The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-10-21
An Indian Sun Dance and Dog Supper


The most brutal sight one can witness
in the Indian country is only afforded
when the Sun dance" occurs, and its
brutality is such that one only cares to see
it once, and would then gladly forget its
hellish orgies. For several days the
Sioux, Cheyennes and Arapahoes have
been making grand arrangements for this
dance, and yesterday came the finale.
For twenty four hours previous general
dance and singing had been going on at
| the camp, five miles above here; at times
| as many as 200 warriors were in the hap
py circle, while three big drums gave out
noise enough to start three or four pande-
mOniums, with the not very musical
voices of a large number of squaws
thrown in to add an additional feature of
the horrible. The object of the Sun
dance" is to test the courage of the young
warriors to endure physical pain, under
the most trying circumstances, the one
enduring most coming out with the bar
barrie honOrs. At ten o'clock seventeen
young warriors, stripped nearly naked,
came into the circle and were operated
upon. The operation was performed by
a Medicine Man, horribly rugged out. The
first one to come up was a magnificent
looking fellow from the Cheyennes, all
bone and muscle, and in glorious health
The Medicine Man first cut four gashes
about three inches long. on the shoulders,
near the point. With smooth stick of
hard wood he made hole underneath the
Sits he had cut, each taking in an inch or
passed buffalo thong, and tied it tightly.
Then the breast was served in the same
manner, after which one thong was
fastened to Il fourteenth pole. To the
long horned Texan, with about ten feet
of thong between the back and the head.
The young warrior then jumped into a
lively dance, singing song of some sort
in keeping with the performance, jerking
that bull head around 50 fast that at times
it was four or five feet above the
ground-all the time pulling as best
he could at the thong fastened to the
pole by jumping back and swinging upon
it. At times the flesh on back and breast
seemed to stretch out about eight or ten
inches, and when let up would close down
with pop. The ropes in the breast tasten-
ings were the first to break, one breaking
at the top of the cut, the other at the
lower end. The top one hung down full
four inches, and this the medicine-man
cut off dcXtcrously. 1t was put through
an incarnation, when the bloody, sweaty
warrior was put through race of about
forty yards with that bull-head hanging to
his back At one bound the horns stuck
well in the ground, and with vigorous
pull the thongs broke, and a warrior was
made. He was rrlble-looking object,
and so nearly exhausted that he had to be
helped away. During the last half of his
torture he uttered not word, nor did he
omen H." ,,,o,,th 49, ';--~~. Irh'
wounds were washed and bound up, pres
ents made to him of horses and robes, and
he recognized as brave man. There were
sixteen more performances of like nature,
save that no other ones took the double
ties on back and breast. Thirteen were
tied by the back, the others by the breast.
The fat fellows got away with the business
very quickly, but the lean, lank and more
muscular fellows had long and tough jobs
with it. One fellow, breaking in fran
tic effort, fell under the heels of horse,
resulting in peeled head for the Indian
as well as a sore back. | confess that
only remained to see two of the victims
20 through the ordeal, gaining from my
companion, a half-brced interpreter (who
had enough Indian in him to stomach the
whole of the bloody brutality, the status
tics concerning the fat and lean fellows.
The warriors who went through the ordeal
were all from the North-thosc who have
but little to do with the whites, and that
little mostly in TIE way of scalps and
horse stealing. The more civilized fellows
have learned better than to make such
confounded fools of themselves.
On Saturday friendly Indian who had
conferred the pleasure upon me of smok-
ing cigars quite generously invited me to
come to his tepee up the canon that night,
as he was going to have a feast, and he
desired that Col Beauvais and Capt. Ash
by, of the Treaty Commission, should
also come. Sword is the name of the en-
tertaining party, and the "invite,' while
not presented on salver, nor even print
ed or written on tinted paper, was accept
ed entirely for the novelty and not for the
boiled dog. We were bid to come early,
and at sundown were at Swords canvas
mansion. A multitude of children, with
a double number of dogs, welcomed us
in truly aboriginal fashion. Sword imme-
diately designated to his squaw the par
ticular dog that was his choice for the
pot. The same was caught and tied by a
short rope to a stake, and the female
event for' the dog with aclub. Striking
at the head she missed and hit him on
the nose. He filed his objections to that
sort of treatment and raised fearful
howl This brought out three other
squaws with clubs and dozen dogs, and
from that on it was nip and tuck" with
the dogs and the squaws in getting pun
ishment in on that tied dog. Finally the
clubs beat life out of it and it was ready
for the next step. 1t was thrown on a
quick brush-ire, which singed off all
the hair. The squaws scraped it well,
took out the entrails, cut the car
cass to pieces, put it in large
camp kettle, and set it ga bilin'." So far
there had been lots of fun for the visitors.
In about two hours the dog was pro-
rounced done and the feast ready. Some
twenty prominent Indians had been in.
vited in-and they never go back on a
feast. Each one of the visitors was seated
on robe between two Indians and each
man was furnished with pan. Two In
dian soldiers were detailed to "dish OUT
the dog, and l am confident that they did
so. To Col. Beauvais, who is of st. Louis,
was given the whole head, which sat in
his dish, grinning at him like-well, there
is nothing so much on the grin as dogs
head boiled. Possibly your readers can
not obtain an adequate idea of such a
sight save only in one way-boil dogs
head, set it in pan and gaze at it by the
light of pine knot! positively decline
to state what your correspondent received
in his dish, but Capt. Ashley, who is
from Nebraska, had his pan garnished
with an elegant hind leg and few joints
of tail. Babe to come to feast 1t mus
have been a grave breach of Indian hos
pitality not to partake, but Col. Beauvais