INCIDENTS BY THE WAY.
The Indians are not only vicious, treacherous and superstitious,
but they are childlike and simple, as the following incident will
show:--After the Indians came back from Fort Pitt, one of them found a
glass eye; that eye was the favorite optic of Stanley Simpson, who was
taken a prisoner there by Big Bear. He brought it with him for one of
his brother Indians who was blind in one eye, imagining with untutored
wisdom that if it gave light to a white man, it should also to a red,
and they worked at it for a time, but they could not get the focus,
finally they threw it away, saying it was no good, he could not see.
While we were in camp, Mr. Quinn's little two year old girl would come
in and put her little arms around our necks and kiss us. The dear little
thing had no one to care for her, she would stay with us until her
mother would come and take her away. The squaws also carried her around
on their backs with nothing but a thin print dress on and in her bare
feet. How I did feel for her, she was such a bright little girl, her
father when alive took care of her. It was very hard to see her going
around like any of the Indian children.
One day while travelling we came to a large creek and had to get off the
waggon and pull our shoes and stockings off in-order that they would be
dry to put on after we got across; the water was up to our waists and we
waded through. Miss McLean took her little three year old sister on her
back and carried her over. After crossing we had to walk a long distance
on the burnt prairie to get to the waggon, then we sat down and put our
shoes on. Some of the Indians coming along said, "oh! see the monais
squaw." We would laugh, tell them it was nice; that we enjoyed it. If
they thought we did not, we were in danger of being taken away by them
and made to work for them like their squaws.
One of Big Bear's son's wives died, and they dug a hole in the ground
and wrapped blankets around her, and laid her in it, and put sacks of
bacon and flour on top so that she could not get out, they covered her
over with earth; and watched the place for some time for fear she would
come to life again.
Their dances occur every day, they go and pick out the largest tents and
go and take them from the Wood Crees, and leave them all day without
any covering, with the white people who were prisoners, with them. They
thought the white people took it as an honor to them, and every time in
moving, Big Bear's band would tell us just where to put our tents, and
if one camped outside this circle, they would go and cut their tent in
pieces. In some of their dances, Little Poplar was arrayed in some of
Miss McLean's ribbons, ties and shawls, another with my hat on, and
another with Mrs. Delaney's, and the squaws with our dresses, and they
had a large dish of meat in the centre and danced awhile, and sat down
and ate and danced again, keeping this up all day long. And if anyone
lagged in the dance, it was a bad day for him. Little Poplar had a whip,
and he would ply it thick on the back of the sluggish dancer.
One day just as we were eating dinner, an Indian came and invited us
out to a dog feast; the men went, but we preferred bannock and bacon, to
dog. They sent each of us _three yards_ of print to make us a dress;
a squaw takes no more than that. And then a friendly Indian made me a
present of a pair of green glasses.
A most dreadful affair occurred one day, they killed one of their
squaws, an old grey beaded woman that was insane. The Indians and
half-breeds were afraid of her, and she told them if they did not kill
her before the sun went down, she would eat the whole camp up. They got
some of the half-breeds to tie her; and they carried her out on a hill,
and one old half-breed struck her on the head, and the Indians shot her
in the head three times, cut it off and set fire to it; they were very
much afraid she would come back and do some harm to them.
One evening after making our bed for the night, four squaws came into
our tent and sat down for two hours, crying and singing and clapping
their hands, and after going out, some of the Indians took and tied
them until morning; it was a most strange procedure. I could go
on enumerating incident after incident, but I have, I think, given
sufficient to give the reader an insight into their character.