THE Boys CATLIN 
 
 MY LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE CATLIN 
 
 EDITED WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY 
 
 MARY GAY HUMPHREYS 
 
 WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE 
 AUTHOR S ORIGINAL DRAWINGS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 
 
 1915 
 
77 
 
 C33 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 
 
 Published September, ypog 
 
THE BOY S CATLIN 
 
IN THE SAME SERIES 
 PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 
 
 Beyond the Old Frontier. Adventures of Iidian 
 Fighters, Hunters, and Fur Traders. By GEORGE 
 BIRD GRINNELL. 
 
 Missionary Explorers Among the American 
 Indians. Edited by MARY GAY HUMPHREYS. 
 
 True Tales of Arctic Heroism in the New 
 World. By A. W. GREELY. 
 
 The Boy s Catlin. My Life Among the Indians, 
 by GEORGE CATLIN. Edited by MARY GAY HUM 
 PHREYS. 
 
 The Boy s Hakluyt. English Voyages of Advent 
 ure and Discovery, retold from Hakluyt by Eownf 
 M. BACON. 
 
 The Boy s Drake. By EDWIN M. BACON. 
 
 Trails of the Pathfinders. By GEORGE Bnu 
 GRINNELL. 
 
 Zebu Ion M. Pike. Edited by MARY GAY HUM 
 PHREYS. 
 Each Volume Illustrated. 12mo. Net $1.50 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE two large volumes from which this book has been mainly 
 taken were compiled, as Mr. Catlin himself states, from letters 
 written at the time to the Commercial Advertiser of New York 
 City, and his notes made during the successive journeys they 
 record. 
 
 These letters were written under the shade of some neighbor 
 ing tree, from the bed in his wigwam, and always among the 
 scenes he transcribes. To this immediateness is due the value 
 which belongs to first impressions, the wealth of detail, accuracy 
 of statement, and that engaging buoyancy of spirit which per 
 vades the two big books. Elsewhere there are no such data 
 concerning the North American Indian in his primitive state 
 either for the ethnologist or those who love romantic adventure, 
 the charm of the untamed landscape, and life in the open. 
 
 But Mr. Catlin writes as a painter, susceptible to moods and 
 pictorial impressions, rather than as a trained writer. This has 
 obliged much condensation, the bringing together of widely 
 separated material into chronological order, and large excisions 
 in order to get into one book the wealth of material lavished on 
 two large volumes. 
 
 This has been done unsparingly in the interest of a less 
 leisurely world of readers, perhaps, than that for which Catlin 
 wrote. It has required change of tenses, of periods substituted 
 for commas and semicolons, the elision of clauses, and even 
 the suppression of paragraphs. But in every case care has 
 been taken to cling to the words of the author; for these are a 
 
 M35638 
 
vi Preface 
 
 large part of the picture-making for which he has used the pen 
 instead of the brush. 
 
 This narrative has also been re-enforced from a small book 
 published by Sampson Low & Co., London, and from the 
 catalogue prepared by Catlin for his Indian gallery. These 
 extracts have been introduced wherever they have tended to 
 add to the information contained in the main work. More 
 over, this has been done without recourse to foot-notes or any 
 interruption of the course of his experiences. The only con 
 sideration has been to add facts and observations, and to pre 
 serve the generous and persuasive attitude of the author. In 
 this the editor has been aided and encouraged by Miss Elizabeth 
 Catlin and Mrs. Ernest Kinney, the daughters of Mr. Catlin. 
 
 M. G. H. 
 AUGUST, 1909 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 r 
 
 SKETCH OF CATLIN S LIFE xi 
 
 I. THE MISSOURI RIVER IN THE THIRTIES . 3 
 
 II. A STUDIO AMONG THE GUNS 14 
 
 III. INDIAN ARISTOCRATS: THE CROWS AND 
 
 BLACKFEET 27 
 
 IV. PAINTING AN INDIAN DANDY 37 
 
 V. CANOEING WITH BOGARD AND BATISTE . . 48 
 
 VI. MANDANS: THE PEOPLE OF THE PHEAS 
 ANTS 6 1 
 
 VII. SOCIAL LIFE AMONG THE MANDANS ... 72 
 
 VIII. THE ARTIST BECOMES A MEDICINE-MAN . 81 
 
 IX. A MANDAN FEAST 94 
 
 X. THE MANDAN WOMEN 108 
 
 XI. MANDAN DANCES AND GAMES 119 
 
 XII. O-KEE-PA: A RELIGIOUS CEREMONY . . 131 
 
 XIII. DANCES OF THE O-KEE-PA 141 
 
 XIV. THE MAKING OF BRAVES 149 
 
 XV. MANDAN LEGEND OF THE DELUGE . . . 161 
 
 XVI. CORN DANCE OF THE MINATAREES ... 169 
 
 XVII. THE ATTACK ON THE CANOE 187 
 
viii Contents 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XVIII. THE DEATH OF LITTLE BEAR: A Sioux 
 
 TRAGEDY 195 
 
 XIX. THE DANCES AND Music OF THE Sioux . . 203 
 
 XX. A DOG FEAST 216 
 
 XXI. THE BUFFALO CHASE 227 
 
 XXII. A PRAIRIE FIRE 239 
 
 XXIII. SONGS AND DANCES OF THE IOWAS . . . 252 
 
 XXIV. PAINTING BLACK HAWK AND His WARRIORS . 262 
 XXV. WITH THE ARMY AT FORT GIBSON . . . 269 
 
 XXVI. LASSOING WILD HORSES 279 
 
 XXVII. VISITING THE CAMANCHES 291 
 
 XXVIII. THE STOLEN BOY 300 
 
 XXIX. A CRUEL MARCH 308 
 
 XXX. A CHOCTAW BALL GAME 314 
 
 XXXI. ALONE WITH CHARLEY 322 
 
 XXXII. CANOEING ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI . . . 334 
 
 XXXIII. PAINTING THE PORTRAIT OF KEOKUK . . . 342 
 
 XXXIV. THE LAND OF THE RED-PIPE STONE . . 348 
 XXXV. THE SAD FATE OF OSCEOLA 359 
 
 XXXVI. THE INDIAN AS AN ALL-AROUND MAN . 364 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 BUFFALO HUNT. ACCIDENTS OF THE CHASE Frontispiece 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 ATTACK OF THE GRIZZLY BEAR 54 
 
 ANTELOPE SHOOTING 5^ 
 
 " GAME OF THE ARROW," OR ARCHERY OF THE MANDANS 128 
 
 BUFFALO DANCE H2 
 
 BUFFALO HUNT. A SURROUND 182 
 
 THE BEAR DANCE 206 
 
 A BUFFALO CHASE 228 
 
 BUFFALO HUNT ON SNOW-SHOES 232 
 
 BUFFALO HUNT. WITH WOLF-SKIN MASK .... 236 
 
 BUFFALO HUNT. APPROACHING IN A RAVINE . . . 242 
 
 WILD HORSES AT PLAY 280 
 
 CATCHING THE WILD HORSE 288 
 
 DANCE BEFORE THE BALL-PLAY 316 
 
 AN INDIAN BALL-PLAY 320 
 
 THREE DISTINGUISHED BALL-PLAYERS: PORTRAITS 
 
 FROM LlFE, IN THE BALL-PLAY DRESS .... 336 
 
SKETCH OF CATLIN S LIFE 
 
 THE career of George Catlin, the Indian painter, was that 
 of one crying in the wilderness. The prophetic voice, how 
 ever, was bound up with the fibre of a healthy American boy, 
 who whiled away the time with "books held reluctantly in one 
 hand, and a rifle and fishing-rod affectionately grasped in the 
 other. * 
 
 It is interesting to pick up the early threads of this unique 
 life and see the weaving of the web that finally enmeshed him. 
 George Catlin was born July 26, 1796, at Wilkesbarre, Pa., in 
 the romantic valley of the Wyoming. His maternal grand 
 father was one of the few who saved their lives by swimming 
 the river in the Indian massacre of 1778. His grandmother 
 and mother, then a child of seven, were captured by the Indians 
 at the surrender of Forty Fort, but were subsequently released. 
 
 In 1797 his family removed to a farm in Broome County, 
 New York, his mother carrying him, a year-old baby, before 
 her on a horse for forty miles over the Indian trail to their new 
 home. To this valley, shut in between high mountains, Brant, 
 the Mohawk chief, retired after the massacre of Wyoming, 
 and here he was subsequently routed by the Pennsylvania 
 militia. Thus the boy grew up with his mind fed on stories 
 of Indian life and traditions. At the hospitable fireside of 
 Putnam Catlin, his father, trappers and Indian fighters ex 
 changed Indian experiences during the long winter nights. 
 During the day the ploughs on his father s farm turned up 
 
 Indian skulls, arrow-heads, and beads, which he preserved in 
 
 xi 
 
xii Sketch of Catlin s Life 
 
 a little cabinet; and to his death he bore the scar made by an 
 Indian tomahawk, which he found, thrown by another boy 
 while playing Indians. 
 
 In 1817, having received all the education his surroundings 
 were able to give him, an education overseen by his father, and 
 especially by his mother, from whom he seems to have in 
 herited his out-door tastes and love of art, George Catlin was 
 sent to the law school of Reeve & Gould at Litchfield, Conn., 
 where his father before him had studied law, and was admitted 
 to the bar. Here he remained one year, making for himself 
 the reputation of an amateur artist, at least. During this time 
 he painted the portrait of Judge Tapping Reeve, the only por 
 trait in existence of the founder of the first law school in this 
 country. Of his brief career as a lawyer between the years 
 1819 and 1823 Mr. Catlin says that he was chiefly occupied in 
 covering the table in front of him with sketches of the judge, 
 jurors, and culprit. At last his love of art overcame him, and 
 he deliberately turned his law library into paint pots and 
 brushes, and went to Philadelphia to set up a studio. 
 
 The next year the young artist was admitted to the Pennsyl 
 vania Academy of Fine Arts, and entered into friendly associa 
 tion with Thomas Sully, Rembrandt Peale, Charles Wilson, 
 and John Nagle, the leading artists of that day. The following 
 year he went to Washington, and painted a number of portraits 
 of public men. There he was a guest at the White House, and 
 painted Mrs. Madison in her turban, a portrait that has been 
 frequently reproduced. Going on to Richmond, he painted 
 the Virginia Constitutional Convention, then in session, a pict 
 ure that contained one hundred and fifteen portraits, accompa 
 nied by a key. He is afterward found painting portraits in 
 Albany, one of which, that of Governor De Witt Clinton, now 
 hangs in the City Hall, New York. Meanwhile he had es- 
 
Sketch of Catlin s Life xvii 
 
 Louis Philippe was then on the throne. As Duke of Orleans 
 he had been in this country, threaded the bayous and streams 
 of Mississippi and Ohio, and profited by the hospitality of the 
 Indians in their wigwams. Eager as any old trapper for the 
 delights of reminiscence, he hastened to bring Mr. Catlin and 
 the Indians, then re-enforced by a band of lowas, to court, where 
 he presented them to his family, and talked with them in that 
 human way which is the prerogative of kings. 
 
 Subsequently Mr. Catlin was invited to Saint Cloud with 
 the King of Belgium, and the Indians gave a regatta on the 
 lake. This was the beginning of much royal intercourse, and 
 talks over old times. The king ordered fifteen paintings from 
 Indian themes of Mr. Catlin. These were afterward exe 
 cuted at Brussels, for the Revolution of 1848, which cost Louis 
 Philippe his throne, caused Mr. Catlin to take the Indian 
 gallery and the Indians back to London. 
 
 But the happiest result of this visit to Paris was the friend 
 ship of Alexander von Humboldt, who became a determining 
 factor in Mr. Catlin s career. So impressed was the scientist 
 with the value of Mr. Catlin s work to comparative ethnology 
 that he urged him to go to South America and make the same 
 study of the tribes of the southern part of the continent that he 
 had made of the North American Indians. Accordingly in 
 1852 Mr. Catlin set sail for Venezuela, where he ascended the 
 Essequibo, and crossing the mountains, descended into the 
 valley of the Amazon. For six years he explored South 
 America by pack mule and pirogue, making a devour from 
 Lima to the Aleutian Islands, visiting all the tribes on the 
 Pacific slope, and back again to Yucatan, where he painted the 
 Mayas hovering about the ruins of Uxmal, which by this time 
 had become part of Mr. Catlin s speculative conclusions about 
 the aborigines of this continent. 
 
xviii Sketch of Catlin s Life 
 
 This itinerary was now broken by a visit to Humboldt at 
 Potsdam, where he was presented to the King and Queen of 
 Prussia at Sans Souci. With a letter of introduction to M. 
 Bompland, the French scientist in South America, from Hum 
 boldt, Mr. Catlin sailed for Buenos Ayres. From there he 
 ascended the Parana, and crossing over to the head-waters of 
 the Uruguay, descended by pirogue with his own paddle seven 
 hundred miles down that river. From Buenos Ayres he coasted 
 the entire length of Patagonia, and through the Straits of 
 Magellan, visiting all the Indians of that region, and up the 
 western coast to Panama, on his way back to Caracas to study 
 the effect of the cataclysm that had broken the chain of the 
 Andes, and separated the Antilles from the mainland. 
 
 The accumulation of data, that had been heaping up through 
 many years of close observation, had now begun to stimulate 
 theories concerning the presence of the Indian on this continent. 
 To these theories this study of geological formations was to 
 contribute. Mr. Catlin was now a veteran, but the fire of his 
 enthusiasm was still aflame, and his zest as a sportsman as keen 
 as in his youth. With rifle and rod he was as expert as ever, 
 and the forests of the Amazon, and the waterways of South 
 America afforded him constant sport. During this period Mr. 
 Catlin was entirely lost to his family and friends, and at length 
 the government sent out to its consuls and agents for traces of 
 the wanderer. 
 
 In 1860 Mr. Catlin went back to Europe, where he began 
 that series of paintings known as the cartoon collection. This 
 was by the advice of Humboldt, who considered that, for the 
 study of comparative ethnology, it would be advisable to paint 
 characteristic groups of the different tribes on one canvas, and 
 of the size that museums had found most expedient. These 
 canvases were to be hung on folding screens, not only for 
 
Sketch of Catlin s Life xix 
 
 economy of space, but that they might be placed on a level 
 with the eye, and easily studied. This work occupied him 
 eight years, when he returned to this country and exhibited 
 them in New York City, and afterward in the Smithsonian 
 Institution, where they remained until Mr. Catlin s death in 
 1872. 
 
 While on his first visit to England, Mr. Catlin brought out 
 his Notes and Observations on the North American Indians. 
 Its success was immediate. Not only was the subject popular, 
 but from its stirring adventure and interesting detail it was as 
 readable to all classes and ages as Robinson Crusoe. For the 
 first time the Indian was seriously written of as a member of 
 the human family, for Cooper s novels were still regarded as 
 founded on fiction. It was neither as hero, warrior, nor wild 
 man that Mr. Catlin wrote of him. We see the Indian in his 
 daily life, eating, sleeping, hunting, at his games and at his 
 prayers, attacking and defending himself from his enemies, 
 but pre-eminently as a family man and among social influences. 
 
 One tribe is not as another tribe. Mr. Catlin does not 
 deal in generalities, nor set down theories, and in ranging 
 over the entire field of Indian life, he includes the Indian s 
 own point of view. His style is direct, almost conversational, 
 but when his emotions are stirred it acquires an almost 
 poetical elevation. 
 
 These books, to which two others were afterward added, it 
 is estimated brought him in fifty thousand dollars. But the 
 money earned was at once spent in further researches. Not 
 withstanding a disastrous experience he had in England, he 
 earned substantial sums, and it was his boast that in all his 
 travels he never ate a meal at the expense of the government, 
 while he usually had two men, trappers or natives, to assist 
 him in transportation. 
 
xx Sketch of Catlin s Life 
 
 Unconsciously during these wanderings certain preposses 
 sions arose in Mr. Catlin s mind concerning the origin of the 
 Indian, and his relation to this continent. He was familiar 
 with the various theories, and one may trace in his writings how 
 details in favor of now one and now the other came up to con 
 front him. His own conclusions did not admit any theory of 
 immigration from another continent, and these he supports 
 by a large amount of interesting facts, which it is impossible 
 to do more than allude to here. These retrospective observa 
 tions are indeed of less consequence than the foresight that led 
 him to undertake these journeys. In 1832 he clearly foresaw 
 the fate of the buffalo as he saw that of the Indian, and pleaded 
 as earnestly for the one as for the other. 
 
 A suggestion then made by Mr. Catlin it is pertinent to recall. 
 This was that the government should set aside a great National 
 Park in the Yellowstone region. The Yellowstone Park is now 
 an accomplished fact, and it seems that now, in laying out the 
 great bison range contemplated by the government to rescue 
 the fast-expiring species of the noblest animal of the plains, 
 some recognition should be made of the man who first pleaded 
 its cause, and who in 1832 wrote: 
 
 "I would ask no other monument to my memory, nor any 
 other enrolment of my name among the famous dead, than the 
 reputation of having been the founder of such an institution." 
 
THE BOY S CATLIN 
 
THE BOY S CATLIN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE MISSOURI RIVER IN THE THIRTIES 
 
 THE boiling, turbid current of the Missouri River 
 sweeps from its falls unresistingly to the Missis 
 sippi, into which it empties. In the early part of 
 the century it presented the fascinating peril of the 
 unknown. Half the twenty-six hundred miles to the 
 mouth of the Yellowstone was strewn with the dan 
 gerous trunks of the lofty cotton-wood trees it had torn 
 from the heavily timbered banks and tossed about on 
 its shifting sands. 
 
 In the upper half it had cut its way through the rich, 
 alluvial soil of the prairie, swinging from bluff to bluff, 
 that here rose precipitously several hundred feet high, 
 and then, sloping to the water s edge, was carpeted with 
 deepest green. Over these fertile slopes roamed herds 
 of buffaloes, elks, antelopes, mountain goats, and 
 wolves. Where verdure failed rose graceful and fantas 
 tic shapes ramparts, turrets, domes, citadels, castles 
 fashioned by centuries of rain and frost, glowing with 
 color, and sparkling with crystals of gypsum amid the 
 play of light and shadow in the level rays of the sun. 
 
 3 
 
The Boy s Catlin 
 
 Such was this wild and strange country, almost un 
 known to the white man, when, in 1832, a little steamer, 
 the "Yellowstone," made its way up the upper half of 
 the navigable length of the Missouri River. Its passen 
 gers were Major John Sanford, the government Indian 
 agent, Mr. Pierre Chouteau, one of the owners of the 
 boat, and, at his courteous invitation, myself. Our 
 destination was the Fort erected by the American Fur 
 Trading Company at the mouth of the Yellowstone 
 River. 
 
 If the dangerous stream involved peril to the advent 
 urers, it also carried terror to the wild animals and 
 the Indian tribes that roamed along its banks. For 
 defence the boat was armed with a twelve-pounder can 
 non and several small swivel guns. These, fired in 
 rapid succession, sent the wild herds in frightened con 
 fusion over the prairie, and the Indians prostrate to the 
 ground with cries to the Great Spirit, who spoke to 
 them in his wrath from the "big thunder canoe," whose 
 eyes found the deep water in the channel and flashed 
 lightning from its sides. Even the playful discharge of 
 the steam-pipe, when the boat landed at their villages, 
 caused men, women, children, and dogs to tumble over 
 one another in flight. Accompanied by such scenery 
 and scenes, the intrepid little steamer made its way, 
 and after a journey of three months reached the Fort. 
 
 The Fort was situated in a beautiful prairie near the 
 junction of the Missouri and the Yellowstone Rivers. 
 As the head-quarters of the Fur Company it was the 
 largest and best-equipped fort in that region. It con- 
 
The Missouri River in the Thirties 5 
 
 sisted of eight or ten log houses and stores within a 
 stockade; and, as large quantities of goods were kept 
 in exchange for furs from the Indians, it was built to 
 withstand assaults from a possible enemy, and manned 
 by a force of fifty men under Mr. McKenzie, the com 
 pany s Scotch agent, a kind-hearted, high-minded man. 
 
 He treated me with the same generous hospitality 
 and politeness as Mr. Chouteau in my passage up the 
 river. His table groaned under the luxuries of the 
 country. There was neither bread, butter, nor coffee, 
 to be sure, but there was an abundance of buffalo 
 tongues, beaver tails, and marrow fat, and, curiously 
 enough, plenty of Madeira and port. This company 
 of three bons-vivants was increased by a fourth, an 
 Englishman named Hamilton, a gentleman of many 
 accomplishments, thus forming a group whose con 
 versation, customs, and manner of life were in striking 
 contrast to the rude, wild world about them. 
 
 There could be no more fortunate entrance into a life 
 that an artist desired to paint. The Crows, Blackfeet, 
 Assinniboines, the Knisteneaux, Ojibbeways, and Man- 
 dans are the best-equipped and the most beautifully 
 costumed of any Indians on the Continent, and these 
 were then in camp outside the Fort for the purposes of 
 trade. Living in a country well stocked with buffaloes 
 and wild horses, which furnish them with an excellent 
 and easy livelihood, they carried their good fortune in 
 their independent bearing, perfection of form, and 
 grace of movement in the chase and at their games. 
 I have always held the theory that in the wilderness 
 
The Boy s Catlin 
 
 were models for the painter as perfect as those the 
 Greek sculptors transferred to marble. I now found 
 them in their state of primitive wildness, handsome and 
 picturesque 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. 
 
 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 colors and trappings, 
 moving with most exquisite grace and manly beauty. 
 
 This confirms my former predictions that those 
 Indians living most nearly to a state of nature, and 
 with the least knowledge of civilized society, would be 
 found most cleanly in their persons, elegant in their 
 dress and manners, and enjoying life with the keenest 
 satisfaction. Of such tribes the Crows and Blackfeet 
 stand first, the richness and the elegance of their dress 
 and the taste displayed being a revelation and a delight. 
 Daily I have accompanied the Indians in their buffalo 
 hunts, studying their methods, attitudes, and expres- 
 
The Missouri River in the Thirties 7 
 
 sions, sometimes on a horse, but often running by their 
 sides on foot. 
 
 The Indian rarely hunts the deer, elk, or antelope 
 unless a skin is wanted for clothing. But the buffalo 
 not only furnishes flesh for food, but provides horns, 
 hoofs, hide, and bones for the Indian s bows, shields, 
 wigwam, covering, and tools. Almost without excep 
 tion they are killed by the Indians with arrows while 
 riding at full speed. As the buffalo bull, when excited 
 to resistance, is one of the most formidable and ferocious 
 animals in appearance, with his long, shaggy mane 
 almost sweeping the ground, a more pictorial and 
 spirited sporting scene for the pencil of an artist could 
 scarcely be found. 
 
 I have mentioned that McKenzie s table groans 
 under the weight of beaver tails and buffalo tongues, 
 and other luxuries of this Western land. He has within 
 the Fort a spacious ice-house in which he preserves his 
 meat. When the larder runs low he leads a party on 
 his favorite buffalo horse to supply it. In one of these 
 hunts I was privileged to join. 
 
 As we were mounted and ready to start, McKenzie 
 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, to 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 Yellowstone and the Missouri Rivers, with meat 
 enough to load you home. My watch on yonder bluff 
 
8 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 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, as 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. Monsieur Chardon 
 "tossed the feather" (a custom always observed to try 
 the course of the wind), and we commenced "strip 
 ping," as it is termed (/. e., every man strips himself and 
 his horse of every extraneous and unnecessary appendage 
 of dress, etc., 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 waistcoat pocket, or a 
 half-dozen bullets "throwed into the mouth," etc., etc., 
 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 pre 
 liminaries all fixed, guns charged and ramrods in our 
 hands, we mount and start for the onset. The horses 
 are all trained for this business, and seem to enter into 
 it with as much enthusiasm, and with as restless a spirit, 
 as the riders themselves. While " stripping" and mount 
 ing they exhibit the most restless impatience; and when 
 "approaching" (which is, all of us abreast, upon a slow 
 
The Missouri River in the Thirties 9 
 
 walk, and in a straight line toward 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 elasticity in his step 
 champing his bit his ears erect his eyes strained out 
 of his head, and fixed upon the game 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 start, for no one could check 
 the fury of those steeds at that moment of excitement)! 
 and away all sailed, and over the prairie flew, in a cloud 
 of dust which was raised by their trampling hoofs. 
 McKenzie 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 towered above the whole band, 
 and I picked my way through the crowd to get him. 
 What I wanted was not meat but his head and horns. 
 I dashed along through the thundering mass, as it 
 swept over the plain, scarcely knowing whether I was 
 on a buffalo s back or that of my horse, so hit, hooked, 
 and jostled about as I was. At length I found myself 
 alongside of my game, and gave him a shot as I passed. 
 At this moment Monsieur Chardon, one of our number, 
 had wounded a stately bull, and while they were both 
 at full speed, the bull turned, and receiving the horse 
 on his horns sent poor Chardon a frog s leap of twenty 
 feet or more over the bull s back and almost under my 
 
io The Boy s Catlin 
 
 horse s heels. I wheeled my horse to rescue poor 
 Chardon, who was raising himself on his hands and 
 feeling for his gun, for his eyes and mouth were full of 
 dirt, and who then promptly fainted. When we were all 
 on our legs again I turned my eyes in the direction the 
 herd had gone, and nothing could be seen of them but 
 a cloud of dust. 
 
 However, at a little distance on the right was my 
 bull making what headway he could on three legs. 
 I galloped up to him when he wheeled around and 
 bristled for battle. He seemed to know perfectly well 
 that he could not escape, and resolved to meet his enemy 
 as bravely as possible. I found my shot had entered 
 a little too far forward, and, lodging in his breast, his 
 great weight would make it impossible to do me harm. 
 I rode within a few paces of him, and with my gun 
 across my lap drew my sketch-book from my pocket 
 and took his likeness. 
 
 No man on earth can imagine what is the look and 
 expression of such a subject before him as this was. 
 I defy the world to produce another animal that can 
 look so frightful as a huge buffalo bull, when wounded 
 as he was, turned around for battle, and swelling with 
 rage his eyes bloodshot and his long, shaggy mane 
 hanging to the ground his mouth open and his horrid 
 rage hissing in streams of smoke and blood from his 
 mouth and through his nostrils, as he is bending for 
 ward to spring upon his assailant. 
 
 After I had had the requisite time and opportunity for 
 using my pencil, McKenzie and his companions came 
 
The Missouri River in the Thirties n 
 
 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 took a smoke of the pipe, and recited his exploits, 
 and his "coups" or deaths; when all parties had a 
 hearty laugh at me, as a novice, for having aimed at an 
 old bull, whose flesh was not suitable for food, and the 
 carts were escorted on the trail, to bring away the 
 meat. I rode back with Mr. McKenzie, who pointed 
 out five cows which he had killed, and all of them se 
 lected as the fattest and slickest of the herd. This 
 astonishing feat was all performed within the distance 
 of one mile all were killed at full speed, and every one 
 shot through the heart. In the short space of time 
 required for a horse, under "full whip," to run the dis 
 tance of one mile, he had discharged his gun five and 
 loaded it four times selected his animals, and killed 
 at every shot! There were six or eight others killed 
 at the same time, which altogether furnished, as will 
 be seen, abundance of freight for the carts; which 
 returned, as well as several pack-horses, 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 get their food, 
 and such is one of their delightful amusements at the 
 hazard of every bone in one^s body, to feel the fine and 
 
12 The Boy s Catlm 
 
 thrilling exhilaration of the chase for a moment, and 
 then as often to upbraid and blame himself for his 
 folly and imprudence. 
 
 From this scene we commenced leisurely wending 
 our way back; and dismounting at the place where we 
 had stripped, each man dressed himself again, or slung 
 his extra articles of dress, etc., across his saddle, astride 
 of which he sat; and we rode back to the Fort, reciting 
 as we rode and for twenty-four hours afterward, deeds 
 of chivalry and chase, and hair s-breadth escapes which 
 one another had fought and run on other occasions. 
 McKenzie, 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 I 
 learned, as also from my own observations, that he 
 was reputed, and actually was, the most distinguished 
 of all the white men who have flourished in these 
 regions in the pursuit and death of the buffalo. 
 
 On our return to the Fort, a bottle or two of wine 
 were set forth upon the table, a half-dozen parched 
 throats were moistened, and good cheer ensued. Ba - 
 tiste, Defonde, and Chardon had retired to their quar 
 ters, enlarging smoothly upon the events of our morn 
 ing s work to their wives and sweethearts, when the 
 gates of the Fort were thrown open, and the procession 
 of carts and pack-horses laden with buffalo meat made 
 its entree, gladdening the hearts of a hundred women 
 and children, and tickling the noses of as many hungry 
 
The Missouri River in the Thirties 13 
 
 dogs and puppies, who were stealing in and smelling at 
 the tail of the procession. The door of the ice-house 
 was thrown open, the meat was discharged into it, and 
 I, being fatigued, went to sleep. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 A STUDIO AMONG THE GUNS 
 
 ONE of the bastions of the Fort was set apart for 
 a studio. The breech of a twelve-pounder, 
 whose muzzle looked out a port-hole, served as 
 a seat in front of the easel. To the chiefs were first 
 disclosed the rnysteries of the brush, which they decided 
 were "great medicine." In consequence none but the 
 most worthy were permitted to enter the "medicine" 
 room, and none but the most distinguished they per 
 mitted to be painted. Outside the door the curious 
 throng pressed, but guards were placed at the door by 
 the chiefs, who determined all these matters. The 
 regulations of the Fort required all Indians to leave 
 their weapons in the arsenal. 
 
 The Crows and Blackfeet were hereditary and deadly 
 enemies. The Assinniboines were foes of the Black- 
 feet. The chiefs of these tribes were now for the first 
 time brought together unarmed, and smoking their 
 pipes peacefully sat and lay around the room relating 
 to each other the battles they had fought, pointing to 
 the scalp-locks fringing their shirts and leggings as 
 proofs of their prowess, while they watched the painting 
 of the head chief of the Blackfeet, and anticipated their 
 
 14 
 
A Studio Among the Guns 15 
 
 own turns. The peaceable mission of art had never a 
 more signal, if brief, triumph; for once again on the 
 plains the war-cry would be raised and the bows drawn. 
 The name of this chief of the Blackfeet was Stu-mick- 
 a-suck (the buffalo s back fat), a good-looking, dignified 
 man of fifty and magnificently dressed. There is no 
 tribe on the Continent, except perhaps the Crows, that 
 dresses more superbly than the Blackfeet. In general 
 appearance there is no great difference in the dress of 
 the tribes. But each has a distinctive method of stitch 
 ing and ornamenting with porcupine quills that furnish 
 the principal decoration in all their dresses of ceremony, 
 which any one familiar with the Indians will at once 
 recognize as peculiar to this or that tribe. This brave 
 wore a shirt of finely dressed deerskins, so placed that 
 the necks of the skins and the skins of the hind legs 
 were stitched together, with the seam running down on 
 each arm from the neck to the knuckles of the hand. 
 This seam was covered with a band two inches wide, of 
 beautiful porcupine-quill embroidery, and under this, 
 from shoulder to hand, hung a fringe of black hair 
 taken from the heads of enemies slain in battle. The 
 leggings were also of deerskin, and outside the leg, from 
 hip to foot, ran a similar band of ornament fringed 
 with scalp-locks. The scalp is the evidence that the 
 foe is dead. After having been formally "danced," 
 that is to say, held up on a pole by an old woman, and 
 the warriors have danced around it at intervals for two 
 or three weeks, it is separated into small locks and 
 used as a fringe. 
 
1 6 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 The moccasins of Stu-mick-a-suck were of buckskin 
 wrought with porcupine quills. Over this dress he wore 
 a robe made of the skin of the young buffalo bull with 
 the hair left on, which on the flesh side was rudely 
 pictured with the different battles he had fought. 
 In his hand he carried a pipe with a handle over four 
 feet long, the stem wound with different-colored braids 
 made from porcupine quills and the bowl of red pipe 
 stone ingeniously carved by himself. 
 
 Much like this were the dresses of Pe-toh-pee-kiss 
 (the eagle s rib), Mix-ke-mote-skin-na (the iron horse), 
 of Wu-nes-tou (the white buffalo), Toha-aes-sa-ko- 
 mah-pe (the bear s child), including the little grandson 
 of the sachem, all of whom I painted. This child, a boy 
 of six, was too young to have earned a name. In his 
 raccoon dress, with his bow and arrow slung, he stood 
 up like a tried warrior before me. As he has twice been 
 stolen by the Crows, and twice recaptured by the Black- 
 feet, he is now under the protection of the Fort until he 
 is old enough to look after himself. When he is of age 
 he will be the hereditary chief of the Blackfeet. 
 
 I was also permitted to paint the youngest of the 
 bevy of wives of the Blackfeet chief. She had the 
 pretty name of Eeh-nis-kin (the crystal stone). This 
 young woman was smiled upon and guarded as the 
 apple of his eye, and exempt from all the drudgery of 
 the tribe. The Eagle s Rib, mentioned above, was one 
 of the distinguished men of the tribe. Although not 
 a chief, he proudly wore eight scalps taken from the 
 heads of trappers, as he frankly admitted, and his 
 
A Studio Among the Guns 17 
 
 "- 
 
 splendid dress was covered with the scalp-locks of white 
 men and red. His head-dress was made entirely of 
 ermine skins surmounted by the polished horns of the 
 buffalo. This custom of wearing horns is permitted 
 only to the bravest of the brave, or to men distin 
 guished for some extraordinary feat. 
 
 All these braves in full dress carry bow, quiver, lance, 
 and shield, and some their medicine-bag, of which 
 something more is to be said. The North American 
 tribes are all armed with bow and lance, and are pro 
 tected by a shield or arrow fender, which is carried 
 outside of the left arm, exactly as the shield of the 
 Roman and Greek soldier was borne, and for the same 
 reason. The clypeus or small shield of the ancients 
 was made of bull s hide, sometimes single, sometimes 
 double and triple, but was always small and light, and 
 a means of defence on horseback only. Such was 
 Hector s shield and of others of the Homeric heroes, 
 worn as a defence against darts, javelins, and lances, 
 these, too, being exactly like those carried by the Ind 
 ians of our Continent to-day. 
 
 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 des 
 perate 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 cus 
 tom in these respects among all the tribes who inhabit 
 the great plains or prairies of these western regions. 
 
1 8 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 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 insignificant weapon, though one of 
 great and almost incredible power in the hands of its 
 owner, whose sinews have been from childhood habit 
 uated to its use and service. The length of these bows 
 is generally about three feet, and sometimes not more 
 than two and a half. 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 (among 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 
 purchasing them have inquired of the Indians what 
 bone they were made of, and in every instance the an 
 swer was, "That s medicine," meaning that it was 
 
A Studio Among the Guns 19 
 
 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 graz 
 ing 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 color 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 mountains, trade it to 
 the Blackfeet and Crows, who manufacture it into these 
 bows without knowing any more than we do from what 
 source it has been procured. 
 
 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 effective 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 ridden by the side of a party of Indians in chase of 
 a herd of buffaloes, 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 
 
2O The Boy s Catlin 
 
 their arrows headed with flints or with bones, of their 
 own construction, or with steel, as they are now chiefly 
 furnished by the Fur Traders quite to the Rocky 
 Mountains. The quiver, which is uniformly carried on 
 the back, and made of the panther or otter skins, 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, which 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, 
 with 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 approach 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 within three or four paces of the animal, when 
 the arrow is thrown with great ease and certainty to the 
 heart; and instances sometimes occur where the arrow 
 passes entirely through the animal s body. 
 
 An Indian, therefore, mounted on a fleet and well- 
 trained horse, with his bow in his hand, and his quiver 
 slung on his back, containing a hundred arrows, of 
 which he can throw fifteen or twenty in a minute, is a 
 formidable and dangerous enemy. Many of them also 
 ride with a lance of twelve or fourteen feet in length, 
 
A Studio Among the Guns 21 
 
 with a blade of polished steel; and all of them (as a 
 protection for their vital parts) with a shield or arrow- 
 fender made of the skin of the buffalo s neck, which has 
 been smoked, and hardened with glue extracted from 
 the hoofs. These shields are arrow-proof, and will 
 glance off a rifle-shot with perfect effect by being turned 
 obliquely, which they do with great skill. 
 
 In addition to these portraits was that of an old 
 chief who combined with his high office that of mystery 
 or medicine man that is to say, doctor, magician, 
 soothsayer, high-priest. The name of this oracle was 
 Wan-nis-tou (the white buffalo), and he was painted 
 carrying on his left arm his mystery drum, in which are 
 hidden the sacred mysteries of his calling. The word 
 medicine comes from the French fur traders and was 
 easily transmitted to the English and Americans. The 
 Indians, however, do not use the word themselves. The 
 artist s art may be great medicine, his pistols and guns 
 great medicine, and the white man s weapons of war 
 be great medicine; but for themselves each tribe con 
 structs a word of its own synonomous with mystery 
 and mystery man. 
 
 The medicine-bag is a mystery bag, and its importance 
 may be said to furnish the key to the Indian character. 
 It comes about in a curious manner: A boy, at the age 
 of fourteen or fifteen years, is said to be making or 
 " forming his medicine " when he wanders away from 
 his father s lodge, and absents himself for the space of 
 two or three, and sometimes even four to five, days; 
 lying on the ground in some remote or secluded spot, 
 
22 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 crying to the Great Spirit, and fasting the whole time. 
 During this period of peril and abstinence, when he 
 falls asleep, the first animal, bird, or reptile of which 
 he dreams (or pretends to have dreamed, perhaps) he 
 considers the Great Spirit has designated for his mys 
 terious protector through life. He then returns home 
 to his father s lodge and relates his success; and after 
 allaying his thirst and satiating his appetite, he sallies 
 forth with weapons or traps until he can procure the 
 animal or bird, the skin of which he preserves entire, 
 and ornaments it according to his own fancy, and car 
 ries it with him through life for "good luck" (as he calls 
 it). It is his strength in battle and in death, as his 
 guardian Spirit, it is buried with him, that it may con 
 duct him safe to the beautiful hunting-grounds, which 
 he contemplates in the world to come. 
 
 These bags are, as it happens, made of the skin of 
 the otter, beaver, musk-rat, polecat, snake, frog, toad, 
 bat, mole, mouse, eagle, magpie, or sparrow, sometimes 
 of an animal as large as a wolf, and again of an animal 
 so small that it can scarcely be found in the dress. These 
 bags are ornamented according to the taste or freak of 
 the wearer. They are then stuffed with grass or moss, 
 and as they are religiously sealed, are rarely opened. 
 The Indian offers his medicine-bag a sort of idolatry. 
 Feasts are made for it and dogs and horses sacrificed to 
 it. Even weeks of fasting and penance are undergone 
 to appease it, for a medicine-bag may also be offended. 
 
 The value of the medicine-bag to the Indian is be 
 yond all price; for to sell it, or give it away, would sub- 
 
A Studio Among the Guns 23 
 
 ject him to such signal disgrace in his tribe that he 
 could never rise above it; and again, his superstition 
 would stand in the way of any such disposition of it, for 
 he considers it the gift of the Great Spirit. An Indian 
 carries his medicine-bag into battle, and trusts to it for 
 his protection; and if he loses it thus, when fighting 
 ever so bravely for his country, he suffers a disgrace 
 scarcely less than that which occurs in case he sells or 
 gives it away; his enemy carries it off and displays it 
 to his own people as a trophy; while the loser is cut 
 short of the respect that is due to other young men of 
 his tribe, and forever subjected to the degrading epi 
 thet of "a man without medicine," or "he who has lost 
 his medicine," until he can replace it again, which can 
 only be done by rushing into battle and plundering 
 one from an enemy whom he slays with his own hand. 
 This done, his medicine is restored, and he is rein 
 stated again in the estimation of his tribe; and even 
 higher than before, for such is called the best of medi 
 cine, or "medicine honorable." 
 
 It is a singular fact that a man can institute his mys 
 tery, or medicine, but once in his life; and equally singu 
 lar that he can reinstate himself by the adoption of the 
 medicine of his enemy; both of which regulations are 
 strong and violent inducements for him to fight bravely 
 in battle: the first, that he may protect and preserve 
 his medicine; and the second, in case he has been so 
 unlucky as to lose it, that he may restore it, and his 
 reputation also, while he is desperately contending for 
 the protection of his community. 
 
 
24 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 During my travels thus far, I have been unable to buy 
 a medicine-bag of an Indian, although I have offered 
 them extravagant prices for them; and even on the 
 frontier, where they have been induced to abandon the 
 practice, though a white man may induce an Indian to 
 relinquish his medicine, yet he cannot buy it of him 
 the Indian in such case will bury it, to please a white 
 man, and save it from his sacrilegious touch; and he 
 will linger around the spot and at regular times visit it 
 and pay it his devotions as long as he lives. 
 
 Such is the medicine-bag such its meaning and 
 importance, and when its owner dies it is buried with 
 him. Pe-toh-pee-kiss, the extraordinary Blackfoot, 
 carried two medicine-bags, which were proudly dis 
 played in his portrait. One of these he had "formed" 
 himself; the other he had taken from an enemy in 
 battle. But the medicine-bag is the simplest form of 
 this superstition, as will appear. 
 
 The Knisteneaux a tribe known in later days as 
 the Crees are the natural enemies of the Blackfeet. 
 For two weeks they had camped at the Fort in apparent 
 or compulsory good-fellowship since their arms were 
 stored in the arsenal with the Blackfeet. Having 
 completed their trade, after much delay they got their 
 packs ready, and, bidding friends and foes a hearty 
 farewell, started away. As they left the Fort, one of 
 them, unobserved, loitered behind, and poking the 
 muzzle of his gun between the pickets took aim at a 
 Blackfoot chief talking with Mr. McKenzie, who fell 
 with two bullets in his body. The Frenchmen of the 
 
A Studio Among the Guns 25 
 
 Fort seized their guns and followed with the Blackfeet 
 in pursuit. In a skirmish that lasted half an hour, they 
 drove the Knisteneaux over the bluff and wounded one 
 man. 
 
 Meanwhile the dying chief lay in agony on the 
 ground. Although there was not the slightest hope 
 of his recovery, the medicine-man, Wun-nes-tou (the 
 white buffalo) was sent for. The several hundred spec 
 tators were required to form a ring about forty feet in 
 diameter around the dying chief, leaving a space through 
 which the medicine-man could pass without touching 
 any one. His arrival was announced by a whispered 
 "Hush-sh" through the crowd. Nothing was heard 
 but the light and casual tinkling of the rattles on his 
 dress, and these scarcely perceptible to the ear, as he 
 came into the ring in which his victim lay. 
 
 His body and head were entirely covered with the 
 skin of a yellow bear, the head of which, enclosing his 
 own head, served as a mask, while the huge claws dan 
 gled on his wrists and ankles. In one hand he shook 
 a frightful rattle, and in the other he brandished his 
 medicine-spear or magic wand. To the din and discord 
 of all this he added the wild and startling jumps and 
 yelps of the Indian, the appalling grunts, snarls, and 
 growls of the grizzly bear, in his guttural incantations 
 to the Good and Bad Spirits in behalf of his patient, 
 who lay in his death agonies while the medicine-man 
 was dancing around him, jumping over him, and roll 
 ing him in every direction. This horrible scene lasted 
 a half-hour in death-like stillness before the large audi- 
 
26 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 ence until the chief died. The medicine-man then danced 
 off to his quarters, where he took off and hid his mys 
 tery dress and equipment. 
 
 This dress, in all its parts, is one of the greatest curi 
 osities in the whole collection of Indian manufactures 
 
 
 which I have yet obtained in the Indian country. It is 
 the strangest medley and mixture, perhaps, of the mys 
 teries of the animal and vegetable kingdoms that ever 
 was seen. Besides the skin of the yellow bear (which, 
 being almost an anomaly in that country, is out of the 
 regular order of nature, and, of course, great medicine, 
 and converted to a medicinal use), there are attached 
 to it the skins of many animals, which are also anoma 
 lies or deformities, which render them, in their estima 
 tion, medicine; and there are also the skins of snakes 
 and frogs and bats; beaks and toes and tails of 
 birds; hoofs of deer, goats, and antelopes; and, in 
 fact, the "odds and ends," and fag ends and tails and 
 tips of almost everything that swims, flies, or runs in 
 this part of the wide world. 
 
 Such is the medicine-man or a physician, and such is 
 one of his wild and ridiculous manoeuvres, which I have 
 just witnessed in this strange country. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 INDIAN ARISTOCRATS : THE CROWS AND 
 BLACKFEET 
 
 THE Crows and the Blackfeet are the aristocrats 
 of this Western world. The Blackfeet are the 
 largest as they are the most warlike of all the 
 tribes. They number, including the tribes of their 
 confederacy, about sixty thousand, according to the 
 estimate of the government agent. The Blackfeet 
 proper are divided into four bands the Piegans, the 
 Blackfeet band, the Blood band, and the Small 
 Robes numbering in all sixteen hundred and fifty 
 lodges. The other members of the confederacy are 
 the Gros Ventres des Praries, the Circees, and the 
 Cotonnes. These hunt, eat, fight and intermarry with 
 the Blackfeet, but each speaks its own language and 
 retains its own customs. 
 
 The Blackfeet occupy all the country about the 
 sources of the Missouri to the base of the Rocky Moun 
 tains. Being the most powerful of the tribes, they are 
 fully conscious of their strength, and not only roam the 
 prairie fearlessly, making war with other tribes, but 
 have steadily resisted the efforts of the fur traders 
 to establish profitable relations with them. The coun- 
 
 27 
 
28 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 try abounds in buffalo, beaver, and almost all of the 
 fur-bearing animals of this northern country. The 
 American Fur Company has pushed its trappers up 
 the streams and rivers of the Blackfoot country, and 
 has almost destroyed the beaver. The Blackfeet, accord 
 ingly, have persistently warned the traders that if their 
 men continue trapping the beavers they will kill them 
 wherever found. This threat they carry out, and the 
 Fur Company annually loses from fifteen to twenty 
 men, killed by the Blackfeet in defence of what they 
 believe to be their property and their rights. 
 
 The Blackfeet have therefore held aloof from the 
 traders, and are consequently less known than any 
 other tribe. 
 
 It is interesting to compare this tribe with the Crows, 
 who, although they are deadly enemies on the plains, 
 are here sitting and smoking quietly together with dig 
 nified reserve. The Crows live on the head-waters of 
 the Yellowstone, which also extend to the Rocky Moun 
 tains, and, like the Blackfeet, find their chief occupation 
 in seeking and fighting their enemies. The Crows are, 
 however, a much smaller tribe than the Blackfeet, from 
 whom they have greatly suffered, and by whom they 
 will probably be finally exterminated. At present the 
 Crow nation does not number over seven thousand, 
 with a fighting force of not over eight hundred braves. 
 
 I have just been painting a number of Crows, fine- 
 looking, noble gentlemen. They are as handsome and 
 as well-formed a set of men as could be found in any 
 part of the world, and their grace and dignity of manner 
 
Indian Aristocrats 29 
 
 would distinguish them anywhere. They are almost 
 all over six feet high, and many of these have cultivated 
 their hair until it sweeps the ground. I have frequently 
 seen a foot or more trailing over the grass, giving a singu 
 lar grace to their movements. They are accustomed 
 almost every morning to oil their hair with bear s grease, 
 but this cannot be said to be the cause of its extraor 
 dinary length, for other tribes use bear s grease with 
 out the same results. 
 
 The present chief of the Crows is called Long Hair, 
 having received both his office and his name from 
 having the longest hair in his tribe. This, I am assured 
 by two gentlemen who lived in his hospitable lodge for 
 months, and measured it, was ten feet and seven inches 
 long. On ordinary occasions he wore it wound on a 
 broad leather strap a foot long, either under his arm or in 
 the folds of his robe. But on great occasions he let it 
 drag three feet behind him on the ground, shining with 
 bear s grease like a raven s wing. 
 
 It is the custom among some of these Northern tribes 
 to splice on several lengths of hair and fasten them with 
 glue, probably in imitation of the Crows, on whom 
 alone Nature seems to have bestowed so signal an orna 
 ment. Among the Crows of distinction at the Fort I 
 have painted several who exhibit striking peculiarities. 
 Among these is Chah-ee-shopes (the four wolves), a 
 fine-looking fellow, six feet high, whose natural hair 
 sweeps the ground as he walks. He is beautifully clad 
 and carries himself in graceful and manly fashion. 
 He is in mourning for his brother, and according to 
 
30 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 custom has cut off a number of locks of his long hair, 
 which is a sacrifice of some consideration since he has 
 spent the greater part of his life cultivating it. I have 
 also painted Pa-ris-ka-roo-pa (two crows), one of the 
 most extraordinary men in the Crow nation, not only 
 from the distorted form of his head, but from his sagac 
 ity as a counsellor and orator from his youth. The 
 semi-lunar outline of the Crow head, with a low and 
 retreating forehead, is a peculiar and striking charac 
 teristic, although rarely so strongly marked as in this 
 subject. 
 
 Neither the Crow or Blackfeet women are as hand 
 some as their lords. As other Indian women they are 
 the slaves of their husbands. They perform all the do 
 mestic duties and drudgeries of their tribes, and are 
 not allowed to join in the religious rites and ceremo 
 nies, nor in the dances and other amusements. As 
 all the women of these Northern tribes they are de 
 cently dressed, and often with great beauty and taste. 
 Their dresses are of deer and goat skins, and extend 
 from their chins quite down to their feet. These 
 dresses are frequently trimmed with ermine and orna 
 mented with porcupine quills and beads. The Crow 
 and Blackfeet women, as in all the tribes I have seen, 
 part their hair in the middle and streak the crease with 
 vermilion or red earth. In mourning they are obliged 
 to cut their hair short, and may cease mourning as the 
 hair approaches its former length. 
 
 The men of the Blackfeet tribe part their hair in two 
 places on the forehead, leaving a lock between an inch 
 
Indian Aristocrats 31 
 
 or two wide, which is carefully straightened down to 
 the nose where it is cut square off. This is apparently 
 their defence against the possible charge of effeminacy. 
 These two tribes, which I associate together, speak two 
 distinct and entirely dissimilar languages, and each of 
 these is radically different from the other tribes about 
 them. As they are always at war with each other, 
 time out of mind, they have never intermarried or held 
 any converse together by which any knowledge of each 
 other s language could be acquiredN^ 
 
 The Crows, like the Blackfeet, are beautifully cos 
 tumed, and perhaps with somewhat more taste and 
 elegance. A Crow is known everywhere by the white 
 ness of his dress and his tall, elegant figure. The 
 Blackfeet, on the other hand, are more Herculean in 
 figure, being of middling stature, with broad shoulders 
 and great expanse of chest; and the skins, of which 
 their dresses are made, are for the most part black or 
 dark brown in color. They also wear black leggings 
 and moccasins, and I assume that it is these that have 
 given the tribe its name. The art of dressing skins 
 belongs to the Indians of all countries. But the Crows 
 surpass all in the beauty of their skin-dressing. The 
 usual mode of dressing the buffalo and other skins is by 
 immersing them for a few days under a lye from ashes 
 and water, until the hair can be removed, when they 
 are strained upon a frame or upon the ground, with 
 stakes or pins driven through the edges into the earth, 
 where they remain for several days, with the brains of 
 the buffalo or elk spread upon and over them, and at 
 
32 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 last finished by "graining," as it is termed, by the 
 squaws, who use a sharpened bone, the shoulder-blade 
 or other large bone of the animal, sharpened at the 
 edge, somewhat like an adze, with the edge of which 
 they scrape the fleshy side of the skin, bearing on it 
 with the weight of their bodies, thereby drying and 
 softening the skin, and fitting it for use. 
 
 The greater part of these skins, however, go through 
 still another operation afterward, which gives them 
 a greater value, and renders them much more service 
 able that is, the process of smoking. For this a small 
 hole is dug in the ground and a fire is built in it with 
 rotten wood, which will produce a great quantity of 
 smoke without much blaze; and several small poles of 
 the proper length are stuck in the ground around it, and 
 drawn and fastened together at the top, around which 
 a skin is wrapped in the form of a tent, and generally 
 sewed together at the edges to secure the smoke within it. 
 Within this the skins to be smoked are placed, and in 
 this condition the tent will stand a day or so, enclosing 
 the heated smoke, and by some chemical process, which 
 I do not understand, the skins thus acquire a quality 
 which enables them to dry, no matter how often wet, as 
 soft and pliant as before. ... An Indian dress of 
 deerskins, which is wet a hundred times upon his 
 back, dries soft; and his lodge also, which stands in the 
 rains, and even through the severity of winter, is taken 
 down as soft and clean as when it was first put up. 
 
 The Crows, of all the tribes in this region, make the 
 most beautiful lodges. They construct them as do the 
 
Indian Aristocrats 33 
 
 Sioux, the Blackfeet and the Assinniboines. This is 
 by sewing the dressed buffalo skins into the form of a* 
 tent, and supporting them by twenty or thirty poles 
 twenty-five feet long, with an aperture at the top through 
 which the smoke escapes and the light is admitted. But 
 the Crows dress these skins until they are almost as 
 white as linen, and ornament them with porcupine 
 quills and paint in a variety of ways that are always 
 picturesque and agreeable to the eye. I have procured 
 a fine one, highly ornamented and fringed with scalp- 
 locks, large enough for forty men to dine under. There 
 are thirty poles supporting it that were cut in the 
 Rocky Mountains and have been in use about a hun 
 dred years. When erected, the tent displays the Good 
 Spirit painted on one side and the Evil Spirit on the 
 other. If I can ever succeed in transporting it to New 
 York it will be found to be a beautiful and interesting 
 specimen of the Indian s work. 
 
 The manner in which an encampment of Indians 
 strike their tents and transport them is curious, and to 
 the traveller in this country a very novel and unex 
 pected sight when he first beholds it. While ascend 
 ing the river to this place, I saw an encampment of 
 Sioux, consisting of six hundred of these lodges, struck, 
 and all things packed and on the move in a very few 
 minutes. The chief sends his runners or criers (for such 
 all chiefs keep in their employment) through the village, 
 a few hours before they are to start, announcing his de 
 termination to move, and the hour fixed upon, and the 
 necessary preparations are in the meantime making. 
 
34 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 and at the time announced, the lodge of the chief is 
 seen flapping in the wind, a part of the poles having 
 been taken out from under it. This is the signal, and in 
 one minute six hundred of them (on a level and beauti 
 ful prairie), which before had been strained tight and 
 fixed, were seen waving and flapping in the wind, and 
 in one minute more all were flat upon the ground. 
 Their horses and dogs, of which they had a vast num 
 ber, had all been secured upon the spot, in readiness, 
 and each one was speedily loaded with the burden al 
 lotted to it and ready to fall into the grand procession. 
 For this strange cavalcade preparation is made in 
 the following manner: the poles of a lodge are divided 
 into two bunches, and the little ends of each bunch 
 fastened upon the shoulders or withers of a horse, leav 
 ing the butt ends to drag behind on the ground on either 
 side. Just behind the horse, a brace or pole is tied 
 across, which keeps the poles in their respective places; 
 and then upon that and the poles behind the horse is 
 placed the lodge or tent, which is rolled up, and also 
 numerous other articles of household and domestic 
 furniture, and on the top of all, two, three, and even 
 (sometimes) four women and children! Each one of 
 these horses has a conductress, who sometimes walks 
 before and leads it, with a tremendous pack upon her 
 own back; and at others she sits astride of its back, 
 with a child, perhaps, at her breast, and another astride 
 of the horse s back behind her, clinging to her waist 
 with one arm, while it affectionately embraces a sneak 
 ing dog-pup in the other. 
 
Indian Aristocrats 35 
 
 In this way five or six hundred wigwams, with all 
 their furniture, may be seen drawn out for miles, 
 creeping over the grass-covered plains of this country; 
 and three times that number of men, on good horses, 
 strolling along in front or on the flank; and, in some 
 tribes, in the rear of this heterogeneous caravan, at least 
 five times that number of dogs, which fall into the rank, 
 and follow in the train and company of the women, and 
 every cur of them who is large enough, and not too 
 cunning to be enslaved, is encumbered with a car or 
 sled (or whatever it may be better called) on which he 
 patiently drags his load a part of the household goods 
 and furniture of the lodge to which he belongs. Two 
 poles about fifteen feet long are placed upon the dog s 
 shoulder, in the same manner as the lodge poles are 
 attached to the horses, leaving the larger ends to drag 
 upon the ground behind him, on which is placed a 
 bundle or wallet which is allotted to him to carry, and 
 with which he trots off amid the throng of dogs and 
 squaws, faithfully and cheerfully dragging his load until 
 night, and by the way loitering and occasionally 
 
 " Catching at little bits of fun and glee 
 That s played on dogs enslaved by dog that s free." 
 
 At St. Louis I was told that the Crows were a thiev 
 ing set of "vagabonds," "highway robbers," and other 
 names of pleasant import. These people, I find, have 
 in some instances plundered and robbed the trappers 
 and traders and driven away their horses. This they 
 call "capturing," and consider it a species of summary 
 
36 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 justice that it is right and honorable for them to 
 administer. Why not ? These mercenary white men 
 are committing unlicensed trespass in their country 
 in catching the beaver and other fur-bearing animals 
 without rendering an equivalent, although they have 
 been warned of their danger if they persist. My ex 
 perience with the Indian has taught me to regard him 
 as belonging to the most honest race of people I have 
 ever lived among. In his native state it is only neces 
 sary to trust to his honor to find him perfectly honest. 
 It is, indeed, a part of the system of jurisprudence 
 among all savages to revenge themselves upon the per 
 sons who give offence. If they cannot find the offender 
 the punishment falls upon the first of his kind who 
 comes in their way. So I should not be surprised if I 
 were yet robbed of my horse by reason of some other 
 person s guilt. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 PAINTING AN INDIAN DANDY 
 
 BESIDE the Crows and Blackfeet assembled at the 
 Fort are now the Knisteneaux, or Crees, as they 
 are commonly called, the Ojibbeways, and the 
 Assinniboines. The Crees are a pretty and pleasing 
 tribe about three thousand strong, living in the country 
 north-west of the Yellowstone and into the British pos 
 sessions, where they commonly trade. The Crees are 
 small in stature but of wonderful prowess for their 
 number, since they wage unceasing war with the pow 
 erful Blackfeet who are their neighbors in the West, and 
 these are rapidly thinning out the ranks of their war 
 riors. They are a very primitive people, civilization 
 having as yet left them untouched. Among the most 
 renowned of their warriors is Bro-cas-sie (the broken 
 arm), whose portrait I have painted in his handsome 
 dress, with that of his wife, a handsome, comely woman. 
 The Ojibbeways number about six thousand and 
 occupy the country north-east of the Yellowstone, ex 
 tending to Lake Winnipeg, where they trade principally 
 with the British Company. This tribe is undoubtedly 
 a part of the Chippewas, who live on the southern 
 shores of Lake Superior and with whom we are better 
 
 37 
 
38 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 acquainted. Although these two tribes live hundreds 
 of miles apart, and have no knowledge of each other, 
 and there exists no tradition of the time or manner of 
 their separation, their language is the same. This is 
 very significant, since tribes living side by side will 
 speak radically dissimilar languages. Not the slightest 
 resemblance can be traced between the Blackfeet, 
 Cheyenne, Crow, Circee, Cotonne, and Mandan 
 tongues, while the Sioux is equally distinct from all 
 these. This seems to dispose of the idea that some 
 learned gentlemen entertain of tracing all the languages 
 of the North American Indians back to two or three 
 roots. 
 
 The chief of this tribe is Cho-co-pay (the six), a man 
 of huge size, with dignity of manner and pride and van 
 ity in proportion to his bulk. He sat for his portrait in 
 a most beautiful dress fringed profusely with scalp- 
 locks that he had snatched from his enemies in battle, 
 and wore a shirt of buckskin lavishly embroidered and 
 painted with curious hieroglyphics, which related the 
 history of his battles and pictured the chart of his life. 
 Each article of his dress had been made by his wives, 
 and one, although not the most agreeable, I had the 
 honor to paint. 
 
 The Assinniboines, Ojibbeways and the Crees are 
 neighbors, and live, at least for a time, on terms of 
 friendship. The Assinniboines are undoubtedly a 
 branch of the Dacotahs, or Sioux, for their personal 
 appearance and their language are similar. How these 
 nations- strayed away from one another is a mystery. 
 
Painting an Indian Dandy 39 
 
 However, one may conjecture that in hunting or at war 
 a large party may have been intercepted by their enemy 
 and run off to a distant region, where they established 
 a residence and became a nation. Their name, Assin- 
 niboinnes, or Stone Boilers, they have received from 
 their neighbors from a curious custom which obtains 
 among them. When they kill meat, a hole is dug in the 
 ground about the size of a common pot, and a piece of 
 the rawhide of the animal is taken from the back, put 
 over the hole, and with the hands is pressed down close 
 to the sides and filled with water. The meat to be 
 boiled is then placed in the water. Meanwhile, near by 
 a fire is built in which several large stones are heated 
 red hot. These are successfully held in the water until 
 the meat is cooked. The custom is awkward and tedi 
 ous, and could have been used only by a tribe too rude 
 and ignorant to construct a pot. The traders have 
 recently provided these Stone Boilers with pots, and 
 previously the Mandans had taught them how to make 
 good earthen pots, but, as others of the human family, 
 the Assinniboines like to perpetuate this custom at all 
 of their public festivals. 
 
 As a tribe the Assinniboines are a noble-looking 
 race of Indians, and, as I have said, bear a striking re 
 semblance to the Sioux. The men are tall and graceful 
 in their movements, and wear their pictured robes of 
 buffalo-skins with fine effect. They are good hunters 
 and tolerably well supplied with horses. Living in a 
 country well supplied with buffaloes and all the neces 
 saries of Indian life, they are very comfortable. They 
 
40 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 are especially fond of games and amusement and are 
 generally at them. These are the games of moccasins, 
 horse-racing, dancing, and playing ball, at which they 
 excel. Their dances are frequent and varied, and very 
 like those of the Sioux. 
 
 One of these scenes, however, that I witnessed the 
 other day, appeared to me to be peculiar to this 
 tribe, and is exceedingly picturesque in its effect. This 
 is described to me as the pipe-dance, and was as fol 
 lows: On a hard-trodden pavement in front of their 
 village, which place is used for all their public meetings 
 and many of their amusements, the young men, who 
 were to compose the dance, had gathered themselves 
 around a small fire, and each one seated on a buffalo- 
 robe spread upon the ground. In the centre and by the 
 fire was seated a dignitary, who seemed to be a chief 
 (perhaps a doctor or medicine-man), with a long pipe in 
 his hand, which he lighted at the fire and smoked inces 
 santly, grunting forth at the same time, in half- strangled 
 gutturals, a sort of song, which I did not get translated 
 to my satisfaction, and which might have been suscepti 
 ble of no translation. While this was going on, another 
 grim-visaged fellow in another part of the group com 
 menced beating on a drum or tambourine, accompanied 
 by his voice, when one of the young men, seated, sprang 
 instantly to his feet, and commenced singing in time with 
 the taps of the drum, and leaping about on one foot and 
 the other in the most violent manner imaginable. In 
 this way he went several times around the circle, bowing 
 and brandishing his fists in the face of each one who 
 
Painting an Indian Dandy 41 
 
 was seated, until at length he grasped one of them by 
 the hands and jerked him forcibly up on his feet. This 
 man joined in the dance for a moment, leaving the 
 one who had pulled him up to continue his steps and his 
 song in the centre of the ring, while he danced around 
 in a similar manner, jerking up another, and then join 
 ing his companion in the centre, leaving the third and 
 the fourth, and so on, to drag into the ring, each one his 
 man, until all were upon their feet, and at last joined in 
 the most frightful gesticulations and yells that seemed 
 almost to make the earth quake under our feet. This 
 strange manoeuvre, which I did but partially under 
 stand, lasted for half or three quarters of an hour, to the 
 great amusement of the gaping multitude who were 
 assembled around, and broke up with the most pierc 
 ing yells and barks, like those of so many affrighted 
 dogs. 
 
 I have painted the portrait of a very distinguished 
 young man, the son of a chief. His name is Wi-jun-jon 
 (the pigeon s-egg head). This brave travelled with us 
 on our journey in the steamer " Yellowstone. " He was 
 returning, after an absence of a year or more, from 
 Washington city, where he had been with Major San- 
 ford in the polished and fashionable circles of the 
 Capital. There he was presented by the President with 
 the uniform of a colonel. I enjoyed the pleasure of 
 seeing this young man step ashore in a beaver hat and 
 feather, gold epaulets, sash, belt, and broadsword, 
 high-heeled boots, a jug of whiskey under one arm and 
 a blue umbrella in his hand. 
 
42 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 Thus metamorphosed, he took a position on the bank 
 in the midst of his parents, wife, and little children, as 
 well as his friends, and for a half-hour or more not one 
 showed a gleam of recognition, although they knew per 
 fectly well who he was. On his part he gazed at them 
 as if they were strangers with whom he had nothing in 
 common. 
 
 After a time a gradual but cold and exceedingly for 
 mal acquaintance began, which ultimately, without the 
 least apparent emotion, resolved itself into their accus 
 tomed mutual intercourse as if nothing had ever inter 
 vened to check it. 
 
 This is an instance of the stoic customs of the North 
 American Indians, and one of the most striking traits 
 of their character. At present Wi-jun-jon is creating 
 a sensation in his tribe. Daily and nightly he is sur 
 rounded by a gaping, listless crowd to whom he relates 
 his wonderful and to them incomprehensible advent 
 ures. But it is apparent that already they are begin 
 ning to regard him as a liar and an impostor. Far from 
 envying him his fashionable tour, he is in disgrace among 
 the chiefs and spurned by the leading men among the 
 tribe. What disasters his incredible narrations will yet 
 subject him to time will only develop. Meanwhile, I 
 have been painting his wife, Chin-cha-pee (the fire-bug 
 that creeps), a fine-looking squaw in a handsome dress 
 of the mountain-elk skin, holding in her hand a stick 
 curiously carved such as every woman in this country 
 carries. These are used in digging up the "pommes 
 blanches," or prairie turnip, which is used in great 
 
Painting an Indian Dandy 43 
 
 quantities by the Indians for food, and is found in great 
 abundance on these prairies. 
 
 A traveller in this country has but little time to mor 
 alize. It is as much as he can do to "look out for his 
 scalp" and get "something to eat." But to the mind 
 susceptible to impressions, what a web of fascinations 
 its allurements spread over the soul! To paint the vast 
 panorama of a world entirely different from anything 
 ever seen or painted before; to paint a vast country of 
 green fields, where the men are red, where meat is the 
 staff of life, where the oak and pine give way to the cot 
 ton-wood and the pecan, where the buffaloes range, 
 and the elk and mountain-sheep and the fleet-bounding 
 antelope, where the magpie and chattering parro- 
 quets supply the place of the red-breast and the blue 
 bird, where wolves are white and bears grizzly, where 
 pheasants are hens of the prairie and frogs have horns, 
 where the rivers are yellow and white men are turned 
 savages in looks. Through the whole of this strange 
 land the dogs are all wolves, women all slaves, men all 
 lords. The sun and rats alone (of all the list of old 
 acquaintance) could be recognized in this country of 
 strange metamorphose. The former shed everywhere 
 his familiar rays, and Monsieur Ratapon was hailed as 
 an old acquaintance which it gave me pleasure to meet, 
 though he had grown a little more savage in his look. 
 
 To reach this country one must pass through the dif 
 ferent grades of civilization down to the pitiable misery 
 of savage degradation along the frontier, where one 
 sees the natural liberty and independence of the Indian 
 
44 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 destroyed by the contaminating vices of the worst ele 
 ments of the white civilization. From the first settle 
 ments of the Atlantic Coast to the present day, the 
 frontier has swept like the blasts of prairie fires over 
 Indian life. There are many who believe that the 
 numerous tribes of the Atlantic States fled and are to 
 be found in the Far West. This is not the case. They 
 were blasted by this frontier fire that passed over them; 
 they are in their graves, and nothing remains of them 
 but their names. 
 
 The distinctive character of the Western Indians, as 
 well as the traditions relating to their past, indicate that 
 they have lived, beyond the memory of man, on the soil 
 they now possess. It is these unoffending people, 
 yet unvisited by the vices of civilized society, that I 
 desire to make known. We have taken from them 
 territory enough, and the country they now inhabit is 
 too barren of timber for the use of the white man; it 
 affords them, however, the means and the luxuries of 
 savage life, and it is hoped that our government will 
 not permit the wilful destruction of these happy 
 people. 
 
 I have been taking many rambles about this beautiful 
 country of green fields, and in a few days will begin my 
 voyage down the river in a canoe. I will take with me 
 two men, Bogard, a Yankee, and Batiste, a jolly, 
 dauntless semi-barbarian. 
 
 "Batiste, you say you trade with the Indians and 
 trap beavers; you are in the employment of the Ameri 
 can Fur Company, I suppose?" 
 
Painting an Indian Dandy 45 
 
 "Non, Monsieur, not quite exact; mais, suppose, 
 I am free trappare, free, Monsieur, free." 
 
 "Free trapper! What s that? I don t understand 
 you, Batiste." 
 
 "Well, Monsieur, suppose he is easy pour under 
 stand you shall know all. In de first place, I am 
 enlist for tree year in de Fur Comp in St. Louis for 
 bounte pour bounte, eighty dollare (understand, ha ?); 
 den I am go for wages, et I ave come de Missouri up, et 
 I am trap castors putty much for six years, you see, un 
 til I am learn very much; and den you see, Monsieur, 
 McKenzie is give me tree horse one pour ride, et two 
 pour pack (mais he is not buy, him not give, he is lend), 
 and he is lend twelve trap; and I ave make start into de 
 Rocky Montaigne, et I am live all alone on de leet rivares 
 pour prendre les castors. Sometime six months 
 sometime five month, and I come back to Yelstone, et 
 Monsieur McKenzie is give me coot price pour all." 
 
 " So Mr. McKenzie fits you out, and takes your beaver 
 of you at a certain price ?" 
 
 "Oui, Monsieur, oui." 
 
 "What price does he pay you for your beaver, 
 Batiste?" 
 
 "Ha! suppose one dollare pour one beavare." 
 
 "A dollar per skin, ah?" 
 
 "Oui." 
 
 "Well, you must live a lonesome and hazardous sort 
 of life; can you make anything by it ?" 
 
 "Oh! oui, Monsieur, putty coot, mais if it is not pour 
 for de dam rascalite Riccaree, et de dam Pieds Noirs, de 
 
46 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 Blackfoot Ingin, I am make very much monnair, mais 
 (sacre), I am rob rob rob too much!" 
 
 "What! Do the Blackfeet rob you of your furs ?" 
 "Oui, Monsieur, rob, suppose, five time! I am been 
 free trappare seven year, et I am rob five time I am 
 someting left not at all he is take all; he is take all de 
 horse he is take my gun he is take ail my clothes 
 he is takee de castors et I am come back with foot. 
 So in de Fort, some cloths is cost putty much monnair, 
 et some whiskey is give sixteen dollares pour gall; so you 
 see I am owe de Fur Comp six hundred dollare,by Gar!" 
 "Well, Batiste, this, then, is what you call being a 
 free trapper, is it ?" 
 
 "Oui, Monsieur, free trappare/ free!" 
 "You seem to be going down toward the Yellow 
 stone, and probably have been out on a trapping ex 
 
 cursion." 
 
 "Oui, Monsieur, c est vrai." 
 
 "Have you been robbed this time, Batiste?" 
 
 "Oui, Monsieur, by de dam Pieds Noirs I am loose 
 much; I am loose all very all eh bien pour le 
 dernier c est la derniere fois, Monsieur. I am go to 
 Yelstone I am go le Missouri down, I am go to St. 
 Louis." 
 
 "Well, Batiste, I am to figure about in this part of the 
 world a few weeks longer, and then I shall descend the 
 Missouri from the mouth of Yellowstone, to St. Louis, 
 and I should like exceedingly to employ just such a man 
 as you are as a voyageur with me. I will give you good 
 wages and pay all your expenses. What say you ?" 
 
Painting an Indian Dandy 47 
 
 "De tout mon cceur, Monsieur, remercie, remercie." 
 "It s a bargain, then, Batiste; I will see you at the 
 
 mouth of Yellowstone." 
 
 "Oui, Monsieur, in de Yelstone, bon soir, bon soir, 
 
 Monsieur." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 CANOEING WITH BOGARD AND BATISTE 
 
 WHEN I had completed my rambles and 
 sketches, and when Bogard and Batiste had 
 taken their last spree, fought their last battles, 
 and forgotten them in the final affectionate embrace, as 
 is the custom with these game fellows when settling up 
 their long-standing accounts with their brother trappers 
 of these mountain streams, we launched the little craft 
 that was to waft us down the mighty torrent. 
 
 Mr. McKenzie had provided me with this canoe, 
 which, built of green timber, was heavy and awkward, 
 but our course being with the current, it promised a fair 
 and successful voyage. Ammunition was laid in in 
 abundance, and our larder consisted of a stock of buffalo 
 tongues, a dozen or two of beaver tails, and a good sup 
 ply of pemmican, to which we added several pounds 
 of fresh buffalo meat. Besides these and its crew, which 
 consisted of Bogard and Batiste in the middle and bow 
 with their paddles, and I in the stern with my steering 
 oar, our craft carried several packs of Indian dresses 
 I had bought, and our kitchen, which consisted of three 
 tin cups, a coffee-pot, one tin plate, and a tin kettle. 
 Thus fitted out we took our leave one fine morning of 
 
 4 8 
 
Canoeing with Bogard and Batiste 49 
 
 the Fort and our friends, and of the green fields and 
 dales and prairie bluffs that encompass the enchanting 
 shores of the Yellowstone. We swept off at a rapid rate 
 amid the shouts of the Indians and the cheers of our 
 friends, who lined the banks until we were out of sight. 
 Soon nothing intervened between us and St. Louis, 
 over two thousand miles distant, but the wide-spread 
 and wild region and the roaming savage. 
 
 At the end of our first day s journey we found our 
 selves handily encamping with several thousand Assin- 
 niboines, who had pitched their tents upon the bank of 
 the river, and received us with every mark of esteem 
 and friendship. 
 
 In the midst of this group was my friend Wi-jun-jon 
 (the pigeon s-egg head), still lecturing on the manners 
 and customs of the "palefaces," continuing to relate, 
 without any appearance of exhaustion, the marvellous 
 scenes which he had witnessed among the white people 
 on his tour to Washington city. 
 
 Many were the gazers who seemed to be the whole 
 time crowding around him to hear his recitals; and 
 the plight which he was in rendered his appearance 
 quite ridiculous. His beautiful military dress, of which 
 I before spoke, had been so shockingly tattered and 
 metamorphosed that his appearance was truly laugh 
 able. 
 
 His keg of whiskey had dealt out to his friends all its 
 charms; his frock-coat, which his wife had thought 
 was of no earthly use below the waist, had been cut off 
 at that place, and the nether half of it supplied her with 
 
50 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 a beautiful pair of leggings; and his silver-laced hat 
 band had been converted into a splendid pair of garters 
 for the same. His umbrella the poor fellow still affec 
 tionately held on to, and kept spread at all times. As 
 I before said, his theme seemed to be exhaustless and 
 he, in the estimation of his tribe, to be an unexampled 
 liar. 
 
 Of the village of Assinniboines we took leave on the 
 following morning, and rapidly made our way down 
 the river. The rate of the current being four or five 
 miles per hour, through one continued series of pictu 
 resque, grass-covered bluffs and knolls, which every 
 where had the appearance of an old and highly-culti 
 vated country with houses and fences removed. 
 
 On the second day of our journey we discovered a 
 number of mountain-sheep. These are much like our 
 goats, except in the horns, which resemble those of a 
 ram. Sometimes these make entire circles in their 
 coils, and at the root of each horn measure from five to 
 six inches in breadth. These sheep skip along the sides 
 of the precipice, always keeping equidistant from the 
 top and bottom of the ledge, where they leap and vault 
 from point to point, seeming actually to cling to the 
 sides of the wall, where neither man nor beast can 
 follow them. 
 
 We landed our canoe and endeavored to shoot one 
 of these sagacious animals. After he had led us a long 
 and fruitless chase among the cliffs, we thought we had 
 fairly entrapped him. At least we had brought him 
 within command of our rifles. Suddenly he bounded 
 
Canoeing with Bogard and Batiste 51 
 
 from his narrow foothold in the ledge, and tumbled 
 down a distance of more than a hundred feet among 
 the fragments of rocks and clay. There I thought we 
 would certainly find his carcass without further trouble, 
 when, to my great surprise, I saw him bounding off 
 and he was almost instantly out of sight. 
 
 Bogard, who is an old hunter, and intimately ac 
 quainted with these creatures, shouldered his rifle and 
 said to me: 
 
 "The game is up. You now see the use of those big 
 horns. When they fall by accident, or find it necessary 
 to quit their foothold in the crevices, they fall upon 
 their heads at a great distance unharmed, even though 
 it be on the solid rock." 
 
 Being on shore and our canoe securely landed, we 
 whiled away the greater part of the day among these 
 wild and rugged cliffs. Part of the day we spent in vain 
 pursuit of a war eagle. This noble bird is the one 
 which the Indians value so highly for its tail feathers, 
 which they use for decorating the heads and dresses of 
 their warriors. The Indians tell me that it conquers 
 all other variety of eagles; for this reason they hold it in 
 high esteem. I am unable to say to what variety it be 
 longs, but I am sure it is not in any of our museums, 
 nor is it to be found in America, in my opinion, until 
 one gets near the base of the Rocky Mountains. This 
 bird is often called the calumet eagle, presumably from 
 the fact that the Indians almost invariably ornament 
 their calumets, or pipes of peace, with its quills. 
 
 Our day s loitering brought us through many a wild 
 
52 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 scene: occasionally across the tracks of the grizzly bear, 
 and in sight merely of a band of buffaloes, "which got 
 the wind of us," and were out of the way, leaving us to 
 return to our canoe at night, with a mere speck of good 
 luck. Just before we reached the river, I heard the 
 crack of a rifle, and in a few moments Bogard came in 
 sight, and threw down from his shoulders a fine ante 
 lope, which added to our larder, and we were ready to 
 proceed. We embarked and travelled until nightfall, 
 when we encamped on a beautiful little prairie at the 
 base of a series of grass-covered bluffs, and the next 
 morning cooked our breakfast and ate it, and rowed on 
 until late in the afternoon, when we stopped at the base 
 of some huge clay bluffs forming one of the most curi 
 ous and romantic scenes imaginable. At this spot the 
 river expands itself into the appearance somewhat of 
 a beautiful lake; and in the midst of it, and on and 
 about its sand-bars, floated and stood hundreds and 
 thousands of white swans and pelicans. 
 
 Though the scene in front of our encampment at this 
 place was placid and beautiful with its flowing water, 
 its wild fowl, and its almost endless variety of grace 
 fully sloping hills and green prairies in the distance yet 
 it was not less wild and picturesque in our rear, where 
 the rugged and various-colored bluffs were grouped in 
 all the wildest fancies and rudeness of Nature s acci 
 dental varieties. 
 
 The whole country behind us seemed to have been 
 dug and thrown up into huge piles, as if some giant 
 mason had been there mixing his mortar and paints, 
 
Canoeing with Bogard and Batiste 53 
 
 and throwing together his rude models for some sub 
 lime structure of a colossal city, with its walls, its domes, 
 its ramparts, its huge porticos and galleries, its castles, 
 its fosses and ditches, and as if in the midst of his prog 
 ress he had abandoned his works to the destroying hand 
 of time, which had already done much to tumble them 
 down, and deface their noble structure, by jostling them 
 together, with all their vivid colors, into an unsystematic 
 and unintelligible mass of sublime ruins. 
 
 During the day I loitered about this strange scene, 
 rifle and sketch-book in hand, leaving the men stretched 
 on the grass by the canoe. While endeavoring to find 
 a possible crater, I suddenly came upon the enormous 
 tracks of a grizzly bear, travelling in the same direc 
 tion, and evidently but a few moments before me. My 
 ardor suddenly cooled and I hastily retraced my steps. 
 
 In the morning and before sunrise, as usual, Bogard 
 (who was a Yankee, and a "wide-awake fellow," just 
 retiring from a ten years siege of hunting and trapping 
 in the Rocky Mountains) thrust his head out from 
 under the robe, rubbing his eyes open, and exclaiming 
 as he grasped for his gun, " By darn, look at old Cale, 
 will you!" Batiste, who was more fond of his dreams, 
 snored away, muttering something that I could not 
 understand, when Bogard seized him with a grip that 
 instantly shook off his iron slumbers. I rose at the 
 same time, and all eyes were turned at once upon Caleb 
 (as the grizzly bear is familiarly called by the trappers 
 in the Rocky Mountains or more often "Cale," for 
 brevity s sake), who was sitting up in the dignity and 
 
54 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 fury of her sex, within a few rods, and gazing upon us, 
 with her two little cubs at her side. Here was a "fix," 
 and a subject for the painter; but I had no time to 
 sketch it I turned my eyes to the canoe, which had 
 been fastened at the shore a few paces from us, and saw 
 that everything had been pawed out of it, and all eatables 
 had been without ceremony devoured. My packages 
 of dresses and Indian curiosities had been drawn out 
 upon the bank and deliberately opened and inspected. 
 Everything had been scraped and pawed out, to the 
 bottom of the boat, and even the rawhide thong, with 
 which it was tied to a stake, had been chewed, and no 
 doubt swallowed, as there was no trace of it remaining. 
 Nor was this peep into the secrets of our luggage enough 
 for her insatiable curiosity we saw by the prints of her 
 huge paws, that were left in the ground, that she had 
 been perambulating our humble mattresses, smelling 
 at our toes and our noses, without choosing to molest 
 us, verifying a trite saying of the country that "Man 
 lying down is medicine to the grizzly bear," though it is 
 a well-known fact that man and beast, upon their feet, 
 are sure to be attacked when they cross the path of this 
 grizzly and grim monster, which is the terror of all this 
 country, often growing to the enormous size of eight 
 hundred or one thousand pounds. 
 
 Well, while we sat in the dilemma which I have just 
 described, each one was hastily preparing his weapons 
 for defence, when I proposed the mode of attack, by 
 which means I was in hopes to destroy her capture 
 her young ones, and bring her skin home as a trophy. 
 
Canoeing with Bogard and Batiste 55 
 
 My plans, however, entirely failed, though we were 
 well armed, for Bogard and Batiste both remonstrated 
 with a vehemence that was irresistible, saying that the 
 standing rule in the mountains was "never to fight 
 Caleb, except in self-defence." I was almost induced, 
 however, to attack her alone, with my rifle in hand, and 
 a pair of heavy pistols, a tomahawk and scalping- 
 knife in my belt, when Batiste suddenly thrust his arm 
 over my shoulder, and, pointing in another direction, 
 exclaimed in an emphatic tone, "Voila! voila un corps 
 de reserve Monsieur Cataline voila son mari! aliens 
 aliens! descendons la riviere, toute de suite! toute de 
 suite! Monsieur," to which Bogard added, "These 
 darned animals are too much for us, and we had better 
 be off"; at which my courage cooled, and we packed 
 up and re-embarked as fast as possible, giving each one 
 of them the contents of our rifles as we drifted off on 
 the current, which brought the she monster in all her 
 fury to the spot we had just prudently quitted. 
 
 Our conversation was now chiefly about grizzly bears 
 and hair-breadth escapes of which my companions had 
 a store. Our breakfast we took about five o clock in 
 the afternoon, our empty larder being replenished by 
 an antelope that the unerring rifle of Bogard had brought 
 down, as it was innocently gazing at us from the banks 
 of the river. We landed our boat and took in our prize, 
 but there being no wood for a fire, we shoved off and 
 soon ran upon the head of an island covered with im 
 mense piles of driftwood. Here we kindled a huge fire 
 and ate our meal from a clean-peeled log, astride of 
 
56 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 which we comfortably sat, making it admirably answer 
 the double purpose of chair and table. After our 
 meal was finished we plied our paddles and went several 
 miles further on our course, leaving our fire burning. 
 In the dark, and in a wild and unknown spot, we silently 
 dragged our canoe on shore, and spread our buffalo- 
 robes for sleeping. This it is not considered prudent 
 to do by the side of our fires, since it might lead some 
 prowling war-party upon us. 
 
 The scenery, as I have said, was one of enchantment. 
 Frequently we ran our canoe ashore to admire the wild 
 flowers and the abundance of delicious fruits about us. 
 Sun-flowers and voluptuous lilies were constantly 
 taunting our faces in the high grass, and everywhere 
 were copses of plum-trees, gooseberry and wild currant 
 bushes laden with fruit. To add to the effect were wild 
 rose bushes that seemed to be planted in beds and 
 hedges, adding aroma to every breath of air that passed 
 over them. We also had service berries without stint, 
 and the buffalo bush, which is peculiar to this region, 
 sometimes lining the banks of the rivers for miles. 
 These formed an almost impassable hedge and were 
 weighted to the ground with berries. 
 
 The buffalo bush, or Shepperdia, is the most beauti 
 ful ornament that decks the wild prairies. From the 
 blue tint of its leaves it is in striking contrast to the 
 rest of the foliage and can be distinguished for miles. 
 The fruit that hangs in clusters to every limb and every 
 twig is about the size of ordinary currants, and is not 
 unlike them in color and flavor. After the berries are 
 
Canoeing with Bogard and Batiste 57 
 
 touched by the frost they have something of the flavor 
 of the grape, and I am sure would make excellent wine. 
 I made some such suggestion to Bogard and Batiste, 
 and they were so taken with the idea I did not know 
 but that I should lose my men. Several times we took 
 a large mackinaw blanket, and, spreading it on the 
 ground, struck the stalks with a club. Instantly the 
 entire bush would discharge its fruit and the boughs, 
 relieved of their burden, spring back into position. Of 
 this beautiful native, which I think would form one of 
 the loveliest ornamental shrubs for a gentleman s park 
 or pleasure grounds, I took with me a number of roots, 
 but lost them all in the many accidents of our unlucky 
 bark on the river. 
 
 On the fifth day of our journey from the Yellowstone 
 we landed our canoe that I might paint the magnificent 
 scene that spreads out at the Grand Detour, or Big 
 Bend, as it is called by the voyagers. There are few 
 things in nature more picturesque than the wonderful 
 manner in which the gorges of the river have cut out 
 its deep channel through these walls of clay on either 
 side, of two or three hundred feet in elevation. The 
 imposing features of the high table-lands in distance, 
 standing as a perpetual anomaly in the country, and 
 producing the indisputable though astounding evidence 
 of the fact that there has been at some ancient period 
 a super surface to this country, corresponding with the 
 elevation of these tabular hills, whose surface, for half 
 a mile or more, on their tops, is perfectly level. Being 
 covered with a green turf, and yet one hundred and 
 
58 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 fifty or two hundred feet elevated above what may now 
 be properly termed the summit level of all this section 
 of country, it will be seen stretching off at their base, 
 without furnishing other instances, in hundreds of miles, 
 of anything rising one foot above its surface excepting 
 this solitary group. 
 
 Batiste and Bogard having carried my canvas and 
 easel to the top of a huge mound, left me at my 
 work while they amused themselves in decoying ante 
 lopes to replenish our larder. The antelope of this 
 country I believe to be different from all other varieties, 
 and it is one of the most pleasing living ornaments of this 
 Western world. They are seen in great numbers play 
 ing over the hills and dales, and will often follow the 
 boat for hours together, at a safe distance, as they gal 
 lop up and down the hills, snuffing their noses and 
 stamping their feet, as if to remind the traveller that he 
 is trespassing on their hallowed ground. This little 
 animal, as many other gentle, sweet-breathing creat 
 ures, has a curiosity that often leads to its own destruc 
 tion. The hunter need not trouble himself to follow 
 them. He has only to put his red or yellow handker 
 chief on the top of his gun rod, so that it can be seen 
 above the grass, when they will advance with great 
 caution. Meanwhile the hunter, lying on the ground 
 at a little distance, finds it an easy matter to make sure 
 of two or three at one shot. 
 
 Several times we stopped in this manner, once that 
 I might paint the Grand Dome, whose huge domes, 
 turrets, and towers are so perfectly formed and pre- 
 
I 
 
Canoeing with Bogard and Batiste 59 
 
 cisely placed that it is one of the most wonderful forma 
 tions on this mighty river. After my painting was made 
 we wandered back to the plains in toilsome pursuit of 
 a herd of buffaloes. Although our chase was futile we 
 found amusement in a prairie-dog village. The prairie- 
 dog of the American prairie is undoubtedly a variety of 
 the marmot, and probably not unlike those that inhabit 
 the vast steppes of Asia. It bears no resemblance to 
 any variety of dogs, except in the sound of its voice 
 when excited by the approach of danger, which is 
 something like that of a very small dog, and still much 
 more resembling the barking of a gray squirrel. 
 
 The size of these curious little animals is not far from 
 that of a very large rat, and they are not unlike in their 
 appearance. As I have said, their burrows are uni 
 formly built in a lonely desert, and away from the 
 proximity of both timber and water. Each individual, 
 or each family, digs its hole in the prairie to the depth 
 of eight or ten feet, throwing up the dirt from each 
 excavation in a little pile, in the form of a cone, which 
 forms the only elevation for them to ascend, where they 
 sit, to bark and chatter when an enemy is approaching 
 their village. These villages are sometimes of several 
 miles in extent, containing (I would almost say) myri 
 ads of their excavations and little dirt hillocks, and to 
 the ears of their visitors the din of their barkings is too 
 confused and too peculiar to be described. 
 
 In the present instance we made many endeavors to 
 shoot them, but found our efforts to be entirely in vain. 
 As we were approaching them at a distance, each one 
 
60 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 seemed to be perched up on his hind feet, on his ap 
 propriate domicile, with a significant jerk of his tail at 
 every bark, positively disputing our right of approach. 
 I made several attempts to get near enough to "draw 
 a bead * upon one of them, and just before I was ready 
 to fire (and as if they knew the utmost limits of their 
 safety), they sprang down into their holes, and in 
 stantly turning their bodies, showed their ears and the 
 ends of their noses, as they were peeping out at me, 
 which position they would hold until the shortness of 
 the distance subjected their scalps to danger again 
 from the aim of a rifle, when they instantly disappeared 
 from our sight, and all was silence thereafter about their 
 premises, as I passed them over, until I had so far ad 
 vanced by them that their ears were again discovered, 
 and at length themselves, at full length, perched on the 
 tops of their little hillocks and threatening as before, 
 thus gradually sinking and rising like a wave before 
 and behind me. 
 
 Such were some of the incidents of our voyage which 
 came to an end on the evening of the seventh day out 
 from the Fort on the Yellowstone, when our little boat 
 landed in front of the Mandan village. Here hundreds 
 came to the banks to greet us, and among them Mr. 
 Kipp, the agent of the American Fur Company, who 
 carried me to his quarters, where I am now reaping the 
 benefits of his politeness and enjoying the pleasures 
 of his society. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 MANDANS: THE PEOPLE OF THE 
 PHEASANTS 
 
 HERE I find myself surrounded by subjects and 
 scenes worthy the pens of Irving or Cooper 
 of the pencils of Raphael or Hogarth. I am in 
 a country so rich in romances and legends that no im 
 agination is needed for book or picture. 
 
 The Mandans, or See-pohs-kah-nu-mah-kah-kee, 
 (people of the pheasants), are perhaps one of the old 
 est tribes in our country. Their origin is lost in mystery, 
 but their traditions assert that they were the first people 
 created on the earth. They have not always been in 
 this region. They contend that they were once a large 
 and powerful nation, but continual warfare has re 
 duced them to their present number. The tribe now 
 has but two thousand members, living in two villages 
 about two miles distant from each other. These 
 villages are on the west bank of the Missouri about 
 eighteen hundred miles above St. Louis. The site 
 of the lower and principal town is in the centre of 
 a vast valley with a thousand graceful swells of inter 
 minable green changing to blue in the distance, in 
 which not a tree or bush can be seen. The construction 
 
 61 
 
62 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 of the Mandan lodges, so different from that of the 
 other tribes, seems to indicate another origin and 
 a peculiar history. 
 
 The ground on which the Mandan village is at pres 
 ent built was admirably adapted for defence, being on 
 a bank about fifty feet above the bed of the river. The 
 greater part of this bank is nearly perpendicular and of 
 solid rock. The river suddenly changing its course at 
 right angles protects the village, which is built on a 
 promontory at this angle, on two sides. The other is 
 protected by a strong picket and a ditch four feet deep 
 inside. The picket is composed of timbers a foot or 
 more in diameter and eighteen feet high. These are 
 set firmly in the ground sufficient distance apart to 
 allow guns and other missiles to be fired between them. 
 The ditch, unlike that of civilized modes of fortification, 
 is placed inside the picket that the warriors may screen 
 their bodies from the view and the weapons of their 
 enemies, while they are reloading and discharging their 
 weapons through the pickets. 
 
 The Mandans have evidently nothing to fear from 
 their enemies in their village. This has a most novel 
 appearance to the eye of the stranger. The lodges are 
 closely grouped together, leaving just room enough to 
 walk and ride between them, and appear from without 
 to be built entirely of dirt. But one is surprised on 
 entering to see the neatness, comfort, and spaciousness 
 of these domed, earth-covered dwellings. They are all 
 circular and are from forty to sixty feet in diameter. 
 Their foundations are prepared by digging about two 
 
Mandans: The People of the Pheasants 63 
 
 feet in the ground and forming the floor by levelling 
 the requisite site for the lodge. 
 
 These floors or foundations are all perfectly circular, 
 and varying in size in proportion to the number of in 
 mates, or of the quality or standing of the families which 
 are to occupy them. The superstructure is then pro 
 duced by arranging, inside of this circular excavation, 
 firmly fixed in the ground and resting against the bank, 
 a barrier or wall of timbers, some eight or nine inches 
 in diameter, of equal height (about six feet), placed on 
 end and resting against each other, supported by a for 
 midable embankment of earth raised against them 
 outside; then, resting upon the tops of these timbers or 
 piles, are others of equal size and equal in number, of 
 twenty or twenty-five feet in length, resting firmly against 
 each other, and sending their upper or smaller ends tow 
 ard the centre and top of the lodge, rising at an angle 
 of forty-five degrees to the apex, or skylight, which is 
 about three or four feet in diameter, answering as a 
 chimney and a skylight at the same time. The roof of 
 the lodge, being thus formed, is supported by beams 
 passing around the inner part of the lodge about the 
 middle of these poles or timbers, and themselves upheld 
 by four or five large posts passing down to the floor of 
 the lodge. On the top of and over the poles forming 
 the roof is placed a complete mat of willow-boughs, of 
 half a foot or more in thickness, which protects the tim 
 bers from the dampness of the earth with which the 
 lodge is covered from bottom to top, to the depth of 
 two or three feet, and then with a hard or tough clay, 
 
64 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 which is impervious to water, and which with long use 
 becomes quite hard, and a lounging-place for the whole 
 family in pleasant weather for sage, for wooing lovers, 
 for dogs and all; an airing-place, a look-out, a 
 place for gossip and mirth, a seat for the solitary gaze 
 and meditations of the stern warrior, who sits and con 
 templates the peaceful mirth and happiness that is 
 breathed beneath him, fruits of his hard-fought battles 
 on fields of desperate combat with bristling red men. 
 
 The floors of these dwellings are of earth, but so 
 hardened by use, and swept so clean and tracked by 
 bare and moccasined feet, that they have almost a 
 polish and would scarcely soil the whitest linen. In 
 the centre, and immediately under the skylight is the 
 fireplace, a hole of four or five feet in diameter, of a 
 circular form, sunk a foot or more below the surface, 
 and curbed around with stone. Over the fireplace, and 
 suspended from the apex of diverging props or poles, is 
 generally seen the pot or kettle, filled with buffalo meat; 
 and around it are the family, reclining in all the most 
 picturesque attitudes and groups, resting on their buf 
 falo-robes and beautiful mats of rushes. These cabins 
 are so spacious that they hold from twenty to forty 
 persons a family and all their connections. They all 
 sleep on bedsteads similar in form to ours, but gener 
 ally not quite so high, made of round poles rudely 
 lashed together with thongs. A buffalo-skin, fresh 
 stripped from the animal, is stretched across the bottom 
 poles, and about two feet from the floor, which, when it 
 dries, becomes much contracted and forms a perfect 
 
Mandans: The People of the Pheasants 65 
 
 sacking-bottom. The fur side of this skin is placed 
 uppermost, on which they lie with great comfort, with 
 a buffalo-robe folded up for a pillow, and others drawn 
 over them instead of blankets. These beds, as far as 
 I have seen them (and I have visited almost every lodge 
 in the village), are uniformly screened with a covering 
 of buffalo or elk skins, oftentimes beautifully dressed 
 and placed over the upright poles or frame, like a suit 
 of curtains, leaving a hole in front sufficiently spacious 
 for the occupant to pass in and out, to and from his or 
 her bed. Some of these coverings or curtains are 
 exceedingly beautiful, being cut tastefully into fringe, 
 and handsomely ornamented with porcupine s quills 
 and picture writings or hieroglyphics. 
 
 To accommodate the great number of inmates in these 
 lodges, they are necessarily very spacious and the number 
 of beds is considerable. It is no uncommon thing to see 
 these lodges fifty feet in diameter inside (which is an 
 immense room), with a row of these curtained beds ex 
 tending quite around their sides, being some ten or 
 twelve of them, placed four or five feet apart, and the 
 space between them occupied by a large post, fixed 
 quite firm in the ground, and six or seven feet high, with 
 large wooden pegs or bolts in it, on which are hung and 
 grouped, with a wild and startling taste, the arms and 
 armor of the respective proprietor, consisting of his 
 whitened shield, embossed and emblazoned with the 
 figure of his protecting medicine (or mystery), his bow 
 and quiver, his war-club or battle-axe, his dart or jave 
 lin, his tobacco-pouch and pipe, his medicine-bag, 
 
66 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 and his eagle ermine or raven head-dress; and over 
 all, and on the top of the post (as if placed by some con 
 juror or Indian magician, to guard and protect the spell 
 of wildness that reigns in this strange place), stands 
 forth and in full relief the head and horns of a buffalo, 
 which is, by a village regulation, owned and possessed 
 by every man in the nation, and hung at the head of 
 his bed, and which he uses as a mask when called upon 
 by the chiefs to join in the buffalo-dance, of which I 
 shall say more in a future epistle. 
 
 This arrangement of beds, of arms, etc., combining 
 the most vivid display and arrangement of colors, of 
 furs, of trinkets of barbed and glistening points and 
 steel of mysteries and hocus-pocus, together with the 
 sombre and smoked color of the roof and sides of the 
 lodge, and the wild and rude and red, the graceful 
 (though uncivil), conversational, garrulous story-telling, 
 and happy, though ignorant and untutored, groups that 
 are smoking their pipes, wooing their sweethearts, and 
 embracing their little ones about their peaceful and 
 endeared firesides, together with their pots and kettles, 
 spoons, and other culinary articles of their own manu 
 facture around them, presents altogether one of the 
 most picturesque scenes to the eye of a stranger that 
 can be possibly seen, and far more wild and vivid than 
 could ever be imagined. 
 
 Of all the erroneous ideas concerning the Indians in 
 which the civilized world indulges there is none more 
 untrue than that the Indian is morose, reserved, and 
 taciturn. In all my travels among the Indian tribes. 
 
Mandans: The People of the Pheasants 67 
 
 and particularly among these unassuming people, I have 
 found them more talkative than the civilized races. 
 No one can look into the lodges of these people, or into 
 any little momentary group, without being convinced 
 that small talk, garrulity, gossip, and story-telling are 
 the leading passions with them. One has but to walk 
 or ride about this little town and its environs for a few 
 hours on a pleasant day, and overlook the numerous 
 games and gambols, and hear their notes and yelps of 
 exultation, or peep into their wigwams and watch the 
 glistening fun that is beaming from the noses, cheeks, 
 and chins, of the crouching, cross-legged, prostrate 
 groups around the fire, where the pipe is passed and 
 the jokes and laughter immoderate, to become confi 
 dent that it is natural to laugh and be merry. Why,* 
 indeed, should these people not be merry. They live 
 in a country where it is not necessary to look into the 
 future with concern, and where their faculties and in 
 clinations are solely directed toward the present day. 
 If the uncultivated condition of their minds curtails the 
 number of their enjoyments, they are free from the 
 many cares and jealousies of our more mercenary 
 world, and in my opinion are far ahead of us in the 
 real, natural enjoyment of their faculties. 
 
 The groups of lodges around me, resembling nothing 
 so much as inverted potash-kettles, present a very 
 curious appearance. They are used outside quite as 
 much as within. On the tops of these are to be seen 
 groups standing and reclining, whose wild and pictu 
 resque appearance it would be difficult to transcribe. 
 
68 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 Stern warriors, like statues, stand in dignified groups 
 wrapped in their painted robes, with their heads decked 
 and plumed with quills of the war eagle, extending 
 their arms to the east and the west, recounting the 
 scenes of their battles. In another direction, the woo 
 ing lover softening the heart of his fair Taih-nah-tai-a 
 with the notes of his lute. On other lodges groups are 
 engaged in the game of "moccasin," or "platter." 
 Some seem to be making robes and dresses, others have 
 stretched their limbs in the luxury of sleep while bask 
 ing in the sun. With all this varied and wild medley of 
 living beings are the dogs, which are so near to the 
 \f Indian heart that they are a part of his life. Besides 
 these groups of the living are buffalo heads, skin 
 canoes, pots and pottery, sleds and sledges, and dis 
 played on poles twenty feet above the lodges hang the 
 scalps of warriors kept as trophies. In other parts are 
 poles on which hang the white shields and quivers of 
 the warriors, with their medicine-bags attached, and 
 here and there a sacrifice of red cloth or other costly 
 stuff, offered up to the Great Spirit, over the door 
 of some benignant chief, in humble gratitude for the 
 blessings which he is enjoying. Such is a part of the 
 strange medley that is before and around me; and 
 amid them and the blue streams of smoke that are rising 
 from the tops of these hundred "coal-pits" can be seen, 
 in the distance, the green and boundless, treeless, bush- 
 less prairie; and on it, and contiguous to the piquet 
 which encloses the village, a hundred scaffolds on which 
 their "dead live," as they term it. 
 
Mandans: The People of the Pheasants 69 
 
 These people never bury the dead, but place the 
 bodies on slight scaffolds just above the reach of human 
 hands, and out of the way of wolves and dogs, and they 
 are there left to moulder and decay. This cemetery, or 
 place of deposit for the dead, is just back of the village, 
 on a level prairie, and with all its appearances, history, 
 forms, ceremonies, etc., is one of the strangest and 
 most interesting objects to be described in the vicinity 
 of this peculiar race. 
 
 Whenever a person dies in the Mandan village, and 
 the customary honors and condolence are paid to his 
 remains, and the body dressed in its best attire, painted, 
 oiled, feasted, and supplied with bow and quiver, shield, 
 pipe, and tobacco, knife, flint, and steel, and provisions 
 enough to last him a few days on the journey which he 
 is to perform, a fresh buffalo s skin, just taken from 
 the animal s back, is wrapped around the body and 
 tightly bound and wound with thongs of rawhide from 
 head to foot. Then other robes are soaked in water till 
 they are quite soft and elastic, which are also bandaged 
 around the body in the same manner, and tied fast with 
 thongs, which are wound with great care and exactness 
 so as to exclude the action of the air from all parts of 
 the body. 
 
 There is then a separate scaffold erected for it, con 
 structed of four upright posts a little higher than human 
 hands can reach, and on the tops of these are small 
 poles passing around from one post to the others, 
 across which are a number of willow-rods just strong 
 enough to support the body, which is laid upon them 
 
70 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 on its back, with its feet carefully presented toward the 
 rising sun. 
 
 There are a great number of these bodies resting 
 exactly in a similar way, excepting in some instances 
 where a chief, or medicine-man, may be seen with a few 
 yards of scarlet or blue cloth spread over his remains, 
 as a mark of public respect and esteem. Some hundreds 
 of these bodies may be seen reposing in this manner in 
 this curious place, which the Indians call "the village 
 of the dead"; and the traveller who visits this country 
 to study and learn will not only be struck with the 
 novel appearance of the scene, but if he will give atten 
 tion to the respect and devotions that are paid to his 
 sacred place, he will draw many a moral deduction 
 that will last him through life; he will learn, at least, 
 that filial, conjugal, and paternal affection are not nec 
 essarily the results of civilization, but that the Great 
 Spirit has given them to man in his native state. There 
 is not a day on which one may not see here most touch 
 ing scenes. Fathers, mothers, wives, and children lie 
 prostrate before these scaffolds with piteous and heart 
 broken cries, tearing their hair and cutting their flesh 
 with knives, and doing other penance to appease the 
 spirits of the dead, whom they fancy they have offended. 
 
 When these scaffolds decay and fall to the ground, 
 the nearest relations, having buried the other bones, take 
 the skulls, which are perfectly bleached and purified, 
 and place them, a hundred or more, not quite a foot 
 apart in circles on the prairie. In the centre of these 
 circles is a little mound several feet high, which rests on 
 
Mandans: The People of the Pheasants 71 
 
 two buffalo skulls, male and female; and in the centre 
 of this mound is a medicine-pole, twenty feet high, 
 supporting many curious articles of mystery and super 
 stition that are supposed to guard and protect its circle. 
 Each skull of the circle rests upon a bunch of wild sage. 
 As soon as the sage begins to decay a fresh piece is 
 gathered and replaces it. Each wife knows the skull 
 of her husband or child, and there is not a day that 
 she does not visit it with a dish of her choicest food. 
 Here are always, on pleasant days, to be seen several 
 women sitting by the skulls of husband and children 
 talking affectionately to them. Not infrequently a 
 woman takes out her needle-work and spends the 
 greater part of the day by some skull, embroidering and 
 chattering, until, fatigued, she falls asleep with her 
 arms encircling it and remains for hours. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 SOCIAL LIFE AMONG THE MANDANS 
 
 THE Mandans are most pleasing in personal 
 appearance and manners. Both in looks and 
 customs they differ from all the other tribes. 
 They are not a warlike people that is to say, they do 
 not carry war into the enemy s country, but when 
 invaded their valor equals that of any tribe. Being a 
 small nation, they are unable to contend on the prairie 
 with Sioux or other roaming tribes; accordingly, they 
 have judiciously intrenched themselves in a perma 
 nent fortified village. This has enabled them to culti 
 vate manufactures of different kinds, and their lodges 
 are better supplied with comforts than those of any 
 other nation. This also seems to account for the fact 
 that they are far ahead of other tribes in manners and 
 refinement, if one may use this word in connection with 
 Indian life. The traders always speak of them as "the 
 polite and friendly Mandans." 
 
 A stranger in a Mandan village is immediately struck 
 by the ease and elegance of this people, with the diver 
 sity of their complexions, the varying shades of their 
 hair, the singularity of their language, and their peculiar 
 
 and unaccountable customs. At first one is disposed, 
 
 72 
 
Social Life Among the Mandans 73 
 
 on seeing them, to exclaim, "These are not Indians. 
 The Indian is copper-colored, with jet-black hair." 
 Many of these people, especially the women, are as 
 light as half-breeds. Their skins are almost white; 
 their features are symmetrical and pleasing; their eyes 
 are gray, hazel, even blue; their expression is sweet, 
 and their demeanor exceedingly modest. 
 
 The diversity in the color of hair is also as great as 
 that in the complexion; for in a numerous group of 
 these people (and more particularly among the females, 
 who never take pains to change its natural color, as 
 the men often do) there may be seen every shade and 
 color of hair that can be seen in our own country, with 
 the exception of red or auburn, which is not to be 
 found. 
 
 And there is yet one more strange and unaccountable 
 peculiarity, which can probably be seen nowhere else 
 on earth, nor on any rational grounds accounted for, 
 other than that it is a freak or order of nature for which 
 she has not seen fit to assign a reason. There are very 
 many, of both sexes and of every age, from infancy 
 to manhood and old age, with hair of a bright 
 silvery gray, and in some instances almost perfectly 
 white. 
 
 This singular and eccentric appearance is much 
 oftener seen among the women than it is with the men, 
 for many of the latter who have it seem ashamed of it, 
 and artfully conceal it by filling their hair with glue and 
 black and red earth. The women, on the other hand, 
 seem proud of it, and display it often in an almost in- 
 
74 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 credible profusion, which spreads over their shoulders 
 and falls as low as the knee. I have ascertained, on a 
 careful inquiry, that about one in ten or twelve of the 
 whole tribe are what the French call "cheveux gris," 
 or gray-hairs, and that this strange and unaccountable 
 phenomenon is not the result of disease or habit, but 
 is unquestionably a hereditary character which runs in 
 families and indicates no inequality in disposition or 
 intellect. And by passing this hair through my hands, 
 as I often have, I have found it uniformly to be as coarse 
 and harsh as a horse s mane, differing materially from 
 the hair of other colors, which, among the Mandans, is 
 generally as fine and as soft as silk. 
 
 The stature of the Mandans is rather below the 
 ordinary size of man, with beautiful symmetry of 
 form and proportion, and wonderful suppleness and 
 elasticity; they are pleasingly erect and graceful, 
 both in their walk and their attitudes, and the hair 
 of the men, which generally spreads over their backs, 
 falling down to the hams, and sometimes to the 
 ground, is divided into plaits or slabs of two inches 
 in width, and filled with a profusion of glue and red 
 earth or vermilion, at intervals of an inch or two, 
 which, becoming very hard, remains in and unchanged 
 from year to year. 
 
 This mode of dressing the hair is curious, and 
 gives to the Mandans the most singular appearance. 
 The hair of the men is uniformly all laid over from 
 the forehead backward, carefully kept above and 
 resting on the ear, and thence falling down over the 
 
Social Life Among the Mandans 75 
 
 back in these flattened bunches, and painted red, 
 extending oftentimes quite on to the calf of the leg, 
 and sometimes in such profusion as almost to con 
 ceal the whole figure from the person walking behind 
 them. 
 
 The hair of the women is also worn as long as they 
 can possibly cultivate it, oiled very often, which pre 
 serves on it a beautiful gloss and shows its natural 
 color. They often braid it in two large plaits, one falling 
 down just back of the ear, on each side of the head; and 
 on any occasion which requires them to "put on their 
 best looks" they pass their fingers through it, drawing 
 it out of braid and spreading it over their shoulders. 
 The Mandan women observe strictly the same custom 
 which I have observed among the Crows and Blackfeet 
 (and, in fact, all other fcribes I have seen, without a 
 single exception) of parting the hair on the forehead 
 and always keeping the crease or separation filled with 
 vermilion or other red paint. This is one of the very 
 few little (and apparently trivial) customs which I have 
 found among the Indians, without being able to assign 
 any cause for it other than that "they are Indians" 
 and that this is an Indian fashion. 
 
 The art of swimming is known to all the American 
 Indians, and perhaps no people on earth have taken 
 more pains to learn it, nor any who turn it to better 
 account. There certainly are no people whose voca 
 tions more often call for the use of their limbs in this 
 way, as many of the tribes spend their lives on the 
 shores of our vast lakes and rivers, paddling about from 
 
j6 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 their childhood in their fragile bark canoes, which 
 are liable to continual accidents and often throw the 
 Indian upon his natural resources for the preservation 
 of his life. 
 
 Among the Mandans as among all tribes there are 
 different grades of society. There are those who care 
 little for their looks and those who take great care of 
 their appearance. Such are the chiefs, braves, men of 
 distinction, and their families, who pay strict regard to 
 decency, cleanliness, and elegance of dress. There are 
 few races who pay more attention to personal cleanli 
 ness. A half-mile above the village on the river is the 
 bathing-place of the women. Here they go every morn 
 ing in summer by hundreds at sunrise to bathe. About 
 a quarter of a mile from this place is a semi-circular 
 terrace in the prairie, and here are stationed sentinels 
 with bows and arrows to protect the bathers from the 
 approach of men or boys. But at this distance one can 
 see them leaping into the water, and their bodies glis 
 tening in the sun as they gambol on the beautiful beach. 
 The poorest swimmer among them will dash into the 
 boiling current of the Missouri and cross with perfect 
 ease. 
 
 The bathing-place of the boys and men is below the 
 village. After the morning bath they return to the vil 
 lage, wipe their limbs, and anoint their bodies and hair 
 with bear s grease. 
 
 During their long marches, in the prosecution of their 
 almost continuous warfare, it often becomes necessary 
 to plunge into and swim across the wildest streams and 
 
Social Life Among the Mandans 77 
 
 rivers when they have neither canoes nor other craft in 
 which to cross them. I have as yet seen no tribe which 
 neglects the art of swimming, which is learned at a very 
 early age by both sexes, and enables even the women and 
 children to plunge into and swim across the turbulent 
 streams. The hardy sqaws will take their children 
 on their backs and cross any river that comes in their 
 path. The Indian does not part his hands under his 
 chin and make his stroke outward and horizontally, 
 thus throwing the burden on the chest. He throws 
 his body alternately upon the right and the left 
 side, raising one arm entirely above the water, and 
 reaching as far forward as he can to dip it in again, 
 while the force and weight of his body is spent upon 
 the arm that is under him, and like a paddle is propel 
 ling him along. While this arm is making a half- 
 circle beneath him, the opposite arm is describing a 
 similar arc overhead. In this manner he lessens the 
 strain on breast and spine. 
 
 In addition to these morning baths, the Mandans 
 have another and greater luxury. This is the vapor 
 bath, which is resorted to not only by the sick, but as 
 a means of hardening their bodies for the exposure and 
 vicissitudes of life to which they are constantly liable. 
 These sudatories, of which each village has several, are 
 public, and accessible to all ages and both sexes. In 
 every Mandan lodge is a crib, or basket, curiously woven 
 of willow beughs, and large enough to hold any mem 
 ber of the family lying down. When any one desires to 
 take a bath this basket is carried to the sudatory and is 
 
78 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 brought back after it has been used. These baths are 
 built near the river, and generally of skins, resembling 
 in form a Crow or Sioux lodge. Over it is thrown buf 
 falo-skins sewed tight together, with a kind of furnace 
 in the centre; or, in other words, in the centre of the 
 lodge are two walls of stone about six feet long and two 
 and a half apart, and about three feet high; across and 
 over this space, between the two walls, are laid a num 
 ber of round sticks, on which the bathing-crib is placed. 
 Contiguous to the lodge, and outside of it, is a little fur 
 nace something similar, in the side of the bank, where 
 the woman kindles a hot fire and heats to a red heat 
 a number of large stones, which are kept at these places 
 for this particular purpose, and having them all in 
 readiness, she goes home or sends word to inform her 
 husband or other one who is waiting that all is ready, 
 when he makes his appearance, entirely naked, though 
 with a large buffalo-robe wrapped around him. He 
 then enters the lodge and places himself in the crib or 
 basket, either on his back or in a sitting posture (the 
 latter of which is generally preferred), with his back 
 toward the door of the lodge, when the squaw brings in 
 a large stone, red hot, between two sticks (lashed together 
 somewhat in the form of a pair of tongs), and, placing it 
 under him, throws cold water upon it, which raises a 
 profusion of vapor about him. He is at once enveloped 
 in a cloud of steam, and a woman or child will sit at a 
 little distance and continue to dash water upon the 
 stone, while the matron of the lodge is out and prepar 
 ing to make her appearance with another heated stone; 
 
Social Life Among the Mandans 79 
 
 or he will sit and dip from a wooden bowl, with a ladle 
 made of the mountain-sheep s horn, and throw upon 
 the heated stones, with his own hands, the water which 
 he is drawing through his lungs and pores, in the next 
 moment, in the most delectable and exhilarating 
 vapors, as it distils through the mat of wild sage and 
 other medicinal and aromatic herbs, which he has 
 strewed over the bottom of his basket, and on which 
 he reclines. 
 
 During all this time the lodge is shut perfectly tight, 
 and he quaffs this delicious and renovating draught 
 to his lungs with deep-drawn sighs, and with extended 
 nostrils, until he is drenched in the most profuse degree 
 of perspiration that can be produced, when he makes a 
 kind of strangled signal, at which the lodge is opened, 
 and he darts forth with the speed of a frightened deer 
 and plunges headlong into the river, from which he 
 instantly escapes again, wraps his robe around him, and 
 "leans" as fast as possible for home. Here his limbs 
 are wiped dry and wrapped close and tight within the 
 fur of the buffalo-robes, in which he takes his nap, with 
 his feet to the fire; then he oils his limbs and hair with 
 bear s grease, dresses and plumes himself for a visit 
 a feast, a parade, or a council or slicks down his long 
 hair and rubs his oiled limbs to a polish with a piece 
 of soft buckskin, prepared to join in games of ball or 
 Tchung-kee. 
 
 Such is the sudatory or the vapor bath of the Man- 
 dans, and, as I before observed, it is resorted to both as 
 an every-day luxury by those who have the time and 
 
8o The Boy s Catlin 
 
 energy or industry to indulge in it, and also used by 
 the sick as a remedy for nearly all the diseases which 
 are known among them. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 THE ARTIST BECOMES A MEDICINE-MAN 
 
 PERHAPS nothing ever more completely aston 
 ished these people than the work of my brush. 
 Portrait-painting, of course, they knew nothing 
 of, so that my appearance here has begun a new era in 
 the arcana of mystery. Soon after arriving I began the 
 portraits of the two principal chiefs. These were done 
 without exciting any curiosity among the villagers, who 
 did not know what I was doing. Even the chiefs did 
 not fully understand. No one was admitted to my lodge 
 until the pictures were completed. It was very amusing 
 to see them mutually recognizing each other s likeness, 
 and assuring each other of the resemblance. For a 
 time they pressed their hands over their mouths in dead 
 silence, a custom among the tribes when greatly aston 
 ished, all the time looking at the portraits, then at my 
 self, and on the palette and colors which had produced 
 these unaccountable effects. 
 
 They then walked up to me in the most gentle man 
 ner, taking me in turn by the hand with a firm grip, 
 with head and eyes inclined downward, and in a tone 
 a little above a whisper pronounced the words "te-ho- 
 pe-nee Wash-ee!" and walked off. 
 
 At that moment I was christened with a new and a 
 
 81 
 
82 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 great name one by which I am now familiarly hailed 
 and talked of in this village, and no doubt will be as 
 long as traditions last in this strange community. 
 
 After I had finished the portraits of the two chiefs, 
 and they had returned to their wigwams and deliber 
 ately seated themselves by their respective firesides 
 and silently smoked a pipe or two (according to a uni 
 versal custom), they gradually began to tell what had 
 taken place; and at length crowds of gaping listeners, 
 with mouths wide open, thronged their lodges, and a 
 throng of women and girls were about my house, and 
 through every crack and crevice I could see their glis 
 tening eyes, which were piercing my hut in a hundred 
 places, from a natural and restless propensity, a curi 
 osity to see what was going on within. An hour or 
 more passed in this way, and the soft and silken throng 
 continually increased, until some hundreds of them 
 were clung and piled about my wigwam like a swarm 
 of bees hanging on the front and sides of their hive. 
 
 During this time not a man made his appearance 
 about the premises; after awhile, however, they could 
 be seen, folded in their robes, gradually siding up tow 
 ard the lodge with a silly look upon their faces, which 
 confessed at once that curiosity was leading them, re 
 luctantly, where their pride checked and forbade them 
 to go. The rush soon after became general, and the 
 chiefs and medicine-men took possession of my room, 
 placing soldiers (braves with spears in their hands) at 
 the door, admitting no one but such as were allowed 
 by the chiefs to come in. 
 
The Artist Becomes a Medicine-Man 83 
 
 Monsieur Kipp (the agent of the Fur Company, who 
 has lived here eight years, and to whom, for his polite 
 ness and hospitality, I am much indebted) at this time 
 took a seat with the chiefs, and, speaking their lan 
 guage fluently, he explained to them my views and the 
 objects for which I was painting these portraits, and 
 also expounded to them the manner in which they were 
 made, at which they seemed all to be very much pleased. 
 The necessity at this time of exposing the portraits to 
 the view of the crowds who were assembled around the 
 house became imperative, and they were held up to 
 gether over the door, so that the whole village had a 
 chance to see and recognize their chiefs. The effect 
 upon so mixed a multitude, who as yet had heard no 
 way of accounting for them, was novel and really 
 laughable. The likenesses were instantly recognized, 
 and many of the gaping multitude commenced yelping; 
 some were stamping off in the jarring dance, others 
 were singing, and others again were crying; hundreds 
 covered their mouths with their hands and were mute; 
 others, indignant, drove their spears frightfully into the 
 ground, and some threw a reddened arrow at the sun 
 and went home to their wigwams. 
 
 The pictures seen, the next curiosity was to see the 
 man who made them, and I was called forth. I stepped 
 forth and was instantly hemmed in in the throng. 
 Women were gaping and gazing, and warriors and 
 braves were offering me their hands, while little boys 
 and girls, by dozens, were struggling through the crowd 
 to touch me with the ends of their fingers; and while I 
 
 
84 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 was engaged from the waist upward in fending off the 
 throng and shaking hands, my legs were assailed (not 
 unlike the nibbling of little fish when I have been stand 
 ing in deep water) by children, who were creeping be 
 tween the legs of the by-standers for the curiosity or 
 honor of touching me with the end of a finger. The 
 eager curiosity and expression of astonishment with 
 which they gazed upon me plainly showed that they 
 looked upon me as some strange and unaccountable 
 being. They pronounced me the greatest medicine 
 man in the world, for they said I had made living be 
 ings; they said they could see their chiefs alive in two 
 places; those that I had made were a little alive they 
 could see their eyes move, could see them smile and 
 laugh, and that if they could laugh they could certainly 
 speak, if they should try, and they must therefore have 
 some life in them. 
 
 But we had not counted on the squaws, who insisted 
 that my " medicine was too great for the Mandans." 
 I had put life into the picture; they could see it move. 
 I must then have taken some life from the subject. 
 A person with such power could only do harm to the 
 community. I must be a dangerous man. Bad luck 
 would follow those who were painted, for I would carry 
 away with me the portraits and with them a part of 
 their lives, and they could never rest quietly in their 
 graves. 
 
 They then set up a mournful chant, with weeping 
 and wailing through the village, saying that if I could 
 make living things by looking at them, I could destroy 
 
The Artist Becomes a Medicine-Man 85 
 
 life in the same way if I chose. In this way, with the 
 aid of some quack medicine-men, they aroused a gen 
 eral panic, and so successfully that the chiefs who had 
 agreed to sit for me held a grave council for several 
 days and my work was at a complete stand-still. 
 
 At length I got admitted to the secret conclave and 
 assured them that I was but a man like themselves, and 
 that my art held no mystery, but could be learned by 
 any of them if they tried. Moreover, that I lived in a 
 country where brave men never allowed their squaws 
 to frighten them with foolish whims and stones. Where 
 upon they rose and immediately dressed for their pict 
 ures. Afterward the squaws were silent and my paint 
 ing-room was a resort for chiefs, braves, and medicine 
 men waiting the completion of each picture, interested 
 in the likeness as it came from the brush, when they 
 would laugh, yell, sing, and smoke a fresh pipe to the 
 health and success of him who had just been safely de 
 livered from the mystic operation of the white medicine. 
 
 But I observed that as each portrait was begun a pipe 
 or two was filled and that the chiefs and braves passed 
 the pipe around, and continued to smoke until the por 
 trait was completed, doubtless smoking for the safe 
 deliverance of the sitter from harm. Then I, too, occa 
 sionally, stopped as if something was wrong, and taking 
 a tremendous puff or two at the pipe, and letting the 
 smoke stream through my nostrils, would give evidence 
 of immense relief, enabling me to proceed with greater 
 facility. Thus by complimenting each one on his good 
 looks, taking them according to their rank, and making 
 
86 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 it a matter of honor with them, I succeeded in giving 
 my art and myself a certain standing. 
 
 After this signal success I was taken by the chiefs 
 and led to their several lodges and feasted in the best 
 manner the country affords. To be led by the arm, it 
 must be understood, is a high honor. I was also waited 
 upon by the medicine-men, who presented me with a 
 she-shee-quoi, or doctor s rattle, a magic wand strung 
 with the claws of the grizzly bear, the hoofs of the 
 antelope, ermine, wild sage, and bat s wings, all of 
 which were perfumed with the savory odor of the pole 
 cat. A dog was then sacrificed and hung by the legs 
 over my lodge, and I was thereby considered as a Fellow 
 of the Extraordinary Society of the Conjurati. 
 
 Things went on pleasantly after this for some time. 
 There was some altercation among the braves concern 
 ing their rank, of which they are very jealous, and a few 
 still feared premature death if they were painted, or 
 when painted, that the picture, which would go on liv 
 ing after they were dead, might prevent them sleeping 
 quietly in their graves. But now and then an extraor 
 dinary occurrence would take place. Several times 
 some of the aspiring young men came into my lodge, 
 and after looking at the portraits would put their hands 
 up before their eyes and walk to the right or left of the 
 lodge where they could take a side look at the portrait, 
 since it is an unpardonable offence to look a chief full 
 in the face. But having taken this position from which 
 they could look freely at the painting, they have thrown 
 their robes over their heads and bolted out of the wig- 
 
The Artist Becomes a Medicine-Man 87 
 
 warn, filled equally with astonishment and indignation, 
 averring, as they always will in a sullen mood, that they 
 "saw the eyes move" that as they walked around the 
 room "the eyes of the portrait followed them." With 
 these unfortunate gentlemen repeated efforts have been 
 made by the traders, and also by the chiefs and doc 
 tors, who understand the illusion, to convince them of 
 their error by explaining the mystery; but they will not 
 hear to any explanation whatever, saying that "what 
 they see with their eyes is always evidence enough for 
 them"; that they always "believe their own eyes sooner 
 than a hundred tongues," and all efforts to get them 
 a second time to my room, or into my company in any 
 place, have proved entirely unsuccessful. 
 
 I had trouble brewing also the other day from another 
 source: one of the "medicines" commenced howling 
 and haranguing around my domicile, among the throng 
 that was outside, proclaiming that all who were inside 
 and being painted were fools and would soon die, and 
 very materially affecting thereby my popularity. I, 
 however, sent for him and called him in the next morn 
 ing, when I was alone, having only the interpreter with 
 me, telling him that I had had my eye upon him for 
 several days and had been so well pleased with his looks 
 that I had taken great pains to find out his history, 
 which had been explained by all as one of a most 
 extraordinary kind, and his character and standing in 
 his tribe as worthy of my particular notice, and that 
 I had several days since resolved that as soon as I had 
 practised my hand long enough upon the others, to get 
 
The Boy s Catlin 
 
 the stiffness out of it (after paddling my canoe so far as 
 I had) and make it to work easily and successfully, I 
 would begin on his portrait, which I was then prepared 
 to commence on that day, and that I felt as if I could 
 do him justice. He shook me by the hand, giving me 
 the "Doctor s grip," and beckoned me to sit down, 
 which I did, and we smoked a pipe together. After this 
 was over he told me that "he had no inimical feelings 
 toward me, although he had been telling the chiefs that 
 they were all fools, and all would die who had their 
 portraits painted; that although he had set the old 
 women and children all crying, and even made some of 
 the young warriors tremble, yet he had no unfriendly 
 feelings toward me nor any fear or dread of my art." 
 
 " I know you are a good man," said he; " I know you 
 will do no harm to any one; your medicine is great and 
 you are a great medicine-man. I would like to see 
 myself very well, and so would all of the chiefs, but 
 they have all been many days in this medicine-house, 
 and they all know me well, and they have not asked me 
 to come in and be made alive with paints. My friend, 
 I am glad that my people have told you who I am; my 
 heart is glad. I will go to my wigwam and eat, and in 
 a little while I will come, and you may go to work." 
 Another pipe was lit and smoked, and he got up and 
 went off. I prepared my canvas and palette, and 
 whistled away the time until twelve o clock, before he 
 made his appearance, having used the whole of the fore 
 part of the day at his toilet, arranging his dress and 
 ornamenting his body for his picture. 
 
The Artist Becomes a Medicine-Man 89 
 
 At that hour, then, bedaubed and streaked with paints 
 of various colors, with bear s grease and charcoal, with 
 medicine-pipes in his hands and foxes tails attached to 
 his heels, entered Mah-to-he-hah (the old bear), with 
 a train of his own profession, who seated themselves 
 around him; and also a number of boys, whom it was 
 requested should remain with him, and whom I sup 
 posed it possible might have been pupils, whom he was 
 instructing in the mysteries of materia medico, and hoca 
 poca. He took his position in the middle of the room, 
 waving his eagle calumets in each hand, and singing his 
 medicine-song, which he sings over his dying patient, 
 looking me full in the face until I completed his picture, 
 which I painted at full length. His vanity has been 
 completely gratified in the operation; he lies for hours 
 together, day after day, in my room, in front of his 
 picture, gazing intensely upon it, lights my pipe for me 
 while I am painting, shakes hands with me a dozen 
 times on each day, and talks of me, and enlarges upon 
 my medicine virtues and my talents wherever he goes, 
 so that this new difficulty is now removed, and instead 
 of preaching against me he is one of my strongest and 
 most enthusiastic friends and aids in the country. 
 
 In addition to these chiefs, braves, and doctors, there 
 is another celebrity of whom each tribe seems to possess 
 at least one. This is the Indian dandy, who may be 
 seen strutting through the village always dressed in his 
 best clothes, unadorned, however, with such honorable 
 trophies as scalps and the claws of the grizzly. The 
 dandy never puts his life in peril; he stays about the 
 
90 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 wigwams to take care of the women. His dress is 
 made of such animals as he can easily kill. He adorns 
 himself with swan s down and duck quills, and with 
 braids of sweet-scented grass and other meaningless 
 decorations. These elegant gentlemen are held in little 
 estimation by the chiefs and braves, who call them 
 "faint hearts" and "old women." But these names do 
 not seem to trouble them. For the most part they seem 
 to enjoy the admiration of the women and children, and 
 enjoy their lives as men of leisure. 
 
 These gay and tinselled bucks may be seen on a 
 pleasant day in all their plumes, astride of their pied or 
 dappled ponies, with a fan in the right hand, made of a 
 turkey s tail; with whip and a fly-brush attached to the 
 wrist of the same hand, and underneath them a white 
 and beautiful and soft pleasure-saddle, ornamented 
 with porcupine quills and ermine, parading through 
 and lounging about the village for an hour or so, when 
 they will cautiously bend their course to the suburbs of 
 the town, where they will sit or recline upon their 
 horses for an hour or two, overlooking the beautiful 
 games where the braves and the young aspirants are 
 contending in manly and athletic amusements. When 
 they are fatigued with this severe effort, they wend their 
 way back again, lift off their fine white saddle of doe 
 skin, which is wadded with buffalo s hair, turn out their 
 pony, take a little refreshment, smoke a pipe, fan them 
 selves to sleep, and doze away the rest of the day. 
 
 While I have been painting from day to day, there 
 have been two or three of these fops continually strut- 
 
The Artist Becomes a Medicine- Man 91 
 
 ting and taking their attitudes in front of my door, 
 decked out in all their finery, without receiving other 
 benefit or other information than such as they could 
 discover through the cracks and seams of my cabin. 
 The chiefs, I observed, passed them by without notice, 
 and of course without inviting them in, and they seemed 
 to figure about my door from day to day in their best 
 dresses and best attitudes, as if in hopes that I would 
 select them as models for my canvas. It was natural 
 that I should do so, for their costume and personal 
 appearance was entirely more beautiful than anything 
 else to be seen in the village. My plans were laid, and 
 one day when I had got through with all of the head 
 men who were willing to sit to be painted, and there 
 were two or three of the chiefs lounging in my room, I 
 stepped to the door and tapped one of these fellows on 
 the shoulder, who took the hint and stepped in, well 
 pleased and delighted with the signal and honorable 
 notice I had at length taken of him and his beautiful 
 dress. Readers, you cannot imagine what was the ex 
 pression of gratitude which beamed forth in this poor 
 fellow s face, and how high his heart beat with joy and 
 pride, at the idea of my selecting him to be immortal, 
 alongside of the chiefs and worthies whose portraits he 
 saw arranged around the room, and by which honor 
 he undoubtedly considered himself well paid for two 
 or three weeks of regular painting, and greasing, and 
 dressing, and standing alternately on one leg and the 
 other at the door of my premises. 
 
 Well, I placed him before me, and a canvas on my 
 
92 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 easel, and "chalked him out" at full length. He was 
 truly a beautiful subject for the brush, and I was filled 
 with enthusiasm his dress from head to foot was 
 of the skins of the mountain-goat, dressed so neatly 
 that they were almost as soft and as white as Canton 
 crape; around the bottom and the sides it was trimmed 
 with ermine, and porcupine quills of beautiful dyes gar 
 nished it in a hundred parts; his hair which was long 
 and spread over his back and shoulders, extending 
 nearly to the ground, was all combed back and parted 
 on his forehead like that of a woman. He was a tall 
 and fine figure, with ease and grace in his movements 
 that were well worthy of a man of better caste. In his 
 left hand he held a beautiful pipe, and in his right 
 hand he plied his fan, and on his wrist was still attached 
 his whip of elk s horn and his fly-brush made of the 
 buffalo s tail. 
 
 I was painting my subject with the greatest pleasure 
 when the two or three chiefs seated in my lodge, and 
 whose portraits I had previously painted, arose sud 
 denly and, wrapping themselves tightly in their robes, 
 crossed the room with a quick, heavy step and took an 
 informal leave. I was apprehensive of their dis 
 pleasure, although I continued my work. In a few mo 
 ments the interpreter came furiously into my room. 
 
 "My God, sir, this will never do. You have given 
 great offence to the chiefs. They have complained to 
 me of your conduct. They tell me this is a worthless 
 fellow, a man of no account in their nation, and if you 
 paint his picture you must instantly destroy theirs. 
 
The Artist Becomes a Medicine-Man 93 
 
 You have no alternative, my dear sir. The quicker this 
 chap is out of your lodge the better." 
 
 The matter was explained to my sitter by the inter 
 preter. Picking up his robe, he wrapped himself in it 
 and, plying his fan about his face, walked out of the 
 lodge in silence but with a consequential smile. He 
 took his old position in front of the door for a time, 
 when he walked quietly away. It was interesting to 
 me to note how highly the Mandan braves esteem the 
 honor of being painted, and also to observe how little 
 they value a man who has not the pride and noble bear 
 ing of the warrior. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 A MANDAN FEAST 
 
 MAH-TO-TOH-PAH (the four bears), whose 
 portrait was one of the first I painted, de 
 serves something more than this statement. 
 Although the second in office, he is the first and most 
 popular man in the nation. I have found him to be 
 not only a high-minded and gallant warrior, but a 
 polished gentleman. Mah-to-toh-pah had agreed to 
 stand for his portrait early in the morning. I had my 
 palette prepared, and waited until noon. Mah-to-toh- 
 pah was dressing. At length the word came that 
 "Mah-to-toh-pah was coming in full dress." 
 
 I looked out of the door and saw him approaching 
 with a firm, elastic step, accompanied by a crowd of 
 women and children, who were gazing on him with 
 admiration and escorting him to my wigwam. No 
 tragedian ever trod the stage or gladiator entered the 
 Roman Forum with more grace and manly dignity 
 than did Mah-to-toh-pah my wigwam where I received 
 him. He took his attitude before me with the sternness 
 of a Brutus and the stillness of a statue. There he 
 stood before me until the darkness of night fell on our 
 silence. His dress, which was a very splendid one, was 
 complete in all its parts, and consisted of a shirt or 
 
 94 
 
A Mandan Feast 95 
 
 tunic, leggings, moccasins, head-dress, necklace, shield, 
 bow and quiver, lance, tobacco-sack and pipe, robe, 
 belt, and knife, medicine-bag, tomahawk, and war- 
 club, or po-ko-mo-kon. 
 
 The shirt, of which I have spoken, was made of two 
 skins of the mountain-sheep beautifully dressed, and 
 sewed together by seams which rested upon the arms, 
 one skin hanging in front, upon the breast, and the 
 other falling down upon the back, the head being passed 
 between them, and they falling over and resting on the 
 shoulders. Across each shoulder, and somewhat in 
 the form of an epaulet, was a beautiful band, and 
 down each arm from the neck to the hand was a similar 
 one, of two inches in width (and crossing the other at 
 right angles on the shoulder), beautifully embroidered 
 with porcupine quills worked on the dress and cover 
 ing the seams. To the lower edge of these bands the 
 whole way, at intervals of half an inch, were attached 
 long locks of black hair, which he had taken with his 
 own hand from the heads of his enemies whom he had 
 slain in battle, and which he thus wore as a trophy and 
 also as an ornament to his dress. The front and back 
 of the shirt were curiously garnished in several parts 
 with porcupine quills and paintings of the battles he had 
 fought, and also with representations of the victims 
 that had fallen by his hand. The bottom of the dress 
 was bound or hemmed with ermine skins, and tassels of 
 ermines tails were suspended from the arms and the 
 shoulders. 
 
 The leggings, which were made of deerskins beauti- 
 
96 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 fully dressed and fitting tight to the leg, extended from 
 the feet to the hips, and were fastened to a belt which 
 was passed around the waist. These, like the shirt, 
 had a similar band, worked with porcupine quills of 
 richest dyes, passing down the seam on the outer part 
 of the leg, and fringed also the whole length of the leg 
 with the scalp-locks taken from his enemies heads. 
 
 The moccasins were of buckskin, and covered in al 
 most every part with the beautiful embroidery of por 
 cupine quills. 
 
 The head-dress, which was superb and truly mag 
 nificent, consisted of a crest of war-eagles quills grace 
 fully falling back from the forehead over the back part 
 of the head, and extending quite down to his feet, set the 
 whole way in a profusion of ermine, and surmounted 
 on the top of the head with the horns of the buffalo 
 shaved thin and highly polished. 
 
 The necklace was made of fifty huge claws or nails 
 of the grizzly bear, ingeniously arranged on the skin of 
 an otter, and worn, like the scalp-locks, as a trophy. 
 
 His shield was made of the hide of the buffalo s neck 
 and hardened with the glue that was taken from its 
 hoofs; its boss was the skin of a pole-cat, and its edges 
 were fringed with rows of eagles quills and hoofs of 
 the antelope. 
 
 His bow was of bone and as white and beautiful as 
 ivory. 
 
 The quiver was made of a panther s skin and hung 
 upon his back charged with its deadly arrows; some 
 were poisoned and some were not; they were feathered 
 
A Mandan Feast 97 
 
 with hawks and eagles quills; some were clean and 
 innocent and pure, and others were stained all over 
 with animal and human blood that was dried upon 
 them. Their blades or points were of flint, and some 
 of steel, and altogether were a deadly magazine. 
 
 The lance or spear was held in his left hand; its 
 blade was two-edged and of polished steel, and the 
 blood of several human victims was seen dried upon it, 
 one over the other; its shaft was of the toughest ash, 
 and ornamented at intervals with tufts of war-eagles 
 quills. 
 
 His tobacco-sack was made of the skin of an otter 
 and tastefully garnished with quills of the porcupine. 
 In it was carried his k nick-k neck (the bark of the red 
 willow, which is smoked as a substitute for tobacco). 
 It contained also his flint and steel and punk for 
 lighting. 
 
 His pipe was ingeniously carved out of the red 
 steatite, or pipe-stone, the stem of which was three 
 feet long and two inches wide, made from the stalk of 
 the young ash; about half its length was wound with 
 delicate braids of the porcupine s quills, so ingeniously 
 wrought as to represent figures of men and animals 
 upon it. It was also ornamented with the skins and 
 beaks of woodpeckers heads and the hair of the white 
 buffalo s tail. The lower half of the stem was painted 
 red, and on its edges it bore the notches he had recorded 
 for the snows (or years) of his life. 
 
 His robe was made of the skin of a young buffalo 
 bull, with the fur on one side, and the other finely and 
 
The Boy s Catlin 
 
 delicately dressed, with all the battles of his life em 
 blazoned on it by his own hand. 
 
 His belt, which was of a substantial piece of buck 
 skin, was firmly girded around his waist, and in it were 
 worn his tomahawk and scalping-knife. 
 
 His medicine-bag was the skin of a beaver curiously 
 ornamented with hawks bills and ermine. It was held 
 in his right hand, and his po-ko-mo-kon (or war-club), 
 which was made of a round stone tied up in a piece of 
 rawhide and attached to the end of a stick, somewhat 
 in the form of a sling, was laid with others of his weap 
 ons at his feet. 
 
 The horns of the head-dress are allowed only to a 
 chief or warrior of extraordinary renown. Mah-to-toh- 
 pah, although second in rank, was the only man in his 
 tribe permitted to wear them. They are made of about 
 a third part of the horns of the buffalo bull, split from 
 end to end, shaved thin and light, and highly polished. 
 These two pieces are attached to the head-dress on 
 each side in the same place that they rise on the head 
 of the buffalo, and from a mass of ermine skins and tails 
 hanging over the top of the head-dress to resemble the 
 locks of hair that hang over the head of the buffalo bull. 
 
 This custom seems to belong to all the Northern tribes 
 of Indians, and is no doubt of ancient origin and has 
 some classic meaning. One is impressed with its re 
 semblance to the horns worn by the Abyssinian chiefs 
 and the Hebrews as a symbol of power and command. 
 
 "The false prophet Zedekiah made him horns of 
 iron. J> (I Kings 22 : 2.) 
 
A Mandan Feast 99 
 
 "Lift not your horns on high; speak not with a stiff 
 neck." (Psalms 75: 5.) 
 
 The horns on these head-dresses are loosely attached 
 at the bottom so that they can fall backward and for 
 ward, and by an ingenious movement of the head, so 
 slight as to be almost imperceptible, they are made to 
 balance to and fro, like a horse s ears, giving an appear 
 ance offeree and character to the person wearing them. 
 This head-dress with horns is worn only on great formal 
 occasions such as the visit of foreign chiefs, Indian 
 agents, or at the celebration of victories and great 
 public festivals. A chief, however, who determines to 
 lead his warriors to battle, will decorate his head with 
 this symbol of power to stimulate his men, and thus 
 invite the enemy to concentrate their shafts on him. 
 Such, then, was the dress of Mah-to-toh-pah when he 
 entered my wigwam. Much of this ornament I was 
 forced to reject, since it interfered with the grace and 
 simplicity of the figure. 
 
 About a week after the portrait was painted he came 
 into my room at noon again in full dress, and passing 
 his arm through mine led me through the village to his 
 own lodge where a fine feast awaited us. His lodge was 
 a room of immense size, circular, about fifty feet in 
 diameter and twenty feet high, with a sunken curb of 
 stone in the centre five feet across and a foot deep. In 
 the centre of this was a fire and a pot boiling. I was 
 led near the edge of the curb and seated on a handsome 
 robe, ingeniously ornamented and painted with hiero 
 glyphics. At a little distance from me Mah-to-toh- 
 
ioo The Boy s Catlin 
 
 pah seated himself gracefully on another. A beautiful 
 rush mat was placed between us, and on this the 
 dishes were served. 
 
 Our feast consisted of three dishes only, two of which 
 were contained in wooden bowls, and the third in an 
 earthen vessel of Mandan manufacture and resem 
 bling in form our own bread-tray. This dish held a 
 quantity of pemmican and marrow fat; and one of the 
 former held a fine brace of buffalo ribs delightfully 
 roasted, and the other was filled with a kind of paste 
 or pudding, made of the flour of the " pomme blanche" 
 as the French call it, a delicious turnip of the prairie, 
 finely flavored with the buffalo-berries, which are col 
 lected in great quantities in this country, and used with 
 divers dishes in cooking, as we in civilized countries use 
 dried currants, which they very much resemble. 
 
 A handsome pipe and a tobacco-pouch made of the 
 otter-skin, filled with k nick-k neck (Indian tobacco), 
 lay by the side of the feast; and when we were seated 
 mine host took up his pipe and deliberately filled it, and 
 instead of lighting it by the fire, which he could easily 
 have done, he drew from his pouch his flint and steel, 
 and raised a spark with which he kindled it. He drew 
 a few strong whiff s through it, and presented the stem 
 of it to my mouth, through which I drew a whifF or two 
 while he held the stem in his hands. This done, he 
 laid down the pipe, and drawing his knife from his belt 
 cut off a very small piece of the meat from the ribs, and 
 pronouncing the words " Ho-pe-ne-chee wa-pa-chee" 
 - (meaning a medicine sacrifice), threw it into the fire. 
 
A Mandan Feast 101 
 
 He then, by signals, requested me to eat, and I com 
 menced, after drawing out from my belt my knife 
 (which it is supposed that every man in this country 
 carries about him, for at an Indian feast a knife is never 
 offered to a guest). Be not astonished that I sat and 
 ate my dinner alone, for such is the custom of this 
 strange land. In all tribes in these Western regions 
 it is an invariable rule that a chief never eats with his 
 guests invited to a feast; but while they eat he sits by, 
 at their service, and ready to wait upon them, deliber 
 ately charging and lighting the pipe which is to be 
 passed around after the feast is over. Such was the 
 case in the present instance, and while I was eating, 
 Mah-to-toh-pa sat cross-legged before me, cleaning his 
 pipe and preparing it for a cheerful smoke when I had 
 finished my meal. For this ceremony I observed he was 
 making unusual preparation, and I observed as I ate, 
 that after he had taken enough of the k nick-k neck, or 
 bark of the red willow, from his pouch, he rolled out of 
 it also a piece of the "castor," which it is customary 
 among these folks to carry in their tobacco-sack to give 
 it a flavor, and, shaving off a small quantity of it, mixed 
 it with the bark with which he charged his pipe. This 
 done, he drew also from his sack a small parcel contain 
 ing a fine powder which was made of dried buffalo dung, 
 a little of which he spread over the top (according also 
 to custom), which was like tinder, having no other effect 
 than that of lighting the pipe with ease and satisfaction. 
 My appetite satiated, I straightened up, and with a 
 whiflF the pipe was lit, and we enjoyed together for a 
 
10?, The Boy s Catlin 
 
 quarter of an hour the most delightful exchange of good 
 feelings, amid clouds of smoke and pantomimic signs 
 and gesticulations. 
 
 The dish of "pemmican and marrow fat," of which 
 I spoke, was thus: The first, an article of food used 
 throughout this country as familiarly as we use bread 
 in the civilized world. It is made of buffalo meat dried 
 very hard, and afterward pounded in a large wooden 
 mortar until it is nearly as fine as sawdust. When 
 packed in this dry state in bladders, it may be easily 
 carried to any part of the world in good order. Marrow 
 fat is collected by the Indians from buffalo bones, which, 
 broken in pieces, yield an immense amount of marrow. 
 This is boiled out and put into buffalo bladders, which 
 have been distended. When this fat cools it is as hard 
 as tallow, but has the appearance, and much of the 
 taste, of the richest yellow butter. 
 
 At a feast chunks of this marrow fat are cut off and 
 placed in a bowl with the pemmican, and the two are 
 eaten together. We civilized people in this region think 
 these a very good substitute for bread and butter. In 
 this dish, at our feast, lay a spoon made of buffalo 
 horn beautifully polished. In one of the other dishes 
 was a spoon of even more ingenious workmanship, 
 made of the horn of the mountain-sheep, or gros corne, 
 as the French trappers call them. This was large 
 enough to hold several pints and was almost entirely 
 transparent. 
 
 While sitting at this feast the wigwam was as silent 
 as death, although we were not alone in it. This chief, 
 
A Mandan Feast 103 
 
 as most of the others, has a number of wives, and all of 
 them, some six or seven, were seated around the sides 
 of the lodge on robes or mats on the ground, and not 
 allowed to speak, although ready to obey his orders, 
 which were given by manual signs and executed in the 
 neatest and most silent manner. 
 
 When I rose to leave, the pipe through which we had 
 smoked was presented to me, and the robe on which 
 I had sat he raised by the corners and offered me, 
 explaining that on it were the representations of the 
 battles of his life in which he had killed with his own 
 hand fourteen of his enemies. He had been two weeks 
 painting it and had made this occasion to present it to 
 me. 
 
 Some days after Mah-to-toh-pah called upn me 
 with Mr. Kipp, who is the trader and interpreter of the 
 Mandans, and I had from his own lips the story of these 
 battles, which I wrote down, and accept as historical fact, 
 since the Indians are very jealous of their honor and 
 standing, and in so small a community each man s 
 deeds are known, and it would not be even safe for a 
 warrior to wear on his robe battles he had never fought. 
 
 The sixth of the rude pictures represented the most 
 extraordinary of these exploits, and gives an interesting 
 view not only of this man but of the Indian character. 
 In a skirmish with the Ricarees, Mah-to-toh-pah found 
 the body of his brother, and in it a handsome spear 
 which had pierced his heart. At the Mandan village this 
 spear was recognized as belonging to a noted Ricaree 
 brave named Won-ga-tap. With the blood on the 
 
104 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 spear, Mah-to-toh-pah swore that he would yet revenge 
 the death of his brother with the same spear. He kept it 
 in his wigwam for four years, when one day he ran 
 through the village brandishing the spear, exclaiming 
 that the blood of his brother on its blade was yet fresh 
 and called loudly for revenge. "Let every Mandan," 
 said he, "be silent, and let no one sound the name of 
 Mah-to-toh-pa let no one ask for him, nor where he 
 has gone, until you hear him sound the war-cry in front 
 of the village, when he will enter it and show you the 
 blood of Won-ga-tap. The blade of this lance shall 
 drink the heart s blood of Won-ga-tap, or Mah-to-toh- 
 pa mingles his shadow with that of his brother." 
 
 With this he sallied forth from the village and over the 
 plains, with the lance in his hand. His direction was 
 toward the Riccaree village, and all eyes were upon 
 him, though none dared to speak till he disappeared 
 over the distant grassy bluffs. He travelled the distance 
 of two hundred miles entirely alone, with a little parched 
 corn in his pouch, making his marches by night and 
 lying secreted by days, until he reached the Riccaree 
 village, where, being acquainted with its shapes and its 
 habits, and knowing the position of the wigwam of his 
 doomed enemy, he loitered about in disguise, mingling 
 himself in the obscure throng, and at last, silently and 
 alone, observed through the rents of the wigwam the 
 last motions and movements of his victim, as he retired 
 to bed with his wife: he saw him light his last pipe and 
 smoke it "to its end"; he saw the last whiff and saw 
 the last curl of blue smoke that faintly steeped from its 
 
A Mandan Feast 105 
 
 bowl; he saw the village awhile in darkness and silence, 
 and the embers that were covered in the middle of the 
 wigwam gone nearly out, and the last flickering light 
 which had been gently playing over them; when he 
 walked softly, but not slyly, into the wigwam and 
 seated himself by the fire, over which was hanging a 
 large pot, with a quantity of cooked meat remaining 
 in it, and by the side of the fire the pipe and tobacco- 
 pouch which had just been used; and knowing that 
 the twilight of the wigwam was not sufficient to dis 
 close the features of his face to his enemy, he very 
 deliberately turned to the pot and completely satiated 
 the desperate appetite, which he had got in a journey 
 of six or seven days with little or nothing to eat, and 
 then, as deliberately, charged and lighted the pipe, 
 and sent (no doubt in every whiff" that he drew through 
 its stem) a prayer to the Great Spirit for a moment 
 longer for the consummation of his design. While eat 
 ing and smoking, the wife of his victim, while lying in 
 bed, several times inquired of her husband what man 
 it was who was eating in their lodge, to which he as 
 many times replied, "It s no matter; let him eat, for he 
 is probably hungry." 
 
 Mah-to-toh-pa knew full well that his appearance 
 would cause no other reply than this from the dignitary 
 of the nation; for, from an invariable custom among 
 these Northern Indians, any one who is hungry is allowed 
 to walk into any man s lodge and eat. While smoking 
 his last gentle and tremulous whiffs on the pipe, Mah-to- 
 toh-pa (leaning back and turning gradually on his side, 
 
io6 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 to get a better view of the position of his enemy, and to 
 see a little more distinctly the shapes of things) stirred 
 the embers with his toes (readers, I had every word of 
 this from his own lips, and every attitude and gesture 
 acted out with his own limbs) until he saw his way was 
 clear, at which moment, with his lance in his hands, he 
 rose and drove it through the body of his enemy, and 
 snatching the scalp from his head, he darted from the 
 lodge, and quick as lightning, with the lance in one 
 hand and the scalp in the other, made his way to the 
 prairie! The village was in an uproar, but he was off, 
 and no one knew the enemy who had struck the blow. 
 Mah-to-toh-pa ran all night and lay close during the 
 days, thanking the Great Spirit for strengthening his 
 heart and his arm to this noble revenge, and prayed 
 fervently for a continuance of his aid and protection 
 till he should get back to his own village. His prayers 
 were heard, and on the sixth morning, at sunrise, he 
 descended the bluffs, and entered the village amid 
 deafening shouts of applause, while he brandished and 
 showed to his people the blade of lance, with the blood 
 of his victim dried upon it, over that of his brother, 
 and the scalp of Won-ga-tap suspended from its 
 handle. 
 
 Such was the story that Mah-to-toh-pa had repre 
 sented on his robe. As he stood for his portrait he held 
 in his left hand a lance. Its blade was two-edged and 
 of polished steel, and the blood of his victims was dried 
 on its surface. Its shaft was of the toughest ash, and or 
 namented at intervals with the tufts of war-eagle s quills. 
 
A Mandan Feast 107 
 
 Balanced on the hilt of the lance was an eagle s quill 
 severed from the others and loose on the weapon. When 
 he came for the portrait he had the quill in his hand and 
 carefully balanced it, telling me he wished me to be 
 very exact in painting it, as he wished the spot of blood 
 on it to show. I did as he desired, and he then gave me 
 his reason. "That quill," said he, "is great medicine; it 
 belongs to the Great Spirit, and not to me. When I was 
 running out of the lodge of Won-go-tap, I looked back 
 and saw that quill hanging to the wound in his side. I 
 ran back, and pulling it out, brought it home in my left 
 hand, and I have kept it for the Great Spirit to this 
 day!" 
 
 "Why do you not then tie it on to the lance again, 
 where it came off?" 
 
 "Hush-sh," said he, "if the Great Spirit had wished 
 it to be tied on in that place, it never would have come 
 off; he has been kind to me, and I will not offend him. 1 
 
CHAPTER X 
 THE MANDAN WOMEN 
 
 THE Mandan women are both pretty and modest, 
 and, among the better families of the tribe, as 
 unapproachable as in society anywhere. At the 
 same time, a chief may marry a dozen women if he 
 pleases, and so may a white man. The most desirable 
 maiden in the tribes may be secured for two horses, a 
 gun with powder and ball for a year, five or six pounds 
 of beads, a couple of gallons of whiskey, and a handful 
 of awls. 
 
 Polygamy is practised among all the North American 
 Indians. But those who avail themselves of this privilege 
 are the chiefs and medicine-men. While there is no law 
 preventing a poor or obscure man from taking more than 
 one wife, he does not do so because either his position 
 in the tribe would not satisfy the father, or because he 
 has not enough worldly goods. Wives in this country 
 are bought and sold, and the bargain is conducted always 
 by the father as a purely mercenary contract, in which 
 he stands out for the highest possible price. This does 
 not prevent mutual fondness, the exchange of vows, and 
 other assurances of affection as in the civilized world 
 among the young people. But the marriage is not con 
 summated without the necessary presents to the father. 
 
 108 
 
The Mandan Women 109 
 
 The number of wives in the Indian country indicates 
 a man s rank and his wealth. A chief must keep open 
 house; to be popular he must entertain. As there are 
 no daily laborers or wage-workers among the Indians, 
 the dignitary must have wives and hand-maidens to 
 perform the duties and the drudgeries of his wigwam. 
 All labor among the tribes is done by the women, who 
 are not only a source of convenience but of wealth. 
 While the Indian is far behind the civilized world in 
 acquisitiveness, he more or less has a passion for wealth 
 and the luxuries of life. 
 
 There are other and very rational grounds on which 
 the propriety of such a custom may be urged, one of 
 which is as follows: as all nations of Indians in their 
 natural condition are unceasingly at war with the tribes 
 that are about them, for the adjustment of ancient and 
 never-ending feuds, as well as from a love of glory, to 
 which in Indian life the battle-field is almost the only 
 road, their warriors are killed off to that extent that in 
 many instances two and sometimes three women to a 
 man are found in a tribe. In such instances I have found 
 that the custom of polygamy has kindly helped the 
 community to an evident relief from a cruel and pro 
 digious calamity. 
 
 It is a matter of policy among the white men who are 
 traders in this country to ally themselves with one or 
 more of the important families in the tribe. These fam 
 ily connections facilitate their business transactions. 
 Naturally only maidens of the best families can aspire 
 to such marriages, which on their part are considered 
 
110 The Hoy s 
 
 very desirable; not without reason. Marriage with a 
 
 white man exempts them from the drudgery ot the 
 Indian wigwam. They arc generally permitted to live 
 in idleness, to wear mantles of blue and scarier, decked 
 with heads, trinkets, and ribbons, in which they flounce 
 and flirt about, the envy ot" all the other maidens ot the 
 tribe. In arranging these marriages, it they may be so 
 called, the Indian fathers are very shrewd, and exact the 
 largest price possible from the white men, who, they 
 think, should, and are able to, pay well tor such precious 
 v\ares. The trader, on his part, enters into the arrange 
 ment as he would bargain tor a horse, and annuls it with 
 just as little ceremony when he wishes to leave the 
 countrv. 1 he woman is in that case a fair and proper 
 candidate tor marriage or speculation it" another suitor 
 should conic alono, and her lather equally desirous for 
 another horse or i;un. Yet it would be untrue and do 
 ing injustice to the Indians to say that they are in 
 the least behind us in conjugal, in filial, or parental 
 a fleet ion. 
 
 The girls of this tribe, as those of the other North 
 western tribes, marrv at the age of twelve or fourteen, 
 sometimes, indeed, at eleven years. Their beauty, from 
 their youth and the slavish lives they lead, vanishes soon 
 after marriage. I heir work is seldom finished, and they 
 
 oo at it, as if from choice and inclination, without a mur- 
 o 
 
 mur. In this village it consists of getting the wood and 
 water, in cooking, in dressing robes and skins, in drying 
 meat and wild fruit and raising corn. The Mandans are 
 rather ^ood agriculturists. They raise a good deal of 
 
The Manclan Women in 
 
 corn and some pumpkins and squashes. I hr, r, ;!! 
 done by the women, who make their hoes of the shoulder- 
 blade of the buffalo or the elk, and dig the ground over 
 instead of ploughing it, at a great cost of labor. The 
 corn is very small, the ears not being longer than a man s 
 thumb. This, however, is better suited to the climate, 
 which is too cold to allow larger ears to ripen. 
 
 The green-corn season is a continual festival, and 
 most of the crop is eaten at this time, and the remainder 
 is gathered and dried on the cob, before it has ripened, 
 and packed away in " caches " (as the French call them), 
 holes dug in the ground, some six or seven feet deep, 
 the insides of which are somewhat in the form of a jug, 
 and tightly closed at the top. The corn, and even dried 
 meat and pemmican, are placed in these caches, being 
 packed tight around the sides, with prairie grass, and 
 effectually preserved through the severest winters. 
 
 Corn and dried meat are generally laid in in the fall in 
 sufficient quantities to support them through the winter. 
 These are the principal articles of food during that long 
 and inclement season; and in addition to them they 
 oftentimes have in store great quantities of dried 
 squashes and dried " pommes blanches" a kind of turnip 
 which grows in great abundance in these regions, and 
 of which I have before spoken. These are dried in great 
 quantities, and pounded into a sort of meal, and cooked 
 with the dried meat and corn. Great quantities also of 
 wild fruit of different kinds are dried and laid away in 
 store for the winter season, such as buffalo-berries, 
 service berries, strawberries, and wild plums. 
 
112 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 The buffalo meat, however, is the great staple and 
 "staff of life" in this country, and seldom, if ever, fails 
 to afford them an abundant and wholesome means of 
 subsistence. There are, from a fair computation, some 
 thing like 250,000 Indians in these Western regions, who 
 live almost exclusively on the flesh of these animals 
 through every part of the year. During the summer and 
 fall months they use the meat fresh, and cook it in a great 
 variety of ways by roasting, broiling, boiling, stewing, 
 smoking, etc. and by boiling the ribs and joints with 
 the marrow in them make a delicious soup, which is 
 universally used, and in vast quantities. The Mandans, 
 I find, have no regular or stated times for their meals, 
 but generally eat about twice in the twenty-four hours. 
 The pot is always boiling over the fire, and any one who 
 is hungry (either of the household or from any other part 
 of the village) has a right to order it taken off, and to fall 
 to eating as he pleases. Such is an unvarying custom 
 among the North American Indians, and I very much 
 doubt whether the civilized world has in its insti 
 tutions any system which can properly be called more 
 humane and charitable. Every man, woman, or child 
 in Indian communities is allowed to enter any one s 
 lodge, and even that of the chief of the nation, and eat 
 when they are hungry, provided misfortune or necessity 
 has driven them to it. Even so can the poorest and most 
 worthless drone of the nation; if he is too lazy to hunt or 
 to supply himself, he can walk into any lodge and every 
 one will share with him as long as there is anything to 
 eat. He, however, who thus begs when he is able to hunt 
 
The Mandan Women 113 
 
 pays dear for his meat, for he is stigmatized with the 
 disgraceful epithet of a poltroon and a beggar. 
 
 The Mandans, like all other tribes, sit at their meals 
 cross-legged, or rather with their ankles crossed in front 
 of them, and both feet drawn close under their bodies, 
 or, which is very often the case also, take their meals in 
 a reclining posture, with their legs thrown out and the 
 body resting on one elbow and fore-arm, which are under 
 them. The dishes from which they eat are invariably 
 on the ground or floor of the lodge, the group resting 
 on buffalo-robes or mats of various structure and man 
 ufacture. 
 
 The position in which the women sit at their meals 
 and on other occasions is different from that of the men, 
 and one which they take and rise from again with great 
 ease and much grace. By merely bending the knees 
 both together, inclining the body back and the head and 
 shoulders quite forward, they squat entirely down to the 
 ground, inclining both feet either to the right or the 
 left. In this position they always rest while eating, and 
 it is both modest and graceful, for they seem, with 
 apparent ease, to assume the position and rise out of it 
 without using their hands in any way to assist them. 
 
 These women, however, although graceful and civil 
 and ever so beautiful or ever so hungry, are not allowed 
 to sit in the same group with the men while at their 
 meals. So far as I have yet travelled in the Indian 
 country, I never have seen an Indian woman eating 
 with her husband. Men form the first group at the 
 banquet, and women and children and dogs all come 
 
H4 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 together at the next, and these gormandize and glut 
 themselves to an enormous extent, though the men very 
 seldom do. 
 
 It is time that an error on this subject, which has gone 
 generally abroad in the world, was corrected. It is 
 everywhere asserted, and almost universally believed, 
 that the Indians are "enormous eaters," but, compara 
 tively speaking, I assure my readers that this is an error. 
 I venture to say that there are no persons on earth who 
 practise greater prudence and self-denial than the men 
 do (among the wild Indians), who are constantly in 
 war and in the chase, or in their athletic sports and 
 exercises, for all of which they are excited by the high 
 est ideas of pride and honor, and every kind of excess 
 is studiously avoided; and for a very great part of their 
 lives the most painful abstinence is enforced upon them 
 selves for the purpose of preparing their bodies and 
 their limbs for these extravagant exertions. 
 
 Their mode of curing and preserving the buffalo meat, 
 which is done by the women, is not only curious but 
 almost incredible, for it is all cured and dried in the sun 
 without the aid of smoke or salt. The choicest parts of 
 the flesh from the buffalo are cut out by the squaws, and 
 carried home on their backs or on horses. It is then cut 
 across the grain, so as to secure alternate layers of lean 
 and fat in strips of about a half inch in thickness. It is 
 then hung up by thousands of pounds on poles resting 
 on crotches, out of the way of dogs or wolves, and ex 
 posed to the sun for several days. It is by that time 
 so effectually dried that it can be carried everywhere, 
 
The Mandan Women 115 
 
 even during the hottest months of the year, or in any 
 latitude without damage. I can only account for it by 
 the extraordinary rarity and purity of the air on these 
 great buffalo plains near the base of the Rocky 
 Mountains. Although their country abounds in salt 
 springs, none of the Indian tribes I am familiar with 
 use salt in any manner. The squaws cook their meat 
 longer than we are accustomed to do, and I have found 
 that meat thus cooked can be eaten and relished without 
 salt or any other condiment. 
 
 The squaws not only prepare the food, but they make 
 the dishes. The earthen bowls in which the food is 
 served are manufactured by the women of this tribe in 
 a thousand different forms and styles. They are made 
 from a tough black clay and baked in kilns built for 
 the purpose. Although they have not the secret of 
 glazing, the pottery is as hard as that of our part of the 
 country. Seemingly they are as serviceable as our iron 
 pots, for they are hung over the fire and the meat is 
 boiled in them. The pottery found in Indian tombs we 
 regard as a novelty and place in museums. Here on 
 any fine summer day women can be seen modelling 
 bowls and trays by the hundred in many fanciful forms 
 and passing them through the kilns. t 
 
 When these women have dried the meat, cooked it, 
 and made the dishes in which it is served, there remain 
 the skins to prepare for the robes and dresses. The skin- 
 dressing of the Indians is unequalled. The first part of 
 the process is called graining. The skin is stretched on 
 the ground or on a frame, the fleshy side up, and covered 
 
n6 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 with a paste made from the brains of the buffalo or elk. 
 Thus covered it lies for several days, when the women, 
 with a chisel made from buffalo bone, scrape it until all 
 the flesh is removed. This is so beautifully done that 
 the skin seems apparently finished. But it remains to 
 be smoked. A hole is dug two or three feet deep and 
 in it a smothered fire is kindled of rotten wood, which 
 produces a peculiar smoke. Over this a tent is made 
 of buffalo-skins to keep the smoke from escaping, and 
 in it the skins are hung for several days, when they are 
 ready for use. As I have said, skins prepared in this 
 manner dry perfectly soft no matter how long exposed 
 to the rain. 
 
 While alluding to these women as the slaves of their 
 husbands, since they perform all the acts of drudgery, 
 while the men may be seen lying on the ground smok 
 ing at their ease, it is fair to say that the division of 
 labor is more equal than appears. It is the man who 
 mounts his horse and dashes among the wild herds of 
 the prairie to secure the food for his wife and children, 
 enduring many hardships, and frequently at the risk of 
 his life, and it is the man who scours the prairie night and 
 day to protect his wigwam from the assaults of the en 
 emy. The relationship is, after all, one of mutual interest 
 and mutual existence. Indeed, I do not believe that 
 among the poorer classes of any civilized people on earth 
 a better and a more voluntary division of the toils of 
 conjugal life can be found than exists among the Amer 
 ican Indians. One thing should be remarked. Every 
 individual within the pale of the domestic relations is 
 
The Mandan Women 117 
 
 considered sacredly protected from the lash or a blow. 
 There does not exist among the Indians one that has 
 beaten his wife or child. Nor is there a pleasanter 
 sight than to see the Indian women in the enjoyment of 
 their domestic happiness, with their little children and 
 dogs around them, and the little cupids taking their 
 first lesson in archery, which is the most important 
 feature of their education. 
 
 To the Indian woman s care of her pappoose is due, 
 in my opinion, the handsome, well-proportioned forms 
 of the American Indian, as much as to their constant 
 exercise of their naked limbs in the open air. The child 
 after birth is lashed to a straight board, and secured by 
 bandages which pass around it in front and are laced 
 on the back as tightly as is necessary to l)old it in 
 a straight and healthy position. The feet rest on a 
 broad hoop placed around the foot of the cradle. In 
 this manner the child is held on the mother s back by 
 a broad strap that passes across her forehead. The 
 child s position consequently is that of standing erect, 
 a position that it seems to me contributes to a straight 
 back, sound lungs, and a long life. These bandages 
 that serve to hold the child in and keep it in place 
 are frequently beautifully embroidered with porcupine 
 quills and ingenious representations of horses and men. 
 A broad hoop of elastic wood passes around in front of 
 the child s face, to protect it in case of a fall, from the 
 front of which is suspended a little toy of exquisite 
 embroidery for the child to handle and amuse itself 
 with. To this and other little trinkets hanging in front 
 
ii8 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 of it there are attached many little tinselled and tink 
 ling things, of the brightest colors, to amuse both the 
 eyes and the ears of the child. While travelling on 
 horseback, the arms of the child are fastened under the 
 bandages, so as not to be endangered if the cradle falls; 
 and when at rest they are generally taken out, allowing 
 the infant to reach and amuse itself with the little toys 
 and trinkets that are placed before it and within its 
 reach. 
 
 The child is carried in this manner until it is about 
 seven months old, when it is taken out and carried on 
 the back held within the folds of the robe. If the infant 
 dies during the time that is allotted to it to be carried in 
 this cradle, it is buried, and the disconsolate mother fills 
 the cradle with black quills and feathers, in the parts 
 which the child s body had occupied, and in this way 
 carries it around with her wherever she goes for a year 
 or more, with as much care as if her infant were alive 
 and in it; and she often lays or stands it leaning against 
 the side of the wigwam, where she is all day engaged in 
 her needle-work, and chatting and talking to it as famil 
 iarly and affectionately as if it were her loved infant, 
 instead of its shell, that she was talking to. So lasting 
 and so strong is the affection of these women for the 
 lost child, that it matters not how heavy or cruel their 
 load, or how rugged the route they have to pass over, 
 they will faithfully carry this, and carefully from day 
 to day, and even more strictly perform their duties to 
 it than if the child were alive and in it. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 MANDAN DANCES AND GAMES 
 
 THE Mandans, like all other tribes, lead lives of 
 idleness and leisure, and of course devote a 
 great deal of time to their sports and amuse 
 ments, of which they have a great variety. Of these, 
 dancing is one of the principal, and may be seen in a 
 variety of forms such as the buffalo dance, the boasting 
 dance, the begging dance, the scalp dance, and a dozen 
 other kinds of dances, all of which have their peculiar 
 characters and meanings or objects. 
 
 These exercises are exceedingly grotesque in their 
 appearance, and to the eye of a traveller who knows not 
 their meaning or importance they are an uncouth and 
 frightful display of starts, and jumps, and yelps, and 
 jarring gutturals, which are sometimes truly terrifying. 
 But when one gives them a little attention, and has 
 been lucky enough to be initiated into their mysterious 
 meaning, they become a subject of the most intense 
 and exciting interest. Every dance has its peculiar step, 
 and every step has its meaning; every dance also has 
 its peculiar song, and that is so intricate and mysterious 
 oftentimes that not one in ten of the young men who are 
 dancing and singing it know the meaning of the song 
 which they are chanting over. None but the medicine- 
 
 119 
 
120 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 men are allowed to understand them; and even they are 
 generally only initiated into these secret arcana, on the 
 payment of a liberal stipend for their tuition, which 
 requires much application and study. There is evi 
 dently a set song and sentiment for every dance, for the 
 songs are perfectly measured, and sung in exact time 
 with the beat of the drum, and always with a uniform 
 and invariable set of sounds and expressions, which 
 clearly indicate certain sentiments, which are expressed 
 by the voice, though sometimes not given in any known 
 language whatever. 
 
 They have other dances and songs which are not so 
 mystified, but which are sung and understood by every 
 person in the tribe, being sung in their own language, 
 with much poetry in them, and perfectly metered, but 
 without rhyme. 
 
 My ears have been almost continually ringing since 
 I came here, with the din of the yelping and beating of 
 the drums; but I have for several days past been pecul 
 iarly engrossed, and my senses almost confounded with 
 the stamping, and grunting, and bellowing of the buffalo 
 dance, which closed a few days since at sunrise, thank 
 Heaven, and which I must needs describe to you. 
 
 Buffaloes, it is known, are a sort of roaming creatures, 
 congregating occasionally in huge masses, and strolling 
 away about the country from east to west, or from north 
 to south, or just where their whims or strange fancies 
 may lead them; and the Mandans are sometimes, by 
 this means, most unceremoniously left without anything 
 to eat; and being a small tribe, and unwilling to risk 
 
Mandan Dances and Games 121 
 
 their lives by going far from home in the face of their 
 more powerful enemies, are oftentimes left almost in a 
 state of starvation. In an emergency of this kind every 
 man musters and brings out of his lodge his mask (the 
 skin of the buffalo s head with the horns on), which he 
 is obliged to keep in readiness for this occasion; and 
 then commences the buffalo dance, of which I have 
 above spoken, which is held for the purpose of making 
 "buffalo come" (as they term it), of inducing the buffalo 
 herds to change the direction of their wanderings and 
 bend their course toward the Mandan village, and 
 graze about on the beautiful hills and bluffs in its vicin 
 ity, where the Mandans can shoot them down and cook 
 them as they want them for food. 
 
 For the most part of the year the young warriors and 
 hunters, by riding out a mile or two from the village, can 
 kill meat in abundance; and sometimes large herds of 
 these animals may be seen grazing in full view of the 
 village. There are other seasons also when the young 
 men have ranged about the country as far as they are 
 willing to risk their lives, on account of their enemies, 
 without finding meat. This sad intelligence is brought 
 back to the chiefs and doctors, who sit in solemn 
 council and consult on the most expedient measures to 
 be taken, until they are sure to decide upon the old and 
 only expedient which "never has failed." 
 
 The chief issues his order to his runners or criers, who 
 proclaim it through the village, and in a few minutes 
 the dance begins. The place where this strange opera 
 tion is carried on is in the public area in the centre of the 
 
122 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 village, and in front of the great medicine or mystery 
 lodge. About ten or fifteen Mandans at a time join in 
 the dance, each one with the skin of the buffalo s head 
 (or mask), with the horns on, placed over his head, and 
 in his hand his favorite bow or lance with which he 
 "tteedUjo slay the buffalo. 
 
 I mentioned that this dance always had the desired 
 effect, that it never fails, nor can it, for it cannot be 
 stopped (but is going incessantly day and night) until 
 "buffalo come." Drums are beating and rattles are 
 shaken, and songs and yells incessantly are shouted, and 
 lookers-on stand ready, with masks on their heads and 
 weapons in hand, to take the place of each one as he 
 becomes fatigued and jumps out of the ring. 
 
 During this excitement spies, or "lookers," are kept on 
 the hills in the neighborhood of the village, who, when 
 they discover buffaloes in sight, give the signal by 
 "throwing their robes." This is seen in the village 
 and understood by the whole tribe. There is an im 
 mediate shout of thanks to the Great Spirit, and to the 
 mystery-men and the dancers, who have, of course, 
 combined to bring it about. Then comes the prep 
 aration for the chase. 
 
 Every man in the Mandan village is required to keep 
 the mask of the buffalo hanging on a post at the head 
 of his bed, which he can put on whenever he is called by 
 the chiefs to dance for the coming of the buffaloes. The 
 mask is put over the head and generally has a strip of 
 skin the length of the animal with the tail attached. 
 When a dancer becomes tired he signifies it by bending 
 
Mandan Dances and Games 123 
 
 forward. Another then draws his bow upon him and 
 hits him with a blunt arrow, when he falls to the ground 
 like a buffalo, and is seized by the by-standers, who drag 
 him out by the heels and go through the motions with 
 their knives of skinning him and cutting him up, while 
 another dancer with his mask on comes into the ring. 
 This scene is kept up night and day until the "buffalo 
 come." It is easy to see why the dance never fails. 
 
 The dance which I have just seen had lasted four 
 days when the signal was given from a distant bluff. It 
 was the more grateful from the fact that the chiefs and 
 doctors had been giving out minimum rations from their 
 private caches, and even their meat was almost used 
 up. Instantly all was joy and gladness; the stamping of 
 the horses was heard; the young men threw off their 
 robes and shirts, and, snatching a handful of arrows from 
 their quivers and stringing their sinewy bows, with a 
 glance of their eyes and smiles for their sweethearts, 
 mounted their ponies. While bows were twanging and 
 spears were polished by running their blades into the 
 ground, Louison Frenie, an interpreter of the Fur 
 Company, galloped through the village with his rifle in 
 his hand, his powder-flask at his side, his head and waist 
 tied up with handkerchiefs, and his shirt-sleeves rolled 
 up to his shoulders. The hunter s yell was on his lips 
 and echoed through the village. He flew to the bluffs, 
 and behind him over the graceful swells of the prairie 
 galloped the young Indians. 
 
 All the hidden emergency stores were now brought 
 out from the caches, and the village joined in a general 
 
124 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 carouse of eating; the dishes were half emptied and the 
 bones, half picked, given to the dogs. Nor was I for 
 gotten; generous bowls of pemmican and other food were 
 sent to my painting-room. After this banquet, and after 
 the dogs had licked the dishes, followed the usual games 
 and other amusements, and mirth took possession of every 
 corner of the village. Suddenly piercing screams were 
 heard. Women and children scrambled to the tops of 
 their wigwams, with their eyes and their hands stretched 
 in agonizing earnestness to the prairie, while blackened 
 warriors ran furiously through every winding maze of 
 the village, and issuing their jarring gutturals of ven 
 geance, as they snatched their deadly weapons from their 
 lodges, and struck the reddened post as they furiously 
 passed it by! Two of their hunters were bending their 
 course down the sides of the bluff toward the village, 
 and another broke suddenly out of a deep ravine, and 
 yet another was seen dashing over and down the green 
 hills, and all were goading on their horses at full speed! 
 And then came another, and another, and all entered 
 the village amid shouts and groans of the villagers who 
 crowded around them. The story was told in their looks, 
 for one was bleeding, and the blood that flowed from 
 his naked breast had crimsoned his milk-white steed as 
 it had dripped over him; another grasped in his left hand 
 a scalp that was reeking in blood, and in the other his 
 whip; another grasped nothing save the reins in one 
 hand and the mane of the horse in the other, having 
 thrown his bow and his arrows away and trusted to the 
 fleetness of his horse for his safety. Yet the story was 
 
Mandan Dances and Games 125 
 
 audibly told, and the fatal tragedy recited in irregular 
 and almost suffocating ejaculations; the names of the 
 dead were in turns pronounced, and screams and shrieks 
 burst forth at their recital; murmurs and groans ran 
 through the village, and this happy little community 
 were in a moment smitten with sorrow and distraction. 
 
 Their proud band of hunters, who had started full of 
 glee and mirth in the morning, had been surrounded by 
 their enemy, the Sioux, and eight of them killed. The 
 Sioux, who had probably reconnoitred their village 
 during the night, and ascertained that they were dancing 
 for buffaloes, laid a strategem to entrap them in the fol- 
 owing manner : Some six or eight of them appeared the 
 next morning (on a distant bluff, in sight of their senti 
 nel) under the skins of buffaloes, imitating the move 
 ments of those animals while grazing, and being dis 
 covered by the sentinel, the intelligence was telegraphed 
 to the village, which brought out their hunters as I have 
 described. The masked buffaloes were seen grazing on 
 the top of the high bluff, and when the hunters had 
 approached within half a mile or so of them they sud 
 denly disappeared over the hill. Louison Frenie, who 
 was leading the little band of hunters, became at that 
 moment suspicious of so strange a movement, and came 
 to a halt. 
 
 "Look!" said a Mandan, pointing to a little ravine 
 to the right, and at the foot of the hill, from which sud 
 denly broke some forty or fifty furious Sioux, on fleet 
 horses and under full whip, who were rushing upon 
 them. They wheeled, and in front of them came another 
 
126 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 band more furious from the other side of the hill! They 
 started for home, poor fellows, and strained every 
 nerve; but the Sioux were too fleet for them. Several 
 miles were run in this desperate race. Frenie got home 
 with several of the Manhans, but eight were killed and 
 scalped by the way. So ended the day and the hunt. 
 But all the dances of the Mandans are not liable to 
 end so tragically. Of these, one of the most pleasing is 
 the sham fight and sham scalp dance of the Mandan 
 boys, which is a part of their regular exercise, and 
 constitutes a material branch of their education. During 
 the pleasant mornings of the summer, the little boys be 
 tween the ages of seven and fifteen are called out, to the 
 number of several hundred, and being divided into two 
 companies, each of which is headed by some experienced 
 warrior, who leads them on, in the character of a teacher, 
 they are led out into the prairie at sunrise, where this 
 curious discipline is regularly taught them. Their 
 bodies are naked, and each one has a little bow in his 
 hand and a number of arrows made of large spears of 
 grass, which are harmless in their effects. Each one 
 has also a little belt or girdle around his waist, in which 
 he carries a knife made of a piece of wood and equally 
 harmless; on the tops of their heads are slightly attached 
 small tufts of grass, which answer as scalps, and in this 
 plight they follow the dictates of their experienced 
 leaders, who lead them through the judicious evolutions 
 of Indian warfare, of feints, of retreats, of attacks 
 and at last to a general fight. Many manoeuvres are 
 gone through, and eventually they are brought up face 
 
Mandan Dances and Games 127 
 
 to face, within fifteen or twenty feet of each other, with 
 their leaders at their head stimulating them on. Their 
 bows are bent upon each other and their missiles flying, 
 while they are dodging and fending them off. 
 
 If any one is struck with an arrow on any vital part of 
 his body he is obliged to fall, and his adversary rushes 
 up to him, places his foot upon him, and, snatching from 
 his belt his wooden knife, grasps hold of his victim s 
 scalp-lock of grass, and making a feint at it with his 
 wooden knife, twitches it off and puts it into his belt, 
 and enters again into the ranks and front of battle. 
 
 This mode of training generally lasts an hour or 
 more in the morning, and is performed on an empty 
 stomach, affording them a rigid and wholesome exer 
 cise, while they are instructed in the important science 
 of war. Some five or six miles of ground are run over 
 during these evolutions, giving suppleness to their 
 limbs and strength to their muscles which last and bene 
 fit them through life. 
 
 After this exciting exhibition is ended, they all return 
 to their village, where the chiefs and braves pay pro 
 found attention to their vaunting, and applaud them 
 for their artifice and valor. 
 
 Those who have taken scalps then step forward, 
 brandishing them and making their boast as they enter 
 into the scalp dance (in which they are also instructed 
 by their leaders or teachers), jumping and yelling, 
 brandishing their scalps, and reciting their sanguinary 
 deeds, to the great astonishment of their tender-aged 
 sweethearts, who are gazing with wonder upon them. 
 
128 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 The favorite amusement of the Mandans seems to be 
 unknown to the neighboring tribes. This is called 
 Tchung-kee, an attractive athletic exercise which is 
 played unceasingly. Near the village is a pavement of 
 clay which has been used for this game until it is as hard 
 as a floor. Two champions are named and choose 
 alternately the best players until the sides are made up. 
 The bets are then made, and the stakes held by one of 
 the chiefs or important men. The play then begins by 
 two men, one from each side, starting off abreast at a 
 i iitle trot, one rolling in advance of them a little ring two 
 or three inches in diameter cut out of a stone. Each man 
 holds in his hand his tchung-kee. This is a stick about 
 six feet long with little pieces of leather projecting from 
 its sides an inch or more. Each player throws his tchung- 
 kee before him as he runs by sliding it along the ground. 
 His game is to have it in such position when it stops 
 that the ring may fall on one of the pieces of leather. 
 This counts for game, one, two, three, or four, according 
 to the manner in which the leather catches the ring. 
 The last winner has always the rolling of the ring, and 
 both start and throw their tchung-kees together. If 
 either fails to receive the ring, he gives up his place to 
 another player. It is a game difficult to describe, but 
 of great beauty and a fine physical exercise. These 
 people often gamble away everything they possess, and 
 will even stake their own liberty. 
 
 There are days on which I look on at games and plays 
 until I am weary. Sometimes I lend a hand, but in such 
 manner that I only furnish criticism and laughter for 
 
Mandan Dances and Games 129 
 
 the women and children. It would be strange if a people 
 having no office hours to attend to, no professions to 
 study, did not spend the time spared from the chase for 
 food in games and become proficient in them. One of 
 these games among the Mandans they call the "game 
 of the arrow." The young men having paid their en 
 trance fee, a shirt, robe, pipe, or some other article, 
 assemble a short distance away on the prairie, where 
 each in turn sees how many arrows he can have in the 
 air at the same time, shot from the same bow. To do 
 this each archer holds in his bow hand from eight to ten 
 arrows. The first arrow he sends to such height that it 
 will remain in the air while the others follow. These are 
 sent as rapidly as possible, and whoever gets up the 
 greatest number takes the stake. One is surprised not 
 so much at the distance the arrows are sent as at the 
 rapidity with which they are fixed on the string, and 
 their quick succession. One rarely sees Indians shoot 
 ing at a target. I doubt if their skill would rival that of 
 civilized people in this respect. The most successful use 
 of the bow in the Indian country is on horseback, riding 
 at full speed, with the object of drawing the bow sud 
 denly and with instant effect. In this manner both game 
 and enemies are killed. 
 
 The horses which the Indians ride in this country are 
 invariably the wild horses which are found in great 
 numbers on the prairies, and have, unquestionably, 
 strayed from the Mexican borders, into which they were 
 introduced by the Spanish invaders of that country, and 
 now range and subsist themselves, in winter and sum- 
 
130 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 mer, over the vast plains of prairie that stretch from the 
 Mexican frontiers to Lake Winnipeg on the north, a 
 distance of three thousand miles. These horses are all 
 of small stature, of the pony order, but a very hardy and 
 tough animal, being able to perform for the Indians a 
 continual and essential service. They are taken with 
 the lasso, which is a long halter, or thong, made of 
 rawhide, of some fifteen or twenty yards in length, 
 which the Indians throw with great dexterity. It has a 
 noose at one end of it, which drops over the head of the 
 animal they wish to catch while running at full speed, 
 when the Indian dismounts from his own horse and, 
 holding to the end of the lasso, chokes the animal down, 
 and afterward tames and converts him to his own use. 
 Scarcely a man in these regions is to be found who is 
 not the owner of one or more of these horses, and in 
 many instances of eight, ten, or even twenty, which he 
 values as his own personal property. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 O-KEE-PA A RELIGIOUS CEREMONY 
 
 BEFORE I arrived at the Mandan village I had 
 heard of its annual religious ceremony called 
 O-kee-pa. While painting one of the chiefs I 
 asked him when this ceremony would take place. 
 
 "As soon as the willow-trees are full-grown under the 
 bank of the river," he replied. 
 
 I then asked him what the willow had to do with it. 
 
 "The twig which the bird brought to the Big Canoe 
 was a willow bough and had full-grown leaves on it." 
 
 This from the lips of a wild man in the heart of the 
 Indian country was indeed a surprise. I then asked 
 him what bird he alluded to. Taking me by the arm, 
 he led me through the wandering paths of the village 
 until he discovered two mourning doves pecking at the 
 side of one of the earth-covered wigwams. Pointing to 
 it, he said: "There is the bird. It is great medicine." 
 
 I had previously been warned against harming any 
 of the doves, of which there were numbers in the village, 
 as they were held in great veneration. 
 
 In the centre of the village is an open space about a 
 hundred and fifty feet in diameter where festivals and 
 public games are held. In the centre of this space stands 
 a hogshead about ten feet high, made of planks and 
 
132 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 hoops containing some of the choicest mysteries or med 
 icine. Although it has remained there many years it is 
 without a scratch. This hogshead is regarded as the 
 symbol of the Big Canoe. The lodges around this open 
 space have doors looking toward the centre. One of 
 these is the medicine lodge, and in it is held the astound 
 ing ceremonies I am about to transcribe. 
 
 Thank God they are over, that I have seen them, and 
 am able to tell them to the world, although I shrink from 
 the task. The celebration began by the leading mystery- 
 man presenting himself on the top of a wigwam one 
 morning before sunrise, when he told the people he had 
 discovered something very strange in the western hori 
 zon, and he believed that at the rising of the sun a great 
 white man would enter the village from the west and 
 open the medicine lodge. In a few moments the tops 
 of the wigwams were covered with men, women and 
 children on the lookout. 
 
 I was sitting at breakfast with the agent, Mr. Kipp, 
 when we were suddenly startled by the shrieking and 
 screaming of the women, the howling of the dogs, all 
 in apparent alarm, preparing their weapons and se 
 curing their horses, as if an enemy were at their door. 
 / seized my sketch-book and we joined the crowd at the 
 entrance of the picket, where at the distance of a mile or 
 more a solitary human figure was seen descending the 
 prairie hills and approaching the village in a straight 
 line where the warriors were drawn up in battle array. 
 The leader advanced and called out to the stranger to 
 make his errand known and to tell from whence he came. 
 
O-kee-pa A Religious Ceremony 133 
 
 He replied that he had come from the high mountains 
 in the West and he had come to open the medicine 
 lodge of the Mandans, and that he must not be opposed 
 or certain destruction would be the fate of the tribe. 
 
 The head chief and his council assembled in the coun 
 cil-house were sent for, and came in a body with their 
 faces painted black. These recognized the visitor as 
 one they had known before, and called him Nu-mohk- 
 muck-a-nah (the first or only man), and invited him 
 inside the picket. 
 
 The body of this strange personage, which was chiefly 
 naked, was painted with white clay, so as to resemble at 
 a little distance a white man; he wore a robe of four 
 white wolfskins falling back over his shoulders; on his 
 head he had a splendid head-dress made of two ravens 
 skins, and in his left hand he cautiously carried a large 
 pipe, which he seemed to watch and guard as something 
 of great importance. After passing the chiefs and braves 
 as described, he approached the medicine or mystery 
 lodge, which he had the means of opening, and which 
 had been religiously closed during the year except for 
 the performance of these religious rites. 
 
 Having opened and entered it, he called in four 
 men whom he appointed to clean it out and put it in 
 readiness for the ceremonies by sweeping it and strew 
 ing a profusion of green willow-boughs over its floor, 
 and with them decorating its sides. Wild sage also, and 
 many other aromatic herbs, they gathered from the 
 prairies, and scattered over its floor, and over these were 
 arranged a curious group of buffalo and human skulls 
 
134 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 and other articles, which were to be used during this 
 strange and unaccountable transaction. 
 
 During the whole of this day, and while these prep- 
 parations were making in the medicine lodge, Nu-mohk- 
 muck-a-nah travelled through the village, stopping in 
 front of every man s lodge, and crying until the owner 
 of the lodge came out and asked who he was, and 
 what was the matter, to which he replied by relating 
 the sad catastrophe which had happened on the earth s 
 surface by the overflowing of the waters, saying that 
 "he was the only person saved from the universal 
 calamity; that he landed his Big Canoe on a high moun 
 tain in the West, where he now resides; that he had come 
 to open the medicine lodge, which must needs receive a 
 present of some edged tool from the owner of every wig 
 wam, that it may be sacrificed to the water; for, he says, 
 "if this is not done there will be another flood, and no 
 one will be saved, as it was with such tools that the Big 
 Canoe was made." 
 
 Having visited every lodge or wigwam in the village, 
 during the day, and having received such a present at 
 each as a hatchet, a knife, etc. (which is undoubtedly al 
 ways prepared and ready for the occasion), he returned at 
 evening and deposited them in the medicine lodge, where 
 they remained until the afternoon of the last day of the 
 ceremony, when, as the final or closing scene, they were 
 thrown into the river in a deep place, from a bank thirty 
 feet high, and in presence of the whole village, from 
 whence they can never be recovered, and where they 
 were, undoubtedly, sacrificed to the Spirit of the Water. 
 
O-kee-pa A Religious Ceremony 135 
 
 During the first night of this strange character in the 
 village no one could tell where he slept. As soon as he 
 entered the cries of the people instantly ceased, and 
 orders were given by the chiefs that the women and 
 children should go to the wigwams and that the dogs 
 should be muzzled, for the day belonged to the Great 
 Spirit. 
 
 The next morning at sunrise Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah 
 came out in front of the medicine lodge and called for 
 all the young men who were candidates for the O-kee-pa 
 honors. In a few moments about fifty young men, who 
 I learned were those who had arrived at maturity during 
 the year, appeared in a beautiful group, their graceful 
 limbs naked but covered with clay from head to foot, 
 some red, some white, yellow, blue, and green, each one 
 carrying his shield of bull s hide on hfs left arm, his 
 bow in his left hand and his medicine-bag in his right. 
 In this manner they followed Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah, 
 Indian file, into the lodge, where each one hung his bow, 
 quiver, shield, and medicine-bag over him as he reclined 
 on the floor of the wigwam. Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah took 
 his place in the circle, and having lighted and smoked 
 his medicine-pipe for their success, made them a short 
 speech, in which he urged them to trust in the Great 
 Spirit to protect them in the great ordeal they were to go 
 through. He then called into the lodge the principal 
 medicine-man of the tribe, whom he appointed O-kee-pa 
 Ka-se-kah, or conductor of ceremonies by giving him 
 the large pipe he had brought which is the symbol of 
 authority. After this Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah shook hands 
 
136 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 with him and bade him good-by, saying that he would 
 return to the West, whence he came, and be back in a 
 year s time to open the medicine lodge again. 
 
 I was fortunate enough to be permitted to enter the 
 lodge while the young men were being addressed. Al 
 though Mr. Kipp had lived in the village eight years he 
 had never been allowed even to glance inside of the medi 
 cine lodge. Luckily I had only completed the por 
 trait of the medicine-man in authority the day before, 
 and he had been so pleased with it that he mounted a 
 wigwam holding it up before the villagers, claiming that 
 he must be the greatest man among the Mandans 
 because 1 had painted his portrait before I painted the 
 great chief. Because I could make so perfect a picture 
 of him, even making his eyes move, I must be the great 
 est medicine-man of the whites. I was accordingly 
 given this honor by the unanimous voice of the doctors, 
 and pronounced Te-ho-pee-nee-wash-ee-waska-pooska, 
 the white medicine painter. 
 
 We were now standing in front of the door of the 
 medicine lodge trying to get a glimpse within, when the 
 master of ceremonies came out and, taking me by the 
 arm, led me within, allowing Mr. Kipp and the two 
 clerks to follow through a vestibule of some length 
 guarded with a double screen and two or three dark and 
 frowning sentinels with spears and war-clubs in their 
 hands. Here we took our seats, where for four days we 
 sat from sunrise to sundown, and where I made many 
 sketches of the scenes we witnessed, the accuracy of 
 which Mr. Kipp and the two men have attested. 
 
O-kee-pa A Religious Ceremony 137 
 
 We were now in full view of everything that took place 
 in the lodge. The master of ceremonies lay by a small 
 fire in the centre, with his medicine-pipe in his hand, 
 crying to the Great Spirit incessantly, and watching that 
 none of the young men escape or hold any communi 
 cation whatever with the people outside for four days, 
 during which time they are not allowed to eat, drink, or 
 sleep; for it is by such denial, producing great lassi 
 tude and even emaciation, that the young men are pre 
 pared for the tortures of the fourth day. 
 
 In addition to the preparations and arrangements of 
 the interior of this sanctuary, as above described, there 
 was a curious though a very strict arrangement of buf 
 falo and human skulls placed on the floor of the lodge, 
 and between them (which were divided into two par 
 cels), and in front of the reclining group of young candi 
 dates, was a small and very delicate scaffold, elevated 
 about five feet from the ground, made of four posts or 
 crotches, not larger than a gun rod, and placed some 
 four or five feet apart, supporting four equally delicate 
 rods resting in the crotches, thus forming the frame of 
 the scaffold, which was completed by a number of still 
 smaller and more delicate sticks transversely resting 
 upon them. On the centre of this little frame rested 
 some small object, which I could not exactly understand 
 from the distance of twenty or thirty feet which inter 
 vened between it and my eye. I started several times 
 from my seat to approach it, but all eyes were instantly 
 upon me, and every mouth in the assembly sent forth a 
 hush-sh! which brought me back to my seat again; 
 
138 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 and I at length quieted my stifled curiosity as well as I 
 could upon learning the fact that so sacred was that 
 object, and so important its secrets or mysteries, that 
 not I alone, but even the young men who were passing 
 the ordeal, and all the village, save the conductor of the 
 mysteries, were stopped from approaching it or know- 
 nig what it was. 
 
 This little mystery thing, whatever it was, had the 
 appearance, from where I sat, of a small tortoise or 
 frog lying on its back, with its head and legs quite ex 
 tended, and wound and tasselled off with exceedingly 
 delicate red and blue and yellow ribbons or tassels, and 
 other bright-colored ornaments, and seemed, from the 
 devotions paid to it, to be the very nucleus of their 
 mysteries the sancttssimus sanctorum from which 
 seemed to emanate all the sanctity of their proceedings, 
 and to which all seemed to be paying the highest 
 devotional respect. 
 
 This strange yet important essence of their mysteries 
 I made every inquiry about; but got no further infor 
 mation of than what I could learn by my eyes, at the 
 distance at which I saw it, and from the silent respect 
 which I saw paid to it. I tried with the doctors, and all 
 of the fraternity answered me that that was "great medi 
 cine," assuring me that it "could not be told." 
 
 Immediately under the little frame or scaffold de 
 scribed, and on the floor of the lodge, was placed a knife, 
 and by the side of it a bundle of splints or skewers, which 
 were kept in readiness for the infliction of the cruelties 
 directly to be explained. There were seen also, in this 
 
O-kee-pa A Religious Ceremony 139 
 
 stage of the affair, a number of cords of rawhide hang 
 ing down from the top of the lodge, and passing through 
 its roof, with which the young men were to be suspended 
 by the splints passed through their flesh, and drawn up 
 by men placed on the top of the lodge for the purpose, 
 as will be described in a few moments. 
 
 There were also four articles of great veneration and 
 importance lying on the floor of the lodge, which were 
 sacks, containing in each some three or four gallons of 
 water. These also were objects of superstitious regard, 
 and made with great labor and much ingenuity; each 
 one of them being constructed of the skin of the buf 
 falo s neck, and most elaborately sewed together in the 
 form of a large tortoise lying on its back, with a bunch 
 of eagle s quills appended to it as a tail; and each of 
 them having a stick, shaped like a drum-stick, lying on 
 them, with which, in a subsequent stage of these cere 
 monies, as will be seen, they are beaten upon by several 
 of their mystery-men, as a part of their music for the 
 strange dances and mysteries. By the side of these sacks, 
 which they call Eeh-teeh-ka, are two other articles of 
 equal importance, which they call Eeh-na-dee (rattles), 
 in the form of a gourd-shell made also of dried skins, 
 and used at the same time as the others, in the music (or 
 rather noise and din) for their dances, etc. 
 
 These four sacks of water have the appearance of very 
 great antiquity; and by inquiring of my very ingenious 
 friend and patron, the medicine man, after the ceremonies 
 were over, he very gravely told me that "those four tor 
 toises contained the waters from the four quarters of the 
 
140 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 world; that these waters had been contained therein 
 ever since the settling down of the waters!" I did not 
 think it best to advance any argument against so ridicu 
 lous a theory, and therefore could not even enquire or 
 learn at what period they had been instituted, or how 
 often or on what occasions the water in them had been 
 changed or replenished. 
 
 I made several propositions, through my friend Mr. 
 Kipp, the trader and interpreter, to purchase one of 
 these strange things by offering them a very liberal price, 
 to which I received in answer that these, and all the very 
 numerous articles used in the ceremonies, being a society 
 property, were sacred and could not be sold. So I aban 
 doned all attempts to obtain anything beyond the exer 
 cise of my pencil. Even this they seemed to regard with 
 apprehension as a sort of sacrilege. 
 
 Such, then, was the group and such the appearance of 
 the interior of the medicine lodge during the first three 
 and part of the fourth day of the Mandan religious cere 
 monies. The medicine-man had his young aspirants 
 under his sole control, as was every article and imple 
 ment to be used, and the sanctity of this gloomy and 
 impressive interior which could not be entered without 
 his permission. Meanwhile many curious and gro 
 tesque spectacles in connection with these ceremonies 
 were taking place outside around the Big Canoe. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 DANCES OF THE O-KEE-PA 
 
 WHILE the O-kee-pa is regarded by the Man- 
 dans as a religious ceremony and is conducted 
 in some parts with the solemnity of religious 
 worship, there are three other distinct objects for which 
 it is held. The first is the annual celebration of the sub 
 sidence of the great flood. The second is the Bel-lohck- 
 na-pic (the bull dance), to which they attribute the 
 coming of the buffalo to supply them with food for the 
 coming year. The third is the testing of the young 
 warriors. 
 
 It is the second of these, the bull dance, which was 
 now being celebrated around the Big Canoe. This dance, 
 which is exceedingly amusing and grotesque, is danced 
 four times the first day, eight times the second day, 
 twelve times the third day, and sixteen times the fourth 
 day. There were eight dancers, whose bodies, limbs, and 
 faces were entirely covered with black, red, and white 
 paint. Each joint was marked with two big white rings, 
 even to the joints of the under jaw and of the fingers 
 and toes, and on their abdomens was the representation 
 of a baby s face. Each one of the dancers had a lock of 
 buffalo s hair tied around his ankles, and carried in the 
 right hand a rattle and in the left a slender staff about 
 
 141 
 
142 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 six feet long. Over their backs they wore buffalo-skins 
 the horns, hoofs, and tails intact, while they looked 
 out of the eyes as through a mask. Above the buffalo- 
 skin on his back each dancer carried a bunch of willow 
 boughs the size of a sheaf of straw. 
 
 These eight dancers were divided into pairs, and took 
 their positions on the four sides of the Big Canoe, repre 
 senting the four points of the compass. Between each 
 pair was another figure, with his back to the hogshead, 
 keeping step with staff and rattles. The bodies of these 
 four men were entirely naked beyond a kilt of eagle 
 quills and ermine and very splendid head-dresses made 
 of the same materials. Two of these figures were painted 
 entirely black with pounded charcoal and grease, whom 
 they called the "firmament or night," and the numerous 
 white spots which were dotted all over their bodies they 
 called "stars." The other two were painted from head 
 to foot as red as vermilion could make them; these they 
 said represented the day, and the white streaks which 
 were painted up and down over their bodies were 
 "ghosts which the morning rays were chasing away." 
 
 These twelve are the only persons actually engaged 
 in this strange dance, which is each time repeated in the 
 same form without the slightest variation. There are, 
 however, a great number of characters engaged in giv 
 ing the whole effect and wildness to this strange and 
 laughable scene, each one acting well his part, and 
 whose offices, strange and inexplicable as they are, I 
 will endeavor to point out and explain as well as I can, 
 from what I saw elucidated by their own descriptions. 
 
Dances of the O-kee-pa 143 
 
 The bull dance was conducted by the master of cere 
 monies, O-kee-pa Ka-se-ka, carrying his medicine- 
 pipe, his body entirely naked, and covered even to his 
 hair with yellow clay. At a signal for the dancers to 
 assemble this old man danced out of the lodge singing 
 a mournful strain until he reached the Big Canoe 
 against which he leaned, continuing his strain. At this 
 moment four patriarchal men whose bodies were painted 
 red came out of the lodge carrying the four sacks of 
 water, which they placed near the casks, and thump 
 ing on them with sticks and brandishing rattles, raised 
 their voices to the highest pitch possible, and the dancing 
 began, continuing for fifteen minutes or more in perfect 
 time and without intermission. 
 
 While this was going on two men, whose naked bodies 
 were covered with yellow clay and wearing the skins and 
 masks of the grizzly bears, were growling and threaten 
 ing to interfere with the ceremony. To appease them 
 the women continued bringing dishes of meat, which, 
 placed before them, were immediately seized by two men 
 whose bodies and limbs were painted black while their 
 heads, feet, and hands were whitened with clay. These 
 men were called bald eagles and carried their prey to 
 the prairie, where they were in turn chased by hundreds 
 of small boys whose bodies were painted yellow, their 
 heads white, and wearing tails of white deer s hair. 
 These represented antelopes and eventually got the 
 food. 
 
 Besides these were two men, their bodies naked and 
 painted white, and their noses and feet painted black, 
 
144 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 representing swans; two men, whose bodies were curi 
 ously painted to represent rattlesnakes, each holding a 
 rattle in one hand and a bunch of wild sage in the other; 
 two men covered with buffalo-skins and wearing beaver 
 tails at their belts; two men with their bodies painted 
 brown, their heads and shoulders blue, and their noses 
 red, who were called vultures, and two men wearing 
 wolfskins, who pursued the antelope boys on the prairie 
 to seize their food. All these characters closely copied 
 the habits of the animals they imitated, and all had 
 some peculiar songs, which they constantly sang and 
 chanted during the dances, without perhaps knowing the 
 meaning of them, since they are strictly medicine songs, 
 and are kept as secrets even from the tribe. At the 
 close of each of these bull dances all these animals and 
 birds set up the howl or cry peculiar to their species in 
 a deafening chorus, some dancing, some jumping, some 
 apparently flying, the beavers clapping their tails, the 
 rattlesnakes shaking their rattles, the bears striking 
 with their paws, the wolves howling, the buffaloes rolling 
 in the sand and rearing on their hind feet. Then all 
 danced off together to an adjoining lodge used for 
 painting their bodies and for rest between the dances. 
 A medicine-man was allowed to show me the interior 
 while they were ornamenting their bodies, and the most 
 vivid imagination could scarcely conceive so wild and 
 curious a scene. No man painted himself, but sub 
 mitted like a statue to other hands. Each painter 
 seemed to have a special department, and worked, ambi 
 tious of the effect when he turned out his figure. Of the 
 
Dances of the O-kee-pa 145 
 
 one hundred and thirty men and boys engaged in this 
 picturesque scene not a single inch of the natural color 
 of their bodies or hair could be seen. 
 
 But alas! in the last of these dances, on the fouth day, 
 in the midst of all their mirth and joy, and about noon, 
 and in the height of all these exultations, an instant scream 
 burst forth from the tops of the lodges men, women, 
 dogs, and all seemed actually to howl and shudder with 
 alarm as they fixed their glaring eyeballs upon the 
 prairie bluff, about a mile in the west, down the side of 
 which a man was seen descending at full speed toward 
 the village! This strange character darted about in a 
 zigzag course in all directions on the prairie, like a boy 
 in pursuit of a butterfly, until he approached the pickets 
 of the village, when it was discovered that his body was 
 entirely naked, and painted as black as a negro, with 
 pounded charcoal and bear s grease. His body was there 
 fore everywhere of a shining black, except occasionally 
 white rings of an inch or more in diameter, which were 
 marked here and there all over him, and frightful in 
 dentures of white around his mouth resembling canine 
 teeth. Added to his hideous appearance, he gave the 
 most frightful shrieks and screams as he dashed through 
 the village and entered the terrified group, which was 
 composed (in that quarter) chiefly of females, who had 
 assembled to witness the amusements which were taking 
 place around the Big Canoe. 
 
 This unearthly-looking creature carried in his two 
 hands a wand or staff of eight or nine feet in length, 
 with a red ball at the end of it, which he continually 
 
146 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 slid on the ground ahead of him as he ran. All eyes in 
 the village, save those of the persons engaged in the 
 dance, were centred upon him, and he made a desper 
 ate rush toward the women, who screamed for pro 
 tection as they were endeavoring to retreat, and falling 
 in groups upon each other as they were struggling to get 
 out of his reach. In this moment of general terror and 
 alarm there was an instant check, and all for a few mo 
 ments were as silent as death. 
 
 The old master of ceremonies, who had run from 
 his position at the Big Canoe, had met this monster of 
 fiends, and, having thrust the medicine-pipe before him, 
 held him still and immovable under its charm! This 
 check gave the females an opportunity to get out of his 
 reach, and when they were free from their danger, though 
 all hearts beat yet with the instant excitement, their 
 alarm soon cooled down into the most exorbitant laugh 
 ter and shouts of applause at his sudden defeat, and 
 the awkward and ridiculous posture in which he was 
 stopped and held. The old man was braced stiff by his 
 side, with his eyeballs glaring him in the face, while 
 the medicine-pipe held in its mystic chains his Satanic 
 Majesty, annulling all the powers of his magical wand, 
 and also depriving him of the powers of locomotion! 
 Surely no two human beings ever presented a more 
 striking group than these two individuals did for a few 
 moments, with their eyeballs set in direst mutual hatred 
 upon each other, both struggling for the supremacy, 
 relying on the potency of their medicine or mystery, the 
 one held in check, with his body painted black, repre- 
 
Dances of the O-kee-pa 147 
 
 senting (or rather assuming to be) his Sable Majesty, 
 O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit) frowning everlasting 
 vengeance on the other, who sternly gazed back at him 
 with a look of exultation and contempt as he held him 
 in check and disarmed under the charm of his sacred 
 mystery-pipe. 
 
 In this distressing dilemma, an old woman came 
 slyly up behind him and dashed a handful of yellow 
 clay in his face. His body being covered with grease, 
 after he had received handful after handful from every 
 direction he was in a lamentable plight. One woman 
 seizing his wand broke it in pieces over her knee, and 
 others threw the bits in his face. His power thus gone, 
 he began to cry, and bolting through the crowd ran for 
 the prairie. But here he fell into a band of fresh women 
 and girls, who assailed him with hisses and dirt and beat 
 him with sticks. From these he at length escaped when 
 the women entered the village, and the woman who had 
 deprived him of his wand, supported on each side by two 
 matrons, was lifted by four attendants on to the top of 
 the medicine lodge, where she addressed the crowd. 
 By virtue of her deeds she claimed the power of cre 
 ation and of life and death; she was the father of all the 
 buffaloes, and could make them come and go as she 
 pleased. In return she demanded the handsomest 
 woman s dress in the village, in which to lead the dance 
 at the Feast of the Buffaloes, which was to take place 
 that night. 
 
 After having presented this dress to her, the master 
 of ceremonies said, "Young woman, you have gained 
 
148 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 great fame this day, and the honor of leading the dance 
 to-night belongs to you." 
 
 She then ordered the bull dance to stop and the 
 dancers to retire to their wigwam. The four musicians 
 were then commanded to carry their tortoise drum into 
 the medicine lodge, and the buffalo skulls to be hung 
 on the four posts. This being done, the chiefs were in 
 vited to enter the medicine lodge, where the voluntary 
 tortures of the young men were to begin. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 THE MAKING OF BRAVES 
 
 THE third and last rite of these ceremonies is al 
 most too revolting to be told were it not a part of 
 the whole of this ancient religious celebration, 
 founded on superstitions and mysteries of which the 
 Mandans know not the origin, but constitute a mate 
 rial part of the code and forms of their belief. 
 
 The chiefs having seated themselves in their robes 
 and splendid head-dresses on one side of the lodge, and 
 the band of music placed in another part, the old medi 
 cine-man, the O-kee-pa Ka-se-ka, sat down by a little 
 fire in the centre of the lodge and began smoking vio 
 lently for the success of the young men, whose ordeal 
 was about to take place. Around the room lay the 
 emaciated group who had neither eaten, drunk, nor slept 
 for nearly four days. The two men who were to inflict 
 the tortures now entered and took their positions in the 
 middle of the lodge. These were doubtless medicine 
 men. But their bodies were painted red and their 
 hands and feet black, and the one who made the in 
 cisions wore a mask, that the young men would never 
 know who inflicted their wounds. Moreover, the scars 
 on their own bodies were conspicuously marked with 
 paint, as evidence that they had passed through the 
 
 149 
 
150 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 same ordeal. The man with the mask carried a large, 
 sharp-pointed knife with two edges that had been 
 notched in order to inflict as much pain as possible. 
 The other had in his hand a bundle of splints to be 
 passed through the wounds as soon as the knife was 
 withdrawn. 
 
 Toward these two men the pitiable candidates 
 crawled one by one and submitted themselves. An inch 
 or more of the flesh on each shoulder or each breast was 
 taken up between the thumb and finger by the man who 
 held the knife in his right hand, and the knife, which 
 had been ground sharp on both edges, and then hacked 
 and notched with the blade of another, to make it pro 
 duce as much pain as possible, was forced through the 
 flesh below the fingers, and, being withdrawn, was fol 
 lowed with a splint or skewer from the other, who held 
 a bunch of such in his left hand and was ready to force 
 them through the wound. There were then two cords 
 lowered down from the top of the lodge (by men who 
 were placed on the lodge outside, for the purpose), 
 which were fastened to these splints or skewers, and 
 they instantly began to haul him up. He was thus raised 
 until his body was suspended from the ground where he 
 rested, until the knife and a splint were passed through 
 the flesh or integuments in a similar manner on each arm 
 below the shoulder (over the brachialis externus), below 
 the elbow (over the extensor carpi radialis), on the thighs 
 (over the vastus externus), and below the knees (over the 
 peroneus). 
 
 In some instances they remained in a reclining position 
 
The Making of Braves 151 
 
 on the ground until this painful operation was finished, 
 which was performed, in all instances, exactly on the 
 same parts of the body and limbs, and which, in its 
 progress, occupied some five or six minutes. 
 
 Each one was then instantly raised with the cords, 
 until the weight of his body was suspended by them, and 
 then, while the blood was streaming down their limbs, 
 the by-standers hung upon the splints each man s ap 
 propriate shield, bow, and quiver, etc.; and in many in 
 stances the skull of a buffalo, with the horns on it, was 
 attached to each lower arm and each lower leg, for the 
 purpose, probably, of preventing, by their great weight, 
 the struggling which might otherwise have taken place 
 to their disadvantage while they were hung up. 
 
 When these things were all adjusted, each one was 
 raised higher by the cords, until these weights all swung 
 clear from the ground, leaving his feet, in most cases, 
 some six or eight feet above the ground. In this plight 
 they at once became appalling and frightful to look at 
 the flesh, to support the weight of their bodies, with the 
 additional weights which were attached to them, was 
 raised six or eight inches by the skewers, and their heads 
 sunk forward on the breasts, or thrown backward, in 
 a much more frightful condition, according to the way 
 in which they were hung up. 
 
 The unflinching fortitude with which every one of 
 them bore this part of the torture surpassed credulity; 
 each one, as the knife was passed through his flesh, sus 
 tained an unchangeable countenance; and several of 
 them, seeing me making sketches, beckoned me to look 
 
152 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 at their faces, which I watched through all this horrid 
 operation, without being able to detect anything but the 
 pleasantest smiles as they looked me in the eye, while I 
 could hear the knife rip through the flesh, and feel 
 enough of it myself to start involuntary and uncon 
 trollable tears over my cheeks. 
 
 When the victim was suspended as above described, 
 another candidate promptly gave himself into the 
 bloody hands of the two executioners. Each then in 
 his turn passed into the charge of others, who instantly 
 introduced him to a new and improved stage of their 
 refinements in cruelty. 
 
 Surrounded by imps and demons as they appear, a 
 dozen or more, who seem to be concerting and devising 
 means for his exquisite agony, gather around him, when 
 one of the number advances toward him in a sneering 
 manner, and commences turning him around with a pole 
 which he brings in his hand for the purpose. This is 
 done in a gentle manner at first, but gradually increased, 
 when the brave fellow, whose proud spirit can control 
 its agony no longer, bursts out in the most lamentable 
 and heartrending cries that the human voice is capable 
 of producing, crying forth a prayer to the Great Spirit to 
 support and protect him in this dreadful trial, and con 
 tinually repeating his confidence in his protection. In 
 this condition he is continued to be turned, faster and 
 faster and there is no hope of escape from it nor chance 
 for the slightest relief, until, by fainting, his voice falters 
 and his struggling ceases, and he hangs, apparently, a 
 still and lifeless corpse! When he is, by turning, gradu- 
 
The Making of Braves 153 
 
 ally brought to this condition, which is generally done 
 within ten or fifteen minutes, there is a close scrutiny 
 passed upon him among his tormentors, who are check 
 ing and holding each other back as long as the least 
 struggling or tremor can be discovered, lest he should 
 be removed before he is, as they term it, "entirely 
 dead." 
 
 When brought to this alarming and most frightful con 
 dition, and the turning has gradually ceased, as his 
 voice and his strength have given out, leaving him to 
 hang entirely still and apparently lifeless; when his 
 tongue is distended from his mouth and his medicine- 
 bag, which he has affectionately and superstitiously 
 clung to with his left hand, has dropped to the ground, 
 the signal is given to the men on top of the lodge, by 
 gently striking the cord with the pole below, when they 
 very gradually and carefully lower him to the ground. 
 
 In this helpless condition he lies, like a loathsome 
 corpse to look at, though in the keeping, as they call it, 
 of the Great Spirit, whom he trusts will protect him, and 
 enable him to get up and walk away. As soon as he is 
 lowered to the ground thus, one of the by-standers 
 advances and pulls out the two splints or pins from the 
 breasts and shoulders, thereby disengaging him from 
 the cords which hung him up, but leaving all the weights 
 hanging to his flesh. 
 
 The excessive pain caused by this turning, and the 
 sickening distress of the rotary motion, probably no 
 human being but a Mandan ever knew. There were 
 usually two or three bodies hanging at the same time. 
 
154 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 When lowered they lay on the ground for several min 
 utes like the dead, for no one is allowed to assist them. 
 Each victim as he got strength dragged his body with 
 all the weights to another part of the lodge, where sat an 
 Indian with a hatchet and a dried buffalo skull before 
 him, his body painted red and his feet and hands black, 
 and over his face a mask. To him each held up the 
 little finger of his left hand as a sacrifice to the Great 
 Spirit, then, laying it on the buffalo skull, the execu 
 tioner struck it off with one blow of the hatchet. In sev 
 eral instances I saw them also give the forefinger of the 
 same hand, leaving only two to hold the bow. The young 
 men seemed to take no notice of their wounds, and 
 neither bleeding nor inflammation ensued, although ar 
 teries were severed. This was probably owing to the low 
 circulation caused by their previous fasting. 
 
 During the whole of the time of this cruel part of these 
 most extraordinary inflictions the chiefs and dignitaries 
 of the tribe are looking on, to decide who are the hardiest 
 and "stoutest-hearted" who can hang the longest by 
 his flesh before he faints, and who will be soonest up 
 after he has been down that they may know whom to 
 appoint to lead a war-party or place at the most hon 
 orable and desperate post. The four old men are 
 incessantly beating upon the sacks of water and sing 
 ing the whole time, with their voices strained to the 
 highest key, vaunting forth, for the encouragement of 
 the young men, the power and efficacy of the medicine- 
 pipe, which has disarmed the monster O-kee-hee-de (the 
 Evil Spirit) and driven him from the village, and will be 
 
The Making of Braves 155 
 
 sure to protect them and watch over them through their 
 present severe trial. 
 
 As soon as six or eight had passed the ordeal as above 
 described, they were led out of the lodge, with their 
 weights hanging to their flesh and dragging on the 
 ground, to undergo another, and a still more appalling 
 mode of suffering in the centre of the village, and in 
 presence of the whole nation, in the manner as follows : 
 
 The signal of the commencement of this part of the 
 cruelties was given by the old master of ceremonies, who 
 again ran out as in the buffalo dance, and leaning against 
 the Big Canoe, with his medicine-pipe in his hand, 
 began to cry. This was done several times in the after 
 noon, as often as there were six or eight who had passed 
 the ordeal just described within the lodge, who were 
 then taken out in the open area, in the presence of the 
 whole village, with the buffalo skulls and other weights 
 attached to their flesh and dragging on the ground! 
 There were then in readiness, and prepared for the pur 
 pose, about twenty young men, selected of equal height 
 and equal age, with their bodies chiefly naked, with 
 beautiful (and similar) head-dresses of war-eagles quills 
 on their heads, and a wreath made of willow boughs 
 held in the hands between them, connecting them in a 
 chain or circle in which they ran around the Big Canoe, 
 with all possible speed raising their voices in screams and 
 yelps to the highest pitch that was possible, and keeping 
 the curb or Big Canoe in the centre as their nucleus. 
 
 Then were led forward the young men who were fur 
 ther to suffer, and being placed at equal distances apart, 
 
156 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 and outside of the ring just described, each one was 
 taken in charge by two athletic young men, fresh and 
 strong, who stepped up to him, one on each side, and by 
 wrapping a broad leather strap around his wrists, with 
 out tying it, grasped it firm underneath the hand, and 
 stood prepared for what they call Eh-ke-nah-ka-nah-pick 
 (the last race). This the spectator looking on would 
 suppose was most correctly named, for he would think 
 it was the last race they could possibly run in this world. 
 
 In this condition they stand, pale and ghastly from 
 abstinence and loss of blood, until all are prepared and 
 the word is given, when all start and run around, out 
 side of the other ring; and each poor fellow, with his 
 weights dragging on the ground, and his two conductors 
 ran around the Big Canoe amid the deafening shouts of 
 the spectators, who thus endeavored to drown the cries 
 of the poor sufferers. 
 
 The ambition of these young warriors is to see who 
 can run the longest without fainting, and who can soonest 
 get his feet after fainting. However, so exhausted were 
 they that the greater number fainted before they had 
 run half the circle. They were then dragged with their 
 faces on the ground until every weight attached to their 
 flesh was left behind. This must be done to produce 
 honorable scars, which could not be made by drawing 
 out the splints. The flesh must be broken through, and 
 to do this there were several instances in which the buf 
 falo skulls adhered so long they were jumped upon by the 
 by-standers as the victims were being dragged at full 
 speed. In this pitiable condition each sufferer was left 
 
The Making of Braves 157 
 
 praying to the Great Spirit for his recovery, while his 
 two torturers, having dropped their willow boughs, ran 
 for the prairie as if to escape punishment for their crime. 
 This reliance on the Great Spirit for recovery is so 
 implicit that no chief or relation would dare step for 
 ward to aid the victim. When at last he is able to rise 
 he staggers like a drunken man to the wigwam, where 
 his wounds are doubtless dressed and he is permitted to 
 eat and sleep. 
 
 In this frightful scene, as in the buffalo dance, the 
 whole nation was assembled as spectators, and all raised 
 the most piercing and violent yells and screams they 
 could possibly produce, to drown the cries of the suffer 
 ing ones that no heart could even be touched with sym 
 pathy for them. I have mentioned before that six or 
 eight of the young men were brought from the medicine 
 lodge at a time, and when they were thus passed through 
 this shocking ordeal, the medicine-men and the chiefs 
 returned to the interior, where as many more were soon 
 prepared and underwent a similar treatment; and after 
 that another batch, and another, and so on, until the 
 whole number, some forty-five or fifty, had run in this 
 sickening circle, and, by leaving their weights, had 
 opened the flesh for honorable scars. I say all, but 
 there was one poor fellow, though (and I shudder to tell 
 it), who was dragged around and around the circle, with 
 the skull of an elk hanging to the flesh on one of his legs 
 several had jumped upon it, but to no effect, for the 
 splint was under the sinew, which could not be broken. 
 The dragging became every instant more and more 
 
158 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 furious, and the apprehensions for the poor fellow s life, 
 apparent by the piteous howl which was set up for him 
 by the multitude around; and at last the medicine-man 
 ran, with his medicine-pipe in his hand, and held them 
 in check, when the body was dropped and left upon the 
 ground with the skull yet hanging to it. The boy, who 
 was an extremely interesting and fine-looking youth, 
 soon recovered his senses and his strength, looking 
 deliberately at his torn and bleeding limbs, and also with 
 the most pleasant smile of defiance, upon the misfortune 
 which had now fallen to his peculiar lot, crawled through 
 the crowd (instead of walking, which they are never 
 again at liberty to do until the flesh is torn out and the 
 article left) to the prairie, and over which, for the dis 
 tance of half a mile, to a sequestered spot, without any 
 attendant, where he laid three days and three nights yet 
 longer, without food, and praying to the Great Spirit 
 until suppuration took place in the wound, and by the 
 decaying of the flesh the weight was dropped, and the 
 splint also, which he dare not extricate in another way. 
 At the end of this he crawled back to the village on his 
 hands and knees, being too much emaciated to walk, 
 and begged for something to eat, which was at once given 
 him, and he was soon restored to health. 
 
 These extreme and difficult cases often occur, and I 
 learn that in such instances the youth has it at his option 
 to get rid of the weight that is thus left upon him in such 
 way as he may choose, and some of those modes are 
 almost more terrible than the affliction itself. 
 
 As soon as six or eight were thus treated as many 
 
The Making of Braves 159 
 
 more were led out of the medicine-lodge and went 
 through the same or kindred ordeals until the entire fifty 
 had suffered in succession. The number of wounds 
 inflicted were required to be the same on each, and the 
 number of weights the same, but the candidates had the 
 choice of being suspended by the shoulders or the breast, 
 and in the last race of being dragged, or of wandering 
 in the prairies without food, until their weights were re 
 leased by the decay of the flesh. 
 
 I inquired if any of the young men had lost their lives 
 in this ceremony. In their recollection I was told there 
 was once a young man who lay for three days on the 
 ground before they were quite certain the Great Spirit 
 did not intend to help him. They all spoke of his death, 
 however, as a rather enviable fate. After the medicine- 
 lodge had been thus cleared of its victims, the master 
 of ceremonies returned to it alone, and gathering up the 
 edged tools that had been collected at the door of every 
 man s wigwam, accompanied by all the tribe he went to 
 the bank of the river, and sacrificed them to the water by 
 throwing them into the deepest part that they might 
 never be recovered. This part of the rites took place 
 exactly at sundown and closed the scene, being the end 
 of the Mandan religious ceremony. 
 
 The Feast of the Buffaloes, which follows the religious 
 ceremonies, I did not see, but this has been described to 
 me by another white man who had visited the Mandans. 
 This is not to be confounded with the buffalo feast, which 
 is another ceremony. In this case the buffaloes are 
 the eight dancers described in the bull dance, with the 
 
160 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 medicine-men, the musicians, and the old chiefs, who are 
 invited to participate by the young woman who disarmed 
 the Evil Spirit and is for the time in temporary control 
 of her tribe. Assisting her are eight or ten of the young 
 married women, who serve the wooden bowls of food, 
 pass the pipe, and dance. This feast partakes of the 
 nature of a debauch, while all the rest of the village are 
 required to keep within their wigwams. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 MANDAN LEGEND OF THE DELUGE 
 
 THAT these people should have a tradition of the 
 Flood is by no means surprising, as I have learned 
 from every tribe I have visited that they all have 
 some high mountain in their vicinity where they insist 
 upon it that the Big Canoe landed; but that these people 
 should hold an annual celebration of the event, and the 
 season of that decided by such circumstances as the full 
 leaf of the willow, and the medicine-lodge opened by 
 such a man as Nu-mohk-muck-a-na (who appears to 
 be a white man), and making his appearance "from the 
 high mountains of the West," and some other circum 
 stances, is surely a very remarkable thing and requires 
 some extraordinary attention. 
 
 This Nu-mohk-muck-a-na (first or only man) is un 
 doubtedly some mystery or medicine-man of the tribe, 
 who has gone out on the prairie on the evening previous, 
 and having dressed and painted himself for the occasion, 
 comes into the village in the morning, endeavoring to 
 keep up the semblance of reality; for their tradition says 
 that at a very ancient period such a man did actually 
 come from the West; that his body was of the white color, 
 as this man s body is represented; that he wore a robe 
 
 161 
 
1 62 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 of four white wolfskins; his head-dress was made of two 
 ravens skins; and in his left hand was a huge pipe. He 
 said he was at one time the only man he told them 
 of the destruction of everything on the earth s surface 
 by the water; that he stopped in his Big Canoe on a high 
 mountain in the West, where he landed and was saved; 
 that the Mandans and all other people were bound 
 to make yearly sacrifices of some edged tools to the 
 water, for of such things the big canoe was made; that 
 he instructed the Mandans how to build their medicine- 
 lodge, and taught them also the forms of these annual 
 ceremonies, and told them that as long as they made 
 these sacrifices, and performed their rites to the full 
 letter, they might be assured of the fact that they would 
 be the favorite people of the Almighty, and would al 
 ways have enough to eat and drink; and that so soon 
 as they should depart in one tittle from these forms they 
 might be assured that their race would decrease and 
 finally run out; and that they might date their nation s 
 calamity to that omission or neglect. 
 
 It seems from their tradition of the willow branch and 
 the dove that these people must have at some time come 
 into contact with the civilized world, since these two 
 emblems are peculiar to this tribe, although the tradi 
 tion of the Deluge is held by every tribe. Two legends as 
 related to me by old chiefs enforce this theory by seem 
 ing to relate to the transgression of Eve and the birth of 
 Jesus. I will give you two curious stories I heard from 
 several of the old chiefs that are evidently accredited 
 traditions with their tribe: 
 
Mandan Legend of the Deluge 163 
 
 "The Mandans, or People of the Pheasants, were the 
 first people created in the world. Originally they lived 
 inside the earth, where they raised many vines. One 
 of these vines pushed its way through a hole in the 
 earth overhead, and one of our young men climbed up 
 it until he came out on top of the ground. Here he 
 found himself on the banks of a river. He looked 
 around and admired the prairies and the beautiful 
 country about him. He also saw many buffaloes, and 
 killed one with his bow and arrow and found the meat 
 good to eat. 
 
 "He then came back and told what he had seen. 
 Then a number of others climbed up the vine with him 
 and saw the same things. Among those who went were 
 two pretty girls, who were great favorites and permitted 
 to go. There was also among those trying to climb up 
 a large, fat woman, who was forbidden to go by the 
 chiefs. But her curiosity was too great, and as soon as 
 she got an opportunity, when no one was by, she began 
 to climb the vine, and when she got partly up the vine 
 broke under the great weight of her body and she fell 
 down. She was very much hurt by the fall, but she did 
 not die. 
 
 "The Mandans were very sorry about this, and she 
 was forever disgraced for the calamity she had brought 
 upon them, for no more Mandans could ever climb out, 
 and those outside could never get back. These built 
 the Mandan village, where it formerly stood far down 
 the river, but the remainder of the Mandan people live 
 under the ground to this day." 
 
1 64 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 This story is told with great gravity by the chiefs and 
 mystery-men, and the latter profess to talk with their 
 friends under the earth and to frequently get their advice. 
 
 The next tradition runs thus: 
 
 "At a very ancient period, O-kee-hee-de (the Evil 
 Spirit, the black fellow mentioned in the religious cere 
 monies) came to the Mandan village with Nu-mohk- 
 muck-a-na (the first or only man) from the West, and 
 sat down by a wo man who had but one eye and was 
 hoeing corn. Her daughter, who was very pretty, came 
 up to her, and the Evil Spirit desired her to go and bring 
 some water, but wished that, before she started, she 
 would come to him and eat some buffalo meat. He told 
 her to take a piece out of his side, which she did, and ate 
 it, which proved to be buffalo fat. She then went for 
 the water, which she brought, and met them in the vil 
 lage where they had walked, and they both drank of it. 
 
 "The girl then went off to the upper Mandan village 
 without telling any one. There was great excitement in 
 the tribe, for she could not be found. When she was 
 discovered a child had been born to her. Owing to 
 these strange circumstances they believed that this 
 child would be great medicine and important to the 
 welfare of the tribe. This soon became true in the won 
 derful things he did at a very early age. Among other 
 miracles he performed, when the Mandans were like to 
 starve, he gave them four buffalo bulls, which filled the 
 whole village, leaving as much meat as there was be 
 fore they had eaten, and saying that these four bulls 
 would supply them forever. Nu-mohk-muck-a-na was 
 
Mandan Legend of the Deluge 165 
 
 bent on the destruction of the child, and, after making 
 many fruitless searches for it, found it hidden in a dark 
 place, and put it to death by throwing it into the river. 
 
 "When O-kee-hee-de heard of the death of this 
 child he sought for Nu-mohk-muck-a-na with intent 
 to kill him. He traced him a long distance, and at 
 length found him at Heart River, about seventy miles 
 below the village, with the big medicine-pipe in his 
 hand, the charm or mystery of which protects him 
 from all of his enemies. They soon agreed, however, 
 to become friends, smoked the big pipe together, and 
 returned to the Mandan village. The Evil Spirit was 
 satisfied, and Nuh-mohk-muck-a-na told the Mandans 
 never to pass Heart River to live, for it was the centre 
 of the world, and to live beyond it would be destruction 
 to them; and he named it Nat-com-pa-sa-hah (heart or 
 centre of the world)." 
 
 I am travelling in this country not to prove theories, 
 but to see all that I am able to see and to tell it in the 
 simplest manner. But I find so many peculiarities in 
 this decaying tribe that I am led to believe that it is an 
 amalgam of some foreign and some aboriginal stock. I 
 should like, for example, to revive inquiry concerning 
 the ten ships that sailed from north Wales, under 
 Prince Madoc, in the early part of the fourteenth cen 
 tury, for this country. It has been pretty clearly shown 
 that it landed somewhere on the coast of the Gulf of 
 Mexico, and the legends and poetry of Wales relate 
 that it settled somewhere in the interior of America, 
 where it remained mingled with the Indian tribes. 
 
1 66 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 In no other tribe have I met anything that might seem 
 to account for the existence of this colony. Among the 
 Mandans there is much. The Mandan method of con 
 structing their houses is much like that of the rude 
 peasant huts of north Wales. The pottery made by 
 the Mandans is very similar to that made in Wales at 
 the present time, and is exactly like that found in the 
 tumuli on the banks of the Ohio and Muskingham 
 Rivers. This seems to suggest that the Mandans for 
 merly lived by those rivers. A peculiar and beautiful 
 sort of blue beads is made by the Mandans, the secret of 
 which they carefully guard. These beads command a high 
 price among the neighboring tribes, and the Fur Com 
 pany has vainly made liberal offers to buy from them the 
 secret of their composition. Beads like these and those 
 found in the tumuli are now manufactured in Wales. 
 
 Moreover, the canoes or boats of the Mandans differ 
 from those of all other tribes. These are precisely like 
 the Welsh coracle. They are made by stretching a 
 bull s hide over a frame of willow rods bent and inter 
 locked, and are pulled over the water by the paddle in 
 the same manner as the coracle is pulled, by reaching 
 forward with the paddle instead of passing it by the side 
 of the boat, which is nearly round, with the paddler 
 seated or kneeling in front. From the translation of 
 their name, Nu-mah-ka-kee (pheasants), the inference 
 is that at one time they lived much farther south, since 
 the pheasant is not found on the prairies of the upper 
 Missouri, but exists in numbers in the forests of Ohio 
 and Indiana. Their familiar name Mandan is not 
 
Mandan Legend of the Deluge 167 
 
 an Indian word. They themselves know nothing of 
 the name or how they got it. But the word Mandan, 
 in the Welsh language, means red dye. Now the Man- 
 dans are celebrated among the tribes for their beautiful 
 dyes. It seems a reasonable conjecture that the half- 
 castes, who were the result of intermarriage with the 
 Indians, formed, as is the custom, a separate but ad 
 jacent village, supporting themselves by embroidery 
 with porcupine quills, to which they gave the dyes for 
 which the Mandans are famous, and were called by 
 their Welsh neighbors, in the Welsh language, Man- 
 dans, or red dyers. 
 
 At the time of the extermination of the colony by the 
 savages, those who intermarried with the Indians doubt 
 less escaped. Forming a separate community and liv 
 ing on the hunting lands of the powerful tribe, they 
 were repeatedly obliged to move. This fact the nu 
 merous remains of their old lodges, which cannot be 
 mistaken for those of other tribes on the Missouri River, 
 clearly show. 
 
 When an Indian story is told it is, like all other gifts, 
 "to be taken for what it is worth," and for any seeming 
 inconsistency in their traditions there is no remedy; for, 
 as far as I have tried to reconcile them by reasoning 
 with or questioning them, I have been entirely de 
 feated, and, more than that, have generally incurred 
 their distrust and ill-will. One of the Mandan doctors 
 told me very gravely a few days since that the earth was 
 a large tortoise, that it carried the dirt on its back; 
 that a tribe of people, who are now dead and whose 
 
1 68 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 faces were white, used to dig down very deep in this 
 ground to catch badgers; and that one day they stuck a 
 knife through the tortoise-shell and it sunk down so 
 that the water ran over its back and drowned all but 
 one man. And on the next day, while I was painting 
 his portrait, he told me there were four tortoises one in 
 the north, one in the east, one in the south, and one in 
 the west; that each one of these rained ten days, and 
 the water covered over the earth. 
 
 I have dwelt longer on the appearance, customs, and 
 peculiarities of this tribe because I believe them to be a 
 people of different origin from the other tribes. This 
 seems the more important because the powerful Sioux 
 are continually waging war against them, and they are 
 not likely to hold out long in their struggle for existence.* 
 
 From the ignorant and barbarous and disgusting cus 
 toms just recited the world would naturally infer that 
 these people must be the most cruel and inhuman beings 
 in the world; yet such is not the case, and it becomes 
 my duty to say it a better, more honest, hospitable, and 
 kind people, as a community, are not to be found in the 
 world. No set of men that ever I associated with have 
 better hearts than the Mandans, and none are quicker 
 to embrace and welcome a white man than they are; 
 none will press him closer to his bosom, that the pulsa 
 tion of his heart may be felt, than a Mandan; and no 
 man in any country will keep his word and guard his 
 honor more closely. 
 
 * The Mandans were entirely destroyed as a tribe by an epidemic of 
 small pox in 1837. Ed. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 CORN DANCE OF THE MINATAREES 
 
 THE Minatarees, or people of the willows, is a 
 small tribe occupying three villages on the river 
 Knife, which meanders through a lovely prairie 
 into the Missouri. The Minatarees are undoubtedly a 
 part of the Crow tribe, which they resemble in appear 
 ance and stature, and from which they were doubtless 
 run off by a war party. At present they are part of the 
 Mandan confederacy, whose wigwams and many of 
 whose customs they have adopted. Although scarcely 
 a man in the tribe can speak Mandan, the Mandans can 
 speak the tongue of the Minatarees, who, by the way, 
 are called by the French traders Gros Ventres. 
 
 Their chief sachem, whose guest I am, is a patriarchal 
 man named Eeh-tohk-pah-shee-pee-shah (the black 
 moccasin), who claims more than a "hundred snows." 
 His voice and sight are nearly gone, but his gestures are 
 still energetic and youthful. I have been treated in the 
 kindest manner by this old chief, and have painted his 
 portrait seated on the floor of his wigwam smoking his 
 pipe, a beautiful Crow robe thrown around him, and 
 his hair wound in the form of a cone on the top of his 
 head and fastened by a wooden pin. 
 
 169 
 
170 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 As I painted he related to me some of the extraor 
 dinary events of his life. He distinctly recalls Lewis 
 and Clarke, who have told how kindly they were treated 
 by this chief. He inquired earnestly for Red Hair and 
 Long Knife, as he called them. I told him that Long 
 Knife had long been dead, but that Red Hair lived in 
 St. Louis and would be glad to hear of him. This 
 pleased him greatly. 
 
 I have also painted his son, the Red Thunder, who is 
 one of the most desperate of the Minatarees, who are a 
 warlike people, unlike their neighbors the Mandans. 
 He was painted in his war-dress; that is, he was almost 
 naked, and his body so profusely daubed with red and 
 black paint that it was almost disguised. This is the 
 custom of all Indian warriors, the chief only pluming 
 himself to lead his band and form a conspicuous target 
 for the enemy. 
 
 The women of this tribe are unusually good-looking, 
 voluptuous, and free with their bewitching smiles. 
 But I have only been able to get one to consent to be 
 painted, and she was compelled to stand for her por 
 trait by her relatives, who were of the family of the old 
 chief. All the while she modestly urged that "she was 
 not pretty enough to be painted and her picture would 
 be laughed at." She wore a beautiful costume of the 
 skin of the mountain-sheep, handsomely embroidered 
 with quills and beads, and even if she were not comely, 
 the beauty of her name, Seet-se-be-a (the mid-day sun), 
 would make up for it. 
 
 The only places where I find I can write is under the 
 
Corn Dance of the Minatarees 171 
 
 shade of some remote tree, or in my bed, where I now 
 am, lying on sacking of buffalo hide, and surrounded by 
 curtains made from the skins of the elk or buffalo. 
 Meanwhile the roar and unintelligible din of savage 
 conviviality is going on under the same roof. There 
 are other distinguished guests here besidg&^rnyself. 
 Two Crow chiefs are visiting Black Moccasin in re 
 turn for a visit made the Crows by several Minatarees. 
 I have already said that no people present a more pict 
 uresque and thrilling appearance than the Crows in all 
 their plumes and trappings in a war parade or sham 
 fight. 
 
 From among these showy fellows, who have been 
 entertaining us and pleasing themselves with their ex 
 traordinary feats of horsemanship, I have selected one 
 of the most conspicuous, and transferred him and his 
 horse, with arms and trappings, as faithfully as I could, 
 to the canvas, for the information of the world, who will 
 learn vastly more from lines and colors than they could 
 from oral or written delineations. 
 
 I have painted him as he sat for me, balanced on his 
 leaping wild horse, with his shield and quiver slung on 
 his back and his long lance decorated with the eagle s 
 quills trailed in his right hand. His shirt and his leggings 
 and moccasins were of the mountain-goat skins, beauti 
 fully dressed, and their seams everywhere fringed with 
 a profusion of scalp-locks taken from the heads of his 
 enemies slain in battle. His long hair, which reached 
 almost to the ground while he was standing on his feet, 
 was now lifted in the air and floating in black waves 
 
172 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 over the hips of his leaping charger. On his head and 
 over his shining black locks he wore a magnificent crest 
 or head-dress made of the quills of the war-eagle and 
 ermine-skins. On his horse s head also was another 
 of equal beauty and precisely the same in pattern and 
 material. Added to these ornaments there were yet 
 many others which contributed to his picturesque 
 appearance, and among them a beautiful netting of 
 various colors that completely covered and almost ob 
 scured the horse s head and neck, and extended over its 
 back and its hips, where it terminated in a most ex 
 travagant and magnificent crupper, embossed and 
 fringed with rows of beautiful shells and porcupine 
 quills of various colors. 
 
 With all these pictuesque trappings about him, with 
 a noble figure and the stamp of a wild gentleman on 
 his face, he leaned gracefully forward, his long locks and 
 fringes floating in the wind, sending forth startling 
 though smothered yelps in unison with the leaps of his 
 wild horse. He was clearly pleased at displaying in 
 this manner the extraordinary skill in the managment 
 of his horse, as well as the graceful motion of his 
 weapons as he brandished them in the air, and of his 
 ornaments as they floated in the wind. 
 
 These people raise an abundance of corn or maize, 
 and it is my good fortune to visit them in the season of 
 their festivities, which annually take place when the 
 ears of corn are of the proper size for eating. The green 
 corn is considered a great luxury by all those tribes who 
 cultivate it, and is ready for eating as soon as the ear is 
 
Corn Dance of the Minatarees 173 
 
 of full size and the kernels are expanded to their full 
 growth but are yet soft and pulpy. In this green state 
 of the corn it is boiled and dealt out in great profusion 
 to the whole tribe, who feast and surfeit upon it while 
 it lasts, rendering thanks to the Great Spirit for the 
 return of this joyful season, which they do by making 
 sacrifices, by dancing, and singing songs of thanksgiv 
 ing. This joyful occasion is one valued alike, and con 
 ducted in a similar manner, by most of the tribes who 
 raise the corn, however remote they may be from each 
 other. It lasts but for a week or ten days, being limited 
 to the longest term that the corn remains in this tender 
 and palatable state, during which time all hunting and 
 all war excursions and all other avocations are positively 
 dispensed with, and all join in the most excessive in 
 dulgence of gluttony and conviviality that can possibly 
 be conceived. The fields of corn are generally pretty 
 well stripped during this excess, and the poor improvi 
 dent Indian thanks the Great Spirit for the indulgence 
 he has had, and is satisfied to ripen merely the few ears 
 that are necessary for his next year s planting, without 
 reproaching himself for his wanton lavishness, which 
 has laid waste his fine fields and robbed him of the 
 golden harvest which might have gladdened his heart, 
 with those of his wife and little children, through the 
 cold and dreariness of winter. 
 
 The most remarkable feature of these joyous occasions 
 is the green-corn dance, which is always given as pre 
 paratory to the feast and by most of the tribes in the 
 following manner: 
 
174 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 At the usual season, and the time when from the out 
 ward appearance of the stalks and ears of the corn it is 
 supposed to be nearly ready for use, several of the old 
 women, who are the owners of fields or patches of corn 
 (for such are the proprietors and cultivators of all crops 
 in Indian countries, the men never turning their hands 
 to such degrading occupations), are delegated by the 
 medicine-men to look at the corn fields every morning 
 at sunrise, and bring into the council-house, where the 
 kettle is ready, several ears of corn, the husks of which 
 the women are not allowed to break open or even to 
 peep through. The women then are from day to day 
 discharged and the doctors left to decide, until, from 
 repeated examinations, they come to the decision that 
 it will do, when they despatch runners or criers, an 
 nouncing to every part of the village or tribe that the 
 Great Spirit has been kind to them, and that they must 
 all meet on the next day to return thanks for his good 
 ness; that all must empty their stomachs and prepare 
 for the feast that is approaching. 
 
 On the day appointed by the doctors the villagers are 
 all assembled, and in the midst of the group a kettle is 
 hung over a fire and filled with the green corn, which is 
 well boiled, to be given to the Great Spirit as a sacrifice 
 necessary to be made before any one can indulge the 
 cravings of his appetite. While this first kettleful is 
 boiling, four medicine-men, with a stalk of the corn in 
 one hand and a rattle (she-she-quoi) in the other, and 
 with their bodies painted with white clay, dance around 
 the kettle, chanting a song of thanksgiving to the Great 
 
Corn Dance of the Minatarees 175 
 
 Spirit to whom the offering is to be made. At the same 
 time a number of warriors are dancing around in a more 
 extended circle, with stalks of the corn in their hands, 
 and joining also in the song of thanksgiving, while the 
 villagers are all assembled and looking on. During this 
 scene there is an arrangement of wooden bowls laid upon 
 the ground, in which the feast is to be dealt out, each 
 one using a spoon made of the buffalo or mountain- 
 sheep s horn. 
 
 In this wise the dance continues until the doctors 
 decide that the corn is sufficiently boiled; it then stops 
 for a few moments, and again assumes a different form 
 and a different song while the doctors are placing the 
 ears on a little scaffold of sticks, which they erect imme 
 diately over the fire, where it is entirely consumed as 
 they join again in the dance around it. 
 
 The fire is then removed, and with it the ashes, which 
 together are buried in the ground, and new fire is origi 
 nated, on the same spot where the old one was, by fric 
 tion. This is done with desperate and painful exertion 
 by three men seated on the ground, facing each other 
 and violently drilling the end of a stick into a hard block 
 of wood by rolling it between the hands, each one catch 
 ing it in turn from the others without allowing the 
 motion to stop until smoke, and at last a spark of fire, 
 is seen and caught in a piece of spunk, when there is 
 great rejoicing in the crowd. With this a fire is kindled 
 and the kettle of corn again boiled for the feast at which 
 the chiefs, doctors, and warriors are seated. After this 
 permission is given to the whole tribe to indulge, which 
 
1 76 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 they do to excess and until the corn is too hard for 
 mastication. 
 
 Having heard that I was "great medicine," a party 
 of young men, accompanied by some of the chiefs and 
 doctors, came in a formal body to present a grievance 
 which it was hoped I might remedy. After several 
 profound speeches, it appeared that a few years ago an 
 unknown small animal was seen stealing slyly among 
 the pots and kettles of one of the chief s wigwams. It 
 was described as having the size of a ground-squirrel, 
 but with a long, round tail, and was regarded as such 
 "great medicine" that hundreds came to see it. On 
 one occasion this little animal was seen devouring a 
 deer-mouse, which is very destructive to the wearing 
 apparel of the Indians. It was at once decided that the 
 little creature had been sent by the Great Spirit to pro 
 tect their clothing, and a council issued a solemn decree 
 for its preservation. Having been thus preserved, the 
 numbers of these little animals, which my man Batiste 
 calls Monsieur Ratipon, had so increased that the wig 
 wams were now infested by rats, the caches that con 
 tained the corn and other food were robbed, and the 
 very pavements of their wigwams were so vaulted and 
 sapped that they were falling in. The object of this 
 meeting was to see if I could not relieve them of this 
 public calamity. I could only assure them of my deep 
 regret, but there was too much medicine in the thing 
 for me to undertake it. 
 
 As I wished to visit another Minataree village on the 
 other side of the river Knife, the old chief gave directions 
 
Corn Dance of the Minatarees 177 
 
 to one of the numerous women of his household, who 
 took upon her head a skin canoe, called in this country 
 a bull boat, made in the form of a tub, of buffalo s hide, 
 and, carrying it to the water s edge, made signs for the 
 three of us to get in. When we were seated flat in the 
 bottom, with scarcely room to adjust our legs and our 
 feet (as we sat necessarily facing each other), she 
 stepped before the boat, and, pulling it along, waded 
 toward the deeper water, with her back toward us, care 
 fully with the other hand attending to her dress. This 
 seemed to be but a light slip, floating upon the sur 
 face until the water was above her waist, when it was 
 instantly turned off, over her head, and thrown ashore, 
 and she boldly plunged forward, swimming and draw 
 ing the boat with one hand, which she did with apparent 
 ease. In this manner we were conveyed to the middle 
 of the stream, where we were soon surrounded by a 
 dozen or more beautiful girls, from twelve to fifteen and 
 eighteen years of age, who were at that time bathing on 
 the opposite shore. 
 
 They all swam in a bold and graceful manner, and as 
 confidently as so many otters or beavers, as they 
 gathered around us, with their long black hair floating 
 about on the water, while their faces were glowing 
 with jokes and fun, which they were cracking about 
 us, and which we could not understand. 
 
 In the midst of this delightful little aquatic group we 
 three sat in our little skin-bound tub (like the "three 
 wise men of Gotham who went to sea in a bowl," etc.), 
 floating along down the current, losing sight and all 
 
1 78 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 thoughts of the shore, which was equidistant from us 
 on either side, whilst we were amusing ourselves with 
 the playfulness of these dear little creatures who were 
 floating about under the clear blue water, catching their 
 hands onto the sides of our boat, occasionally raising 
 one-half of their bodies out of the water, and sinking 
 again, like so many mermaids. 
 
 In the midst of this bewildering and tantalizing en 
 tertainment, in which poor Batiste and Bogard, as well 
 as myself, were all taking infinite pleasure, and which 
 we supposed was all intended for our especial amuse 
 ment, we found ourselves suddenly in the delightful 
 dilemma of floating down the current in the middle of 
 the river, and of being turned round and round, to the 
 excessive amusement of the villagers, who were laughing 
 at us from the shore, as well as these little tyros, whose 
 delicate hands were besetting our tub on all sides, and 
 for an escape from whom, or for fending off, we had 
 neither an oar nor anything else that we could wield in 
 self-defence or for self-preservation. In this awkward 
 predicament our feelings of excessive admiration were 
 immediately changed to those of exceeding vexation as 
 we now learned that they had peremptorily discharged 
 from her occupation our fair conductress, who had 
 undertaken to ferry us safely across the river, and had 
 also very ingeniously laid their plans, of which we had 
 been ignorant until the present moment, to extort from 
 us in this way some little evidences of our liberality, 
 which, in fact, it was impossible to refuse them, after so 
 liberal and bewitching an exhibition on their part, as 
 
Corn Dance of the Minatarees 179 
 
 well as from the imperative obligation which the awk 
 wardness of our situation had laid us under. I had 
 some awls in my pockets, which I presented to them, 
 and also a few strings of beautiful beads, which I placed 
 over their delicate necks as they raised them out of the 
 water by the side of our boat. They all then joined 
 in conducting our craft to the shore, by swimming by 
 the sides of and behind it, pushing it along in the direc 
 tion where they designed to land it, until the water be 
 came so shallow that their feet were upon the bottom, 
 when they waded along with great coyness, dragging us 
 toward the shore so long as their bodies, in a crouching 
 position, could possibly be half concealed under the 
 water. They then gave our boat the last push for the 
 shore, and, raising a loud and exulting laugh, plunged 
 back again into the river, leaving us the only alternative 
 of sitting still where we were or of stepping out into the 
 water at half-leg deep and of wading to the shore, which 
 we at once did, and soon escaped from the view of our 
 little tormentors, and the numerous lookers-on, on our 
 way to the upper village which I have before mentioned. 
 Here I was very politely treated by Yellow Moc 
 casin, quite an old man, and who seemed to be chief of 
 this band or family, constituting their little community 
 of thirty or forty lodges, averaging perhaps twenty 
 persons to each. I was feasted in this man s lodge, and 
 afterward invited to accompany him and several others 
 to a beautiful prairie, a mile or so above the village, 
 where the young men and young women of this town, 
 and many from the village below, had assembled for 
 
i8o The Boy s Catlin 
 
 their amusements, the chief of which seemed to be that 
 of racing their horses. In the midst of these scenes, 
 after I had been for some time a looker-on, and had 
 felt some considerable degree of sympathy for a fine- 
 looking young fellow, whose horse had been twice 
 beaten on the course, and whose losses had been con 
 siderable for which his sister, a very modest and 
 pretty girl, was most piteously howling and crying I 
 selected and brought forward an ordinary-looking pony, 
 that was evidently too fat and too sleek to run against 
 his fine-limbed little horse that had disappointed his 
 high hopes; and I began to comment extravagantly 
 upon its muscle, etc., when I discovered him evidently 
 cheering up with the hope of getting me and my pony 
 onto the turf with him, for which he soon made me a 
 proposition. I, having lauded the limbs of my little 
 nag too much to "back out," agreed to run a short race 
 with him of half a mile, for three yards of scarlet cloth, 
 a knife, and half a dozen strings of beads, which I was 
 willing to stake against a handsome pair of leggings, 
 which he was wearing at the time. The greatest im 
 aginable excitement was now raised among the crowd 
 by this arrangement, to see a white man preparing to 
 run with an Indian jockey, and that with a scrub of a 
 pony in whose powers of running no Indian had the 
 least confidence. Yet there was no one in the crowd 
 who dared to take up the several other little bets I was 
 willing to tender (merely for their amusement and for 
 their final exultation), owing, undoubtedly, to the bold 
 and confident manner in which I had ventured on the 
 
Corn Dance of the Minatarees 181 
 
 merits of this little horse, which the tribe had all over 
 looked and needs must have some medicine about it. 
 
 So far was this panic carried that even my champion 
 was ready to withdraw, but his friends encouraged him, 
 and at length we galloped our horses to the other end of 
 the course, accompanied by a number of horsemen to 
 see the "set-off." Here a condition was named to me 
 that I had not anticipated. In all the races of this day 
 the riders were to be naked and to ride a naked horse. 
 I found that remonstrance availed little, and as I had 
 volunteered to ride to gratify them it seemed wise to 
 comply. Accordingly I took off my clothes, straddled 
 the naked back of my round and glossy little pony, by 
 the side of my competitor, who was also mounted and 
 stripped to the skin eager for the start. 
 
 Can any one imagine that a man in middle life could 
 be so suddenly transported back to infancy and breathe 
 the air of naked, untasted liberty. If not, disrobe, and 
 fancy yourself, as I was, naked, with my trembling 
 little steed under me, and the cool breeze ready to close 
 and embrace me, as it did the next moment when we 
 "were off." Though my little Pegasus seemed to dart 
 through the clouds, and I to be wafted on the wings of 
 Mercury, yet my red adversary soon left me far behind. 
 No longer a competitor, I wheeled to the left and made 
 the circuit of the prairie back to the starting-point, 
 much to the satisfaction of the jockeys, but greatly to 
 the disappointment of the women and children, who 
 had come out in throngs to witness the "coming out" 
 of the white medicine-man. 
 
1 82 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 I clothed myself rapidly and came back acknowledg 
 ing my defeat and the superior skill of my competitor, 
 as well as the wonderful muscle of his little charger, 
 which pleased him greatly. His sister s disappointment 
 I soon turned to joy by giving her a fine scarlet robe 
 and a profusion of varicolored beads, which she was 
 soon parading on her copper-colored neck. 
 
 The Minatarees as well as the Mandans had suf 
 fered for some months for want of meat. It was feared 
 that the buffalo herds were emigrating and actual star 
 vation might ensue. Suddenly one morning a herd was 
 sighted, and a hundred or more young men jumped on 
 their horses, with their weapons, and made for the 
 prairie. The chief offered me one of his horses and 
 said I had better go and see an interesting sight. I took 
 my pencil and sketch-book and took my position in the 
 rear, where I could witness every manoeuvre. The plan 
 of attack in this country is called a "surround." The 
 hunters were all mounted on their "buffalo horses," 
 and armed with bows, arrows, and long lances. 
 
 Dividing into two columns and taking opposite direc 
 tions, they drew themselves gradually around the herd 
 a mile or more distant from it, forming a circle of horse 
 men at equal distances apart, who gradually closed in 
 upon them with a moderate pace, at a signal given. 
 The unsuspecting herd at length "got the wind" of the 
 approaching enemy, and fled in a mass in the greatest 
 confusion. To the point where they were aiming to 
 cross the line the horsemen were seen at full speed, 
 gathering and forming in a column, brandishing their 
 
Corn Dance of the Minatarees 183 
 
 weapons, and yelling in the most frightful manner, by 
 which means they turned the black and rushing mass, 
 which moved off in an opposite direction, where they 
 were again met and foiled in a similar manner and 
 wheeled back in utter confusion. By this time the 
 horsemen had closed in from all directions, forming a 
 continuous line around them, while the poor affrighted 
 animals were eddying about in a crowded and confused 
 mass, hooking and climbing upon each other, when the 
 work of death commenced. I had ridden up in the rear 
 and occupied an elevated position at a few rods dis 
 tance, from which I could (like the general of a battle 
 field) survey from my horse s back the nature and the 
 progress of the grand melee, but (unlike him) without 
 the power of issuing a command or in any way directing 
 its issue. 
 
 In this grand turmoil a cloud of dust was soon raised, 
 obscuring the throng where the hunters were galloping 
 their horses around and driving the whizzing arrows 
 or their long lances to the hearts of these noble ani 
 mals. These, in many instances becoming infuriated 
 with deadly wounds in their sides, plunged forward at 
 the sides of their assailants horses, sometimes goring 
 them to death at a lunge and putting their dismounted 
 riders to flight for their lives. Sometimes their dense 
 crowd was opened, and the blinded horsemen, too 
 intent on their prey amid the cloud of dust, were 
 hemmed and wedged in amid the crowding beasts, 
 over whose backs they were obliged to leap for security, 
 leaving their horses to the fate that might await them 
 
1 84 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 in the results of this wild and desperate war. Many 
 were the bulls that turned upon their assailants and 
 met them with desperate resistance, and many were the 
 warriors who were dismounted and saved themselves 
 by the superior muscles of their legs; some, who 
 were closely pursued by the bulls, wheeled suddenly 
 around, and, snatching the part of a buffalo-robe from 
 around their waists, threw it over the horns and the 
 eyes of the infuriated beast, and darting by its side 
 drove the arrow or the lance to its heart. Others sud 
 denly dashed off upon the prairies by the side of the 
 affrighted animals which had escaped from the throng, 
 and, closely escorting them for a few rods, brought down 
 their hearts blood in streams and their huge carcasses 
 upon the green and enamelled turf. 
 
 I had sat in trembling silence upon my horse and 
 witnessed this extraordinary scene, which allowed not 
 one of these animals to escape out of my sight. Many 
 plunged off upon the prairie for a distance, but were 
 overtaken and killed; and although I could not dis 
 tinctly estimate the number that were slain, yet I am 
 sure that some hundreds of these noble animals fell in 
 this grand melee, 
 
 The scene after the battle was over was novel and 
 curious in the extreme; the hunters were moving about 
 among the dead and dying animals, leading their 
 horses by their halters, and claiming their victims by 
 the private marks upon the arrows, which they were 
 drawing from the wounds in the animals sides. 
 
 The poor affrighted creatures that had occasionally 
 
 i 
 
Corn Dance of the Minatarees 185 
 
 dashed through the ranks of their enemy and sought 
 safety in flight upon the prairie (and in some in 
 stances had undoubtedly gained it), I saw stand 
 awhile, looking back when they turned, and, as if 
 bent on their own destruction, retrace their steps and 
 mingle themselves and their deaths with those of the 
 dying throng. Others had fled to a distance on the 
 prairies, and for want of company, of friends or of foes, 
 had stood and gazed on till the battle-scene was over, 
 seemingly taking pains to stay and hold their lives in 
 readiness for their destroyers until the general destruc 
 tion was over, to whose weapons they fell easy vic 
 tims making the slaughter complete. 
 
 After this scene, and after arrows had been claimed 
 and recovered, a general council was held, when all 
 hands were seated on the ground and a few pipes 
 smoked, after which all mounted their horses and rode 
 back to the village. 
 
 Several of the warriors were sent to the chief, to 
 inform him of their success; and the same intelligence 
 was soon communicated by little squads to every family 
 in the village, and preparations were at once made for 
 securing the meat. For this purpose some hundreds of 
 women and children, to whose lot fall all the drudgeries 
 of Indian life, started out upon the trail which led them 
 to the battle-field, where they spent the day in skinning 
 the animals and cutting up the meat, which was mostly 
 brought into the villages on their backs, as they tugged 
 and sweated under their enormous and cruel loads. 
 
 I rode out to see this curious scene, and I regret ex- 
 
1 86 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 exceedgly that I kept no memorandum of it in my 
 sketch-book. Amid the throng of women and children 
 that had been assembled, and all of whom seemed busily 
 at work, were many superannuated and disabled nags, 
 which they had brought out to assist in carrying in the 
 meat, and at least one thousand semi-loup dogs and 
 whelps, whose keen appetites and sagacity had brought 
 them out to claim their share of this abundant and 
 sumptuous supply. 
 
 I stayed and inspected this curious group for an hour 
 or more, during which time I was almost continually 
 amused by the clamorous contentions that arose and 
 generally ended in desperate combats, both among 
 dogs and women, who seemed alike tenacious of their 
 rights and disposed to settle their claims tooth and 
 nail. 
 
 When I had seen enough of this I withdrew to the top 
 of a beautiful prairie bluff a mile or two from the scene, 
 and overlooking the route through the undulating green 
 fields, watched the continuous passing of women, dogs, 
 and horses carrying home their heavy burdens to the 
 village, resembling from afar nothing so much as a 
 busy community of ants sacking and carrying away the 
 treasures of a cupboard or the sweets of a sugar-bowl. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 THE ATTACK ON THE CANOE 
 
 BEFORE leaving that part of the country I visited 
 the lower Mandan village of about eighty lodges, 
 which appears to be a summer resort for some 
 of the most noted families and in winter is untenanted. 
 Here I experienced again the unbounded hospitality of 
 these people and something more. 
 
 Suffering from influenza, I left my bed by the side of 
 the lodge and, wrapped in my blanket of buffalo-hide, 
 lay on the floor, with my feet to the fire in the centre, 
 Indian fashion. Here a young man, whom I had ob 
 served reverently watching the movements of my brush, 
 insisted on the honor of offering his body as a pillow for 
 my head. It was impossible to resist his importunities, 
 and for several nights I lay pillowed on his bear-greased, 
 bedaubed body. I took some pains to inquire concern 
 ing him, and learned that he was a Riccaree brave 
 named Pah-too-ca-ra (he who strikes), who, with sev 
 eral others of his tribe, are on a friendly visit to this 
 hostile village. I think he hoped in this manner to gain 
 my protection, and I in return have tried to give him 
 immortality by painting his portrait. By his side I have 
 painted a beautiful little girl of the same tribe named 
 
 187 
 
The Boy s Catlin 
 
 Pshan-shaw (the sweet-scented grass), giving a very 
 pretty specimen of the dress and fashion of the women 
 of this tribe. The inner garment, which is like a slip 
 or frock, is in one piece, lavishly ornamented with em 
 broidery and, beads, and for a necklace, elks teeth pass 
 ing across her breast. A young buffalo s skin, tastefully 
 and elaborately embroidered, was gracefully thrown 
 over her shoulders and hung down to the ground in the 
 back. 
 
 The Riccaree village is about two hundred miles 
 down the river. Coming up on the steamer I made a 
 sketch of it on the open prairie, with the graceful and 
 verdant undulating prairie for a background, and not 
 a bush to be seen. It is impossible to visit them, for at 
 present they have sworn death to every white man who 
 comes in their way. When Lewis and Clarke first 
 visited these people, as they have stated in their writ 
 ings, the Riccarees received them with great kindness 
 and hospitality. Since that time the system of trade, 
 as it is conducted in this country, has inflicted on them 
 wrongs, real or imaginary they and the fur traders 
 are the best judges of which so, having no desire to 
 have my "scalp danced," I passed them by. 
 
 The last I saw of my friends the Mandans was at 
 the shore of the river in front of their village. My canoe 
 and all my packs were brought down to the water s edge, 
 with the whole tribe on the beach. My friends Mah-to- 
 toh-pa, the Wolf Chief, and the Great Medicine each 
 embraced me, warriors and braves shook hands with me, 
 and the women and children saluted me with shouts of 
 
The Attack on the Canoe 189 
 
 farewell; then Batiste, Bogard, and I were again afloat. 
 When we were well under way a gallant young warrior 
 I recognized followed us, and at the water s edge leaned 
 over and safely tossed a bundle he took out from under 
 his robe into the canoe. I attempted to unfold it, when 
 he waved his hand, shook his head, and made a sign for 
 me to lay it down in the canoe, which I did. After we 
 had paddled a mile away from the village, by untying 
 many thongs I opened the package, and found the most 
 beautiful pair of leggings I had ever seen, fringed with a 
 profusion of scalp-locks and ornamented with porcupine 
 quills. These I instantly recognized as belonging to the 
 son of a famous chief, the Four Men, and I had been 
 for some time trying to buy them. I had offered the 
 young man a horse, but his only reply was that he 
 could not sell them, as the scalp-locks were precious as 
 trophies and his fellow-warriors would laugh at him 
 if he sold them. 
 
 Having parted from me without the least prospect of 
 ever seeing me again, and enveloped with an intricacy 
 of thongs that I could not possibly untie before the cur 
 rent had carried me beyond the power of making any 
 compensation, he had compelled me to accept as a 
 present what he could not sell to me the day before for 
 the price of a horse. 
 
 On and on glided our little boat, every turn presenting 
 a new and cheerful landscape. We indeed seemed to 
 be passing through an old and beautifully cultivated 
 country, whose ploughed fields had become greensward 
 and whose houses and hedges were only removed. Such 
 
1 90 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 is the American prairie. Night after night, and for 
 weeks of nights, our little craft was hauled ashore and 
 our robes spread upon the grass or sand-bars, while the 
 silvery but discordant notes of the bands of howling 
 wolves serenaded us. When our larder was low and a 
 lazy little herd sleeping or quietly grazing tempted us, 
 we would silently land the canoe and secure two or 
 three tongues and humps without the slightest trouble. 
 When we had enough to eat and our paddles were at 
 work, we would sing, whistle, and tell stories for our 
 entertainment. 
 
 Once while Batiste and Bogard were relating some 
 amusing and exciting stories about the Crows and 
 Blackfeet, bang! went a gun, and a bullet skipped be 
 fore us on the water. An Indian was seen standing alone 
 at the water s edge. A shot fired ahead is the usual 
 friendly mode of inviting parties ashore on this river, 
 but it is the second invitation; the first is by signalling 
 or calling. Bogard was anxious to go ashore, but I did 
 not exactly like the position of things. The man had 
 placed himself on the shore just above a sudden bend 
 in the river, where the current would carry us inshore 
 if we drifted, and here his companions could easily 
 await us if they had any unfriendly design; and there 
 were many unsettled feuds between the Indians and the 
 fur traders for which I or any other traveller might 
 suffer. 
 
 The river was very wide where we were and I steered 
 for the opposite shore. Bogard, who thought this might 
 be an opportunity for a drink, said in rather an authori- 
 
The Attack on the Canoe 191 
 
 tative tone, "We will go ashore." Batiste echoed him, 
 "Oui, oui." "No," I said, "the canoe is mine, and I 
 won t go ashore. I don t like the look of things." Both 
 men threw their paddles in the bottom of the canoe 
 and looked over their shoulders for their rifles, which 
 were lying under a buffalo-robe between us. I instantly 
 seized my double-barrelled gun and, cocking it, laid it 
 across my knee. They understood this movement and 
 what would be the consequence if either reached for his 
 gun. I then commenced paddling the canoe myself, 
 forcing it toward the opposite side. 
 
 Just at this moment, when the two men were growling 
 at me for "being afraid of one poor solitary Indian," 
 some twenty or thirty naked warriors rose from behind 
 the rocks and, raising the war-whoop, ran down the 
 shore to meet us behind the bend. 
 
 "Sacre", diable, il faut combattre!" exclaimed Ba 
 tiste as he seized his rifle. "No," said I. "On ne com 
 bat pas. II faut ramer, ramer." "On rame," an 
 swered Batiste, laying down his gun and taking up his 
 paddle, and all three paddled with all our might. In 
 order to take advantage of the strongest current, I kept 
 the canoe amid-stream, while the Indians, sounding the 
 war-whoop, ran along the beach. Notwithstanding our 
 exertions they were soon a little ahead of us, when eight 
 or ten sprang into the water and came swimming toward 
 us, holding their bows and arrows in their left hands 
 above the water. 
 
 Seeing them nearing the boat, I said, "Now take up 
 your rifles, but don t fire until I give the word." 
 
1 92 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 I signalled the Indians to go back, but, advancing to 
 within a few rods of the boat, I raised my rifle as if to 
 fire, when they sank almost under the water and turned 
 toward the shore. Meanwhile those on shore were still 
 running, yelling, and setting them on us again. As they 
 were armed only with bows and arrows I felt no further 
 alarm, for, if obliged to fire, we could easily have killed 
 them all. Whether they were Sioux or Riccarees we 
 were never able to learn. 
 
 A few days more paddling brought us to the country 
 of the Sioux, as they are called by the French traders, 
 or the Dacotahs, as they are known in their own lan 
 guage. This tribe is one of the most numerous as it 
 is one of the most vigorous and warlike on the plains. 
 It could undoubtedly send forth eight or ten thousand 
 well-mounted, well-armed warriors, which estimate al 
 lows for forty or fifty thousand Indians in the lodges. 
 The greater number are armed with bows and arrows, 
 although many are supplied with guns. The personal 
 appearance of these people is most prepossessing. 
 They are tall; at least one-half of the warriors are over 
 six feet, and their movements are elastic and graceful. 
 No tribe is better clad or better supplied with the 
 necessaries of life. This part of the great plain is finely 
 stocked with buffaloes and wild horses, and no people 
 are more bold in destroying the one for food or appro 
 priating the other. 
 
 I am living here with a Scotchman named Laidlaw, 
 who, with Mr. McKenzie and Lament, has the whole 
 agency of the Fur Company in the upper Missouri and 
 
The Attack on the Canoe 193 
 
 the Rocky Mountains. This gentleman has a finely 
 equipped fort two or three hundred feet square, en 
 closing eight or ten of their factories, houses, and stores, 
 in the centre of which he occupies comfortable and 
 spacious apartments, well supplied with the luxuries of 
 life, and neatly and respectably conducted by a fine- 
 looking, modest, and dignified Sioux woman, the kind 
 and affectionate mother of his little flock of pretty and 
 interesting children. The fort is called Fort Pierre, 
 after Mr. Pierre Chouteau, one of the members of the 
 company, whose hospitality I enjoyed on the steamer 
 "Yellowstone." 
 
 This was not my first visit to the Sioux. Coming up 
 the river the "Yellowstone" ran aground on a sand-bar. 
 After a week s delay, Mr. Chouteau determined to send 
 twenty men across the prairie, two hundred miles to the 
 fort. Having heard there was an encampment of Sioux 
 at the fort, I decided to accompany them. We were a 
 week making the march over the continuous prairie, in 
 which the grass, half a foot high, was enamelled with 
 flowers and abounding in strawberries. This discourag 
 ing sea of green soon became monotonous, and the half- 
 breeds and Frenchmen, whose lives are spent on the 
 prairie, set us a killing pace. I got on for a couple of 
 days finely, but at length, with several others, fell be 
 hind, and finally felt like throwing myself on the ground 
 in helpless despair. 
 
 Our delay at length brought the leaders back to us, 
 and I explained that the pain in my legs was too great 
 to go further. One of the half-breeds then told me in 
 
194 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 French that if I would turn my toes in like the Indians 
 I could go on very well. We halted half an hour while 
 he gave me a lesson, and I found that by turning my 
 toes in my feet not only went more easily through the 
 grass but the weight of my body was more equally dis 
 tributed on each toe, instead of throwing it all on the 
 joints of the great toe, as one does in walking with the 
 toes turned out. I soon got relief, and on the third and 
 fourth days I took the lead of the whole party and kept 
 it until the end of the journey. 
 
 At last we found a landmark in a distant range of blue 
 hills, called the Bijou Hills by a French fur trader, who 
 was finally killed by the Sioux. Some miles back of 
 these we came suddenly upon a singular scene. This 
 was a depression of some hundreds of acres, so in- 
 crusted with salt that the ground seemed to be covered 
 with snow, in vivid contrast to the green fields that 
 hemmed them in. Through these salt meadows mean 
 ders a small stream of water fed by salt springs. On 
 nearing the banks we were amazed at the buffaloes in 
 incredible numbers stretching down to lick up the salt, 
 a vast mass of black contrasting with the snow white 
 and vivid green. This salt meadow required us to make 
 a long detour, and at last we arrived, pretty well jaded, 
 at Fort Pierre, where six hundred lodges of Sioux were 
 encamped waiting for the steamer of which they had 
 heard and were eager to see. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE DEATH OF LITTLE BEAR : A SIOUX 
 TRAGEDY 
 
 ArTER resting a few days and making the ac 
 quaintance of the village, I made known my 
 desire to the chiefs and white men, to paint 
 some portraits. A tent was prepared as a studio, 
 and my first sitter was the head civil chief, Ha-won- 
 je-tah (The One Horn), a man of middle age, medium 
 stature, a noble countenance, and the figure of an 
 Apollo. He told me that he took his name from a small 
 shell that hung around his neck rather than from any 
 of his own deeds. This shell had descended to him 
 from his father, and he valued it more than anything 
 else in life. This was a striking instance of the affection 
 of these people for their dead, for he owed his position as 
 chief to his athletic achievements. He was the fleetest 
 of his tribe, and could run down a buffalo on his own 
 legs and pierce it to the heart. 
 
 His costume was of elk-skins, beautifully dressed and 
 hung with scalp-locks and porcupine quills. But the 
 most significant feature was his hair. This was divided 
 into two locks and wound around his head like a Turk 
 ish turban. 
 
 This portrait was finished before any one of the tribe 
 
 195 
 
196 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 knew about it. A few of the big men were allowed in 
 to see it, and at last it became a matter of gossip and 
 numbers of the people gathered about the tent. The 
 chief and the big medicine then carried the painting out 
 and held it up before them, while the big medicine ad 
 dressed the crowd. 
 
 "Look, my friends. We have now got two chiefs. 
 When one is dead the other will be alive. Look at him 
 and be ashamed. He smiles upon you and is alive. To 
 morrow you will see me. Be patient, my friends. I am 
 but a little boy." I had made a dead coloring of the old 
 man and had put it aside to dry. "Mine is put in a box 
 to grow overnight. To-morrow my face will shine upon 
 you. This is the wonderful work of a great white 
 medicine-man. He is now sitting and smoking with the 
 chief. You cannot see him; but perhaps he will some 
 times walk through the village, and then you can look 
 at him. The Great Spirit has shown him how to do 
 these things, and you must make but little noise. He 
 says that I can do the same thing, and I think so, too, 
 my friends." 
 
 The doctor s address was long and very curious. 
 Looking through the crevices in my tent I beheld an 
 interminable mass of red and painted heads, of eagles 
 quills or ermine-skins, of beads and brooches, of shields, 
 spears, lances, and quivers. Some were mounted, others 
 were raised on shoulders, and all gazing in astonish 
 ment on the chief that had life, the corners of whose 
 mouth many said they could see move, and the eyes of 
 which turned as they changed their positions. 
 
The Death of Little Bear 197 
 
 After the exhibition of the portrait the village was in 
 great excitement. The other medicine-men took a 
 decided stand against me, predicting bad luck and 
 premature death to all who subjected themselves to so 
 mysterious an operation. The women and children 
 were crying with their hands over their mouths, making 
 the most pitiful and doleful sounds, and the result was 
 I could get no sitters. In this perplexing dilemma the 
 old chief addressed them, assuring them there was no 
 harm in what I did, since he had gone through it. His 
 speech had the desired effect, and some of the chiefs 
 went immediately away to dress for their portraits. 
 
 I now had all I could do. One of the first to present 
 himself was Black Rock, of the Nee-caw-wee-gee band, 
 a man of six feet or more, in a splendid dress, lance in 
 hand, with his pictured robe thrown over his shoul 
 ders, his head-dress of war-eagle quills and ermine- 
 skins falling quite down to his feet, and surmounted 
 with a pair of horns, which, as I have said, denoted 
 that he was the leader of his band. Another chief 
 was The Stone with Horns, chief of the Yanckton 
 band, who was so curiously tattooed with gunpowder 
 and vermilion that at a little distance it appeared like a 
 finely embroidered dress. Around his body was a robe 
 of the grizzly bear and on his neck several strings of 
 wampum. This is very unusual. Wampum is rarely 
 seen in this country, having been so cheapened by the 
 imitations manufactured by the fur traders that the 
 Indians no longer use it in barter. I was much amused 
 by the vanity of this man, who, as he sat, kept the inter- 
 
The Boy s Catlin 
 
 preter engaged telling me of the wonderful effects his 
 oratory produced on the tribes. It was an easy thing, 
 he said, to set all the women crying, and that the chiefs 
 listened seriously to his voice before they went to war. 
 My wigwam was full of the chiefs waiting their turn, 
 smoking and talking gayly, generally at the expense of 
 the sitter, whose mouth was shut and unable to reply, 
 while they related anecdotes, creditable and otherwise, 
 of his life, and were unsparing in criticisms about his 
 looks. 
 
 The necessity of observing their rank gave rise to 
 various difficulties. As there are forty bands among 
 the Sioux, each with its chief, and ten times that num 
 ber of big men, jealousies were rife. I now desired to 
 paint some of the younger men for their looks. At this 
 juncture Mr. Laidlaw brought to me a fine young man, 
 in his war-dress, Mah-to-chee-ga (the little bear), telling 
 me that he was a warrior of such distinction that he was 
 sure the chiefs would be willing to have him painted. 
 To this the chiefs agreed, and I began immediately. 
 The first attitude of the young man was so beautiful 
 that I did not change it. He was looking off* toward 
 the sides of the wigwam, as if gazing over the bound 
 less prairie. The face was therefore what we painters 
 call a three-quarter face, one half in shadow. 
 
 While I was painting and had the portrait pretty well 
 along, one of the secondary chiefs, Shonka (the dog), a 
 surly fellow I had painted a few days before, crept round 
 behind me, and, watching my brush for a time, said, 
 " I see you are but half a man." 
 
The Death of Little Bear 199 
 
 "Who says that ?" said Mah-to-chee-ga in a low tone, 
 and without the change of a muscle or the direction of 
 his eye. "Shonka says it," replied The Dog. "Let 
 Shonka prove it," answered Mah-to-chee-ga. "Shonka 
 proves it this way. The white medicine-man knows that 
 one half your face is good for nothing, as he has left it 
 out in the picture." Mah-to-chee-ga, still with his eyes 
 as if gazing over a distant prairie, said, " If I am but 
 half a man, I am man enough for Shonka in any way 
 he pleases to try it." This repartee kept up for some 
 minutes, to the amusement of the chiefs, as Mah-to- 
 chee-ga seemed to have the advantage, Shonka sprang 
 upon his feet, and, wrapping his robe around him, 
 darted out of the wigwam in a rage. 
 
 The chiefs, from their manner, seemed somewhat 
 disturbed, but my subject, still without change or ap 
 parent emotion, stood until the portrait was finished, 
 when he took off of his legs a beautiful pair of leggings 
 fringed with scalp-locks, and asked me to accept them. 
 After smoking a pipe with the chiefs and hearing their 
 comments on his portrait, with which they were all 
 pleased, he got up, shook hands with me, and went to 
 his own wigwam, which was but a few paces from mine. 
 There, fearing what The Dog might do, he took down 
 his gun and loaded it, and, according to their custom 
 when danger is near, he prostrated himself before the 
 Great Spirit. While doing this his wife, to prevent mis 
 chief, took the ball from his rifle unknown to him. 
 
 Just then the voice of Shonka was heard without. 
 " If Mah-to-chee-ga is man enough for Shonka, let him 
 
200 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 come and prove it." Like a flash the young man rushed 
 out, and the two guns, overlapping each other, were 
 fired. Mah-to-chee-ga fell, that side of his face blown 
 away which had been "left out" in the painting. The 
 Dog fled to the outer part of the village and called on 
 his warriors to protect him. At the firing of the guns 
 the chiefs all rushed out of my wigwam. I was left 
 alone and heard nothing for some time. Peeping 
 through the cracks in my wigwam, I saw women and 
 children running; the horses were brought in at full 
 gallop, and the dogs were all howling. As I was slip 
 ping my pistols in my belt Laidlaw dashed into my 
 wigwam. 
 
 "Now we shall have it. That splendid fellow, The 
 Little Bear, is dead. All that side of the face you left 
 out in the portrait has been shot away. The devil take 
 the pictures! I have been afraid of them. They say 
 you are the cause of Little Bear s death, and if they 
 can t kill The Dog they will look to you for satisfaction." 
 At this moment guns were heard on the outskirts of the 
 village, and we fled to the Fort. Here we took possession 
 of one of the unarmed bastions, barricaded the doors 
 and windows as well as we could, and with several dozen 
 of the company s muskets awaited results. We kept 
 our quarters dark through the night, and from the 
 sound of the guns on the prairie concluded that The 
 Dog and his warriors were retreating, pursued by the 
 friends of The Little Bear. 
 
 In the morning the village was silent but sullen. 
 Several young men were reported dead. I found my 
 
The Death of Little Bear 201 
 
 wigwam just as I left it, my paintings untouched. We 
 joined in burying the fallen warrior and raising an 
 honorable monument over his grave. I made liberal 
 presents to his wife and relations, which doubtless saved 
 us from violence. Fortunately, the steamer "Yellow 
 stone" being released, I was able to continue my jour 
 ney. But this was not the first time I got myself into 
 serious perplexity during this visit to the Sioux. 
 
 Having painted the chiefs and braves I proposed to 
 paint some of the women. This unaccountable con 
 descension on my part brought on me the laughter of 
 the whole tribe. Those who had been painted were now 
 jeered at by those who had not been painted for assum 
 ing as a special honor that now to be given to squaws. 
 These immediately came to me and asked to have their 
 portraits destroyed. I had told them I wished their por 
 traits to show to great white chiefs because they were 
 distinguished men. The women had never taken any 
 scalps. They only built fires and dressed skins. 
 
 This was very awkward for me, but I explained that 
 I wanted the portraits of the women to hang under 
 those of their husbands, merely to show how their 
 women looked and how they dressed, without saying 
 any more of them. After some considerable delay in 
 my operations, and much deliberation on the subject 
 through the village, I succeeded in getting a number of 
 women s portraits. One was the daughter of Black 
 Rock, an unmarried girl and much admired in the tribe 
 for her modesty and beauty. She was beautifully 
 dressed in skins ornamented with brass buttons and 
 
2O2 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 beads, with her hair plaited and over her ears a pro 
 fusion of beads. Another of these women had the up 
 per part of her garment covered with brass buttons, 
 and her hair, left free, fell over her shoulders in soft, 
 glossy waves, produced by braiding it, for their hair 
 is naturally straight and graceless. 
 
 The vanity of these men, after they had agreed to be 
 painted, was beyond all description, and far surpassing 
 that which is oftentimes immodest enough in civilized 
 society, where the sitter generally leaves the picture, 
 when it is done, to speak for and to take care of itself; 
 while an Indian often lies down from morning till night 
 in front of his portrait, admiring his own beautiful face, 
 and faithfully guarding it from day to day to save it 
 from accident or harm. 
 
 This guardianship was of great service to me, since I 
 frequently was anxious lest my paintings be injured by 
 the great crowds. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 THE DANCES AND MUSIC OF THE SIOUX 
 
 DURING the time that I was engaged in painting 
 my portraits I was occasionally inducing the 
 young men to give me their dances, a great vari 
 ety of which they gave me by being slightly paid, and 
 I was glad to say in order to enable me to study their 
 character and expression thoroughly, which I am sure I 
 have done. The dancing is generally done by the young 
 men, and it is considered undignified for the chiefs or 
 doctors to join in. Yet so great was my medicine that 
 chiefs and medicine-men turned out and agreed to com 
 pliment me with a dance. I looked on with great satis 
 faction, having been assured by the interpreters and 
 traders that this was the highest honor they had ever 
 known them to pay to any stranger among them. 
 
 This dance, which I have called "the dance of the 
 chiefs, " for want of a more significant title, was given by 
 fifteen or twenty chiefs and doctors, many of whom were 
 very old and venerable men. All of them came out in 
 their head-dresses of war-eagle quills, with a spear or 
 staff in the left hand and a rattle in the right. It was 
 given in the midst of the Sioux village, in front of the 
 
 head chiefs lodge; and, besides the medicine-man who 
 
 203 
 
204 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 beat on the drum and sang for the dance, there were 
 four young women standing in a row and chanting a 
 sort of chorus for the dancers, forming one of the very 
 few instances that I have ever known where the women 
 are allowed to take any part in the dancing or other 
 game or amusement with the men. 
 
 This dance was a very spirited thing, and pleased me 
 much, as well as all the village, who were assembled 
 around to witness what most of them never before had 
 seen their aged and venerable chiefs united in giving a 
 dance. 
 
 Dancing is one of the principal and most frequent 
 amusements among all the tribes. In their dances both 
 vocal and instrumental music are introduced. These 
 dances are made up of not more than four different 
 steps, but the figures are numerous. These are pro 
 duced by violent jumps and contortions, accompanied 
 by songs and beats of the drum, given in exact time 
 with the movements of the dancers. It has been said 
 that the Indian has neither harmony nor melody in his 
 music. I grant that in their vocal exercises what the 
 musical world calls melody is absent. Their songs are 
 made up, for the most part, of a sort of violent chant 
 of harsh and jarring gutturals, of yelps and barks and 
 screams. But these are given out in perfect time 
 and with at least harmony in their madness. There 
 are times, as every traveller in the Indian country 
 will attest, when the Indian lies by his fireside, his 
 drum in his hand, lightly touching it as he murmurs 
 dulcet sounds that might come from the most tender 
 
The Dances and Music of the Sioux 205 
 
 and delicate woman. These quiet and tender songs are 
 very different from those which are sung at their dances 
 in full chorus and with wild gesticulation. Many of 
 them seem to be quite rich in plaintive expression and 
 melody although barren of change and variety. 
 
 I saw so many of their different varieties of dances 
 among the Sioux that I should almost be disposed to 
 denominate them the "dancing Indians." It would 
 actually seem as if they had dances for everything. 
 And in so large a village there was scarcely an hour in 
 any day or night but the beat of the drum could 
 somewhere be heard. These dances are almost as 
 various and different in their character as they are nu 
 merous. Some of them are so exceedingly grotesque and 
 laughable as to keep the by-standers in an irresistible 
 roar of laughter. Others are calculated to excite his pity 
 and forcibly appeal to his sympathies; while others 
 disgust and yet others terrify and alarm him with their 
 frightful threats and contortions. 
 
 All the world has heard of the bear dance, though 
 I doubt whether more than a very small proportion of 
 persons have ever seen it. The Sioux, like all the 
 others of these Western tribes, are fond of bear s meat, 
 and must have good stores of the "bear s grease" 
 laid in, to oil their long and glossy locks as well as 
 the surface of their bodies. And they all like the 
 fine pleasure of a bear hunt, and also a participation 
 in the bear dance, which is given several days in suc 
 cession previous to their starting out, and in which 
 they all join in a song to the Bear Spirit, which they 
 
ao6 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 think holds somewhere an invisible existence, and 
 must be consulted and conciliated before they can en 
 ter upon their excursion with any prospect of success. 
 For this grotesque and amusing scene one of the chief 
 medicine-men placed over his body the entire skin of 
 a bear, with a war-eagle s quill on his head, taking 
 the lead in the dance, and looking through the skin 
 which formed a mask that hung over his face. Many 
 others in the dance wore masks on their faces made 
 of the skin from the bear s head; and all, with the 
 motions of their hands, closely imitated the movements 
 of that animal; some representing its motion in run 
 ning, and others the peculiar attitude and hanging of 
 the paws when it is sitting up on its hind feet and 
 looking out for the approach of an enemy. This gro 
 tesque and amusing masquerade oftentimes is con 
 tinued at intervals for several days previous to the start 
 ing of a party on the bear hunt, who would scarcely 
 count upon a tolerable prospect of success without a 
 strict adherence to this most important and indispen 
 sable form. 
 
 Dancing is done here, too, as it is oftentimes done in 
 tne enlightened world, to get favors to buy the world s 
 goods and in both countries danced with about equal 
 merit, except that the Indian has surpassed us in hon 
 esty by christening it in his own country the "beggar s 
 dance." This spirited dance was given, not by a set of 
 beggars though, literally speaking, but by the first and 
 most independent young men in the tribe, beautifully 
 dressed (Y. ^., not dressed at all, except with their breech 
 
The Dances and Music of the Sioux 207 
 
 clouts, or kelts, made of eagles and ravens quills), with 
 their lances and pipes and rattles in their hands, and a 
 medicine-man beating the drum and joining in the song 
 at the highest key of his voice. In this dance every one 
 sings as loud as he can halloo, uniting his voice with 
 the others in an appeal to the Great Spirit to open the 
 hearts of the by-standers to give to the poor and not to 
 themselves, assuring them that the Great Spirit will be 
 kind to those who are kind to the helpless and poor. 
 
 There are two dances among the Sioux for the pur 
 pose of teaching courage and endurance. One is the 
 war dance, in which each warrior must dance through 
 a fire in order to touch a red post, at the same time 
 vaunting his prowess and taking an oath. The other is 
 the straw dance. In this the children are made to 
 dance with burning straws tied to their bodies to make 
 them tough and brave. The scalp dance is given as a 
 celebration of a victory, and among this tribe, as I 
 learned while residing with them, danced in the night 
 by the light of their torches and just before retiring to 
 bed. When a war party returns from a war excursion, 
 bringing home with them the scalps of their enemies, 
 they generally "dance them" for fifteen nights in suc 
 cession, vaunting the most extravagant boasts of their 
 wonderful prowess in war, while they brandish their 
 war weapons in their hands. A number of young 
 women are selected to aid, although they do not actu 
 ally join in the dance, by stepping into the centre of the 
 ring and holding up the scalps that have been recently 
 taken, while the warriors dance, or rather jump, around 
 
208 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 in a circle, barking and yelping in a frightful manner, 
 using both feet at a time as they threaten with their 
 weapons, as if they were actually cutting one another 
 to pieces. 
 
 During these frantic leaps and thrusts every man 
 distorts his face to the utmost of his muscles, darting 
 his glaring eyeballs, snapping his teeth, and breathing 
 through his inflated nostrils the very hissing death of / 
 battle. No description could be written that would do 
 more than feebly convey the frightful effect of these 
 scenes enacted in the darkness of night under the 
 glaring light of their flaring flambeaux. 
 
 Something should be said of the custom of scalping as 
 it is practised by all of the North American Indians. 
 A genuine scalp must contain and show the crown of 
 the head, that part directly over what the phrenologists 
 call "self-esteem," or where the hair divides and ra 
 diates from the centre. This is a precaution lest two 
 scalps be taken from the same head. Scalping is done 
 by passing the knife under the skin and removing a 
 piece as large as the palm of a man s hand. It is not 
 an operation that destroys life, since it must be done 
 without injury to the bone. Besides the scalp, the 
 Indian usually cuts off as much of the hair of his enemy 
 as he can. This hair his wife uses in fringing the seams 
 of his leggings and shirt with what are called "scalp- 
 locks." 
 
 In his native state the Indian makes his scalping-knife 
 of a sharpened bone or the edge of a piece of silex, while 
 his war-club is carved from wood, and often with con- 
 
The Dances and Music of the Sioux 209 
 
 siderable grace. The Indian does not work in metals. 
 His scalping-knives are now made expressly for Indian 
 use and shipped into the Indian country by the tens of 
 thousands. The knife resembles a common butcher 
 knife with one edge, and is made at Sheffield for perhaps 
 a sixpence, and is sold to the Indian for the price of a 
 horse. Every scalping-knife I have found bears on its 
 blade the impress of "G. R.," which English people 
 will understand. His war-club is also another civilized 
 refinement. It is a blade of steel about ten inches long 
 set in a club studded around with hundreds of brass 
 nails. The scabbards of these weapons the Indian 
 makes for himself and often ornaments handsomely. 
 
 The scalp itself is preserved as a trophy. The 
 most usual way of preparing and dressing the scalp 
 is that of stretching it on a little hoop at the end of 
 a stick two or three feet long, for the purpose of "dan 
 cing it," as they term it, which will be described in the 
 scalp dance in a few moments. There are many, again, 
 which are small and not "dressed," sometimes not 
 larger than a crown piece, and hung to different parts 
 of the dress. In public shows and parades they are 
 often suspended from the bridle-bits or halter when 
 they are paraded and carried as trophies. Sometimes 
 they are cut out, as it were, into a string, the hair form 
 ing a fringe to line the handle of a war-club. Some 
 times they are hung at the end of the club, and at other 
 times, by the order of the chief, they are hung over the 
 wigwams suspended from a pole called the "scalp 
 pole." 
 
2i o The Boy s Catlin 
 
 "Scalp day" is a national holiday. The Sioux have 
 several days for scalp counting. The pole is stuck out 
 of the side of the wigwams like a flagpole. When the 
 chief has his pole ready it is the signal for the rest of 
 the tribe to make ready, so that all the village can count 
 each warrior s scalps and claims to promotion. 
 
 As the scalp is an evidence of the death of an enemy, 
 an Indian has neither business nor inclination to take it 
 from the living. It of course, sometimes happens on 
 the frontier, when a man is stunned by a war-club or 
 receives a gun-shot and falls, that an Indian rushing 
 over his body snatches his scalp supposing him dead. 
 But a scalp is supposed to be from the head of a dead 
 enemy or it subjects its owner to disgrace. 
 
 There is no custom practised by the Indians held in 
 greater horror than that of scalping. At the same time 
 there is some excuse for them, I think, since they have 
 no other means of keeping what from ancient times 
 they have held to be a glorious record of service to their 
 tribe. Among the Indians there is no historian to pre 
 serve the heroic deeds of those who have gained their 
 laurels in battle as there is in Christian countries. The 
 poor Indian is bound to do this for himself or he loses 
 such laurels. The motives for the scalp dance, which 
 is a strict ceremony among all tribes, is certainly public 
 exultation. But there seems to be in it something more. 
 Among some of the tribes it is the custom, after thus 
 publicly displaying the scalps and formally receiving 
 credit for them, to require their burial. The great re 
 spect which seems to be paid the scalps while they re- 
 
The Dances and Music of the Sioux 211 
 
 tain them, and the pitying and mournful song which 
 they howl to the manes of their unfortunate victims, as 
 well as the precise care and solemnity with which they 
 bury them, convinces me that they have a superstitious 
 
 ! dread of the spirits of their slain enemies and perform 
 these conciliatory offices to appease them. 
 
 If the reader thinks that I am taking too much pains 
 to defend the Indians for this and others of their seem 
 ingly abominable customs, he will bear it in mind that 
 I have lived with these people until I have learned the 
 necessities of Indian life in which these customs are 
 founded; and also, that I have met with so many acts of 
 kindness and hospitality at the hands of the poor Indian 
 that I feel bound, when I can do it, to render what 
 excuse I can for a people who are dying with broken 
 hearts and never can speak in the civilized world in 
 their own defence. 
 
 The musical instruments used among these people 
 are few, and these are rude and imperfect, consisting 
 chiefly of rattles, drums, whistles, and flutes. 
 
 The rattles (or she-she-quois) most generally used are 
 made of rawhide, which becomes very hard when dry, 
 and charged with pebbles or something of the kind, 
 which produce a shrill noise to mark the time in their 
 dances and songs. Their drums are made in a very 
 rude manner, oftentimes with a mere piece of rawhide 
 stretched over a hoop, very much in the shape of a tam 
 bourine, and at other times are made in the form of a 
 keg, with a head of rawhide at each end; on these they 
 beat with a drum-stick, which oftentimes itself is a 
 
212 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 rattle, the bulb or head of it being made of rawhide and 
 filled with pebbles. In other instances the stick has at 
 its end a little hoop wound and covered with buckskin, 
 to soften the sound, with which they beat on the drum 
 with great violence as the chief and heel-inspiring 
 sound for all their dances, and also as an accompani 
 ment for their numerous and never-ending songs of 
 amusement, of thanksgiving, and medicine or metai. 
 The mystery whistle is another instrument of their in 
 vention, and very ingeniously made, the sound being 
 produced on a principle entirely different from that of 
 any wind instrument known in civilized inventions, 
 and the notes produced on it by the sleight or trick of 
 an Indian boy in so simple and successful a manner as 
 to baffle entirely all civilized ingenuity, even when it is 
 seen to be played. An Indian boy would stand and 
 blow his notes on this repeatedly for hundreds of white 
 men who might be lookers-on, not one of whom could 
 make the least noise on it, even by practising with it for 
 hours. When I first saw this curious exhibition I was 
 charmed with the peculiar sweetness of its harmonic 
 sounds and completely perplexed (as hundreds of white 
 men have no doubt been before me, to the great amuse 
 ment and satisfaction of the women and children) as to 
 the mode in which the sound was produced, even though 
 it was repeatedly played immediately before my eyes 
 and handed to me for my vain and amusing endeavors. 
 The sounds of this little simple toy are liquid and sweet 
 beyond description, and though among the Indians 
 only given in harmonics, I am inclined to think might, 
 
The Dances and Music of the Sioux 213 
 
 by some ingenious musician or musical instrument 
 maker, be modulated and converted into something 
 very pleasing. 
 
 The war whistle is a well-known and valued little in 
 strument of six or nine inches in length, invariably 
 made of the bone of the deer or turkey s leg, and gener 
 ally ornamented with porcupine quills of different colors 
 which are wound around it. A chief or leader carries 
 this to battle with him, suspended generally from his 
 neck, and worn under his dress. This little instrument 
 has but two notes, which are produced by blowing in 
 the ends of it. The note produced in one end, being 
 much more shrill than the other, gives the signal for 
 battle, while the other sounds a retreat, a thing that is 
 distinctly heard and understood by every man, even in 
 the heat and noise of battle, where all are barking and 
 yelling as loud as possible, and of course unable to hear 
 the commands of their leader. 
 
 The signals in war are many and very intelligent as 
 well as curious. The world-wide notorious war-whoop 
 is one of these and is given by all tribes, both in North 
 and South America, exactly alike when rushing into 
 battle. It is a shrill, piercing note, sounded long, and 
 with a swell on the highest key of the voice made by 
 striking the palm or the fingers against the lips in order 
 to produce the most rapid vibration possible. 
 
 There is nothing so frightful in the sound itself. 
 There are many sounds more terrifying than the war- 
 whoop. But no other sound can be so distinctly heard 
 in the noise and confusion of battle. It is its association 
 
214 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 that gives it terror, for it is always the signal for attack, 
 and is never made until the rush is made and weapons 
 drawn for blood. No Indian is allowed to sound the 
 war-whoop in time of peace, except in the war dance 
 and countenanced by the chief, lest it be echoed by the 
 sentinels, and hunting parties alarmed. 
 
 There is yet another wind instrument which I have 
 added to my collection, and which from its appearance 
 would seem to have been borrowed, in part, from the 
 civilized world. This is what is often on the frontier 
 called a "deer-skin flute," a "Winnebago courting 
 flute," a "tsal-eet-quash-to," etc.; it is perforated with 
 holes for the ringers, sometimes for six, at others for four, 
 and in some instances for three only, having only so 
 many notes with their octaves. These notes are very 
 irregularly graduated, showing clearly that they have 
 very little taste or ear for melody. These instruments 
 are blown in the end, and the sound produced much on 
 the principle of a whistle. 
 
 In the vicinity of the upper Mississippi, I often and 
 familiarly heard this instrument called the Winnebago 
 courting flute, and was credibly informed by traders 
 and others in those regions that the young men of that 
 tribe meet with signal success, oftentimes, in wooing 
 their sweethearts with its simple notes, which they blow 
 for hours together and from day to day from the bank 
 of some stream, some favorite rock or log on which they 
 are seated, near to the wigwam which contains the 
 object of their tender passion, until her soul is touched, 
 and she responds by some welcome signal that she is 
 
The Dances and Music of the Sioux 215 
 
 ready to repay the young Orpheus for his pains with the 
 gift of her hand and her heart. How true these repre 
 sentations may have been I cannot say, but there 
 certainly must have been some ground for the present 
 cognomen by which it is known in that country. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 A DOG FEAST 
 
 IT was several weeks before the steamer "Yellow 
 stone" arrived at Fort Pierre. The excitement and 
 dismay among the six thousand Indians encamped 
 here, as the puffing of the steam and the thundering of 
 the cannon was heard, was very amusing. But when 
 their old friend and agent, Major Sanford, stepped off 
 the boat his presence seemed to restore courage, and 
 they showed no further curiosity about it. We were 
 now treated to numerous sights and amusements, some 
 entertaining, others shocking. 
 
 It was announced that a grand feast would be held 
 in honor of the great white chiefs. The two chiefs, 
 Ha-wan-je-tah and Tchan-dee, brought their two tents 
 together, forming a semicircle, enclosing a space suffi 
 ciently large to accommodate one hundred and fifty men, 
 and sat down with that number of the principal chiefs and 
 warriors of the Sioux nation, with Mr. Chouteau, Major 
 Sanford, the Indian agent, Mr. McKenzie, and myself, 
 whom they had invited in due time and placed on ele 
 vated seats in the centre of the crescent; while the rest 
 of the company all sat upon the ground, and mostly 
 
 cross-legged, preparatory to the feast being dealt out. 
 
 216 
 
A Dog Feast 217 
 
 In the centre of the semicircle was erected a flag 
 staff, on which was waving a white flag, and to which 
 also was tied the calumet, both expressive of their 
 friendly feelings toward us. Near the foot of the flag 
 staff were placed in a row on the ground six or eight 
 kettles, with iron covers on them shutting them tight, 
 in which were prepared the viands for our voluptuous 
 feast. Near the kettles and on the ground also, bottom- 
 side upward, were a number of wooden bowls, in which 
 the meat was to be served out, and in front two or three 
 men, who were there placed as waiters, to light the pipes 
 for smoking, and also to deal out the food. 
 
 In these positions things stood, and all sat, with thou 
 sands climbing and crowding around for a peep at the 
 grand pageant, when at length Ha-wan-je-tah (the one 
 horn), head chief of the nation, rose in front of the 
 Indian agent, in a very handsome costume, and ad 
 dressed him thus: "My father, I am glad to see you here 
 to-day. My heart is always glad to see my father when 
 he comes. Our Great Father who sends him here is 
 very rich and we are poor. Our friend Mr. McKenzie, 
 who is here, we are also glad to see; we know him well, 
 and we shall be sorry when he is gone. Our friend who 
 is on your right hand we all know is very rich, and we 
 have heard that he owns the great medicine canoe; he 
 is a good man and a friend to the red men. Our friend 
 the White Medicine, who sits with you, we did not know 
 he came among us a stranger and he has made me 
 very well all the women know it, and think it very 
 good; he has done many curious things and we have all 
 
21 8 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 been pleased with him; he has made us much amuse 
 ment and we know he is great medicine. 
 
 "My father, I hope you will have pity on us; we are 
 very poor; we offer you to-day not the best that we have 
 got, for we have plenty of good buffalo hump and mar 
 row; but we give you our hearts in this feast we have 
 killed our faithful dogs to feed you and the Great 
 Spirit will seal our friendship. I have no more to say." 
 
 After these words he took off his beautiful war-eagle 
 head-dress, his shirt and leggings, his necklace of grizzly 
 bears claws, and his moccasins, and, tying them to 
 gether, laid them gracefully down at the feet of the 
 agent as a present; and laying a handsome pipe on top 
 of them, he walked around into an adjoining lodge, 
 where he got a buffalo-robe to cover his shoulders, and 
 returned to the feast, taking the seat which he had before 
 occupied. 
 
 Major Sanford then rose and made a short speech in 
 reply, thanking him for the valuable present which he 
 had made him and for the very polite and impressive 
 manner in which it had been done, and sent to the 
 steamer for a quantity of tobacco and other presents, 
 which were given to him in return. After this, and after 
 several others of the chiefs had addressed him in a simi 
 lar manner, and, like the first, disrobed themselves and 
 thrown their beautiful costumes at his feet, one of the 
 three men in front deliberately lit a handsome pipe and 
 brought it to Ha-wan-je-tah to smoke. He took it, and, 
 after presenting the stem to the north, to the south, to 
 the east, and the west, and then to the sun that was over 
 
A Dog Feast 219 
 
 his head, he pronounced the words "How how 
 how!" and drew a whiff or two of smoke through it. 
 Then holding the bowl of it in one hand and its stem in 
 the other, he held it to each of our mouths as we suc 
 cessively smoked it; after which it was passed around 
 through the whole group, who all smoked through it, 
 or as far as its contents lasted, when another of the three 
 waiters was ready with a second, and at length a third 
 one in the same way, which lasted through the hands 
 of the whole number of guests. This smoking was 
 conducted with the strictest adherence to exact and 
 established form. After the pipe is charged and 
 lighted, until the time that the chief has drawn the 
 smoke through it, it is considered an evil omen for any 
 one to speak; and if any one break silence in that time, 
 even in a whisper, the pipe is instantly dropped by the 
 chief, and their superstition is such that they would not 
 dare to use it on this occasion; but another one is called 
 for and used in its stead. If there is no accident of the 
 kind during the smoking, the waiters then proceed to 
 distribute the meat, which is soon devoured in the feast. 
 The lids were now raised from the kettles which were 
 filled with dog meat. Being well cooked and made 
 into a sort of stew, it sent forth a savory smell and 
 promised to be a palatable food. Each of us civilized 
 guests had a wooden bowl placed before us, the dog s 
 flesh floating in rich gravy, with a large spoon of 
 buffalo s horn in the dish. In this most painful dilemma 
 we sat, knowing the solemnity and good feeling with 
 which it was offered and the necessity of falling to and 
 
22O The Boy s Catlin 
 
 devouring at least a little of it. We tasted it a few 
 times and then resigned our dishes, which were quite 
 willingly taken and devoured by others. After eating, 
 each one rose and walked off without uttering a word. 
 In this way the feast ended, when the space was left to 
 the waiters or officers who had charge of the occa 
 sion. 
 
 The dog feast, I feel competent to say, should be re 
 garded as a religious ceremony in which the Indian 
 sacrifices his most faithful companion to bear witness to 
 the sacredness of his vows of friendship. The dog, 
 among all Indian tribes, is more valued than in any part 
 of the civilized world. The Indian has more time to 
 devote to his company, and his untutored mind more 
 nearly assimilates with that of his faithful servant. 
 They hunt together and are equal sharers of the chase. 
 Their bed is one, and on the rocks and on their coats 
 of arms they carve his image as the symbol of fidelity. 
 Yet he will end his affection with his faithful follower, 
 and with tears in his eyes will offer him as a sacrifice to 
 seal his friendship with man. A feast of venison or of 
 buffalo meat is due to every one who enters his wigwam, 
 and conveys no significance. I have seen the master 
 take from the bowl the head of his victim and descant 
 on its former affection and fidelity with tears in his eyes. 
 I have also seen guests sneer and jest at the Indian s 
 folly, and I have said in my heart that they did not 
 deserve a name so good or so honorable as that of the 
 poor animal whose bones they were picking. 
 
 The flesh of these dogs, though apparently relished 
 
A Dog Feast 221 
 
 by the Indians, is, undoubtedly, inferior to the venison 
 and buffalo meat of which feasts are constantly made 
 where friends are invited, as they are in civilized society, 
 to a pleasant and convivial party. From this fact alone 
 it would seem clear that they have some extraordinary 
 motive, at all events, for feasting on the flesh of that 
 useful and faithful animal, even when, as in the instance 
 I have been describing, their village is well supplied 
 with fresh and dried meat of the buffalo. The dog 
 feast is given, I believe, by all tribes in North America; 
 and by them all, I think, this faithful animal, as well as 
 the horse, is sacrificed in several different ways to ap 
 pease offended Spirits or Deities, whom it is considered 
 necessary that they should conciliate in this way, and 
 by giving the best in the herd or the kennel. 
 
 In the after-part of the day of the dog feast I was 
 called to ride a mile or so to the base of the bluff near 
 the Teton River, where on a little plain was a group of 
 lodges of the Ting-ta-to-ah band of Sioux, to see a man 
 "looking at the sun." We found him naked except for 
 his breech-cloth, with splints or skewers run through the 
 flesh of his breasts, and leaning back and hanging with 
 the weight of his body to a pole, by a cord attached to the 
 splints. The top of the pole was bent forward by the 
 weight, allowing his body to sink about half-way to the 
 ground. His feet were still upon the ground supporting 
 a small part of his weight, and he held in his left hand 
 his favorite bow, and in his right, with a desperate grip, 
 his medicine-bag. In this condition, with the blood 
 trickling down over his body, which was covered with 
 
222 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 white and yellow clay, and amid a great crowd who 
 were looking on, sympathizing with and encouraging 
 him, he was hanging and "looking at the sun," without 
 paying the least attention to any one about him. In the 
 group that was reclining around him were several 
 mystery-men beating their drums and shaking their 
 rattles, and singing as loud as they could yell, to en 
 courage him and strengthen his heart to stand and look 
 at the sun from its rising in the morning until its setting 
 at night; at which time, if his heart and his strength have 
 not failed him, he is "cut down," receives the liberal 
 donation of presents (which have been thrown into a 
 pile before him during the day), and also the name and 
 the style of a doctor, or medicine-man, which lasts him 
 and insures him respect through life. 
 
 This most extraordinary and cruel custom I never 
 heard of among any other tribe, and never saw an in 
 stance of it before or after the one I have just named. 
 It is a sort of worship or penance of great cruelty 
 disgusting and painful to behold, with only one palliat 
 ing circumstance about it, which is, that it is a voluntary 
 torture and of very rare occurrence. The poor and 
 ignorant, misguided and superstitious man who under 
 takes it puts his everlasting reputation at stake upon 
 the issue; for when he takes his stand he expects to face 
 the sun and gradually turn his body in listless silence 
 till he sees it go down at night. If he faints and falls, 
 of which there is imminent danger, he loses his reputa 
 tion as a brave or mystery-man, and suffers a signal 
 disgrace in the estimation of the tribe, like all men who 
 
A Dog Feast 223 
 
 have the presumption to set themselves up for braves or 
 mystery-men, and fail justly to sustain the character. 
 
 During my stay with the Sioux I received many 
 presents from them as tokens of friendship, and among 
 these many pipes. Tobacco was made known to the In 
 dians by the white man, who at the same time supplied 
 them with whiskey. But smoking has always been one 
 of their customs. There are leaves and the bark of many 
 trees which grow wild that have mild narcotic proper 
 ties. These the Indians dry, pulverize, and carry in 
 their pouches. When thus prepared it is called "k nick- 
 k neck," and is an innocent luxury, as its effect on the 
 system is very feeble and harmless. 
 
 The Indian in his native state seems to be smoking 
 one-half of his life. He has neither trade nor business, 
 and he fills his leisure with amusement and smoking. 
 The pipe is his constant companion through life. It is 
 his messenger of peace, he pledges his friends through 
 its stem and bowl, and when its care-drowning fumes 
 cease to rise it takes a place with him in his solitary 
 grave, with the tomahawk and war-club, on his journey 
 to the "mild and beautiful hunting-grounds" of his 
 fancy. The Indian accordingly spends much time on 
 his pipe, which he makes himself. The bowls are gen 
 erally made of red steatite, called in the language of the 
 country pipe-stone. This stone is different from any 
 other variety of steatite either in this country or Europe, 
 and is traceable thus far to only one source, and that 
 lies somewhere between these plains and the upper 
 Mississippi. 
 
224 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 According to the Sioux tradition : " Before the creation 
 of man the Great Spirit, whose tracks are yet to be seen 
 in the form of those of a large bird, used to slay the 
 buffaloes and eat them on the ledge of the Red Rocks 
 on the top of the Coteau des Prairies, and the blood 
 running on the rocks turned them red. One day, when 
 a large snake had crept into the nest of the bird to eat 
 his eggs, one of the eggs hatched out in a clap of thun 
 der. The Great Spirit then, picking up a piece of the 
 stone to throw at the snake, moulded it into a man. 
 This man s feet grew fast in the ground, where he stood 
 for many ages like a great tree. He grew very old, older 
 than a hundred men to-day. At last another tree grew 
 up by the side of him, and the snake ate them both off 
 at the roots, when they wandered off together, and from 
 them sprang all the people on the earth." 
 
 This red stone the Indians say is great medicine, and 
 has been given to them by the Great Spirit for their 
 pipes, and it is strictly forbidden to use it for any other 
 purpose. As yet the place has been visited only by the 
 red man, but I shall certainly lay my course to it in 
 time and make known its mysteries. The color of the 
 stone is cherry red and admits of a beautiful polish. 
 The Indian makes a hole in the solid stone, which is not 
 quite as hard as marble, by drilling into it with a hard 
 stick shaped to the desired size, using plenty of sharp 
 sand and water in the hole; this is a work of great labor 
 and much patience. Many of the bowls are afterward 
 carved with much taste and skill with figures and groups 
 in high relief. 
 
A Dog Feast 225 
 
 The shafts or stems of these pipes are from two to 
 four feet long, sometimes round, but usually flat, 
 of an inch or two in breadth, and wound half their 
 length or more with braids of porcupine quills, and 
 often ornamented with the beaks and tufts from the 
 woodpecker s head, with ermine-skins and long red hair, 
 dyed from white horsehair or the white buffalo s tail. 
 
 The stems of these pipes will be found to be carved 
 in many ingenious forms, and in all cases they are per 
 forated through the centre, quite staggering the wits of 
 the enlightened world to guess how the holes have been 
 bored through them; until it is simply and briefly ex 
 plained that the stems are uniformly made of the stalk 
 of the young ash, which generally grows straight, and 
 has a small pith through the centre, that is easily 
 burned out with a hot wire, or with a piece of hardwood 
 by a much slower process. 
 
 The calumet, or pipe of peace, ornamented with the 
 war-eagle s quills, is a sacred pipe, and never allowed to 
 be used on any other occasion than that of peace-making, 
 when the chief brings it into treaty and, unfolding the 
 many bandages which are carefully kept around it, has 
 it ready to be mutually smoked by the chiefs after the 
 terms of the treaty are agreed upon, as the means of 
 solemnizing or signing by an illiterate people, who can 
 not draw up an instrument and sign their names to it as 
 is done in the civilized world. 
 
 The mode of solemnizing is by passing the sacred 
 stem to each chief, who draws one breath of smoke only 
 through it, thereby passing the most inviolable pledge 
 
226 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 that they can possibly give for the keeping of the peace. 
 This sacred pipe is then carefully folded up and stowed 
 away in the chief s lodge, until a similar occasion calls it 
 out to be used in a similar manner. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 THE BUFFALO CHASE 
 
 IN the heart of the buffalo country, where there 
 are no extremes of heat and cold, the finest animals 
 are to be found. I could never send from a better 
 source some account of these noble animals that are 
 being hurried to their final extinction. The Sioux are a 
 a bold and desperate set of horsemen and great hunters. 
 Here also in the midst of them is an extensive assortment 
 of goods, of whiskey, and a number of indefatigable men, 
 who are calling for every robe that can be stripped from 
 these animals backs. Like the poor savage himself, 
 it is but a question of time when they will fade away 
 before the approach of civilized man and exist only on 
 canvas and in books. 
 
 The American bison, or buffalo, as I shall call him, 
 is the largest of the ruminating animals on the prairie, 
 where he seems to have been placed by the Great Spirit 
 for the use and subsistence of the red men, who live 
 almost exclusively upon his flesh and clothe themselves 
 with his skin. Their color is dark brown, which changes 
 with the seasons, exposure to the weather turning it 
 quite light, while the new coat in the spring is jet black. 
 
 The buffalo bull often grows to the enormous weight 
 
 227 
 
228 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 of two thousand pounds, and shakes over his head and 
 shoulders, and often down to the ground, a long and 
 shaggy black mane. During the "running season," in 
 August and September, they congregate in such masses 
 as literally to blacken the prairie for miles. In these 
 scenes the whole mass is in constant motion, and their 
 bellows and roars at the distance of a mile or two sound 
 like distant thunder. During this time the traveller may 
 traverse miles of the vacated country without seeing a 
 single buffalo. But a few weeks after, if he retraces his 
 steps, he will find little flocks grazing in every direction, 
 some at play and others indulging in their favorite 
 wallows. 
 
 In the summer these animals suffer greatly from heat, 
 and wherever there is a little stagnant water lying 
 in the grass, and the ground underneath, the enormous 
 bull, lowered down upon one knee, will plunge his horns, 
 and at last his head, driving up the earth, and soon 
 making an excavation in the ground. Into this the 
 water filters from among the grass, forming for him in a 
 few moments a cool and comfortable bath, into which 
 he plunges like a hog in his mire. 
 
 In this delectable laver he throws himself flat upon his 
 side, and forcing himself violently around, with his 
 horns and his huge hump on his shoulders presented to 
 the sides, he ploughs up the ground by his rotary motion, 
 sinking himself deeper and deeper in the ground, con 
 tinually enlarging his pool, into which he at length be 
 comes nearly immersed. The water and mud about 
 him mixed into a complete mortar, drips in streams 
 

The Buffalo Chase 229 
 
 from every part of him as he rises up on his feet, a 
 hideous monster of mud and ugliness, too frightful and 
 too eccentric to be described! 
 
 It is generally the leader of the herd that takes upon 
 himself to make this excavation; but if another one 
 opens the ground, the leader (who is conqueror) 
 marches forward, and driving the other from it plunges 
 in himself. Having cooled his sides and changed his 
 color to a walking mass of mud and mortar, he stands 
 in the pool until inclination induces him to step out and 
 give place to the next in command, who stands ready, 
 and another, and another, who advance forward in their 
 turns to enjoy the luxury of the wallow, until the whole 
 band (sometimes a hundred or more) will pass through 
 it, each one throwing his body around in a similar 
 manner, and each one adding a little to the dimensions 
 of the pool, while he carries away in his hair an equal 
 share of the clay, which dries to a gray or whitish color 
 and gradually falls off. By this operation, which is done 
 perhaps in the space of half an hour, a circular excava 
 tion of fifteen or twenty feet in diameter and two feet in 
 depth is completed, and left for the water to run into, 
 which soon fills it to the level of the ground. 
 
 To these sinks the waters lying on the surface of the 
 prairies are continually draining and lodging their 
 vegetable deposits. These after a lapse of years fill 
 them up to the surface with a rich soil, which throws up 
 an unusual growth of grass and herbage, forming con 
 spicuous circles that arrest the eye of the traveller and 
 are calculated to excite his surprise for ages to come. 
 
2jo The Boy s Catlin 
 
 Many travellers who have penetrated not quite far 
 enough into the Western country to see the habits of 
 these animals and the manner in which these mysterious 
 circles are made, but who have seen the prairies 
 strewn with bleached bones, and have beheld these 
 strange circles, which often occur in groups and of 
 different sizes, have come home with beautiful and in 
 genious theories (which must needs be made) for the 
 origin of these singular and unaccountable appearances 
 For want of a rational theory, these have generally been 
 attributed to fairy feet and gained the appellation of 
 "fairy circles." 
 
 Many travellers, again, have supposed that these 
 rings were produced by the dances of the Indians, which 
 are oftentimes (and in fact most generally) performed 
 in a circle; yet a moment s consideration disproves such 
 a probability, inasmuch as the Indians always select the 
 ground for their dancing near the sites of their villages, 
 and that always on a dry and hard foundation, while 
 these "fairy circles" are uniformly found to be on low 
 and wet ground. 
 
 The female buffalo is much smaller than the male, 
 and always distinguishable by the peculiar shape of the 
 horns, which are much smaller and more crooked, 
 turning their points more in toward the centre of the 
 forehead. 
 
 The horns of the male are short but very large, and 
 have but one turn, /. e., they are a simple arch, without 
 the least approach to a spiral form, like those of the 
 common ox or of the goat species. 
 
The Buffalo Chase 231 
 
 One of the most remarkable characteristics of the 
 buffalo is the peculiar formation and expression of the 
 eye, the ball of which is very large and white and the 
 iris jet black. The lids of the eye seem always to be 
 strained quite open and the ball rolling forward and 
 down, so that a considerable part of the iris is hidden 
 behind the lower lid, while the pure white of the eyeball 
 glares out over it in an arch, in the shape of a moon at 
 the end of its first quarter. 
 
 The chief occupation of the Indian is the chase of the 
 buffalo. He is mounted on the small but useful horse 
 which is caught wild on the prairie running in numerous 
 bands. \Vhen pursuing a large herd, the Indian gener 
 ally rides close in the rear, until he, selects the animal he 
 wishes to kill, which he separates from the herd as soon 
 as he can, by dashing his horse between it and the herd 
 and forcing it off alone, in order that he may not 
 himself be trampled to death in the throng. No bridle 
 whatever is used by the Indians as they have no knowl 
 edge of a bit. A short halter, however, which answers 
 in place of a bridle, is in general use, of which they usu 
 ally form a noose around the under jaw of the horse, 
 by which they get great power over the animal, and 
 which they use generally to stop rather than guide the 
 horse. This halter is called by the French traders in 
 the country I arret, the stop, and has great power in 
 arresting the speed of a horse, though it is extremely 
 dangerous to use too freely as a guide, since it interferes 
 too much with the freedom of his limbs for the 
 certainty of his feet and security of his rider. 
 
232 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 When the Indian then has directed the course of his 
 steed to the animal which he has selected, the training 
 of the horse is such that it knows the object of its rider s 
 selection, and exerts every muscle to give it close com 
 pany, while the halter lies loose and untouched upon its 
 neck, and the rider leans quite forward and off from the 
 side of his horse, with his bow drawn and ready for the 
 deadly shot, which is given at the instant he is opposite 
 to the animal s body. The horse, being instinctively 
 afraid of the animal (though he generally brings his 
 rider within the reach of the end of his bow), keeps his 
 eye strained upon the furious enemy he is so closely en 
 countering, and the moment he has approached to the 
 nearest distance required and has passed the animal, 
 whether the shot is given or not, he gradually sheers off, 
 to prevent coming on to the horns of the infuriated 
 beast, which often are instantly turned and presented 
 for the fatal reception of its too familiar attendant. 
 These frightful collisions often take place, notwithstand 
 ing the sagacity of the horse and the caution of its rider; 
 for in these extraordinary (and inexpressible) exhilara 
 tions of chase, which seem to drown the prudence alike 
 of instinct and reason, both horse and rider often seem 
 rushing on to destruction, as if it were mere pastime and 
 amusement. 
 
 I have always counted myself a prudent man, yet I 
 have often waked, as it were, out of the delirium of the 
 chase (into which I had fallen, as into an agitated sleep, 
 and through which I had passed as through a delightful 
 dream), where to have died would have been but to 
 
I 
 
The Buffalo Chase 233 
 
 ^5 
 
 have remained riding "on without a struggle or a 
 pang. 
 
 In some of these, too, I have arisen from the prairie, 
 covered with dirt and blood, having severed company 
 with gun and horse, the one lying some twenty or thirty 
 feet from me with a broken stock, and the other coolly 
 browsing on the grass at half a mile distance, without 
 man and without other beast remaining in sight. 
 
 For the novice in these scenes there is much danger 
 to his limbs and his life, and he finds it a hard and a des 
 perate struggle that brings him in at the death of these 
 huge monsters, except where it has been produced by 
 hands that have acquired more sleight and tact than his 
 own. 
 
 With the Indian, who has m^ae this me\every-day 
 sport and amusement of his life, there is] less Difficulty 
 and less danger; he rides without "losing his breath," 
 and his steady hand deals certainty in its deadly 
 blows. 
 
 A part of the equipment I have not mentioned is the 
 lasso, which is a long thong of rawhide ten or fifteen 
 yards in length, made of several braids, which is chiefly 
 used in catching wild horses. But in running buffaloes 
 and in war the lasso is allowed to drag on the ground 
 for several rods, so that if a man is dismounted, which 
 is often the case, by the tripping or stumbling of the 
 horse he can lay hold of the lasso and thus secure his 
 horse and rejoin the chase. 
 
 In the winter, when horses, on account of the snow, 
 are not available for the chase, the Indian uses snow- 
 
234 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 shoes. These snow-shoes are made in many forms, gen 
 erally two or three feet long, a foot wide, of bent hoops, 
 with strips of rawhide netted across on which the feet 
 rest and to which they are fastened with straps like a 
 skate. With these the Indian will glide over the snow 
 with astonishing quickness, while the great weight of 
 the buffaloes sinks them down and insures their be 
 coming an easy prey to the bow and lance of their 
 pursuers. 
 
 As in winter the buffalo fur is at its thickest, it is in 
 greatest demand and the slaughter is at its height. The 
 carcass is quickly stripped, the fur taken and sold to the 
 traders, and the flesh left for the wolves, inasmuch as 
 the Indians generally kill and dry meat enough in the 
 fall, when it is fat and juicy, to last them through the 
 winter. . x ^ - - 
 
 Thus at all seasons of the year the poor buffaloes 
 have their enemy, man, devising ways for their destruc 
 tion. He dashes among them on the plains with his 
 wild horse, he chases them into the deep snow-drifts on 
 his snow-shoes, where they fall an easy prey, and they 
 unwittingly behold him under the skin of a white wolf, 
 while they are peaceably grazing, and are shot down 
 before they are aware of their danger. The white wolf 
 sneaks about in gangs on the green prairie, looking like 
 nothing so much as a flock of sheep. They are always 
 seen following the herds ready to pick the bones of 
 those the hunters leave on the ground or to slay and 
 devour the wounded. So long as the herd of buffaloes 
 is together they seem to have little dread of the wolf, 
 
The Buffalo Chase 235 
 
 and allow it to come near. The Indian takes advan 
 tage of this fact, and, hiding undtr.the skin of the wolf, 
 will crawl a half-mile or more on his knees, until he gets 
 within a few rods of the unsuspecting group, and easily 
 shoots down the fattest of the herd. 
 
 The buffalo is a very timid animal, and shuns man, 
 yet, when overtaken and harassed or wounded, turns 
 in fury. In their desperate resistance the finest horses 
 are often destroyed; but the Indian, with his superior 
 sagacity and dexterity, generally finds some effective 
 mode of escape. 
 
 During the season of the year while the calves are 
 young the male seems to stroll about by the side of the 
 dam, as if for the purpose of protecting the young, at 
 which time it is exceedingly hazardous to attack them. 
 The buffalo calf during the first six months is red, and 
 has so much the appearance of a red calf in cultivated 
 fields that it could easily be mingled and mistaken 
 among them. In the fall, when it changes its hair, it 
 takes a brown coat for the winter which it always re 
 tains. In pursuing a large herd of buffaloes in the 
 season when their calves are but a few weeks old, I have 
 often been exceedingly amused with the curious ma 
 noeuvres of these shy little things. Amid the thunder 
 ing confusion of a throng of several hundreds or several 
 thousands of these animals, there will be many of the 
 calves that lose sight of their dams; and being left behind 
 by the throng and the swift-passing hunters, they en 
 deavor to secrete themselves, on the level prairie, 
 where naught can be seen but the short grass of 
 
236 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 six or eight inches in height, save an occasional 
 bunch of wild sage a few inches higher. To this 
 the poor affrighted things will run, and, dropping 
 on their knees, will push their noses under it and into 
 the grass, where they will stand for hours, with their 
 eyes shut, imagining themselves securely hid, while 
 they are standing up quite straight on their hind feet 
 and can easily be seen at several miles distance. It is 
 a familiar amusement for us, accustomed to these scenes, 
 to retreat and approach these little trembling things, 
 which stubbornly maintain their positions, with their 
 noses pushed under the grass and their eyes strained 
 upon us, as we dismount from our horses and are passing 
 around them. From this fixed position they are sure 
 not to move until hands are laid upon them, and then 
 for the shins of a novice we can extend our sympathy; 
 or, if he can preserve the skin on his bones from the 
 furious buttings of its head, we know how to congratu 
 late him on his signal success and good luck. In these 
 desperate struggles, for a moment, the little thing is con 
 quered and makes no further resistance. And I have 
 often, in concurrence with a known custom of the coun 
 try, held my hands over the eyes of the calf and breathed 
 a few strong breaths into its nostrils, after which I have, 
 with my hunting companions, ridden several miles into 
 our encampment, with the little prisoner busily follow 
 ing the heels of my horse the whole way, as closely and 
 as affectionately as its instinct would attach it to the 
 company of its dam! 
 
 This is one of the most extraordinary things that I 
 
The Buffalo Chase 237 
 
 have met with in the habits of this wild country, and 
 although I had often heard of it and felt unable exactly 
 to believe it, I am now willing to bear tt^f&tnony to the 
 fact because of the numerous instances I have witnessed 
 since I came to this country. In this way, before we 
 left the head-waters of the Missouri, we had collected 
 about a dozen of these little calves, which followed 
 at our horses heels even into the stables at the Fort, 
 where our horses were led. With the aid of a good milch 
 cow, Mr. Laidlaw was successfully raising them to be 
 sent to Mr. Chouteau s plantation at St. Louis. 
 
 It is melancholy for the traveller in this country to 
 perceive that the time is not far distant when these noble 
 animals will at last perish before the cruel and improvi 
 dent rapacity of the white men and the red. Only a 
 few days before I arrived, an immense herd showing in 
 the distance, a band of several hundred Sioux crossed 
 the river at mid-day, and after a few hours brought in 
 fourteen hundred fresh buffalo tongues for which they 
 received a few gallons of whiskey. Not a skin did they 
 bring; it was not the season for fur. Not a pound of 
 flesh did they bring; the camp required no fresh meat. 
 This is but one instance of the profligate waste of the 
 buffalo. 
 
 The Indians look to the white men as beings wiser 
 than they, and think it no harm to drink the beverage 
 the white man offers and drinks himself. Thus the 
 Indian easily acquires a taste for whiskey, and for it 
 will strip the last buffalo of its skin, which his squaw 
 will dress, that he may sell it for a pint of diluted alcohol. 
 
238 The Boy s .Catlin 
 
 On the other hand, under some great protecting 
 policy of the government, how delightful to contemplate 
 a magnificent park in this region, preserved in its pris 
 tine beauty and wildness, where the world could see in 
 time to come the native Indian, his sports, his language, 
 his manners and customs as they exist to-day in hb 
 isolation from the civilized world! What a beautiful 
 and thrilling sight in the future would be the Indian, in 
 his classic attire, with his sinewy bow, his shield and 
 lance, on his wild horse chasing the fleeting herds of elk 
 and buffalo! Such scenes might easily be preserved on 
 the great plains of the West without detriment to the 
 country or its borders, for those lands on which the 
 buffaloes have assembled are uniformly sterile, and it is 
 where the buffalo is found that the finest specimens of 
 the Indian race are to be seen. 
 
 I would ask no other monument to my memory, nor 
 any other enrolment of my name among the famous 
 dead, than the reputation of having been the founder 
 of such an institution. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 A PRAIRIE FIRE 
 
 MY voyage from the mouth of the Teton River to 
 Fort Leavenworth has been the most rugged 
 yet the most delightful of my whole tour. Our 
 canoe was generally landed at night on the point of 
 some projecting barren sand-bar, where we straightened 
 our limbs on our buffalo-robes, secure from the annoy 
 ance of mosquitoes and out of the walks of Indians and 
 grizzly bears. In addition to the opportunity which 
 this descending tour has afforded me of visiting all the 
 tribes of Indians on the river and leisurely filling my 
 portfolio with the beautiful scenery which its shores 
 present the sportsman s fever was roused and satisfied; 
 the swans, ducks, geese, and pelicans, the deer, antelope, 
 elk, and buffaloes were "stretched" by our rifles; and 
 sometimes "pull, boys, pull! a war party! for your 
 lives, pull, or we are gone!" 
 
 I often landed my skiff and mounted the green-car 
 peted bluffs, whose soft, grassy tops invited me to recline, 
 where I was at once lost in contemplation. Such a 
 place was "Floyd s Grave," a name given to one of 
 the most lovely and imposing bluffs on the Missouri 
 River about twelve hundred miles above St. Louis. 
 
 239 
 
240 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 Here was buried Sergeant Floyd, of the Lewis and 
 Clarke expedition, in 1806, a cedar post bearing the 
 initials of his name marking his grave. I landed my 
 canoe in front of this grass-covered mound and we 
 went into camp at its base. Several times I ascended 
 the bluff and beheld the infinite windings of the Mis 
 souri and its thousand domes and hills of green vanish 
 ing into the blue distance. I could not hunt on this 
 ground, but roamed from hill top to hill top gathering 
 wild flowers, and seeing into the future when these hills 
 and dales will be streaked by the plough, yellow with the 
 harvest, and spotted with kine and groups of hamlets 
 and villas. 
 
 This voyage in my little canoe afforded me infinite 
 pleasure, mingled with pains and privations I shall 
 never wish to forget. Gliding along from day to day, 
 my merry voyageurs were continually chanting their 
 cheerful boat songs, and every now and then taking up 
 their rifles to bring down stately elks or antelopes. 
 
 But a few miles from "Floyd s Bluff" we landed 
 our canoe and spent a day in the vicinity of "Black 
 Bird s Grave." This is a celebrated point on the Mis 
 souri, which all the travellers in these realms, both 
 white and red, are in the habit of visiting, This elevated 
 bluff has received the name of "Black Bird s Grave" 
 from the fact that a famous chief of the O-ma-has, by 
 the name of the Black Bird, was buried on its top, over 
 whose grave a cedar post was erected by his tribe, some 
 thirty years ago, which is still standing. The O-ma- 
 ha village was about sixty miles above this place, and 
 
A Prairie Fire 241 
 
 this very noted chief, who had been on a visit to Wash 
 ington city in company with the Indian agent, died of 
 the small-pox near this spot on his return home. 
 When dying he requested his warriors to take his body 
 down to the river to this, his favorite haunt, and on the 
 pinnacle of this towering bluff to bury him on the back 
 of his favorite war-horse, alive under him, from whence 
 he could see, as he said, "the Frenchmen passing up and 
 down the river in their boats." 
 
 He owned, among many horses, a noble white steed 
 that was led to the top of the grass-covered hill, and 
 with great pomp and ceremony, in presence of the 
 whole nation and several of the fur traders and the 
 Indian agent, he was placed astride of his horse s back, 
 with his bow in his hand and his shield and quiver 
 slung, with his pipe and his medicine-bag, with his 
 supply of dried meat and his tobacco-pouch replen 
 ished to last him through his journey to the "beau 
 tiful hunting-grounds of the shades of his fathers," with 
 his flint and steel and his tinder to light his pipes by 
 the way. The scalps that he had taken from his ene 
 mies heads were hung to the bridle of his horse; he 
 was in full dress and fully equipped, and on his head 
 waved to the last moment his beautiful head-dress of 
 the war-eagle s plumes. In this plight, and the last 
 funeral honors having been performed by the medicine 
 men, every warrior of his band painted the palm and 
 fingers of his right hand with vermilion, which was 
 stamped and perfectly impressed on the milk-white 
 sides of his devoted horse. This all done, turf was 
 
242 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 brought and placed around the feet and legs of the 
 horse and gradually laid up to its sides, and at last over 
 the back and head of the unsuspecting animal, and last 
 of all over the head and even the eagle plumes of its 
 valiant rider, which have remained there undisturbed 
 to the present day. 
 
 There have been some surprising tales told of this 
 man. The traders say that his almost superhuman 
 authority in his tribe was obtained by poisoning his 
 enemies with arsenic. If this is true it is an instance of 
 Indian depravity that in my travels I have never en 
 countered. But I do know how Black Bird exposed 
 his life and shed his blood rescuing victims from torture, 
 and abolished that savage custom in his tribe; how he 
 led on and headed his warriors against the Sacs and 
 Foxes, and saved his women and children from butchery; 
 how he received the Indian agent and entertained him 
 in his hospitable wigwam, and how he conducted and 
 acquitted himself in his embassy to the civilized world. 
 
 In this voyage Batiste and Bogard were my constant 
 companions, and we all had our rifles and used them 
 often. We often went ashore among the herds of 
 buffaloes, and were obliged to do so for our daily food. 
 We lived the whole way on buffaloes flesh and venison 
 we had no bread but laid in a good stock of coffee 
 and sugar. These, however, from an unforeseen acci 
 dent, availed us but little, as on the second or third day 
 of our voyage, after we had taken our coffee on the 
 shore and Batiste and Bogard had gone in pursuit of a 
 herd of buffaloes, I took it into my head to have an extra 
 

A Prairie Fire 243 
 
 fine dish of coffee for myself, as the fire was fine. 
 For this purpose I added more coffee-grounds to the pot 
 and placed it on the fire, which I sat watching, when I 
 saw a fine buffalo cow wending her way leisurely over 
 the hills but a little distance from me, for whom I 
 started at once with my rifle trailed in my hand; and 
 after creeping and running and heading for half an hour 
 without getting a shot at her, I came back to the encamp 
 ment, where I found my two men with meat enough, but 
 in the most uncontrollable rage, for my coffee had all 
 boiled out and the coffee-pot was melted to pieces! 
 
 This was truly a deplorable accident and one that 
 could in no effectual way be remedied. We afterward 
 botched up a mess or two of it in our frying-pan, but to 
 little purpose, and then abandoned it to Bogard alone, 
 who thankfully received the dry coffee-grounds and 
 sugar at his meals, which he soon entirely demolished. 
 
 We met immense numbers of buffaloes in the early 
 part of our voyage. In one instance, near the mouth of 
 the White River, we met the most immense herd crossing 
 the Missouri River, and from an imprudence got our 
 boat into imminent danger among them, from which 
 we were highly delighted to make our escape. It was 
 in the midst of the "running season," and we had heard 
 the "roaring" (as it is called) of the herd when we were 
 several miles from them. When we came in sight we 
 were actually terrified at the immense numbers that 
 were streaming down the green hills on one side of the 
 river and galloping up and over the bluffs on the other. 
 The river was filled and in parts blackened with their 
 
244 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 heads and horns as they were swimming about, follow 
 ing up their objects and making desperate battle while 
 they were swimming. 
 
 I deemed it imprudent for our canoe to be dodging 
 among them, and ran it ashore for a few hours, where 
 we lay, waiting for the opportunity of seeing the river 
 clear; but we waited in vain. At length we pushed off, 
 and successfully made our way among them. The 
 immense numbers that had passed the river at that 
 place had torn down the prairie bank of fifteen feet 
 in height so as to form a sort of road or landing- 
 place, where they all in succession clambered up. 
 Many in their turmoil had been wafted below this land 
 ing, and, unable to regain it against the swiftness of the 
 current, had fastened themselves along in crowds, hug 
 ging close to the high bank under which they were 
 standing. As we were drifting by these, and supposing 
 ourselves out of danger, I drew up my rifle and shot 
 one of them in the head. He tumbled into the water, 
 and brought with him a hundred others, which in a 
 moment were swimming about our canoe and placing 
 it in great danger. No attack was made upon us, and 
 in the confusion the poor beasts knew not, perhaps, the 
 enemy that was among them; but we were liable to be 
 sunk by them, as they were furiously hooking and climb 
 ing on to each other. I rose in my canoe, and by my 
 gestures and hallooing kept them from coming in con 
 tact with us until we were out of their reach. Fort 
 Leavenworth is the extreme outpost on the frontier 
 and is in the heart of the Indian country. This gar- 
 
A Prairie Fire 245 
 
 rison is placed here for the purpose of protecting the 
 frontier inhabitants from the Indians and also to pre 
 serve peace among the tribes. 
 
 In this delightful cantonment there are generally 
 stationed six or seven companies of infantry and ten or 
 fifteen officers, several of whom have their wives and 
 daughters with them, forming a very pleasant little 
 community. Of pastimes they have many, such as 
 riding on horseback or in carriages over the beautiful 
 green fields of the prairies, picking strawberries and 
 wild plums, deer-chasing, grouse-shooting, horse-racing, 
 and other amusements of the garrison, in which they are 
 almost constantly engaged. I have joined several times 
 in the deer-hunts, and more frequently in grouse-shoot 
 ing, which constitutes the principal amusement of this 
 place. 
 
 This delicious bird, which is found in great abundance 
 in nearly all the North American prairies, and most gen 
 erally called the prairie hen, is, from what I can learn, 
 very much like the English grouse, or heath hen, both in 
 size, in color, and in habits. They make their appear 
 ance in these parts in the months of August and Sep 
 tember, from the higher latitudes, where they go in the 
 early part of the summer to raise their broods. 
 
 I was lucky enough the other day, with one of the 
 officers of the garrison, to gain the enviable distinction 
 of having brought in together seventy-five of these fine 
 birds, which we killed in one afternoon; and although I 
 am quite ashamed to confess the manner in which we 
 killed the greater part of them, I am not so professed a 
 
246 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 sportsman as to induce me to conceal the fact. We had 
 a fine pointer and had legitimately followed the sports 
 man s style for a part of the afternoon, but seeing the 
 prairies on fire several miles ahead of us, and the wind 
 driving the fire gradually toward us, we found these 
 poor birds driven before its long line, which seemed to 
 extend from horizon to horizon, and they were flying in 
 swarms or flocks that would at times almost fill the air. 
 They generally flew half a mile or so and lit down again 
 in the grass, where they would sit until the fire was close 
 upon them and then they would rise again. We ob 
 served by watching their motions that they lit in great 
 numbers in every solitary tree, and we placed ourselves 
 near each of these trees in turn, and shot them down as 
 they settled in them, sometimes killing five or six at a 
 shot by getting a range upon them. 
 
 In this way we retreated miles before the flames, 
 murdering poor birds, and getting much credit at the 
 Fort for our good shooting, as we were mutually 
 pledged to keep our secret. 
 
 A burning prairie is one of the most sublime scenes 
 in this country. There are many ways in which fire is 
 communicated to them by both the white men and the 
 Indians by accident, as they call it. 
 
 It is frequently done for the purpose of getting a fresh 
 crop of grass for grazing, and also to secure easier 
 travelling, inasmuch as the old grass is liable to entangle 
 the feet of man and horse. 
 
 Over the high prairie, where the grass is short, the fire 
 creeps with a flame so feeble that one can easily step 
 
A Prairie Fire 247 
 
 over it. The wild animals often rest in their lairs until 
 the flames touch their noses. Then they reluctantly 
 rise, leap over the fire, and trot off among the cinders, 
 where the fire has left the ground as black as jet. 
 These scenes at night are indescribably beautiful, when 
 the flames, seen from miles distant, appear to be spar 
 kling and brilliant chains of liquid fire hanging in grace 
 ful festoons from the skies, for the hills are entirely 
 obscured. 
 
 But the burning plain has another aspect when the 
 grass is seven or eight feet high and the flames are 
 driven by the hurricanes that often sweep over the 
 meadows of the Missouri, the Platte, and the Arkansas. 
 This grass is so high that we were obliged to stand in 
 our stirrups to look over its waving tops. The fire in 
 this grass before such a wind travels at a frightful speed, 
 and often destroys parties of Indians on their fleetest 
 horses who are so unlucky as to be overtaken by it. 
 The high grass, being filled with wild-pea vines and other 
 impediments, render it necessary to take the zigzag 
 trails of the deer and buffalo. At length the dense 
 column of smoke, which is swept along in advance of 
 the fire, terrifies the horse, and he refuses to move until 
 the burning grass is upon him, and he falls, while the 
 swelling flood of smoke moves on like a thunder cloud 
 rolling over the earth, with the glare of lightning and 
 its thunder rumbling as it goes. 
 
 Batiste, Bogard, and Patrick Raymond, from the 
 Fort, who, like Bogard, had been a free trapper in the 
 Rocky Mountains, with our Indian guide Pah-me-o- 
 
248 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 ne-quah (the red thunder), were jogging back from a 
 neighboring village over a high bluff which over 
 looked an immense valley of high grass, when I said 
 to my comrades as we were about to descend the 
 bluff: "We will take that buffalo trail, where the 
 travelling herds have slashed down the high grass, and 
 making for that blue point rising, as you can just 
 discern, above this ocean of grass, a good day s work 
 will bring us over this vast meadow before sunset." 
 Soon after we entered my Indian guide dismounted 
 slowly from his horse, and lying prostrate on the ground, 
 with his face in the dirt, he cried, and was talking to the 
 spirits of the brave "For," said he, "over this beau 
 tiful plain dwells the Spirit of Fire! He rides in yonder 
 cloud; his face blackens with rage at the sound of the 
 trampling hoofs; the fire-bow is in his hand; he draws it 
 across the path of the Indian, and quicker than lightning 
 a thousand flames rise to destroy him. It was here," 
 said he, "that the brave son of Wah-chee-ton and the 
 strong-armed warriors of his band, just twelve moons 
 since, licked the fire from the blazing wand of that great 
 magician. A circular cloud sprang up from the prairie 
 around them! it was raised, and their doom was fixed 
 by the Spirit of Fire! Friends! it is the season of fire; 
 and I fear, from the smell of the wind, that the Spirit is 
 awake!" 
 
 Pah-me-o-ne-qua said no more, but mounted his wild 
 horse and, waving his hand, glided through the thick 
 mazes of waving grass. We were on his trail and busily 
 traced him until the mid-day sun brought us to a 
 
A Prairie Fire 249 
 
 halt. He stood like a statue, while his black eyes, in 
 sullen silence, swept the horizon round; and then, with a 
 deep-drawn sigh, he gracefully sunk to the earth, and 
 lay with his face to the ground. Our buffalo tongues 
 and pemmican and marrow-fat were spread before us, 
 and we were in the full enjoyment of these dainties of 
 the Western world when, quicker than the frightened 
 elk, our Indian friend sprang upon his feet. His eyes 
 skimmed again slowly over the prairie s surface, and then 
 laid himself as before on the ground. 
 
 "Red Thunder seems sullen to-day," said Bogard; 
 "he startles at every rush of the wind and scowls at the 
 whole world that is about him." 
 
 "There s a rare chap for you, a fellow who would 
 shake his fist at Heaven when he is at home, and here, 
 in a grass-patch, must make his fire-medicine for a cir 
 cumstance that he could easily leave at a shake of his 
 horse s heels." 
 
 "I know by the expression of your face, mon, you 
 neever have seen the world on fire yet, and therefore 
 you know nothin at all of a hurly burly of this kind 
 did ye ? Did ye iver see the fire in high grass, runnin 
 with a strong wind, about five mile and the half, and 
 thin hear it strike into a slash of dry canebrake ? If I 
 were advisin I would say that we are gettin* too far in 
 this imbustible meadow, for the grass is too dry to make 
 a light matter of, at this season of the year. An now 
 I ll tell ye how McKenzie and I were served at this 
 place about two years ago hollo, what s that? * 
 
 Red Thunder was on his feet, his long arm was 
 
250 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 stretched over the grass, and his blazing eyeballs starting 
 from their sockets. 
 
 "White man," said he, "see that small cloud rising 
 from the prairie. He rises. The hoofs of horses have 
 waked him. The Fire Spirit is awake; this wind is from 
 his nostrils, and his face is this way." 
 
 He said no more, but his swift horse darted under him, 
 and he slid over the waving grass as it was bent before 
 the wind. We were quickly on his trail. The ex 
 traordinary leaps of his wild horse occasionally raised 
 his shoulders to view, then he sank again in the waving 
 billows of grass. On the wind above our heads was an 
 eagle. His neck was stretched for the towering bluff, 
 and his thrilling screams told of the secret that was be 
 hind him. Our horses were swift and we struggled 
 hard, but our hope was feeble, for the bluff was yet blue 
 and nature nearly exhausted. The cool shadow ad 
 vancing over the plain told that the sun was setting. 
 Not daring to look back we strained every nerve. The 
 roar of a distant cataract seemed gradually overtaking 
 us. The wind increased, and the swift winged beetle 
 and the heath hens drew their straight lines over our 
 heads. The fleet bounding antelope passed us, and 
 the still swifter, long legged hare, who leaves but a 
 shadow as he flies. Here was no time for thought, but 
 I recollect that the heavens were overcast, the distant 
 thunder was heard, and the lightning reddening the 
 scene, and the smell that came on the wind struck terror 
 to my soul. 
 
 The piercing yell of my savage guide at this moment 
 
A Prairie Fire 251 
 
 came back on the wind, his robe was seen waving in the 
 air, as his foaming horse leaped up the bluff. 
 
 Our breath and our sinews were just enough, in this 
 last struggle for life, to carry us to the summit. We had 
 risen from a sea of fire. Now looking back, still 
 trembling from our peril, I saw beneath me a cloud of 
 black smoke which extended from one extremity of this 
 vast plain to the other, and seemed to roll over the sur 
 face of a bed of liquid fire. Above this mighty desola 
 tion the white smoke rose like magnificent cliffs to the 
 skies. Then behind all this we saw the black and 
 smoking desolation left by this storm of fire. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 SONGS AND DANCES OF THE IOWAS 
 
 THE Indians who belong to this neighborhood, and 
 constantly visit the post, are such primitive 
 tribes as the lowas, Kansas, Pawnees, Omahas, 
 Ottoes and Missouries, and the remnants of the semi- 
 civilized tribes, the Delawares, Kickapoos, Pottawa- 
 tamies, Peorias, Shawnees, and Kaskaskias. These 
 latter named tribes are becoming agriculturists, and 
 now get their living by ploughing, raising corn, cattle 
 and horses. They have been left on the frontier sur 
 rounded by civilized neighbors to whom they have been 
 induced to sell their lands, or to exchange them for 
 much larger tracts of wild lands which the government 
 has purchased from the savage tribes. 
 
 Of the tribes first mentioned, the lowas, a small tribe 
 of about two thousand souls, have departed further 
 from their primitive ways. Although their wigwams, 
 dress, customs, and personal appearance are those of 
 the wilder tribes, they depend chiefly on their cornfields 
 for subsistence. The present chief is Notch-ce-ning-a 
 (the white cloud). He is the son of the distinguished 
 chief of the same name, who died recently, loved by his 
 
 tribe and respected by all of the civilized world who 
 
 252 
 
Songs and Dances of the lowas 253 
 
 knew him. The son of White Cloud is a young man 
 thirty-two years old, who has performed many noble 
 and humane acts since he inherited his office. I have 
 painted him in a buffalo robe, with a necklace of the 
 grizzly bear claws and a profusion of wampum strings 
 around his neck, and armed with his shield, bow and 
 quivers. 
 
 The lowas have a peculiar way of wearing their hair, 
 which I have seen only in two other tribes. They 
 shave the hair from the entire head leaving only a patch 
 the size of the hand on the top. In the centre of this is 
 the scalp lock, which grows to its utmost length. The 
 rest of the patch is cut to about two inches long, and to 
 it is attached a crest made of the deer s tail and horse 
 hair dyed the most brilliant vermillion. The scalp lock, 
 which is kept braided, is passed through a curiously 
 carved bone that holds the crest in place and distributes 
 it uniformly. Outside this bone the scalp lock braid is 
 again passed through a small wooden or bone key. 
 The lowas boast that this extravagant hair dressing, 
 which resembles in effect a Grecian helmet, and is ac 
 companied by the quills of the war eagle, is done that 
 their enemies may "lose no time in hunting for the scalp 
 lock." These same tribes ornament the greater part of 
 the face with vermillion. Red, green, black and white 
 are the colors of all the American Indians, and none use 
 them more lavishly than the lowas. These are put on 
 in the morning, and arranged according to the business 
 of the day, or the society they are to mingle with. In 
 the evening the paint is carefully washed off. In mov- 
 
254 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 ing their camps as do the other tribes, following the 
 ranges of the buffalo, they halt upon the ground, and 
 the doctor or medicine man invokes the favor and pro 
 tection of the Great Spirit by throwing tobacco on the 
 spot chosen for each wigwam. After this is done the 
 women come, raise the wigwam, arrange the interior, 
 and light the fires, while the men sit around in a circle 
 smoking their pipes. As the other tribes, they are also 
 very fond of amusements and dancing. Their principal 
 musical instrument is the drum. This is made by 
 hollowing out a log, leaving a thin rim around the out 
 side, and stretching over each end of a section about as 
 big as a keg a piece of rawhide. In the bottom of this 
 they always have a quantity of water which sends out 
 a remarkably rich and liquid tone. 
 
 Among their dances is the Welcome Dance given to 
 strangers, to whom in respect all the spectators as well as 
 the musicians rise to their feet. The song is at first a 
 lament for the friends who have died or have gone away, 
 but it ends in a gay and lively strain and step, announc 
 ing that their place is taken by the friend who has ar 
 rived. The War Dance as it is given by the lowas is 
 divided into a number of parts. The first of these is 
 called Eh-ros-ka. The song in this dance seems to be 
 addressed to the enemy, since the word means a body 
 rather than an individual, and runs thus : 
 
 O-ta-pa. 
 
 Why run you from us when you 
 Are the most powerful ? 
 But it was not you. 
 
Songs and Dances of the lowas 255 
 
 O-ta-pa. 
 
 It was your body that ran, 
 It was your body, O-ta-pa, 
 It was your body that ran. 
 
 The War song, which is for the last part of this dance, 
 is quicker and begins with the ejaculation: 
 
 How-a. How-a. 
 O-ta-pa. 
 
 I am proud of being at home. 
 
 I am proud, O-ta-pa. 
 
 I am at home, my enemy ran. 
 
 I am proud, I am proud, O-ta-pa. 
 
 This song is accompanied by many boasts and threats 
 to the enemy to whom it is addressed. A spirited part 
 of the dance is the approach, in which the dancers show 
 their method of advancing on the enemy. The song 
 which accompanies this dance is: 
 
 Oh-ta-pa. 
 
 I am creeping on your track. 
 Keep on your guard, Oh-ta-pa. 
 Or I will hop on your back. 
 I will hop on you, I will hop on you. 
 Stand back my friends, I see them. 
 The enemies are here, I see them. 
 They are in a good place, I see them. 
 
 War songs are many in each tribe and always consist 
 of vaunts and self-praise, undervaluing the enemy and 
 taunting him with past victories. Besides these each 
 tribe has one war song which is as purely national as 
 "God Save the Queen" or "Yankee Doodle." The War 
 
256 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 whoop is sounded at the instant the Indians rush into 
 battle as the signal of attack, and thus gets its terror 
 from association rather than from anything peculiarly 
 terrifying in the sound itself. It is a shrill sounded note 
 on a high key, given out with a gradual swell, and 
 shaken by a vibration made by the four fingers of the 
 right hand over the mouth. This note is not allowed 
 to be given unless in battle or in the war dances where it 
 has its place. The Death song is strictly national in 
 every tribe, and is sung by any one in the tribe either 
 resolved or condemned to die. It is generally sung the 
 night previous to the execution, and is kept up to 
 the last moment. It is very doleful, and is addressed 
 to the Great Spirit, and offers back the soul, which 
 "entered in at the breast, and is now going out at the 
 
 toe." 
 
 The Wolf song is, I believe, peculiar to the lowas, 
 and belongs to the medicine or mystery man. When a 
 party of young men, having fatigued the whole village 
 for several days with the war dance and boasts of how 
 they are going to kill their enemies, go to bed, in order 
 to rise early for their expedition, they are serenaded in 
 the dead of night just as they have got into a sound 
 sleep. The serenading party is made up of young men 
 who care more for fun than taking scalps. Stealing be 
 hind the wigwams of the "war party," they begin a song 
 which has been taken from the howling of a gang of 
 wolves. This is so admirably adapted for music that 
 they make of it duet, quartet and chorus. With this 
 song and its howling, barking chorus they make it 
 
Songs and Dances of the lowas 257 
 
 impossible to sleep, and the warriors get up, light the 
 fire, divide the luxuries they have prepared for their 
 journey, and smoke until daylight, when they are 
 thanked by their tormentors, and wished a successful 
 campaign. 
 
 A very beautiful dance of the lowas is the Eagle dance, 
 and is generally made part of the war dance, since the 
 war eagle conquers all other birds of its species. In 
 this dance each dancer imagines himself a soaring eagle, 
 and as they dance forward from behind the musicians, 
 they take the positions of eagles heading against the 
 wind, and looking down, prepare to swoop on their 
 prey below. The wind seems too strong for them, and 
 they fall back, advance again, imitating the chattering 
 of the bird, with the whistles they carry in their hands, 
 while they sing: 
 
 It s me. I am a war eagle. 
 
 The wind is strong, but I am an eagle. 
 
 I m not ashamed. No, I am not. 
 
 The twisting eagle s quill is on my head. 
 
 I see my enemy below me. 
 
 I am an eagle, a war eagle. 
 
 Of Indian games I have previously spoken of the 
 game of the Moccasin, called in the Iowa tongue Ing- 
 kee-ko-kee. This is played by two, four or six persons 
 seated in a circle on the ground with three or four moc 
 casins lying in the centre. The player lifts each moc 
 casin in turn, and leaves under one a small stone about 
 the size of a hazel nut. The game is for his opponent 
 
258 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 to determine under which moccasin the stone is hid. 
 Accompanying the game is this song: 
 
 Take care of yourself. Shoot well or you lose. 
 You warned me, but see, I have defeated you. 
 I am one of the Great Spirit s children. 
 Wakonda, I am. I am Wakonda. 
 
 This is sung with perfect rhythm, suiting the move 
 ments of the game, and often for hours without inter 
 mission, for this is one of the principal gambling games 
 of a people fond of gambling. 
 
 The women have a game exclusively their own called 
 Kon-tho-gra, or the game of the platter. This is played 
 with a number of blocks the size of a half dollar, marked 
 with certain points for counting the game. These are 
 shaken in a bowl, and the bowl is turned over on a sort 
 of pillow. After the bowl is turned the bets are made, 
 and decided by the number of points and colors that 
 appear. 
 
 The Kickapoos have long lived in alliance with the 
 Sacs and Foxes, and speak a language so similar that 
 they seem almost to be of one family. The present 
 chief of this tribe, whose name is Kee-an-ne-kuk (the 
 foremost man), usually called the Shawnee Prophet, is 
 a very shrewd and talented man. When he sat for his 
 portrait, he took the attitude of prayer. And I soon 
 learned that he was a very devoted Christian, regularly 
 holding meetings in his tribe on the Sabbath, preaching 
 to them and exhorting them to a belief in the Christian 
 religion, and to an abandonment of the fatal habit of 
 
Songs and Dances of the lowas 259 
 
 whiskey drinking, which he strenuously represented as 
 the bane that was to destroy them all, if they did not en 
 tirely cease to use it. I went on the Sabbath to hear this 
 eloquent man preach when he had his people assembled 
 in the woods, and although I could not understand his 
 language, I was surprised and pleased with the natural 
 ease and emphasis and gesticulation, which carried 
 their own evidence of the eloquence of his sermon. 
 
 How far the efforts of this zealous man have succeeded 
 in christianizing I cannot tell, but it is quite certain 
 that his constant endeavors have completely abolished 
 the practice of drinking whiskey in his tribe. 
 
 It was told to me in the tribe by the Traders (though 
 I am afraid to vouch for the whole truth of it) that 
 while a Methodist preacher was soliciting him for per 
 mission to preach in his village, the Prophet refused 
 him the privilege, but secretly took him aside and sup 
 ported him until he learned from him his creed, and his 
 system of teaching it to others, when he discharged him, 
 and commenced preaching among his people himself; 
 pretending to have had an interview with some super 
 human mission or inspired personage. If there was 
 anything to be gained he concluded he might as well 
 have it as another person; and with this view he insti 
 tuted a prayer which he ingeniously carved on a maple 
 stick of an inch and a half in breadth, in characters 
 somewhat resembling Chinese letters. These sticks, 
 with the prayers on them, he has introduced into every 
 family of the tribe, and into the hands of every individual, 
 and as he makes them all, he sells them at his own price, 
 
26o The Boy s Catlin 
 
 and has thus added lucre to fame. Every man, woman 
 and child in the tribe, so far as I saw them, were in the 
 habit of saying their prayer from this stick when going 
 to bed at night, and also when rising in the morning, 
 which was invariably done by placing the forefinger of 
 the right hand under the upper character, until they re 
 peat a sentence or two, which it suggests to them, and 
 then slipping it under the next, and the next, and so on, 
 to the bottom of the stick, which altogether required 
 about ten minutes, as it was sung over in a sort of a 
 chant, to the end. In any case he has effectually 
 turned their attention toward temperance and industry 
 in the pursuits of agriculture and the arts. 
 
 Among the Omahas I painted the portrait of a young 
 man which was generally approved. A few days after 
 I saw him looking at the portrait, and then walking 
 surlily away. At length he came back with the inter 
 preter and told me that I had painted all the others 
 looking straight forward. He, too, had always looked 
 the white man straight in the face, but I had shown him 
 looking the other way, as if he was ashamed. I learned 
 shortly afterward, that if I did not alter it and make his 
 eyes look straight in front of him, I must fight him. He 
 was even then in front of my wigwam and ready for me. 
 
 Palette in hand, I went out and found him sure enough, 
 naked and ready. I explained that I loved him too 
 much to fight him, but if he only wanted me to change 
 his eyes I could easily do it the next day. The next dav 
 he promptly presented himself, and with some water 
 colors and white lead, I painted him a new pair of eyes, 
 
Songs and Dances of the lowas 261 
 
 while he sat staring over the bridge of his nose in a most 
 extraordinary manner. These pleased him greatly, 
 since they were looking straight forward. He then 
 shook hands with me and presented me with a pair of 
 leggings. A sponge and some clean water were only 
 necessary afterward to take off the new pair of eyes 
 from a portrait which is one of the most interesting I 
 painted. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 PAINTING BLACK HAWK AND HIS 
 WARRIORS 
 
 MY little bark has been soaked in the water again, 
 and Batiste and Bogard have paddled, and I 
 have steered and dodged our little craft among 
 the snags and sawyers until at last we landed the humble 
 little thing among the huge steamers and floating pal 
 aces at the wharf of this bustling and growing city of 
 St. Louis. 
 
 And first of all I must relate the fate of my little boat, 
 which had borne us safe over two thousand miles of the 
 Missouri s turbid and boiling current, with no fault, 
 excepting two or three instances, when the waves became 
 too saucy, and she, like the best of boats of her size, went 
 to the bottom and left us soused, to paddle our way to the 
 shore and drag out our things and dry them in the sun. 
 
 When we landed at the wharf my luggage was all 
 taken out and removed to my hotel, and when I returned 
 a few hours afterward to look for my little boat, some 
 mystery or medicine operation had relieved me from any 
 further anxiety or trouble about it it had gone and 
 never returned, although it had safely passed the coun 
 tries of mysteries, and had often lain weeks and months 
 
 262 
 
Painting Black Hawk and His Warriors 263 
 
 at the villages of red men, with no laws to guard it; and 
 had also often been taken out of the water by mystery- 
 men, and carried up the bank and turned against 
 my wigwam, and by them again safely carried to the 
 river s edge, and put afloat upon the water when I was 
 ready to take a seat in it. 
 
 St. Louis, which is fourteen hundred miles west of 
 New York, is a flourishing town of fifteen thousand in 
 habitants, and destined to be the great emporium of the 
 West the greatest inland town in America. 
 
 This is the great depot of all the fur trading companies 
 to the Upper Missouri and Rocky Mountains, and their 
 starting-place; and also for the Santa Fe, and other 
 trading companies, who reach the Mexican borders over 
 land to trade for silver bullion from the extensive mines 
 of that rich country. 
 
 In my sojourn in St. Louis, among many other kind 
 and congenial friends I met, I have had daily interviews 
 with Governor Clarke, who, with Captain Lewis, were the 
 first explorers across the Rocky Mountains and down 
 the Columbia river to the Pacific ocean thirty-two years 
 ago. He is now Superintendent of Indian Affairs for 
 all the western and north-western regions, and the in 
 terests of these people could not be in better hands. 
 His whitened locks are still shaken with roars of laughter 
 and jests among the numerous citizens, who all love him 
 and rally around him continually in his hospitable 
 mansion. 
 
 Batiste and Bogard, I found, after remaining here a 
 few days, had been about as unceremoniously snatched 
 
264 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 off as my little canoe. Bogard particularly had hard 
 luck, as he had made a show of a few hundred dollars 
 which he had saved of his hard earnings in the Rocky 
 Mountains. He came down with a liberal heart, which 
 he had gained in an Indian life of ten years, and a 
 strong taste, which he had acquired for whiskey in a 
 country where it was sold for twenty dollars a gallon, 
 and with an independence which illy harmonized with 
 the rules and regulations of a country of laws. The 
 consequence was that by the "Hawk and Buzzard" 
 system, and Rocky mountain liberality and Rocky 
 mountain prodigality, the poor fellow was soon 
 " jugged/ where he could dream of beavers and the 
 free and cooling breezes of the mountain air, without 
 the pleasure of setting his trap for the one or the hope 
 of ever having the pleasure of breathing the other. 
 
 Mr. Catlin s narrative was here broken off by a visit 
 to Pensacola, but elsewhere in his notes it appears that 
 this was not his first acquaintance with Governor Clark. 
 In the notes to his Indian catalogue, it appears that he 
 had accompanied Governor Clarke on one of his visits 
 to the Kansas tribe, and, returning to St. Louis, painted 
 the portraits of Black Hawk and five of his warriors, 
 who at the time were prisoners at Jefferson Barracks. 
 
 The Black Hawk war, of which every school boy has 
 heard, was fought in the summer of 1832. Black Hawk 
 was the old chief of the Sacs and Foxes. These were 
 once two distinct tribes, but having a similar language, 
 at some time not very remote, were united and after- 
 
Painting Black Hawk and His Warriors 265 
 
 ward known under their joint name. Keokuk, one of 
 the younger chiefs, with others of the tribe, made a 
 treaty of sale of their lands in Illinois, and agreed to 
 move further west. Black Hawk was not only not a 
 party to the treaty, but opposed it, and subsequently, 
 with others of his tribe, recrossed the Mississippi, and 
 recovered their corn fields, that were then owned and 
 cultivated by the whites. 
 
 General Scott accordingly sent out a detachment of 
 regulars from Fort Dearborn (Chicago) and called for 
 volunteers. Among the regulars was Lieutenant Jeffer 
 son Davis, and among the volunteers, private Abraham 
 Lincoln, of Captain Iles s Company of Illinois Mounted 
 Rangers. The rendezvous was John Dixon s Ferry, 
 now Dixon, Illinois. On the 2/th of August, 1832, 
 Black Hawk, with several of his warriors, was captured 
 at Bad Axe by two Winnebago Indians, and was taken 
 to General Street at Prairie du Chien, where he made 
 his memorable speech. 
 
 With other prisoners Black Hawk was taken by 
 Lieutenant Jefferson Davis to Jefferson Barracks at St. 
 Louis, where Mr. Catlin painted them during this visit. 
 Of them he says : 
 
 We were immediately struck with admiration at the 
 gigantic and symmetrical figures of these warriors, who 
 seemed, as they reclined in native ease and gracefulness, 
 with their half-naked bodies exposed to view, rather like 
 statues from some master hand than like beings of a 
 race called degenerate and debased. We extended our 
 hands, which they rose to grasp, and to our greeting 
 
266 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 How <T ye do? they responded in the same words, 
 accompanying them with a hearty shake of the hand. 
 They were all clad in leggings and moccasins of buck 
 skin, and wore blankets thrown around them like a 
 Roman toga, which leaves one arm bare. The youngest 
 of them had their necks painted bright vermillion, and 
 their faces transversely streaked with alternate stripes 
 of red and black. From their faces and eyebrows the 
 hair was carefully plucked out. They had also shaved 
 or pulled it from their heads, with the exception of a 
 tuft about three inches wide from the crown to the 
 back of the head. This was plaited in a queue, 
 with the edges cut down to an inch in length, and was 
 plastered with vermillion until it stood up like a cock s 
 comb. 
 
 Muk-a-ta-mish-a-kah-kaik (the black hawk) was the 
 leader of the Black Hawk War [Mr. Catlin continues.] 
 Although his name has carried terror through the coun 
 try, he has heretofore been distinguished as a speaker 
 and councillor rather than as a warrior. I believe 
 it has been pretty generally admitted that Nah-pope 
 and the Prophet were, in fact, the instigators of the 
 war. Both of these had much higher claims to the 
 name of warrior than Black Hawk ever had. This 
 chief, Black Hawk, I painted in a plain suit of buck 
 skin, with strings of wampum in his ears and on his 
 neck. He held in his hand his medicine-bag, which 
 was the skin of a black hawk, from which he had taken 
 his name, and the tail of which made him a fan that he 
 was constantly using. 
 
Painting Black Hawk and His Warriors 267 
 
 The eldest son of Black Hawk, Nah-see-us-kuk (the 
 whirling thunder), is a very handsome young warrior, 
 and one of the finest looking Indians I ever saw. There 
 is a strong party in the tribe that is anxious to make this 
 young man chief, and I think it is more than likely that 
 Keokuk may meet his fate by his hand, or by some of 
 the tribe, who are anxious to reinstate the family of 
 Black Hawk. 
 
 Of this young man the Hon. Augustus Murray writes 
 in 1837: 
 
 "Whirling Thunder is a fine young chief. . . . After 
 the defeat of his tribe in 1832 he was taken prisoner 
 with his father and paraded through the Atlantic states. 
 One evening he was present at a party where a young 
 lady sang a ballad with much taste and pathos. Nah- 
 see-us-kuk, who was standing at a distance, listened with 
 profound attention, and at the close of the song took an 
 eagle s feather from his head-dress, and giving it to a 
 by-stander said: Take that to your mocking-bird 
 squaw." 
 
 Wah-pi-kee-suck (the white cloud), and more widely 
 known as the Prophet, was an even more important his 
 torical character painted at this time by Mr. Catlin, 
 since he was believed to be the principal mover in the 
 Black Hawk war. He was distinguished by the white 
 cloth head-dress he wore in fight, when he also carried 
 a white flag in his hand, and dressed in very white deer 
 skin with fringed seams. In his portrait he carried a 
 pipe over a yard long, the stem of which was orna- 
 
268 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 mented with the neck feathers of the duck and beads 
 and ribbon streamers. According to Mr. Catlin s notes, 
 he was endeavoring to secure the favor of the whites by 
 letting his hair grow out like that of the white men. 
 
 Nah-pope (the soup) was the brother of the Prophet, 
 and Black Hawk s second in command. Drake in 
 his Book of the Indians relates that when Mr. Catlin 
 was about to paint Nah-pope he seized the chain and 
 cannon ball that were fastened to his leg, and, holding 
 them up, said : "Make me so, and show me to the Great 
 Father." When Mr. Catlin refused to do as he wished 
 he made grimaces to prevent the artist from catching 
 his likeness. Mr. Catlin merely remarks in his notes 
 that he wished to be painted with a white flag in his 
 hand. His own narrative is resumed in the next 
 chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 WITH THE ARMY AT FORT GIBSON 
 
 FORT GIBSON is the extreme south-western post 
 on the United States frontier. It is beautifully 
 situated on the Arkansas river, in the midst of an 
 extensive and lovely prairie, and is at present occupied 
 by the Seventh Regiment of Infantry under the com 
 mand of General Arbuckle, one of the oldest officers 
 on the frontier, and the builder of the fort. 
 
 Having the permission of Secretary of War Cass I 
 accompanied the dragoons in their summer campaign. 
 The object of this campaign seems to have for its object 
 a better acquaintance with the Pawnees and Caman- 
 ches. These are two large tribes of roaming Indians, 
 who have not yet recognized the United States through 
 treaty, and have accordingly struck frequent blows on 
 the prairie and plundered the traders. For this I can 
 not much blame them, for the Spaniards advancing 
 gradually on one side and the Americans on the other, 
 are fast destroying the fur and game of the country, 
 which furnish them their subsistence. The movement 
 of the dragoons seems to be most humane, and I hope 
 may prove so both for ourselves and the Indians. 
 
 The regiment of eight hundred men with whom I am 
 to travel is composed of young men of respectable 
 
 269 
 
 
270 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 families, who would act on all occasions from feelings 
 of pride and honor, in addition to those of the common 
 soldier. After many difficulties they have had to en 
 counter they have at length all assembled, and the 
 grassy plains are resounding with the trampling hoofs of 
 the prancing war horse, and already the hills are echoing 
 back the notes of the spirit-stirring trumpets. Day be 
 fore yesterday the troops were reviewed by General 
 Leavenworth, who has just arrived to take command. 
 Both regiments were drawn up in battle array, in 
 fatigue dress, and passing through a number of the 
 manoeuvres of battle, of charge and repulse, etc., pre 
 senting a novel and thrilling scene in the prairie, to the 
 thousands of Indians and others who had assembled to 
 witness the display. The proud and manly deportment 
 of these young men remind one forcibly of a regiment of 
 Independent Volunteers, and the horses have a most 
 beautiful appearance from the arrangement of colors. 
 Each company of horses has been selected of one color 
 entire. There is a company of bays, a company of 
 blacks, one of whites, one of sorrels, one of grays, one of 
 cream color, etc., etc., which render the companies dis 
 tinct, and the effect exceedingly pleasing. This regi 
 ment goes out under the command of Colonel Dodge, 
 and from his well-tested qualifications, and from the 
 beautiful equipment of the command, there can be little 
 doubt but that they will do credit to themselves and 
 honor to their country, so far as honors can be gained 
 and laurels can be plucked from their wild stems in a 
 savage country. 
 
With the Army at Fort Gibson 271 
 
 It is a pretty thing for an army of mounted men to be 
 gayly prancing over the boundless green fields of the 
 west. Although the first part of the journey will be 
 picturesque and pleasing, the after part will be fa 
 tiguing and tiresome in the extreme. As the troops 
 advance the grass, and consequently the game, will 
 diminish, and water in many places will not be found. 
 Meanwhile, with half famished horses and exhausted 
 men, we may have to contend with an enemy on its own 
 ground, with horses fresh and ready for action. The 
 plan to be pursued is to send out runners to the different 
 bands, explaining the friendly intentions of our govern 
 ment, and to invite them to a meeting. For this pur 
 pose several Camanche and Pawnee prisoners have 
 been bought from the Osages, who may be of service in 
 securing a friendly interview. During the delay I have 
 been recording the deeds and looks of the Osages. 
 
 The Osages, or as they call themselves, the Wa-waw- 
 see, are a tribe of about five thousand members, living 
 on the head-waters of the Arkansas and Grand rivers. 
 
 The Osages may justly be said to be the tallest race of 
 men in North America, either of red or white skins; 
 there being very few indeed of the men, at their full 
 growth, who are less than six feet in stature, and very 
 many of them six and a half, and others seven feet. 
 They are at the same time well-proportioned in their 
 limbs, and good looking; being rather narrow in the 
 shoulders, and, like most all very tall people, a little in 
 clined to stoop; not throwing the chest out and the head 
 and shoulders back quite as much as the Crows and 
 
272 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 Mandans and other tribes among which I have been 
 familiar. Their movement is graceful and quick, and 
 in war and the chase I think they are equal to any of 
 the tribes about them. 
 
 This tribe, though living, as they long have, near the 
 borders of the civilized community, have studiously re 
 jected everything of civilized customs, and are uniformly 
 dressed in skins of their own dressing, strictly maintain 
 ing their primitive looks and manners, excepting in the 
 blankets, which have been recently admitted to their 
 use instead of the buffalo robes that are now getting 
 scarce among them. 
 
 The Osages are one of the tribes who shave the head, 
 as I have before described, and they decorate and paint 
 it with great care and some considerable taste. There is 
 a peculiarity in the heads of these people which is very 
 striking to the eye of a traveller, and which I find is pro 
 duced by artificial means in infancy. Their children, 
 like those of all the other tribes, are carried on a board 
 and slung upon the mother s back. The infants are 
 lashed to the boards, with their backs upon them, ap 
 parently in a very uncomfortable condition; and with 
 the Osages, the head of the child bound down so tight 
 to the board as to force in the occipital bone, and create 
 an unnatural deficiency on the back part, and conse 
 quently more than a natural elevation of the top of the 
 head. This custom they told me they practised because 
 "it pressed out a bold and manly appearance in front " 
 
 These people, like all those tribes who shave the 
 head, cut and slit their ears, and suspend from them 
 
With the Army at Fort Gibson 273 
 
 great quantities of wampum and tinsel ornaments. 
 Their necks are generally ornamented also with a pro 
 fusion of wampum and beads; and as they live in a 
 warm climate, where there is not so much necessity for 
 warm clothing, as among the more northern tribes, of 
 whom I have been heretofore speaking, their shoulders, 
 arms, and chests are generally naked, and painted in a 
 great variety of picturesque ways, with silver bands on 
 the wrists, and oftentimes a profusion of rings on the 
 fingers. 
 
 The head chief of the Osages at this time is a young 
 man by the name of Clermont, the son of a very dis 
 tinguished chief of that name who recently died. I 
 painted the portrait of this chief at full length, in a 
 beautiful dress, his leggings fringed with scalp-locks, 
 and in his hand his favorite and valued war-club. 
 
 By his side I have painted also at full length his wife 
 and child. She was richly dressed in costly cloths of 
 civilized manufacture, which is almost a solitary instance 
 among the Osages, who so studiously reject every 
 luxury and every custom of civilized people; and, 
 among those, the use of whiskey, which is on all sides 
 tendered to them but almost uniformly rejected! 
 This is an unusual and unaccountable thing, unless the 
 influence which the missionaries and teachers have 
 exercised has brought about this result. 
 
 Three of the braves came to me and asked to be 
 painted together. It was explained to me that they 
 were of the best families of the Osage nation, and having 
 a peculiar attachment for one another, they desired me 
 
274 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 to paint them all on one canvas, which I did. These 
 portraits fairly set forth the dress and ornaments of the 
 young men of the tribe. The only dress they wear in 
 warm weather is the breech-cloth, leggings, and moc 
 casins of dressed skins, with garters worn below the 
 knee that are ornamented lavishly with beads and 
 wampum. 
 
 Their names are Ko-ha-tun-ka (the big crow), Nah- 
 com-e-shee (the man of the bed), and Mun-ne-pus-kee 
 (he who is not afraid). These three young men have 
 been, with eight or ten others, set aside by Black Dog 
 to accompany the dragoons as guides and hunters, so I 
 shall doubtless see much of them. Joseph Chadwick, 
 a young man from St. Louis, whom I have long known 
 and greatly esteem, and myself will be the only guests 
 on this campaign. Although I have an order from the 
 Secretary of War to the commanding officer to protect 
 and supply me, I shall ask but for protection, as I have, 
 with my friend Joe, laid in our own supplies for the 
 campaign, not putting the government to any expense 
 when I am in pursuit of my own private objects. 
 
 Again I am in the land of the buffalo and the fleet 
 bounding antelope. We are in camp on the point of 
 land between the Red River and its junction with the 
 False Wachita, and in a country too beautiful to be 
 adequately described with the pen. The verdure about 
 us is of the deepest green, and the plains literally 
 speckled with buffalo. Lieutenant Wheelock, Joseph 
 Chadwick and I rode to the top of some of the prairie 
 bluffs, and we agreed that even our horses looked and 
 
With the Army at Fort Gibson 275 
 
 admired. They gave no heed to the rich herbage under 
 their feet, but, with deep-drawn sighs, curved their necks 
 loftily, and with wide-open eyes gazed over the land 
 scape beneath us. There over the pictured vales, 
 bounded by mountain streaks of blue, the "bold 
 dragoons" were marching in beautiful order, forming a 
 train a mile in length. From the point where we stood 
 the line was seen in miniature, and, bending its way over 
 the undulating hills, looked like a huge black snake 
 gracefully gliding over a carpet of green. 
 
 Scarcely a day has passed in which we have not 
 crossed oak ridges where the ground was almost literally 
 covered with vines of delicious grapes, five-eighths of an 
 inch in diameter, and hanging in endless clusters. 
 
 The next hour we would be trailing through broad 
 and verdant valleys of green prairies, and oftentimes 
 find our progress completely arrested by hundreds of 
 acres of small plum-trees of four or six feet in height, 
 so closely woven and interlocked as to dispute our prog 
 ress, and send us several miles around. Every bush 
 that was in sight was so loaded with the weight of its 
 delicious wild fruit that they were without leaves on 
 their branches and bent quite to the ground. Among 
 these, and in patches, were beds of wild roses, wild cur 
 rants, and gooseberries; and underneath them huge 
 masses of the prickly pears, and beautiful and tempting 
 wild flowers that sweetened the atmosphere above; 
 while an occasional huge yellow rattlesnake or a 
 copperhead could be seen gliding over or basking 
 across their tendrils and leaves. 
 
276 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 On the eighth day of our march we met, for the first 
 time, a herd of buffaloes, being in advance of the 
 command in company with General Leavenworth, 
 Colonel Dodge, and several other officers. General 
 Leavenworth and Colonel Dodge, with their pistols, 
 gallantly and handsomely belabored a fat cow, and were 
 in together at the death. I was not quite so fortunate 
 in my selection, for the one which I selected of the same 
 sex, younger and coy, led me a hard chase, when, at 
 length, the full speed of my horse forced us to close 
 company, and she desperately assaulted his shoulders 
 with her horns. My gun was aimed, but, missing its 
 fire, and the muzzle becoming entangled in her mane, 
 was instantly broken in two in my hands, and fell over 
 my shoulder. My pistols were then brought to bear 
 upon her, and, though severely wounded, she succeeded 
 in reaching the thicket, and left me without " a deed of 
 chivalry to boast." 
 
 We are halting here for a few days to recruit horses 
 and men, and if the Pawnees are as near to us as we 
 have strong reason to believe, from their recent trails 
 and fires, it is probable that within a few days we shall 
 "thrash" them or "get thrashed," unless they elude our 
 search by flying before us to their hiding-places. 
 
 Colonel Dodge had employed two famous Delaware 
 Indians, semi-civilized, as guides and hunters. They 
 entertained Chadwick and myself by the ingenious 
 preparations they were making for decoying and trap 
 ping game. Among these was a sort of whistle made 
 of the bark of a young sapling, two or three inches long, 
 
With the Army at Fort Gibson 277 
 
 which they carried in their pouches, and with it could 
 imitate exactly the bleating of a young fawn. Being 
 impatient with the delay, we concluded to do a little 
 deer stalking on Maple Ridge, in a heavy timbered 
 country said to be full of deer and turkeys. Taking 
 with us a half-breed Indian, we drove, approached, and 
 saw their white flags many times, but could not get near 
 enough for a shot. 
 
 At length at the edge of a small prairie I heard the 
 sudden "ma, ma, ma," the sound of the bleating of the 
 small fawn. I was sure the little creature was in the 
 shade of a small copse, so I dropped into the grass to 
 wait until it came out. Presently I began to creep 
 slowly on my hands and knees toward the bushes, sure 
 that I would get a shot at one or both of its parents. I 
 was now quite near, with my rifle cocked and drawn to 
 my shoulder, when to my surprise the little thing called 
 out "ma" directly behind me. I turned, and there 
 within two feet of me lay the Delawares laughing at me. 
 My hunting pretensions were a good deal cut down by 
 this occurrence. 
 
 We are in camp on the ground on which Judge Martin 
 and servant were killed, and his son kidnapped by 
 either the Pawnees or Camanches but a few weeks ago. 
 
 Judge Martin, living on the lower part of the Red 
 River, was in the habit of taking his children and a 
 couple of black men-servants with him every summer 
 into these wild regions, where he spent several months in 
 killing buffaloes and other wild game. The news came 
 to Fort Gibson but a few weeks before we started that 
 
278 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 he had been set upon by a party of Indians. A detach 
 ment of troops was speedily sent to the spot, where they 
 found his body horridly mangled, and also that of one of 
 his negroes; and it is supposed that his son, a fine boy of 
 nine years of age, has been taken home to their villages 
 by them, where they still retain him, and where it is our 
 hope to recover him. 
 
 It belongs now to the regiment of dragoons to demand 
 the surrender of the murderers. The moment the In 
 dians discover us in a large body they will probably 
 think that we are seeking revenge, and will either attack 
 us or will elude our search. As enemies I do not believe 
 they will stand to meet us. But as friends I think we 
 may bring them to a talk, if the proper means are 
 adopted. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 LASSOING WILD HORSES 
 
 GENERAL LEAVENWORTH, Colonel Dodge, 
 Lieutenant Wheelock and myself were jogging 
 along, and all in turn complaining of the lame 
 ness of our bones, when the General, who had long ago 
 had his surfeit of the chase on the Upper Missouri, 
 remonstrated in the following manner: "Well, Colonel, 
 this running for buffaloes is bad business for us we are 
 getting too old; I have had enough of this fun in my life; 
 it is the height of folly for us, but will do well enough for 
 boys." Colonel Dodge assented at once, while I, who 
 had tried it in every form on the Upper Missouri, 
 joined my assent to the folly of our destroying our horses. 
 In the midst of this conversation, as we were jogging 
 along in "Indian file," General Leavenworth taking the 
 lead, when just rising to the top of a little hill, over which 
 it seems he had had an instant peep, he dropped himself 
 suddenly upon the side of his horse and wheeled and 
 told us with an agitated whisper that a snug little band 
 of buffaloes was quietly grazing just over the knoll, and 
 that if I would take to the left and Lieutenant Wheelock 
 to the right and let him and the Colonel dash right into 
 the midst of them we could play the devil Tvith them. 
 
 279 
 
280 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 One half of this at least was said after he had got upon 
 his feet and taken off his portmanteau and valise. I 
 am almost sure nothing else was said, and if it had been 
 I should not have heard it, for I was too eagerly gazing 
 and plying the whip to hear or to see anything but the 
 trampling hoofs and the blackened throng and the dart 
 ing steeds and the flashing of guns! As my horse was 
 darting into the timber the limb of a tree scraped me 
 into the grass, from which I soon raised my head, and all 
 was silent and all out of sight save the dragoon regiment, 
 which I could see in the distance creeping along on the 
 top of a high hill. I found my legs under me in a few 
 moments, and at last got them to work, and brought 
 "Charley" out of the bushes, where he had "brought 
 up" in the top of a fallen tree without damage. 
 
 Neither buffalo, horse, nor rider was harmed in this 
 attack. Colonel Dodge and Lieutenant Wheelock had 
 joined the regiment, when General Leavenworth joined 
 me, with too much game expression yet in his eye to 
 allow him more time than to say, "I ll have that calf 
 before I quit!" and away he sailed in pursuit of a fine 
 calf that had been hidden on the ground during the 
 chase, and was now making its way over the prairies in 
 pursuit of the herd. I rode to the top of a little hill to 
 witness the success of the General s second effort, and 
 after he had come close upon the little affrighted animal, 
 it dodged about in such a manner as evidently to perplex 
 his horse, which at last fell in a hole, and both were 
 instantly out of my sight. I ran with all possible speed 
 to the spot, and found him on his hands and knees, en- 
 
Lassoing Wild Horses 281 
 
 deavoring to get up. I dismounted and raised him on 
 to his feet, when I asked him if he was hurt, to which he 
 replied "no, but I might have been," when he instantly 
 fainted. I had left my canteen with my portmanteau, 
 nor was there water near us. I took my lancet from 
 my pocket and was tying his arm to open a vein when 
 he recovered, assuring me that he was not in the least 
 injured. I caught his horse and after two or three 
 hours we joined the regiment. 
 
 We had been gayly advancing, although in some ap 
 prehension from the Indians, when on the second night, 
 when we were in camp and sound asleep, there was the 
 flash and the sound of a gun within a few paces of us, 
 followed by frightful groans. In an instant we were all 
 upon our hands and knees, and our snorting horses, 
 breaking their lassos, were over our heads in full speed, 
 and the cries of "Indians! Pawnees! Indians!" from 
 every part of the camp. In a few moments quiet was 
 restored, and a general inquiry revealed that a raw 
 recruit standing sentry saw, as he supposed, an Indian 
 creeping through the bushes. As he did not, when 
 called, advance and give the countersign, the sentry "let 
 off" his rifle and shot a poor dragoon horse that had 
 strayed away the day before, but had faithfully followed 
 our trail, and poking through the bushes had come up 
 to rejoin his comrades and take up his army life again. 
 In the meanwhile we could hear the trampling hoofs of 
 our horse-s, which were making off in all directions. 
 
 Our camp was usually in four lines forming a square 
 of fifteen or twenty rods in diameter. On these lines 
 
282 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 our packs and saddles were laid about five feet apart. 
 Each man, after grazing his horse, tied it to a stake a 
 little distance from his feet, thus inclosing the horses 
 within the square to secure them in case of attack or 
 alarm. In this manner we lay at the time of the alarm, 
 and our horses, breaking their ropes, dashed out over 
 the heads of their masters. 
 
 It took us two days after this disaster to recover them, 
 with the exception of about thirty, who took up again 
 their free life on the plains. Indian trails began to 
 grow fresh, and their smoke was seen in various direc 
 tions ahead of us. On the fourth day of our march at 
 noon we discovered a large party at several miles dis 
 tance, sitting on their horses and looking at us. From 
 the glistening of the blades of their lances, which were 
 blazing as they turned them in the sun, it was at first 
 thought that they were Mexican cavalry, who might 
 have been apprized of our approach into their country. 
 On drawing a little nearer, however, and scanning them 
 closer with our spy-glasses, they were soon ascertained 
 to be a war-party of Camanches, on the lookout for 
 their enemies. 
 
 The regiment was called to a halt, and the requisite 
 preparations having been made and orders issued, we 
 advanced in a direct line toward them until we were 
 within two or three miles of them, when they suddenly 
 disappeared over the hill, and soon after showed them 
 selves on another mound further off. The course of the 
 regiment was then changed, and another advance toward 
 them was commenced, and as before they disappeared 
 
Lassoing Wild Horses 283 
 
 and showed themselves in another direction. After 
 several such efforts, which proved ineffectual, Colonel 
 Dodge ordered the command to halt, while he rode 
 forward with a few of his staff and an ensign carrying 
 a white flag. I joined this advance, and the Indians 
 stood their ground until we had come within half a mile 
 of them. We then came to a halt, and the white flag 
 was sent a little in advance, at which one of their 
 party galloped out in advance of the war-party, on a 
 milk white horse, carrying a piece of white buffalo skin 
 on the point of his long lance in reply to our flag. 
 
 This moment was the commencement of one of the 
 most thrilling and beautiful scenes I ever witnessed. 
 All eyes, both from his own party and ours, were fixed 
 upon the manoeuvres of this gallant little fellow, and he 
 well knew it. 
 
 The distance between the two parties was perhaps 
 half a mile, and that a beautiful and gently sloping 
 prairie, over which he was for the space of a quarter of 
 an hour reining and spurring his maddened horse, and 
 gradually approaching us by tacking to the right and 
 the left, like a vessel beating against the wind. He at 
 length came prancing and leaping along till he met the 
 flag of the regiment, when he leaned his spear for a 
 moment against it, looking the bearer full in the face, 
 wheeled his horse, and dashed up to Colonel Dodge, 
 with his extended hand, which was instantly grasped 
 and shaken. We all had him by the hand in a moment, 
 and the rest of the party seeing him received in this 
 friendly manner, instead of being sacrificed, as they un- 
 
284 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 doubtedly expected, started under "full whip" in a 
 direct line toward us, and in a moment gathered, like a 
 black cloud, around us! The regiment then moved up 
 in regular order, and a general shake of the hand ensued, 
 which was done by every warrior riding along the ranks 
 and shaking the hand of every one as he passed. This 
 took some time, but during it my eyes were fixed on the 
 gallant and wonderful appearance of the little fellow 
 who bore us the white flag on the point of his lance. 
 He rode a fine and spirited wild horse, which was as 
 white as the drifted snow, and had a luxuriant mane, 
 and a long and bushy tail that swept the ground. In 
 his hand he tightly drew the reins upon a heavy Spanish 
 bit, and at every jump plunged into the horse s side a 
 huge pair of spurs, plundered doubtless from the 
 Spaniards in the border wars which are continually 
 waged on the Mexican frontiers. The eyes of this noble 
 little steed seemed to be squeezed almost out of its head, 
 and its fright had brought out a perspiration fretted into 
 white foam and lather. The warrior s quiver was slung 
 on the warrior s back, and his bow, grasped in his left 
 hand, was ready for instant use. His shield was on his 
 arm, and across his thigh, in a beautiful buckskin cover, 
 his gun was slung. In his right hand he held a lance 
 fourteen feet long. 
 
 Thus armed and equipped was this dashing cavalier, 
 and the rest of the party in much the same manner. 
 Many of them were leading an extra horse, which we 
 learned was the favorite war horse, for this was a war 
 party in search of the enemy. After a shake of the hand 
 
Lassoing Wild Horses 285 
 
 we dismounted, the pipe was lit and passed around. 
 Afterward Colonel Dodge explained, through a Caman- 
 che who spoke some Spanish, that we were sent by the 
 President to see the chiefs of the Camanches and Paw 
 nee Picts, shake hands, smoke the pipe of peace, and 
 establish an acquaintance with them, and a system of 
 trade that would benefit both. 
 
 They listened attentively, and taking Colonel Dodge 
 at his word with perfect confidence, told him that their 
 great town was within a few days march, and pointing 
 in the direction, offered to abandon their war excursion 
 and escort us to it. This they did in good faith. Dur 
 ing this march over one of the loveliest countries in the 
 world we had much to amuse and excite us. The whole 
 country seemed to be alive with buffaloes and bands of 
 wild horses. There is no other animal on the prairie 
 so wild and so sagacious as the horse. So remarkably 
 keen is their eye that they will generally run "at sight" 
 a mile distant. There is no doubt but that they are 
 able to distinguish the character of the enemy approach 
 ing, and, when off, will generally run three or four miles 
 before they stop. I made many attempts to approach 
 them by stealth, when they were grazing or gambolling, 
 and never succeeded but once. 
 
 On this occasion I left my horse, and, with my friend 
 Chadwick, skulked through a ravine for a couple of 
 miles until within gun shot of a fine herd, when under 
 the cover of a little hedge I used my pencil sketching 
 them. In this herd we saw all the colors that can be 
 seen in a kennel of English hounds. Some were milk 
 
286 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 white, some jet black, others were sorrel, bay and cream 
 color, many were iron gray, others were pied. Their 
 manes were very thick, and hanging in the wildest con 
 fusion over their necks and faces. Their long tails 
 swept the ground. After we had satisfied our curiosity 
 in looking at these proud and playful animals, we agreed 
 that we would try the experiment of "creasing" one, 
 as it is termed in this country. This is done by shooting 
 them through the gristle on the top of the neck, which 
 stuns them so that they fall, and are secured with the 
 hobbles on the feet, after which they rise again without 
 fatal injury. This is a practice often resorted to by 
 expert hunters, with good rifles, who are not able to 
 take them in any other way. My friend Joe and I were 
 armed on this occasion, each with a light fowling-piece, 
 which has not quite the preciseness in throwing a bullet 
 that a rifle has, and having both levelled our pieces at 
 the withers of a noble, fine-looking iron gray, we pulled 
 trigger, and the poor creature fell, and the rest of the 
 herd were out of sight in a moment. We had the most 
 inexpressible mortification of finding that we never had 
 thought of hobbles or halters to secure him, and in a 
 few moments more had the still greater mortification, 
 and even anguish, to find that one of our shots had 
 broken the poor creature s neck, and that he was quite 
 dead. The laments of poor Chadwick for the wicked 
 folly of destroying this noble animal were such as I 
 never shall forget. 
 
 The usual mode of taking the wild horses is by throw 
 ing the lasso, while pursuing them at full speed, and 
 
Lassoing Wild Horses N 287 
 
 dropping a noose over their necks, by which their speed 
 is soon checked, and they are "choked down." The 
 lasso is a thong of rawhide, some ten or fifteen yards in 
 length, twisted or braided, with a noose fixed at the end 
 of it. This, when the coil of the lasso is thrown out, 
 drops with great certainty over the neck of the animal, 
 which is soon conquered. 
 
 The Indian, when he starts for a wild horse, mounts 
 one of the fleetest he can get, and coiling his lasso on his 
 arm, starts off under the "full whip," till he can enter 
 the band, when he soon gets it over the neck of one of the 
 number, when he instantly dismounts, leaving his own 
 horse, and runs as fast as he can, letting the lasso pass 
 out gradually and carefully through his hands, until the 
 horse falls for want of breath, and lies helpless on the 
 ground, at which time the Indian advances slowly 
 toward the horse s head, keeping his lasso tight upon 
 its neck, until he fastens a pair of hobbles on the animal s 
 two forefeet, when he loosens the lasso (giving the horse 
 chance to breathe), and gives it a noose around the 
 under jaw, by which he gets great power over the 
 affrighted animal, which is rearing and plunging when 
 it gets breath, and by which, as he advances, hand over 
 hand, toward the horse s nose, he is able to hold it down 
 and prevent it from throwing itself over on its back, at 
 the hazard of its limbs. By this means he gradually 
 advances, until he is able to place his hand on the 
 animal s nose, and over its eyes, and at length to breathe 
 in its nostrils, when it soon becomes docile and con 
 quered, so that he has little else to do than to remove 
 
288 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 the hobbles from its feet, and lead or ride it into 
 camp. 
 
 It is a curious fact known to all the Indians that the 
 wild horse, the deer, elk and other animals never run in 
 a straight line, but curve almost invariably to the left. 
 The Indian, seeing the direction in which the horse is 
 "leaning, "knows just about the point where it will stop, 
 and steers in a straight line to it, where they will arrive 
 at about the same time, the horse having run a mile, and 
 his pursuer a little more than half the distance. The 
 alarmed animal is then off again, and, by a series of such 
 curves, before sundown the horse s strength is about 
 gone, and it is easy to get near enough to throw the 
 lasso. One must imagine the rest what kindness and 
 caressing during the night, for they camp on the spot, 
 enables the Indian to ride his captured horse into the 
 village the next morning. 
 
 I have said that the horse and other animals generally 
 turn to the left. How curious this fact, and from what 
 cause ? All animals bend their course, because they 
 wish to return to their wonted abodes; but why bend to 
 the left ? Once on the Upper Missouri with one man I 
 started thirty miles over the prairie to a Sioux village. 
 The second day being cloudy we had nothing to guide 
 us. Everywhere was short grass, and the horizon a 
 straight line. Late in the afternoon, very tired, we 
 found ourselves at the same camp we had made the 
 night before. All the time we thought we were walking 
 in a straight line we were traveling in a circle. The next 
 day, the sun shining, we kept our course. On arriving 
 

Lassoing Wild Horses 289 
 
 at the Sioux village the Indians laughed heartily at our 
 adventure, and all the chiefs agreed in telling me that 
 when a man is lost on the prairie he travels in a circle 
 and invariably to the left. 
 
 The "breaking down" or taming is not, however, 
 without the most desperate trial on the part of the horse, 
 which tries in every manner to escape, until at last its 
 power is exhausted, and the poor animal seems to be 
 so completely conquered that it submits quietly, and is 
 led or ridden away with but little difficulty. Great care, 
 however, is taken not to destroy the spirit of the animal, 
 which is carefully preserved, although the Indians are 
 cruel masters. 
 
 The wild horse of these regions is a small but very 
 powerful animal, with a prominent eye, sharp nose, high 
 nostril, small feet and delicate leg. Undoubtedly it 
 sprang from stock introduced by the Spaniards at the 
 time of the invasion of Mexico, which having strayed off 
 to the plains, has stocked them as far north as Lake 
 Winnipeg. Many of the Indian tribes have their tradi 
 tions about the first appearance of horses. The Sioux 
 call the wild horse Shonk-a-wa-wakon (the medicine 
 dog). To the Indian the wild horse is very important. 
 Vast numbers are killed by them for food when game 
 is scarce. But their chief use is in enabling him to take 
 his game more easily and to carry his burdens. 
 
 While on our march we had several times the oppor 
 tunity of seeing the Indians take them with the lasso. 
 But the first successful attempt was by one of our guides 
 named Beatte, a Frenchman, whose parents had lived 
 
290 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 nearly all their lives in an Osage village, where he had 
 been reared from infancy, and had acquired all the skill 
 and tact of his Indian teachers. This took place at 
 noon one day while the regiment halted. Beatte and 
 several others had asked Colonel Dodge s permission to 
 pursue a drove of horses then in sight. They started 
 off, and, by following a ravine, got near the unsuspecting 
 animals and chased them for several miles in full view 
 of the regiment. After a race of two or three miles 
 Beatte was seen with his wild horse down, and the 
 band and the other hunters rapidly leaving him. 
 
 Seeing him in this condition I galloped off to him as 
 rapidly as possible, and had the satisfaction of seeing 
 the whole operation of "breaking down," and bringing 
 in the wild animal. When the command resumed its 
 march, Beatte, astride of his wild horse, rode quietly 
 and without difficulty, until night, the whole thing, the 
 capture, and breaking, all having been accomplished 
 within the space of one hour, our usual and daily halt at 
 midday. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 VISITING THE CAMANCHES 
 
 AT last our Camanche guides told us we were 
 approaching their village. From the top of the 
 gentle elevation to which they led us, in the 
 midst of this lovely valley, we could just discern in the 
 midst of the shrubbery that lined the watercourse the 
 tops of the wigwams and their curling smoke. 
 
 The chiefs of the war party asked us to halt so they 
 could ride on and tell their people we were coming. 
 We dismounted for an hour or more, and could see 
 them hurrying to catch their horses, and at length 
 several hundreds of the braves came dashing on at full 
 speed to welcome us. We immediately mounted, and 
 they, wheeling their horses, formed a line "dressed" 
 like well disciplined cavalry. Our regiment was drawn 
 up in three columns, with a line in front formed of 
 Colonel Dodge and his staff. In this rank my friend 
 Chadwick and I were also paraded, and had a fine view 
 of the whole manoeuvre, which was most picturesque 
 and thrilling. 
 
 In the centre of our advance was our white flag, and 
 the Indians responded by planting by its side one they 
 had sent forward. A fact that I think here worth noting 
 
 291 
 
292 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 is that, even among the most primitive tribes I have vis 
 ited, the white flag is always the flag of truce, and is in 
 violable. The chief going to war always carries in 
 some form or other a piece of white skin or bark 
 wrapped around a stick under his arm. He also carries 
 a red flag which is to be unrolled if the occasion calls 
 for "blood." 
 
 The two lines were thus drawn up, face to face, 
 within twenty or thirty yards of each other, and, to the 
 everlasing credit of the Camanches, whom the world had 
 always looked upon as murderous and hostile, they had 
 all come out, with their heads uncovered, and without 
 a weapon of any kind, to meet a war-party bristling 
 with arms, and trespassing to the middle of their coun 
 try. They had every reason to look upon us as their 
 natural enemy, and yet, instead of arms or defences, or 
 even of frowns, they galloped out without an expression 
 of fear or dismay, and evidently with expressions of joy 
 and impatient pleasure, to shake us by the hand, on the 
 bare assertion of Colonel Dodge, which had been made 
 to the chiefs, that "we came to see them on a friendly 
 
 visit/ 3 
 
 After we had sat and gazed at each other in this way 
 for some half an hour or so, the head chief of the band 
 came galloping up to Colonel Dodge, and having shaken 
 him by the hand, passed on to the other officers in 
 turn, and then rode alongside of the different columns, 
 shaking hands with every dragoon in the regiment; he 
 was followed in this by his principal chiefs and braves, 
 which took up nearly an hour longer. Then the In- 
 
Visiting the Camanches 293 
 
 dians escorted us to the banks of a fine clear stream, a 
 half mile from their village, suitable for our camp, and 
 we were soon bivouacked. 
 
 No sooner were we in camp than Major Mason, 
 Lieutenant Wheelock, Captains Brown and Duncan, 
 and Chadwick and myself galloped off to the village, 
 and through it to the prairie, where at least three thou 
 sand horses were grazing, eager to see the splendid 
 Arabian horses we had heard were owned by the Caman- 
 che warriors. We returned to camp quite crestfallen. 
 Although there were some tolerable nags among this 
 motley group of all colors and shapes, the beautiful 
 Arabian must be further south than this, or it must be 
 a horse of the imagination. The Camanche horses 
 are generally small, all of them being of wild breed, and 
 are tough and serviceable. From what I can learn 
 there are better horses near the Mexican border. But 
 this information may be no more correct than that we 
 had in the East of the horses here. Among these im 
 mense herds we found many mules, and these are more 
 valuable than the horses. 
 
 The officers and men have bought a number of horses 
 by giving for them a cheap blanket and a butcher knife, 
 both worth about four dollars. In the East these horses 
 would be worth from eighty to a hundred dollars. If 
 we had goods to trade for them great profit could be 
 made. A fine looking Indian was hanging about my 
 tent for several days, scanning an old half-worn cotton 
 umbrella that I carried to keep off the sun, as I was 
 suffering from ague. At last he offered to buy it with a 
 
294 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 neat limbed and pretty pied horse, if I would throw in a 
 knife. I refused, for I did not know whether there was 
 another umbrella in the regiment, and I needed this one. 
 He came a second time and offered the horse for the 
 umbrella alone. This offer I rejected. He seemed to 
 think that the horse was not good enough, and returned 
 with another of better quality. I tried to make him 
 understand that I was sick and could not part with it. 
 He rode back to the village and in a short time returned 
 with one of the largest and finest mules I ever saw. 
 This too I refused, and he disappeared. Captain Dun 
 can coming in, I told him the circumstance, when he 
 sprang to his feet. 
 
 "Where has the fellow gone ? Here, Gosset, get my 
 old umbrella out of the pack. I rolled it up with my 
 wiper and the frying-pan. Get it as quick as lightning." 
 
 With the umbrella the Captain ran and overtook the 
 Indian, and went with him to the village, but returned 
 not with the mule, but with the second horse offered me. 
 
 The village of the Camanches, by the side of which 
 we are in camp, is composed of six or seven hundred 
 skin-covered lodges, like those of the Sioux and the 
 other Missouri tribes. This village, with its thousands 
 of wild inmates, horses and dogs, wild sports and do 
 mestic occupations, and the manners and looks of the 
 people, presents a most curious scene. 
 
 We white men, strolling among the wigwams, are 
 looked on with as much curiosity as if we had come from 
 the moon, and evidently send a chill through the blood 
 of the children and dogs when we appear. I was pleased 
 
Visiting the Camanches 295 
 
 to-day with the simplicity of a group which came out of 
 the chief s lodge, and sketched it as quick as lightning, 
 while Joe captured their attention by some trick I did 
 not see, for I had no time to turn around. These were 
 the younger members of the chief s family, left at home, 
 while he and his wives had gone to visit the camp. I 
 have also had the chance to see and sketch one of those 
 extraordinary and amusing scenes which daily happen 
 where so many dogs and so many squaws are traveling 
 in such a confused mass. Each horse drags his load, 
 and each dog, /. e. each dog that will do it, also dragging 
 his wallet on a couple of poles, and each squaw with her 
 load, and each ready for a quarrel, there is generally 
 a fight. It commences usually among the dogs, and is 
 sure to result in fisticuffs of the women; while the men, 
 riding leisurely on the right or the left, take infinite 
 pleasure in overlooking these desperate conflicts, at 
 which they are sure to have a laugh, and in which as 
 sure never to lend a hand. 
 
 The Camanches, like the northern tribes, have 
 many games. In their ball-plays and some other 
 games they are far behind the Sioux and others of the 
 northern tribes, but in racing horses and riding they 
 are not equalled by any other Indians on the Continent. 
 Racing horses is their chief exercise and their principal 
 mode of gambling; perhaps a more finished set of 
 jockeys are not to be found. Among their feats of 
 riding there is one that has astonished me more than 
 anything of the kind I have ever seen, or expect to see, 
 in my life : a stratagem of war, learned and practised 
 
296 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 by every young man in the tribe, by which he is able to 
 drop his body upon the side of his horse at the instant 
 he is passing, effectually screened from his enemies 
 weapons as he lies in a horizontal position behind the 
 body of his horse, with his heel hanging over the horse s 
 back, by which he has the power of throwing himself up 
 again, and changing to the other side of the horse if 
 necessary. In this wonderful condition he will hang 
 while his horse is at fullest speed, carrying with him his 
 bow and his shield, and also his long lance of fourteen 
 feet in length, all or either of which he will wield upon 
 his enemy as he passes, rising and throwing his arrows 
 over the horse s back, or with equal ease and equal suc 
 cess under the horse s neck. This astonishing feat, 
 which the young men have been repeatedly playing off 
 to our surprise as well as amusement, while they have 
 been galloping about in front of our tents, completely 
 puzzled the whole of us, and appeared to be the result 
 of magic rather than of skill through practise. I tried 
 several times to get near them in order to see by what 
 means their bodies could be suspended in this manner, 
 where nothing could be seen but the heel hanging over 
 the horse s back. But I was continually frustrated 
 until I coaxed a young fellow within a short distance of 
 me by a few plugs of tobacco. I found, on examination, 
 that a short halter was passed around the neck of the 
 horse, and both ends tightly braided into the mane near 
 the withers. This left a loop hanging under the neck 
 and on the breast, which being caught up in the hand 
 made a sling into which the elbow fell, taking the weight 
 
Visiting the Camanches 297 
 
 of the body on the middle of the upper arm. Into this 
 loop the rider drops suddenly and fearlessly, leaving his 
 heel to hang over the back of the horse to steady him, 
 and also to enable him to recover an upright position 
 when he desires. This solved the matter, but left it an 
 extraordinary result of persistent practice. 
 
 The Camanches are rather low in stature and ap 
 proach corpulency. In their movements they are 
 heavy and ungraceful, and on their feet one of the most 
 unattractive and slovenly looking tribes of Indians I 
 have ever seen. Indeed a Camanche on his feet is as 
 awkward as a monkey on the ground without a limb to 
 cling to. But the moment he lays his hand upon his 
 horse, his face even becomes handsome, and he flies 
 away a different being, surprising one with the ease and 
 elegance of his movements. These people have several 
 other feats of horsemanship, that are both pleasing and 
 wonderful, of which they are very proud, and are always 
 showing off. A people who spend the greater part of 
 their lives on their horses backs must become expert 
 in everything that pertains to riding, and I can say that 
 the Camanches are the most extraordinary horsemen 
 I have seen, and I doubt whether they can be surpassed 
 in any other part of the world. 
 
 For several days after we arrived there was a huge 
 mass of flesh Ta-wah-que-nah (mountain of rock), 
 who was put forward as the chief of the tribe, and all 
 honors were paid to him by the regiment of dragoons. 
 A perfect personification of Jack Falstaff in size and 
 figure, he had an African face and a beard on his chin 
 
298 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 two or three inches long. His name he told me he got 
 from having conducted a large party of Camanches 
 through a secret and subterraneous passage in a moun 
 tain of granite rock lying back of the village, thus 
 saving their lives from a more powerful enemy from 
 whom there was no other escape. But it seems his 
 name would have been more appropriate if it had been 
 "mountain of flesh," for he weighs quite three hundred 
 pounds. He proved to be, however, not the head chief, 
 who was away on a war-party, and when he arrived the 
 Mountain of Rock stepped quite into the background. 
 The head chief is Ee-shah-ko-nee (the bow and 
 quiver). He is a mild and pleasant looking gentleman, 
 dressed in a humble manner, with few ornaments and 
 his hair carelessly falling about his face and over his 
 shoulders, and seems to have the confidence of the en 
 tire tribe. Ish-a-ro-yeh (he who carries the world) 
 and Is-sa-wah-tam-ah (the wolf tied with hair) are also 
 chiefs of standing and of influence, as they were put 
 forth by the head chiefs to be painted. The first of the 
 two was the leader of the war-party that brought us 
 here, and Colonel Dodge has presented him with a very 
 fine gun. One of the most distinguished men in this 
 country, and one of the leading warriors, is His-oo-san- 
 ches (the Spaniard). He is a Spanish half-breed, for 
 whom the Indians generally have only contemptuous 
 feeling. But this man has always been in the front of 
 battle and danger, and commands the highest respect 
 and admiration of the tribe. It was he who dashed out 
 so boldly from the war-party with the white flag on the 
 
Visiting the Camanches 299 
 
 point of the lance I have before described, and of whom 
 I have made a sketch. This extraordinary little man, 
 whose figure was slight, seemed to be all bone and muscle, 
 and exhibited immense power by the curve of the bones 
 in his legs and his arms. We had many exhibitions of 
 his extraordinary strength as well as agility, and of his 
 gentlemanly politeness and friendship we had as fre 
 quent evidences. As an instance of this, I will recite 
 an occurrence which took place but a few days since, 
 when we were moving our encampment to a more de 
 sirable ground on another side of their village. We had 
 a deep and powerful stream to ford, when we had 
 several men who were sick and obliged to be carried on 
 litters. My friend "Joe" and I came up in the rear of 
 the regiment where the litters with the sick were passing, 
 and we found this little fellow up to his chin in the 
 muddy water, wading and carrying one end of each 
 litter on his head, as they were in turn passed over. 
 After they had all passed, this gallant little fellow beck 
 oned to me to dismount, and take a seat on his shoulders, 
 which I declined, preferring to stick to my horse s back, 
 which I did, as he took it by the bridle and conducted it 
 through the shallowest ford. When I was across, I 
 took from my belt a handsome knife and presented it to 
 him, which seemed to please him very much. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 THE STOLEN BOY 
 
 SO many of the men and officers fell sick that, after 
 building a sort of fort with breastworks of timbers 
 and bushes, we left them, and, much crippled in 
 numbers, set out for the village of the Pawnee Picts, 
 with several Camanches who agreed to pilot us. 
 
 We were four days marching over a fine country, 
 mostly prairie, for the most part along the base of a 
 stupendous range of mountains of reddish granite. 
 These were without a tree or shrub, and looked as if 
 they had dropped from the clouds and lay in a confused 
 mass just where they had fallen. These mountains in 
 closed the Pawnee village on the bank of the Red River, 
 about ninety miles from the Camanche town. The 
 dragoons were drawn up within a half mile of the village, 
 and camped in a square, where we remained three days. 
 We found a numerous village of five or six hundred 
 wigwams made of prairie grass thatched over poles, 
 which are fastened in the ground and bent over at the 
 top, resembling nothing so much as straw beehives. 
 
 To our great surprise we found these people cultivat 
 ing extensive fields of corn, pumpkins, melons, beans 
 and squashes. With these and an abundant supply of 
 
 300 
 
The Stolei Boy 301 
 
 buffalo meat, they may be said to live very well. The 
 next day after our arrival here Colonel Dodge opened 
 a council with the chiefs in the chief s lodge, with most 
 of his officers around him. He first explained to them 
 the friendly intentions which brought him, and the wish 
 of the government to establish a lasting peace with them. 
 This they seemed at once to appreciate and regard with 
 favor. The head chief is a very old man, and several 
 times replied to Colonel Dodge in a very eloquent 
 manner. 
 
 After Colonel Dodge had explained in general terms 
 the objects of our visit, he told them that he should 
 expect from them some account of the foul murder of 
 Judge Martin and his family on the False Wachita, 
 which had been perpetrated but a few weeks before, and 
 which the Camanches had told us was done by the Paw 
 nee Picts. The Colonel told them, also, that he learned 
 from the Camanches that they had the lit-tle boy, the son 
 of the murdered gentleman, in their possession, and that 
 he should expect them to deliver him up, as an indispen 
 sable condition of the friendly arrangement that was now 
 making. They positively denied the fact and all knowl 
 edge of it. The demand was repeatedly made, and as 
 often denied, until at length a negro was discovered 
 living with the Pawnees, who spoke good English, and 
 coming into the council house said that such a boy had 
 recently been brought into their village, and was now 
 a prisoner among them. This excited great surprise 
 and indignation in the council, and Colonel Dodge then 
 informed the chiefs that the council would not take 
 
302 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 place until the boy was brought in. In this alarming 
 dilemma all remained in gloomy silence for awhile, 
 when Colonel Dodge further informed the chiefs that, 
 as an evidence of his friendly intentions toward them, 
 he had, on starting, purchased, at a very great price, 
 from their enemies the Osages, two Pawnee (and one 
 Kiowa) girls, who had been held by them for some 
 years as prisoners, and whom he had brought the whole 
 way home, and had here ready to be delivered to their 
 friends and relations, but whom he certainly would never 
 show until the little boy was produced. He also made 
 another demand, which was for the restoration of a 
 United States ranger, by the name of Abbe, who had 
 been captured by them during the summer before. 
 They acknowledged the seizure of this man, and all 
 solemnly declared that he had been taken by a party of 
 the Camanches, over whom they had no control, and 
 carried beyond the Red River into the Mexican prov 
 inces, where he was put to death. They held a long 
 consultation about the boy, and seeing their plans de 
 feated by the evidence of the negro, and also being con 
 vinced of the friendly disposition of the Colonel, by 
 bringing home their prisoners from the Osages, they 
 sent out and had the boy brought in from the middle of 
 a corn-field where he had been secreted. He is a smart 
 and very intelligent boy of nine years of age, and when 
 he came in he was entirely naked, as they keep their own 
 boys of that age. There was a great excitement in the 
 council when the little fellow was brought in, and as he 
 passed amongst them, he looked around and exclaimed 
 
The Stolen Boy 303 
 
 with some surprise, "What! are there white men here ?" 
 to which Colonel Dodge replied, and asked his name, 
 and he promptly answered, "My name is Matthew 
 Wright Martin." 
 
 He was then received into Colonel Dodge s arms, and 
 an order was given for the Pawnee and Kiowa girls to be 
 brought in. When they entered the council house 
 they were at once recognized by their friends and rela 
 tives, who embraced them with the most extravagant 
 expressions of joy and satisfaction. 
 
 The heart of the old chief was melted at this evidence 
 of the white man s friendship. He rose to his feet and, 
 taking Colonel Dodge in his arms, placed his left cheek 
 against the left cheek of the Colonel, and held him for 
 some minutes without saying a word, while the tears 
 were flowing from his eyes. He then embraced each 
 officer in turn, in the same silent and affectionate man 
 ner. This form took half an hour before it was finished. 
 
 From this moment the council, which before had been 
 very grave and uncertain, became familiar and pleasing, 
 and this excellent old man ordered the women to supply 
 the dragoons with food. The little camp was indeed 
 hungry, as they had eaten their last rations twelve hours 
 before. The soldiers were now gladdened by the ap 
 proach of a number of women, who brought their "back 
 loads" of dried buffalo meat and green corn and threw 
 it down among them. 
 
 The council thus proceeded successfully and pleas 
 antly for several days, while the warriors of the Kiowas 
 and Wicos, two adjoining and friendly tribes, and a 
 
304 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 number of Camanche bands who had heard of our 
 arrival, were coming in. At length over two thousand 
 of these wild and fearless looking fellows were assembled, 
 and all from their horse s backs, with weapons in hand, 
 saw our pitiful little encampment in a state of depend 
 ence and almost of starvation, for the country between 
 this place and the Camanche village had been desti 
 tute of game. In addition, nearly one-half of our two 
 hundred men were sick, and would have been incapable 
 of resistance if we had been attacked. 
 
 These Pawnee Picts are undoubtedly a numerous and 
 powerful tribe, and with Kiowas and Wicos, occupy the 
 whole country on the head-waters of the Red River, and 
 quite into and through the southern part of the Rocky 
 Mountains. The old chief told me by signs, enumer 
 ating with his hands and ringers, that they had altogether 
 three thousand warriors. These then, in an established 
 alliance with the great tribe of Camanches, hunting and 
 feasting together, and ready to join in common defence 
 of their country, become a very formidable enemy when 
 attacked on their own ground. 
 
 The name of the Pawnee Picts, we find to be in their 
 own language, Tow-ee-ahge, the meaning of which I 
 have not yet learned. I have ascertained, also, that 
 these people are in no way related to the Pawnees of the 
 Platte, who reside a thousand miles or more north of 
 them, and know them only as enemies. There is no 
 family or tribal resemblance, nor any in their language 
 or customs. The Pawnees of the Platte shave the head, 
 and the Pawnee Picts abominate the custom, allowing 
 
The Stolen Boy 305 
 
 their hair to grow like the Camanches and other 
 tribes. 
 
 The Pawnee Picts, as well as the Camanches, are 
 generally a very clumsy and ordinary looking set of 
 men, when on their feet, but being fine horsemen, are 
 equally improved in appearance as soon as they mount 
 upon their horses backs. 
 
 Among the women of this tribe there were many 
 that were exceedingly pretty in feature and in form, 
 and also in expression, though their skins are very dark. 
 The dress of the men in this tribe, as among the Ca 
 manches, consists generally in leggings of dressed skins 
 and moccasins, with a flap or breech-clout, made also 
 of dressed skins or furs, and often very beautifully orna 
 mented with shells. Above the waist they seldom wear 
 any drapery, owing to the warmth of the climate, which 
 will rarely justify it, and their heads are generally with 
 out a head-dress, unlike the northern tribes who live in 
 a colder climate, and actually require them for comfort. 
 
 The women of the Camanches and Pawnee Picts 
 are always decently and comfortably clad, being covered 
 generally with a gown or slip, that reaches from the chin 
 quite down to the ankles, made of deer or elk skins, 
 often garnished very prettily, and ornamented with long 
 fringes of elk s teeth, which are fastened on them in rows, 
 and more highly valued than any other decoration. 
 
 The two Pawnee girls, who had been purchased as 
 prisoners from the Osages by the Indian Commissioner, 
 the Rev. Samuel Schemmerhorn, and given to their 
 friends, were Kah-kee-tsee (the thighs) and She-de-a 
 
306 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 (the wild sage). Wun-pan-to-me (the white weasel) and 
 Tunk-aht-o-ye (the thunderer) were a Kiowa boy and 
 girl bought at the same time and taken to their tribe by 
 the dragoons. The girl was taken with us the whole 
 distance on horseback to the Pawnee village. The 
 boy, unhappily, was killed at Fort Gibson by being 
 butted by a ram. He was a beautiful boy of nine, 
 whose portrait I painted the day before he was killed. 
 
 The Kiowas are a much finer looking tribe than either 
 the Camanches or the Pawnees. They are tall, erect, 
 with an easy, graceful gait, and cultivate their hair so as 
 to nearly reach the ground. They have for the most 
 part that fine and Roman outline of head that is found 
 among the northern tribes, and that is very unlike that 
 of the Camanches and Pawnee Picts. Their language, 
 moreover, is so different that they appear quite like 
 strangers. The head chief of the Kiowas, Teh-toot-sah, 
 we found to be a gentlemanly, high-minded man, who 
 treated the dragoons and officers with great kindness 
 while in his country. His long hair was put up in 
 several long club-like divisions, and he wore many silver 
 brooches extending quite down to his knees. 
 
 The chief of the Wicos is Ush-ee-kitz (he who fights 
 with a feather). He is a very polite and polished Indian 
 and very remarkable in his manner of embracing the 
 officers and others in council. In all our talks and 
 councils this man has been a conspicuous speaker. At 
 the close of his speeches he steps forward and, taking 
 each person, friend or foe, holds them closely and affec 
 tionately in his arms for several minutes. Another of 
 
The Stolen Boy 307 
 
 the extraordinary men of this tribe is Kots-a-to-ah (the 
 smoked shield). This man is seven feet tall, and is not 
 only a great warrior, but so swift a runner that he chases 
 the buffalo on foot and slays it with his knife. 
 
 Smoking the shield is one of the most curious as it is 
 one of the most important of the Indian customs. A 
 young man about to make him a shield digs a hole two 
 feet deep in the ground and as large in diameter as he 
 means to make his shield. In this he builds a fire, and 
 over it a few inches higher than the ground he stretches 
 the rawhide horizontally over the fire by means of little 
 pegs driven through holes made near the edges of the 
 skin. This skin is at first twice as large as the size of 
 the shield is to be. Having got together his especial 
 friends in a ring, they dance and sing around it, begging 
 the Great Spirit to instil into it the power to protect him 
 from his enemies. While these sing he spreads glue 
 over the skin which is rubbed and dried in as the skin 
 is heated. As the skin contracts the pegs are drawn 
 out and others inserted. This process is continued 
 until the skin, taking up the glue and increasing in 
 thickness, his friends think they have sung and danced 
 long enough to make it almost arrow and bullet proof. 
 The dance then ceases and the fire is put out. When 
 the skin, now half the original size, is cooled, it is cut 
 into the desired shape, and painted with the figure of an 
 eagle, owl, buffalo, or whatever may be the bird or 
 animal he has chosen to keep him from harm. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 A CRUEL MARCH 
 
 FROM the Camanche village to Fort Canadian, 
 Texas, was a six days severe march. The coun 
 try was entirely prairie, the most of it high and 
 dry ground, without water, for lack of which we suffered 
 greatly. From day to day we have dragged along, ex 
 posed to the hot and burning rays of the sun, without a 
 cloud to relieve its intensity, or a bush to shade us, or 
 anything to cast a shadow except the bodies of our 
 horses. The grass for a great part of the way was dried 
 up, scarcely affording a bite for our horses, and some 
 times, for the distance of many miles, the only water we 
 could find was in stagnant pools, lying on the highest 
 ground, in which the buffaloes had been lying and 
 wallowing like hogs in a mud-puddle, and into which 
 our poor and almost dying horses ran and plunged their 
 noses, sucking up the dirty and poisonous draught, 
 until, in some instances, they fell dead in their tracks. 
 The men also (and oftentimes the writer of these lines) 
 sprang from their horses, and ladled up and drank the 
 disgusting and tepid draught, and with it filled their 
 canteens, from which they were sucking the bilious 
 contents during the day. 
 
 308 
 
A Cruel March 309 
 
 In our march we found many deep ravines, in the 
 bottoms of which there were the marks of wild and 
 powerful streams, except an occasional one, where we 
 found the water dashing along in the coolest and clearest 
 manner, but so salt that even our horses could not drink 
 it. 
 
 This poisonous and indigestible water, with the in 
 tense rays of the sun in the hottest part of the summer, 
 is the cause of the sickness of the horses and men. 
 
 During this march over these dry and parched plains 
 we picked up many curious things of the fossil and 
 mineral kind, and besides them a number of the horned 
 frogs. In our portmanteaux we had a number of tin 
 boxes in which we had carried Seidlitz powders, in 
 these we caged a number of them safely in hopes to 
 carry them home alive. My friend Joe has secured 
 several remarkable specimens with horns three-quarters 
 of an inch in length and very sharp at the points. 
 Joe s fancy for horned frogs has grown into a sort of 
 frog-mania, and his eyes are strained all day gazing into 
 the grass and pebbles as he rides along for his little 
 prizes. 
 
 We have just learned of the deaths of General Leaven- 
 worth, Lieutenant McClure, and ten of the fifteen men 
 we left at the mouth of the False Wachita. It seemst that 
 the General had moved on our trail a few days after we 
 left, to the Cross Timbers, a distance of fifty or sixty 
 miles, where he died. I am inclined to believe that his 
 death is in consequence of the injury he received in fall 
 ing from his horse when running a buffalo calf. From 
 
3io The Boy s Catlin 
 
 that moment he was different. Riding by his side several 
 days after I said: "General, you have a bad cough!" 
 "Yes," he replied, "I have killed myself in running 
 that devilish calf. It was a lucky thing, Catlin, you 
 painted that portrait of me before we started. It is all 
 my dear wife will ever see of me." 
 
 Of the four hundred and fifty fine fellows who started 
 from Fort Gibson four months since about one-third 
 have died, and I believe the fates of as many more are 
 sealed. After leaving the head-waters of the Canadian 
 River my illness so increased that I had to be lifted on 
 and off my horse. At length I could not ride at all, and 
 was put in the baggage wagon with several sick soldiers, 
 and for eight days, the most of the time delirious, I was 
 jolted on the hard planks until the skin from my elbows 
 and knees was worn through. At length we reached 
 Fort Gibson, where I heard the sound of "Roslin 
 Castle" with muffled drums six or eight times a day 
 under my window, and could see as I lay each poor 
 fellow lowered into his silent and peaceful habitation. 
 
 During my illness my friend Joe has been almost con 
 stantly at my bedside, and has given me every aid and 
 every comfort that has been in his power. Such tried 
 friendship as this one must always remember. When 
 we started we were fresh and eager for the adventures 
 before us. Our little pack-horse carried our bedding 
 and culinary articles, among which we had a frying-pan 
 and a coffee pot, coffee in good store and plenty of sugar. 
 When we spread our bear-skin by night and kindled our 
 fire in the grass we were sure of a delightful repast to- 
 
A Cruel March 311 
 
 gether and a refreshing sleep. During the march, as 
 we were subject to no military subordination, we gal 
 loped about as we saw fit, and popped away at whatever 
 we chose to spend our ammunition upon, and ran our 
 noses into every wild crevice we chose. One of the 
 most curious places we met in all our route was a moun 
 tain ridge of fossil shells. This was several hundred 
 feet high and from a quarter to a half mile in breadth, 
 composed of nothing but clam and oyster shells in a per 
 fect state of petrifaction. Seen either individually or 
 in the mass they were nothing but pure shells both in 
 color and shape. In many instances they had never 
 been opened, and taking out our knives and splitting 
 them as one would an oyster, the fish was seen petrified 
 in perfect form. By dipping it in water it showed the 
 color and freshness of an oyster just opened and laid 
 upon a plate ready to be eaten. In my opinion this is 
 one of the greatest geological curiosities in this country, 
 as it lies some thousands of feet above the level of the 
 ocean, and seven hundred miles at least from the sea 
 coast. 
 
 In another section over which we passed was a ridge 
 of several miles running parallel to this ridge with 
 neither grass nor earth under our feet. Our horses 
 tread on a solid reddish rock. Dismounting I struck 
 it with a hatchet and it resounded like an anvil. I 
 found it to contain from sixty to eighty per cent, of solid 
 iron. In other parts between the Camanche village 
 and the Canadian River we found miles of surface en 
 tirely denuded except for small patches of grass and 
 
312 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 wild sage. This was a solid surface of dark gray 
 gypsum, in which, from west to east, were streaks from 
 three to five inches wide literally as white as the drifted 
 snow. So it will be seen that the savage, who never 
 converts these inexhaustible mineral resources of this 
 wild country to his own use, must in time yield them to 
 the enlightened and cultivating white man. 
 
 Since we came in from the prairies Colonel Dodge, 
 Major Armstrong, the Indian Agent, and General 
 Stokes, the Indian Commissioner, have been in council, 
 with seven or eight of the neighboring Indian tribes in 
 vited to meet the Pawnee Picts, Camanches and Kio- 
 was who came back with us. I cannot think of a scene 
 more interesting than this in which the civilized, half- 
 civilized, and wild have met, embraced, smoked the 
 calumet together for the first time, and pledged lasting 
 peace and friendship. Here were three stages of man 
 fearlessly asserting their rights, their happiness, and 
 their friendship for each other. The vain orations of 
 the half-polished and half-breed Choctaws and Chero- 
 kees, with all their finery and art, found their match in 
 the brief and jarring gutturals of the wild and naked 
 men. 
 
 Bringing these unknown people to a knowledge of one 
 another and a general peace has been a handsome 
 achievement. Yet I have strong doubts whether it will 
 better their condition unless they are protected by the 
 strong arm of the government in their rights. There 
 is already a company of men fitted out which will start 
 to-morrow to overtake these Indians and accompany 
 
A Cruel March 313 
 
 them home with a large stock of goods, with traps for 
 catching beavers, intending to build a trading house 
 among them, where they, being the first traders in that 
 country, will immediately amass a large fortune. 
 
 I have travelled too much among Indian tribes and 
 seen too much not to know the evil consequences of such 
 a system. Goods are sold at such exorbitant prices 
 that the Indian gets a mere shadow for his peltries. If 
 the government would promptly prohibit such estab 
 lishments, and invite these Indians to our frontier posts, 
 they would bring in their furs, their robes, horses, mules, 
 etc., to this place, where there is an honorable competi 
 tion, and where they would get four or five times as 
 much for their articles of trade as they would get from a 
 trader in the village, out of the reach of competition, and 
 out of sight of the civilized world. 
 
 At the same time they would be continually coming 
 where they would see good and pciished society, they 
 would be gradually adopting our modes of living, intro 
 ducing to their country our vegetables, our domestic 
 animals, poultry, etc., and at length, our arts and manu 
 factures. They would then see and estimate our mili 
 tary strength and advantages, and would be led to fear 
 and respect us. In short, it would undoubtedly be the 
 quickest and surest way to a general acquaintance 
 to friendship and peace, and at last to civilization. 
 
CHAPTER XXX 
 A CHOCTAW BALL GAME 
 
 IN the Indian country I have always attended every 
 ball game I could hear of, if I could manage it by 
 riding twenty or thirty miles. My custom has 
 been to straddle the back of my horse and look on to 
 the best advantage. In this way I have sometimes sat, 
 oftentimes reclined, and sometimes almost dropped 
 from my horse s back in laughing at the droll tricks, 
 kicks and scuffles that follow in these almost super 
 human struggles for the ball. These plays generally 
 begin about nine o clock in the morning. More than 
 once I have balanced myself on my pony from that time 
 until sundown, without one minute of intermission, 
 before the game has been decided. 
 
 While at the Choctaw agency it was announced that 
 there was to be a great play on a certain day within a 
 few miles. Of course I attended. Monday afternoon 
 at three o clock I rode out to a very pretty prairie, about 
 six miles distant, to the ball playground of the Choc- 
 taws, where we found several thousand Indians en 
 camped. There were two points of timber about half 
 a mile apart, in which the two parties for the play, with 
 their families and friends, were encamped. My com- 
 
 314 
 
A Choctaw Ball Game 315 
 
 panions and myself, although we had been apprised 
 that to see the whole of a ball play we must remain on 
 the ground all the night previous, had brought nothing 
 to sleep upon, resolving to keep our eyes open and see 
 what happened through the night. During the after 
 noon we loitered about and afterward, at sundown, 
 witnessed the ceremony of measuring out the ground, 
 and erecting the "byes" or goals which were to guide 
 the play. Each party had their goal made with two 
 upright posts, about twenty-five feet high and six feet 
 apart, set firm in the ground, with a pole across at the 
 top. These goals were about forty or fifty rods apart, 
 and at a point just half-way between was another small 
 stake driven down, where the ball was to be thrown up 
 at the firing of a gun. All this preparation was made 
 by some old men who were, it seems, selected to be the 
 judges of the play. They drew a line from one bye to 
 the other, to which a great concourse of women and old 
 men, boys and girls, with dogs and horses, came to make 
 their bets. The betting was all done across this line, 
 and seemed to be chiefly left to the women. Goods and 
 chattels, knives, dresses, blankets, pots and kettles, 
 dogs and horses and guns were placed in the possession 
 of stake-holders, who sat by them and watched them on 
 the ground all night preparatory to the play. 
 
 The sticks with which this tribe play are bent into an 
 oblong hoop at the end, with a sort of slight web of small 
 thongs tied across to prevent the ball from passing 
 through. The players hold one of these in each hand, 
 and by leaping into the air, they catch the ball between 
 
316 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 the two nettings and throw it, without being allowed to 
 strike it or catch it in their hands. 
 
 In every ball-play of these people it is a rule of the 
 play that no man shall wear moccasins on his feet, or 
 any other dress than his breech-cloth around his waist, 
 with a beautiful bead belt and a "tail," made of white 
 horsehair or quills, and a "mane" on the neck of horse 
 hair, dyed of various colors. 
 
 This game had been arranged and "made up" three 
 or four months before the parties met to play it, and in 
 the following manner: The two champions who led the 
 two parties, and had the alternate choosing of the 
 players through the whole tribe, sent runners, with the 
 ball-sticks most fantastically ornamented with ribbons 
 and red paint, to be touched by each one of the chosen 
 players, who thereby agreed to be on the spot at the ap 
 pointed time and ready for the play. The ground 
 having been all prepared and preliminaries of the game 
 all settled, and the bets all made, and goods all "staked," 
 night came on without the appearance of any players on 
 the ground. But soon after dark a procession of lighted 
 flambeaux was seen coming from each encampment to 
 the ground, where the players assembled around their 
 respective byes, and at the beat of the drums and chants 
 of the women, each party of players commenced the 
 "ball-play dance." Each party danced for a quarter 
 of an hour around their respective byes in their ball- 
 play dress, rattling their ball-sticks together in the most 
 violent manner, and all singing as loud as they could 
 raise their voices, while the women of each party who 
 
A Choctaw Ball Game 317 
 
 had their goods at stake formed into two rows on the 
 line between the two parties of players and danced also, 
 in a uniform step, and all their voices joined in chants 
 to the Great Spirit, in which they solicited his favor in 
 deciding the game to their advantage, and also en 
 couraged the players to exert every power they pos 
 sessed in the struggle that was to ensue. In the mean 
 time, four old medicine-men, who were to start the ball, 
 and who were to be judges of the play, were smoking 
 to the Great Spirit that they might judge rightly and 
 impartially in so important an affair. 
 
 This dance was one of the most picturesque scenes 
 imaginable, and was repeated at intervals of every half 
 hour during the night, and exactly in the same manner. 
 In the morning, at the hour, the two parties and all 
 their friends were drawn out and over the ground, when 
 at length the game commenced by the judges throwing 
 up the ball at the firing of a gun. The players, who 
 were some six or seven hundred in numbers, endeavored 
 to catch the ball in their sticks and throw it home and 
 between their respective stakes, which counts one for 
 game. In this game every player was dressed alike, 
 that is, divested of all dress except the girdle and the 
 tail which I have before described. In these desperate 
 struggles, when the ball is up, hundreds are running, 
 leaping over one another s heads, and darting between 
 their opponents legs, tripping, and throwing, and foiling 
 each other in every possible way, and every voice raised 
 to the highest key in shrill yelps and barks; the rapid 
 succession of feats and incidents is astonishing. Fre- 
 
3i8 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 quently there is individual resistance, which ends in 
 violent scuffles and fisticuffs. At such times their sticks 
 are dropped and they fight it out unmolested. Every 
 weapon, by a rule in all ball games, is left in their 
 camps, and no one is allowed to go for one, so their 
 broils are settled without much personal injury. 
 
 There are times when the ball falls to the ground, 
 that for a quarter of an hour a confused mass of ball- 
 sticks, shins, bloody noses are carried around to different 
 parts of the grounds, without any one of the players 
 being able to see the ball. For each time the ball was 
 passed between the stakes of either side one was counted 
 for game and a halt of a minute given. The judges 
 then started the play again, and a similar struggle was 
 carried on until the successful party gained one hun 
 dred, which was the limit, and took the stakes. These, 
 then, by previous agreement, produced several jugs of 
 whiskey, which sent them all home merry but not drunk. 
 
 After this exciting day we went to the agency house 
 where we had a number of dances. One I had not seen 
 before was the Eagle dance, and a very pretty scene. 
 This is got up by the young men in honor of that bird, 
 for which they seem to have a religious regard. This 
 picturesque dance was given by twelve or sixteen men, 
 whose bodies were almost naked and painted white 
 with white clay. Each dancer held in his hand the tail 
 of an eagle, while his head was decorated with an eagle s 
 quill. Spears were stuck in the ground around which 
 the dance was performed by four men at a time, who 
 had simultaneously, at the beat of the drum, jumped up 
 
A Choctaw Ball Game 319 
 
 from the ground where they had all sat in rows of four, 
 one row immediately behind the other, and ready to 
 take the place of the first four when they left the ground 
 fatigued, which they did by hopping or jumping around 
 behind the rest, and taking their seats, ready to come up 
 again in their turn, after each of the other sets had been 
 through the same forms. 
 
 In this dance the steps, or rather jumps, were different 
 from anything I had ever witnessed before, as the 
 dancers were squat down, with their bodies almost to 
 the ground, in a severe and most difficult posture. 
 
 From Ha-tchoo-tuck-nee (the snapping turtle), whom 
 the whites call familiarly Peter Pinchlin, a gentlemanly 
 and well educated man, I have heard several of the 
 curious traditions of this tribe, which I will try to give 
 in his own words. 
 
 The Deluge. " Our people have always had a tradi 
 tion of the Deluge, which happened in this way: there 
 was total darkness for a great time over the whole of the 
 earth; the Choctaw doctors or mystery-men looked out 
 for daylight for a long time, until at last they despaired 
 of ever seeing it, and the whole nation was unhappy. 
 At last a light was discovered in the North, and there 
 was great rejoicing until it was found to be great moun 
 tains of water rolling on, which destroyed them all ex 
 cept a few families who had expected it and built a great 
 raft, on which they were saved." 
 
 Future State. "Our people all believe that the spirit 
 lives in a future state, that it has a great distance to 
 travel after death toward the West, that it has to cross 
 
320 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 a dreadful deep and rapid stream, which is hemmed in 
 on both sides by high and rugged hills; over this stream, 
 from hill to hill, there lies a long and slippery pine-log, 
 with the bark peeled off, over which the dead have to pass 
 to the delightful hunting-grounds. On the other side 
 of the stream there are six persons of the good hunting- 
 grounds, with rocks in their hands, which they throw at 
 them all when they are on the middle of the log. The 
 good walk on safely to the good hunting-grounds, where 
 there is one continual day, where the trees are always 
 green, where the sky has no clouds, where there are con 
 tinual fine and cooling breezes, where there is one con 
 tinual scene of feasting, dancing and rejoicing, where 
 there is no pain or trouble, and people never grow old, 
 but forever live young and enjoy the youthful pleasures. 
 
 "The wicked see the stones coming and try to dodge, 
 by which they fall from the log, and go down thousands 
 of feet to the water which is dashing over the rocks. 
 There the trees are all dead, and the dead are always 
 hungry and have nothing to eat, are always sick and 
 never die. There thousands crawl up the sides of a 
 high rock where they can overlook the good hunting- 
 grounds they can never reach. 
 
 "Our people have a crawfish band. A long time 
 ago they lived under the ground, and used to come up 
 out of the mud as crawfish, and go about on their hands 
 and feet. They spoke no language at all, nor could they 
 understand any. The entrance to their cave was 
 through the mud, so for a long time the Choctaws were 
 unable to molest them. The Choctaws used to lie and 
 
A Choctaw Ball Game 321 
 
 wait for them to come out and lie in the sun, where they 
 would try to make their acquaintance. 
 
 "One day a party of them were run upon so suddenly 
 by the Choctaws that they had no time to go through 
 the mud to their cave, but were driven into another 
 entrance they had through the rocks. The Choctaws 
 then determined to smoke them out, and at last suc 
 ceeded. They afterward treated them very kindly, 
 taught them the Choctaw language, made them walk on 
 two legs, cut their toe-nails, and pluck the hair from 
 their bodies. Then they adopted them into the nation. 
 The remainder of the crawfish band is living under 
 ground to this day." 
 
 The tradition among the Choctaws is that they came 
 from the region beyond the Rocky Mountains. "Many 
 winters ago," said Peter Pinchlin, "the Choctaws began 
 moving from the country where they then lived, which 
 was a great distance to the west of the great river and the 
 mountains of snow. They were many years on the way. 
 A big medicine-man led them by going before with a 
 long red pole. This he stuck in the ground every night 
 when they went into camp. Every morning this pole 
 was found leaning to the east. Then he told them they 
 must keep on traveling until the pole stood upright in 
 camp. There the Great Spirit meant that they should 
 live. Finally they came to a place called Nah-ne-wa-ye 
 (the sloping hill). There the pole stood upright. They 
 then pitched their camp a mile square, with the men 
 outside and the women in the centre. This is the 
 centre of the old Choctaw nation to this day." 
 
CHAPTER XXXI 
 ALONE WITH CHARLEY 
 
 AS soon as I recovered sufficient strength I made 
 up my mind that if I could get out on the prairies 
 and move northward I could save myself from 
 that voracious burial ground that lay in front of my 
 window, and where for so long I lay and imagined my 
 self going with the other poor fellows, whose mournful 
 dirges were played from day to day under my window. 
 Rather die on the prairies and be devoured by wolves, 
 rather fall in fight with the Indians and be scalped, than 
 the lingering death that would consign me to that in 
 satiable grave. 
 
 So having packed my canvases and brushes to be 
 sent by river to St. Louis, one fine morning my horse 
 Charley was brought up and saddled. A bearskin and 
 a buffalo robe being spread on the saddle, and a tin 
 coffee pot and cup tied to it, with a few pounds of hard 
 biscuit in my portmanteau, with my fowling piece in my 
 hand and my pistols in my belt, with my sketch book 
 slung across my back, and my little compass in my 
 pocket, I took leave of Fort Gibson against the advice 
 of my surgeon and all the officers of the garrison, who 
 gathered around me to bid me farewell. 
 
 322 
 
Alone with Charley 323 
 
 Thus alone, without any other companion than my 
 affectionate horse, Charley, I turned my face northward, 
 to find my way over the five hundred miles of prairie 
 that lay between me and the Missouri river. No one 
 can ever know the pleasure of that moment which placed 
 me alone upon the boundless sea of waving grass, over 
 which my proud horse was prancing, and I with my life 
 in my own hands. 
 
 Day by day I thus pranced and galloped along the 
 whole way, through waving grass and green fields, occa 
 sionally lying in the grass an hour or so, until the grim 
 shaking and chattering of an ague chill had passed off, 
 and through the nights slept on my bearskin spread 
 upon the grass, with my saddle for my pillow, and my 
 buffalo robe drawn over me for my covering. My 
 horse Charley was picketed near me at the end of his 
 lasso, which gave him room for his grazing, and thus we 
 snored and never were denied the doleful serenades of 
 the gangs of sneaking wolves that in the morning we saw 
 gazing at us, impatient to pick up the crumbs and bones 
 that were left when we moved away from our feeble 
 fire that, in the absence of timber, had been made of 
 dried buffalo dung. 
 
 Charley was a noble animal, a wild Camanche half- 
 breed, the color of a clay bank, and with a sweeping 
 black mane and tail. I had bought him from Colonel 
 Burbank of the Ninth Infantry before the journey to 
 the Camanche village, and he was considered the finest, 
 as he was the best known horse in that part of the coun 
 try. Charley and I, although heretofore the best of 
 
324 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 friends, had always too much company to fully realize 
 how much we loved one another. We both required 
 the solitary and mutual dependence we were now enter 
 ing upon to fully develop the actual strength of the 
 sympathy that had long existed between us. Another 
 advantage arose from the fact that we were old cam 
 paigners, and knew exactly how to go at our work. 
 There was yet another advantage that helped us very 
 much. Twenty-five days is a long time to be without 
 speaking to any one, or hearing the cheering sound of a 
 human voice. From our long companionship and 
 practice Charley and I had established a sort of lan 
 guage that was very significant, and helped to break the 
 awful monotony of a solitary campaign on the prairie. 
 
 When I went into the field to catch Charley after a 
 separation of two months, I said, "Charley, is that you ?" 
 He instantly replied, "Eegh-ee-e-eeh" (yes). This was 
 distinctly an affirmative. Some might call this gibber 
 ish, but it had its meaning, and he was always sure to be 
 right provided I put to him the right sort of questions. 
 He had one agreeable trait which does not always be 
 long to those one meets in far-away countries, he always 
 answered immediately. 
 
 I generally halted on the bank of some little stream, 
 at half an hour s sun, where feed was good for Charley, 
 and where I could get wood to kindle my fire and water 
 for my coffee. The first thing was to undress " Charley " 
 and drive down his picket, to which he was fastened, to 
 graze over a circle that he could describe at the end of 
 his lasso. In this wise he busily fed himself until night- 
 
Alone with Charley 325 
 
 fall, and after my coffee was made and drank, I moved 
 him up, with his picket by my head, so that I could lay 
 my hand upon his lasso in an instant, in case of any 
 alarm that was liable to drive him from me. On one of 
 these evenings, when he was grazing as usual, he slipped 
 the lasso over his head, and deliberately took his supper 
 at his pleasure, wherever he chose to prefer it, as he was 
 strolling around. When night came I went as usual to 
 catch him, but he evaded me. He led me a chase for 
 a half-mile, and it seemed that I would have to make the 
 rest of my journey on foot. At last I went back and 
 laid myself on my bearskin and went to sleep. 
 
 In the middle of the night I half opened my eyes and 
 saw a huge figure leaning over me, which I took to be an 
 Indian about to take my scalp. I was too paralyzed 
 to move, but at length I realized that it was my faithful 
 horse, Charley, who, whether from fear or affection, 
 stood with his forefeet at the edge of my bed, his head 
 hanging over me, and fast asleep. 
 
 The next morning I saw him some distance off brows 
 ing, and after breakfast started to catch him. But he 
 refused to be caught. I recalled the affection he had 
 shown me in the night, so I thought I would try a new 
 method. Slinging my saddle on to my back and trail 
 ing my gun I started on. After I had gone about a 
 quarter of a mile I looked around, and there by our 
 camp fire Charley stood, with his head and tail on high, 
 gazing over the prairie. Presently I heard him neighing 
 loudly behind me, and galloping at full speed he passed 
 me, when suddenly he wheeled and stood before me, 
 
326 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 trembling like an aspen. I walked up to him, and he 
 held down his head for the bridle, and literally stooped 
 for the saddle, both of us equally pleased at being to 
 gether again. 
 
 On the night of this memorable day Charley and I 
 stopped in an enchanting little lawn of five or six acres, 
 on the banks of a cool and rippling stream, that was 
 alive with fish, and every now and then a fine brood of 
 young ducks, just old enough for delicious food, and too 
 unsophisticated to avoid an easy and simple death. 
 This little lawn was surrounded by bunches and copses 
 of the most luxuriant foliage, spreading out their 
 branches as if offering protection, groups of cherry and 
 plum trees that supported festoons of purple grapes. 
 Everywhere the green carpet was decked out with wild 
 flowers, from the drooping head of the modest sun 
 flower to the erect lilies and violets that crept beneath 
 them. By the side of this cool stream Charley was 
 fastened, and near him my bearskin was laid. I soon 
 brought a fine string of perch from the brook for my 
 little fire, and had with it a broiled duck and a fine cup 
 of coffee for my dinner and supper united, at half an 
 hour s sun. After this I strolled about this sweet little 
 paradise, which I found was chosen, not only by myself, 
 but by the wild deer. 
 
 The Indians also, I found, had loved it once and left 
 It, for here and there were their solitary and deserted 
 graves which told, though briefly, of former chants and 
 sports, and perhaps of wars and deaths, that had once 
 rung and echoed through this little silent vale. 
 
Alone with Charley 327 
 
 On my return to my camp I lay down and looked 
 awhile into the blue sky above, over which the milk-white 
 clouds were passing, with the sun setting in the west, and 
 the silver moon rising in the east, and felt anew my own 
 insignificance as I contemplated that wonderful clock 
 whose time is infallible and whose motion is eternal. 
 At last I trembled at the expanse of my thoughts, and 
 turning, my eyes rested on a newspaper I had brought 
 from the garrison. This was The National Intelligencer 
 I had read for years, but never with the zest and relish 
 as now, in this clean sweet valley of dead silence. 
 
 After reading it I laughed at what I had almost for 
 gotten while among the Minatarees on the Upper Mis 
 souri. I had in my painting kit a copy of the Commer 
 cial Advertiser, edited by my friend, Colonel Stone. 
 The Minatarees thought me mad when they saw me for 
 hours poring over its columns. They had various con 
 jectures, but the most popular was that I was looking at 
 it to cure my sore eyes, and they called it the " medicine 
 cloth for sore eyes." I had several liberal offers for it 
 but I had already accepted a beautiful painted robe for 
 it from a young medicine-man, who told me that if he 
 could employ a good interpreter, he could travel among 
 the Minatarees, Mandans, and Sioux after I left, and it 
 would make him a great medicine-man. Just before 
 I left I saw him taking it from some eight or ten folds of 
 birch bark and deer-skins, all of which were carefully 
 enclosed in a sack made of a pole-cat skin, and un 
 doubtedly destined to become his mystery or medicine- 
 bag. 
 
328 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 With the exception of one night in twenty-five I man 
 aged to bivouac on the bank of some little stream or 
 river, where there was water to make my coffee and 
 wood to make a fire. We generally halted a little before 
 sundown, so as to give Charley plenty of time to get his 
 supper before I took up his picket and brought him in. 
 The moment his saddle was off I drove his picket down 
 where the grass was plenty and fresh, and gave him the 
 full length of his lasso. I would then gather my wood, 
 make my fire, and that well going, I would dress my 
 prairie hen or prepare my venison steak, and fasten 
 them on top of litttle sharpened stakes before the fire. 
 Then I would put my little tin coffee pot on the fire, and 
 spread out all my traps, such as a tin cup, a bowie knife, 
 an iron spoon, a little sack of salt, some sugar, and a 
 slice or two of cold ham. 
 
 It was a habit of Charley s and mine at this time to 
 take him a little salt, of which he was very fond, and 
 which he took with added relish out of my hand. This 
 might have been possibly one of the causes of Charley s 
 affectionate attachment to me, and, on this occasion, I 
 took care to lay in enough salt to keep up friendly feel 
 ings between us during our campaign. He was so 
 accustomed to receiving this little attention when his 
 meal was half over, and mine just to begin, and he had 
 learned the time so well, that if I was not ready at the 
 moment, his head was up and his tail spread out like a 
 turkey cock while he stood and gazed inquiringly at me. 
 I would say to him "Charley, do you want your salt ?" 
 "Eegh-ee-e," he never failed to answer. 
 
Alone with Charley 329 
 
 Once we crossed a large prairie of many miles in ex 
 tent, without a tree or bush in sight, and so perfectly 
 level that, in the language of the region, we were "out 
 of sight of land/ Here night overtook us, and we were 
 obliged to bivouac without water. I had no coffee that 
 night, but I cooked very nicely a venison steak with a fire 
 of dried buffalo dung which I gathered from the prairie. 
 
 In the middle of the night I was awakened by a 
 terrific thunder storm. I got up and drove Charley s 
 picket doubly strong, and folding up one of my robes, 
 laid it across the saddle to sit upon, and spread the other 
 robe over my head. This fell all around me to the 
 ground and formed a tent that not only sheltered me, 
 but all my things from the rain. This fell in torrents, 
 and the flashes of lightning seemed to run like fiery 
 snakes over the prairie, as if they were hunting for some 
 thing to strike. At every flash I feared that Charley 
 and I might be snapped up. Notwithstanding I had to 
 sit upright all night, I got some sleep, 
 
 The monotony of these broad level prairies was some 
 times not only tedious, but doleful. I repeatedly fell 
 asleep while riding, and when waking found Charley 
 not only going forward, but keeping the course. Some 
 times for hours together, creeping along without a bird 
 or beast in sight, while both were in deep thought, I 
 would say, "Charley, a penny for your thoughts." 
 "Eegh-ee-e," Charley would reply. Thus we both 
 braced up our nerves and moved along with new life. 
 
 One day while we were thus jogging along, suddenly 
 a stately buck, with a pair of horns that looked as if he 
 
330 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 had a chair on his head, sprang up before us. While I 
 was getting my left barrel to bear upon him, Charley 
 trembled so I could scarcely get my aim. When I fired, 
 the deer staggered back a little but recovered, and 
 bounded off. A few rods took him over the hill, and he 
 was out of sight. I pushed Charley up to where he 
 stood, and seeing the blood on the grass, knew I had hit 
 him. We could easily track him by the blood, but at 
 length struck the high grass, which came quite up to 
 Charley s back. But I could feel by his movements 
 and the extraordinary excitement he was under that he 
 was tracing the deer. I had the curiosity to slacken 
 rein and let him take his course. He went on in an 
 unnaturally fast walk, snuffing and smelling as pre 
 cisely as a hound could have done. We went on for 
 a half-mile or more, when breaking out of the grass 
 at the foot of a small hill, he suddenly turned and 
 raised his head to the left, his ears pointing forward. 
 "Eegh-ee-e," he exclaimed. I looked in the direction, 
 and there lay our noble buck with his frightful horns, 
 quite dead. 
 
 I did not straighten the rein even then, but Charley 
 started up on a trot, with his head and tail up, and bring 
 ing me within a few paces of him, stopped. I then 
 pushed him up, and he smelled of the animal s nose and 
 bleeding wound. "Are you sorry, Charley?" said I. 
 "Eegh-ee-e." "No, you are not. I put the question 
 wrong." "Eegh-ee-e." "That s right." I dismounted, 
 and Charley looked on while I cut a nice steak, and 
 looked and smelled back at me while I was tying it to 
 
Alone with Charley 331 
 
 the saddle. He knew as well as I that he was going to 
 carry it home, and I was going to have it for supper. 
 
 Sometimes we came upon deep sunken streams, like 
 ditches, when I was within a few steps of plunging into 
 them from their perpendicular sides, which were over 
 hung with long wild grass. Into one of these canals 
 which I had followed for several miles in the vain hope 
 of finding a shoal or an accustomed ford, I plunged with 
 Charley where it was about six or eight yards wide (and 
 God knows how deep, for we did not go to the bottom), 
 and swam him to the opposite bank, to which I clung, 
 and which being perpendicular and of clay, and three or 
 four feet higher than the water, was an insurmountable 
 difficulty to Charley. I led the poor fellow at least a mile 
 as I walked on the top of the bank, with the bridle in 
 my hand, holding his head above the water as he was 
 swimming, and I at times almost inextricably entangled 
 in the long grass that was often higher than my head. 
 I at length (and just before I was ready to drop the rein 
 of faithful Charley in hopeless despair) came to an old 
 buffalo ford, where the banks were graded down, and 
 the poor exhausted animal at last got out, and was ready 
 and willing to take me and my luggage (after I had dried 
 them in the sun) on the journey again. 
 
 The Osage River, which is a powerful stream, I struck 
 at a place which was sixty or eighty yards in width, with 
 a current that was sweeping along at a rapid rate. I 
 stripped everything from Charley and tied him with his 
 lasso until I travelled the shores up and down for some 
 distance and collected drift wood enough for a small 
 
332 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 raft which I constructed to carry my clothes and saddle 
 and other things safe over. I then took up Charley s 
 picket, and leading him to the water s edge and taking off 
 his lasso, I said, "Charley, do you know what you have 
 t6do?" "Eegh-ee-e." There was no mistake about 
 this, as it was a thing he was used to. I pointed to the 
 other bank and drove him in, and he started for the 
 other shore. The current swept him down some dis 
 tance, but he got to the bank and out upon the prairie. 
 Then he turned about and looked at me with a tre 
 mendous "eegh-ee-eh," and went to grazing. 
 
 Having arranged my things on it I moved my raft into 
 the stream, and swimming behind, with one hand on it, 
 proceeded very slowly down the stream. Approaching 
 the opposite shore, I saw with alarm that the rotten 
 timbers of my raft were absorbing the water so fast that 
 some of my things were already under water. Mean 
 while the shore was lined with logs and tree tops where 
 I was to land. Some of the long timbers of my raft, as 
 I had no axe to make them of equal length, caught in the 
 limbs of a tree, and whirling it around the raft, began to 
 go to pieces, and I was thrown again out into the stream. 
 A second effort got me a better landing, and at length 
 I got myself and my traps safely on to the ground. I 
 was then in front of a dense forest, and full a mile below 
 where I had last seen Charley standing, with his head 
 and tail up and watching me as I disappeared behind a 
 point of timber. I was just making ready to go in 
 search of him when I was startled by a cracking noise 
 behind me, and as I turned around "Eegh-ee-e" said 
 
Alone with Charley 333 
 
 Charley, as he crowded through the thick weeds and 
 nettles. 
 
 Such are a few incidents of this journey of five hun 
 dred miles which I made entirely alone, and which at 
 last brought me out at Boonville, on the western bank 
 of the Missouri River. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII 
 CANOEING ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI 
 
 AFTER recruiting my health during the winter in 
 recreation and amusement on the coast of Florida, 
 like a bird of passage I started, at the rallying 
 notes of the swan and the wild goose, for the cool, fresh 
 North. But the gifted passengers soon left me behind. 
 I found them here, their nests built, their eggs hatched, 
 and their offspring fledged and figuring in the world 
 before I arrived at Fort Snelling, on the Falls of St. 
 Anthony, from which place I will begin my summer s 
 campaign. 
 
 With several hundred of the wildest of the Chippewas, 
 and as many Sioux, we celebrated the Fourth of July in 
 an unusual and interesting manner. To aid me in 
 getting sketches of the customs and manners of these 
 Indians, Major Talliaferro, the Indian agent at this 
 place, told them I was a great medicine-man who had 
 visited many of the tribes and witnessed their sports, 
 and I had come to see if the Indians of this region were 
 their equals in ball-play and other games. If they 
 would come on the next day, which was the Fourth of 
 July, and give us a ball-play and some of their dances, 
 he would have the big gun fired twenty-one times. 
 
 334 
 
Canoeing on the Upper Mississippi 335 
 
 This they easily construed into a great compliment to 
 themselves. 
 
 I gave them an even stronger inducement in a barrel 
 of flour and a quantity of pork and tobacco. Ac 
 cordingly, on the Day of Independence, about eleven 
 o clock, which is the hour the Indians usually make 
 their appearance on great occasions, the young men 
 who were to play came onto the ground. Their dress 
 consisted of the flap, and attached to their girdle a tail 
 reaching nearly to the ground, made of the choicest 
 arrangement of quills and feathers, or of the hair of the 
 tails of white horses, with the ball-sticks in their hands. 
 After an excited and warmly contested play of two hours 
 they gave a number of their most fanciful and pic 
 turesque dances. The most beautiful of these was the 
 Dance of the Braves. 
 
 During this dance, at intervals, they stop, and one of 
 them steps into the ring, and as loud as possible, with 
 the most significant gestures, relates the feats of bravery 
 he has performed, boasts of the scalps he has taken, 
 of the enemies he has vanquished, going through all the 
 motions which accompanied these scenes he described. 
 At the end of his boasting all assent to the truth of his 
 story, and give in their approbation by the guttural 
 "waugh!" and the dance again commences. At the 
 next interval another makes his boasts, and another, 
 and another, and so on. 
 
 During this scene a little trick was played off" in the 
 following manner, which produced much amusement 
 and laughter. A woman of goodly size, and in woman s 
 
336 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 attire, danced into the ring (which seemed to excite 
 some surprise, as women are never allowed to join in the 
 dance), and commenced "sawing the air," and boasting 
 of the astonishing feats of bravery she had performed, 
 of the incredible number of horses she had stolen, of the 
 scalps she had taken, etc., until her feats surpassed all 
 that had ever been heard. They all gave assent, how 
 ever, to what she had said, and apparently credence, too, 
 and to reward so extraordinary a feat of female prowess, 
 they presented to her a kettle, a cradle, beads, ribbons, 
 etc. After getting her presents and placing them safely 
 in the hands of another matron for safekeeping, she 
 commenced disrobing herself, and, almost instantly 
 divesting herself of a loose dress, in the presence of the 
 whole company, came out in a soldier s coat and panta 
 loons! and laughed at them excessively for their mistake! 
 She then commenced dancing and making her boasts 
 of her exploits, assuring them that she was a man, and a 
 great brave. They all gave unqualified assent to this, 
 acknowledged their error, and made her other presents 
 of a gun, a horse, of tobacco, and a war-club. She then 
 deliberately threw off the pantaloons and coat, and pre 
 sented herself at once, and to their great astonishment 
 and confusion, in a beautiful woman s dress. The tact 
 with which she performed these parts so uniformly 
 pleased, that it drew forth thundering applause from the 
 Indians as well as from the spectators, and the chief 
 stepped up and crowned her head with a beautiful 
 plume of the eagle s quill, rising from a crest of the 
 swan s down. 
 
Canoeing on the Upper Mississippi 337 
 
 The Sioux occupy all the country on the west bank of 
 this river, while the Chippewas claim all lying east from 
 the Chippewa River at the mouth of Lake Pepin to the 
 source of the Mississippi. These two tribes are hostile, 
 and from time out of mind have been at war. They are 
 now encamped on different sides of the fort, and at 
 present their difficulties have been arranged by the 
 Indian agent, whom they call Great Father, and whose 
 advice they listen to with the greatest attention. For 
 two weeks past they have been making speeches before 
 him, and have united in their dances, games, feasts and 
 smokes. But this does not mean that when again on 
 their hunting-grounds the war cry and tomahawk will 
 not be raised. 
 
 I have been a daily visitor to the camp of the Chippe 
 was. Their wigwams are made of slight poles stuck in 
 the ground and bent over so as to give a roof-like shape 
 to the lodge. This framework is then covered with birch 
 bark. I was strolling through the village with my wife 
 when the Indian women gathered around her, anxious 
 to shake hands with her and show her their children, 
 of which she took especial notice. They literally filled 
 her arms with muk-kuhs of maple sugar, of which they 
 make great quantities for sale. 
 
 The Sioux in this region who are out of the reach of 
 beavers and buffaloes are poor and meanly clad, com 
 pared to their tribe on the Missouri, where the skins of 
 the wild animals supply them with picturesque and 
 comfortable dresses. The same deterioration is also 
 seen in the morals and constitutions of these, as of all 
 
338 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 the other Indians who live on the frontier, owing to 
 whiskey, small-pox, and other diseases that shorten their 
 lives. 
 
 After the great business of the treaty between the 
 Sioux and Chippewas was over the Chippewas struck 
 their tents by taking them down and rolling up their 
 bark coverings and packing them, with women, dogs 
 and all, into their canoes. 
 
 The bark canoe of the Chippewas is perhaps the 
 most beautiful and light model of all the water crafts 
 that were ever invented. It is generally made entirely 
 of the rind of one birch tree, so ingeniously shaped and 
 sewed together with the roots of tamarack that the 
 canoes are water-tight, and ride the water as light as 
 cork. Under the skilful guidance of the Indian or the 
 ugliest squaw, they gracefully dodge about, but, like 
 everything wild, are timid and treacherous with the 
 white man, who, unless he is very skilful in balancing, 
 is pretty sure to get soused a few times in his first efforts 
 to make their acquaintance. 
 
 A few days after these scenes, I embarked in a light 
 birch canoe with one companion, Corporal Allen, a 
 young man of considerable taste, who thought he would 
 relish the transient scenes of such a voyage with a 
 painter down the Mississippi for Prairie du Chien. 
 
 In the afternoon of the first day of our journey we 
 discovered three lodges of Sioux on the bank, hallooing 
 and waving their blankets for us to come in shore. As 
 we had no business with them we held to our course, 
 when one of them ran into his lodge, and, coming out 
 
Canoeing on the Upper Mississippi 339 
 
 with his gun, levelled it at us and gave us a charge of 
 buckshot about our ears. One of them passed through 
 several folds of my cloak lying in front of my knee, and 
 several others so near as to spatter our faces with water. 
 There was no fun in this. I ran the canoe to the shore 
 as fast as possible, and men, women and children ran to 
 the shore to meet us with yells and laughter as we landed. 
 As the canoe struck the shore I rose, and throwing all 
 the infuriated demon I could into my countenance, 
 thrust my pistols into my belt, a half dozen bullets into 
 my mouth, and my doubled barrel gun in my hand, I 
 leaped ashore. By a nearer route I got between them 
 and their wigwams, where, with my barrels presented, I 
 made them understand I could annihilate the whole of 
 them in a minute. I slipped my sketch book and pencil 
 into my hand, and, under the muzzle of my gun, each 
 fellow stood for his likeness, which I made them under 
 stand by signs were to be sent to "Muzzabucksa" 
 (iron cutter), the name they gave to Major Talliaferro, 
 their agent at St. Peters. 
 
 We went on peaceably and pleasantly during the rest 
 of our voyage, having ducks, deer, and bass for our 
 game and our food, and for our bed the grass at the foot 
 of some towering bluff. Our light bark ran to every 
 ledge, dodged into every cut-off, every cave was explored, 
 and almost every great bluff ascended. One of these is 
 "The Lovers Leap " on Lake Pepin, a bold projecting 
 rock six or seven hundred feet high. From the sum 
 mit of this, it is said, a beautiful Indian girl, the daughter 
 of a chief, threw herself off in the presence of the tribe, 
 
34 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 some fifty years ago, and dashed herself to pieces rather 
 than marry a man her father had decided should be her 
 husband. 
 
 In the midst, or half-way of Lake Pepin, Corporal 
 Allen and I hauled our canoe out upon the beach of Point 
 aux Sables, where we spent a couple of days, feasting on 
 plums and fine fish and wild fowl, and filling our pockets 
 with agates and carnelians we picked up along the 
 pebbly beach, at last started on our way for the outlet 
 of the lake, with a fair north-west wind, as I sat in the 
 stern and steered, while the corporal was "catching the 
 breeze" in a large umbrella which he spread open and 
 held in the bow. 
 
 This has been one of the earliest trading-posts of the 
 Fur Company. The prairie is a beautiful elevation of 
 several miles above the river, with a picturesque range 
 of grassy bluffs in the rear. The government has built 
 a substantial fort in which generally several companies 
 are stationed for the purpose of keeping peace among 
 the hostile tribes and to protect the inhabitants of the 
 frontier. 
 
 While I was there Wabesha s band of Sioux came to 
 get their annuities, which came very far from paying off 
 their accounts, which the traders take care to have 
 standing against them for the goods furnished on a year s 
 credit. However, whether they pay or not, they can 
 always get whiskey enough for a carouse and a brawl, 
 which lasts a week or two. At the end of this time it 
 was announced that the women were going to have a 
 ball game. A pole was stretched on crotches, and on 
 
Canoeing on the Upper Mississippi 341 
 
 this was hung the ribbons and calicoes and other pres 
 ents that would appeal to women. These were guarded 
 by an old man who was to umpire the game. 
 
 In this game the women have two balls attached to 
 the ends of a string about a foot and a half long. Each 
 woman has in each of her hands a short stick. With 
 these she endeavors to catch the string wich the two balls, 
 and throws them over toward her own goal. This 
 game sometimes lasts for hours; meanwhile the men, 
 who are often half-drunk, roll over the ground, shouting 
 with laughter at the women who are tumbling about in 
 every direction and in all attitudes, scuffling for the ball. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII 
 PAINTING THE PORTRAIT OF KEOKUK 
 
 MY canoe I beached at Dubuque. This is a 
 small town of two hundred houses, all built 
 within two years, in the heart of the richest part 
 of this mining region. It has the advantage over other 
 mining districts, inasmuch as the soil overlying the lead 
 mines produces the finest of corn. Here I met my wife, 
 and we proceeded to Camp Des Moines, the winter post 
 of Colonel Kearney and three companies of dragoons. 
 Then placing my wife and two friends in my bark, I 
 paddled them fourteen miles through the Des Moines 
 rapids, that they might take the steamer for St. Louis, 
 while I returned to the wild and romantic life I love to 
 lead. 
 
 At Camp Des Moines I joined General Street, the 
 Indian agent, in a tour to Keokuk s village of Sacs and 
 Foxes. Colonel Kearney gave us a corporal s com 
 mand of six or eight dragoons, and in two days we 
 reached the village, sixty miles up the Des Moines River, 
 finely situated on a prairie as rich as a garden. We 
 found Keokuk (running fox) to be a chief of fine and 
 portly figure, with a good countenance, a dignified and 
 proud man, yet very vain, and of great grace of move 
 ment. 
 
 342 
 
Painting the Portrait of Keokuk 343 
 
 General Street had some messages from Washington 
 to read to him. To these he and his chiefs listened pa 
 tiently, after which he placed before us some good 
 brandy and wine, and invited us to lodge with him. He 
 then called up five runners, to whom in low and em 
 phatic tones he told the substance of General Street s 
 talk and communication. These started off at full 
 gallop, one to proclaim it through the village, the others 
 to carry his message to the other villages of the nation. 
 
 It is with Keokuk that the treaty was made by Gen 
 eral Scott at the close of the Black Hawk war. This 
 was owing to the fact that during the war he had kept 
 two-thirds of the warriors neutral, and thus averted 
 much bloodshed. The poor dethroned monarch, Black 
 Hawk, was at Rock Island at the time, and an object 
 of pity. With an old frock coat and brown hat on, 
 and a cane in his hand, he stood outside of the group 
 in dumb and dismal silence, his two sons by his side. 
 They were not allowed to speak nor to sign the treaty. 
 Nah-pope, the Prophet, however arose, and commenced 
 a very earnest speech on the subject of temperance. 
 But Governor Dodge ordered him to sit down, being out 
 of order. This saved him a much more peremptory 
 order from Keokuk, who was rising at that moment 
 with a look on his face that the devil might have shrunk 
 from. 
 
 During this time I painted his portrait. He brought 
 in all his costly wardrobe that I might select the dress 
 that suited me; but, at once, of his own accord, named 
 the dress that was most purely Indian. In that he 
 
344 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 paraded for several days, and in it I painted him at full 
 length. He was vain enough to say to me that he made 
 a fine appearance on horseback, and that he wished me 
 to paint him mounted. The horse that he rode was the 
 finest on the frontier. It was a black, blooded horse, 
 beautifully caparisoned, with his scalps attached to the 
 bridle bits. He rode and nettled his prancing steed in 
 front of my door until its sides were covered with blood, 
 making a great display, until the picture was finished. 
 He expressed much satisfaction, and after finishing him 
 I painted the portrait of his favorite wife, the oldest of 
 seven, and the only one that could be painted. This 
 seemed to be an honor accorded to her because she was 
 the mother of his favorite son. Her dress, of civilized 
 stuffs, had been made and ornamented by herself. It 
 was truly a splendid affair, the upper part being almost 
 entirely covered with silver brooches. I also painted 
 this son, who is to be his successor, and eight or ten of 
 his principal men and women. 
 
 When General Street and I arrived at Keokuk s 
 village we were just in time to see one of the very curi 
 ous customs of the Sacs and Foxes. This is called 
 "smoking horses." The Foxes were just making up a 
 war party to go against the Sioux, and lacked twenty 
 horses. Accordingly they had sent word to the Sacs, 
 the day before, that they were coming at a certain hour 
 on that day to "smoke" that number of horses, and 
 they must not fail to have them ready. At that hour 
 the twenty young men, who needed the horses, were on 
 the spot, and seated themselves on the ground, in a 
 
Painting the Portrait of Keokuk 345 
 
 circle, and began smoking. The villagers flocked 
 around them in a dense crowd, and soon after appeared 
 on the prairie, at half a mile distance, an equal number 
 of young men of the Sac tribe, who had agreed, each to 
 give a horse, and who were then galloping them about at 
 full speed, and gradually, as they went around in a cir 
 cuit, coming in nearer to the centre, until they were at 
 last close around the ring of young fellows seated on the 
 ground. While dashing about thus, each one, with a 
 heavy whip in his hand, as he came within reach of the 
 group on the ground, selected the one to whom he de 
 cided to present his horse, and as he passed him gave 
 him the most tremendous cut with his lash over his 
 naked shoulders, and as he darted around again he 
 plied the whip as before, and again and again, with a 
 violent " crack !" until the blood could be seen trickling 
 down over his naked shoulders, upon which he instantly 
 dismounted, and placed the bridle and whip in his 
 hands, saying, "here, you are a beggar; I present you a 
 horse, but you will carry my mark on your back/* In 
 this manner they were all in a little time "whipped up," 
 and each had a good horse to ride home and into battle. 
 The dances among this tribe were exceedingly spirited 
 and amusing. The slave dance is a picturesque scene, 
 and the custom on which it is founded a very curious 
 one. This tribe has a society called "The Slaves/ 
 composed of a number of young men of the best families, 
 who volunteer to be slaves for two years, when they will, 
 at the order of the chief, perform any service, no matter 
 how humiliating or degrading it may be. One of the 
 
346 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 number is the master, and he receives the commands of 
 the chief. On one day in the year they have a feast, 
 and before it perform this dance. After serving two 
 years they are exempt from labor for the rest of their 
 lives. 
 
 A very droll dance is called the Discovery dance. In 
 this there is a great deal of pantomine, and no music or 
 noise except the patting of the feet. They advance 
 two and four at a time, as if stealing secretly along over 
 looking the country, and, professing to announce the 
 discovery of animals and enemies, signal back to the 
 leader of the dance. 
 
 The dance to the medicine of the brave is worth re 
 cording for its beautiful moral. When a party of Sac 
 warriors, returning with scalps, have lost one of their 
 number, they appear and dance in front of his wigwam 
 fifteen days in succession, about an hour on each day, 
 when the widow hangs his medicine-bag on a green bush 
 which she erects before her door, and under which she 
 sits and cries, while the warriors dance and brandish the 
 scalps they have taken, and at the same time recount the 
 deeds of bravery of their deceased comrade in arms, 
 while they are throwing presents to the widow to heal 
 her grief and afford her the means of a living. 
 
 The Sacs and Foxes draw from the government 
 twenty-seven thousand dollars annually. By treaty 
 they conveyed to the government two hundred and fifty- 
 six thousand acres of land on the Iowa River, known as 
 the Black Hawk purchase, for seventy-five cents an 
 acre. The price paid for this tract is a liberal one, 
 
Painting the Portrait of Keokuk 347 
 
 although even one dollar an acre would not have been 
 too much to have paid for it, since every acre of it can 
 be sold to actual settlers in one year for one dollar and 
 a quarter an acre. 
 
 After the treaty was signed the Indians were told that 
 one month would be given them to wind up their affairs, 
 move their families and property from the tract before 
 the white settlers arrived. Considerable excitement was 
 created among the chiefs and braves by this suggestion, 
 and a hearty laugh ensued, the cause of which was soon 
 after explained by one of them in the following manner: 
 
 "My father, we have to laugh; we require no time to 
 move; we have all left the lands already, and sold our 
 wigwams to Chemokemons (white men) some for one 
 hundred and some for two hundred dollars before we 
 came to this treaty. There are already four hundred 
 Chemokemons on the land, and several hundred more 
 on their way moving in; and three days before we came 
 away one Chemokemon sold his wigwam to another 
 Chemokemon for two thousand dollars, to build a great 
 
 town." 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV 
 THE LAND OF THE RED-PIPE STONE* 
 
 DO not be amazed if I now invoke the Indian 
 Muse, for here she dwells, nor if my story 
 savors of poetry or has the air of romance. 
 
 Here, according to the traditions, happened the mys 
 terious birth of the red pipe, which has blown its fumes 
 of peace and war to the remotest corners of the con 
 tinent, which has visited every warrior and passed 
 through its reddened stem the irrevocable oath of war 
 and desolation. Here, also, the peace-breathing calu 
 met was born and, fringed with eagles quills, has 
 soothed the savage fury. 
 
 In my varied wanderings among the Indian tribes, 
 everywhere I had heard of this sacred spot. When on 
 the upper Missouri a distinguished Knisteneaux pre 
 sented me with a handsome red-stone pipe, he told me: 
 
 " In the time of a great freshet, which took place many 
 centuries ago and destroyed all the nations of the earth, 
 all the tribes of the red men assembled on the Coteau du 
 Prairie to get out of the way of the waters. After they 
 had all gathered here from all parts, the water continued 
 to rise, until at length it covered them all in a mass, and 
 
 *The red-pipe stone is now known as Catlinite. ED. 
 348 
 
The Land of the Red-Pipe Stone 349 
 
 their flesh was converted into red-pipe stone. Therefore 
 it has always been considered neutral ground; it be 
 longed to all tribes alike, and all were allowed to get it 
 and smoke it together. 
 
 "While they were all drowning in a mass, a young 
 woman, K-wap-tah-w (a virgin), caught hold of the foot 
 of a very large bird that was flying over, and was carried 
 to the top of a high cliff, not far off, that was above the 
 water. Here she had twins, and their father was the war- 
 eagle, and her children have since peopled the earth. 
 
 "The pipe stone, which is the flesh of their ancestors, 
 is smoked by them as the symbol of peace, and the 
 eagle s quill decorates the head of the brave." 
 
 When I painted the portrait of a Mandan chief four 
 years ago, he said: 
 
 "My brother, I am a young man, but my heart is 
 strong. I have jumped on to the medicine-rock; I have 
 placed my arrow on it and no Mandan can take it 
 away. The red stone is slippery, but my foot was true; 
 it did not slip. My brother, this pipe which I give to 
 you I brought from a high mountain; it is toward the 
 rising sun. We left our totems or marks on the rocks; 
 we cut them deep in the stones, and they are there now. 
 The Great Spirit told all nations to meet there in peace, 
 and all nations hid the war-club and the tomahawk. 
 My friend, we want to visit our medicines; our pipes are 
 old and worn out. My friend, I wish you to speak to 
 our Great Father about this." 
 
 The chief of the Puncahs, on the upper Missouri, also 
 made the following allusion to this place in a speech 
 
350 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 which he made to me on the occasion of presenting me 
 a very handsome pipe about four years since: 
 
 " My friend, this pipe which I wish you to accept was 
 dug from the ground, and cut and polished, as you now 
 see it, by my hands. I wish you to keep it, and when 
 you smoke through it recollect that this red stone is a 
 part of our flesh. This is one of the last things we can 
 ever give away." 
 
 The tradition of the Missouri Sioux I have given else 
 where. The Sioux of the Mississippi, who live in 
 the region of the Pipe Stone Quarry, have not a less 
 strange tradition, which says : " Many ages after the red 
 men were made, when all the different tribes were at 
 war, the Great Spirit sent runners and called them all 
 together at the Red Pipe. He stood on the top of the 
 rocks and the red people were assembled in infinite 
 numbers on the plains below. He took out of the rock a 
 piece of the red stone and made a large pipe; he smoked 
 it over them all; told them that it was part of their flesh; 
 that though they were at war they must meet at this 
 place as friends; that it belonged to them all; that they 
 must make their calumets from it and smoke them to 
 him whenever they wished to appease him or get his 
 good-will. The smoke from his big pipe rolled over them 
 all, and he disappeared in its cloud. At the last whiff 
 of his pipe a blaze of fire rolled over the rocks and 
 melted their surface. At that moment two squaws went 
 in a blaze of fire under the two medicine-rocks, where 
 they remain to this day, and must be consulted and 
 propitiated whenever the pipe stone is to be taken away." 
 
The Land of the Red-Pipe Stone 351 
 
 Such are a few of the traditions of this curious place 
 which long ago determined me to visit it. With an 
 English traveller, Mr. Robert Serril Wood, for my com 
 panion, and an Indian guide, O-kup-pee, I left the Falls 
 of St. Anthony for the Coteau du Prairie, where the Pipe 
 Stone Quarry is to be found. We traversed the beau 
 tiful shores of the St. Peters River, which we crossed at a 
 place called Traverse des Sioux. Here, while halting 
 at the hut of a trader named Le Blanc, we were held up 
 by a band of Sioux for daring to approach the sacred 
 source of the pipe. 
 
 A murky crowd of dark-visaged warriors and braves 
 gathered around the house, cramming and closing every 
 means of escape, while one of them, in an insulting 
 harangue, informed us that we were prisoners. About 
 twenty spoke in turn, and we were doomed to sit the 
 entire afternoon without being allowed to speak in our 
 own behalf until they were through, while they brand 
 ished their fists in our faces and overwhelmed us with 
 threats. After these copper-visaged advocates of their 
 country s rights had assembled about us and filled up 
 every avenue of the cabin, the grave council was opened 
 in the following manner. Te-o-kun-hko (the swift 
 man) first rose and said: 
 
 " My friends, I am not a chief but the son of a chief, 
 and when he is gone away it is my duty to speak for 
 him; he is not here, but what I say is the talk of his 
 mouth. We have been told that you are going to the 
 Pipe Stone Quarry. We come now to ask for what pur 
 pose you are going and what business you have to go 
 
352 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 there. ("How! how!" vociferated all of them, thereby 
 approving what was said, giving assent by the word 
 how, which is their word for yes.) 
 
 " Brothers, we look at you and we see that you are 
 Che-mo-ke-mon capitains (white men officers); we know 
 that you have been sent by your government to see what 
 that place is worth, and we think the white people want 
 to buy it. ( How! how! ) 
 
 " Brothers, we have seen always that the white people, 
 when they see anything in our country that they want, 
 send officers to value it, and then if they can t buy it 
 they will get it some other way. ( How! how! ) 
 
 " Brothers, we know that the whites are like a great 
 cloud that rises in the East and will cover the whole 
 country. We know that they will have all our lands; 
 but if ever they get our Red Pipe Quarry they will have 
 to pay very dear for it. ( How! how! how! ) 
 
 "Brothers, we know that no white man has ever been 
 to the Pipe Stone Quarry, and our chiefs have often 
 decided in council that no white man shall ever go to it. 
 ( How! how! ) 
 
 "Brothers, you have heard what I have to say, and 
 you can go no further, but you must turn about and go 
 back. CHow! how! how! ) 
 
 " Brothers, you see that the sweat runs from my face, 
 for I am troubled." 
 
 Then I commenced to reply in the following manner: 
 
 "My friends, I am sorry that you have mistaken us so 
 much and the object of our visit to your country. We 
 are not officers; we are two poor men travelling to see 
 
The Land of the Red-Pipe Stone 353 
 
 the Sioux and shake hands with them. This man who 
 is with me is my friend; he is a Sa-ga-nosh (English 
 man). ( How! how! how! All rising and shaking hands 
 with him, and a number of them taking out and show 
 ing British medals which were carried in their bosoms.) 
 
 "We have heard that the Red Pipe Quarry was a 
 great curiosity, and we have started to go to it and we 
 will not be stopped." (Here I was interrupted by a grim 
 and black-visaged fellow, who shook his long, shaggy 
 locks as he rose, with his sunken eyes fixed in direst 
 hatred on me and his fist brandished within an inch of 
 my face.) 
 
 "Pale faces, you cannot speak till we have all done; 
 you are our prisoners; you must listen to what we have 
 to say. What has been said to you is true; you must go 
 back. (< How! how! ) 
 
 " I brought a large piece of the pipe stone and gave it 
 to a white man to make a pipe; he was our trader, and I 
 wished him to have a good pipe. The next time I went 
 to his store I was unhappy when I saw that stone made 
 into a dish! ( Eugh! ) 
 
 "This is the way the white men would use the red- 
 pipe stone if they could get it. Such conduct would 
 offend the Great Spirit and make a red man s heart 
 sick." ( How! how! ) 
 
 To this I replied in the following manner: 
 
 "My friends, I think as you do that the Great Spirit 
 has given that place to the red men for their pipes. 
 ( How! how! ) But we have started to go and see it, 
 and we cannot think of being stopped." 
 
354 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 During this scene the son of M. le Blanc was stand 
 ing by, and, seeing this man shaking his fist in my face, 
 told him to stand back at a respectful pace or he would 
 knock him down. Le Blanc advised us that these were 
 the most treacherous part of the Sioux nation and we 
 had better go back as they ordered. But I made a few 
 remarks declaring our intention of going on, for this we 
 intended to do even at the risk of our lives, and this we 
 did the next morning, riding off through the midst of 
 them. 
 
 On our way we were notified at several villages 
 through which we passed to go back. But we kept our 
 way over a hundred miles of beautiful prairie until we 
 reached the trading-house of an old friend of mine, 
 M. la Framboise, where we rested pleasantly a couple 
 of days. La Framboise has some good Indian blood 
 in his veins, and from his mode of life, as well as from 
 a natural passion that seems to belong to these French 
 adventurers, is fond of songs and stories, of which he has 
 many, and which makes him a most amusing companion. 
 My friend Wood sings delightfully, and as I cannot sing, 
 but now and then can tell a story, we passed our even 
 ings in our humble bivouac over buffalo meat and 
 prairie-hens with much fun and amusement. 
 
 We were now but forty or fifty miles from the base of 
 the Coteau des Prairie, and, with our kind companion 
 La Framboise, pushed on. For many miles we had the 
 Coteau before us like a blue cloud settling down on the 
 horizon. When we had arrived at its base we were 
 scarcely sensible of it from the graceful and almost im- 
 
The Land of the Red-Pipe Stone 355 
 
 perceptible terraces gently rising one above the other 
 until we reached the summit. Bivouacked on its ridge, 
 the air as light to breathe as nitrous oxide, nothing could 
 be seen in the distance but a thousand treeless, bushless, 
 weedless hills of vivid green vanishing into an infinity of 
 blue and azure. 
 
 Such is the Coteau des Prairie, the dividing ridge be 
 tween the St. Peters and the Missouri Rivers, equi 
 distant from both. This wonderful feature is several 
 hundred miles in length, and, varying from fifty to a 
 hundred miles in width, is perhaps the noblest mound 
 of its kind in the world. On the very top of the ridge 
 we found the famous quarry of the red pipe. Its most 
 striking feature is a perpendicular wall of close-grained 
 compact quartz, thirty feet high, nearly two miles long, 
 with its face to the west and its ends disappearing by 
 running under the prairie. This rock, and the only rock 
 in view, is as polished as if a liquid glazing had been 
 poured over its surface. Not far from our camp in the 
 solid rock are the deep "footsteps of the Great Spirit," 
 in the forms of the tracks of a large bird, where he 
 formerly stood when the blood of the buffaloes he was 
 eating ran into the rocks and turned them red. 
 
 A few yards distant leaped a beautiful little stream 
 from the top of the precipice into a deep basin below. 
 Here among rocks of the loveliest hues but of the wildest 
 contour a poor Indian was bathing. At a little distance 
 beyond, at the base of five huge granite bowlders, he 
 humbly propitiates the guardian spirits of the place by 
 sacrifices of tobacco for permission to take away a small 
 
356 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 piece of the red stone for a pipe. The surface of these 
 five bowlders is in every part covered with a gray moss 
 which gives them a very venerable appearance. It is 
 under these blocks that the two holes, or ovens, are seen 
 in which the two old women, according to Indian tradi 
 tion, as guardian spirits of the place, reside. 
 
 The fact alone that these blocks differ in character 
 from all other specimens which I have seen in my 
 travels among the thousands of bowlders which are 
 strewed over the great valley of the Missouri and Missis 
 sippi, from the Yellowstone almost to the Gulf of 
 Mexico, raises in my mind an unanswerable question as 
 regards the location of their native bed and the means 
 by which they have reached their isolated position, like 
 five brothers, leaning against and supporting each other, 
 without the existence of another bowlder within many 
 miles of them. Further on are seen, like gopher hills, 
 the excavations of the Indians, ancient and recent, and on 
 the surface of the rocks their sculptured hieroglyphics 
 their wakons, totems, and medicines. Graves, mounds, 
 and fortifications lay in sight, and above all the medi 
 cine or leaping rock. This is a part of the precipice 
 that has become severed from the main part, and, about 
 seven feet in diameter, stands about seven feet from the 
 wall, its equal in height. This is to say that it stands 
 like an immense column thirty-five feet high, and highly 
 polished on its top and sides. It requires a bold heart 
 to leap on to its top from the main wall and back again. 
 This is the ambition of the young brave. Some have 
 tried it with success and have left their arrows in its 
 
The Land of the Red-Pipe Stone 357 
 
 crevices. Others have tried it and, unable to cling to 
 its slippery surface, have been dashed to pieces on the 
 crags and rocks below. Those who have succeeded are 
 allowed to boast of the feat for the rest of their lives. 
 
 While there a Sioux chief with thirty of his tribe came 
 to visit the Pipe Stone Quarry and weep over the grave 
 of his son. This was a conical mound near by, where 
 we stood with him as he told the story of the daring leap 
 and death of his son two years before. 
 
 While at the Pipe Stone Quarry the Indians told us 
 we were within twenty miles of the "Thunder s Nest." 
 " Thunder s Nest! What on earth is that ?" "It is 
 the place where the thunders are hatched out," said the 
 medicine-man. 
 
 " The thunder comes out of an egg ? It must be a 
 very large egg?" 
 
 "No, it is a very small egg, about the size of your 
 finger," said the Sioux. "Most of the medicine-men of 
 the Sioux have seen it." 
 
 Our interpreter and guide told us that this was on the 
 highest ridge of the Coteau, and the Indians believed 
 that in the very hottest days, before the thunder showers, 
 the bird sits on her eggs, and when they hatch out they 
 make the thunder. Accordingly, we took an early start 
 the next morning, with three of the Indians, to the 
 Thunder s Nest and the Stone Man medicine. We 
 reached the latter first, and found on a couple of acres 
 of lightly rounded surface the Stone Man medicine. It 
 was the figure, tolerably well-proportioned, of a man 
 lying on his back, some three or four hundred feet long, 
 
358 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 made entirely of flat stones that had been brought by 
 Indians, probably through centuries, and deposited 
 there. The Indians tell us that every hunting party 
 coming in this direction brings a flat stone and adds to 
 it. No stone lies on top of another; the number is 
 countless, and in size and color represent the features 
 and even the toes and fingers. I could not discover a 
 stone the size of a pigeon s egg within several miles of it. 
 
 The Thunder s Nest was on the top of a high prairie 
 mound where was a group of hazel bushes. Blue 
 Mountain, who led the party, requested us all to dis 
 mount and wait a little. The Indians took all the 
 plumes out of their heads, and, placing them under their 
 robes, smoothed out their black locks and took a squint 
 at their faces in their little looking-glasses to see if 
 the paint was all right. Then wrapping their robes 
 around them, with the medicine-man at their head, all 
 marched slowly toward the bushes leading the horses. 
 
 Within two or three rods of the bushes the Indians 
 halted and each tossed a plug of tobacco into the grass. 
 I started with my gun in my hand, as if to shoot a bird 
 on the wing, toward the hallowed ground, when deep 
 groans caused me to look back, and I saw the Indians 
 in great distress, with their hands over their mouths. I 
 retreated without seeing anything except some hundreds 
 of bits of tobacco lying on the grass, that had been 
 thrown as sacrifices to the Thunder Spirit in dread of 
 which they always live. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV 
 THE SAD FATE OF OSCEOLA 
 
 OVER two thousand miles I have wandered to 
 paint the portrait of that great Seminole, Osce- 
 ola, who, with two hundred and fifty warriors, 
 is imprisoned at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. With 
 the Seminoles the government has been at war for four 
 or five years in the endeavor to remove them from their 
 lands, in compliance with a treaty stipulation, which 
 the government claims was justly made and which the 
 Seminoles aver was not. 
 
 The Cherokees, the Creeks, the Choctaws, and the 
 Seminoles are semi-civilized tribes that owned valuable 
 tracts of the best cotton lands in Georgia and Alabama, 
 and were therefore rich. These lands are too valuable 
 for Indians to own, and Indians are bad neighbors. 
 General Jackson was elected President, and decided 
 that all the Indian tribes should be removed west of the 
 Mississippi. The Seminole chiefs, however, refused to 
 sign the treaty. One day the eleven subordinate chiefs 
 of this tribe were told that on the next day the treaty 
 was to be signed by Charley Omalatla, the head chief. 
 With their rifles in their hands they went to the govern 
 ment agent s office at the appointed time to see for 
 
 359 
 
360 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 themselves if their chief was capable of such treachery 
 to his tribe. With these chiefs came Osceola. 
 
 The treaty was spread upon the table, and Charley 
 Omlatla, according to the agreement, stepped forward 
 and made his signature, expecting the other chiefs to 
 follow him. As he rose from the table Osceola fired, 
 and before the body of the chief could fall to the ground 
 the bullets of six other chiefs went through him. The 
 treaty went to Washington and was there ratified, not 
 withstanding that it was proven that Charley had re 
 ceived a bribe of seven thousand dollars. The tribe 
 was now removed by force to the West. Osceola, how 
 ever, fled to the Everglades of Florida, the other chiefs 
 following him as their leader; for, by the custom of all 
 the tribes, he who kills the chief of his own tribe is the 
 leader, if his act is approved. If it is not approved he 
 is immediately put to death. 
 
 For six years Osceola kept an army of ten thousand 
 men at bay. At last he was captured by a stratagem 
 that I doubt if any Indian tribe would practise. Under 
 a flag of truce Osceola, with two hundred of his war 
 riors, advanced, unarmed, carrying a white flag. They 
 were at once surrounded, made prisoners of war, and, 
 tied to the backs of horses, were sent to Fort Moultrie. 
 This disgraceful act, I am glad to say, was condemned 
 by every officer of the United States Army except the 
 one that was guilty of it. 
 
 Summoned to paint his portrait, I found an extraor 
 dinary character. Osceola is a half-breed, his father 
 being white, his mother a Creek. The word Seminole 
 
The Sad Fate of Osceola 361 
 
 is a Creek word, meaning "runaway," and was given 
 to that part of the Creek nation that emigrated further 
 South. Osceola, who was commonly called Powell, has 
 always been a leader and master-spirit in his tribe, al 
 though not a chief. From boyhood he had led an 
 active, desperate sort of life, and in some way, whether 
 he deserved it or not, had acquired an influence and a 
 name that was known even among the remote tribes of 
 the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 I found him an easy, affable man. He is only of 
 medium height, elastic and graceful in his movements, 
 very good-looking, with rather an effeminate smile, 
 but of so peculiar a character that I doubt if its like 
 could be found elsewhere. He is polite and gentle 
 manly in manner, and spoke English well enough to 
 describe to me many of the events of the Seminole war 
 and the shameful manner in which he had been en 
 trapped. At Fort Moultrie I occupied a large room in 
 the officers quarters, where I painted the portraits of 
 Osceola, Mick-e-no-pa, Ye-how-lo-gee (the cloud), 
 King Philip, and others. As Osceola stood for his por 
 trait he wore three ostrich feathers in his head and a 
 turban made of a varicolored cotton shawl. His dress 
 was of calico, with a handsome dead belt around his 
 waist and his rifle in his hand. Thus I painted him to 
 every string and trinket. 
 
 Mick-e-no-pa took great pleasure in being in my 
 room while I was painting the others. When at length 
 he agreed to be painted, it was on the condition that I 
 could make a fair likeness of his legs, which he had 
 
362 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 tastefully dressed in a handsome pair of red leggings. 
 As he sat cross-legged, I began on these at once, painting 
 them on the lower part of the canvas, leaving room above 
 in which to get his body and head. The Cloud I 
 found to be a very good-natured, jolly man, growing fat 
 in his imprisonment, where he gets enough to eat and is 
 a great favorite with the officers. 
 
 One of the young men of the party, and one of the 
 handsomest men I ever saw, was one morning accused 
 by a white man of having stolen a chicken from him the 
 night before. The matter was laid before the chiefs, 
 who heard the evidence, which the white man made very 
 conclusive. The young man had no evidence to give, 
 only asking the chiefs, "Did any Seminole ever know 
 Chee-ho-ka to steal ?" 
 
 However, the white man s story was so strong that 
 the Indian was convicted, and the sentence of the chiefs 
 was that he should be publicly whipped the next morn 
 ing at nine o clock. But the next morning at seven 
 o clock his body was found hanging from a spike in the 
 wall of the Fort by a thong of rawhide, quite dead. 
 Not long after, while the officers and the Indians 
 were still grouped about him, the white man came up 
 with the chicken under his arm and admitted that it 
 had not been stolen. 
 
 The wretch was standing by my side, and from an 
 impulse, without thought, I seized his throat with both 
 hands, and with a grip that I was never capable of 
 before or since. The officers came up and begged me 
 to use no violence, but what had ten times more effect 
 
The Sad Fate of Osceola 363 
 
 was the hand of Osceola laid lightly on my shoulder, 
 and his whisper in my ear, "Don t, don t, my friend; 
 don t hurt him don t strike a dog." 
 
 It was apparent then that Osceola was broken 
 hearted and ready to die. I myself saw his rapid decline, 
 and Dr. Weedon, the surgeon of the post, who had 
 charge of him, said that he did not think he would live 
 many weeks. I had scarcely reached New York with 
 my portraits when I received word that he had died the 
 morning after I left Fort Moultrie. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI 
 THE INDIAN AS AN ALL-AROUND MAN 
 
 HAVING now a little leisure, and no particular 
 tribes before my eye, I will take a brief survey 
 of the Indian, and write of the things I have 
 seen but have yet only told in part. I have had toils, 
 difficulties, and dangers to encounter in visiting these 
 wild people, yet I have had my pleasures as I went along 
 in shaking the friendly hands that never knew the con 
 taminating touch of money or the withering embrace of 
 pockets. I have shared the comforts of their hospitable 
 wigwams and have always been preserved unharmed 
 in their country. If I have spoken or am to speak of 
 them with a seeming bias, you will know what allowance 
 to make for me, who am standing as the champion of a 
 people who have treated me kindly, of whom I feel 
 bound to speak well, and who have no means of speak 
 ing of themselves. 
 
 Of the general appearance of the Indians it may be 
 said that their average in height is about equal to that 
 of their fellow-men in the civilized world. In girth 
 they are less, lighter in limb, and almost free from use 
 less flesh. Their bones are lighter, their skulls are 
 
 thinner, and their muscles, except in the legs and feet 
 
 364 
 
The Indian as an AIl-Around Man 365 
 
 are less hard than those of the white men. Their con 
 tinual and violent exercise on foot and horseback gives 
 them great strength of leg, and swells the muscles as 
 conspicuously as those in the shoulders and arms of our 
 laboring men. 
 
 Although the Indians are narrow in the shoulder and 
 less powerful with their arms, yet it does not always 
 happen that these are as effeminate as they look or so 
 inferior in strength as the smooth and rounded surface 
 seems to indicate. 
 
 The Indian who exercises his limbs for the most of his 
 life, denuded and exposed to the air, gets over his 
 muscles a thicker and more compact layer of integu 
 ments, which hide them from view, leaving the casual 
 spectator, who sees them only at rest, to suppose them 
 too decidedly inferior to those which are found among 
 people of his own color. Of muscular strength in the 
 legs, I have met many of the most extraordinary in 
 stances in the Indian country that ever I have seen in my 
 life; and I have watched and studied such for hours to 
 gether, with utter surprise and admiration, in the violent 
 exertions of their dances, where they leap and jump 
 with every nerve strung and every muscle swelled, till 
 their legs will often look like a bundle of ropes rather 
 than a mass of human flesh. And from all that I have 
 seen I am inclined to say that whatever differences 
 there may be between the North American Indians and 
 their civilized neighbors in the above respects, they are 
 decidedly the results of different habits of life and modes 
 of education rather than of any difference in constitu- 
 
366 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 tion. And I would also venture the assertion that he 
 who would see the Indian in a condition to judge of his 
 muscles must see him in motion, and he who would get 
 a perfect study for a Hercules or an Atlas should take 
 a stone-mason for the upper part of his figure and a 
 Camanchee or a Blackfoot Indian from the waist down 
 ward to the feet. 
 
 There is a general and striking character in the facial 
 outline of the North American Indians, which is bold 
 and free and would seem at once to stamp them as dis 
 tinct from natives of other parts of the world. Their 
 noses are generally prominent and aquiline, and the 
 whole face, if divested of paint and of copper-color, 
 would seem to approach to the bold and European 
 character. Many travellers have thought that their eyes 
 were smaller than those of Europeans; and there is good 
 cause for one to believe so, if he judges from first im 
 pressions without taking pains to inquire into the truth 
 and causes of things. I have been struck, as most 
 travellers no doubt have, with the want of expansion and 
 apparent smallness of the Indians eyes, which I have 
 found, upon examination, to be principally the effect of 
 continual exposure to the rays of the sun and the wind, 
 without the shields that are used by the civilized world; 
 and also when in-doors, and free from those causes, sub 
 jected generally to one more distressing and calculated 
 to produce similar results, the smoke that almost con 
 tinually hangs about their wigwams, which necessarily 
 contracts the lids of the eyes. 
 
 The teeth of the Indians are generally regular and 
 
The Indian as an All-Around Man 367 
 
 sound, and wonderfully preserved to old age, owing, no 
 doubt, to the fact that they live without the spices of 
 life, without saccharine, and without salt, which are 
 equally destructive to teeth in civilized communities. 
 Their teeth, though sound, are not white, having a 
 yellowish cast; but for the same reason that a negro s 
 teeth are "like ivory," they look white, set as they 
 are in bronze, as any one with a tolerable set of 
 teeth can easily test by painting his face the color 
 of an Indian and grinning for a moment in his look 
 ing-glass. 
 
 Beards they generally have not, esteeming them great 
 vulgarities, and using every possible means to eradicate 
 them whenever they are so unfortunate as to be annoyed 
 with them. 
 
 From the best information that I could obtain among 
 forty-eight tribes that I have visited, I feel authorized 
 to say that, among the wild tribes, where they have 
 made no efforts to imitate white men, at least the pro 
 portion of eighteen out of twenty by nature are entirely 
 without the appearance of a beard; and of the very few 
 who have them by nature, nineteen out of twenty 
 eradicate it by plucking it out several times in succession, 
 precisely at the age of puberty, when its growth is suc 
 cessfully arrested; and occasionally one may be seen 
 who has omitted to destroy it at that time, and subjects 
 his chin to the repeated pains of its extractions, which 
 he is performing with a pair of clam-shells or other 
 tweezers nearly every day of his life. Wherever there 
 is a cross of the blood with the European or Afri- 
 
368 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 can, which is frequently the case along the frontier, a 
 proportionate beard is the result, and it is allowed to 
 grow or is plucked out with much toil and with great 
 pain. 
 
 There has been much speculation and great variety 
 of opinions as to the results of the intercourse between 
 the European and African population with the Indians 
 on the borders. The finest-built and most powerful 
 men that I have ever yet seen have been some of the 
 last-mentioned, the negro and the North American 
 mixed, of equal blood. These instances are rare, to be 
 sure, yet are occasionally to be found among the Semi- 
 noles and Cherokees, and also among the Camanchees, 
 even, and the Caddoes, and I account for it in this way: 
 From the slave-holding States to the heart of the coun 
 try of a wild tribe of Indians, through almost impassible 
 wilds and swamps for hundreds of miles, it requires a 
 negro of extraordinary leg as well as courage and per 
 severance to travel. Stealing from his master s fields 
 to throw himself among a tribe of wild and hostile 
 Indians in order to enjoy their liberty, such a negro, 
 when he succeeded, was admired by the Indians. As 
 they come with a good share of the tricks and arts of 
 civilization, they are at once looked upon by the tribe 
 as important personages, and generally marry the 
 daughters of chiefs, thus uniting with theirs the best 
 blood in the nation, and thus are produced those re 
 markably fine and powerful men I have mentioned. 
 
 The Indian women live lives of drudgery, but they 
 give strong constitutions to their children. I feel that 
 
The Indian as an Ail-Around Man 369 
 
 Nature deals impartially, and that if from their child 
 hood our mothers had, like Indian women, carried loads 
 like beasts of burden in long journeys and over high 
 mountains; if they had swum broad rivers and galloped 
 about for months and even years of their lives astride 
 the backs of horses, we should have taxed them as little 
 in stepping into the world as an Indian pappoose does 
 its mother, who ties her horse under the shade of a tree 
 for a half an hour, and before night overtakes her 
 travelling companions with her infant in her arms. 
 
 An Indian family rarely consists of over four or five 
 children; there are generally but two or three. The 
 childish diseases of these are few and simple. I asked 
 the chief of a Guarani village in South America how 
 many children under ten had died in his recollection. 
 He talked with his wife, who said but three. One was 
 drowned, another kicked by a horse, and a third bitten 
 by a rattlesnake. 
 
 Sleepy Eye, the chief of a band of fifteen hundred 
 Sioux, told me that they never lost a child from teething 
 but had lost several through accidents. The Mandans 
 preserve the skulls of their dead, and among these I 
 found but eleven skulls of children. Nor in visiting over 
 two millions of Indians have I ever seen a hunchback, 
 an idiot, or one deaf and dumb. I have heard of several 
 lunatics and as many deaf and dumb. It has been said 
 that the reason of this is that such unfortunates are not 
 allowed to live. This is untrue, for in every such case 
 that I heard of they were cared for superstitiously as re 
 ceptacles of some medicine or mystery bequeathed by 
 
370 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 the Great Spirit for the benefit of their families. 
 Shah-ra-tar-rusti, chief of the Pawnee Picts, and Cler- 
 mont, chief of the Osages, told me the same thing. 
 
 The savage has the advantage of moving about and 
 sleeping in the open air. The civilized races have the 
 advantages of houses and comfortable beds, also of 
 skilled physicians, surgeons, and dentists. The Indian 
 mother straps her child to a board and preserves its back 
 and limbs straight. From the first sleep of its existence, 
 the pappoose has its mouth closed. When I have seen 
 a poor Indian woman in the wilderness press the lips of 
 her child together as it falls asleep, and swing its cradle 
 in the open air, I have said, "Here is the nurse for 
 emperors." 
 
 The consequence is that while the teeth are forming 
 they meet and feel one another, and, taking their natural 
 positions, they form that healthful and pleasing regu 
 larity which has given to the Indian, as a race, the most 
 beautiful mouths perhaps in the world. The American 
 savage often smiles but rarely laughs. He meets most 
 of the emotions of life, however sudden or exciting, 
 with his mouth closed. He is garrulous, fond of 
 anecdote and fun at his fireside, but he feels and ex 
 presses his pleasures without the explosive action of the 
 muscles of his face and without gesticulation. If by 
 extreme excitement he is forced to laugh or cry, he in 
 variably hides his mouth behind his hand. 
 
 In England I asked one of the lowas who had come 
 over what he thought of the people. "Well, white 
 man suppose mouth shut putty coot," he said; 
 
The Indian as an Ail-Around Man 371 
 
 "mouth open no coot; me no like um not much." 
 The chief then told me that nothing astonished an 
 Indian so much as any derangement or absence of the 
 teeth. This they believed was caused by the number 
 of lies that had passed over them. 
 
 In the mechanic arts the Indians have advanced but 
 little, probably because they have had but little use for 
 them. In the fine arts they are still more rude. The 
 materials and implements they work with are rare and 
 simple. Their principal efforts at pictorial effects are 
 found on their buffalo-robes. 
 
 I have been unable to find anything like a system of 
 hieroglyphic writing among them, yet their picture- 
 writing on the rocks and on their robes approaches some 
 what toward it. I have satisfied myself that they are 
 generally the totems (symbolic names), merely, of In 
 dians who have visited those places, and, from a similar 
 feeling of vanity that everywhere belongs to man much 
 alike, have been in the habit of recording their names 
 or symbols, such as birds, beasts, or reptiles. 
 
 I was able also to secure a copy of an Indian song 
 written, or rather drawn, on a piece of birch bark. 
 This was used by the Chippewas before starting on a 
 medicine hunt. For the bear, the moose, the beaver, 
 and for nearly every animal they hunt, they have a cer 
 tain season to commence and for which they "make 
 medicine " for several days, in order to conciliate the 
 bear or other spirit. For this purpose the doctors, to the 
 beat of the drum, come forth and sing these songs, to the 
 chorus of which all sing and dance, although they have 
 
372 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 no idea of the meaning of the words. These are the 
 secret of the doctors. 
 
 Their governments, if they have any, are generally 
 alike, each tribe having at its head a chief (and most 
 generally a war and a civil chief), who, it would seem, 
 alternately hold the ascendency, as the circumstances 
 of peace or war may demand their respective services. 
 These chiefs, whose titles are generally hereditary, hold 
 their offices only as long as their ages will enable them to 
 perform the duties of them by taking the lead in war 
 parties, etc., after which these devolve upon the next 
 incumbent, who is the eldest son of the chief, provided 
 he is as worthy of it as any other young man in the tribe. 
 If he is not worthy, a chief is elected from among the 
 sub-chiefs, so that the office is hereditary on condition 
 and elective in emergency. 
 
 The chief has no control over the life or limbs or 
 liberty of his subjects, nor other power whatever, ex 
 cepting that of influence, which he gains by his virtues 
 and his exploits in war, and which induces his warriors 
 and braves to follow him, as he leads them to battle, or 
 to listen to him when he speaks and advises in council. 
 In fact, he is no more than a leader, whom every young 
 warrior may follow, or turn about and go back from, as 
 he pleases, if he is willing to meet the disgrace that 
 awaits him who deserts his chief in the hour of danger. 
 
 The influence of names and families is strictly kept up 
 and preserved in heraldic family arms. Wealth is sel 
 dom amassed by any persons in Indian communities, 
 and most sure to slip from the hands of chiefs who often- 
 
The Indian as an Ail-Around Man 373 
 
 times, for the sake of popularity, render themselves the 
 poorest of any in the tribe. 
 
 These people have no written laws, nor others, save 
 the penalties affixed to certain crimes by long-standing 
 custom or by the decisions of the chiefs in council, who 
 form a sort of court and congress too for the investiga 
 tion of crimes and transaction of the public business. 
 For the sessions of these dignitaries each tribe have, in 
 the middle of their village, a government or council 
 house, where the chiefs often try and convict for capital 
 offences, leaving the punishment to be inflicted by the 
 nearest of kin, to whom all the eyes of the nation are 
 turned, and who has no means of evading it without 
 suffering disgrace in his tribe . 
 
 In their treatment of prisoners they are in the habit 
 of inflicting cruel tortures; but these are always in 
 retaliation for similar treatment to relatives, whose 
 spirits they thus appease. Other prisoners are adopted 
 into the tribe or are married to the widows of those who 
 have fallen in battle. These are respected and enjoy 
 all the rights and immunities of the tribe. If these 
 punishments are certain and cruel, they are few, and 
 confined only to their enemies. 
 
 No man in their communities is subject to any re 
 straints upon his liberty or to any corporal or degrading 
 punishment, each one valuing his limbs and his liberty 
 to use them as his inviolable right, which no power in 
 the tribe can deprive him of, while each one holds the 
 chief as amenable to him as the most humble individual 
 in the tribe. 
 
374 The Boy s Catlin 
 
 On an occasion when I had interrogated a Sioux chief 
 on the upper Missouri about their government their 
 punishments and tortures of prisoners, for which I had 
 freely condemned them for the cruelty of the practice- 
 he took occasion when I had got through to ask me 
 some questions relative to modes in the civilized world, 
 which, with his comments upon them, were nearly as 
 follows, and struck me, as I think they must every one, 
 with great force: 
 
 "Among white people, nobody ever take your wife- 
 take your children take your mother; cut off nose- 
 cut eyes out burn to death?" No! "Then you no 
 cut off nose you no cut out eyes you no burn to 
 death very good." 
 
 He also told me he had often heard that white people 
 hung their criminals by the neck and choked them to 
 death like dogs, and those their own people, to which I 
 answered "yes." He then told me he had learned that 
 they shut each other up in prisons, where they keep them 
 a great part of their lives because they cant pay money ! 
 I replied in the affirmative to this, which occasioned 
 great surprise and excessive laughter, even among the 
 women. 
 
 For their religion, which is chiefly Theism, they are 
 indebted to the Great Spirit. I can fearlessly assert 
 that the North American Indian, in his native state, is a 
 moral and religious being, endowed by his maker with 
 an intuitive knowledge of some great author of his being 
 and of the universe, in the dread of whose displeasure 
 he constantly lives, since ne expects to be rewarded or 
 
The Indian as an Ail-Around Man 375 
 
 punished according to the merits he has gained or for 
 feited in this world. Of the sincerity of his worship I 
 speak with equal confidence. I never saw any people 
 of any color who spend so much time in humbling 
 themselves before and worshipping the Great Spirit 
 as some of these tribes do, nor any whom I would not 
 as soon suspect of insincerity and hypocrisy. 
 
 By nature the Indians are decent, modest, and inof 
 fensive, and all history proves them at first to have been 
 friendly and hospitable. I am proud to add out of my 
 experience my testimony to that which was given by 
 the immortal Columbus, who wrote back to his royal 
 master and mistress : 
 
 " I swear to your Majesties that there is not a better 
 people in the world than these more affectionate, 
 affable, or mild. They love their neighbors as them 
 selves, and they always speak smilingly." 
 
INDEX 
 
 ABBE, SANGER, 302. 
 Allen, Corporal, 338. 
 Antelope, 58. 
 Ark, legend of, 133. 
 Armstrong, Major, 312. 
 Arrow game, 129. 
 Vrtist, Medicine-man, 81. 
 Artists, Mandan, 144. 
 Assinniboines, 38. 
 
 BATISTE, 12, 44, 190, 242, 262, 264. 
 
 Beatte, 289. 
 
 Bijou Hills, 194. 
 
 Bison. See Buffalo. 
 
 "Black Bird s Grave," 240, 242. 
 
 Blackfeet, portraits, 15, 16; band, 
 27; country of, 28. 
 
 Black Hawk, 264, 266, 343; war, 
 264. 
 
 Bogard, 44, 47, 51, 53, 191, 242, 262, 
 264. 
 
 Bows and arrows, Indian, 17-20. 
 
 Braves, torture of, 149-159 
 
 Bridles, Indian, 231 
 
 Brown, Captain, 293. 
 
 Buffalo, curing meat of, 114; dance 
 of, 120-124; feast of, 159; habits 
 of, 2 27; calves, 235-237; bush, 56. 
 
 Bull dance, 141-143. 
 
 CACHES, Indian, in. 
 
 Calumet, 225. 
 
 Camanches, 282; a warrior of, 284, 
 
 291; horses, 293; village of, 294; 
 
 racing, 295; squaws, riding, 296; 
 
 295; appearance, 297; chief, 298; 
 
 half-breed, 298. 
 Camping in rain, 324. 
 Canadian, Fort, 308. 
 Canoe, attack on, 191; the Chippewa 
 
 model, 338. 
 Canoeing on Missouri, 48-60; on 
 
 Mississippi, 334-341- 
 Caravan, Indian, 35. 
 
 Cass, Secretary of War, 269. 
 
 Chadwick, Joseph, 274, 284. 
 
 Chardon, M., 9-12. 
 
 "Charley," 323; talk of, 324; faith 
 fulness of, 325; camping, 328; 
 fording, 331. 
 
 Cherokees, 312. 
 
 Chiefs dance, 203. 
 
 Chippewas, 334; celebrating the 
 Fourth of July, 335; women s 
 dance, 336; wigwams of, 337; 
 canoe of, 338. 
 
 Choctaws, 312; ball game, 315, 318; 
 eagle dance, 318; legends, 319- 
 321. 
 
 Chouteau, Pierre, 2, 193, 216, 237. 
 
 Circling to the left, 288. 
 
 Clermont, Osage chief, painting, 
 
 2 73- 
 
 Columbus, Christopher, 375. 
 Commercial Advertiser, 327. 
 Cooking, Mandan, 112; dishes, 115. 
 Corn, Indian, in; dance, 174. 
 Coteau des Prairies, 224, 354, 356. 
 Cradle, Indian, 117. 
 Crawfish band, legend of, 320. 
 Crees, 24, 37. 
 Crows, 28; skin dressing, 33; chief, 
 
 171, 172. 
 Curiosity, Indian, 82. 
 
 DACOTAS. See Sioux. 
 
 Dance of the Braves, Chippewa, 335. 
 
 Dances, buffalo dance, 120; bull 
 dance, 141; corn dance, 174; 
 chiefs dance, 203; scalp dance, 
 207; beggars dance, 206; bear 
 dance, 206; welcome dance, 254; 
 war dance, 255; braves dance, 
 335; discovery dance, 346; Slave 
 dance, 345; woman s dance, 336. 
 
 Dancing, Mandans, 119; Sioux, 2*4; 
 Sacs and Foxes, 345. 
 
 Dandies, Indian, 90-92. 
 
 377 
 
378 
 
 Index 
 
 Delawares, joke of, 277. 
 
 Deluge, legends, Mandan, 161. 
 
 Des Moines, Camp, 342. 
 
 Discovery dance, 346. 
 
 Dixon s Ferry, 265. 
 
 Dodge, Colonel, 276, 279, 283, 292, 
 
 301-303- 
 
 Dog feast, 217-221. 
 Domestic relations, Mandan, 116. 
 Dubuque, 342. 
 Duncan, Captain, 293, 294. 
 
 EAGLE dance, 257. 
 
 Eve, legend of, 163. 
 
 Evil Spirit, personified, 145. 
 
 Eyes, painting, 260. 
 
 FAIRY circles, 230. 
 Falstaff, a Camanche, 297. 
 Ferry, Indian, 177-179. 
 "First Man," Mandans, 133. 
 Flag of truce, 291. 
 "Floyd s Grave," 239. 
 Fording the Osage River, 331. 
 Fourth-of-July dance, Indian, 335. 
 Fre nie , Louison, 123, 125. 
 
 GAMES, Moccasin, 257; platter, 
 258; tchuneg-kee, 128; arrow, 
 129; ball game, 315; women s 
 game, 341. 
 
 Generosity, Indian, 189. 
 
 Gibson, Fort, 269; illness at, 310; 
 powwow at, 312; leaving, 321. 
 
 Grand Dome, 58. 
 
 Great Spirit, footsteps of, 355. 
 
 HA-WON-JE-TAH, speech of, 196. 
 
 He who fights with a feather, 
 306. 
 
 Horned toads, 309. 
 
 Horses, wild, 129. 
 
 Hospitality, 112. 
 
 Hunting, buffalo, 9-11; a "sur 
 round," 182-185; at Fort Gibson, 
 280; on snow-shoes, 234. 
 
 ILES, CAPTAIN, 265. 
 
 Illinois Mounted Rangers, 265. 
 
 Illness of artist, 311. 
 
 Indian, description of, 364; exercise, 
 365; traits, 366; lack of beards, 367; 
 negro half-breeds, 368; families, 
 369; mortality of children, 369; 
 teeth of children, 370; laughter, 
 
 37- 
 
 lowas, 252; hair of, 253; songs and 
 dances, 254. 
 
 JEFFERSON BARRACKS, 265. 
 Jefferson Davis, 265. 
 Jesus, legend of, 164. 
 
 KEOKUK, 265; village of, 342; por 
 trait of, 344. 
 Kickapoos, 258. 
 Kiowas, 304. 
 
 Kipp, Mr., 60, 83, 103, 136, 149. 
 K nick, k neck, 101, 223. 
 Knistenaux. See Crees. 
 
 LA FRAMBOISE, M., 354. 
 Laidlaw, Mr. 192, 200, 237. 
 Leavenworth, Fort, 239, 244; sports 
 
 at, 245. 
 Leavenworth, General, 276, 279- 
 
 280; death of, 309. 
 Lewis and Clarke, 263. 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 265. 
 Little Bear, portrait of, 198; death 
 
 of, 200. 
 Looking at the sun, 221. 
 
 McCLURE, Lieutenant, 309. 
 
 McKenzie, Mr., 11, 192, 216. 
 
 Mah-to-he-tah, medicine-man, 89. 
 
 Mah-to-toh-pa, dress of, 94-99; feast 
 of, 99-103; battle robe of, 103- 
 106. 
 
 Mandans, village of, 60; interiors, 65; 
 domestic life, 67; burials, 69; hos 
 pitality, 72; looks, 73; swimming, 
 75; vapor baths, 78; boats, 166; 
 meaning of, 167; origin of, 167. 
 
 Marriage, 109; with whites, no. 
 
 Marrow fat, 102. 
 
 Martin, Judge, 277. 
 
 Martin, Matthew Wright, 302 
 
 Mason, Major, 293. 
 
 Medicine-bag, making of, 21-24. 
 
 Medicine-men, 25, 87, 89. 
 
Index 
 
 379 
 
 Minatarees, 169; Red Thunder, 170; 
 corn dance, 174; women, 174; race 
 with, 181; chase, 184; on journal 
 ism, 327. 
 
 Missouri River, i, 52, 57. 
 
 Moccasin game, 257. 
 
 Moultrie, Fort, 361. 
 
 Mountain-sheep, 50. 
 
 Murray, Hon. Augustus, 267. 
 
 Musical instruments, 211-214. 
 
 NAH-POPE, 268. 
 National Intelligencer, 327. 
 Night alarm, 281. 
 Noah, legend of, 133. 
 
 OJIBBEWAYS, 37. 
 
 Old Cale, 53. 
 
 Omalatla, Charley, 359. 
 
 One Horn, speech of, 256. 
 
 O sages, 271; lair of, 274. 
 
 Osceola, 360; portrait of, 361; death 
 
 of, 3 6 3- 
 Oyster cliff, 311. 
 
 PAPPOOSE, 117; cradle, 118. 
 Pawnee Picts, 300; farmers, 300; 
 
 stolen boy, 301-303; customs of, 
 
 304-307. 
 Pemmican, 102. 
 Pepin, Lake, 340. 
 Pierre, Fort, 193, 216. 
 Pinchlin, Peter, 319-321. 
 Pipe dance, 40. 
 Pipe, Indian, 224-226. 
 Pipe stone, 223; legends of Missouri 
 
 Sioux, 224; Cree, 349; Mississippi 
 
 Sioux, 350. 
 Pipe Stone Quarry, 351; hold-up at, 
 
 351-353; column at, 356. 
 Platter game, 258. 
 Polygamy, 108. 
 " Pommes blanches," 100, in. 
 Pottery, Indian, 115. 
 Prairie-dogs, 59. 
 Prairie-hens, 245. 
 
 RACING an Indian, 180-182. 
 Rats, prairie, 176. 
 Raymond, Patrick, 248. 
 Red River prairie, 275. 
 
 Red Thunder, 247-251. 
 Riccarees, 187; a brave, 187. 
 Running season, 243. 
 
 SACS and Foxes, 342; smoking 
 horses, 345; the slaves, 345; dan ~ 
 cing, 346. 
 
 St. Louis, 263. 
 
 Sanford, Major John, 2, 216. 
 
 Scalping, 208-211. 
 
 Scalping knife, 209. 
 
 Seminoles, 359; meaning of, 360; 
 trial by, 362. 
 
 Sham fight, boys , 126. 
 
 Shawnee prophet, 258. 
 
 Shepperdia, buffalo bush, 56. 
 
 Shield, Indian, 17; smoking the, 
 
 37- 
 
 Shonka, the dog, 199. 
 Sioux, stratagem, 125; portraits, 197; 
 
 dancing, 204-208. 
 Skin dressing, 115. 
 "Smoking horses," 344- 
 Smoking the shield, 307. 
 Snelling, Fort, 324, 335. 
 Squaw view of art, 84. 
 Stokes, General, 311. 
 Stolen boy, 302. 
 Stone boilers, 39. 
 Stone, Colonel, 327. 
 Stone man, medicine, 357. 
 Street, General, 342. 
 
 TALLIAFERRO, MAJOR, 334; Indian 
 
 name, 339. 
 
 Tchung-kee, game, 128. 
 Tent-making, 33; striking, 33. 
 Thunder s Nest, 357, 358. 
 Tobacco, Indian, 101, 223. 
 
 WABESHA S Sioux, 340; women s 
 
 game, 341. 
 War Eagle, 51. 
 War whoop, 213. 
 Wheelock, Lieutenant, 274, 293- 
 Whirling Thunder, 267. 
 White Cloud, the prophet, 267. 
 White Cloud, Iowa, 253. 
 Wicos, 304. 
 Wi-jun-jon, 41 ,49- 
 
380 Index 
 
 Wild horses, creasing, 286; lassoing, Wood, Robert Serril, 351. 
 
 287-289. Wun-nes-toa, 25. 
 Wolf song, 256. 
 
 Wolf, white, 235. YELLOWSTONE, Fort, 2. 
 
 Women s game, 341. "Yellowstone," steamer, 2, 216, 
 
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