ALGIC RESEARCHES,

COMPRISING

INQUIRIES RESPECTING THE MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS

OF THE

NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

FIRST SERIES.

INDIAN TALES AND LEGENDS.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

BY HENRY ROWE SCHOOLCRAFT.

Author of a Narrative Journal of Travels to the Sources of the Mississippi;
Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley;
An Expedition to Itasca Lake, &c.


NEW-YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF-STREET.

1839.


Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839,
By Henry R. Schoolcraft,
In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.

TO

Lieut. Col. HENRY WHITING,

OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY.

Sir,

The position taken by you in favour of the literary susceptibilities ofthe Indian character, and your tasteful and meritorious attempts inimbodying their manners and customs, in the shape of poetic fiction, hasdirected my thoughts to you in submitting my collection of their oralfictions to the press. Few have given attention to the intellectualtraits and distinctive opinions of these scattered branches of the humanfamily, without finding the subject interesting and absorbing. But in anage of multifarious excitement, in which topic after topic, andinvention after invention, have poured in upon us with an almostoverwhelming rapidity, the interest felt on the subject, and the tribesthemselves, and their strong claims to attention, have been thrown intothe background and nearly lost sight of.

It is a pleasing coincidence, that, in addressing one whose feelings andsentiments, in relation to them, have preserved their equanimity, amidthe din of the intellectual and moral novelties of the day, I can, atthe same time, appeal to the ties of literary sympathy and of personalfriendship. Accept these expressions of my respect, and believe me,

Most truly yours,

Henry R. Schoolcraft.

CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME.