Part 2

Again Kurz wrote: “He talks to me continually about Indian legends and usages. As he writes the best of these stories for Pere De Smet, by whom they are published, there is no need of my preserving more than some bits of memoranda” (p. 238). This explains why the writings on these matters of Father De Smet have a close family resemblance with those of Mr. Denig.

Again Kurz wrote: “Mr. Denig has been reading to me again from his manuscript, which is extremely interesting. He is very well educated and he has made a thorough study of Indian life—a distinct advantage to him in trade. He is so fond of the life in this part of the country that he is averse to any thought of going back to his Pennsylvania home in the United States. For the reason, as he says, that he may avoid political carryings-on that disgust him” (p. 242).

Another entry in the Kurz Journal reads: “September the 24th. Began a portrait of Mr. Denig—life-size, knee-length. This work is to be finished before Mr. Culbertson’s return from Fort Laramie” (p. 254).

The following citation is from the Kurz Journal at page 577: “February the 26th, Mr. Denig is a Swedenborgian and at the same time he is a Freemason. He mentioned to me that it would be of great advantage on my travels if I were a Freemason.”

It seems appropriate to insert here briefly what another intimate friend of Mr. Denig, the Reverend Father De Smet, thought of the knowledge and attainments of our author. Father De Smet in speaking of the source of his information in a particular instance wrote: “I have it from two most reliable sources—that is to say, from a man of tried probity and veracity, Mr. Denig of the Saint Louis Fur Company....”[1]

[1] Chittenden, H. M., and Richardson, A. T. Life, letters, and travels of Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, S. J., 1801-1873. Vol. IV, p. 1111. New York, 1905.

On page 1215 of this same work Father De Smet in a personal letter to Mr. Denig, dated September 30, 1852, wrote: “I do not know how to express my gratitude for your very interesting series of narratives concerning the aborigines of the Far West.... Nothing could be more gratifying to me than the beautiful and graphic details which you have given me of the religion, manners, customs, and transactions of an unfortunate race of human beings.”

It is hoped that these excerpts from the writings of Frederick Kurz and Father De Smet, both intimately associated with Mr. Denig, will supply some data concerning our author not otherwise accessible.

The Swiss artist, Friedrich Kurz, who painted many pictures of the region around Fort Union, lived with Denig for some time, and in 1851 painted his portrait.

The Indians called Mr. Denig “The Long Knife,” which simply meant that they knew him as “an American.”

In the manuscript Mr. Denig employs the word “band” to denote “a gens of a tribe,” the word “clans” to denote “societies” or “corporations,” and the “orders of doctors” he calls “shamans or theurgists.” To understand Mr. Denig these meanings must be kept in mind.

THE EDITOR.

CONTENTS

Page

Letter of transmittal 393

THE ASSINIBOIN

History 395 Origin 395 Name and geographical position 396 Ancient and modern habitat 397 Vestiges of early tradition 398 Names and events in history 399 Present rulers and condition 401 Intertribal rank and relations 403 Magnitude and resources of territory a cause of the multiplication of tribes 405

Geography 406 Figure of the globe 406 Local features of the habitat 406 Surface of the country 407 Facilities for grazing 408 Effect of firing the prairies 408 Waste lands 409 Effects of volcanic action 409 Saline productions 409 Coal and mineral products 410

Climate 410

Wild animals 410 Ancient bones and traditions of the monster era 411 Animals used as armorial marks 412

The horse—Era of importation 412

Pictographs—Charts on bark 412

Antiquities 413

Pipes 413

Vessels and implements 414

Astronomy and geology 414 Earth and its motions 414 The sun 415 The sky 415

Future life—Indian paradise 418

Arithmetic 418 Numeration 418 Coin 420 Keeping accounts 420 Elements of figures 421

Medicine 422 General practice 422 Depletion by bleeding 426 Stoppage of blood and healing art 427 Amputation 427 Theory of diseases and their remedy 428 Parturition 429

Government 430 Tribal organization and government 430 Chiefs 431 The Sndoo-kah, “Circumcised” 434 Soldiers 436 Councils 446 Scope of civil jurisdiction 448 Chiefship 448 Power of the war chief 449 Power of the priests in councils 450 Matrons in councils 451 General councils 451 Private right to take life 452 Game laws, or rights of the chase 455

Indian trade 457

Education 466

Warfare 470

Property 474

Territorial rights 476

Primogeniture 478

Crime 479

Prayers 483 Prayer of warrior 483 Prayer to ghosts 484

The moon 484

Parental affection 485

Religion 486

Immortality 498

Mythology: Legends, tales 500

Manners and customs 503 Constitution of the Assiniboin family; kinship 503

Camp life 505

Courtship and marriage 510

Music 512

Longevity 513

Hospitality 513

Midwifery, childbirth, naming 516

Assiniboin personal names 518

Children 519

Suicide 522

Personal behavior 523

Scalping 524

Oaths 524

Smoking 524

Fame 525

Stoicism 525

Taciturnity 526

Public speaking 526

Travel 526

Senses 527

Juggling and sorcery 528

Strength and endurance 529

Spirituous liquors 529

Hunting 530 Throwing buffalo in a park 532 Approaching buffalo 534 Deer hunting 536 Elk hunting 537 Grizzly bears 537 Beaver 538 Wolves and foxes 538 Instruction in hunting 542

Fishing 544

War 544 Costume of a warrior 553 Weapons 555

Dancing and amusements 556 Scalp dance 557 Brave’s dance 558 Fox dance 561 Duck dance 562 Bulls’ dance 562 Soldiers’ dance 562 White crane dance 563 Crow dance 564 Dance of the mice comrades 564 Whip dance 564 God-seeking dance 564 Women’s dance 564

Games 565

Racing 566

Gambling 567

Death and its consequences 570

Orphans and the aged 576

Lodges 577

Canoes 579

Mental and ethical advancement 579

Medicine; drugs 581

Food 581

Garments; dresses 584

Ornaments 590

Paints and dyes 591

Tattooing 592

Badges of office 592

Beard 593

Intellectual capacity and character 593

Picture writing 603

Myth telling 607

Fables 609

Songs; music 617

Present condition and future prospects 620

Intermarriage with whites 625

Population 625

Language 625

Bibliography 627

Index 629

ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATES

Page

62. Fort Union as it appeared in 1833 394 63. Edwin Thompson Denig and Mrs. Denig 394 64. Drawings by an Assiniboin Indian 414 65. Culinary utensils 414 66. Characteristic implements of the Assiniboin 414 67. _a_, Comb root; _b_, Cat-tail 414 68. The calumet and its accompaniments 446 69. A buffalo park or “surround” 532 70. An Assiniboin running a buffalo 532 71. Scalp dance 558 72. Coo-soo´, or game of the bowl 558 73. The Chun-kan-dee´ game 578 74. A lodge frame and a completed lodge 578 75. The interior of a lodge and its surroundings 578 76. An Assiniboin stabbing a Blackfoot 578 77. Map of region above Fort Union 606 78. Diagram of a battle field 606 79. Diagram of a battle field 606 80. Musical instruments 606

TEXT FIGURES

30. Lancet 426 31. Diagram of a council lodge 437 32. Cradle board 519 33. Tool for fleshing the hide 540 34. Tool for scraping hides or shaving the skin 541 35. Picture writing 603

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

To His Excellency ISAAC I. STEVENS,

_Governor of Washington Territory_.

SIR: Being stimulated with a desire to meet your wishes and forward the views of Government, I have in the following pages endeavored to answer the Inquiries published by act of Congress regarding the history, present condition, and future prospects of the Indian tribes with which I am acquainted.

Had I been called upon to illustrate the facts herein recorded by reference to their different individual histories and actions, a more voluminous and perhaps interesting work might have been presented the general reader, but in conformity to the instructions laid down in the document referred to, have only replied to the various queries, limiting the answers to plain statements of facts.

Independent of my own personal observation and knowledge acquired by a constant residence of 21 years among the prairie tribes in every situation, I have on all occasions had the advice of intelligent Indians as to the least important of these queries, so as to avoid, if possible, the introduction of error. Should there be new ideas presented, and the organization, customs, or present condition of the Indians made public in the following manuscript differ either materially or immaterially from any other now extant I would beg leave to say I would much rather have the same rejected than to see it published in a mutilated form or made to coincide with any histories of the same people from others who have not had like opportunities of acquiring information.

Some of their customs and opinions now presented, although very plain and common to us who are in their daily observance, may not have been rendered in comprehensible language to those who are stranger to these things, and the number of queries, the diversity of subjects, etc., have necessarily curtailed each answer to as few words as possible. In the event, therefore, of not being understood or of apparent discrepancies presenting, it would be but justice done the author and patron to have the same explained, which would be cheerfully done.

It is presumed the following pages exhibit a minutiæ of information on those subjects not to be obtained either by transient visitors or a residence of a few years in the country, without being, as is the case with myself, intimately acquainted with their camp regulations, understanding their language, and in many instances entering into their feelings and actions. The whole has been well digested, the different subjects pursued in company with the Indians for an entire year, until satisfactory answers have been obtained, and their motives of speech or action well understood before placing the same as a guide and instruction to others. The answers refer to the Sioux, Arikara, Mandan, Gros Ventres, Cree, Crow, Assiniboin, and Blackfeet Nations, who are designated as prairie roving or wild tribes, further than whom our knowledge does not extend.

I am aware of your capacity to judge the merits of the work, and will consider myself highly honored if I have had the good fortune to meet your approbation. Moreover, I shall rejoice if I have contributed in any degree toward opening a course of policy on the part of Government that may result in the amelioration of the sad condition of the savages. Should the facts herein recorded ever be published or embodied in other works, it is hoped the errors of language may be corrected, but in no instance is it desired that the meaning should miscarry.

Should any references be required by the department for whom this is written I beg leave to name as my friends and personal acquaintances in addition to your Excellency, Col. D. D. Mitchell, Kenneth Mackruger, Esq., Rev. P. I. De Smet, Messrs. P. Chouteau, Jr., & Co., and Alex. Culbertson, Esq., all of St. Louis, and Dr. John Evans, United States geologist, any of whom will satisfy inquiries on this head.

Permit me, my dear friend, to remain with great respect and high consideration, truly your most obedient servant,

EDWIN T. DENIG.

[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 62

FORT UNION AS IT APPEARED IN 1833]

[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 63

EDWIN THOMPSON DENIG AND MRS. DENIG]

INDIAN TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI

By EDWIN T. DENIG

THE ASSINIBOIN[2]

[2] Consult Preface for etymologic analysis of this word and for its objective meaning.

HISTORY

ORIGIN.—But little traditionary can be stated by these Indians as authentic of their origin which would be entitled to record in history, though many singular and fabulous tales are told concerning it. As a portion of people, however, once inhabiting another district and being incorporated with another nation, their history presents a connected and credible chain of circumstances. The Assiniboin were once a part of the great Sioux or Dacotah Nation, residing on the tributary streams of the Mississippi; say, the head of the Des Moines, St. Peters, and other rivers. This is evident, as their language with but little variation is the same, and also but a few years back there lived a very old chief, known to all of us as Le Gros François, though his Indian name was Wah-he´ Muzza or the “Iron Arrow-point,” who recollected perfectly the time of their separation from the Sioux, which, according to his data, must have been about the year 1760.[3] He stated that when Lewis and Clark came up the Missouri in 1805 his band of about 60 lodges (called Les Gens des Roches) had after a severe war made peace with the Sioux, who at that time resided on the Missouri, and that he saw the expedition referred to near White Earth River, these being the first body of whites ever seen by them, although they were accustomed to be dealt with by the fur traders of the Mississippi. After their first separation from the Sioux they moved northward, making a peace with the Cree and Chippewa, took possession of an uninhabited country on or near the Saskatchewan and Assiniboin Rivers, in which district some 250 or 300 lodges still reside. Some time after the expedition of Lewis and Clark, or at least after the year 1777, the rest of the Assiniboin, at that time about 1,200 lodges, migrated toward the Missouri, and as soon as they found superior advantages regarding game and trade, made the latter country their home. One principal incident in their history which they have every reason to remember and by which many of the foregoing data are ascertained is a visitation of the smallpox in 1780 (see Mackenzie’s travels), when they occupied the British territory. Even yet there are two or three Indians living who are marked by the disease of that period and which greatly thinned their population, though owing to their being separated through an immense district, some bands entirely escaped. Upon the whole it does not appear to have been as destructive as the same disease on the Missouri in 1838, which I will have occasion to mention in its proper place in these pages and which reduced them from 1,200 lodges to about 400 lodges.

[3] This traditional date given by Denig is evidently much too late, for as early as the middle of the seventeenth century they were known to the Jesuit missionaries of Canada.

NAME AND GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.—The name of the Assiniboin among themselves is Da-co-tah, same as the Sioux, which means “our people.” By the Sioux they are called Ho´-hai or “Fish-eaters,” perhaps from the fact that they lived principally on fish while on the British grounds, as most of those Indians do. By the Cree and Chippewa they are called As-see-nee-poi-tuc or Stone Indians; hence the English name of Assiniboin arises. As has been stated, at the earliest date known they roved about the head of St. Peters, Des Moines, Lac du Diable, and Lac qui Parle; and they were then joined with the Sioux Indians, who inhabited and claimed all the lands between the Mississippi and the Missouri as low down as Big Sioux River and as high up as the head of Rivier à Jacques, thence northward toward Lac du Diable, other bands of Sioux (Teton) residing west of the Missouri. The number of Assiniboin when they separated must have been at least 1,500 lodges, averaging six souls to a lodge [or about 9,000 persons]. Their migration has been referred to and the extent of land they occupied in the British territory on the Saskatchewan, etc., was very large, but at present their habitat is entirely different, and it may be as well to state it here. The northern Assiniboin, 250 or 300 lodges, rove the country from the west banks of the Saskatchewan, Assiniboin, and Red Rivers in a westward direction to the Woody Mountains north and west among small spurs of the Rocky Mountains east of the Missouri, and among chains of small lakes through this immense region. Occasionally making peace with some of the northern bands of Blackfeet enables them to come a little farther west and deal with those Indians, but, these “peaces” being of short duration, they are for the most part limited to the prairies east and north of the Blackfeet range. The rest of the Assiniboin, say 500 to 520 lodges [who may be called the Southern Assiniboin], occupy the following district, viz., commencing at the mouth of the White Earth River on the east, extending up that river to its head, thence northwest along the Couteau de Prairie, or Divide, as far as the Cyprus Mountains on the North Fork of the Milk River, thence down Milk River to its junction with the Missouri River, thence down the Missouri River to the mouth of White Earth River, or the starting point. Formerly they inhabited a portion of country on the south side of the Missouri River along the Yellowstone River, but of late years, having met with great losses by Blackfeet, Sioux, and Crow war parties, they have been obliged to abandon this region and now they never go there. As before remarked, the Assiniboin still numbered 1,000 to 1,200 lodges, trading on the Missouri until the year 1838, when the smallpox reduced their numbers to less than 400 lodges. Also, being surrounded by large and hostile tribes, war has had its share in their destruction, though now they are increasing slowly.

ANCIENT AND MODERN HABITAT.—Before proceeding further it would be well to state and bear in mind that of all the Indians now residing on the Missouri River the Assiniboin appear to have made the least progress toward acquiring civilized ideas or knowledge of any kind. Superstitious, lazy, and indisposed to thought, they make no attempt to improve themselves in any way. Neither are they anxious that others should teach them; consequently they are far behind the other tribes even as regards their own savage manner of life. This will receive further explanation. They do not think the Great Spirit created them on or for a particular portion of country, but that he made the whole prairie for the sole use of the Indian, and the Indian to suit the prairie, giving among other reasons the fact that the buffalo is so well adapted to their wants as to meat and clothing, even for their lodges and bowstrings. To the Indian is allotted legs to run, eyes to see far, bravery, instinct, watchfulness, and other capacities not developed in the same degree in the whites. The Indian, therefore, occupies any section of prairie where game is plentiful and he can protect himself from enemies. With regard to any other kind of right than that of possession and ability to defend, besides the general right granted by the Great Spirit, they have not the most distant idea. The Assiniboin conquered nothing to come into possession of their habitat, they had their difficulties with surrounding tribes and still have, as others have, and continue as they commenced, fighting and hunting alternately. Their first interview with Europeans (now spoken of) was when the traders of the Mississippi pushed their traffic as far as their camps, and from whom they obtained firearms, woolen clothing, utensils, etc. Afterwards these supplies were had from the Hudson Bay Co. and, latterly, from the Americans on the Missouri River. There is every reason to believe that the introduction of ardent spirits among them was coeval, if not antecedent, to that of any other article of trade. Before the trade was opened with them by the whites they say they used knives made of the hump rib of the buffalo, hatchets made of flint stone, mallets of the same, cooking utensils of clay and wood, bones for awls, and sinew for thread, all of which articles can yet be found among them. They made with these rude tools their bows and arrows, pointing the latter with stone, and, as game was abundant, hunted them on foot or threw them into pens built for the purpose, which method they continue to use to this day. In this way they had no difficulty in supporting themselves, and so contend that they have gained nothing by intimacy with the whites but diseases which kill them off in numbers and wants which they are unable at all times to gratify. They have never sold lands by treaty, and the only treaty (with the exception of that at Laramie, 1851) was made by them through an Indian agent of the United States named Wilson, at the Mandan village in 1825. But this was merely an amicable alliance for the protection of American traders and an inducement held out to the Indians to leave off trading at the Hudson Bay Co.‘s posts and establish themselves on the Missouri, without, however, any remuneration on the part of the United States.

VESTIGES OF EARLY TRADITION.—They have no creditable tradition of the Mosaic account of the creation or deluge, neither of their ancestors having lived in other lands nor knowledge of foreign quadrupeds nor any idea of whites or other races occupying the country before the Indians. It is easy to perceive in converse with them that whites have from time to time endeavored to explain the Mosaic account of the creation and deluge, together with other scriptural records, but instead of comprehending the same they have mixed with their own superstitions and childish notions in so many various and nonsensical forms that none is worthy of record.

They have no name for America, neither do they know of its extent, for the most part believing that the lands occupied by themselves and the surrounding tribes compose the greatest part of the world, and certainly contain the greatest reputed number of people. It vexes and grieves them to be told of large tracts of land elsewhere, and they do not or will not believe the whites to be as human as they are.

There is nothing in this subject any Assiniboin could either comprehend or answer, except that there is a mound about 50 miles above the mouth of the Yellowstone on the west side and near the Missouri consisting of an immense pile of elk horns, covering an area of about an acre of ground, and in height about 30 feet. We have frequently inquired of these and the surrounding nations as to its origin, but it was raised previous to the knowledge or even tradition of any tribe now living in these parts. From the state of decay the horns are in it must be very ancient.