James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820, part 3

by Edwin James; Stephen H. Long; Thomas Say

A child was shown us who spoke Spanish, and who was said to be a prisoner from the Spanish settlements; he was not, however, distinguished from the Kaskaias by any difference of colour or of features. He spoke frequently of the Christians, which convinced us that he had at least been among the half civilized Indians of New Mexico, who have some acquaintance with the Spanish language, and have been taught enough of the Christian religion to make use of the sign of the cross.

This band of Kaskaias occupy the country about the sources of the Platte, Arkansa, and Rio Del Norte, and extend their hunting excursions to Red river and the sources of the Brases. The great numbers of images of the alligator, which they wear either as ornaments or as amulets for the cure or prevention of disease and misfortune, afford sufficient proof of their extending their rambles to districts inhabited by that reptile. These images are of carved wood covered with leather, and profusely ornamented with beads. They are suspended about the neck, and we saw several worn in this manner by the children as well as by adults. It was observed likewise, that the rude frames to the looking-glasses, carried by several of the men, were carved so as to approximate towards the same form.

It is perhaps owing to their frequent exposure to the stormy and variable atmosphere of the country about the Rocky Mountains, that these Indians are subjected to numerous attacks of rheumatic and scrofulous diseases. We saw one old woman with a distorted spine, who had probably suffered, when young, from rickets. A young man, of a fine athletic frame, had his neck covered with scrofulous ulcers. While he was with us he was constantly endeavouring to conceal with his robe this afflicting spectacle. He [301] remained but a short time among us, and did not make his second appearance.

An old man came frequently with a diseased leg, informing us by signs, that it had repeatedly formed large abscesses, which had discharged much matter, and afterwards healed. His frequent applications seemed to be made with the hope that we would do something for his relief. The men of this band wear the hair long, and suffer it to hang negligently about the shoulders. Some of them have a braid behind, which is garnished with bits of red cloth, small pieces of tin, &c. and descends nearly to the ground, being sometimes eked out with the hair of a horse's tail. Among the old men were several who had suffered a number of scattering hairs on the face to become of considerable length, a violation of good manners, and a neglect of personal neatness, not often met with among the Indians, and excusable only in the old. In their conduct towards us, they were guilty of more rudeness and incivility than we had been accustomed to meet with among the savages of the Missouri. Soon after we had encamped with them, one of our party who had brought along a roasted rib of a bison which had remained of our breakfast, had produced this bone, and was engaged in eating from it; an Indian who observed this came up, and without ceremony taking the rib out of his hand, carefully scraped off and ate all the meat, and returned the bone.

Though we saw much to admire among this people, we cannot but think they are among some of the most degraded and miserable of the uncivilized Indians on this side of the Rocky Mountains. Their wandering and precarious manner of life, as well as the inhospitable character of the country they inhabit, precludes the possibility of advancement from the profoundest barbarism. As is common among other of the western tribes, they were persevering in offering us their women, but this appeared to be [302] done from mere beastliness and the hope of reward, rather than from any motive of hospitality or a desire to show us respect. We saw among them no article of food except the flesh of the bison; their horses, their arms, lodges, and dogs, are their only wealth.

In their marches they are all on horseback; the men are expert horsemen, and evince great dexterity in throwing the rope, taking in this way many of the wild horses which inhabit some parts of their country. They hunt the bison on horseback with the bow and arrow, being little acquainted with fire arms. One of them who had received a valuable pistol from a member of our party, soon afterwards returned, and wished to barter it for a knife. They begged for tobacco, but did not inquire for whiskey; it is probable they have not yet acquired a relish for intoxicating liquors. In their persons they are all uncommonly filthy, and many of the women spent a great part of their time in catching and eating the lice from the heads of their children.

At eight o'clock on the morning of the 12th of August we took our leave of the Kaskaias, having recovered from them all the articles they had stolen, except a few ropes, halters, and other small affairs, which not being indispensably necessary to us, we chose to relinquish, rather than submit to a longer delay among a people we had so much reason to dislike.

They had shown a disposition so far from friendly towards us, that we were surprised to have escaped without having found it necessary to use our rifles among them; and as we thought it by no means improbable some of their young men might follow us to steal our horses, we moved on rather briskly, intending to travel as far in the course of the day as we conveniently could.

The river valley spread considerably a little below the point where we had encamped. In many places we found the surface a smooth and naked bed of [303] sand; in others, covered by an incrustation of salt, like a thin ice, and manifestly derived from the evaporation of water which had flowed down from the red sandstone hills bounding the valley. These hills were here of moderate elevation, the side towards the river being usually abrupt and naked. The sandstone is fine, of a deep red colour, indistinctly stratified and traversed in various directions by veins filled principally with sulphate of lime.

We had seen among the Indians on the preceding day quantities of salt in large but detached crystalline fragments, greatly resembling the common coarse salt of commerce. It had evidently been collected from some place like the one above mentioned, where it had been deposited from solution in water. When we inquired the particular locality of the Indians, they pointed to the south, and said it was found near the sources of a river heading in that direction.