My Life with the Indians: The Narrative of an English Gentleman in the Lodges of the Pawnee in 1835

Sir Charles Augustus Murray (1806 –1895) was the son of a British Earl, and was a noted author of travel books and diplomat.

Murray spent several years travelling across Europe and America from 1835 and 1838, including several months with a Pawnee tribe in 1835. He described his experiences in his popular book Travels in North America (1839). He attempted to remain in the United States as Secretary of the British Legation, but failed to obtain the position.

To understand the position Murray found himself during his westward travels in America, one must call to mind the vast advance of white population which has taken place since 1835, and the dwindling to insignificance of the once powerful and multitudinous Red Indians. At the time of Murray's tour the total area of settlement in the United States was not much more than 600,000 square miles. The vast stores of mineral wealth in Missouri, Colorado, Idaho, and California lay unsuspected under forest; the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations blocked advance westward in Mississippi State, though the white population had spread up the valley as far as the present site of Kansas city. Over the unreclaimed lands the Red Indians still hunted and fought, no one at that time foreseeing their approaching fate. Those sounding floods and slumbering lakes, those towering cones and winding canons, those immemorial forests and flowery plains—above all, the picturesque, mysterious tribes, by describing whose high attributes, as well as their dauntless ferocity, Fenimore Cooper had fired the imagination wherever the English language was read — such was the scenery and such the people among which the very atmosphere seemed charged with materials for adventure.

Judge, then, of Murray's enchantment when, on the 4th July, 1835, Commemoration Day, being seated at dinner with the officers of the fort Leavenworth, the arrival was announced of one hundred and fifty Pawnees. A dozen of their principal braves were at once invited into the mess-room: no whisky-sodden, degraded wretches these, like the tribes who lived nearest to the frontier, but unspoiled, genuine sons of the forest, in deerskin leggings, buffalo-skin cloaks, bead necklaces, and earrings. Few of these men had ever been in a white settlement before, or even seen a chair or table; yet their self-possession and intuitive tact were perfect: they shook hands all round, seated themselves at table, sipped Madeira and smoked cigars without betraying a sign of wonder or committing the slightest absurdity.

"I do not think there was a countenance among them that could be pronounced handsome, though several were pleasing and good - humoured; but the prevalent character of their expression was haughty, impenetrable reserve, easily distinguishable through the mask of frank conciliation which their present object rendered it expedient for them to wear."

In short, Murray was completely captivated: a visit to their encampment brought him to the hasty resolution of accompanying these Pawnees in returning to their " nation." His companion Vernunft required little persuasion. With some difficulty they secured the services of a lad to lead the packhorses, and of an Indian who could speak excellent Pawnee, execrable French, and no English, to serve as their only means of oral communication with their Redskin friends. Besides these, there was Murray's Scots valet, who, though excellent in his own sphere, could hardly be blamed for ignorance of what was required in the backwoods.

This book is Murray's narrative of his several months living among the Pawnee and his observations of their culture, lifestyle, and manners. At the time of Murray's visit, the Pawnee numbered over 10,000 people and were one of the largest and most feared tribes of Plains Indians in the west. By 1866, disease and warfare had devastated their population to about 1,400.

Originally published 1839; reformatted for the Kindle; may contain an occasional imperfection; origina