The Letter which I gave you yesterday, on the subject of “medicines”
and “medicine-men,” has somewhat broken the “thread of my discourse;”
and left my painting-room (in the bastion), and all the Indians in it,
and portraits, and buffalo hunts, and landscapes of these beautiful
regions, to be taken up and discussed; which I will now endeavour to
do, beginning just where I left (or digressed) off.
I was seated on the cool breech of a twelve-pounder, and had my easel
before me, and Crows and Blackfeet, and Assinneboins, whom I was
tracing upon the canvass. And so I have been doing to-day, and shall
be for several days to come. My painting-room has become so great a
lounge, and I so great a “medicine-man,” that all other amusements are
left, and all other topics of conversation and gossip are postponed
for future consideration. The chiefs have had to place “soldiers”
(as they are called) at my door, with spears in hand to protect me
from the throng, who otherwise would press upon me; and none but the
worthies are allowed to come into my medicine apartments, and none to
be painted, except such as are decided by the chiefs to be worthy of so
high an honour.
The Crows and Blackfeet who are here together, are enemies of the
most deadly kind while out on the plains; but here they sit and smoke
quietly together, yet with a studied and dignified reserve.
The Blackfeet are, perhaps, one of the most (if not entirely the most)
numerous and warlike tribes on the Continent. They occupy the whole of
the country about the sources of the Missouri, from this place to the
Rocky Mountains; and their numbers, from the best computations, are
something like forty or fifty thousand—they are (like all other tribes
whose numbers are sufficiently large to give them boldness) warlike and
ferocious, _i. e._ they are predatory, are roaming fearlessly about the
country, even into and through every part of the Rocky Mountains, and
carrying war amongst their enemies, who are, of course, every tribe who
inhabit the country about them.
The Crows who live on the head waters of Yellow Stone, and extend from
this neighbourhood also to the base of the Rocky Mountains, are similar
in the above respects to the Blackfeet; roaming about a great part of
the year—and seeking their enemies wherever they can find them.
They are a much smaller tribe than the Blackfeet, with whom they are
always at war, and from whose great numbers they suffer prodigiously
in battle; and probably will be in a few years entirely destroyed by
them.
[Illustration: 20]
The Crows have not, perhaps, more than 7000 in their nation, and
probably not more than eight hundred warriors or fighting men. Amongst
the more powerful tribes, like the Sioux and Blackfeet, who have been
enabled to preserve their warriors, it is a fair calculation to count
one in five as warriors; but among the Crows and Minatarees, and
Puncahs, and several other small but warlike tribes, this proportion
cannot exist; as in some of these I have found two or three women to
a man in the nation; in consequence of the continual losses sustained
amongst their men in war, and also whilst pursuing the buffaloes on the
plains for food, where their lives are exceedingly exposed.
The Blackfeet and the Crows, like the Sioux and Assinneboins, have
nearly the same mode of constructing their wigwam or lodge; in which
tribes it is made of buffalo skins sewed together, after being dressed,
and made into the form of a tent; supported within by some twenty
or thirty pine poles of twenty-five feet in height, with an apex or
aperture at the top, through which the smoke escapes and the light
is admitted. These lodges, or tents, are taken down in a few minutes
by the squaws, when they wish to change their location, and easily
transported to any part of the country where they wish to encamp;
and they generally move some six or eight times in the course of the
summer; following the immense herds of buffaloes, as they range over
these vast plains, from east to west, and north to south. The objects
for which they do this are two-fold,—to procure and dress their skins,
which are brought in, in the fall and winter, and sold to the Fur
Company, for white man’s luxury; and also for the purpose of killing
and drying buffalo meat (+plate+ 22), which they bring in from their
hunts, packed on their horses’ backs, in great quantities; making
pemican, and preserving the marrow-fat for their winter quarters; which
are generally taken up in some heavy-timbered bottom, on the banks of
some stream, deep imbedded within the surrounding bluffs, which break
off the winds, and make their long and tedious winter tolerable and
supportable. They then sometimes erect their skin lodges amongst the
timber, and dwell in them during the winter months; but more frequently
cut logs and make a miserable and rude sort of log cabin, in which they
can live much warmer and better protected from the assaults of their
enemies, in case they are attacked; in which case a log cabin is a
tolerable fort against Indian weapons.
The Crows, of all the tribes in this region, or on the Continent,
make the most beautiful lodge. As I have before mentioned, they
construct them as the Sioux do, and make them of the same material;
yet they oftentimes dress the skins of which they are composed almost
as white as linen, and beautifully garnish them with porcupine
quills, and paint and ornament them in such a variety of ways, as
renders them exceedingly picturesque and agreeable to the eye. I have
procured a very beautiful one of this description (+plate+ 20),
highly-ornamented, and fringed with scalp-locks, and sufficiently large
for forty men to dine under. The poles which support it are about
thirty in number, of pine, and all cut in the Rocky Mountains, having
been some hundred years, perhaps, in use. This tent, when erected, is
about twenty-five feet high, and has a very pleasing effect; with the
Great or Good Spirit painted on one side, and the Evil Spirit on the
other. If I can ever succeed in transporting it to New York and other
eastern cities, it will be looked upon as a beautiful and exceedingly
interesting specimen.
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 unexpected sight, when he first beholds it. Whilst ascending
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 determination to move,
and the hour fixed upon, and the necessary preparations are in the
meantime making; 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 beautiful 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 number, had all been secured upon the spot, in
readiness; and each one was speedily loaded with the burthen allotted
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, leaving 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 sneaking dog-pup in the other.
In this way five or six hundred wigwams, with all their furniture
(+plate+ 21), 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 ’till 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.”
[Illustration: 21]
[Illustration: 22]
The Crows, like the Blackfeet, are beautifully costumed, and perhaps
with somewhat more of taste and elegance; inasmuch as the skins of
which their dresses are made are more delicately and whitely dressed.
The art of dressing skins belongs to the Indians in all countries;
and the Crows surpass the civilized world in the beauty of their
skin-dressing. The art of tanning is unknown to them, so far as
civilized habits and arts have not been taught them; yet the art of
dressing skins, so far as we have it in the civilized world, has been
(like hundreds of other ornamental and useful customs which we are
practising), borrowed from the savage; without our ever stopping to
enquire from whence they come, or by whom invented.
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 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 afterwards, which gives them a greater value, and renders
them much more serviceable—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 stuck in the
ground around it, and drawn and fastened together at the top, around
which a skin is wrapped in 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
or other, which I do not understand, the skins thus acquire a quality
which enables them, after being ever so many times wet, to dry soft
and pliant as they were before, which secret I have never yet seen
practiced in my own country; and for the lack of which, all of our
dressed skins when once wet, are, I think, chiefly ruined.
An Indian’s dress of deer skins, 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 as clean
as when it was first put up.
A Crow is known wherever he is met by his beautiful white dress, and
his tall and elegant figure; the greater part of the men being six
feet high. The Blackfeet on the other hand, are more of the Herculean
make—about middling stature, with broad shoulders, and great expansion
of chest; and the skins of which their dresses are made, are chiefly
dressed black, or of a dark brown colour; from which circumstance, in
all probability, they having black leggings or moccasins, have got the
name of Blackfeet.
The Crows are very handsome and gentlemanly Indians in their personal
appearance: and have been always reputed, since the first acquaintance
made with them, very civil and friendly.
These people to be sure, have in some instances plundered and robbed
trappers and travellers in their country; and for that I have sometimes
heard them called rascals and thieves, and rogues of the first order,
&c.; yet they do not consider themselves such; for thieving in their
estimation is a high crime, and considered the most disgraceful act
that a man can possibly do. They call this _capturing_, where they
sometimes run off a Trader’s horses, and make their boast of it;
considering it a kind of retaliation or summary justice, which they
think it right and honourable that they should administer. And why
not? for the unlicensed trespass committed through their country from
one end to the other, by mercenary white men, who are destroying the
game, and catching all the beaver and other rich and valuable furs
out of their country, without paying them an equivalent, or, in fact,
anything at all, for it; and this too, when they have been warned time
and again of the danger they would be in, if they longer persisted in
the practice. Reader, I look upon the Indian as the most honest and
honourable race of people that I ever lived amongst in my life; and in
their native state, I pledge you my honour they are the last of all
the human family to pilfer or to steal, if you trust to their honour;
and for this never-ending and boundless system of theft and plunder,
and debauchery, that is practiced off upon these rightful owners of
the soil, by acquisitive white men, I consider the infliction, or
retaliation, by driving off and appropriating a few horses, but a
lenient punishment, which those persons at least should expect; and
which, in fact, none but a very honourable and high-minded people
could inflict, instead of a much severer one; which they could easily
practice upon the few white men in their country, without rendering
themselves amenable to any law.
Mr. M‘Kenzie has repeatedly told me, within the four last weeks, while
in conversation relative to the Crows, that they were friendly and
honourable in their dealing with the whites, and that he considered
them the finest Indians of his acquaintance.
I recollect whilst in St. Louis, and other places at the East, to have
heard it often said, that the Crows were a rascally and thieving set of
vagabonds, highway robbers, &c. &c.; and I have been told since, that
this information has become current in the world, from the fact that
they made some depredations upon the camp of Messrs. Crooks and Hunt of
the Fur Company; and drove off a number of their horses, when they were
passing through the Crow country, on their way to Astoria. This was no
doubt true; and equally true, would these very Indians tell us, was the
fact, that they had a good and sufficient reason for it.
These gentlemen, with their party, were crossing the Crow country
with a large stock of goods, of guns, and ammunition, of knives, and
spears, arrowheads, &c.; and stopped for some time and encamped in the
midst of the Crow country (and I think wintered there), when the Crows
assembled in large numbers about them, and treated them in a kind and
friendly manner; and at the same time proposed to trade with them for
guns and ammunition, &c. (according to these gentlemen’s own account,)
of which they were in great want, and for which they brought a great
many horses, and offered them repeatedly in trade; which they refused
to take, persisting in their determination of carrying their goods
to their destined place, across the mountains; thereby disappointing
these Indians, by denying them the arms and weapons which were in
their possession, whilst they were living upon them, and exhausting
the game and food of their country. No doubt, these gentlemen told the
Crows, that these goods were going to Astoria, of which place they knew
nothing; and of course, it was enough for them that they were going to
take them farther west; which they would at once suppose was to the
Blackfeet, their principal enemy, having eight or ten warriors to one
of the Crows; where they supposed the white men could get a greater
price for their weapons, and arm their enemies in such a way as would
enable them to turn upon the Crows, and cut them to pieces without
mercy. Under these circumstances, the Crows rode off, and to show their
indignation, drove off some of the Company’s horses, for which they
have ever since been denominated a band of thieves and highway robbers.
It is a custom, and a part of the system of jurisprudence amongst all
savages, to revenge upon the person or persons who give the offence,
if they can; and if not, to let that punishment fall upon the head of
the first white man who comes in their way, provided the offender was a
white man. And I would not be surprised, therefore, if I get robbed of
my horse; and you too, readers, if you go into that country, for that
very (supposed) offence.
I have conversed often and much with Messrs. Sublette and Campbell,
two gentlemen of the highest respectability, who have traded with the
Crows for several years, and they tell me they are one of the most
honourable, honest, and high-minded races of people on earth; and with
Mr. Tullock, also, a man of the strictest veracity, who is now here
with a party of them; and, he says, they never steal,—have a high
sense of honour,—and being fearless and proud, are quick to punish or
retaliate.
So much for the character of the Crows for the present, a subject which
I shall assuredly take up again, when I shall have seen more of them
myself.
LETTER—No. 8.