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Philology--Structure of the Indian languages--Letter from Mr.
Duponceau--Question of the philosophy of the Chippewa syntax--Letter
from a Russian officer on his travels in the West--Queries on the
physical history of the North--Leslie Duncan, a maniac--Arwin on the
force of dissipation--Missionary life on the sources of the
Mississippi--Letter from Mr. Boutwell--Theological Review--The
Territory of Michigan, tired of a long delay, determines to organize
a State Government.
1834. Oct. 11th. Mr. Peter S. Duponceau, of Philadelphia,
addresses me on the structure of the Indian languages, in terms
which are very complimentary, coming, as they do, as a voluntary
tribute from a person whom I never saw, and who has taken the lead
in investigations on this abtruse topic in America. "I have read,"
he remarks, "with very great pleasure, your interesting narrative of
the expedition to the sources of the Mississippi, and particularly
your lectures on the Chippewa language, and the vocabulary which
follows it. It is one of the most philosophical works on the Indian
languages I have ever read; it gives a true view of their structure,
without exaggeration or censure, and must satisfy the mind of every
rational man. It is a matter of sincere regret that you have
proceeded in your lectures no farther than the noun, and your
vocabulary no farther than the letter B. It is much to be hoped that
the work will be completed. I should hope that our government could
have no objection to printing it at its expense, as a national work1,
indispensably necessary for the instruction of our agents and
interpreters, and even the military officers employed among the
Indians."
"The Chippewa, like the Algonquin of old2,
is the common language of business among the Indians, and is as
necessary among them as the French is in the courts of Europe. The
object of this letter, sir, is to be informed whether the remainder
of the work is to be published. If government will not do it, some
of our learned societies might. At any rate, sir, if my services can
be of use to you for this object, I shall be happy to do everything
in my power to aid it."
This testimony, from the first and most learned philologist in
America, gratified and agreeably surprised me. I had studied the
Chippewa language alone in the forest, without the aid of learned
men, or books to aid me. I addressed myself to it with ardor, it is
true, and with the very best oral helps, precisely as I would to
investigate any moral or physical truth. I found that nouns and
verbs had a ground form, or root; that this root carried its general
and primary meaning into all words or phrases of which it was a
compound; and that every syllable or sound of a letter, put before
or behind it, conveyed a new and distinct meaning. By keeping the
purposes of a strict philological analysis before me, and by
preserving a record of my work, the language soon revealed its
principles. When I had attained a clear idea of these principles
myself, and had verified them by reference to, and discussion with,
the best native speakers, I could as clearly state them to another.
This is what Mr. Duponceau means by the term "most philosophical."
The philosophy of the syntax I did not in any respect overstate, but
merely recognized or discovered.
In one respect it seemed to me a far more simple language than this
eminent writer had represented the Indian languages generally. And
this was in this very philosophy of its syntax. By synthesis I
understand the opposite of analysis--the one resolving into its
elements what the other compounds. If so, the synthesis of the
Chippewa language is clearly, to my mind, homogeneous and of a
piece--a perfect unity, in fact It seems to be, all along, the
result of one kind of reasoning, or thinking, or philosophizing. If,
therefore, by the term "polysynthetic," which Mr. Duponceau, in
1819, introduced for the class of Indian languages, it be meant that
its grammar consists of many syntheses, or plans of thought, it did
not appear to me that the Chippewa was polysynthetic. But this I
could not state to a man of his learning and standing with the
literary public, without incurring the imputation of rashness or
assumption.
15th. P. de Tchehachoff, the Russian gentleman before named,
writes to me in the idiom of a foreigner, from Peoria, on his
progress through the western country. "I am anxious," he remarks,
"to take advantage of the first opportunity of writing to you from
this remote western world, where since seven days I did not meet
with any other beings but wolves and money-getting Yankees. I must
acknowledge that one must have a large lot of curiosity to visit
these one-fourth civilized regions (that are by far worse than any
real wilderness), for, although they are getting settled at an
incredible speed, they don't offer to the mere lover of the beauties
of nature, or improvement of human civilization, any great charm.
Here nature is rich, but, farmerly or businessly
speaking, killingly prosaic--no romance--no Lake Superior water--no
scenery--nothing, finally, that could captivate a poetical glance.
"I am now writing these poor lines under a regular storm of
smoke-clouds, and chewing tobacco expectorations. I never
experienced so much the benefit of being brought up as a warlike
soldier, to stand all that. However, my courage is sinking down,
and, therefore, I shoot ahead to-morrow at day-break, as fast as
possible, either by water or by land. The coaches here are rather
comfortable, but extremely slow.
"As I intend to make but a very short stay in St. Louis and Ohio,
I'll not be able to have the pleasure of writing to you again before
reaching New York or Havana; but, if you continue always to be, for
me, as kind as formerly, I hope you'll grant me the particular favor
of writing to me once in a while. This will be an impudent theft, on
my part, of time so usefully consecrated to scientific pursuits.
Still I flatter myself you'll pardon it, consequently founded on
that (perhaps gratuitous) supposition. I'll ask you to direct your
letter to Charleston, South Carolina (until called for), towards the
middle of the next month, and, if possible, answer me on the
following queries: 1. What are the inducements to imagine that any
volcanic action exists in the Porcupine Mountains, and mentioning,
approximately, their distance from the Ontonagon River; and their
probable influence on the diffusion of the copper ores and copper
boulders on its shores? 2. What are the most accurate or probable
limits (by degrees) of the primitive region of North America; and
whether it forms any chain, or has any probable communication with
all its different branches, or the main ridges of the Cordilleras or
Andes? 3. Is there any remarkable evaporation, or any other
hygrometric phenomenon, or influence of currents that sustains the
level of Lakes Superior and Michigan, so diametrically opposite in
their geographical situation? 4. What constitutes, mainly, the
predominating geognostic features of Lake Superior, the Upper
Mississippi, and the Missouri? I shall be extremely happy to see
these problems solved."
17th. This day terminated, at St. Mary's, the melancholy fate
of poor Leslie Duncan. Insanity is dreadful in all its phases. This
man wrote to me early in the spring for some favor, which I granted.
He was a dealer in merchandise, in a small way, at St. Mary's, where
he was known as a reputable, modest, and temperate man, who had been
honorably discharged, with some small means, from the army. He
visited Detroit in May to renew his stock. Symptoms of aberration
there showed themselves, which became very decided after his return.
Utter madness supervened. It was necessary to confine him in a
separate building, and to chain him to a post, where he passed five
months as an appalling spectacle of a human being, without memory,
affection, or judgment, and perpetually goaded by the most raving
passion. It appeared that the piles--a disease under which he had
suffered for many years--had been cured by exsection or scarifying,
which healed the issue, but threw the blood upon his brain.
23d. A functionary of the general government at Washington
writes me, to bespeak my favorable interest for the wayward son of a
friend. Arwin, for I will call him by this name, was the son of a
kind, intelligent, and indulgent father, dwelling in the District of
Columbia, who had spared nothing to fit him for a useful and
honorable life. The young man also possessed a handsome person, and
agreeable and engaging manners and accomplishments. But his love for
the coarser amusements of the world and its dissipations, absorbed
faculties that were suited for higher objects. As a last, resort, he
was commended to some adventurous gentleman engaged in the fur trade
on the higher Missouri; where, it was hoped, the stern realities of
life would arrest his mind, and fix it on nobler pursuits. But a
winter or two in those latitudes appeared to have wrought little
change. He came to Mackinack, on his way back to civilized life,
late in the fall of 1834, exhausted in means, poor and shabby in his
wardrobe, and evidently not a pilgrim from the "land of steady
habits."
I invited him to my house, in the hope of winning him over to the
side of morals, gave him a bed and plate, and treated him with
courteous and respectful attention. He was placed under restraint by
these attentions, but it was found to be restraint only. He was
secretly engaged in dissipations, which finally became so low, that
I was compelled to leave him to pursue his course, and thus to
witness another example of the application of that striking remark
of Dr. Johnson, "that negligence and irregularity, if long
continued, will render knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius
contemptible."
Nov. 29th. The rough scenes required by a missionary life on
the sources of the Mississippi, are depicted in a letter from the
Rev. W.S. Boutwell, who has just planted himself among the Pillagers
at Leech Lake. This is the same gentleman who accompanied me to
Itasca Lake in 1835. "Your favors," he says, "of April 28th and July
26th, are before me; and would that I could command time to
compensate you for at least half! But look at a man whose head and
hands are full of cares and duties. The only time I get to write is
stolen, if I may so say, from the hours of repose. October the ninth
I arrived here. There was not a sack of corn nor rice to be bought
or sold. I had but two men, and with these a house must be built and
a winter's stock of fish laid up. What must be done? I will briefly
tell you what I did. Four days after my arrival I sent my fisherman
to Pelican Island, and pulled off my coat and shouldered my axe, and
led the other into the bush to make a house. In about ten days, with
the help of one man, I had the timber cut and on the spot for a
log-cottage twenty-two by twenty-four. Some part of this I not only
cut, but assisted in carrying on my own back. But for every inch of
over-exertion I got my pay at night, when I was sure to be 'double
and twisted' with the rheumatism. I have located about two miles
east of the old fort, where you counseled with the Indians at this
place. As you cross the point of land upon which the old fort is
built, you fall on a beautiful bay, a mile and a half broad, on the
east side of which I have located, in the midst of a delightful
grove of maples. South-west, three-fourths of a mile, is the present
trading house.
"When I arrived I had not sufficient corn to feed my men three days.
There was also at that time a great scarcity of fish. But the God of
Elijah did not forsake us. We soon were in the midst of plenty. On
the 11th of the present instant my fisherman returned, having been
absent not quite four weeks, and with but four nets, yet I had
nearly 6000 tulibees (this is a small species of whitefish) on my
scaffold. My house, in the meantime, was going forward, though
rather tardily, with but one man. In two days more I hope to quit my
bark lodge for my log and mud-walled cottage, though it has neither
chair nor three-legged stool, table nor bedstead. But all this does
not frighten me. No, it is good for a man sometimes to stand in
need, that he may the better know how to feel for his fellow-man.
"You mention the receipt of a letter from Mr. Greene, relative to
the field at Fond du Lac. I am happy to hear so full an expression
of your views in relation to that post. As the Board were unable to
supply a teacher, Mr. Hall, on visiting them in September, with
myself and Mr. Ely--we were all of the same opinion, that it must be
occupied--and finally, with the advice of Mr. Aitkin, concluded that
it was best for Mr. Ely to pass the winter there. Mr. Cote was also
very desirous of a school being opened. Sandy Lake, of course, is
without a teacher this winter. I was not a little disappointed,
after the repeated assurances and encouragements of the Board to
expect aid, and after the provision I had made for a fellow-laborer,
to be directed to return and pass another winter as I did the past.
Suffice it to say, I have learned more of Indian habits, customs,
prejudices, &c., than I knew two years, or even one year before.
"To pass my time in the family of the trader, I could not avoid
giving the impression that I was more interested in the trade than
in their temporal and spiritual welfare. To live alone I could not,
and live above their suspicion from the habits of single men who are
engaged in the trade. To live in the family with my hired man, would
be quite as bad. I, therefore, concluded that the time had now come
when duty was too imperious not to receive a hearing. A sense of
duty, duty to God, the cause of Christianity, myself and this
people, therefore, led me to change my condition.
"I am giving you no news (I presume), only the reasons which satisfy
myself, and that for an enlightened moral being is enough, at least
it is all I need or wish to meet friend or foe.
"The Indians now are all at their wintering grounds, and on good
terms with the Sioux, as I, this evening, learn from Mr. D., who has
just returned from an excursion among them. They have appeared quite
as friendly, and by far more civil, this fall than last."
Dec. 8th. Mr. Leonard Woods, and Dr. A.W. Ives, of New York,
press me to write for the pages of the Theological Review, a
periodical of great spirit and judgment in its department.
31st. The people of this territory have evinced, in various
ways, great uneasiness in not being admitted, by a preparatory act
of Congress, to the right of forming a state constitution, and
admission into the Union, agreeably to the Ordinance of 1787. The
population has, for some time, been more than sufficient to
authorize one representative. In some respects, the term of
territorial probation and privilege has been extraordinary, and
bears a striking analogy to that of a plant, thrice plucked up by
the roots, and watered, and nourished, and set out again. It has
been twenty-nine years a territory, having been first
organized, I believe, in 1805, For the first seven years it was
under the government of Gen. Hull, by whom it was lost, and fell
under foreign conquest. It then had about a year of military
government under Gen. Brock, and, after being re-conquered in 1814,
lived on, awhile, under the rule of our own commanding generals.
Gen. Cass was, I think, appointed by Mr. Monroe, late in 1814, and
governed it for the long period of eighteen years. Geo. B. Porter
succeeded, and, since his death, there has been a confused
interregnum of secretaries.
"Thrice plucked up" was it, by the total destruction of Detroit
(which was in fact the territory) by fire in 1806, by the terrible
Indian and British war in 1812, and by the Indian war of the Black
Hawk of 1832. It has suffered in blood and toil more than any, or
all the other north-western territories together. It has been the
entering point for all hostilities from Canada; and, to symbolize
its position, it has been the anvil on which all the grand weapons
of our Indian scath have been hammered. Its old French and American
families have been threshed by the flail of war, like grain on a
floor. And it is no wonder that the people are tired of waiting for
sovereignty, and think of taking the remedy into their own hands. On
the 9th of September, the Legislative Council passed an act for
taking the census. The result shows a population of 85,856, in the
fourteen lower counties, and the first steps for a self-called
convention are in progress.
1: This was begun thirteen years afterwards, when
a general investigation into the subject of the Indians generally,
was directed by Congress, and placed in my hands. Vide
Information respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the
Indian Tribes of the United States. Part I. Lippincott, Grambo &
Co., 1851.
2: The languages are, in fact, identical in
structure; the word Chippewa being a comparatively modern term,
which was not used by the old French writers of the missionary era.
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
any way endorse the stereotypes implied.
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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