The Indians in general have very severe laws against murder, and they
are pretty much alike among the tribes; they are divided into two
distinct sections--murder committed in the nation and out of the nation.
When a man commits a murder upon his own people, he runs away from his
tribe, or delivers himself to justice. In this latter case, the nearest
relation of the victim kills him openly, in presence of all the
warriors. In the first case, he is not pursued, but his nearest relation
is answerable for the deed, and suffers the penalty, if by a given time
he has not produced the assassin. The death Is instantaneous, from the
blow of a tomahawk. Often the chief will endeavour to make the parties
smoke the pipe of peace; if he succeeds, all ends here; If not, a victim
must be sacrificed. It is a stern law, which sometimes brings with its
execution many great calamities. Vengeance has often become hereditary,
from generation to generation; murders have succeeded murders, till one
of the two families has deserted the tribe.
It is, no doubt, owing to such circumstances that great families, or
communities of savages bearing the same type and speaking the same
tongue, have been subdivided into so many distinct tribes. Thus it has
been with the Shoshones, whose emigrant families have formed the
Comanches, the Apaches, and the Arrapahoes.
Pages:
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103