Nothing can better represent the
sort of unfeelingness the whites have towards the Indians, than their
conduct towards his remains. He had steadily opposed the introduction of
white religion, or manners, among the Indians. He believed that for them
to break down the barriers was to perish. On many occasions he had
expressed this with all the force of his eloquence. He told the
preachers, "if the Great Spirit had meant your religion for the red man,
he would have given it to them. What they (the missionaries) tell us, we
do not understand; and the light they ask for us, makes the straight and
plain path trod by our fathers dark and dreary."
When he died, he charged his people to inter him themselves. "Dig my
grave, yourselves, and let not the white man pursue me there." In
defiance of this last solemn request, and the invariable tenor of his
life, the missionaries seized the body and performed their service over
it, amid the sullen indignation of his people, at what, under the
circumstances, was sacrilege.
Of Indian religion a fine specimen is given in the conduct of one of the
war chiefs, who, on an important occasion, made a vow to the sun of
entire renunciation in case he should be crowned with success. When he
was so, he first went through a fast, and sacrificial dance, involving
great personal torment, and lasting several days; then, distributing all
his property, even his lodges, and mats, among the tribe, he and his
family took up their lodging upon the bare ground, beneath the bare sky.
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