diseases are extremely rare; and no febrile symptoms seen except in
cases of wounds and parturition when puerperal fever often occurs, and
assuming a typhoid form is generally fatal. They are also exempt from
paralysis, toothache and almost all the thousand nervous complaints to
which the whites are subject, among which might be mentioned baldness
or failure of eyesight from age. Their materia medica is consequently
in a very primitive state. They have no medicine except some roots,
some of which are known to be good for the bite of the rattlesnake,
frozen parts, and inflammatory wounds. The principal of these is the
black root, called by them the comb root (pl. 67, _a_), from the pod on
the top being composed of a stiff surface that can be used as a comb.
It is called by the French racine noir, and grows everywhere in the
prairie throughout the Indian country. It is chewed and applied in a
raw state with a bandage to the part affected. We can bear witness to
the efficacy of this root in the cure of the bite of the rattlesnake
or in alleviating the pain and reducing the tension and inflammation
of frozen parts, gunshot wounds, etc. It has a slightly pungent taste
resembling black pepper, and produces a great deal of saliva while
chewing it. Its virtues are known to all the tribes with which we are
acquainted, and it is often used with success. A decoction of the root
of cat-tail (pl. 67, _b_) is also used to reduce inflammation, and
given internally to produce perspiration, but mostly as an external
application for wounds, sprains, and pains of all kinds, as also the
inner bark of the red willow; both of which are said to be beneficial,
and are much used by the Indians and French voyageurs in all the Indian
country.
[Illustration: FIGURE 30.—Lancet]
At the risk of a smile and perhaps something more from the enlightened
civilized medical fraternity we will now state how they absolutely can
and do cure hydrophobia, in hopes of furnishing them with a hint that
may be improved upon. We have never actually seen this operation, but
are as certain of its being done as we can be of anything not seen but
in all other respects well authenticated. Although Indians are often
bitten by mad wolves, yet they never die from the disease if operated
upon. After it is known that the patient has hydrophobia, the symptoms
of which they are well acquainted with, and has had a fit or two, he
is sewed up in a fresh rawhide of a buffalo. With two cords attached
to the head and foot of the bale the man is swung backward and forward
through a hot fire until the skin is burnt to cinders and the patient
is burned and suffocated [sic]. He is brought to the brink of the
grave by the operation; taken out in a state of profuse perspiration
and plunged into cold water; and if he survives the treatment the
disease disappears. The remedy is terrible. Now, if the poison of the
rattlesnake is expelled by perspiration by administering ammonia and
other remedies, might not the poison communicated by the rabid animal
undergo a like process by the violent treatment mentioned, or intense
heat produce the desired constitutional revolution and effect a cure.
DEPLETION BY BLEEDING.—They bleed often, both when the pulse is full
from sickness and at any time they think it beneficial.
The instrument is a sharpened arrow point or any other small piece of
pointed iron. (Fig. 30.) They wrap the whole of this with sinew except
as much as they wish to enter the vein. It is then tied into a split
stick and secured firmly with sinew and being laid on the vein is
knocked in suddenly with the thumb and middle finger. They also open
the veins of their legs and arms while crying over dead relatives,
making large transverse cuts with knives, arrow points, or flints. When
they bleed they generally let the blood flow as long as it will without
bandage. Cupping is done with a part of the upper end of a buffalo
horn, about 2½ inches long, and a vacuum is produced by suction with
the mouth which, with their powerful muscles and exertions, is, of
course, double force. It is said to be useful in drawing out the poison
of snake bites and is also used for pains and cramps in the stomach,
besides for extracting worms, bugs, snakes, etc., as mentioned in the
general practice. We believe it may have something of the effect of
dry cupping with glasses; they do not, however, scarify before cupping
except in cases of snake bites.
STOPPAGE OF BLOOD AND HEALING ART.—For stopping of blood they use
cobwebs, dried pulpy fungus, or very fine inner bark of trees. When
these are not to be had finely pulverized rotten wood is used. These
answer tolerably well when the divided artery is small. They have no
good plasters or healing salves.
Bandages are mostly tied on too tight, with the view of stopping the
bleeding and are left too long before being removed, which frequently
results in gangrene. They are not skillful nor clean in these things,
seldom washing a wound. From actual observation, which has been pretty
extensive with regard to cuts and wounds of all kinds, we are disposed
to believe that their cure does not depend upon any skill in treatment
nor care taken of them, but upon their vigorous constitutions,
extremely healthy climate, and strictly temperate mode of life, with
perhaps a disposition to heal naturally in the absence of scientific
knowledge vouchsafed to the ignorant Indian by an all-wise Creator.
AMPUTATION.—They never amputate a limb, though fingers and toes often
undergo that operation.[8] The Assiniboin run a sharp knife around
the joint of the finger and snap it off. The Crows do the same, but
on other occasions take them off by placing a sharp tomahawk on the
finger, it being laid on a block and the tomahawk being struck with
a mallet. Whenever a Crow Indian dies his near relatives, male and
female, sacrifice each a finger and sometimes two, and the loss of
these people by sickness and enemies the last few years having been
great, there is scarcely such a thing as a whole hand to be found in
the Crow Nation. The men reserve the thumb and middle finger on the
left and the thumb and two forefingers of the right hand to use the bow
and gun, but all the rest are sacrificed.
[8] In the few cases where the Indians have an arm or leg missing, they
have been shot off, or so nearly off as not to come under the head of
amputation, as but little skin or nerve were to be cut.
They mostly take them off at the first and second joints, though
occasionally lower down. These small amputations are seldom attended
with any serious effect, but from their awkward operations the bone
frequently projects and requires a long time to heal. They use splints
and bark in fractures and lacerated bones, but are not skillful in
applying them, nor attentive in removing them, and in a short time
the wound smells bad. Their wounded are carried from the field in a
blanket, robe, or skin, by four men each holding a corner, who are
relieved by others when fatigued, in which way they transport them
for days and sometimes weeks together. When very badly wounded in an
enemy’s country and supposed to be mortally wounded they are left in
some point of timber to die. A small stock of provisions and ammunition
is left with them. They sometimes recover almost by miracle. Instances
of this kind are not uncommon and serve to show the suffering an Indian
will undergo and the different means he will use to preserve life.
THEORY OF DISEASES AND THEIR REMEDY.—They understand nothing of the
properties of mineral medicines except a few simple ones given them by
whites of later years, neither are they acquainted with the theory of
diseases, being for the most part unable to describe their complaint
so that any person could prescribe. They are as ignorant of any true
knowledge of diseases or medicines as they are of astronomy or any
other science.
It is hardly conceivable how the smallpox among Indians could be
cured by any physician. All remedies fail. The disease kills a
greater part of them before any eruption appears. We have personally
tried experiments on nearly 200 cases according to Thomas’s Domestic
Medicine, varying the treatment in every possible form, but have always
failed, or in the few instances of success the disease had assumed
such a mild form that medicines were unnecessary. It generally takes
the confluent turn of the most malignant kind (when the patient does
not die before the eruption), which in 95 cases out of 100 is fatal.
It appears to be the natural curse of the red men, and here we leave
it, perfectly willing others should do more. We have from year to year
tried to introduce general vaccination with kinepock among them, and
have even paid them to vaccinate their own children, but they will not
have it done to any extent, and the few who will do it more to please
us than to benefit themselves. Moreover, should any accident happen
to the child or even should the Indian miss his hunt, or any casualty
befall him or his family, the vaccination would be blamed for it and
the good-hearted operator would find himself in a position of danger
and expense. There is also great risk in giving them medicines, for
should the patient die the whites would be blamed for poisoning him,
and should he live the Indian drummer or doctor will get both the
credit and the pay. Therefore, as their customs at present stand but
little can be done for them, however willing people are to attempt it.
PARTURITION.—Men never interpose their services in cases of
parturition.
When there is danger a midwife is called, and the deobstruents
administered are castoreum and pulverized rattles of the rattlesnake,
either of which have the effect of the ergot. Shampooing is also
resorted to with the view of detaching the fetus or expelling the
envelope. Nevertheless strangulation and consequently death of both
mother and child often happens, not so much in the natural course
as when destroyed expressly in utero, as is done by the Crow women
and sometimes by the Assiniboin, though not to such an extent by the
latter. This is accomplished by violent pressure on the abdomen, by
leaning on a stick planted in the ground, and, swinging the whole
weight of their body, they run backward and forward, or by violent
blows administered by some other person called for the purpose, in all
which operations, if the time be not well calculated for expelling the
fetus, death is the consequence.
Their vapor baths have been alluded to and might prove efficacious in
some cases of chronic rheumatism, catarrh, etc., if proper care was
taken, but are very pernicious owing to their negligence afterwards, or
cold immersion during perspiration. In conclusion we would remark that
with regard to any judicious treatment of any disease whatever (that
is, any such treatment as would meet medical approbation) they are
entirely in the dark. The most of their dependence is on the drumming,
singing, and incantations which perhaps sometimes have some little
effect on the mind of youthful patients, though in these cases the
probability is they are more frightened than sick.
In a large camp the drum can be heard at all hours of the day and
night, as there is always some one who is sick, or thinks he is. What
appears singular is that the doctor, knowing his art to be deception,
should he fall sick calls for another divining man and pays for the
drumming the same as his patients have paid him. This would seem to
prove they actually have faith in their own incantations, etc. They
can not distinguish between an artery and a vein. They call both by
the same name, though they say the arteries are large veins. Arteries
are compressed, not taken up when cut, and if a large one is cut, the
consequence is either mortification from the ligature or, if loosely
tied, death by bleeding, which invariably happens when the large artery
of the thigh is separated.
Indians will receive extensive wounds, apparently mortal, and yet
recover. Some years ago an Assiniboin was surrounded by three Blackfeet
a few miles from this place. He had fired at a prairie hen, and the
moment his gun was discharged the three enemies fired on him. The three
balls took effect. One broke his thigh, another the shin bone of the
other leg, and the third entered his abdomen and came out near the
kidney and backbone. They then ran in upon and endeavored to scalp him,
running a knife around the cranium and partially withdrawing the scalp.
Finding that he struggled they stabbed him with a long lance downward
under the collar bone, the lance running along the inside and against
the right ribs about 12 inches. They also gave him several more stabs
in the body with their knives.
In the struggle the man got out the lance and plunging it at them
alternately they retired a few paces. The camp in the meantime having
heard the firing and suspecting the cause, turned out. The enemies
seeing this, decamped, and the Assiniboin carried the wounded man to
his lodge. In a few days afterwards the camp passed by the fort and
the writer saw this man in so helpless a state that, expecting him
to die, nothing was done. The weather was very hot, the wounds had a
purple color, smelt bad, and had every appearance of gangrene. The camp
moved off and the man in time recovered. The scalp was replaced and
grew on again. Here was no judicious treatment, not even ordinary care,
for in traveling that is impossible, and very unfavorable weather.
This man is yet living and is said by the Indians to bear a charmed
life, is respected as a warrior and brave, called “He who was many
times wounded,” and can be seen any time in the Band des Canots of the
Assiniboin.
GOVERNMENT
TRIBAL ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT.—The tribe of Indians called
Assiniboin is separated into the following distinct bands, viz.,
Wah-to´-pah-han-da´-tok, or “Those who propel boats,” by the whites
Gens du Gauche, from the circumstance of the old Gauche (chief) spoken
of before who for a half century governed this band. It now numbers
100 lodges. The second band, Wah-ze-ab-we-chas-ta, or Gens du Nord,
thus named because they came from that direction in 1839 as already
represented, though their original appellation was Gens du Lac. These
count 60 lodges. Third band, Wah-to-pan-ah, or Canoe Indians, Gens des
Canots, who may be recorded at 220 lodges that trade on the Missouri,
and 30 lodges more who deal with American and British traders near the
mouth of Pembina and Red Rivers, occasionally visiting the Missouri.
Fourth band, We-che-ap-pe-nah, or Gens des Filles, literally the
“Girls Band”; these can be put down at 60 lodges. Fifth, E-an-to-ah
or Gens des Roches, literally “Stone Indians,” comprising 50 lodges.
The original name for the whole nation given them by the Chippewa
(As-see-ni-pai-tuck) has the same[9] signification. Within the last
10 years another division has again arisen, called Hoo-tai-sha-pah or
“Lower End Red,” alias “Red Root.” These are a branch, from the Gens
des Canots and odds and ends of other bands and consist of 30 lodges.
[9] For correct meaning see footnote 1.
RECAPITULATION
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indian name | French name |Lodges| Chiefs of bands | Head chief
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wah-to-pah-han-da-toh|Gens du Gauche | 100 |La Main que tremble|}
Wah-ze-ab-we-chas-tah|Gens du Nord | 60 |Le Robe de vent |}
Wah-to-pan-ah |Gens des Canot | 220 |Le Serpent |} L’ours Fou or
We-che-ap-pe-nah |Gens des Filles| 60 |Les Yeux Gris |} Crazy Bear.
E-an-to-ah |Gens des Roches| 50 |Premier qui volle |}
Hoo-tai-sha-pah |Le Bas Rouge | 30 |Le Garçon bleu |}
| |------| |
| | 520 | |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average, four and one half persons per lodge. Total, 2,340 souls.
These 520 lodges form the nation, with the exception of those residing
in the north, whom they never visit. The bands named are distinct and
usually encamped in different sections of country, though they mingle
for a short time when circumstances require it, such as scarcity of
buffalo in some part of their lands or on an approach of a numerous
enemy. When these causes for combination cease they separate and occupy
their customary grounds severally, within three or four days’ travel of
each other. The chief of the whole nation is Crazy Bear, made so by the
commissioner of the United States at the Laramie treaty in 1851, not
having as yet, however, that popular rule which will follow in due time
if the treaty stipulations on both sides are complied with.
CHIEFS.—In each and all the bands mentioned there are several men
bearing the character, rank, and name of chiefs. But he only is
considered as chief of the band who heads and leads it. Yet this power
does not give him a right to tyrannize over any of the other chiefs,
or dictate to them any course they would not willingly follow; neither
does it detract from their dignity and standing to acknowledge him
as the head. Some one must be the nominal leader, and as this place
involves some trouble and action and is not repaid with any extra
honors or gifts it is not in general much envied. Moreover, this leader
is mostly, if not always, supported by numerous connections who second
his views and hence his authority. In fact, these bands are nothing
more than large families, the chiefs resembling the old patriarchs,
being intermarried and connected in such a way as to preclude the
probability of clashing of interests or separation. These are the
elements of the bands. The chief is little more than the nominal father
of all and addresses them as his children in a body.
Now, although some of these children may be as brave as he, and have
accomplished greater feats in war and the chase, yet they do not feel
disposed to dispute his acknowledged authority, neither would such
insubordinate conduct be submitted to by the mass of the people,
without some great mismanagement on the part of the chief, rendering
such a course necessary and inevitable.
The process of arriving at the chieftaincy—an instance of which was
exemplified in the formation of the Red Root Band and of which we
were an eyewitness—has always been the same and is as follows: Some
ambitious brave young man with extensive relations separate from
another band with 8 or 10 lodges of his connections and rove and hunt
in a portion of the country by themselves, acknowledging this man as
their head on account of his known bravery and successful management
of large war expeditions. From time to time additions are made to this
band from other bands of persons with their families who from different
causes of dissatisfaction choose to leave their leaders and submit to
the government of the new chief. This chief, wishing to rise, does all
in his power to benefit his small band by protecting them, choosing
good hunting grounds, giving to them all horses and other property
taken by him from his enemies, and, if necessary, fearlessly risking
his life to strike or kill one of his own people to preserve order or
their sense of justice. In the course of some years around this nucleus
is assembled a body which assumes the form and name of a band and the
leader, rising in power and support, increases in respect, and the
standing and name of chief rewards his perseverance. It will be thus
seen that the title and position of chief is neither hereditary nor
elective, but being assumed by the right and upon the principles above
explained, is voluntarily granted him by his followers.
And this is the correct representation of the origin of Assiniboin
chieftainship and different bands being the same in all the roving
tribes of which we attempt to treat in these pages. This high officer
does not, however, at all times wear his honors securely. It is a
known impossibility for any man in high station to please everybody,
and although surrounded by numerous and strong friends yet he must
have some enemies, and it does happen, though rarely, that he is
assassinated. But this is more the consequence of some personal quarrel
than ambitious designs, for although by assassination the chief is
destroyed yet it does not follow that the assassin would take his
place. Generally the reverse is the case and he is obliged to fly or
the relatives of the deceased chief would kill him. In the event of the
decease of a leader or chief, most likely some one of his relatives
would succeed him, but whether brother, cousin, or uncle would not
matter. The successor must absolutely possess the requisite governing
powers, viz., known and acknowledged bravery and wisdom, moderation,
and justice. If the relative be thus constituted, he would become the
chief, not because he is a relative, or that he is the only brave man
in camp—there are many such—but simply by being such and having a
stronger family connection than any other he would consequently be
acknowledged by the greater part of the band. Should there be two
candidates for the chieftainship equally capable and related, the
question would be decided the first day the camp moved.
Each would follow the leader he liked best, and the smaller portion
would soon revert to the larger, or if they were equally divided
and both parties intractable, a new band would be formed subject to
increase under their new leader or to dissolve and mix up with other
bands. Viewing things in this light, it is easily comprehended how some
personal defect, such as loss of sight or constitutional debility,
would depose a chief, but that these unfortunate circumstances should
render him a laughingstock and butt for others who before feared and
respected him is a trait in their character not to be admired. We
have said enough to give a general idea of the origin, progress, and
tenure of chieftainship. It is only elective so far as general consent
has accorded his right to rule, and is only hereditary, or appears
so, because the relatives of the chief are mostly the most numerous,
and from their ranks arises a successor. Though we have witnessed the
chieftainship pass into other hands when the claims of two powerful
families were equal and the abilities or popularity of one of the
candidates defective in some principal part.
Women are never acknowledged as chiefs, or have anything to say in
councils. We know of but one anomalous instance of the kind on the
whole upper Missouri which, being very remarkable, merits notice. She
is a Blackfoot by birth, but having been taken prisoner when young by
the Crows, was raised by and has since resided with that nation, being
identified with them.
We have known this woman for 10 years, and during that time have seen
her head large war parties of men against the Blackfeet, bringing away
great numbers of horses, and killing several of the enemy with her own
hand. She is likewise a good huntress, both on foot with the gun and on
horseback with the bow and arrow, ranks as a warrior and brave and is
entitled to a seat in councils of the Crow Nation. She ranked as fifth
from the Crow chief in a council held by the writer with the Crows
and the Cree at Fort Union on the occasion of making a peace between
these two nations. She keeps up all the style of a man and chief, has
her guns, bows, lances, war horses, and even two or three young women
as wives, but in reality servants. In appearance she is tolerably
good-looking, has been handsome, is now about 40 years of age, and
still goes to war. Her name is “Woman Chief,” and although dressed as
a woman the devices on her robe represent some of her brave acts. She
is fearless in everything, has often attacked and killed full-grown
grizzly bears alone, and on one occasion rode after a war party of
Blackfeet, killed and scalped one alone (within sight of our fort
on the Yellowstone), and returned unharmed amid a shower of bullets
and arrows. This extraordinary woman is well known to all whites and
Indians. She resided at Fort Union last winter, and appears in private
disposition to be modest and sensible; but she is an only instance in
all the roving tribes of the Missouri. Her success induced an imitation
a few years since by an Assiniboin woman, but she was killed by the
enemy on her first war excursion, since which no rivals have sprung up.