CHAPTER XXI.
An Indian Horse Fair.- Love of the Indians for Horses- Scenes in the
Arickara Village.-Indian Hospitality.- Duties of Indian Women. Game Habits of the Men.-Their
Indolence.-Love of Gossiping. - Rumors of Lurking Enemies.- Scouts.- An Alarm.-A
Sallying Forth. -Indian Dogs.-Return of a Horse-Stealing Party.-An Indian Deputation.-Fresh
Alarms.-Return of a Successful War Party.-Dress of the Arickaras.- Indian Toilet.-
Triumphal Entry of the War Party. - Meetings of Relations and Friends.-Indian
Sensibility.- Meeting of a Wounded Warrior and His Mother.- Festivities and
Lamentations.
A TRADE now commenced with the Arickaras under the regulation and supervision of
their two chieftains. Lisa sent a part of his goods to the lodge of the left-handed
dignitary, and Mr. Hunt established his mart in the lodge of the Big Man. The village
soon presented the appearance of a busy fair; and as horses were in demand, the
purlieus and the adjacent plain were like the vicinity of a Tartar encampment; horses
were put through all their paces, and horsemen were careering about with that dexterity
and grace for which the Arickaras are noted. As soon as a horse was purchased, his
tail was cropped, a sure mode of distinguishing him from the horses of the tribe; for the
Indians disdain to practice this absurd, barbarous, and indecent mutilation, invented by
some mean and vulgar mind, insensible to the merit and perfections of the animal. On
the contrary, the Indian horses are suffered to remain in every respect the superb and
beautiful animals which nature formed them.
The wealth of an Indian of the far west consists principally in his horses, of which each
chief and warrior possesses a great number, so that the plains about an Indian village
or encampment are covered with them. These form objects of traffic, or objects of
depredation, and in this way pass from tribe to tribe over great tracts of country. The
horses owned by the Arickaras are, for the most part, of the wild stock of the prairies;
some, however, had been obtained from the Poncas, Pawnees, and other tribes to the
southwest, who had stolen them from the Spaniards in the course of horse-stealing
expeditions into Mexican territories. These were to be known by being branded; a
Spanish mode of marking horses not practiced by the Indians.
As the Arickaras were meditating another expedition against their enemies the Sioux,
the articles of traffic most in demand were guns, tomahawks, scalping-knives, powder,
ball, and other munitions of war. The price of a horse, as regulated by the chiefs, was
commonly ten dollars' worth of goods at first cost. To supply the demand thus suddenly
created, parties of young men and braves had sallied forth on expeditions to steal
horses; a species of service among the Indians which takes precedence of hunting, and
is considered a department of honorable warfare.
While the leaders of the expedition were actively engaged in preparing for the
approaching journey, those who had accompanied it for curiosity or amusement, found
ample matter for observation in the village and its inhabitants. Wherever they went they
were kindly entertained. If they entered a lodge, the buffalo robe was spread before the
fire for them to sit down; the pipe was brought, and while the master of the lodge
conversed with his guests, the squaw put the earthen vessel over the fire well filled with
dried buffalo-meat and pounded corn; for the Indian in his native state, before he has
mingled much with white men, and acquired their sordid habits, has the hospitality of
the Arab: never does a stranger enter his door without having food placed before him;
and never is the food thus furnished made a matter of traffic.
The life of an Indian when at home in his village is a life of indolence and amusement.
To the woman is consigned the labors of the household and the field; she arranges the
lodge; brings wood for the fire; cooks; jerks venison and buffalo meat; dresses the skins
of the animals killed in the chase; cultivates the little patch of maize, pumpkins, and
pulse, which furnishes a great part of their provisions. Their time for repose and
recreation is at sunset, when the labors of the day being ended, they gather together to
amuse themselves with petty games, or to hold gossiping convocations on the tops of
their lodges.
As to the Indian, he is a game animal, not to be degraded by useful or menial toil. It is
enough that he exposes himself to the hardships of the chase and the perils of war; that
he brings home food for his family, and watches and fights for its protection. Everything
else is beneath his attention. When at home, he attends only to his weapons and his
horses, preparing the means of future exploit. Or he engages with his comrades in
games of dexterity, agility and strength; or in gambling games in which everything is put
at hazard with a recklessness seldom witnessed in civilized life.
A great part of the idle leisure of the Indians when at home is passed in groups,
squatted together on the bank of a river, on the top of a mound on the prairie, or on the
roof of one of their earth-covered lodges, talking over the news of the day, the affairs of
the tribe, the events and exploits of their last hunting or fighting expedition; or listening
to the stories of old times told by some veteran chronicler; resembling a group of our
village quidnuncs and politicians, listening to the prosings of some superannuated
oracle, or discussing the contents of an ancient newspaper.
As to the Indian women, they are far from complaining of their lot. On the contrary, they
would despise their husbands could they stoop to any menial office, and would think it
conveyed an imputation upon their own conduct. It is the worst insult one virago can
cast upon another in a moment of altercation. "Infamous woman!" will she cry, "I have
seen your husband carrying wood into his lodge to make the fire. Where was his
squaw, that he should be obliged to make a woman of himself! "
Mr. Hunt and his fellow-travellers had not been many days at the Arickara village, when
rumors began to circulate that the Sioux had followed them up, and that a war party,
four or five hundred in number, were lurking somewhere in the neighborhood. These
rumors produced much embarrassment in the camp. The white hunters were deterred
from venturing forth in quest of game, neither did the leaders think it proper to expose
them to such a risk. The Arickaras, too, who had suffered greatly in their wars with this
cruel and ferocious tribe, were roused to increased vigilance, and stationed mounted
scouts upon the neighboring hills. This, however, is a general precaution among the
tribes of the prairies. Those immense plains present a horizon like the ocean, so that
any object of importance can be descried afar, and information communicated to a
great distance. The scouts are stationed on the hills, therefore, to look out both for
game and for enemies, and are, in a manner, living telegraphs conveying their
intelligence by concerted signs. If they wish to give notice of a herd of buffalo in the
plain beyond, they gallop backwards and forwards abreast, on the summit of the hill. If
they perceive an enemy at hand, they gallop to and fro, crossing each other; at sight of
which the whole village flies to arms.
Such an alarm was given in the afternoon of the 15th. Four scouts were seen crossing
and recrossing each other at full gallop, on the summit of a hill about two miles distant
down the river. The cry was up that the Sioux were coming. In an instant the village was
in an uproar. Men, women, and children were all brawling and shouting; dogs barking,
yelping, and howling. Some of the warriors ran for the horses to gather and drive them
in from the prairie, some for their weapons. As fast as they could arm and equip they
sallied forth; some on horseback, some on foot. Some hastily arrayed in their war
dress, with coronets of fluttering feathers, and their bodies smeared with paint; others
naked and only furnished with the weapons they had snatched up. The women and
children gathered on the tops of the lodges and heightened the confusion of the scene
by their vociferation. Old men who could no longer bear arms took similar stations, and
harangued the warriors as they passed, exhorting them to valorous deeds. Some of the
veterans took arms themselves, and sallied forth with tottering steps. In this way, the
savage chivalry of the village to the number of five hundred, poured forth, helter-skelter, riding
and running, with hideous yells and war-whoops, like so many
bedlamites or demoniacs let loose.
After a while the tide of war rolled back, but with far less uproar. Either it had been a
false alarm, or the enemy had retreated on finding themselves discovered, and quiet
was restored to the village. The white hunters continuing to be fearful of ranging this
dangerous neighborhood, fresh provisions began to be scarce in the camp. As a
substitute, therefore, for venison and buffalo meat, the travellers had to purchase a
number of dogs to be shot and cooked for the supply of the camp. Fortunately, however
chary the Indians might be of their horses, they were liberal of their dogs. In fact, these
animals swarm about an Indian village as they do about a Turkish town. Not a family
but has two or three dozen belonging to it, of all sizes and colors; some of a superior
breed are used for hunting; others, to draw the sledge, while others, of a mongrel
breed, and idle vagabond nature, are fattened for food. They are supposed to be
descendant from the wolf, and retain something of his savage but cowardly temper,
howling rather than barking; showing their teeth and snarling on the slightest
provocation, but sneaking away on the least attack.
The excitement of the village continued from day to day. On the day following the alarm
just mentioned, several parties arrived from different directions, and were met and
conducted by some of the braves to the council lodge, where they reported the events
and success of their expeditions, whether of war or hunting; which news was afterwards
promulgated throughout the village, by certain old men who acted as heralds or town
criers. Among the parties which arrived was one that had been among the Snake nation
stealing horses, and returned crowned with success. As they passed in triumph through
the village they were cheered by the men, women, and children, collected as usual on
the tops of the lodges, and were exhorted by the Nesters of the village to be generous
in their dealings with the white men.
The evening was spent in feasting and rejoicing among the relations of the successful
warriors; but the sounds of grief and wailing were heard from the hills adjacent to the
village -the lamentations of women who had lost some relative in the foray.
An Indian village is subject to continual agitations and excitements. The next day
arrived a deputation of braves from the Cheyenne or Shienne nation; a broken tribe, cut
up, like the Arickaras, by wars with the Sioux, and driven to take refuge among the
Black Hills, near the sources of the Cheyenne River, from which they derive their name.
One of these deputies was magnificently arrayed in a buffalo robe, on which various
figures were fancifully embroidered with split quills dyed red and yellow; and the whole
was fringed with the slender hoofs of young fawns, that rattled as he walked.
The arrival of this deputation was the signal for another of those ceremonials which
occupy so much of Indian life; for no being is more courtly and punctilious, and more
observing of etiquette and formality than an American savage.
The object of the deputation was to give notice of an intended visit of the Shienne (or
Cheyenne) tribe to the Arickara village in the course of fifteen days. To this visit Mr.
Hunt looked forward to procure additional horses for his journey; all his bargaining
being ineffectual in obtaining a sufficient supply from the Arickaras. Indeed, nothing
could prevail upon the latter to part with their prime horses, which had been trained to
buffalo hunting.
As Mr. Hunt would have to abandon his boats at this place, Mr. Lisa now offered to
purchase them, and such of his merchandise as was superfluous, and to pay him in
horses to be obtained at a fort belonging to the Missouri Fur Company, situated at the
Mandan villages, about a hundred and fifty miles further up the river. A bargain was
promptly made, and Mr. Lisa and Mr. Crooks, with several companions, set out for the
fort to procure the horses. They returned, after upwards of a fortnight's absence,
bringing with them the stipulated number of horses. Still the cavalry was not sufficiently
numerous to convey the party and baggage and merchandise, and a few days more
were required to complete the arrangements for the journey.
On the 9th of July, just before daybreak, a great noise and vociferation was heard in
the village. This being the usual Indian hour of attack and surprise, and the Sioux being
known to be in the neighborhood, the camp was instantly on the alert. As the day broke
Indians were descried in considerable number on the bluffs, three or four miles down
the river. The noise and agitation in the village continued. The tops of the lodges were
crowded with the inhabitants, all earnestly looking towards the hills, and keeping up a
vehement chattering. Presently an Indian warrior galloped past the camp towards the
village, and in a little while the legions began to pour forth.
The truth of the matter was now ascertained. The Indians upon the distant hills were
three hundred Arickara braves, returning home from a foray. They had met the war
party of Sioux who had been so long hovering about the neighborhood, had fought
them the day before, killed several, and defeated the rest with the loss of but two or
three of their own men and about a dozen wounded; and they were now halting at a
distance until their comrades in the village should come forth to meet them, and swell
the parade of their triumphal entry. The warrior who had galloped past the camp was
the leader of the party hastening home to give tidings of his victory.
Preparations were now made for this great martial ceremony. All the finery and
equipments of the warriors were sent forth to them, that they might appear to the
greatest advantage. Those, too, who had remained at home, tasked their wardrobes
and toilets to do honor to the procession.
The Arickaras generally go naked, but, like all savages, they have their gala dress, of
which they are not a little vain. This usually consists of a gray surcoat and leggins of
the dressed skin of the antelope, resembling chamois leather, and embroidered with
porcupine quills brilliantly dyed. A buffalo robe is thrown over the right shoulder, and
across the left is slung a quiver of arrows. They wear gay coronets of plumes,
particularly those of the swan; but the feathers of the black eagle are considered the
most worthy, being a sacred bird among the Indian warriors.
He who has killed an enemy in his own land, is entitled to drag at his heels a fox-skin
attached to each moccasin; and he who has slain a grizzly bear, wears a necklace of
his claws, the most glorious trophy that a hunter can exhibit.
An Indian toilet is an operation of some toil and trouble; the warrior often has to paint
himself from head to foot, and is extremely capricious and difficult to please, as to the
hideous distribution of streaks and colors. A great part of the morning, therefore,
passed away before there were any signs of the distant pageant. In the meantime a
profound stillness reigned over the village. Most of the inhabitants had gone forth;
others remained in mute expectation. All sports and occupations were suspended,
excepting that in the lodges the painstaking squaws were silently busied in preparing
the repasts for the warriors.
It was near noon that a mingled sound of voices and rude music, faintly heard from a
distance, gave notice that the procession was on the march. The old men and such of
the squaws as could leave their employments hastened forth to meet it. In a little while
it emerged from behind a hill, and had a wild and picturesque appearance as it came
moving over the summit in measured step, and to the cadence of songs and savage
instruments; the warlike standards and trophies flaunting aloft, and the feathers, and
paint, and silver ornaments of the warriors glaring and glittering in the sunshine.
The pageant had really something chivalrous in its arrangement. The Arickaras are
divided into several bands, each bearing the name of some animal or bird, as the
buffalo, the bear, the dog, the pheasant. The present party consisted of four of these
bands, one of which was the dog, the most esteemed in war, being composed of young
men under thirty, and noted for prowess. It is engaged in the most desperate
occasions. The bands marched in separate bodies under their several leaders. The
warriors on foot came first, in platoons of ten or twelve abreast; then the horsemen.
Each band bore as an ensign a spear or bow decorated with beads, porcupine quills,
and painted feathers. Each bore its trophies of scalps, elevated on poles, their long
black locks streaming in the wind. Each was accompanied by its rude music and
minstrelsy . In this way the procession extended nearly a quarter of a mile. The warriors
were variously armed, some few with guns, others with bows and arrows, and war
clubs; all had shields of buffalo hide, a kind of defense generally used by the Indians of
the open prairies, who have not the covert of trees and forests to protect them. They
were painted in the most savage style. Some had the stamp of a red hand across their
mouths, a sign that they had drunk the life-blood of a foe!
As they drew near to the village the old men and the women began to meet them, and
now a scene ensued that proved the fallacy of the old fable of Indian apathy and
stoicism. Parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters met with the
most rapturous expressions of joy; while wailings and lamentations were heard from the
relatives of the killed and wounded. The procession, however, continued on with slow
and measured step, in cadence to the solemn chant, and the warriors maintained their
fixed and stern demeanor.
Between two of the principal chiefs rode a young warrior who had distinguished himself
in the battle. He was severely wounded, so as with difficulty to keep on his horse; but
he preserved a serene and steadfast countenance, as if perfectly unharmed. His
mother had heard of his condition. She broke through the throng, and rushing up, threw
her arms around him and wept aloud. He kept up the spirit and demeanor of a warrior
to the last, but expired shortly after he had reached his home.
The village was now a scene of the utmost festivity and triumph. The banners, and
trophies, and scalps, and painted shields were elevated on poles near the lodges.
There were warfeasts, and scalp-dances, with warlike songs and savage music; all the
inhabitants were arrayed in their festal dresses; while the old heralds went round from
lodge to lodge, promulgating with loud voices the events of the battle and the exploits
of the various warriors.
Such was the boisterous revelry of the village; but sounds of another kind were heard
on the surrounding hills; piteous wailings of the women, who had retired thither to
mourn in darkness and solitude for those who had fallen in battle. There the poor
mother of the youthful warrior who had returned home in triumph but to die, gave full
vent to the anguish of a mother's heart. How much does this custom among the Indian
woman of repairing to the hilltops in the night, and pouring forth their wailings for the
dead, call to mind the beautiful and affecting passage of Scripture, "In Rama was there
a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her
children, and would not be comforted, because they are not."