A good example of the war career of an American Indian chief may be gained by the exploits of Mah-to-toh-pa, as displayed on his robe, and explained by him to Mr. Catlin. It was covered with twelve groups of figures, which will be briefly described.
His first exploit was killing a Sioux chief, who had already killed three Riccarees. This feat entitled him to wear eagles’ quills on his lance, and in the second group he is shown as killing with this lance a Shienne chief, who challenged him to single combat. The third scene represents a combat in which Mah-to-toh-pa was forsaken by his party, and yet, though badly wounded, killed a Shienne warrior in the presence of some thirty of his fellows.
The fourth scene shows a great chief of the Shiennes killed by this warrior, whose splendid headdress was assumed by his slayer. The fifth picture represents a strange episode in a battle. Mah-to-toh-pa was travelling with a party of Riccarees, when they were fired upon by a war party of Sioux. The Riccarees fled, leaving Mah-to-toh-pa, who sprang from his horse, faced the Sioux on foot, killed one of them, and secured his scalp.
The sixth drawing illustrates a most remarkable piece of personal history. A Riccaree brave, named Won-ga-tap, shot the brother of Mah-to-toh-pa with an arrow, drove his well-known spear into the body of the fallen man, and left it there, as a challenge to the surviving brother. The challenge was accepted. Mah-to-toh-pa found the body, recognized the spear, and vowed that he would slay the murderer of his brother with the same weapon. Four years passed without an opportunity to fulfil the vow, when he could no longer brook delay, but dashed out of his house with the fatal spear in his hand, and a small wallet of parched corn at his belt. He told the Mandans to mention his name no more unless he returned victorious with the scalp of Won-ga-tap.
Amid the awe-struck silence of his people he left the village, and disappeared over the grassy bluffs. For two hundred miles he travelled alone and by night, always concealing himself by day, until he reached the Riccaree village, which he boldly entered, mixing with the inhabitants as if he were a friendly stranger. He knew the position of Won-ga-tap’s hut, and after having seen that the intended victim and his wife had smoked the evening pipe and were in bed, he walked gently into the hut, sat down by the fire, took some meat out of the cooking-pot, and began to eat in order to strengthen himself for the fulfilment of his task. This was according to the hospitable custom of the American Indians. If a man be hungry, he need not ask for food, but has only to go to the nearest hut and help himself.
The repast being ended, Mah-to-toh-pa took the still warm pipe, filled it with tobacco, and began to smoke it, breathing, with every curl of smoke, a prayer for success in his undertaking. Once or twice the wife of Won-ga-tap asked her husband who was eating in their hut, but he replied that some one must be hungry, and was helping himself.
When the last smoke-wreath had ascended, Mah-to-toh-pa turned toward the bed, and with his foot pushed an ember on the fire, so as to make a blaze by which he might see the exact position of his victim. In an instant he leaped toward the bed, drove the spear through the heart of Won-ga-tap, tore off his scalp, snatched the spear from his heart, and darted out of the hut with the scalp of his victim in one hand, and in the other the fatal spear, with the blood of Won-ga-tap already drying over that of the man he had killed four years before. The whole village was in an uproar, but Mah-to-toh-pa succeeded in making his escape, and on the sixth day after leaving the Mandan village, he re-entered it with the scalp of his enemy. A [portrait] of this celebrated chief is given on the 1277th page.
Another of these pictures records a single combat fought with a Shienne chief in presence of both war parties. They fought on horseback, until Mah-to-toh-pa’s powder-horn was shattered by a bullet. The Shienne chief flung away his gun, horn, and bullet pouch, and challenged the foe with bow and arrow. Both parties were wounded in the limbs, but kept their bodies covered with their shields.
Presently Mah-to-toh-pa’s horse fell with an arrow in its heart. The Shienne chief immediately dismounted, and proceeded with the fight until he had exhausted his arrows, when he flung the empty quiver on the ground, challenging with his knife, the only weapon which he had left. The challenge was accepted, and they rushed on each other, but Mah-to-toh-pa had left his knife at home, and was unarmed. He closed with his antagonist, and a struggle ensued for the knife. Mah-to-toh-pa was dreadfully wounded in the hands, but at last wrested the knife from his adversary, drove it into his heart, and in silence claimed the scalp of his fallen foe.
On another occasion he alone faced sixty Assineboins, drove them back, and killed one of them. It was in this battle that he earned the name of “Four Bears,” by which must be understood the grizzly bear, the most terrible quadruped of North America. This is a sample of the mode in which warfare is conducted by the North American Indians—a strange mixture of lofty and chivalrous nobility with cunning and deceit. In fact, in contemplating these interesting tribes, we are thrown back to the time of Ulysses, whose great fame was equally derived from his prowess in battle and his skill in deceiving his foes, or, in other words, of being a most accomplished liar.