OBSERVATIONS ON THE TRIBE OF THE MANITARIES, OR GROS VENTRES
The name, Manitaries, by which this tribe is now generally known, was
given by the Mandans, and signifies, "those who came over the water."
The French give them the singular designation of Gros Ventres, which
is no more appropriate to them than to any other of the Indian tribes:
the Anglo-Americans also frequently use this name.[335] This people was
formerly a part of the nation of the Crows, from which it is said they
separated, in consequence of a dispute about a buffalo that had been
killed, and removed to the Missouri.[336] They are near neighbours,
and have been for many years allies of the Mandans. They have long
resided in three villages on the Knife River, two on the left bank,
and the third, which is much the largest, on the right bank.[337] Much
confusion and misunderstanding have been occasioned by the variety of
names given to these villages by the inhabitants, as well as by other
tribes. At present the Manitaries live constantly in their villages,
and do not roam about as they formerly did, when, like the Pawnees and
other nations, they went in pursuit of the herds of buffaloes as soon
as their fields were sown, returned in the autumn for the harvest,
after which they again went into the prairie. In these wanderings they
made use of leather tents, some of which are still standing by the side
of their permanent dwellings. The more considerable part of the nation,
the Crows, are still exclusively a people of hunters, who cultivate no
kind of useful plants: even tobacco is now seldom planted, because they
prefer that which they obtain from the traders. They still, however,
preserve their own species of this plant for the purpose I have before
mentioned.
The Manitaries do not much differ in their personal appearance from
the Mandans; but it strikes a stranger that they are, in general,
taller. Most of them are well-formed and stout; many are very tall,
broad-shouldered, and muscular; the latter may, indeed, be said of the
greater proportion of the men. Their noses are more or less arched, and
sometimes quite straight. I also met with several whose countenances
perfectly resembled those of the Botocudos.[338] The women {396} are
much like the Mandans; many are tall and stout, but most of them are
short and corpulent. There are some pretty faces among them, which,
according to the Indian standard of beauty, may be called handsome.
As they have long lived in close connexion with the Mandans, the
two nations have adopted the same costume, though there is, at the
same time, a greater attention to neatness and adornment among the
Manitaries than their neighbours. Their necklaces of bears' claws, for
which they often give a high price, are very large and well finished:
they often contain forty claws, are attached to each shoulder, and form
a semicircle across the breast. Their lock of hair on the temples
is often long and curiously entwined with ornaments, and fringed at
the point with small red feathers, or strips of ermine. They wear
their hair in long flat braids, hanging down upon the back like the
Mandans; sometimes it is plastered over with clay, and not unfrequently
lengthened by gluing false locks to it. The flat ornament in the shape
of the rule hanging from the back, which I have mentioned in speaking
of the Mandans, is often very tastefully ornamented with porcupine
quills, set in neat patterns. They seldom wear leather shirts, like
the Crows and Blackfeet, but, generally speaking, have nothing under
the buffalo robe: frequently their arms and whole body are variously
painted. Their leggins do not differ from those of the Mandans. The
breechcloth generally consists of a piece of white woollen cloth with
dark blue stripes. Their leather shoes are ornamented in various ways,
sometimes with a long stripe, or a rosette of dyed porcupine quills.
The girdle is of leather, into which the knife and sheath are stuck at
the back. They often wear narrow bright steel bracelets at the wrists,
which they purchase from the Company. Much taste and extravagance are
lavished on the buffalo robe, the main article of their attire. The
style in which they are painted is similar to that of the Mandans,
and very high prices are paid for these robes. Many of the men are
tattooed, especially on one side of the body only, for instance, the
right half of the breast, and the right arm, sometimes down to the
wrist; nay, the old chief, Addih-Hiddish, had the whole of his right
hand tattooed in stripes.[339] They paint their body in the same manner
as the Mandans.
The Manitari villages are similarly arranged as those of the Mandans,
except that they have no ark placed in the central space, and the
figure of Ochkih-Hadda is not there. In the principal village, however,
is the figure of a woman placed on a long pole, doubtless representing
the grandmother, who presented them with the pots, of which I shall
speak more hereafter. A bundle of brushwood is hung on this pole, to
which are attached the leathern dress and leggins of a woman. The head
is made of wormwood, and has a cap with feathers. The interior of their
huts is arranged as among the Mandans: like them the Manitaries go, in
winter, into the forests on both banks of the Missouri, where they find
fuel, and, at the same time, protection against the inclement weather.
Their winter villages are in the thickest of the forest, and the huts
are built near to each other, promiscuously, and without any attempt at
order or regularity.[340] {397} They have about 250 or 300 horses in
their three villages, and a considerable number of dogs.
When a Manitari invites his friends to a feast which is especially
devoted to the table, each guest brings a dish, which is filled, and
which he is expected to empty; if he is unable to do this, he passes
it on to his neighbour, and, as a sort of reward, gives him some
tobacco. If his neighbour accepts it, he undertakes thereby the often
not pleasant task of emptying the dish. At a war feast each guest is
obliged to eat whatever is placed before him.[341] When a child is
to be named they proceed as follows: the father first sets out on a
buffalo hunt, and returns with a good deal of game. He loads himself
with ten or twelve large pieces of meat, at the top of which he places
the child. Stooping and panting under the burden, he proceeds to the
hut of the medicine man who is to give the name, and to whom he
delivers the meat as a present or fee.
Like the Mandans, the Manitaries have their bands, or unions, which are
distinguished by their songs, dances, and badges. Of these bands there
are eleven among the men and three among the women.
Besides these bands, they have two distinct dances:--1st. The dance
of the old men, which is executed only by those who are far advanced
in years, and no longer take the field. 2nd. The scalp dance; this is
danced by the women, who carry the scalps upon poles.[342] In their
hands they likewise bear guns, hatchets, clubs, &c. Some among the men
beat the drum and rattle the schischikué; the warriors, meanwhile,
sitting in a row, and beating time with their feet.
Their games, too, are like those of the Mandans, for if there were
any with which they were not originally acquainted they have since
adopted them. These people likewise set a high value on the hide of
a white buffalo cow, for which they often give fifteen horses, guns,
cloth, blankets, robes, and other articles of considerable value.[343]
The owner having proclaimed, from the top of his hut, to the whole
assembled village, that he has obtained such a robe, keeps it for
about four years. The members of the family sometimes wear it on
state occasions, and narrow strips are cut off and used as ornaments,
especially as head bands. When this time is elapsed the hide is offered
to one of the divinities, a medicine man being hired to perform the
necessary ceremonies. During {398} the four years, valuable articles
of all kinds, such as those before-mentioned, have been collected and
are kept in readiness. A hut is built, to be used as a sudatory (as
will be related below). A large quantity of food is distributed among
the spectators; a bundle of brushwood is fastened to the top of a long
pole, and the beautiful white hide is wrapped round it. It is then
set up in some spot chosen by the owner, and there left to rot. The
medicine man who performs the ceremonies receives, for his trouble,
the valuables which have been mentioned--sometimes 150 robes, and
other things, part of which he distributes among the persons present.
Sometimes they ride, with the white hide, into the prairie, spread
on the ground a blue or red blanket, and lay the hide upon it. If it
is intended to offer a horse at the same time, they bind his feet
together, put a muzzle on his mouth, and leave all together in this
situation. If another Indian were to steal the horse, they would say
he is a fool for robbing the lord of life. Other mysteries (medicines)
and superstitions of the Manitaries are so interwoven with their early
traditions and legends, that it is necessary to premise something on
the subject.
Formerly there existed water only, and no earth: a large bird, with
a red eye, dived. The man who does not die, or the lord of life
(Ehsicka-Wahaddish, literally the first man),[344] who lives in the
Rocky Mountains, had made all, and sent the great bird to fetch up
earth. Another being, worthy of veneration, is the old woman whom they
call grandmother, and who roams about all over the earth. She, too, has
some share in the creation, though an inferior one, for she created the
sand-rat and the toad. She gave the Manitaries a couple of pots, which
they still preserve as a sacred treasure, and employ as medicines,
or charms, on certain occasions. She directed the ancestors of these
Indians to preserve the pots, and to remember the great waters, from
which all animals came cheerful, or, as my old narrator expressed it,
dancing. The red-shouldered oriole (_Psaracolius phoeniceus_) came, at
that time, out of the water, as well as all the other birds which still
sing on the banks of the rivers. The Manitaries, therefore, look on
all these birds as medicine for their plantations of maize, and attend
to their song. At the time when these birds sing, they were directed
by the old woman to fill these pots with water, to be merry, to dance
and bathe, in order to put them in mind of the great flood. When their
fields are threatened with a great drought they are to celebrate a
medicine feast with the old grandmother's pots, in order to beg for
rain: this is, properly, the destination of the pots. The medicine men
are still paid, on such occasions, to sing for four days together in
the huts, while the pots remain filled with water.
The sun, or, as they call it, "the sun of the day," is likewise
considered as a great medicine. They do not know what it really is, but
that it serves to sustain and to warm the earth. When they are about to
undertake some enterprise, they make offerings to it, as well as to the
moon, which they call "the sun of the night." The morning star, Venus,
they consider the child of the moon, and account it likewise a special
medicine. They affirm that it was originally a {399} Manitari, and is
the grandson of the old woman who never dies. The "great bear" is said
to be an ermine, the several stars of that constellation indicating,
in their opinion, the burrow, the head, the feet, and the tail of that
animal. They likewise call the "milky way" the ashy way; and, like the
Mandans, believe that thunder is occasioned by the flapping of the
wings of the large bird, which causes rain, and that the lightning
is the glance of his eye, in search of prey. The rainbow is called
by the Manitaries "the cap of the water," or "the cap of the rain."
Once, say they, an Indian caught, in the autumn, a red bird, which
mocked him; this gave offence to the man, who bound the feet of his
prisoner together with a fish line, and then let him fly. The bird of
prey saw a hare and pounced upon it, but the hare crept into the skull
of a buffalo which was lying in the prairie, and as the line, hanging
from the claws of the bird, formed a semicircle, they imagine that the
rainbow is still thus caused.
The old chief, Addih-Hiddish, gave me the following account of the
situation of men after death:--There are two villages, one large and
the other smaller, whither the Manitaries go when they die. The wicked,
or cowardly, go to the small village; the good, or brave, to the
larger one.[345] A party of Manitaries once went to war, and one of
their number, a chief, was killed by the enemy; he was buried and his
grave covered with large trunks of trees. After his death he went to
the large village, from whence a great many men came to meet him and
to escort him into it. He was alarmed when he saw them coming towards
him, and turned back, wounded as he was. A white man had given him, in
that country, a paper, by means of which he was enabled to return to
his own village on earth, and live there many years; but my informant
was quite unable to tell me the contents of this paper. After this,
when he played at what they call billiards, he rubbed his hands with
the talisman, and nobody could ever win a game from him; he was always
called by his fellows "the dead man."
When the Manitaries were created by the first man they formed one
nation with the Crows. A medicine woman among them had three sons, each
of whom built a village. The eldest went, with his people, down the
Missouri, and it is not known what became of them. The second went to
the mountains, and founded the village now inhabited by the Crows. The
third established the tribe now called Manitaries by the Mandans, which
tribe subsequently erected the three villages now existing. At that
time their total number was only 1000 men.
The Manitaries are as superstitious, and have as much faith in their
medicines, or charms, as the Mandans. Among these medicines are
included every kind of wolf and fox, especially the former; and,
therefore, when they go to war, they always wear the stripe off the
back of a wolf's skin, with the tail hanging down over their shoulders.
They make a slit in the skin, through which they put their head,
so that the skin of the wolf's head hangs down upon their breast.
Buffaloes' heads are likewise medicine. In one of their villages they
preserve the neck bones of a buffalo, as the Crows also are said to
do; and this is done with a view to prevent the buffalo herds {400}
from removing to too great a distance from them. At times they perform
the following ceremony with these bones: they take a potsherd with
live coals, throw sweet-smelling grass upon it, and fumigate the bones
with the smoke. They have medicine stones and medicine trees, like the
Mandans, and offer to the heavenly powers at such places red cloth,
red paint, and other things. Like the Mandans, too, they also offer
articles of value, wail, moan, do penance to conciliate their favour,
and to ask their aid to obtain certain wishes and objects. Say relates
that the wolf chief of the Manitaries sat for five days together on
an isolated rock, without taking any food.[346] This was done on the
Prairie Hill, to which the Mandans also resort in similar cases. They
hold out till their strength fails them, and creep by night into a
neighbouring cave, where they sleep and dream. Among the original
traditions of this people is that of the two children, which Say
relates. A party going to war saw two children sitting on two isolated
hills, who vanished when they endeavoured to approach them. These two
hills, which are near together, are called the Children's Hills; they
are not on Knife River, as Say says, but on Heart River. The women go
to one of these hills to do penance and lament when they desire to have
children.[347]
Mr. Say relates another tradition very correctly, of a boy who lived
and grew in the belly of a buffalo. They also assert that the bones
of the buffaloes in the prairie sometimes come to life again.[348]
Say likewise describes the corn dance, or rather the corn feast, for
the consecration of the crops. They adopted it from the Mandans, and
now celebrate it in the same manner.[349] The great medicine feast
for attracting the herds of buffaloes will be described in the next
chapter, as well as some of the incantations of the women. They
likewise celebrate the Okippe (which they call Akupehri), but with
several deviations. Thus, instead of the so-called ark, a kind of high
pole, with a fork on the summit, is planted in the centre of the open
circle. When the partisans of the war parties intend to go on some
enterprise in May or June, the preparations are combined with the
Okippe of several young men, who wish to obtain the rank of the brave,
or men. A large medicine lodge is erected, open above, with a division
in the middle, in which the candidates take their places. Two pits are
usually dug in the middle for the partisans, who lie in them four days
and four nights, with only a piece of leather about the waist. The
first partisan usually chooses the second, who undergoes the ceremony
with him. There are always young people enough ready to submit their
bodies to torture, in order to display their courage and firm resolve.
They fast four days and nights, which leaves them faint and weak. Many
of them begin the tortures on the third day; but the fourth day is that
properly set apart for them. To the forked pole of the medicine lodge
is fastened a long piece of buffalo hide, with the head hanging down,
and to this a strap is fastened. An old man is then chosen, who is to
see to the torturing of the candidates, which is executed precisely in
the same manner as among the Mandans. The sufferers often faint; they
are then taken by the hands, lifted up, and encouraged, and they begin
afresh. When they have dragged about the buffalo skull long enough,
hanging to their flesh and skin, a large circle is formed, as among
{401} the Mandans, in which they are made to run round till they drop
down exhausted, when they are taken to the medicine lodge. The medicine
man receives from one of the spectators the knife with which the
operation is to be performed. He has called out to "have compassion
with him, and to give him a knife," on which one of the persons
standing round throws one at his feet. The partisan is bound to build
the medicine lodge. During the ceremony the spectators eat and smoke;
the candidates take nothing, and, like the partisans, are covered all
over with white clay. The latter, when they dance during the ceremony,
remain near their pits, and then move on the same spot, holding in
their hands their medicines, a buffalo's tail, a feather, or the like.
None but the candidates dance, and the only music is striking a dried
buffalo's hide with willow rods. There have been instances of fathers
subjecting their children, only six or seven years of age, to these
tortures. We ourselves saw one suspended by the muscles of the back,
after having been compelled to fast four days. No application whatever
is subsequently made for the cure of the wounds, which leave large
swollen weals, and are much more conspicuous among the Manitaries than
the Mandans. Most of the Manitaries have three or four of these weals,
in parallel semicircular lines, almost an inch thick, which cover the
entire breast. Similar transverse and longitudinal lines, arising from
the same cause, are seen upon the arms, nay, the whole length of the
limb is often disfigured by them.[350] The medicine stone has already
been mentioned, when treating of the Mandans. Lewis and Clarke also
speak of it, saying that "the Manitaries have a stone of a similar
kind;" but this is not quite correct, for it is the self-same stone to
which the two people have recourse, and make use of similar ceremonies
with it.
Another very remarkable institution of the Manitaries is the sudatory.
When a man intends to undertake anything, and to implore by medicine
the aid of the higher powers, he builds a small sudatory of twigs,
which is covered all over with buffalo hides. Before the entrance is
a straight path, forty feet long and one broad, from which the turf
is taken off and piled up in a heap at one end opposite the hut. Near
this heap a fire is kindled, in which large stones are made red hot.
Two rows of shoes, sometimes thirty or forty pair, are placed along the
path. As soon as the stones are hot, they are borne into the hut, where
a hearth has been dug, on which the hot stones are laid. The whole
population sit as spectators on either side of the path, where are
placed a number of dishes with provisions, such as boiled maize, beans,
meat, &c. An old medicine man is appointed to conduct the ceremonies.
He walks from the heap of turf over the shoes, taking care always to
set his feet upon them, to the sudatory. The young man, for whom the
ceremony is performed, stands with only his breechcloth at the entrance
of the sudatory, where for some time he wails and laments. The medicine
man comes out of the hut, with a knife or arrow head, and cuts off a
joint of his finger, which he throws away, as an offering to the lord
of life, or to some other object of superstition, in which the young
man has placed his confidence. After this operation the magician takes
a willow twig, goes to the dishes containing {402} the provisions, dips
the twig in each, and throws a portion of the contents in the direction
of the four cardinal points, for the lord of life, the fire, and the
divers supernatural powers, of which he makes open proclamation. The
provisions are then distributed among the men, women, and children who
are present. The older men go into the sudatory, the women carefully
cover it, and water is sprinkled with bunches of wormwood, from
vessels standing ready without upon the hot stones, which throws the
persons present into a profuse perspiration; the men, meanwhile, all
singing at once to the rattling of the schischikué. When they are
satisfied they call to the women on the outside to remove the hides.
After this, a buffalo head, with the snout foremost, is carried over
the row of shoes to the heap of turfs, where it is placed in the same
direction. The ceremony is now complete. The robes with which the hut
was covered, often sixty or eighty in number, are given by the young
man to the magician for his trouble, who distributes some of them among
the spectators. The persons who have submitted to the operation put
on their robes, and remain in the open air till their bodies are dry,
this medicine being generally performed in the summer. In the winter
they prepare such steam baths in their own huts, but at that season
they are not medicine, and the men and women assemble together. The
grand ceremony just described is instituted especially when they wish
to ask success for a military expedition, or for some other important
enterprise. They then purchase a red blanket or a piece of blue cloth,
which they offer to the divinity, hanging it on a pole behind the
sudatory, where it is left to be destroyed by the wind and weather.
The Manitaries likewise make offerings at times to the great serpent
which lives in the Missouri, by placing in the river poles, to which
robes or coloured blankets are attached.[351] This practice is founded
on a story like that which is current among the Mandans, but with some
differences. A war party was on its way to the Upper Missouri to meet
the enemy: when they had proceeded a considerable distance two young
men turned back, and found, at a certain spot, a large serpent coiled
up. After looking at the animal for some time, one of them kindled a
fire, in which they burnt the serpent. The man who had made the fire
took up the remains, smelt them, and affirmed that the smell was so
inviting, he could not refrain from eating a part, and, though his
comrade dissuaded him, he ate a small portion of the roasted flesh. In
the evening, when they were going to lie down to rest for the night,
he took off his shoes, and, to his great astonishment, found that his
feet were striped like the serpent which they had killed. He told his
friend, and said, "This is delightful; when I go home, I will pull
off my shoes, and everybody will look at my feet." On the following
day his legs were striped up to the knees. He said, laughing, "This
is admirable; I shall no longer have occasion to mark my exploits by
stripes, for nature herself furnishes me with them." On the third day
he was striped up to his hips. They slept on the evening of that day,
and on the fourth day he was completely converted into a serpent. "Be
not afraid of me," said he to his friend, "I have neither arms nor
legs, and cannot move from the spot; carry me {403} to the river."
His friend dragged him to the Missouri, being unable to carry him on
account of his length and weight. The serpent immediately swam, dived
below the surface, and called to his friend, who was mourning on the
bank, "Weep not, my friend; be comforted and go home in peace; four
things, however, I must beg of you to bring me; first, bring me a white
wolf; secondly, a polecat; thirdly, another painted red; and fourthly,
a black pipe." His friend went home, and after some time returned
with the objects required, and lamented a whole day on the bank of
the river. The serpent then appeared: "It is well that you have kept
your word," said he; "you will go to war and kill as many enemies as
you have brought objects to me. But first come here and lament, for I
am medicine for all futurity." The Indian went out the same day and
killed an enemy; but the serpent had previously told him that its head
would be at the old Mandan village, and its tail reach to the mouth of
the Yellow Stone River; that with one ear it would be able to hear to
the distance of the Maison du Chien, a hill in the prairie two days'
journey from the north bank of the Missouri, and with the other to the
Crête Côte, likewise two days' journey from the other bank. The friend
went four times to war, and each time killed an enemy. The Manitaries,
who firmly believe this story, still go to the river when the fancy
strikes them, and set up an offering. They relate that a man once went
to the river to see the serpent; he lamented for a long time, at length
it appeared, on which he called it his father. But the serpent said,
"You are not my son; I have only one son, whose name is----, he who has
no arms; but you are the son of him who shall be chief of the village
to which I have destined him. When you ride out to hunt the buffalo
you will kill your enemies, and some of your people will likewise be
killed."
In cases of difficult parturition, which, however, seldom occur, they
are accustomed to give the medicine man one, two, or even four horses.
He comes to the hut of the lying-in woman, smokes with her husband,
then takes a fox or wolf skin cap, and strokes the woman with it on
the back, or some other part of the body, singing, and rattling the
schischikué. Often he touches or rubs her with a tortoise shell, as the
Botocudos in Brazil do, often merely with a feather.
Like the Mandans they sometimes keep owls in their huts, which they
consider as soothsayers, and whose notes they pretend to understand.
This is the large grey owl, without doubt the _Strix Virginiana_. The
war eagle (_Aquila chrysactos_) is likewise kept alive for the sake
of the tail feathers, which they so highly prize. Some individuals
among them have strange superstitious ideas and practices; thus, a
certain man smokes very slowly, no person is allowed to speak nor
to move a single limb of his body, except to take hold of the pipe.
Neither women, children, nor dogs, are suffered to remain in the hut
while he is smoking, and some one is always stationed to keep the door.
If, however, there are exactly seven persons present to smoke, all
these precautionary measures are done away with, and they may smoke
as quickly as they please. {404} When he clears his pipe and shakes
the ashes into the fire, it blazes up, doubtless because he puts some
gunpowder, or similar combustible, into the pipe. When any person has
a painful or a diseased place, the same man puts his pipe upon it and
smokes. On these occasions he does not swallow the smoke, as is the
Indian custom, but affirms that he can extract the disorder by his
smoking, which he pretends to seize with his hand, and to throw into
the fire.
The division of the year into months is not very dissimilar from that
of the Mandans, though I have never been able to obtain two accounts
which precisely correspond. But little is to be said of the hunting
and war of the Manitaries which has not been already related of the
Mandans. They are reported as being very skilful in making the cabri
parks, which, in the month of April, they can do in half a day, though
they have not made any such for some time past. The skin of the cabri
is used for shoes.
The Manitaries are at present friendly towards the Whites in the
vicinity of the Missouri; but, if a white man happens to encounter
one of their war parties in the prairie, he is generally plundered.
In the north, on the Red River, they often act in a hostile manner to
the Whites and Half-breeds residing there. Their enemies properly so
called are the Blackfeet, the Assiniboins, the Sioux, the Pawnees, the
Arikkaras, the Shiennes or Chayennes, the Crees, and the Arrapahos;
their allies are the Mandans and the Crows.
All these Indians treat the bodies of their slain enemies in the most
barbarous manner. Charbonneau remembers that the Manitaries, for
several months, kept the body of an Assiniboin, who was killed in the
winter, which they daily used as a mark to shoot at. Mutilation is very
common among them. Want of feeling towards their prisoners is common to
all uncivilized people; the nations of hunters especially do not regard
the tortures of living creatures; and the Brazilian savage does not
in this respect differ from the North American, and the Gaucho in the
south of this continent, or, indeed, from man in a state of nature in
every part of the habitable globe.
The Manitaries appear to have but a very slight acquaintance with
medicine; they mostly have recourse to the drum, the schischikué, and
the singing of the medicine men, for the cure of diseases. As a remedy
for wounds they burn scented grass (_Anthoxanthum odoratum_), hold
their hands in the smoke, and then, at some distance, over the wound,
after which they lay tallow upon it. The cure of some men who recovered
after being scalped, and many large scars on the bodies of these
Indians, are proofs of the natural vigour of their constitutions. The
medicine men have a particular song, without words, which is employed
as the last resource to recover a person at the point of death. The
magician alone then sings, accompanied by his schischikué.
The Manitaries always lay their dead upon stages or scaffolds. As the
lord of life is displeased when they quarrel and kill each other, those
who do so are buried in the earth, that they {405} may be no longer
seen. In this case a buffalo's head is laid upon the grave, in order
that the buffalo herds may not keep away, for, if they were to smell
the wicked, they might remove and never return. The good are laid upon
stages, that they may be seen by the lord of life.
The language of the Manitaries is very different from that of the
Mandans, and is far more difficult to pronounce correctly. Like that,
it has many gutturals, especially the _ch_, as in Dutch and German.
The difficulty of the pronunciation lies chiefly in the accent. What
may in German be expressed in a few words, requires several; a proof
of the poverty of the language. Lewis and Clarke say--"the dialect of
the Mandans differs widely from those of the Arikkaras and Manitaries;
but their long residence near each other has insensibly blended their
manners, and occasioned some approximation in language, especially in
objects of daily occurrence." This is correct, for I was assured by
both nations that, when they first lived together, their languages were
totally different, and respectively unintelligible to each other.
FOOTNOTES:
[335] Consult Matthews, _Hidatsa_, pp. 33, 34, on the origin of these
names. The Minitaree tradition relates that when they reached the
east bank of the Missouri, the latter inquired who they were. Not
understanding, the newly-arrived tribe supposed they were asked what
was wished, to which they replied "minitari"--to cross the water.
Thereupon the Mandan gave the new-comers this name. See also _Original
Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_, v, p. 348.--ED.
[336] For the Crow and Minitaree legend of the separation of the
two branches of the tribe, see Matthews, _Hidatsa_, pp. 39, 40. The
Minitaree name for the Crows signified "They who refused the paunch"
(_i. e._, of the buffalo). According to Lewis and Clark (_Original
Journals_, v, p. 297), "they quarreled about a buffalo, and two bands
left the village and went into the plains, (those two bands are now
known by the title Pounch [Paunch] and Crow Indians.)" See also
_Original Journals_, vi, pp. 103, 104, where the Paunch Indians are
made a separate band. This was probably the division of the Crows known
as Aelekaweah. See Smithsonian Institution _Report_, 1885, part ii, p.
113.--ED.
[337] For the site of these villages see our volume xxii, p. 300, note
326.--ED.
[338] For the Botocudo see our volume xxii, p. 219, note 132.--ED.
[339] See his portrait, which Maximilian calls "a striking
resemblance," in Plate 57, in the accompanying atlas, our volume
xxv.--ED.
[340] See Plate 59, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.
[341] La Vérendrye (_Canadian Archives_, 1889, p. 21), speaking of
these feasts, says: "They are for the most part great eaters; are eager
for feasts. They brought me every day more than twenty dishes of wheat,
beans, and pumpkins, all cooked. Mr. de la Marque, who did not hate
feasts, went to them continually with my children."--ED.
[342] See Plate 60, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.
[343] The Mandans affirm, that the Manitaries adopted from them their
veneration for the white buffalo cow, and attribute the origin of this
custom to the following circumstance:--When the Manitaries, after
crossing the river, first met with them, the Mandan chief exclaimed,
"I am chief, and my name is the Buffalo Robe with the Beautiful Hair!"
to which the Manitari chief replied, "That is likewise my name," for
they both wore white robes. The numerous Indians now proceeded in a
body to hunt the buffalo. When the Manitari asked, "Will the Mandans
follow their chief?" the Mandan replied, "As a sign that I speak the
truth, all my people shall go over the summit of yonder hill." Hereupon
he spread out his robe on the top of the hill, the whole nation passed
over it, and each man took away a tuft of the hair. Two very old men
came last, and, when they approached the two chiefs, one of them said,
"All who have preceded us have taken some of the hair of the robe,
but we will take the robe itself." So saying, he threw it over his
shoulders, and since that time the white buffalo skin is highly valued
among the Manitaries.--MAXIMILIAN.
[344] Compare Matthews, _Hidatsa_, pp. 47, 48, where the object
of greatest reverence is said to be the "First Made," or "Old Man
Immortal." See also Henry's account of the Minitaree creation myth in
_Henry-Thompson Journals_, i, pp. 351, 352.--ED.
[345] Compare with this account of the future state that given in
James's _Long's Expedition_, our volume xv, p. 65.--ED.
[346] See our volume xv, p. 63. The Wolf chief is noted in Bradbury's
_Travels_, our volume v, p. 163, note 99.--ED.
[347] Related in our volume xv, pp. 59, 60. Heart River, as the
original Mandan home and probably the site of the Minitaree's settling
among them, acquired something of a sacred character in the eyes of
both tribes; see _Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_,
i, p. 201. The present sacred seat is near Knife River, being a cavern
rather than a hill, and known as the "House of the Infants." Matthews,
_Hidatsa_, p. 51.--ED.
[348] These myths are related in our volume xv, pp. 63, 64.--ED.
[349] The corn dance is described in our volume xv, pp. 127, 128.
It is not analogous to the celebrated green-corn dance of the Creek
Indians, for which see A. S. Gatschet, _Migration Legend of the Creek
Indians_ (Philadelphia, 1884), pp. 181, 182. The latter is, in essence,
a thanksgiving for the first fruits, the former a ceremony to secure
the fertilization of seed-corn. Catlin (_North American Indians_ pp.
188-190), describes another Minitaree dance upon the harvest of the
corn, which he thinks bears resemblance to that of the Creeks.--ED.
[350] See the description of this festival in our volume xv, pp.
61-63. Matthews (_Hidatsa_, pp. 45-47) thinks that Maximilian is
here describing the Dahkipe (or Nahkipe), a ceremony analogous in
its tortures to the Okippe of the Mandan, but in allegory radically
different, that of the Minitaree being a preparation for bravery in
war. Scarcely a Minitaree is to be seen without the wales made by
some form of self-torture; see _Henry-Thompson Journals_, i, pp.
363-365.--ED.
[351] Serpent worship had much vogue among many North American tribes.
The Algonquian believed in a great serpent in the Great Lakes which
raised storms, and destroyed canoes. Among Siouan tribes the snake was
a holy or at least mysterious being. See Dorsey, "Siouan Cults," p.
366. Upon the whole subject of serpent worship consult Brinton, _Myths
of the New World_, pp. 129-143.--ED.