XV.
ON WOODS INDIANS.
Far in the North dwell a people practically unknown to any but the
fur-trader and the explorer. Our information as to Mokis, Sioux,
Cheyennes Nez Perces, and indirectly many others, through the pages of
Cooper, Parkman, and allied writers, is varied enough, so that our
ideas of Indians are pretty well established. If we are romantic, we
hark back to the past and invent fairy-tales with ourselves anent the
Noble Red Man who has Passed Away. If we are severely practical, we
take notice of filth, vice, plug-hats, tin cans, and laziness. In fact,
we might divide all Indian concepts into two classes, following these
mental and imaginative bents. Then we should have quite simply and
satisfactorily the Cooper Indian and the Comic Paper Indian. It must be
confessed that the latter is often approximated by reality--and
everybody knows it. That the former is by no means a myth--at least in
many qualities--the average reader might be pardoned for doubting.
Some time ago I desired to increase my knowledge of the Woods Indians
by whatever others had accomplished. Accordingly I wrote to the
Ethnological Department at Washington asking what had been done in
regard to the Ojibways and Wood Crees north of Lake Superior. The
answer was "nothing."
And "nothing" is more nearly a comprehensive answer than at first you
might believe. Visitors at Mackinac, Traverse, Sault Ste. Marie, and
other northern resorts are besought at certain times of the year by
silent calico-dressed squaws to purchase basket and bark work.
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