Sioux Mythology

1895

An Interesting Study of the Works of the Great Mystery.

Before the advent of the white man these people believed that the earth was flat, with a circular form, and was suspended in a dark place and sheltered by the heaven or sky in the shape of a hollow hemisphere. The sun was regarded as the father and the earth the mother of all things that live and grow, and as they had been married a long time and had become the parents of many generations they were called the great-grandparents. As near as I can judge, the moon seemed to be their servant, at least she was required to watch, together with her brothers, the stars over the sleeping universe while the sun came down to rest with his family. In the thunder bird they believed God had a warrior who presided over the most powerful elements — the storm and the fearful cyclone. This symbolic creature is depicted as an impatient and wrathy son of war, at whose appearance even the ever smiling grandfather, the sun, hides his face. In the realms of water the whale is the symbolized chief of the finny tribes. In every great lake the Sioux imagines a huge fish as ruler of its waters.

Yet none of these possesses the power of speech. The great mystery had shown them some truths denied to man, but he did not trust them fully; therefore he made them dumb. They can only show to man some supernatural things by signs or in dreams — as, for instance, to foretell future events or explain the use of certain powerful remedies. The same holds that the key of heaven is vested in the visible phenomena of the universe. All creatures, save man, are assigned to a peculiar paradise, in which there is forbidden fruit — namely, the apple of speech and reasoning; hence the animals and inanimate things are exempted from sin. Thus it is that rocks, trees and rivers are surrounded with an atmosphere of grandeur, beauty and mystery. Nature is the interpreter of the great mystery, and through her man is convinced of truth. — Popular Science Monthly.

Indian Fighting Courage

1895

Terrors In White Settlements Who Run Away From Hostile Redskins.

"It takes a special kind of courage to fight Indians," said Major Edward Ragsdale. "They're pretty sure to surprise you, and they're slippery as quicksilver and as hard to catch. Their yelling and whooping alone are enough to stampede men not trained to their style of fighting. Sometimes they fight under cover, and you catch a fire from an enemy you can't get a sight of, and, again, where there hasn't been one to be seen, they seem all to spring out of the ground at once and charge you as though nothing could stand their onset. Then there's the knowledge that if they catch you alive you'll be skinned alive or burned or your life tortured out of you by slow degrees in a thousand other ways they can think up to make you suffer. There's many a stout hearted desperado, a terror in white settlements and not afraid to have a pistol or shotgun scrap any hour of the day or night with a man of his own color, who doesn't count for a row of pins in an Indian fight.

"Take Sam Brown of Nevada for a case in point. He wasn't afraid of any man that wore boots, and he was the terror of the mining camps everywhere he went. The Piute Indians got bad one time, and a party was organized in the camps to go out against them. Sam joined the volunteers, and everybody in the party and all that staid behind were talking about the big deeds Sam Brown would do and chuckling to think of the way those redskins would be wiped out when they ran up against him.

"Well, when they came upon the Indians things didn't turn out quite as they had expected. It was the whites that got licked out in short order, and those that weren't left on the ground stampeded for safety. Sam Brown was one of the first ones to run, and the pace he set his horse at to get away from those redskins was something that beat quarter racing in the way of reckless riding. As they stampeded down a canyon, every man trying to be foremost to get away, Sam hailed Joe McMurtrie, who was riding a better horse than his:

"'Oh, Mac! Pull your horse a little so I can come up. We'll ride safer together.'

"McMurtrie's answer to that friendly invitation was to bend down to his horse's neck, set in the spurs and get out of that canyon ahead of Sam and back to Bodie as fast as hoofs could carry him. He know Sam Brown, and that if that worthy once got alongside him he wouldn't hesitate to shoot him off his horse so as to get a better mount for himself. After they all got back to the settlement he didn't go round to places where he was likely to meet Sam, lest it might stir him up to unpleasant recollections of their Indian campaign, people were that considerate of others' feelings in those days when the other happened to be Sam Brown." — New York Sun.

And a Deep Silence Followed

1895

"Well, sir," said the vivacious lady to the artist who was painting her portrait, "you haven't finished already, have you? Or has the hour expired?"
"Neither, madam," replied the artist. "I am waiting for an opportunity of seeing how your chin looks in repose." — Chicago Tribune.


Adirondack

Adirondack was a nickname applied by the Iroquois Indians to their enemies, the Algonquins. The name means "people who eat tree bark." The territory now known as the Adirondacks was called by the Indians Coughsarage, "the Dismal Wilderness."

Income Taxes

1916

Ninety-nine full-blood restricted Indians in the Five Tribes of Oklahoma are paying Federal Income tax, according to an announcement made in Muskogee, Ok.

Stork Brings "Quads" to Indian's Tepee, But Three Are Given Away

1919

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Head Chief Shot-Both-Sides, son of the famous Chief Crop-Eared Wolf of the Blood Reserve, near Lethbridge, just now is the pride of all Canadian Indians. His squaw has given birth to quadruplets, two boys and two girls, all living and healthy. For all that he is a chief with a formidable name, the family tepee was not built to accommodate such a rapidly growing family, and after a prolonged pow-wow, Mrs. Shot-Both-Sides picked out the man-papoose she liked best and the other three babes were quietly disposed of.

Indian women do that kind of thing as a matter of course when their families get too big — and the foster mothers bring them up just like their own. These "overs," being from the ranks of the tribe's "400," there was keen competition among the squaws for possession of the mites, which were finally given to Lizzie Long-Run-Home, Mary Saltfish and Little Glow Worm, who almost in one voice declared that they could have received no more welcome Christmas present.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 8.

Few Old Signs Left

1920

Many of the familiar trade signs used to advertise business enterprises have been discarded entirely in the onward sweep of advertising progress or displaced by more or less artistic displays of paint and electric lights.

One of the most common of the oldtimers that has vanished, says the New York Sun, was the wooden Indian, which kept its silent, stolid vigil beside the door of the tobacconist. The significant boot that once was suspended over the shop of the repairer of boots and shoes is also only a memory. So are the anvil hanging above the entrance to the blacksmith's shop and the horse's heads over livery-men's doorways.

The origin of the cigar store Indian dates back to Sir Walter Raleigh and his English settlers in our sunny South. These fortune seekers, visiting the unseen New World in the seventeenth century, and for the first time in the history of the white race learning the use of the tobacco weed from the North American Indian, symbolized this industry by the red man's imposing figure.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 6.

Navajo Blankets

1903

How They Won Their National Reputation

Though Navajo blankets as rugs, portieres, couch coverings and a dozen other things, have held their own in American homes for a season and more, there are many interesting details of their manufacture which are not known to the casual customer.

The impress of the Spanish cross, recalling the invasions of the Coronado expedition of 1540 is still paramount in this industry of the tribe. This marked the Navajo's first knowledge of the white race, and the later influence of Mexican art can be traced in the zigzagging diamond.

There is always one blanket weaver in a Navajo family, generally a woman, though sometimes a man, and the blanket frame which is erected outside the "hogan," or hut, is part of its architecture. This frame is of upright posts or rude poles. Kneeling or squatting in front of it is the patient weaver from morning till night.

The blankets are considered a medium of barter, as current as any coin among the neighboring tribes, for the Navajo's country is the finest for flock raising, and their wool far famed. The dyes used, too, are practically indelible, and their manufacture is a tribe secret.

The blanket is the banner garment of the squaws with 'dressy" aspirations, and the choicest of wigwam decorations. The care taken in the making of these blankets may be realized when one knows that two or three months are given to the manufacture of some of the more elaborate. No two of these are ever exactly alike, and for certain tribal ceremonies especial patterns are introduced. The choicest designs are reserved for enshrouding the dead, as the journey to the "Happy Hunting Ground" is considered much enhanced by the richness of the traveler's wrapping.

It is the Navajo blanket, too, that oftenest forms the charmed square of the snake dancing Mokis, and the sun dancers of the Shoshones and Arapahoes carpet their sacred enclosures with these same weaves that American bachelors and den devotees pay such round prices for. No wonder, with its history, its wealth of association, with its richness of color and originality of design, the Navajo blanket has attained a National reputation.

Pawnee Rock in Kansas

1900

Historic Indian Battle Spot Disappearing Year After Year

Nine miles northeast of Larned, Kansas, is a low, disintegrating pile of red sandstone, which is all that is now left of the once imposing Pawnee Rock.

This rock, which received its name from the tribe of Indians known as the Pawnees, has an interesting history — a history acquired during the time when this part of the country was a wild and dreary desert, inhabited only by the Indians and herds of roaming buffalo. On this rock have been waged many bloody conflicts between the Indians and travelers of the famous Santa Fe trail, and also between the different tribes of plains Indians. Surrounded by vast prairies with the trail running along its base, it afforded a good hiding place and battle ground for the savages.

In its primitive state Pawnee Rock rose to a considerable height, and from its summit a beautiful panorama spread before the lover of nature, and even now, from its reduced height, can be seen for miles a widespread landscape. Comparatively little remains to be seen of that once imposing promontory of the Kansas "desert," for the hand of man has done more in twenty years to efface it from the earth than the elements in centuries of time.

The material obtained by the destruction of this landmark of the early days, is used in the construction of dwellings, bridges, etc., by the inhabitants in the fertile valleys surrounding this spot.


Unlimited Possibilities

Chicago remarks that at her present rate of increase she will outstrip New York in population within twenty-five years. Wait till the census of 1930 and Chicago may be setting the pace for London itself. — Mexican Herald.

Coffee Shortage After the Civil War

1920

People old enough to remember the Civil War are able to recall the fact that after the close of that conflict it was difficult and often impossible to obtain coffee.

Various substitutes were used, such as parched rye, but one that was commonly utilized in Washington and many other cities was sweet potatoes. The latter were first roasted and allowed to burn somewhat on the outside. Then they were mashed in water and boiled. The water was thus transformed into coffee, by no means so unpalatable as might be imagined.

Sugar in those days cost 25 cents a pound. But the sweet potato coffee required no sugar, and so was an economical drink.


No Need for Interpreter

Squaw Evidently Had Not Always Been One of the Ordinary "Blanket Variety."

We were honeymooning in Arizona. Of course, we had our ever-faithful camera with us. On the principal street corner of a small town I saw an old Indian squaw sitting on the sidewalk with her pottery on exhibition about her. I thought that would be a dandy picture to take back home. My wife and I stopped in front of the squaw, and, knowing an Indian's superstition about being photographed, we hesitated.

Just then the proprietor of the store in front of which she was squatting opened the door and I inquired of him: "Do you think she would object to our taking a snapshot of her?" He said he didn't know, that we might try it, and while we were discussing the situation the squaw spoke up in excellent English and with decided gestures, said, "No, I don't care to have my picture taken." — Exchange.

A Curious Legend — Standing Rock

1874

The new Indian agency between Grand River and Fort Rice, called Standing Rock, derives its name from a large boulder standing out alone upon the prairie about three miles from the river. There is a strange Indian superstition connected with this rock, and the Sioux City (Iowa) Journal thus tells it:

"Many years ago a powerful band of Indians made that section their stamping grounds. The chief of the band deserted his old wife for a young squaw. This so grieved the old Queen that she went back to the river, and sat upon the ground and mourned for several days. Upon the ninth day of her grief she turned into this large boulder.

"The Indians at that agency all believe this story to this day, and worship the boulder as a god. The rock has been decorated with ribbons, pieces of red flannel, and every high-colored piece of cloth they have been able to get hold of since time out of mind. These decorations are replaced as often as they become decayed or blown away by the winds.

"At the time of our visit it was trimmed in the most gorgeous trappings imaginable. Every portion of it was covered either with ribbons and rags or paint. Within a few inches of the sacred stone is a pail of water, which is never allowed to become empty; for it is the belief of those ignorant people that the old Queen of their ancestors frequently assumes the form of a squaw and drinks the water.

"In former years she drank much more than at present, they say; but this is easily explained. Then there was more game there, which, in wandering to the pail, drank the water. To disturb this bucket or any portion of the trimmings of the petrified squaw is considered a great offence against the Great Spirit, and is punishable by death."

Long Bow Stories — Old Legends, Maybe Some Fact

1907

Legends of the Famous Archers of the Remote Past

Many "long bow" stories may be cited in the literature of the world, and by far the greater part of them had their origin in the remote past.

Vergil, in the "Aeneid," tells of four archers who were shooting for a prize, the mark being a pigeon tied by a cord to the mast of a ship. The first man hit the mast, the second cut the cord, and the third shot the pigeon as it flew away. The fourth archer, having nothing left at which to shoot, drew his bow and sent his arrow flying toward the sky with such speed that the friction of the air set the feathers on fire, and it swept on like a meteor to disappear in the clouds. That is a bow and arrow story that tests the strongest powers of credulity.

The stories of Robin Hood's archery, illustrated by his wonderful performance as Locksley in Scott's "Ivanhoe," are also a decided strain on one's power of belief.

The famous legend of William Tell is believed by some to have a foundation in fact. There was a Dane named Foke of whom the same story was told, and William of Cloudesley, an Englishman, is said to have shot an apple from his son's head merely to show his skill.

The majority of bow and arrow stories relate to the accurate aim of the archers, but a Frenchman, Blaise de Vigenere, tells one in which the main point is the tremendous force with which an arrow may be propelled if the bow is strong and long enough. According to his own account of the matter, he saw Barbarossa, a Turk, admiral of a ship called the Grand Solyman, send an arrow from his bow clean through a cannon ball. Whether the cannon ball had a hole in it or not he neglects to inform us.

Perhaps the most astounding of all stories about arrow shooting is that of the Indians who used to inhabit Florida. It is said that a group of them would form a circle; one would throw an ear of corn into the air; the rest would shoot at it and shell it of every grain before it fell to the ground. Sometimes the arrows would strike the ear of corn so hard and fast that it would remain suspended in the air several minutes, and the cob never fell until the last grain had been shot away. — Chicago Record-Herald.

Arizona's Stage Robbers — Dan Elkins and Wilbur

1896

Histories of Two Men Who Terrorized the Southwest

One Man "Holds Up" a Stage Load of Eight Passengers — Tracked to Their Hiding Place by Apaches

DAN ELKINS is remembered as the original lone bandit of the Southwest, because, single-handed, he once held up a stage load of eight passengers, besides the driver, all of whom were armed. For weeks the exploit was the talk of the men in and about Tombstone. Judge Bennett, now of San Gabriel, Cal., was one of the passengers, and he tells how the robber worked his desperate game.

"We on the inside of the coach had just been talking," says the Judge, of the robberies that Elkins and his partner, Wilbur, had committed in the Territory, and the shame it was that an organized effort was not made to go and keep after the villains until they were killed, even if it took a year, when we heard a rifle crack, and a man shout to the driver:

" 'Come, now, stop those horses or you'll drop dead.'

"We were traveling through a rocky region along the foothills, and each of us knew instantly that all were in for a hold-up then and there. Every one wondered what his neighbor would do with his pistol.

" 'I'll be hanged,' said a big man from Texas, 'if I'll stand this nonsense,' and he snatched his big shooting iron up from the seat at his side.

"The driver put on the brakes and the stage was stopped at once, when we heard a voice outside saying:

" 'Now you fellers on the inside get out on this side. The first man who gets out on the other side will drop dead as a smelt. Don't be lazy. All of you throw down your shooters as you file out of the coach, for there's a lot of sure rifle shots that's got their eyes on you and are hiding in these here rocks to lay you out cold dead if you don't mind what I'm telling you.'

"When I got out of the stage I noticed that the highwayman wore a wire mask contrivance over his face, and had a big black beard and a whole arsenal of weapons in a belt about his waist. He stood on a commanding boulder, and kept his Winchester repeater moving slowly over us. I took particular pains that he saw I threw down my two pistols on the ground, and I noticed that every one of us, including the Texan, did the same thing.

" 'Throw up your hands, gents, said the masked robber, when we were all on the ground and our pistols lay there in a pile by the side of the coach wheels. 'Now get in line there, quick and face this way. Keep your hands above your heads, don't move; keep your months shut or you'll know how quick a man can go plumb to death."

"We got in line facing our commander in a moment, and none of us could extend his hands quite high enough.

" 'Now, you young fellow with the monkey whiskers,' said the highwayman, 'you just shell out there where you stand. Turn your pockets inside out, so me and my pards can see that you're dealing fair. That's right. Now, while me and my pards keep you in gun range, you search that next man, turn his pockets out. Keep your hands up high, gents, and save trouble. Don't speak.'

"In a few minutes that seemed like ages of an awful silence, each man was searched," and we all stood there in a row with our pockets turned out and flapping in the morning breeze, our hands a full foot above our heads, and a small pile of wallets, watches, little pocket leather and cloth bags of coin lay at the feet of the young man of our party, who had been compelled to search his companions.

" 'Now, you driver, throw that money box off quick, while my pards keep you in range,' said the robber when we had been searched. 'There; that's right. Be lively. It may cost you your carcass. Get that ax under the back seat and chop the box open. Hurry up. Don't speak, and don't get behind that coach, or you'll drop.'

"The ax was got, and the driver chopped open the box near us while we stood there like metal forms in front of clothing stores. When the box had been split apart and the valuables thrown out, the highwayman, all the time keeping his rifle slowly moving up and down our line of silent, hand-uplifted men, said:

" 'Now, driver, get up on your seat. You gents get into your coach. Don't let me hear you peep. Driver, lick your horses up fast and get out of this.

" 'Now, gents,' said he, as the last of us had got back into our seats, weaponless, 'you can brag that you've been held up by a single-handed in the profesh. I don't mind telling you that I'm all alone to-day and that I need your money awful bad. Tell them Tombstone fellers that Dan Elkins has a new trick in his line of business.'

"The horses were whipped up, and the last we saw of Dan Elkins he stood there on that big boulder keeping his head still on us until we turned in the foothill road a mile away. I think the rascal must have got $1000 that day. You see we did not carry much money on our persons in those days when there was danger of highway robbery."

During the winter of 1879 and 1880, the recklessness and bravado of Elkins and his partner, Wilbur, became unbearable, and people began to see that the stage robberies were hurting the name of Arizona, so an unusual effort was made to get the rascals. An extra reward for their capture was offered, and two or three detectives from Los Angeles, Cal., began work. Several half-breed Apache Indian trailers were hired, and after a few weeks the trail to the bandits was found. These Apache trailers are the most wonderful of their kind. They sometimes follow a man's tracks across a desert of sand, even after a windstorm, when the tracks have become obliterated to white men's eyes. They can follow at break-neck speed on a horse the trail of a man who has run in moccasins and taken pains to leave only the faintest traces of his course. They see signs of a trail through cactus and sage brush that no white man would recognize.

After a short period of more trailing and questioning of the few white settlers in the region Elkins and Wilbur were located. Their hiding place was thirty miles south from Benson, among the granite foothills, where no white man but they had probably ever been. Indians were hired to go to the spot, and to act as if they were out hunting and had unwittingly stumbled upon the bandits. Then when the Indians had engaged Elkins and Wilbur in conversation they were to give a signal. A posse of twenty men was to ride at once to the scene. Each man in the band was to take his chances of getting shot by the robbers.

The plan worked well. The bandits were asleep when the Indians came to them one warm afternoon. The Apaches asked for food, and while Wilbur went to get a knife to cut a slice from a deer hanging in the mesquite brush near at hand one of the Indians, pretending to be interested in one of the white stranger's pistols, discharged it. A few minutes later the posse rode up pell mell from behind a low foothill that impeded the view half a mile away.

"We're trapped! we're trapped!" shrieked Elkins as he jumped from his couch of leaves and saw the horsemen encircling about his hiding place.

In a second he and Wilbur were behind two great oaks, and were prepared to fight for their lives. They forgot the Indians at their rear, and no sooner had they turned their faces toward the advancing posse than they were shot dead in the back by the Apache trailers.

There is good reason to believe that if the men had been captured alive they might have been induced to tell where they had hidden the greater part of their stolen money and gold, for no one thinks that, living as they did, they spent more than a small part of their ill-gotten gains. Both the robbers were buried where they were killed, and to this day there are people who go out from the now well-populated town of Benson every little while to the scene of the old camp of Elkins and Wilbur in the hope of finding the secret storehouse of stolen riches among the boulders and foothills that surround the spot. — New York Sun.

A Two Day's Bride Insane

Kansas, 1879

July 13 — Mr. Oliver Mottier was joined in matrimony with a very estimable young lady of Williambury. On Tuesday, the 15th, only two days after her marriage, she became a raving maniac.

The first indications had of anything being wrong was her going into a trance, similar to that of a spiritual medium. Her talk appeared to be entirely with Minnehaha, or about her, she having previously read about her, then there appeared to be a struggle between Minnehaha and another, a male Indian, to get possession of her mind; the latter succeeding, she commenced going through the war-hoop and yells, and all other maneuvers incident to Indians starting out upon the warpath.

This part of the sad scene having come to an end, her ravings day and night were of a very promiscuous character, but showed very little symptoms of vicious or profane temper. Her father informed us that she had not been in the habit of reading or studying Spiritualism, and knew comparatively nothing of the subject. The woman was brought to Ottawa on Monday, where she was declared insane, and ordered to the Ossawatomie Asylum. — Ottawa Gazette, Kansas.

Navajo Indians Take 'Bath' Without Water

1914

Through Necessity, They Have Adopted Unique Plan for Bodily Cleanliness

It has already been indicated that the great desideratum of the Navajo country is water. A perennial water famine is not conducive to habits of bodily cleanliness; and a real bath in real water is something that the average Navajo knows nothing of. Nevertheless, these Bedouins of the Southwest realize that a thorough cleansing of the body is necessary, and have invented a method of accomplishing that end that is well adapted to the land of thirst in which they dwell. This is the sweat bath.

A miniature hogan is built of sticks of wood, and banked up with earth until it is air-tight, with the exception of an opening large enough to admit the body. A fire is built outside, in which large stones are heated red hot. Then these are placed in the sweat house, in a position in which the "bather" will be unlikely to come in contact with them. Then the candidate for a bath crawls in, keeping his head in the open air. One or more heavy blankets are placed over the opening and tightly around the neck of the occupant of the sweat house, to prevent the escape of the heated air.

The Indians remain in the sweat house for several hours, perspiring with incredible freedom. When they emerge they dry themselves by rubbing with the hot sand of the desert. As a cleansing agent, the sweat bath would be hard to beat, although it is a rather heroic substitute for the tub bath of civilization. Nevertheless, it opens the pores of the skin, promotes circulation, and has much to recommend it in preference to the practice of the members of some other tribes, of never taking a bath at all. — Christian Herald.

Oriental Politeness — 'Your Arrival Drives Away Somber Night'

1888

Some curious notes on the etiquette of the East are published in a recent issue of the Gazette de France. For instance a Turkish Effendi, when speaking to another about himself, always says: "your servant," "your valet," or "your slave;" and to the other he says "your high" or "your eminent personality." Instead of saying "I saw you at the theater the other night," he would always say: "At the theater the other night I saw the dust of your shoes;" after all, a rather doubtful sort of compliment.

But here is the Turkish form of an invitation to dinner: "My Generous Master, My Respected Lord: This evening if it pleases Allah, when the great king of the army of stars, the sun of worlds, approaching the kingdom of shades, shall put his foot into the stirrup of speed, you are invited to enlighten us with the luminous rays of your face, which rivals the sun. Your arrival, like the zephyr of spring, will drive away from us the somber night of solitude and isolation."



Personal and Literary

1888

—A granddaughter of Charles Dickens is now a type-writer, and copies MSS. for a living.

—Rev. Dr. Bartol says of the late A. Bronson Alcott: "Were it possible, he was courteous to excess. He would have been polite to Satan."

—Of the literary men who died during 1887, the ages of one hundred and twenty are recorded in the Literary World. Taking them as a basis the average age of literary men is found to be seventy years.

—The youngest woman in the newspaper business heard from up to date is Miss Agnes McMellan, the local editor of the Seward Democrat of Nebraska. She is but fifteen years old, and an excellent news gatherer.

—D. W. C. Throop, editor of the Mount Pleasant (Iowa) Free Press, was writing a few days ago an article on the lesson of Tom Potter's death from overwork. Suddenly he paused, put his hand to his heart, and fell to the floor a corpse.

—"Buffalo Bill" is to try his luck as an author. He will write a book which treats of the reclamation from the Indians of the vast domain which lies west of the Alleghenies. The volume will recount the exploits of many famous frontiersmen.

Chief Joseph's Family

1878

A correspondent of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, who has recently visited the Nes Perces, says: Joseph's squaw and papoose have a buffalo skin lodge, plentifully furnished with robes, blankets and the paraphernalia of camp and war.

Mrs. Joseph, sole squaw of the hero, is a pretty, little black-eyed beauty, with flashing teeth, fine arms and dainty feet. A smile and hand-shake was her greeting, and with native grace pointed to seats on the great robes. A cunning little brown papoose, strapped to a board, was brought forward for our admiration, and it was funny to see how calmly it continued its nap while strange tongues were chattering around it. It woke without clamor, and placidly yawned and blinked its black eyes at us, its arms pinioned to its sides, and its whole body bound tightly in its buckskin vest.

Around the hood of its board cradle was hung a bead chain, hung with ten cent silver pieces and little beaded bundles that we guessed to contain the medicines to avert evil spirits. Our conversation with Mrs. Joseph was confined to dumb show, but we learned that the papoose was nearly a year old, had gone through the summer's campaign without once crying at inopportune moments, and that it was its father's idol, his only consolation since the misfortunes of his people and the loss of his daughter, a young girl, who disappeared the morning of their last fight.

She went out with the other children to gather in the herd when the first attack was made on their camp, and it is not known whether she was shot, strayed off into the strange country, lost, or joined the renegades who made off in the night with Sitting Bull.

Broncho Busting Near Its End

1921

Said There Will Be No More Wild Horses in Rocky Mountain States

CIVILIZATION SPELLS FINISH

Ranches Are Being Fenced and No More Do Wild Horses Range the Plains of Wyoming and Adjacent States

Denver, Colo. — Broncho busters of the northern Rocky Mountain states are about to go out of business, according to reports from officials of wild West and frontier shows. The reason is there aren't any wild horses to bust. At least not around Wyoming and this part of the country.

But down in Arizona they have wild horses to eat. There are 10,000 of them. They belong to the San Carlos Indians, who have a reservation not far from Globe. But there isn't much chance of getting the Arizona ponies for the broncho busters of Wyoming, for the Indians won't give them up.

Growing Shorter

The day of the wild herd of horses roaming the plains of Wyoming and adjacent states has been growing rapidly shorter with the encouragement of civilization. More and more ranches are being fenced in, herds of cattle are reduced or confined, and to make the matter worse for the existence of the wild steeds, oil drilling camps have been extended over wide areas of Wyoming, northwestern Colorado and Utah.

But down on the San Carlos Indian reservation there are 10,000 wild steeds, roaming at will over the fields, destroying mile after mile of grazing land which might be put into good use for cattle, and turning green grass of the prairie into a scrawny covering for their bones which hardly makes even a decent meal for an Indian.

The cattlemen have tried to buy them, but the Indians wouldn't listen. The government, through A. H. Symonds, Indian agent, ordered to purchase them at about $6 a head, invest the money in cattle and save the meat from the horses, giving it back to the Indians for winter food.

Horses Are Worthless

But the Indians would have none of it. The horses are worthless, even for hides. They cannot be domesticated and the meat isn't much of a delicacy, but the Indians insist on their age-old prerogative to have their herds out on the open prairie even as their fathers did. The Indians also have about 2,000 wild burros which they say they will keep.

"And when an Indian makes up his mind," Symonds says, "you've got to have patience to get him to change it. They are proud of the horses and burros for some reason, and although some of their leaders have tried to persuade them to accept the offers made, so far they have refused to sell."

Killing The Mountain Spirit

1874

In illustration of the excessive superstition of the California Indians, a writer in a Sacramento paper relates the following story:

"Two years ago, 'Whistler,' a noted hunter and brave warrior, of the Klamaths, was on the sacred mountain, at the head of Sprague River (a tributary of Williamson's River, and the one referred to so often as the latter stream), when, in the dusk of the evening, he saw a large mule deer, and at once fired, bringing it to the ground.

"In going to cut its throat he was horror-stricken at what he saw before him. There was a deer, a male, weighing over 300 pounds, whose horns were to him a mystery. From one side of the head grew a single spike, ten or twelve inches in length; while from the other side grew a stump horn, with seven short prongs. He had never seen or heard of the like before, and his superstition got the better of him.

"His health for a long time had been bad, and this and the excitement of having, as he supposed, killed the spirit of the mountains, threw him into convulsions. He bled at the mouth and nose, and laid there helpless for hours. At last he managed to crawl to the camp of his party at the foot of the hill, where he told his story and went into a trance. His party were terribly alarmed, and one rode to the agency and told O. C. Applegate that Whistler was dead. Applegate had his coffin made, and it was set out to dry.

"The next morning news came by another rumor that Whistler was alive. It happened the Indian doctor was along with the party, and when Whistler went into a trance he did likewise and kept him company, and brought him back with him, as he expressed it."

A Ceremony of Native Americans, Rites of Passage

1878

A Disgusting Ceremony

A Winnipeg, Manitoba, correspondent describes the following ceremony, indulged in by the Sircees tribe of Indians, in that neighborhood:

The candidate was required to repair to the forest for a certain number of days, to be passed in fasting until, from extreme physical privation, he should be wrought up to a close communion with the spirits. He then returned and entered the pale of the fence making the limits of the dog feast, to be at once surrounded by a circle of conjurers and braves of the tribe, who indulged in a wild dance.

In the midst of this dance a live dog, white in color, if to be had, was brought within the circle by the instructing medicine-man, and given to the novitiate. Seizing the sacrificial animal by the neck and hind leg, the candidate finishes his initiation by devouring the animal alive. The spectacle of this poor wretch, his face covered with blood, the howls and contortions of this suffering animal, and the yelling, dancing demons circling about in their monotonous dance was appalling in the last degree.

The dogs consumed we generally of small size, but in some instances large ones are given, and the neophyte is in a gorged and semi-dormant condition at the end of his repast.

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A Bohemian, who rented a small house at Cleveland, Ohio, put it on wheels the other day and moved west. The landlord, coming for his monthly rent, found nothing out the cellar and an ash barrel. He sent am officer in pursuit of the house thief.


A young man, who is paying his addresses to a lady-love, stayed so late a few evenings since, that the family were compelled to whitewash the wall next morning, to obliterate his shadow.

White Folks Flee in Terror, Indians Paint Up and Dance

1909

SHERIDAN, Wyoming—Government employees engaged on projects in Cheyenne reservation just across the State line in Montana are reported to be greatly alarmed over the warlike attitude of the Indians. Two employees arrived in Sheridan this morning bringing news of a general exodus of white people from the reservation.

While the Indians have so far offered no violence, they are said to be indulging in a series of sun and willow dances, which causes deep concern on the part of the whites. The redskins are dancing night and day.

Later arrivals from the reservation declare that the Indians have not been so wrought up in years. A few days ago a government disbursing agent went on the reservation and paid out $40,000, since which time the Indians have been unusually active and restless. Prior to this time the government project was moving along smoothly. The menacing attitude of the Indians frightened government employees, a number of whom told Engineer Holt, in charge of the work, that they would not take any chances and threw up their jobs.

The Cheyenne tribe numbers about 3,000 and it is reported is making enough noise to keep the entire reservation in a condition of nervous apprehension.