The Face
And Body Are Generally Painted With A Mixture Of Grease And Coal.
Over The Shoulders Is A Loose
Robe or mantle of buffalo skin
dressed white, adorned with porcupine quills, loosely fixed,
so as to make a jingling
Noise when in motion, and painted
with various uncouth figures, unintelligible to us, but to them
emblematic of military exploits or any other incident:
the hair of the robe is worn next the skin in fair weather,
but when it rains the hair is put outside, and the robe
is either thrown over the arm or wrapped round the body,
all of which it may cover. Under this, in the winter season,
they wear a kind of shirt resembling ours, made either
of skin or cloth, and covering the arms and body.
Round the middle is fixed a girdle of cloth, or procured
dressed elk-skin, about an inch in width, and closely tied
to the body; to this is attached a piece of cloth, or blanket,
or skin, about a foot wide, which passes between the legs,
and is tucked under the girdle both before and behind.
From the hip to the ankle is covered by leggins of dressed
antelope skins, with seams at the sides two inches in width,
and ornamented by little tufts of hair, the produce of the scalps
they have made in war, which are scattered down the leg.
The winter moccasins are of dressed buffalo skin, the hair
being worn inward, and soled with thick elk-skin parchment;
those for summer are of deer or elk-skin, dressed without
the hair, and with soles of elk-skin. On great occasions,
or whenever they are in full dress, the young men drag after them
the entire skin of a polecat fixed to the heel of the moccasin.
Another skin of the same animal, either tucked into the girdle
or carried in the hand, serves as a pouch for their tobacco,
or what the French traders call bois roule.[1] This is the inner
bark of a species of red willow, which, being dried in the sun
or over the fire, is, rubbed between the hands and broken
into small pieces, and used alone or mixed with tobacco.
The pipe is generally of red earth, the stem made of ash,
about three or four feet long, and highly decorated with feathers,
hair, and porcupine-quills.
[1] This is bois roule, or "rolled wood," a poor kind of tobacco
rolled with various kinds of leaves, such as the sumach and dogwood.
The Indian name is kinnikinick.
. . . . . . . . .
"While on shore to-day we witnessed a quarrel between two squaws,
which appeared to be growing every moment more boisterous, when a man
came forward, at whose approach every one seemed terrified and ran.
He took the squaws and without any ceremony whipped them severely.
On inquiring into the nature of such summary justice, we learned
that this man was an officer well known to this and many other tribes.
His duty is to keep the peace, and the whole interior police of the village
is confided to two or three of these officers, who are named by the chief
and remain in power some days, at least till the chief appoints a successor.
They seem to be a sort of constable or sentinel, since they are always on the
watch to keep tranquillity during the day and guard the camp in the night.
The short duration of the office is compensated by its authority.
His power is supreme, and in the suppression of any riot or
disturbance no resistance to him is suffered; his person is sacred,
and if in the execution of his duty he strikes even a chief of
the second class, he cannot be punished for this salutary insolence.
In general he accompanies the person of the chief, and when ordered
to any duty, however dangerous, it is a point of honor rather to die
than to refuse obedience. Thus, when they attempted to stop us yesterday,
the chief ordered one of these men to take possession of the boat;
he immediately put his arms around the mast, and, as we understood, no force
except the command of the chief would have induced him to release his hold.
Like the other men his body is blackened, but his distinguishing mark
is a collection of two or three raven-skins fixed to the girdle behind
the back in such a way that the tails stick out horizontally from the body.
On his head, too, is a raven-skin split into two parts, and tied
so as to let the beak project from the forehead."
When the party of explorers subsequently made ready to leave,
signs of reluctance to have them go were apparent among
the Indians. Finally, several of the chief warriors sat on the rope
that held the boat to the shore. Irritated by this, Captain Lewis
got ready to fire upon the warriors, but, anxious to avoid bloodshed,
he gave them more tobacco, which they wanted, and then said
to the chief, "You have told us that you were a great man,
and have influence; now show your influence by taking the rope
from those men, and we will then go on without further trouble."
This appeal to the chieftain's pride had the desired effect.
The warriors were compelled to give up the rope, which was
delivered on board, and the party set sail with a fresh breeze
from the southeast.
The explorers were soon out of the country of the Teton Sioux
and into that of the Ricaras, or, as these Indians are more
commonly called, the Rickarees.
On the first day of October they passed the mouth of a river incorrectly
known as Dog River, as if corrupted from the French word chien.
But the true name is Cheyenne, from the Indians who bear that title.
The stream rises in the region called the Black Mountains
by Lewis and Clark, on account of the great quantity of dark
cedar and pine trees that covered the hills.
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