comes he would be there punctually to fulfill this obligation. This was
formerly the character of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan.
But now, our living is altogether different, as we are continually
suffering under great anxiety and perplexity, and continually being
robbed and cheated in various ways. Our houses have been forcibly
entered for thieving purposes and murder; people have been knocked down
and robbed; great safes have been blown open with powder in our little
town and their contents carried away, and even children of the
Caucasian race are heard cursing and blaspheming the name of their
Great Creator, upon whose pleasure we depended for our existence.

According to my recollection of the mode of living in our village, so
soon as darkness came in the evening, the young boys and girls were not
allowed to be out of their lodges. Every one of them must be called in
to his own lodge for the rest of the night. And this rule of the
Indians in their wild state was implicitly observed.

Ottawa and Chippewa Indians were not what we would call entirely
infidels and idolaters; for they believed that there is a Supreme Ruler
of the Universe, the Creator of all things, the Great Spirit, to which
they offer worship and sacrifices in a certain form. It was customary
among them, every spring of the year, to gather all the cast off
garments that had been worn during the winter and rear them up on a
long pole while they were having festivals and jubilees to the Great
Spirit. The object of doing this was that the Great Spirit might look
down from heaven and have compassion on his red children. Only this,
that they foolishly believe that there are certain deities all over the
lands who to a certain extent govern or preside over certain places, as
a deity who presides over this river, over this lake, or this mountain,
or island, or country, and they were careful not to express anything