Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 | Page 7

The Resurrection of the Bison 143 The Wahconda's Son 147
The Idols. A Tradition of the Ricaras 173 Discovery of the Upper
World. A Tradition of the Minnatarees 201 Love and War 213 Legends
of the Happy Hunting-Grounds. I. Akkeewaisee, the Aged 225 II. The
Delaware Heaven 233 III. The Hunting-Grounds of the Blackfoots 245
IV. The Stone Canoe 255 V. The Little White Dove 269 VI. The
Teton's Paradise 279

INTRODUCTION.
In the year 1695, a number of savans associated in Paris for the purpose
of procuring information respecting the American Indians. They were

called shortly The Theoretical and Speculative Society of Paris, but
their title at large was The Society for Prosecuting Researches in the
Western Hemisphere, and for procuring Speculations to be made, and
Theories drawn up, of the Origin and History of its Ancient and its
Present Inhabitants. The undertaking met with almost prompt and
cordial support; the proudest names and the brightest lights of the age
were enlisted in it. The celebrated Madame de Maintenon became the
patroness, forbidding, however, the Society to speculate upon her
affairs; the illustrious Duke de Rohan became the president; the Czar
Peter an honorary member; and the Society was otherwise royally and
nobly officered and befriended. So numerous were the applications to
be received as members, that it was found necessary to establish the
rule, since adopted by certain colleges, of conferring diplomas upon all
who asked for them. It is stated, that there was as loud a call upon the
time and attention of the publishing committee, no fewer than seven
hundred papers of theories and speculations, all essentially varying,
having been presented at the second weekly meeting.
It will be seen from the date that it was a very important era in
speculative philosophy. Father Hennepin had just returned from
Canada, and published his Discovery of a Large Country, the greater
part of which had remained unknown till then, and has not been seen
since. Other French missionaries were daily arriving from New France,
as the French possessions in America were denominated, and spreading
tales, partly true, partly-false, of the wonderful things they had seen.
The questions so very important and so essential to be solved, whether
the ancient inhabitants of North America, the race which is supposed to
be extinct, were of Malay origin, and came from Australasia, or from
the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and whether the surviving race are
descended from the Tartars, the Scandinavians, the Jews, or the Welsh,
began to be agitated about this time, though they were not debated with
the profound shrewdness and sagacity which Adair, Barton, Boudinot,
and other enlightened men, have since evinced on the subject.
With a view to remove the difficulty, and solve the problem, if it were
solvable, it was determined by this learned Society to dispatch
forthwith to America a man, whose mind should be well stored with

science, literature, and philosophy, whose constitution and habits of
body should be equal to the hardships he must necessarily undergo, and
who should be of a temper to despise the dangers he must of course
encounter, in prolonged travels among scattered tribes of wild and
barbarous Indians. It was almost impossible, the Society knew, to find a
person fitted in every respect for the mission. In an age of theories, it is
no easy matter to meet with a man possessed of the common elements
of being, who has not submitted to the tyranny of opinion, and adopted
the theory most in vogue. Few of us like to be singular, and hence we
often adopt opinions, which, at first, we entertain most unwillingly, but
which, after we have defended a few times, we come to love most
heartily. Nothing so heightens our passion for a beautiful woman as
obstacles thrown in our way; nothing so confirms our admiration of a
theory as shallow cavils; a weak battery raised against a besieged town
always increases the courage, and heightens the resistance, of the
besieged.
In respect of the person who should be sent on this honourable mission,
the Society were for a long time much perplexed, and began to fear the
"foundering of their hobby from want of a jockey of required weight."
It was necessary that he should be deeply imbued with classic lore, and
profoundly skilled in languages, because he was to "detect lingual
affinities," and further, might have to read manuscripts, and decipher
inscriptions, of the ancient people. He was required to be deeply
conversant with military science, in all its details, for he was to report
of the nature of Indian tactics, fortifications, and defensive structures;
and it was essential that he should be a theologian, for he was not only
to sow the Word as he went, but to gather, if possible,