The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1851-07-24
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
TRAVERSE DIES Sioux,
MONDAY, July IA, '5I.

MONDAY, July Ia, '5l.
II is now IA days since we landed here /;
and oil the time since, we have been await
ing the arrival of the Red Republicans, to
treat; although, in truth, we have been
treating ever since we came, while the Sioux
bands thar are here, like old bar-room to-
pers, have never talked treat to US once -
They are very docile, under the new dis
pensation, the reign Of Beef. They seem
10 say "H is meat for them to he here. -
But for us 10 remain here another week,
waiting for those distant bands, will be, as
old John our French cook would say !,
"meat not much and no bon % but like a
surgeon who has made up his miad on am
putatiou, our Commission sits patiently
down, tourniquet, knife AMI saw in hand,
preparing, when the patient comes, $50 do
the deed, fit were done, quickly" We
have read of the DEVILS hobbing for mi
ser's soul, with shilling on his hook for
bait SO Uncle Sam bats for Sioux with
bullocks and the way they take the bait
off is amazing. Our Co,nmissary and ordi-
nary, is the old house occupied in the Doty
treaty., and ordinary enough it is, God
knows, (if he ever took any inventory of
if.) Several young men of our camp start
ed OF in the morning, across the river, to
see Cedar Lake, handsome sheet, 10 the
midst of a dark forest, distant, il is said,
about five or STA or seveu, or it may he eight
miles, or perhaps leagues, from tbs Trav-
erse. They returned without seeing Cedar
Lake, not knowing where TO look for it, but
thinking, nevertheless, that they could come
so near it, that the artist in their company,
who draws every thing, from the cork OF
porter bottle to queer conclusion, would
be able to dra1 IT,; bnt he did not. The
fact is. like Macknaw boat, he draws bn,
very little water; bat when it comes to
drawing rations, wet or dry, our painter is
s'thar ~ '
Toward evening, the Indians from the
plains. who are encanped back Of The Trav-
srse, fitted themselves up in their cavalry
suits, and with limbs of bushes covered with
rustling leaves, mounted their horses, and
came riding down amongst the lodges Of the
otter bands, sweeping along like whirl-
wind, to represent foray Of Camanche In
dams. They were received at each encanlp-
ment, with a volley of blank cartridges,
wheeling swiftly from one encanpment to
another, and finally sweeping down by the
front of the Commissioners marquee, sing
ing wild war-song, ",hat hath in it,'' as
Hennenin said Of the falls Of Sc. Anihony,
'ssomelhing terribIs';--a sort of running dis
quisitiou on scalps. There are several cases
of sickness amongst the Indians, many of
whom lie gorged with hesS, like apacondas
DIR. Foster does every thing he can for them
Cat least without a resort 10 the root prac-
tice) but as q general thing, they seem to
have more confidence in the practice of their
own physicians, and their own practice, of
which there are two schools one is the pea
sytesn and the other the po,oder system. |
am mistaken, however, ia describing it,as
the pea system for learn that it is dish
{ of glass beads instead OF peas, which they
shake over their patients heads, to cure
thsm. hope, for the good Of those down
the river, who resort TO Indian doctors for
care, that this corrections win lie made enrIy,
before any lives are sacrificed BY the use Of
II ! =
peas instead Of beads. The bead aud the
powder schools. have the same theory of
diseases, (simpie as Or. Thompson's, which
refers every disease to had blood, and that
is. thar disease is simply the devil in
tbs patient who has to be scared out by
snine means. The question between the
professors 10, whether firing guns. or shak-
ms beads and ho~iing like wild beast, il
the moro -ffeetual mode Of casting our dew
lis. These Two schools ofphysicians abuse