A clergyman who visited the Indians north-west of the Ohio in 1764 met,
at a treaty, a party of Indians from the west of the Mississippi.
"They informed him that one of their most ancient traditions was that, a
great while ago, they had a common father, who lived toward the rising
of the sun, and governed the whole world; that all the white people's
heads were under his feet; that he had twelve sons, by whom he
administered the government; that the twelve sons behaved very bad, and
tyrannized over the people, abusing their power; that the Great Spirit,
being thus angry with them, suffered the white people to introduce
spirituous liquors among them, made them drunk, stole the special gift
of the Great Spirit from them, and by this means usurped power over
them; and ever since the Indians' heads were under the white people's
feet." (Boudinot's "Star in the West," p. 111.)
Here we note that they looked "toward the rising sun"--toward
Atlantis--for the original home of their race; that this region governed
"the whole world;" that it contained white people, who were at first a
subject race, but who subsequently rebelled, and acquired dominion over
the darker races.
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