Mr. Mc Kenzie had sent two interpreters, Halero and Lafontaine, to meet them, who shook hands with the chiefs, and then led them to the gate of the fort, which was shut as usual, and a {201} guard set before it, for too many Indians are never admitted at the same time, because they can never be implicitly trusted. On this occasion, only the chiefs and about thirty of the principal warriors were admitted, who sat down around the apartment which was allotted to such meetings. All the other Indians went first to the Missouri to drink, and then sat down to rest in the shade.
It was natural that we, as strangers, constantly remained with the assembled Indians, for there were many interesting subjects for our observation. The thick stone pipes, with long flat tubes, were handed round, and they showed us a remarkably handsome one, ornamented with yellow horse-hair, which was intended as a present for Mr. Mc Kenzie. The whole company received something to drink; and many Indians, before they raise the vessel to their lips, dip the fore finger of their right hand into it, and sprinkle some of the liquid five or six times in the air, doubtless as an offering to the higher powers.[4] They gazed on us with much curiosity, and the interpreter gave them an account of the singular strangers, who hunted after animals, plants, and stones, and prepared the skins of the former, of which they, of course, could not see the use.
While tranquillity was gradually restored within the fort, a new and very interesting scene took place without. On the west side of the fort the Indian women were engaged in erecting temporary travelling or hunting huts, composed of poles, fixed in the ground, and the dog sledges set up against them, and covered with green boughs, as they had brought only a part of their baggage. Horses were everywhere grazing, dogs running in all directions, and groups of the red men dispersed all round. The scene was highly entertaining; and the various occupations of cooking, gaming, and making preliminary arrangements, diffused life and activity over the prairie. I was particularly struck with one Assiniboin on account of his head-dress, which I frequently saw afterwards, and the interpreter called him to us. He wore, across his head, a leather strap, to each side of which a horn was fixed, and between them, black feathers cut short. The horns, which were cut out of those of an antelope, had, at their point, a tuft of horse-hair dyed yellow, and on the side hung leather strings, with feathers at the end, and bound with yellow porcupine quills. Mr. Bodmer made a very faithful drawing of this man, as he wished to be taken in his full dress[5]. His name was Noapeh (a troop of soldiers), and his countenance and whole figure were characteristically Indian. We visited several of the newly erected huts, where the fire was already burning in the centre; we were everywhere asked for whisky and tobacco, of which only the last was here and there given. If we wished to obtain anything by barter, brandy was always demanded in payment, and, therefore, very little could be done. Late in the evening, the singing and the drum of this restless multitude were heard in the fort, and the noise and tumult continued the whole night. On the 28th of June we were early in motion, that we might lose no part of the new scenes around us. Noapeh was {202} brought at an early hour, and stood with unwearied patience to the painter, though his relations frequently endeavoured to get him away. He had put on his best dress, and had, on his breast, a rosette of dyed porcupine quills, eight or ten inches in diameter. On this day there was a great crowd of Indians in the fort, to barter several articles of their dress; part of them went away in the course of the day, for when we went to their camp in the afternoon we found most of the huts empty, and saw, at a distance, many Indians, seldom more than two or three together, returning in three principal directions. A great part of them went up the Missouri, parallel with the river, but avoided the wood on the bank, and traversed the prairie in a western direction; another part turned to the north-east, and these, about an hundred in number, went to join in a military expedition against the Mandans and the Manitaries. On occasions like the present, when many Indians assemble about the trading posts of the Whites, they are obliged to be constantly on their guard, because their enemies endeavour to obtain information of these moments, and take advantage of them for their sudden attacks. On the evening of this day, we had a violent storm of thunder, lightning, and rain, and, as the rain continued on the following day, the 29th of June, the expected arrival of more Assiniboins was delayed; they do not willingly travel with their leather tents in wet weather, because their baggage then becomes very heavy; several Indians, however, soon appeared, wet through and through, and covered with mud up to their knees, which, however, they did not mind. A sketch was taken of a tall young warrior,[6] who preserved a most inflexible gravity of countenance till Mr. Bodmer set his musical snuff-box agoing, on which he began to laugh. Another interesting young man of the branch of the Stone Indians,[7] whose name was Pitatapiu, had his portrait taken at a later period. His hair hung down like a lion's mane, especially over his eyes, so that they could scarcely be seen; over each of them a small white sea shell was fastened with a hair string; in his hand he carried a long lance, such as they use only for show, to which a number of slips of the entrails of a bear were fastened, and smeared with red paint. This slender young man had his painted leather shield on his back, to which a small packet, well wrapped up, his medicine or amulet in horse-stealing, was fastened, and which he greatly prized. These people will not part with such things on any terms. The handle of his whip was of wood, with holes in it like a flute. He and several Indians brought word that his countrymen, from the environs of the Fort des Prairies, on the Saskatschawan River, would shortly visit us, to dispose of all their beaver skins. It made us shiver to see the Indians, in the damp, cold weather, run about barefoot the whole day in the deep mud, while we, in our room, sat constantly by the fireside. They, too, greatly enjoyed the warm room, and a number of them were always sitting with us, to smoke their pipes, while Mr. Bodmer was drawing Pitatapiu's likeness. We took care that their pipes should be constantly filled, and, in general, tried every means to amuse them, that they might not lose their patience during the operation.
{203} On the 30th of June, at noon, a band of Indians had arrived, and twenty-five tents were set up near the fort. The women, who were short, and mostly stout, with faces painted red, soon finished this work, and dug up with their instruments the clods of turf, which they lay round the lower part of the hut. One of these tents, the dwelling of a chief, was distinguished from the rest. It was painted of the colour of yellow ochre, had a broad reddish-brown border below, and on each of its sides a large black bear was painted (something of a caricature it must be confessed), to the head of which, just above the nose, a piece of red cloth, that fluttered in the wind, was fastened, doubtless a medicine.[8] We now saw the Indian women returning in all directions from the forest, panting under the weight of large bundles of wood, which were fastened on their backs. Their dogs lay about the tents; they were large, quite like wolves, and of different colours, chiefly of the colour of the wild grey wolf, and some spotted black and white. Reduced to skeletons by want of food, they could not stretch out their sharp backbone; but, for the most part, went crooked and contracted, looked about for old bones, and growled at each other, showing their white teeth. They were not so savage to strangers as the dogs of the Crows, at Fort Clarke, and if one of them seemed inclined to bite us, he was immediately very roughly kicked and beaten by the Indians.
We had not been long in this camp, when another band of Assiniboins appeared at a distance. To the west, along the wood by the river-side, the prairie was suddenly covered with red men, most of whom went singly, with their dogs drawing the loaded sledges. The warriors, about sixty in number, formed a close column. They came without music, with two chiefs at their head, and proceeded towards the gate of the fort. Among them there were many old men, one, especially, who walked with the support of two sticks, and many who had only one eye.[9] The first chief of this new band was Ayanyan (as translated by the Canadians, le fils du gros Français), generally called General Jackson, because he had made a journey to Washington.[10] He was a handsome man, in a fine dress; he wore a beautifully embroidered black leather shirt, a new scarlet blanket, and the great medal round his neck. The whole column entered the fort, where they smoked, ate, and drank; and, meantime, forty-two tents were set up. The new camp had a very pretty appearance; the tents stood in a semicircle, and all the fires were smoking, while all {204} around was life and activity. We witnessed many amusing scenes; here, boys shot their arrows into the air; there, a little, brown, monkey-like child was sitting alone upon the ground, with a circle of hungry dogs round it. In one of the tents there was a man very ill, about whom the medicine men were assembled, singing with all their might. Many people had collected about this tent, and were peeping through the crevices. After the conjuration had continued some time, the tent was opened, and the men who had been assembled in it went away by threes, the one in the middle always stepping a little before the others, and they continued singing till they reached their own tents. In another tent, belonging to a young married couple, we found a child hung up in a leather pouch, of very beautiful workmanship. These pouches, which serve instead of cradles, are so large that only the head of the child is visible. This pouch had, on the upper side, two broad stripes of dyed porcupine quills, and several very pretty rosettes, with long strings of different colours, and was lined with fur. I purchased it from the woman, but, with many other interesting articles, it has never reached Europe.
On the 1st of July, in the morning, we heard that Matsokui, the young Blackfoot Indian, who had come here with us, had been shot, during the night, in the Indian camp. Berger, the Blackfoot interpreter, who was charged to have a watchful eye over this young Indian, had frequently warned him to keep away from the Assiniboins and the Crees, or some mischief would certainly befall him; but he had suffered himself to be deceived by their apparently friendly conduct, and had remained in a tent till late at night, where he was shot by a Cree, who had immediately made his escape. We saw the dead body of our poor travelling companion, laced up in a buffalo's skin, lying in the fort, and it was afterwards buried near the fort, in a coffin made by the carpenter. Kiasax had been more prudent; he had not trusted the Assiniboins, and had returned with the steam-boat to his family. Mr. Mc Kenzie told us, that he had witnessed a similar incident the year before. A Blackfoot whom he brought with him, was shot by the Crees at their departure, though he had previously been many times in their camp.
After the perpetration of this deed, a dead silence prevailed in the Indian camp; but about noon, two of the chiefs, attended by other Indians in procession, singing aloud, and among them General Jackson, came as a deputation to make excuses to Mr. Mc Kenzie for this murder. They brought, by way of present, a horse, and a couple of very beautiful pipes, one of which was a real calumet, adorned with feathers and green horse-hair. They made an address to Mr. Mc Kenzie, in which they solemnly asserted their innocence of the death of the Blackfoot, saying that the deed had been done by a Cree, who had immediately fled, and whom they had pursued, but in vain. Ayanyan is said to have spoken remarkably well on this occasion.
In the afternoon we again heard the Indian drum beating very loud in the tent of the sick man, and we went there to see their conjurations. We looked cautiously through the crevices in the tent, and saw the patient sitting on the floor, his head, covered with a small cap, sunk {205} upon his breast, and several men standing around him. Two of the medicine men were beating the drum in quick time, and a third rattled the Quakemuha (or Shishikue), which he waved up and down. These people were singing with great effort; sometimes they uttered short ejaculations, and were in a violent perspiration; sometimes they sucked the places where the patient felt pain, and pretended they could suck out or remove the morbid matter. Such jugglers are very well paid by the patients, and always regaled with tobacco. Many of the Indians went away this afternoon, because they could not find sufficient subsistence. Among others, General Jackson had taken leave. It was reported that some of the Crees had said they would take up the body of the Blackfoot that was shot, because there had not been time to scalp him; but such expressions were quite usual, and the grave was not disturbed.
The keel-boat from Fort Cass had arrived, on board of which we were to go to Fort Mc Kenzie. We had, therefore, a numerous company, but we were in no want of provisions, as our hunters had brought home, from their last excursion, the flesh of nineteen buffaloes. It was exactly a year to-day, July 4th, since we had landed at Boston. Mr. Mc Kenzie sent Berger, the interpreter,[11] and one Harvey, by land, to Fort Mc Kenzie, to which they proceeded on horseback, before us, along the north bank of the river. They had no baggage but their arms, their beds of buffalo skin, and blankets. They took some dried meat with them, but they chiefly depended for subsistence on their rifles. While the people were employed in loading the keel-boat with the goods and provisions for the tribes living higher up the river, we profited by this last day's stay in this place, to make excursions into the neighbouring woods on the river-side, and to the prairie. In a wood, below the fort, we found a tree, on which the corpses of several Assiniboins were deposited; one of them had fallen down, and been torn and devoured by the wolves. The blankets which covered the body were new, and partly bedaubed with red paint, and some of the branches and the trunk of the tree were coloured in the same manner. Dreidoppel, who discovered this tree, took up the skull of a young Assiniboin, in which a mouse had made its nest for its young; and Mr. Bodmer made an accurate drawing of the tree, under which there was a close thicket of roses in full blossom, the fragrant flowers of which seemed destined to veil this melancholy scene of human frailty and folly.[12]