Sioux Encampment.
Faribault, like all Indians, was usually very reticent, but when he noticed that I took much interest in matters relating to the habits of his tribe, especially such as were connected with their religious beliefs and customs, he became frank and outspoken. He told me of his own various strange personal experiences, and was particularly earnest when he mentioned some of the most remarkable of the rules relating to their fasts and sacrifices. The Indians, who were usually standing near us listening to what he said, would occasionally, from time to time, signify their assent to his statements by harsh grunts of approval.
Amongst the superstitions mentioned by him, none caused more attention than those connected with the worship of their Spirit rocks. One of these, which has always been considered to be an important Manito, happened to be on the plateau above Mendota, and the Indians directed me to the spot where it was placed. I found it to be a huge granite boulder, which had probably been deposited there by the moving waters or icebergs, during that remote period when they were travelling southwards from the sub-arctic latitudes. As it had no geological relation whatever with the sandstone ground upon which it rested, the Sioux might have conjectured, that it had been dropped from the clouds. To ignorant savages, unversed in the mysteries and conclusions of scientific geology, no other explanation could have been satisfactory. It lies upon a level space of land, upon the top of a bluff, commanding magnificent views over the valleys of the Mississippi and Minnesota. The confluence of these great rivers can be seen, and the steep water-worn cliffs below the falls of St. Anthony.
Whilst standing upon the promontory, and looking at this wide prospect, I was joined by a priest, who had been fulfilling his duties at a neighbouring settlement. We remained near the Spirit rock,[35] looking at the solitary mass of granite, glittering in the sunshine, and thought that it was not surprising that the Indians believed this strange rock to be the manifestation of a great unknown power, and should have invested with supernatural attributes what must have seemed to them to be marvellous.
The boulder is polygonal in form, and stands about seven feet high above the ground. In the other dimensions, it averages a thickness from nine to twelve feet. It is composed chiefly of grey granite, and its weight must exceed seventy tons. Faribault said that, when he was a young man, wandering bands of Sioux occasionally came to this Spirit rock and encamped near it. They usually stopped about a week, but sometimes during a whole moon. It was their custom during this period to continually offer sacrifices, dance round the stone, and paint it with various colours, red, blue or white. Finally, before taking down their tents, they covered it with their best furs or skins, and left them there as propitiatory offerings.
Spirit Rock.
Confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota.
The falls of the Mississippi were also worshipped by the Indians, through whose territories that great river flowed in its upper course, and the manner in which adoration was made to the Power, which was manifested in the movements of these cataracts, is well described by Captain Carver, who visited them with one of the chiefs of the Winnebagoes in 1767. The chief in the first place, addressed a brief invocation to the Manito, and then he made his offerings. In this instance he gave everything he possessed, that was valuable, including all his ornaments, together with his pipe and roll of tobacco. He concluded his acts of devotion[36] by asking the Great Spirit to give them his protection, a bright sun, a blue sky, and untroubled waters. I visited the spot near which the chief must have stood upon that occasion. Much had been changed in the succeeding century, but the wild and tumultuous character of the falls, and the noise and foam caused by the rushing waters, are still very impressive.
From Mendota I proceeded towards the north-west, in the direction of the Minnesota as far as Mankato, with the intention of crossing the prairies southwards towards Nebraska. It was also my purpose to visit the Winnebagoes at their reservation. This tribe had been removed from their lands near Lake Michigan, and settled a few miles from Mankato; but upon my arrival at that town, I was informed that they had been again removed to a reservation further west, to give room for the occupation of the land by the numerous emigrants from Europe, especially those thrifty, hard-working agriculturists, who came from Sweden and Norway. The new settlements in this part of Minnesota were still in an alarmed condition, in consequence of the memory of the massacres that had taken place a few years previously, when the Sioux rose in rebellion, and committed a grave series of atrocities upon the white inhabitants.