Another curious and disgusting scene I witnessed in the after part of
the day on which we were honoured with the dog feast. In this I took no
part, but was sufficiently near to it, when standing some rods off, and
witnessing the cruel operation. I was called upon by one of the clerks
in the Establishment to ride up a mile or so, near the banks of the
Teton River, in a little plain at the base of the bluffs, where were
grouped some fifteen or twenty lodges of the Ting-ta-to-ah band, to see
a man (as they said) “_looking at the sun_!” We found him naked, except
his breech-cloth, with splints or skewers run through the flesh on both
breasts, leaning back and hanging with the weight of his body to the
top of a pole which was fastened in the ground, and to the upper end
of which he was fastened by a cord which was tied to the splints. In
this position he was leaning back, with nearly the whole weight of his
body hanging to the pole, the top of which was bent forward, allowing
his body to sink about half-way to the ground (+plate+ 97). His feet
were still upon the ground, supporting a small part of his weight; and
he held in his left hand his favourite bow, and in his right, with a
desperate grip, his medicine-bag. In this condition, with the blood
trickling down over his body, which was covered with white and yellow
clay, and amidst a great crowd who were looking on, sympathizing with
and encouraging him, he was hanging and “looking at the sun,” without
paying the least attention to any one about him. In the group that was
reclining around him, were several mystery-men beating their drums
and shaking their rattles, and singing as loud as they could yell, to
encourage him and strengthen his heart to stand and look at the sun,
from its rising in the morning ’till its setting at night; at which
time, if his heart and his strength have not failed him, he is “cut
down,” receives the liberal donation of presents (which have been
thrown into a pile before him during the day), and also the name and
the style of a doctor, or _medicine-man_, which lasts him, and ensures
him respect, through life.
This most extraordinary and cruel custom I never heard of amongst any
other tribe, and never saw an instance of it before or after the one I
have just named. It is a sort of worship, or penance, of great cruelty;
disgusting and painful to behold, with only one palliating circumstance
about it, which is, that it is a voluntary torture and of very rare
occurrence. The poor and ignorant, misguided and superstitious man who
undertakes it, puts his everlasting reputation at stake upon the issue;
for when he takes his stand, he expects to face the sun and gradually
turn his body in listless silence, till he sees it go down at night;
and if he faints and falls, of which there is imminent danger, he loses
his reputation as a brave or mystery-man, and suffers a signal disgrace
in the estimation of the tribe, like all men who have the presumption
to set themselves up for braves or mystery-men, and fail justly to
sustain the character.
The Sioux seem to have many modes of worshipping the Great or Good
Spirit, and also of conciliating the Evil Spirit: they have numerous
fasts and feasts, and many modes of sacrificing, but yet they seem
to pay less strict attention to them than the Mandans do, which may
perhaps be owing in a great measure to the wandering and predatory
modes of life which they pursue, rendering it difficult to adhere so
rigidly to the strict form and letter of their customs.
There had been, a few days before I arrived at this place, a great
medicine operation held on the prairie, a mile or so back of the Fort,
and which, of course, I was not lucky enough to see. The poles were
still standing, and the whole transaction was described to me by my
friend Mr. Halsey, one of the clerks in the Establishment. From the
account given of it, it seems to bear some slight resemblance to that
of the _Mandan religious ceremony_, but no nearer to it than a feeble
effort by so ignorant and superstitious a people, to copy a custom
which they most probably have had no opportunity to see themselves, but
have endeavoured to imitate from hearsay. They had an awning of immense
size erected on the prairie which is yet standing, made of willow
bushes supported by posts, with poles and willow boughs laid over;
under the centre of which there was a pole set firmly in the ground,
from which many of the young men had suspended their bodies by splints
run through the flesh in different parts, the numerous scars of which
were yet seen bleeding afresh from day to day, amongst the crowds that
were about me.
During my stay amongst the Sioux, as I was considered by them to
be great _medicine_, I received many pipes and other little things
from them as presents, given to me in token of respect for me, and
as assurances of their friendship; and I, being desirous to collect
and bring from their country every variety of their manufactures, of
their costumes, their weapons, their pipes, and their mystery-things,
purchased a great many others, for which, as I was “medicine” and a
“great white chief!” I was necessarily obliged to pay very _liberal_
prices.
Of the various costumes (of this, as well as of other tribes), that I
have collected, there will be seen fair and faithful representations in
the numerous portraits; and of their war-clubs, pipes, &c. I have set
forth in the following illustrations, a few of the most interesting of
the very great numbers of those things which I have collected in this
and other tribes which I have visited.
The luxury of smoking is known to all the North American Indians,
in their primitive state, and that before they have any knowledge
of tobacco; which is only introduced amongst them by civilized
adventurers, who teach them the use and luxury of whiskey at the same
time.
In their native state they are excessive smokers, and many of them (I
would almost venture the assertion), would seem to be smoking one-half
of their lives. There may be two good reasons for this, the first
of which is, that the idle and leisure life that the Indian leads,
(who has no trade or business to follow—no office hours to attend
to, or profession to learn), induces him to look for occupation and
amusement in so innocent a luxury, which again further tempts him
to its excessive use, from its feeble and harmless effects on the
system. There are many weeds and leaves, and barks of trees, which are
narcotics, and of spontaneous growth in their countries, which the
Indians dry and pulverize, and carry in pouches and smoke to great
excess—and which in several of the languages, when thus prepared, is
called _k’nick k’neck_.
As smoking is a luxury so highly valued by the Indians, they have
bestowed much pains, and not a little ingenuity, to the construction
of their pipes. Of these I have procured a collection of several
hundreds, and in +plate+ 98, have given fac-simile outlines of a number
of the most curious. The bowls of these are generally made of the red
steatite, or “pipe-stone” (as it is more familiarly called in this
country), and many of them designed and carved with much taste and
skill, with figures and groups in _alto relievo_, standing or reclining
upon them.
The red stone of which these pipe bowls are made, is, in my estimation,
a great curiosity; inasmuch as I am sure it is a variety of steatite
(if it be steatite), differing from that of any known European
locality, and also from any locality known in America, other than the
one from which all these pipes come; and which are all traceable I have
found to one source; and that source as yet unvisited except by the
red man who describes it, everywhere, as a place of vast importance to
the Indians—as given to them by the Great Spirit, for their pipes, and
strictly forbidden to be used for anything else.
The source from whence all these pipes come, is, undoubtedly, somewhere
between this place and the Mississippi River; and as the Indians all
speak of it as a great _medicine_-place, I shall certainly lay my
course to it, ere long, and be able to give the world some account of
it and its mysteries.
The Indians shape out the bowls of these pipes from the solid stone,
which is not quite as hard as marble, with nothing but a knife. The
stone which is of a cherry red, admits of a beautiful polish, and the
Indian makes the hole in the bowl of the pipe, by drilling into it a
hard stick, shaped to the desired size, with a quantity of sharp sand
and water kept constantly in the hole, subjecting him therefore to a
very great labour and the necessity of much patience.
[Illustration: 99]
The shafts or stems of these pipes, as will be seen in +plate+ 98, are
from two to four feet long, sometimes round, but most generally flat;
of an inch or two in breadth, and wound half their length or more with
braids of porcupines’ quills; and often ornamented with the beaks and
tufts from the wood-pecker’s head, with ermine skins and long red hair,
dyed from white horse hair or the white buffalo’s tail.
The stems of these pipes will be found to be carved in many ingenious
forms, and in all cases they are perforated through the centre, quite
staggering the wits of the enlightened world to _guess how_ the
holes have been _bored_ through them; until it is simply and briefly
explained, that the stems are uniformly made of the stalk of the young
ash, which generally grows straight, and has a small pith through the
centre, which is easily burned out with a hot wire or a piece of hard
wood, by a much slower process.
In +plate+ 98, the pipes marked _b_ are ordinary pipes, made and used
for the _luxury_ only of smoking; and for this purpose, every Indian
designs and constructs his own pipe. The _calumet_, or pipe of peace
(+plate+ 98 _a_), ornamented with the war-eagle’s quills, is a sacred
pipe, and never allowed to be used on any other occasion than that of
_peace-making_; when the chief brings it into treaty, and unfolding the
many bandages which are carefully kept around it—has it ready to be
mutually smoked by the chiefs, after the terms of the treaty are agreed
upon, as the means of _solemnizing_ or _signing_, by an illiterate
people, who cannot draw up an instrument, and sign their names to it,
as it is done in the civilized world.
The mode of solemnizing is by passing the sacred stem to each chief,
who draws one breath of smoke only through it, thereby passing the most
inviolable pledge that they can possibly give, for the keeping of the
peace. This sacred pipe is then carefully folded up, and stowed away in
the chief’s lodge, until a similar occasion calls it out to be used in
a similar manner.
There is no custom more uniformly in constant use amongst the poor
Indians than that of smoking, nor any other more highly valued. His
pipe is his constant companion through life—his messenger of peace;
he pledges his friends through its stem and its bowl—and when its
care-drowning fumes cease to flow, it takes a place with him in his
solitary grave, with his tomahawk and war-club, companions to his long
fancied, “mild and beautiful hunting-grounds.”
The weapons of these people, like their pipes, are numerous, and mostly
manufactured by themselves. In a former place (+plate+ 18) I have
described a part of these, such as the bows and arrows, lances, &c.,
and they have yet many others, specimens of which I have collected
from every tribe; and a number of which I have grouped together in
+plate+ 99; consisting of knives, war-clubs, and tomahawks. I have
here introduced the most general and established forms that are in
use amongst the different tribes, which are all strictly copied
from amongst the great variety of these articles to be found in my
Collection.
The scalping-knives _a_ and _b_, and tomahawks _e_ _e_ _e_ _e_ are
of civilized manufacture, made expressly for Indian use, and carried
into the Indian country by thousands and tens of thousands, and sold
at an enormous price. The scabbards of the knives and handles for
the tomahawks, the Indians construct themselves, according to their
own taste, and oftentimes ornament them very handsomely. In his rude
and unapproached condition, the Indian is a stranger to such weapons
as these—he works not in the metals; and his untutored mind has not
been ingenious enough to design or execute anything so _savage_ or
destructive as these civilized _refinements on Indian barbarity_. In
his native simplicity he shapes out his rude hatchet from a piece of
stone, as in letter _f_, heads his arrows and spears with flints; and
his knife is a sharpened bone, or the edge of a broken silex. The
war-club _c_ is also another civilized refinement, with a blade of
steel, of eight or ten inches in length, and set in a club, studded
around and ornamented with some hundreds of brass nails.
Their primitive clubs _d_ are curiously carved in wood, and fashioned
out with some considerable picturesque form and grace; are admirably
fitted to the hand, and calculated to deal a deadly blow with the spike
of iron or bone which is imbedded in the ball or bulb at the end.
Two of the tomahawks that I have named, marked _e_, are what are
denominated “pipe-tomahawks,” as the heads of them are formed into
bowls like a pipe, in which their tobacco is put, and they smoke
through the handle. These are the most valued of an Indian’s weapons,
inasmuch as they are a matter of luxury, and useful for cutting his
fire-wood, &c. in time of peace; and deadly weapons in time of war,
which they use in the hand, or throw with unerring and deadly aim.
The scalping-knife _b_ in a beautiful scabbard, which is carried under
the belt, is the form of knife most generally used in all parts of
the Indian country, where knives have been introduced. It is a common
and cheap butcher knife with one edge, manufactured at Sheffield, in
England, perhaps, for sixpence; and sold to the poor Indian in these
wild regions for a horse. If I should live to get home, and should ever
cross the Atlantic with my Collection, a curious enigma would be solved
for the English people, who may enquire for a scalping-knife, when they
find that every one in my Collection (and hear also, that nearly every
one that is to be seen in the Indian country, to the Rocky Mountains
and the Pacific Ocean) bears on its blade the impress of G.R., which
they will doubtless understand.
The huge two-edged knife, with its scabbard of a part of the skin of a
grizzly bear’s head, letter _a_, is one belonging to the famous chief
of the Mandans, of whom I have before said much. The manufacture of
this knife is undoubtedly American; and its shape differs altogether
from those which are in general use.[12]
[Illustration: 100]
The above weapons, as well as the bow and lance, of which I have before
spoken, are all carried and used on horseback with great effect. The
Indians in this country of green fields, all _ride_ for their enemies,
and also for their game, which is almost invariably killed whilst
their horses are at full-speed. They are all cruel masters for their
horses; and in war or the chase goad them on with a heavy and cruel
whip (+plate+ 99 _g_), the handle of which is generally made of a large
prong of the elk’s horn or of wood, and the lashes of rawhide are very
heavy; being braided, or twisted, or cut into wide straps. These are
invariably attached to the wrist of the right arm by a tough thong, so
that they can be taken up and used at any moment, and dropped the next,
without being lost.
During the time that I was engaged in painting my portraits, I was
occasionally inducing the young men to give me their dances, a great
variety of which they gave me by being slightly paid; which I was glad
to do, in order to enable me to study their character and expression
thoroughly, which I am sure I have done; and I shall take pleasure in
shewing them to the world when I get back. The dancing is generally
done by the young men, and considered undignified for the chiefs or
doctors to join in. Yet so great was my _medicine_, that chiefs and
medicine-men turned out and agreed to compliment me with a dance
(+plate+ 100). I looked on with great satisfaction; having been assured
by the Interpreters and Traders, that this was the highest honour they
had ever known them to pay to any stranger amongst them.
In this dance, which I have called “the dance of the chiefs,” for want
of a more significant title, was given by fifteen or twenty chiefs and
doctors; many of whom were very old and venerable men. All of them came
out in their head-dresses of war-eagle quills, with a spear or staff in
the left hand, and a rattle in the right. It was given in the midst of
the Sioux village, in front of the head chief’s lodge; and beside the
medicine-man who beat on the drum, and sang for the dance, there were
four young women standing in a row, and chanting a sort of chorus for
the dancers; forming one of the very few instances that I ever have
met, where the women are allowed to take any part in the dancing, or
other game or amusement, with the men.
This dance was a very spirited thing, and pleased me much, as well as
all the village, who were assembled around to witness what most of them
never before had seen, their aged and venerable chiefs united in giving
a dance.
As I have introduced the _scalping-knife_ above, it may be well for
me to give some further account in this place of the custom and the
mode of taking the scalp; a custom practiced by all the North American
Indians, which is done when an enemy is killed in battle, by grasping
the left hand into the hair on the crown of the head, and passing the
knife around it through the skin, tearing off a piece of the skin with
the hair, as large as the palm of the hand, or larger, which is dried,
and often curiously ornamented and preserved, and highly valued as a
trophy. The scalping is an operation not calculated of itself to take
life, as it only removes the skin, without injuring the bone of the
head; and necessarily, to be a genuine scalp, must contain and show the
crown or centre of the head; that part of the skin which lies directly
over what the phrenologists call “self-esteem,” where the hair divides
and radiates from the centre; of which they all profess to be strict
judges, and able to decide whether an effort has been made to produce
two or more scalps from one head. Besides taking the scalp, the victor
generally, if he has time to do it without endangering his own scalp,
cuts off and brings home the rest of the hair, which his wife will
divide into a great many small locks, and with them fringe off the
seams of his shirt and his leggings, as will have been seen in many of
the illustrations; which also are worn as trophies and ornaments to the
dress, and then are familiarly called “_scalp-locks_.” Of these there
are many dresses in my Collection, which exhibit a continuous row from
the top of each shoulder, down the arms to the wrists, and down the
seams of the leggings, from the hips to the feet, rendering them a very
costly article to buy from the Indian who is not sure that his success
in his military exploits will ever enable him to replace them.
The scalp, then, is a patch of the skin taken from the head of an enemy
killed in battle, and preserved and highly appreciated as the record of
a death produced by the hand of the individual who possesses it; and
may oftentimes during his life, be of great service to a man living
in a community where there is no historian to enrol the names of the
famous—to record the heroic deeds of the brave, who have gained their
laurels in mortal combat with their enemies; where it is as lawful
and as glorious to slay an enemy in battle, as it is in Christian
communities, and where the poor Indian is bound to keep the record
himself, or be liable to lose it and the honour, for no one in the
tribe will keep it for him. As the scalp is taken then as the evidence
of a death, it will easily be seen, that the Indian has no business or
inclination to take it from the head of the living; which I venture to
say is never done in North America, unless it be, as it sometimes has
happened, where a man falls in the heat of battle, stunned with the
blow of a weapon or a gunshot, and the Indian, rushing over his body,
snatches off his scalp, supposing him dead, who afterwards rises from
the field of battle, and easily recovers from this superficial wound
of the knife, wearing a bald spot on his head during the remainder
of his life, of which we have frequent occurrences on our Western
frontiers. The scalp must be from the head of _an enemy_ also, or it
subjects its possessor to disgrace and infamy who carries it. There
may be many instances where an Indian is justified in the estimation
of his tribe in taking the life of one of his own people; and their
laws are such, as oftentimes make it his imperative duty; and yet no
circumstances, however aggravating, will justify him or release him
from the disgrace of taking the scalp.
[Illustration: 101]
There is no custom practised by the Indians, for which they are
more universally condemned, than that of taking the scalp; and, at
the same time, I think there is some excuse for them, inasmuch as
it is a general custom of the country, and founded, like many other
apparently absurd and ridiculous customs of these people, in one of
the necessities of Indian life, which necessities we are free from in
the civilized world, and which customs, of course, we need not and do
not practice. From an ancient custom, “time out of mind,” the warriors
of these tribes have been in the habit of going to war, expecting to
take the scalps of their enemies whom they may slay in battle, and all
eyes of the tribe are upon them, making it their duty to do it; so from
custom it is every man’s right, and his duty also, to continue and keep
up a regulation of his society, which it is not in his power as an
individual, to abolish or correct, if he saw fit to do it.
One of the principal denunciations against the custom of taking the
scalp, is on account of its alleged _cruelty_, which it certainly has
not; as the cruelty would be in the _killing_, and not in the act of
cutting the skin from a man’s head after he is dead. To say the most of
it, it is a disgusting custom, and I wish I could be quite sure that
the civilized and Christian world (who kill hundreds, to where the poor
Indians kill one), do not often treat their _enemies dead_, in equally
as indecent and disgusting a manner, as the Indian does by taking the
scalp.
If the reader thinks that I am taking too much pains to defend the
Indians for this, and others of their seemingly abominable customs,
he will bear it in mind, that I have lived with these people, until I
have learned the necessities of Indian life in which these customs are
founded; and also, that I have met with so many acts of kindness and
hospitality at the hands of the poor Indian, that I feel bound, when I
can do it, to render what excuse I can for a people, who are dying with
broken hearts, and never can speak in the civilized world in their own
defence.
And even yet, reader, if your education, and your reading of Indian
cruelties and Indian barbarities—of scalps, and scalping-knives, and
scalping, should have ossified a corner of your heart against these
unfortunate people, and would shut out their advocate, I will annoy
you no longer on this subject, but withdraw, and leave you to cherish
the very beautiful, humane and parental moral that was carried out by
the United States and British Governments during the last, and the
revolutionary wars, when they mutually employed thousands of their
“_Red children_,” to aid and to bleed, in fighting their battles, and
paid them, according to contract, so many pounds, shillings and pence
or so many dollars and cents for every “_scalp_” of a “red” or a “blue
coat” they could bring in!
In +plate+ 101, there will be seen the principal modes in which the
scalps are prepared, and several of the uses to which they are put.
The most usual way of preparing and dressing the scalp is that of
stretching it on a little hoop at the end of a stick two or three feet
long (letter _a_), for the purpose of “dancing it,” as they term it;
which will be described in the _scalp-dance_, in a few moments. There
are many again, which are small, and not “dressed;” sometimes not
larger than a crown piece (letter _c_), and hung to different parts of
the dress. In public shows and parades, they are often suspended from
the bridle bits or halter when they are paraded and carried as trophies
(letter _b_). Sometimes they are cut out, as it were into a string,
the hair forming a beautiful fringe to line the handle of a war-club
(letter _e_). Sometimes they are hung at the _end_ of a club (_letter
d_), and at other times, by the order of the chief, are hung out, over
the wigwams, suspended from a pole, which is called the “_scalp-pole_.”
This is often done by the chief of a village, in a pleasant day, by his
erecting over his wigwam a pole with all the scalps that he had taken,
arranged upon it (letter _f_); at the sight of which all the chiefs and
warriors of the tribe, who had taken scalps, “follow suit;” enabling
every member of the community to stroll about the village on that day
and “count scalps,” learning thereby the standing of every warrior,
which is decided in a great degree by the number of scalps they have
taken in battles with their enemies. Letters _g_, _g_, shew the usual
manner of taking the scalp, and (letter _h_), exhibits the head of a
man who had been scalped and recovered from the wound.
So much for scalps and scalping, of which I shall yet say more, unless
I should unluckily _lose one_ before I get out of the country.
[Illustration: 101½]
[12] This celebrated knife is now in my +Indian Museum+, and
there is no doubt, from its authentic history, that it has been
several times plunged to the hearts of his enemies by the hand
of Mah-to-toh-pa, who wielded it. Several years after I left
that country, and one year after the destruction of the Mandans,
I received the following letter from Mr. M‘Kenzie, accompanying
the knife and other things sent to me by him from that country:
+Extract+—“The poor Mandans are gone, and amongst them your old
friend, Mah-to-toh-pa. I have been able to send you but a very few
things, as the Riccarees immediately took possession of everything
they had. Amongst the articles I have been able to procure, I send
you the war-knife of Mah-to-toh-pa, which is now looked upon as the
greatest _medicine_ in this country; and as you will recollect it,
it will be highly appreciated by you.”
LETTER—No. 30.