Austin. Yes; you cannot do better. Tell us the names of all the chiefs, and the warriors, and the conjurors, and all about them.
Hunter. The Blackfeet Indians are a very warlike people; Stu-mick-o-súcks was the name of their chief.
Austin. Stu-mick-o-súcks! What a name! Is there any meaning in it?
Hunter. O yes. It means, “the back fat of the buffalo;” and if you had seen him and Peh-tó-pe-kiss, “the ribs of the eagle,” another chief dressed up in their splendid mantles, buffaloes’ horns, ermine tails, and scalp-locks, you would not soon have turned your eyes from them.
Brian. Who would ever be called by such a name as that? The back fat of the buffalo!
Hunter. The Camanchees are famous on horseback. There is no tribe among the Indians that can come up to them, to my mind, in the management of a horse, and the use of the lance: they are capital hunters. The name of their chief is Eé-shah-kó-nee, or “the bow and quiver.” I hardly ever saw a larger man among the Indians than Ta-wáh-que-nah, the second chief in power. Ta-wáh-que-nah means “the mountain of rocks,” a very fit name for a huge Indian living near the Rocky Mountains. When I saw Kots-o-kó-ro-kó, or “the hair of the bull’s neck,” (who is, if I remember right, the third chief,) he had a gun in his right hand, and his warlike shield on his left arm.
Austin. If I go among the Indians, I shall stay a long time with the Camanchees; and then I shall, perhaps, become one of the most skilful horsemen, and one of the best hunters in the world.
Brian. And suppose you get thrown off your horse, or killed in hunting buffaloes, what shall you say to it then?
Austin. Oh, very little, if I get killed; but no fear of that. I shall mind what I am about. Tell us who is the head of the Sioux?
Hunter. When I was at the upper waters of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, Ha-wón-je-tah, or “the one horn,” was chief; but since then, being out among the buffaloes, a buffalo bull attacked and killed him.