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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. errata to I pelure, Dn d D 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 IWHW," - -*!»*«*»•... ^a^ f« ,** ', I ! ^J '•«^?>,'/ ^''''^^^C^^f^.^^^/^,,/:^^^^^^^^^ .;,v..^"^^' i^- ILLUSTRATIONS .fC.d'.o w OK TIIF. m mm- MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND CONDITION OP TUB NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS: IN A SERIES OP LETTERS AND NOTES WRITTEN DURING EIGHT YEARS OF TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE AMONG THE WILDEST AND MOST REMARKABLE TRIBES NOW EXISTING, WITH THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY ENGRAVINGS, FROM THB ^utI)or'fl (!^rtatnal ^atnttngtf. BY GEO. CATLIN. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. SEVENTH EDITION. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCXLVTIL m i C. and J. AUIard, PrlnUra, Uartholomew CIomi CONTENTS THE FIRST VOLUME. Frontispiece -.—The Author painting a Chief in an Indian Village, Map of Indian Localitiei embraced within the Author'i Traveit. LETTER— No. 1. Wyoming, birth-place of the Author, p. 2. — His former Profession — First cavse of his Travels to the Indian Country — Delegation of Indians in Philadelphia — First start to the Far West, in 1832, p. 3. — Design of forming a National Gallery — Numbers of Tribes visited, and number of Paintings and other things collected, p. 4. — Probable extinction of the Indians, p. 5. — Former and present numbers of —The proper mode of approaching them, and estimating their character, p. 5 — 10. CERTincATES of Government Officers, Indian Agents and others, as to the fidelity of the Portraits and other Paintings, p. 11 — 13. ■* LETTER— No. 2. Mouth of Yellofv Stone, p. 14, pi. 3. — Distance from St. Louis — Difficulties of the Missouri — Politeness of Mr. Chouteau and Major Sanford — Fur Company's Fort — Indian Epicures — New and true School for the Arts — Beautiful Models, p. 14 — 16. LETTER— No. 3, Mouth of Yellow Stone. Character of Missouri River, p. 18, pi. 4. — Beautiful prairie shores, p. 19, pi. 5. — Pic- turesque clay bluffs, p. 19, pi. 6. — First appearance of a steamer at the Yellow Stone, and curious conjectures of the Indians about it, p. 20. — Fur Company's Establishment at the mouth of Yellow Stone — M'Kenzie — His table and politeness, p. 21. — Indian tribes in this vicinity, p. 22. LETTER— No. 4, Mouth of Yellow Stone. Upper Missouri Indians — General character, p. 23. — Buffaloes — Description of, p. 24, pis. 7, 8.— Modes of killing them— Buffalo-hunt, p. 25.— Chardon's Leap, p. 26, pi. 9.— Wounded bull, p. 26 pi. IQ —Extraordinary feat of Mr. M'Kenzie, p. 27.— Return from the chase, p. 28. ' A 2 ,J If LETTER— No. 5, Mouth of Yellow Stone. Anthor'a painting-room, nnd clmracters in it, p. !i!9. — lilackfoot chief, p.29, pi. 11. Oth«r Blackfoot cliiefg, and their costumes, p. 30. — Ulackfoot woman and child, p. 30, pis. 14, 13. — Scalps, and objects for which taken — red pipes, and pipe-stone quarry, p. 31. — Blackfoot bows, shields, arrows and lances, p. 3S, 33, pi. 18. — Several distinguished Ulackfeet, p. 34, pig. 14, 15, 16, 17. LETTER— No. 6, Mouth or Yellow Ston e. Medicines or mysteries — medicine-bng — origin of the word medicine, p. 35.— Mode of forming the medicine-bag, p. 36. — Value of the medicine-bag to the Indian, and mate- rials for their construction, p. 37, pi. 18, — Blackfoot doctor or medicine-man— his mode of curlag the sick, p. 39, pi. 19. — Different oflSces and importance of medicine-men, p. 41. LETTER— No. 7, Mouth of Yellow Stone. Crows and Blackfeet — General character and appearance, p. 42. — Killing and drying meat, p. 43, pi. 22. — Crovr lodge or wigwam, p. 43, pi. 20. — Striking their tents and encampment moving, p. 44, pi. 21. — Mode of dressing and smoking skins, p. 45. — Crows — Beauty of their dresses — Horse-stealing or capturing — Reasons why they are called rogues and robbers of the first order, &c. p. 46. LETTER— No. 8, Mouth of Yellow Stone. Furt..v. remarks on the Crows — Extraordinary length of hair, p. 49. — Peculiarities of the Crow head, and several portraits, p. 50, pis. 24, 25, 26, 27. — Crow and Blackfeet women — Their modes of dressing and painting, p. 51. — Differences between the Crow and Blackfoot languages, p. 51 . — Different bands — Different lang ges, and numbers of the Blackfeet, p. 52. — Knisteneaux — Assinneboins, and Ojibbeways, p. 53. — Assinneboins a part of the Sioux — Their mode of boiling meat, p. 54, — Pipe-dance, p. 55, pi. 32.-— Wi-jun-jon (a chief) and wife, pis. 20, 29. — His visit to Washington, p. 56, — Dresses of women and children of the Assinneboins, p. 57, pi. 34. — Knisteneaux (or Crees)— character and numbers, and several portraits, p. 67, pis. 30, 31. — Ojibbeways — Chief and wife, p. 58, pis. 35, 36. LETTER— No. 9, Mouth of Yellow Stone. Contemplations of the Great Far West and its customs, p. 69. — Old acquaintance, p. 60.— March and effects of civilization, p. 60.— The '< Far West"— The Author in search of it, p. 62.— Meeting with " Ba'tiste," a Irce trapper, p. 63, 64. LETTER— No. 10, Mandan Village, Upper Missouri. A strange place — Voyage from Mouth of Yellow Stone down the river to Mandans — Commencement — Leave M'Kenzie's Fort, p. 66. — Assinneboins encamped on the river - Wi jun-jon lecturing on the customs of w bite people— Mountain-sheep, p. 67.^- ' War-eagleB — Ciritzly bears, p, 68. — CIny bliilTii, " brick-kilus," Tolcanio lemaini, p. (39, pin. 37, 3a. — Hed pumice stone— A wild stroll — Mountaineer's sleep, p. 70. — C/rizxlv hear nnd cubs — Courageous attack — Canoo robbed, p. 71. — Ealing our meals on • pile of drift-wood — Enciimping in the nigbt — Voluptuous scene of wild flowers, bufl'alo bush and berries, p. 72. — Adventure after an elk — VVar-purty discovered, p. 74 — Mag- nificent scenery in the " Lirand U6tour" — Stupendous cloy bluffs — Table land, p. 75. pi. 39. — Antelope shooting, p. 76, pi. 40. — "Grand Dome" — Prairie dogs — Village — Fruitless endeavours to shoot them, p. 77, pi, 4'A, — I'ictured bluff and the Three Domes, p. 78, pis. 43, 44.— Arrival at the Mandan village, p. 79. LETTER — No. 11, Mandan Vii-laoe. Location — Village, p. 80, pi. 4.5. — Former locations, fortification of their village- Descrip- tion of village and mode of constructing their wigwams, p. 81, 8!2. — Description of interior — Beds — Weapons — Family groups, p. 82, 83, pi. 46. — Indian garrulity — Jokes — Fire-side fun and story-telling, p. 84. — Causes of Indian taciturnity in civilized society, p. 85. LETTER— No. 12, Mandan Village. Bird's-eye view of the villoge, p. 87, pi. 47.— The "big canoe"— Medicine-lodge— A strange medley, p. 88. — Mode of depositing the dead on scaffolds, p. 89.— R ^pect to the dead— Visiting the dead— Feeding the dead — Converse with the dead- Bones of the dead, p. 90, pi. 48. LETTER— No. 13, Mandan Village. The wolf-chief— Head-chief of the tribe, p. 92, pi. 49 — Several portraits, p. 92, pis. .50, 51, 52,53. — Personal appearance--Peculiarities — Complexion, p. 93. — "Cheveux gris, p. 94. —Hair of the men— Ilai. of the women, p. 95, pi. 54.— Bathing and swimming, p. 96. — Mode of swimming — Sudatories or vapour-baths, p. 97-8, pi. 71. LETTER— No. 14, Mandan Village. Costumes of the Mandans— High value set upon them— Two horses for a head-dress — Made of war-eagles' quills and ermine, p. 100, 101.— Head-dresses with horns, p. 103 — A Jewish custom, p. 104. LETTER— No. 15, Mandan Village. Astonishment of the Mandans ut the operation of the Author's brush, p. 105.— The Author installed medicine or medicine-man, p. 106.— Crowds around the Author— Curiosity to see and to touch him, p. 107,— Superstitious fears for those who were painted, p. 108.— Objections raised to being painted, p. 109.— The Author's operations opposed by ■ Mandan doctor, or medicine-man, and how brought over, p. 110, pi. 55. vf LETTER — N'>. 16, Man dan Village. An Indian beau or dnndy, p. 112.— A fruitless endonvour to paint one, p. 113. — Mah-to- toh-pa f tlie four beors), second chief of the tribe — The Author feasted in his wigwun, p. 1 14, pi. 6*. — Viundsof the feast, p. 115. — Pemioan and mnrrow-fat — Mandan pottery —Robe presented, p. 116. LETTER— No. 17, Mandan Village. Polygamy — Reasons and excuses for it, p. 118. — Marriages, how contracted — Wives bought and sold, p. 1!20. — Paternal and filial atTection— Virtue and modesty of women- Early marriages — Slavish lives and occupations of the Indian women, p. Itl.— 'Pnmme blanche— Dried meat — Caches — Modes of cooking, and times of eating — Attitudes in eating, p. 122. — Separation of male» and females in eating — the Indians moderate eaters — Some exceptions, p. 123. — Curing meat iu the sun, without smoke or salt — The wild Indians eat no salt, p, 124. LETTER— No. 18. Mandan Village. Indian dancing — " Buffalo donee," p. 127, pi. 5(5. — Discovery of buffaloes — Preparations for the chase — Start — A decoy — A retreat — Death and sculping, p. 129. LETTER— No. 19, Mandan Village. Sham fight and sham scalp dance of the Mandan boys.p. 131 , pi. 67.— Gome of Tchung-kee, p. 132, pi. 59.— Feasting— Fasting and sacrificing— White buflnio robe— lis value p. 133, pi. 47.— llain milkers ond ruin stoppers, p. l.JJ.— Ruin making, p. VJH, pi. 58<— " The thunder bout" — The big double medicine, p. 1-10. LETTER— No. 20, Mandan Village. Mandon archery—" Game of the arrow," p. 141, pi. 60 — Wild horses— Horse-racing, p. 142, pi. 61. — Foot war-party in council, p. 143, pi. 63, LETTER— No. 21, Mandan Village, Upper Missouri. Mah-to-toh-pa, (the FoiirBenrs) — Ilis costume and his portrait, p. 145, pi. 64. The robe of Msh-to-toh-po, with all the battles of his life painted on it, p. 148, pi. 65. LETTER— No. 22, Mandan Village. Mandan religious ceremonies— Mandan religious creed, p. 156.— Three objects of the ceremony, p. 157.— Place of holding the ceremony— Big canoo— Season of commencing — *nd manner, p. 158.— Opening the medicine lodge— Sacrifices to the water, p. 159 Fasting scene for four days and nights, p. 161, pi. 66.— Bel-lohck-nab.pick, (the bull dance), p. 164, pi. 67.— -Pohk-hong (the cutting or torturing acoue), p. 169, pi. 68.— VII Kh-ke-n«h-ka-nuh-|)iok, (tli« lut rnrx) p. iT.'t, pi. 69.— I''xtrnor(linnr]r inn'itncet o( eruelty in »elf-tortur«, p. 175.— Socrifitinp .o the wntin of tli« Mtndun ceremonies — Inferencus drutvii I'runi tlietio liorriMe oruultion, with triiditioini, p. i77. — Tradition of O-itee-hee-de (the Evil .Spirit), p. 179. — Mandiin* ciiii be civi- IJied, p. 18^. LE'ITEIl— No. 23, M^NATAUEEVlI,LAOP.. Locatiunand niimbfrs — Origin, p. 185, — Principal village, pi. 70. — Vapour baths, pl.7l. — Old chief, Hlaclc Moccasin, p. 186, pi. 7'.i. — Two portrait*, man and wuiniin, pU. 7:1, 74. Ureen corn danco, p. 189, pi. 73. LETTER— No. 24, Minatauee Village. Crows, in the Minntaree village, p. 191,— Crow chief on horaebnck, in full dross, p. 19S, pi, 76. — i'tculiarities of the Crows— Lontj liaii — ^'emi-luimr faces, p. 193, pis. 77, 78,^ Rats in the Minataree village, p. 19.5. — Crossing Kiiifu iUvor in " bull bout" — Swimmin|f of Minataree girls, p. 196 — Horse-racing — A banter — Uidinga " naked horse," p, 197'-~ Grand buffalo surround, p. 199, pi. 79, — Cutting up and carrying in meat, p. 201. LETTER — No. 25, Little Man dan Village, Upper Missouri. An Indian offering himself for a pillow, p, 203. — Portraits of Riccarees, p, 204, p!a, H3, Hi, 8a, 81.— Riccaree village, p.204, pi. 80. — Origin of the Manduus — Welsh colony — Expedition of Madoc, p. 206-7. LETTER— No. 26, Mouth of Teton River. Sioux or (Dah-co-ta^, p, 208. — Fort Pierre, pi. 05. — Misa'ssippi and Missouri Sioux, p, 209. — Ha-wan-ie-tah (chief) p. 211, pi. 86. — Puncahs, Shoo-de-ga-cha (cbief^ and wife, p. 812, pis. 87, 88. — Four wives taken at once, p. 213, pi, 90. — Portrait of one of the wives, p, 214, pi. 89. — Early marriajjes — Causes of, p, 215. LETTER— No, 27, Mouth of Teton River. Custom of exposing the aged, p. 216, — A tedious march on foot, p. 218. — Level prairie»— " Out of sight of land" — Mirage — Looming of the proiries, p. 218. — Turning the toes in — Bijou bills — Salt meadows, p. 219 — Arrive at Fort Pierre— Great assemblage of Sioux — Paint the portrait of the chief — Superstitious objections — Opposed by the doctors, p, 220, — Difficulty settled— Death of Ha-wan-je-tah (the chief) — Mode of, p, 221. — Por- traits of other Sioux chiefs — Wampum, p, 222-3, pis. 91, 92, — Beautiful Sioux women— Daughter of Black Rock— Chardon, his Indian wife, p. 224-5, pis, 94, 95. LETTER— No, 28, Mouth of Teton River. Difficulty of painting Indian women, p. 226. — Indian vanity — Watching their portraits- Arrival of the first steamer amongst the Sioux, p. 227. — Dog-feast p. 228, pi. 96. ^ .j VIM LIVrrnR— No. W, Mortn oi Trton Rivp.n. Voluntary torture, " lookirif; nt the sun," p. 9.1'^, (>l 97. — KtiliKiouii cornmotiy, p. 23.1.— .Smoking " k'niok-k'ueck" — l'ipe», p. 2.S4. pi. 9t). — Calumet* or pipoi of pHnre, p.?.*W — Toinnliatvka and icalping knivoN, p. 'J'J!y-6, pi. 09.— Dance o( lliu rlii«ra, p. 3.17, pi, 100, — Soalpa — Mode of taking, and object, p. 33U-9. — Modet of carrying and uiing the iiralpi, p. t40, pi. 101. LETTER— No. .30, Mouth of Teton River. Indian weapon* and initrunipntH of music, p. 2-M, pi. 101}. — Quiver and shield — Smoking the ahield p. S4J. — Tobacco pouches — Drums — Hnttles — VVhistlos — Lutes, p. 242, pi 101 }. — Dear dance, p. 344, pi. 102. — Ueggars' dnnce — Scalp dance, p. 24.'), pla. 103, IC 4 LETTER— No. 31, Mouth op Teton River. Oisona (or buffaloes) description of, p 247.— Habits of, p. 248 — Uulls' fighting — Buffalo wallows — Fairy circles, p. 249, pis. 105, 106.— Kunning tha buffaloes, and throwing the arrow, p. 251, pi. 107. — Buffalo chase — Use of the Inso, p. 253, pi. 108, 109. — Hunting under masque of white wolfskins, p. 254, pi. 1 10. — Horses destroyed in buffalo hunting, p. 255, pi. U:. — Butfulo calf — Mode of catching and bringing in, p. 255, pi. IH. — Immense ond wanton dostruction of buffaloes — 1,400 killed, p. 256.— Whit* wolrea atUcking buffaloes, p. 257-8, pU. 1 13, 114. —Contemplations on the probable extuodon •f oaffaloes and Indiana, p. 258,264. *-**< ■■*«•*»,«»*»*-. , I ! .-> /) fWiu,. LETTERS AND NOTES ON THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. ••^ LETTER— No. 1 As tl>e following pages have been hastily compiled, at the urgent request of a number of my friends, from a series of Letters and Notes written by myself during several years' residence and travel amongst a number of the wildest and most remote tribes of the North American Indians, I have thought it best to make this page the beginning of my book ; dispensing with Preface, and even with Dedication, other than that which I hereby make of it, with all my heart, to those who will take the pains to read it. If it be necessary to render any ipology for beginning thus unceremoniously my readers will understand that I had no space in these, my first volumes, to throw away ; nor much time at my disposal, which I could, in justice, use for introducing myself and my works to the world. Having commenced thus abruptly then, I will venture to take upon myself the sin of calling this one of the series of Letters of which I have spoken ; although I am writing it several years later, and placing it at the beginning of my book ; by which means I will be enabled briefly to intro- duce myself to my readers (who, as yet, know little or nothing of me), and also the subjects of the following epistles, with such explanations of the customs described in them, as will serve for a key or glossary to the same, and prepare the reader's mind for the information they contain. Amidst the multiplicity of books which are, in this enlightened age, flooding the world, I feel it my duty, as early as possible, to beg pardon for making a book at all ; and in the next (if my readers should become so much interested in my narrations, as to censure me for the brevity of the work) to take some considerable credit for not having trespassed too long upon their time and patience. Leaving my readers, therefore, to find out what is in the book, without promising them anything, I proceed to say — of myself, that I was born in Wyoming, in North America, some thirty or forty years since, of parents /vol. I. 9 . t.AKt •iimtn Cr Cf/l.l.n. 2 ; who entered that beautiful and famed valley soon ofter the close of the revolutionary war, and the disastrous event of the " Indian massacre." The early part of my life was whiled away, apparently, somewhat in vain, with books reluctantly held in one hand, and a rifle or fishing-pole firmly and affectionately grasped in the other. At the urgent rev)uest of my father, who was a practising lawyer, I was prevailed upon to abandon these favourite themes, and also my occasional dabblings with the brush, which had secured already a corner in my affections ; and I commenced reading the law for a profession, under the direction of Reeve and Gould, of Connecticut. I attended the lectures Oi these learned judges for two years — was admitted to the bar — and practised the law, as a sort of Nimrodicul lawyer, in my native land, for the term of (•»o or three years ; when I very deliberately sold my law library and all (save my rifle and fishing-tackle), and converting their proceeds into brushes and paint pots ; I commenced the art of painting in Philadelphia, without .eachcr or adviser. I there closely applied my hand to the labours of the ait for several years; during which time my mind was continually reaching for some branch or enterprise of the art, on which to devote a whole life-time of enthusiasm ; when a delegation of some ten or fifteen noble and dignified-looking Indians, from the wilds of the " Far West," suddenly arrived in tlie city, arrayed and equipped in all their classic beauty, — with shield and helmet, — with tunic and manteau, — tinted and tasselled off, exactly for the painter's palette ! In silent and stoic dignity, these lords of the forest strutted about the city for a few days, wrapped in their pictured robes, with their brows plumed with the quills of the war-eagle, attracting the gaze and admiration of all who beheld them. After this, they took their leave for Washington City, and I was left to reflect and regret, which I did long and deeply, until I came to the following deductions and conclusions. Black and blue cloth and civilization are destined, not only to veil, but to obliterate the grace and beauty of Nature. Man, in the simplicity and loftiness of his nature, unrestrained and unfettered by the disguises of art, IS surely the most beautiful model for the painter, — and the country from which he hails is unquestionably the best study or school of the arts in the world : such I am sure, from the models I have seen, is the wilderness of North America. And the history and customs of such a people, preserved by pictorial illustrations, are themes worthy the life-time of one man, and nothing short of the loss of my life, shall prevent me from visiting their country, and of becoming their historian. There was something inexpressibly delightful in the above resolve, which was to bring me amidst such living models for my brush : and at the same time to place in my hands again, for my living and protection, the objects of my heart above-named ; which had long been laid by to rust and decay 8^ in the city, without the remotest prospect of again contributing to my amusement. I had fully resolved — I opened my views to my friends and relations, but got not one advocate or abettor. I tried fairly and faithfully, but it was in vain to reason with those whose anxieties were ready to fabricate every difficulty and danger that could be imagined, without being able to under- stand or appreciate the extent or importance of my designs, and I broke from them all, — from my wife and my aged parents, — myself my only adviser and protector. With these views firmly fixed — armed, equipped, and supplied, I started out in the year 1832, and penetrated the vast and pathless wilds which are familiarly denominated the great " Far West" of the North American Continent, with a light heart, inspired with an enthusiastic hope and reliance tiiat I could meet and overcome all the hazards and privations of a life devoted to the production of a literal and graphic delineation of the living manners, customs, and character of an interesting race of people, who are rapidly passing away from the face of the earth — lending a hand to a dying nation, who have no ". ■ i.orians or biographers of their own to pourtray with fidelity their native looks and history ; thus snatching from a hasty oblivion what could be saved for the benefit of posterity, and perpetuating it, as a fair and just monument, to the memory of a truly lofty and noble race. I have spent about eight years already in the pursuit above-named, having boen for the most of that time immersed in the Indian country, mingling with red men, and identifying myself with them as much as possible, in their games and amusements ; in order the better to familiarize myself with tiieir superstitions and mysteries, which are the keys to Indian life and character. It was during the several years of my life just mentioned, and whilst I was in familiar participation witn them in their sports and amusements, that 1 penned the following series of epistles ; describing only such glowing or curious scenes and events as passed under my immediate observation ; leaving their early history, and many of their traditions, language, &c. for a suose- quent and much more elaborate work, for which I have procured the materials, and which I may eventually publish. I set out on my arduous and perilous undertaking with the determination of reaching, ultimately, every tribe of Indians on the Continent of North America, and of bringing home faithful portraits of their principal personages, both men and women, from each tribe ; views of their villages, games, &c. and full notes on their character and history. I designed, also, to procure tl;eir costumes, and a complete collection of their manufacturrs and weapons, and to perpetuate them in a Gallery unique, for the use and instruction of future ages. I claim whatever merit there may have been in the originality of such a Ji2 I I design, as I was undoubtedly the first artist who ever set out upon 8u<.-Ii a work, designing to carry his canvass to the Rocky Mountains ; and a con- siderable part of the following Letters were written and published in the New York Papers, as early as the years 1832 and 1833 ; long before the Tours ot Washington Irving, and several others, whose interesting narratives are before the world. I have, as yet, by no means visited all the tribes ; but I have progressed a very great way with the enterprise, and with far greater and more complete success than I expected. I have visited forty-eight different tribes, the greater part of which I found speaking different languages, and containing in all 400,000 souls. I have brought home safe, and in good order, 310 portraits in oil, all painted in their native dress, and in their own wigwams ; and also 200 other paintings in oil, containing views of their villages — their wigwams — their games and religious ceremonies — their dances — their ball plays — their buffalo hunting, and other amusements (containing in all, over 3000 full-length figures); and the landscapes of the country they live in, as well as a very extensive and curious collection of their costumes, and all their other manufactures, from the size of a wigwam down to the size of a quill or a rattle. A considerable part of the above-named paintings, and Indian manufac- tures, will be found amongst the very numerous illiistrations in the following pages ; having been, in every instance, faithfully copied and reduced by my own hand, for the engraver, from my original paintmgs ; and the reader of this book who will take the pains to step in to " Catlin's North Ameuicak Indian Gallery," will find nearly every scene and custom which is described in this work, as well as many others, carefully and correctly delineated, and displayed upon the walls, and every weapon (and every •' Sachem" and every " Sagamore" who has wielded them) according to the tenor of the tales herein recited. So much of myself and of my works, which is all that I wish to say at present. Of the Indians, I have much more to say, and to the following de- lineations of them, and their character and customs, I shall make no further apology for requesting the attention of my readers. The Indians (as I shall call them), the savage: or red men of the forests and prairies of North America, are at this time a subject of great interest and some importance to the civilized world ; rendered more particularly so in this age, from their relative position to, and their rapid declension from, the civilized nations of the earth. A numerous nation of human beings, whose origin is beyond the reach of human investigation, — whose early history is lost — whose term of national existence is nearly expired— ihree-fourths ol whose country has fallen into the possession of civilized man within the short space of 250 years — twelve millions of whose bodies have fattened the soil in the mean time ; who have fallen victims to whiskey, the small-pox. and the Itayonet; leaving at tbis time but a meagre proportion to live a short time longer, in the certain apprehension of soon sharing a similar fate. The writer who would undertake to embody the whole history of such a people, with all their misfortunes and calamities, must needs have mtich more space than I have allotted to this epitome ; and he must needs begin also (as I am doing) with those who are living, or he would be very apt to dwell upon the preamble of his work, until the present living remnants of the race should have passed away ; and their existence and customs, like those of ages gone bye, become subjects of doubt and incredulity to the world for whom his book was preparing. Such an historian also, to do them justice, must needs correct many theories and opinions which have, either ignorantly or maliciously, gone forth to the world in indelible characters ; and gather and arrange a vast deal which has been but imperfectly recorded, or placed to the credit of a people who have not had the means of recording it themselves ; but have entrusted it, from necessity, to the honesty and punctuality of their enemies. In such an history should be embodied, also, a correct account of their treatment, and the causes which have led to their rapid destruction ; and a plain and systematical prophecy cs to the time and manner of their final extinction, based upon the causes and the ratio of their former and present declension. So Herculean a task may fall to my lot at a future period, or it may not; bui I send forth these volumes at this time, fresh and full of their living dee'is and cus( '•ms, as a familiar and unstudied introduction (at least) to them and their native character ; which I confidently hope will repay the readers who read for information and historical facts, as well as those who read but for amusement. The world know generally, that the Indians of North America are copper- coloured ; that their eyes and their hair are black, &c. ; that they are mostly ui-.'^ivilized, and consequently unchristianiicd ; that they are nevertheless human beings, with features, thoughts, reason, and sympathies like our own; but few yet know how they live, how they dress, how they worship, what are their actions, their customs, their religion, their amusements, «&c. as they practise them in the uncivilized regions of their uninvaded country, which it is the main object of this work, cletiily and distinctly to set forth. It would be impossible at the same time, in a book of these dimensions, to explain all the manners and customs of these people ; but as far as they are narrated, they have been described by my pen, upon the spot, as I have seen them transacted ; and if some few of my narrations should seem a little too liighly coloured. I trust the world will be ready to extend to me that pardon which it is customary to yield to all artists whose main faults exist in the vividness of their colouring, rather than in the drawing of their pictures; but there is nothing else in them, I think, that I should ask pardon for, even though some of them should stagger credulity, and incur i\: for me tlie censure of those critics, who sometimes, unthinkingly or un- mercifully, sit at home lit their desks, enjoying the luxury of wine and u good cigar, over the simple narration of the honest and weather-worn traveller (who shortens his half-starved life in catering for the world), to condemn him and his work to oblivion, and his wife and his little children to poverty and starvation ; merely because he describes scenes which they have not beheld, and which, consequently, they are unable to believe. The Indians of North America, as I have before said, are copper-coloured, with long black hair, black eyes, tall, straight, and elastic forms — are less than two millions in number — were originally the undisputed owners of the soil, and got their title to their lands from the Great Spirit who created them on it, — were once a happy and flourishing people, enjoying all the comforts and luxuries of life which they knew of, and consequently cared for : — were sixteen millions in numbers, and sent that number of daily prayers to the Almighty, and thanks for his goodness and protection. Their country was entered by wliile men, but a few hundred years since ; and thirty millions of these are now scuffling for the goods and luxuries of life, over the bones and ashes of twelve millions of red men ; siv T.illiuiia of whom have fallen victims to the small-pox, and the ••cnamder to the sword, the bayonet, and whiskey ; all of which mef>".o of their death and destruction have been introduced and visited upor. iliem by acquisitive white men ; and by wliile men, also, whose fore^'achers were welcomed and embraced in the land where the poor Indian inct and fed them with " cars of green corn and with pemican." Of 'lie two millions remaining alive at this time, about 1 ,400,000, are already the miserable living victims and dupes of white man's cupidity, degraded, discouraged and lost in the bewildering^ maze that is produced by the use of whiskey and its concomitant vices ; and the remain'iig number are yet unroused and unenticed from their wild haunts or tlieir primitive modes, by the dread or love of white man and his Jiliurements. It has been with these, mostly, that I have spent my time, and of these, chiefly, and their customs, that the following Letters treat. Their habits (and their's alone) as we can see them transacted, are native, and such as I have wished to fix and preserve for future ages. Of the dead, and of those who are dying, of those who have suffered death, and of those who are now trodden and kicked through it, I may speak more fully in some deductions at tlie close of this book ; or at some future time, when I may find more leisure, and may be able to speak of these scenes without giving offence to the world, or to any body in it. Such a portrait then as I have set forth in the following pages (taken by myself from the free and vivid realities of life, instead of the vague and uncer- tain imagery of recollection, or from the haggard deformities and distortions of disease and death), I ofier to the world for their amusement, as well as for their information ; and I trust they will pardon me, if it should be thought thai I ';ave ovcr-cstimatecl the Indian character, or at other times descended t.)i) miicli into the details and minntiae of Indian mysteries and absurditit's. The reader, then, to understand me riiJiiitly, aiiddiaw from these l.etters tiie information which they are intended to gi"e, must follow n)e a vast way from the civilized world; he must needs wend his way from the city of New York, over the Allesfhany, and far beyond the miy;hty Missouri, and even to the base and summit of the Rocky Mountains, some two or three thousand miles from the Atlantic coast. He should forget many theories he has rea I in the books of Indian barbarities, of wanton butcheries and murders ; and ''vest himself, as far as possible of the deadly prejudices which he has curried from his childhood, against this most unfortunate and most abused part of the race of his fellow-man. He should consider, that if he has seen the savages of North America wiili- out making such a tour, he has fixed his eyes upon and drawn his conclu- sions (in all probability) only from those who inhabit the frontier; whose habits have been changed — whose pride has been cut down — whose country has been ransacked — whose wives and daugliters have been shamefully abused — whose lands have been wrested from them — whose limbs have become enervated and naked by the excessive use of wliiskey — whose friends and relations have been premal\irely thrown into their graves — whose native pride and dignity have at last given way to tiie unnatural vices which civilized cupidity has engrafted upon them, to be silently nurtured and magnified by a burning sense of in- jury and injustice, and ready for that cruel vengeance which often falls from the hand that is palsied by refined abuses, and yet unrestrained by the glori- ous influences of refined and moral cultivation. — That if he has laid up what he considers well-founded knowledge of these people, from books which he has read, and from newspapers only, he should pause at least, and withhold his sentence before he passes it upon the character of a people, who are dying at the hands of their enemies, without the means of recording their own annals — struggling in their nakedness with their simple weapons, against guns and gunpowder — against vhiskey and steel, and disease, and mailed warriors who are continually trampling ^\em to the earth, and at last exultingly promulga- ting from the very soil which they have wrested from the poor savage, the history of his cruelties and barbarities, whilst his bones are quietly resting under the very furrows which their ploughs are turning. So great and unfortunate are the disparities between savage and civil, in numbers — in weapons and defences — in enterprise, in ci^ft, and in education, that the former is almost universally the sufferer either in peace or in war ; and not less so after his pipe and his tomahawk liave retired to the grave wiih him, and his character is left to be entered upon the pages of history, and that justice done to his memory which from necessity, he has intrusted to his enemy. Amongst the numerous historians, however, of these strange people, they have had some friends who have done them justice ; yet as a part of all sys- toini of justice whenever it is meted to the poor Indian, it comet invariably too late, or ...inistcred at an inc(fectual distance ; and that too when his enemies itinually about him, and efTectualiy applying the means of his deslructic .. Some writers, I have been grieved to see, have written down the character of the North American Indian, ns (Uirk, relentless, cruel and murderous in the lust degree; with scarce a quality to stamp their existence of a higher order than that of the brutes : — whilst other* have given them a high rank, as I feel myHcIf authorized to do, as honourable and highly-intellectual beings ; and others, both friend^i and foes to the red men, have spoken of them as an " anomaly in nature ! " In this place I have no time or inclination to reply to so unaccountable an assertion as this ; contenting myself with the belief, that the term would be far more correctly applied to that part of the human family who have strayed farthest from nature, than it could be to those who are simply moving in, and filling the sphere for which they were designed by the Great Spirit who made them. From what I have seen of these people 1 feel authorized to say, that there is nothing very strange or unaccountable in their character ; but that it is a simple one, and easy to be learned and understood, if the right means be taken to familiarize ourselves with it. Although it has its dark spots, yet therais much in it to be applauded, and much to recommend it to the admiration of the enlightened world. And I trust that the reader, who looks through these volumes with care, will be disposed to join me in the conclusion that the North American Indian in his native state, is an honest, hospitable, faithful, brave, warlike, cruel, revengeful, relentless, — yet honourable, contemplative and religious being. If such be the case, I am sure there is enough in it tc recommend it to the fair perusal of the world, and charity enough in all civilized countries, in this enlightened age, to extend a helping hand to a dying race ; provided that prejudice and fear can be removed, which have heretofore constantly held the civilized portions in dread of the savage — and away from that familiar and friendly embrace, in which alone his true native character can be justly appreciated. I am fully convinced, from a long familiarity with these people, that the Indian's misfortune has consisted chiefly in our ignorance of their true native character and disposition, which has always held us at a distrustful distance from them ; inducing us to look upon them in no other light than that of a hostile foe, and worthy only of that system of continued warfare and abuse that has been for ever waged against them. There is no difficulty in approaching the Indian and getting acquainted with him in his wild and unsophisticated state, and finding him an honest and honourable man ; with feelings to meet feelings, if the above prejudice and dread can be laid aside, and any one will take the pains, as I have done, to h invariablj )o when hit leanu of his le character erous in the igher order nk, as I feel jcings; and them as an accountable srm would be have strayed •ving in, and rit who made ay, that there Lit that it is a cans be taken , yettherais admiration of [through these ion that the able, faithful, :ontemplative mend it to the ntries, in this jrovided that instantly held that familiar can be justly )ple, that the jir true native istful distance :han that ot a ire and abuse kg acquainted Im an honest Iprejudice and ^ave done, to go and sec him in the Riniplicity of his native state, sniukin^r \m pipe ui.dor his own humble roof, with iiist wife and children around liiin, and liis riiitlil'ul dog» and horses iianging about liis hospitable tenement. — So tiie world mnif see him and smoke his friendly pipe, which will be invariably extended lu them ; and share, with a hearty welcome, the best that his wigwam aflbnls for the appetite, which is always set out to a stranger the next moment after he enters. But 80 the mass of the world, most assuredly, will not sec these pcfple ; for they are too far off, and approachable to those only wliose avarice or cupidity alone lead tliem to tliosc remote re^rions, and whose sliame prevents them from publishing to the world the vmues which they have thrown down and trampled under foot. The very use of the word savage, as it is applied in its general sense, I am inclined to believe is an abuse of the word, and the people to whom it is applied. The word, in its true definition, means no more than wild, or wilt/, mail ; and a wild man may have been endowed by his Maker with all the liumane and noble traits that inhabit the heart of a tame man. Our ignorance and dread or fear of these people, therefore, have given a new definition to the adjective ; and nearly the whole civilized world apply the word savage, as expressive of the most ferocious, cruel, and murderous eliaracter tlmt can be describe']. The grizzly bear is called avage, because he is blood-thirsty, ravenous and cruel; and so is the tiger, and they, like the poor red man, have been feared and dreaded (from the distance at which ignorance and prejudice have kept us from them, or from resented abuses which wo have practiseil when we have come in close contact with them), until Van Amburgii shewed the world, that even these ferocious and unreasoning animals wanted only the friendship and close embrace of their master, to respect and to iove him. Aa evidence of the hospitality of these ignorant and benighted people, and also of their honesty and honour, there will be found recorded many striking instances in the following pages. And also, as an offset to these, many evidences of the dark and ciuel, as well as ignorant and disgusting excesses of passions, unrestrained by the salutary influences of laws and Christianity. I have roamed about from time to time during seven or eight years, visiting and associating with, some three or four hundred thoutand of these people, under an almost infinite variety of circumstances ; and from the very many and decided voluntary acts of their hospitality and kindness, I feel bound to pronounce them, by nature, a kind and hospitable people. I have been welcomed generally in their country, and treated to the best that tliey could give me, without any charges made for my board ; they have often escorted me through their enemies' country at some hazard to their own lives, and aided me in passing mountains and rivers with my awkward bag- voL. I. r I', ^ 10 gage ; and under all of ihcse circumstance* of exposure, no Indian ever l«- traycd me, itruck inc a blow, or Rtolu from nie a Bliilling'i worth of my property that I am aware of. Thin is sayinj; a great dt>al, (and proving it too, if the reader will hclievn mc) in favour of the virtues of these pioplc ; when it is borne in mind, as it shoidd be, lliat tlierc is nu law in their hind to punish a man for theft — that loi;ks and l;ey8 are not itnown in their country — that the commandments have never been divulged amongst them ; nor can any human retribution fall upon the head of a thief, save the disgraec which attaches as a stigma to his cha- racter, in the eyes of his people aliout him. And thus in these little communities, strange as it may seem, in the ab- sence of all systems of Jurisprudence, 1 have often beheld peace and luippi- ness, and tpiiet, reigning supreme, for which even kings and emperors might envy them. I have seen rights and virtue protected, and wrongs redressed ; and I have seen conjugal, filial and paternal affection in the simplicity and contentedness of nature. I have unavoidably, formed warm and enduring attachments to some of these men which I do not wish to forget — who have brought me near to their hearts, and in our tinal separation have embraced mc in their arms, and commended me and my affairs to the keeping of the CJreat Spirit. For the above reasons, the reader will be disposed to forgive me for dwel- ling so long and so strong on the justness of the claims of these people; and for my occasional expressions of sadness, when my heart bleeds for the fate that awaits the remainder of their unlucky race ; which is long to be outlived by the rocks, by the beasts, and even birds and reptiles of the country they live in ; — set upon by their fellow-man, whose cupidity, it is feared, will fix no bounds to the Indian's earthly calamity, short of the grave. I cannot help but repeat, before I close this I^etter, that the tribes of the red men of North America, as a nation of human beings, are on their wane ; that (to use their own very beautiful figure) " they are fast travelling to the shades of their fathers, towards the setting sun ;" and that the travel- ler who would see these people in their native simplicity and beauty, must needs be hastily on his way to the prairies and Rocky Mountains, or he will see them only as they are now seen on the frontiers, as a basket of dead game, — harassed, chased, bleeding and dead ; with their plumage and colours despoiled ; to be gazed amongst in vain for some system or moral, or for some scale by which to estimate their true native character, other tlian that which has too often recorded them but a dark and unintelligible mass of cruelty and barbarity. Without further comments I close this Letter, introducing my readers at once to the heart of the Indian country, only asking their forgiveness for having made it so long, and their patience whilst travelling through the following pages (as I journeyed through those remote realms) in search of information and rational amusement ; in tracing out the true character of 11 tbnt " itratiffe nnomnly" of man in the nimple elements of liU nnlnro, iin- (iJMolved ur coii)|)oui>cled iiitu tlic iiiystcritjs of enlightened and tiishiunulije life. NOTE. A» tlif lingiilitr manii»r$ of tin Coitnlr)) i*t forth in tht foltouing iH^a, and iht ntni- rirdiiiiirii irenet rtpvfttnted in tlm vfiii iiHiiierniit illuitrat^ont, iirt nf amh a ihaynclrr m to rt'iuirt alt possihU aiilt for the iiitisfuction of Iht remleri ; I /mi/k tlieii u-ill eiont m0 for intruding in thin /i/nc* ''le nnmeroui Cirtijicattt which follow, and uhich /mm hern volunlnrili) fiirninlied me hi) men whoie litrs, it will he seen, have been spent, m prtut pari, iuth* Indian Country, and injamiliarity with the men and manners tet forth in the work; CERTIFICATES. " I hereby certil'y, that the persons whose signatures are affixed to the certificates hurc below, by Mr. Caii in, nre officers in the sprvice of tlie I'nited Stiites, ns heroin set forth ; unJ ihnt their o|>inionsof the iiccurncy of tho lil">'i^^— • r7^^5^~^ ;;W 25^ i_0 i-jL^ jjj: ^^-5^^. A '^l t \ m. A ■• 1 u (liose conditions, on which alone I was induced to pursue the art as a pio- fession ; and in anticipation of which alone, my admiration for the art could ever have been kindled into a pure flame. I mean the free use of nature's undisguised models, with the privilege of selecting for myself. If I am here losing the benefit of the fleeting fashions of the day, and neglecting that elegant polish, which the world say an artist should draw from a continual intercourse with the polite world ; yet have I this consolation, that in this country, I am entirely divested of those dangerous steps and allurements which beset an artist in fashionable life ; and have little to steal my thoughts away from the contemplation of the beautiful models that are about me. If, also, I have not here the benefit of that feeling of emulation, which is the life and ipur to the arts, where artists are associates together ; yet am I surrounded by living models of such elegance and beauty, that I feel an unceasing excitement of a much higher order — the certainty that I am drawing knowledge from the true source. My enthusiastic admiration of man in the honest and elegant simplicity of nature, has aUvays fed the warmest ft elings of my bosom, and shut half the avenues to my hv l against the specious refinements of the accomplished world. This feeling, together with the desire to study my arl, independently of the embarrassments which tne ridiculous fashions of civilized society have thrown in its way, ha?, led me to the wilderness for a while, as the true school of the arts. I have for a long time been of opinion, that the wilderness ol our country afforded models equal to those from which the Grecian sculptors transferred to the marble such inimitable grace and beauty ; and I am now more confirmed in this opinion, since I have immersed myself in the midst of thou- sands and tens of thousands of these knights of the forest ; whose whole lives are lives of chivalry, and whose daily feats, with their naked limbs, might vie with those of the Grecian youths in the beautiful rivalry of the Olympian games. No man's imagination, with all the aids of description that can be given to it, can ever picture the beauty and wildness of scenes that may be daily witnessed in this romantic country ; of hundreds of these graceful youths, without a care to wrinkle, or a fear to disturb the full expression of pleasure and enjoyment that beams upon their faces — their long black hair mingling with their horses' tails, floating in the wind, while they are flying over the carpeted prairie, and dealing death with their spears and arrows, to a band of infuriated buffaloes ; or their splendid procession in a war-parade, arrayed in all their gorgeous colours and trappings, moving with most exquisite grace and manly beauty, added to that bold defiance which man carries on his front, who acknowledges no superior on earth, and who is amenable to no laws except the laws of God and honour. In addition to the knowledge of human nature and of my art, which I hope to accpiire by this loilsome and expensive undertaking, I have another in view, which, if it should not be of equal service to me, will be of no less 16 &i it' iJ interest and value to posterity. I have, for many years past, contemplated the noble races of red men who are now spread over these trackless forests and boundless prairies, melting away at the approach of civilization. Tlieit rights invaded, their morals corrupted, their lands wrested from them, their customs changed, and therefore lost to the world ; and they at last sunk into the earth, and the ploughs! are turning the sod over their graves, and I have flown to their rescue — not of their lives or of their race (for they are " doomed" and must perish), but to the rescue of their looks and their modes, at which the acquisitive world may hurl their poison and every besom of destruction, and trample them down and crush them to death ; yet, phoenix-like, they may rise from the "stain on a oainter's palette," and live again upon canvass, and stand forth for centunes yet to come, the living monuments of a noble race. For this purpose, I have designed to visit every tribe of Indians on the Continent, if my life should be spared ; for tlie purpose of procuring portraits of distinguished Indians, of botli sexes in each tribe, painted in their native costume ; accompanied with pictures of their villages, domestic habits, games, mysteries, religious ceremonies, &c. with anecdotes, traditions, and history of their reispective nations. If I should live to accomplish my design, the result of my labours will doubtless be interesting to future ages ; who will have little else left from wliich to judge of the original inhabitants of this simple race of beings, who require, but a few years more of the march of civilization and death, to de- prive them of all their native customs and character. 1 have been kindly supplied by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and the Secretary of War, with letters to the commander of every military post, and every Indian agent on the Western Frontier, with instructions to render me all the facilities in their power, which will be of great service to mo in so arduous an under- taking. The opportunity afforded me by familiarity with so many tribes of human beings in the simplicity of nature, devoid of the deformities of art ; of drawing fair conclusions in the interesting sciences of plivsiognomy and phrenology ; of manners and customs, rites, ceremonies, &c. ; and the op- portunity of examining the geology and mineralogy of this western, and yet unexplored country, will enable me occasionally to entertain you with much new and interesting information, which I shall take equal pleasure in com- nnmicating by an occasional Letter in my clumsy way. Ll-TTER— No. 3. MOUTH OF YELLOW SrOVE, t/PPER M/SSOITH;. Since tlie date of my former Letter, I Ikivc been so miicli engai^ed iu tlie amusements of the country, and tlic use of my brush, that I have scarcely been able to drop you a line until tlie present moment. Before I let you into the amusements and customs of this de!ij^htful country however, (and which, as yet, are secrets to most of the world), I must hastily travel with ycu over the tedious journey of '2000 miles, from St. Louis to this place ; over which distance one is obliged to pass, before lie can reach this wild and lovely spot. The Missouri is, perhaps, different in appearance and character from all other rivers in the world; there is a terror in its manner which is sensibly felt, the moment we enter its muddy waters from the Mississippi. From the mouth of the Yellow Stone River, which is the place from whence I am now writing, to its junction with the Mississippi, a distance of 2000 miles, the Missouri, with its boiling, turbid waters, sweeps off, in one unceasing cur- rent ; and in the whole distance there is scarcely an eddy or resting-place for a canoe. Owing to the continual falling in of its rich alluvial banks, its water is always turbid and opaque ; having, at all seasons of the year, the colour of a cup of chocolate or coffee, with sugar and cream stirred into it. To give a better definition of its density and opacity, I have tried a number of simple experiments with it at this place, and at other points below, at the results of which I was exceedingly surprised. Ry placing a piece of silver (and afterwards a piece of shell, which is a much whiter substance) in a tumbler of its water, and looking through the side of the glass, I ascertained that those substances could not be seen through the eighth part of an inch ; this, however, is in the spring of the year, when the freshet is upon the river, rendering the water, undoubtedly, much more turbid than it would be at other seasons ; though it is always muddy and yellow, and from its ooiling and wild character and uncommon colour, a stranger would think, even in its lowest state, that there was a freshet upon it. For the distance of 1000 miles above St. Louis, the shores of this river (und, in many places, the whole bed of the stream) are filled with snags and raft, formed of trees of the largest size, which have been undermined by the VOL. I. D I J u IH falling banks and cast into the stream ; their roots becoming fastened in the bottom of tlie river, with tlieir tops floating on the surface of tlie water, and pointing down tlie stream, forming the most frightful and discouraging pro- spect for the adventurous voyageur. (See plate 4.) Almost every island and sand-bar is covered with huge piles of these floating trees, and when the river is flooded, its surface is almost literally covered with floating raft and drift wood which bid positive defiance to keel-boats and steamers, on their way up the river. With what propriety this " Hell of waters" might be denominated the " River Styx," I will not undertake to decide ; but nothing could be more api)ropriate or innocent than to call it the Hiver oj" Sticks, The scene is not, however, all so dreary ; there is a redeeming beauty in the green and carpeted shores, which hem in this huge and terrible deformity of waters. There is much of the way though, whore the mighty forests of stately cotton wood stand, and frown in horrid dark and coolness over the filthy abyss below ; into which thev are ready to plunge headlong, when the mud and soil in which they were germed and reared have been washed out from underneath them, and with the rolling current are mixed, and on their way to the ocean. The greater part of the shores of this river, however, are without timber, where the eye is delightfully relieved by wandering over the beautiful prairies ; most of the way gracefully sloping down to the water's edge, carpeted with the deepest green, and, in distance, softening into velvet of the richest hues, entirely beyond the reach of the artist's pencil. Such is the character of the upper part of the river especially ; and as one advances towards its source, and through its upper half, it becomes more pleasing to the eye, for snags and raft are no longer to be seen ; yet ^he current holds its stiff and onwArd turbid character. It has been, heretofore, very erroneously represented to the world, that the scenery on this river was monotonous, and wanting in picturesque beauty. This intelligence is surely incorrect, and that because it has been brought perhaps, by men who are not the best judges in the world, of Nature's beautiful works ; and if they were, they always pass them by, in pain or desperate distress, in toil and trembling fear for the safety of their furs and peltries, or for their lives, which are at the mercy of the yelling savages who inhabit this delightful country. One thousand miles or more of the upper part of the river, was, to my eye, like fairy-land ; and during our transit through that part of our voyage, 1 was most of the time rivetted to the deck of the boat, indulging my eyes in the boundless and tireless pleasure of roaining over the thousand hills, and bluffs, and dales, and ravines ; where the astonished herds of buffaloes, of elks, and antelopes, and sneaking wolves, and mountain-goats, were to be seen bounding up and down and over the green fields ; each one and each tribe, band, and gang, taking their own way, and using their own means to 19 llie greatest advantagt; possible, to leave the 8ii>ht and sound of tlie puffing of our boat ; wiiiL-h was, for tlie first time, saliiti'ig tiie green and wild shores of the Missouri witli the din of mighty steam. From St. Louis to the falls of the Missouri, a distance of 2G00 miles, is one eontinued prairie ; with the exception of a few of the bottoms formed along the bank of the river, and the streams which are falling into it, which are often covered with tlie most luxuriant growth of forest timber. The summit level of the great prairies stretching off to the west and the east from the river, to an almost boundless extent, is from two to three hun- dred feet above the level of the river ; which has formed a bed or valley for its course, varying in width from two to twenty miles. This channel or v?iley has been evidently produced by the force of the current, which has gradually excavated, in its floods and gorges, this immense space, and sent its debris into the ocean. By the continual overflowing of the river, its de- posits have been lodged and left with a horizontal surface, spreading the deepest and richest alluvion over the surface of its meadows on either side ; through which the river winds its serpentine course, alternately running from one bluff to the other, which present themselves to its shores in all the most picturesejue and beautiful shapes and colours imaginable — some with their green sides gracefully slope down in the most lovely groups to tlie water's edge (plate 5) ; whilst others, divested of their verdure, present themselves in immense masses of clay of different colours, which arrest the eye of the traveller, with the most curious views in the world. These strange and picturesque appearances have been produced by the rains and frosts, which arc continually changing the dimensions, and varying the thousand shapes of these denuded hills, by washing down their sides and carrying them into the river. Amongst these groups may be seen tens and hundreds of thousands of different forms and figures, of the sublime and the picturesque ; in many places for miles together, as the boat glides along, there is one continued appearance, before and behind us, of some ancient and boundless city in ruins — ramparts, terraces, domes, towers, citadels and castles maybe seen, — cupolas, and magnificent porticoes, and here and there a solitary column and crumbling pedestal, and even spires of clay which stand alone — and glisten- ing in distance, as the sun's rays are refracted back by the thousand crystals of gypsum which are imbedded in the clay of which they are formed (plate 6). Over and through these groups of domes and battlements (as one is compelled to imagine them), the sun sends his long and gilding rays, at morn or in the evening; giving life and light, by aid of shadows cast.to the different glowing colours of these clay-built ruins ; shedding a glory over the solitude of this wild and pictured country, which no ore can realize un- less he travels here and looks upon it. It is amid=t these wild and quiet haunts that the mountain-sheep, and the fleet-bounding antelope sport and live in herds, secure from their enemies, 20 it 'M l)N to whom the sides and slopes of tliesc l)hifr8 (iiround wliicli lluy ft.trlcssly bound) nro nearly iniicccssible. The t;riy,/ly l)car also lias chosen these places for his ul)odo ; he sullenly sneaks throiii^li the ^nl|)hs and chasms, and ravines, and frovvnj away the lurking Indian ; wliiUt the mountain-sheep and antelope arc bounding over and aruiMid the hill tops, safe and free from harm of man and beast. Such is a hasty sketch of the river scenes and scenery for 2000 miles, over which we tujjgcd, and puffed, and blowed, and toiled for three months, before we reached this place. Since we arrived here, the stcainer has re- turned and left me her. to explore the country and visit the tribes in this vicinity, and then descend the river from this place to St. Louis ; which Tour, if I live through it, will furnish material for many a story and curious '•"^IJent, which I may give you in detail in future epistles, and when I have more leisure than I have at the present moment. I will then undertake to tell how we astonished the natives, in many an instance, which I can in this Letter but just hint at and say adieu. If anything did ever literally and completely " astonish (and astound) the natives," it was the appearance of our steamer, puffing and blowing, and paddling and rushing by their villajjes which were on the banks of the river. These poor and ignorant people for the distance of 2000 miles, had never before seen or heard of a steam-boat, and in some places they seemed at a loss to know what to do, or how to act ; they could not, as the Dutch did at Newburgh, on the Hudson River, take it to be a *^ floating saw-mill " — and they had no nam6 for it — so it was, like every thing else (with them), which is mysterious and unaccountable, called medicine (mystery). We had on board one twelve-pound canno.n and three or four eight-pound swivels, which we were taking up to arm the Fur Company's Fort at the mouth of Yellow Stone, and at the approach to every village they were all discharged several times in rapid succession, which threw the inhabitants into utter confusion and amazement — some of them laid their faces to the ground, and cried to the Great Spirit — some shot their horses and dogs, and sacrificed them to appea^'e the Great Spirit, whom they conceived was ofTended — some deserted their villages and ran to the tops of the blufTs some miles distant ; and others, in some places, as the boat landed in front of their villages, came with great caution, and peeped over the bank of the river to see the fate of their chiefs, whose duty it was (from the nature of their office) to approach us, whether friends or foes, and to go on board. Sometimes, in this plight, they were in- stantly thrown 'neck and heels' over each other's heads and shoulders — men, women and children, and dogs — sage, sachem, old and young — all in a mass, at the frightful discharge of the steam from the escape-pipe, which the cap- tain of the boat let loose upon them for his own fun and amusement. There were many curious conjectures amongst their wise men, with regard to the nature and powers of the steam-boat. Amongst the Mandans, some called it the *» big thunder canoe ;" for when in distance bclo; the village. I — '♦ -.laUi': r tA7>'jSv--i -*-"-*r„--,„V' \) ic.^' \ ■I ■ ^ ,v4^^~ I. >/ , f- ■-: -. ' '>^/ '■■ f. y ry ,^ i -._r?v.. L' ^'^"-'lly^^.X-.-f^'^^^^^' r7.-'Tr" ->.s c^_ — -or' V «-^_ - ^-^ ;0. 1 II 21 •luy Hftw the liglitnin^ flasli from itn iitlca, ami lionrd the thuiulor come froiii il;'ollHTS Ciilli'tl it tlio " hij; mediciiio tMiino witli eyes ;" it was medicinr. (mystery) because tlicy could not iitulerstuiid it ; and it must Imve eyt'S, tor yuid tliey, " it seed its owii way, and takes tiic deep water in the middle of tlie cliannel." Tiiey lind no idea of the boat beiii); steered l)y the man at the wheel, nnd well they might have been astonished ut its takin;^ the dtcpcst water. I may (if I do not forget it) hereafter give you an account of some other curious incidents of this kind, wl\ieli we met with in this voyage ; for we met nn\ny, and some of them were really laughable. The Fort, in which I am residing was built by Mr. M'Kcnzie, who now occupies it. It is the largest and best-built establishment of tlic kind on the river, being the great or principal head-f|uarter8 and dei)6t of the Fur Company's business in this region. A vast stock of goods is kept on hand at this place ; and at certain times of the year the numerous out-posts concentialc here with the returns of their season's trade, and reht out with a f esh suppi , of goods to trade with the Indians. The site for the Fort is well selected, being a beautiful praiiie on the bank near the junction of the Missouri with the Yellow Stone rivers; and its in- mates and its stores well protected from Indian assaults. Mr. M'Kenzie if. a kind-heaited and l.igh-minded Scotchman ; and seems to have charge of all the Fur Companies' business in this region, and from this to the Rocky Mountains. He lives in good and comfortable style, inside of the Fort, which contains some eight or ten log-houses and stores, and has generally forty or fifty men, and one hundred and fifty horses about him. He has, wiih the same spirit of liberality and politeness with which Mons. Pierre Chouteau treated me on my passage up the river, pronounced me welcome at his table, which groans under the luxuries of the country ; with buffalo meat and tongues, with beavers' tails and marrow-fat ; but sans coffee, sans bread and butter. Good cheer and good living we get at it however, and good wine also ; for a bottle of Madeira and one of excellent Port are set in a pail of ice every day, and exhausted at dinner. At tl'.e hospitable board of this gentleman I found also another, who forms a happy companion for mine host; and whose intellectual and polished society has added not a liltle to my pleasure and amusement since I arrived here. The gentleman of whom I am speaking is an Englishman, by the name of Hamilton, of the most pleasing and entertaining conversation, whose mind seems to be a complete store-house of ancient and modern literature and art; and Wiiose free and familiar acquaintance with the manners and men of his country gives him the stamp of a gentleman, who has had the curiosity to bring the embellishments of the enlightened world, to contrast with the rude and the wild of these remote regions. 22 We three bons vivants form the group about the dinner-table, of whicli I liave before spoken, and crack our jokes and fun over the bottles of Port and Madeira, which I have named : and a considerable part of which, tiiis gentleman has brought with great and precious care from his own country. This post is the general rendezvous of a great number of Indian tribes hi these regions, who are continually concentratmg here for the purpose of trade ; sometimes coming, the whole tribe together, in a mass. There are now here, and encamped about the Fort, a great many, and I am continually at work with my brush ; we have around us at this time the Knisteneaux, Crows, Assinneboins and Blackfeet, and in a few days are to have large accessions. The finest specimens of Indians on the Continent are in these regions ; and before I leave these parts, I shall make excursions into their respective coun- tries, to their own native fire-sides ; and there study their looks and peculiar customs ; enabling me to drop you now and then an interesting Letter. The tribes which I shall be enabled to see and study by my visit to tliis region, are the Ojibbcways, the Assinneboins, Knisteneaux, Blackfeet, Crows, Shiennes, Grosventres, Manduns, and others ; of whom and their customs, their history, traditions, costumes, &c., 1 shall in due season, give you further and minute accounts. 111 LETTER— No. 4, MOUTH OF "ELLOW STONE. The several tribes of Indians inhabiting the regions of the Upper Mis- souri, and of whom I spoke in my last Letter, are undoubtedly the finest looking, best equipped, and most beautifully costumed of any on the Con- tinent. They live in a country well-stocked with buffaloes and wild horses, which furnish them an excellent and easy living; their atmosphere is pure, which produces good health and long life ; and they are the most inde- pendent and the happiest races of Indians I have met with : tliey are ail entirely in a state of primitive wildness, and consequently are p'cturesqne and handsome, almost beyond description. Nothing in the world, of its kind, can possibly surpass in beauty and grace, some of their games and amusements — their gambols and parades, of which I shall speak and paint hereafter. As far as my travels have yet led me into the Indian country, I have more than realized my former predictions that those Indians who could be found most entirely in a state of nature, with the least knowledge of civilized society, would be found to be the most cleanly in their persons, elegant in their dress and manners, and enjoying life to the greatest perfection. Of such tribes, perhaps the Crows and Blackfeet stand first ; and no one would be able to appreciate the richness and elegance (and even taste too), with which some of these people dress, without seeing them in their own country. I will do all I can, however, to make their looks as well as customs knov.n to the world ; I will paint with my brush and scribble with my pen, and bring their plumes and plumage, dresses, weapons, &c., and every thing but the Indian himself, to prove to the world the assertions which I have made above. Every one of these red sons of the forest (or rather of the prairie) is a knight and lord — his squaws are his slaves ; the only things which he deems worthy of his exertions are to mount his snorting steed, with his bow and quiver slung, his arrow-shield upon his arm, and his long lance glistening in the war-parade; or, divested of all his plumes and trappings, armed with a simple bow and quiver, to plunge his steed amongst the flying herds of buffaloes, and with his sinewy bow, which he seldom bends in vain, to drive deep to life's fountain the whizzing arrow. 24 Tlie buffalo herds, which graze in almost countless numbers on these beautiful prairies, afford them an abundance of meat ; and so much is it preferred to all other, that the deer, the elk, and the antelope sport upon the prairies in herds in the greatest security; as the Indians seldom kill them, unless they want their skins for a dress. The buffalo (or more correctly speaking bison) is a noble animal, that roams over the vast prairies, from the borders of Mexico on ths south, to Hudson's Bay on the north. Their size is somewhat above that of our common bullock, and their flesh of a delicious flavour, resembling and equalling that of fat beef. Their flesh which is easily procured, furnishes the savages of these vast regions the means of a wholesome and good subsistence, and they live almost exclusively upon it— converting the skins, horns, hoofs and bones, to the construction of dresses, shields, bows, &c. The buffalo bull is one of the most formidable and frightful looking animals in the world when excited to resistance ; his long shaggy mane hangs in great profusion over his neck and shoulders, and often extends quite down to the ground (plate 7). The cow is less in stature, and less ferocious ; though not much less wild and frightful in her appearance (plate 8). The mode in which these Indians kill this noble animal is spirited and thril- ling in the extreme ; and I must in a future epistle, give you a minute account of it. I have almost daily accompanied parties of Indians to see the fun, and have often shared in it myself; but much oftener ran my horse by their sides, to see how the thing was done — to study the modes and expressions of these splendid scenes, which I am industriously putting upon the canvass. They are all (or nearly so) killed with arrows and the lance, while at full speed ; and the reader may easily imagine, that these scenes afford the most spirited and picturesque views of the sporting kind that can possibly be seen. At present, I will give a little sketch of a bit of fun I joined in yesterday, with Mr. M'Kenzie and a number of his men, without the company or aid of Indians. I mentioned the other day, tliat M'Kenzie's table from day to day groans under the weight of buffalo tongues and beavers' tails, and other luxuries of this western land. He has within his Fort a spacious ice-house, in which he preserves his meat fresh for any length of time required ; and sometimes, when his larder runs low, he starts out, rallying some five or six of his best hunters (not to hunt, but to " go for meat"). He leads the party, mounted on his favourite buffalo horse {i. e. the horse amongst his whole group which is best trained to run the buffalo), trailing a light and short gun in his hand, such an one as he can most easily reload whilst his horse is at full speed. Such was the condition of the ice-liouse yesterday morning, which caused these self-catering gentlemen to cast their eyes with a wishful look over the prairies ; and such was the plight in which our host took the lead, and I, -~'^ ' c, estcrday, ^y or aid groans curies of vhich he ^letimes, of his party, Is whole short IS horse [caused |ver the I and I, .JzUin. rt !■ « .#■ M a;i(l then Mons. Chardon, and Ba'tiste Defonde and Tullock (who is a trader amongst the Crows, and is here at this time, with a large party of that tribe), and there were several others whose names I do not know. As we were mounted and ready to start, M'Kenzie called up some four or five of his men, and told them to follow immediately on our trail, with as many one-horse carts , which they were to harness up, co bring home the meat ; " ferry them across the river in the scow," said he, " and following our trail through the bottom, you will find us on the plain yonder, between the Yellow Stone and the Missouri rivers, with meat enough to load you home. My watch on yonder bluft' has just told us by his signals, that there are cattle a plenty on that spot, and we are going there as fast as possible." We all crossed the river, and galloped away a couple of miles or so, when we mounted the bluff; and to be sure, is was said, there was in full view of us a fine herd of some four or five hundred buffaloes, perfectly at rest, and in their own estimation (probably) perfectly secure. Some were grazing, and others were lying down and sleeping ; we advanced within a mile or so of them in full view, and came to a halt. Mons. Chardon "tossed the feather" (a custom always observed, to try the course of the wind;, and we commenced " stripping" as it is termed (i. e. every man strips himself and his horse of every extraneous and unnecessary appendage of dress, &c. that might be an incumbrance in running): hats are laid off, and coats — and bullet pouches; sleeves are rolled up, a handkerchief tied tightly around the head, and another around the waist — cartridges are prepared and placed in the waist- coat pocket, or a half dozen bulleis "throwed into the mouth," &c., &c., all of which takes up some ten or fifteen minutes, and is not, in appearance or in effect, unlike a council of war. Our leader lays the whole plan of the chase, and preliminaries all fixed, guns charged and ramrods in cur hands, we mount and start for the onset. The horses are all trained for this busi- ness, and seem to enter into it with as much enthusiasm, and with as restless a spirit as the riders themselves. While " stripping" and mounting, they exhibit the most restless impatience; and when "approaching" — (which is, all of us abreast, upon a slow walk, and in a straight line towards the herd, until they discover us and run), they all seem to have caught entirely the spirit of the chase, for the laziest nag amongst them prances with an elasti- city in his step — champing his bit — his ears erect — his eyes stnined out of his head, and fixed upon the g'\me before him, whilst he trembles under the saddle of his rider. In this way we carefully and silently marched, until within some forty or fifty rods ; when the herd discovering us, wheeled and laid their course in a mass. At this instant we started ! (and all must star^, for no one could check the fury of those steeds at that moment of excite- ment,) and away all sailed, and over the prairie flew, in a cloud of dust which was raised by their trampling hoofs. M'Kenzie was foremost in the throng, and soon dashed off amidst the dust and was out of sight — he was after the fattest and the fastest. I had discovered a huge bull whose shoulders VOL. I. £ !' i 58 towereil above the wliole band, and I piclsod my way Uirouy;li the crowd to ii;et alongside of him. I went not (or " meat," but for a trophy ; I wanted his head and horns. I dashed alonj^ th.ough the tluindering mass, as they swept away over the plain, scarcely able to tell whether I was on a biiffiUo's back or my horse — Iiit, and hooked, and jostled about, till at length I found myself alongside of try game, when I gave him a shot, as I passed him. I saw guns flash in several directions about ine, but I heard them not. Amidst the trampling throng, Mons. Chardon had wounded a stately bull, and at tliis nioment was passing him again with his piece levelled for another shot ; they Were both at full speed and I also, within the reach of the muzzle of my gu.i, wlien the bull instantly turned and receiving the horse upon his horns, and the ground received poor Cliardon, who made a frog's leap of some twenty feet or more over the bull's back (plate 9), and almost under my horse's heels. I wheeled ray horse as soon as possible and rode back, where lay poor Chardon, gasping to start his breath again ; and within a few paces of him his huge victim, with his heels high in the air, and the horse lying across him. I dismounted instantly, but Chardon was raising himself on his hands, with his eyes and mouth full of dirt, and feeling for his gun, which lay about thirty feet in advance of him. " Heaven spare you ! are you hurt, Chardon ?" •' hi — hie hie hie hie Iiic • no, -hie no no, I believe not. Oh ! this is not much, Mons. -d hard piece of ground Cataline— this r. nothing new — but this is a d' },pre— hie— oil ! hie ! " At this the poor fellow fainted, but in a few moments arose, picked up his gun, took his horse by the bit ; which then opened its eyes, and with a hie and a ugh — ugiik ! sprang upon its feet — shook off the dirt — and here we were, all upon our legs again, save the bull, whose fate had been more sad than that of either. I turned my eyes in the direction where the herd had gone, and our com- panions in pursuit, and nothing could be seen of them, nor indication, except the cloud of dust which they left behind them. At a little distance on the riaiht, however, I beheld my huge victim endeavourijg to make as much head-way as he possibly could, from this dangerous ground, upon three legs. I galloped off to him, and at my approach he wheeled around — and bristled up for battle ; he seemed to know perfectly well that he could not escape from me, and resolved to meet his enemy and death as bravely as possible. I found that my shot had entered him a little too far forward, breaking one of his shoulders, and lodging in his breast, and from his very great weight it was impossible for him to make much advance upon me. As I rode up within a few paces of him, he would bristle up with fury enough in his look:! alone, almost to annihilate me (plate 10) ; and making one lunge at me, would fall upon his neck and nose, so that I found the sagacity of my horse alone enough to keep me out of reach of danger : and I drew from my pocket my sketch-book, l^d my gun across my lap, and commenced tilling his likeness. He stood stiffened up, and swelling with awful ! crowil to vanted Iiii* they swept o's back or ind myself m. I saw Amidst tlie [id at tliis tlier shot ; izzleof my his horns, ip of some under my lack, where cw paces of ^ing across his hands, 1 lay about Chardon V no, lich, Mons. ! of ground iw moments opened its shook off whose fate our com- on, except ice on the as much iree legs. id bristled cape from e. aking one at weight s I rode lOugh in ne lunge gacity of d I drew nmenced h aw fid 10 I I ) ^ vengeance, which was sublime for a picture, but whicli he could not vci.l ii|)on me. I rode around him and ■sitetchcd him in numerous attitudt-s, sometimes he would lie down, and I would then sketch him ; *hen throw my cap al him, and rousing him on his legs, rally a new expression, and skelcli him again. In this way I added to my sketch-book some invaluable sketches of this ij;Tim-visaged monster, who knew not that he was standing for his likeness. No man on earth can imagine what is the look and pxprestion of such a subject before him as this was I defy tht; vorld to produce another animal than can look so frightful as a huge buffalo bull, when wounded as he was, turned around for battle, and swelling with rage ; — his eyes bloodshrt, and his long sliaggy mane hanging to the ground, — his mouth jpen, and his horrid rage hissing in streams of smoke and blood from his mouth and through his nostrils, as he is bending forward to spring upon his assailant After I had had the requisite time and opportunity for using my pencil, M'Keniie and his companions came walking their exhausted horses back from the chase, and in our rear came four or five carts to carry home the meat. The party met from all quarters around me and my buffalo bull, whom I then shot in the head and finished. And being seated together for a few minutes, each one took a smoke of the pip ;, and recited his exploits, and his " coups" or deaths ; when all parties hr J a hearty laugh at mc, as a novice, for having aimed at an old biill, w'lo?.; flesh was not suitable for food, and the carts were escorted on the trail, to Ijiing away the meat. I rode back with Mr. M'Kenzie, who pointed out five rows which he ?iad killed, and all of them selected as the fattest and slickest of the herd. Th" . astonishing teat was all performed within the distance of one mile — all were killed at full spec J, and every one shot through the heart. In the shprt space of time required for a horse under " full whip," to run the distance of one mile, he had discharged his gun five, and loaded it four times — selected his animals, and kil.ied at evci^ sliot ! There were six or eight others killed at the same time, which oitogether furnished, as will be seen, abundance of freight for the carts ; which returned, as well as several packhorses, loaded with the choicest parts which were cut from the animals, and the remainder of the carcasses left a prey for the wolves. Such is the mode by which white men live in this country — such the way in which they gi . ;,heir food, and such is one of their Jelightful amusements — at the hazard of every bone in one's body, to feel tht fine and thrilling exhilaration of the ciase for a moment, and then as often to upbraid and blame himself for his oily and imprudence From this scene we commenced leisurely wending our wa^ back ; and dismounting al the place where we had stripped, each man dressed himself again, or slung his extra articles of dress, &c. across his saddle, astride of which he sat ; and we rode back to the Fort, reciting as we rode, and for twenty-four hours afteiwaids, deeds of chivalry and chasp, and hair's-breadtii ri i I i I i escapes which each and either had fought and run on former occa«ioM. M-Kcnzie, with all the true character and dignity of a leader, was silent on these subjects ; but smiled, while those in his train were reciting for him the astonishing and almost incredible deeds of his sinewy arms, which they had witnessed in similar scenes ; from which 1 learned (as well as from my own observations), that he was reputed (and actually was) the most distinguished of all the white men who liave flourished in these regions, in the pursuit and death of the buiTulo. On our return to the Fort, a bottle or two of wine were set forth upon the table, and around them a half dozen parched throats were soon moistened, and good cheer ensued. Ba'tistc D6fonde, Chardon, &c., retired to t'.ieir quarters, enlarging smoothly upon the events of our morning's work ; which they were reciting to their wives and sweethearts ; when about this time the gate of the Fort was thrown open, and the procession of carts and pack- liorses laden with buffalo meat made its entree ; gladdening the hearts of a hundred women and children, and tickling the noses of as many hungry dogs and puppies, wl\o were stealing in and smelling at the tail of the pro- cession. The door of the ice-house was thrown open, the meat was dw- cltarged into it, and I being fatigued> went to slee^. Uli occa«ioM. IS silent on for liiin the li they had >m my own »ting(iishc(l }ursuit und h upon the moistened. ;d to t'.ieir )rk ; which >'.i time the and pacli- hearts of a any hungry of the pro- It was di»> 11 ilkiin. i! Mil I LETTER— No. 5. MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, UPPER MISSOURI. In my former epistle I told you there were encamped ubout (lie Fort a host of wild, incongruous spirits — chiefs and sachems — warriors, braves, and women and childien of different tribes— of Crows and Blackfect— Ojibbc- ways — Assinneboins — and Crees or Knisteneaux. Amongst and in the midst of them am I, with my paint pots and canvass, snugly ensconced in one of the bastions of the Fort, which I occupy as a painting-room. My easel stands before me, and the cool breech of a twelve-pounder makes me a comfortable seat, whilst her muzzle is looking out at one of the port-holes. The oper-'.tions of my brush are mjfsteries of the highest order to these red sons of 'Jie prairie, and my room the earliest and latest place of concentration of these wild and jealous spirits, who all meet here to be amused and pay me signal honours ; but gaze upon each other, sending their sidelong looks of deep-rooted hatred and revenge around the group. However, whilst in the Fort, th^ir weapons are placed within the arsenal, and naught but looks and thoughts can be breathed here ; but death and grim destruction will visit back those looks upon each other, when these wild spirits again are loose and free to breathe and act upon the plains. I have this day been painting a portrait of the head chief of the Black- foot nation ; he is a good-looking and dignified Indian, about fifty years of age, and superbly dressed (plate 11); whilst sitting for his picture he has been surrounded by his own braves and v/arriors, and also gazed at by his enemies, the Crows and the Knisteneaux, Assinneboins and Ojibbeways ; a number of distinguished personages of each of which tribes, have laid all day around the sides of my room ; reciting to each other the battles they have fought, and pointing to the scalp-locks, worn as proofs of their viciorios, and attached to the seams of their shirts and leggings. This is a curious scene to witness, when one sits in the midst of such inflammable and com- bustible materials, brought together, unarmed, for the first time in their lives; peaceably and calmly recounting over the deeds of their lives, and smoking their pipes upon it, when a few weeks or days will bring them on the plains again, where the war-cry will be raised, and their deadly bows will again be drawn on each other. i'he name of this dignitary, of whom I have just spoken, is Stu-mick-o- sucks (the buffalo's back fat), i. e. the " hump" or " fleece," the most delicious part of the buffalo's flesh. I have also painted, of the Blackfeet, I (; iH' 30 Pe-toli-pee-kiss (the eagle ribs), and Mix-ke-mote-skin-na (the iron liorn), and Wun-nes-tou (the white buffalo), and Tcha-aes-sa-ko-mah-pee (the bear's child), and In-ne-o-cose (the buffalo's child), and half-a-dozen others, and all in rich and costly dresses. There is no tribe, nerhaps, on the Continent, who dress more comfortably, and more gaudily, than the Blackfeet, unless it be the tribe of Crows. There is no great difference, however, in the costliness or elegance of their costumes ; nor in the materials of which they are formed ; though there is a distinctive mode in each tribe, of stitching or ornamenting with the porcupine quills, which constitute one of the principal ornaments *) all their finp dresses ; and which can be easily recognized, by any one a little familiar with their modes, as belonging to such or such a tribe. The dress, for instance of the chief whom I have just mentioned, and whose portrait I have just painted, consists of a shirt or tunic, made of two deer skins finely dressed, and so placed together with the necks of the skins downwards, and ihe skins of the hind legs stitched together, the seams running down on each arm, from the neck to i.ic knuckles of the hand ; this seam is covered with a band of two inches in width, of very beautiful embroidery of porcupine quills, and suspended from the under edge of this, from the shoulders to the hands, is a fringe of the locks of black hair, which he has taken from the heads of victims slain by his own hand in battle. The leggings are maue also of the same material ; and down the outer side of the leg, from the hip to the feet, extends also a similar band or belt of the same width ; and wrought in the same manner, with porcupine quills, and fringed with scalp locks. These locks of hair are procured from scalps, and worn as trophies. The wife (or squaw) of this dignitary Eeh-nis-kin (the crystal stone), 1 have also placed upon my canvass (plate 1 3) ; her countenance is rather pleasing, which is an uncommon thing amongst the Blackfeet — her dress is made of skins, and being the youngest of a bevy of six or eight, and the last one taken under his guardianship, was smiled upon with great satisfac- tion, whilst he evempted her from the drudgeries of the camp ; and keeping her continually in the halo of his own person, watched and guarded her as the apple of his eye. The grandson also of this sachem, a boy of six years of age, and too young as yet to have acquired a name, has stood forth like a tried warrior; and I have painted him at full length (plaie 12), with his bow and quiver slung, and his robe made of a racoon skin. The history of this child is somewhat curious and interesting ; his father is dead, and in case of the death of the chief, of whom I have spoken, he becomes hereditary chief of the tribe. This boy has been twice stolen away by the Crows by ingenious stratagems, and twice re-captured by the Blackfeet, at consider- able sacrifice of life, and at present he is lodged with Mr. M'Kenzie, for safe keeping and protection, until he shall arrive at the proper age to take the office to which he is to succeed, and able to protect himself. V I SI Tlie scalp ol'wliieli I spoke above, is procured Ijy ciittiDg out a piece of tlie skin of tlie head, the size of the pahii of the hand or less, con- taining the very centre or crown of the head, the place where the hair radiates from a point, and exactly over what the phrenologists call self- esteem. This patch then is kept and dried with great care, as proof positive of the death of an enemy, and evidence of a man's claims as a war- rior ; and after having been formally " danced," as the saying is, {i. e. after ii has been stuck up upon a pole or held up by an '* old woman," and the war- riors have danced around it for two or three weeks at intervals,) it is fastened to the handle of a lance, or the end of a war-club, or divided into a great many small locks and used to fringe and ornament the victor's dress. When these dresses are seen bearing such trophies, it is of course a difficult matter to purchase them of the Indian, for they often hold them above all price. I shall hereafter take occasion to speak of tlie scalp-dance ; describing it in all its parts, and giving a long Letter, at the same time on scalps and scalping, an interesting and general custom amongst all the North Ameri- can Indians. In the chief's dress, which I am describing, there are his moccasins, made also of buckskin, and ornamented in a corresponding manner. And over all, liis robe, made of the skin of a young buffalo bull, with the hair remaining on ; and on the inner or flesh side, beautifully garnished with porcupine quills, and the battles of his life very ingeniously, though rudely, pourtrayed in picto- rial representations. In his hand he holds a very beautiful pipe, the stem of which is four or five feet long, and two inches wide, curiously wound with braids of the porcupine quills of various colours ; and the bowl of the pipe ingeniously carved by himself from a piece of red steatite of an interest- ing character, and which they all tell me is procured somewhere between this place and the Falls of St. Anthony, on the head waters of the Mississippi. This curious stone has many peculiar qualities, and has, liudoubtedly, but one origin in this country, and perhaps in the world. It is found but in the hands of the savage, and every tribe, and nearly every individual in the tribe has his pipe made of it. I consider this stone a subject of great interest, and curiosity to the world ; and I shall most assuredly make it a point, during my Indian rambles, to visit the place from whence it is brought. I have already got a number of most remarkable traditions and stories relating to the " sacred quarry ;" of pilgrimages performed there to procure the stone, and of curious transactions that have taken place on Jiat ground. It seems, from all I can learn, that all the tribes in these regions, and also of the Mississippi and the Lakes, have been in the habit of going to that place, and meeting their enemies there, whom they are obliged to treat as friends, under an injunction of the Great Spirit. So then is this sachem (the buffalo's back fat) dressed ; and in a very smiilar manner, and almost the same, is each of '..'le others above named ; and all are armed with bow and quiver, lance a.id shield. These north ? if ! ( . il ; 'i *i 32 western tribes are all armed with the bow and lance, and protected with the shield or arrow fender, whicli is carried outside of the left arm, exactly as the Roman and Grecian shield was carried, and for the same purpose. There is an appearance purely classic in the plight and equipment of these warriors and " knights of the lance." They are almost literally always on their horses' backs, and they wield these weapons with desperate effect upon the open plains; where they kill their game while at full speed, and contend in like manner in battles with their enemy. There is one prevailing custom in these respects, amongst all the tribes who inhabit the great plains or prairies, of these western regions. These plains afford them an abundance of wild and fleet horses, which are easily procured; and on their backs at full speed, they can come alongside of any animal, which they easily destroy. The bow with which they are armed is small, and apparently an insigni- ficant weapon, though one of great and almost incredible power in the hands of its owner, whose sinews have been from childhood habituated to its use and service. The length of these bows is generally about three feet, and sometimes not more than two and a half (plate 18 a). They have, no doubt, studied to get the requisite power in the smallest compass possible, as it is more easily and handily used on horseback than one of greater length. The greater number of these bows are made of ash, or of " bois d'arc" (as the French call it), and lined on the back with layers of buffalo or deer's sinews, which are inseparably attached to them, and give them great elasticity. There are very many also (amongst the Blackfeet and the Crows) which are made of bone, and others of the horn of the mountain-sheep. Those made of bone are decidedly the most valuable, and cannot in this country be procured of a good quality short of the price of one or two horses. About these there is a mystery yet to be solved, and I advance my opinion against all theories that I have heard in the country where they are used and made. I have procured several very fine specimens, and when pur- chasing them have inquired of the Indians, what bone they were made of? and in ..very instance, the answer was, " That's medicine," meaning that it was a mystery to them, or that they did not wish to be questioned about them. The bone of which they are made is certainly not the bone of any animal now grazing on the prairies, or in the mountains between this place and the Pacific Ocean ; for some of these bows are three feet in length, of a solid piece of bone, and that as close-grained — as hard — as white, and as highly polished as any ivory ; it cannot, therefore be made from the elks* horn (as some have supposed), which is of a dark colour and porous : nor can it come from the buffalo. It is my opinion, therefore, that the Indians on the Pacific coast procure the bone from the jaw of the sperm whale, which is often stranded on that coast, and bringing the bone into the moun- tains, trade it to the Blackfeet and Crows, who manufacture it into these bows without knowing any rr.ore than we do, from what source it has been procured. ted with the 1, exactly as pose. lent of these ly always on 3 effect upon and contend tiling custom ns or prairies e of wild and I speed, they r an insigni- in the hands ted to its use ree feet, and ley have, no lass possible, le of greater ■"boisd'arc" tfalo or deer's eat elasticity. Erows) which eep. Those lis country two horses. my opinion hey are used d when pur- ere made of ? aning that it tioned about jone of any sen this place et in length, 18 white, and rom the elks' porous : nor the Indians iperm whale, to the moun- it into these e it has been "«W 33 One of these little bows in the hands of an Indian, on a fleet and well- trained horse, with a quiver of arrows slung on his back, is a most efftctive and powerful weapon in the open plains. No one can easily credit the force with which these missiles are thrown, and the sanguinary effects produced by their wounds, until he has rode by the side of a party of Indians in chase of a herd of buflfaloes, and witnessed the apparent ease and grace with which their supple arms have drawn the bow, and seen these huge animals tumbling down and gushing out their hearts' blood from their mouths and nostrils. Their bows are often made of bone and sinews, and their arrows headed with flints or with bones, of their own construction (plate 18, c), or with steel, as they are now chiefly furnished by the Fur Traders quite to the Rocky Mountains (Pi.ATE 18, d). The quiver, which is uniformly carried on the back, and made of the panther or otter skins (plate 18, e) is a magazine of these deadly weapons, and generally contains two varieties. The one to be drawn upon an enemy, generally poisoned, and with long flukes or barbs, whicii are designed to hang the blade in the wound after the shaft is withdrawn, in which they are but slightly glued ; — the other to be used for their game, witli the blade firmly fastened to the shaft, and the flukes inverted • that it may easily be drawn from the wound, and used on a future occasion. Such is the training of men and horses in this country, that this work of death and slaughter is simple and easy. The horse is trained to approacli the animals on the right side, enabling its rider to throw his arrows to the left; it runs and approaches without the use of the halter, which is hanging loose upon its neck bringing the rider w