“Here arises a question of very great interest and importance for discussion; and after further familiarity with their character, customs, and traditions, if I forget not, I will eventually give it further consideration. Suffice it then for the present, that their _personal appearance_ alone, independent of their modes and customs, pronounces them at once as more or less than savage.
“A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with the _different shades of complexion_ and colours of hair which he sees in a crowd, and is at once almost disposed to exclaim that ‘_these are not Indians!_’
“There are a great many of these people whose complexions appear as _light as half-breeds_; and amongst the women particularly, there are many whose _skins are almost white, with the most pleasing symmetry and proportion of features; with hazel, with gray, and with blue eyes; with mildness and sweetness of expression, and excessive modesty of demeanour, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful_!”
It has been shown in another part of this work that the language of the Mandans does not prove them to be connected with the Welsh, and that their dialect is of the same character as that of other Indian tribes. Further, did space allow, I might produce some evidence that the Mandans are allied in blood to their hereditary foes, the fierce and warlike Sioux! The phenomena noticed by Mr. Catlin must be explained therefore by the aid of different principles than those to which he has referred.(20)
I conceive then that these various peculiarities of colour, personal appearance, and of manners and social habits, which he noticed amongst the Mandans, may all be viewed as effects of one simple cause, viz. their “judiciously selected location” in “a permanent village,” involving protection from exposure to the seasons on the one hand, and the abandonment of nomade habits on the other. To the former, the changes of complexion—to the latter, the social advances—of the Mandan Tribe may be ascribed!
There are numerous other data in Mr. Catlin’s work which seem to afford illustrations of the mutability of Human Physiology. The Indians who live among the Whites he describes as “Pale” Red. May not the change implied in this expression be referred to an abandonment of their original life of activity and exposure on the wild Prairie, quite as much as to misfortune or a mixture of European blood? The variety of Physiognomy among the different tribes, as shown by his admirable portraits of Chiefs, &c., is very extraordinary. Some of these countenances are ugly and unprepossessing; but in others the finest European features occur! The traits exhibited by these portraits are contrary to the inference which Humboldt’s description might suggest, viz., that all the N. A. Indian Tribes resemble the Mongol Race in features as well as in the colour of their skin and the absence of beard.