Our debt to the red man; the French-Indians in the development of the United States

Front matter

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Foreword

THE mixed-blood Indian is so widely regarded with disfavor, owing to the superficial criticism heaped upon him in certain quarters, that Mrs. Houghton's book will make a strong appeal to all fairminded students of our aboriginal race problem. The too prevalent impression is doubtless based on the fact that, of late years, the natural resources of some Indian reservations have attracted speculative white adventurers, not a few of whom, taking Indian women to wife, have sadly neglected the children born of their union. But, as those of us know who are familiar at first hand with frontier conditions, any such sweeping judgment is unjust ; for on every side we meet squawmen Avho, though uneducated in the ordinary sense, have proved their possession of character and force, and have devoted their best faculties to the improvement of their families and the advancement of the tribes with which they are affiliated. In the volume before us, Mrs. Houghton has largely confined her observations to the Indians who trace their white blood to French sources. Her great store of data is the fruit of a painstaking search of several years through records ancient and modern, official and scientific, religious and literary. I am glad to note that, after showing how much we owe the mixed-bloods for their contributions toward the upbuilding

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Foreword

of our country, she advises our responding: appreciatively with three measures in particular : the prompt emancipation of all competent red wards from Government bondage ; the systematic revision of our ragged mass of laws touching Indian affairs, and their reduction to a self-consistent code; and the provision for the opening of a court for the claims of Indians against the United States — a step which might be trusted to relieve honest claims of the suspicious savor many of them have absorbed from contact with scandal-tainted neighbors.

Francis E. Leupp.

Washington, D. C, March 25, 1918.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THIS book could not have been written but for the kindly help of scores of men and women to whom I was unknown, who have answered my letters, directed me to sources of information and assisted me to discover facts of importance and interest in this field. Especially are my thanks due to various members of the Society of American Indians, notably to its President, Mr. Arthur C. Parker, State Archeologist and member of the New York State Board of Education, to the former chairman of its Executive Committee, Prof. J. N. B. Hewitt of the Smithsonian Institution, its Treasurer, Mrs. Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin, and its Secretary, Mrs. Raymond T. Bonnin. To Miss Caroline M. Mcllvaine of the Chicago Historical Society I am under many obligations, and only in a less degree to Mr. Jacob P. Dunn, Mrs. R. M. Dunlap, Mr. Edgar R. Harlan and Mr. Doane Robinson, respectively of the Indiana, Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota Historical Societies, as to Dr. F. G. Speck of the University of Pennsylvania, to Mr. Alanson Skinner of the Museum of Natural History, to Mr. 0. H. Lipps of Carlisle Indian School and several teachers in that institution, to Mrs. Mc- Coy, Mr. Dagenett and other persons in the employ of the United States Indian Bureau, to Father Gordon of the Roman Catholic Indian Bureau, to Gen. R. H. Pratt and to the Hon. Gabe Parker. To the Hon. Warren K, Moorehead, formerly Indian Commis-

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Acknowledgments

sioner and to Mr. Arthur C. Parker, who read the book in manuscript and gave me valuable suggestions, as also to the Hon. Francis E. Leupp, formerly Indian Commissioner, who has written the Introduction to this book, I am particularly indebted.

Louise Seymour Houghton.

Philadelphia, March, 1918.

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Contents

PAGE V

Foreword ......

List of Illustrations . . . . xi