Description
Originally published in 1818 as History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations who once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States by the Rev. John Heckewelder of Bethlehem, PA.
Reverend Heckewelder lived with the Iroquois for thirty years, beginning in 1771, as a missionary. He loved them and learned all of their customs, and was finally commissioned by the U.S. Government to write down everything he knew about them. This book was the result.
If lions had painters! This proverbial saying applies with equal force to the American Indians. They have no historians among them, no books, no newspapers, no convenient means of making their grievances known to a sympathising world. Why, then, should not a white man, a Christian, who has spent among them the greatest part of his life, and was treated by them at all times with hospitality and kindness, plead their honest cause, and defend them as they would defend themselves, if they had but the means of bringing their facts and their arguments before an impartial public? – Rev. Heckewelder
Many people ask, “How can we trust just the American’s version of history, when they were the only people to write it down?” That’s a very good question. And works such as this one answer it beautifully. Rev. Heckewelder loved the Indian people he went to live with. He resided among them for many years (as you will read). It was his earnest desire to portray them as honestly as possible.
