"The Tribe Which We This Day Saw Are A Part Of The Great Sioux Nation,
And Are Known By The Name Of The Teton Okandandas:
They are about
two hundred men in number, and their chief residence is on both sides
of the Missouri, between the Chayenne and Teton Rivers.
In their
persons they are rather ugly and ill-made, their legs and arms being
too small, their cheek-bones high, and their eyes projecting.
The females, with the same character of form, are more handsome;
and both sexes appear cheerful and sprightly; but in our intercourse
with them we discovered that they were cunning and vicious.
"The men shave the hair off their heads, except a small tuft
on the top, which they suffer to grow, and wear in plaits over
the shoulders; to this they seem much attached, as the loss
of it is the usual sacrifice at the death of near relations.
In full dress, the men of consideration wear a hawk's feather,
or calumet feather worked with porcupine quills, and fastened
to the top of the head, from which it falls back. The face
and body are generally painted with a mixture of grease and coal.
Over the shoulders is a loose robe or mantle of buffalo skin
dressed white, adorned with porcupine quills, loosely fixed,
so as to make a jingling noise when in motion, and painted
with various uncouth figures, unintelligible to us, but to them
emblematic of military exploits or any other incident:
the hair of the robe is worn next the skin in fair weather,
but when it rains the hair is put outside, and the robe
is either thrown over the arm or wrapped round the body,
all of which it may cover. Under this, in the winter season,
they wear a kind of shirt resembling ours, made either
of skin or cloth, and covering the arms and body.
Round the middle is fixed a girdle of cloth, or procured
dressed elk-skin, about an inch in width, and closely tied
to the body; to this is attached a piece of cloth, or blanket,
or skin, about a foot wide, which passes between the legs,
and is tucked under the girdle both before and behind.
From the hip to the ankle is covered by leggins of dressed
antelope skins, with seams at the sides two inches in width,
and ornamented by little tufts of hair, the produce of the scalps
they have made in war, which are scattered down the leg.
The winter moccasins are of dressed buffalo skin, the hair
being worn inward, and soled with thick elk-skin parchment;
those for summer are of deer or elk-skin, dressed without
the hair, and with soles of elk-skin. On great occasions,
or whenever they are in full dress, the young men drag after them
the entire skin of a polecat fixed to the heel of the moccasin.
Another skin of the same animal, either tucked into the girdle
or carried in the hand, serves as a pouch for their tobacco,
or what the French traders call bois roule.[1] This is the inner
bark of a species of red willow, which, being dried in the sun
or over the fire, is, rubbed between the hands and broken
into small pieces, and used alone or mixed with tobacco.
The pipe is generally of red earth, the stem made of ash,
about three or four feet long, and highly decorated with feathers,
hair, and porcupine-quills.
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