These Are Of That Branch
Of The Great Snake Tribe Called Shoshokoes, Or Root Diggers, From
Their Subsisting, In A Great Measure, On The Roots Of The Earth;
Though They Likewise Take Fish In Great Quantities, And Hunt, In
A Small Way.
They are, in general, very poor; destitute of most
of the comforts of life, and extremely indolent:
But a mild,
inoffensive race. They differ, in many respects, from the other
branch of the Snake tribe, the Shoshonies; who possess horses,
are more roving and adventurous, and hunt the buffalo.
On the following day, as Captain Bonneville approached the mouth
of Powder River, he discovered at least a hundred families of
these Diggers, as they are familiarly called, assembled in one
place. The women and children kept at a distance, perched among
the rocks and cliffs; their eager curiosity being somewhat dashed
with fear. From their elevated posts, they scrutinized the
strangers with the most intense earnestness; regarding them with
almost as much awe as if they had been beings of a supernatural
order.
The men, however, were by no means so shy and reserved; but
importuned Captain Bonneville and his companions excessively by
their curiosity. Nothing escaped their notice; and any thing they
could lay their hands on underwent the most minute examination.
To get rid of such inquisitive neighbors, the travellers kept on
for a considerable distance, before they encamped for the night.
The country, hereabout, was generally level and sandy; producing
very little grass, but a considerable quantity of sage or
wormwood. The plains were diversified by isolated hills, all cut
off, as it were, about the same height, so as to have tabular
summits. In this they resembled the isolated hills of the great
prairies, east of the Rocky Mountains; especially those found on
the plains of the Arkansas.
The high precipices which had hitherto walled in the channel of
Snake River had now disappeared; and the banks were of the
ordinary height. It should be observed, that the great valleys or
plains, through which the Snake River wound its course, were
generally of great breadth, extending on each side from thirty to
forty miles; where the view was bounded by unbroken ridges of
mountains.
The travellers found but little snow in the neighborhood of
Powder River, though the weather continued intensely cold. They
learned a lesson, however, from their forlorn friends, the Root
Diggers, which they subsequently found of great service in their
wintry wanderings. They frequently observed them to be furnished
with long ropes, twisted from the bark of the wormwood. This they
used as a slow match, carrying it always lighted. Whenever they
wished to warm themselves, they would gather together a little
dry wormwood, apply the match, and in an instant produce a
cheering blaze.
Captain Bonneville gives a cheerless account of a village of
these Diggers, which he saw in crossing the plain below Powder
River. "They live," says he, "without any further protection from
the inclemency of the season, than a sort of break-weather, about
three feet high, composed of sage (or wormwood), and erected
around them in the shape of a half moon." Whenever he met with
them, however, they had always a large suite of half-starved
dogs: for these animals, in savage as well as in civilized life,
seem to be the concomitants of beggary.
These dogs, it must be allowed, were of more use than the beggary
curs of cities. The Indian children used them in hunting the
small game of the neighborhood, such as rabbits and prairie dogs;
in which mongrel kind of chase they acquitted themselves with
some credit.
Sometimes the Diggers aspire to nobler game, and succeed in
entrapping the antelope, the fleetest animal of the prairies. The
process by which this is effected is somewhat singular. When the
snow has disappeared, says Captain Bonneville, and the ground
become soft, the women go into the thickest fields of wormwood,
and pulling it up in great quantities, construct with it a hedge,
about three feet high, inclosing about a hundred acres. A single
opening is left for the admission of the game. This done, the
women conceal themselves behind the wormwood, and wait patiently
for the coming of the antelopes; which sometimes enter this
spacious trap in considerable numbers. As soon as they are in,
the women give the signal, and the men hasten to play their part.
But one of them enters the pen at a time; and, after chasing the
terrified animals round the inclosure, is relieved by one of his
companions. In this way the hunters take their turns, relieving
each other, and keeping up a continued pursuit by relays, without
fatigue to themselves. The poor antelopes, in the end, are so
wearied down, that the whole party of men enter and dispatch them
with clubs; not one escaping that has entered the inclosure. The
most curious circumstance in this chase is, that an animal so
fleet and agile as the antelope, and straining for its life,
should range round and round this fated inclosure, without
attempting to overleap the low barrier which surrounds it. Such,
however, is said to be the fact; and such their only mode of
hunting the antelope.
Notwithstanding the absence of all comfort and convenience in
their habitations, and the general squalidness of their
appearance, the Shoshokoes do not appear to be destitute of
ingenuity. They manufacture good ropes, and even a tolerably fine
thread, from a sort of weed found in their neighborhood; and
construct bowls and jugs out of a kind of basket-work formed from
small strips of wood plaited: these, by the aid of a little wax,
they render perfectly water tight. Beside the roots on which they
mainly depend for subsistence, they collect great quantities of
seed, of various kinds, beaten with one hand out of the tops of
the plants into wooden bowls held for that purpose. The seed thus
collected is winnowed and parched, and ground between two stones
into a kind of meal or flour; which, when mixed with water, forms
a very palatable paste or gruel.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 69 of 117
Words from 69285 to 70305
of 118673
