The Creek Is Now Known As Spring River,
And Is In Campbell County, South Dakota.
Concerning the stone
images the Indians gave this tradition:
-
"A young man was deeply enamoured with a girl whose parents refused
their consent to the marriage. The youth went out into the fields
to mourn his misfortunes; a sympathy of feeling led the lady to the
same spot, and the faithful dog would not cease to follow his master.
After wandering together and having nothing but grapes to subsist on,
they were at last converted into stone, which, beginning at the feet,
gradually invaded the nobler parts, leaving nothing unchanged but
a bunch of grapes which the female holds in her hand to this day.
Whenever the Ricaras pass these sacred stones, they stop to make some
offering of dress to propitiate these deities. Such is the account
given by the Ricara chief, which we had no mode of examining,
except that we found one part of the story very agreeably confirmed;
for on the river near where the event is said to have occurred we
found a greater abundance of fine grapes than we had yet seen."
While at their last camp in the country now known as South Dakota, October 14,
1804, one of the soldiers, tried by a court-martial for mutinous conduct,
was sentenced to receive seventy-five lashes on the bare back.
The sentence was carried out then and there. The Rickaree chief,
who accompanied the party for a time, was so affected by the sight
that he cried aloud during the whole proceeding.
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