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

by Edwin James; Stephen H. Long; Thomas Say

The whole population had now deserted their edifices and crowded about us, and, agreeably to our wishes, which were announced in the council, the women brought jerked meat, and the men skin and hair ropes for halters, to trade with us for trinkets; and we were enabled to obtain a sufficient quantity of each, at a very moderate price. The trading being completed, we expected the crowd to diminish, but it seemed rather to augment in magnitude and density, until, becoming a very serious inconvenience, we requested the chiefs to direct their people to retire, which they immediately complied with, but, with the exception of the Shienne chief, were not obeyed. All the Shiennes forthwith left us, in compliance with [44] the peremptory orders of their chief, who seemed to be a man born to command, and to be endowed with a spirit of unconquerable ferocity, and capable of inflicting exemplary punishment upon any one who should dare to disobey his orders. He was tall and graceful, with a highly-ridged aquiline nose, corrugated forehead, mouth with the corners drawn downward, and rather small, but remarkably piercing eye, which, when fixed upon your countenance, appeared strained in the intenseness of its gaze, and to seek rather for the movements of the soul within, than to ascertain the mere lineaments it contemplated. The other chiefs seemed to possess only the dignity of office, without the power of command; the result, probably, of a deficiency of that native energy with which their companion was so pre-eminently endowed. They scarcely dared to reiterate their admonitions to their followers, not to press so closely upon the white people, but to limit their approaches to the line of our baggage. Still our tents were filled, and our persons hemmed in by the ardent and insatiable curiosity of the multitude, of both sexes and of all ages, mounted and on foot. To an observer of mankind, the present scene was abundantly fruitful and interesting. We could not but remark the ease and air of security with which their equestrians preserved their equipoise on the naked backs of their horses, in their evolutions beyond the crowd; nor could we restrain a smile, in the midst of vexatious circumstances, at the appearance of the naked children, mounted on horses, sometimes to the number of three or four on each, carelessly standing erect, or kneeling upon their backs, to catch a glance, over the heads of the intervening multitude, at the singular deportment, costume, and appearance of the white strangers.

In the rear of our tent, a squaw, who had become possessed of a wooden small-toothed comb, was occupied [45] in removing from her head a population as numerous, as the individuals composing it were robust and well fed. She had placed a skin upon her lap to receive the victims as they fell; and a female companion who sat at her feet alternately craunched the oily vermin between her teeth, and conversed with the most rapid and pleasant loquacity, as she picked them up from the skin before her.

Our attention was now arrested by a phenomenon which soon relieved us from the crowd that pressed upon us. A heavy and extensive cloud of dust was observed in the north, obscuring the horizon, and bounding the range of vision in that direction. It moved rapidly towards us. An animated scene ensued; the Indians fording the river with as much rapidity of movement as they could exert, towards their encampment, horse and foot, the water foaming before them. It soon became obvious that the dust ascended into the atmosphere under the influence of a violent current of air; we therefore employed a few moments of interval in strengthening our feeble tenements to resist the influence of the approaching tempest. Within, they were now so nearly filled with our red brethren, that we wedged ourselves in with some difficulty amongst them. It soon became necessary to exert our strength in holding down our tents and supporting the poles, which bowed and shook violently under the pressure of the blast. Thunder, lightning, rain, and hail succeeded. During this play of the elements, our guests sat in stillness, scarcely articulating a word during the prevalence of the electrical explosions.

Our tents were much admired, and previously to the fall of rain (which exposed their imperfection, in admitting the water, modified into the form of a mist) one of the natives offered to exchange an excellent mule for that in which he was sitting; and as the commonalty could not distinguish us in their minds [46] from traders, another offered two mules (valued equal to four horses) for a double-barrelled gun; and a third would willingly have bartered a very good horse for an old and almost worn-out camp-kettle, which we could by no means part with, though much in want of horses.

These Indians differ, in many particulars, from those of the Missouri, with whose appearance we had been for some time familiar. Their average stature appeared to us less considerable; and although the general appearance of the countenance was such as we had been accustomed to see, yet their faces have, perhaps, somewhat more latitude, and the Roman nose is obviously less predominant; but still the direction of the eye, the prominence of the cheek bones, the form of the lips, teeth, chin, and retreating forehead, are precisely similar. They have also the same habit of plucking the hair from various parts of the body; but that of the head, in the females, is only suffered to attain to the shoulders, whilst the men permit theirs to grow to its full extent. They even regard long hair as an ornament, and many wear false hair fastened to their own by means of an earthy matter, resembling red clay, and depending in many instances (particularly the young beau) to their knees, in the form of queues, one on each side of the head, variously decorated with ribbon, like slips of red and blue cloth, or coloured skin. Others, and by no means an inconsiderable few, had collected their long hair into several flat masses, of the breadth of two or three fingers, and less than the fifth of an inch in thickness, each one separately annulated with red clay at regular intervals. The elders wore their hair without decoration, flowing loosely about their shoulders, or simply intermixed with slender plaited queues. In structure and colour it is not distinguished from that of the Missouri Indians, though, in early youth, it is often of a much lighter colour; and a young man, of [47] perhaps fifteen years of age, who visited us to-day, had hair decidedly of a flaxen hue, with a tint of dusky yellow.

Their costume is very simple, that of the female consisting of a leathern petticoat, reaching the calf of the leg, destitute of a seam, and often exposing a well-formed thigh, as the casualties of wind or position influence the artless foldings of the skirt. The leg and foot are often naked, but usually invested by gaiters and mockasins. A kind of sleeveless short gown, composed of a single piece of the same material, loosely clothes the body, hanging upon the shoulders, readily thrown off, without any sense of indelicacy, when suckling their children, or under the influence of a heated atmosphere, displaying loose and pendant mammæ. A few are covered by the more costly attire of coarse red or blue cloth, ornamented with a profusion of blue and white beads: the short gown of this dress has the addition of wide sleeves descending below the elbow; its body is of a square form, with a transverse slit in the upper edge for the head to pass through; around this aperture, and on the upper side of the sleeves, is a continuous stripe, the breadth of the hand, of blue and white beads, tastefully arranged in contrast with each other, and adding considerable weight as well as ornament to this part of the dress. Around the petticoat, and in a line with the knees, is an even row of oblong conic bells, made of sheet copper, each about an inch and a half in length, suspended vertically by short leathern thongs as near to each other as possible, so that when the person is in motion, they strike upon each other, and produce a tinkling sound. The young unmarried females are more neatly dressed, and seem to participate but little in the laborious occupations, which fall chiefly to the lot of their wedded companions.

The dress of the men is composed of a breech cloth, skin leggings, mockasins, and a bison robe. In [48] warm weather the three latter articles of dress are sometimes thrown aside as superfluous, exposing all the limbs and body to view, and to the direct influence of the most ardent rays of the sun. Such are the habiliments that necessity compels the multitude to adopt; but the opulence of a few has gained for themselves the comfortable as well as ornamental and highly esteemed Spanish blanket from the Mexican traders, and of which we had previously seen two or three in the possession of Pawnee warriors worn as trophies. Another species of garment, in their estimation equally sumptuous with the blanket, is the cloth robe, which is of ample dimensions, simple in form, one half red and the other blue, thrown loosely about the person, and at a little distance, excepting the singular arrangement of colours, resembling a Spanish cloak.

Some have, suspended from the slits of their ears, the highly prized nacre, or pearlaceous fragments of a marine shell, brought probably from the N. W. coast.

The Shienne chief revisited us in the afternoon. He informed us, that one of his young men, who had been sent to ascertain the route which the bison herds had taken, and their present locality, had observed the trail of a large party of men, whom, by pursuing the direction, he had discovered to be Spaniards on their way towards the position we then occupied, where they must very soon arrive. As we were now in a region claimed by the Mexican Spaniards as exclusively their own, and as we had for some days anticipated such an event as highly probable, we involuntarily reposed implicit confidence in the truth of the intelligence communicated by the chief, who regarded that people as our natural enemies. Nevertheless his story was heard by our little band, as it was proper that it should have been in our situation and in the presence of Indians, with the appearance of absolute apathy. The chief seemed not to have [49] accomplished some object he had in view, and departed evidently displeased. When he was out of hearing, the Indian interpreter, who had become our friend, told us, that the story was entirely false, and was without a doubt the invention of the chief, and designed to expedite the trade for a few additional horses that we were then negociating.

Mr. Say (accompanied by an interpreter), who made a short visit to the small group of lodges near us, was kindly received, though hooted by the children, and of course snarled and snapped at by the dogs. The skin lodges of these wandering people are very similar to those of the Missouri tribes, but in those to which he was introduced, he experienced the oppression of an almost suffocating heat, certainly many degrees above the temperature of the very sultry exterior atmosphere. A very portly old man, whose features were distinguished by a remarkably wide mouth and lengthened chin, invited him to a small ragged lodge, to see the riches it contained. These consisted of habiliments of red and blue cloth, profusely garnished with blue and white beads, the product of the industry and ingenuity of his squaw, from materials obtained last winter from some white traders, who made their appearance on Red river. The present members of this family were the old man, one wife, and four children, the latter as usual in a state of nudity. The baggage was piled around the lodge, serving for seats and beds; and a pile of jerked meat near the door served also for a seat, and was occasionally visited by the dirty feet of the children. A boy was amusing himself with that primitive weapon, the sling, of an ordinary form, which he used with considerable dexterity; the effect of which he appeared disposed to try upon the stranger, and was not readily turned from his purpose by a harsh rebuke and menacing gesture.