In the little toy that I have mentioned, and which is suspended before the child’s face, is carefully and superstitiously preserved the umbilicus, which is always secured at the time of its birth, and being rolled up into a little wad of the size of a pea, and dried, it is enclosed in the centre of this little bag, and placed before the child’s face, as its protector and its security for “good luck” and long life. Letter c, same plate, exhibits a number of forms and different tastes of several of these little toys, which I have purchased from the women, which they were very willing to sell for a trifling present; but in every instance, they cut them open, and removed from within a bunch of cotton or moss, the little sacred medicine, which, to part with, would be to “endanger the health of the child”—a thing that no consideration would have induced them in any instance to have done.
My brush has been busily employed at this place, as in others; and amongst the dignitaries that I have painted, is, first and foremost, Wa-nah-de-tunck-a (the big eagle), commonly called the “Black Dog” ([plate 234]). This is a very noted man, and chief of the O-hah-kas-ka-toh-y-an-te (long avenue) band.
By the side of him Toh-to-wah-kon-da-pee (the blue medicine—[plate 233]), a noted medicine-man, of the Ting-tah-to-a band; with his medicine or mystery drum, made of deer-skins; and his mystery rattles made of antelopes’ hoofs, in his hands. This notorious old man was professionally a doctor in his tribe, but not very distinguished, until my friend Dr. Jarvis, who is surgeon for the post, very liberally dealt out from the public medicine-chest, occasional “odds and ends” to him, and with a professional concern for the poor old fellow’s success, instructed him in the modes of their application; since which, the effects of his prescriptions have been so decided amongst his tribe, whom he holds in ignorance of his aid in his mysterious operations; that he has risen quite rapidly into notice, within the few last years, in the vicinity of the Fort; where he finds it most easy to carry out his new mode of practice, for reasons above mentioned.
In plates 235 and 236, there are portraits of the two most distinguished ball-players in the Sioux tribe, whose names are Ah-no-je-nahge (he who stands on both sides), and We-chush-ta-doo-ta (the red man). Both of these young men stood to me for their portraits, in the dresses precisely in which they are painted; with their ball-sticks in their hands, and in the attitudes of the play. We have had several very spirited plays here within the few past days; and each of these young men came from the ball-play ground to my painting-room, in the dress in which they had just struggled in the play.
It will be seen by these sketches, that the custom in this tribe, differs in some respects from that of the Choctaws and other Southern tribes, of which I have before spoken; and I there showed that they played with a stick in each hand, when the Sioux use but one stick, which is generally held in both hands, with a round hoop at the end, in which the ball is caught and thrown with wonderful tact; a much more difficult feat, I should think, than that of the Choctaws, who catch the ball between two sticks. The tail also, in this tribe, differs, inasmuch as it is generally made of quills, instead of white horsehair, as described amongst the Choctaws. In other respects, the rules and manner of the game are the same as amongst those tribes.
Several others of the distingués of the tribe, I have also painted here, and must needs refer the reader to the Museum for further information of them.
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