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By Frank R. Stockton
Originally published in 1896
THE North American Indians, the earliest inhabitants of this country of whom we know anything
definite, were great story-tellers ; and their histories
consist entirely of stories handed down from parents
to children, or, more likely, from grandparents to
grandchildren, for grandfathers and grandmothers are generally more willing to tell stories than fathers or
mothers. And so these traditions, probably a good
deal brightened by being passed along century after
century, came down to the Indians who were first
met by white people, and thus we have heard many
of them.
The stories told by the Indians inhabiting the
country which is now the Middle States, all agree
that their remote forefathers came from some region
beyond the Mississippi River. Like the traditions of
most nations, these go so very far back that they are
vague and misty; but, as this gave the Indians a great
opportunity for their imaginations, it is not wonderful
that they improved it. These Indians believed that
in the very earliest stages of their existence they were
all animals, and lived in caves under the earth. They
were hunters; but their game consisted of mice, and
creatures of that sort. One of them accidentally discovered a hole by which he got out on the surface
of the ground; and, finding it so exceedingly pleasant,
it was not long before the whole of his tribe came
out, and began life in the light of day.
It may be supposed that these animals gradually
changed to human beings, and built villages, and
planted corn; but in one respect they did not change,
nor have they changed at this present day. Many of
them still call themselves after the names of animals;
and now the greater part of the noted Indians of our
country have such names as "Sitting Bull," "Black
Bear," and "Red Horse." But the stories say that
all of the animals did not come out of their underground homes. Among these were the hedgehog and
the rabbit; and so some of the tribes will not eat
these animals, because in so doing they may be eating their family connections
Gradually the ancestors of the Indians who told
their stories to the first settlers, and who afterwards
called themselves the Lenni-Lenape, moved eastward,
and after many years they reached the Mississippi
River. By this time they had become a powerful
body. But in the course of their journeys they discovered
that they were not the earliest emigrants in
this direction, for they met with a great tribe called
the Mengwe, later known as the Iroquois, who had
come from a country west of the Mississippi, but
farther north than that of our Indians.
This Web version, edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
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