The Rickaree Chief,
Who Accompanied The Party For A Time, Was So Affected By The Sight
That He Cried Aloud During The Whole Proceeding.
When the reasons
for the punishment were explained to him, he acknowledged the justice
of the sentence, but said he would have punished the offender with death.
His people, he added, never whip even their children at any age whatever.
On the eighteenth of October, the party reached Cannonball River,
which rises in the Black Hills and empties in the Missouri
in Morton County, North Dakota. Its name is derived from the
perfectly round, smooth, black stones that line its bed and shores.
Here they saw great numbers of antelope and herds of buffalo,
and of elk. They killed six fallow deer; and next day they counted
fifty-two herds of buffalo and three herds of elk at one view;
they also observed deer, wolves, and pelicans in large numbers.
The ledges in the bluffs along the river often held nests of the calumet bird,
or golden eagle. These nests, which are apparently resorted to, year after
year, by the same pair of birds, are usually out of reach, except by means
of ropes by which the hunters are let down from the cliffs overhead.
The tail-feathers of the bird are twelve in number, about a foot long,
and are pure white except at the tip, which is jet-black. So highly prized
are these by the Indians that they have been known to exchange a good horse
for two feathers.
The party saw here a great many elk, deer, antelope, and buffalo,
and these last were dogged along their way by wolves who follow them to feed
upon those that die by accident, or are too weak to keep up with the herd.
Sometimes the wolves would pounce upon a calf, too young and feeble
to trot with the other buffalo; and although the mother made an effort
to save her calf, the creature was left to the hungry wolves, the herd
moving along without delay.
On the twenty-first of October, the explorers reached a creek
to which the Indians gave the name of Chisshetaw, now known as
Heart River, which, rising in Stark County, North Dakota, and running
circuitously through Morton County, empties into the Missouri opposite
the city of Bismarck. At this point the Northern Pacific Railway
now crosses the Missouri; and here, where is built the capital
of North Dakota, began, in those days, a series of Mandan villages,
with the people of which the explorers were to become tolerably
well acquainted; for it had been decided that the increasing
cold of the weather would compel them to winter in this region.
But they were as yet uncertain as to the exact locality at which they
would build their camp of winter. Here they met one of the grand
chiefs of the Mandans, who was on a hunting excursion with his braves.
This chief greeted with much ceremony the Rickaree chief who
accompanied the exploring party. The Mandans and Rickarees were
ancient enemies, but, following the peaceful councils of the white men,
the chiefs professed amity and smoked together the pipe of peace.
A son of the Mandan chief was observed to have lost both of his
little fingers, and when the strangers asked how this happened,
they were told that the fingers had been cut off (according to
the Mandan custom) to show the grief of the young man at the loss
of some of his relations.
Chapter VI
Winter among the Mandans
Before finally selecting the spot on which to build their
winter quarters, Lewis and Clark held councils with the chiefs
of the tribes who were to be their neighbors during the cold season.
These were Mandans, Annahaways, and Minnetarees, tribes living
peacefully in the same region of country. The principal Mandan chief
was Black Cat; White Buffalo Robe Unfolded represented the Annahaways,
and the Minnetaree chief was Black Moccasin. This last-named chief
could not come to the council, but was represented by Caltahcota,
or Cherry on a Bush. The palaver being over, presents were distributed.
The account says: -
"One chief of each town was acknowledged by a gift of a flag,
a medal with the likeness of the President of the United States,
a uniform coat, hat and feather. To the second chiefs we gave
a medal representing some domestic animals and a loom for weaving;
to the third chiefs, medals with the impressions of a farmer sowing grain.
A variety of other presents were distributed, but none seemed to give them
more satisfaction than an iron corn-mill which we gave to the Mandans.
. . . . . . . . .
In the evening the prairie took fire, either by accident or design,
and burned with great fury, the whole plain being enveloped in flames.
So rapid was its progress that a man and a woman were burned to death before
they could reach a place of safety; another man, with his wife and child,
were much burned, and several other persons narrowly escaped destruction.
Among the rest, a boy of the half white breed escaped unhurt in the midst
of the flames; his safety was ascribed to the great medicine spirit,
who had preserved him on account of his being white. But a much more
natural cause was the presence of mind of his mother, who, seeing no hopes
of carrying off her son, threw him on the ground, and, covering him
with the fresh hide of a buffalo, escaped herself from the flames.
As soon as the fire had passed, she returned and found him untouched,
the skin having prevented the flame from reaching the grass on which he lay."
Next day, says the journal, -
"We were visited by two persons from the lower village:
one, the Big White, the chief of the village; the other,
the Chayenne, called the Big Man: they had been hunting,
and did not return yesterday early enough to attend the council.
At their request we repeated part of our speech of yesterday,
and put the medal round the neck of the chief.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 13 of 105
Words from 12491 to 13509
of 110166
