Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri 44

Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri 44

The domestic government is exercised by both father and mother. As long

as the child is small the mother has the sole charge of it, but when it

begins to speak the father aids in forming its manners. If a girl, he

makes toy tools for scraping skins and the mother directs her how to

use them. She also shows her how to make small moccasins, etc. Their

first attempts in this way are preserved as memorials of their infancy.

When a little larger, the scale of operations is increased and sewing,

cooking, dressing small skins, and garnishing with beads and quills are

taught, together with everything suitable for a woman’s employment. If

the child be a boy the father will make it a toy bow and arrow, wooden

gun, etc.

 

When a little larger he will give him still stronger bows and bring

unfledged birds into the lodge for his son to kill. Larger still and

he runs about with a suitable bow after birds and rabbits, killing and

skinning them. Another stage brings him to learn the use of the gun, to

ride, approach game, skin it, etc., all of which is taught him by his

parent. The rest he acquires from the time and facility their manner of

life affords for practicing these pursuits, and at the age of 17 or 18

makes his first excursion in quest of his enemies’ horses.

 

The father never strikes nor corrects his children from their birth

to their grave, though the mother will sometimes give them a slap,

yet it must be done in his absence or she would meet with immediate

punishment. Notwithstanding this they are not nearly as vicious as

white children, cry but little, quarrel less, and seldom if ever fight.

 

The boys are somewhat annoying when about 12 years old, but seldom do

any serious mischief. The behavior of the girls is shy and modest.

 

The traditions related to the young in their lodges are usually

extravagant fables and exploits of former warriors, exaggerated, of

course, to make them interesting. Many local data and memoirs of events

are thus preserved but so mingled with superstition by the different

narrators as not to present any reliable truth. Most of the old men

and many of middle age tell these stories in the lodges when they are

invited for the purpose.

 

The grandmothers are also well versed in this and night after night the

children learn a great deal, as soon as they are able to understand.

The lives and actions of former warriors and other events of real life

form a portion of the instruction thus conveyed.

 

These Indians living remote from civilization have no opportunity

to steal white children, and we have never heard of one among them

possessed by these means.

 

There are several half-breed children in all these nations, who, being

raised with the Indians, are the same in all respects.

 

Cases of infanticide are very common among the Sioux, Crows, and

Assiniboin, perhaps most so among the Crow women. It is not far from

the correct number if we state that one-eighth of the children are

destroyed in utero or after birth by the Crow women. The same also

often is done by the Assiniboin, particularly if the father of the

child has abandoned the woman before its birth. A quarrel with the

husband or even unwillingness to be at the trouble of raising them

are the causes for these actions. We think and have strong reason to

believe that in some instances, they are destroyed at the instigation

of their husbands, although they will not acknowledge this to be the

case.

 

At all events no punishment is inflicted on the woman for the crime

but frequently the means and time they use to produce abortions are

the cause of the death of the mother. To produce its death in the womb

they use violent pressure and blows upon the abdomen. Frequently they

retire to the woods, bring forth the child alone, strangle it and throw

it into the water, snow, or bushes. The whole of these measures are

publicly talked of among them, and no great degree of repugnance is

attached either to the act or to the woman, but the circumstance is

laughed at as something ludicrous.

 

Male children are always desired by the husband. When small we see

no difference made in their treatment or any preference shown, but

when grown or nearly so the young man always takes precedence and is

considered of far greater value than the girl. The feeling increases in

his favor as he becomes of use at war or in the chase. Daughters, when

matured, are married and sold, and here the greater interest in them

ends; but sons are a source of profit and support for a good portion of

their lives.

 

 

SUICIDE

 

Widows do not burn themselves on the funeral pile on the decease of

their husbands, but frequently hang themselves for that loss, revenge,

or for the loss of their children. Three suicides of this kind have

been committed within the last few months in this neighborhood among

the Assiniboin, one for revenge, the other two for the loss of their

children. The first was the favorite wife of a camp soldier, who

being scolded and accused of crime by the eldest wife, after telling

her purpose, left the lodge, in the absence of her husband, and

disappeared. Although search was made, yet a week elapsed before she

was discovered hanging to the limb of a tree. She had climbed the tree,

tied the cord to the limb, and descending, hooked on the noose standing

on the ground, suspending her body by drawing up her legs. She hung so

low that her knees nearly touched the ground and she could have risen

to her feet at any time during the operation.

 

Another woman had her son (a young man) killed by the Blackfeet, and

immediately afterwards another of her children died from disease.

Several persons were appointed to watch the mother, suspecting her

intentions; but they all fell asleep and she hung herself at the door

of the lodge, between two dog travailles set on end. She was a tall

woman and could only produce strangulation by swinging herself off the

ground from her feet. She did it, however, and the body was brought to

the fort for interment.

 

The third was a still more unfortunate case. The child of this woman

had been sick some time and was expected to die. On the night in

question it fell into a swoon and was to all appearance dead. No person

being present the mother in the derangement of the moment went out and

hung herself. The child recovered, but the mother was dead.

 

Every year in this way the women hang themselves, sometimes for the

loss of their husbands, but more frequently on account of the death of

their children, or for revenge. Suicides are also common among the men.

They generally use the gun to produce death.

 

The Mandan and Gros Ventres, as has been stated, suspend themselves on

sticks or skewers passed through incisions made in the back, and the

motive for so doing has already been adverted to.

 

Spots are worn on the forehead and the under lip by some of either sex.

Those on the women are for ornament. The bodies of some of the men

are covered with tattooing to denote the warrior and brave. It is an

operation requiring high payment, and is a mark also of the liberality

and riches of the person who undergoes it, but no religious sects or

opinions are thereby intimated. No rivers are deemed sacred or coveted

in death by any of them.

 

 

PERSONAL BEHAVIOR

 

These tribes are not degraded in the scale of being in their ordinary

intercourse, connection or apparent actions. They frequently exhibit

a delicacy in all these, but some of them, particularly the Crows,

are addicted to customs, revolting to humanity, too much so for

a lengthened description, among which may be mentioned sodomy,

bestiality, etc. They all on occasions eat small portions of human

flesh, not as a relish but to evince a savage fierceness toward the

dead enemy. The Arikara are said to have devoured several entire bodies

of their enemies in late years. We have witnessed a few cases of

cannibalism among the Assiniboin, but they happened in time of actual

famine, one of which, we will describe. About eight or ten years since

a great famine prevailed among the Cree and Assiniboin. They separated

and scattered everywhere over the plains in quest of game. It happened

early in the spring when the ground was yet covered with snow and no

roots could be found. A Cree Indian with his wife and three children

were stationed near the head of Milk River alone and had been without

food for a great length of time. The father took the occasion of his

wife being out to kill and cook one of his children, a portion of

which he forced her to eat on her return. When this was eaten, after

an interval of some days he killed a second and this was likewise

devoured. Still no indication of game presented itself. He desired her

to go out that he might kill the remaining child, which she absolutely

refused to do, offering herself in its stead.

 

It happened that some Assiniboin in traveling came upon his lodge,

and seeing them coming he had barely time to smear himself and his

wife over with white clay, the symbol of mourning, before they

entered. To account for the disappearance of his children he appeared

very much grieved and said they had died from want. The strangers,

however, suspected all was not right, and when he had stepped out they

inquired of the woman, who told them the truth. The visitors left

after directing him to their camp, where some game had lately been

found, and he proceeded thither with his lodge. When in the vicinity

of the camp, he killed and scalped his wife, throwing her body in the

bushes, proceeded to camp, displayed the scalp, stating he had killed

a Blackfoot; that they had attacked him and killed his wife. The camp

turned out to search for enemies and discovered the body of the woman

and no trace of Blackfeet. The Indian in the meantime suspecting he

would be discovered absconded, leaving the small child and baggage in

camp. Being of another nation with whom they were at peace, he was not

pursued and yet lives, but is despised by all.

 

At the period of the catamenia they sleep alone and are deemed taboo

for ten days. The word in their language expressing that flux literally

interpreted would mean “she who lives in a lodge alone,” and their

traditions state that it was formerly the custom to pitch a tent

outside for the woman to remain in during this period. After childbirth

a woman is deemed taboo for 45 days.

 

 

SCALPING

 

During a battle or whenever an enemy is slain they use no ceremony in

taking the scalp except despatch. They are in great haste to get off

or out of danger, and have no time for useless delay. A knife is run

round the cranium, the foot placed on the dead man’s neck and a sudden

jerk takes it off. The cultivation of the scalplock among the Sioux is

a very ancient custom but we know of no mode of tracing its antiquity.

The rest of these tribes wear their hair in any form that suits their fancy.