Page 295 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

SKETCH OF THE: BROTHERTOWN INDIANS.
-
MANCHESTER, Wis., August 22d, 1855.
LYMAN DRAPER, Esq.,
C.
Cor. See. State Historical Society, Wisconsin :
Sir :-My means of furnishing interesting information,
such as would be acceptable to the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin, being extremely limited, I havc thought that it
would not be wholly uninteresting to give a small sketch of the
Brothertown Indians, who, as you probably are .\re11 aware,
are now enjoying all the rights, privileges, and immunities of
citizenship, and who now, are a part and parcel of that hetro-
geneous mass of human beings, of almost "all nations, tongues,
and kindred," who have happily chosen Wisconsin as their
" IIome, Sweet Home ;" and although the sketch may contain
many grammatical errors, (the writer never having studied that
branch of English education,) still, it is hoped, that you will
be able to comprehend it.
It is a well known fact in American history, that at the time
of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock, there
were several powerful Indian tribes inhabiting the Atlantic
coast in the States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecti-
cut, and New York. It is equally well known, that fierce and
bloody wars were waged and carried on between the whitis and
said tribes, until the latter became nearly extinct, and those who
survived were so crushed in spirit as to excite no fear, and as
little notice or interest in the public mind at that time. And as
the country grew up and, increased in the number, wealth and
enterprise of their civilized and christianized conquerors, the
small and scattered remnants of those once powerful tribes,
plank in a corresponding degree into insignificance, and scarce
received a passing notice amidst the mighty rush and bustle