Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 1 (of 2) / being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian Collection

Camanchees throwing themselves on the side of their horses, while at full speed, to evade their enemies’ arrows—a most wonderful feat.

This splendid lodge, with all its poles and furniture, was brought from the foot of the Rocky Mountains.

Given to Mr. Sanford (Indian agent), Mr. Chouteau, Mr. M'Kenzie, and myself, in a Sioux village, 1400 miles above St. Louis, 1833. The only food was dog’s meat, and this is the highest honour they can confer on a stranger.

From a story of the Mandans—took place in front of the Mandan village.

The lodges are covered with earth, and so compactly fixed by long use, that men, women, and children recline and play upon their tops in pleasant weather.

These lodges vary in size from forty to fifty feet in diameter, and are all of a circular form. The village is protected in front by the river, with a bank forty feet high, and on the back part by a piquet of timber set firmly in the ground. Back of the village, on the prairie, are seen the scaffolds on which their dead bodies are laid to decay, being wrapped in several skins of buffalo, and tightly bandaged.

In the middle of the village is an open area of 150 feet in diameter, in which their public games and festivals are held. In the centre of that is their “Big Canoe,” a curb made of planks, which is an object of religious veneration. Over the Medicine (or mystery) Lodge are seen hanging on the tops of poles several sacrifices to the Great Spirit of blue and black cloth, which have been bought at great prices, and there left to hang and decay.

At the head of each warrior’s bed is seen a post with his ornaments hanging on it, and also his buffalo-mask, which every man keeps to dance the buffalo-dance. Some of these lodges contain thirty or forty persons, and the beds are seen extending around the side of the lodge, all with sacking bottoms, made of a buffalo-skin, and the frames of the bed covered with dressed skins.

⁂ Reader, the hospitable and friendly Mandans, who were about 2000 in number when I was amongst them and painted these pictures, have recently been destroyed by the small-pox. It is a melancholy fact, that only thirty-one were left of the number, and these have been destroyed by their enemy, so that their tribe is extinct, and they hold nowhere an existence on earth.

Nearly twenty of their portraits can be seen on the walls, and several other paintings of their games and amusements.

This ceremony continues four days and nights in succession, in commemoration of the subsiding of the flood; and also for the purpose of conducting all the young men, as they arrive at manhood, through an ordeal of voluntary torture, which, when endured, entitles them to the respect of the chiefs, and also to the privileges of going on war-parties, and gaining reputation in war. The floor and sides of the lodge are ornamented with green willow-boughs. The young men who are to do penance, by being tortured, are seen lying around the sides of the lodge, their bodies covered with clay of different colours, and their respective shields and weapons hanging over their heads. In the middle of the lodge lies the old Medicine-man, who has charge of the lodge: he cries to the Great Spirit all the time, and watches these young men, who are here to fast and thirst for four days and nights, preparatory to the torture. Behind him, on the floor, is seen a scalping-knife and a bunch of splints, which are to be passed through the flesh; and over their heads are seen also the cords let down from the top of the lodge, with which they are to be hung up by the flesh.

On the ground, and in front of the picture, are four sacks (containing several gallons each of water), made of the skin of the buffalo’s neck, in form of a large tortoise, lying on its back. These are objects of veneration, and have the appearance of great antiquity.

By the side of them are two she-she-quoi, or rattles, which are used, as well as the others, as a part of the music for the dance in the next picture.

To the strict observance of which they attribute the coming of Buffalo to supply them with food during the season. This scene is exceedingly grotesque, and takes place several times in each day outside the lodge, and around the curb, or “Big Canoe,” whilst the young men still remain in the lodge, as seen in the other picture. For this dance, however, the four sacks of water are brought out and beat upon, and the old medicine-man comes out and leans against the “Big Canoe” with his medicine-pipe in his hand, and cries. The principal actors in this scene are eight men dancing the Buffalo Dance, with the skins of buffalo on them, and a bunch of green willows on their backs. There are many other figures, whose offices are very curious and interesting, but which must be left for my Lectures or Notes to describe. The black figure on the left they call O-kee-hee de (the Evil Spirit), who enters the village from the prairie, alarming the women, who cry for assistance, and are relieved by the old medicine-man; and the Evil Spirit is at length disarmed of his lance, which is broken by the women, and he is driven by them in disgrace out of the village. The whole nation are present on this occasion as spectators and actors in these strange scenes.

This is on the fourth day of the ceremonies, in the afternoon. A number of the young men are seen reclining and fasting, as in the first picture; others of them have been operated upon by the torturers, and taken out of the lodge; and others yet are seen in the midst of those horrid cruelties. One is seen smiling whilst the knife and the splints are passing through his flesh. One is seen hanging by the splints run through the flesh on his shoulders, and drawn up by men on the top of the lodge. Another is seen hung up by the pectoral muscles, with four buffalo-skulls attached to splints through the flesh on his arms and legs; and each is turned round by another, with a pole, until he faints, and then he is let down. One is seen as he is lowered to the ground; and another, who has been let down and got strength enough to crawl to the front part of the lodge, where he is offering to the Great Spirit the little finger of the left hand, by laying it on a buffalo-skull, where another chops it off with a hatchet. In the right of the picture are all the chiefs and dignitaries of the tribe looking on.

After they have all been tortured in the lodge in the above manner, they are led out of it with the weights, buffalo-skulls, &c. hanging to their flesh. Around the “Big Canoe” is a circle of young men formed, who hold a wreath of willow-boughs between them, and run round with all possible violence, yelling as loud as they can.

The young fellows who have been tortured are then led forward, and each one has two athletic and fresh young men (their bodies singularly painted), who step up to him, one on each side, and take him by a leathern strap, tied round the wrist, and run round, outside of the other circle, with all possible speed, forcing him forward till he faints, and then drag him with his face in the dirt until the weights are all disengaged from him, by tearing the flesh out, when they drop him, and he lies (to all appearance a corpse) until the Great Spirit gives him strength to rise and walk home to his lodge.

In this scene also the medicine-man leans against the “Big Canoe” and cries, and all the nation are spectators. Many pages would be required to give to the world a just description of these strange scenes; and they require to be described minutely in all their parts in order to be fully appreciated and understood. (A full account of these in my Notes and Letters.)

Having been the accidental cause of the death of his only son, he threw himself in the way of a buffalo-bull. (See Catlin’s Notes, vol. ii., for a full account.)

It is an invariable rule amongst Indians, that while any one speaks in council no one can rise. See-non-ty-a (the Blistered Feet), a great medicine-man, made his favourite boast, that when he once rose in an Ioway council of war it happened unfortunately for the council that “he began to speak just as it began to snow.”