Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1877-05-22
Their ponies are
half dozen or more.


pendence, the price of matrimony, the
gifts of ehivalry, their cradle and their
graves. When great Sioux dies he
kills his horses. He buys wives With
horses. He and the wild horse, under
the wonderful prescience Of God, meet in
equal rugged deprayity, the one origlna-
ting in the tropics, the other in the boreal
zone, and their union is the Centaur, the
winged murderer, the mounted Cain.
To look at, Sioux is horse-headed
man, with long, acquiline nose, short,
square chin, large lips, face broad across
the cheeks, low, compact forehead, eyes
full of the humor Of feroeity, and a fine,
large body Of great muscular develop
ments and length in every limb. He has
more individuality than any Indian of
the country, and equal understanding
with any. Whoever has seen Red Cloud
aud Spotted Tail with their associates,
has not failed TO mark their sententlous
speech, the quick apprehension and tlex-
Utility Of some parts of their counten-
ances, their apperent versatility and love
Of fun, and yet their want of stability
and principle. They have no humility
and bashfulness, are rapacious and yet
shiftless, and they belong to the same
kind of democracy as our gamins or row.
dies, fighting each other and making COM
mon cause against the police and the Law.
They are heathens even among Indians,
for they do not believe in one Great
Spirit. They are polytheists, and hold
that the stronger gods extermlnate the III
ferior. The chief god Of all they repre-
sent as an OK; the muskrat made the
earth, the worms peopled 1t, and these
worms grew up to be Sioux. When they
find the bones of the mastodon they think
them the remains. OF Oantayhee, or the
ox-god. Heyoka, another Sioux god Is
paradox who laughs when in grief, lies
when truthfully moved, and goes naked
in winter and warmly clad in summer.
This character they deduce from their
own They are dandies, confidence men,
fatterers and haters Of property rights,
If they want a pony from a man who
has two and cannot beg or steal 1t, they
stab one. They have a language like the
Assiniboines and Osages, and n complex
and flexible verb. The only organization
they keep up is hunting reglatiOns as to
the division OF an animal run down by
several hunters. Land they value only
to roam over. They are polygamists.
The Americans have had three great
Indian wars, each raging confidential
with foreign war. The first was with
the Algonquin nation, to whom the Chip
| peways belong, led by Pontiac it I'M
mediately followed the overthrow of the
French power in America. The second
was with the iroquois, allies of Great
Britain in our Revolution. The third
accompanied the second war with Eng
land, when Tecumseh reused all the tribes
between Lake Erie and the Gulf. The
Apache war in Arizona was a consequent
OF the Southern plains. We are now
fighting indians whose hands were first
raised against US while the rebellion was
at its height. If there are twenty-five
thousand Sioux. Of all kinds, they are
equal to the whole number of Indians
computed between the Mississippi and the
Atlantic in l755 by Mr.. Parkman. -
! Pontiac attacked every fort from Niagara
and Pittsburg 10 Detroit and Macknac.
The Sioux are now fenced out from our
settlements by line Of forts built along
the water-channels Of the Missouri, Yel-
lowstone and Platte, most Of which have
been erected since the Rebellion, as their
names indicate Fort Reno, Fort Lincoln,
Fort Rice, Fort Sully, Fort Russel, etc
The removal of the Eastern Sioux to the
plains was promptly followed by running
] nilroads to the Pacific, and TO Sioux
4 Civ had Bismarck, on the Missouri river
4 The former and the latter roads, designed
to 90 through to the Pacific, were Obnox-
ous 10 the Sioux, as they crossed the
hunting region the last subsistence for
the Dakota in a state Of nature. The
end of the Northern Pacific Railroad,
Bismark. is the base OF supplies for the
posts in the land Of the Dakota, which
are communicated with by steamers run
ming once month. These steamers 90
several hundred miles up the current to
reach the junction of the Yellowstone
with the Missouri. Both rivers are nav
igable. The Yellowstone and its branch
!. es, of which the Big Horn and the Rose
! bud arc two, fow northeastward, and all
It's leading branches come from the south
side, as the Rocky Mountains lie there,
aud, emit- the SHOWS and springs, 1t is
three hundred miles from everywhere 70
\ the spot where the Sioux have encouu-
tered Sheridau's oficers-threc hundred
miles north Of the Union Pacific, three
hundred miles from the Missouri, three
I hundred or more from Helena and Bis
marck. or Fort Lincoln. The Black Hills
are far to the southeast and much neare.
civilization. The Yellowstone Park, OF
which 30 much has been written, is two
hundred miles to the west. The game OF
the continent has been driven to that lofty
region Of streams, canOns and mountain
ridges, and twenty lesser tribes, seeking
to get subsistence there, are kept in NOR.
tai fear Of the Dakotas. Their numbers
radical difference of race from other In.
dams, skill as riders and superior size and
courage make them overbeariDg. Intelli.
gent, restless, unprincipled and despotic
they are made nm of bands who have seen