Part 8

Oregon.--Walla-Wallas, Cayuses, etc. 10,942

Utah.--Utahs and Utes 25,250

Nevada.--Pi-utes, Shoshones, Bannacks, Washoes, etc. 8,200

New Mexico.--Navajoes, Pueblos, Jicarilla Apaches, etc. (with 2000 captives held in peonage,--i.e. slavery) 20,036

Colorado.--U-in-tak, Utes 5,000

Dakota, including Wyoming, set off from Dakota: Yancton Sioux 2,500 Poncas 979 Lower Brules 1,600 Lower Yanctonais 2,250 Two-Kettle Sioux 750 Blackfeet 1,200 Minneconjons 3,060 Uncpapas 3,000 Ogallallas 3,000 Upper Yanctonais 2,400 Sansarc 720 Wahpeton Sioux 1,637 Arickarees 1,500 Gros Ventres 400 Mandans 400 Assinaboins 2,640 Sissetons and other Sioux 3,500 ------ 31,534

Montana.--Piegans, Blackfeet, Flatheads, Gros Ventres, Kootenays, Crows, etc. 19,560

Nebraska and Kansas.--Winnebagoes, Omahas, Pawnees, Sacs and Foxes of Missouri, Iowas, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Sautee Sioux 17,995

Central Agency, in Kansas and Indian Territory.--Pottawatamies, Shawnees, Delaware, Osages, Senecas, Kaws, Kickapoos, Ottawas, Comanches, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, and Apaches 17,422

Southern Agency, Cherokee Country.--Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Wichitas, Keechies, Wolves, Tuscaroras, Caddoes, Shawnees, Delawares, etc. 48,145

Green Bay Agency.--Oneidas, Menominees, and Munsees 3,036

Wisconsin.--Chippeways of Mississippi 6,179

Lake Superior.--Chippewas, etc., wandering 6,114

Mackinac.--Pottawatamies, etc. 8,099

New York State.--Cattaraugas, Cayugas, Onondagas, with Senecas, Allegany, Tonawandas, Tuscaroras, Oneidas, Onondagas 4,136 ------- Total 298,528

Friday was found on the Plains many years ago, while a lad, by Father de Smet, a Jesuit missionary, and taken to St. Louis, where he was educated. He returned again to his tribe, and leads a roving life. In November, 1869, he came to our post with Medicine-Man, Little Wolf, Sorrel Horse, and Cut-Foot, having been brought down by General Augur, Commander of the Department of the Platte, to go up the Union Pacific Railroad, as far as Wind River Valley, to meet old Waskakie, head chief of the Shoshones, and to make a treaty with his tribe, fearing the southern Sioux and Cheyennes would make war upon Friday's band, which numbered only fifteen hundred. Not finding Waskakie on his reservation, they waited several weeks for his return from the mountains, where he was gone on a hunt for his winter's supply of buffalo and deer meat. After waiting as long as they could, the Arapahoes left some of their arrows for Waskakie, that he might know they had been there, and also brought back some of the Shoshones' arrows, to convince the Arapahoe Indians that they had fulfilled their mission.

At this time, Friday had a beautiful set of arrows, bow and quiver, which I desired to purchase and carry east, to show Sunday-school children the weapons of Indian warfare, and how they kill their game, Friday would not sell his "outfit," as it is called, for money, but was willing to "trade" for a revolver, with which he said he could hunt buffalo. At first, the Indian agent said it was unlawful to sell firearms and ammunition to the Indians. This I told Friday. He then said, "Well, let's trade on the sly." This I declined to do. But after a few days, I got permission, and took Friday into Cheyenne, to select the pistol. After picking out a good one, he then begged for bullet-mould, lead, powder, and caps. A trade is never complete with an Indian as long as he sees anything he can get added to the bargain.

General Duncan, of the 5th Cavalry, tells me of one of his trades with a red man at Fort Laramie. His little boy took a fancy to an Indian pony one day, and the general offered to exchange a nice mule for the pony. This was soon done and settled, as the general supposed. But next day the Indian came back and demanded some tobacco, sugar, flour, etc. "What for?" demanded the general. The Indian gave him to understand that he did trade horses, but as the mule had little or no tail, and the pony a long one, "he wanted the sugar, tobacco, and flour to make up for the tail!" After Friday and his fellow-chiefs had left us, some one wrote this to a Chicago paper, as follows:

THE AUTHOR A MEDICINE-MAN.

The Indians sometimes confer "brevets" on distinguished individuals as marks of favor, though they do not, or have not as yet, scattered them in like profusion, as in the army, so that the whole thing has become a farce.

Mr. Catlin, or Mr. Schoolcraft (Indian writers and painters), was made a regular chief of the Chippewas in the time of Red Jacket, a big chief at Tonawanda. In the month of November, 1869, five Arapahoe chiefs came to Fort Russell,--"Friday," "Little Wolf," "Cut-Foot," "Sorrel Horse," and "Head Medicine-Man." On account of many little kindnesses to them while remaining, Friday invited the writer to go up with the party to their home among the Black Hills, where he could be initiated into the forms of a civil chief. Friday said, "These fellows"--meaning his companions--"think a big heap of you, and want you to go home with them." As the ceremony includes a dog feast, it was postponed for awhile. They called me "The White Medicine-Man,"--and the feast has been partaken of at different times by some officers on the plains, who say dog's meat tastes much like mutton. A feast was made, it is said, at Fort Laramie for the Peace Commission, which met there in 1868. There were Generals Sherman, Harney, Augur, Terry, Sanborn, and Col. Tappan present. A big chief had given the entertainment of dog, in soup, roast, etc. Having only one big tin dish to serve the soup in, and it being rather dirty, the old squaw seized a pup to wipe it out with. But the old chief felt mortified at it, and so he tore off a piece of his shirt and gave the pan an extra wipe!

THE SIOUX SUN DANCE--SCENE ON THE PLAINS OF YOUNG WARRIORS EXHIBITING FORTITUDE AND BRAVERY IN TORTURING PAINS--A HORRIBLE SCENE.

Red Cloud, a head chief, lives in what is called the Powder River country, above Fort Fetterman. But the Sioux nation roam for hundreds of miles all over the plains, and are sure to turn up just when and where they are least expected.

These Sioux, the most numerous of all the Indian tribes, have a festive performance, which is regarded by all civilized people with horror and abhorrence, and one which few can look upon with nerve enough to see the end.

It is a sort of religious dance, in which the young braves test their fortitude and stoicism in resisting pain and torture without wincing. A young officer, who witnessed the "Sun Dance" last year, at the Cheyenne agency, a few miles above Fort Sully, on the Missouri River, gives the following account:

"The Indians manifested considerable opposition to having any whites present. When several officers belonging to the 17th United States Infantry came up, Red Leaf--a chief of Red Cloud's band--leaped over a breastwork of logs and ordered the troops away. After parleying with the chief some time, the soldiers fell back and took a position which was not objectionable to the Indians, but from which they could obtain only a partial view of the performances. There was a large lodge, built in shape of an amphitheatre, with a hole in the centre. The sides and roof were covered with willows, forming a tolerable screen, but not so dense as to obstruct entirely the view. The performances began with low chants and incantations. Five young men were brought in and partially stripped, their mothers being present and assisting in the ceremony.

"Then the 'Medicine-man' began his part by cutting slits in the flesh of the young men and taking up the muscles with pincers. The old squaws assisted in lacerating the flesh of the boys with sharp knives. The squaws would at the same time keep up a howling, accompanied with a backward-and-forward movement. When the muscles were lifted out by pincers on the breast, one end of a kind of lariat (used for fastening horses while grazing), or buffalo thong, was tied to the bleeding flesh, while the other end was fastened to the top of the pole in the middle of the lodge. The first young man, when thus prepared, commenced dancing around the circle in a most frantic manner, pulling with all his might, so as to stretch out the rope, and by his jerking movements loosening himself by tearing out the flesh. The young man's dance was accompanied by a chant by those who were standing around, assisted by the thumping of a hideous drum, to keep the time. The young brave who was undergoing this self-torture finally succeeded in tearing himself loose, and the rope relaxed from its sudden tightness and fell back toward the centre pole with a piece of the flesh to which it was tied. The victim, who, up to this point, did not move a muscle of his face, fell down on the ground, exhausted from the pain, which human weakness could not further conceal. A squaw then rushed in and bore the young brave away. He had undergone the terrible ordeal, and amid the congratulations of the old men, would be complimented as a warrior of undoubted pluck and acknowledged prowess.

"Another of the young men, named Charles, was cut in two places under the shoulder blade; the flesh was raised with pincers, and thongs tied around the flesh and muscles thus raised. The thongs reached down below the knees and were tied to buffalo skulls. With these heavy weights dangling at the ends of the thongs, the young man was required to dance around the circle, to the sound of the drum and chants of the bystanders, until the skulls became detached by tearing out the flesh. They continued the performance until one of the skulls broke loose, but the other remained. The mother of the young man then rushed into the ring, leading a pony, and tied one end of the lariat which was around the pony's neck to the skull, which was still fastened to the young Indian. The latter then followed the pony round the ring, until nearly exhausted he fell on his face, and the skull was thereby torn out of the flesh. The sufferer's voice grew husky from joining in the chant; he groveled on the ground in violent contortions for a few minutes, and was then removed to the outside of the lodge.