El desarrollo y la ideología productivista del progreso

In the Mosaic law it was provided that the surviving brother of one deceased and

childless, should marry his widow, to raise up seed to his brother. Mr. Adair informs that the Indians have a custom which appears to have originated in this law. A widow among them is bound by a strict Indian custom, to mourn the death of her husband for three years or more, unless the brother of her deceased husband wishes to take her. In that case, she is released from this law, as soon as it is known that the brother makes love to her. She may then throw off her mourning habits, and dress and paint like others. Certainly this appears to have originated in that Mosaic law.

The ceremonial law for the separation of women, the Indians appear to keep with great care. Dr. Boudinot says; "The southern Indians oblige their women in their lunar retreats to build small huts at a considerable distance from their dwelling houses--where they are obliged to stay at the risk of their lives. Should they be known to violate this ancient law, they must answer for every misfortune that the people should meet with."

"Among the Indians on the north west of the Ohio, the conduct of the women (continues the Doctor) seems perfectly agreeable (as far as circumstances will permit) to the law of Moses. A young woman, at the first change in her circumstances, immediately separates herself from the rest in a hut made at some distance from the dwelling houses, and remains there seven days. The female that brings her food, is careful not to touch her; and so

cautious is she herself of touching her own food, that she makes use of a sharpened stick to take up her meat, and of a spoon for her other food. When the seven days are ended, she bathes herself in water, washes all her clothes, and changes the vessel she has made use of.

She then returns to her father's house."

Dr. Boudinot further says; "A Muskagee woman delivered of a child is separated in like manner for three moons, or eighty four days." In the ceremonial law the mother of a female child was to be separated eighty days; of a male forty days. Some of the Indian nations, Dr.

Boudinot assures us, maintain a similar distinction between male and female children. Can a serious doubt remain of the origin of these Indian customs? What nation on earth beside the Jews and Israel ever maintained customs of separations and purifications like these?

Rev. Dr. Morse and Captain Carver speak of this custom among Indian women, among distant tribes where they have travelled, as will appear. And many other testimonies have been borne to the same Indian rite.

Col. Smith informs that "the young women, when our people first came among them were very modest and shame faced; and both young and old women would be highly offended at indecent expressions."

Major Vose, at Fort Armstrong, in a letter to the secretary of the A. B. C. F. M. says; "I have been informed that in places where the Indians have had the least intercourse with the

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whites, there the men are the most temperate, and the women most chaste."

The traditional religion, the kind and degree of piety maintained among the Indians, are unaccountable on any other principle than that they came down by tradition from ancient Israel. Some things shall be stated from good authority, which illustrate this particular.

Rev. Dr. Mather and Rev. E. Mayhew both testify to the following fact. Japhet Hannet was an Indian preacher on Martha's Vineyard. He was born A. D. 1638. His parents had lost before he was born, five infant children. Japhet was the sixth. The writer says; "The mother of this child being greatly distressed with fear lest she should lose it, as she had the former, and utterly despairing of any help from such means as had been formerly tried without success; as soon as she was able, she took him up with a sorrowful heart, and went into a retired place, that she might there give full vent to her grief. While she was there reflecting on the insufficiency of human help, she found it powerfully suggested to her mind, that there is one Almighty God, who is to be prayed to; that this God has created all things; and that the God who had created all things, who had given being to herself and all other people, and had given her child to her, was able to preserve and continue his life. On this, she resolved that she would seek to God for that mercy; and did accordingly. The issue was, that her child lived. And her faith in him, who had thus answered her prayer, was wonderfully

strengthened. And the consideration of the divine goodness herein manifested to her, caused her to dedicate this son to the service of that God who had thus preserved his life.

She early informed her son of this her religious act; and did as far as she could educate him accordingly," Both Dr. Mather and Mr. Mayhew inform that this took place before ever the parents of Japhet were taught to know any thing of the Christian religion;--and that this mother was thus prepared to embrace the Christian religion, as soon as she heard of it from the missionary that went to the island. And when she joined the church, she gave this

relation. This youth became converted; joined the church of converted Indians on the island;

became a very pious and useful man; was a captain of the island, and a great friend to the English in the war with Philip; finally became a pastor of the Indian church there; and died in old age in the triumphs of faith.

How different was the religion of this native of Martha's Vineyard from that of the eastern heathen world! The knowledge she had, it seems, must have been from Hebrew tradition, and the entail of the covenant with Abraham.

In the third report of the United Foreign Missionary Society, in a letter detailing the happy things which the writer saw at Brainerd mission, he states the effects which the knowledge and conversion of the Indian children in that school visited the parents at home.

The aged Indians on hearing the children repeat the instructions given them, were pleased and said; "Now this is good talk. It resembles the talk which the old people used to make to us when we were small children. But alas, the wicked white people (meaning the

unprincipled traders among the Indians) who have come among us have rooted it out of our nation. We are glad the Great Spirit has sent these good missionaries to bring it back to us again."

It is stated on all hands that within about eighty years, the connection of the Indians near the English with the white people has much corrupted the Indians, and extinguished much of

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their traditional religion. Here we find a new testimony to the fact, from the confession of those aged Cherokees. And they discover what seems to them a resemblance between our religious instructions and the traditional instructions given by their old people, meaning probably their old beloved wise men (the keepers of their ancient traditions) or high priests, or both, before they knew anything of the white people. This agrees with the other

information we receive relative to the religion of the best informed natives.

In the same report of the United Foreign Missionary Society from the missionaries among the Indians at the west, they inform as follows; "It was very interesting to hear them (the natives) at the garrison joining in a kind of sacred singing. Every morning on the first appearance of light, we heard them on all sides around us, for a great distance from the camp, engaged in very earnest prayer to God, their Creator. Thus they did likewise on all extraordinary occasions, as when they received any distinguishing favour." This was before any mission was established among them; but while the missionaries were exploring the country to select a suitable place for a mission. They were Indians untaught by any thing but their own traditions. The missionaries adds; "They are very sincere, temperate, and

considerate; and appear to regard the particular providence of God with as much attention and reverence as any Christian people."

Such evidence as this hardly needs a comment.--What possible account can be given for such traditional religion among a people destitute of the word of God, and of letters, who for thousands of years have been secluded from the knowledge of the civilized world;--only, that they derived it from ancient Hebrew revelation; and that they are of the tribes of Israel?

In other accounts the missionaries at the west inform as follows; "The men are generally of a lofty stature, a tine form, and a frank and open countenances. In council they are dignified; and in their speeches eloquent. Their children are numerous, and remarkably submissive to parental authority. As a people they are punctual, and apparently fervent in their morning and evening devotions. But like the ancient Athenians they address their worship to the unknown God."

Rev. Mr. Pixley, at the great Osage mission, in a tour among the wild natives says: "I asked White Hair (a chief) why he blacked his face this morning? He informed that he might call upon God as we do when we sit down to eat. And I must confess (adds Mr. Pixley) their early rising, and their constancy in attending to their devotions, made me sometimes inquire, What is the power of my religion? and whether it ought not to make me, and all Christians, rise to pray, at least as early as these Indians?"

Mr. Pixley in a subsequent journal says; "The Indians, although extremely singular in their way of worship, might certainly in some respects be imitated with profit by Christians.

I allude particularly to the early and persevering attention to it before day, or as soon as the day dawns. Under the force of this habit, if their hearts were ever led to feel and pray aright, they will undoubtedly make most eminent Christians; especially as the heaping up of

treasures, and in this sense, the love of the world, seems not to have taken possession of their minds. Let objectors inform, where these Indians learned from the heathen world such religion as they possess?

It has been stated that the Indians have a tradition that as they once, away in another

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country, had the old divine speech, the book of God; they shall at some time have it again, and shall then be happy. Did not the Indian reputation (noted in the sixth report of the United Foreign Missionary Society, as having come from a wild region beyond the Council Bluffs of the west) in their talk with the Board of Managers in New York, probably allude to such traditions? One of them says; "Brothers, we have long since been told, that the red men would, one day, live like white men, and have houses and food like them. These things are long coming to pass. I wish it was so. I have now grown old, and have not seen it."

In the journals of Rev. Mr. Butrick among the Cherokees, making an excursion among the Indians, he says of a certain chief; "Few men in any nation understand the art of pleasing and of rendering their conversion agreeable, better than he. We made known to him the object of our journey. He appeared very thankful, and told us he would lay the subject before the other chiefs, and let us know the result of their consultation. After some conversation, his wife, and old woman, told us, that when she was a small child, the old people used to say that good people would come to instruct the Cherokees at some future period; and that perhaps she and others of her age would live to see the day. And now she thought that, perhaps, we and the other missionaries had come to give them that instruction."

This traditionary opinion, among the different tribes, (noted also by Mr. Adair, Dr.

Boudinot, and others,) it seems, must have been handed down from ancient prophecy of their restoration. They had indeed been seeking the word of God, (according to a prophecy in Amos, of their famine of the word,) but had not found it. God in mercy grant they may now speedily find it.

Dr. Boudinot gives an account of a speech of Cornplant, a chief in the six nations of Indians, expostulating with the head department of our states, on account of lands taken from his people.

This chief had told his people we should not treat them thus; and they were now ready to tear him in pieces, because we had done it. After various affecting remarks, he proceeds;

"Father, we will not conceal from you that the Great Spirit, and not man, has preserved Cornplant (his own name) from the hands of his own nation. For they ask continually, where is the land on which our children are to lie down?--You told us (say they) that a line drawn from Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario, would mark forever our bounds on the east; and a line from Beaver Creek to Pennsylvania would mark it on the west. But we see that it is not so.

For first one, and then another comes, and takes it away by order of that people, who you told us promised to secure it to us forever. Cornplant is silent; for he has nothing to answer.

When the sun goes down, Cornplant opens his heart before the Great Spirit. And earlier than the sun appears again upon the hills, he gives thanks for his protection during the night. For he feels that among men become desperate by the injuries they sustain, it is God only that can preserve him. Cornplant loves peace. All that he had in store, he has given to those who have been robbed by your people, lest they should plunder the innocent to repay

themselves."

The original peaceable and hospitable character of the Indians testifies much relative to their traditional religion as having come down from a divine origin. I might here multiply quotations; but shall content myself with two. These I shall preface with a remark, that the

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Indian cruelties to our people have been manifestly occasioned by the injuries they have received from various of our people, and by their own traditionary notions, which they think accord with these injuries, that the white people are out of the covenant of the Great Spirit once made with their fathers, are the accursed people, and may well be exterminated.

But let us hear the testimony of Christopher Columbus, as given in Edwards' West Indies, relative to the peaceable and hospitable temper of the natives of our land, when he first discovered this continent. Writing to his royal Master and Mistress in Spain, he says; "I swear to your majesties, that there is not a better people in the world than these (natives of America;) more affectionate, affable, or mild. They love their neighbors as themselves.

Their language is the sweetest, the softest, and most cheerful; for they always speak

smiling." An old native approaching him with a basket of summer fruit, said, (as he seemed to have some fear of the designs of those strangers,) "If you are men subject to mortality like ourselves, you cannot be unapprized that after this life, there is another, in which a very different portion is allotted to good and bad men. If therefore you expect to die, and believe with us that every one is to be rewarded in a future state according to his conduct in the present, you will do no hurt to those who do none to you."

My other quotation is from Dr. Boudinot. He assures us he was present when Gen. Knox gave a dinner in the city of New York, to a deputation of Indians, sachems and a chief, from Indian nations at the west, who came with a message to our President. He says; "A little before dinner, two or three of the sachems, with their chief, went into a balcony at the front of the house; the drawing room being up stairs. From this they had a view of the city, the harbour, Long Island, &c. &c. After remaining there a short time, they returned into a room apparently dejected;--the chief more than the rest. Gen. Knox took notice of it, and said to him; Brother; what has happened to you? You look sorry! Is there any thing to distress you?

He answered; I'll tell you brother. I have been looking at your beautiful city--the great water--your fine country--and see how happy you all are. But then I could not help thinking that this fine country, and this great water were once ours.--Our ancestors lived here. They enjoyed it as their own in peace. It was a gift of the Great Spirit to them and their children.

At last the white people came here in a great canoe. They asked only to let them tie it to a tree, lest the water carry it away. We consented. They then said some of their people were sick; and they asked permission to land them and put them under the shade of the trees. The ice then came, and they could not go away. They then begged a piece of land to build

wigwams for the winter. We granted it to them. They then asked for some corn to keep them from starving. We kindly furnished it to them. They promised to go away when the ice was gone. When this happened, we told them they must now go away with their big canoe. But they pointed to their big guns, round their wigwams, and said they would stay there, and we could not make them go away. Afterwards more came.-- They brought spirituous and

intoxicating liquors with them, of which the Indians became very fond. They persuaded us

intoxicating liquors with them, of which the Indians became very fond. They persuaded us