Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-12-16

u.s. They were all hungry, and mau''
| US understand directly that they wante,
mething to eat. One Indian made US
understand that he wanted shirt and
| clean blanket, which was evidently the
case. Poor things! we did pity them
with our whole hearts, and felt deter
mined to tT.y to remedy this condition
Of things. They have most fertile
Reservation, thirty miles long and fif-
teen wide, containing two hundred and
eighty-eight thousand acres, to popu-
Iation of two thousand eight hundred
and thirLy-one to which they have now
dwindled, or over one hundred acres iol
every man, woman and child and il
can and must be made to afford them
plenty to eat and wear, and provide
| them with comfortable homes. They
are a noble looking people, but they
cannot continue to exist in their present
condition. They are fast dwindlins
awayI In 1880, when Oliver Ellsworth
made treaty with the Pawnees, there
were twelve thousand in 1S47, six
| thousand! Now, in 1869, there are only
| two thousand eight hundred and thirty
| oneI! The present location of the Paw
nees, includes the land formerly occu-
pied and improved by the Mormons
| previous to their going to Salt Lake
| whittier they went from this place. The
! Indians would not use the Mormon
buildings, but gladly continued the cul-
tivation of the land they had broken up
with their strong teams. The squaws
| have field of seventeen hundred acres
of corn, in contiguous patches, cultiva-
| ted by them entirely, with hoes, theiI
hands, and kind of scOop-tOOl made
| out of Buffalo horn. 1t is of kind call
ed squaw corn, or Pawnee corn, with a
dark blush grain. The corn was per
| feetly clean, scarcely weed or spear OI
grass to be seen anywhere, with eight to
ten stalks in hill, which is really what
its name implies, being pile of earth
some six to ten inches high around the
STALKS, and eighteen inches in diameter.
The growth of the corn was most vigOr-
Gus, tie ground being very rich. 1t is
said they raise eighty to one hundred
| bushels to the acre. ...... ..--. ..-..-.
From the corn ield we went to the top
of the north bluff border of the valley,
and had fine and extended view of the
prairie, the beautiful valley some ten
miles wide below us, with the winding
"Loup,n like silver ribbon, extending
east and west as far as theeye could reach,
and the South Platte visible, lying in
the shadows of clouds floating over the
wide valley, the fields of wheat and corn
dotted over the landscape, giving differ
ent shades like Mosaic work; hundreds
Of Indian ponies grazing on the slopes,
and after while, some dozen Indians
mounting an equal number of ponies,
gave us the finest specimen of horse
race mot so regarded by them, but as
only ride We had ever witnessed Ii
was as if they said, "best fellow beats, y
and started off to test it. 1t was very
inspiriting, and we were pleased to see
them have so much apparent enjoyment.
The Indians select the most elevated
ranges for their rides, and, as seen
moving along the horizon in relief on
the evening sky, an Indian at full speed
on his little poney, with it's head and
nose stretched out, the Indian leaning
forward till his head is nearly over that
of the poney, both seeming to be striv-
ing to get on faster by these means, the
Indians blanket streaming in the air far
behind, and the poney's long tail
streaming afterlit, leaves an impression
on the beholder not soon to be erased -
But, poor things, hungry and destitute
as they are, we did sincerely wish they
could be employed in way which
would produce supply to their needs.
After tea we rode over to the two In
dian villages, in which all the members
of the four bands of the Pawnees reside,
except about two hundred warriors, who
are now out in the army on duty under
the General Government. The villages
are about mile and half from the
school and agency, and about mile
apart, on . high, dry piece of land
q nnnId aUir 1nA
such Il sight as these villages presented.
The Indians all fiocked out of their
lodges to see us, some dressed in blank
cts, bright, blue and red, some in Buff;i-
10 skins, and the children, which are
very numerous, in natures broad CLOTH )
all the males under twelve years old
having nothing whatever on. AS we
were going, we met the head chief, "Big
Eagle" of the Loup band, who occupy
one village. and his SQueen,n with "a is
bright tomahawk, fine blanket, and
other accOutrements indicative of his
dignity, and they got in our wagon rode
back to the village with us. He took
US to their lodge and introduced us to
his four wives, all sisters, his queen be-
ing the eldest. r.-s .-s
We will endeavor to describe an In
dian mud lodge" \ lodge is TO coa-
tain from five to ten families, or from
twenty five to fifty people, sometimes
we Were told even a greater number. 1t
is, in general appearance, like magni-
fled cheap of buried pOtatoes,n and is
made by placing poles some twenty-five
feet long, with the lower ends in circle,
some fifty feet in diameter, and the tops
coming near together, say leaving az
opening three or four feet in diameter at
the vertex, and all kept. in place by
Uattliag with small branches of trees;
this waiting extending down to near
theground. Upon these poles are thrown
some prairie grass, and then a thick
coating of earth. The doorway CON-
sists of an avenue or hall, some six feet
high, and the samewidth, and the one
we measured extended twenty-four feet
from the great area within. A fire kept
constantly burning in the centre of the
lodge, where depression of about one
foot in depth and four feet in diameter,
is made in the earth floor, and the smoke
rises through the opening at the top,
except what gets flared out into the
apartment, which sometimes seemed a
goodly proportion. All around the cir
cular inside area, adjacent to the poles,
are sleeping places, like the berths in
the side of a vessel, wide enough to hold
two to four or five persons side by side,
and from ten to twenty such berths in a
lodge. In front of each berth is kind
of bench, used as "stow away" place
for blankets, skins, and extra clothing
of the family occupying the berth, and
under this bench, the remainder of the
family's goods seemed to be put away.
The inside of one of these lodges, was
an object of no ordinary interest and
curiosity. The long inclined poles, con-
stituting The original frame work, afford
ing places for suspending and securing
tomahawks, pipes, bears claws, elks
horns, wolfs ears, and every imaginable
acquisition of Indian value, and we
much wished we could bring a photo
graph of it for our friends at home.
{ The centre area around the fire is thus