The Indians of the Upper Missouri.

BY FATHER DE SMET.

No race of men, perhaps, which has as yet been made the subject of missionary labour, with a view to its conversion to Christianity, has been found to be more various and obstinate in its superstitions than the North-western tribes of roving Indians. Notwithstanding all that has been advanced by different writers and residents among them, I have found but little that would serve to show a teacher in what their errors really consist, or how they may be successfully refuted. Most works of travellers among the Indians only exhibit in general some of their manners and customs, without pointing out or revealing their motives of action. Indeed nothing but a long and continued intimacy with their camp-life and language-the lot of very few-would enable any one to do so.

By most persons the capacity of the Indians has been greatly underrated. They are generally considered as low in the scale of intellect, wild men thirsting for blood, hunters of game or seekers for plunder, debased in their habits and grovelling in their ideas. The contrary is the case. They show notions of order in their national government, of order and dignity in the management of their domestic affairs, they show zeal in what they believe to be their religious duties, sagacity and shrewdness in their dealings with others, and they often display reasoning powers above the average of uneducated white men. Their religion, as a system, is far superior to that of the inhabitants of Hindostan or Japan. To overcome this, and to establish the truths of Christianity, both their reason and feelings must be wrought upon by teachers pursuing such a course of life and occupation as will convince the Indians of the sincerity of their belief and the disinterestedness of their aims; the grace of God operating meanwhile in their untutored minds and hearts, and so bringing them to that knowledge of His true and holy faith which He alone can give.

It is therefore advisable to know what is the true nature of their religion, when closely analysed; what are their ideas of the Creator, of worship, of futurity; what, in their opinion, constitutes crime. Are crimes offences against the Great Spirit or the individual? are men under any moral obligation to serve the Great Spirit? are good deeds rewarded, and bad ones punished, in this life, or in a future state? Do they believe in a future state at all? if so, how does this belief affect their course of action in this life? Are they in reality idolaters? and if so, in what and of what do their idols consist? These and

other points bearing upon their moral condition are what I purpose to explain, though not perhaps in the order in which they stand.

All these Indians believe in the existence of a Great Spirit, the Creator of all things; and this appears to be an inherent, original, and inborn idea. They do not suppose this Spirit to have a body. The name of this Spirit is Wahcon Tangah, or Great Medicine. The word "medicine" in this case has no reference to the use of drugs, but means all that is incomprehensible, supernatural, all-powerfulevery thing that cannot be explained by ordinary means, or that is above their comprehension. Their own priests or conjurors are likewise termed Wahcon; a steamboat, a watch, any machinery, even toys of whose principle of motion they are ignorant, would be called wahcon, "medicine." Now this Great Medicine— Wahcon Tangah-implies something greater than the power of man. The acts of the Great Spirit are manifested in the elements, in natural phenomena, in sickness and death, in famine, great distress, losses occasioned by invading foes, strokes of lightning, and in every way to them unaccountable by natural means. They think this Great Medicine pervades all air, earth, and sky-that is, is omnipotent, omnipresent, capable of being changed and enlisted on their side in any undertaking, if the proper ceremonies and sacrifices are offered. It is the author of both good and evil, according to its pleasure or to their attention to their mode of worship. Its benefits are apparent in years of great abundance of game, in seasons of health, triumphs over enemies, and the like; its anger is shown in great distress, losses, defeat, infectious diseases, or any other great misfortune the cause of which is unknown and is otherwise inexplicable. As it seldom happens in their precarious life that the intervals between accidents or calamities are long, this Great Spirit is more feared than loved. Its bounties are passed by unheeded and unthanked, whilst its visitations are numbered in fear and trembling. Power is its attribute, and its residence is supposed by some to be in the sun.

They do not acknowledge any separately-existing spirit of evil, although they have a name for a being of the kind in their language. The idea has been implanted by whites in late years, and is but faintly realised by the Indians. Great evil is a dispensation of the anger of the Great Spirit, which it is in their power to avoid by making the proper sacrifices, prayers, and fasts, which they all do; yet they make no demonstration of thanks, by offerings or otherwise, when success has been the apparent result of their ceremonies. This would seem to prove that they believe the aid of the Great Spirit to have been bought, paid for, by the value of the article sacrificed, or to be only a compliance on its part with obligations accruing from their infliction of personal pain on themselves

This great unknown Spirit, or Medicine, created all things. A few men and women of different colours were first created, from which original stock spring the various races of mankind-whites, Indians, negroes, &c. The Indians, they say, were made naked, with such endowments as suit a hunter race; knowledge enough to make and use arms in war or in the chase; a constitution to stand

severe cold, long fasting, excessive fatigue and watchfulness; eyes to see, ears to hear, and legs to follow game. Thus they soon felt their superiority over all animals. All animals are made especially for them; "for if not," they say, "for whom else? They only prey upon each other; besides, Indians could not live without meat." The earth was made to support these animals, for planting corn and raising fuel; all for the use of the Indians. This was the work of the Great Spirit in the beginning. To this Being, then, they offer sacrifices and penances (by fasting and making incisions in their bodies), as well as public prayers, several times a year. The sacrifices principally consist of scarlet cloth, new kettles, skins and furs, tobacco, and other things, which, with great solemnity and ceremony, are presented to the Sun and Thunder, as the two greatest mediums through which they may prove available with the Great Spirit; at the same time the devotee utters a prayer, making the requests of which he most stands in need, and promising a repetition of the sacrifice in case his demands are complied with. Afterwards, the article sacrificed is destroyed, to prevent its falling into the hands of travellers or enemies. This ceremony is usually done by each Indian performer alone in his lodge, or on the hills, in the forest or in the bush, several times a year. They have also days of national worship in which all join, but which is too long to give an account here, our object being only to extract the principle of their worship.

Although they sacrifice, pray, inflict severe punishment on their bodies, and starve themselves for days from religious motives, all this is only to procure present and future temporal advantages. We see nothing in this denoting a sense of moral responsibility, no repentance for past deeds, no thanksgiving for favours received. Crime and sin, therefore, as viewed in a Christian light, can have no existence amongst them. If they felt themselves in any way guilty, they would assuredly do penance and sacrifice to obtain forgiveness. But we do not find this to be the case with any of them. Moreover, crimes cannot be offences against the Great Spirit, as we shall see hereafter that his aid is invoked to commit the greatest of crimes and sins. Their idea, then, of the Great Spirit is based on nothing more than a dread of unknown evil befalling them, which it is in their power to avoid by sacrifice and penance offered to an unseen incomprehensible power, the existence of which they know from actual phenomena. Beyond this they are at a loss. They have no idea of ascribing to this power such attributes as mercy, forgiveness, benevolence, truth, and the like.

It is this view of the Great Spirit divested of the superstitious and fabulous narratives with which it is often clothed which is generally prevalent among all the prairie tribes. War and peace are not regarded as his acts, for they know that they themselves make both; but success or defeat are, as these are beyond their own control. Hence a successful warrior is always called wahcon (medicine). They mean by this that he has by some means secured the aid of the Great Spirit. Natural phenomena, unattended with good or evil results, pass by unheeded; but destructive tornados, deaths by

lightning, or by sickness such as apoplexy, are viewed as his special acts. Eclipses are warnings, loud thunder is a warning; and on these offerings are made with the hope of averting some pending calamity. From this dread of unaccountable evil arises their repugnance to talk on the subject, as to do so would lay open their secret sources of apprehension, and might, they think, by some chance levity, produce the evil they seek to avoid, or by giving occasion to a counter sacrifice on the part of some enemy, render their own observances unavailing.

The belief in amulets or charms is general among the Indians; and the material of these charms or medicines so various, their influence over individuals so diversified, that to enumerate the whole would take too much space, and indeed is not requisite. I must, however, endeavour to present the idea which underlies this belief, which is somewhat difficult to explain. It is this, that although the Great Spirit is all-powerful, yet his will is uncertain. He is also invisible, and only manifests his power in extraordinary acts; smaller matters being beneath his notice, and under the supervision of minor spirits. Now, it is their want of some tangible medium, consecrated by ceremony, guarded with care, and invoked with solemnity, that induces them to select some object as this medium. Every Indian on attaining the age of manhood becomes a warrior, a hunter, the head of a family, and at that time is obliged, by his different occupations, to live in constant apprehension for his life and property from enemies and various other causes. He therefore then chooses something for his wahcon (medicine). This object is chosen in consequence of some dream, or of some incident or idea presented to him on some important 'occasion. In this way the skin of a weasel, stuffed heads and bodies of different birds, images made of wood, of stone, of beads wrought upon skin, rude drawings of bears, of buffalo bulls, wolves, and serpents, of monsters that have no name nor existence-in fact, every thing animate or inanimate— are used, according to the superstition and belief of the individual. This object, whatever it is, is enveloped in several folds of skin, with a lock of some deceased relation's hair, and a small piece of tobacco enclosed, and the whole placed in a parflesche sack neatly ornamented and fringed; and this composes the arcanum of the medicine sack. This sack is never opened in the presence of any one, unless the owner or some of his family fall dangerously ill; it is then taken out and placed at the head of his bed, and the aid of the Great Spirit invoked through it. Ordinarily this sack is opened in secret; the medicine smoked and invoked, and prayers and sacrifices made in its presence and through it, as a tangible medium to the Great Spirit, who is unknown and invisible. No sacrifices are made directly to it; yet it is invoked separately for intercession, or rather as a medium of intercession, to avert smaller evils that come under the jurisdiction of lesser spirits. Such are the appearances of ghosts, diseases of horses or dogs, the finding of lost or stolen property, a successful hunt, though not abundance of game, as the production of game would come within

the power of the Great Spirit, though the matter of killing the same would depend upon other powers, affected or biassed by the ceremonies addressed to the medicine. The Indians know well enough that the material of the charm or medicine has no intrinsic power, neither do they ascribe any to it; the effect lies in their faith in the supernatural as addressed to the object as a visible medium. It is, in fact, the same operation of mind that displays itself in the charms believed in by ignorant whites, and may be considered in that light. Although many white men believe (though erroneously and sinfully) in charms, fortune-telling, in dreams, ghosts, and warnings, yet this does not affect their belief in a Supreme Being-neither does it that of the Indian. As long as he has good luck in his different ordinary undertakings, he will say his medicine is good; but should a series of petty misfortunes befall him, he will throw it away and substitute some other. When pictures, medals, or crosses are given to them by the missionaries, great care is to be taken to give them the true meaning of the veneration and respect attached to such objects.

From the foregoing statements we can judge whether they are in reality idolaters. That they render a species of worship to objects of almost every description, is true; yet their devotion is directed through these toys to the source of all power. Even the sun is only worshipped as being the residence of the Great Spirit, not from any supposed power inherent in that body. They do not believe in the virtue of the material of which their medicine is made, neither do they ascribe to it an immaterial spirit; but the mind finds in them a resting-point-a something to address in form, not for great favours or aid, but for daily protection from smaller evils. This result is expected by the request being made through an object considered sacred, and consecrated by care and ceremony, to that Being whose business in the stern world it is to superintend these matters. Uneducated as they are, obliged mentally to grasp at protection from supernatural evil in every shape and form,-from the great luminary, the sun, as the most powerful, to the smallest atom that might possibly be of some aid,—they through these portions of creation endeavour, by sacrifices, prayer, personal inflictions, and fastings, to excite the interest and protection of a great invisible power, access to whom, in the Indian's belief, is not to be had in any certain way. It would appear that in this respect they do not go far beyond some whites, of every country, in superstition, who also have their chance, their luck, their fortune, and other ideas fully as repugnant to the belief of an all-wise and over-ruling Providence as any thing in the faith of the Indians. The very universality of the practice of this sort of idolatry by the Indians proves it to be their true belief, and appears in fact an acknowledgment of the existence of an overruling Providence. Their prayers and sacrifices are exclusively directed to obtain temporal and not spiritual welfare; they do not pray for that of which they do not feel the want. If they pray and sacrifice to the sun and thunder, it is in their idea to