Page:Tupper family records - 1835.djvu/217

 Extract from " Hunter s Memoirs of a Captivity among the Indians of North America." — London, 1824.

" In the following spring, a party of thirty hunters and six or seven squaws started on a visit to some of their connections, who remained at the Osage towns on the Grand Osage river,* taking me with them. Our course was up the Arkansas for a considerable distance ; thence across the highlands, till we struck the head waters of the Grand Osage river, which we descended, to the village belonging to Clermont, or the Builder of Towns, a celebrated Osage chief. We remained among the Grand Osages, till early in the next fall. During our stay, I saw a number of white people, who, from different motives, resorted to this nation : among them, was a clergyman, who preached several times to the Indians through an interpreter. He was the first Christian preacher that I had ever heard or seen. The Indians treated him with great respect, and listened to his discourses with profound attention ; but could not, as I heard them observe, comprehend the doctrines he wished to inculcate. It may be appropriately mentioned here, that the In ■ dians are accustomed, in their own debates, never to speak but one at a time ; while all others, constituting the audience, invariably listen with patience and attention till their turn to speak arrives. This respect is more particularly observed towards strangers ; and the slightest deviation from it would be regarded by them as rude, indecorous, and highly offensive. It is this trait in the Indian character which many of the missionaries mistake for a serious impression made on their minds • and which has led to many exaggerated accounts of their conversion to Christianity.

" Some of the white people whom I met, as before noticed, among the Osages, were traders, and others were reputed to be runners from their Great Father beyond the great waters, to invite the Indians to take up the tomahawk against the settlers. They made many long talks, and distributed many valuable presents ; but without being able to shake the resolution which the Osages had formed, to preserve peace with their Great Father, the President. Their determinations were, however, to undergo a more severe trial : Te-cum-seh, the celebrated Shawanee warrior and chief, in company with Francis the prophet, now made his appearance among them.

of the Osages, not long since, with the chiefs Big Track and AVhite Hair for their leaders, had separated from the Grand Osage nation, settled on the Arkansas river, and sustained their independence.
 * "To understand this subject fully, it should be borne in mind that a part

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