CONTINUATION OF OUR WINTER RESIDENCE AT FORT CLARKE, TILL OUR
DEPARTURE, FROM JANUARY 1ST TO APRIL 18TH, 1834
Increase of the Cold in the beginning of January--The
Arrival of our People from Picotte--Parhelia--Changes
of Temperature--Sih-Chida's Prayer--My Thermometer
stolen--Reconciliation of Mato-Topé and
Pehriska-Ruhpa--Consecration of a Medicine Son at
Ruphtare--Visit of some Yanktonans--Hunting of the Indians in
the severe Cold--Dance of the Women of the White Buffalo Cow at
Ruphtare--Mr. Kipp's Return--Scarcity of Provisions--Enemies
in the Indian Village--Rapid Thaw--The Mandans kill an
Assiniboin--Cunning and Boldness of the latter--The Scalp Dance
of the Manitaries--Superstition of the Indians--They remove to
their Summer Village--The Arikkara, Pachtuwa-Chta--Dance of
the Meniss-Ochata--Blindness caused by the Snow--Commencement
of my Illness--Arrival of the Spring Birds--The Mad Dogs'
Dance in the Fort--Dance of the Ischoha-Kakoschochata in the
Fort--Breaking-up of the Ice in the Missouri--Dance of the
Berock-Ochata--Arrival of the People entered for my Service--My
Recovery by the use of Green Herbs--Preparations for our
Departure.
January set in with increasing cold, which at eight in the morning was
18° Reaumur, and on the 2nd, at the same hour, 25°, Reaumur, below
freezing point. On the 3rd the mercury sank into the ball, and was
frozen; it remained there on the 4th, but on the 5th it rose, and
at eight in the morning was 9° below zero. During these cold days,
some of our woodcutters had their noses and cheeks frostbitten. The
horizon was hazy; the river smoked; neither man nor animal was to be
seen; yet a party of Mandans, with their wives, were in the prairie
hunting buffaloes, of which they killed forty. At night the cold was so
intense, that we could not venture to put our hands from our bodies,
lest they should be frozen. In the morning we could scarcely endure the
severity of the weather, till we had a blazing fire, for the bleak
northwest wind penetrated through all the seams of the building. We
received information that Mr. Kipp had remained with the Manitaries
till the 2nd of January, and had not proceeded on his journey till
the cold had somewhat abated. Almost all his people had some part of
their body frostbitten, and eight of his {437} dogs had run away. Some
Indians who visited us presented rather a novel appearance, having
their hair, and even their eyelashes, covered with hoar frost and
icicles. In our own room, the boots and shoes were frozen so hard in
the morning, that we could scarcely put them on; ink, colours, and
pencils were perfectly useless. During this cold we were visited by
a deaf and dumb Mandan, who had no covering on the upper part of his
body under his robe. On the 3rd of January, at noon, when the sunbeams,
shining on the frozen snow, were extremely dazzling, the thermometer
being at 24° below zero, I saw no living creatures in the neighbourhood
of the Indian village, except flocks of the snow-bunting, and a few
ravens, two species of birds which are capable of enduring the severest
cold. The Yanktonans, and the people whom we had sent to Picotte,
returned, on the 4th of January, with dried meat, as well as tallow for
candles: they said that, during the two coldest days, they had halted
in the forest, but that, in the night, the wolves had carried off part
of their meat. On the 5th of January the air was misty, and at one
o'clock there were two parhelia at a considerable distance from the
sun; they were, however, faint and rather irregular. It was scarcely
possible to obtain water from the river, and the water-casks in our
room were frozen to the bottom. Unfortunately, too, our woodcutters
brought us only driftwood, which had lain so long in the water that it
would not burn. Picotte had sent a small cask of wine by our people, as
a present from Mr. Mc Kenzie for the Mandans, which was delivered to
the chiefs for distribution.
At eight o'clock in the morning of the 6th, there was a fall of snow;
the temperature in the open air was 29° Fahrenheit, in our room only
25°. The wind blew from the west, and at noon the snow was mixed with
rain, so that the water dripped on our books and papers from the loft,
which was covered with snow. The robes and hair of the Indians were
wet, and they very unceremoniously, therefore, came to dry themselves
before our fire; this was not very agreeable, nevertheless we were glad
that we could resume our usual occupations. At noon the temperature
was 39½° Fahrenheit, and in the evening it became considerably warmer,
so that we could leave our hands at liberty during the night, without
their being affected by the cold. The night, however, was very stormy,
and Sih-Chida laid himself down to sleep on the ground before our fire.
These changes of temperature were very remarkable. On the 7th we again
had cold, with a tempestuous west wind; at noon, the thermometer stood
at 12°, and in the afternoon it again snowed. Sih-Chida once more
passed the night with us, and, when all was silent, made a long address
to the lord of life, in which he besought him to send buffaloes, that
they might not starve. He spoke in a rapid half-suppressed tone of
reproach, and without any gesticulation.[38] On the following day,
Dreidoppel went into the forest in quest of game, but could not proceed
on account of the drifted snow; he only saw some flocks of prairie
hens. At noon, when I went to look at the thermometer, I found that it
had been stolen by the Indians. Our {438} friend Sih-Chida immediately
ran out, and discovered the instrument concealed by a woman under
her robe, and, to my great joy, brought it back to me. Bidda-Chohki
(generally called La Chevelure levée, the scalped man), visited us, and
gave me some words of the Manitari language, but he was not in a very
good humour, because he could not get any brandy. The next day this man
dressed himself very handsomely in order to have his portrait taken,
but the mercury was again 20° below zero, and it was too cold in our
room to paint, for colours and pencils were frozen, though standing
close to the fire, and had to be thawed in hot water. We calculated
that we should burn in our chimney at least six cords of wood in a
month if this cold continued. Mato-Topé had become reconciled to
Pehriska-Ruhpa, and purchased a green blanket, which he showed to us,
as a present for him. We heard that a wolf had attacked three Indian
women in the forest, who had been obliged to defend themselves with
their hatchets.
On the 14th of January, the cold was only 8° below zero, but there was
such a high, piercing wind, that our woodcutters complained more than
when the cold was more severe. In these prairies it is, for the most
part, the wind which makes the cold intolerable; and though persons who
ventured out wore woollen caps which left only the eyes exposed, yet
their faces were frostbitten. Our provisions were very bad, for Picotte
had sent us only tough, hard, stale meat, besides which we had nothing
but maize and beans, and the water of the river. Mato-Topé, in his
finest dress, accompanied by many Indians, visited us. He wore a large
hood of red cloth, adorned with forty long eagles' feathers, and was
going to Ruhptare, where a medicine son was to be adopted.
[Illustration: Double rainbow]
[Illustration: Little Soldier (Tukan Haton), a Sioux chief]
In the night of the 14th, the wind blew with such violence, that it
scattered the heap of ashes from the fire place all over the room, so
that our beds, benches, and clothes were completely covered with them.
Mato-Topé returned on this day from Ruhptare, and told us, with great
satisfaction and self-complacency, that he had enumerated all his
exploits, and that no one had been able to surpass him. Old Garreau,
who was constantly with our _engagés_ in the fort, complained to me,
that, for a long time, he had lived on nothing but maize boiled in
water; and this was really the case with many persons at this place,
as game became more and more scarce. When Garreau first came to these
parts, game abounded, and beavers were heard in all the streams,
striking with their tails; now, however, even the Indians are often
reduced to want of food. On the 21st of January, while the Indians
passed the night without fire, in the prairie, in order to hunt, the
thermometer was at 30° below 0 (27½° Reaumur); the wind was easterly,
and pretty high. The land and the river were covered by a dense mist,
through which the sun penetrated when just above the horizon; on either
side was a large crescent, which rose as high as the upper surface
of the mist, the eastern one extending to the frozen surface of the
river. They were at some distance from the sun, {439} and, like it,
appeared of a light yellowish-white through the misty vapour.[39]
Sometimes we observed, in the light misty clouds on the horizon, two
short, beautifully coloured rainbows, at some distance from the sun,
which, being interrupted by the upper stratum of clouds, did not rise
to any great height. The snow was now frozen so hard, that it could
be broken into large pieces, which emitted a clear sound when struck
with the foot. In the sunshine the atmosphere sparkled with innumerable
particles of floating ice. The Indians had cut some holes in the ice on
the Missouri, to procure water, and fenced them round with poles and
brushwood covered with buffalo hides, as a protection against the cold
wind. At noon the weather was rather milder, the temperature being 10½°
below zero. Three Yanktonans came to the fort with a view to persuade
the Mandans to join in an expedition against another tribe.
Mr. Bodmer took a very excellent likeness of Psihdje-Sahpa, one of the
three Yanktonans.[40]
On the 23rd of January information was brought that a herd of buffaloes
was only six miles from the fort; accordingly, three _engagés_, with
the Arikkara, were sent in pursuit of them, and returned at night with
two cows and a young bull, two of which were given to the fort. The
Mandans had killed about fifty of this herd: our hunters had almost all
their fingers frozen, but they knew well how to restore circulation by
rubbing the limbs with snow. The Indians did not visit us so frequently
at this time, because they were well supplied with meat: the Arikkara,
however, came to us to attend a feast in Belhumeur's apartment, where
we were to be regaled with buffalo flesh. On the 29th, the women of
the band of the white buffalo cow, from Ruhptare, came to the fort to
perform their dance, on which occasion they were dressed in the same
manner as the women from Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush, only they had not the
bundles of brushwood. The musicians were three men, who wore caps of
white buffalo skin. Knives, tobacco, and glass beads were laid on the
ground as presents for them, after which they proceeded to the lower
Mandan village, from which they came back, the following day, in grand
procession, over the frozen river. Mr. Kipp soon afterwards arrived
from Fort Union, with three or four dog sledges, and six men: they were
completely covered with ice, their noses and cheeks were {440} livid,
and they appeared quite frostbitten. Besides staying four days with
the Manitaries, Mr. Kipp and his party had been twelve days on their
journey to Fort Union. At the beginning they had nothing to eat; and
the poor dogs had been so completely starved for nine days, that they
could scarcely crawl along, so that no burden could be laid upon them,
and the party were obliged to travel the greater part of the way on
foot, in deep snow. They encountered a war party of nine Assiniboins,
some of whom ran away, but the others were sent by Mr. Kipp to hunt,
by which means he procured meat, and the _engagés_, too, succeeded
in killing a few elks and deer. It was affirmed that the mercury of
Fahrenheit's thermometer had been for a whole fortnight at 45° below
zero (77° below freezing point), at Fort Union. No buffaloes had
appeared in the vicinity, nor any Indians, who remained farther down
the river. The hunters of Fort Union had been absent nearly a month, in
which time they killed only two bulls, two cows, and a calf. Except in
some few places, provisions were extremely scarce this winter on the
whole of the Missouri, from Fort Clarke upwards. No accounts had been
received from Fort Mc Kenzie. I had wished to receive several articles
from Fort Union; but Mr. Hamilton was not able to send them, the sledge
being too heavily laden; he, however, promised to forward them without
fail, in the spring, with the people who were to be sent to conduct
us down the Missouri to Fort Pièrre. Mr. Kipp had been eleven days on
his journey back, and had again been obliged to perform a considerable
part of it on foot. The dogs had had nothing to eat for three days, and
now the poor beasts were fed with hides cut in pieces, for we had no
meat. Numbers of the fowls in the forest perished in the cold. On the
last day of January there was a change in the weather; at eight in the
morning, with a west wind, the mercury was at 22° Fahrenheit, and we
could scarcely bear the warmth of the fire in our apartment. Towards
noon a complete thaw set in, and the mild weather immediately brought
us a number of Indian visitors.
On the 1st of February, Mr. Kipp sent three _engagés_, with two dog
sledges, down the river, to the post among the Yanktonans, which
was under the superintendence of Picotte, to procure meat, for we
subsisted entirely on maize broth and maize bread, and were without
tallow for candles; the dogs that were sent with the _engagés_ howled
most piteously when they were harnessed, their feet being still sore
and bleeding from the effects of their late journey. On this day news
was received from Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush, that three hostile Indians
(Assiniboins), had been in the village during the night, for the
purpose of shooting somebody, for in the morning the place where they
had concealed themselves was discovered, from one of the party having
left his knee-band behind. They had not been able to fire through the
wall of the hut, and had retired at daybreak without attaining their
object; traces were also found of some hostile Indians, who had come
over the river.
On the 2nd of February, one of the sledges sent to Picotte came back,
having been broken on the way. The man who came with it fell in with
the Mandans, who were going to hunt {441} buffaloes, and detained him,
lest he should frighten the animals away. In the preceding night, the
Assiniboins had stolen three horses from the Manitaries, 150 of whom
immediately mounted their horses to pursue and kill them.
At eight o'clock on the morning of the 3rd, the thermometer stood at
39°; the face of the country had assumed quite a different aspect;
large tracts of land were wholly free from the snow, which was fast
melting away, and only the hills were partially covered; yet, with this
rapid thaw, the ground had not become wet, for it was immediately dried
by the continual wind; but there was a considerable quantity of water
on the ice which covered the river. The ravens and magpies again flew
about in the prairie in quest of food.
In the afternoon news was received that the Manitaries, who had gone
in pursuit of the Assiniboins, had overtaken a small party, and killed
a young man, whom they had found asleep, cruelly awakened with whips,
and then murdered in cold blood. These Assiniboins are very daring,
and often approach the villages of the Mandans and Manitaries, either
singly or in small parties, and sometimes surprise individuals and
shoot them. Thus an Assiniboin suddenly fired at a number of young
people who were standing near the palisades of the village, and killed
one of them. The others raised an alarm, while the murderer took the
scalp of the youth he had killed, fled down the steep bank of the
river, where many persons were bathing, and made his escape through the
very midst of all these people. Other Assiniboins stole eleven horses
from a Manitari hut, and were not even perceived till they were in the
act of leading off the last of the animals. They stole four horses
from a hut in which Charbonneau was sleeping, and made their escape
with their booty, without being seen by any one. To-day arrows were
found sticking in the huts and posts of the village, which they had
discharged at random during the night in the hope of killing one of
their foes.
On the 4th and 5th, the weather was mild; the horses were again sent
out to graze in the prairie, our waggons went to fetch grass, and,
towards noon, the day was really quite warm. We were still without
meat, none of the parties whom we sent out having been able to procure
any. Our stock of tallow, too, was exhausted, and we were obliged to
content ourselves with the light of the fire. For several succeeding
days, the weather being still mild, we were much interested in watching
the activity of the Indians on the river; among them a number of women
brought heavy burdens, especially of wood, from the lower forest
village, to Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush. They had to pass, opposite the fort, a
channel formed through the midst of the frozen river, which was covered
with a thin coat of ice; this they broke very deliberately with their
long poles, and then waded through. Some carried their small leathern
boats to the channel, in this they deposited the wood, and then
pushed it along. The manner in which they took up the heavy burdens
was remarkable. A woman lay down on her back, upon the bundle of wood,
while another raised her with the burden till she was able to bend
forward, and then stand upright with her load. A great many women were
thus {442} occupied, for the Indians were desirous of going to their
summer village, because they were now too much scattered to be safe
while the enemy was so near at hand.
On the 9th of February the inhabitants of Ruhptare had all removed
from their winter to their summer quarters; they were evidently afraid
that the ice would break up early, and the water of the Missouri rise
considerably.
On the 10th, two of our people came from Picotte, with a sledge
drawn by two dogs, and informed us that there were many buffaloes in
the neighbourhood, consequently our fear of want of provisions was
dispelled. At Fort Pièrre, on the River Teton, the cold had been more
intense than had been known for many years, the mercury having remained
for a considerable time between 30° and 40° below zero. Three of Mr.
Laidlow's people,[41] who were travelling at the time, had suffered
so severely from the frost, that their lives were despaired of. The
ice of the Missouri had, for a few days, been very unfavourable for
travelling, as it was covered to some depth with water, and our people,
consequently, had suffered much. In the afternoon of that day, the
Manitari chief, Lachpitzi-Sirish (the yellow bear), arrived, bringing
on his horse a small supply of meat, and a young buffalo calf, which he
presented to us, this disgusting little black animal being reckoned a
great dainty by them. His robe was painted with suns, and on his back
he carried his bow, with a beautifully ornamented quiver of panther's
skin. Charbonneau immediately accommodated him in his bed room. On
the following day we sent a couple of our hunters to Fort Union, with
letters to Mr. Mc Kenzie. The fort was crowded with Manitaries who
wished to perform before us the scalp dance, in commemoration of having
slain an enemy on the preceding day. A number of tall, handsomely
dressed men, having their faces blackened, soon filled every apartment.
Itsichaika (the monkey-face), and the other chiefs, had arrived, and
these Indians, who are not nearly so well behaved as the Mandans, very
deliberately took possession of all our seats and fireplaces. We bolted
the door of our own apartment, where we quietly remained, permitting
only a very few of the Indians to enter.
At two o'clock the Manitari women arrived in procession, accompanied
by many children and some Mandans. Eighteen women, marching two and
two in a close column, entered the court-yard of the fort, with a
short-measured, slow pace. Seven men of the band of the dogs, having
their faces painted black, or black striped with red, acted as
musicians, three of them having drums, and four the schischikué. They
were wrapped in their buffalo robes, and their heads were uncovered,
and ornamented with the feathers of owls and other birds. The faces
of some of the women were painted black, others red, while some
were striped black and red. They wore buffalo dresses, or blankets,
and the two principal were enveloped in the white buffalo robe. The
greater part of them had the feather of a war eagle standing upright,
and one only wore the large handsome feather cap. In their arms they
carried battle-axes or guns, ornamented with red cloth and short black
feathers, which, during the dance, they placed with the butt-end on
the {443} ground; in short, while performing this dance, the women are
accoutred in the military dress and weapons of the warriors. The right
wing was headed by the wife of the chief, Itsichaika, who carried in
her hand a long elastic rod, from the point of which was suspended
the scalp of the young man slain on the preceding day, surmounted by
a stuffed magpie with outspread wings;[42] lower down on the same rod
hung a second scalp, a lynx skin, and a bunch of feathers. Another
woman bore a third scalp on a similar rod. The women filed off in
a semicircle; the musicians, taking their stand on the left wing,
now commenced a heterogeneous noise, beating the drum, rattling the
schischikué, and yelling with all their might. The women began to
dance, waddling in short steps, like ducks; the two wings, or horns
of the crescent, advanced towards each other, and then receded, at
the same time singing in a shrill tone of voice. It was a complete
caterwaul concert. After awhile they rested, and then recommenced, and
continued dancing about twenty minutes. The director of the fort now
caused tobacco, looking-glasses, and knives, from the Company's stores,
to be thrown on the ground in the middle of the circle. Hereupon the
women once more danced in quick time, the musicians forming themselves
into a close body, and holding their instruments towards the centre.
This concluded the festivity, and the whole band retired to the Mandan
forest village.
There was a heavy fall of snow during the night, and the morning of the
12th again presented the landscape clothed with its white covering. Mr.
Bodmer had taken an excellent portrait of Machsi-Nika, the deaf and
dumb Mandan, in his war dress. He came to our residence to-day with
angry gestures, and evidently greatly enraged against us, so that I was
afraid that this half-witted, uncivilized man would attack the artist.
Mr. Kipp was requested to clear up the matter, and it appeared that his
anger had been caused by a malignant insinuation of the perfidious old
Garreau, who had pointed out to him that Bodmer had drawn him only in
a mean dress, while all the other Indians were represented in their
handsomest robes. This ill-natured insinuation completely exasperated
the poor man, and we in vain endeavoured to pacify him, by assuring
him that we intended to make him known to the world in a truly warlike
costume. Mr. Bodmer then thought of an expedient: he quickly and
secretly made a copy of his drawing, which he brought in, tore in half,
and threw into the fire, in the presence of the Indian. This had the
desired effect, and he went away perfectly satisfied.
In the afternoon the Manitaries returned from the Mandan village, and
again took deliberate possession of the various apartments of the fort.
The Monkey-face, a cunning, perfidious Indian, who wore a new red
felt hat, is the chief who now takes the lead among the Manitaries.
Accordingly, as soon as he took leave, all the Indians followed him.
One of the chiefs, with his family, sat a long time in our room, and
were much interested with Mr. Bodmer's drawings, and astonished and
delighted with our musical box. A Mandan who was present thought
that a little white man, who was making this pretty music, must be
concealed in it. All of them asked for presents, {444} and they would
certainly have pilfered many things if we had not kept close watch
over them. At length our door was opened, and a tall, heavy man, with
a blackened face, entered, and, like all the rest assembled there,
demanded something to eat. We, however, gave him to understand that we
had nothing to give them, as we were supplied by Mr. Kipp, and with
this answer they were obliged to be satisfied. Towards evening our
provision store was replenished by three sledges, laden with meat, sent
by Picotte, which arrived in the fort.
On the following day, a very high, cold wind arose, which blew the snow
off from the ice that covered the river, and the Indian women, carrying
their burdens, frequently fell down on the slippery surface. The
Mandans had found a dead buffalo cow in the prairie, and, although it
was in part decayed, they greedily devoured it.
On the 17th, at eight in the morning, with a temperature of 1° below 0,
the woods were covered with hoar frost; the wind blew from the south,
and veered to the southwest; the river had risen considerably, and, in
some places, overflowed its banks. The sledges had much difficulty in
crossing the river without getting into the water, and the ice broke
under one of them. At noon, the temperature was 10°, and afterwards
there was a fall of snow. Dreidoppel shot a beautiful red fox in the
prairie, but had no success against the wolves. The Mandans told us,
that they had gone, some days before, to hunt buffaloes, and had driven
a herd of them towards the mountains, where there is a good opportunity
to use the bow and arrows; they had, therefore, pursued the animals
rapidly, but, on reaching them, they found but a very few buffaloes,
the others, as they affirmed, having sunk into the ground: they had,
doubtless, taken refuge in the nearest ravines. They assigned, as
the cause of this sudden disappearance of the buffaloes, that their
party was headed by a man who, in the preceding year, had caused five
Assiniboins, who had come to them as messengers of peace, to be killed,
and that, on account of this unjust act, he was now always unsuccessful
in hunting.
The mercury remained now a little above or below zero, but at noon
the sun had much power, and the reflection from the snow was very
dazzling, which induced our hunters to make for themselves wooden snow
spectacles, in the manner of the Esquimaux. The dumb Mandans had been
successful in hunting, and brought several horse-loads of meat, which
we bought of them. In the afternoon, when the temperature was 8° or 9°,
I heard an Indian child crying at the door of our room; it had touched
a piece of iron with its tongue, and the skin immediately came off.
At daybreak, on the 27th, in the morning, the mercury was at 26°,
Fahrenheit, below zero, or 59° below freezing point; and at 8 o'clock,
when the sun shone brightly, at 11° below zero, with a west wind.
During the night, the horses had broken a window in Mr. Kipp's room, so
that we had a very cold breakfast there. In our apartments everything
fluid was frozen, and the quilts on the beds were covered with hoar
frost. We had now some fresh meat, but our stock of sugar was at an
end, and we had to sweeten our coffee with treacle. We were visited
by the three {445} deaf and dumb Mandans, whose fourth brother,
Berock-Itainu, whom we have before mentioned, is not so afflicted:
there is, likewise, a deaf and dumb child in the village. Kiasax, the
Blackfoot, who had accompanied us to Fort Union, visited us to-day for
the first time, and we showed him the portraits of his countrymen, with
which he was much pleased. The Indians were busy in conveying many
things to the summer village, though the prairies were covered with
snow; and numerous horses were seeking a scanty subsistence by scraping
it away with their hoofs to get at the dry grass.
On the 27th of February, Mr. Kipp had pieces of ice hewn on the river
to fill his ice cellar. A high west wind increased the cold, but the
snow melted away because the thermometer was at 38° at noon. We saw the
Indian boys pursue and catch the snow-buntings, of which there were
large flocks in the neighbourhood of the villages; and the prairie
wolves now prowled about in couples: in the evening there was a heavy
fall of snow. The Indians removed to their village: all their horses,
even the foals, were loaded: they likewise cut blocks of ice from
the river, which the women carried home on their backs, in leather
baskets, in order to melt them to obtain water. The Indian children
amused themselves with ascending the heaps of snow, and gliding down
on a board, or a piece of the back-bone of a buffalo, with some of
the ribs attached to it. Mato-Topé paid us a visit in a very strange
costume; his head-dress was much more suitable for an old woman than
for a warrior. His head was bound round with a strip of wolf's skin,
the long hairs of which stood on end, and which hung down behind. Some
feathers, standing upright, were placed among the hair, which, except
at the tip, were stripped, and painted red. This chief, indeed, had on
a different dress almost every time he came to see us. Sometimes he
wore a blue uniform, with red facings, which he had obtained from the
merchants. Mr. Bodmer took the portrait of a handsome Manitari partisan
to-day.[43] He was not pleased that we intended to keep his portrait,
as he was going on a military expedition, and said that Mr. Bodmer
ought, at least, to give him a copy of the drawing. This being refused,
he drew a portrait of the artist, and his performance showed that he
possessed some talent for the art.
On the evening of the 28th of February, Picotte sent up the letter-bag
from St. Louis, and I had the pleasure of receiving despatches from
Germany, with very agreeable intelligence. This post was forwarded,
on the 2nd of March, to Fort Union, by two of the _engagés_ in
dog-sledges. Bodmer drew the portrait of an old Manitari, whose proper
name was Birohka (the robe with the beautiful hair), but the Mandans
called him "Long Nose," on account of the prominence of that feature.
He wore a cap of white buffalo skin, and an ample brown robe painted
with wreaths of feathers; before he would suffer his portrait to be
taken, he demanded a black silk neckerchief as a recompense, which
was given him.[44] As all the Indians had now removed to their summer
village,{446} Mr. Kipp took the usual complement of soldiers into the
fort, four of whom served as a guard against the importunities of the
women and children; they were Mato-Topé, Dipauch, Berock-Itainu, and
another whose name I do not know. The first never smoked his pipe in
another person's room, if anybody stirred from his place or looked at
him. We had some interesting conversations with several sensible and
inquiring Indians, especially with the soldiers of the fort.
On the morning of the 5th of March, the mercury being at 29°, we had
a very severe snow storm from the north, which continued till near
ten o'clock. On the following day, Mato-Topé introduced to us a tall,
robust Arikkara, named Pachtuwa-Chta, who lived peaceably among the
Mandans. He was a handsome man, but not to be depended upon, and was
said to have killed many white men.[45] Another tall man of the same
nation frequently visited us, generally observing that he was not like
Pachtuwa, as he had never killed a white man. Mato-Topé, after repeated
solicitations, prevailed on Mr. Bodmer to paint for him a white-headed
eagle, holding in his claws a bloody scalp, to which he, doubtless,
attached some superstitious notion, but I could not see exactly what it
might be. Mato-Topé gave me very accurate information respecting his
own language, and that of the neighbouring Indian nations, and took
great pleasure in communicating to me some words of the Mandan and
Arikkara languages, the latter of which he spoke fluently.
On the 7th of March, the band of the Meniss-Ochata (dog band), from
Ruhptare, danced in the medicine lodge at Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush. Mr.
Bodmer went to see the dance, and met Mato-Topé, who, however, puffed
up by his high dignity as a dog, would not notice him. Sih-Chida, who
also belonged to this band, went into the lodge, where he discharged
his gun. In the afternoon the band approached the fort, and we heard
the sound of their war pipes at the gates. A crowd of spectators
accompanied the seven or eight and twenty dogs, who were all dressed
in their handsomest clothes. Some of them wore beautiful robes, or
shirts of bighorn leather; others had shirts of red cloth; and some
blue and red uniforms. Others, again, had the upper part of their body
naked, with their martial deeds painted on the skin with reddish-brown
colour. The four principal dogs wore an immense cap hanging down upon
the shoulders, composed of raven's or magpie's feathers, finished at
the tips with small white down feathers. In the middle of this mass of
feathers, the outspread tail of a wild turkey, or of a war eagle, was
fixed. These four principal dogs wore round their neck a long slip of
red cloth, which hung down over the shoulders, and, reaching the calf
of the leg, was tied in a knot in the middle of the back. These are
the true dogs, who, when a piece of meat is thrown into the fire, are
bound immediately to snatch it out and devour it raw.[46] Two other
men wore similar colossal caps of yellow owl's feathers, with dark
transverse stripes, and the rest had on their heads a thick tuft of
raven's, magpie's, or owl's feathers, which is the badge of the band.
All of them had the {447} long war pipe suspended from their necks. In
their left hand they carried their weapons--a gun, bow and arrows, or
war club; and in their right hand the schischikué peculiar to their
band. It is a stick adorned with blue and white glass beads, with
buffalo or other hoofs suspended to it, the point ornamented with an
eagle's feather, and the handle with slips of leather embroidered with
beads.[47]
The warriors formed a circle round a large drum, which was beaten by
five ill-dressed men, who were seated on the ground. Besides these,
there were two men, each beating a small drum like a tambourine. The
dogs accompanied the rapid and violent beat of the drum by the whistle
of their war pipes, in short, monotonous notes, and then suddenly began
to dance. They dropped their robes on the ground, some dancing within
the circle, with their bodies bent forward and leaping up and down with
both feet placed close together. The other Indians danced without any
order, with their faces turned to the outer circle, generally crowded
together; while the war pipe, drum, and schischikué made a frightful
din.
On the 10th of March, two _engagés_, sent by Picotte, arrived, with
letters and a sledge laden with dried meat. One of these men was
blinded by the snow, a circumstance very usual in this month, from the
dazzling reflection of the sun from an expansive surface of snow. He
was obliged to get his companion to lead him by taking hold of the end
of his stick.
On the 11th of March I felt the first symptoms of an indisposition,
which daily increased, and soon obliged me to take to my bed. It
began with a swelling in one knee, and soon extended to the whole
leg, which assumed the colour of dark, extravasated blood. A violent
fever succeeded, with great weakness, and, having neither medical
advice nor suitable remedies, my situation became daily more helpless
and distressing, as there was nobody who had any knowledge of this
disorder. The other inhabitants of the fort were likewise indisposed,
and our provisions were very bad and scanty. To economize our stock
of coffee we were forced to make it wretchedly weak, and, for want
of sugar or treacle, to sweeten it with honey, of which we had about
twenty pounds. Our beverage was, generally speaking, the water from
the river; and, as our supply of beans was very low our diet consisted
almost exclusively of maize boiled in water, which greatly weakened our
digestion.
The man blinded by the snow was so far recovered on the 13th, that
he was able to return to Picotte. The first wild ducks were seen on
this day, flying up the Missouri, and Mr. Kipp immediately set about
making shot, to go in pursuit of these birds, which we had been most
anxiously expecting. On the 14th, a store (_cache_) of maize was opened
in the fort, the contents of which were perfectly dry, and in good
preservation. Pehriska-Ruhpa spent several days with us, in order to
have his portrait taken in his dress of one of the chiefs of the dog
band. When the sitting was over, he always took off his ponderous
feather cap, and rubbed it twice on each side of his head, a charm or
precaution which he never neglected. He then seated himself {448} with
his friend, Mato-Topé, by the fire-side, when both took their pipes,
the latter, however, always turning round first, and making everybody
in the room sit down. During the tedium of my confinement to bed, I was
enlivened by the frequent visits of the Indians, and I never neglected
to continue my journal, which, from fever and consequent weakness, was
often very fatiguing. Mr. Kipp kindly sent me some new-laid eggs every
day, as well as rice, which he had reserved for me, and from which I
derived great benefit. The inmates of the fort had nothing to eat but
doughy maize bread and maize boiled in water; but Mr. Kipp, who did not
like the latter, was obliged to fast.
On the 16th of March, the first wild swans were seen flying towards
the northwest. Ducks were in the pools of water in the maize
plantations of the Mandans; and Dreidoppel had observed the _Fringilla
Canadensis_, as a harbinger of spring. Violent storms from the
northwest had prevailed for some days; the Missouri was much swollen,
but the breaking-up of the ice could not yet be expected, and we had
repeated falls of snow. Mato-Topé and Pehriska-Ruhpa, who had gone out
to hunt, succeeded in killing five buffaloes, and from them we obtained
some meat; for, to show their liberality, they gave away a great deal
of it, together with several coloured blankets. The first white-headed
eagle (_Aquila leucocephala_) was seen to-day; and I received the first
prairie dog, which was also a sign of the approach of spring, as these
animals leave their burrows at this season. On the 27th of March,
the band of the mad dogs danced in the fort; and, towards evening,
an Indian from Ruhptare, who had had a dispute with Mr. Kipp about a
beaver skin, revenged himself by breaking a pane of glass in our room.
Our people pursued, but could not overtake him. As it was feared that
he might commit greater acts of violence, the soldiers of the fort were
sent to Ruhptare on the 28th, to protect a fur trader who resided there.
On the 30th, the first flock of fifteen or twenty wild geese passed
over: the wind was high, and, on the following day, a good deal
of ice broke up in the river. On the 1st of April the wind blew
stormy, with a thermometer of 33° at noon. On the 2nd, the women at
Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush celebrated the spring corn feast, of which Mr.
Bodmer made a sketch. This feast is always observed on the return of
the wild geese, which are the messengers of the old woman who never
dies. The Indians had already killed some of these birds. The festival
was over at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, but some of the women
remained the whole day, reclining near the offerings hung up in the
prairie. Great numbers of young men were running races, and all was
animation about the village.
On the 3rd of April, the band of the Ischoha-Kakoschochata, eighteen
in number, danced in the fort, led by Mato-Topé, on horseback, in full
dress, wearing his splendid feather cap. The ice broke up so rapidly
in the river, that it was necessary to set a watch over our boats
during the night, lest the rising water should carry them away. On
the following day the icy covering of {449} the river gave way, but
soon froze again, only leaving a channel across the middle. Many ducks
and geese, as well as a plover, appeared on the ice. On the 5th of
April, the weather being stormy in the morning, and the temperature
59½° Fahrenheit, the river had risen about a foot, and towards noon
it suddenly rose between three and four feet more, so that, at twelve
o'clock, the ice on the surface began to move, the temperature being
68°. But in the night the river again fell a foot, and there was a
slight frost. At nine in the evening the temperature was 55°, and we
had a storm of thunder and lightning.
On the 7th of April there was but little floating ice on the river,
which had fallen during the night. We saw several swans. On the 8th the
Manitaries danced the scalp dance in the fort, and the Indians amused
themselves in the prairie with races and various games. At one o'clock
in the afternoon, the ice in the upper Missouri suddenly broke up, and
brought down many trunks of trees, which endangered our boats. The
Indians immediately availed themselves of this opportunity to land a
good deal of the wood; they also brought ashore a drowned elk, which,
though already in a state of decomposition, they actually ate, and the
smith of the fort, a Canadian, did not disdain to partake of it with
them. Some dead buffaloes likewise floated by, and the Indians followed
them, for the same purpose. In the evening, though the quantity of ice
was considerably diminished, yet some people who were to have gone down
the river were obliged to defer their voyage.
The morning of the 9th of April being fine and serene, and the ice
having almost entirely disappeared from the river, seven men were sent
down to Picotte in Indian leather boats. The grass began to sprout,
and some young plants appeared in the prairie, even a pulsatilla,
with purple blossoms, apparently the same as the _P. vulgaris_ of
Europe; the Indians call this plant the red calf-flower. At noon
the thermometer stood at 65°, with a northeast wind, and the river
was free from ice. Towards evening, nine men of the band of the
buffalo bulls came to the fort to perform their dance, discharging
their guns immediately on entering. Only one of them wore the entire
buffalo head;[48] the others had pieces of the skin of the forehead,
a couple of fillets of red cloth, their shields decorated with the
same material, and an appendage of feathers, intended to represent
the bull's tail, hanging down their backs. They likewise carried
long, elegantly ornamented banners in their hands. After dancing for
a short time before us, they demanded presents. Besides the strange
figures of this dance, Mr. Bodmer painted the chief, Mato-Topé, at
full length, in his grandest dress. The vanity which is characteristic
of the Indians induced this chief to stand stock-still for several
days, so that his portrait succeeded admirably.[49] He wore on this
occasion a handsome new shirt of bighorn leather, the large feather
cap, and, in his hand, a long lance with scalps and feathers. He has
been so often mentioned in my narrative, that I must here subjoin a few
words respecting this eminent man, for he was fully entitled to this
appellation, being not only a distinguished warrior, but possessing
many fine and noble traits of character. {450} In war he had always
maintained a distinguished reputation; and on one occasion, with great
personal danger, he conducted to Fort Clarke a numerous deputation of
the Assiniboins, who had come to Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush to conclude peace,
while his countrymen, disregarding the proposals, kept firing upon
the deputies. Mato-Topé, after having in vain exerted himself to the
utmost to prevent these hostilities, led his enemies, with slow steps,
amidst the whistling balls and the arrows of his countrymen, while he
endeavoured to find excuses for their culpable conduct. He had killed
many enemies, among whom were five chiefs. He gives a facsimile of a
representation of one of his exploits, painted by himself, of which he
frequently gave me an account.[50] He was, on that occasion, on foot,
on a military expedition, with a few Mandans, when they encountered
four Chayennes, their most virulent foes, on horseback. The chief of
the latter, seeing that their enemies were on foot, and that the combat
would thereby be unequal, dismounted, and the two parties attacked
each other. The two chiefs fired, missed, threw away their guns, and
seized their naked weapons; the Chayenne, a tall, powerful man, drew
his knife, while Mato-Topé, who was lighter and more agile, took his
battle-axe. The former attempted to stab Mato-Topé, who laid hold of
the blade of the knife, by which he, indeed, wounded his hand, but
wrested the weapon from his enemy, and stabbed him with it, on which
the Chayennes took to flight. Mato-Topé's drawing of the scene in
the above-named plate, shows the guns which they had discharged and
thrown aside, the blood flowing from the wounded hand of the Mandan
chief, the footsteps of the two warriors, and the wolf's tail at their
heels--the Chayenne being distinguished by the fillet of otter skin on
his forehead. The buffalo robe, painted by Mato-Topé himself, and which
I have fortunately brought to Europe, represents several exploits of
this chief, and, among others, in the lower figure on the left hand,
the above-mentioned adventure with the Chayenne chief.[51]
The 10th of April was warm and fine, the thermometer at noon at
80°, the wind south, and the river had fallen three feet. Several
of our Indian friends, among whom was Sih-Chida, had taken leave,
intending to assist a large party of Manitaries and Mandans in a
military expedition. They set out on their march about this time,
and we afterwards learnt that a war party of the Manitaries had
completely plundered a couple of beaver hunters, white men; and that
their partisan, whose name was Pierce Iron, had acted the principal
part on this occasion. On the other hand, the Assiniboins had stolen
thirty-four horses from the Manitaries, who shot one of the thieves.
On the afternoon of the 14th of April, the people whom Mr. Mc Kenzie
had promised to send to accompany me down the river to Saint Louis,
at length arrived from Fort Union. There were, however, many others
with them, and the whole party amounted to twenty men, among whom
were Belhumeur and Mr. Chardon as leader. The violent storm on the
preceding days had hindered them from travelling, and they were obliged
to halt. They brought us letters from {451} Fort Union, and news
from Fort Mc Kenzie. As my people could now be spared, I looked daily
for the arrival of Picotte, who, with many men, was to go up to Fort
Union, as, without the help of his men, my Mackinaw boat could not
be caulked. A main point now was my recovery, which was singularly
rapid. At the beginning of April I was still in a hopeless condition,
and so very ill, that the people who visited me did not think that
my life would be prolonged beyond three or, at the most, four days.
The cook of the fort, a negro from St. Louis, one day expressed his
opinion that my illness must be the scurvy, for he had once witnessed
the great mortality among the garrison of the fort at Council Bluffs,
when several hundred soldiers were carried off in a short time; of
this there is an account in Major Long's expedition to the Rocky
Mountains.[52] He said that the symptoms were in both cases nearly
similar; that, on that occasion, at the beginning of spring, they had
gathered the green herbs in the prairie, especially the small white
flowering _Allium reticulatum_, with which they had soon cured the
sick. I was advised to make trial of this, recipe, and the Indian
children accordingly furnished me with an abundance of this plant and
its bulbs: these were cut up small, like spinage, and I ate a quantity
of them. On the fourth day the swelling of my leg had considerably
subsided, and I gained strength daily. The evident prospect of speedy
recovery quite reanimated me, and we carried on with pleasure the
preparations for our departure, though I was not yet able to leave my
bed.
On the 15th of April, Picotte arrived with about twenty men, and had
his boat laden with maize, which he was to carry to Fort Union. They
immediately set about preparing the Mackinaw boat for our voyage down
the river, and Picotte set out on the 16th, notwithstanding a heavy
rain. Every preparation was completed on the following day; the boat
was brought to the landing-place, furnished on the deck with a spacious
Indian tent covering, and all was made ready for our voyage, Mr.
Chardon resolving to accompany me to Fort Pièrre on the Teton River.
On the 18th of April, at noon, the boat was loaded; and, after we had
partaken of our last frugal dinner at Fort Clarke, we took a cordial
farewell of Mr. Kipp, with whom we had passed so long a time in this
remote place, and who had done everything for me that was possible
in his circumscribed condition. Accompanied by the inhabitants of
the fort, and many of our Indian friends, among whom was Mato-Topé
and Pehriska-Ruhpa, all of whom shook hands at parting, we went on
board our boat. The weather was favourable, though there was a strong
wind from the southwest. Some cannon-shot were fired by the fort as a
farewell salute, and we glided rapidly down the beautiful stream of the
Missouri.
FOOTNOTES:
[38] Compare with this the invocations of the Omaha, given in Dorsey,
"Siouan Cults," U. S. Bureau of Ethnology _Report_, 1889-90, p.
373.--ED.
[39] See p. 59, for illustration of a double rainbow.--ED.
[40] See Plate 45, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.
[41] For sketch of this trader, see our volume xxii, p. 316, note
279.--ED.
[42] See Plate 50, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.
[43] The second figure from the left, in Plate 50, in the accompanying
atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.
[44] This portrait is in Plate 50, the third figure from the left,
atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.
[45] See Plate 27, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.
[46] A "very admirable likeness of Pehriska-Ruhpa in this strange
costume" is represented in Plate 56, in the accompanying atlas, our
volume xxv.--ED.
[47] For a description of this dance among the Minitaree, see our
volume xxiii, pp. 314, 315.--ED.
[48] See Plate 51, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.
[49] See Plate 46, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.
[50] See Plate 55, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.
[51] See Plate 54, figure 1, in the accompanying atlas, our volume
xxv.--ED.
[52] See our volume xiv, pp. 282, 283.--ED.