MATTHEW BRAYTON'S NARRATIVE.
Stolen by Indians and traded from Tribe to Tribe -- Siouxs --
Sioux Dog Dance -- Sold to the Snakes -- Digger Indians --
Fight with the Diggers -- Utah -- Quarrels with the Blackfeet
-- Flat Heads -- Snakes join Utahs, Crees, and Flat Heads --
Join with Copper Heads.
The first seven or eight years of my captivity among the Indians were
so full of changes that I cannot distinctly remember the events that
occurred, and I am compelled to trust to the accounts given me by the
members of the various tribes who were cognizant of the circumstances.
From their statements I learn that I was taken from Ohio by a party of
Canadian Indians, and by them borne to their village in Canada. The
only motive alleged to me for the theft was that the party who stole
me had a difference with some white families in Ohio, and that I was
taken out of revenge. Among these Indians I remained secreted for some
time, the tribe fearing to let me be seen by white men lest I should
be taken away.
From all that I can learn, I remained some six or seven months with
this tribe, and was then sold to a party of Pottawottomies, who took
me across to Michigan. The compensation obtained for me by the
Canadian tribe consisted of three and a half gallons of whiskey. With
my new owners I remained about half a year, when the Pottawottomies
either being afraid to keep me any longer, or having an unappeasable
thirst for whiskey, traded me off to the Paw-Paws for five and a half
gallons of firewater. I could not say how long I remained in Michigan
with this tribe, but I was at length transferred to the Winnebagoes of
Illinois, my value having increased with my age to the amount of seven
and a half gallons of whiskey. I did not remain long with this tribe,
but was sold to the Wisconsin Chippewas for nine and a half gallons of
whiskey, and with them remained one year. From the Chippewas I passed
into the hands of the Siouxs in Minnesota, and remained with them
nearly three years. During my stay with the Siouxs I visited the site
of what now forms the city of St. Paul. In that vicinity there were
then seven shanties or huts, made of poles and sticks set up endways.
Two or three French and Dutch, with some Indians then occupied the
place.
About the ninth year of my captivity among the Indians, the band of
Siouxs to which I belonged made an expedition westward. In the course
of their hunt they came on a tribe of Snake Indians. The Snakes and
Siouxs were generally at war, but there was peace between these two
parties. Some differences that had occurred between the bands were
settled at the meeting, and the Siouxs celebrated the fact by a great
Dog-Dance.
This dance is peculiar to the Siouxs, and I never saw it at any other
time. The manner of doing it was this:--A party of warriors squat
around in a circle, smoking and talking. A dog is then taken and its
legs tied, after which it is thrown into the circle of warriors. One
of the "medicine men" kills the animal with his tomahawk, cuts open
its side and takes out its liver, which is cut into strips and hung on
a pole nearly the height of a man. The warriors spring to their feet
and commence dancing around it; all the while smacking their lips and
making grimaces as if they were anxious to have a taste of the
delicious meat. In a short time one of the dancers makes a grab at the
liver and bites off a piece, which he chews and swallows as he dances.
Then the others follow his example until all the liver is eaten. If
any of the pieces should drop, the "medicine man" picks it up and
carries it in the palm of his hand for the dancers to eat, after doing
which they lick his hand. As soon as the liver is all eaten, the
warriors sit down as before, and wait to see if another dog is thrown
in. As long as any one gives a dog, they are compelled to eat its
liver raw and warm, and no one is allowed to handle it except the
"medicine man." Women are forbidden to join in this dance. The Siouxs
think that those who thus eat the liver of the dog will possess that
animal's bravery and sagacity.
Before the meeting was over, the Snakes took a great fancy to me, and
in order to celebrate their new made truce the Siouxs offered to trade
me to the Snakes for eleven gallons of whiskey, which was done, and I
was once more transferred to new masters.
My new owners made me change my dress and paint to conform to their
style, and I was adopted into the tribe. An Indian who had lost a son
in battle took me into his family, and from that time forth I was told
to consider him as my father, and his squaw as my mother. But although
thus made one of themselves, the Indians did not fail to treat me with
considerable harshness, and I was compelled to do some of the severe
drudgery usually imposed on women.
The Snakes at that time hunted in Iowa, but in about a year after my
joining them they had repeated quarrels with other tribes, and with
the whites. For a few months they remained in Missouri, but eventually
packed up and struck the trail for the west side of the Rocky
Mountains. Our tribe hunted through Utah for a while, but quarreled
with the tribes already in that country, and therefore we once more
pushed west, and crossing the mountains that divided us from
California, entered that country. Here we lived, for about five years,
generally at peace, but having occasional skirmishes with the Digger
Indians.
These Indians are a wretched and degenerate race, cowardly,
treacherous, filthy and indolent. Instead of living by hunting, as was
the case with our tribe, and nearly all the others east of the
California Mountains, these obtained a scanty subsistence by digging
for roots. The women do the digging whilst the men stay in the lodges
or are playing at some game. I have seen hundreds of the women at a
time out in this employment. They carry on their backs heavy baskets
of the shape of old fashioned straw beehives, and in their hands long
sticks with which to dig the roots. Early in the morning they go out
and keep at work until evening, when they return with their baskets
full of roots. Sometimes they procure enough not only for their
present eating, but to lay up for winter use.
The men among the Digger Indians wear very long hair, but that of the
women is cut short. Both are nearly naked, and filthy in the extreme.
Most of them are tatooed, the women especially displaying in general a
large number of designs on their person. They do this merely for
ornament, and not for the purpose of showing a difference in rank as
is the case in most tribes where the custom exists.
Their houses or lodges are very simple. In the summer they put a
number of bushes together in the shape of a cone, and into this they
creep for shelter from the sun by day, and to sleep by night. These
lodges or tents are more designed to keep off the rays of the sun than
for shelter from inclement weather. For the cold and wet seasons the
Diggers in the northern part of California have a different kind of
dwelling. They dig a pit several feet deep, of the size of the
proposed lodge. Then they drive poles into the earth around the edge
of the pit, and bend them over so that they will meet at the top,
where they are fastened together, making a covering over the pit. They
then cover the whole building with earth to the thickness of several
inches, or even a foot, leaving a small hole at the top to serve as a
chimney. Another hole is made at the side, large enough to admit the
body. When they wish to sleep they build a fire in the center of the
lodge, then creep in feet foremost and lie in that position to the
fire.
The Diggers have a curious way of marrying. When a man takes a fancy
to a girl and wants her as his squaw, he speaks to her parents and
talks to her a little. Then he lies down with her, and if she lies
still they are considered man and wife; but if she gets up and runs
away, the courtship is at an end, and the man never tries to get her
again. A Digger man can have as many wives as he chooses, but the
woman can only have one husband.
When a Digger dies they burn him, with all his implements, and have a
great mourning during the ceremony. They believe that when a man dies
his spirit goes to the East, and keeps going until it comes to a great
water. A large boat is there to take him over. All the good get safely
across and go to a very large house where they eat, drink, and gamble,
until they are tired, when they go off among the trees. The bad people
who go in the boat reach the middle of the water, when the bottom
falls out, and they are lost forever.
Whilst in California we frequently visited what is now San Francisco,
but which was then a small village of a dozen houses, known by the
Spaniards as "Yerba Buena." A few French and Spanish traders were the
only white residents, and to those we carried down bear meat, buffalo
robes, and furs of various kinds, together with small bits of gold
found in the mountains, receiving in exchange blankets and "snakyeye,"
or whiskey. These trips were made several times during the year, but
were finally terminated by the occurrence that resulted in our leaving
that part of the country. A large party of Diggers surprised a small
hunting party of Snakes and took from them their ponies. A number of
warriors were sent out from our tribe to demand them back, but the
Diggers had surrendered the ponies to the Spaniards, and now asked
their protection from the vengeance of the Snakes. The Spaniards
granted their request, and warned our party off. As soon as the news
arrived at the Snake village, there was a general excitement, and all
who were able to bear arms at once took the war path. The Diggers
fled, but were tracked to the coast, where they were supported by
several Spaniards. We attacked their camp at daybreak, and a desperate
fight ensued. The Diggers are generally lazy and cowardly, but their
numbers far exceeded ours, and they were assisted by white men. In the
end we were victors, and our party mercilessly tomahawked and scalped
all within their reach. Nearly a hundred and fifty scalps were borne
off in triumph by the Snakes, and among the trophies were the scalps
of some white men.
The result of this fight was a general movement of the whites on the
one hand and the California tribes on the other, to drive us out of
the country. For a time our tribe stood its ground, but at length it
became evident that we could not remain peaceably in that region, so
we once more turned our faces eastward and re-crossed the mountains to
Utah.
During our stay in this Territory, which did not exceed six or seven
moons, our principal encampment was on the banks of the Great Salt
Lake, near the present site of Salt Lake City. At that time not a
white man lived in that vast wilderness, though not many years
afterwards a large city sprang up where our wigwams had formerly
stood.
Once more our tribe became restless and dissatisfied with their
location, and we changed our hunting ground to Oregon, remaining there
about two years. Here we came into collision with the Blackfeet
Indians, one of the most ferocious and cruel tribes in existence. They
are always at war with the tribes around them and make long journeys
for the purpose of attacking some other nation. Several skirmishes
took place between our bands and those of the Blackfeet, in which
sometimes one and sometimes the other would be successful. In order to
defend ourselves from the attacks of the Blackfeet, our tribe made an
alliance with the Flat Heads. These are a very singular race who strap
boards on the heads of their children so as to change their shape.
There are two kinds of Flat Heads, those who have the head flattened
from the forehead back, making the head look like a wedge with the
sharp edge in front, whilst the others have the sides flattened so as
to have the point of the wedge upwards. The party allied with us were
of the former kind. A part of the Utahs also joined us about this
time, as did the Crees.
Our associated tribes kept going farther north, not finding any place
to settle owing to the constant attacks of the Indians through whose
territories we passed. With the Bloods and the Blackfeet we had
repeated fights until we got above their country, beyond the territory
of the United States and into the country of the Copper Head Indians,
who roamed over a vast extent of territory extending to the Esquimaux
on the North.
Our associated tribes united in the North with the Copper Heads, and
here the whole lived in undisputed possession from that time to the
present.