USA > Minnesota > Dahkotah land and Dahkotah life [microform] : with the history of the fur traders of the extreme northwest during the French and British dominions > Part 4
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The superstitions and peculiarities of the Dahkotahs are so various that we can but barely glance at them. They count year's by winters, and compute distances by the number of nights passed upon a journey; their months are computed by moons, and are as follows :-
1. WI-TERI, January ; the hard moon.
2. 'WICATA-WI, February ; the raccoon moon.
3. ISTAWICAYAZAN-WI, March; the sore-eye moon.
4. MAGAOKADI-WI, April; the moon in which the geese lay eggs : also called Wokada-wi; and, sometimes, Watopapi-wi, the moon when the streams are again navigable.
. 5. WOJUPI-WI, May; the planting moon.
6. WAJUSTECASA-WI, June; the moon when the straw- berries are red.
7. CANPASAPA-WI, and WASUNPA-WI, July ; the moon when the choke-cherries are ripe, and when the geese shed their feathers.
8. WASUTON-WI, August; the harvest moon.
9. PSINHNAKETU-WI, September ; the moon when rice is laid up to dry.
10. WI-WAJUPI, October; the drying rice moon ; some- times written Wazupi-wi.
11. TAKIYURA-WI, November; the deer-rutting moon.
12. TAHECAPSUN-WI, December; the moon when the deer shed their horns.
They believe that the moon is made of something as good as green-cheese. The popular notion is that when
87
RELIGIOUS RITES AND SUPERSTITIONS.
the moon is full, a great number of very small mice commence nibbling until they have eaten it up. A new moon then begins to grow until it is full, then it is devoured.
Though almost every Dahkotah young man has his pocket mirror, a maid does not look at a looking-glass, for it is "wakan" or sacred. . Almost everything that the man owns is wakan or sacred, but nothing that the " woman possesses is so esteemed. If one has a toothache, it is supposed to be caused by a woodpecker concealed within, or the gnawing of a worm. Coughs are occa- sioned by the sacred men operating through the medium 7
of the down of the goose, or the hair of the buffalo. It is considered a sin to cut a stick that has once been placed on the fire, or to prick a piece of meat with an awl or needle. It is wrong for a woman to smoke through a black pipe-stem, and for a man to wear a woman's moccasins. It is also sinful to throw gun- powder on the fire. ..
This tribe of Indians believe that an individual has several souls. Le Sueur said that they thought that they had three souls, but the sacred men say that a Dahkotah has four souls. At death one of these re- mains with or near the body ; one in a bundle contain- ing some of the clothes and hair of the deceased, which the relatives preserve until they have an opportunity to throw them into the enemy's country; one goes into the spirit land; and one passes into the body of a child or some animal.
They have a fear of the future, but no fixed belief in · relation to the nature of future punishment. They are generally taciturn on such topics. The more simple- minded believe that a happy land exists across a lake
; the moon 1 the geese
when rice
noon ; some-
ting moon. n when the
omething as s that when
n.
"the straw-
n. moon. which the® sometimes," are again
Dahkotahs at them. istances by hey; their follows :-
me unfore- this tribe. this degra- le head is
-
.
...
88
HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
of boiling water, and that an old woman sits on the shore holding a long narrow pole, that stretches across the water to the earth. Warriors who can show marks of wounds on their flesh, can walk' the pole with security ; also infants, whose blue veins are a passport as good as war marks. Others slip into the boiling water.
Their theology makes no difference between the con- dition of the thief and liar and the correct and good man. Those who commit suicide are thought to be unhappy. They believe that a woman who commits suicide will have to drag-through another world that ' from which. she hung herself in this, and that she will . often break down the corn in another land by the pole or tree which dangles at her feet, and for this will be severely beaten by the inhabitants of the spirit land.
When any one dies, the nearest friend is very anxious · to go and kill an enemy. A father lost a child while the treaty of 1851 was pending at Mendota, and he `longed to go and kill an Ojibway. As soon as an indi- vidual dies, the corpse is wrapped in its best clothes. Some one acquainted with the deceased then harangues the spirit on the virtues of the departed; and the friends sit around with their faces smeared with a black pig- ment, the signs of mourning. Their lamentations are very loud, and they cut their thighs and legs with their finger nails or pieces of stone, to give free vent, as' it would appear, to their grief. The corpse is not buried, but placed in a box upon a scaffold some eight or ten feet from the ground. Hung around the scaffold are such things as would please the spirit if it was still # in the flesh-such as the scalp of an enemy or pots of food. After the corpse has been exposed for some
5
0
89
SCHILLER'S POEM .- BULWER, HERSCHELL.
months, and the bones only remain, they are buried in a heap, and protected from the wolves by stakes.
On the bluff, above the dilapidated cave which forms the eastern limit of Saint Paul, there is, an ancient burial place. Here the Dahkotahs formerly brought their dead, and performed solemn services.
Carver, in his Travels, publishes the alleged speech . over the remains of a Dahkotah brave-the reading of which so attracted the attention of the great German poet, Schiller, that he composed a poem called the "Song of a Nadowessee Chief." Goethe considered it one of his best, "and wished, he had made a dozen such."
Sir John Herschell and Sir E. L. Bulwer have each attempted a translation, both of which seem to convey the spirit of the original.
1 SIR E. L. BULWER'S. SIR JOHN HERSCHELL'S. .
See on his mat-as If of yore, All life-like sits he here!
With that same aspect which he wore When light to him was dear.
·¥
See, where upon the mat, he sits Erect, before his door, With just the same majestic air. That once in life he wore.
But where the right hand's strength ? and where The breath that loved to breathe, To the Great Spirit aloft in air, The peace-pipe's lusty wreath ?. 5
But where is filed his strength of limb, The whirlwind of his breath, To the Great Spirit, when he sent The peace-pipe's mounting wreath !
1
And where the hawk-like øye, alas! ! ! ^ That wont the deer pursue,
1
Where are those falcon eyes, which late Along the plain could trace, Along the grass's dewy wave, The reindeer's printed pace ?
Are these the limber, bounding feet That swept the winter's shows? What stateliest stag so fast and fleet! Their speed outstripped the roe'st
Those legs, which once, with matchless speed, Flew through the drifted mow, Surpassed the stag's anwearled course, . Outran the mountain roe?
These arms, that then the steady bow Could supple from its pride, How stark and helpless hang they now Adown the stiffened sidel .
Those arms, once used with might and main, The stubborn bow to twang ? See; see, their nerves are slack at last, All motionless they hang.
ts on the es across ow marks pole with a passport he boiling
n the con- and good ght to be commits world that t she will y the pole is will be it land. ry anxious hild while a, and he as an indi- st clothes. harangues the friends black pig- tations are legs with ee vent, as pse is not ( some eight the scaffold it was still # or pots of for some
al
.
Along the waves of rippling grass, Or fields that shone with dew ?
4
90
HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. -
SIR E. L. BULWER'S.
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Yet weal to him-at peace he staya 1 . Where never fall the snows; Where o'er the meadows springs the maize That mortal nover sows.
Where birds are blithe on every brake- Where forests teem with deer- -
Where glide the fish through every lake- One chase from year to yeari
With spirits now he feasts above; All left us-to revere The deeds we honour with our love, The dust we bury bere.
Here bring the last gift! loud and shrill Wall, death dirge for the bravei, What pleased him most in life may still Give pleasure in the grave.
We lay the axe beneath his head He swung when strength was strong- The bear on which his banquets fed- The way from earth is longi 5
And here, new sharped, place the knife That severed from the clay, From which the axe had spoiled the life, The conquered scalp away !
The paints. that deck the dead bestow- Yes, piace them in his hand-
That red the kingly shade may glow Amid the spirit-land.
SIR JOHN HERSCHELL'S.
'Tls well with him, for he is gone Where snow no more is found, Where the gay thorn's perpetual bioom Decks all the field around;
Where wild birds sing from every spray, Where deer come sweeping by, Where fish from every lake, afford A plentiful supply.
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With spirits now he feasts above, And leaves us here alone, To celebrate his valiant deeds, And round his grave to moan.
- Sound the death-song, bring forth the gifts, The last gifts of the dead,- .Let all which yet may yield him joy Within his grave be laid.
The hatchet place beneath hia head, . Still red with hostile blood;
' And add, because the way is long, The bear's fat limbs for food.
The scalping-knife beside him lay, With paints of gorgeous dye, That in the land of soula his form May shine triumphantly.
· The legends of the Dahkotahs are numerous, and while many are puerile, a few are beautiful.
EAGLE-EYE, the son of a great war prophet, who lived more than one hundred years ago, was distinguished for bravery., Fleet, athletic, symmetrical, a bitter foe and warm friend, he was a model Dahkotah. In the ardour of his youth, his affections were given to one who was also attractive, named Scarlet Dove.'
A few moons after she had become an inmate of his lodge, they descended the Mississippi, with a hunting party, and proceeded east of Lake Pepin.
91
SCARLET DOVE .- ANPETUSAPA.
One day, while Eagle Eye was hid behind some bushes, watching for deer, the arrow of a. comrade found its way through the covert, into his heart. With only time to lisp the name Scarlet Dove, he expired.
For a few days the widow mourned and cut her flesh, and then, with the silence of woe, wrapping her beloved in skins, she placed him on a temporary burial scaffold, and sat beneath.
When the hunting party moved, she carried on her own back the dead body of Eagle-Eye. At every en campment she laid the body up in the manner already mentioned, and sat down to watch it and mourn. 1
When she had reached the Minnesota river, a dis- tance of more than a hundred miles, Scarlet Dove brought forks and poles from the woods, and erected a permanent scaffold on that beautiful hill opposite the site of Fort Snelling, in the rear of the little town of Mendota, which is known by the name of Pilot Knob. Having adjusted the remains of the unfortunate object of her love upon this elevation, with the strap by which she had carried her precious burden, Scarlet Dove hung herself to the scaffold and died. Her highest hope was to meet the beloved spirit of her Eagle-Eye, in the world of spirits.1
Many years before the eye of the white man gazed on the beautiful landscape around the Falls of Saint Anthony, a scene was enacted there of which this is the melancholy, story :-
Anpetusapa was the first love of a Dahkotah hunter. For a period they dwelt in happiness, and she proved herself a true wife.
. 1 For this legend we are indebted to Rev. G. H. Pond. .
.
.
-
ELL'S.
s gone found, petual bloom
n every spray, ng by, e, afford
above, eds,
moan.
ng forth the gifts, 1,- id him joy t.
his head, od; is long, food.
him lay, s dye, his form
erous, and
t, who lived guished for ter foe and the ardour ne who was
mate of his a hunting
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1
92
HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
3
" With knife of bone she carved her food, Fuel, with axe of stone procured- Could fire extract, from flint or wood; To rudest savage life inured.
"In kettle frail of birchen bark, She boiled her food with heated stones; -
The slippery fish from coverts dark She drew with hooked bones."
57
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But her heart was at length clouded. The husband, in accordance with the custom of his nation, introduced a second wife within the teepee, and the first wife's eyes began to grow sad, and her form from day to day drooped. Her chief joy was to clasp the little boy, who was the embodiment of hopes and happiness fled for ever. Faithful and unmurmuring, she followed her husband on his hunts. One day the band encamped on the picturesque shores near the Falls of Saint Anthony. With tearless eye, and nerved by despair, the first wife, with her little son, walked to the rapid waters. Enter- ing a canoe, she pushed into the swift current, and the chanting of her death dirge arrested the attention of her husband and the camp in time to see the canoe on the bank, and plunge into the dashing waves. The Dahkotahs say, that in the mist of the morning, the : spirit of an Indian wife, with a child clinging around her neck, is seen,darting in a canoe through the spray, and that the sound of her death-song is heard moaning in the winds, and in the roar of the waters.
On the eastern shore of Lake Pepin, about twelve . miles from its mouth, there stands a bluff which attracts attention by its boldness. It is about four hundred and fifty feet in height, the last hundred of which is a bald, precipitous crag. It is seen at a distance of miles; and
93
MAIDEN'S ROOK OF THE DAHKOTAHS.
as the steamer approaches, the emergence of passengers to the upper deck, and the pointing of the finger of the captain, or some one familiar with the country, evinces that it is an interesting locality-it is the Maiden's Rock of the Dahkotahs.
The first version of the story, in connection with this bluff, differs from those more modern, but is preferable.
In the days of the great chief Wapashaw, there lived at the village of Keoxa, which stood on the site of the town which now bears her name, a maiden with a lov- ing soul. She was the first-born daughter, and, as is always the case in a Dahkotah family, she bore the name of Weenonah. A young hunter of the same band, was never happier than when he played the flute in her hearing. Having thus signified his affection, it was with the whole heart reciprocated. The. youth begged from his friends all that he could, and went to her parents, as is the custom, to purchase her for his- wife, but his proposals were rejected.
A warrior, who had often been on the war path, whose head-dress plainly told the number of scalps he had wrenched from Ojibway heads, had also been to the parents, and they thought that she would be more honoured as an inmate of his teepee.
Weenonah, however, could not forget her first love; and, though he had been forced away, his absence strengthened her affections. Neither the attentions of the warrior, nor the threats of parents, nor the persua- sions of friends, could make her consent to marry simply for position. .
One day the band came to Lake Pepin to fish 'or hunt. The dark green foliage, the velvet sward, the beautiful expanse of water, the shady nooks, made it a -
husband, introduced wife's eyes ay to day little boy, piness fled llowed her camped on , Anthony. first wife, cs. Enter- t, and the tention of e canoe on veş. The orning, the : ing around the spray, rd moaning
out twelve ich attracts undred and h is a bald, miles ; and
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
place to utter the breathings of love. The warrior sought her once more, and begged her to accede to her parents' wish, and become his wife, but she refused with decision.
While the party were feasting, Weenonah clambered to the lofty bluff, and then told to those who were below, how crushed she had been by the absence of the young hunter, and the cruelty of her friends. Then chanting a wild death-song, before the fleetest runner could reach the height, she dashed herself down, and that form of beauty was in a moment a mass of broken limbs and bruised flesh. -
The Dahkotah, as he passes the rock, feels that the spot is Wawkawn.
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The Dahkotahs call the St. Croix river, Hogan- wanke-kin. The legend is that in the distant past, two Dahkotah warriors were travelling on the shores of Lake St. Croix, one of whom was under a vow to one of his gods not to eat any flesh which had touched water. . Gnawed by hunger, the two perceived, as they supposed, a raccoon, and pursued it to a hollow tree. On looking-in, the one who could not eat flesh that had touched water, saw that the animal was a fish and not a quadruped. Turning to his companion, he agreed to throw it to the ground if he was not urged to eat. Hunger, however, was imperious, and forced him to break his vow and partake.of the broiled fish.
After the meal, thirst usurped the place of hunger. He called for water to 'cool his parched tongue, until the strength of his companion failed, and he was then told to lie down by the lake and drink till his thirst. was quenched. Complying with the advice, he drank and drank, till at last he cried to his friend, " come and
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95
LANGUAGE AND LEXICON.
look at me." The sight caused the knees of his comrade to smite together with fear, for he was fast turning to a fish. At length, he stretched himself across the Lake, and formed what is called Pike Bar. This, tradition ( says, is the origin of the sand-bar in the Lake, which is so conspicuous at low stage of water.
Having full faith in the legend, to this day they call the river, which is part of the boundary between Wis- consin . and Minnesota, "THE PLACE WHERE THE FISH LIES." (Hogan-wanke-kin.)
The Dahkotahs, from the Minnesota to the plains beyond the Missouri, speak essentially the same lan- guage. Though difficult to acquire, it is allied to that of the Ottoes, Winnebagoes, Ioways, and Omahaws.1
After ten years' close study by an observing mis- sionary, he was obliged to. confess that he had not mastered it, which admission forms quite a contrast to. the vaunting statement of Jonathan Carver, who wintered in Minnesota in 1767. He remarks: "To render my stay as comfortable as possible, I first endea- voured to learn their language. This I soon did, to make myself perfectly intelligible."
Hennepin made the first effort to collect a vocabulary of the language, while he was a captive on Rum river, or Mille Lacs.' His description of the attempt is very quaint : " Hunger pressed me to commence the forma- tion of. a vocabulary of their language, learned from
1 The ancient Arkansas seem to . (Minne ska) or White Water." have belonged to the Dahkotah Again: "They place the hand upon family. A letter published in Kip's the mouth, which is a sign of admi- ration among them." Ouakan tague they cry out, " it is the Great Spirit." They said.probably, Wakan de, This Jesuit Mission, written by" a 'mis- sionary at the mouth of the Arkan- sas, in October, 1727, speaks of "a river which the Indians call Ni ska is wonderful.
he warrior cede to her fused with
Clambered who were ence of the ds. Then test runner down, and s of broken
er, Hogan- stant past, e shores of vow to one ad touched ed, as they ollow tree. sh that had sh and not e agreed to ged to eat. ed him to h.
of hunger. ongue, until e was then 1 his thirst. e, he drank " come and
.
Is that the
96
HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
the prattle of their children. When once I had learned the word Taketchiabein, which means ' How call you this ?' I began to be soon able to talk of such things as are most familiar. For want of an interpreter this difficulty was hard to surmount at first. For example, . if I had a desire to know what to run was in their tongue, I was forced to increase my speed, and actually run from one end of the lodge to the other, until they understood what I meant and had told me the word, which I presently set down in my Dictionary."
The first printed vocabulary is that appended to Carver's Travels, which is exceedingly incorrect, though. it contains many Dahkotah words. The Smithsonian Institution have published, under the patronage of the Historical Society of Minnesota, a quarto Grammar and Dictionary of this language, which will be gazed upon with interest by the "wise men of the East" long after the Dahkotah dialect has ceased to be spoken. This work is the fruit of eighteen years of anxious toil among this people, and is the combined work of the, members of the Dahkotah Presbytery, edited by the Rev. S. R. Riggs, of Lac qui Parle; and should be pre- served in the library of every professional man and lover of letters in Minnesota.
The vocabulary is, of course, meagre, compared with that of the civilized European; for living, as they have until of late, far away from any but those of like habits and modes of thought, they are defective in many words which have their place in the dictionary of a Christian people. Accustomed to cut poles from a forest and spread buffalo skins thereon, under which they pass the night, and then decamp early the next day in quest of game or the scalp of an enemy, they have no word which
4
97
DAHKOTAH ALPHABET.
expresses the comfortable idea of our noble Saxon word "home.". Still, in the language of a missionary, "it is in some of its aspects to be regarded as a noble lan- guage, fully adequate to all the felt wants of a nation, and capable of being enlarged, cultivated, and enriched, by the introduction of foreign stores of thought. Nothing can be found anywhere more full and flexible than the Dahkotah verb. The affixes, and reduplications, and pronouns, and prepositions, all come in to make it of such a stately pile of thought as is to my knowledge found nowhere else. A single paradigm presents more than a thousand variations."
THE DAHKOTAH ALPHABET.
NAME.
NAME
A ah, sounds as a in far.
0 0, sounds as o -in go.
B be, " b, in but. : P pe, up in pea.
C- che,
ch in cheat. «
Q qe, indescribable.
D de,
.d' in deed." R re, high guttural.
E &, .
a in say.
S se, sounds as s in sea.
G ge, low guttural. .
T te,
.t in teá.
I e,
e in see.
·W we, . to in we.
J je,
si in hosier.
X she, .66 sh in sheet.
K ke, k in key ..
Y ye,
y in yeast.
M me,
m in me.
Ż ze,
% in zeta.
N ne,
n in neat.
1
U 00.
00 in noon.
H he, sounds as h . in he!
The vowels represent each but one sound. G repre' sents a low guttural or gurgling sound. R represents a rough hawking sound, higher than that of g. Besides their simple sounds, c, k, p, s, t, and x, have each a close compound sound, which cannot be learned: except from a living teacher. They are printed in italics when they represent these sounds, except k, which is never italicised for this purpose; but q is used instead of it. The last-
d learned call you ch things reter this example, in their I actually until they the word,
ended to t, though ithsonian ge of the nmar and zed upon long after en. This xious toil rk of the, d by the d be pre- man and
ared with hey have ke habits ny words Christian prest and pass the quest of ord which
2
3
1
98
HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
named letter might as well, perhaps, be expunged from the Dahkotah alphabet, and k held responsible for the performance of this service. When n follows a vowel at the end of a syllable, except in contracted words, with very few exceptions, it is not full, but sounds like n in tinkle, ankle.
It was intended that the Dahkotah orthography should be strictly phonetic, and it fails but little of being so. To learn the names of the letters is to learn to read it, and no English scholar need spend more than a few hours, or even a few moments, in learning to read the Denko- tah language.1
1 G. H. Pond, in " Tawaritku Kin."
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CARTIER .- CHAMPLAIN. .
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CHAPTER IV.
MORE than three centuries ago, an enterprising naval officer, Jacques Cartier, discovered the mouth of the great river of North America, that empties into the Atlantic, and whose extreme head waters are in the interior of Minnesota, within an hour's walk of a tribu- tary of the Mississippi.
Having erected, in the vicinity of Quebec, a rude fort, in 1541, more than a half century before the settlement of Jamestown, in Virginia, from that time the river Saint Lawrence became known to the bold mariners of .
France, and there was an increasing desire to explore its sources.
In the year 1608, Champlain selected the site in the vicinity of Cartier's post as the future capital of New France. Burning to plant a colony in the New World, he, with great assiduity, explored the country. In 1609 he ascended a tributary of the Saint Lawrence, till he · came to the beautiful lake in New York, which, to this day, bears his name.
After several visits to France, in 1615 he is found, with unabated zeal, accompanying a band of savages to their distant hunting-grounds, and discovering the waters of Lake Huron.
com the wel rds, like
uld To and urs, ko-
100
HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
Before the emigrants of the" " May Flower" trod on New England soil, and while Massachusetts was an . unknown country to the geographers.of Europe, he had gained an inkling of the Mediterranean of America, Lake Superior. In.a map accompanying the journal of his dis- coveries, this lake appears as "Grand Lac," and a great river is marked flowing from the lake toward the south, intended to represent the Mississippi, as described by the Indians, who, from. the earliest period, had been accustomed, by slight portages, to pass from the waters of Lake Superior into those of the " grand" river which flows into the Gulf of Mexico. '
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