History Of The Great Northwest And Its Men Of Progress

Author : Hugh J. McGrath
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781331147589
Total Pages : 598 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (475 download)

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Download or read book History of the Great Northwest and Its Men of Progress written by Hugh J. McGrath and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-11 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from History of the Great Northwest and Its Men of Progress: A Select List of Biographical Sketches and Portraits of the Leaders in Business, Professional and Official Life As to the antiquity of the race to which the North American Indian belongs, no precise date can be assigned as that of his first appearance upon the continent. We are not, however, left to mere conjecture upon this point. The investigations of geologists enable them to fix upon a minimum period ino attempt is made to limit the maximum period) within which our aborigines made their advent in America. John Fiske gives a most interesting discussion of this question in the first chapter of The Discovery of America. He says: It is altogether probable tliat the people whom the Spaniards found in America came by migration from the Old orld. But it is by no means probable that their migration occurred within so short a period as five or six thousand years. A series of observations and discoveries kept up for the last half-century seem to show that North America has been continuously inhabited by human beings since the earliest Pleistocene times, if not earlier. Concerning the antiquity of the Pleistocene epoch, if- adopt thf magnificent argument of Dr. Croll we obtain a result that is moderate and probable. The Glacial epoch began about 240, 000 years ago and came to an end about 80, 000 years ago. Xow the traces of the existence of man in North America during the Glacial epoch have in recent years been disco Aered in abundance, as, for example, the palaeolithic quartzite implements found in the drift near the city of St. Paul, which date from toward the close of the Glacial epoch; and the fragment of a human jaw found in the red clay deposited in ilinnesota during an earlier part of that epoch. In July, 18S 7, in a deep cut of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, in a stratum of Philadelphia red gravel and brick clay, Mr. Cresson obtained an unquestionable palaeolith. If we accept Dr. Cro Hsmethod of reckoning, we can hardly assign to it an antiquity less than 150, 000 years. According to a map published by George Catlin, in Is i i, the great Northwest was at that time inhabited by the following tribes of Indians: In Wisconsin, the Chippeways, the Menomonies, and the Winnebagoes; in ilinnesota, the Chippeways and the Sionx; in Iowa, the Sioux, the Sacs and the Foxes; in Dakota, the Assinneboins, the Minatalees, the Mandans, the Riccarees, and the Sioux; in Montana, the Blaekfeet and the( rows; in Wyoming, the Crows and the( heyennes; in Idaho, the Shoshones and the Flatheads; in Washington and Oregon, the( hilts, the Chinooks, the Flatheads, the Snakes, and the Nez Terces. There are at present in the Northwest some 82, 000 Indians, about 70, 000 being collected in a hundred different reservations. The remaining 12, 000 are self-supporting and are taxed like the whites. The distril)utiou of the Indians in the several states is approximately as follows: In South Dakota, 20.000 Brules, (I heyennes, Blaekfeet, Sioux, etc.; in Washington, 11, 000, belonging to nearly eighty tribes Cceur dAlenes, Kuteuays, Nez Perces, Okanagans, Olympias, Pend dOreilles, Piutes, Puyallups, Spokanes, etc.; in Montana, 11, 000 Assinneboins, Blaekfeet, Cheyennes, Crows and Flatheads; in Wisconsin, 10, 000 Menomonies, Oneidas, etc; in Minnesota, 10, 000 Chippeways, etc.; in North Dakota, 8, 000 Arikaras, Assinneboins, Blaekfeet, Sioux, Gros Ventres, ilandans, Unkpapapas, Wahpetons and Yanktonnai; in Oregon, 5, 000 Cayuses, Piutes, Shastis, Snakes, etc.; in Idaho, 4, 500 Bannaks, C(r urd Alenes. Nez Perces, Shoshones, etc.; in A yoming 2, 000Shoshones, Arapahoes, etc; and in Iowa, 500 Sacs and Foxes. As the tide of white exploration and settlement moved westward across the continent, various types of the Indian were encountered. Indians living upon cultivated maize, small grain and vegetables, wild grains, fruits and roots; flesh eaters, root diggers, and fish eaters.