Cherokee phoenix. (New Echota [Ga.]) 1828-1829, December 03, 1828, Image 1

Georgia Historic Newspapers

Cherokee phoenix., December 03, 1828, Image 1

About Cherokee phoenix. (New Echota [Ga.]) 1828-1829 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 1828)

Page of 4

Prev Issue Next Issue

Text PDF JP2 (3.2 MB) Clip/Print Image

Page of 4

Prev Issue Next Issue

Return to Top

Newspaper Page TextVOL. L. ADITED BY ELIAS BOUDINOMM. ~ PRINTED WEEKLY BY | ISAACHE .;%IARRIS, © Fpog THE CHEROKEE NATION. = At $250 if paid in advance, $8 in six ‘months, or %3 50 if paid at the end of the ‘year. ; To subscribers who can read only the Gherokee langnage the price will be $2,00 ‘in advance, or $2,50 to be paidswithin thre year. : o Every subscription will be considered as sontinued unless subscribers give notice to the contrary before the commencement of a néw year. = - ] Any parson procuring six subscribers, and becoming respon ible for the payment, shall receive a seventh gratis, : ~ Adyertisements will be inserted at sevens fw-five cents per square for the first inser tlon, and thiriy-seven and a half cents for each continuance;. longer .nes in propor- Woa. 4 3P Al letters addressed to the Editor, post paid, will receive due attention. AGENTS FOR THE 'CHEROKEE PHENIX, ® . Thefollowing persons are authorized to veceive subscriptions and payments for the Gherokee Phanix. , Messrs. Prrce & Wirrrans, No. 20 Ma ket St. Boston, Mass. Groser M. Tracy, Agent ofthe A. B. ®: F. M. New York, ~ Rev. A. D. Eooy, Canandaigua, N. Y, - aromas Hasrinas, Utica, N, Y. Porrirp & CoNVERSE, Richmond, Va. Rav. James Caveeery, Beaufort, S.4C Wirrian Movurriz Reip, Charleston, 8 X Gl GeorgE SMITH, Statesville, W. T. Witriam M, Couss, Nashville ‘Len. Reav. BENNAT Roserrs—Powal Me, M-, Tros. R. GoLp, (anitinérant Gen tleman.) = Jerpuran AusTis, Mobile Ala.’ ~ PFromthe National Intelligencer. ) Gentlemen: Seeing in your paper a notice from a New York paper, of the aumber, &¢. of the Winaebago nation of fndians. from a deputation of whom we are expecting a visit, and stating their warriors to be 1200—I take the liberty of offering you a few observa tions on the same subject, extracted from my manuseript journal, made with great care end circumspection, whilst travelling in the Winnebago ‘eountry in the Summer of 1827. 4 Yours, &c. P The Litile i{ill of ihe Dead Fox River, % August 1827, } «The Indians in these regions, (the Winnehagoes particularly,) are be lieved to increase. ~ From the Salu brity of the atmosphere, the great wuantities of wild sice, the number & quality of thewr corn and bear patches, but especially the swarms of children, 1 presume it is sO. Maj. Brevoort, the Asent at Green Bay, thinks there are not Jess than 3000 Winuebagoes, and 2,500 Menomonies. But I be- Yeve his estimate, asto the former, is ‘excessive. Isparedno pains to as sertain their number wherever I trav elled, by counting the wigwams and inhabitants at every village, and esti ‘mating the numbers at the villages _only heard of, in the same ratio; and I am confident, that, at the very extent on Rock river, and in its vicinity, from ¢he mouth of Turtle Creek, (40 miles #rom the Mississippi,) up, embracing the large village at the head of Winne bago Lake, and the two at the foot, besides the village at Bears-oil Lake of Fox river, there are not more than 600-souls; and, according to the best accounts I can get, these are more thana third part of the whole nation. If they can muster four hundred war fiors, it #s as rauch. - : Winnebago is a name given by oth er Indians; from Weenybeegk, (a ‘Chippewa town,) or Weenypaykw, (Menomanie,) which, lam told, signi fies at the dirty water; literally the peo ple who lice at the dirty water. It is a word compounded of something whice, I don ot know, signifying dirty, & Wee beesh, (Chippeway,) water—or Nip paywoo, Menomania,) same significa tion. Hence, some think they once dwelt on the borders of Lake Winne pick ox Weenybeegk. They are eall ed, very appropriately, by the French, Puant, (the Stinkers.) To specificate, [ would say, Peditores; for though all [ndians are much given to this disgus ting practice, these eviuce far less concern in it than any others of whom ‘I have any knowledge. . In other re spects, they are as sweet a_tribe of In dians as any, though truly they do give loose 30~a1ni(‘)st every impulse of nature, save one, without regard to age, sex, or condition. The females, however, are not guife so indecent os the males. 'l'heir proper nmame is Hoat-shung-ur-nar, or Oat-shog-ur-ah. The Wiunebagoes have less inter course with the Whites than any eth er Indians east of the Miississippi; con “sequently, they retain their pristime ‘manners & customs in greater purity, ‘and have contracted fewer vices.— ‘True, they will steal (rom White People, (but this is no erime with them,) and, like other indians, are lazy; yet we lost nothing by them, though entively at their merey, and the only uncivilized Indian I ever saw working in a corn field, was a Winne bago. Buthe was good deal confu sod at being detected in the character of a woman. 'They have no idea of the strength of-the United States.— They suppose our chief stréngth lies at Prairie du Chien, Green Bay, -and the Lead Mines—and those who have seen St. Louis, think that no town can surpass it; and they believe that our nation is entirely dependent on ‘Great Britain for all mauner of mer ‘chandise; in which there is more truth ‘thai there ought to be. : ~ Considering their ignorance in re gard to the United States, I do not ‘think a proper course has been pur isued towards them. They have nev er, like other Indians, been shewed the strength of the nation; and the whites around them, instead of endeav ouring to conciliate, treat them with scorn, and as enemies; as intruders. rather than as the rightful owners of the soil. Were a few of their chiefs | to be taken to our principal cities,‘ and afterwards some honest man plac ed among them, who would be as their own father, the Government would have no friends more devotedly at tached than they. Their language is badly understood; and it having been their policy to avoid as much as pos sible all intercourse with the Ameri cans, (Mah-hayhuhterra) they know !less of them, and are less known by “them, than any Indians, perhaps, East of the Rocky Mountains. They are ignorant, it is true, of what we know; but tlrey are naturally sensible and brave—of a lofty and independant spi rit—and extremely, jealous of their rights. They are warm in their friendships, but implacable in their resentments, and of all Indians should suppose them to be the most difficult to treat with. The Wennebagoes of Rock river have fewer dogs, but more healthy looking children, are more industrious, drink less, and have better corn and other patches, than any Indians I have ever seen. They trim their hair | more like white people than any other Indians; and the custom of plucking out the eye brows, is peculiar, I believe, to this nation. They paint so freely, that this peculiarity might be unob served, & perhaps it is only tempora ry, as several persons, who have been trading with them {or years, never ob served it until I pointed it out to them. The Winnebagoes have a wonder ful abhorrence of hanging. There is, perhaps, no other mode of taking a- NEW ECHOTA, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 3, 18¢S. way life which they hate and shudder at. The reason is singular; and e nough indeed to harrow up my soul which has a ‘‘longing after immortali ty,”” and make it “shrink back upon itself”” with horror, besides the mor tification of their pride, which is great, as they say hanging is the death for dogs —they think that the soul, or spirit, is stopped by the cord, & entirely prevented fromescaping.- Supposing the throat to be its only avenue of escape, they can formno idea of what has become oi it when life is extinguished by a cord round the neck, nnless it be destroyed or fired in the body, aud _consigned to eternal amalgamation with it in the grave, never to reach the happy land of their fathers and friends. Such idea, no doabt, canse them sometimes to commit suicide in prison. They are exceedingly generous— at Bears Oil Lake having'shared with our guide our last supper, and the last of our provisicss, we were surprised to see the poor hungry fellow, after walking and fasting all day, divide it, l without being requested, among a number of Indians who had just come from the village,, He ate but little ' more than one mouthful, &appeared as well satistied asif hehad ate a full meal. After our visiters retired, we gave the generous guide something which remained of our share, at which he expressed . the most astonishing sur prise, joy,-and. thankfulness. It is seldom that evena child will eat any thing that i¢ given to it, without first running with it to its mother to take part or divide it among all the chil dren. Ihave frequently been delight ed with this noble display of infant vir tue. The Wirnebagoes not having the Gospel, hate'the Americans, believing them to be their enemies. DUTIES OF THE MIDDLE : AGED. Edycation.—The active spirit of the age is awake on the subject of ed ucation. On no other subject, per haps, is it more awake. Ii begins to scrutinize the books in current use, to pry into the different modes of in struction, to point out deficiencies, to expose neglects and abuses, and de mand reform and improvement. And reform and improvement will be the result. Children may be taught with but little increase of expense, ¢ hun dred fold more knowledge during the first fourteen or fifteen years of their lives, than that which has ordinarily been obtained within this period.— You may regard this statement as hy ‘perbolical; but I believe it literally true, though I cannot, in this place, ‘enter minutely into the grounds of my confidence.. My firm conviction is, that if God should spare any of ‘us, who are now in middle life, to old age, we shall see such a complete reform of the views of parents in regard to the importance of education, such'an im provement in the books used, and the modes of instruction adopted in our common schools, as well as in the skill of the teachers, as shall make the whole system inconceivably more practical and efficacious than it now is. ‘Selecting Places for Children —How often do we hear parents use language not unlike this: T am going to place my child with such a person, in this, or in that, situation. Ido not alto gether like the place. His employer is not a man of principle; and I fear he will not have correct sentiments instilled into his mind; that he will not always hear the most decorous language, or have exhibited before him the fairest examples of virtue; but the situation is a very advanta geous one: my child’s master is skilled in his art, and is a thorough man of bu siness; and move than all,ghe makes him the fairest offers, and will proba bly be the means of setting him up in the world. The situatiog*ii “there fore chosen, and the child, at a highly susceptible age, is consighé&;!’ove:.to the most pernicions moral influences, with perhaps a splemn charge pot to J R suffer his mind to beaffected by them. This ismot fancy, but melancholy fact. | Conduct strongly resembling this is not unfrequently exhibited; and how ever consistent it may be with kind ness of heart, the wisdom it evinces resembles nothing so much as that of a parent who should precipitate his child into the crater of a volanoe, charging him at the same time to guard himsell against the assaults of the fiery waves that rolled below. My friends, you give zour children %ood moral and religious instruction. ou do well; shew them both when you are imparting it, and subsequent ly—shew them by all that you do, and say, that you believe what you teach —that you mean to act according to the elevated principles which you in culcate. i Influence of Bad Companions.— An other unhappy cause of failure n mor al education, too common to be pass ed over in silence, is the influence of bad companions. 1 here refer to the companions of childhood. 'Through their unhappy agency, your best in structions and most assiduous efforts may be entirely defeated. Guard your dear child then, toevery practi cable extent, against such pernicious influence. He needs but few associ .ates out of your own family—choose those for him; and i[you‘éz‘*ot make “him worthy of such as are good, it ~were better than that he should have none. No parent ought ever to be iz norant where, end with whom, his child spends his hours of recreation, unless he wishes to educate him for perdi tion. It is task enough to train up a “child in the way to life, without hay ing him often encompassed with a throng, whose example and entire in fluence is calculated to entice him from duty, and hursy him down the broad road to destruction. Strive to make home pleasant to your children. Donot needlessly interrupt or dis courage their innocent amusements; but strive to raise their minds above ? undue attachment to them, by excit ing a taste for beoks, and furnishing them with such as are most interest ing and instructive, and wisely adapt ed to their age and attainments. No person can imagine how much may be done in this way, till he has made a thorough trial. The difference in ef fect, upon the miad and heart, be tween spending an evening in perusing an entertaining book, and spending it with childish, not to say wicked asso ciates, in folly, and in vain, perhaps corrupting conversation, is unspeaka bly great.— Linsley. Eiephant Hunling.—Extract of a letter from a Medical Officer, dated Hambantoti, Island of Ceylon, Febru ary 26th: ‘I have just returned from beholding a sight, which, even in this country, is a rare occurrence, viz: an Elephant hunt, conducted under the orders of Government. A minute de scription, though well worth pe rusal, would be far too long for a let ter; I shall therefore only give you what is generally termed a faint idea. Imagine two or three thousand men 'surroundinga tract of country six or eight miles in circumference, each tone‘ armed with different combusti bles and moving fires; in the midst ‘suppose three hundred elephants, be _ing driven towards the centre by the “gradual and regular approach of those fires, till, at last, they are confined within a circle of about two miles; they are then driven by the same means into a space made by the erec tion of immense logs of ebony, and other strong wood, bound together by cane, and of the shape, in minature, of the longitudinal section of a funnel, towards which they rush with the greatest fury, amidst the most horrid yells, on the approach of fire, of which they stand in the greatest dread.— When enclosed, they become outra geous, and charge on all sides with great fury, but without any effect on the strong barricade. They at length gain the narrow path of the enclosure, NO. 40. the extreme end of which 1s just large enough to admit one elephant, which is immediately prevented from breake ing out. by strong bars laid across.— To express their passion, their despe~ ration, when thus confined, is impossi ble; and still more so, to imagine the facility and admirable contrivance by which they are removed and tamed. Thus it is:” A tame elephant is plac ed on each si'e, to whom the wiid one is fastened by ropes; he is then allows ed to pass out, and immediately on his making the least resistance, the tame one gives him a most tremendous squeeze between their sides, and beat him with their tiunks until he submiiss they then lead him to a place ready prepared, to which he is strongly il.s -tened, and return to perform the same civility to the next one. In this way, seventy wild elephants were capture ed for the purpose of Goverument la bor. The tame elephants daily tuke each wild one singly to water and to feed, until they become quite tame and docile. The remaining efci s were shot by the people. I took pose session of a young one, and have got him now tied up near my door; he is quite reconciled, and eats with the greatest confidence out of my -hand; he is, however, too expensive to keep long, and I fear I must evientpa-lix.,shoot him. Some idea of the expense may. be supposed, when I tell you that in one article alone (milk) his allowance is two gallons per day. I was-at-this scene with thirty other officers and their ladies, and we remained in tem porary huts for nearly ten days.” - The Lakes of America.—-We publishe ~ed a paragraph some time since, ‘in which it was stated that Lake Supe “rior was gradually wearing away the barrier which prevented the discharge i of its waters into the lakes below. and that fears were entertained of a sud den inundation, before many years shouldhave passed. Some attention has been drawn to this fact—for a fact it is stated to be—and intelligent gen ! tlemen living on the borders of the lakes have investigated the subject ~with considerable scrutiny. Some of the facts which follow, are the re sult. . ‘ The floods, this season, which have prevailed in the lakes, have been ~greater than those for many years past. A regular ebb and flood exists in the i lakes, not like that in the ocean, but - occurring every seven years; and pro | ceeding from a different and unknown cause. It is contended by some per sons that this is not the fact: and that the cause of the unusual height of the waters this season, is owing to the great snows and rains of the preceding winter. They refer, triumphantly, the high water of 1827 to the same cause. According to their theory, the water should have begun to fall in - 1827—but the fact is, it was then some inches higher than it had been the preceding year. Last winter, ‘ 1827—8, is known to have furnished few falls of snow, and comparatively few of rain; and in the regions of the lakes, there was less than had been for many years previous, and the spring rains were not more than or dinary round Lake Superior, Michi gan and Huron, though they were heavy on Erie and Ontario; yet all the lakes below Superior are this summer much higher than they were last: and higher, too, than they were known to be by the oldest person living in theip vicinity. Lake Superior is now much lower than it has been for three years past. 'This fact is accounted for hy the circumstance of large fragments of rocks having been recently remoy ed from the head of the Rapids be-- tween Superior & Huron, by the ac tion of the water on the barrier of lime rock which fences up this immense sheet of water eighteen feet above 1.. Huron. This circumstance clearly demonstrates that Lake Superior ig gradually washing away the barriex which keeps its waters in_theit prop er glace, and watisfactorily acedunts : T ᏣᎳᏛ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ ᎯᎠ ᏂᎦᎥᏧᎬᏩᎶᏗ., . ᎦᏭᎪᏓᏆᏍᏗ ᎢᎪᎯᏛ ᏌᏉ ᏧᏂᎴᏢᏁᏗ ᎨᏎᏍᏗ. ᏴᏫᏁᎬ ᏗᏂᏬᏂᏗᏍᎩ ᏦᎢᏁ ᎠᏰᏢ ᎤᎾᎫᏴᏘ ᏑᏎᏍᏘ, ᎢᏳᏃ ᎢᎬᏪᏅᏛ ᎠᎾᏮᎫᏱᏍᎨᏍᏗ. ᎢᏳᏃ ᎥᏬᏓᏢ ᎢᏯᏅᎪ ᎢᏴ ᎠᎾᎫᏱᏍᎬᏍᏗ, ᏦᎢ ᎠᎸᎯᎸ ᎤᎾᎫᏴᏗ ᎨᏎᏍᏗ. ᎠᏕᏗᏱᏍᎬᏃ ᎢᏴ ᎩᎳ ᎠᎾᎫᏱᏍᎨᏍᏗ, ᏅᎩᏁᎢ ᎠᏰᎵ ᎤᎾᎫᏴᏘ ᎨᏎᏍᏗ. ᏣᎳᎩᏃ .ᎤᏩᏒ ᏗᏂᏬᏂᏗᏍᎩ, ᏔᎵᏢᏛ. ᎠᏕᎸ ᏬᎫᏰᏘ ᎨᏎᏍᏗ ᏑᏕᏘᏴᏛ, ᎢᏳᏃ ᎢᎬᏪᏅᏛ ᎠᎧ” ᎫᏱᏍᏓᏍᏗ.” ᏦᎢᏁᏃ ᎠᏰᏢ ᎾᏍᎩᏉ ᎤᏕᏘᏴ” ᏌᏗᏘᏒ ᎠᎾᎫᏱᏍᎨᏍᏗ.