The Mandans in many instances dress very neatly, and some of them
splendidly. As they are in their native state, their dresses are all
of their own manufacture; and of course, altogether made of skins of
different animals belonging to those regions. There is, certainly,
a reigning and striking similarity of costume amongst most of the
North Western tribes; and I cannot say that the dress of the Mandans
is decidedly distinct from that of the Crows or the Blackfeet, the
Assinneboins or the Sioux; yet there are modes of stitching or
embroidering, in every tribe, which may at once enable the traveller,
who is familiar with their modes, to detect or distinguish the dress
of any tribe. These differences consist generally in the fashions of
constructing the head-dress, or of garnishing their dresses with the
porcupine quills, which they use in great profusion.
Amongst so many different and distinct nations, always at war with
each other, and knowing nothing at all of each other’s languages; and
amongst whom, fashions in dress seldom if ever change; it may seem
somewhat strange that we should find these people so nearly following,
or imitating each other, in the forms and modes of their dress and
ornaments. This must however, be admitted, and I think may be accounted
for in a manner, without raising the least argument in favour of the
theory of their having all sprung from one stock or one family; for in
their continual warfare, when chiefs or warriors fall, their clothes
and weapons usually fall into the possession of the victors, who wear
them; and the rest of the tribe would naturally more or less often
copy from or imitate them; and so also in their repeated councils or
treaties of peace, such articles of dress and other manufactures are
customarily exchanged, which are equally adopted by the other tribe;
and consequently, eventually lead to the similarity which we find
amongst the modes of dress, &c. of the different tribes.
The tunic or shirt of the Mandan men is very similar in shape to that
of the Blackfeet—made of two skins of deer or mountain-sheep, strung
with scalp-locks, beads, and ermine. The leggings, like those of the
other tribes, of whom I have spoken, are made of deer skins, and shaped
to fit the leg, embroidered with porcupine quills, and fringed with
scalps from their enemies heads. Their moccasins are made of buckskin,
and neatly ornamented with porcupine quills—over their shoulders (or
in other words, over one shoulder and passing under the other), they
very gracefully wear a robe from the young buffalo’s back, oftentimes
cut down to about half its original size, to make it handy and easy
for use. Many of these are also fringed on one side with scalp-locks;
and the flesh side of the skin curiously ornamented with pictured
representations of the creditable events and battles of their lives.
Their head-dresses are of various sorts, and many of them exceedingly
picturesque and handsome; generally made of war-eagles’ or ravens
quills and ermine. These are the most costly part of an Indian’s dress
in all this country, owing to the difficulty of procuring the quills
and the fur. The war-eagle being the “_rara avis_,” and the ermine the
rarest animal that is found in the country. The tail of a war-eagle
in this village, provided it is a perfect one, containing some six or
eight quills, which are denominated first-rate plumes, and suitable to
arrange in a head-dress, will purchase a tolerable good horse (horses,
however, are much cheaper here than they are in most other countries).
I have had abundant opportunities of learning the great value which
these people sometimes attach to such articles of dress and ornament,
as I have been purchasing a great many, which I intend to exhibit in
my Gallery of Indian Paintings, that the world may examine them for
themselves, and thereby be enabled to judge of the fidelity of my
works, and the ingenuity of Indian manufactures.
In these purchases I have often been surprised at the prices demanded
by them; and perhaps I could not recite a better instance of the kind,
than one which occurred here a few days since:—One of the chiefs, whom
I had painted at full length, in a beautiful costume, with head-dress
of war-eagles’ quills and ermine, extending quite down to his feet;
and whom I was soliciting for the purchase of his dress complete, was
willing to sell to me all but the head-dress; saying, that “he could
not part with that, as he would never be able to get quills and ermine
of so good a quality to make another like it.” I agreed with him,
however, for the rest of the dress, and importuned him, from day to
day, for the head-dress, until he at length replied, that, if I must
have it, he must have two horses for it; the bargain was instantly
struck—the horses were procured of the Traders at twenty-five dollars
each, and the head-dress secured for my Collection.
There is occasionally, a chief or a warrior of so extraordinary renown,
that he is allowed to wear horns on his head-dress, which give to his
aspect a strange and majestic effect. These are made of about a third
part of the horn of a buffalo bull; the horn having been split from end
to end, and a third part of it taken and shaved thin and light, and
highly polished. These are attached to the top of the head-dress on
each side, in the same place that they rise and stand on the head of
a buffalo; rising out of a mat of ermine skins and tails, which hang
over the top of the head-dress, somewhat in the form that the large and
profuse locks of hair hang and fall over the head of a buffalo bull.
See head-dress in +plates+ 14, 64, and 91, of three different tribes.
The same custom I have found observed amongst the Sioux,—the Crows—the
Blackfeet and Assinneboins, and it is one of so striking a character
as needs a few more words of observation. There is a peculiar meaning
or importance (in their estimation) to this and many other curious and
unaccountable appearances in the habits of Indians, upon which the
world generally look as things that are absurd and ridiculous, merely
because they are beyond the world’s comprehension, or because we do not
stop to enquire or learn their uses or meaning.
I find that the principal cause why we underrate and despise the
savage, is generally because we do not understand him; and the reason
why we are ignorant of him and his modes, is that we do not stop to
investigate—the world have been too much in the habit of looking
upon him as altogether inferior—as a beast, a brute; and unworthy
of more than a passing notice. If they stop long enough to form
an acquaintance, it is but to take advantage of his ignorance and
credulities—to rob him of the wealth and resources of his country;—to
make him drunk with whiskey, and visit him with abuses which in his
ignorance he never thought of. By this method his first visitors
entirely overlook and never understand the meaning of his thousand
interesting and characteristic customs; and at the same time, by
changing his native modes and habits of life, blot them out from the
view of the enquiring world for ever.
It is from the observance of a thousand little and apparently trivial
modes and tricks of Indian life, that the Indian character must be
learned; and, in fact, it is just the same with us if the subject were
reversed: excepting that the system of civilized life would furnish
ten apparently useless and ridiculous trifles to one which is found in
Indian life; and at least twenty to one which are purely nonsensical
and unmeaning.
The civilized world look upon a group of Indians, in their classic
dress, with their few and simple oddities, all of which have their
moral or meaning, and laugh at them excessively, because they are not
like ourselves—we ask, “why do the silly creatures wear such great
bunches of quills on their heads?—Such loads and streaks of paint upon
their bodies—and bear’s grease? abominable!” and a thousand other
equally silly questions, without ever stopping to think that Nature
taught them to do so—and that they all have some definite importance
or meaning which an Indian could explain to us at once, if he were
asked and felt disposed to do so—that each quill in his head stood,
in the eyes of his whole tribe, as the symbol of an enemy who had
fallen by his hand—that every streak of red paint covered a wound
which he had got in honourable combat—and that the bear’s grease with
which he carefully anoints his body every morning, from head to foot,
cleanses and purifies the body, and protects his skin from the bite of
mosquitoes, and at the same time preserves him from colds and coughs
which are usually taken through the pores of the skin.
At the same time, an Indian looks among the civilized world, no doubt,
with equal, if not much greater, astonishment, at our apparently, as
well as _really_, ridiculous customs and fashions; but he laughs not,
nor ridicules, nor questions,—for his natural good sense and good
manners forbid him,—until he is reclining about the fire-side of his
wigwam companions, when he vents forth his just criticisms upon the
learned world, who are a rich and just theme for Indian criticism and
Indian gossip.
An Indian will not ask a white man the reason why he does not oil his
skin with bears’ grease, or why he does not paint his body—or why he
wears a hat on his head, or why he has buttons on the back part of
his coat, where they never can be used—or why he wears whiskers, and
a shirt collar up to his eyes—or why he sleeps with his head towards
the fire instead of his feet—why he walks with his toes out instead of
turning them in—or why it is that hundreds of white folks will flock
and crowd round a table to see an Indian eat—but he will go home to his
wigwam fire-side, and “make the welkin ring” with jokes and fun upon
the ignorance and folly of the knowing world.
A wild Indian thrown into the civilized atmosphere will see a man
occasionally moving in society, wearing a cocked hat; and another with
a laced coat and gold or silver epaulettes upon his shoulders, without
knowing or enquiring the meaning of them, or the objects for which they
are worn. Just so a white man travels amongst a wild and untaught tribe
of Indians, and sees occasionally one of them parading about their
village, with a head-dress of eagles’ quills and ermine, and elevated
above it a pair of beautifully polished buffalo horns; and just as
ignorant is he also, of their meaning or importance; and more so, for
the first will admit the presumption that epaulettes and cocked hats
amongst the civilized world, are made for some important purpose,—but
the latter will presume that horns on an Indian’s head are nothing more
nor less (nor can they be in their estimation), than Indian nonsense
and stupidity.
This brings us to the “corned crest” again, and if the poor Indian
scans epaulettes and cocked hats, without enquiring their meaning,
and explaining them to his tribe, it is no reason why I should have
associated with the noble dignitaries of these western regions, with
horns and ermine on their heads, and then to have introduced the
subject without giving some further clue to their importance and
meaning. For me, this negligence would be doubly unpardonable, as I
travel, not to _trade_ but to _herald_ the Indian and his dying customs
to posterity.
This custom then, which I have before observed belongs to all the
north-western tribes, is one no doubt of very ancient origin, having
a purely classic meaning. No one wears the head-dress surmounted with
horns except the dignitaries who are very high in authority, and whose
exceeding valour, worth, and power is admitted by all the nation.
He may wear them, however, who is not a _chief_; but a brave, or
warrior of such remarkable character, that he is esteemed universally
in the tribe, as a man whose “voice is as loud in council” as that of a
chief of the first grade, and consequently his _power_ as great.
This head-dress with horns is used only on certain occasions, and they
are very seldom. When foreign chiefs, Indian agents, or other important
personages visit a tribe; or at war parades, at the celebration of
a victory, at public festivals, &c. they are worn; but on no other
occasions—unless, sometimes, when a chief sees fit to lead a war-party
to battle, he decorates his head with this symbol of power, to
stimulate his men; and throws himself into the foremost of the battle,
inviting his enemy to concentrate their shafts upon him.
The horns on these head-dresses are but loosely attached at the bottom,
so that they easily fall back or forward, according as the head is
inclined forward or backward; and by an ingenious motion of the head,
which is so slight as to be almost imperceptible—they are made to
balance to and fro, and sometimes, one backward and the other forward
like a horse’s ears, giving a vast deal of expression and force of
character, to the appearance of the chief who is wearing them. This,
reader, is a remarkable instance (like hundreds of others), for its
striking similarity to _Jewish customs_, to the kerns (or keren, in
Hebrew), the horns worn by the Abysinian chiefs and Hebrews, as a
_symbol of power_ and command; worn at great parades and celebrations
of victories.
“The false prophet Zedekiah, made him horns of iron” (1 Kings xxii.
11). “Lift not your horns on high; speak not with a stiff neck” (Ps.
lxxv. 5).
This last citation seems so exactly to convey to my mind the mode of
raising and changing the position of the horns by a motion of the head,
as I have above described, that I am irresistibly led to believe that
this custom is now practiced amongst these tribes very nearly as it
was amongst the Jews; and that it has been, like many other customs of
which I shall speak more in future epistles, handed down and preserved
with very little innovation or change from that ancient people.
The reader will see this custom exemplified in the portrait of
Mah-to-toh-pa (+plate+ 64). This man, although the second chief, was
the only man in the nation who was allowed to wear the horns; and
all, I found, looked upon him as the leader, who had the power to
lead all the warriors in time of war; and that, in consequence of the
extraordinary battles which he had fought.
LETTER—No. 15.