It was nearly sunset when they had assembled and no feast had been prepared in this lodge, though after the council was over they were feasted elsewhere. We have here the represented authority of 220 lodges, for the chiefs are largely connected, having from 10 to 20 or more lodges of their immediate relatives each. The soldiers are the most respectable heads of families in camp, and the warriors are the sons and relations of these and others of the camp. If this body decides on carrying a point who are to object? Those about are also related to those present and these being the principal leave only young rabble, very old men, women, and children not represented, all of whom combined could do nothing against the decision of this body. We will now proceed with the ceremony. For nearly a half hour the pipe was passed around in silence, it being filled with their own tobacco and handed from mouth to mouth, making its circuit on the right-hand, after which it was laid down by the leading chief and he opened the meeting by thus stating its object, the words of whom and others were taken down by us at the time and preserved. It will be necessary to state here that the Crow Indians had massacred about 30 lodges of this same band two years previous on the banks of the Yellowstone, yet had succeeded in making a peace with some of the upper bands of Assiniboin who had not suffered by them.

The leading chief spoke thus from where he sat:

“My children, I am a mild man. For upward of 20 years I have herded you together like a band of horses. If it had not been for me, you would long ago have been scattered like wolves over the prairies. Good men and wise men are scarce; and, being so, they should be listened to, loved, and obeyed. My tongue has been worn thin and my teeth loosened in giving you advice and instruction. I am aware I speak to men as wise as myself, many braver, but none older or of more experience. I have called you together to state that our enemies (the Crows) have sent tobacco, through the medium of the whites at the big fort, to me and my children, to see if they could smoke it with pleasure, or if it tasted badly. For my part I am willing to smoke. We are but a handful of men surrounded by large and powerful nations, all our enemies. Let us therefore by making a peace reduce this number of foes and increase our number of friends. I am aware that many here have lost relatives by these people, so have we by the Gros Ventres, and yet we have peace with them. If it be to our interest to make peace all old enmities must be laid aside and forgotten. I am getting old, and have not many more winters to see, and am tired seeing my children gradually decrease by incessant war. We are poor in horses—from the herds the Crows own we will replenish. They will pay high and give many horses for peace. The Crows are good warriors, and the whites say good people and will keep their word. Whatever is decided upon let it be manly. We are men; others can speak. I listen—I have said.”

This speech was received by a slight response by some of Hoo-o-o-o and by the majority in silence. After a few minutes’ interval he was replied to by another chief, the third or fourth from where he sat. This was a savage, warlike, one-eyed Indian, and his speech was characteristic. He said: “He differed from all the old chief had said regarding their enemies. Individually as a man and as their leader he liked his father, the chief, but he must be growing old and childish to advise them to take to smoke the tobacco of their enemies, the Crows. Tell the whites to take it back to them. It stinks, and if smoked would taste of the blood of our nearest relations. He thought (he said) his old father (the chief) should make a journey to the banks of the Yellowstone, and speak to the grinning skulls of 30 lodges of his children, and hear their answer. Would they laugh? Would they dance? Would they beg for Crow tobacco or cry for Crow horses? If horses were wanted in camp, let the young men go to war and steal and take them as he had done—as he intended to do as long as a Crow Indian had a horse. What if in the attempt they left their bones to bleach on the prairie? It would be but dying like men! For his part it always pleased him to see a young man’s skull; the teeth were sound and beautiful, appearing to smile and say, ‘I have died when I should and not waited at home until my teeth were worn to the gums by eating dried meat.’ The young men (he said) will make war—must have war—and, as far as his influence went, should have war. I have spoken.”

This speech was received with a loud and prolonged grunt of approbation by more than two-thirds of the assembly.

Other speeches followed on both sides of the question, some long, some short, until the council became somewhat heated and turbulent; not, however, interrupting one another, but mixing a good deal of private invective and satire with the question in their speeches. At a point of violent debate and personal abuse, two soldiers advanced to the middle of the lodge and laid two swords crosswise on the ground, which signal immediately restored order and quiet. The debate was carried on with spirit for about two hours but it was easily to be perceived long before it terminated, by their responses and gestures, that the war faction greatly predominated. The chief, after asking if all had spoken and receiving an affirmative answer, remarked they could go and eat the feast that had been prepared for them. The warriors gave a loud yell and when out commenced singing their war song. We asked the old chief what was the decision. He said, “It is plain enough; listen to that war cry.” He then desired me to send the Crow tobacco back without delay and tell them to leave the fort immediately and go home. A few days after a large war party started to the Crow village. The morning after the council’s decision was made known by the haranguer or public crier, at the break of day, walking through the village and crying it out at the top of his voice. From the foregoing it will be seen that the chief only expressed his opinion as the others, yet the large majority or rather the feeling evinced for war by the leaders of the war parties, warriors, heads of families, soldiers, and all who could make war, left none to contend with.

Had the same general exhibition for peace prevailed, the same powers could make it, or rather force would be unnecessary when a unanimity of such a body prevailed. Had the parties or feeling been equally manifest the question would have been laid aside for another time, perhaps years, and each went to war or remained at home as he pleased.

Most councils have this feature and termination, that is, if the measure is not at once visibly popular, it is abandoned. This precludes the necessity of vote and none is taken. Besides, except for camp regulations, hunting, etc., they are not obliged to decide. Time is not valuable to them. There is no constituent power in the rest of the band, whose voices are not asked, nor required, to force a decision, nor actual power to operate against any measures, that may be decided upon by their parents, and soldiers of the camp. Wherever force is necessary, however, to carry out these decisions, as in hunting regulations, the soldiers are pledged to act in a body to effect it, even at the risk of their lives. But should the decision be for a peace and afterwards a war party be raised to go against the nation with which peace has been made, the soldiers would not use force to prevent it. They have too much good sense to strike or kill any of their own people to benefit their enemies, and in this case the peace party being the most numerous, and consequently the richer, would pay the partisan, or leader of the party, to remain at home and a collection of horses, guns, and other property made among them for that purpose, which being handed the partisan and by him divided among his warriors, stops the expedition.

This is done often among them, particularly at this time when “peaces” have become tolerably general through the Laramie treaty. There are cases, however, where force is necessary, and the soldiers are brought to act, which we will shortly mention. To present any idea of their government so that it can be understood, we must first proceed to describe the component parts of a large camp, after which it will be easy to perceive their principles of government. The regulations kept up in the following description is only in large camps: Smaller ones, from 10 to 20 lodges, hunt, every man when he pleases, and, as there are but few persons to feed, they can always have meat in this way; but where the camp is composed of from 50 to 100 or 200 lodges this is not the case, as will presently appear.

1.The leading chief.
2.The other chiefs.
3.Chief of the soldiers.
4.Cook of the soldiers’ lodge.
5.The soldiers.
6.The elderly men.
7.The haranguer.
8.The master of the Park.
9.Warriors and hunters.
10.Partisans.[13]
11.Doctors and conjurors.
12.Very old men.
13.Young women.
14.Old women.
15.Middle-aged women.
16.Boys and girls.
17.Very small children.