" Benjamin Sulte was one of
the first to discover that the Mascoutins had been in Nebraska, though
he does not attempt to trace this part of Radisson's journey definitely.
[14] The entire account of the people on "the Forked River" is so exact
an account of the Mandans that it might be a page from Catlin's
descriptions two centuries later. The long hair, the two crops a year,
the tobacco, the soap-stone calumets, the stationary villages, the
knowledge of the Spaniards, the warm climate--all point to a region far
south of the Northern States, to which so many historians have stupidly
and with almost wilful ignorance insisted on limiting Radisson's
travels. Parkman has been thoroughly honest in the matter. His _La
Salle_ had been written before the discovery of the _Radisson
Journals_; but in subsequent editions he acknowledges in a footnote
that Radisson had been to "the Forked River." Other writers (with the
exception of five) have been content to quote from Radisson's enemies
instead of going directly to his journals. Even Garneau slurs over
Radisson's explorations; but Garneau, too, wrote before the discovery
of the Radisson papers. Abbe Tanguay, who is almost infallible on
French-Canadian matters, slips up on Radisson, because his writings
preceded the publication of the _Radisson Relations_. The five writers
who have attempted to redeem Radisson's memory from ignominy are: Dr.
N. E. Dionne, of the Parliamentary Library, Quebec; Mr.
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