In speaking of the Mandans, in a former Letter, I mentioned that they
were living in two villages, which are about two miles apart. Of their
principal village I have given a minute account, which precludes the
necessity of my saying much of their smaller town, to which I descended
a few days since, from the Minatarees; and where I find their modes
and customs, precisely the same as I have heretofore described. This
village contains sixty or eighty lodges, built in the same manner as
those which I have already mentioned, and I have just learned that
they have been keeping the annual ceremony here, precisely in the same
manner as that which I witnessed in the lower or larger town, and have
explained.
I have been treated with the same hospitality here that was extended
to me in the other village; and have painted the portraits of several
distinguished persons, which has astonished and pleased them very much.
The operation of my brush always gains me many enthusiastic friends
wherever I go amongst these wild folks; and in this village I have been
unusually honoured and even _afflicted_, by the friendly importunities
of one of these reverencing parasites, who (amongst various other
offices of hospitality and kindness which he has been bent upon
extending to me), has insisted on, and for several nights been indulged
in, the honour as he would term it, of offering his body for my
pillow, which _I_ have not had the heart to reject, and of course _he_
has not lacked the vanity to boast of, as an act of signal kindness
and hospitality on his part, towards a _great_ and _a distinguished
stranger_!
I have been for several days suffering somewhat with an influenza,
which has induced me to leave my bed, on the side of the lodge, and
sleep on the floor, wrapped in a buffalo robe, with my feet to the
fire in the centre of the room, to which place the genuine politeness
of my constant and watchful friend has as regularly drawn him, where
his irresistible importunities have brought me, night after night, to
the only alternative of using his bedaubed and bear-greased body for a
pillow.
Being unwilling to deny the poor fellow the satisfaction he seemed to
be drawing from this singular freak, I took some pains to inquire into
his character; and learned that he was a Riccaree brave, by the name of
Pah-too-ca-ra (he who strikes), who is here with several others of his
tribe, on a friendly visit (though in a hostile village), and living
as they are, unprotected, except by the mercy of their enemies. I
think it probable, therefore, that he is ingeniously endeavouring thus
to ingratiate himself in my affections, and consequently to insure my
guardianship and influence for his protection. Be this as it may, he is
rendering me many kind services, and I have in return traced him on my
canvass for immortality (+plate+ 83).
By the side of him (+plate+ 84), I have painted a beautiful little girl
of the same tribe, whose name is Pshan-shaw (the sweet-scented grass),
giving a very pretty specimen of the dress and fashion of the women
in this tribe. The inner garment, which is like a slip or a frock, is
entire in one piece, and beautifully ornamented with embroidery and
beads, with a row of elks’ teeth passing across the breast, and a robe
of the young buffalo’s skin, tastefully and elaborately embroidered,
gracefully thrown over her shoulders, and hanging down to the ground
behind her.
+Plate+ 82 gives a portrait of one of the chiefs of this tribe by the
name of Stan-au-pat (the bloody hand), and (+plate+ 81) of Kah-beck-a
(the twin), a good-looking matron, who was painted a few weeks since in
the principal Mandan village.
The dresses in both of these portraits are very beautiful, and I have
procured them, as well as the one before spoken of, for my collection.
+Plate+ 80, gives a view of the Riccaree village, which is beautifully
situated on the west bank of the river, 200 miles below the Mandans;
and built very much in the same manner; being constituted of 150
earth-covered lodges, which are in part surrounded by an imperfect and
open barrier of piquets set firmly in the ground, and of ten or twelve
feet in height.
This village is built upon an open prairie, and the gracefully
undulating hills that rise in distance behind it are everywhere covered
with a verdant green turf, without a tree or a bush anywhere to be
seen. This view was taken from the deck of the steamer when I was on my
way up the river; and probably it was well that I took it then, for so
hostile and deadly are the feelings of these people towards the _pale
faces_, at this time, that it may be deemed most prudent for me to pass
them on my way down the river, without stopping to make them a visit.
They certainly are harbouring the most resentful feelings at this time
towards the Traders, and others passing on the river; and no doubt,
that there is great danger of the lives of any white men, who unluckily
fall into their hands. They have recently sworn death and destruction
to every white man, who comes in their way; and there is no doubt, that
they are ready to execute their threats.
When Lewis and Clarke first visited these people thirty years since,
it will be found by a reference to their history, that the Riccarees
received and treated them with great kindness and hospitality; but
owing to the system of trade, and the manner in which it has been
conducted in this country, they have been inflicted with real or
imaginary abuses, of which they are themselves, and the Fur Traders,
the best judges; and for which they are now harbouring the most
inveterate feelings towards the whole civilized race.
[Illustration: 81]
[Illustration: 82]
[Illustration: 83]
[Illustration: 84]
[Illustration: 85]
The Riccarees are unquestionably a part of the tribe of Pawnees, living
on the Platte River, some hundreds of miles below this, inasmuch
as their language is nearly or quite the same; and their personal
appearance and customs as similar as could be reasonably expected
amongst a people so long since separated from their parent tribe, and
continually subjected to innovations from the neighbouring tribes
around them; amongst whom, in their erratic wanderings in search of a
location, they have been jostled about in the character, alternately,
of friends and of foes.
I shall resume my voyage down the river in a few days in my canoe; and
I may, perhaps, stop and pay these people a visit, and consequently, be
able to say more of them; or, I may be _hauled in_, to the shore, and
my boat plundered, and my “_scalp danced_,” as they have dealt quite
recently with the _last trader_, who has dared for several years past,
to continue his residence with them, after they had laid fatal hands on
each one of his comrades before him, and divided and shared their goods.
Of the Mandans, who are about me in this little village, I need say
nothing, except that they are in every respect, the same as those
I have described in the lower village—and in fact, I believe this
little town is rather a _summer residence_ for a few of the noted
families, than anything else; as I am told that none of their wigwams
are tenanted through the winter. I shall leave them in the morning,
and take up my residence a few days longer with my hospitable friends
Mr. Kipp, Mah-to-toh-pa, &c. in the large village; and then with my
canvass and easel, and paint-pots in my canoe; with Ba’tiste and Bogard
to paddle, and my own oar to steer, wend my way again on the mighty
Missouri towards my native land, bidding everlasting farewell to the
kind and hospitable Mandans.
In taking this final leave of them, which will be done with some
decided feelings of regret, and in receding from their country, I shall
look back and reflect upon them and their curious and peculiar modes
with no small degree of pleasure, as well as surprise; inasmuch as
their hospitality and friendly treatment have fully corroborated my
fixed belief that the North American Indian in his primitive state is
a high-minded, hospitable and honourable being—and their singular and
peculiar customs have raised an irresistible belief in my mind that
they have had a different origin, or are of a different compound of
character from any other tribe that I have yet seen, or that can be
probably seen in North America.
In coming to such a conclusion as this, the mind is at once filled with
a flood of enquiries as to the source from which they have sprung,
and eagerly seeking for the evidence which is to lead it to the most
probable and correct conclusion. Amongst these evidences of which there
are many, and forcible ones to be met with amongst these people, and
many of which I have named in my former epistles, the most striking
ones are those which go, I think, decidedly to suggest the existence
of looks and of customs amongst them, bearing incontestible proofs of
an amalgam of civilized and savage; and that in the absence of all
proof of any recent proximity of a civilized stock that could in any
way have been engrafted upon them.
These facts then, with the host of their peculiarities which stare
a traveller in the face, lead the mind back in search of some more
remote and rational cause for such striking singularities; and in this
dilemma, I have been almost disposed (not to advance it as a _theory_,
but) to enquire whether here may not be found, yet existing, the
remains of the _Welsh colony_—the followers of Madoc; who history tells
us, if I recollect right, started with ten ships, to colonize a country
which he had discovered in the Western Ocean; whose expedition I think
has been pretty clearly traced to the mouth of the Mississippi, or the
coast of Florida, and whose fate further than this seems sealed in
unsearchable mystery.
I am travelling in this country as I have before said, not to advance
or to prove _theories_, but to see all that I am able to see, and to
tell it in the simplest and most intelligible manner I can to the
world, for their own conclusions, or for theories I may feel disposed
to advance, and be better able to defend after I get out of this
singular country; where all the powers of ones faculties are required,
and much better employed I consider, in helping him along and in
gathering materials, than in stopping to draw too nice and delicate
conclusions by the way.
If my indefinite recollections of the fate of that colony, however,
as recorded in history be correct, I see no harm in suggesting the
inquiry, whether they did not sail up the Mississippi river in their
ten ships, or such number of them as might have arrived safe in its
mouth; and having advanced up the Ohio from its junction, (as they
naturally would, it being the widest and most gentle current) to a
rich and fertile country, planted themselves as agriculturalists on
its rich banks, where they lived and flourished, and increased in
numbers, until they were attacked, and at last besieged by the numerous
hordes of savages who were jealous of their growing condition; and as
a protection against their assaults, built those numerous _civilized_
fortifications, the ruins of which are now to be seen on the Ohio
and the Muskingum, in which they were at last all destroyed, except
some few families who had intermarried with the Indians, and whose
offspring, being half-breeds, were in such a manner allied to them
that their lives were spared; and forming themselves into a small
and separate community, took up their residence on the banks of the
Missouri; on which, for the want of a permanent location, being on
the lands of their more powerful enemies, were obliged repeatedly to
remove; and continuing their course up the river, have in time migrated
to the place where they are now living, and consequently found with the
numerous and almost unaccountable peculiarities of which I have before
spoken, so inconsonant with the general character of the North American
Indians; with complexions of every shade; with hair of all the colours
in civilized society, and many with hazel, with grey, and with blue
eyes.
The above is a suggestion of a _moment_; and I wish the reader to bear
it in mind, that if I ever advance such as a _theory_, it will be
after I have collected other proofs, which I shall take great pains
to do; after I have taken a vocabulary of their language, and also
in my transit down the river in my canoe, I may be able from my own
examinations of the ground, to ascertain whether the shores of the
Missouri bear evidences of their former locations; or whether amongst
the tribes who inhabit the country below, there remain any satisfactory
traditions of their residences in, and transit through their countries.
I close here my book (and probably for some time, my remarks), on the
friendly and hospitable Mandans.
+Note+—Several years having elapsed since the above account of the
Mandans was written, I open the book to convey to the reader the
melancholy intelligence of the _destruction_ of this interesting
tribe, which happened a short time after I left their country; and
the manner and causes of their misfortune I have explained in the
Appendix to the Second Volume of this Work; as well as some further
considerations of the subject just above-named, relative to their
early history, and the probable fate of the followers of _Madoc_,
to which I respectfully refer the reader before he goes further in
the body of the Work. See Appendix A.
LETTER—No. 26.