Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-03-14
From the Herald and Journal
INDIANS ON THE PACIFIC.
BY BISHOP o. c. BAKER.

BY BISHOP Q. c. BAKER.
The Indians on the Pacific are deeply
degraded. The digger Indians in Cali
fornia are in many respects, to any abo-
rigines I have seen. Their stature is
short, but they are tolerably proportioned.
Their hair is black, heavy and matted.
Many of them have hardly human ex-
preston in their countenance it is more
like that of a furious wild beast. Their
huts are small, low and dirty, constructed
of bark, boughs or old canvas. Their
food consits of acorns, roots, seeds, grass
hoppers, rats, squirrels, rabbits, fish, &c.
Large quantities of grasshoppers are gath
cred by them when they can easily be
obtained, for food. Having been put in
a sack and saturated with salt water,
they are placed for about fifteen minutes
in hot trench covered with hot stones.
They are then eaten like shrimps, or
ground and mixed with soup or mush.
Some of their customs are exceedingly
revolving, especially their burning Of the
dead, and mourning badges. In common
with the aborigines generally, they be-
lieve that somewhere in the west are
beautiful camping grounds, where the In
dians enjoy perpetual ease and plenty.
They also believe in the existence of two
invisible spirits, the good and the bad, and
that the heart of man is immortal, and if
the evil spirit can be driven away, or di-
verted from beholding the hear, it VIII
leap from the body, and go away to the
land Of rest. Their deep and howling
exclamations at the death of friends, are
not designed merely to give expression to
their grief, but partly to confer a special
blessing on the departed. IF by their
noises, the evil spirit can be driven away,
or his attention turned to other objects,
the heart can safely pass away. After
the body is suitably arranged on the fu-
neral pyre, the dearest friend of the de
ceased comes forward, with torch in hand,
and sets fire to the pile. After the body
is consumed, the ashes are gathered up
and surrounded with a rude wreath of
flowers and weeds. Some of the ashes
is mixed with pitch, and the hair and a
part of the face of the relatives is be
smeared with this mixture. This is a
mourning badge and it is suffered TO re-
main on the face until it wears of, which
usually requires about six months. Some
Indians whom I have seen marked with
this mixture looked really frightfui.
The Oregon Indians are greatly supe-
rior to the Digger Indians in point of in
tellect. Yet l confess l never looked
upon them but with sorrow and disap-
pointment. They are evidently a doomed
race, and not designed by Providence to
continue their nationality. Those especi-
ally residing in the valley and in conti-
guilty to the whites, are passing away like
the morning cloud. Nearly all of them
are more or less diseased, and they seem
to have no recuperative energy in their
systems to counteract the influences ot
disease, or power to resist the ordinary
influences of the climate. To view them
in their relations to the dead is to see
them in their true position. They form
a mere funeral train, passing solemnly tc
their houses of the dead. And the off
ces Of our holy religion, which the church
can render, are mainly TO offer them the
consultations of the gospel on the pillow
of death, or to direct them in their be.
reavements to the Lamb of God which
taketh away sin of the world. | hope
2 their condition is more hopeful than
have here represented it, but certainly
, their state was wholly painful to me.
The burial of the dead among the In.
i dians is singularly impressive. Could yol
witness a funeral train on the Columbia
where long line of Indian canoes, il
> single file, and with a measured dash O
II the paddle approach the houses of tn
dead, you feel that human sympathy
u not confined to civilized life. The In
y dian with all his degradation and fault:
u loves the dead The mode of buria
: among the Indians is various. In som
u places on the plains, the emigrants SAY
Il dead bodies wrapt up in skins or blankets
{ and suspended high up in the branche
: of the trees. On the lower Colunbi
they frequently bury in Indian canvas
; The dead body is carefully wrapt j
blankets or buffalo robes and deposited j
canoe, and the canoe safely placed 0
some lonely island in the river. o
= Mount Coffin in the Columbia River
saw great numbers OF canoes Some
them were old and decaying, others wei
- apparently in good condition and probi
bly, the most valued property. in mo