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His Proneness to Drink
The Indian Law, it is well known, puts a
restraint, not only upon the purchase of
liquor by the Indian, but upon its sale to
him by the liquor-seller, or its supply,
indeed, in any way, by any one. It forbids,
as well, the introducing or harboring of it,
in any shape, under any plea, on the
Reserve. The law, in this respect,
frequently proves a dead letter, since,
where the Indian has not the assurance and
hardihood to boldly demand the liquor from
the hotel-keeper, or where the latter,
imbued with a wholesome fear of the penalty
for contravening the law, refrains from
giving it, the agency of degraded whites is
readily secured by the Indian, and, with
their connivance, the unlawful object
compassed. Of course the white abettor in
these cases risks trifling, if any,
publicity in the matter, and is inspired
with the less fear of detection. There are
some few hotel-keepers who, though they more
than suspect the purpose to which the liquor
these whites are demanding is to be applied,
permit rapacity to overpower righteous
compunction or scruple, and lend themselves,
likewise, though indirectly, to the law's
infraction. Happily, the penalty is now so
heavy ($300) that the evil is, I think,
being got under control.
The effect of drink on the Indian is: to dethrone his;
reason; cloud, even narcotize, his reasoning faculties; annul
his self-control; confine and fetter all the gentler, enkindle
and set ablaze, all the baser, emotions; of his nature, inciting
him to acts lustful and bestial; and, with direful transforming
power, to make the man the fiend, to leave him, in short, the
mere sport of demoniac passion. It may be thought that this is
an overdrawn picture, and that, even if it were true, which I
aver that it is, to have withheld a part of its terribleness
would be the wiser course. I wish, however, in exposing all its
frightful features, to secure the pointing of a moral to all who
lend themselves to the draughting of such a picture, or, in any
way, hold in favor the draughts which lead to its draughting.
Let not the Indian, then, resent this picturing of him in such
unpleasing and repugnant light, but let him rather apply and use
the lesson it is sought to teach, that it may turn to his
enduring advantage. Let him overmaster the enslaving passion;
let him foreswear the tempting indulgence; let him recoil from
the envenomed cup, which savors of the hellish breath and the
ensnaring craft of the Evil One, ever seeking to draw chains of
Satanic forging about him. The Indian will plead utter
obliviousness of the fracas, following some drunken bout, and
during the progress of which the death-stroke has been dealt to
some unhappy brother. He will disavow all recollection of the
apparently systematic doing to death, when drunk, under
circumstances of the most revolting atrocity, of an unfortunate
wife.
Though the proximate result of drink is with the Indian more
alarming than with the white, the ultimate evils and sorrows
wrought by continued excess in drink are, of course, identical
in both cases: moral sensibilities blunted; manhood degraded;
mind wrecked; worldly substance dissipated; health shattered;
strength sapped; every mendacious and tortuous bent of one's
nature stimulated, and given free scope.
His Humor
In its very nature this
essay will partake largely of the element of historical
preciseness, and if it do not, I have so far failed to gain my
end. I have wished to introduce matter of a kind calculated to
relieve this, and to insure the escape of the essay from the
charge of a well-sustained dryness.
Of the humorous instinct of the Indian, as indulged
toward his fellow Indian, I cannot speak with confidence; of the
malign operation upon myself of the same instinct, I can speak
with somewhat more exactness, and with somewhat saddening
recollections. The cases, indeed, where I have been exposed to
the play of his humor exhibit him in so superlatively complacent
an aspect, and myself in so painfully inglorious a one, that I
refrain, nay shrink, from rehearsing the discomposing
circumstances. I should be pleased if I could call to mind any
instance which would convey some notion of the Indian's aptness
in this line, and yet not involve myself, but I cannot. I would
say, in a general way, that the Indian is a plausible being, and
one needs to be wary with him, and not too loath to suspect him
of meditating some dire practical joke, which shall issue in the
utter confusion and discomfiture of its victim, whilst its
author shall appropriate the main comfort and jubilation. Though
the Indian, perhaps, does not conceive these in the determinedly
hostile spirit with which the Mohometan who seeks to compass the
Christian's undoing is credited, there is yet such striking
accord in the two cases, so far as exultant approval of the
issue is concerned, that I am disposed to look upon his creed in
this respect as a modified Mahometanism. I could relate many
instances, affecting myself, where trustfulness has incurred
payment in this coin, but, having no desire to stimulate the
Indian's existing proneness to practical joking, I stay my hand
at further mention of the peculiarity.
This site includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes implied . A Treatise of the Six Nation Indians
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