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Ten years ago I returned from the area of the Mississippi Valley
to New York, my native State, after many years' residence and
exploratory travels of that quarter of the Union. Having become
extensively known, personally, and as an author, and my name having
been associated with several distinguished actors in our western
history, the wish has often been expressed to see some record of the
events as they occurred. In yielding to this wish, it must not be
supposed that the writer is about to submit an autobiography of
himself; nor yet a methodical record of his times--tasks which, were
he ever so well qualified for, he does not at all aspire to, and
which, indeed, he has not now the leisure, if he had the desire, to
undertake.
Still, his position on the frontiers, and especially in connection
with the management of the Indian tribes, is believed to have been
one of marked interest, and to have involved him in events and
passages often of thrilling and general moment. And the recital of
these, in the simple and unimposing forms of a diary, even in the
instances where they may be thought to fail in awakening deep
sympathy, or creating high excitement, will be found, he thinks, to
possess a living moral _undertone_. In the perpetual conflict
between civilized and barbaric life, during the settlement of the
West, the recital will often recall incidents of toil and peril, and
frequently show the open or concealed murderer, with his uplifted
knife, or deadly gun. As a record of opinion, it will not be too
much to say, that the author's approvals are ever on the side of
virtue, honor, and right; that misconception is sometimes prevented
by it, and truth always vindicated. If he has sometimes met bad men;
if he has experienced detraction, or injustice; if even persons of
good general repute have sometimes persecuted him, it is only
surprising, on general grounds, that the evils of this kind have not
been greater or more frequent; but it is conceived that the record
of such injustice would neither render mankind wiser nor the author
happier. The "crooked" cannot be made "straight," and he who
attempts it will often find that his inordinate toils only vex his
own soul. He who does the ill in society is alone responsible for
it, and if he chances not to be rebuked for it on this imperfect
theatre of human action, yet he cannot flatter himself at all that
he shall pass through a future state "scot free." The author views
man ever as an accountable being, who lives, in a providential
sense, that he may have an opportunity to bear record to the
principles of truth, wherever he is, and this, it is perceived, can
be as effectually done, so far as there are causes of action or
reflection, in the recesses of the forest, as in the area of the
drawing-room, or the purlieus of a court. It is believed that, in
the present case, the printing of the diary could be more
appropriately done, while most of those with whom the author has
acted and corresponded, thought and felt, were still on the stage of
life. The motives that, in a higher sphere, restrained a Wraxall and
a Walpole in withholding their remarks on passing events, do not
operate here; for if there be nothing intestimonial or faulty
uttered, the power of a stern, high-willed government cannot be
brought to bear, to crush independence of thought, or enslave the
labors of intellect: for if there be a species of freedom in America
more valuable than another, it is that of being pen-free.
It is Sismondi, I think, who says that "time prepares for a long
flight, by relieving himself of every superfluous load, and by
casting away everything that he possibly can." The author certainly
would not ask him to carry an onerous weight. But, in the history of
the settlement of such a country and such a population as this,
there must be little, as well as great labors, before the result to
be sent forward to posterity can be prepared by the dignified pen of
polished history; and the writer seeks nothing more than to furnish
some illustrative memoranda for that ultimate task, whoever may
perform it.
He originally went to the west for the purpose of science. His
mineralogical rambles soon carried him into wide and untrodden
fields; and the share he was called on to take in the exploration of
the country, its geography, geology, and natural features, have
thrown him in positions of excitement and peril, which furnish, it
is supposed, an appropriate apology, if apology be necessary, for
the publication of these memoirs.
But whatever degree of interest and originality may have been
connected with his early observations and discoveries in science,
geography, or antiquities, the circumstances which directed his
attention to the Indian tribes--their history, manners and customs,
languages, and general ethnology, have been deemed to lay his
strongest claim to public respect. The long period during which
these observations have been continued to be made, his intimate
relations with the tribes, the favorable circumstances of his
position and studies, and the ardor and assiduity with which he has
availed himself of them, have created expectations in his case which
few persons, it is believed, in our history, have excited.
It is under these circumstances that the following selections from
his running journal are submitted. They form, as it were, a thread
connecting acts through a long period, and are essential to their
true understanding and development. A word may be said respecting
the manner of the record which is thus exhibited:--
The time is fixed by quoting exactly the dates, and the names of
persons are invariably given wherever they could, with propriety, be
employed; often, indeed, in connection with what may be deemed
trivial occurrences; but these were thought essential to the proper
relief and understanding of more important matters. Indeed, a large
part of the journal consists of extracts from the letters of the
individuals referred to; and in this way it is conceived that a good
deal of the necessarily offensive character of the egotism of
journalism is got rid of. No one will object to see his name in
print while it is used to express a kind, just, or noble sentiment,
or to advance the cause of truth; and, if private names are ever
employed for a contrary purpose, I have failed in a designed
cautiousness in this particular. Much that required disapprobation
has been omitted, which a ripening judgment and more enlarged
Christian and philosophic view has passed over; and much more that
invited condemnation was never committed to paper. Should
circumstances favor it, the passages which are omitted, but
approved, to keep the work in a compact shape, will be hereafter
added, with some pictorial illustrations of the scenery.
The period referred to, is one of considerable interest. It is the
thirty years that succeeded the declaration of war by the United
States, in 1812, against Great Britain, and embraces a large and
important part of the time of the settlement of the Mississippi
Valley, and the great lake basins. During this period ten States
have been added to the Union. Many actors who now slumber in their
graves are called up to bear witness. Some of the number were
distinguished men; others the reverse. Red and white men alike
express their opinions. Anecdotes and incidents succeed each other
without any attempt at method. The story these incidentally tell, is
the story of a people's settling the wilderness. It is the
Anglo-Saxon race occupying the sites of the Indian wigwams. It is a
field in which plumed sachems, farmers, legislators, statesmen,
speculators, professional and scientific men, and missionaries of
the gospel, figure in their respective capacities. Nobody seems to
have set down to compose an elaborate letter, and yet the result of
the whole, viewed by the philosophic eye, is a broad field of
elaboration.
Henry R. Schoolcraft. Philadelphia, Sept. 12th, 1851.
This site includes some historical
materials that may imply negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or language
of a particular period or place. These items are presented as part of the
historical record and should not be interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in
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Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the
Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers, 1851
Thirty
Years with the Indians
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