l and his Son

MAP

Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska xii-xiii

[Illustration: Detail from an 1877 map showing principal areas of
Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska mentioned by Tuttle. Ft. D. A.
Russell was located near Cheyenne, Wyoming. Original by S. Augustus
Mitchell (1792-1868), 1" = 55 mi.

Courtesy Jerome A. Greene.]

INTRODUCTION

The interest which boys are taking in all that relates to our Indian
tribes, and the greediness they manifest in devouring the sensational
stories published so cheaply, filling their imaginations with stories
of wild Indian life on the plains and borders, without regard to their
truthfulness, cannot but be harmful; and therefore the writer, after
three years' experience on the plains, feels desirous of giving
youthful minds a right direction, in a true history of the red men
of our forests. Thus can they teach their children, in time to come,
what kind of races have peopled this continent; especially before
civilization had marked them for destruction, and their hunting-grounds
for our possession.

The RIGHTS and WRONGS of the Indians should be told fairly, in order
that justice may be done to such as have befriended the white men who
have met the Indians in pioneer life, and been befriended often by the
savage, since the Mayflower landed her pilgrims on these shores some
two hundred and fifty years ago.

The writer proposes now only a history of Indians since he began to
know the "Six Nations" in Western New York, about forty years ago.
Since then, these have dwindled down to a handful, and do not now exist
in their separate tribal relations, but mixed in with others, far away
from the beautiful lakes they once inhabited.

WHERE DID THE INDIANS COME FROM?

The origin of the native American Indian has puzzled the wisest heads.

The most plausible theory seems to be that they are one of the lost
tribes of Israel; that they crossed a narrow frith from the confines of
Asia, and that their traditions, it is said, go far to prove it.

For instance, the Sioux tell us that they were, many moons ago, set
upon by a race larger in number than they, and were driven from the
north in great fear, till they came to the banks of the North Platte,
and finding the river swollen up to its banks, they were stopped there,
with all their women, children, and horses. The enemy was p