Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 | Page 3

an Indian, I questioned him as to his ideas of a
future state, the creation of man, &c. and endeavoured to wile from him
an "auld warld story," to use Edie Ochiltree's language. I think I have
never lost sight of my object in any situation where any thing could be
done for its advancement.
I had been early led to place a greater value upon the traditions of the
Indians than has been attached to them by those who do not view them
as a series of authentic annals. For myself, I hold them in the light of
historical records, mixed up indeed with much that is fabulous, but not
in a greater degree than the early annals of other unenlightened nations,
who could not perpetuate them by means of letters. After all it will
remain for the reader to fix the degree of estimation in which these
traditions shall be held, and to determine the degree of credit that is to
be attached to them.
I cannot but think that I have rendered an acceptable service to the
world in preserving these traditions from the oblivion that surely awaits
them in their uncollected state. The North American Indians are a
people, who, in the nature of things, and according to that which has
happened to all, are doomed to be of the number of those

The sole memorial of whose lot Remains--they were, and they are not.
In a very few years nothing will remain of them but a nameless barrow.
The day may come, when even conjecture will be at fault, as with the
builders of the western mounds, in determining who they were, from
whom they originated, what were their peculiar opinions, and the
various other matters and things concerning them.
It has been by some thought necessary that I should present to the
public proofs of the genuineness of these traditions. I shall proceed to
give such as I have been able to collect, and the nature of the case will
admit of my offering. Where they rest on my own word that they are
authentic, the corroborating testimony I rely upon is their asserted
conformity with Indian ideas, opinions, customs, and phraseology.
The first tradition, in the collection, "The Man of Ashes," is referred to
by Mr. Johnstone, residing at Piqua, in the state of Ohio, and acting as
agent for the American government among the Shawanos tribe at that
place, in a communication made by him to the American Society of
Antiquaries, and published in the first volume of their Transactions.
Not having that work at hand, I cannot name the page. I also heard it
from a Shawano when I was at Piqua, in 1823. It is probably an account
mixed up with much that is fabulous of their first meeting with, and
massacre of, a party of white people in alliance with a hostile tribe.
The second tradition, "Pomatare, the Flying Beaver," was related to me
at the same time by the same Indian. It is also briefly referred to by Mr.
Johnstone, in the communication in which mention is made of the first
tradition. Many other writers speak of a tradition current among the
Indians, of their having crossed the sea to arrive at their present place
of residence. I cannot help regarding it as a very strong corroboration of
this tradition, that all the American Indians call the world--i.e. the place
where they dwell--their ideas extend no further--an "island." Does not
the universality of this opinion prove that they are from a common
stock, and once--perhaps ages ago--had demonstration of the fact that
water flows between the continent upon which they now dwell, and that
from which the tradition supposes they came?

The tradition entitled "The Alarm of the Great Sentinel," (Vol. 1, p. 61,)
rests on the authority of Heckewelder, the well-known Moravian
missionary at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and may be found in
"Transactions of the American Philosophical Society." (Phila., 1819,
Vol. 1, p. 206). Much controversy has prevailed in America respecting
the degree of credit to be attached to this writer. None have pronounced
him dishonest, but several have accused him of having a very strong
bias towards the Indians, and of permitting his prejudices to colour his
elaborate accounts of their modes and manners. Two very able writers,
Mr. Duponceau, and Mr. Rawle, have come forward to vindicate him
from the charge of partiality, and I think have fully done so. The
tradition probably refers to an unsuccessful attempt at surprisal by their
enemies.
"The Mother of the World" is told briefly in Hearne's "Journey to the
Northern Ocean," p. 342. Hearne has been generally reckoned an
accurate reporter of what he heard and saw on that journey. His
assertion that the Indians have no religion is, however, totally