also a wandering tribe, who inhabit that part of the Rocky Mountains
which lies on the Grand and Green River branches of the Colorado of
the West, the valley of the Great Bear River, the habitable shores of
the Great Salt Lake, and a tract of country on the Snake River. Some
of them subsist principally on roots; while others live on fish.
They are said to own many horses, and, from their first acquaintance
with the whites, to have been averse to war and cruelty. They have,
however, been obliged to fight with the Blackfeet, Crows, Sioux, and
Eutaws, to defend portions of their territory; and these tribes have
formerly been much accustomed to send parties to rob them of their
horses. They are described as being an intelligent race, possessing
many domestic comforts, and opposed to immorality. They refuse the use
of intoxicating liquor, saying, “It unmans us for the hunt and for
defending ourselves against our enemies; it causes unnatural divisions
among ourselves; it makes the chief less than his Indian; and by its
use, imbecility and ruin would come upon the Shoshonie tribe.”
The Nezpercés and Chinnooks, or Flatheads, with the Skyuse Indians, are
found near the mouth and branches of the Columbia River. Catlin thinks
the Chinnooks are related to the Choctaws, and tells a tradition of
the latter which seems to favor this opinion. The Nezpercés excited
much interest a few years ago, in consequence of a delegation which
came from them across the Rocky Mountains, saying they had heard from a
white man that the religion of the whites was better than theirs, and
they would be lost if they did not embrace it, and they came to inquire
for teachers. Missionaries were sent among them, who are said to be in
some measure successful in their efforts.
The code of laws existing among this tribe, as given in the last report
of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, is very strict, and exhibits
a determination on the part of the people to have justice truly
administered. Murder and arson are punished with death; the burning
of an outbuilding with six months’ imprisonment, fifty lashes, and the
payment of all damages. Careless burning of a house subjects the person
doing it to the payment of damages.
The Chiens are a small tribe, about 3,000 in number, neighbours to
the Sioux on the west. They are a fine race of men, scarcely a man in
the tribe being less than six feet in height. They are said to be the
richest in horses of any tribe on the continent, living, as they do,
where the greatest herds are grazing on the prairies; these they catch
in great numbers, and vend to the Sioux, Mandans, and other tribes, as
well as to the fur-traders. They are described as dexterous horsemen
and fierce warriors, having carried on an unceasing contest with the
Pawnees and the Blackfeet.
The Crows are a wandering tribe, usually found in the upper plains
around the head-waters of the Great Platte, Snake, and Yellowstone
Rivers. They are variously estimated at from 5,500 to 7,000. The
general opinion seems to be, that they are the most arrant rascals
among the western mountains. The traders say, “They have never been
known to keep a promise, or do an honorable act.” No white man or
Indian trusts them. Murder and robbery are their principal employments.
Catlin is disposed to modify this view of the tribe, though he admits
that such is their reputation. He says they are distinguished for their
elegant lodges, and their beautiful skin dresses. They are always at
war with the Blackfeet, in consequence of which they suffer greatly in
battle.
The Blackfeet are a well known numerous and warlike tribe of Indians
residing on the branches of the Missouri above the Great Falls. Various
estimates have been made of their numbers. Catlin supposes that
they may reckon as many as 40,000 or 50,000. In the year 1828, they
suffered very severely by the small-pox, which was introduced among
them in consequence of their stealing a blanket from the steamboat of
the American Fur Company on the Yellowstone, which had belonged to a
man who had died of that disease. The infected article, being carried
to their encampment upon the left fork of the Missouri, spread the
dreadful infection among the whole tribe. They were amazed at the
appearance of the disease. The red blotch, the bile, the congestion
of the lungs, liver, and brain, were all new to their medicine-men;
and the corpse, falling in pieces while they buried it, struck horror
into every heart. In their frenzy and ignorance, they increased the
number of their sweat-ovens upon the banks of the stream; and whether
the burning fever or the want of nervous action prevailed, whether
frantic with pain, or tottering in death, they were placed in them,
sweated profusely, and plunged into the snowy waters of the river. The
mortality which followed this treatment was like that of the great
plague in London. They endeavoured for a time to bury the dead, but
these were soon more numerous than the living. Mad with superstition
and fear, brother forsook sister; father his son; mother her sucking
child. They fled to the elevated vales among the western heights, where
the influences of the climate, operating on the already well-spent
energies of the disease, restored the remainder of the tribe to
health. To this hour do the bones of seven or eight thousand Blackfeet
lie unburied among the decaying lodges of their deserted village on the
banks of the Yellowstone.
The Blackfeet are a ferocious tribe, numbering among their enemies
all the nations within their reach. They roam about, seeking their
foes wherever they are to be found. To show the hostility of the other
tribes to the Blackfeet, Catlin relates the following event as having
occurred when he was present. A party of Knistenaux came from the
north for the purpose of making their summer’s trade at the station
of one of the fur companies; and whilst there, a party of Blackfeet
came from the west, also to trade. They encamped on opposite sides of
the fort, and spent some weeks together in apparent good-fellowship,
their arms, according to the regulation at the fort, being locked up
in the arsenal. The Knistenaux had completed their trade, yet loitered
about the premises, until all, both Indians and white men, were getting
tired of their company, and wished them quietly away. When they were
ready to start, with their goods packed on their backs, their arms
were given them, and they started, bidding every body, both friends
and foes, a hearty farewell. They went out of the fort, and though the
party gradually moved off, one of them, undiscovered, loitered about,
until he got an opportunity to poke the muzzle of his gun between the
pickets. He then fired it at one of the chiefs of the Blackfeet, who
stood within a few paces, talking with Mr. McKenzie, and shot him with
two musket-bullets through his body! The Blackfeet and the Frenchmen
in the fort ran forth with their arms, and, after several shots were
exchanged, drove off the Knistenaux, they having lost one man, and
having several others wounded.
The Blackfeet are described as of a Herculean make, though of middling
stature; they have broad shoulders, and great expansion of chest. They
probably acquired their name from the black leggins or moccasins which
they wear. They are divided into four bands or families, the Pe-a-gans,
of five hundred lodges, the Blackfoot band, of 450 lodges, the Blood
band, of 450 lodges, and the Small Robes, of 250 lodges. These four
bands comprise about 1,650 lodges, and, probably averaging ten to a
lodge, amount to about 16,500 souls. There are also, in the vicinity,
the Grosventres des Prairies, 430 lodges; Circees, of 220 lodges; and
Cotornés, of 250 lodges. These have languages distinct from each other
and from the Blackfeet, yet they seem to be their confederates, and
hunt, eat, fight, and intermarry with them.
The Minetarees, a small tribe of about 1,500 souls, reside in three
villages, consisting of earth-covered lodges, on the banks of the Knife
River, a branch of the Missouri. This people are supposed to be a
part of the Crows, who, at some remote period, being cut off by their
enemies, and unable to return, threw themselves upon the hospitality of
the Mandans, with whom they became, in a measure, joined. In language
and customs they are said much to resemble the Crows, though they have
also become somewhat assimilated to the Mandans. They have a tradition
to the following effect. They came to the vicinity of the Mandans,
poor, and without wigwams or horses. They were nearly all women, as
their warriors had been killed off in fight; the Mandans would not take
them into their village, nor let them come nearer than where they are
now living, but they assisted them to build wigwams.
Their chief, Black Moccasin, who treated Lewis and Clarke with great
kindness, when they crossed the Rocky Mountains, in 1819, was still
living when Catlin was among them, though probably more than a hundred
years old. Lewis and Clarke constituted him chief of the tribe, and
such has he been ever since. He remembered and inquired very earnestly
after Red Hair and Long Knife, as he called those officers, from
the fact that one had red hair and the other wore a broadsword. The
Minetarees are a bold and daring tribe, often carrying war into their
enemies’ country, and thus greatly diminishing their numbers.
Mr. Catlin gives an account of the following scene which occurred while
he was with this tribe. “The sensation I created,” says he, “among the
Minetarees, while on the Upper Missouri, by taking from amongst my
painting apparatus an old number of the New York Commercial Advertiser,
edited by my kind and tried friend, Colonel Stone, was extraordinary.
The Minetarees thought that I was mad, when they saw me, for hours
together, with my eyes fixed upon its pages. They had different and
various conjectures about it; the most current of which was, that
I was looking at it to cure my sore eyes, and they called it ‘the
medicine-cloth for sore eyes.’ I, at length, put an end to this and
several equally ignorant conjectures, by reading passages in it, which
were interpreted to them, and the object of the paper fully explained;
after which, it was looked upon as a much greater mystery than before,
and several liberal offers were made me for it, which I was obliged to
refuse, having already received a beautifully garnished robe for it
from the hands of a young son of Esculapius, who told me, if he could
employ a good interpreter to explain every thing in it, he could travel
amongst the Minetarees, and Mandans, and Sioux, and exhibit it after I
was gone, getting rich with presents, and adding greatly to his list
of medicines, as it would make him a great medicine-man. I left with
the poor fellow his painted robe and the newspaper; and just before I
departed, I saw him unfold it to show some of his friends, when he took
from around it some eight or ten folds of birch-bark and deer-skins,
all of which were carefully enclosed in a sack made of the skin of a
polecat, and undoubtedly destined to become, and to be called, his
mystery or medicine-bag.”
The Ricarees are esteemed a part of the tribe of the Pawnees, as their
language is nearly the same. They received Lewis and Clarke with great
cordiality; but, owing to the abuses which they have suffered from the
traders, they now harbour the most inveterate feelings of hostility
towards the whole civilized race.
We come now to the Mandans, a tribe, a few years since, numbering about
two thousand, but who are said to be now extinct. They appear to have
been a remarkable and peculiar people, differing greatly from most
other Indians. The impression has prevailed among many individuals
who became acquainted with them, that they were the descendants of
Madoc, the Welsh chief, who is supposed to have landed on the coast
with a colony. This opinion is sustained by Mr. Catlin, who has given
a full and interesting account of the peculiarities of the nation.
He claims to have traced them up from the banks of the Ohio to their
last residence, where he found them. In support of his views, he urges
that there is a diversity of complexion among them, some being dark,
and some light; that blue and gray eyes are often met with; and that
striking resemblances to the Welsh, in language, manners, and customs,
are to be found.
[Illustration: _The Four Bears._]
Dr. Morse, in his Indian Report, tells us that he was informed by a
French priest at Detroit, that, in 1793, he was told at Fort Chartres,
that twelve years before, Captain Lord, who commanded at this post,
had heard some of the old people observe, that the Mandan Indians, who
visited the post, could converse intelligibly with some Welsh soldiers
in the British army. It is to be regretted that more attention was not
devoted to the solution of this interesting question, before the last
remnant of this people had become extinct. The account which Mr. Catlin
gives of their warriors shows that there were many valiant men among
them. The robe of one of their chiefs, called Mah-to-toh-pa, or the
Four Bears, by means of its pictured records, set forth that he had
been engaged in numerous encounters with the Sioux, Chiens, Ricarees,
and Assinniboins. The following is the substance of his adventures.
His brother having been killed by a noted Ricaree brave, whose spear
was found in his body, he drew out the lance and kept it four years,
with the blood dried on its blade. He then, according to an oath he
had taken, prepared to avenge his brother’s death, with the spear by
which he had fallen. Sallying forth, he brandished the weapon through
the village, uttering these words:--“Let every Mandan be silent! Let
no one sound the name of Mah-to-toh-pa; let no one ask for him, nor
where he is gone, until you hear him sound the war-cry in front of the
village; he will then enter it, and show you the blood of Won-ga-tap.
The blade of this lance shall drink the heart’s blood of Won-ga-tap, or
Mah-to-toh-pa shall mingle his shadow with that of his brother!”
He then directed his course toward the Ricaree village. When he
approached it, he loitered about the wigwam of his destined victim,
and, looking through the chinks, observed him smoking his last pipe. He
saw him retire to bed. The village was silent, and wrapt in darkness.
He now crept softly into the lodge, and seated himself by the fire,
where he satisfied his appetite from the contents of a pot hanging
over it; he then lighted his pipe, after which, stirring up the embers
until he clearly saw his way, with lance in hand, he rose and drove it
through the body of his enemy. Snatching his scalp from his head, he
now darted from the lodge, and hurried across the prairie. The whole
village was roused, but no one knew who had dealt the blow. He ran all
night, and lay by during the day. On the sixth morning, at sunrise, he
entered his village, showing the blood of his victim dried upon his
spear, over that of his brother, while the scalp was suspended from the
handle of the weapon.
On a certain occasion, a band of one hundred and fifty Chien warriors
made an assault on the Mandan village at early dawn, drove off a
number of horses, and took one scalp. Mah-to-toh-pa, though a young
man, yet, as one of the most valiant of his tribe, pursued with a
party of fifty. About noon of the second day, they came in sight of
the enemy. Finding them more numerous than was imagined, the Mandans
were about to return, when their young leader galloped out in front,
and, after wheeling in a circuit, plunged his lance into the ground.
The blade was driven up to the hilt. He then made another circuit, tore
from his breast his red sash, and hung it on the lance as a flag. He
now called out to the retreating Mandans, “What! have we come to this?
Have we dogged the enemy three days, and found them, now to go back
like cowards? Mah-to-toh-pa’s lance, which is red with the blood of
brave men, has led you to the sight of your enemy; it now stands firm
in the ground, where the earth will drink its owner’s blood; you may
all go back, and Mah-to-toh-pa will fight these warriors alone.”
The Chiens had now turned back to give the Mandans battle, and their
leader, admiring the gallant conduct of Mah-lo-toh-pa, galloped forward
within hailing distance, and demanded who it was that had thus stuck
down his lance, and alone defied his enemies? The answer was, “I am
Mah-to-toh-pa, the second in command of the brave and valiant Mandans!”
The Chien chief then said, “I have heard often of Mah-to-toh-pa; he is
a great warrior. Dares he come forward and fight with me alone, while
our warriors look on?” “Is he a chief who speaks to Mah-to-toh-pa?“ was
the reply. The Chien answered, “My scalps you see hanging to my horse’s
bits; and here is my lance, with the ermine-skins and the war-eagle’s
tail.” “It is enough,” said Mah-to-toh-pa.
The Chien chief, mounted on a fierce white horse, now made a circuit at
full gallop, and stuck his lance into the ground, leaving it standing
by the side of Mah-to-toh-pa’s, and with a red flag also waving from
it. They now drew near each other, and discharged their guns. They then
passed each other, and, as they wheeled, Mah-to-toh-pa held up his
powder-horn, and showed his antagonist that a bullet had shattered it
in pieces. He then threw aside his firelock, drew out his bow and an
arrow, and hung his shield on his left arm. The Chien did the same, and
both dashed on, sending their whizzing shafts at each other in quick
succession. Mah-to-toh-pa’s horse received an arrow through the heart,
and fell to the ground. The rider sprang to his feet, and was instantly
prepared for his antagonist. The Chien dismounted, drove back his
horse, and presented his shield, inviting the Mandan to come on. After
a few shots from the bow, the Chien held up his empty quiver, and,
dashing it with his bow and shield to the ground, drew his knife, and
brandished it aloft in air. “Yes!” cried out Mah-to-toh-pa, exultingly,
throwing away also his quiver and shield; but, on feeling for his
blade, it was missing,--he had not brought it in his belt! He had only
his bow in hand, but with this he parried the blows of his assailant,
and at last struck him to the ground. After a desperate struggle
for the knife, in which the blade was several times drawn through
Mah-to-toh-pa’s right hand, he gained possession of it, and plunged it
into the heart of the Chien. Holding it up, the Mandan claimed it as
his own, and, taking the scalp of his valiant enemy, he departed in
triumph.
Such are some of the feats of the Four Bears. But he and his tribe are
now no more. In the summer of 1838, the small-pox, that curse of the
red race, was introduced among them by the fur-traders. The Mandans
were then surrounded by several war-parties of the Sioux, so that they
could not scatter into the plains, but were confined to their village.
The disease became so malignant, that, after a person was attacked,
death ensued in a few hours. Despair and madness seemed to seize upon
the people, and a large number destroyed themselves with knives and
guns, or by dashing out their brains in leaping headlong from a ledge
of rocks in front of their village. None thought of burying their dead,
and whole families were left in ghastly heaps in the wigwams.
Mr. Catlin gives the following account of the melancholy fate of
Mah-to-toh-pa. “He sat in his wigwam and saw every one of his family
die about him,--his wives and his little children. He was attacked
with the disease himself, but he recovered. He then walked out, and,
passing around the village, wept over the destruction of his tribe. His
braves and warriors, whose sinewy arms once seemed to defy danger, were
now but as heaps of clay. He came back to his lodge, and covered the
bodies of his family in a pile with a number of robes; he threw another
around himself, and went out upon a hill at a little distance and sat
down. Despite the entreaties of some traders who chanced to be there,
he utterly refused to eat. He remained on the earth till the sixth
day, when, faint and exhausted, he staggered back to the village, and
entered the horrid gloom of his own wigwam. Laying his body down beside
the group of his sleeping wife and children, he drew his robe over his
face, and, lingering for three days, at last died.”
Thus, in the course of two months, the whole tribe of Mandans perished,
with the exception of some thirty or forty, that were taken as slaves
by the Ricarees, who moved from their own abodes and took possession
of the Mandan village. This remnant of the valiant Mandans could not
endure a state of bondage. Some months after they had been reduced to
captivity, when the Ricarees were attacked by their enemies, the Sioux,
they ran out together upon the prairie, calling to the Sioux to kill
them. “We are Ricaree dogs!” said they. “Our friends are dead,--our
warriors are no more,--our villages are in the hands of strangers. We
will not, we cannot live!” Then, brandishing their weapons in a manner
to provoke the enemy, they were all cut in pieces. Not one escaped, and
the Mandans are no more. Where is there a sadder page of history than
this?
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE WESTERN INDIANS IN THE UNITED STATES.
From our previous pages it will be seen that numerous causes have
contributed to reduce the number of the aboriginal inhabitants of
this country, so that but a remnant are now found in the States
and Territories of this republic. By the most recent report of the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Congress, the following is the
estimated number of Indians in the United States. Of tribes indigenous
to the country west of the Mississippi River, 168,909; of those
removed, 82,594; present western population of the tribes wholly or
partially removed, 89,288; remaining east of the Mississippi, 22,846.
From this it seems that there were but about 300,000 of the various
tribes specified yet remaining. But this includes only a small portion
of some of the most numerous native tribes, as, for instance, the
Blackfeet and others.
The evils attending the proximity of the whites to the Indians, while
the latter remained within the bounds of the States, have induced the
general government to adopt the policy of their removal to an extensive
country west of the Mississippi. The measure was one which was,
indeed, attended by great present inconvenience and injustice to those
tribes which had become, in a degree, somewhat civilized, as they were
forcibly torn from their loved homes, and compelled to commence their
journey to an untried country, where they must, as it were, begin life
anew. Many perished during their march, from fatigue and disease. But
resistance was hopeless, and the only chance that remained of their
preservation, as distinct tribes, was in their consent to go; and so
they obeyed the mandate, and departed far from their ancient seats of
power, and the burial-places of their fathers. They left behind them,
in many instances, good houses, well cultivated fields, and various
improvements, which were the fruit of the labor of years; and, to the
great disgrace of the whites, they were subjected, in some cases, to
outrage and rapine, dispossessed of their property, and even wounded,
or put to death, while defending it.
The Indian Territory, as it is called, is a tract of country bounded
on the south by the Red River, east by the States of Arkansas and
Missouri, on the north and northeast by the Missouri and Punch Rivers,
and west by the western limit of habitable country on this side of the
Rocky Mountains. This has been purchased, at various prices, of the
indigenous tribes. The soil is said to be most excellent, abounding in
fine water, timber, mines of coal, iron, and lead; at the same time, it
is the resort of numerous buffaloes, so that it seems well adapted for
the purposes to which it is destined.
The plan adopted by the government has been by purchase to extinguish
the Indian title to those lands which they leave, give them others
within the new territory, transport them thither, and erect a portion
of their dwellings, plough and fence a part of their fields, furnish
them teachers in agriculture, and tools, horses, cattle, &c., build
school-houses and provide instructors, and make arrangements for the
support of those who have not the means at hand, at the outset, for
this purpose.