Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1842-09-29

i(A'2'1 t,i = Htt4i IA Viz VI otOItJtIS
to smoke, ard make offerings At has
tomb.
From the same.
L E. T Il n,
A CHIEF OF THE OTT0ES.
We were frequently visited by parties
Of Ottoes, from near the mouth Of the
Great Platte: they were a brave and
interesting people. Their principal
chief, I-e-tan, was distinguished man,
of great proves, and profound judg-
ment or craft: perhaps his most re-
markable quality was, a close observa-
ton and penetration Of character and
motives. | heard gentleman who
knew him well, and spoke his language,
say, that he had known him to form lu
dicious if not accurate estimates Of
men, from a half hours acquaintance,
and without understanding word that
was spoken. But deep beneath the
calm exterior OF his character burned a
lava of imy etuous passions, when strong
~ moved, burst forth with a fierce and
blind violence.
,I7e-tan had the advantage of a fne
and commanding figure; so remarka-
bic, indeed, that once at dinner on a
public occasion at Ieferson's Barracks,
his health was drank, with a compli~
mentary application of the lines
81 combination and form indeed,
Where every goi did seem to set seal,
To give the world assurance of man.
There was passage in the life Of
this chief which has been so perverted
by an itinerant Indian story-monger,
that cannot refrain from giving it right
ly. In a deep carouse that took place
one night in the village, in 1922, his
brother, a fine fellow, named Blue
eyes, THAT color being very extraordi-
nary III an indian) had the misfortune
to bite off I-e-tan's nose. So soon as
he became fully sensible OF this irrepa-
rable injury, to which as an Indian he
was perhaps even more sensible than a
white man, I-e-tan burned with a NOR
tai resentment. lie told his brother that
he would kill him; and retired, got a
rifle, and returned. Blue-eyes was
found leaning with folded arms against
a pillar of his lodge, and thus, with a
heroic stoicism which has been rightly
attributed as a characteristic of the
race, without murmur, or word, or
the culver of a muscle, submitted. to
his cruel fate I-e-tan deliberately shot
him through the. heart.
Then was I-e-tan seized with a vio-
lent remnse, and exhibited the redee-
ming traits of Repentance and inconso-
liable grief, and OF greatness, in the We
ry consistency of the absorbing senti-
ment. He retired from all intercourse
with his race, abstained wholly from
drink, for which he had a.propensity;
as if under a vow, he went naked for
near two years; he meditated upon
suicide, and was probably only proven
ted from committing it by the influence
of white friend; but he sought honor
able death in desperate encounters with
all enemies he could find, and in this
period acquired his name or title, from
a very destructive attack he made up
on party of the I-e-tan tribe. He
lived a year CT two with the Pawnees,
acquired perfectly their very difficult
language, and attained a great inffu-
ence over them, which he never lost
After several years of such penance I-e-
tan revisited the villages of his nation;
and, in 1880, on the death Of La Cri-
Mere, his elder brother, succeeded him
as principal chief.
I-e-tan married many Of the finest
girls of his own and the neighboring
tribes but never had children. Latter
ly, one of his wives proved to be preg
nant; and while wavering between
love and revenge, male child was
born with teeth. Vanity now proved
the strongest passion; he feigned TO
believe it his son, and pronounced it
special interposition ofthe Great Spirit,
of which this extraordinary sign was
the proof. I-e-tan was the last chief
who could so far resist the ruinous in
luence of theincreasing communication
Of his tribe with the villainous-the
worse than barbarous whites of the ex-
IRENE frontier, as to keep the young