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Yesterday and Today
"We then proceeded on for a mile, and
anchored off a willow island, which, from the circumstances
which had just occurred, we called Badhumored Island."
This is quoted, not for the
chronicles of Swiss Family Robinson, but
from a much nearer source, the journal of
the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804-6;
and it sums up the impression left by the
first meeting of the party with the
Teton
Sioux, one of the three great branches of
that numerous tribe more properly known as
Dakota.
Of all the Indians on the long journey into
the wilderness that the United States had
just acquired through the Louisiana
Purchase, Lewis and Clark found the Sioux
the most quarrelsome, the most menacing of
future trouble. In this first encounter at
the mouth of the stream they called Teton
River, the chiefs accepted the gifts and
hospitality of the white men, then strove to
detain them and demanded further tribute.
Intimidation had been their rule with the
traders who had hitherto given them their
only contact with the white race; and they
did not realize that behind this new group
lay the power of a young and growing nation
that was spreading over the land that had
once been the red man's alone. Arrows were
fixed in their bow's for flight, and swords
were drawn; but the incident passed over
without an actual conflict, and the boat
that was making its way up the almost
unknown reaches of the Missouri went on a
space to the island thus named in
commemoration of the incident.
The next morning a better spirit prevailed;
and the party, realizing the changed mood of
the Indians, "complied with their wish that
we should give them an opportunity of
treating them well, and also suffer their
squaws and children to see us and our boat,
which would be perfectly new to them." A
crowd of men, women and children waited to
receive Captain Lewis and Clark and their
party as they made a landing. They were
escorted by ten well-dressed young men to a
council room in the shape of three-quarters
of a circle, where seventy warriors sat
around the chief. The visitors were seated
upon a buffalo robe beside this dignitary,
before whom were the Spanish flag and the
flag of the United States, which had been
given to the band the day before.
"This left a vacant circle of about six feet
diameter, in which the pipe of peace was
raised on two forked sticks about six or
eight inches from the ground and under it
the down of the swan was scattered; a large
fire on which there were cooking provisions
stood near, and in the center about four
hundred pounds of excellent buffalo meat as
a present for us."
"As soon as we were seated
an old man got up, and after approving what
we had done begged us to take pity on their
unfortunate situation. To this we replied
with assurances of protection. After he had
ceased, the great chief rose and delivered
an harangue to the same effect; then with
great solemnity he took some of the most
delicate parts of the dog, which was cooked
for the festival, and held it to the flag by
way of sacrifice; this done, he held up the
pipe of peace, and first pointed it toward
the heavens, then to the four corners of the
globe, and then to the earth, made a short
speech, lighted the pipe, and presented it
to us."
When the pipe of peace had
been smoked and other speeches made, the
feast was served and other speeches made,
the feast was served in platters with horn
spoons. One of the dished was "pemitigon, a
dish made of buffalo meat, dried or jerked,
and then pounded and mixed raw with grease."
Another was "a kind of ground potatoes,
dressed like the preparation of Indian corn
called hominy, to which it is little
inferior. But the greatest delicacy, the
piece de resistance which was brought forth
to do honor to the high standing of their
guests, was the sacrificial dog stew. This
the visitors tasted, as the ceremonies
demanded, but they found the other viands
more to their liking, and of the dog "could
as yet partake but sparingly."
After an hour of feasting
and smoking, it was time for the dance. It
was now dark, and the fire in the center of
the tepee was replenished to furnish light
as well as warmth for the party.
"The orchestra was composed of about ten
men, who played on a sort of tambourine
formed of skin stretched across a hoop, and
made a jingling noise with a long stick to
which the hoofs of deer and goats were hung;
the third instrument was a small skin bag
with pebbles in it; these, with five or six
young men for the vocal part, made of the
band. The women then came forward highly
decorated, some with poles in their hands on
which were hung the scalps of their enemies;
others with guns, spears or different
trophies, taken in war by their husband,
brothers, or connections."
"Having arranged themselves in two columns,
one on each side of the fire, as soon as the
music began they danced toward each other
until they met in the center, when the
rattles were shaken, and they all shouted
and returned back to their places. They have
no step, but shuffle along the ground; nor
does the music appear to be anything more
than a confusion of noises, distinguished
only by hard or gentle blows upon the
buffalo skin; the song is perfectly
extemporaneous." "In the
pauses of the dance any man of the company
comes forward and recites, in a sort of low
guttural tone, some little story or
incident, which is either martial or
ludicrous, or, as was the case this evening,
voluptuous and indecent; this is taken up by
the orchestra and the dancers, who repeat it
in a higher strain and dance to it.
Sometimes they alternate, the orchestra
first performing, and when it ceases the
women raise their voices and make a music
more agreeable, that is les intolerable than
that of the musicians. The dances of the
men, which are always separate from those of
the women, are conducted very nearly in the
same way, except that the men jump up and
down instead of shuffling; and in the war
dances the recitations are all of a military
cast."
There were two days of
feasting and dancing and smoking of the pipe
of peace; but the professions of friendship
seemed not rooted very deeply, for when the
party attempted to go on its way there was
again an effort to oppose its departure.
After thorough preparation for resistance in
case of attack, and after long parleyings
with the first, the second and the third
chiefs and their families, the boat of the
explorers went without further warlike
demonstration on its way up the Missouri. This encounter took place in September,
1804. President Jefferson had just purchased
this wide-spreading uncharted land from
Napoleon, and had sent Captains Lewis and
Clark to explore the country and bring back
to the American people some news about their
new possessions. Heretofore the vast expanse
had known only the visit of an occasional
trapper or trader. The land was the
possession of the mighty roaming herds of
the buffalo and the many warring tribes of
Indians.
For a picture of the same land a hundred and
twenty years later, and of Indians of the
same bands, possibly numbering among them
descendants of those who smoked the pipe of
peace with the first Americans, read an
extract from the report of a recent visit to
the Sioux by Chairman George Vaux, Jr., of
the Board of Indian Commissioners:
"As bearing on the progress these Indians
are making, I want to refer to my visit to
the Ponca Creek region, over a hundred miles
in a air line east of Rosebud Agency. This
country was opened up a number of years ago,
and as it is fine agricultural land there is
a succession of excellent farms operated by
white men. The Ponca Creek section includes
some of the best land of the region. Here
there are approximately three hundred and
eighty Indians. These comprise of forty-two
families who are actually farming, having
about twenty-five hundred acres under
cultivation. One man has two hundred and
twenty acres of alfalfa alone.
"We met a considerable
number of these people. They said they had
not had time to attend the recent
celebration which had brought together
several thousand Indians to celebrate the
enacting by Congress of the legislation
respecting the Black Hills claims, because
their farms required their attention.
"One leaves such a community with a feeling
of optimism. For years these people had seen
no one from Washington. Their interest and
enthusiasm were inspiring. It seemed as
though here were a place where the solution
of the Indian problem had been nearly worked
out." Linking these two
scenes, the council fire of the savage and
the harvest field of the busy farmer, is the
narrative of one of he great epochs of
history, not yet fully appreciated by us
because we are still too near to the actual
event. It is the tidal sweep of population
across a vast continent; it is the saga of
the westerning pioneer; it is the conquest
of nature and the mechanical transformation
of the universe at the puff of the
locomotive; it is the development of the
"great prairie wilderness" into a land of
peace and plenty. And of all the many events
which make up the wonderful tale of this
wonderful age, none are more thrilling, more
dramatic, than those concerned with the
story of the Sioux.
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied . The
Story of the Sioux Indians, 1924
Story
of Sioux Indians
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