graves of their dead, particularly children, which at this time is
composed of some such fabric as red flannel or calico tied to a pole,
but which was formerly made of feathers and light skins. This is a very
ancient custom, arising, we are told, from the necessity of having some
such object thus raised which, fluttering in the wind, frightens away
the beasts and birds of prey.
The custom of collecting and reinterring the bones is very general at
the present day among all these tribes; indeed, it is seldom neglected
if when they visit the scaffold they find the body to have blown down
and the bones exposed.
The bones are picked by any one of the party, not related, in the
presence of some of the relatives of the deceased, and this time buried
in the ground, with demonstrations of grief and some scarifying, though
they do not go into mourning dresses further than some white clay about
the face, and no property is confiscated by others, as in the case
of the first funeral, but those who aid are paid with some smaller
articles. On these occasions a feast is made for the dead which, being
eaten, and the spirit propitiated by prayer and invocation, the whole
concludes, those concerned resuming their usual dress and occupations.
There is no such thing as charnel houses or receptacles for the dead
in all the district of the upper Missouri, neither are there any
appearances of such things having been, each individual being buried
or scaffolded separately at the most convenient place and as soon as
possible after decease.
Incineration of bones is not practiced by any of them, neither do their
traditions mention this custom to have ever existed among them; they
have a horror of the idea.
Their symbols of mourning have been referred to, which are cutting
short their hair, scarifying their legs, cutting off their fingers
(Crow Indians), wearing an old tattered robe or skin on their back, the
rest of the body being naked except the breech flap of the men, or body
dress of the women, bare legged, bare footed, the face, hair, body, and
robe smeared with white clay, often intermixed with their blood.
When the lock of hair of the deceased has been redeemed by the relative
by high pay to him who took it, which is done in a year or two after
demise, this relic is inclosed in a small sack and carried on the back
of some of the female relatives. A piece of tobacco is wrapped with
it, which is used on several occasions, as before mentioned. There are
periodical visits to the grave, twice or thrice a year for the first
year, and afterwards for several years whenever they happen to be in
the vicinity, and on these occasions takes place the feast to the dead,
so often referred to in these pages, which is one of their principal
ceremonies. A repast is made of corn or pounded meat mixed with grease
and sugar, sometimes a dog is cooked by some medicine man, and a crowd
of people being assembled round the grave after lamenting the dead by
howling, smoke, and pray to the spirit, leave a portion of the feast
for it, and the rest is eaten by those who attend the ceremony. One of
their prayers at these times is recorded in a former page, together
with the reason of these observances. Fires are kindled near the grave
or under the scaffold, but do not appear to be of further use than to
light the pipe by while smoking to the dead, and are suffered to expire
at their leisure.
No gravestones or posts are planted to mark the place, or any
inscriptions or devices painted or carved by any of these tribes,
denoting the age of the deceased or any other thing.
As has been frequently stated, there are no large mounds perceived on
the upper Missouri, the work of Indians, as have been discovered in
some of the western States, but were it an object or custom to bury the
dead in that manner we believe there is energy and power sufficient
among any of these tribes to accomplish a work of the kind, even with
the rude tools they have, in a loose soil, free of rock, and in the
summer season. These mounds have most probably been national or public
depositories for the dead of Indians in stationary huts; and as great
superstition is attached to all funeral rites, it is not improbable
they were excavated in a length of time by the united efforts of the
nation. Being a work in which both women and children could join, and
which could be executed with the most primitive tools, they no doubt
worked at it in favorable seasons, stimulated to exertion by the
directions and commands of the divining men. These marks of antiquity
only prove the nation to have been numerous, stationary, and unanimous
in the undertaking. The materials disinterred from these receptacles
must show beyond doubt the state of arts and advancement of the tribe
at the time the interment was made, supposing the articles thus
exhibited to be of their own manufacture and not traded from Europeans.
Bones reburied are not accompanied with a new deposit of instruments.
Those articles first enveloped with the body, if found, are reinterred
with it, which, having been the property of the deceased, are valuable,
but to none other. It is only when the corpses fall from scaffolds or
the bones of the dead by some means have become exposed that a second
burial takes place; otherwise no Indians disturb the repose of the dead.
ORPHANS AND THE AGED
The care of orphan children and the aged devolves upon the nearest
relatives of their deceased parents, but neither the chiefs nor any
other persons not of kin pay them the least attention, unless they
are adopted into their families. The aged and infirm are supported by
their sons and other relatives until they become helpless and a burden,
and are then left in some encampment to perish. There are no very old
people without some relatives. The fact of their being old presumes
that some of their lineal descendants are living, and it is with
these they reside; but should there be no kin whatever acknowledged
they would only the sooner die, as neither chiefs, hunters, nor any
others would take the least interest in them, much less furnish them
with provisions or be troubled by packing them along in traveling.
Should an aged person of this description die in camp the body would be
wrapped in the skins composing its bed and stuck on a tree by some of
the men, without the least symptom of mourning. The life of the aged
of both sexes, even with their own children, is one of drudgery and
misery, and when entirely helpless they are in a manner obliged to get
rid of them in some way, as their manner of traveling and conveniences
of lodging are not adapted to the infirm.
A very near and correct view of their means and disposition warrants
the opinion that it is more through extreme necessity than hardness
of heart that they resort to the inhuman alternative above mentioned.
Age without power is never venerated even by sedentary Indians, though
these can and do treat the infirm better than the roving tribes,
because, being better prepared with commodious lodges and not obliged
to travel, the burden of useless and aged persons is not so much felt.
They are therefore tolerated for their talents in story telling and
other qualifications, exciting more their laughter than their abuse
or neglect. But it is always a hard fate. The others will say they
have had their day, their youth, and their prime, have enjoyed much
and should now die and remove the burden of their care. They all know
and expect this to be their own fate if life be prolonged, and hence
we find the influence of chiefs, once renowned, declining with age or
debility. Their gallant acts and services are forgotten or laughed at,
later incidents of the same nature replacing theirs in the memory of
their friends; they are neglected, ridiculed, imposed upon, and, being
helpless, submit.
It does happen with some divining men that the older and uglier they
become the more they are feared for their supernatural powers, and
these, as long as they can sing and drum, are well off, because they
can always command property for their services and pay their way for
any attention or assistance, besides their supposed supernatural powers
prevent any practical jokes or petty torments from being inflicted as
on ordinary aged persons.
There are but few old people of either sex. Their lives are too
laborious, precarious, and exposed to secure an advanced age.[30]
[30] There is some tautology in treating the foregoing subject of death
and its incidents, but it could not be helped without omitting some
portions of the subject.
LODGES
The lodges of the Sioux, Crows, Assiniboin, Cree, and Blackfeet are
made of buffalo skins, hair shaved off and dressed, then sewed together
in such a manner that when placed upright on poles it presents the form
of an inverted funnel. The skins are dressed, cut out, and the lodge
made up altogether by the women. When cut and sewed and laid on the
ground it is in shape nearly three-quarters of a circle, with the two
wings of skins at the small end to serve as vanes, which are changed
by moving the outside poles with the wind, to prevent the lodge from
smoking. The tent is stretched on poles from 12 to 20 feet in length
according to the size of it, each family making one to suit the number
of persons to be accommodated or their means of transporting it;
therefore their sizes vary from 6 to 23 skins each, the one being the
smallest, and the other the largest size in general use, the common
or medium size being 12 skins, which will lodge a family of eight
persons with their baggage, and also have space to entertain two or
three guests. The area of a lodge of 12 skins when well pitched is a
circumference of 31 feet, and the space each grown inmate requires
for bed and seat would be about 3 feet in width. People seldom stand
upright in a lodge. They enter in a stooping posture, and moving
forward in this way to the seat opposite, sit there until they leave.
(Pls. 74, 75.)
When sleeping the feet of every one is turned toward the center of the
lodge, where the fire is made, the smoke escaping at the opening in
the top. The material will last with some repairs about three years,
not longer. They usually make new lodges every third summer and cut
up their old ones for leggings and moccasins. Their lodges are always
carried along when they travel with the camp, being packed on a horse
in summer, or on a travaille in winter, in default of horses, and when
the snow is deep they keep out wind and rain and answer all their
purposes, but are cold, smoky, and confined. Families of from 2 to
10 persons, large and small, occupy tents of different dimensions,
say, one of 6 skins for the former and one of 16 skins for the latter
number. Lodges of 36 skins are sometimes found among the Sioux, owned
by chiefs or soldiers. These when carried are taken apart in the middle
in two halves and each half packed on a separate horse. When erected,
the halves are again joined by wooden transverse pins, the poles are
dragged on the ground, being tied together in equal-sized bundles, and
slung to each side of the horses. A tent of this size will accommodate
50 to 80 people on an occasion of feast or council, as they can sit in
rows three or four deep; about 30 persons, however, could sleep therein
with ease, independent of the space required for baggage, provisions,
and utensils. The females, young and old, aid in making them, and the
eldest of them erects, removes, and arranges the locations of the
interior in the manner described in a former answer.
They are never vacated and left standing, but are needed wherever they
go to protect themselves and property from the weather. The skins are
put up when sewed together in proper form without being smoked, as
the smoke from the fire in the inside soon penetrates them and
renders them impervious to rain. The men have nothing to do with the
construction, erection, removal, or internal arrangement of the lodges.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
PLATE 73
Four sticks 12 inches long, flat and rounded at the ends, about 1 inch
broad and one-eighth inch thick, are used. Two of them have figures of
snakes burned on one side, and two the figure of a bear’s foot burned
on. All the sticks are white on the sides opposite the burned sides.
THROWS
Two painted or marked sides and two white count 2
All the white sides turned up count 10
Three burned sides up and one white count nothing 0
Four burned sides up count 10
NOTA BENE.—Three white sides up and one burned side up counts nothing.
THE CHUN-KAN-DEE´ GAME]
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
PLATE 74
_Lodge Poles set up._
_Lodge Erected_
A LODGE FRAME AND A COMPLETED LODGE]
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
PLATE 75
THE INTERIOR OF A LODGE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS]
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
PLATE 76
_An Assiniboine stabbing a Blackfoot._
_Drawn by an Assiniboine Warrior._
_Fort Union Jan. 16. 1854._]
The Mandan, Gros Ventres, and Arikara live in dirt cabins made by
planting four posts in the ground, with joists on the top. From this
square descend rafters to the ground in angular and circular shape, the
interstices being filled with smaller sticks and willows; then grass
is laid on, which is covered with mud, over which is thrown earth, and
the whole beaten solid. An opening is left in the top for the smoke and
a door in the side, which is extended into a covered passage of a few
steps and will admit a man upright. These are large and roomy huts,
will accommodate 30 or 40 persons each, but are generally occupied by
one family, who frequently have their beds and bedsteads, corn cellar,
provision room, and often a horse or two under the same roof. They are
said to be damp and unhealthy.
The figures and representations of animals, etc., painted on their skin
lodges are those of monsters seen by them in their dreams; also the
hand is dipped in red paint mixed with grease and its impression made
in many places over the tent. This denotes the master of the lodge to
have struck an enemy. The same impression is also made on their naked
bodies in some of their dances and has the same signification.
CANOES
Skin canoes are the only watercraft used by these tribes, and these
are only to be found among the Mandan, Gros Ventres, and Arikara. They
are made of the skins of one or two buffaloes with the hair on, not
dressed, and stretched over a basketwork of willows. The women make,
carry, and propel them with paddles, one person only paddling in front.
A canoe of one buffalo skin will contain four persons and cross the
Missouri, but they must sit very quiet or they will upset. The women
carry these canoes on their backs along the bank to the place where
they wish to cross, and on their return bring them to the village and
turn them upside down to dry. A canoe of this kind is made in two or
three hours and will last a year. Bark canoes are used by the Chippewa,
but we are not well enough acquainted with their construction to
describe them. When no skin can be found to make a boat war parties
will cross any river on a raft.
MENTAL AND ETHICAL ADVANCEMENT
There is no doubt but most of these nations are disposed to advance
from the barbaric type, though as yet they have made but little
progress. Indeed, when we consider their mode of life, wants, and
situation with regard to each other we can not imagine how they
can well be anything more than what they are. Harassed by internal
wars, pinched by necessities that compel them to constant exertion,
discouraged by the ravages of diseases, and overwhelmed by innumerable
superstitious fears, their condition is not one calculated to prepare
either mind or body for the arts and habits of civilization. The whole
tenor of an Indian’s life, and the sum and substance of all his labors
is to live, to support his family, and rear his children, and he must
bring them up in such a way that they in their turn can do the same.
For this all is risked, and to this end the whole of their occupations,
even their amusements, tend. They would be most willing to embrace any
mode of life by which this main object could be realized with less risk
and toil than the one they now pursue, but they must first be convinced
of the certainty of success in the strange pursuit to which their
formed habits must give way before they would apply themselves.
Their present manner is certainly precarious, but they would not
abandon it unless some better way to live was made manifest, not by
tales and speeches but by actual experiment. Indians (men) will not
work. Even the slight attempt at agricultural labor by the few nations
on the upper Missouri who raise corn and other vegetables devolves
solely upon the women to perform them, and the men hunt as the other
tribes. Meat must be had, and as yet no relish has been formed by
any of them, except the Sioux, for the flesh of domestic animals.
Notwithstanding all this, we see in many things a desire to change
for the better, exhibiting itself in a general feature of improvement
when compared with that of 20 years since. Within that time and within
our acquaintance with these people the Sioux, Assiniboin, and other
nations were much more savage than they now are. At the period to which
we allude it was almost impossible for even the traders, much less
strangers, to travel through their country without being robbed and
often killed. Horses were stolen from whites on all occasions; every
person outside the fort was liable to be abused, imposed upon, flogged,
or pillaged, and even their dealings with each other were no better.
Murders upon slight provocation, robberies, and misdemeanors of all
kinds were common among them. Even whole bands armed against each other
and skirmishes took place whenever they met.
All these things now, if not obsolete, are very rare. Whites move
about among most of the nations with security of life and property,
and the Indians are better clothed, provided for, armed and contented
than formerly. For these happy results so far we are indebted to the
unmitigated exertions and good counsel of a few white traders of the
old stock, some good Indian agents, the entire abolishment of the
liquor trade, and lately the humane endeavors on the part of the
Government by the treaty at Laramie in 1851.
MEDICINE; DRUGS
Most of them are beginning to see the superiority of drugs and
treatment of the sick as exhibited to them by whites and are becoming
aware that their drummings and superstitions are of no avail, but it is
only a perception of truth, not as yet leading to any change in their
superstitions, because no person instructs them in aught better. As it
stands at present and to come to the point of this matter, we would
say a disposition to emerge from barbarism is apparent among most of
these tribes, though as yet no great advancement has been made. The
small improvements alluded to only show the desire to exist, but their
present organization, knowledge, and relative positions to each other
as nations do not admit of further improvement, which must necessarily
unfit them for their ordinary pursuits and successful contention with
enemies.
FOOD
Their provisions, cooking utensils, manner of cooking, serving the
meal and eating assimilates yearly more to that of the whites. Their
conversation, desires, and willingness to listen to counsel for their
benefit all convince of a disposition to advance toward civilization
and exchange their present mode of life for one more certain in its
resources, provided they could follow these employments secure from the
depredations of neighboring tribes yet their enemies; but here is the
difficulty, they are obliged to be always in readiness for war, also to
make excursions on their foes to replace their stolen horses or revenge
the death of their relatives.
They usually eat three times a day, morning, noon, and night, if meat
is plenty, but the number of meals depends altogether on the supply of
food, as has already been stated. Clay pots and other earthen vessels
are still in use among the Mandan, Gros Ventres, and Arikara, being of
their own manufacture, though they also have metallic cooking utensils.
The flesh of buffalo and other animals is cut in broad, thin slices and
hung up inside the lodges on transverse poles over the fire, but high
up in the lodge and in the way of the smoke, which soon penetrates it,
and in a few days the meat is dried and fit to pack away. In the summer
it is dried by spreading it in the sun, being cut up as above, which
soon cures it. They employ no salt in curing any meat.
The parts of the buffalo eaten in a raw state are the liver, kidneys,
gristle of the snout, eyes, brains, marrow, manyplies, or the omasum,
testicles, feet of small calves in embryo, and glands of the calf
envelope. Meat when cooked is either boiled or roasted, principally
the former, and always rare in either way, not overdone. They have no
salt for seasoning, but are fond of a little in the bouillon. In former
times meat was boiled in the rawhide, in holes in the ground smeared
with mud, and heated stones dropped in, or in pots made of clay and
soft stone, but metallic cooking utensils, consisting of kettles of
every size and description, have entirely replaced these. Tin cups and
pans, with some frying pans, wooden bowls, and horn spoons, are yet
common.
The tongues of buffalo sent to market are salted by the traders, who
secure them from the Indians during the winter in the hunting season,
and when frozen, salting them before the spring thaw comes on. None of
these tribes preserves meat in any other way than above mentioned, some
of which when dried is pounded and mixed with berries and marrowfat.
It is then called pemmican, or in Cree pim-e-tai´-gan. Dried meat will
keep but one year if free of wet, as afterwards the fat turns rancid
and the lean tasteless.
The tail of the beaver is first turned in the blaze of a fire, the
outside skin scraped off, then incisions are made each side lengthwise
along the bone, and it is held in boiling water for a few minutes to
extract the blood. It is then hung up in the lodge or in the sun and
left to dry.
All inquiries regarding fish are inapplicable to these Indians, as they
take none in quantity. The few catfish that are hooked by the Gros
Ventres and Arikara are boiled in water, no salt added, and a horrid
mess of bones and fish mixed together is produced, which no one but an
Indian could eat. They eat but do not relish them.
All the hunter tribes rely greatly on the spontaneous roots and fruits
found in the country and collect, dry, and pack them away, to be
used in times of scarcity of animal food. We have known hundreds of
Indians to subsist for one or two months on the buds of the wild rose
boiled with the scrapings of rawhides. At all times the different
kinds of roots and berries are a great resource, are used in their
principal feasts and medicine ceremonies, are of great assistance when
game is not to be found, are easily packed, and contain considerable
nourishment. The following is a catalogue of those found among all the
nations of which we treat, though there are several others whose names
in English are unknown to us, and some of these now named peculiar to
the most northern latitudes.
ROOTS, BERRIES, ETC., EATEN BY THE INDIANS OF THE UPPER MISSOURI