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     TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:

     A number of printer's errors have been corrected. However, most
     spelling variants are left as printed, except where the likelihood
     of an error seems strong; (e.g. emcamped/encamped, ryhme/rhyme).
     Consult the Notes at the end of this text for specific corrections.

     Schoolcraft renders Indian language in English characters using his
     own conventions. Therefore, the printed spelling of these words has
     been observed as printed, with only several exceptions, where it
     seems very clear from adjacent spellings that there have been
     printer's errors. The figure 8 is set horizontally to represent a
     phonetic sound. In this text these characters are simulated by [oo]
     and [OO] for lower- and upper-case. The 'oe' ligature is rendered
     as [oe] in transliteration but simply 'oe' elsewhere ('aesofoedita',
    'manoeuvre').

     The text of pages 286 and 287 are printed in reverse order.
     Although pagination is continuous, there is at least one page of
     text missing before the text beginning on p. 288. At p. 300, the
     text again ends abruptly, with a new section beginning on p. 301.




                        THE INDIAN IN HIS WIGWAM,

                                  OR

                            CHARACTERISTICS

                                OF THE

                         RED RACE OF AMERICA

                  FROM ORIGINAL NOTES AND MANUSCRIPTS.

                       BY HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT,

    Memb. Royal Geographical Society of London, and of the Royal Society
    of Northern Antiquaries, Copenhagen; Hon. Memb. of the Natural
    History Society of Montreal, Canada East; Memb. of the American
    Philosophical Society, Philadelphia; of the American Antiquarian
    Society, Worcester; of the American Geological Society, New Haven;
    Vice-President of the American Ethnological Society, New York; Hon.
    Memb. of the New York Historical Society; Hon. Memb. of the
    Historical Society of Georgia; President of the Michigan Historical
    Society; and Hon. Memb. of the Ohio Historical and Philosophical
    Society; Cor. Memb. of the New York Lyceum of Natural History, and
    of the Lyceums of Natural History of Troy and Hudson, N. Y.; Memb of
    the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; of the Albany
    Institute at the State Capitol, Albany, and a Res. Memb. of the
    National Institute at Washington; President of the Algic Society for
    meliorating the condition of the Native Race in the United States,
    instituted in 1831; Hon. Memb. of the Goethean and of the Philo L.
    Collegiate Societies of Pennsylvania, &c. &c.

                              BUFFALO:
                   DERBY & HEWSON, PUBLISHERS.
                   AUBURN--DERBY, MILLER & CO.
                               1848.




PERSONAL REMINISCENCES.


It is now twenty-six years since I first entered the area of the
Mississippi valley, with the view of exploring its then but imperfectly
known features, geographical and geological. Twenty-two years of this
period have elapsed since I entered on the duties of an Executive Agent
for the United States Government in its higher northern latitudes among
the Indian tribes in the west. Having devoted so large a portion of my
life in an active sphere, in which the intervals of travel left me
favourable opportunities of pursuing the languages and history of this
branch of the race, it appears to be a just expectation, that, in
sitting down to give some account of this people, there should be some
preliminary remarks, to apprise the reader how and why it is, that his
attention is recalled to a topic which he may have supposed to be well
nigh exhausted. This it is proposed to do by some brief personal
reminiscences, beginning at the time above alluded to.

The year 1814 constituted a crisis, not only in our political history,
but also in our commercial, manufacturing, and industrial interests. The
treaty of Ghent, which put a period to the war with England, was a
blessing to many individuals and classes in America: but, in its
consequences, it had no small share of the effects of a curse upon that
class of citizens who were engaged in certain branches of manufactures.
It was a peculiarity of the crisis, that these persons had been
stimulated by double motives, to invest their capital and skill in the
perfecting and establishment of the manufactories referred to, by the
actual wants of the country and the high prices of the foreign articles.
No pains and no cost had been spared, by many of them, to supply this
demand; and it was another result of the times, that no sooner had they
got well established, and were in the high road of prosperity than the
peace came and plunged them headlong from the pinnacle of success. This
blow fell heavier upon some branches than others. It was most fatal to
those manufacturers who had undertaken to produce fabrics of the highest
order, or which belong to an advanced state of the manufacturing
prosperity of a nation. Be this as it may, however, it fell with
crushing force upon that branch in which I was engaged. As soon as the
American ports were opened to these fabrics, the foreign makers who
could undersell us, poured in cargo on cargo; and when the first demands
had been met, these cargoes were ordered to be sold at auction; the
prices immediately fell to the lowest point, and the men who had staked
in one enterprise their zeal, skill and money, were ruined at a blow.

Every man in such a crisis, must mentally recoil upon himself. Habits
of application, reading, and an early desire to be useful, had sustained
me at a prior period of life, through the dangers and fascinations of
jovial company. There was in this habit or temper of room-seclusion, a
pleasing resource of a conservative character, which had filled up the
intervals of my busiest hours; and when business itself came to a stand,
it had the effect to aid me in balancing and poising my mind, while I
prepared to enter a wider field, and indeed, to change my whole plan of
life. If it did not foster a spirit of right thought and
self-dependence, it, at least, gave a degree of tranquillity to the
intervals of a marked pause, and, perhaps, flattered the ability to act.

Luckily I was still young, and with good animal spirits, and a sound
constitution I resolved I would not go down so. The result of seven
years of strenuous exertions, applied with persevering diligence and
success, was cast to the winds, but it was seven years of a young man's
life, and I thought it could be repaired by time and industry. What the
east withheld, I hoped might be supplied by another quarter. I turned my
thoughts to the west, and diligently read all I could find on the
subject. The result of the war of 1812, (if this contest had brought no
golden showers on American manufacturers, as I could honestly testify in
my own case,) had opened to emigration and enterprise the great area
west of the Alleghanies. The armies sent out to battle with Indian, and
other foes, on the banks of the Wabash, the Illinois, the Detroit, the
Raisin and the Miami of the Lakes, had opened to observation attractive
scenes for settlement; and the sword was no sooner cast aside, than
emigrants seized hold of the axe and the plough. This result was worth
the cost of the whole contest, honour and glory included. The total
prostration of the moneyed system of the country, the effects of
city-lot and other land speculations, while the system was at its full
flow, and the very backward seasons of 1816 and 1817, attended with late
and early frosts, which extensively destroyed the corn crop in the
Atlantic states, all lent their aid in turning attention towards the
west and south-west, where seven new states have been peopled and
organized, within the brief period to which these reminiscences apply:
namely, Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas and
Michigan, besides the flourishing territories of Wisconsin and Iowa, and
the more slowly advancing territory of Florida. It appeared to me, that
information, geographical and other, of such a wide and varied region,
whose boundaries were but ill defined, must be interesting at such a
period; and I was not without the hope