TMAN.

New London, March lst, 1849.

PREFACE.

My only title to the office of editor in the present case is some
practice in such matters, with a very warm interest in all, whether
relating to past or present, that concerns our western country. Mrs.
Eastman,--wife of Captain Eastman, and daughter of Dr. Henderson, both
of the U. S. army,--is thoroughly acquainted with the customs,
superstitions, and leading ideas of the Dahcotahs, whose vicinity to
Fort Snelling, and frequent intercourse with its inmates, have brought
them much under the notice of the officers and ladies of the garrison.
She has no occasion to present the Indian in a theatrical garb--a mere
thing of paint and feathers, less like the original than his own rude
delineation on birch-bark or deer-skin. The reader will find in the
following pages living men and women, whose feelings are in many
respects like his own, and whose motives of action are very similar to
those of the rest of the world, though far less artfully covered up and
disguised under pleasant names. "Envy, hatred and malice, and all
uncharitableness," stand out, unblushing, in Indian life. The first is
not called emulation, nor the second just indignation or merited
contempt, nor the third zeal for truth, nor the fourth keen discernment
of character. Anger and revenge are carried out honestly to their
natural fruit--injury to others. Among the Indians this takes the form
of murder, while with us it is obliged to content itself with slander,
or cunning depreciation. In short, the study of Indian character is the
study of the unregenerate human heart; and the writer of these sketches
of the Dahcotahs presents it as such, with express and solemn reference
to the duty of those who have "the words of eternal life" to apply them
to the wretched condition of the red man, who is, perhaps, with all his
ignorance, quite as well prepared to receive them as many of those who
are already wise in their own eyes. The very degradation and misery in
which he lives, and of which he is not unable to perceive some of the
causes, prepare him to welcome the instruction which promises better
things. Evils which are covered up under the smoothness of civilization,
stand out in all their horrible deformity in the _abandon_ of savage
life; the Indian cannot get even one gleam of light, without instantly
perceiving the darkness around him. Here, then, is encouragement to
paint him as he is, that the hearts of