[203] See preface to our volume xiii, for sketch of life of Thomas Nuttall.—Ed.
[204] Maximilian appears to distinguish between La Côte Noire and the Black Hills. The term Côtes Noires was, however, applied by the early voyageurs to the entire body of the highlands in Nebraska, and in South and North Dakota. The limitation of the term Black Hills to the particular chain now thus named in South Dakota, is of recent use. Maximilian makes a curious error in thinking that these hills form part of either the Mississippi or the Arkansas watershed. Taken in the wider sense they form the dividing ridge between the Platte, Yellowstone, and Missouri systems.—Ed.
[205] For brief sketch of Thomas Say, see our volume xiv, James' Long's Expedition, p. 40, note 1. Maximilian spent part of the winter of 1832-33 with this naturalist at New Harmony (see our volume xxii); and visited him upon his return; he died, however (October, 1834), just after the prince had reached Europe.—Ed.
[206] See opposite page for illustration of head of Antilocapra Ord.—Ed.
CHAPTER XXV
ACCOUNT OF THE MANDAN INDIANS
In communicating the information contained in the following chapters, in which I mean to treat especially of some tribes of the aborigines of North America, I shall take it for granted that the reader is acquainted with the interesting and important particulars which have been given us by Messrs. Edwin James, T. Say, and Schoolcraft. Dr. E. James speaks especially of the origin of the North American Indians, of their near affinity to each other; of the recently broached hypothesis of their descent from the Israelites, which he proves to be groundless, and which is contradicted by the bodily conformation of the Indians, and also of the injudicious and unjust treatment which they suffer from the Anglo-Americans. According to him many of the Indian nations would long since have been converted to the Christian religion, and have settled in fixed abodes, like the Cherokees, &c., if the earlier missionaries had better understood the work on which they were sent. It is notorious that this subject was treated, in early times, with the most unwarrantable want of discretion, and positive ignorance; that the greatest injustice was exercised towards the Indian population, and that, even now, wrongs untold are heaped on this much to be pitied and oppressed race. A large portion of those nations has entirely disappeared, and the accounts which have been preserved of them are extremely imperfect; others are expelled from their native seats, mixed together in small fragments of various tribes, half degenerated, and consequently now affording but little that can interest the inquirer. Such were the Indians whom Volney saw: only to the west and north-west of the Mississippi may the Indians be yet found in their original state. Before, however, I speak of them in general, I will describe more in detail a small tribe which has hitherto been very imperfectly known.
The Mandans (called by the Canadians, les Mandals),[207] by which name these Indians are generally known, though it was originally given them by the Sioux, were formerly a numerous people, who, according to the narrative of an aged man, lately deceased, inhabited thirteen, and {335} perhaps more villages.[208] They call themselves Numangkake (i. e., men), and if they wish to particularize their descent, they add the name of the village whence they came originally.[209] Some, for instance, call themselves Sipuske-Numangkake, the men of the pheasant or prairie hens, from the village Sipuska-Mihte, pheasant village; others, Mato-Numangkake, the men of the bear, from the village Mato-Mihte, bear village, &c. &c. Another general name of this people is Mahna-Narra, the sulky, because they separated from the rest of their nation, and went higher up the Missouri.
The early history of the Mandans is involved in obscurity; their own traditions and legends will be discussed in the sequel, when treating on their religious ideas. They affirm that they descend originally from the more eastern nations, near the sea-coast.[210] Though the above-named villages do not all exist at this time, these Indians still call themselves by their several names. They formerly dwelt near the Heart River:[211] when Charbonneau arrived here at the end of the last century, the two Mandan villages, which are still standing, were about six or eight miles further down the Missouri. The smallpox and the assaults of their enemies have so reduced this people, that the whole number now reside in two villages, in the vicinity of Fort Clarke. These two villages are Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush (the southern village), about 300 paces above Fort Clarke, and on the same side of the river, and Ruhptare,[212] about three miles higher up, likewise on the same bank. The first had, at the time of our visit, sixty-five huts, and contained about 150 warriors; the other, thirty-eight huts and eighty-three warriors. According to this, the tribe had not more than 230 or 240 warriors; and, on the whole, scarcely 900 or 1000 souls; Dr. {336} Morse,[213] therefore, estimates the number of these people rather too high, when he states it at 1250 souls.