Badge of Prairie-dog band
Badge of Raven band
Pipe-lighting stick
The scalp dance, or, properly speaking, to dance the scalp, is performed when they have killed their enemies. The women then dress like the men, and likewise carry their arms. If women have taken part in the warlike expedition in which enemies have been slain, they paint their faces black. A woman sometimes carries the scalp, or several, according to the number they may have; sometimes it is carried by an old woman, who then remains aside and dances alone, and drums and schischikué, played by men, accompany the dance. There is likewise a dance of the brave, or warriors, who form a circle, within which several dance, imitating all the movements of a battle, and firing their guns, on which occasion their faces are painted so as to give them a fierce expression.
The bands, unions, or associations, mentioned when we were speaking of the Assiniboins, are found among the Blackfeet, as well as all the other American tribes. They have a certain name, fixed rules and laws, as well as their peculiar songs and dances, and serve in part to preserve order in the camp, on the march, in the hunting parties, &c. Seven such bands, or unions, among the Blackfeet, were mentioned to me, and to which the first seven dances above-mentioned belong. They are the following:—1. The band of the mosquitoes. This union has no police business to do, but consists of young people, many of whom are only eight or ten years of age; there are also some young men among them, and sometimes even a couple of old men, in order to see to the observance of the laws and regulations. This union performs wild, youthful pranks; they run about the camp whenever they please; pinch, nip, and scratch men, women, and children, in order to give annoyance like the mosquitoes. They do not even spare old, distinguished men. If any man offends one of them, he has to do with all of them, for they hold closely together. The young people begin with this union, and then gradually rise higher, through the others. As the badge of their band, they wear an eagle's claw, fastened round the wrist with a leather strap. They have also a particular mode of painting themselves, like every other band, and their peculiar songs and dance. 2. The dogs. Its badge is not known to me: it consists of young married men, and {256} the number is not limited. 3. The prairie dogs. This is a police union, which receives married men: its badge is a long hooked stick, wound round with otter skin, with knots of white skin at intervals, and a couple of eagle's feathers hanging from each of them.[99] 4. Those who carry the raven. Its badge is a long staff, covered with red cloth, to which black ravens' feathers, in a long thick row, are fastened from one end to the other.[100] They contribute to the preservation of order, and the police. 5. The buffalo, with thin horns. When they dance, they wear horns on their caps. In camp, the tents of the unions are in the middle of the circle, which has a free space in the centre. If disorders take place, they must help the soldiers, who mark out the camp, and then take the first place.
6. The soldiers. They are the most distinguished warriors, who exercise the police, especially in the camp and on the march; in public deliberations they have the casting vote, whether, for instance, they shall hunt, change their abode, make war, or conclude peace, &c. They carry, as their badge, a wooden club, the breadth of a hand, with hoofs of the buffalo cow hanging to the handle. They are sometimes forty or fifty men in number. Their wives, when they dance the medicine dance, are painted in the same manner as the men. 7. The buffalo bulls. They form the first, that is, the most distinguished of all the unions, and are the highest in rank. They carry in their hand a medicine badge, hung with buffalo hoofs, which they rattle when they dance, to their peculiar song. They are too old to attend to the police, having passed through all the unions, and are considered as having retired from office. In a certain degree they have descended from the union of active and distinguished soldiers. In their medicine dance they wear on their head a cap, made of the long forelock and mane of the buffalo bull, which hangs down to a considerable length. New members are chosen into all these unions, who are obliged to pay entrance; medicine men, and the most distinguished men, have to pay more than other people. If a woman, whose husband is in one of the unions, has had any intercourse with another, the union meets in one of the tents, where they smoke, and, in the evening, when all around are buried in sleep, they penetrate into the woman's tent, drag her out, ill-treat her as they please, and cut off her nose. {257} These Indians are often very cruel. The man cannot make any opposition; he must repudiate such a woman. He is then told why she has been treated in this manner, and he may have his revenge on the seducer, from whom he generally takes some horses.