The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1849-08-09
COMMUNICATED.
For The Pioneer.
DakOtas. Religious Belief and Moral
Character

| Great Spirit or Great God and say they pray
to HIM Those who know little or nothing
of religious opinions of white men seldom
speak of the Great Spirit and say they never
pray to Him except when going TO war;
They evidently think of Him as great
among the spirits of men, spiders and stones,
as the war Eagle is great among fowls or a
king among his subjects, and not as posses
sing a nature essentially different. Many
have told me that they never heard of an
evil spirit 'till Missionaries came among
them. | have never heard moral character
or qualities attributed to any of their gods,
except by individuals who have learned to
do so from white men. 1t could not be ex-
pected that those whose worship is chiefly
addressed TO the earth, stones and snakes,
and dreadful beings supposed to inhablt the
ocean, and whose great God is never invoked
but to assist in war, should attribute much
moral excellence to their divnities; directly
to ascrbe evil qualities to beings ever pres
ent and powerful, would be contrary to that
appropriateness or natural politeness in
which Sioux are by no means deficient.
They believe in the transmigraton of souls
and also in metamorphoses such are spo-
ken of by Ovid, namely, the transformation
of men into inferior creatures and U,ce uersa,
and such metamorphoses are alluded to in
the extract of a letter given above. Their
medicine men tell of what they saw in pre-
Vious states of existence when in the form
of fowl or food over the earth and saw
all that was done upon it, had intercourse
with the gods and saw and converscd with
the great God. The instructions which they
profess To have received OH these occasions
related to chaces, ieastS, and other RELY ious
rites, with LILLE or nothing about purity, JUS
tice, truth, &c, love or gratitude to the great
Giver of all. To use the words of an. ri-
spired Apostle, they have @ Changed the
truth of God into lie and worshipped and
served the creature more than the Creator"
Rom. l: 25. In the'suhsequent part of the
chapter from which this quotation is taken,
is description of heather character which
has been found as applicable to the Africans,
Malays, Hindoos, and Chinese of modern
times as to those for whom it was first writ
ten, and the more thoroughly man becomes
acquainted with the Sioux the more clearly
will he see its exact applicability to them.
Their numerous painful aud expensive acts
of worship proceed not from love nor
gratitude but from fear or the desire Of OBJ
tanning some temporal good. Children dis
obey their parents, and when old commonly
neglect them. Murders are awiully con-
mon and the disposition to murder, for which
they have an expressive word, far more SO
Respectable chiefs are not ashamed to ask
white men for poison TO destroy some of
their own people. Charity among them is
not like other good things priced in proper
ton to lis rarity The want of it is 10
reproach to man married nor unmarried,
nor any inpediment to young w6.lan!s
getting a husband; for young chiefs, brave
md
for wives those who are notable prostitutes,
and have heard of denominations not fit to
he named. Yer the married woman who is
found to he unfaitbtul is liable to be punish
ed. Sometimes she loses her hair, more
rarely her ears, nose, or her life.
As among the polished Greeks of antiqu-
iy, i, is disgracetul 10 he detected in stealing
or lying, but rather conmendabe if so man
aged IA TO gain something and escape detec-
ton. Though they complain much of white
men decei"ing, they place more confidence
III the word of a white man, than in that of
almost of any Of their own people, and are
more willing 10 trust their property to his
care than to that Of any except their near
relations. Yet with all this and much more
that might be said against them, they are
not so bad as they might be, nor as some
other people of whom we have read
Though unacquaintM with the only prop
er object of worship, they believe in the eX-
istence of spirits whom they seldom If ever
fail to worship IN public, at their feastS. A.
false religion requires greater diligence in
the performance of painful or expensive
rites, as 1t releases from moral obligations.
They count kindred and acknowledge obi
cations arisng from it far more widely than
we DO. Children, in most Instances, mani
fest neither love nor respect for their parents.
and husbands and wives often acknowledge
that they have no love for each other
Many Dakotas manifest as strong affection
for their children as any people, and have
seen in a few instances aged persons watch
ed over and provided for by their grand
children.
They have been accustomed to count all
men who are not Dakotas, that is allies, az.
enemies; and it is in their code of honor, not
less glorious, to kill an unarlned woman M
sucking child asleep in their tent than the
armed warrior in open battle; they seldom
Kill one whom they have taken prisoner, and
have never read or heard of their tortur-
ing prisoner to death, as has been prac--
ticed by many of the tribes East of the
Mississippi, and some in aud beyond the
Rocky Mountains. Like men of other ma
tons, when starving, they have eaten the
flesh of their deceased friends, and some are
TO have killed their comrades for
food, but they are never cannibals by choice.
" hen in our last struggle with England,
their chiefs were invited by the Pottawato-
mics to join with the chiefs Of other tribes
IN feastng on prisoner who had been kill
ed for the purpose. they Indignantly refused,
saying they went to fight the Big Knives
and were not wolves that they should eat
tthcm.
they have killed very few white men,
considering the opportunities and tempta-
tons which they have had to do it.
Though stealing. and lying are scarcely
regarded as crimes, they steal md take from
wnl,e men living among them less than