A journal of travels into the Arkansa Territory

Interviews with the Osages—Occasional observations on their manners and habits, &c.—Sickness in the encampment.

24th.] Last evening, as well as this morning, we were waited upon by two of the Osage chiefs from the village, one of whom was Tá-lai, their hereditary ruler. Some of the inferior chiefs were begging tobacco, like earnest and genuine mendicants. It is to be regretted, that the man of nature should sink so low by intercourse with the civilized world, and by the acquisition of what were once to him merely artificial wants. Surrounded by a fertile country, the Indian, without ever being either rich or independent, finds it difficult to obtain subsistence, trespasses upon his neighbours, lives in insecurity, and in implacable enmity with those of his own race. A {182} stranger to our ideas of honour, he destroys his enemies by the meanest stratagems, and levels, in his revenge, all distinctions of age and sex. Such is the general character of the Osages, and such even that of the Cherokees, after all their external approaches towards civilization.

To give my Reader some idea of the laborious exertions which these people exercise to obtain a livelihood, I need only relate, that the Osages had now returned to their village from a tallow hunt, in which they had travelled not less than 300 miles up the Arkansa, and had crossed the Saline plains, situated betwixt that river and the Canadian. In this hunt, they say, that 10 villages of themselves and friends (as the Kansas, who speak nearly the same language) joined for common safety. They were, however, attacked by a small scout of the Pawnees, and lost one of their young men who was much esteemed, and, as I myself witnessed, distractingly lamented by the father, of whom he was the only son. They say, the country through which they passed is so destitute of timber, that they had to carry along their tent poles, and to make fire of the bison ordure.

The activity and agility of the Osages is scarcely credible. They not uncommonly walk from their village to the trading houses, at the mouth of the Verdigris, in one day, a distance of about 60 miles.

The Osages, in their private conversations, do not appear still to be on an amicable footing with the Cherokees. One of their chiefs insisted on the hunting boundary being established betwixt the two nations, so that either party might be punished, by robbery and plunder (or confiscation as we term it), who should be found transgressing the limits assigned. Aware of the strength of their enemies, they have been led to seek the alliance of other Indians, and have recently cultivated the friendship of the Outigamis (now called Sauks and Foxes) of the Mississippi. {183} In a recent council, held at the village of the Verdigris, these people were presented with 100 horses by the Osages. Sensible of this liberality, the Outigamis pledged themselves to prove their active allies, whenever necessity should dictate it to them. These gifts, however great, are not difficult to replace, as they now, this hunt, obtained more than 300 horses, which they had either caught wild, or stolen from the Pawnees, their enemies.

27th.] This morning, Clarmont, accompanied by some of the lesser chiefs, arrived from the lower village, on their way to the garrison, where they were to hold a council with the Cherokees. There was some degree of urbanity, though nothing at first very prepossessing, in the appearance of Clarmont. He wore a hat ornamented with a band of silver lace, with a sort of livery or regimental coat, and appeared proud of the artificial distinctions bestowed on him by the government. He asked, familiarly, if I had ever heard of him before, and appeared gratified at my answering in the affirmative. I am told, however, that, of late years, his influence at home has been greatly superseded by that of Tá-lai, the true hereditary chief. Tá-lai was now also present, but destitute of any exterior decorations, though on his way to the general council; I did not consequently recognise him until pointed out to me. In excuse for laying aside the honourable distinctions of the government, he said, there was no necessity, he thought, of parading the medal, his people knew him to be the chief, and the major could not be ignorant of his station. This natural unassuming behaviour, which we so seldom witness in life, surprised and prepossessed me in favour of this legitimate chief. His aspect was uncommonly benign, and bespoke the man of candor and benevolence.

Last summer a general council of the natives, friendly disposed towards the Osages, took place at {184} their village; amongst them were Shawnees, Delawares, Creeks, Quapaws, Kanzas, Ouitgamis, &c. Their ostensible object was not known; it would appear, however, that they had been invited by the Osages, who on this occasion gave away more than 300 horses. The Outigamis told them in an unlimited manner, that they would be always ready at the first notice, to join them at any time, against any nation. With the Creeks they were dissatisfied, and alledged that they had undervalued their hospitality by bringing spoons in their pockets, which was probably turned into a sinister omen.

Preparatory to undertaking a warlike expedition, the Osages, in common with many other of the aborigines, practised rigid fasts, which were frequently continued from three to seven days together, forming, with other privations and inflictions, a kind of penance, by which they disciplined themselves for disasters, and supplicated the pity and favour of heaven. Their invocations to the Good Spirit, and their lamentations, are incessant. About sunrise the whole village re-echoes with the most plaintive tones of distress, uttered at the doors of their lodges, or at the tombs of those whom they loved and esteemed while living. Indeed, all their affections, uncontrolled by the mask of affectation, are sincere and ingenuous. Of the sincerity of their conjugal attachment, notwithstanding the coldness of temper which has been alleged against the aborigines generally, I have witnessed, among them and others, many unequivocal proofs. The expression of affection, perhaps, as in other societies, where it is so studiously concealed, is more tender and assiduous on the part of the female. A few days ago we were near upon witnessing something tragical, in the conduct of an Indian woman, who had been several years married to a French hunter, living with the Osages. Soon after Mr. Bougie’s arrival, intoxication taking place in the camp, a quarrel {185} ensued between the husband of this woman and another of the French hunters. Their altercation filled her with terror, and she gave way to tears and lamentations, not doubting but that the antagonist, who was the aggressor, intended the death of her husband, as threats among the Indians are the invariable preludes to fatal actions. When, at length, they began to struggle with each other, without any more ado, she seized upon a hatchet, and would instantly have dispatched the man who fought with her husband, if not prevented by the bystanders.

That curious species of polygamy, which prevails among some other Indian nations, is likewise practised by the Osages, by which, the man who first marries into a family, from that period possesses the controul of all the sisters of his wife, whom he is at liberty either to espouse himself, or to bestow upon others. The maid, as amongst the Quapaws and others, is distinguished from the matron by the method she employs in braiding her hair into two cylindric rolls, which are ornamented with beads, silver, or wampum, and inclined to either side of the head near the ears. After marriage the hair is unloosed and brought together behind. This is one of those little arbitrary distinctions which is quite as invariable as the general costume of the people who employ it.

A practise no less notorious among the young men of the Osages, and the natives generally, is the careful extraction of the marks of pubescence from every part of the body. These Indians even pluck out their eyebrows, shave their heads, and leave only a small scalp upon the crown. Of this, two locks left long, are plaited and ornamented with silver, wampum, and eagle’s feathers. The tonsure and ears, as well as the eye-lashes, are painted with vermillion on ordinary occasions, but blackened to express grief or misfortune. Sometimes, apparently out of fancy, they fantastically {186} decorate their faces with white, black, or green stripes. The use of calico or shirts is yet unknown among them, and their present fashions and mode of dress have been so long stationary, as now to be by themselves considered characteristic. In their dress, fairish tawney red colour, and aquiline features, they resemble the Outigamis.

The Osages are more than usually superstitious. With them an ominous dream is often sufficient to terminate the most important expedition. After performing an exploit, instead of pursuing their success, scarcely any consideration can deter them from instantly returning to bear the welcome intelligence to their band. Their communion with each other is so frank, that nothing can remain a secret. In this way their intentions of war and plunder are long anticipated, however sudden and secret may be their actual operations. They are no strangers to dissimulation, when it will answer their purpose in their intercourse with others, but falsehood among their friends or fellows would be looked upon as unnatural and unpardonable. They entertain unconquerable prejudices against hunters. While in the village, or in their company abroad, the stranger is sure to be protected and treated like themselves in every particular; but if he is found in their country as a foreigner, and pursuing a different interest from their own, he can scarcely be distinguished from an enemy and an intruder, and must calculate on meeting with chastisement accordingly. To be found upon their war-paths is likewise considered criminal. These particular routes which they pursue in quest of their enemies, are recognised by beacons, painted posts, and inscribed hieroglyphics, commonly set up near the boundaries of their range; and those whom they chance to find in this direction, are at best considered as ambiguous friends, and trespassers on the neutral character which is expected to be maintained.

{187} The miserable fate which, last autumn, befel Mr. M’Farlane (who is mentioned by Wilkinson,⁠[197] in his descent of the Arkansa, as then taken prisoner by the Osages) is a sufficient proof the danger of intruding on their war-path.⁠[198] The Osages had taken this hunter into custody near to a Pawnee village, with whose inhabitants they were at war, and were about to proceed with him to their own town on the Verdigris. He was, however, very desirous of returning to the village for his son who remained behind, to which the Indians at last consented, and two of them offered to accompany him back towards the Pawnees; but after proceeding some distance they seized upon him, put out his eyes, and then goaded him along for several miles with sharpened canes, thus protracting his death by torture, until one of them, through compassion, put an end to his existence by the tomahawk. Although this fact was now well known in the territory, and not denied by the Osages, no steps had been taken to avenge the death of this unfortunate hunter. The Osages indeed disavowed the deed as that of their nation, but contented themselves by saying, that the action had been committed by two bad men, who were beyond their control. The property of the white hunter generally, whom they discover in their country, without special permission, is considered as an indisputable perquisite; and after perhaps (as I have heard related) breaking his gun in pieces, and flogging him with the ram-rod, they will turn him out into the wilderness nearly naked, and leave him to perish, unless, like a prisoner, he consents to adoption or affiliation, when every thing is again restored to him, and he is received as one of their people.

28th.] To-day I accompanied one of the hunters about 9 or 10 miles over the alluvial lands of Grand {188} river, which were fertile, and covered in great part with cane. The river lands are no less extensive and luxuriant betwixt the Verdigris and Arkansa, and would apparently support a condensed settlement; but the prairies will only admit of settlements along their borders, in consequence of the scarcity of wood and water. Coal, however, in this country appears abundant, as fragments are to be seen commonly deposited along the borders of the rivers.

On the 30th and 31st an irregular remittent fever began to show itself in our camp, with which myself and five or six others were affected. With me it came on towards evening, unaccompanied by any sensible chill, but attended with the most excruciating head-ache and violent heat.

August 2d and 3d.] These two days in succession I experienced the same fever, but now more moderate, and preceded by chills.

4th.] Last evening the chiefs of the Osage village arrived from Fort Smith, without effecting an interview with the Cherokees, who, under the pretext of attending to their harvest, had postponed the meeting until the month of September. The chiefs, not without reason, appeared to be considerably perplexed and disappointed at the conduct and apparent evasion of the Cherokees.

Yesterday, whilst I lay sick, some Indian contrived to rob me of the only penknife in my possession, and my pocket microscope. I immediately suspected the thief to have been a fellow who had the same morning, out of amusement, mounted my coat and hat, but he constantly denied the theft, and suffered himself to be searched by the soldier of police, who is generally some trusty warrior appointed by the chief to keep order in the camp or village, and to punish offenders in a summary way.

The chiefs addressed the Indians present concerning the theft, and seriously admonished those who {189} had the articles to give them up. Tálai reproved the Indians in general terms for their injustice, which he asserted to be the means by which they had made themselves so many enemies. “Why will you,” says he, “steal things which are useless to you, and which are, at the same time, of importance to others. To-day, while we were travelling, we heard the report of a gun, which might, indeed, have been that of white people, who are our friends, but it might likewise have been some party of those enemies by which we are everywhere surrounded, who could so easily have destroyed a handful of old and almost defenceless chiefs. How much better, my friends, would it be if we could learn to do right and be honest. We should then have friends instead of enemies; but as long as we violate justice, we shall continue to live in fear and shame. When did the white people steal from us? yet you have both plundered and killed those who have always been your friends and benefactors. This evening we arrived here fatigued and hungry, and the white people have fed us. We ought to return this kindness by presents of provision; but, instead of that, the Osages sell their tallow, and corn, and meat, give nothing, and come and eat of that which they have sold. The Osages are always a bad people, and so have many enemies.”

The candour of this speech surprised us, although it well accorded with the honest and benevolent character of the speaker. I am told that he was quite assiduous in attempting the reform of the village, and inculcating amongst them the necessity and advantage of maintaining peace with their neighbours. It is gratifying to learn that this chief, Tálai, whose example so well accorded with the just principles which he preferred, was now gaining the ascendancy over Clarmont, whose conduct had always been tinctured by rapacity. Tálai, indeed, well deserved the chief medal of the nation.

{190} It is, I think, to be regretted, that the Indians should not be made sensible of the impropriety and illegality of executing summary and unlimited punishment upon the citizens of the United States, who are found travelling or hunting in their country. Ought they not rather to be taught that the government would be ever willing and ready to do them justice, by punishing their own citizens, rather than submitting them, in this way, to the cruel pilfering, and castigation of savages! If the frontier garrisons are not capable of effecting this beneficial purpose, for what were they established? but could not even this be better executed by the governor and the militia of the territory, than by the arbitrary commander and the soldiers of a garrison?

This morning, about day-break, the Indians, who had encamped around us, broke out into their usual lamentations and complaints to the Great Spirit. Their mourning was truly pathetic, and uttered in a peculiar tone. Amongst those who first broke forth into lamentation, and aroused the rest to their melancholy orisons, was the pious Tá-lai. The commencing tone was exceedingly loud, and gradually fell off into a low, long continued, and almost monotonous base. To this tone of lamentation was modulated, the subject of their distress or petition. Those who had experienced any recent distress or misfortune, previously blackened their faces with coal, or besmeared them with ashes. This lamentation and abasement, in unison with oriental customs, recalled to mind the penance of the Jews, their “sackcloth and ashes,” and Jeremiah their weeping prophet.

4th.] Last evening two very handsome young men of the Osages arrived from the village, with some tallow to barter, and while Mr. Bougie and the rest of the camp were amusing themselves at cards, these Mercuries contrived to carry off a small brass kettle, {191} and endeavoured, though ineffectually, to hook off a musquetoe bier, after which they took the advantage of the night to make their escape. They appeared to have been very well satisfied with the trader, but could not postpone their dexterity at thieving, which being scarcely considered as a dishonourable action, is rarely punished further than by the restitution of the articles.

On the evening of the 5th, we were visited by another of the Osages, bringing the usual commodities of the season, tallow, dried bison meat, and sweet corn, being dried while in the milk, and thus forming an agreeable ingredient in the soup of the prepared bison beef. It is a dish which the Indians, from time immemorial, have been accustomed to prepare, and consider a luxury coeval with their annual festival of the “Green-corn Dance.”⁠[199]

In the morning, I was informed, that this Indian wished to exchange a horse with me, for the mare which I had purchased of Mr. Lee; I desired them to tell him, that I requested to have nothing to say to him; knowing him, by report, to be a consummate thief and rascal; but, as he insisted on the subject, I went to see the animal offered me in exchange, and was truly surprised at the impudence and knavery of the demand. The horse which he proffered, was not worth possession, as lean as Rosinante. It may easily be supposed that I rejected his offer, which was nothing better than an insult. My mare was at this time feeding across the Verdigris. The Indian said no more, concluded his barter with the trader, and left us; but instead of proceeding directly towards the village, by the usual route, he kept down the Verdigris. I now suspected that he was intent on thievery, and two of us directly followed him by land, and two by water. We saw him and his wife now crossing the river, and then walking hastily across the beach; by the time we came up with him, he had {192} seized my horse, loaded it with his baggage, and would in a minute or two more, with all the dexterity of an Arab, have carried him off, and so by force and robbery have effected the exchange he so much desired. Daring villains seldom want excuses; he pretended, that the man of whom Mr. Prior bought the horse, had told him to bring it away, and leave the one he offered in its stead. His first depredation, this morning, was stealing a case of razors, which being discovered in his shot pouch, were taken from him; these he said, he only wanted to shave his head, and would then have returned them.

Circumstanced as we were, it was not politic to chastize him, as he would probably, out of revenge, have lurked about a week, in order to have stolen my horse. After some persuasion, and, above all, a hint that if his conduct were made known at the garrison, from whom I had received permission to proceed up the country, he need not expect the restitution of his wife and three children, from the hands of the Cherokees, if that was to be his line of conduct; he now began to speak in a submissive tone, and ordered his squaw to unpack my horse. I was still, however, mortified to find that it was necessary, prudentially, as suggested by the trader, not only to desist from administering punishment, but even to bestow a present upon the villain by way of encouragement. Such is the indulgent method of dealing with Indians employed by the traders!

As among most other nations of the aborigines, the principal labour, except that of hunting, devolves upon the women. Accustomed to perpetual drudgery, they are stouter and lower in stature than the men. They appear scarcely to inherit the same condition. Considered almost as slaves and creatures of appetite, their lives are always secured as prisoners. It is to their industry and ingenuity, that the men owe every manufactured article of their dress, as well as every {193} utensil in their huts. The Osage women appear to excel in these employments. Before the Cherokees burnt down their town on the Verdigris, their houses were chiefly covered with hand-wove matts of bulrushes. Their baskets and bed matts of this material, were parti-coloured and very handsome. This manufacture, I am told, is done with the assistance of three sticks, arranged in some way so as to answer the purpose of a loom, and the strands are inlaid diagonally. They, as well as the Cherokees and others, frequently take the pains to unravel old blankets and cloths, and re-weave the yarn into belts and garters. This weaving is no modern invention of the Indians. Nearly all those whom De Soto found inhabiting Florida and Louisiana, on either side of the Mississippi, and who were, in a great measure, an agricultural people, dressed themselves in woven garments made of the lint of the mulberry, the papaw, or the elm; and, in the colder seasons of the year, they wore coverings of feathers, chiefly those of the turkey. The same dresses were still employed in the time of Du Pratz.⁠[200] These feather mantles were, within the recollection of the oldest men, once used by the Cherokees, as I learnt whilst among them. There is, {194} therefore, nothing extraordinary in the discovery of these garments around the bodies which had been interred in the nitre caves of Kentucky. Presents of these “mantels” as they are called by Purchas, now superseded by European blankets, were perpetually offered to Soto, throughout the course of his expedition, and are still made use of by the natives of the north-west coast. Nor is there any thing in this invention beyond the common ingenuity of man, guarding himself against the inclemencies of climate. To assert that all men were of the same race, because they had all invented a somewhat similar clothing, is quite as futile, as the same conclusion would be in consideration of their all being born naked.⁠[201]

The principal food of the present Indians, who inhabit the west side of the Mississippi, is the bison, which they prepare in a very commodious way, without the use of salt, by cutting it up into broad and thin slices, which are dried on a scaffold over a slow fire, and afterwards folded up in the manner of peltries, so as to be equally portable. The tallow is rendered into skins or cases, like the utriculi, or leathern bottles of the ancients, the whole animal being skinned through the aperture of the neck. In this way, they also collect with convenience the honey and bear’s oil, which is the produce of their forests.

From the general absence of religious ceremony, and the unostentatious character of devotion among the Indians, it has always been a difficult matter to inspire them with any thing like correct ideas of the Christian religion. As we have already remarked, they are not, however, void of superstition, such as a belief in the warnings of dreams, the observance {195} of omens, the wearing of amulets, and the dedication of offerings to invisible or miraculous agents, supposed to be represented in the accidental forms of natural objects. But these objects, calculated to inspire a momentary homage, are never addressed for any thing beyond temporal favours.

Although they generally believe in the immortality of the soul, they have no steady and distinct conception of a state of reward and punishment. The future state, believed to be but little different from that which they now enjoy, is alike attainable by every hunter, and every warrior. It is on a conviction of this belief, that the implements of war, and the decorations and utensils employed by the living, are entombed with the dead. Their jealousy of the whites, and suspicion of sinister designs, render them cold and cautious in the adoption of Christianity, and it has ever been those who have said the least on religion, and who, like the Society of the Friends and the Moravians, have preached rather by their benevolent example, and by the introduction of useful arts, that have made the most durable and favourable impression on the minds and morals of the natives.

To show how little can be anticipated among the Osages, by the inculcation of the mere dogmas of Christianity, may be seen by the following anecdote. Mr. Bougie, informed me, that last winter, while accidentally engaged in reading the New Testament, two or three young men, of the Osages, coming into his store, enquired of him what was said in that book. He answered, that it informed him of the descent of God upon the earth, who was seen by men, conversed with them, and wrought miracles. If that was true, they asked, why did he not come down now among men as he did then? To which Mr. B. replied, because the world was now so wicked. They looked at one another, held their hands to their mouths, as they always do in token of surprise, and, smiling, {196} said, “the book may tell you so, but we don’t believe it.”

Independent of some resemblance in language, discoverable betwixt the aborigines of North America, and the Tartar tribes of the Russian empire, there is, likewise, something very similar in their habits and morals. They are equally erratic and unsettled in their abode, and have ever been so, according to Herodotus, for thousands of years. The Hamaxobii, of that author, still live in their travelling houses, and occupy the same country without any sensible diminution or increase of numbers. Both people are separated into numerous bands or tribes, characterised by a diversity of language, acknowledging no other rule than that which is patriarchal, and no other alliance than that of fraternity. They are alike insensible to the wants and comforts of civilization. They know neither poverty nor riches; vice nor virtue. Their simple condition appears to have perpetually partaken of that of the first family of the human race, and they have been alike exempt from the luxuries of ephemeral grandeur, and the mournful vicissitudes of fortune. Happy equality, which knows neither the sins of ambition, nor the crimes of avarice!

The picture of the Samoyades,⁠[202] drawn apparently by a careful hand, might almost pass for that of the North American Indians. Alike they acknowledge the existence of a supreme and invisible Being, the author of all things. The sun and moon they also adore as superior beings of the creation. They both in their invocations address the four quarters of the earth. Their priests or elders administer to them charms when sick or unfortunate in hunting. They submit with apathy (or resignation) to misfortunes, and express no violent passions. Their insensibility is such, as to prevent all surprise or curiosity at the {197} sight of novelties. They fear, but do not adore bad spirits. Unacquainted with laws, and governed by customs, they acknowledge no ruler beyond the senior of the common family or tribe. To religious ceremonies they are strangers. Anticipating the contingencies of a future state of existence, they also inter with the warrior his bow and arrows. They allow polygamy, but avoid consanguinity in marriage. Their wives are purchased (to evince their esteem), and the marriage, consummated at an early age, is no longer binding than the continuance of mutual friendship and affection. Their names are taken from the animals of the forest, or the phenomena of nature. Their hair is coarse, lank, and black, and they have little or no beard, or marks of pubescence on other parts of the body, and, whenever it does appear, it is carefully eradicated. Such is the character, and such the manners of those Asiatics, inhabiting the very same parallel as that which includes the most proximate and occidental point of the North American continent, the same parallel, which in both continents afford the Ovis Ammon, or wild sheep, the reindeer, the white wolf, the chacal, the silver fox, the sable, and the ermine.