CHAPTER IX.
PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE—AN INDIAN VILLAGE ON THE MOVE—SCALP DANCE—A HORRIBLE SCENE OF SAVAGE EXULTATION—COMPELLED TO JOIN THE ORGIES—A CAUSE OF INDIAN HOSTILITY—ANOTHER BATTLE WITH THE WHITE TROOPS—BURIAL OF AN INDIAN BOY—A HASTY RETREAT—MADE TO ACT AS SURGEON OF THE WOUNDED—MAUVE TERRE, OR BAD LANDS.
The next morning the whole village was in motion. The warriors were going to battle against a white enemy, they said, and old men, women, and children were sent out in another direction to a place of safety, as designated by the chief. Every thing was soon moving. With the rapidity of custom the tent-poles were lowered and the tents rolled up. The cooking utensils were put together, and laid on cross-beams connecting the lower ends of the poles as they trail the ground from the horses’ sides, to which they are attached. Dogs, too, are made useful in this exodus, and started off, with smaller burdens dragging after them, in the same manner that horses are packed.
The whole village was in commotion, children screaming or laughing; dogs barking or growling under their heavy burdens; squaws running hither and thither, pulling down tipi-poles, packing up every thing, and leading horses and dogs with huge burdens.
Indian Family on the Move.
The small children are placed in sacks of buffalo skin and hung upon saddles or their mothers’ backs. The wrapped up lodges, which are secured by thongs, are fastened to the poles on the horses’ backs, together with sundry other articles of domestic use, and upon these are seated women and children. To guide the horse a woman goes before, holding the bridle, carrying on her back a load nearly as large as the horse carries. Women and children are sometimes mounted upon horses, holding in their arms every variety of plunder, sometimes little dogs and other forlorn and hungry looking pets. In this unsightly manner, sometimes two or three thousand families are transported many miles at the same migration, and, all being in motion at the same time, the cavalcade extends for a great distance.
The men and boys are not so unsightly in their appearance, being mounted upon good horses and the best Indian ponies, riding in groups, leaving the women and children to trudge along with the burdened horses and dogs.
The number and utility of these faithful dogs is sometimes astonishing, as they count hundreds, each bearing a portion of the general household goods. Two poles, about ten or twelve feet long, are attached to the shoulders of a dog, leaving one end of each dragging upon the ground. On these poles a small burden is carried, and with it the faithful canine jogs along, looking neither to the right nor to the left, but apparently intent upon reaching the end of his journey. These faithful creatures are under the charge of women and children, and their pace is occasionally encouraged with admonitions in the form of vigorous and zealous use of whips applied to their limbs and sides. It was quite painful to me to see these poor animals, thus taken from their natural avocation, and forced to a slavish life of labor, and compelled to travel along with their burdens; yet, when this change has been made, they become worthless as hunters, or watchers, and even for the purpose of barking, being reduced, instead, to beasts of burden. It was not uncommon to see a great wolfish-looking dog moodily jogging along with a lot of cooking utensils on one side, and on the other a crying papoose for a balance, while his sulking companion toils on, supporting upon his back a quarter of antelope or elk, and is followed by an old woman, or some children, who keep at bay all refractory dogs who run loose, occasionally showing their superiority by snapping and snarling at their more unfortunate companions.