or St. Anthony's falls; but one is puzzled completely to comprehend the
character of an Indian man, woman, or child. At one moment, you see an
Indian chief raise himself to his full height, and say that the ground
on which he stands is his own; at the next, beg bread and pork from an
enemy. An Indian woman will scornfully refuse to wash an article that
might be needed by a white family--and the next moment, declare that she
had not washed her face in fifteen years! An Indian child of three years
old, will cling to its mother under the walls of the Fort, and then
plunge into the Mississippi, and swim half way across, in hopes of
finding an apple that has been thrown in. We may well feel much
curiosity to look into the habits, manners, and motives of a race
exhibiting such contradictions.

There is a great deal said of Indian warriors--and justly too of the
Sioux. They are, as a race, tall fine-looking men; and many of those who
have not been degraded by association with the frontier class of white
people, nor had their intellects destroyed by the white man's
fire-water, have minds of high order, and reason with a correctness
that would put to the blush the powers of many an educated logician. Yet
are these men called savages, and morally associated with the tomahawk
and scalping knife. Few regard them as reasonable creatures, or as
beings endowed by their creator with souls, that are here to be fitted
for the responsibilities of the Indians hereafter.

Good men are sending the Bible to all parts of the world. Sermons are
preached in behalf of fellow-creatures who are perishing in regions
known only to us in name. And here, within reach of comparatively the
slightest exertion; here, not many miles from churches and schools, and
all the moral influences abounding in Christian society; here, in a
country endowed with every advantage that God can bestow, are perishing,