Summer Weather of the Prairies.--Purity of the Atmosphere--
Canadians on the March.--Sickness in the Camp.--Big River.--
Vulgar Nomenclature.--Suggestions About the Original Indian
Names.--Camp of Cheyennes.--Trade for Horses.--Character of
the Cheyennes.--Their Horsemanship.--Historical Anecdotes of
the Tribe.
THE course taken by Mr. Hunt was at first to the northwest, but soon
turned and kept generally to the southwest, to avoid the country
infested by the Blackfeet. His route took him across some of the
tributary streams of the Missouri, and over immense prairies, bounded
only by the horizon, and destitute of trees. It was now the height of
summer, and these naked plains would be intolerable to the traveller
were it not for the breezes which swept over them during the fervor of
the day, bringing with them tempering airs from the distant mountains.
To the prevalence of these breezes, and to the want of all leafy covert,
may we also attribute the freedom from those flies and other insects
so tormenting to man and beast during the summer months, in the lower
plains, which are bordered and interspersed with woodland.
The monotony of these immense landscapes, also, would be as wearisome as
that of the ocean, were it not relieved in some degree by the purity and
elasticity of the atmosphere, and the beauty of the heavens. The sky
has that delicious blue for which the sky of Italy is renowned; the sun
shines with a splendor unobscured by any cloud or vapor, and a starlight
night on the prairies is glorious. This purity and elasticity of
atmosphere increases as the traveller approaches the mountains and
gradually rises into more elevated prairies.
On the second day of the journey, Mr. Hunt arranged the party into small
and convenient messes, distributing among them the camp kettles. The
encampments at night were as before; some sleeping under tents, and
others bivouacking in the open air. The Canadians proved as patient of
toll and hardship on the land as on the water; indeed, nothing could
surpass the patience and good-humor of these men upon the march. They
were the cheerful drudges of the party, loading and unloading the
horses, pitching the tents, making the fires, cooking; in short,
performing all those household and menial offices which the Indians
usually assign to the squaws; and, like the squaws, they left all the
hunting and fighting to others. A Canadian has but little affection for
the exercise of the rifle.
The progress of the party was but slow for the first few days. Some of
the men were indisposed; Mr. Crooks, especially, was so unwell that
he could not keep on his horse. A rude kind of litter was, therefore,
prepared for him, consisting of two long poles, fixed, one on each side
of two horses, with a matting between them, on which he reclined at full
length, and was protected from the sun by a canopy of boughs.
On the evening of the 23d (July) they encamped on the banks of what
they term Big River; and here we cannot but pause to lament the stupid,
commonplace, and often ribald names entailed upon the rivers and other
features of the great West, by traders and settlers. As the aboriginal
tribes of these magnificent regions are yet in existence, the Indian
names might easily be recovered; which, besides being in general more
sonorous and musical, would remain mementoes of the primitive lords
of the soil, of whom in a little while scarce any traces will be left.
Indeed, it is to be wished that the whole of our country could be
rescued, as much as possible, from the wretched nomenclature inflicted
upon it, by ignorant and vulgar minds; and this might be done, in a
great degree, by restoring the Indian names, wherever significant
and euphonious. As there appears to be a spirit of research abroad in
respect to our aboriginal antiquities, we would suggest, as a worthy
object of enterprise, a map, or maps, of every part of our country,
giving the Indian names wherever they could be ascertained. Whoever
achieves such an object worthily, will leave a monument to his own
reputation.
To return from this digression. As the travellers were now in a country
abounding with buffalo, they remained for several days encamped upon the
banks of Big River, to obtain a supply of provisions, and to give the
invalids time to recruit.
On the second day of their sojourn, as Ben Jones, John Day, and others
of the hunters were in pursuit of game, they came upon an Indian camp on
the open prairie, near to a small stream which ran through a ravine.
The tents or lodges were of dressed buffalo skins, sewn together and
stretched on tapering pine poles, joined at top, but radiating at
bottom, so as to form a circle capable of admitting fifty persons.
Numbers of horses were grazing in the neighborhood of the camp, or
straying at large in the prairie; a sight most acceptable to the
hunters. After reconnoitering the camp for some time, they ascertained
it to belong to a band of Cheyenne Indians, the same that had sent
a deputation to the Arickaras. They received the hunters in the most
friendly manner; invited them to their lodges, which were more cleanly
than Indian lodges are prone to be, and set food before them with true
uncivilized hospitality. Several of them accompanied the hunters back
to the camp, when a trade was immediately opened. The Cheyennes were
astonished and delighted to find a convoy of goods and trinkets thus
brought into the very heart of the prairie; while Mr. Hunt and his
companions were overjoyed to have an opportunity of obtaining a further
supply of horses from these equestrian savages.
During a fortnight that the travellers lingered at this place, their
encampment was continually thronged by the Cheyennes. They were a civil,
well-behaved people, cleanly in their persons, and decorous in their
habits. The men were tall, straight and vigorous, with aquiline noses,
and high cheek bones. Some were almost as naked as ancient statues,
and might have stood as models for a statuary; others had leggins and
moccasins of deer skin, and buffalo robes, which they threw gracefully
over their shoulders. In a little while, however, they began to appear
in more gorgeous array, tricked out in the finery obtained from the
white men; bright cloths, brass rings, beads of various colors; and
happy was he who could render himself hideous with vermilion.
The travellers had frequent occasions to admire the skill and grace with
which these Indians managed their horses. Some of them made a striking
display when mounted; themselves and their steeds decorated in gala
style; for the Indians often bestow more finery upon their horses than
upon themselves. Some would hang around the necks, or rather on the
breasts of their horses, the most precious ornaments they had obtained
from the white men; others interwove feathers in their manes and tails.
The Indian horses, too, appear to have an attachment to their wild
riders, and indeed, it is said that the horses of the prairies readily
distinguish an Indian from a white man by the smell, and give a
preference to the former. Yet the Indians, in general, are hard
riders, and, however they may value their horses, treat them with great
roughness and neglect. Occasionally the Cheyennes joined the white
hunters in pursuit of the elk and buffalo; and when in the ardor of the
chase, spared neither themselves nor their steeds, scouring the prairies
at full speed, and plunging down precipices and frightful ravines that
threatened the necks of both horse and horseman. The Indian steed, well
trained to the chase, seems as mad as the rider, and pursues the game as
eagerly as if it were his natural prey, on the flesh of which he was to
banquet.
The history of the Cheyennes is that of many of those wandering tribes
of the prairies. They were the remnant of a once powerful people called
the Shaways, inhabiting a branch of the Red River which flows into Lake
Winnipeg. Every Indian tribe has some rival tribe with which it wages
implacable hostility. The deadly enemies of the Shaways were the Sioux,
who, after a long course of warfare, proved too powerful for them, and
drove them across the Missouri. They again took root near the Warricanne
Creek, and established themselves there in a fortified village.
The Sioux still followed with deadly animosity; dislodged them from
their village, and compelled them to take refuge in the Black Hills,
near the upper waters of the Sheyenne or Cheyenne River. Here they lost
even their name, and became known among the French colonists by that of
the river they frequented.
The heart of the tribe was now broken; its numbers were greatly
thinned by their harassing wars. They no longer attempted to establish
themselves in any permanent abode that might be an object of attack
to their cruel foes. They gave up the cultivation of the fruits of
the earth, and became a wandering tribe, subsisting by the chase, and
following the buffalo in its migrations.
Their only possessions were horses, which they caught on the prairies,
or reared, or captured on predatory incursions into the Mexican
territories, as has already been mentioned. With some of these they
repaired once a year to the Arickara villages, exchanged them for corn,
beans, pumpkins, and articles of European merchandise, and then returned
into the heart of the prairies.
Such are the fluctuating fortunes of these savage nations. War, famine,
pestilence, together or singly, bring down their strength and thin their
numbers. Whole tribes are rooted up from their native places, wander
for a time about these immense regions, become amalgamated with other
tribes, or disappear from the face of the earth. There appears to be a
tendency to extinction among all the savage nations; and this tendency
would seem to have been in operation among the aboriginals of this
country long before the advent of the white men, if we may judge from
the traces and traditions of ancient populousness in regions which
were silent and deserted at the time of the discovery; and from the
mysterious and perplexing vestiges of unknown races, predecessors of
those found in actual possession, and who must long since have become
gradually extinguished or been destroyed. The whole history of the
aboriginal population of this country, however, is an enigma, and a
grand one--will it ever be solved?