The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1876-08-11
MiSceIIa @ O u 8.
TIE SAVAGE SIOUX.

THE TARTARs WHO KILLED CUsTER-wHo
THEY ARE AND WHERE THEY CAME FROM.
The Sioux, who are supposed to have
originally dwelt between Lake Superior
and Hudson's Bay, and became hardy and
strong in that cold, bracing climate, were
pushed westward about two hundred years
ago by branch of the great Algonquin
family, the Chippcways, who had the adj
vantage Of firearms. We found them,
twenty years ago, occupying the trans Mis-
sissippi region and living on the high
plains from Wisconsin TO the Rocky Noun
tains, covering five times as much ground
as the State of Pennsylvania, with 1000
lodges, 10000 inmates and 5000 warriors,
When Sibley fought them in 1868 at Stony
Lake. he wrote: mo such concentration
of force has ever been made by the savages
Of the American continent. The
remnant of the Minnesota band had Joined
the Dakotas of the plains, and formed an
enormous camp of 10000 souls"
THE SIOUX AS A MAN.
A man can study, in the adaptation of the
Sioux to his destiny, something recently
Darwinian. He used to cat fish, corn,
beans and meal when he lived eastward.
arrows, and went a-fUot. Driven to the
plains within the past century, he now
cats game, reptiles, elk meat, wolfand bear,
and no vegetables at all he rides wild
pony, handles rifle or revolver, adopts
tactics, fights infantry and has become a
worse demon than ever. In reality, the
Sioux is the only great Indian since the
decay of the Iroquois. He has more natu-
raj intelligence than any wild nation we
know of, but it is branded with wicked
ness. he ever had any moral nature it
is extinct lie is humorist and triflcr,
yet ficnd. He combines the natures of
the ape, the wolf and the hyena, and
laughs and assassinates, prowls and is
good-naturcd, eats carrion and braves SOL
diery. His life is monstrous foxiness,
A ball-player and licentious, he loves MUIR
der as an employment. When Goethe
drew the merry demon in Mephistophcles
he drew the Sioux raised in development,
the scholastic Dakota. No worse creation
roams the earth, in jungle or desert. He
has no affection for his wife, and whips and
fortunes her with an amiablc and sweet fc-
rocity. Hardly ever in earnest, he will
fight and kill. Though trcachcrous as a
snake, he docs not lose his audacity and
cool bravery. With every noble motive
destroyed, his whole animality is heroic,
and he teaches his son to scalp and be
cruel with kindling raillery that is yet
scarcely affection. lie does not respect au-
thority, and has no institutions, not even
chiefs. Perpetual revolution goes on in
the Dakota Confederacy against the head
men, but the Dakotas are always banded
together; their nationality is like Mexi-
cans, paramount, yet its domestic opera
ton is trcachery and revolt. Their prop
crty is something to move with, entirely
ponies, of which each man has half dozen
or more. Their ponies are transportation
currency, capital, Independence, the price
of matrimony, the gift of chivalry, their
cradle and their grave. When the great
Sioux dies he kills his horses. He buys
wives with horses. lie and the wild
horse, under the wonderful prcscience OF
God, meet in equal rugged depravity, the
one originating in the tropics, the other
in the boreal zone, and their union is the
Ccntaur, the winged murderer, the mount
cd Cain.
THE SIOUX CoNsTITUTIoNALLY.
To look at, a Sioux is horse headed
man, with long aquilne nose, q short,
square chin, large lips, a face broad across
the checks, II low, compact forehead, eyes
full of the humor of ferocity, and fine,
large body of great muscular development
and length in every limb. He has more
individuality than any Indian of the coun-
try, and equal understanding with any.
Whoever has seen Red Cloud and Spotted
Tail, with their associates, has not failed
to mark their sententious speech, the quick
apprehensions and ilexibility of some parts
of their cOuntenances, their apparent YER
satility and love of fun, and yet their want
of stability and principle. They have no
humility nor bashfulDess, are rapacious
and yet shiftless, and they belong to the
same kind Of Democracy as our gamins or
rowdies, fighting each other and making
common cause against the police and the
law. They are heathens even among In
dians, for they do not believe in one Great
Spirit. They are polytheists, and hold
that the stronger gods exterminate the in.
lerior. The chief god of all they represent
as an OK the muskrat made the earth, the
worms peopled it, and these worms
grew up to be Sioux. When they
find the bones of the mastodon they think
them the remains of Onatayhee; or the OK.
god. Heyoka, another Sioux god, is q
paradox who laughs when in grief, lies