The Stockbridge Indians, within the limits of Wisconsin, have recently been admitted to the rights of citizenship, and during the last winter (1843-44) the Ottawas within the State of Michigan have petitioned the legislature of that State for the same privilege. Many interesting particulars respecting the state of the schools and missions among the several Indian tribes, and their present prospects, may be found in the reports of the various missionaries and agents of government, some of which are also appended to the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, annually submitted to Congress.
From all these sources we derive the hope, that a more successful experiment is to be made respecting the aborigines of our country than has ever before been attempted, and that the time may soon arrive when they shall be allowed to form a State of this vast republic. The wrongs they have suffered demand the best reparation which a Christian nation can make; and the prayer of many a pious and sympathizing heart is daily breathed forth, that they may henceforth be permitted, without molestation, to learn and practise the virtues of peace, cheered and encouraged in every honest endeavour to do well.
Such, then, as we have attempted to sketch it, is the history of the aborigines of America. It is sad to reflect that so many pages of it have been written, as it were, in blood, and that such multitudes have perished in the vain attempt to resist outrage and oppression.
Columbus, speaking of the American Indians, said:--“I swear to your Majesties that there is not a better people in the world; they love their neighbours as themselves; their language is the sweetest, softest, and most cheerful, for they always speak smiling; and, although they go naked, let your Majesties believe me, their customs are very becoming; and their king, who is served with great majesty, has such engaging manners, that it gives great pleasure to see him; and also to consider the great retentive faculty of that people, and their desire of knowledge, which incites them to ask the causes and effects of things.”
After the dark and bloody account we have given of the history of the Indians,--especially those within the compass of our own country,--we may smile at the flattering picture presented by the discoverer of the New World. But we must consider that the natives of the West Indies, of whom Columbus speaks, were the mildest portion of the great Indian family; and, besides, at the time to which he refers, they had not become exasperated by the repeated and cruel wrongs of the Europeans.