CATLIN’S 
 NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN 
 
 PORTFOLIO. 
 
 HUNTING SCENES AND AMUSEMENTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ROCKY MOUNTAINS AND PRAIRIES 
 
 OF 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 From Drawings and Potes of the Author, 
 
 MADE DURING EIGHT YEARS’ TRAVEL AMONGST 
 
 FORTY-EIGHT OF THE WILDEST AND MOST REMOTE TRIBES OF SAVAGES IN NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 GEO. CATLIN. 
 EGYPTIAN HALL, PICCADILLY, LONDON. 
 1844. 
 
 EW CLOSE, LONDON. 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 In offering this Porrroxio, I will suppose that most of my readers have read my ‘Notes of Travels for Eight Years 
 amongst the North American Indians,’ published by myself, some time since, with more than 300 outline illustrations: that work 
 having now reached the fifth edition, has been extensively read; and I trust the public will pardon me for placing before them this 
 Preface, as an introduction of myself, and of the customs herein described. 
 
 I was born in Wyoming, in North America, some thirty or forty years since, of parents who entered that beautiful and famed 
 valley soon after the close of the revolutionary war, and the disastrous event of the Inp1aN Massacre. The early part of my life 
 was whiled away, apparently in vain, with books reluctantly held in one hand and a rifle or fishing-pole firmly and affectionately 
 grasped in the other. 
 
 At the urgent request of my father, who was professionally a lawyer, I was prevailed upon to abandon these favorite themes, 
 and also my occasional dabblings with the brush, which had already secured a corner in my affections ; and I commenced reading 
 the Law for a profession, under the direction of Reeve and Gould, of Connecticut. I attended the lectures of these learned judges 
 for two years, was admitted to the bar, and practised the Law, as a sort of Nimrodic lawyer, in my native valley, for two or three 
 years, when I deliberately sold my law library and all (save my rifle and fishing-tackle), and, converting their proceeds into brushes 
 _and paint-pots, I commenced the art of painting in Philadelphia, without teacher or adviser. 
 
 I there closely applied my hand to the labours of my new vocation for several years, during which time my mind was con- 
 tinually reaching for some new branch or enterprise of the art, on which to devote a lifetime of enthusiasm, when a delegation 
 of some ten or fifteen noble and dignified-looking Indians from the wilds of the “Far West” suddenly arrived in the city, arrayed 
 and equipped in all their classic beauty ; with “shield and helmet,” with “tunic and manteau,” tinted and tasselled off exactly 
 for the painter’s palette. In silent and stoic dignity these Lords of the Forest strutted about the city for a few days, wrapped in 
 their pictured robes; their brows plumed with the quills of the war-eagle, attracting the gaze and admiration of all who beheld 
 them. After this they took their leave for Washington city, and I was left to reflect and regret, which I did long and deeply, until 
 I was brought to the following deductions and conclusions. “Black and blue cloth and civilization are destined not only to veil 
 “but to obliterate the grace and beauty of Nature. Mav, in the simplicity and loftiness of his nature, unrestrained and unfettered 
 “by the disguises of art, is surely the most beautiful model for the painter ; and the country from which he hails is unquestionably 
 “the best school of the Arts in the world, and such I am sure, from the models I have seen, 1s the wilderness of America. The 
 “‘history and customs of such a people, preserved by pictorial illustrations, are themes worthy the lifetime of one man, and 
 “nothing short of the loss of my life shall prevent me from visiting their country and becoming their historian.” 
 
 There was something inexpressibly delightful in this resolution, which was to bring me amidst such living models for 
 my brush; and at the same time to place in my hands again, for my living and protection, as well as amusement, the favorite 
 objects of my heart, which had long been laid by to rust and decay in the city, without the remotest apparent prospect of 
 again contributing to my enjoyment. 
 
 I had fully resolved ; I opened my views to my friends and relations, but found not one advocate or abettor: I tried fairly 
 and faithfully, but it was in vain to reason with those whose anxieties were ready to fabricate every difficulty and danger that 
 could be imagined, without being able to understand or appreciate the extent or importance of my designs; and I broke from them 
 
 all,from my wife and my aged parents; being myself my only adviser and protector. 
 
 With these views firmly fixed, armed, equipped, and supplied, I started out in the year 1832, and penetrated the vast and 
 pathless wilds which are familiarly denominated “The Great Far West’ of the American continent, over the almost boundless 
 Prairies and through the Rocky Mountains, with a hght heart, inspired with an enthusiastic hope and reliance that I could meet 
 and overcome all the hazards and privations of a life devoted to the production of a literal and graphic delineation of the living 
 
 A Re 
 
4 
 
 manners, customs, and character of an interesting race of people, who are rapidly passing away from the face of the Earth; 
 lending a hand to a dying nation, who have no historians or biographers of their own, to pourtray with fidelity their native looks 
 and history; thus snatching from approaching oblivion what could be saved for the benefit of posterity, and perpetuating it as a 
 just monument to the memory of a truly lofty and noble race. 
 
 I started on my arduous and perilous undertaking with the determination of reaching, ultimately, if my life should be spared, 
 . every tribe of Indians in North America, and of bringing home faithful portraits of their principal personages, both men and 
 women, from each tribe; views of their villages, games, sports, &c.; and full notes on their character and history. I designed 
 also to procure their costumes, and a complete collection of their manufactures of all kinds, including their implements of war and 
 the chase ; and to perpetuate them in a GaLtery un1avE, for the use and instruction of future ages. 
 
 I have spent more than eight years already in the pursuit above named, having been the most part of that time immersed in 
 the Indian countries, mingling with Red Men, and identifying myself with them as much as possible, in their games and amuse- 
 ments, in order the better to familiarize myself with their superstitions and mysteries, which are the keys to Indian life and 
 character. And I claim whatever merit there may have been in the originality of such a design, as I was the first artist who ever 
 set out upon such a work, designing to carry, as I did, canvass and brushes and ““paint-pots” to the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 I have as yet by no means visited all the tribes; but have advanced a very great way in the enterprise, and with far 
 more complete success than I expected. I have visited forty-eight different tribes, the greater part of which I found speaking 
 different languages, and consisting of more than half a million of souls: and have brought home safe and in good order 320 
 portraits in oil, all painted from life, in their native dresses and in their own wigwams ; also 200 other paintings in oil, 
 embracing views of their Villages, their Wigwams, their Games and Religious Ceremonies, their Dances, their Ball-plays, their 
 Buffalo Hunting, and other Amusements, (containing in all, above 3000 full-length figures ;) with the Landscapes of the country 
 they live in, as well asa very extensive and curious collection of their Costumes, and all their other Manufactures, from the 
 dimensions of a wigwam down to the size of a quill or a rattle. It was during the eight years that I thus spent in the wilderness 
 of America, over its beautiful prairies and through its rugged and Rocky Mountains, that I made this numerous collection 
 of paintings; and it is from amongst them that I have selected the number.to be embraced in this work. 
 
 Having thus been a constant participator, for these several years, in the scenes introduced into the following pages, I feel 
 confident of my ability to give them with truth and with proper effect. And while I am thus offering a work ona subject almost 
 entirely new to the enlightened world, I feel assured that most persons will unite with me in opinion, that no part of the human 
 family furnish more picturesque subjects for the painter’s brush than the North American Indians; nor any part of the brute 
 creation, more furious and spirited examples than those which the Indians, in these sports, are contending with. 
 
 The main object of the views contained in this volume will be to convey to the reader as full and complete an account as 
 possible, of the Hunting Scenes of the American Indians, which, whilst they form a material part of their numerous sports and 
 amusements, furnish them with their whole means of subsistence. The reader will find also, in looking them over, nearly 
 every article of their implements of war and the chase, as well as almost every variety of Landscape of the country, in the 
 different seasons of the year, fully described in the letter-press. 
 
 The author confidently hopes that the appearance of this work may so far gain the approbation and support of the 
 public as to encourage him to meet the very heavy expenses of putting forth the future Numbers, containing portraits of the 
 
 most distinguished Indians of America, with biographical Notes on their Lives, all their various costumes, views of their dances, 
 games, religious rites, &c., all of which it has long been the ambition of the subscriber to publish in such a form. 
 
 GEO. CATLIN. 
 
 Lonpon, 1844. 
 
CATLIN’S 
 
 NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN PORTFOLIO. 
 
 Piate N® 1. 
 GROUP OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, FROM LIFE. 
 
 By whatever means, at what time soever, or for what end, Man and ferocious Beasts have been placed upon the almost 
 boundless Prairies, and through the rude and Rocky Mountains of America; and for what wise purposes soever the dates and 
 sources of their origin have been sealed in impenetrable mystery; it is a truth incontrovertible, that such were found to be the 
 joint inhabitants of all that important half of the globe; and a truth rendered of tenfold interest at the present time, from the 
 lamentable fact that both are rapidly travelling to extinction ‘before the destructive waves of civilization, which seem destined 
 soon to roll over the remotest parts of the continent. 
 
 Of these joint and original inhabitants, one half at least, of North America, has been already entirely depopulated ; and of 
 Man, who falls by poisons and diseases not imbibed by the brute creation, millions have already sunk under dissipation and 
 disease which have been carried by civilized men, over the other half, and thinned their ranks to the numbers which I have 
 estimated in my former work, to which I have alluded in the preamble to this. 
 
 Man, in the vast plains and mountains of America, has been found, as in other parts of the world, maintaining his ascendency 
 over all the beasts of the forest, by the aid of his reason and invention, which have enabled him to construct his weapons, and to 
 employ the means to convert the various animals to his aid and his subsistence in the numerous modes represented in the 
 following pages. 
 
 The group in Plate N° 1 is composed of three Portraits from my Collection, representing three different tribes, of various 
 latitudes, and well illustrating a number of the leading characteristics of this interesting part of the human family. 
 
 An Osace Warrior, from a southern latitude, entirely primitive in his habits and dress; his head shaved, and ornamented 
 with the graceful crest manufactured from the hair of the deer’s tail and horsehair, (an uniform custom of the tribe ;) his robe of 
 the buffalo’s hide, with the battles of his life emblazoned on it; his necklace made of the claws of the grizzly bear; his bow and 
 quiver slung upon his back; and. his leggins fringed with scalp-locks taken as trophies from the heads of enemies slain by him 
 in battle. 
 
 An Iroavots (an almost extinguished tribe), from a northern climate, with long hair; with a ring in his nose, and head- 
 dress of quills and feathers, according to the mode of his tribe; with his tomahawk in hand, and his dress mostly of civilized 
 manufacture, indicating an approach to civilization, to which all the remnants of this and several other contiguous tribes have 
 long since attained. 
 
 A Pawnee Woman, from an intermediate latitude, in primitive dress, made entirely of skins ; and in this as well as in the 
 mode of dressing the head and ornamenting the person, a very fair illustration of the general modes and personal appearance of 
 the females, who exhibit much less forcibly than the men, the characteristic differences of the various tribes. 
 
 Two millions or more of these reasoning beings are still existing in North America, strangely mixed up with, and holding 
 dominion over, the beasts of the forest, upon the flesh of which they chiefly subsist, obtaming it by the various exciting 
 means of appropriation to which I am now to introduce the reader in the following illustrations. 
 
 PuatEe N°? 2. 
 THE AMERICAN BUFFALO. 
 
 This noble animal, which is the largest and most formidable of the ruminating species, existing m North America since the 
 extinction of the Mastodon race, has been the most useful in contributing to Man’s subsistence ; and, consequently, most probably, 
 allowed the longest to inhabit with him those vast and almost mterminable regions of forest and prairie where the Great Spirit 
 designed them to roam together. 
 
 By this portrait of a bull, which is a very faithful one, it will be seen that the American Buffalo is a very different variety 
 of the Ox species from the buffalo of the Eastern continent, and probably closely allied to, if not exactly the same as, the European 
 
6 
 
 Bison. These animals, which once were spread in vast herds over nearly all of North America, from the Rocky Mountains to the 
 shores of the Atlantic, but now confined to a much narrower limit near the base of the Rocky Mountains, extending from the 
 Mexican provinces in the south, to the latitude of Hudson’s Bay in the north, are in size somewhat above the ordinary bullock, 
 and their flesh of a delicious flavour, resembling, and quite equal to, the best of beef. 
 
 From the noble bearing and fine proportions of this animal, one instantly admits his gigantic strength, and estimates his 
 splendid utility to man, provided he could be made to bear the yoke. Almost endless efforts have been made by eager and 
 avaricious man to enslave this noble Animal, and humble him to the drudgery of the plough ; but with the like result as with 
 the noble Men of the same free country, (almost the only living exceptions 3) who, if they lack the merit of meekness and docility, 
 have had and maintained the virtue of courage to contend for their lives with civilized man, and the sternness to resist his 
 slavery. 
 
 The flesh of the Buffalo, which is easily procured, furnishes the Indians of those tracts of country over which they still 
 roam, the means of a wholesome subsistence, and they live almost exclusively on it; converting the skins of the animals, their 
 horns, hoofs, and bones to the construction of dresses, shields, bows, &c. 
 
 The Buffalo Bull is perhaps one of the most formidable and frightful-looking animals in the world when excited to resistance 
 (as will be seen in some of the various phases through which he is to be passed in the following chapter of accidents and disasters 
 that befall him,) his long and shaggy mane hanging in great profusion over his neck and shoulders, and often extending down 
 quite to the ground. 
 
 The colour of the Buffalo, during the first summer, while a calf, is precisely that of a red calf in cultivated fields ; but when 
 shedding its first hair it takes another of dark brown, which colour it carries during its life. The horns are short, but, in the 
 male, very large, with the peculiarity that they have but one turn; i. e. they are a simple arch, without the least approach to a 
 spiral form, like those of the common ox or goat species. 
 
 The female Buffalo is always much smaller than the male, and invariably distinguished by the peculiar shape of the 
 horns, which are much smaller and more crooked, their points turning more in, towards the head. 
 
 One of the most remarkable peculiarities of the Buffalo is the formation and expression of the eye, the ball of which is 
 very large and white, and the iris jet black. The lids of the eye seem always to be strained quite open, and the ball rolling 
 forward and down, so that a considerable part of the iris is hidden behind the lower lid, while the pure white of the eyeball 
 glares out over it in an arch, in the shape of a moon at the end of its first quarter. 
 
 The Buffaloes are gregarious, but not migratory. They are found grazing in immense herds, from the Mexican borders to 
 the fifty-fifth degree of north latitude, in all months of the year, including the coldest of winters; and in these northern regions 
 gaining their food by browsing on the limbs and buds of the frozen shrubbery, and pawing for grass through the snow; affording 
 for the Indian sportsman the thrilling subjects for the chase, in that dreary season, as will be shown in some of the subjoined 
 hunting scenes. 
 
 Prats N° 3. 
 
 WILD HORSES AT PLAY. 
 
 Next in importance to the Buffalo, for the use of Man, is the Horsx, which is found Joint-oceupant with the Indian and 
 Buffalo over most of the vast plains and prairies of America as yet unoccupied by cultivating Man. These, though not aborigines, 
 may still have been, by the inscrutable design of Providence, placed in this country for the benefit of man; and we there- 
 fore find him in almost every part of North America mounted upon their backs, his faithful and attached friends and 
 companions, in deadly war and in the excitements of the chase. 
 
 I believe that these noble animals were first introduced to the American continent by the Spanish invaders of Mexico, and 
 that they have strayed away from their masters and taken wild pasturage, having in time stocked the prairies, as we now find 
 them, to the fifty-fifth degree of north latitude. Like the Buffaloes, they graze over the vast plains at the foot of the Rocky 
 Mountains, and congregate in large families or bands, oftentimes to the amount of several hundreds together. The fact is a very 
 remarkable one, that although these animals have escaped from the familiar hands of man, they should be everywhere found the 
 most rapidly flying from his approach, the shyest animals of the prairie ; detecting their enemy, Man, by the extraordinary power 
 of the eye, at a much greater distance than any other animal of the country; and generally, when in motion, running several 
 
 ‘miles before they stop. 
 
 By several times forcing myself into close company with these bands on the prairies, on a fleet horse; and by often deli- 
 berately reconnoitring them with a good glass, as well as from the many thousands of them I have seen in the use of the Indians, 
 I have found them to be generally small, and delicate of limb, but tolerably fleet; and a band together, completely, and most 
 pleasingly, mottled ; often presenting as many varieties of colours and forms of marks as a kennel of hounds. They are certainly 
 animals capable of performing wonderful feats, and of enduring great fatigue ; and, like the Buffalo, subsist entirely on the grass 
 of the prairies ; and that in very cold as well as in southern latitudes. 
 
 I have found that in the northern and western prairies of America, where the Indian has not been degraded by the withering 
 proximity of avaricious White Man, he has been decidedly improved in his independence and manly and noble bearing, by 
 the use and companionship of the horse. No fact is more apparent than this, to the traveller through the Indian tribes of 
 
7 
 
 America, nor anything more readily admitted by all, than the powerful and graceful manner in which these people, by a 
 lifetime of practice, ride and manage the Horse. They are cruel masters, yet no people set a higher value on the merits of a 
 good horse, nor any perhaps who take greater care, or exercise greater skill, in cultivating and maintaining in them a bold and 
 hardy spirit. The Indian's cruelty to the horse is confined to the occasional incredible gallops which they force them through 
 with great sternness, but which they are paid for by a life chiefly of freedom, and exemption from the first cruelty that is practised 
 by the hands of civilized man, the more than barbarous cruelty of the knife. 
 
 The range of country to which the sagacity of the wild horses has driven them before the advance of their enemy Man, as 
 with the buffaloes, is now confined to a strip of the prairie country near the base of the Rocky Mountains ; and in the view of the 
 band here presented, is also given a faithful portrait from Nature, justly illustrating the character of that part of the American 
 prairies, with a slight glimpse of the perpetually snow-capped summits of parts of the Rocky Mountains in the distance, which 
 are often seen in clear weather, with great distinctness, over a range of sixty or seventy miles. 
 
 Puate N° 4. 
 CATCHING THE WILD HORSE. 
 Taking the wild horse and “ breaking him down” is one of the proudest feats of the Indian, and requires the sudden rallying, 
 
 and desperate use, of all his manly faculties; and even with the complete exhaustion of all these he is often compelled to relin- 
 quish his pursuit in despair. The most frequent mode of catching the horse is by “throwing the laso,” from the back of a 
 
 ~ horse at full speed, as is seen in the distant part of this picture; and by “choking the animal down,” as is seen in the group in 
 
 the foreground. For this desperate feat the Indian prepares his laso, which is a braided thong, made of raw hide, fifteen or 
 twenty yards in length, and coiled upon his left arm, with a noose at the end of it; which, when he throws out its coil, drops 
 over the horse’s neck. This done, by holding back upon the other end of the laso, or by having it fastened to the girth of his 
 own horse, he gradually tightens it upon his running victim’s neck, until its speed is materially checked by the stoppage of its 
 breath. He then dismounts, and leaves his riding horse, balancing on his feet as he is dragged along by his strangling prize, 
 until it falls from exhaustion. He then instantly rushes upon his game, and having fastened a pair of hobbles on its fore-feet, 
 and a short halter, with a noose, firmly around its under jaw, loosens the laso around the neck, enabling the horse to breathe ; 
 and leaning back with the weight of his body and all his strength, at the end of the halter, to prevent the horse from rising upon 
 its feet or from throwing itself over and receiving an injury by falling upon its back. 
 
 In this struggle, which is called “ breaking-down,” and generally lasts about half an hour, there is a desperate contention for 
 the mastery, which is easily seen to be decided by reason and invention, rather than by superiority in brute force. The Indian 
 leans back upon his halter, which is firmly held in both hands, and as the horse is getting breath and strength to rise, repeatedly 
 checks it, preventing it from gaining any advantage ; and - gradually advances, hand over hand upon the tightened halter, 
 towards the horse’s head, until the poor, affrighted, trembling, and conquered animal, covered with foam, allows the caressing 
 hand of its new master to pat it on the nose, and ina few minutes to cover its eyes, when the exchange of a few deep-drawn 
 breaths from their meeting nostrils seems to compromise the struggle; the animal discovering in its conqueror, instead of an 
 enemy, a friend, who has from that moment little else to do than to mount upon its back, with the halter around its jaw, and 
 ride it into camp, his willing slave for the rest of its life. 
 
 In these desperate struggles the finest and the flectest of the band are seldom if ever overtaken ; nor would such misfortune 
 often befall the hindmost, were it not that the pursuing horse gets advantage of the ground, and shortens the distance, by the 
 superior judgment and guidance of man. . 
 
 Pirate N® 5. 
 BUFFALO CHASE. 
 
 In this picture we have the Indian mounted on his wild horse, which he has captured in the mode described above ; 
 and thus converting it to his use, as the means of procuring his subsistence. For want of the fleetness and fangs of the 
 ferocious brutes, Man has wisely been endowed with reason and invention which have enabled him to use the legs of the horse, 
 and to construct deadly weapons, as the means of holding his ascendency over all the beasts of the forest, and of appropriating 
 so much of their substance as is necessary for the clothing and subsistence of his family. 
 
 The wild horse is the swiftest animal of the American prairies ; and. the Indian, from his well-trained horse’s back, with his 
 sinewy bow and lance, easily deals death to the quadrupeds of the country ; having, from a lifetime of practice, rendered himself 
 quite equal in the chase, to the most skilful of hunters; and in war, to the most efficient cavalry of lancers and bowmen in the 
 world. 
 
 Here is seen the mode in which the Indian generally approaches the Buffalo, always on the right (or off side) of the animal, 
 that he may throw his arrow or strike with his lance, to the left. The death is usually produced when the animal and the horse 
 
8 
 
 are at the fullest speed; and most often, as in this case, when the hunter has forced his victim from the herd, when he 
 pursues it with less danger to himself and horse, and with much more certainty of producing the death. The Indians, in their 
 native state, generally ride, in war and in the chase, without saddle, and always without bridle. They make, and use on most 
 ordinary occasions, a very good saddle ; but when preparing to go into this desperate chase, they halt half a mile or so from the 
 herd, without danger of putting them in motion ; when each hunter throws off his shirt, quiver, head-dress, shield, and 
 whatever else of his dress that may become an incumbrance or hindrance to the free use of his limbs; carrying in the left hand, 
 firmly clenched, his bow and some half dozen arrows, with his heavy and cruel whip attached to the wrist of his right arm. 
 In this disrobement he puts off the saddle, and often lashes a bear or other skin, with the girth, to his horse’s back, astride of which 
 he throws himself, feeling more secure as he is nearer his horse’s back, by which both the horse and his rider derive great benefit 
 from feeling each other’s motions ; and in this plight he dashes off at full speed, the rein in his hand, which is but a small halter 
 of raw hide or of horsehair, fastened around the under jaw of the horse, and hanging loosely on the neck. The Indian has little 
 use even for this, after he has directed the attention of his horse to the animal he wishes to pursue, and has separated it from the 
 herd; for such is the extraordinary training of most of these little horses that they will with certainty bring their rider alongside 
 without the guidance of the rein ; allowing the Indian to fix his arrow upon the string, and to place himself in the proper position 
 for giving the deadly shot, which is done at the instant the horse is passing the animal, and that generally within the distance of 
 four or five paces, as is seen in this plate. 
 
 The very great disparity in size between the horse and the buffalo, in this instance, which is much more than is usual, 
 nevertheless correctly illustrates the actual difference that often occurs between an Indian poney of thirteen or fourteen hands, 
 and a huge bull, as is here represented, weighing, as they sometimes do, 1800 or 2000 pounds. 
 
 In giving the arrow under these circumstances, the bow is pulled with great suddenness, and the arrow flies with terrible 
 and almost incredible effect ; generally striking the heart or the region of it, so that death is most commonly produced by one 
 arrow ; and if the first fail to enter deep enough, a second one is sent in an instant, and the huge animal, with a few leaps more, 
 tumbles down and is dead in a few moments. After the fatal arrow has flown, the horse, which has passed the animal, is 
 often guided to another and another, until in a similar manner several will get their deaths from a handful of arrows, all of which 
 are dealt out in a minute or two of time. After this, the halter is used to “pull up,” and in fact, is of little other use, the Indian 
 generally guiding the horse, when guidance is necessary, by leaning quite forward, and suddenly, but gently, striking the right 
 hand over one or the other of the horse’s eyes, bending its course with ease and with grace, in any direction. 
 
 Puate N° 6. 
 BUFFALO CHASE. 
 
 In this Plate, representing a numerous group in motion, and closely pursued by a party of Indians, with Lances and Bows, 
 there is a fair illustration of the peculiar character of a vast deal of the “ rolling prairies,” in the great plains towards the Rocky 
 Mountains ; and which, by a phrase of the country, is denominated “ Prairie Bluffs.” These conical hills, which often rise to 
 the height of several hundred feet, sometimes continuing in ranges and in regular succession, for a great number of miles, 
 like tremendous waves of the ocean, are everywhere divested of timber and shrubbery, and covered with a short grass ; and 
 during the spring and summer months, watered by frequent showers, robing them constantly with the most intense and verdant 
 green. These are the most favourite haunts of the buffaloes ; and when hotly pursued they will often seek the highest summits 
 to avoid the approach of their enemies; but even there, as seen in the illustration, the smewy wild horse will carry his rider by 
 their sides, where death is as inevitable as upon the level ground. | 
 
 The laso seen trailing behind the horse’s heels in this plate, and which has already been described, though it 1s nowhere 
 used to arrest the fury of the buffalo’s speed, seldom fails to be dragged in the chase, attached to the horse’s neck and following 
 in the grass some fifteen or twenty yards behind, that the rider who may fall to the ground, may grapple to it; and by running 
 with it in his hand, have the means of securing his horse, and of being again, in an instant, upon its back. 
 
 The lance which is seen carried in this chase, of twelve or fourteen feet in length, is a deadly weapon in the hands of those 
 skilled by the constant handling of it for the greater part of their lives; equally valued and equally fatal, in war and the 
 chase, as the bow and arrow; and used much in the same manner by all ‘the mounted Indians of the great plaims and prairies 
 of America. The blade of this lance is of bone, of silex, or of steel, and the shaft, light and delicate, of wood. It is never 
 thrown from the hand, but at the moment the horse is passing the animal or an enemy, the thrust is instantly made by passing 
 the handle of the lance through the left hand, holding it firmly in his right, as the rider leans from the side of his horse. One 
 blow (which is given with the suddenness of the darting of a snake’s tongue, with great precision, and generally at right angles 
 with the horse’s back, not to entangle and endanger the lance) is generally all that is required, as the blade is dipped to the heart 
 of the animal, which can run but a very few rods before it is down upon its haunches and dying. 
 
Puate N° 7. 
 
 BUFFALO HUNT. A NUMEROUS GROUP. 
 
 In this plate is represented a number of the accidents of the chase, with all of which the sportsman in that country will 
 soon become acquainted. There is also seen here another variety of the “rolling” prairie; and the effect of the Indian’s deadly 
 weapons forcibly displayed ; likewise a party of Indians dashing amongst a herd of buffaloes in a ravine, from which they are 
 “breaking” in various directions; and men, horses, and buffaloes are meeting the accidents and alternatives here represented, 
 which are familiar in the country. In the midst of precisely such a scene I was thrown, in a desperate chase by a party of Sioux 
 Indians, near the mouth of the Teton River, on the Upper Missouri. 
 
 The buffalo is a harmless and timid animal until severely wounded, or closely pursued, when it often turns upon horse and 
 rider with great rage and shocking disaster, unless a sudden escape can be made from its relentless fury. When closely pursued by 
 the horse, and held a little too long in familiar company, the bull will often suddenly wheel around, receiving horse and rider 
 on his horns, at the imminent hazard of the limbs and lives of both. 
 
 In this group is seen the position and expression of the Indian and the buffalo, at the moment the arrow has been thrown 
 and buried to the feather in the animal’s side. In the front of the picture, the wounded bull is seen dying, whilst wreaking his 
 vengeance upon the horse; and on the left, another bull goring the horse of his assailant, who is forced from his seat and obliged 
 to pass over the backs of several animals, which is often the case when they are running im numerous and confused masses. In 
 this instance is seen the blade of the arrow protruding from the wound on the opposite side of the animal to that where it entered, 
 one of the frequent occurrences of the kind, illustrating the great force with which the Indian’s arrows are occasionally sent, 
 passing entirely through the animal’s body. I have been familiar with these hunting scenes of the Indians for several years, 
 and have sometimes, for months together, almost daily, jomed in them myself, when I have beheld many hundreds of them slain. 
 I have several times seen the Indian gallop his horse around, and, leaning from its side, snatch his arrow from the ground, half 
 buried in the earth, and covered with blood, having passed through the animal’s heart on its way. 
 
 The numerous results which I have closely studied, of the deadly effects of the arrow, have fully convinced me that, in 
 the hand of a skilful hunter on horseback, at the little distance the arrow is required to be thrown, the bow is a far more efficient 
 weapon than the best firearm that could be produced. The aim is as true, the shots can be six or eight to one, and I venture 
 to say that each shall be fully equal and more certain of securing the animal. I know, from experience, that the buffalo will often 
 lead us a long and fruitless chase with two or three ounce bullets through its body, when, if pmioned with an Indian’s arrow, it 
 would stand and submit to a second through its heart, bringing it to the ground. 
 
 Pirate N? 8. 
 
 BUFFALO DANCE. 
 
 This grotesque group, though not strictly a hunting scene, is so closely allied as to be often considered by the Indians 
 indispensable to their success ; and consequently deemed by me, of importance here, in conveying to the reader a full account 
 of buffalo hunting. Amongst a people so ignorant and superstitious, the success of their hunts and wars is often attributed to 
 the strict observance of several propitiatory modes of singing and dancing to the Great (or other) Spirit ; soliciting his counte- 
 nance, and promising to give to him, (which they always do,) by sacrificing, the choicest pieces of the animal slain in their hunts. 
 The wild and deafening songs sung on these occasions are exceedingly curious, and called Mrpicrne (Mystery) Sones. All 
 tribes have their medicine songs peculiar for the hunting of each animal they choose to go in pursuit of, and by singing these songs 
 they conciliate the supposed invisible deity or spirit presiding over these animals’ respective destinies, and who must necessarily 
 be consulted in this way. 
 
 These Medicine Ceremonies, which are always conducted by their Medicine (or Mystery) Men, are almost invariably 
 performed with more or less adherence to all the usual forms before starting on a hunting or war excursion ; and however great 
 the success may be, it is easily attributed to the observance of these forms; and if disappointment, or even disaster, attend 
 the expedition, it is equally easy and convenient to attribute it to some culpable defect or omission in their Medicine operations. 
 
 For the purpose of buffalo-hunting nearly every wigwam, in most of the tribes, has one or more masks of the buffalo, (the 
 skin of the animal’s head, with the horns remaining on,) which the Indian places on his head when he is called upon to join in 
 the Metai or Medicine, for buffalo hunting. When the hunters have arranged these masks upon their heads, they often sing and 
 dance for days together before they get the permission to start, from their oracle, (the Doctor or Mystery Man,) and his guarantee 
 for their success, which often depends much upon the degree of liberality with which they bestow the necessary presents 
 upon him. To the same means, also, will they often resort in times of great scarcity; at seasons when the buffaloes seem to 
 desert the vicinity of their villages, which is often the case, threatening them with hunger and starvation. The Doctors, in such 
 emergencies, assemble together with the chiefs in consultation, and it is decided very gravely that the buffalo-dance must be 
 
10 
 
 commenced, “to make the buffaloes come ;” and when such is the case, the dance is kept constantly going, both night and day, 
 by the young men “relieving each other,” stepping out of the ring as they become fatigued, and others dancing in, in constant 
 rotation, until “buffaloes come,” i. e. until their sentinels in the vicinity of the village, or others, bring in the news that buffaloes 
 are near, when the dance ceases, and preparations are made for the hunt. 
 
 Prats N° 9 
 BUFFALO HUNT. A SURROUND. 
 
 After the preliminaries of the chase have been gone through, as described in the former plate, and the hunting party have 
 reached the vicinity of the herd, scenes like the one represented in this illustration often occur. On one occasion I was 
 invited by the Indians to ride out and witness their attack ona herd of buffaloes, near one of their villages on the Upper Missouri, 
 in the summer of 1832: I sat on my horse and witnessed a scene of this kind ; a mode of attacking the buffaloes which they 
 call Wa-rahs-took-kee, a surround. 
 
 Some sixty or seventy young men, all mounted on their wild horses, and armed with bows and lances only, cautiously 
 encompassed the grazing herd, by drawing themselves around them in a circle of a mile or two in diameter, and gradually closing 
 in towards the centre, until the herd took the alarm, and in a mass, endeavouring to make their escape, were met by the gather- 
 ing horsemen, brandishing their weapons and yelling in the most frightful manner ; turning the black and rushing mass which 
 moved off in an opposite direction, where they were again met and foiled in a similar manner, and wheeled back in utter confusion. 
 By this time the horsemen had closed in from all sides, forming a continuous line around them; whilst the poor affrighted 
 animals were eddying about in a crowded and confused group, hooking and climbing upon each other, when the work of death 
 commenced. In this grand turmoil a cloud of dust was soon raised, which in part obscured the throng where the hunters were 
 galloping their horses around and driving their whizzing arrows or long lances to the hearts of these noble animals, which, in 
 many instances, becoming infuriated with deadly weapons in their sides, erected their shaggy manes over their bloodshot eyes, 
 and furiously plunged forward at the sides of their assailants’ horses; sometimes goring them to death at a lunge, and putting 
 their dismounted riders to flight for their lives. Sometimes the dense crowd was opened, and the blinded horsemen, too intent 
 on their prey, amidst a cloud of dust, were hemmed and wedged in amongst the crowding beasts, over whose backs they were 
 obliged to leap for security, leaving their horses to the fate that might await them in this wild and desperate war. Many were 
 the bulls that turned upon their assailants, meeting them with desperate resistance; and many were the warriors who were 
 dismounted, saving themselves by the superior muscles of their legs. Some who were closely pursued by the bulls wheeled 
 suddenly round, and snatching the half of a buffalo robe from around their waists, threw it over the horns and eyes of the infu- 
 riated beast, and darting by its side, drove the arrow or lance to its heart. Others suddenly dashed off upon the prairies by the 
 side of the affrighted animals which had escaped from the throng, and closely escorting them for a few rods, caused their hearts’ 
 blood to flow in streams, and brought their huge carcases to the ground. 
 
 Thus this grand hunt was soon turned into a desperate battle; which in the space of fifteen minutes ended in the total 
 destruction of the herd, undoubtedly containing some two or three hundreds; all of which met their deaths from the blades of 
 arrows and lances, without the firmg of a gun. 
 
 Pirate N° 10. 
 
 BUFFALO HUNT. WHITE WOLVES ATTACKING A BUFFALO BULL. 
 
 By this plate it will be seen that the buffaloes have other enemies than Man to contend with, and that hunting is an occu- 
 pation not exclusively the province of the Indian, in those wild regions. 
 
 There are several varieties of the Wolf species on the American prairies, the most numerous and formidable of which is the 
 White Wolf, found in great numbers in a high latitude and near the Rocky Mountains. These animals are equal in size, in many 
 instances, to the largest Newfoundland dog ; and, from the whiteness of their hair, appear, at a distance on the green prairies, much 
 like a flock of sheep, and often are seen to the number of fitty or a hundred in a pack; and in this way following the numerous 
 herds of buffaloes from one end of the year to the other, gorging their stomachs with the carcases of those animals that fall by 
 the hands of the hunters, or from sickness and old age. Whilst the buffaloes are grouped together, the wolves seldom attack 
 them, as the former instantly gather for combined resistance, which they effectually make. But when the herds are travelling, it 
 often happens that an aged or wounded one lingers at a distance behind, and when fairly out of sight of the herd, is set upon by 
 swarms of these voracious hunters, which are sure at last to torture him to death, and use him up at a meal. 
 
 During my travels in these regions, I have several times come across such gangs of these animals, surrounding and torturing 
 an old or a wounded bull, where it would seem from appearances that they had been for several days in attendance, and at intervals 
 desperately engaged in the effort to take his life. On an occasion when one of my hunting companions and myself were returning 
 to our encampment, with our horses laden with meat, we discovered at a distance, a huge bull encircled by a gang of white 
 
11 
 
 wolves ; we rode up as near as we could without driving them away, and halting within pistol-shot, had a good view, where I 
 sat for a few moments upon my horse and made the sketch for this plate, in my note-book; after which we advanced, and the 
 sneaking gang withdrew to a distance of fifty or sixty rods, when we found, to our very great surprise, that the animal 
 had made desperate resistance until his eyes were entirely eaten out of his head; the gristle of his nose was mostly gone ; his tongue 
 was half demolished, and the skin and flesh of his legs torn almost literally into strings. In this “tattered and torn’ condition 
 the poor old veteran had stood, bracing up in the midst of his devourers, who had ceased _ hostilities for a few minutes, in a sort 
 of parley, recovering strength and preparing to resume the attack in a few moments. 
 
 In this group some were reclining, to gain breath, whilst others were sneaking about and licking their chaps in anxiety for a 
 renewal of the attack ; and others, less lucky, had been crushed to death by the feet or the horns of the bull. I rode nearer to 
 the pitiable object, as he stood bleeding and trembling before me, and said to him “ Now is your chance, old fellow, and you had 
 better be off.” Though blind and nearly destroyed, he seemed to recognize a friend in me ; when he straightened up, and trem- 
 bling with excitement, dashed off at full speed in a straight line over the prairie. We turned our horses, resuming our march, 
 and having advanced a mile or more, looked back, and on our left we saw the ill-fated animal again surrounded by his tormentors, 
 to whose insatiable voracity he unquestionably soon fell a victim. 
 
 Pirate N® 11. 
 
 BUFFALO HUNT. APPROACHING IN A RAVINE. 
 
 This plate represents the familiar mode of procuring meat, practised by all the voyageurs on the Missouri and other streams 
 of that country, who run their canoes ashore where the buffaloes or other animals are discovered grazing on the banks, and 
 cautiously stealing up under cover of a bank or other protection, shoot down the fattest of the herd. In one of my homeward 
 voyages I descended the Missouri river the distance of 2000 miles in a canoe, having but my two hired men, “ Bogard and Ba‘tiste,” 
 to paddle, whilst I steered with the steering-oar. Nearly the whole of this distance was through a wild and uncultivated 
 country of boundless green fields, inhabited only by the various Indian tribes, and the wild animals that graze upon it. Our beds 
 were every night made in the grass, amongst the lilies and other wild flowers that everywhere spot and enamel the beautiful grassy 
 banks of that mighty and ugly river. During the most of that voyage our food was simply buffalo meat, without bread or 
 coffee ; and in the illustration is given a very good account of one of the instances in which Bogard, Ba‘tiste, and I, stepped 
 ashore, under a beautiful range of bluffs, near the mouth of Cannon-ball River, with a view of replenishing our larder. We had 
 for many miles been in sight of a fine herd, reposing in a beautiful vale ; and having silently landed our little craft under the bank, 
 we cautiously ascended the sloping side of a ravine, which brought us within pistol-shot of the unsuspecting herd, when at the 
 whispered signal, “ready, fire!” each rifle brought down its victim, and our canoe was soon lined with the choicest cuts of their 
 flesh, and again adrift upon the current. The landscape view here given is strictly a portrait, and well illustrates much of the 
 
 peculiar scenery on the banks of the Upper Missouri. 
 
 Pirate N° 12. 
 BUFFALO HUNT. “CHASING BACK.” 
 
 “Turn about is fair play,” according to an old and familiar adage ; and in these wild and thrilling scenes we often meet it 
 almost too literally to be willing to admit the justness of its application. The wounded and chafed bull often turns upon its 
 assailant, and runs him back, over the whole ground; in which unpleasant reverse he has but to balance himself upon his little 
 horse, praying for smooth ground under its feet, and deliverance from the fury that is behind him. 
 
 “This picturesque and jagged outline of hills only requires the background of a dark, lurid cloud; and if viewed from a 
 “distance it will need but little stretch of the imagination to conceive it to be a magnificent castle, fit for the residence of the 
 ‘proudest monarch on earth. 
 
 “T was mounted on a small Indian horse ; on my head was a broad-brimmed, low-crowned white hat, which, from having 
 “often performed the double office of pillow and nightcap by night, and of umbrella by day, was almost indescribable in form ; a 
 “blue shirt, and a black velveteen shooting-jacket, with enormous pockets stuffed full of a strange miscellany of requisites, covered 
 ‘‘my upper man. I wore neither neckcloth, braces, nor waistcoat. Around my waist was a strong leathern belt, in which were stuck 
 ‘“‘my hunting-knife and a brace of pistols in front ; and at the side, a short, heavy iron-handled ‘ cut-and-thrust’ sword ; my nether 
 “‘extremities were protected by a stout pair of corduroy breeches and buckskin leggins, fitting the leg; and in my right hand 
 “was my faithful double-barrelled rifle. At length a momentary halt was given, and a hurried proclamation issued amongst the 
 «‘ Pawnees, that ‘the men must be ready.’ We were drawn up on one side of a hill, below which was a valley of no great depth, 
 ‘‘and on the other side another hill intersected by many ravines, down each of which a black living torrent of buffaloes was 
 “pouring into the valley. I rode towards the first which Fate threw in my way; and he seemed inclined in no way to hurry 
 “his pace or to change the direction in which he was lazily cantermg along. He was indeed a magnificent bull, of the very 
 
12 
 
 “largest size, and had the thickest fell of hair that I had seen on the prairie. . . . My ball struck him a few inches behind 
 “the heart, and one moment he paused, as I thought, about to fall; but it was only to glare his eyes fiercely upon me, lash his 
 “tail, and then charge me at full speed. It would have been madness to have expended my last shot, so I reserved it for a mortal 
 “struggle, in case my horse and I should be overthrown, and in the meantime urged him with hand, leg, and spur to his utmost 
 “exertions. I looked over my shoulder, and for the distance of a hundred yards I knew not how the race would terminate, as his 
 «thundering hoofs, glaring eyes, and nostrils throwing out bloody froth, were close at my horse’s flank. However, I could soon 
 “perceive that, from his unwieldy size, and the severe wound I had given him, he was failing in strength, and I accordingly 
 “pressed my little horse to place me further out of his reach. As soon as he saw that his efforts at revenge had failed, he stopped 
 «short, stamped, blew, bellowed, and made all the most furious gestures of rage and pain. When I was again about fifty yards 
 “from him, I pulled up, and determined to wait two or three minutes; very prudently reflecting that in the mean time my horse 
 “was recovering breath, while my enemy was bleeding and exhausting himself by empty demonstrations of fury. As soon as | 
 «thought my horse ready for a new race, if necessary, I dismounted and fired with better aim and effect; the bull staggered a 
 
 “few paces, and rolled in the dust.” 
 (TRAVELS of the Hon. C. A. Murray, in the Pawnrxr Country, in 1834-6; vol. i, p. 390.) 
 
 Mr. Murray I am sure, will pardon me for representing him in a retreat, which I would scarcely venture to do were he 
 dealing with ordinary enemies ; and those of my readers who know anything of the character of contentions with a wounded 
 Buffalo Bull will easily acquit me of any attempt in this, to question the valour of my honorable and esteemed friend. 
 
 Puate N? 138. 
 BUFFALO HUNT. WITH WOLF-SKIN MASK. 
 
 Of the White Wolf and its habits I have given an account in Plate N° 10; and although, as I have there said, these 
 animals live chiefly on the flesh of the buffalo, they are often seen in large bands freely intermingling with the grazing herds, 
 which their sagacity prevents them from attacking where there are numbers together, able and pugnacious enough to protect 
 each other from any attacks by their canine companions. 
 
 The buffaloes are very sagacious, and a sense of danger induces them to congregate in numerous herds for mutual 
 protection. They are aware of their own superiority in combined force, and seem then to have no dread of the wolf, allowing 
 him to sneak amidst their ranks, apparently like one of their own family. 
 
 The Indian, superior in craft to both of these, and too poor, in many cases, to be the owner of a horse, has been driven 
 to the stratagem represented in this plate, of profiting by these circumstances, by placing himself under the skin of a 
 white wolf, with his weapons in hand, in which plight he often creeps over the level prairies (where there is no object to conceal 
 him) to close company with the unsuspecting herd, and with deliberate and certain aim, brings down the fleetest and the fattest 
 of them. 
 
 In this plate is a just representation of the level prairies which often occur for many miles together, affording to the eye 
 of a traveller, in all directions, a complete type of the ocean in a calm ; green, near and around him, but changing to blue in the 
 distance ; without tree or shrub, or slightest undulation to break the perfect line of the surrounding horizon. 
 
 Puate N°? 14. 
 SNOW-SHOE DANCE. 
 
 In the northern latitudes of America, where the winters are long and very severe, from the heavy falls of snow which accumu- 
 late for three or four months of the year, the Indians have very ingeniously constructed a large but light frame, with a fine web- 
 bing made of small thongs of raw hide, which is worn under the foot, buoying them up, and enabling them to run upon the surface 
 of the snow without sinking into it. This ingenious contrivance enables them to move about in the dead of winter, gaining food 
 for their families, which would otherwise be exceedingly difficult for them to do. These dresses for the feet they call Snow SHoks; 
 and as they enable them to overtake the heavy animals and slay them with great ease, their hunting facilities are materially 
 increased by an accumulation of snow; and at its first appearance they must needs celebrate the joyous event by a dance, 
 accompanied with a song of thanks to the Great Spirit, “who has sent it for their benefit and amusement.” 
 
 This picturesque scene is called by. them the “ Snow-Shoe Dance,” as it is danced with the snow-shoes on their feet, around 
 an ornamented pair of the same, which are elevated, with the appropriate flags and spears of the band. 
 
13 
 
 Piate N? 15. 
 BUFFALO HUNT, ON SNOW-SHOES. 
 
 In this plate is illustrated the mode alluded to in the preceding page, of the Indians hunting in the depth of winter, running 
 on their snow-shoes, which support them on the surface of the snow, whilst the great weight of the buffalo and other animals 
 sinks them down and fastens them in the drifts of the snow, where they fall easy victims to the arrows and lances of their cruel 
 pursuers. 
 
 The Indians are induced to slay these noble animals for their skins, which, when manufactured into robes, are vended to 
 white men in vast quantities, for rum and whiskey; and as the fur is longer and more valuable, and the animals more easily slain 
 at this inclement season of the year than at any other, it is then that the wholesale slaughter takes place, which is rapidly 
 thinning their ranks, and will soon extinguish their species in North America. 
 
 Pirate N° 16. 
 WOUNDED BUFFALO BULL. 
 
 The reader has here, a striking illustration of the deadly effects of the Indian’s arrow, and also an emphatic repre- 
 sentation of one of the largest specimens of the buffalo bull, shot through the heart, at his last halt; his legs bending under his 
 great weight, and his huge carcase ready to tumble down from loss of blood, which is pouring from his nostrils and mouth, 
 as well as from the wounds in his side. Not only shot, but pmioned, by the arrows of the hunter, (who has already counted him 
 amongst his victims and passed on to claim others of the throng,) the bull is thus left to struggle with death; and in that 
 struggle, hobbles and reels along but a brief distance, wheezing and sighing through streams of frothy blood until he sinks upon 
 his haunches, where he invariably rests for a few moments, bracing up with his fore legs, the noblest object of pity, until his last 
 deep-drawn breath is gushed out, when he falls, and rolls in death, without a kick or struggle. 
 
 Pirate N® 17. 
 BUFFALO HUNT. DYING BULL IN A SNOW-DRIFT. 
 
 In this view the reader is introduced to the ultimum of dreariness and severity which the hunters of the northern prairies 
 have to contend with in the depths of winter. An intensely cold day, with dry and sand-like snow three or four feet in depth, 
 drifting before the wind, and a herd of buffaloes labouring to plough their way through it, whilst they are urged on by a party of 
 Indians on snow-shoes, deeply clad in furs, and dealing death to them with their spears. 
 
 The dying bull in the foreground of this picture, and that in the preceding plate, were carefully sketched by my own hand 
 whilst the animals were thus struggling with death; and I therefore confidently offer them as faithful delineations of their forms 
 and looks, as well as fit and impressive subjects for contemplation for those who may ever have the time, and feel disposed to 
 sympathize with the cruel destruction and extinction of this useful and noble animal. 
 
 Piate N® 18. 
 THE BEAR DANCE. 
 
 Next in importance to the buffalo hunts, and not less exciting and spirited in its character, is the mode of hunting the Bear. 
 Several varieties of this bold and ferocious species are found joint occupants with Man, the buffalo, and other animals, through the 
 various wild latitudes of America; and, like the others, their skins and their flesh contribute largely to man’s comfort and 
 subsistence. 
 
 The bear, so different in its habits and haunts from the buffalo, is entrapped and hunted by the Indians in a greater variety 
 of modes than the buffalo, though their hunting excursions for this animal are often on horseback ; and when in pursuit of the 
 Grizzty Bear, the most formidable and dangerous animal of the brute creation to be met in the prairies and forests of America, 
 the hunters deem it most prudent to be mounted on their horses’ backs, instead of trusting to their own legs in contention with 
 
 so awkward and dangerous an enemy. | 
 
14 
 
 As in their preparations for buffalo hunting, already described, the superstitions of the Indians make it necessary to appeal, 
 by their mysteries, to supernatural aid and protection; so, while preparing to start on a hunt for the grizzly bear, they dance 
 and sing to the invisible Spirit supposed to watch over the destinies of this animal. This grotesque and amusing ceremony is 
 called the “ Bear Dance ;” and all who wish to participate in the pleasures and honour of the hunt, must unite in the dance, which 
 is often continued for several days together previous to the start, with beating of drums, shaking of rattles, and uniting their voices, 
 invoking the aid and protection of the “ Bear Spirit,” which they think holds somewhere an invisible existence, is sure to be 
 present on all such occasions, and must needs be consulted before they can count upon a reasonable prospect of success. 
 
 This droll masquerade is one that I witnessed while in a Sioux village on the Upper Missouri River, where one of the 
 medicine men, who seemed to be the leader of the dance, placed over his person the entire skin of a bear, and led off the dance as 
 he was peeping through the skin, which formed a mask that hung over his face. Several others in the dance wore masks 
 over their faces, made of the skins of bears’ heads, while each one wore a patch of the bear’s skin and hair tied around his ankle. 
 In this curious plight they all tilted off m rapid succession, following in a circle, raising both feet equally in their jumps, and that 
 in perfect time to the frightful chaunts of their voices ; whilst all were closely imitating the habits of the animal by the motions of 
 their hands, representing the bear in motion, or (by the hanging of their paws) sitting upon its hind feet and looking out for the 
 
 approach of an enemy. 
 
 Pirate N°? 19. 
 ATTACK OF THE GRIZZLY BEAR. 
 
 The preliminaries of the hunt for the Grizzly Bear having been settled in the manner described in the preceding plate, 
 and the traces of the animal having been followed up by the party until they are in sight of the game, they are at once in 
 action, as in the present illustration, without the trouble and fatigue of a long and desperate race, from the necessity of which 
 they are exempted by the habits of the animals, themselves always on their hunts, and so indiscriminate as to the kind of game 
 that may fall in their way, that they are ready to pounce upon Man as well as Beast, and are sure to meet him half way. 
 
 From the entirely intractable and ferocious nature of this animal, which has defeated every effort to tame or domesticate 
 it; and from its enormous strength, and the length and sharpness of its claws, which are used like those of the tiger, to seize and 
 to tear its prey, it is more feared than any other animal of the American prairies ; and hunters, red or white, generally evade a 
 scuffle with it, except when, as in the present instance, there are a number present, mounted and armed with the lance. 
 
 The Grizzly Bear is often killed weighing nearly a thousand pounds; and from the great difficulty of penetrating its vital 
 parts with the arrow, the lance is generally used, as in the present instance ; and instead of running by its side, as in the case of the 
 buffalo, the hunter is met, and that in an awkward position for giving the fatal blow with the lance, unless by stratagem, which 
 is generally resorted to ; exciting the animal to make its rush upon one horse, when the nearest horseman dashes by it, and 
 driving his lance into its side, invites the animal’s fury upon himself; and as it turns its exposed side, receives another and 
 another blow, until by a succession of these stratagems and deadly thrusts, with all its huge strength and tenacity of life, it falls, 
 though a dear-bought victim to its pursuers, as in the present illustration. 
 
 This ferocious animal may be justly said to be omnivorous; yet in those vast regions where the buffaloes graze, it 
 lives chiefly on their carcases, often springing upon them in narrow defiles, or from the banks of ravines through which they are 
 passing to obtain water; and whenever it is enabled thus to fasten its claws upon them, is sure to bring them to the ground. 
 In their contentions with Man or Beast they seem to be governed by no discretion, but urged on solely by an indomitable 
 voracity, which sets them at once to devouring their enemy when a partial advantage is gained, by which indiscretion they often 
 easily fall by the hands of enemies to whom their terrible strength might have given far more desperate and disastrous battle. 
 
 Pirate N° 20. 
 ANTELOPE SHOOTING. 
 
 The Antelope (Furcifer) of the Prairies and Rocky Mountains of America, which I believe to be different from all other known 
 
 varieties, forms one of the most pleasing living ornaments of the Western World. Their flesh, which is excellent food, contributes } 
 
 essentially to the Indian’s larder ; and the modes of hunting them, much to his amusement. They are met in some parts in 
 almost incredible numbers, sporting and playing about the hills and dales; and often, in flocks of fifty or a hundred, will 
 follow the boat of the descending voyageur on the Missouri, or the travelling caravan, for hours together, keeping off at a safe 
 distance on the right or left, galloping up and down the hills, blowing through their noses, and stamping with their feet, as if 
 they were endeavouring to remind the traveller through those realms of the wicked trespass he was making on their own hallowed 
 ground. 
 
 These beautiful and delicate little animals seem to be endowed, like many other “gentle and sweet-breathing creatures,” 
 with an undue share of curiosity, often leading them to a sort of voluntary destruction; and the hunter who wishes to entrap 
 them easily does so without taking the trouble of travelling after them. For this purpose, when he has been discovered by 
 
15 
 
 them, he has only to elevate above the tops of the grass, on the point of an arrow or his ramrod stuck in the ground, a little red or 
 yellow flag, the lightness of which will keep it trembling in the wind, to which they are sure to advance, though with great coyness 
 and caution ; whilst the hunter lies close, at a little distance to the right or the left, with his rifle or bow in his hand, when it is 
 quite easy to bring down two or three at a shot, which he has ranged under his eye, and pierced with one arrow or bullet. 
 
 In the landscape view in this plate, (which, as in all the preceding ones, is a picture from Nature,) a striking resemblance 
 is seen to the noble Park scenery in England; and the resemblance is forcibly heightened by the group that is dancing over it. 
 
 Piate N° 21. 
 BALL PLAYERS. 
 
 Three distinguished Ball Players, portraits from life, in the ball-play dress. No. 1. TuL-Lock-cuisu-Ko (He who Drinks the 
 Juice of the Stone.) A Choctaw. No. 2. Wex-cuusu-Ta-poo-tTa (Zhe Red Man.) A Sioux, from the Upper Mississippi. No. 3. 
 AH-NO-JE-NAHGE (He who Stands on both Sides.) A Sioux brave, from the Missouri. 
 
 In devoting a few of the last pages of this work to some of the principal AMusEMENTs of the North American Indians, I 
 have commenced with the beautiful game of Ball, decidedly the favorite and most exciting game of the American tribes. 
 Amongst the forty-eight tribes which I have visited, I find the game of Ball everywhere played; and to my great surprise, 
 by tribes separated by a space of three thousand miles, played very nearly in the same manner ; the chief difference consisting in 
 the different construction of the ball-sticks used—the modes of laying out the ground—and painting and ornamenting their bodies. 
 In most of the tribes there are certain similar regulations as to dress, ornaments, &c., which no one is allowed to depart from ; 
 and in the three portraits given in the illustration here, these peculiar and general modes are all set forth. 
 
 Amongst all the tribes I have visited in their primitive condition, where their native modes are unchanged by civilized inno- 
 vations, I find that every player must enter the play entirely denuded, with the exception of their breech-cloths and ornamented 
 belts around their waists ; their head-dresses, tails, and manes made of horse-hair or beautiful quills: leaving all their limbs free 
 to act, without the least incumbrance of dress. And that they may feel and appreciate more to their advantage the ground that 
 they run upon, they uniformly enter the lists to run in this desperate chase with the naked foot. 
 
 Amongst the Choctaws, Creeks, and various other tribes in the southern latitudes of America, they play the game with two 
 ball-sticks ; each player, as represented in the first of these figures, carrying a stick in each hand, with an oblong hoop or racket 
 at the end, between which, bringing the two together, he catches the ball as he runs, and throws it home to his goal if possible. 
 
 With the Sioux, Ojibbeways, and other numerous tribes living one or two thousand miles to the north, though the rules of the 
 game are in other respects precisely the same, the players use but one stick, firmly held in both hands, with quite a round hoop 
 at the end, in which the ball is taken with great certainty, as it is flying in the air, and thrown an almost incredible distance. 
 This mode is well explained in the second and third figures in this plate, portraits of two of the most distinguished ball-players 
 of the Sioux tribe. As illustrated in these figures, great pains are taken to ornament their naked limbs with a variety of forms 
 and curious devices with red and other colours, oftentimes giving them the appearance of being clad in the most picturesque 
 and. vari-coloured costume ; and in many instances, for the more easy recognition of the players on their respective sides, those of 
 one party are painted with white clay, rendering the mingled and darting throng one of the most picturesque and pleasing scenes 
 imaginable. And yet, adding still more to the pictorial effect, as well as to the grace of this beautiful scene, each player has attached 
 to his waist, and rising out from under his ornamented belt, a waving tail, made of white horse-hair—of vari-coloured quills—or of 
 long prairie grass, (as seen in the three figures in the plate,) which are lifted and gracefully float in the air as the: players. run, 
 giving, with not a little of the grotesque, a decided life and beauty to these thrillmg scenes, where hundreds are often struggling 
 together for the mastery. , 
 
 PiatEe N® 22. 
 
 BALL-PLAY DANCE. 
 
 As I have mentioned in former pages that for nearly all their hunts, wars, or games, the events of which the Indians super- 
 stitiously believe to be controuled by the agency of some supernatural influence, they must needs give a dance and a song; so 
 for a guarantee of success in this important and desperate game, each party must invoke the countenance and aid of the spirit or 
 genius supposed to preside over it, by preluding the play with the singular and picturesque mode represented in this plate, called 
 by them the « Ball-play Dance.” 
 
 This curious scene was one which I witnessed in the tribe of Choctaws, seven hundred miles west of the Mississippi, in 1836, 
 and I introduce it here as absolutely necessary in enabling the reader to form a just notion of the Ball-play to be described in the 
 succeeding plate. This famous play took place within a few miles of the Choctaw Agency’s Establishment, and on a beautiful 
 prairie where were engaged some five or six hundred youths selected for the play, and surrounded by a multitude of five or 
 
16 
 
 six thousand spectators, of all colours, amongst whom several officers of the garrison and myself had mingled to witness 
 
 .the day’s sport. For this purpose we rode out to the ball-play ground in the afternoon previous to the day of the play, in order 
 
 to witness this important preliminary ceremony, and took up our position in the midst of their numerous encampment. There 
 were two points of timber about half a mile apart, in which the two parties for the play, with their respective families and friends, 
 were encamped, and lying between them was the beautiful and level prairie on which the game was to be played. 
 
 My companions and myself, although we had been apprized that to. see the whole of a ball-play we must remain on the 
 eround all the night previous, had brought nothing to sleep upon, resolving to keep our eyes open and see what transpired 
 through the night. During the afternoon we loitered about amongst the different tents and wigwams of the two encampments; 
 ‘and afterwards, at sundown, witnessed the ceremony of measuring off the ground and erecting the byes or goals which were to 
 guide the play. Each party had its goal made with two upright posts about twenty-five feet high, and six feet apart, set firm in 
 the ground, with a pole across at the top. These goals were about forty or fifty rods apart ; and at a point just half-way between 
 was another small stake driven down where the ball was to be started by throwing it straight up at the firmg of a gun, for the 
 contention of the players. All this preparation was made by some old men who were, it seems, selected to be the judges of the 
 play; who drew a line also from one bye to the other—to which line came directly from the woods, on both sides, a great 
 concourse of women and old men, boys and girls, and dogs and horses—where bets were to be made on the play. The betting 
 was all done across this line, and was chiefly left to the women, who seemed to have marshalled out a little of everything 
 that their wigwams and fields contained. Of these goods and chattels were knives, dresses, blankets, pots and kettles, drums, 
 
 "guns, bows and quivers, kegs of whiskey, war-clubs, tomahawks, shields and spears, horses, dogs, and saddles, and yet a catalogue 
 
 of lesser Indian “ valuables;’”’ and all were placed in the possession of stakeholders who sat by them on the ground, and watched 
 them during the night preparatory to the play. 
 
 The ground having been thus prepared, and the preliminaries of the game all settled, the bettings made, and the goods 
 all “staked,” night came on without the appearance of any players on the ground; but soon after dark a procession of lighted 
 flambeaux was seen emerging from each encampment, escorting the players to the ground, where they were in a few moments 
 assembled around their respective byes, mn their ball-play dress. When, at the beat of their drums, and chaunts of the women, 
 the two parties simultaneously commenced upon the ‘ Ball-play Dance,’ as seen in the illustration. 
 
 For this dance the entire number of players on each side, in full dress and ornaments for the play, with their waving tails of 
 white horse-hair attached to their girdles, and their ball-sticks in their hands, assembled and danced for a quarter of an hour in 
 several concentric circles around their respective byes, their faces all looking to the centre, and both hands raised as high as they 
 could reach them, brandishing and rattling their ball-sticks together, whilst they all united their voices in the most deafening 
 chorus as the encircling mass moved rapidly around its centre. At the same time the women of each party, who had put their 
 goods at stake, formed into two rows on the line between the two parties of players ; and facing each other, danced with an uniform 
 step, and in exact time to the music, uniting their voices to the Great Spirit—soliciting his favour in deciding the game to their 
 respective advantage ; and also encouraging the players to exert every power they possessed, in the struggle that was to ensue, for 
 the protection of their property. In the mean time four old Medicine Men (who were to have the starting of the ball on the next 
 morning, and who were to be the judges of the play, two of them with their bodies painted red and the other two white, and 
 were seated at the half-way point where the ball was to be started) faithfully and respectively claimed, for their own sides, the 
 favour of the Great Spirit ; and his assistance in enabling them to judge rightly between the contending parties: all of which 
 they were humbly imploring for in fumes which they were passing through the sacred stem of the calumet, during the whole 
 night, whilst they sat or reclined around a little fire which they kept burning precisely upon the dividing line or point between 
 the two byes, and from which the ball was to be raised to commence the struggle. 
 
 This dance, as the reader can easily imagine, was one not only grotesque and wild in its. appearance, but of exceedingly 
 picturesque and pleasing effect ; and not only repeated at intervals of every half hour during the whole night, but continued in 
 the morning until about nine o'clock, at which time the players consider themselves (after a sleepless night and one of extreme 
 excitement and fatigue, with stomachs empty under the strictest denial of sustenance of any sort,) prepared to enter upon this 
 exciting game, which generally exercises the highest keys of their lungs, and the almost constant and desperate exertion of all 
 their limbs, through the greater part or whole of the day. | 
 
 Pirate N® 23. 
 AN INDIAN BALL-PLAY. 
 
 Having in the two former illustrations and their chapters, explained to the readers the costume and preliminaries of the Ball- 
 play, I here introduce them to the ball-play eround, where five or six hundred youths, with chastened and oiled limbs, and with 
 empty stomachs, as I have described, are met upon the ground and actually engaged m the play. And here I mus¢ falter; and 
 faltering, must apologise for the weakness of my pencil in endeavouring to pourtray a scene like this. And yet in a little kindness 
 to my own pencil, I would venture the opinion that scenes like these, with hundreds, and sometimes with thousands, of these 
 proud and emulous youths, with their graceful and denuded limbs, darting and almost flymg over the enamelled prairies, are 
 entirely beyond the reach of art, and the players, in their beautiful gambols and varied leaps for the ball, afford models for the 
 painter or sculptor, equal to those that inspired the hand and soul of the artist, in the Olympian Games or,the Roman Forum. 
 
17 
 
 At the hour of the morning designated for the commencement of the play, the young men, having completed their 
 dancing, appeared on the ground, each with ball-sticks in his hands, and in all other respects prepared for the play, which 
 commenced, about nine o’clock, by the old men, the judges of the play, throwing up the ball, at the firing of a gun, exactly at 
 the point half-way between the two byes, around which were stationed an equal number of players from each side, who instantly 
 commenced the scuffle for the ball as it descended; each party endeavouring to catch it between their ball-sticks and to 
 throw it through their own goal, which, when successfully done, counted one for the game. Around either bye, also, there were 
 placed a numerous party of each side; the one endeavouring to force the ball through, and the other domg their utmost to 
 resist and drive it back to their own side of the ground. 
 
 In the illustration here given, I have endeavoured to represent the play at the moment when the ball has been thrown, and 
 is falling beyond the bye, where the players are assembling in a mass to meet it as it falls. The game is generally 100; and 
 owing to the great difficulty of getting the ball home and passing it through their byes with so many to resist it; each of these 
 struggles occupies some time for its decision, and consequently the game continues the most (and sometimes the whole) of the day, 
 before it is decided; and each party at the number of 95 being allowed to “set the game” to a higher number, often adds much 
 to its tedious length. Whenever the ball is passed through the byes of either party it is announced all over the ground by a 
 simultaneous bark or yelp; and the ball is thrown “home” to the judges, who start it again from the centre, when similar 
 successive struggles and excitements instantly ensue, allowing the players but one minute or so to rest. 
 
 In the play here represented, every player was dressed alike; i.e. divested of all dress except the girdle and the tail before 
 described, and the devices which they had painted upon their naked limbs, beautifully diversified with white and red clay. In the 
 midst of these almost inconceivable scuffles and struggles for the ball, when they are tripping, and throwing, and foiling each 
 other in every possible manner, the women are occasionally seen taking an active part in the play, although they are not 
 allowed to use the ball-stick, it beg too sacred on that day even for their touch. Their mode of joing in the play, however, 
 :s this: each woman who has her goods at stake, and thereby a direct interest in the play, is permitted to use all the 
 stimulant to the scene that lies in her power, in the only mode allowed her on the occasion. She goes to the woods, and 
 having procured a bunch of whips of some two or three feet in length, which she ties together at the butt ends, and carries in 
 her right hand, she adjusts her dress for running, so that she has the free use of her nether limbs; and the moment the ball is 
 started, she sets off in the darting throng—yelling and screaming as she runs—following up her husband, who is in search of the 
 ball; and at every moment in the day when she can overtake him, while she reminds him of the value of their goods 
 that are at stake and of the importance of exerting every nerve to protect them, she lashes him over the naked shoulders, 
 and often to that degree that the blood will be seen trickling down over his back, drawn in the affectionate hints thus given by his 
 wife, lest he should forget to exert himself to the fullest extent, for the manly protection of their mutual interest, by desperately 
 playing to save their property at stake. 
 
 The Indian communities in America are perhaps the last of all on earth in which a woman would undertake to beat her 
 husband; but by the custom of all tribes, on the occasion of a ball-play, the women who have goods at stake, and whose 
 husbands are engaged in the play, have the privilege allowed them of chastising their husbands as severely as they please, 
 whenever they can overtake them, giving additional stimulant to their exertions, (whilst they are /ed on by a high ambition 
 for fame and the world’s goods,) by driving them on with the lash, which is dealt out without mercy, by the most cruel and 
 unsparing hands. 
 
 By the same custom of the country, also, which gives the woman this privilege, she is protected ; the husband who would 
 resent superfluous blows on this occasion would be branded with perpetual disgrace ; and when they come, his only way to avoid 
 them is to rush forward for the ball, and effect his escape by playing the most desperate game. To this second stimulus in the 
 play, which is continually upon the tracks of the players, and keeping them constantly m motion, may be in a great measure 
 attributed that indescribable excitement and action which we witness in these scenes: and, from the fury-like manner in which 
 the wife is often seen following up and flagellating her husband, one easily. and naturally imagines (as probably is often the case) 
 that the poor woman, who has this privilege but seldom in her life, may be making the most of it, as the means of settling up 
 some old standing account between herself and her husband, which she has no other mode of liquidating, and to which he must 
 quietly submit, unless he keeps out of her way. 
 
 Such I offer as a feeble description of this beautiful and exciting game ; and merely further observe, that such are 
 its fascinations amongst the various tribes, and so highly is it prized by them, that in each and every tribe, there are, as well as 
 aspirants for fame in war and in the chase, those whose hearts throb only for the envied notoriety of being reputed the most 
 distinguished ball-players in the tribe; and for that distinction, ready to hazard their lives as freely as in the vicissitudes of 
 battle. The three portraits in Plate N° 21, and which I have already described, were all of young men of this stamp, who seemed 
 to be ambitious for little else than the reputation of being first of their tribes, in the game of ball: and the second figure in the 
 plate is peculiarly a good illustration of the assertion here made. This young man, WEE-cuUSH-TA-Doo-TA (Zhe Red Man), whose 
 portrait I painted after he had played in a desperate game at the Falls of St. Anthony, reputed the most determined and successful 
 player of the Sioux tribe, has, as I was informed by the chiefs, for several of the last games he has been engaged in, taken the 
 most solemn oath, whilst entering upon the play, that he would not survive if his side were to be beaten ; thus desperately resolving 
 to leave the ground, exulting in victory, or to leave his lifeless body upon it, a sacrifice by his own hand and his own knife: and 
 I have not a doubt of the certain execution of his stern resolve in such an event. 
 
18 
 
 Puate N° 24. 
 “GAME OF THE ARROW,” on ARCHERY OF THE MANDANS. 
 
 This game, though not one of any great excitement or action, was one of curious interest, attended with rules and 
 regulations which were pleasing, rendering the scene very agreeable in effect. The Mandans, whom I found a polite and 
 friendly tribe of Indians, on the head waters of the Missouri, seemed to vie more spiritedly and more constantly in their 
 athletic games, (and from their almost constant practice, seem to have advanced farther into the science of them,) than any 
 of the other tribes; and for their advancement, had formed into something like amateur clubs, which gave a value to their 
 amusements, and lent an additional stimulus to their efforts, as well as a gentlemanly and studied grace to all of their groups, 
 peculiarly pleasing to the eye of an artist or an amateur. 
 
 A voluminous book might be devoted to the games and various amusements of this peculiar tribe, the principal of 
 which are the games of Tchung-kee, game of the Mocasin, game of the Platter, Ball-plays, game of the Arrow, Horse-racing, 
 Foot-racing, &c. in all of which, from constant practice, they become exceedingly skilled. Gambling is looked upon by all 
 of these wild people as a rational and innocent amusement, there being no laws of their country denominating it a vice; and in 
 these numerous games of skill and of chance, their few personal goods are most of the time liberally and boldly staked. 
 
 The principal weapon of war and also for the chase, by which they supply their families with food, is the bow; and the 
 strife illustrated in this plate, is one which, while it is affordmg them an exciting and pleasing emulation, is educating them 
 in the effectual use of that weapon to which they are chiefly indebted for their protection and subsistence. 
 
 The meeting represented here is something like that of an Archery Club in the civilized world, but for a different mode of 
 shooting. Having but little necessity for correct shooting at a long distance, as I have mentioned in an early part of this work, 
 their hunting and warring being chiefly done from the backs of their running horses, the great merit in archery with them consists 
 in the rapidity and force with which they can discharge their arrows from their bows: and the strife in this game (in which I have 
 given striking portraits from the life, of several of the leading young men of the tribe) was to decide who could discharge from his 
 bow the greatest number of arrows before his first one should fall to the ground ; each arrow to pass over a certain line sufficiently 
 distant to characterize it as a clean and efficient shot. For this purpose a bow, a shield, a quiver or other valuable, is staked 
 as an entrance fee, and each one, grasping in his hand with the bow, a handful of arrows drawn from his quiver, as he does 
 when rushing into battle, gives a judicious elevation to his first, and follows it with others in the most rapid succession that he can : 
 a red flag is raised at the end of the ground at the instant the first arrow falls, and he who can count the greatest number of 
 arrows in the air at one time, is victor, and claims the highest prize. I never beheld a more classic and beautiful group, nor a 
 more graceful and gentlemanly rivalry than in the instance when I made the subjoined sketch; and on this occasion the young 
 man represented in the attitude of shooting, succeeded in getting eight of his arrows on the wing at once, which I distinctly 
 counted. Nor did it appear to be owing to any extraordinary distance to which the first was thrown, but to the exact elevation 
 given to it, and the incredible quickness of fixing the rest of them upon the string and getting them off. 
 
 Puate N° 25. 
 WI-JUN-JON. THE PIGEON’S EGG HEAD. 
 
 In offering this illustration to the reader, I am presenting to him a faithful delineation of the resemblance of an Assinneboin 
 Warrior, in the flowing and classic costume of his country, as he appeared on his way to the city of Washington, faithfully 
 contrasted with the uncouth plight in which he returned to his tribe the next season, after one year’s teaching in the school of 
 civilization: and in the following narrative, a faithful account of its melancholy and fatal results. 
 
 Wi-jun-jon, the Pigeon’s Egg Head, was a warrior of the Assinneboins, young, proud, handsome, valiant, and graceful. He 
 had fought many a battle and won many laurels. The numerous scalps from his enemies’ heads adorned hjs dress, and his 
 claims were fair and just for the highest honours that his country could bestow upon him, for his father was head chief of the 
 nation. This young Assinneboin, the Pigeon’s Egg Head, was selected by Major Sanford, the Indian agent, to represent his 
 tribe in a delegation which visited Washington city under his charge, in the winter of 1832. With this gentleman the Assinneboin, 
 together with representatives of several others of those North-western tribes, descended the Missouri river several thousand miles 
 on their way to Washington. While descending the river in a Mackinaw boat, from the mouth of the Yellow Stone, Wi-jun-jon 
 and another of his tribe who was with him, at their first approach to the civilized settlements, commenced a register of the white 
 men’s houses (or cabins) which they passed, by cutting a notch for each on the side of a pipe-stem, in order to be able to show, 
 when they should get home, how many white men’s houses they had seen on their journey. At first the cabins were scarce ; but 
 continually more and more rapidly increased in numbers as they advanced further down the river, by which means their pipe-stem 
 was soon filled with notches, when they resolved to cut the rest of them on the handle of a war-club, which, to their great surprise, 
 
19 
 
 was soon filled also: at length, while the boat was moored at the shore for the purpose of cooking the dinner for the party, 
 Wi-jun-jon and his companion stepped into the bushes and cut a long stick, from which they peeled the bark, and when the boat 
 was again under weigh they sat down, and with much labour transferred the notches on to it from the pipe-stem and club, and 
 also kept adding a notch for every house they passed. This stick was also soon filled, and in a day or two, two or three others ; 
 when at last they seemed much at a loss to know what to do with their troublesome records, until they came in sight of St. Louis, 
 which is a town of 20,000 or 30,000 inhabitants, upon which unexpected occurrence, after consulting a little, they pitched their 
 sticks overboard into the river, leaving all further entries and records to those skilled in the use of pen, ink, and paper. 
 
 I was in St. Louis when they arrived, and painted their portraits while they rested in that place. Wi-jun-jon was the first 
 who reluctantly yielded to the solicitations of the Indian agent and myself, and appeared as sullen as death in my painting-room, 
 with eyes fixed like those of a statue upon me, though his pride had plumed and tinted him in all the freshness and brillianey of 
 an Indian’s toilet.. In his nature’s uncowering pride he stood a perfect model ; but superstition had hung a lingering curve upon 
 his lip, which pride had stiffened into contempt. He had been urged into a measure against which his fears had pleaded ; yet 
 he stood unmoved and unflinching amid the struggles of mysteries that were hovering about him, foreboding ills of every kind, 
 and misfortunes that were to happen to him in consequence of this operation. 
 
 He was dressed in his native costume, which was classic and exceedingly beautiful. His leggins and shirt were of the 
 mountain goat skin, richly garnished with quills of the porcupine, and fringed with locks of scalps taken from the heads of his 
 enemies. Over these floated his long hair in plaits that fell nearly to the ground; his head was decked with the war-eagle’s plumes ; 
 his robe was of the skin of a young buffalo bull, richly garnished and emblazoned with the battles of his life ; his quiver and bow 
 were slung, and his shield was made of the skin of the buffalo’s neck. I painted him in this beautiful dress, as well as the 
 others who were with him; and after I had done, Major Sanford proceeded to Washington with them, where they spent the 
 winter. 
 
 Wi-jun-jon was the foremost on all occasions—the first to enter the levee, the first to shake the President’s hand, and make 
 his speech to him; the last to extend the hand to, but the first to. catch the smiles and gain the admiration of, the gentler 
 sex. He travelled the giddy maze and beheld amidst the buzzing din of civil life the tricks of art, the handiworks, and finery ; 
 he visited the principal cities, he saw the forts, the ships, the great guns, steamers, balloons, &c. ; and in the spring returned to 
 St. Louis, where I jomed him and his companions on their way back to their own country. 
 
 Through the politeness of Mr. Chouteau, of the American Fur Company, I was admitted (the only passenger except Major 
 Sanford and his Indians) to a passage in the steamboat, on her first trip to the Yellow Stone; and when I had embarked, and 
 the steamer was about to start, Wi-jun-jon made his appearance on deck, in a full suit of regimentals! In Washington he had 
 exchanged his beautifully garnished and classic costume for a full dress “en militaire.” It was, perhaps, presented to him by 
 the President. It was broadcloth, of the finest blue, trimmed with gold lace; on his shoulders were mounted two immense 
 epaulettes ; his neck was strangling with a shining black stock; and his feet were pinioned in a pair of waterproof boots, with 
 high heels. On his head was a high-crowned beaver hat, with a broad silver-lace band, surmounted by a huge red feather some 
 two feet high; his coat collar, stiff with lace, came higher up than his ears, and over it flowed down towards his haunches his 
 long Indian locks, glued up in rolls and plaits with red paint. <A large silver medal was suspended from his neck by a blue 
 ribbon ; and from his waist fell a wide belt, supporting by his side a broadsword. He had drawn a pair of white kid gloves on 
 his hands, in one of which he held a blue umbrella, and in the other a large fan. In this fashion was poor Wi-jun-jon metamor- 
 phosed, on his return from Washington ; and in this plight was he strutting and whistling Yankee Doodle about the deck of the 
 steamer Yellow Stone, that was wending its way up the mighty Missouri, and taking him to his native land again; where he 
 was soon to light his pipe, and cheer the wigwam fireside with tales of novelty and wonder. 
 
 Not far from the mouth of the Yellow Stone River the steamer was moored by the side of an extensive and beautiful prairie, 
 on which were encamped the whole of the Assinneboin tribe, to the number of 8000 or 10,000 souls, awaiting the arrival of the 
 steamer, with their two warriors from Washington city; one of whom, unfortunately for poor Wi-jun-jon, had died of 
 the quinsey on his way home, leaving the marvellous recitals to be made by his companion, uncorroborated, and to be 
 received by the tribe for just as much as their superstitious credulity should deem them worth. When the steamer arrived 
 opposite their encampment, Wi-jun-jon stepped ashore in the plight above named, with a keg of whiskey under his arm, 
 and the umbrella in his hand, and took a position on the bank amongst his friends—his parents—his wife and little children— 
 from whom he had been more than a year separated ; not one of whom, for half an hour or more, exhibited the least symptoms 
 of recognition, although every soul in the tribe knew well who was before them. He also gazed upon them—upon his wife and 
 little ones who were about—as if they were foreign to him, and he had not a feeling or a thought to interchange with them. 
 Thus the mutual gazings upon and from this would-be stranger lasted for full half an hour, when a gradual, but cold and exceed- 
 ingly formal recognition began to take place ; and an acquaintance ensued, which ultimately and smoothly resolved itself, without 
 the least apparent emotion, into its former state; and the mutual kindred intercourse seemed to flow on exactly where it had 
 broken off, as if it had been interrupted but for a moment, and nothing had transpired in the interim to check or change its 
 character or expression. 
 
 After Wi-jun-jon had reached his home, and thus passed the usual salutations among his friends, he commenced the simple 
 narration of scenes he had passed through, and of things he had beheld among the whites, which appeared to his people so much 
 like fiction that it was impossible to believe it, and they set him down as an impostor. “‘ He has been (they said) among the 
 whites, who are great liars, and all he has learned is to come home and tell lies.” He sank rapidly into disgrace in his tribe ; 
 his high claims to political eminence all vanished; he was reputed worthless—the greatest liar of his nation ; the chiefs shunned 
 him and passed him by, as one of the tribe who was lost ; yet the ears of the gossiping portion of the tribe were open, and the 
 camp-fire circle, and the wigwam fireside gave silent audience to the whispered narratives of the “travelled Indian.” 
 
20 
 
 The next day after he had arrived among his friends the superfluous part of his coat (which was a laced frock) was converted 
 into a pair of leggins for his wife, and his hat-band of silver lace furnished her a magnificent pair of garters. The remainder of 
 the coat, curtailed of its original length, was seen buttoned upon the shoulders of his brother, over and above a pair of leggins of 
 buckskin ; and Wi-jun-jon was parading about among his gaping friends, with a bow and quiver slung over his shoulders, which, 
 sans coat, exhibited a fine linen shirt with studs and sleeve buttons. His broadsword kept its place, but about noon his boots gave 
 way to a pair of garnished mocasins ; and in such plight he gossiped away the day among his friends, while his heart spoke 
 so freely and so effectually from the bung-hole of a keg of whiskey, which he had brought the whole way, (as one of the 
 choicest presents made him at Washington,) that his tongue became silent. 
 
 One of his little fair enamoratas, or “catch crumbs,” such as live in the halo of most great men, fixed her eyes and her 
 affections upon his beautiful silk braces; and the next day, while the keg was yet dealing out its kindnesses, he was scen paying 
 visits to the lodges of his old acquaintances, swaggering about, with his keg under his arm, whistling “Yankee Doodle,” and 
 ‘“* Washington’s Grand March ;” his white shirt, or that part of it that had been fapping in the wind, had been shockingly tithed 
 —his pantaloons of blue were razeed into a pair of comfortable leggins ; his bow and quiver were slung; and his broadsword, 
 which trailed on the ground, had sought the centre of gravity, and taken a position between his legs, and dragging behind him, 
 served as a rudder to steer him over the “earth’s troubled surface.” 
 
 Two days’ revel of this kind had drawn from his keg all its charms; and in the mellowness of his heart, all his finery had 
 vanished, and all its appendages, except his umbrella, to which his heart’s best affections still clung, and with it and under it, 
 in rude dress of buckskin, he was afterwards to be seen, in all sorts of weather, acting the fop and the beau as well as he could 
 with his limited means. In this plight, and in this dress, he began, in his sober moments, to entertain and instruct his people, 
 by honest and simple narratives of things and scenes he had beheld during his tour to the East ; but which (unfortunately for him) 
 were to them too marvellous and improbable to be believed. He told the gaping multitude, that were constantly gathering about 
 him, of the distance he had travelled—of the great number of houses he had seen—of the towns and cities, with all their wealth 
 and splendour—of travelling on steam-boats, in coaches, and on railroads. He described our forts and seventy-four gun ships, 
 which he had visited ; their big guns; our great bridges; our large council-house at Washington, and its doings ; the curious and 
 wonderful machines in the Patent Office (which he pronounced the greatest medicine place he had seen); he described the great war 
 parade, which he saw in the city of New York; the ascent of a balloon from Castle Garden ; the surprising numbers of the “ Pale 
 Faces,” the beauty of their squaws; their red cheeks; and many thousands of other things, all of which were so much beyond 
 their comprehension that they “could not be true,” and “he must be the greatest liar in the whole world.” 
 
 But he was beginning to acquire a reputation of a different kind. He was denominated a medicine-man, and one, too, of the 
 most extraordinary character; for they deemed him far above the ordiary sort of human beings whose mind could invent and 
 conjure up for their amusement such an ingenious fabrication of novelty and wonder. He steadily and unostentatiously persisted, 
 however, in this way of entertaining his friends and his people, though he knew his character was affected by it. He had an 
 exhaustless theme to descant upon, and he seemed satisfied to lecture all his life for the pleasure which it gave him. So great 
 was his medicine, however, that they began, chiefs and all, to look upon him as a most extraordinary being; and the customary 
 honours and forms began to be applied to him, and the respect shown him, that belongs to all men in the Indian country who 
 are distinguished for their medicine or mysteries. In short, when all became familiar with the astonishing representations that he 
 had made, and with the wonderful alacrity with which “he created them,” he was denominated the very greatest of medicine, and 
 not only that, but the “lying medicine.” That he should be the greatest of medicine, and that for lying, merely, rendered him a 
 prodigy in mysteries that commanded not only respect, but at length, (when he was more maturely heard and listened to,) 
 admiration, awe, and at last dread and terror; which altogether must needs conspire to rid the world of a monster, whose more 
 than human talents must be cut down to less than human measurement. 
 
 Tn this way the poor fellow had lived, and been for three years past continually relating the scenes he had beheld in his 
 tour to the “ Far East,” until his medicine became so alarmingly great, that they were unwilling he should live : they were disposed 
 to kill him for a wizard. One of the young men of the tribe took the duty upon himself, and after much perplexity hit upon 
 the following plan: To wit.—He had fully resolved, in conjunction with others who were in the conspiracy, that the medicine of 
 Wi-jun-jon was too great for the ordinary mode, and that he was so great a liar that a bullet from his rifle, or an arrow from 
 his bow, would not kill him. While the young man was in this distressing dilemma, which lasted for some weeks, he had a 
 dream one night which solved all his difficulties, and in consequence of which he loitered about the store in the Fort, at the 
 mouth of the Yellow Stone, until he could procure dy stealth (according to the injunctions of his dream) the handle of an iron pot, 
 which he supposed to possess the requisite virtue, and taking it into the woods, he there spent a whole day in straightening and 
 filing it to fit it into the barrel of his gun; after which he made his appearance again m the Fort, with his gun under his robe, 
 charged with the pot-handle, and getting behind poor Wi-jun-jon, whilst he was talking with the trader, placed the muzzle 
 behind his head and blew out his brains! 
 
 Thus ended the days and the greatness, and all the pride and hopes of Wi-jun-jon, the “ Pigeon’s Egg Head,” a warrior and 
 a brave of the valiant Assinneboins, who travelled eight thousand miles to see the President, and the great cities of the 
 civilized world ; and who, for telling the truth and nothing but the truth, was, after he got home, disgraced as a “ar, and killed as 
 an ezmpostor. 
 
 THE END. 
 
— 
 
 @ 
 
Shand : 
 SMBS AND 
 f Ries SEQ, | 
 
 ‘N 
 Sener oS 
 
 eC 
 
 ae 
 
 SS 
 
 oy eee 
 
 ? 
 a £i7 BY ie 
 
i 
 
 19 
 
a 
 
 4h afl? 
 
 oa 
 
 ae a] 
 
Xf oe TD 
 
 5 
 a 
 
 ¥ 
 
 2