Epistles from such a strange place as this, where I have no desk to
write from, or mail to send them by, are hastily scribbled off in my
note-book, as I can steal a little time from the gaze of the wild group
that is continually about me; and instead of _sending_ them, _keeping_
them to bring with me when I make my retreat from the country.
The only place where I can satisfactorily make these entries is in
the shade of some sequestered tree, to which I occasionally resort,
or more often from my bed (from which I am now writing), enclosed by
a sort of curtains made of the skins of elks or buffaloes, completely
encompassing me, where I am reclining on a sacking-bottom, made of the
buffalo’s hide; making my entries and notes of the incidents of the
past day, amidst the roar and unintelligible din of savage conviviality
that is going on under the same roof, and under my own eye, whenever I
feel disposed to apply it to a small aperture which brings at once the
whole interior and all its inmates within my view.
There are at this time some distinguished guests, besides _myself_, in
the lodge of the Black Moccasin; two chiefs or leaders of a party of
Crows, who arrived here a few days since, on a visit to their ancient
friends and relatives. The consequence has been, that feasting and
carousing have been the “order of the day” here for some time; and I
have luckily been a welcome participator in their entertainments. A
distinguished chief of the Minatarees, with several others in company,
has been for some months past on a visit to the Crows and returned,
attended by some remarkably fine-looking fellows, all mounted on fine
horses. I have said something of these fine specimens of the human race
heretofore; and as I have been fastening more of them to the canvass
within the few days past, I must use this occasion to add what follows:—
I think I have said that no part of the human race could present a
more picturesque and thrilling appearance on horseback than a party
of Crows rigged out in all their plumes and trappings—galloping about
and yelping, in what they call a war-parade, _i. e._ in a sort of
tournament or sham-fight, passing rapidly through the evolutions of
battle, and vaunting forth the wonderful character of their military
exploits. This is an amusement, of which they are excessively fond; and
great preparations are invariably made for these occasional shows.
No tribe of Indians on the Continent are better able to produce a
pleasing and thrilling effect in these scenes, nor any more vain,
and consequently better prepared to draw pleasure and satisfaction
from them, than the Crows. They may be justly said to be the most
beautifully clad of all the Indians in these regions, and bringing
from the base of the Rocky Mountains a fine and spirited breed of the
wild horses, have been able to create a great sensation amongst the
Minatarees, who have been paying them all attention and all honours for
some days past.
From amongst these showy fellows who have been entertaining us and
pleasing themselves with their extraordinary feats of horsemanship,
I have selected one of the most conspicuous, and transferred him and
his horse, with arms and trappings, as faithfully as I could to the
canvass, for the information of the world, who will learn vastly
more from lines and colours than they could from oral or written
delineations.
I have painted him as he sat for me, balanced on his leaping wild horse
(+plate+ 76) with his shield and quiver slung on his back, and his long
lance decorated with the eagle’s quills, trailed in his right hand.
His shirt and his leggings, and moccasins, were of the mountain-goat
skins, beautifully dressed; and their seams everywhere fringed with a
profusion of scalp-locks taken from the heads of his enemies slain in
battle. His long hair, which reached almost to the ground whilst he was
standing on his feet, was now lifted in the air, and floating in black
waves over the hips of his leaping charger. On his head, and over his
shining black locks, he wore a magnificent crest or head-dress, made of
the quills of the war-eagle and ermine skins; and on his horse’s head
also was another of equal beauty and precisely the same in pattern and
material. Added to these ornaments there were yet many others which
contributed to his picturesque appearance, and amongst them a beautiful
netting of various colours, that completely covered and almost obscured
the horse’s head and neck, and extended over its back and its hips,
terminating in a most extravagant and magnificent crupper, embossed and
fringed with rows of beautiful shells and porcupine quills of various
colours.
With all these picturesque ornaments and trappings upon and about
him, with a noble figure, and the bold stamp of a wild _gentleman_
on his face, added to the rage and spirit of his wild horse, in time
with whose leaps he issued his startling (though smothered) yelps, as
he gracefully leaned to and fro, leaving his plumes and his plumage,
his long locks and his fringes, to float in the wind, he galloped
about; and felt exceeding pleasure in displaying the extraordinary
skill which a lifetime of practice and experiment had furnished him
in the beautiful art of riding and managing his horse, as well as in
displaying to advantage his weapons and ornaments of dress, by giving
them the grace of motion, as they were brandished in the air and
floating in the wind.
[Illustration: 77]
[Illustration: 78]
[Illustration: 79]
I have also secured the portraits of Ee-he-a-duck-chee-a (he who ties
his hair before, +plate+ 78), and Pa-ris-ka-roo-pa (the two Crows,
+plate+ 77); fine and fair specimens of this tribe, in both of which
are exhibited the extraordinary instances of the natural hair reaching
to the ground, peculiarities belonging almost exclusively to this
tribe, and of which I have in a former Letter given some account. In
presenting such instances as these, I offer them, (and the reader will
take them of course) as extraordinary and rare occurrences amongst
the tribe, who generally fall short of these in this peculiarity, and
also in elegance of dress and ornament; although many others from
their numbers might be selected of equal extravagance. The Crows are
generally handsome, and comfortably clad; every man in the nation oils
his hair with a profusion of bear’s grease, and promotes its growth to
the utmost of his ability; and the greater part of them cultivate it
down on to the calf of the leg, whilst a few are able to make it sweep
the ground.
In a former Letter I gave some account of the form of the head peculiar
to this tribe which may well be recorded as a national characteristic,
and worthy of further attention, which I shall give it on a future
occasion. This striking peculiarity is quite conspicuous in the two
portraits of which I have just spoken, exhibiting fairly, as they
are both in profile, the _semi-lunar_ outline of the face of which I
have before spoken, and which strongly characterizes them as distinct
from any relationship or resemblance to, the Blackfeet, Shiennes,
Knisteneaux, Mandans, or other tribes now existing in these regions.
The peculiar character of which I am speaking, like all other national
characteristics, is of course met by many exceptions in the tribe,
though the greater part of the men are thus strongly marked with
a bold and prominent anti-angular nose, with a clear and rounded
arch, and a low and receding forehead; the frontal bone oftentimes
appearing to have been compressed by some effort of art, in a certain
degree approaching to the horrid distortion thus produced amongst the
Flatheads beyond the Rocky Mountains. I learned however from repeated
inquiries, that no such custom is practiced amongst them, but their
heads, such as they are, are the results of a natural growth, and
therefore may well be offered as the basis of a national or tribal
_character_.
I recollect to have seen in several publications on the antiquities of
Mexico, many rude drawings made by the ancient Mexicans, of which the
singular profiles of these people forcibly remind me, almost bringing
me to the conclusion that these people may be the descendants of the
race who have bequeathed those curious and inexplicable remains to the
world, and whose scattered remnants, from dire and unknown necessities
of those dark and veiled ages that have gone by, have been jostled and
thrown along through the hideous and almost impenetrable labyrinths
of the Rocky Mountains to the place of their destination where they
now live. I am stopped, however, from advancing such as a _theory_,
and much prefer to leave it to other hands, who may more easily get
over difficulties which I should be afraid to encounter in the very
outset, from the very important questions raised in my mind, as to the
correctness of those rude and ignorant outlines, in truly establishing
the looks and character of a people. Amongst a people so ignorant and
so little advanced in the arts as the ancient Mexicans were, from whose
tracings those very numerous drawings are copied, I think it would be
assuming a great deal too much for satisfactory argument, to claim
that such records were to set up to the world the looks and character
of a people who have sunk into oblivion, when the heads of horses and
other animals, drawn by the same hands, are so rude and so much out of
drawing as scarcely to be distinguished, one from the other. I feel
as if such rude outlines should be received with great caution and
distrust, in establishing the character of a people; and for a fair
illustration of the objection I am raising, I would refer the reader to
a number of _fac-simile_ drawings which I have copied from some of the
paintings of the Mandans (on the three plates following +plate+ 65),
where most of the figures have the forehead and nose answering exactly
to these Mexican outlines, and strikingly resembling the _living
Crows_, also, when they have certainly borrowed nothing from either,
nor have they any living outlines like them in their own tribe to have
copied from.
Since writing the above I have passed through many vicissitudes, and
witnessed many curious scenes worthy of relating, some of which I will
scribble now, and leave the rest for a more leisure occasion. I have
witnessed many of the valued games and amusements of this tribe, and
made sketches of them; and also have painted a number of portraits of
distinguished warriors and braves which will be found in my collection.
I have just been exceedingly amused with a formal and grave meeting
which was called around me, formed by a number of young men, and even
chiefs and doctors of the tribe, who, having heard that I was _great
medicine_, and a great chief, took it upon themselves to suppose that
I might (or perhaps must) be, a man of influence amongst the “pale
faces,” and capable of rendering them some relief in a case of very
great grievance, under which they represented that they were suffering.
Several most profound speeches were made to me, setting forth these
grievances, somewhat in the following manner:—They represented, that
about five or six years ago, an unknown, small animal—not far differing
in size from a ground squirrel, but with a long, round tail, shewed
himself slily about one of the chief’s wigwams, peeping out from under
the pots and kettles, and other such things; which they looked upon
as great _medicine_—and no one dared to kill it; but hundreds came to
watch and look at it. On one of these occasions, one of the spectators
saw this strange animal catching and devouring a small “deer mouse,”
of which little and very destructive animals their lodges contained
many. It was then at once determined that this had been an act of the
Great Spirit, as a means of putting a stop to the spoliations committed
by these little sappers, who were cutting their clothing, and other
manufactures to pieces in a lamentable manner. Councils had been called
and solemn decrees issued for the countenance and protection of this
welcome visitor and its progeny, which were soon ascertained to be
rapidly increasing, and calculated soon to rid them of these thousands
of little depredators. It was soon, however, learned from one of the
Fur Traders, that this distinguished object of their superstition
(which my man Ba’tiste familiarly calls “_Monsr. Ratapon_”) had, a
short time before, landed himself from one of their keel boats, which
had ascended the Missouri river for the distance of 1800 miles; and had
taken up its residence, without introduction or invitation, in one of
their earth-covered wigwams.
This information, for a while, curtailed the extraordinary respect they
had for some time been paying to it; but its continual war upon these
little mice, which it was using for its food, in the absence of all
other nutriment, continued to command their respect, in spite of the
manner in which it had been introduced; being unwilling to believe that
it had come from that source, even, without the agency in some way of
the Great Spirit.
Having been thus introduced and nurtured, and their numbers having been
so wonderfully increased in the few last years, that every wigwam was
infested with them,—that their _caches_, where they bury their corn
and other provisions, were robbed and sacked; and the very pavements
under their wigwams were so vaulted and sapped, that they were actually
falling to the ground; they were now looked upon as a most disastrous
nuisance, and a public calamity, to which it was the object of this
meeting to call my attention, evidently in hopes that I might be able
to designate some successful mode of relieving them from this real
misfortune. I got rid of them at last, by assuring them of my deep
regret for their situation, which was, to be sure, a very unpleasant
one; and told them, that there was really a great deal of _medicine_
in the thing, and that I should therefore be quite unwilling to have
anything to do with it. Ba’tiste and Bogard, who are yet my daily and
almost hourly companions, took to themselves a great deal of fun and
amusement at the end of this interview, by suggesting many remedies
for the evil, and enjoying many hearty laughs; after which, Ba’tiste,
Bogard and I, took our hats; and I took my sketch-book in hand, and
we started on a visit to the upper town of the Minatarees, which is
half a mile or more distant, and on the other bank of the Knife River,
which we crossed in the following manner:—The old chief, having learned
that we were to cross the river, gave direction to one of the women
of his numerous household, who took upon her head a skin-canoe (more
familiarly called in this country, a bull-boat), made in the form of a
large tub, of a buffalo’s skin, stretched on a frame of willow boughs,
which she carried to the water’s edge; and placing it in the water,
made signs for us three to get into it. When we were in, and seated
flat on its bottom, with scarce room in any way to adjust our legs
and our feet (as we sat necessarily facing each other), she stepped
before the boat, and pulling it along, waded towards the deeper water,
with her back towards us, carefully with the other hand attending to
her dress, which seemed to be but a light slip, and floating upon the
surface until the water was above her waist, when it was instantly
turned off, over her head, and thrown ashore; and she boldly plunged
forward, swimming and drawing the boat with one hand, which she did
with apparent ease. In this manner we were conveyed to the middle of
the stream, where we were soon surrounded by a dozen or more beautiful
girls, from twelve to fifteen and eighteen years of age, who were at
that time bathing on the opposite shore.
They all swam in a bold and graceful manner, and as confidently as so
many otters or beavers; and gathering around us, with their long black
hair floating about on the water, whilst their faces were glowing with
jokes and fun, which they were cracking about us, and which we could
not understand.
In the midst of this delightful little aquatic group, we three sat in
our little skin-bound tub (like the “three wise men of Gotham, who
went to sea in a bowl,” &c.), floating along down the current, losing
sight, and all thoughts, of the shore, which was equi-distant from us
on either side; whilst we were amusing ourselves with the playfulness
of these dear little creatures who were floating about under the
clear blue water, catching their hands on to the sides of our boat;
occasionally raising one-half of their bodies out of the water, and
sinking again, like so many mermaids.
In the midst of this bewildering and tantalizing entertainment, in
which poor Ba’tiste and Bogard, as well as myself, were all taking
infinite pleasure, and which we supposed was all intended for our
especial amusement; we found ourselves suddenly in the delightful
dilemma of floating down the current in the middle of the river; and
of being turned round and round to the excessive amusement of the
villagers, who were laughing at us from the shore, as well as these
little tyros, whose delicate hands were besetting our tub on all
sides; and for an escape from whom, or for fending off, we had neither
an oar, or anything else, that we could wield in self-defence, or
for self-preservation. In this awkward predicament, our feelings of
excessive admiration were immediately changed, to those of exceeding
vexation, as we now learned that they had peremptorily discharged
from her occupation our fair conductress, who had undertaken to ferry
us safely across the river; and had also very ingeniously laid their
plans, of which we had been ignorant until the present moment, to
extort from us in this way, some little evidences of our liberality,
which, in fact, it was impossible to refuse them, after so liberal and
bewitching an exhibition on their part, as well as from the imperative
obligation which the awkwardness of our situation had laid us under. I
had some awls in my pockets, which I presented to them, and also a few
strings of beautiful beads, which I placed over their delicate necks
as they raised them out of the water by the side of our boat; after
which they all joined in conducting our craft to the shore, by swimming
by the sides of, and behind it, pushing it along in the direction where
they designed to land it, until the water became so shallow, that their
feet were upon the bottom, when they waded along with great coyness,
dragging us towards the shore, as long as their bodies, in a crouching
position, could possibly be half concealed under the water, when they
gave our boat the last push for the shore, and raising a loud and
exulting laugh, plunged back again into the river; leaving us the only
alternative of sitting still where we were, or of stepping out into
the water at half leg deep, and of wading to the shore, which we at
once did, and soon escaped from the view of our little tormentors, and
the numerous lookers-on, on our way to the upper village, which I have
before mentioned.
Here I was very politely treated by the _Yellow Moccasin_, quite an old
man, and who seemed to be chief of this band or family, constituting
their little community of thirty or forty lodges, averaging, perhaps,
twenty persons to each. I was feasted in this man’s lodge—and
afterwards invited to accompany him and several others to a beautiful
prairie, a mile or so above the village, where the young men and young
women of this town, and many from the village below, had assembled for
their amusements; the chief of which seemed to be that of racing their
horses. In the midst of these scenes, after I had been for some time
a looker-on, and had felt some considerable degree of sympathy for a
fine-looking young fellow, whose horse had been twice beaten on the
course, and whose losses had been considerable; for which, his sister,
a very modest and pretty girl, was most piteously howling and crying.
I selected and brought forward an ordinary-looking pony, that was
evidently too fat and too sleek to run against his fine-limbed little
horse that had disappointed his high hopes; and I began to comment
extravagantly upon its muscle, &c., when I discovered him evidently
cheering up with the hope of getting me and my pony on to the turf with
him; for which he soon made me a proposition; and I, having lauded the
limbs of my little nag too much to “back out,” agreed to run a short
race with him of half a mile, for three yards of scarlet cloth, a
knife, and half a dozen strings of beads, which I was willing to stake
against a handsome pair of leggings, which he was wearing at the time.
The greatest imaginable excitement was now raised amongst the crowd by
this arrangement; to see a white man preparing to run with an Indian
jockey, and that with a scrub of a pony, in whose powers of running no
Indian had the least confidence. Yet, there was no one in the crowd,
who dared to take up the several other little bets I was willing to
tender (merely for their amusement, and for their final exultation);
owing, undoubtedly, to the bold and confident manner in which I had
ventured on the merits of this little horse, which the tribe had all
overlooked; and needs must have some _medicine_ about it.
So far was this panic carried, that even my champion was ready to
withdraw; but his friends encouraged him at length, and we galloped
our horses off to the other end of the course, where we were to start;
and where we were accompanied by a number of horsemen, who were to
witness the “set off.” Some considerable delay here took place, from a
_condition_, which was then named to me, and which I had not observed
before, that in all the races of this day, every rider was to run
entirely denuded, and ride a naked horse! Here I was completely balked,
and having no one by me to interpret a word, I was quite at a loss to
decide what was best to do. I found however, that remonstrance was of
little avail; and as I had volunteered in this thing to gratify and
flatter them, I thought it best not positively to displease them in
this; so I laid off my clothes, and straddled the naked back of my
round and glossy little pony, by the side of my competitor, who was
also mounted and stripped to the skin, and panting with a restless
anxiety for the start.
Reader! did you ever imagine that in the _middle of a man’s life_
there could be a thought or a feeling so _new_ to him, as to throw him
instantly back to infancy; with a new world and a new genius before
him—started afresh, to navigate and breathe the elements of naked and
untasted liberty, which clothe him in their cool and silken robes that
float about him; and wafting their life-inspiring folds to his inmost
lungs? If you never have been inspired with such a feeling, and have
been in the habit of believing that you have thought of, and imagined a
little of every thing, try for a moment, to disrobe your mind and your
body, and help me through feelings to which I cannot give utterance.
Imagine yourselves as I was, with my trembling little horse underneath
me, and the cool atmosphere that was floating about, and ready, more
closely and familiarly to embrace me, as it did, at the next moment,
when we “were off,” and struggling for the goal and the prize.
Though my little Pegasus seemed to dart through the clouds, and I to
be wafted on the wings of Mercury, yet my red adversary was leaving
me too far behind for further competition; and I wheeled to the left,
making a circuit on the prairie, and came in at the starting point,
much to the satisfaction and exultation of the jockeys; but greatly
to the murmuring disappointment of the women and children, who had
assembled in a dense throng to witness the “coming out” of the “white
medicine-man.” I clothed myself instantly, and came back, acknowledging
my defeat, and the superior skill of my competitor, as well as the
wonderful muscle of his little charger, which pleased him much; and
his sisters’ lamentations were soon turned to joy, by the receipt of a
beautiful scarlet robe, and a profusion of vari-coloured beads, which
were speedily paraded on her copper-coloured neck.
After I had seen enough of these amusements, I succeeded with some
difficulty, in pulling Ba’tiste and Bogard from amongst the groups of
women and girls, where they seemed to be successfully ingratiating
themselves; and we trudged back to the little village of earth-covered
lodges, which were hemmed in, and almost obscured from the eye, by
the fields of corn and luxuriant growth of wild sun-flowers, and other
vegetable productions of the soil, whose spontaneous growth had reared
their heads in such profusion, as to appear all but like a dense and
formidable forest.
We loitered about this little village awhile, looking into most of its
lodges, and tracing its winding avenues, after which we recrossed the
river and wended our way back again to head-quarters, from whence we
started in the morning, and where I am now writing. This day’s ramble
shewed to us all the inhabitants of this little tribe, except a portion
of their warriors who are out on a war excursion against the Riccarees;
and I have been exceedingly pleased with their general behaviour and
looks, as well as with their numerous games and amusements, in many of
which I have given them great pleasure by taking a part.
The Minatarees, as I have before said, are a bold, daring, and warlike
tribe; quite different in these respects from their neighbours the
Mandans, carrying war continually in their enemies’ country, thereby
exposing their lives and diminishing the number of their warriors
to that degree that I find two or three women to a man, through the
tribe. They are bold and fearless in the chase also, and in their eager
pursuits of the bison, or buffaloes, their feats are such as to excite
the astonishment and admiration of all who behold them. Of these scenes
I have witnessed many since I came into this country, and amongst
them all, nothing have I seen to compare with one to which I was an
eye-witness a few mornings since, and well worthy of being described.
The Minatarees, as well as the Mandans, had suffered for some months
past for want of meat, and had indulged in the most alarming fears,
that the herds of buffaloes were emigrating so far off from them,
that there was great danger of their actual starvation, when it was
suddenly announced through the village one morning at an early hour,
that a herd of buffaloes was in sight, when an hundred or more young
men mounted their horses with weapons in hand and steered their course
to the prairies. The chief informed me that one of his horses was in
readiness for me at the door of his wigwam, and that I had better go
and see the curious affair. I accepted his polite offer, and mounting
the steed, galloped off with the hunters to the prairies, where we
soon descried at a distance, a fine herd of buffaloes grazing, when
a halt and a council were ordered, and the mode of attack was agreed
upon. I had armed myself with my pencil and my sketch-book only, and
consequently took my position generally in the rear, where I could see
and appreciate every manœuvre.
The plan of attack, which in this country is familiarly called a
“_surround_,” was explicitly agreed upon, and the hunters who were all
mounted on their “buffalo horses” and armed with bows and arrows or
long lances, divided into two columns, taking opposite directions, and
drew themselves gradually around the herd at a mile or more distance
from them; thus forming a circle of horsemen at equal distances
apart, who gradually closed in upon them with a moderate pace, at a
signal given. The unsuspecting herd at length “got the wind” of the
approaching enemy and fled in a mass in the greatest confusion. To
the point where they were aiming to cross the line, the horsemen were
seen at full speed, gathering and forming in a column, brandishing
their weapons and yelling in the most frightful manner, by which means
they turned the black and rushing mass which moved off in an opposite
direction where they were again met and foiled in a similar manner,
and wheeled back in utter confusion; by which time the horsemen had
closed in from all directions, forming a continuous line around them,
whilst the poor affrighted animals were eddying about in a crowded and
confused mass, hooking and climbing upon each ether; when the work of
death commenced. I had rode up in the rear and occupied an elevated
position at a few rods distance, from which I could (like the general
of a battle field) survey from my horse’s back, the nature and the
progress of the grand mêlée; but (unlike him) without the power of
issuing a command or in any way directing its issue.
In this grand turmoil (+plate+ 79), a cloud of dust was soon raised,
which in parts obscured the throng where the hunters were galloping
their horses around and driving the whizzing arrows or their long
lances to the hearts of these noble animals; which in many instances,
becoming infuriated with deadly wounds in their sides, erected their
shaggy manes over their bloodshot eyes and furiously plunged forwards
at the sides of their assailants’ horses, sometimes goring them to
death at a lunge, and putting their dismounted riders to flight for
their lives; sometimes their dense crowd was opened, and the blinded
horsemen, too intent on their prey amidst the cloud of dust, were
hemmed and wedged in amidst the crowding beasts, over whose backs
they were obliged to leap for security, leaving their horses to the
fate that might await them in the results of this wild and desperate
war. Many were the bulls that turned upon their assailants and met
them with desperate resistance; and many were the warriors who were
dismounted, and saved themselves by the superior muscles of their legs;
some who were closely pursued by the bulls, wheeled suddenly around and
snatching the part of a buffalo robe from around their waists, threw it
over the horns and the eyes of the infuriated beast, and darting by its
side drove the arrow or the lance to its heart. Others suddenly dashed
off upon the prairies by the side of the affrighted animals which had
escaped from the throng, and closely escorting them for a few rods,
brought down their hearts blood in streams, and their huge carcasses
upon the green and enamelled turf.
In this way this grand hunt soon resolved itself into a desperate
battle; and in the space of fifteen minutes, resulted in the total
destruction of the whole herd, which in all their strength and fury
were doomed, like every beast and living thing else, to fall before the
destroying hands of mighty man.
[Illustration: 80]
I had sat in trembling silence upon my horse, and witnessed this
extraordinary scene, which allowed not one of these animals to escape
out of my sight. Many plunged off upon the prairie for a distance, but
were overtaken and killed; and although I could not distinctly estimate
the number that were slain, yet I am sure that some hundreds of these
noble animals fell in this grand mêlée.
The scene after the battle was over was novel and curious in the
extreme; the hunters were moving about amongst the dead and dying
animals, leading their horses by their halters, and claiming their
victims by their private marks upon their arrows, which they were
drawing from the wounds in the animals’ sides.
Amongst the poor affrighted creatures that had occasionally dashed
through the ranks of their enemy, and sought safety in flight upon the
prairie (and in some instances, had undoubtedly gained it), I saw them
stand awhile, looking back, when they turned, and, as if bent on their
own destruction, retraced their steps, and mingled themselves and their
deaths with those of the dying throng. Others had fled to a distance on
the prairies and for want of company, of friends or of foes, had stood
and gazed on till the battle-scene was over; seemingly taking pains to
stay, and hold their lives in readiness for their destroyers, until
the general destruction was over, when they fell easy victims to their
weapons—making the slaughter complete.
After this scene, and after arrows had been claimed and recovered, a
general council was held, when all hands were seated on the ground, and
a few pipes smoked; after which, all mounted their horses and rode back
to the village.
A deputation of several of the warriors was sent to the chief, who
explained to him what had been their success; and the same intelligence
was soon communicated by little squads to every family in the village;
and preparations were at once made for securing the meat. For this
purpose, some hundreds of women and children, to whose lots fall all
the drudgeries of Indian life, started out upon the trail, which
led them to the battle-field, where they spent the day in skinning
the animals, and cutting up the meat, which was mostly brought into
the villages on their backs, as they tugged and sweated under their
enormous and cruel loads.
I rode out to see this curious scene; and I regret exceedingly that I
kept no memorandum of it in my sketch-book. Amidst the throng of women
and children, that had been assembled, and all of whom seemed busily at
work, were many superannuated and disabled nags, which they had brought
out to assist in carrying in the meat; and at least, one thousand
semi-loup dogs, and whelps, whose keen appetites and sagacity had
brought them out, to claim their shares of this abundant and sumptuous
supply.
I staid and inspected this curious group for an hour or more,
during which time, I was almost continually amused by the clamorous
contentions that arose, and generally ended, in desperate combats;
both amongst the dogs and women, who seemed alike tenacious of their
local and recently acquired rights; and disposed to settle their claims
by “tooth and nail”—by manual and brute force.
When I had seen enough of this I rode to the top of a beautiful prairie
bluff, a mile or two from the scene, where I was exceedingly amused by
overlooking the route that laid between this and the village, which
was over the undulating green fields for several miles, that laid
beneath me; over which there seemed a continual string of women, dogs
and horses, for the rest of the day, passing and repassing as they
were busily bearing home their heavy burthens to their village, and in
their miniature appearance, which the distance gave them, not unlike
to a busy community of ants as they are sometimes seen, sacking and
transporting the treasures of a cupboard, or the sweets of a sugar
bowl.
LETTER—No. 25.