Traditions of the Arikara

There was a young man who understood the ceremony of catching eagles upon the hills. He invited six other young men to join him in catching eagles. They went west from their village, upon the banks of the Missouri. These men made their camp, then dug into the bank of the Missouri. They made a kind of cave. They spread limbs of trees upon the top of the opening. They then laid fresh meat of deer or rabbit, which had been skinned, upon the limbs. Here these people stayed several days, catching eagles. They would hide in the cave, while one man would watch out. The magpies were the first birds to come and eat of the meat that they had placed upon the top of the cave. Then, when the magpies flew away they knew that an eagle was coming. They caught several eagles.

One afternoon the Sioux marched down from the hills, where they had been discovered. The Sioux saw that they could not do anything to the eagle catchers, for they were in a cave, so they tried to be friendly with them. They asked them for some eagle feathers. The leader of the party now went out and gave them some eagle feathers, walking backwards when he left them. There were some young men among the Sioux who wanted to fight. The Sioux attacked the Arikara. The leader kept all the young men in the cave and made them load their muzzle-loading guns, while he stayed at a certain distance from the bank, and the first man to attack them on horseback he killed. He would throw away his empty gun and the boys would pass a loaded one to him. He would then start to another place on the bank, and again the first man on horseback to come toward him he would shoot and kill. Thus he kept up the fire, killing several. The Sioux finally gave up and retreated. In the night the hunters crawled out of the cave, took scalps from the Sioux, and returned to their village with scalps.