CHAPTER XXIII.
Summer Weather of the Prairies.- Purity of the Atmosphere- Canadians on the March.-
Sickness in the Camp.- Big River.- Vulgar Nomenclature.- Suggestions About the
Original Indian Names.- Camp of Cheyennes.- Trade for Horses.- Character of the
Cheyennes.- Their Horsemanship.- Historical Anecdotes of the Tribe.
THE course taken by Mr. Hunt was at first to the northwest, but soon turned and kept
generally to the southwest, to avoid the country infested by the Blackfeet. His route
took him across some of the tributary streams of the Missouri, and over immense
prairies, bounded only by the horizon, and destitute of trees. It was now the height of
summer, and these naked plains would be intolerable to the traveller were it not for the
breezes which swept over them during the fervor of the day, bringing with them
tempering airs from the distant mountains. To the prevalence of these breezes, and to
the want of all leafy covert, may we also attribute the freedom from those flies and other
insects so tormenting to man and beast during the summer months, in the lower plains,
which are bordered and interspersed with woodland.
The monotony of these immense landscapes, also, would be as wearisome as that of
the ocean, were it not relieved in some degree by the purity and elasticity of the
atmosphere, and the beauty of the heavens. The sky has that delicious blue for which
the sky of Italy is renowned; the sun shines with a splendor unobscured by any cloud or
vapor, and a starlight night on the prairies is glorious. This purity and elasticity of
atmosphere increases as the traveller approaches the mountains and gradually rises
into more elevated prairies.
On the second day of the journey, Mr. Hunt arranged the party into small and
convenient messes, distributing among them the camp kettles. The encampments at
night were as before; some sleeping under tents, and others bivouacking in the open
air. The Canadians proved as patient of toll and hardship on the land as on the water;
indeed, nothing could surpass the patience and good-humor of these men upon the
march. They were the cheerful drudges of the party, loading and unloading the horses,
pitching the tents, making the fires, cooking; in short, performing all those household
and menial offices which the Indians usually assign to the squaws; and, like the
squaws, they left all the hunting and fighting to others. A Canadian has but little
affection for the exercise of the rifle.
The progress of the party was but slow for the first few days. Some of the men were
indisposed; Mr. Crooks, especially, was so unwell that he could not keep on his horse.
A rude kind of litter was, therefore, prepared for him, consisting of two long poles, fixed,
one on each side of two horses, with a matting between them, on which he reclined at
full length, and was protected from the sun by a canopy of boughs.
On the evening of the 23d (July) they encamped on the banks of what they term Big
River; and here we cannot but pause to lament the stupid, commonplace, and often
ribald names entailed upon the rivers and other features of the great West, by traders
and settlers. As the aboriginal tribes of these magnificent regions are yet in existence,
the Indian names might easily be recovered; which, besides being in general more
sonorous and musical, would remain mementoes of the primitive lords of the soil, of
whom in a little while scarce any traces will be left. Indeed, it is to be wished that the
whole of our country could be rescued, as much as possible, from the wretched
nomenclature inflicted upon it, by ignorant and vulgar minds; and thismight be done, in
a great degree, by restoring the Indian names, wherever significant and euphonious.
As there appears to be a spirit of research abroad in respect to our aboriginal
antiquities, we would suggest, as a worthy object of enterprise, a map, or maps, of
every part of our country, giving the Indian names wherever they could be ascertained.
Whoever achieves such an object worthily, will leave a monument to his own
reputation.
To return from this digression. As the travellers were now in a country abounding with
buffalo, they remained for several days encamped upon the banks of Big River, to
obtain a supply of provisions, and to give the invalids time to recruit.
On the second day of their sojourn, as Ben Jones, John Day, and others of the hunters
were in pursuit of game, they came upon an Indian camp on the open prairie, near to a
small stream which ran through a ravine. The tents or lodges were of dressed buffalo
skins, sewn together and stretched on tapering pine poles, joined at top, but radiating
at bottom, so as to form a circle capable of admitting fifty persons. Numbers of horses
were grazing in the neighborhood of the camp, or straying at large in the prairie; a sight
most acceptable to the hunters. After reconnoitering the camp for some time, they
ascertained it to belong to a band of Cheyenne Indians, the same that had sent a
deputation to the Arickaras. They received the hunters in the most friendly manner;
invited them to their lodges, which were more cleanly than Indian lodges are prone to
be, and set food before them with true uncivilized hospitality. Several of them
accompanied the hunters back to the camp, when a trade was immediately opened.
The Cheyennes were astonished and delighted to find a convoy of goods and trinkets
thus brought into the very heart of the prairie; while Mr. Hunt and his companions were
overjoyed to have an opportunity of obtaining a further supply of horses from these
equestrian savages.
During a fortnight that the travellers lingered at this place, their encampment was
continually thronged by the Cheyennes. They were a civil, well-behaved people,
cleanly in their persons, and decorous in their habits. The men were tall, straight and
vigorous, with aquiline noses, and high cheek bones. Some were almost as naked as
ancient statues, and might have stood as models for a statuary; others had leggins and
moccasins of deer skin, and buffalo robes, which they threw gracefully over their
shoulders. In a little while, however, they began to appear in more gorgeous array,
tricked out in the finery obtained from the white men; bright cloths, brass rings, beads
of various colors; and happy was he who could render himself hideous with vermilion.
The travellers had frequent occasions to admire the skill and grace with which these
Indians managed their horses. Some of them made a striking display when mounted;
themselves and their steeds decorated in gala style; for the Indians often bestow more
finery upon their horses than upon themselves. Some would hang around the necks, or
rather on the breasts of their horses, the most precious ornaments they had obtained
from the white men; others interwove feathers in their manes and tails. The Indian
horses, too, appear to have an attachment to their wild riders, and indeed, it is said that
the horses of the prairies readily distinguish an Indian from a white man by the smell,
and give a preference to the former. Yet the Indians, in general, are hard riders, and,
however they may value their horses, treat them with great roughness and neglect.
Occasionally the Cheyennes joined the white hunters in pursuit of the elk and buffalo;
and when in the ardor of the chase, spared neither themselves nor their steeds,
scouring the prairies at full speed, and plunging down precipices and frightful ravines
that threatened the necks of both horse and horseman. The Indian steed, well trained
to the chase, seems as mad as the rider, and pursues the game as eagerly as if it were
his natural prey, on the flesh of which he was to banquet.
The history of the Cheyennes is that of many of those wandering tribes of the prairies.
They were the remnant of a once powerful people called the Shaways, inhabiting a
branch of the Red River which flows into Lake Winnipeg. Every Indian tribe has some
rival tribe with which it wages implacable hostility. The deadly enemies of the Shaways
were the Sioux, who, after a long course of warfare, proved too powerful for them, and
drove them across the Missouri. They again took root near the Warricanne Creek, and
established themselves there in a fortified village.
The Sioux still followed with deadly animosity ; dislodged them from their village, and
compelled them to take refuge in the Black Hills, near the upper waters of the
Sheyenne or Cheyenne River. Here they lost even their name, and became known
among the French colonists by that of the river they frequented.
The heart of the tribe was now broken; its numbers were greatly thinned by their
harassing wars. They no longer attempted to establish themselves in any permanent
abode that might be an object of attack to their cruel foes. They gave up the cultivation
of the fruits of the earth, and became a wandering tribe, subsisting by the chase, and
following the buffalo in its migrations.
Their only possessions were horses, which they caught on the prairies, or reared, or
captured on predatory incursions into the Mexican territories, as has already been
mentioned. With some of these they repaired once a year to the Arickara villages,
exchanged them for corn, beans, pumpkins, and articles of European merchandise, and
then returned into the heart of the prairies.
Such are the fluctuating fortunes of these savage nations. War, famine, pestilence,
together or singly, bring down their strength and thin their numbers. Whole tribes are
rooted up from their native places, wander for a time about these immense regions,
become amalgamated with other tribes, or disappear from the face of the earth. There
appears to be a tendency to extinction among all the savage nations; and this tendency
would seem to have been in operation among the aboriginals of this country long
before the advent of the white men, if we may judge from the traces and traditions of
ancient populousness in regions which were silent and deserted at the time of the
discovery; and from the mysterious and perplexing vestiges of unknown races,
predecessors of those found in actual possession, and who must long since have
become gradually extinguished or been destroyed. The whole history of the aboriginal
population of this country, however, is an enigma, and a grand one - will it ever be
solved?