It Consisted Of The Dog Which They Had Just Been Cooking,
This Being A Great Dish Among The Sioux, And
Used on all festivals;
to this were added pemitigon, a dish made of buffalo meat, dried or jerked,
and then
Pounded and mixed raw with grease and a kind of ground potato,
dressed like the preparation of Indian corn called hominy, to which it
is little inferior. Of all these luxuries, which were placed before us
in platters with horn spoons, we took the pemitigon and the potato,
which we found good, but we could as yet partake but sparingly of the dog."
The "pemitigon" mentioned here is better known as pemmican,
a sort of dried meat, which may be eaten as prepared,
or pounded fine and cooked with other articles of food.
This festival concluded with a grand dance, which at midnight
wound up the affair.
As the description of these Tetons, given by Lewis and Clark, will give
the reader a good idea of the manners, customs, and personal appearance
of most of the Sioux nation, we will copy the journal in full.
It is as follows:
"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.
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