USA > Oregon > The Oregon trail : sketches of prairie and Rocky Mountain life > Part 20
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40 Reynal's lodge, holding his throat with his hand. For some time he sat perfectly silent with his eyes fixed mourn-
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fully on the ground. At last he began to speak in a low tone :
"I am a brave man," he said; "all the young men think me a great warrior, and ten of them are ready to go with me to the war. I will go and show them the enemy. 5 Last summer the Snakes killed my brother. I cannot live unless I revenge his death. To-morrow we will set out and I will take their scalps."
The White Shield, as he expressed this resolution, seemed to have lost all the accustomed fire and spirit of his look, Ic and hung his head as if in a fit of despondency.
As I was sitting that evening at one of the fires, I saw him arrayed in his splendid war dress, his cheeks painted with vermilion, leading his favorite war horse to the front of his lodge. He mounted and rode round the village, 15 singing his war song in a loud hoarse voice amid the shrill acclamations of the women. Then dismounting, he re- mained for some minutes prostrate upon the ground, as if In an act of supplication. On the following morning I looked in vain for the departure of the warriors. All 20 was quiet in the village until late in the forenoon, when The White Shield, issuing from his lodge, came and seated himself in his old place before us. Reynal asked him why he had not gone out to find the enemy.
"I cannot go," answered The White Shield in a dejected 25 voice. "I have given my war arrows to the Meneaska."
"You have only given him two of your arrows," said Reynal. "If you ask him, he will give them back again."
For some time The White Shield said nothing. At last he spoke in a gloomy tone: - 30
"One of my young men has had bad dreams. The spirits of the dead came and threw stones at him in his sleep."
If such a dream had actually taken place it might have broken up this or any other war party, but both Reynal 35 and I were convinced at the time that it was a mere fabri- cation to excuse his remaining at home.
The White Shield was a warrior of noted prowess. Very probably, he would have received a mortal wound without the show of pain, and endured without flinching the worst 40 tortures that an enemy could inflict upon him. The whole
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power of an Indian's nature would be summoned to en- counter such a trial; every influence of his education from childhood would have prepared him for it; the cause of his suffering would have been visibly and palpably before him, 5 and his spirit would rise to set his enemy at defiance, and gain the highest glory of a warrior by meeting death with fortitude. But when he feels himself attacked by a myste- rious evil, before whose insidious assaults his manhood is wasted, and his strength drained away, when he can see no Io enemy to resist and defy, the boldest warrior falls prostrate at once. He believes that a bad spirit has taken possession of him, or that he is the victim of some charm. When suffering from a protracted disorder, an Indian will often abandon himself to his supposed destiny, pine away and die, 15 the victim of his own imagination. The same effect will often follow from a series of calamities, or a long run of ill success, and the sufferer has been known to ride into the midst of an enemy's camp, or attack a grizzly bear single- handed, to get rid of a life which he supposed to lie under 20 the doom of misfortune.
Thus after all his fasting, dreaming, and calling upon the Great Spirit, The White Shield's war party was pitifully broken up.
CHAPTER XVI
THE TRAPPERS
IN speaking of the Indians, I have almost forgotten two bold adventurers of another race, the trappers Rouleau and Saraphin. These men were bent on a most hazard- ous enterprise. A day's journey to the westward was the country over which the Arapahoes are accustomed to 5 range, and for which the two trappers were on the point of setting out. These Arapahoes, of whom Shaw and I afterward fell in with a large village, are ferocious bar- barians, of a most brutal and wolfish aspect, and of late they had declared themselves enemies to the whites, and 10 threatened death to the first who should venture within their territory. The occasion of the declaration was as follows :
In the previous spring, 1845, Colonel Kearny left Fort · Leavenworth with several companies of dragoons, and 15 marching with extraordinary celerity reached Fort Laramie, whence he passed along the foot of the mountains to Bent's Fortº and then, turning eastward again, returned to the point from whence he set out. While at Fort Laramie, he sent a part of his command as far westward as Sweet- 20 water, while he himself remained at the fort, and dispatched messages to the surrounding Indians to meet him there in council. Then for the first time the tribes of that vicinity saw the white warriors, and, as might have been expected, they were lost in astonishment at their regular order, their 25 gay attire, the completeness of their martial equipment, and the great size and power of their horses. Among the rest, the Arapahoes came in considerable numbers to the fort. They had lately committed numerous acts of out- rage, and Colonel Kearny threatened that if they killed any 30 more white men he would turn loose his dragoons upon
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them, and annihilate their whole nation. In the evening, to add effect to his speech, he ordered a howitzerº to be fired and a rocket to be thrown up. Many of the Arapahoes fell prostrate on the ground, while others ran away screaming 5 with amazement and terror. On the following day they withdrew to their mountains, confounded with awe at the appearance of the dragoons, at their big gun which went off twice at one shot, and the fiery messenger which they had sent up to the Great Spirit. For many months they Io remained quiet, and did no further mischief. At length, just before we came into the country, one of them, by an act of the basest treachery, killed two white men, Boot and May, who were trapping among the mountains. For this act it was impossible to discover a motive. It seemed to 15 spring from one of those inexplicable impulses which often actuate Indians and appear no better than the mere out- breaks of native ferocity. No sooner was the murder committed than the whole tribe were in extreme consterna- tion. They expected every day that the avenging dra- 20 goons would arrive, little thinking that a desert of nine hundred miles in extent lay between the latter and their mountain fastnesses. A large deputation of them came to Fort Laramie, bringing a valuable present of horses, in compensation for the lives of the murdered men. These 25 Bordeaux refused to accept. They then asked him if he . would be satisfied with their delivering up the murderer himself; but he declined this offer also. The Arapahoes went back more terrified than ever. Weeks passed away, and still no dragoons appeared. A result followed which 3º all those best acquainted with Indians had predicted. They conceived that fear had prevented Bordeaux from accepting their gifts, and that they had nothing to appre- hend from the vengeance of the whites. From terror they rose to the height of insolence and presumption. They 35 called the white men cowards and old women; and a friendly Dahcotah came to Fort Laramie and reported that they were determined to kill the first of the white dogs whom they could lay hands on.
Had a military officer, intrusted with suitable powers, 40 been stationed at Fort Laramie, and having accepted the offer of the Arapahoes to deliver up the murderer, had or-
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dered him to be immediately led out and shot, in presence of his tribe, they would have been awed into tranquillity, and much danger and calamity averted; but now the neighborhood of the Medicine-Bow mountain and the re- gion beyond it was a scene of extreme peril. Old Mene- 5 Seela, a true friend of the whites, and many other of the Indians gathered about the two trappers, and vainly en- deavored to turn them from their purpose; but Rouleau and Saraphin only laughed at the danger. On the morn- ing preceding that on which they were to leave the camp, Ic we. could all discern faint white columns of smoke rising against the dark base of the Medicine-Bow. Scouts were out immediately, and reported that these proceeded from an Arapahoe camp, abandoned only a few hours before. Still the two trappers continued their preparations for 15 departure.
Saraphin was a tall, powerful fellow, with a sullen and sinister countenance. His rifle had very probably drawn other blood than that of buffalo or even Indians. Rouleau had a broad ruddy face, marked with as few traces of 20 thought or of care as a child's. His figure was remarkably square and strong, but the first joints of both his feet were frozen off, and his horse had lately thrown and trampled upon him, by which he had been severely injured in the chest. But nothing could check his inveterate propensity 25 for laughter and gayety. He went all day rolling about the camp on his stumps of feet, talking and singing and frolicking with the Indian women, as they were engaged at their work. In fact Rouleau had an unlucky partiality for squaws. He always had one whom he must needs 30 bedizen with beads, ribbons, and all the finery of an Indian wardrobe; and though he was of course obliged to leave her behind him during his expeditions, yet this hazardous necessity did not at all trouble him, for his disposition was
the very reverse of jealous.
If at any time he had not 35 lavished the whole of the precarious profits of his vocation upon his dark favorite, he always devoted the rest to feast- ing his comrades. If liquor was not to be had - and this was usually the case - strong coffee was substituted. As the men of that region are by no means remarkable for 40 providence or self-restraint, whatever was set before them
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on these occasions, however extravagant in price, or enor- mous in quantity, was sure to be disposed of at one sitting. Like other trappers, Rouleau's life was one of contrast and variety. It was only at certain seasons, and for a limited 5 time, that he was absent on his expeditions. For the rest of the year he would be lounging about the fort, or encamped with his friends in its vicinity, lazily hunting or enjoying all the luxury of inaction; but when once in pursuit of the beaver, he was involved in extreme privations and des- Io perate perils. When in the midst of his game and his enemies, hand and foot, eye and car, are incessantly active. Frequently he must content himself with devouring his evening meal uncooked, lest the light of his fire should attract the eyes of some wandering Indian; and sometimes 15 having made his rude repast, he must leave his fire still blazing, and withdraw to a distance under cover of the dark- ness, that his disappointed enemy, drawn thither by the light, may find his victim gone, and be unable to trace his footsteps in the gloom. This is the life led by scores of men 20 in the Rocky mountains and their vicinity. I once met a trapper whose breast was marked with the scars of six bullets and arrows, one of his arms broken by a shot and one of his knees shattered; yet still, with the undaunted mettle of New England, from which part of the country he 25 had come, he continued to follow his perilous occupation. To some of the children of cities it may seem strange that men with no object in view should continue to follow a life of such hardship and desperate adventure; yet there is a mysterious, restless charm in the basiliskº eye of danger, 30 and few men perhaps remain long in that wild region with- out learning to love peril for its own sake, and to laugh carelessly in the face of death.
On the last day of our stay in this camp, the trappers were ready for departure. When in the Black hills they 35 had caught seven beaver, and they now left their skins in charge of Reynal, to be kept until their return. Their strong, gaunt horses were equipped with rusty Spanish bits and rude Mexican saddles, to which wooden stirrups were attached, while a buffalo robe was rolled up behind them, 40 and a bundle of beaver traps slung at the pommel. These, together with their rifles, their knives, their powder-horns
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and bullet-pouches, flint and steel and a tin cup, composed their whole traveling equipment. They shook hands with us and rode away; Saraphin with his grim countenance, like a surly bulldog's, was in advance; but Rouleau, clam- bering gayly into his seat, kicked his horse's sides, flour- 5 ished his whip in the air, and trotted briskly over the prairie, trolling forth a Canadian song at the top of his lungs. Reynal looked after them with his face of brutal selfishness.
" Well," he said, "if they are killed, I shall have the beaver. They'll fetch me fifty dollars at the fort, anyhow."
This was the last I saw of them.
We had been for five days in the hunting-camp, and the meat, which all this time had hung drying in the sun, was now fit for transportation. Buffalo hides also had been procured in sufficient quantities for making the next 15 season's lodges; but it remained to provide the long slender poles on which they were to be supported. These were only to be had among the tall pine woods of the Black hills, and in that direction therefore our next move was to be made. It is worthy of notice that amid the general abun- 20 dance which during this time had prevailed in the camp there were no instances of individual privation; for although the hide and the tongue of the buffalo belong by exclusive right to the hunter who has killed it, yet any one else is equally entitled to help himself from the rest of the carcass. Thus, 25 the weak, the aged, and even the indolent come in for a share of the spoils, and many a helpless old woman, who would otherwise perish from starvation, is sustained in profuse abundance.
On the twenty-fifth of July, late in the afternoon, the 30 camp broke up, with the usual tumult and confusion, and we were all moving once more, on horseback and on foot, over the plains. We advanced, however, but a few miles. The old men, who during the whole march had been stoutly striding along on foot in front of the people, now seated 35 themselves in a circle on the ground, while all the families, erecting their lodges in the prescribed order around them, formed the usual great circle of the camp; meanwhile these village patriarchs sat smoking and talking. I threw my bridle to Raymond, and sat down as usual along with them. 40 There was none of that reserve and apparent dignity which
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an Indian always assumes when in council, or in the pres. ence of white men whom he distrusts. The party, on the contrary, was an extremely merry one, and as in a social circle of a quite different character, "if there was not much 5 wit, there was at least a great deal of laughter."º
When the first pipe was smoked out, I rose and with- drew to the lodge of my host. Here I was stooping, in the act of taking off my powder-horn and bullet-pouch, when suddenly, and close at hand, pealing loud and shrilly 10 and in right good earnest, came the terrific yell of the war- whoop. Kongra-Tonga's squaw snatched up her youngest child, and ran out of the lodge. I followed, and found the whole village in confusion, resounding with cries and yells. The circle of old men in the center had vanished. The 15 warriors with glittering eyes came darting, their weapons in their hands, out of the low opening of the lodges, and running with wild yells toward the farther end of the vil- - lage. Advancing a few rods in that direction, I saw a crowd in furious agitation, while others ran up on every 20 side to add to the confusion. Just then I distinguished the voices of Raymond and Reynal, shouting to me from a distance, and looking back, I saw the latter with his rifle in his hand, standing on the farther bank of a little stream that ran along the outskirts of the camp. He was 25 calling to Raymond and myself to come over and join him, and Raymond, with his usual deliberate gait and stolid countenance, was already moving in that direction.
This was clearly the wisest course, unless we wished to involve ourselves in the fray; so I turned to go, but 30 just then a pair of eyes, gleaming like a snake's, and an aged familiar countenance was thrust from the opening of a neighboring lodge, and out bolted old Mene-Seela, full of fight, clutching his bow and arrows in one hand and his knife in the other. At that instant he tripped and fell 35 sprawling on his face, while his weapons flew scattering
away in every direction. The women with loud screams were hurrying with their children in their arms to place them out of danger, and I observed some hastening to pre- vent mischief, by carrying away all the weapons they 40 could lay hands on. On a rising ground close to the camp stood a line of old women singing a medicine song to allay
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the tumult. As I approached the side of the brook I heard gun-shots behind me, and turning back, I saw that the crowd had separated into two long lines of naked warriors confronting each other at a respectful distance, and yelling and jumping about to dodge the shot of their adversaries, 5 while they discharged bullets and arrows against each other. At the same time certain sharp, humming sounds in the air over my head, like the flight of beetles on a summer evening, warned me that the danger was not wholly con- fined to the immediate scene of the fray. So wading through 10 the brook, I joined Reynal and Raymond, and we sat down on the grass, in the posture of an armed neutrality, to watch the result.
Happily it may be for ourselves, though quite contrary to our expectation, the disturbance was quelled almost 15 as soon as it had commenced. When I looked again, the combatants were once more mingled together in a mass. . Though yells sounded occasionally from the throng, the fir- ing had entirely ceased, and I observed five or six persons moving busily about, as if acting the part of peacemakers. 20 One of the village heralds or criers proclaimed in a loud voice something which my two companions were too much engrossed in their own observations to translate for me. The crowd began to disperse, though many a deep- set black eye still glittered with an unnatural luster, as 25 the warriors slowly withdrew to their lodges. This fortunate suppression of the disturbance was owing to a few of the old men, less pugnacious than Mene-Seela, who boldly ran in between the combatants and aided by some of the "sol- diers," or Indian police, succeeded in effecting their object. 30
It seemed very strange to me that although many arrows and bullets were discharged, no one was mortally hurt, and I could only account for this by the fact that both the marksman and the object of his aim were leaping about incessantly during the whole time. By far the greater part 35 of the villagers had joined in the fray, for although there were not more than a dozen guns in the whole camp, I heard at least eight or ten shots fired.
In a quarter of an hour all was comparatively quiet. A large circle of warriors were again seated in the center of 40 the village, but this time I did not venture to join them,
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because I could see that the pipe, contrary to the usual order, was passing from the left hand to the right around the circle; a sure sign that a "medicine-smoke" of recon- ciliation was going forward, and that a white man would be 5 an unwelcome intruder. When I again entered the still agitated camp it was nearly dark, and mournful cries, howls, and wailings resounded from many female voices. Whether these had any connection with the late disturb- ance, or were merely lamentations for relatives slain in Io some former war expeditions, I could not distinctly ascer- tain.
To inquire too closely into the cause of the quarrel was by no means prudent, and it was not until some time after that I discovered what had given rise to it. Among the 15 Dahcotahs there are many associations, or fraternities, connected with the purposes of their superstitions, their warfare, or their social life. There was one called the Arrow-Breakers, now in a great measure disbanded and dispersed. In the village there were, however, four men 20 belonging to it, distinguished by the peculiar arrangement of their hair, which rose in a high bristling mass above their foreheads, adding greatly to their apparent height, and giving them a most ferocious appearance. The prin- cipal among them was The Mad Wolf, a warrior of remark- 25 able size and strength, great courage, and the fierceness of a demon. I had always looked upon him as the most dangerous man in the village; and though he often in- vited me to feasts, I never entered his lodge unarmed. The Mad Wolf had taken a fancy to a fine horse belong- 3º ing to another Indian, who was called The Tall Bear; and anxious to get the animal into his possession, he made the owner a present of another horse nearly equal in value. According to the customs of the Dahcotah, the acceptance of this gift involved a sort of obligation to make an equitable 35 return; and The Tall Bear well understood that the other had in view the obtaining of his favorite buffalo horse. He however accepted the present without a word of thanks, and having picketed the horse before his lodge, he suf- fered day after day to pass without making the expected 40 return. The Mad Wolf grew impatient and angry; and at last, seeing that his bounty was not likely to produce
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the desired return, he resolved to reclaim it. So this even- ing, as soon as the village was encamped, he went to the lodge of The Tall Bear, seized upon the horse that he had given him, and led him away. At this The Tall Bear broke into one of those fits of sullen rage not uncommon among 5 the Indians. He ran up to the unfortunate horse, and gave him three mortal stabs with his knife. Quick as lightning The Mad Wolf drew his bow to its utmost ten- sion, and held the arrow quivering close to the breast of his adversary. The Tall Bear, as the Indians who were Io near him said, stood with his bloody knife in his hand, facing the assailant with the utmost calmness. Some of his friends and relatives, seeing his danger, ran hastily to his assistance. The remaining three Arrow-Breakers, on the other hand, came to the aid of their associate. Many 15 of their friends joined them, the war-cry was raised on a sudden, and the tumult became general.
The "soldiers," who lent their timely aid in putting it down, are by far the most important executive function- aries in an Indian village. The office is one of consider- 20 able honor, being confided only to men of courage and repute. They derive their authority from the old men and chief warriors of the village, who elect them in councils occasionally convened for the purpose, and thus can exer- cise a degree of authority which no one else in the village 25 would dare to assume. While very few Ogallallah chiefs could venture without instant jeopardy of their lives to strike or lay hands upon the meanest of their people, the "soldiers," in the discharge of their appropriate functions, have full license to make use of these and similar acts of 30 coercion.
CHAPTER XVII
THE BLACK HILLS
WE traveled eastward for two days, and then the gloomy ridges of the Black hills rose up before us. The village passed along for some miles beneath their declivities, trail- ing out to a great length over the arid prairie, or wind- 5 ing at times among small detached hills or distorted shapes. Turning sharply to the left, we entered a wide defile of the mountains, down the bottom of which a brook came wind- ing, lined with tall grass and dense copses, amid which were hidden many beaver dams and lodges. We passed along Io between two lines of high precipices and rocks, piled in utter disorder one upon another, and with scarcely a tree, a bush, or a clump of grass to veil their nakedness. The restless Indian boys were wandering along their edges and clambering up and down their rugged sides, and sometimes 15 a group of them would stand on the verge of a cliff and look down on the array as it passed in review beneath them. As we advanced, the passage grew inore narrow; then it sud- denly expanded into a round grassy meadow, completely ' encompassed by mountains; and here the families stopped 20 as they came up in turn, and the camp rose like magic.
The lodges were hardly erected when, with their usual precipitation, the Indians set about accomplishing the object that had brought them there; that is, the obtaining poles for supporting their new lodges. Half the popula- 25 tion, men, women, and boys, mounted their horses and set out for the interior of the mountains. As they rode at full gallop over the shingly rocks and into the dark open- ing of the defile beyond, I thought I had never read or dreamed of a more strange or picturesque cavalcade. We 30 passed between precipices more than a thousand feet high, sharp and splintering at the tops, their sides beetlingº over the defile or descending in abrupt declivities, bristling
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