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PREFACE~
FOR over twenty--five years I have been giving the talks and demonstrations
that are gathered together in this book. Many d them have appeared in magazines
or in the "Birch--Bark Roll" that has come out annually for tear years.
Hut this is the first time in which a comprehensive collection has been made of
the activities, customs, laws, and amusements that have been developed in my
camps.
Some of the related subjects I have treated at too great length for enclosure
in one book. Of this class are the "Life Histories of Northern
Animals," "Animal Stories," "Sign Language" sad
"Forestry," which appear as separate works. All are merely parts of a
scheme that I have always considered my life work, namely, the development or
revival of Woodcraft as a school for Manhood.
By Woodcraft T mean outdoor life in its broadest sense and the plan has ever
been with me since boyhood.
Woodcra,~t is the first of all the sciences. It was Woodcraft that made man
out of brutish material, and Woodcraft in its highest form may save him from
decays
As the model for outdoor life in this country I took the Indian, and have
thus been obliged to defend him against the calumnies of those who coveted his
possessions. In giving these few historical extracts to shoes the Indian
character, it moat be remembered that I could give hundreds, and
that,praetlcally all the travelers who saw with their own eyes are of one mind
in the matter.
Commissioner Robert 6. Valentine, of the Indian Bureau, the first Indian
Commissioner the have ever had who knew and sympathized, with the Indians,
writes after reading my menu. script:
"On the question of the character of the Indians I am in absolute accord
with you on everything that I believe any one would consider a basic point. In
speech after speech I have fought the idea that Indians were cruel or lazy or
vicious, and dwelt on their positive virtues --.among these their sense of humor,
and their deep. reverence."*
The portions of the manuscript called"Spartans of the West, "., and
"Campfire Stories. of Indian Character," have been sub=.. muted to
George Bird Grinnell, of New York, whose life has been largely spent among the
Indians, and have received from him a complete endorsement.
In a similar vein I have heard from Dr. Charles A. Eastman, and from nearly
all of the many who have seen the manuscript. Some of my friends at the
Smithsonian Institution take exception to certain details, but no one denies the
main contentions in regard to the character of the Indian, or the historical
accuracy of the "Campfire Stories."
Gen. Nelson A. Miles, for example, writes me: "History can show no
parallel to the heroism and fortitude of the American Indians in the two hundred
years' fight during which they contested inch by inch the possession of their
country against a foe infinitely better equipped with inexhaustible resources,
and in overwhelming numbers. Had they even been equal in numbers, history might
have had a very different story to tell."'
I was taught to glorify the names of Xenophon, Leonidas, Spartacus, the
Founders of the Dutch Republic or the Noble Six Hundred at Balaclava, as the
ideals of human courage and self--sacrifice, and yet I know of nothing in ail
history that will compare with the 'story of Dull Knife as a narrative of
magnificent heroism and human fortitude.
While I set out only to justify the Indian as a model for our
'"The great racial-- defects of the Indians were revengefulness and
disunion,
and latterly, proneness to strong drink. They taught the duty of revenge;
so t~xa,t it was easy to begin a feud, but hard to end one. Instead of a
nation, they were a multitude of factions, each ready to join an outsider
for revenge on its rival neighbor. This incapacity for team play pre
rented the development of their civilization and proved their ruin.
A
Pro=
boys in camp, I am not without, hope that this rnAy lead. to a measure of
long--delayed justice. being,accorded him. . He asks only the same rights as are
allowed without question to all other men in America ---- the protection of the
courts, the right to . select his own religion, dress, amusements, and the equal
right to the pursuit of happiness so long as his methods do not, conflict with
the greater law of the land.
This book is really the eleventh edition of the "Birch-Bark Roll,"
which I have published yearly and expanded yearly since 1902. On the first day
of July that year I founded the first band of Woodcraft Indians. Since then
the growth of the movement has called for constant revision and expansion. In
the present volume, for the first time, I have fully set forth a justification
of my Indian Ideal.
I am deeply indebted to my friend, Edgar Beecher Bronson, for permission to
include the History of Chief Dull Knife's March, which appeared in his
"Reminiscences of a Ranchman." It is a story that should be known to
all the world.
I have also to express .my obligations to Messrs: Charles Scribner's Sons for
permission to quote from Capt. J. O. Bourke's writings, to J. W. Schultz for the
use of his charming story of "No--Heart," to Messrs. The Fleming H.
Revell Co., for permission to quote F. W. Calkins' story of the "Two
Wilderness Voyagers," to Miss Alice C. Fletcher for the use of two Indian
songs from her book "Indian Story and Song," as noted, to Edward S.
Curtis for the use of Sitting Bull's "War Song," to Miller Jordan and
Geo. L. White for help in revising the parts on organization and honors, to Dr.
Clinton L. Bagg for help in the "First Aid," to Dr. C. C. Curtis for
the identification of toadstools, to Dr. Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa) for
general criticism and for special assistance in the chapters on "The
Indian's Creed," "Teepee Etiquette, " and the "Teachings of
Wabasha L"
Also to Robert G. Valentine (Indian Commissioner) and George Bird Grinnell of
New York for critical reading of the historical parts of the book.
When I was a boy I hungered beyond expression for just such information as I
have tried herein to impart. It would be a great joy to we if I could reach and
help a considerable number of such heart--hungry boys tormented with an insatiate
instinct for the woods, and if I fall of thin, I 'shall at least have the
lasting pleasures of having lived through these things myself and of having
written about them..
