with them; but when the dinner was ready, the host took him aside, and told him the captain, or rather the white man's chief, was to dine with him that day, and he must wait until they had finished. The old chief's eye glistened with anger as he answered him, raising the forefinger of one hand to his breast, to represent the officer, I know the white man is a chief, but I,' elevating the finger of the other hand far above his head, 'was a chief, and led my warriors to the fight long before his mother knew him. Your meat-my dogs should not eat it!" Saying this, he gathered the folds of his blanket about him, and stalked off, looking as proudly as if he still walked over ground that he could call my own.' "Black Hawk possessed, to a great degree, one fine trait which is not usual for us to concede to the Indian-kindness and affection for his wife. He never had but one, and with her he lived for upwards of forty years; they had several children, three of whom still survive, two sons and a daughter. The eldest son is now one of the most promising young braves of the nation, and bids fair to be one of its most noble men. The daughter is still quite young, and is considered to be the most beautiful maiden belonging to her tribe. "He has now departed on his long journey, to join those of his people who have gone before him to the happy hunting grounds, far beyond the setting sun. May the Great Spirit grant him a clear sunshine, and a smooth path." In addition to this, it will be proper to add that in September, 1838, while on his way to Rock Island to receive his portion of the annual payment, he took a heavy cold, which resulted in a fatal attack of bilious fever, which terminated his life on the third of October, after an illness of only a few days. His wife, who was devotedly attached to him, mourned deeply during his sickness. She said on the day before he died, "he is getting old, he must die. Monotah calls him home." After his death, he was dressed in the uniform presented to him by the President while in Washington, and buried. "The grave was six feet deep, and of the usual length, situated upon a little eminence about fifty yards from his wigwam. The body was placed in the middle of the grave, in a sitting posture, upon a seat, constructed for the purpose. On his left side, the cane, given him by Henry Clay, was placed upright, with his right hand resting upon it. Many of the old warrior's trophies were placed in the grave, and some Indian garments, together with his favorite weapons." CHAPTER XL1. INDIAN TRIBES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI-THE MANDANS, THEIR WERE DE HAVING reached the proper point, I will now interrupt the narrative to give the reader a very brief history of the tribes of Indians which existed in that vast territory between the Mississippi and the Pacific coast about the year 1800. But in this undertaking I find myself surrounded with difficulties of a kind not encountered in the review of the tribes east of the Mississippi at the beginning of this work, as the tribal divisions of the Western Indians are, both in language and customs less distinguishing than those of the former. Yet, avoiding the finer details of difference, we shall have but little difficulty in presenting the general characteristics of the various nations of the great West. It will be difficult, however, to give any boundaries of territory owned or occupied by these nations as, either by their roving habits or by the results of conquest, they were continually changing their abode. Along the borders of the Missouri, and high up the western tributaries of the Mississippi, we find the various tribes belonging to the Sioux or Dahcotah nation, called by the early explorers and travelers, Naudowesses. These Indians lived principally by the chase, a few only practicing any degree of husbandry. The tribal divisions of this nation were as follows: the Waupeentowas, the Tintons, the Afracootans, the Mawhaws, (called by some the Omawhas,) and the Schians. These tribes, with a few exceptions, dwelt in the prairie country, near the borders of the St. Peter. The Assinaboins, and several other tribes, were, by some of the oldest writers, classed in the same nation. Mr. Gallatin, an able writer on these and other tribes, classes them as follows: The Winnebagos, of Wisconsin; the Sioux proper, or Dahcotas, and the Assinaboins; the Minetari, and tribes allied to them; and the Osages, and other kindred tribes. The same writer, I believe, holds that the Minetari include the Crows, and the Mandans. The latter, however, are a distinct nation, and differ widely from all other Indians in America in many important peculiarities. In 1832, we find the Mandans situated in two villages on the left bank of the Missouri, about two hundred miles below the mouth of the Yellowstone. this time their population did not exceed two or three thousand. However, according to their best traditions, and as evinced by the ruins of their former settlements they had, at an earlier date, been a populous and powerful nation. In the date above mentioned we find them in their principal town upon the Missouri well fortified against the enemy. Within the pickets the houses were exceedingly compact, leaving but little room for the gaudy inhabitants to move to and fro. These dwellings were partially sunk in the ground, the roofs being made of earth and clay. On entering them one would be surprised with their neatness, comfort and spacious dimensions. "They were all of a circular form," says Mr. Catlin, "and are from forty to sixty feet in diameter. Their foundations are prepared by digging some two feet in the ground and forming the floor of earth by leveling the requisite size for a lodge.' These singular dwellings were not devoid of comfort. "They consisted," says Mr. Brownell, "of a row of perpendicular stakes or timbers six feet or thereabouts in height, supporting long rafters for the roof. A hole was left in the center for air, light, and the escape of the smoke." The rafters were first covered by boughs, and lastly by earth. A small excavation in the center of the hut served as a fire-place. The furniture was not elegant, although comfortable. A rude bedstead was erected at one side, abundantly provided with buffalo skins, with ornamented curtains, not of European manufacture, for they did not import their goods, but of various skins of wild animals. "This arrangement of beds, and arms, etc.," says Mr. Catlin, "combining the most vivid display and arrangement of colors, of furs, of trinkets, of barbed and glistening points and steel, of mysteries and hocus-pocus, together with the sombre and smoked color of the roof and sides of the lodge; and the wild, and rude, and red-the graceful (though uncivil) conversational, garrulous, story-telling, and happy, though ignorant and untutored groups, that are smoking their pipes-wooing their sweethearts, and embracing their little ones about their peaceful and endeared fire-sides; together with their pots and kettles, spoons, and other culinary articles of their own manufacture, around them, present, altogether, one of the most picturesque scenes to the eye of a stranger that can be possibly seen, and far more wild and vivid than could ever be imagined." But if the interior was full of interesting scenes, we have only to open another book to find that the exterior was also replete with interest. Of this Mr. Brownell says: "In the center of the village an open court was left for purposes of recreation and for the performances of the national religious ceremonies. Upon the rounded roofs of the domicils numerous busy or indolent groups were sitting or lounging in every possible attitude, while in the central area some were exercising their wild horses, or training and playing with their dogs. Such a variety of brilliant and fanciful costumes, ormamented with plumes and porcupine quills, with the picturesque throng of Indians and animals, the closely crowded village, the green plain, the river, and the blue hills in the distance, formed a happy subject for the artist. But the attractions of a Mandan village were not all confined within the narrow limits encompassed by the pickets. Outside, at a little distance, could be seen the scaffolds upon which the dead were placed. The funeral rites of this nation were very peculiar and not without interest. The body of the dead person was wrapped in a buffalo skin, which included the arms used by the deceased during his life, and the usual provision of tobacco, flint and steel, knife and food. A slight scaffold was arranged, high enough to be out of the reach of wild beasts, and there the body was placed to decay in the open air. "Day after day," continues Mr. Brownell, "those who had lost friends would come out from the village to this strange ceme |