of tile Sioux nation. The Ponkahs are often driven to the necessity of hunting in the lands of tile Sioux and of tile Cheyennes. Formerly the Iowas, the Omaha, and the Ottos subsisted principally oil the product of their buffalo-hunts; at present they are reduced to the most pitiful condition, having nothing for food but a small quantity, of deer, birds, and roots. Such is their misery that they are forced to scour the country in every direction, and in little bands, most happy if they escape tile ambush of an enemy more powerful than themselves, and who frequently massacre the old, the women, and children. It is not rare here to have to deplore similar cruelties. Each year shows an increase of these revolting scenes-melancholy forerunners of an approaching and tragical issue
The Pawnees and the Omahas-are in a state of nearly absolute destitution. Surrounded by enemies, where shall they go to hunt the wild animals which often fail them, having retired to other sections? It is true, that for a considerable time it bas been customary among them to cultivate a little field of squashes and corn ; but often, also, when the harvest appears to meet their expectation and their toil, the enemy comes suddenly and wrests from them this last pitiful resource.
The buffalo is disappearing and diminishing each successive year on the prairies of the Upper Missouri. This does not, however, hinder them from being seen grazing in very numerous herds in particular localities; but the area of land that these animals frequent is becoming more and more circumscribed. Besides, they do not remain in the same place, but change pasturage, according to the seasons.
Thence arise the incursions which the Sioux make into the territories of the Riccaries, the Mandans, the Minataries, the Crovs, and the Assiniboins ; thence also the mutual invasions of the Crows and the Black-Feet in their respective hunts. These depredations are committed by all the wandering tribes of the desert, and give birth to dissensions, and to incessant and bloody wars, which annually revive and multiply, to their great detriment and misfortune. It is not, therefore, astonishing that the number of these savages is gradually decreasing. In the plains, war and famine- lend their aid; on the frontier of civilization, liquors, vices, and maladies carry them off by thousands.
I have visited the Black-Feet, the Crows, Mandans, Assiniboins, the Riccaries, the Minataries, etc., who possess the whole region of the upper Missouri and its tributaries. The condition of all these savages, far from the influence of al~ religious and moral principles, renders them much alike ejusdem farinoe. Among them all are met the same cruelty, the same barbarity, the same sloth and supineness, in fine, the same degrading and revolting superstitious, pushed to the most remote limits which the human mind abandoned to itself, and under the empire of vile passions, call reach.,
It is quite a common observation, and I have myself heard it offered by several persons, that the "religious as well as the social condition of the Indians of these regions, is ill nowise capable of amelioration." I am far from participating in this opinion. Let the obstacles arising from the people who style themselves civilized, be removed; let all trade in ardent spirits, that deadly scourge of the Indian, be prevented; let missionaries be sent, whose zeal is prompted only by the love of our Divine Master, and with no object but the happiness of the poor souls intrusted to their care, and I am confident that in a short time we should have the consoling spectacle of a sensible improvement among them. My personal observations serve as a foundation for these hopes. I have had frequent interviews with the Black-Feet, the Crows, the Assiniboins, the Riccaries, and the Sioux. They have always lent the most marked attention to all my words; they have ever listened to the holy truths which I preached to them with extreme pleasure and a lively interest. They entreated me with the most captivating ingenuousness to take compassion on their miseries, to establish myself among them, promising to join a faithful practice to the knowledge of the truths I should impart to them. Among the Indians of the great American desert, I never found even one who presumed to rail against our holy religion.
To put an end to the cruel wars which decimate these nations; to rescue so many souls from the baneful consequences of the idolatry in which they are buried; to prevent the total destruction of these tribes already so wretched, and yet redeemed like ourselves by the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, is it not an enterprise worthy of inflaming the zeal of a minister of the Gospel? a work worthy of claiming the efficient cooperation and assistance of a government as powerful as is that of the United States?
1
As to agriculture, considered as a means of civilization, its introduction will always be difficult among the Indians, as long as there remains to them a hope of procuring buffaloes or other wild animals. It would prove, in my opinion, a chimera to pretend to introduce this branch among them on an extensive scale in the beginning. We know, however, by experience, that, although little habituated to the fatigue of the assiduous labor that farming requires, some tribes have already attempted to cultivate their little fields. This step taken, each year, according to the abundance of the increase, the limits of these little fields might be extended. Like their brethren who reside west of the Rocky Mountains, they would become more and more attached to the soil whose productions would be the result of their toil. Their roving habits, the wars which often spring from them, would insensibly give place to a more peaceable and domestic life. The animals which they would raise replacing the buffalo, would insensibly efface its memory amid surrounding plenty.
During the last ten years, a great part of the disposable fiends of the Vice-province of Missouri have been employed in the relief of the Indians. The liberality of the Association for the Propagation of the Faith established at Lyons, and those of our friends, have assisted us powerfully in converting and civilizing the tribes beyond the Rocky Mountains. Several of our fellow-members still pursue there the same work of charity, and many of our Fathers and Brothers desire to visit the tribes which I visited last year. An establishment founded among them east of the Rocky Mountains would be most desirable ; but the pecuniary means which they have at their disposal are very far from answering to the work which they contemplate. The lively interest which you take, gentlemen, in the salvation and civilization of so many thousands of men in the wilderness, inspires me with confidence to appeal to your generosity, which alone can furnish the means of conducting to a happy conclusion an enterprise so vast and so eminently Catholic.
There are among these Indians several hundreds of children of mixed blood, whose parents are anxious that means of instruction should be afforded them. To attain this, schools and establishments would be necessary, in which agriculture could be learned; and also many children of pure Indian blood could be received, as the heads of families are desirous of confiding them to the care of the missionaries. A short statistic will give you an idea of the. good which might be done among these Indians. Among the Black-Feet, Father Point and myself baptized more than 1.100 children; among the "Gens du Sang," a tribe of Black-Feet, ill. Thibaut baptized sixty ; the Rev. M. Bellecourt, of Red River, visited Fort Berthold, on the Missouri, and baptized a good number of the children of the Mandans ; all the savages presented him their children for baptism. F. Hoecken, in an excursion made among several tribes on the Missouri, baptized over 400 persons; M. Ravoux, who visited some tribes of Sioux in 1847, and penetrated as far as Fort Pierre, was listened to everywhere with a consoling eagerness, and baptized a great many children. In my late tour among the Sioux, the Ponkahs, etc., I baptized more than 300 children and several adults.
From all these facts, may we not conclude, with sufficient certainty, that those poor souls seem ripe for a more peaceable life, and for a blessed eternity ?
I have the honor to be,
Gentlemen,
Yours, &e.,
P.J.De Smet.